Fire on the Earth

Luke 12:49-51 gives us a quote from Jesus. It is not only an expression of his purpose but a fair description of the process of spiritual advancement. We look at the major religions of our day and age and we can't help but compare Christianity to Islam.

Islam is a religion out of which any individual may eventually decide for a stricter interpretation. Islam is a religion that may at any moment devolve into the blood lust and violence of Jihad.

Christianity is a religion that attempts to circumvent these flaws of human nature through love.

At least, that is the general consensus. Islam is all judgment and bloodshed while Christianity seeks a cozy state of peaceful coexistence.

According to the statements found in Luke 12: 49 and 51, the Christian process is anything but cozy. Let us examine the actual words of Jesus.

One: 'Do you suppose that I have come to bring peace? I tell you, no, but rather division.'

Two: 'I have come to send fire on the earth.'

This looks very much like judgment. In fact, Jesus continues on to describe how families will be divided. Some will believe; some will not believe. Clashes of this nature are never pretty.

About that fire – Jesus indicated that it had already been kindled. The spirit of some had already begun to pull away, to seek something other. Jesus merely fanned the flames.

Jesus indicated he faced the same thing. It was a sort of baptism by fire that all who seek spiritual advancement must face. It is the painfully bitter birth pang of an ascendant. Spirit. 'Birth pangs', as applied to the process of spiritual advancement and the future of our world refers to certain convulsive geopolitical, geophysical, astrophysical and world-wide socio-economic events.

There is a process called winnowing. That is where the fruit of the harvest is shaken up to remove all things undesirable. The wind of the ascendant spirit is the key agent in this process. As is said in Luke 12:57, each individual must ultimately develop to the point where they are able to judge what is right and good for themselves.

I say 'for themselves' to bring attention to the difference between undeveloped judgment and developed judgment. When we initially burn with enthusiasm, when we have allowed others to affect our inexperience, we engage in a form of judgment that is devoid of spiritual development and wisdom.

The infant may kick in the womb, but walking comes after the pangs of birth, where even more development is slated to follow. The newly enlivened may cry loudly, but the voice must be developed in time and with patient practice. The life must die many deaths and be restored through many trials by fire before a developed judgment and wisdom are attainable.

There is now, and will continue to be, violence in this world. When we compare the religions of Christianity and Islam, we see that judgment is involved in both. One must not be quick to allow another to motivate them. Rather, one must seek the winnowing wind of their own spiritual advancement. One must see that voices of others and their own voice are never the same. One's own voice, one's own ability to judge, will only develop from a fiery baptism.

Of that fiery baptism, Jesus said, “How I am straitened till it be accomplished.”

Strait is a noun. It is a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two large areas of water. Jesus indicated being pressed between one certainty and another, as in The Strait of Gibraltar, as in being poised for the becoming, the transition. One synonym of strait is channel.

Strait is also used in reference to a situation characterized by a specified degree of trouble or difficulty. (The economy is in dire straits.) Some synonyms are a bad or difficult situation, difficulty, trouble, crisis, a mess, a predicament, a plight.

As I said, judgment is employed in both religions, but how does one reach the judgment stage? Does a person simply choose the form of judgment over a time-developed judgment? That would be a poor substitute. The agony of becoming. The absolute necessity the fiery baptism. Winnowing is built into the system. Ultimately, the desired spirit will prevail and the unnecessary chaff will be discarded.

Can you think for yourselves? Or, will you always be swayed by your preachers and imams? I urge you to the straitened path of spiritual development, to division from the chaff, to the fiery baptism and birth pangs of an individual who is wholly able to judge what is good and right. I urge you to reach judgment through love. I urge you to disavow the tools of bloodlust and violence. A rash and immediate fire is never the better choice.

There has always been a fire on the earth, Jesus just fanned the flames. It is the fire of spiritual discernment, of seeking what is good and right on our own. It is division from distractions and detours, from subjection to the will of undeveloped spirits in other people. It is a march, not of the many, but of the individual. It is a certain forward advancement of the spirit of each becoming man, woman, and child.