Four Gospels

Four Gospels Course Paper

Rev. Hal Coffen

In the synoptic gospels and the Gnostic gospel of Thomas the Pharisees and John’s disciples question the fact that Jesus’ disciples are not fasting. He replies with a question: “How can the friends of the bridegroom fast when he is with them for but a short time, there will be time for fasting when he is gone.” This point leads us on a brief journey into tradition and resistance to change.

On the surface this appears to be the observation of a teacher who is all too aware of his mortality. I feel that it is another point where Christ draws our attention to his deity. Jewish tradition, as outlined in the poetic and prophetic books of the Jewish bible, describe God as the bridegroom to the Jewish people.

In accepting this mantle, he not only declares Himself to those who “have ears to hear” He also creates a new corporate entity. Just as He is the perfect melding of God/man, by becoming the Bridegroom he opens a door for us to join with him. Much as a man and a woman leave their parents to create a new entity, so must we join with Christ to create a new entity. This is not the corporate “body of the church” that the temporal powers would have us believe, but rather individually as we follow our path to God.

The warnings that follow are too frequently glossed over. To superficially add the teachings of the Bridegroom to the old covenant is to rend the new and leave it incomplete. Further even if this repair didn’t shrink and further damage the old, it would just draw attention to its difference and mask the substance of its message.

The wine skin analogies are perhaps the most telling and discouraging. If we try to force this new relationship with God into the old patterns they will burst, leaving the relationship to spill away and be ultimately lost. If as Thomas warns in his gospel we accept the new relationship but fill it with the details of the old it will spoil the new dispensation as well as the old, and leave us further behind then when we started this journey. Perhaps the most disturbing portion of this parable is in the writing of Luke. The warning that: who, having tasted the old will not prefer it to the new. If it is hard to change old physical and mental habits, how much harder will it be to change our spiritual habits? How much easier is it to follow the old ways especially given the laws to guide our way? The priests and shamen are there at the ready to correct our errors, to guide us along the way they have discerned and perhaps most telling interpret for us the meaning of the Bridegroom’s teachings.

The true path, for those of us who follow the Christ, is the one he presented. It is through him, not some hierarchy of a temporal church. Just as we should not place priests between us and our temporal spouses, (even if they seem to think they have that right today) how can it be wise to place them between our self and our Holy Bridegroom.

What then is our role as pastors? Beyond finding our own way along this difficult path, we must stand as signpost for our fellow travelers. As they explore the way to spirituality and peace we must support them in their path, not matter how different from our own. While we discover our own way we may share our discoveries with fellow travelers. But we must let our example be our guide, we must teach by that example, and the good our chosen path will present it self. How much easier it would be to present a “proven” dogma, to present that old familiar wine to searchers, rather then to lead them to the path of their own. If we our true to our own spirituality, our light will lead them to a path less prone to the human errors we call sin.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

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Four Gospels Course

The Four Gospels Course By Mark Carey

Luke Chapter 18 v1-9

I have always found this first story one of the most interesting yet least understood. To me it is about faith. Not just in God, but in the fact that he knows what is best for you and when you should receive things or challenges. It deals with how people pray for help or things. (For themselves for the most part) But when they do not receive the things or the problem for which they prayed is not solved they pray or ask less offend feeling that God is not listening to them. But the faith you should have is that of a child to a parent. Because God loves and protects you as a parent does. We do not always understand why thing happen ( story one ) or why God gives us challenges (story two ). But if you like Matthew chapter 7 v 7-8 Says “ Ask and it will be given you; seek, and Ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that askteth, Receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened” says to and do not quit, talked as you would to a parent who loves their child. It does not mean that we should stop asking or praying just because we got what we wanted or not. But this story is about the fact we should never give up praying to God and ask for his help for others or ourselves. But keep asking, knocking, seeking for God he will help and answer you, but in his time not ours and sometimes when least expect it he gives you want you were asking for even if it something we should have not ask for or it a small thing that we did not really need.

