Well,bro, why visit the gulags and prisons of a former time.... especially those that are not appointed to us to visit for reasons of deliverance and liberation? I visited Auschwitz when I was mature enough and willing enough to be 'unhorsed' from a crippling indifference and ignorance.... such a rendezvous is a redemptive tryst of timely awakening.... part of Abba's DREAMworks that righteously reorient one's awry compass in this sojourn's melange of both the slag and dross of finite human thinking and the silver-seven-times-refined by Abba here and now in our own history... the electric ecstasies of excellent exhortation.... the ex-horting ...the ex-stassis-ing from exile along a fetid Babylonian slough to a new Canaan....a new table in the wilderness.... a NEW way of seeing...being in harmony and concert with Abba.

Now,Stephen, can you help me to be clear on one thing here.... and I know it may pander to a personal prejudice.... but I do need to talk about it.... I truly appreciate and appropriate the vital discernment of spirits....both good and evil.... the distinguishing between Abba's Dream and the faulty,plague-ridden dreams of carnality.... NO ISSUE here whatsover.

My question here is.... how close is this perspective to that of classical Gnostic doctrine regarding the 'miscreative mischief of a demiurge demon-renegade' who has so usurped God's original intention...Dream....that this earth ...and by extension flesh..physicality....are so irredeemably corrupted and death-bestowing.....that we should, if we are so enlightened....to actively retreat into an exile of 'spirit-only'?

I guess the linchpin of my opposition to this viewpoint hinges on my belief in the sanctity of the totality of God-birthed creation.... in which physicality is not to be fiercely fought against on all fronts.... as if there is an irrefutable virtue mandated by 'the absent landLORD....the dethroned Monarch' in doing so.... in being some 'elite corps' of enlightened guerrillas of a grace doled out partially to a few special ones.... do not get me wrong, I do believe that such GRACE and mystery-unveiling is given by God to ALL, even though this may be done 'in due course and time' depending on the willing and desperately-sought receptivity of each person. Perhaps, I am wondering if Gnostics are only 'reacting'.... not resting..... and thereby snagged and hooked by being engaged in a profitless war....:\

If you could help me to understand 'your' position vis-a-vis my query I would be greatly appreciative.... hope this does not unduely pressure you:eek
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