The Gospel in a Nutshell for Fearless Minds Unafraid of Truth

or: Cruising Down the Freeway of Western Religion

 

Chapter one. You’re born. To be more specific, the culmination of a sweaty bump and grind by your parents about nine months ago is a screaming red blob of wrinkled flesh that you attach yourself to. There must have been some kind of rush on wrinkled, screaming babies because you didn’t waste any time.

The wrinkly red blob’s metabolism is running kind of low on carbohydrates and so its stomach produces digestive fluids. Since there isn’t much in its stomach about this time, the acids begin to irritate the inside of its cute little, (well … actually quite ugly), stomach. This results in an electrical signal being sent from the guard cells in the stomach to the brain. It’s a shame, but the guards don’t even know why they do it. Worse yet, they don’t even know that they exist. (Bummer Dude.)

Its brain does its thing, (not unlike those neat machines in Vegas that sort coins by size), and sends other electrical signals to the lungs, vocal cords, mouth, tear ducts, epidermis, … among others. To make a long story short and give the impression that I know what I’m talking about, the end result is a fresh scream of piercing proportions. You observe this renewed vigor and wonder what the heck you have gotten yourself into. You should have waited for a quiet one with some rich parents who own a golf course. You try to get back out, but the waiting line has surged forward and it would be about as easy as backing out of a traffic jam on a fourteen lane L.A. freeway from the middle lane. Oh well, you’re stuck now; might as well make the best of it. “I sure can scream loud”, you think as you do it again.

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You whip out your bowl, fill it with some top notch Hawaiian, an pop a bud from the cooler before flaming up. In a few minutes, you’re flying high and although it takes two hours to go twenty miles, you don’t even notice it.

Out in ozone-land, you don’t know why you take this freeway every day when there’s always the same throng of cars creeping along. You can see the tram cruising along over the freeway at a couple of hundred miles per hour. Hardly anyone uses the tram, though, because there are insistent rumors of its unreliability and besides, you have to leave your car with the guy in charge to get a ride. The take care of it and will bring it to you anytime you want to go back to the freeway, but I guess most people will put up with the hassle of the freeway for the illusion of safety inside their car.

As you pass exit after exit, you think about getting off and catching the tram, but never do it. Something tells you that if you just stay on the freeway for a little while longer the congestion will begin to clear and you can get in gear and be on your way home.

Don’t you think you should have learned not to do this same thing every day? After all, four hours driving without going anywhere can be pretty exhausting. You would think so anyway. But the next morning a little voice in your head says that the traffic will be better today, and off you go again.

When traffic starts to back up, you get all upset – same as every other day. “Why didn’t I take the tram today? I’m such an idiot. It’s a wonder I’m able to do anything at all.” (It’s all part of the pattern.) “Those guys who always seem to get everything done without any effort must either be a genius or have a guardian angel or something. I never see to get any breaks. Well … that’s all right; my dad always told me that with diligence and hard work you can accomplish anything.”

So tell me readers, is this a happy or sad ending?

I speak in parables for those who will not see although they look; and because I get a kick out of it. Not to mention that it’s a popular form of perpetuating confusion and I don’t want it publicly known that my personally perverted perception is common knowledge.

To you, oh chosen ones, shall I reveal the secret meaning of the parable of the freeway.

The driver is your soul. The car he drives is his body. The tram is the Holy Spirit. The exit ramp is Jesus Christ. The contraband is the numbing effect of conformity. The wide freeway is the broad way of death. The tram is the path of eternal life. The voice in the driver’s head is Satan. Those who travel the freeway live in the world. Those who travel the tram live in the Kingdom of God. The speed limit on the freeway is The Law. Speeding is a sin. Sin is impossible on the tram, because there is no speed limit.

Death is the separation of the driver from the car. On the freeway, separation occurs when cars are rendered useless in accidents or by mechanical failure. The components of the car are then recycled. However, without a car, you can’t drive on the freeway or exchange it for a tram ride. Admittance on the tram is impossible without a car. On the tram, separation occurred willingly when you left your car and boarded the tram. The take care of the car’s daily maintenance, but if you leave it long enough, it wears out and is recycled. No problem. You now have a permanent pass on the tram.

Hear now the truth! By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ brought evidence of eternal life. By the death of his physical body and subsequent re-birth in God, so may we also die in this world and have eternal life in Spirit, with God, through Jesus Christ.

For as GOD is composed of three: God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ; so is man composed of three: Soul, Holy Spirit, and Body. In this way, man is created in GOD’s image. Satan lives to bias Soul’s reasoning toward Body and therefore away from Holy Spirit. Man’s conscience is Soul’s vague awareness of Holy Spirit as it shines into cold darkness. The message of Christ is to cease listening to Satan’s insistence on reason and common sense and listen instead to the Holy Spirit – recognized, in part, as conscience. We must die to gain life. The Soul cannot serve two masters. It either serves Body or Holy Spirit. As a result of Satan’s work on Soul’s reasoning, every Soul serves Body. They must now sever all ties with the Body and serve Holy Spirit.

Is death not the separation of Soul from the Body? With the death of the Body, while Soul identifies with it, the separation will be complete and final – but without the Holy Spirit! Only by finding the Spirit while man, the trinity, exists, and dying in the flesh while flesh lives, can we have the blessing of eternal life in Spirit. For Spirit is Truth and Eternal.

All who can listen, hear!