Story One

This has happen to me and I think you will like this little story. It was about two years ago. The day was in late June and it was in the 90’s and so was the humidity. I had to run because I was training for a road race. So after about a half mile or so, I said out loud God please let it cloud up I’m so hot. Well I know you can see this going, it did get cloudy and to my surprise a misty rain I said Thank you God and keep on going. Well after a few more miles I was still very hot. I thanked God for the misty rain again and said, please I’m so hot let it rain harder. Well with in five minutes it rained so hard and the wind got so strong that cars were pulling off the road. We got four inches of rain in a half hour. From that day on I still get a little smile whenever I think of it.

Story Two

It been eight years and I still do not understand why this challenge was given. I still pray for God to give me some light to understand why. I was sick with the flu and had a bad chest cold. After two or three weeks I went to the doctor for help. He gave me some medicine, well after about twenty minutes I started feeling very bad. So I turned around and went back to the doctor’s office. When I got there, I told them that something was wrong and fell to the floor. I remember hear thing like he gone, there’s no pulse, and that my blood pressure was zero. After a few minutes they had me back. The medicine they gave me earlier was one that I was allergic to. I went for able to do running and bike races, to barely able to walk. It has been a hard road back, but I am able to run again.

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The Unvarnished Gospels

The Essay of the Gospel Class ULC Seminary

The fact I recognize I knew more than this was most evident in my writings and of course the Lord smiled as I made a complete fool of myself. The chances of this factual knowledge of God being in one old broken down cavalry trooper was remote. Once I reread the vitally important section of the Sermon on the Mount (all references for this diatribe are those from the Unvarnished Gospels) presents a problem which is not easy to resolve - the question whether it is to be linked with what has gone before or be taken as introduction to the ensuing section about false prophets and false religion. In favor of the former it can be urged that the definite article: “the strait gate”, often has a demonstrative sense in New Testament Greek: “this strait gate”. In which case reference would appear to be to the comprehensive but difficult precept which Jesus had just laid upon his disciples: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

Yet this is not free from difficulty. The picture presented to the mind is of a narrow gate giving access to a narrow way, with eternal life as its end. Such a mental picture does not seem appropriate to this principle of Christian graciousness. And, further, to apply it in this way would surely imply justification by one’s own good works. If indeed a man is to keep himself in the narrow way to life by observing the Golden Rule, then it must be admitted that a vast proportion of the Lord’s people, with the best will in the world, are frequently astray from it. Again, the commentary: “few there be that find it” is hardly appropriate to the Golden Rule, which is easy enough to “find” but terribly difficult to maintain as a constant guiding influence in one’s life.

The words of Jesus here strongly suggest a faith which has to be sought out, and a personal decision and choice which have to be made. A man does not drift into the service of Christ. He becomes a disciple by making up his mind that this is the only loyalty he can accept, the only way of life for him to follow. This is the spirit of the appeal made to Israel by Moses, an appeal now reiterated by Jesus in even more challenging fashion: “I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Dt. 30:19).

It was a far-reaching claim that if a man would have eternal life he will find it in no other way than through the service of Christ himself: “I am the true and living way: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). “I am the door: by me if any man enter in he shall be saved” (John 10:9). A man must give his own personal assent to these truths, and make his own personal decision in the light of them. The only alternative is the wide gate and broad way by which the many follow the road to destruction. The teaching of Jesus here could hardly be more explicit. There are not many or even several ways a man may follow. The Unvarnished Gospels therefore show there are only two, and every individual is in one or the other.

