Something

I've recently realized that I can explain the Work to a person in very simple terms. I mean, the basics of it. The being awake and loving your enemy aspect. The two conscious shocks without the technicals of the food diagram, et al. The conscious labor, intentional suffering simplicity of it. What it does. Why it's hard. Etc. I.e., without the technicals. (If technicals is a word, you know what I mean.)

Obviously it's not the same thing, but what this realization did for me was to see the Work less stringently I guess is how I'll put it. 

The power is in the Bible. That living, quickening language. Truth. Wisdom. The Work obviously takes your understanding up a level. Yet without the Bible and hard truth biblical doctrine the Work is weak tea. Go on YouTube and watch people discuss the Work minus Christianity. It's shallow and empty. They are shallow and empty.

They are lost. 

I don't like seeing it. 

I've known all this and talked about it before, but reading the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire makes you see the power of the faith in history. Even though Gibbon didn't understanding or feel that power it still comes through. 

The Work seen as esoteric Christianity and the practice of spiritual warfare, and the language of progressive sanctification is valuable beyond words. But it's not going to go over in any Gurdjieff group or Ouspensky society is it? This is why I feel so detached from it all as any kind of movement. 

It's still true, though, if you want to really communicate with God and angels you have to make yourself able to receive that communication which means #5 Man. Third state of consciousness at least. You're there sometimes. All true Christians are. But it's not intentional. It's not consistent. It's not conscious. I find myself complaining about lack of communication from above, then I have to remember, make some effort to have capacity to receive communication. 

This is where I think the reformers still held an admiration for the Homeric epics. They could sense that Odysseus was a model for a Christian in this sense. He had communication with what was above. He had real will. He wasn't to be messed with. Prayer for him was effectual. That translates to the Christian reality.

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I see the Work as esoteric (meaning practical level) Christianity itself. And this is something I've been trying to drive home for years: Christianity is Calvinism. It is five solas, doctrines of grace, covenant/ federal theology. It goes back to all eras of the Christian church. It is biblical. 

Protestants are word and Spirit Christians. 

When you talk of Christianity you have to define it by classical Reformation era doctrine. Worldlings always pull everything manward. 

God always has a remnant. That remnant is always what we call today Calvinist/ Puritan. 

So when you read the Reformers they saw all truth as God's truth. And they specifically set apart the Homeric epics as unique works. As opposed to Greek myth or Greek religion in general. 

Leland Ryken has written a book on the Odyssey showing the Christian elements in Homer. 

It's not making Homer a part of Christianity, it's seeing powerful depictions of what amounts to Christian being and action. 

The common denominator here is the Holy Spirit. The higher visual language of the Homeric epics is a language of the Holy Spirit. The language of the Work is a language of the Holy Spirit. Both very pure and lively. Then of course the Bible is the language of God directly, separated uniquely and mysteriously as the Creator/creation divide. 

Years ago I identified those three books, so to speak, as the basic three. 

The other worthies give ultimate understanding. Gibbon, Adam Smith, 19th century Russian Novel, etc.

See the power in Reformed Theology. Not just Reformed Theology, but the power in it.