Meanwhile, Gary Renard has acknowledged on the DU list that he agreed that this event, the new publication of the facsimile edition of the Jefferson Bible, is in fact the fulfillment of the words of Arten on page 218 of The Disappearance of the Universe, where he reports that it was not published by Jefferson during his lifetime, but that "it will be made available soon for those who want to see it." At the time when DU was published in 2003, this particular statement seemed confusing since of course the text of the Jefferson Bible had been available in book form for quite a long time already. In retrospect, this particular statement referred to the original that was about to be restored, and become available for public viewing again. It had been too fragile to be able to be viewed. Thankfully, the Smithsonian published a facsimile edition at the same time, so that now anyone can have access to this material in its original form.
The conclusions of Andrew Sullivan in his article are interesting also, that Jefferson's point was simply to leave Christianity aside, and to go back to the teachings of Jesus as best as he could cull them out from among the rubble. The rediscovery of the Thomas gospel in and of itself represents the same opportunity, in as much as it gives us back some of the original teachings, not the embellished literary versions of the later synoptics, which all suffer from editorial influences that trace back to Paul. No wonder then that Jefferson's selections should have close correspondence to the Thomas material, because the later evangelists were likely quoting from Thomas at least in part. He saw Paul's influence as a major distortion, and based on what we know today that was a very accurate way of viewing things.
Given the title I chose for my book, Closing the Circle, I have a certain sympathy for this closing of yet another circle. In terms of the national dialogue it seems to certainly put paid to the repeated attempts by the Christian right to hijack the US constitution and the country on behalf of later forms of evangelical Christianity, which evidently would be completely antithetical to everything Jefferson stood for, even if he wisely kept it to himself at the time. Now it is out in the open.
I myself had been contemplating for a long time to start rewriting my book at first in Dutch, and somehow these developments give me a good basis for a revised and updated new edition. Later, in a few years time, it will then hopefully also see a new edition in English, that will be based on the upcoming rewrite in Dutch. Certainly the 'event' of the publication of the facsimile of the Jefferson Bible, and the sort of public attention it seems to be getting is a development that I am going to incorporate in an updated version. At the same time I feel that both my personal work with ACIM, as well as my work on the translation of the work of Margot Krikhaar, whose first book is soon to appear in English as Awakening in Love, would lead to a substantially new and improved version of the book eventually.
Meanwhile Annelies Ekeler in Holland, who runs Inner Peace Publications, and wants to publish the book in Dutch, and has suggested a new title, which I will adopt at least in Dutch: How Jesus Survived Christianity. That is a remarkable story indeed, given the massive effort that is known as Christianity, which clearly did everything in its power to make sure these original sayings would be lost, including book burning on a fairly significant scale. That story is only par for the course of how the ego deals with challenges, including 'if you can't beat them, join them,' which is in the end how it dealt with the teachings of Jesus: co-opting him, all the while making sure that it would be its version of events that would survive, and that its theology would supplant the original taching. That story is now increasingly coming in the open. Our thanks should go to the monks at Nag Hammadi who buried a collection from their library and helped it escape the destruction.
Our job remains to forgive all the images our ego made of Jesus, for they all get in the way of our real relationship with him. In other words, to accept that living relationship in our lives simply requires the abandonment of all of our own misconceptions about how it is supposed to work and what it is supposed to look like.
Is he the Christ? O yes, along with you. His little life on earth was not enough to teach the mighty lesson that he learned for all of you. He will remain with you to lead you from the hell you made to God. And when you join your will with his, your sight will be his vision, for the eyes of Christ are shared. Walking with him is just as natural as walking with a brother whom you knew since you were born, for such indeed he is. Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world. Forgive him your illusions, and behold how dear a brother he would be to you. For he will set your mind at rest at last and carry it with you unto your God. (ACIM:C-5.5)
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