This “either - or” theme gets plenty of emphasis in the Bible-and needs it. Two ways (Jer. 21:8; Pr. 4:10-19); two trees (Ps. 1:6, 7; Jer. 17:5-8); two houses (Mt. 7:24-28). The Greek word for “narrow” is rather frightening. It means “squeezed up”; not “narrow”, but “made narrower”. This narrow way in Christ has to be sought for: “Few there be that find.” And since, only a short while before, Jesus had declared so unequivocally: “Seek, and ye shall find” (7:7), it follows logically that there are only few who seek! Experience underlines the truth of this. The vast majority, if not actually content with life as they find it, are so devoid of higher spiritual aspirations that they never seek anything different from what they naturally know. They do not have to “find” the way that leads to destruction. They are already in it, and are well content to make fast or slow progress there.

The teaching of Jesus here is eclecticism in its most rigorous form. In plain unvarnished fashion he made it perfectly clear that he expected no sweeping success in his preaching. The nation’s ultimate response to his appeal would be small. And in the wider field of Gentile evangelism also the same would be true.

It has become fashionable in the past several hundred years to attack the Christian faith in a unique and allegedly scholarly manner. Prominent universities, critics, skeptics, and scholars try to deny what the New Testament record reveals about Jesus Christ. Generally, most people will accept Jesus as a moral teacher whose followers developed His teachings into a religion, but what they will not accept is the testimony of Christ and Holy Writ.

The Unvarnished Gospels give us his baptism, the proclamation especially in parables of the present and future kingdom of God, a ministry of exorcism, his gathering of disciples across socio-economic boundaries, his sharing a common meal that celebrated their new relationship to God, his challenge to the Jewish teachers of His day, the arousal of opposition that led to his arrest, his trials by the Jewish authorities on charges of blasphemy and by the Romans for sedition, and his crucifixion.

The Jesus Seminar with liberal theologians, such as Burton Mack and John Dominic Crossan, differ significantly in their conclusions than the scholarship of the Historical Quest or that of the Unvarnished Gospels. The Jesus Seminar tries to claim intellectual scholarship with the Historical Quest, but fails miserably in such desperate attempts. For example, the Historical Quest and the Unvarnished Gospels believes that there are considerable sections of the Gospels that are historical. In contrast, the Seminar believes that only a minute section of the Gospels are historically reliable.

The disquieting trend in surveying the scholarship for the historical Jesus is the level of demand that is placed upon the Christian church to adjust its theologies and doctrines in light of the progression of “historical reconstructionism” of modern scholarship. However, these demands assume that the modern discoveries concerning the historical Jesus are the definitive interpretation of Jesus in contrast to the testimony of the Unvarnished Gospel writers. The question that needs answering is whether or not the historical Jesus of this research is the true counterpart of Jesus in His fullness as the New Testament documents reveal Him.

The answer to the question is without equivocation a resounding “no.” The breach between the historical Jesus of the various researches and the real Jesus of history and faith requires two things. First, scholars who are relying on history alone as the most important tool to understand Jesus Christ must understand and recognize the limits and restrictions of history. Without equivocation, the Christian faith is historical but understanding the whole of Christianity has never been based solely on historical studies. The interpreter of Scripture needs to be able to properly evaluate and reevaluate the role of history in studies of Jesus. Second, scholars must be able to correctly consign the real and historical Jesus within the life and theology of Christianity as a whole. The modern reconstructions of the historical Jesus quests need not put centuries of Christian thought and practice out of place. Certainly, the quests are profitable if the proper method and perspective are employed in such studies of the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

It is my most humble opinion that the Unvarnished Gospels and the studies we have done in this class point to the factual truth of God’s Infinite Word. Faith, Tradition, and Honor are the basis of our path to the One True God of the Multi-Cosmos (Traditionalism’s Tenets of Faith). I am a Traditionalist and I seek the Lord via that open and strict view of the Word. We must all see the truth and know that the heart gives us the power to know. It is up to us to hear the quiet call.

God loves you.

