Priesthood After The Order Of Melchizedek
Martin Cecil June 12, 1977 Class
This morning I should bring to focus something more with respect to the Priesthood. We have to use words to describe something, but we need to approach an understanding without preconceptions. You have the opportunity of participating in what may be described as the Priesthood—the Government of God on earth made possible by reason of the True Priesthood. In the Divine Design church and state are not separate. It is understandable why in the human situation they have been separated, but we need to have a new understanding with respect to the Priesthood and the real nature of the Government of God.
When we speak of the Priesthood, two patterns of Priesthood may come into consciousness particularly—firstly the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, and secondly the priesthood which was made available by reason of the tribe of Levi. The Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek might be further defined as a Heavenly Priesthood, whereas the priesthood of the tribe of Levi was an Earthly Priesthood. With our present understanding we recognize that there is a need for both, but they should be two aspects of one thing. This was never the case insofar as the tribe of Levi was concerned. If we do consider the operation of the tribe of Levi, let us merely see this as an example of an earthly priesthood which became increasingly separate from the Heavenly Priesthood. By the same token there have been many other priesthoods in the world which suffered from the same disease. The priesthood of Christianity is of the same nature.
Our primary concern is to allow the Heavenly Priesthood—the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, as it was called in Old Testament times—to be reexperienced on earth. Being reexperienced on earth it would also at the same time be an earthly priesthood, but in such case it would have been restored into a state of oneness, just One Priesthood with two aspects. The first aspect, the Heavenly aspect, carries with it the responsibility of representing God to the people. This is the Heavenly Priesthood which comes to a particular focus in the High Priest. Melchizedek was the Priest of the Most High God [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/melchizedekking-of-salem.html] representing God on a particular occasion to Abraham.
The Levitical priesthood had the responsibility of representing the people to God and of course, through the High Priest, of playing their part in representing God to the people. They never did fulfil the latter requirement but to some extent they undertook to represent the people to God. This might be said as being true of other priesthoods, in whatever measure; but as the priesthood in the general sense did not know God they found some difficulty in representing the people to Him. So we have come again to a conscious recognition of the necessity for this dual role of a Priesthood, the means of connection between man and God. This is the initial approach—actually, man is properly the means of connection between God and His creation, but until man himself is restored to that state the first connection that is required is between God and mankind, between God and the people. So there is the matter of representing God to the people and representing the people to God. When this is being done in a balanced way the basic elements of connection are reestablished, the basic elements of the Heavenly Government are reestablished, and the dominion of God once more comes into the picture on earth.
The Heavenly Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek relates to our primary positive responsibility. This is the positive action of the One Law brought to focus through human beings who were designed to let it be so on earth. The Earthly Priesthood is the negative aspect of the One Law which represents the people to God. We find ourselves associated with the negative aspect of the Priesthood in our experience of what is called response—response to what is higher. We bring before the LORD an open yieldedness in representation of the elements in human beings which are of God. We don't rightly represent distortions and wrong things to God. This is what human beings have been inclined to do; they bring all their troubles to God and say, “Well now God, you settle this,” as though as a human being one had no responsibility in the matter, and one could just turn it over to God. But the way by which the clarification of the state of affairs on earth is achieved is not by bringing what is wrong to God but by bringing what is right to God. The whole human attitude is reversed as usual because most of human consideration is given to the things that are wrong or are deemed to be wrong.
We see this occurring in all the various conferences that the leaders of men set up. They are struggling with the things that are wrong, trying to make them less wrong. Nobody ever aspires to make them completely right but let's make them a little less wrong; let's have less armaments or whatever it is, less wrongness, less disease. Let us reduce the miseries of mankind. It could never be conceived that the state of affairs for mankind could be without misery. We have to have some after all; we wouldn't be human otherwise. Too bad. So most of human effort is given to modifying ill things. This is not the responsibility of the Priesthood. We are not interested in modifying ill things, which makes them more acceptable so that we can retain the ill things with less discomfort. We are interested in letting the ill things pass away. So in order to permit this to happen there must be a representation to God of what is right in human beings.
There is a need for those who will represent the people to God—you welcome people to come to you. “Come unto me,” you say in effect if you are representing God to the people, and they come unto you so that you can represent them to God. It is not a matter of fixing someone up so that they can get along with their ill condition to a more satisfactory extent, but a matter of providing people with something to identify with that does not include the ill condition, by letting the ill things go in favor of identification with what is true of a person. Our invitation is “Come out of her, my people.” Come unto me. “Rise up my love, my fair one and come away” from your troubles; leave them behind, don't bring them with you. We have to accept people as they are to start with. You are not really interested in their troubles at all; you are interested in the real person who is there, who may emerge from behind this veil of troubles. On this basis we can represent the people to the LORD, just to the extent that they relinquish their hold on that human nature state. So one aspect of the Priesthood's responsibility is representation of the people to the LORD. One can't do that unless he or she is capable of representing the LORD to the people. I come to the point of emphasizing the very exact nature of service. We don't serve just by wanting to serve. We need to see something of the operation of the creative process, and we could use another illustration to indicate this.
