Chili

"Direct access to God" denies the Holy Spirit which also descended on them to make them saints. They are one with the father and can rightfully say "who is my mother" to say that the universal woman is their inspiration that makes them brothers and sisters in the flesh because they have the same father in their brotherhood . . . which makes heaven religion specific and not a pie in the sky.

Chili

They climbed out of Galilee (purgatory we call it) to become a Christ. Galilee is where the Jesus stage is left behind. It is in rebirth that we enter Galilee (the race) and by crucifixion do we end it (finish the race).

Purgatory is the promised land that we must enter by walking on the water instead of parting it to get there. This is what the saints have in common who each will have their own story to tell.

Chili

There is no thirst (desire) in heaven and therefore no pain. Pain is an illusion and so is life or eternal life could not be real. The destructive nature episode is meant to annihilate the temporal ego consciousness wherefore the mystery of faith is beyond theology and salvation not part of it until seen in retrospect. So therefore, it is not possible for Christians to go to heaven which itself ends at the second death.

Chili

. . . and the good thing about this is that the ego consciousness is temporal and can be shed like an old coat of colors. The difficulty here is that we need home-town religion to pull it off so we can walk away from it and that is just opposite to what Christianity has in mind. Go figure.

Chili

Except that a thief in the night comes only once or the firstborn would not be the firstborn and a virgin birth not from a virgin. Simply put, there is only one day of the Lord unless we were 'from our mother's womb untimely ripped' and been given a scorpoin instead instead of a fish.

Chili

I like your use of the word gnostic as opposed to mystic. Noetic vision is required for gnostic ideas and lyric vision is required for mystic ideas. The difference here is made clear in Matthew and Luke where in Matthew there was no manger and Joseph hussled out of Bethlehem into [forlorn] Egypt while Luke has a manger and an eight day stay prior to circumcision [by nature] and off to Galilee he went to get his act together before going to Jerusalem on high.

Chili

The thief in the night had already been and so now they are on their way to the end. If they ever get there is different matter but that is what Paul's admonishment was about. "Many are called and few are chosen" comes to mind here.

Chili

In case you missed it, the holy spirit is not an external source and there was no dove to descend. They are just allegories that describe the first stage of enlightenment wherein a direct link is made between the conscious and subconscuious mind (TOK and TOL or ego and soul) and that is why the HS that heretofore was the only mediator between these two is now redundant. After this the woman becomes the Mediatrix between heaven and earth (TOL and TOK) because she was taken from man to never leave Eden (man is basically good) and contains the total worth that this so called HS can bring about . . . which once again makes heaven religion specific and earth the place for us color our own heaven each generation anew as the woman moves through the ages without an identity of her own (eternal life belongs to the mythology which is Jerusalem for them and Rome for us = Jerusalem on high and Rome sweet home).