Louis Charles Hook SSG (CA)

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

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Jesus and Yehoshua

‘Jesus and Yehoshua’

By Carter Matherly

The man known today as Jesus was not always as popular as he is today. We will take a brief look into the life of this man, his teachings, and uncover some misconceptions that Paul has propagated. Jesus only held his ministries for two years and the miracles attributed to him were valid, however not entirely word for word as the bible depicts.

The first thing that we should investigate is the name of Jesus. Most people today are convinced that this was his actual name as one might be called Bob or Sherry. This is a simple misconception. Jesus is actually a Jewish title. The person who carries this title is a savior or king of the Jews. Here there is no divine implication as the Jewish religion teaches that their savior will be mortal and nowhere is it stated that the savior will be an embodiment of God. The name of the man we know as Jesus is Yehoshua ben Joseph. This was the name given to him by his parents. He obtained the title of Jesus through his followers as he was a king of Jews, just as the hundreds of other Jesus’ through history have been.

There are other misconceptions that modern believers suffer from. Through the use of titles to represent persons we understand that Jesus is really Yehoshua. We should take the time to analyze the man that was spared instead of Yehoshua. This man was known as Barabus. Barabus was the murderous robber that the Jews supposedly chose to live and let Jesus die. The misconceptions that run through this fable are deep and unfortunately strong. We will take our time in dissecting this scenario as it will lead to a greater understanding of this whole affair.

Firstly, the men: Jesus and Barabus. We have already established Jesus’ name as Yehoshua. The commonly accepted name Jesus is nothing more than a title like president or professor, so why not Barabus? After working with this name we find it is actually two words tied together, Bar and Abus. Translating these names gives us ‘Son of’ ‘The Father’. Father is capitalized because Abus refers to the heavenly father, God.

Why would a murder be named ‘Son of The Father’? It’s true that our Barabus was a murder. However this is in the same sense that a general is a murderer. Now we know that Barabus was no regular murder. His name was James, James the Just to be exact. This was Yehoshua’s brother.

To understand how both brothers came to such a predicament we need to research their roles in the Cannite Qumran community. This Jewish community was founded by Moses when he led the Jews out of Egypt. It was founded on three basic principals. The king, the priest, and God. This was represented by twin pillars connected by an archway representing heaven; the key stone in the archway was named ‘shalom’ meaning God. Yehoshua was always the leader and thus he occupied the Kingly role while his brother was the priestly one. James only assumed this role after the decapitation of John the Baptist.

Yehoshua did not recognize his brother as the priestly pillar of this community and thus claimed that he was all of them after John the Baptist’s death. This is the origin of the greatest misconception of Yehoshua’s earthly state. When he claimed to be all of them he only intended the kingly and priestly. However, as we will learn later, Paul got this statement all backwards in his teachings. Yehoshua never clamed to be shalom or God.

Parts of Yehoshua’s teachings were a return to the basic Ten Commandments that Moses brought to his people. Yehoshua said that the other some 450 holy laws were an invention of man and a mockery of God’s intent. This proclamation, along with his ongoing insisting that he was not only the king but the priest of the community led to eventual unrest among the people and the roman leadership who oversaw the community.

On the holiest night of the year Yehoshua stormed into the Holiest of Holies to make his devotion. Only the high priest was allowed to enter here and this privilege was offered only once a year. It was this act that eventually led to Yehoshua’s arrest.

Interestingly enough, charges were brought against James for leading a raid through another city in God’s name. The Romans now had the two leaders of the Qumran community in their hands for execution. Pontius Pilot knew that executing both of them would create civil war. So he did something that had never been done and would never be done again. He offered the crowd to save one of the men. This was a tough decision, save the priest of the king. The crowd chose their priest, James. Of course, Yehoshua was crucified as this was their form of the gas chamber or electric chair. A King or any military leader is a very useful tool in death, the martyr dying for the cause.