S = Spirit
H = Heaven
E = Earth
What is characteristic of God is [S] describable as the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God rightly is reflected in human form. This is why MAN was [E] created in the image and likeness of God, so as to make this possible. We have become aware of how this reflection takes place, how it emerges actually into expression through the connecting substance of Heaven. The primary triangle [S] is reflected in the secondary triangle [H] and then emerges again through the earth triangle [E] which is rightly an exact reproduction of the primary triangle. This all works as it should when all the elements that are contained in the picture are functioning correctly. In a general sense all the elements that are present in the universe are functioning correctly. Only when we come to this earth, and human beings on the face of this earth, do we find a . Everywhere else there is no resistance to the creative process.
The earth itself does not resist its proper association and movement and orbit with respect to the solar family, which includes the sun and all the other planets, as well as some comets and other elements. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/trailing-clouds-of-glory.html] There is no resistance here. It is only when it comes to man, or what should be MAN but is now some sort of a human creature, that resistance comes into the picture so that the creative compulsion of spirit is resisted as much as possible, and turned into ways which are not true to the design which would naturally reveal itself if there was no resistance. The fact of resistance makes it seem as though there is something to resist; there is something hostile, in other words. When you come right down to it, the thing that is hostile to human beings is God—that is the way it seems to human beings because they are resisting God. This is the situation in which human beings find themselves. Some may take that conscious attitude but with most it's an unconscious thing. The resistance is there nevertheless, and as long as there is resistance there is hell in one form or another in human experience and it seems that life is such a struggle.
The Master said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The universe finds it so—it works quite easily but it is a struggle for human beings. This has become so habitual, so normal in human experience, that nothing else seems to be possible. In order to introduce another possibility there is the requirement of a Priesthood who are capable of handling the situation the way it is now. We may recognize that the situation the way it is now is not the situation the way it will be when the restoration is a fact, but we have to handle things the way they are now. In Old Testament days, with the children of Israel, there was a very great deal of warring and fighting and battles of various sorts. This was the state of affairs in the world at that time; everybody was that way. There was movement out of a state of consciousness that was prevalent at that time, and the methods that were used were compatible with the circumstances and the people of the time. This is an illustration of the way things must be handled in circumstances as they are, in order to come to the point of the restoration. One cannot pretend that one is at the point of the restoration if one isn't—it is most unwise to try to do that. We have to utilize whatever it is that is present now. There are those who endeavor to have a peaceful outlook, marching for peace or nonviolence. But we're not living in that sort of a world. We may have a recognition of the fact that in the restored state there is no conflict in the sense that there is now, but there is conflict now and you can't function as though it wasn't there; and it won't just go away because you say, “Well I am going to be peaceful now.” Very shortly a nonviolent demonstration is liable to become extremely violent, for instance. It wasn't the intention, but it is what happens because things are the way they are.
As the Priesthood we need to have a very clear view of the way things are and not fool ourselves and not try to fool other people. We know that there is violence in the world, and so we use violence to advantage. We recognize that the earthly state as it now is is in the process of destroying itself and it will use violence to do it. Quite all right. In our own vicinity we offer something which will allow a state of calm—a state of calm available for human experience regardless of what may be going on in the external sense. It is a state of internal calm. But we know that the positive action of the LORD, which we represent, is going to engender an intensification of resistance, and the resistance appears as violence in various ways. It is not seen what it is that is being resisted by people. It is interpreted on the basis of what is observable on the surface, so that human beings who feel this resistance hit out at whatever is handy and it is all rationalized to say that we are doing this for a very good cause. But really there is only one cause and that is the attitude of resistance that is present in human beings toward God. It is quite easy to rationalize and say that this person, that person, this group, that group, this nation, that nation, is to blame so we had better get into a battle with them, but it is not true. The problem is not that. That is a surface evidence of the fact that there is a problem. The problem is the resistance of human beings toward God.
So let us not fool ourselves into imagining that as there is an increase of the representation of God on earth there will be a lessening of violence—just the reverse. There will be a lessening of the sense of conflict in those who are capable of being represented to the LORD because they will begin to come in the right direction. “Come out of her my people,” come out of that state of resistance. The Master Himself said He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. This is the way it works. Violence destroys itself; the evil earthly state destroys itself. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/two-pyramids.html] We don't have to wade in there with a flaming sword and lop peoples' heads off. Whose heads we would lop off we would not know; people prove themselves out. There are those who come out and there are those who don't. Those who remain in the earthly state find that they participate with great enthusiasm, very often, in destroying themselves, imagining that they are destroying someone else for some apparently satisfactory human reason. So the Priesthood brings the Flaming Sword which keeps the way of the Tree of Life. And human beings who are unwilling to relinquish the attitude of resistance find themselves being forced more and more into the corner, and you get people piling up in a corner. They are going to struggle in there violently to survive. But in the end, as long as they stay in the corner they can't survive, because if the creative expression by reason of the Priesthood is present the corner will continually become smaller and smaller and smaller until there is no room for anyone in it. Therefore everyone is out of it one way or the other. This may be seen as requiring some extreme tribulation but is it not better to have that extreme tribulation for a brief period of time than to stretch out the tribulation that has been going on for millennia? The point of issue comes, to the extent that there begins to be the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, but on earth too—a Spiritual Heavenly Priesthood with capability in the Earth. There always has been a Spiritual Priesthood; unfortunately for a long time they have had no capability on earth, or very little.
Now that capability may begin to emerge on earth because there are some human souls available for the purpose, some of them here. And so there is this design which I have put on the board, and it is obviously a design. There are some specific requirements with respect to it. It is not just a matter of being some sort of a blazing sun in the middle of the board there, with rays going out all around. There is a design represented by this triangle here which we can look at from the standpoint of the creative process. The apex is always there, and there are two points of the base. We see this in terms of the spirit of God— Love, Truth, Life, always there. But the Heavenly Priesthood must emerge into the Earth—the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek must take form on Earth to be effective. So these two points are represented in various ways in the earthly sense—male and female, for instance.
Perhaps we may use this particular area to give focus to our consideration, recognizing that it is not limited to the male‑female pattern—positive and negative, yes, but not necessarily male‑female. We can have two men in agreement, we can have two women in agreement; there will be one rightly positive and the other negative in order to allow this design to emerge so that it becomes operable. There is a positive and a negative pole at the two points of the base of the triangle which is here. Only by reason of the fact that it is here and that we begin to assume our proper positions in it can anything begin to work. Perhaps we may have been assuming our proper positions in it to some extent unconsciously, but it had to be done either consciously or unconsciously if anything was to work at all.
Looking at it just for the moment from the standpoint of male [M] and female [F], a man is not totally male and a woman is not totally female. There are female elements in a man and male elements in a woman; if this were not so, a man and a woman could never get together; they would just come up against each other. But on this basis they can come together, they can blend. The point in the middle of the base might represent the point of union [+]. In the relationship between male and female, moving along this line, “M” is the point of dominant maleness and at the other end of the base “F" is the point of dominant femaleness. And as there is movement in toward the middle [+] it reaches a point where one might say it is fifty‑fifty; that is the point of balance and the point of union. Eve was formed out of the rib of Adam, not out of his head and not out of his foot, so that the balance is established on this horizontal line, M to F, which makes for the triangle and the correct representation of spirit.
As a balanced union on the right basis is established, that opens the door for what is represented by that line, which allows God to connect up with what is represented by that point at the apex of the secondary triangle. In this instance we might say that it allows God to connect up with the people. If we think of this provision as representing the Priesthood then we may see that God's connection with the people is established thereby.
There is the Heavenly Priesthood and the Earthly Priesthood—properly one. They are one in the individual whether male or female, but we also may recognize that in the Collective Body of the Priesthood there is representation just as may be seen with respect to male and female. There is the representation of the Heavenly Priesthood and there is the representation of the Earthly Priesthood. The dominant responsibility of some relates to the Heavenly Priesthood; the dominant responsibility of others relates to the Earthly Priesthood. When you put the whole Priesthood together there is just One Priesthood, established at the point of balance, the point of union. So we could say that the Heavenly Priesthood would be here at this point [M]and the Earthly Priesthood at that point [F]. However that does not mean that all the Heavenly Priesthood are men and all the Earthly Priesthood are women. There are men and women at each end of the design in this regard. But we may see with respect to male and female that at that point of union in the middle of the line [+] where there is an exact balance, there is the experience of—how would we describe it?—lightning coming out of the east and shining even unto the west, an instantaneous connection made by which the creative purposes of God are served.
I am presenting generalized principles relating to the correct function in this particular area we are considering now between male and female, so that there may be provided what is necessary to allow God and His people to come together, be brought together by reason of this line here. And you will note that here is a balanced cross [+], not a cross of crucifixion but a Cross of Christ, a Cross of Shekinah, the Cross of Life. And it stands upon the earth, the point which relates to [E] the people. Now, from the standpoint of the individual male‑female function, this point reaches into the people in a specific sense rightly. There is a point of contact, in other words; it is not just a generalized thing. A couple who is working correctly together will allow something to come to point in that regard, in the creative field of service. Something comes to point, and on the basis of union the connection is made between God and that point; the creative power of God is released; the outpouring of the spirit is established.
I am speaking at the moment in generalized terms because we are dealing with a very complex field, but we have to understand what it is that is taking place, become aware of the reality that is occurring, if we are to be of value in playing our parts in whatever it is that is right and proper in our field of service. You need to see it in its broader terms, not just try to narrow it down to the male‑female thing. Don't try to figure anything out, but see that this represents a great variety of combinations which all are essential if the restoration is to occur, the restoration which brings God and His people together. This can't be achieved without the Priesthood. And so you are participating in the process by which you may become aware of what the nature of the responsibility is that is held by the Priesthood.
© emissaries of divine light
