Spiritual Psychology/Lecture 5. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit

(This lecture is a collaboration with Denis Minaev)

5.1 Once again, about the secret knowledge

In the previous lecture, we talked about the secret knowledge that God reveals not to all men, but only to those who are ready to accept it: “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables” (Mk 4:11). Jesus even compared the attempts to explain the sacred knowledge to inexperienced men to throwing pearls before swine: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet” (Mt 7:6).

Would our efforts be throwing pearls too? Indeed, many representatives of the Church believe that God has already revealed all that is necessary for the Kingdom of Heaven to them. They think their theological teachings are immutable because God doesn’t change (Mal 3:6). Moreover, each of the Churches finds her teaching solely true.

The Creator considers these assertions and approaches too categorical and the tone too arrogant.

First, not only does God never share some of His plans with unprepared people, but He does not reveal them before the predetermined time: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven … A time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Eccles 3:1, 7). And He has got some information that He does not communicate to anyone, even to His helpers - Angels: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the Angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Mt 24:36). God believes that now is the time to speak.

Second, Jesus confirmed that some secrets remained that He didn’t reveal to His disciples: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (Jn 16:12). Even what He actually did wasn’t fully reflected in scriptures. John the Apostle has testified to this fact: “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21:25).

Third, many of God’s mysteries, known to the early Church, were gone along with her advanced ascetics without being put on paper. This is evidenced by the Christian clergy and theologians of the first centuries, such as Clement of Alexandria or Ignatius Theophorus, whose writings were considered in the previous lecture. As a result, these secrets couldn’t be included in the modern Churches’ teachings.

Fourth, Jesus has given us a promise: “…he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do” (Jn 14:12). Why isn’t the Church doing them? Where are the works of Jesus? Moreover, even the priests consider the experience of the advanced saints to be of great rarity and unachievable to the majority of the faithful. Being unable to “bear” the mysteries of God, some of them accuse those who are trying to grasp these mysteries of excessive curiosity. We can see this, for example, from what St. Seraphim of Sarov said to his follower Nikolay Motovilov who “had a great desire to know the true aim of the Christian life and continually asked many great spiritual persons about it.” So, St. Seraphim told him, “Some were even indignant with you for being occupied with such profane curiosity and said to you, ‘Do not seek things which are beyond you.’” And this attitude of “scribes” towards the true faithful who know a lot about spirituality is not uncommon.

The same arrogance can be observed for St. Silouan the Athonite. The story of his meeting with Father Stratonicos is quite illustrative in that sense. As Father Silouan noted, Father Stratonicos “spoke from his own mind” and “what he said about the meeting of man’s will with God’s will, and about obedience had been obscure.” Father Stratonikos himself highly appreciated the great elder: “It is possible that at that time Father Stratonicos was going through a very complex experience. On the one hand, he had come to Athos for the good of his soul. On the other, many previous encounters had accustomed him to playing first fiddle. His exceptional dogged asceticism and rare gift of prayerful weeping might have occasioned the thought that he had already attained perfection - and now all of a sudden his shortcomings were to be shown up by a simple monk who lacked the brilliant talents with which he himself was so richly endowed. Possibly he was silent and saddened because he had not retained the state of mind that he had acquired during his discussions with Father Silouan.”

However the other monks around the elder didn’t understand this. Once Father Stratonikos suggested another remarkable ascetic - a hermit Father Benjamin who was a “man of rare nobility with a clever, erudite mind” - to ask advice from the elder. Father Benjamin was surprised: “He had known Silouan a long time, and liked and respected him; but he had never thought highly enough of him to turn to him for council.”

There is another aspect of the issue of knowledge which was highlighted by Edgar Cayce. It relates to the way in which Satan was able to trick Eve. Satan managed to exploit such a seemingly positive human characteristic as an inherent desire for knowledge. Certainly, there is nothing like knowing God, His character, His plans, discovering what He likes and what He does not approve. Those who were indignant with Nikolay Motovilov for his “profane curiosity” could, we reckon, criticize our group for this too.

Edgar Cayce’s Readings allowed us to understand that Satan spoke not about knowledge in general - he spoke of the knowledge that can exalt a man, make him equal to God. This is where the source of deceit lies. That is why a man needs humility: “God …gives grace to the humble” and reveals His secret knowledge to the humble too, because they will not use it for their selfish ends, for self-exaltation (Jas 4:6). Edgar Cayce has encouraged us deeply reflect on the pitfalls that should be avoided in the process of learning:

“Do not gain knowledge only to thine undoing. Remember Adam.

Do not obtain that which ye cannot make constructive in thine own experience and in the experience of those whom ye contact day by day.

Do not attempt to force, impel or to even try to impress thy knowledge upon another. Remember what the serpent did to Eve.

In the studies, then, know where ye are going. To gain knowledge merely for thine own satisfaction is a thing, a condition, an experience to be commended, if it does not produce in thine experience a feeling or a manner of expression that you are better than another on account of thy knowledge. This becomes self-evident that it would become then a stumblingblock, unless ye know what ye will do with thy knowledge.”

“First, let the members of the group each so examine themselves before their Maker and their consciousness, as to the sincerity of purpose and as to that to which purpose such knowledge would be used. Then, seek and ye shall find - if it is to be constructive, well; if it is for self-glorification, well - provided this does not make thee the more humble it is bad.”

Then we remembered the Creator’s admonition given through the Apostle: “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” - and decided to make it our course’s motto (1 Cor 8:1).

5.2 The first Adam is a living being, the last Adam is a life-giving spirit

So, why do we who are created out of the same biological material and in the same image differ in cognitive abilities and spiritual aspirations and achievements? There is only one convincing explanation of why we are different. This is conditioned by the level of development that a man’s soul reaches through the experience of its many incarnations on earth. After gaining maturity in a series of earthly incarnations, a soul becomes so skillful in managing man’s consciousness and behavior that it makes him the last Adam - the life-giving spirit. A man becomes a true image and likeness of the Creator, able to observe God’s laws, lead life “worthy of the Lord” and be as God is in the world: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (Col 1:10; 1 Jn 4:16-17). That is the essence of human evolution and its ultimate aim – to complete the way of the spiritual maturation from the first Adam who became a “living being” to the last Adam who is a “life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45-49).

Many of God’s people, whether His Son Jesus Christ, His prophets or His thinkers, guide us towards that goal in one form or another. Jesus, for example, says that a man ultimately has to reach such a degree of perfection when he can be identified not as a slave of God, but His son, His friend and His fellow worker:

• “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father”” (Rom 8:12-15);
• “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love … You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:10, 14-15);
• “For we are God’s fellow workers; … you are God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9).

In Readings of the prophet of God Edgar Cayce, not only the law of reincarnation has been further confirmed, but also the ultimate goal of the soul’s earthly incarnations has been defined as becoming the “companion” for God:

(Q) If a soul fails to improve itself, what becomes of it?

(A) That’s why the reincarnation, why it reincarnates; that it may have the opportunity.”

“The first cause was, that the created would be the companion for the Creator; that it, the creature, would - through its manifestations in the activity of that given unto the creature - show itself to be not only worthy of, but companionable to, the Creator … That man reaches that consciousness in the material plane …that there may be demonstrated … that which would make the soul an acceptable companion to the Creative Force, Creative Influence.”

The American-born British investor, philanthropist and philosopher John Templeton also speaks of man as a helper of the Creator, who is intended to participate consciously in divine creativity: “Although we seem to be the most sophisticated species at present on our planet, perhaps we should not think of our place as at the end of cosmogenesis. Should we resist the pride that might tempt us to think that we are the final goal of creation? Possibly, we can become servants of creation or even helpers in divine creativity. Possibly, we are a new beginning, the first creatures in the history of life on earth to participate consciously in the ongoing creative process.”

There is another interesting source - The word “about the celestial powers - for what man was created.” It’s believed that St. Cyril, bishop of Turov, or Saint Abraham of Smolensk could be its author. This source links the “existence of humanity on earth” with the need to restore the original number of Angels. It is known that a part of the angels participated in the rebellion against God organized by Satan and were thrown down to the earth along with him (Rev 12:7).

5.3 The Bible about the law of reincarnation

Having rejected the knowledge of the possibility of a soul’s multiple incarnations on earth, Christianity deprived its teaching of life-giving force. After all, without the understanding and adoption of this law, the will of God Who “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” becomes unrealizable (1 Tim 2:4). How can the people who lived before Christ be saved? How can our numerous contemporaries who die as atheists or adherents of other religions be saved?

Meanwhile, the Bible contains enough information to support both the law of reincarnation and the fact that this law has been known to many people since ancient times, including Jesus’ disciples. Many followers of esotericism note this fact: No teaching has ever suggested that a man lives on Earth only once. While the Christian doctrine doesn’t speak directly of reincarnation, it doesn’t say anything about the only life of man on Earth ... The Scriptures are written in a special symbolic language to make the truth more understandable for any human being. No truth is given in its pure, explicit form. One should therefore learn not only to interpret the Scriptures literally, but also to read between the lines. Now, as in the early Christian era, the law of reincarnation is the basis of all religious beliefs of the nations of the East and the West. It has never been something alien, incomprehensible to humanity, and that is why Christ didn’t need to proclaim the law of reincarnation as an entirely new doctrine. This law was the cornerstone of every Eastern religion and certainly the religion of the Jews was not the exception.

The episode with a man who was blind from birth is the Bible’s best-known evidence in favor of the law of reincarnation. Many of the esotericism’s adherents refer to it: “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (Jn 9:1-3). In this case, Jesus didn’t deny the very fact that this man could sin before his birth. He said that neither this man himself nor his parents had sinned. A reasonable question arises: how can a man sin before being born? The only acceptable answer is that he could do this only in the previous incarnation of his soul.

We find clear and further proof that a soul can be repeatedly incarnated on earth in Jesus’ talk with His disciples about Elijah’s rebirth before the coming of the Savior: “And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished … Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist” (Mt 17:10-13). In this episode, Jesus makes it clear that the soul of Elijah was incarnated in the body of John the Baptist.

In His speech to Job, God also explicitly states that Job was born more than once, though he doesn’t remember this: “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? Surely, you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great” (Job 38:19-21).

Finally, Jesus’ words to the twelve disciples show that we all come into this life with a different degree of maturity: not everyone is ready to welcome the prophet as a prophet and the righteous person as a righteous person (Mt 10:41). If you are ready to become a prophet in this life - you will be able to understand a prophet and receive him; if you are ready to become a righteous man – you will be able to accept a righteous man. Hence, the rejection of those who are closer to God even by a majority of the monastic brethren, not to mention the rest of the faithful.

The law of reincarnation not only explains why people who are cut from the same cloth - from the same biological material - have different intellect, different ethical values and different characters. This law also unites us all in one big family: we all are brothers and sisters. For one who is Jew today might be Greek in a past life (Rom 10:12; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:28). This creates the necessary prerequisites for us to come to “the unity of the faith” and become the united people of God (Eph 4:13; Rev 21:3).

5.4 The second Man is the Lord from heaven

Through all His thoughts, actions and His life, Jesus has shown us what the last Adam – life-giving spirit is like, has given us a further insight into His character. And through His sacrifice and resurrection, Jesus has provided an opportunity for everyone to achieve this stature – the stature of the last Adam, the son of God, His friend and fellow worker.

Jesus was able to give us such an opportunity due to a blood covenant - the agreement that God made with the sinful human race. This agreement stipulated that its parties had an equal share in the profits and an equal liability for the debts. Sten Nilsson, with deep penetration into this subject, described the terms of this contract in his book The Blood Covenant: the Scarlet Thread of the Bible. As described by the author, entering into a blood alliance, its parties said to each other: all I have is yours and all you have is mine; this is true for both profits and debts. In full conformity with the blood covenant, Jesus had the right to die in place of sinful men. He could thereby ransom them, redeem their debts, in our case – their sins. And He agreed to do this: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:5-6).

However, the power of God’s plan for humanity’s redemption and justification would be incomplete, if it was limited to only Jesus’ sacrifice on Golgotha, without His resurrection after death on the cross. Fyodor Kozyrev quite rightly talks about this in his excellent book Temptation and Victory of Saint Job: However harsh it may sound, the redemptive sacrifice … as only the sacrifice of God’s Son, without His resurrection, or, more precisely, without the Father’s act of raising His Son from the dead, would be a powerless act of self-justification and a sign of omnipotence of evil and death … It’s not through the slaughter of the Son, but through His resurrection that God’s grace has been manifested to the world.” This just explains why the blood of the sinless Man had to be spilled – God had the right to raise Him from the dead!

Thus, within the framework of blood covenant, providing for mutual responsibility of this alliance’s participants, Jesus could die in place of sinful people, thereby redeeming their debts. But as a sinless Man, He had the right to be resurrected: “His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:31-32).

Now each person can be granted forgiveness of sins, get free from the terrible burden of past debts and turn over a new leaf. This can essentially accelerate the evolutionary process. However, this forgiveness is given to a person only through faith in Jesus Christ: “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).

There is one more benefit that Jesus has brought to humanity through His death on the cross and resurrection. After His ascension, Jesus restored God’s right to give the Holy Spirit to men, which was lost after the fall of Adam and Eve: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper … — the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:16-17). And it’s difficult to give an adequate assessment to this unique advantage. There is no life at all without the Holy Spirit. Now, after Jesus, everyone can be raised, resurrected to the true – spiritual - life, being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11; Jn 3:3-6). But it is also possible only through faith in Jesus Christ.

To say that it is vitally important or crucial for us is to say nothing. The Holy Spirit is the only link between God and a human being. If a man is given the Holy Spirit, this is a sure sign that he has a connection with God, belongs to the heavenly community and can hope for eternal evolution:

• “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom 8:9);
• “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom 8:14);
• “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).

To speculate on Adam as a life-giving spirit apart from the Holy Spirit is irrational: “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom 8:9). Evolution from the first Adam – a living being to the last Adam – a life-giving spirit is ensured by nothing but an increased concentration of the Holy Spirit God gives to a human being. We have already known that He gives a man only the “firstfruits of the Spirit” in his spiritual infancy while in the stage of spiritual maturity, God gives the Spirit “not by measure” (Rom 8:23; Jn 3:34). A person who has only the first fruits of the Spirit is not yet adopted - he is only waiting for adoption. The Bible reinforces this point: “we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption” (Rom 8:23).

Jesus was and will be the only one who needed only one incarnation to become a life-giving spirit, and indeed this only life was quite short. He was able to do what is beyond the power of any man or any heavenly creature. Thus, He proved to everyone who had doubts that He rightfully occupies such a high position in the universe, being at the right hand of the Father: “Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him” (1 Pet 3:22).

Taking into account the intention of God to create a new community - the united people of God and to establish a single state - the United States of the World, the existing fight for territories and talks about a multipolar world and the repartition of spheres of influence appear to be nothing more than “vanity of vanities” and “grasping for the wind” (Eccles 1:2,14). Glorification of war, encouragement of physical force, the reliance on violence – all of these cannot solve the problems of today’s world. In order to eradicate completely evil on earth, we have to fight not against a man who is under Satan’s influence, but against the very source of evil that is Satan. The spiritual “power and authority” is required here, which Jesus gives to the last Adams: “… we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly place” (Lk 9:1; Eph 6:12).

Developing this idea, Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Solovyov said that in the era of the Antichrist, humanity would be mature enough to make the final choice between good and evil. In this final fight, the good must counter the evil with the holy supernatural power which would destroy the evil from within, uproot it. The state that fights against the evil with deadly weapons is not suitable for this purpose. Here the spiritual power that raises the dead is combating the evil. In the epoch of the final separation of good and evil, the good must come forward as a Kingdom that is not of this world. It has to win not by using worldly forces, but rather in spite of them. That is exactly why the evil, as the perfect antithesis of the good, has to take control of all the means of coercion. The path to resurrection is through the cross of Christ. Therefore, in the final fight against the evil, the power that transforms the world must triumph through the cross, through martyrdom. It is clear that in the battle against this holy power, the ruler of this world will come fully armed with worldly greatness. All the forces of the world empire must be strengthened in order to confront the absolute Good whose power is out of this world.

We have an ideal, a brilliant example who is not of this world and whom we should emulate in everything. Jesus Christ. How much nobility, grandeur, beauty there is in every His word, in every His gesture. Not one offensive word. Except a “brood of vipers,” but only to provoke the ruling elite of that time and heighten its will to put Him to death (Mt 23:33). He only had to say one simple phrase in His calm, quiet voice, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” in order for the angry crowd to become silent and disperse (Jn 8: 7). Indeed, He spoke “as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Mt 7:29).

It’s now important that everyone who God has prepared for becoming the last Adam, first wins his personal victory over Satan having received the spiritual power and authority from Jesus, and then helps all the rest to do the same, as it is written:

He who knows others is clever,
but he who knows himself is enlightened.
He who overcomes others is strong,
but he who overcomes himself is mightier still.
(Lao-Tzu)

In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul the Apostle wrote that God would first put all things in subjection under Jesus’ feet. After that “the Son Himself will also be subject to Him Who put all things under Him” (1 Cor 15:28). Well, does this mean that Jesus is still considered not be subjected? It may be so, given that Jesus is the “head over all things to the church” and the Church is His body (Eph 1:22-23). Jesus, assuredly, is on top of the hierarchical pyramid. But this pyramid is inverted. He paved the way to God. He lets us all go ahead of Him, in order for us to fill the expanding space of this pyramid, becoming closer to heaven, to our Father. He is, without a doubt, the first. But He is also the last, offering a perfect example of the true Son of God, Who calls us: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29).

We will focus on the study of this path to spiritual perfection, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ in the following lectures (Eph 4:13).