Yehoshua died on the cross only two years after being baptized by John the Baptist. His brother James lived for another twenty years before his death. The Christian movement didn’t occur for fifty years after Yehoshua’s death. A man by the name of Paul, obtained a scroll of Qumran that spoke of the workings of the Jesus Yehoshua. It can be easily seen how the name Jesus became a staple when reading the scrolls. It looked like this was his actual name rather than a title, much like Barabus!

Paul is an interesting character. The Romans referred to him as ‘Paul, the spouter of lies’. Christianity’s nickname Paul-theism also comes from this infamous namesake. Paul preached what was written in the scrolls he found. Sadly what was written was in dialect and slang familiar to the Qumran community. The effect was like taking a news paper from England and reading it in California. Things would be mistaken in their meanings. In England a cigarette is referred to as a ‘:censor:’ I think this analogy accurately illustrates my point.

A prime example of this is the act of turning water to wine. This was a slang term for turning nothing into something. In actuality, Yehoshua baptized everyone at that wedding party. The un-baptized were water and after they were baptized they had become wine. This is only one example of the many false teachings of Paul.

The man we know today as Jesus was actually named Yehoshua and had a brother named James or as the bible referred to him, Barabus. Yehoshua did many things that were considered great enough to be written down in a time when printing presses and computers did not exist. These scrolls were later obtained and mistranslated by Paul. A man so revered by the Romans that they called him ‘Paul the spouter of lies’. Through his work Paul laid the foundations for Paul-theism or commonly referred to as Christianity.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers hand-fasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Master of Religion

Master of Religion 

Rev. James Connor

I have very much appreciated what has been brought out by this course. The technique of it is in the developing of our clear awareness and focusing it in a particular way so that we can accurately discern what is happening while we express the Lord in every day, momentary living.

Human beings are certainly wrapped up in themselves and even when it comes to religion, apparently, everything is geared to benefit man. The salvation for man’s sake is supposed to be supreme. Well, presumably, if human beings are here on Earth, they should have some purpose. This purpose would relate to the overall picture and be included in the universe; therefore, the function of man is important in the overall picture. As long as the view is self-centered, as it is from the human standpoint, as though the end and aim of everything is to please man, then he is living in a fool’s paradise, which could hardly be described as God’s paradise. The earth was not created for man, but man for the earth. There is a difference!

As we recognize that we are vibrational beings, realizing what is in our consciousness; the truth of each person is that which observes the observer, described as “God” and is eternal. What a person focuses on is what manifests in his or her own life, giving thanks in all things is the only way to success and fulfillment.

We have often spoken of something coming down from God out of Heaven, which will take form through human beings and be expressed on earth. The capacity of consciousness in man provided by reason of the fact that he has a physical body, allows this creative process to occur when there is a right setting in the conscious of which human beings become aware. He did not cause the events to appear, he merely provided the setting for their appearance. The Lord then, is not missing in action. The events, which occur in such case, indicate the emergence of the creative _expression of God, within the range of human awareness. The consciousness of man is then not separate from the creative expression from God. Here is the true reality of oneness.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers hand-fasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Christian Studies

Doctor of Christian Studies

Textbook: The Unvarnished Gospels by Andy Gaus

Rev. Bryan Keith Speroni

As I study the four gospels in the Bible, I find it difficult to point to any one particular passage that brings me more comfort than another. It seems to me that the gospels in general are designed to bring comfort to the world. Let me share with you some examples.

In the many healing miracles of Jesus, we find hope for the healing of each of us. It is comforting to have the knowledge that we are never beyond hope.

In the calming of the storms that were performed by Jesus, we find hope for the calming of the storms that arise in our lives. Just as the storms arose unexpectedly upon the disciples, storms arise unexpectedly upon us. In those storms the disciples had no choice but to apply a little faith to the matter. The same is often true for us. But, my oh my, what a difference a little faith (even faith the size of a tiny mustard seed) can make !!!

In the feeding of the multitudes, we find hope for the meeting of our needs. We are given the assurance that if we are seeking God's kingdom (His ways) and His righteousness (seeking "to do that which is right" - ULC Motto), our needs will be met. What a comfort that is !!!

In the love shown by Jesus, I find the message that needs to be shared with a violent world. In His acts of compassion, I find an example to follow in order to show the meaning of true love to a hurting world.

In the way Jesus dealt sternly with some people, I find the courage to stand up for those who are suffering unjustly. I also find in Him the courage to make my voice heard and my influence felt in facing up to things and dealing with things that are simply not right, especially when it comes to the harsh way in which people treat each other in our world. Compassion and kindness are in short supply and yet are desperately needed. Jesus, from time to time showed firmness, but never unkindness.

As Jesus hung on the cross and pleaded with His Father to forgive His tormentors, I find great comfort concerning the forgiveness of my sins, failures and shortcomings. I assume that the same forgiveness that was extended to them is also extended to me. It also reminds me that I need to be more forgiving of others.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The gospels teach so many lessons of comfort and encouragement that it would take volumes to deal with them.

As far as the parts of the gospels that trouble me, they are always the ones that show how far my life falls short of what it ought to be. I compare myself to the Jesus of the gospels and I realize how much improvement and how many changes I need to make. However, it also brings to mind the fact that my life is not over and there is still time for growth and maturity. The gospels give me challenges to face and goals to reach for.

I have appreciated the opportunity to study the textbook and the monthly e-mail notes. They have been very enlightening. I intend to refer back to them often as I continue to look at the life of Jesus Christ and how His teachings apply to me.

Paper prepared by:

Bryan Keith Speroni

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Four Gospels Course

Essay on The Four Gospels by a Pagan Clergy

Submitted by: Rev. Linda J. Paul

As a Pagan Clergy member, I found this course to be fascinating. I think if we choose to call ourselves Clergy of any kind, we need to be aware of other religious systems ideas and viewpoints. In this way we can compare, contrast and bring into unity the underlying threads that weave all these systems, however loosely, together.

I have long held great respect for Jesus the man, the healer, and the prophet. I see him as the greatest of all human teachers that have graced this Earth. His teachings encompass all beliefs and all religions if we look to his parables without getting caught up in the dogma.

I was raised in a Quaker/Pagan household.. strange as that may sound. My mother was a Quaker and my father was a Pagan. My grandmother was a Romanian Gypsy.. so I had quite an ecclectic childhood. I was called in my teens to Ministry. I always knew I wanted to be a Minister, but as I grew older and developed my own system of beliefs, I knew that a traditional Seminary school was not for me. I was very drawn to Paganism.. and for me it met my spiritual needs on a level that nothing else came close to doing. I see Divinity as both masculine and feminine in it's duality.

When I stumbled upon ULC Seminary.. I rejoiced!! Here was the Seminary I was looking for! The first course I chose was the Four Gospels. I had studied the Bible in the past, but I found that I could not quite grasp some of the content of the Gospels.

This course helped me to understand on a common sense, easily understood level the basic principles of not only the gospels themselves, but the history of their writers, as well as bringing in the Gnostic beliefs with the Gospel of Thomas, (my own personal favorite.) I began to see a picture emerging of who Jesus was, what he stood for, and what his message to the world really was. The course presented him as a human being who I could relate to, in the guise of both Son of God and Shaman.

I began to see the sychronicity between the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke... and how the information was basically the same, but from a slightly different viewpoint, and how John was more of a vision than the stories presented by the other three.

It was very helpful for me to have each lesson broken down into the Biblical text.. and then the viewpoint of the teacher presented underneath in a different color text. The format was excellent, and held my interest in a much better way than just reading the Gospels on my own.

Although, as a Pagan, I might not share the belief system presented by the Bible itself, I do appreciate the Bible as a tome of ancient knowledge. Thank you for helping me to break it down to a level of better understanding.

Respectfully,

Rev. Linda J. Paul

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar