Brandon Heinzelmann
In our ancestor’s primitive rituals of enacting the dying god as scapegoat, the god impersonates the innocent. That is, the roles are reversed and it is the god identified as the “nascent-minded”, “idiot” or “fool”. This seemingly simple minded one or village idiot is selected usually by their meekness and innocuous nature which ‘stands out’. Rene Girard coins the term “satanic contagion” as the acts of overwhelming desire for sex-murder-greed-fear-sympathy-respect.
In James Frazier’s, Golden Bough, the idiot brings attention to him or herself. Such a release of tension we should know from our youthful school days when the focus of the group collective or “clique” was set upon ‘that different one’ or the one who ‘stands out’. The more amplified the group contagion of hate put upon the idiot – the less focus on the inadequacies were brought to light on the group collective. Therefore, *naturally* and brutally the community could mock, despise, put their judgement to, discard, dismiss, etc. the villiage or community “idiot”.
Rene’ Girard calls this collective hate the “Satanic contagion” or “mimetic contagion”. Both aforementioned terms support each other. For it is the inability to escape the very D.N.A. that needs to express both sexual desire and hate as two entities combined into ONE ‘collective orgasmic rage. Furthermore, these collective feelings must have an object of desire. I call this social cannibalism.
We might find a Theological allusion here. In the first act of murder—- or “gracious” ‘driving off’ of the village idiot—-we have no communal, social, anthropological or individual resolve within the participation of this social cannibalistic act.
It is the ego, not the person or community, which wills two perspectives. These two are: (a) —a failure to save yourself or the community from the desire to cannibalize and (b) the will, which is not theirs or our own, to hate – and at the same time—long for or desire THE ONE who can ‘break the cycle’ of the human condition Naturally, social cannibalism attempts the act of resurrecting beyond its will. By the Satanic Contagion —its own will is that which drives humanity to its demise – as we see Legion in Luke 8 willing itself in the presence of Christ to ‘go away’ into a mythological chthonic taxi – a.k.a. – the herd of swine seen in our most primitive representations as the carrier of souls to hell. For a further study on this, see Kerenya’s work on Eleusis.
In their fallenness-innocence, it is the child – by their nature— to both want to destroy and at the same time require death and resurrection. That is: the child requires the same person (their parent – the image of God to them) who they destroyed to be their patient saviour and to resurrect through the child’s tyrade showing the ‘better way’ to act. The child tests the parent – the god – to see if the parent “can take it”.
It is not enough to complete such a duo of deepest sympathies. We need the god/ GOD Who would resurrect and overcome an overwhelming and inherited multiplicity of desires which drive our wills to enact the Mimetic contagion of social cannibalism.
This is somewhat ‘touch base’ with my lecture on Messiah vs. The Hero where I explain that “the Hero-god-king’s cycle of perpetual death and rebirth” beckons a ‘repeat’ of the Satanic-Mimetic-Contagion. This Satanic Mimetic-Contagion is in adversus to the Messianic Line where the Christ-Messiah figure “draws” straightly “out of the circle” of social cannibalism.
In opposition to the Satanic Mimetic Contagion…the Messianic Line is a drawn line with a POINT to refer to. That is, the point of reference or “ontic referent” is a lead – star that guides us out of the contagion with intent from an Intender WHO offers a road map. The teleos on this Line drawn out of the circle is the Christ of Salvation.
We leave the cycle of “WHO should be killed next?”
Again, the contagion that we have enacted or mimed from time immemorial has perpetually showed us that it is never enough to merely “complete” such a duo of deepest sympathies – that is, the antinomies “orgasmic rage” and “sympathy” are deeply imbedded in our D.N.A. —- and this ‘uncatchable ball’ is what only a True God can resolve.
Read the Old Testament, Sir James Frazier’s works, Rene Girard, Kerenya, Joseph Campbell, etc…..and find out what only the Gospels answer. In the Gospels you will find the Genius of the True – Undying God that resolves our double vision. We enact prophecy of Christ by doing everything else but what Jesus did. See the antithesis/ see the Messiah
The True Scapegoat and Sacrifice found in Isaiah 53:
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?a And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejectedb by men, a man of sorrowsc and acquainted withd grief;e and as one from whom men hide their facesf he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief;g when his soul makesh an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall seei and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,j and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,k because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Final Etymological Note:
The term, “orge” means both “orgasm” and “rage”. We etymologically find the word “rage” in the word “orgasm” and their Greek parent, “orge”. The etymologies and root do entirely express the feeling of two feelings for the group and at the same time, the individual for ‘being out of one’s senses’.
I was teaching on the very touchy subject of Christian Universal Salvation the other day when one of my students confronted me with what he called the ‘faulty nature’ of the penal system against Christ. He asked, “why should I believe in an angry God who is shocked with the actions of humankind and kills his own son because he needs ‘justice’!?”
Backdrop to apostate thinking: N.T. Wright
I knew that one of my student’s *new influences* was N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright calls the Sacrifice of Christ not necessary for our salvation. N.T. Wright says that the Christ-Scapegoat formula is a faulty and pagan idea and that God does not need to go through all of that drama to save us.
N.T. Wright fails to see predeterminism, pre-ordained & portentous foreshadowing from non-Jewish and Jewish backdrop. He fails to see universal themes and the fulfillment point of all of these theme’s sketches in both the pagan and religious world. He fails to see how all of the enactments of the pagan and Jewish world line up to fulfill the Pagan-Religious Christ figure – i.e., *REASON* for the world (I might add as always that “pagan” was meant by me as an ‘a-moral’ term just as its etymology tells us).
N.T. Wright is a soft spoken academic who literally teaches “no suffering” at the hand of God—which, in turn, takes ANY SUFFERING out of God’s hands and strips the ancient to modern universal theme of the ‘stricken god’ out of the equation. N.T.W. steals the value and depth of “the Story” of a transcendent God who truly gave us value and REASON by His ACTS for 3 years. By these ACTS we now know value and reason, fulfillment of pagan and Jewish prophecy, and Reason by which Plato was alluded to in John chapter one as LOGOS – the “LOGIC”, “LOGICAL ONE”, “The -OLOGY of all things, etc.
N.T. Wright, due to his ‘easy-believism’ breaks the ‘continuity’ of this eternal theme from antiquity to the Ages to come. This is a ‘lesser god’ than the one of Isaiah 45 which claims that “I create Good and Evil – Tov and Ra’ah in Hebrew, or, ‘that which builds up and that which breaks down’. N.T.W. leaves himself and his followers ‘left in a field of quandary due to no ‘tie-in’ with 6 thousand plus years of human development and connected anthropological and sociological meaning. The only ‘rational’ reason that I could see him doing this is for popularity and the income which comes with popularity.
No matter what the next convoluted idea that might come out of N.T.W.’s mouth, I believe will implicate him as an apostate in the literal sense. That is, the word “apostate” means, “no suffering” (Greek: “apo” – “take off” + “stasis/ state” = “the stand”, “standing”; –i.e., “to fall away”).
I decided not to stir an infection caused by N.T.W. in my student. Rather, I said calmly, “The Narrative of the Scapegoat is Everything”.
He asked what I meant. I said to him, “I’ll ask you two questions to answer us both—
1) If the Lamb (the Jesus figure) was ‘slaughtered from the foundation of the creation’ –mentioned in Revelation 13:8– do you think that Jesus was actually ‘murdered’ by some hysterical God/ Father figure who needed someone to die because ‘he was angered over the sin that *surprised Him*?”
2) Or, do you think that EVERY series of events needs the next series of events to carry the entire creation of time and space in a collective gestalt —which was planned before the foundation of creation? If you answer yes then good! Consequently, the Lamb of God must fit into the laws of thermodynamics and Biblical Predestination as ‘energies that be’. Therefore, Jesus *necessarily* was slaughtered for our sake to fulfill a part of the congruent whole both under the laws of Thermodynamics (because it already happened), Biblically, and to fulfill the pagan’s hope. Hence, the FULL Narrative.
My student thought out loud with me: “If Jesus’ death was ordained from the Foundation of creation then every action would have to be *contingent* on the next from the very act of creation to present day and all actions in between”. I said, “good!, You just described Biblical Predestination, a befitting plan for The Scapegoat without a surprised God, and surprised Thermodynamics (lol) —-all at the same time! Funny, isn’t it, that these 3 AGREE in logic?!
Then I asked and answered for him the following:
“if you are willing to believe that God can bring us all, that is – the entire world- to justification, rectification and salvation not of our works but of His Will, Works, and Energy – (Philippians 2:13) then the next step is to ask about the transcendent “method” by which God must walk with us in order to teach and guide us. Might I say, God has been ‘walking with us’ as we were a created unified system – from the dawn of time to the end of the world.
God has shown us The Story over the millennia. Therefore, how does the Scapegoat NOT fit into the ultimate meaning/*Reason found in Christ’s death and resurrection as the ultimate Scapegoat? (A) I say that this is answered by Owen Barfield’s idea of ‘The Evolution of Consciousness’. We were babies 6,000 years ago and are adults today. That we have only *relatively-recently* (the past 2,000 years) been able to understand the ideas of the Scapegoat personified through Christ and the Grace received from Him. This MAIN EVENT takes away any intimation that WE DID ANYTHING TO DESERVE THIS and destroys the discontinuous postulate of N.T. Wright.
Were there earlier- more primitive enactments or Narratives that required a Scapegoat? (A) absolutely! James Frazier’s “Golden Bough” is an exemplary research into this practice among the pagans and Hebrew cult.
Why did these communities require a penal system? (A) Primitive beliefs instigated by Shamans, Priests, or collective superstitions show that when elemental or anthropomorphic gods were angered they ‘acted out’ in a retributive fashion. It was up to the Shaman, Priest, Priest-King, or leader of the primitive community to ‘resolve’ the god’s wrath by offering a vessel (Scapegoat) which would take the offending sins away from the community. This was a technique in controlling the masses. If this didn’t work, human sacrifice was not an estranged idea. We see the ‘appeasement’ of the angered god through Jack (the figure of the devil in the young boy) in the Lord of the Flies. The ‘collective soul’ amongst the tribe of English school boys -turned motley crew- was instigated by Jack’s ‘chaotic mind’ and his lust for dominance. In this example, the one with REASON was killed. REASON, expressed the character Piggy, was not welcomed because REASON exposed the chaos. The chaos of Jack, as the devil, worked-operated as the head of a ‘collective beast’ which generated a mesmerism of fear.
I find it interesting that in the Archko Volume, or Acta Pilati – Jesus was described physically as ‘not that attractive, big nosed, blue eyes and looked the part of a common Jew in His day. It was said that even the sound of His voice wasn’t that attractive until He spoke of His Father. It was the unattractive character – Piggy – that had likened societal defects . He was portly and optically challenged. His manner of speaking, for sure, was not appealing to the mass. Though his words were true he was hated because ‘the beast’ which worked through the boys under Jack saw a Scapegoat. The murder of Piggy, by Roger- who had no ability to think under Jack– ‘solidified’ the gang into faux strength and carried for another day an appeasement rooted in riotous fear and blood thirst.
Was there a ‘balance to be restored’ for these communities such as the children in the Lord of the Flies? As seen in my last statement, there can only be a short lived ‘appeasement’ of the masses (and the appeased god) for dominance seeking and leadership by power will begin again. Ultimately, had Ralph, the good boy-who led by righteousness, had not ‘come-upon’ the Military Commander who landed on Coral Island, the social cannibalism (possible physical cannibalism) would have continued until one would remain.
“if the enactment within the Narrative of the Scapegoat’s death was to be Christ’s crucifiction on the cross then what was the *meaning* of His death? – (A) I say, ‘to answer the pagan’s societal conflict of guilt, rage, shame and anxiety who had **no methodological approach to reason’. Christ IS **REASON for this VERY REASON! The Scapegoat fulfilled is the ULTIMATE REASON. Life Now has something to act to, for, from, at, journey from and come back to —i.e., the meaning of VALUE in the Scapegoat-Christ Jesus. Herein lies the answer for the Pagan in this regard. Again, this is where I address N.T. Wright’s faulty premise: Christ as ‘the Scapegoat’ is pagan. I agree with N.T.W. on this point!! But not in the way N.T. Wright says it. Christ fulfilled ALL pagan foreshadowing through God’s providential acts of establishing Primitive-Pagan enactments of putting sin to a thing and carrying it away into the unseen lands. Christ associates with the historical pagan and associates with the pagan in the Gospels! In this good sense of pagan association: Owen Barfield’s ‘collective consciousness’ might be answered in the Scriptural passage: Colossians 1:16 “For by Him ALL things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible, and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by HIM and for HIM”. Christ’s death and resurrection was once and for all. His atonement needed no further sacrifice or scapegoat. The doctrine that followed Christ’s enactment was in continuance to HIS enactment. That is, we must die as HE did, every day. We must speak the TRUTH unto our death as the enacted Scapegoat. In this, no more ritual without substance, rather, substance to everyday enactments.
Lastly and repeated for emphasis: “If the Lamb was ordained to death from the foundation of creation then *predestination* was the mode by which God’s Sovereignty acted. Clearly, the desire of the pagan’s collective enactments of sacrifice and Scapegoat were intently genetic and can be seen as a predetermination force all through the most remote of tribes from time immemorial. All of them and all of us have been looking for an eternal ONCE AND FUTURE KING.
It is for the Biblical “STORY”, “THE NARRATIVE”, “THE PLAY”, and REALITY, etc…that “ATONEMENT” created the ***SENSE***.by which atonement was necessary— and actually agreed with neighboring Middle Eastern cultures concerning “sacrifice”. Atonement creates the language of boundaries” and places colors on a canvass which would otherwise be white – reflecting all color. When there’s no painting, no Story, no color, etc— it just Is. This is the distinction of eternity and eternal meaning set to print in time.
Atonement wasn’t just relegated to the Biblical Story. In James Frazier’s “Golden Bough”, Mr. Frazier shows us that the entire world understood the importance of Atonement. From primitive gods to group collective volitions, designating who or what should take on their sea of troubles was a community participation and in-figured reality. Sacrifice was necessary when community troubles grew to a boiling point without remedy. Therefore, “Pagan-Non Pagan-Hedonistic-Capitalistic, etc…” atonement was/is/ will be necessary on a base-line level for all cultures.
The *Judicial* Murder by God-Father of Son-God was both (in their immediacy) (1) The Most Heinous Act ever committed and (2) The Salvation of the World —-where ‘That which was/is perfect’ can be shared *****by identity***** as ‘Broken Shards of Glass’. Christ, now, can be viewed reflectively “back to the Whole” and *valued* by HIS LOSS and then again, the GAIN by which we receive and what HE receives”
I will be interviewing for the 4th time the leading J.R.R. Tollkien Scholar and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Oxford adjunct, Dr. Verlyn Flieger, next month concerning her book, “Pig’s Tale”. This book, through fiction, treats the topics of Sacrifice and Scapegoat to be entirely different from one another. It covers the primitive collective social sense for atonement.
I conclude my thoughts here with Rene’ Girard’s “atonement theory” that Christ was the ONLY Myth that became real, dwelt amongst us and fulfilled all pagan aspirations of atonement. For those who don’t know me, “Pagan” is used by me in the *a-moral* sense: “those on the ‘other side of the peg’; ‘on the other *page*”
I’m still working on analogue/ and association of ‘what it takes to be a meaningful sacrifice and also — scapegoat).
U.P.T.
Up until now, we have triangulated our way up to a consistent Theology. The 3 main components that provide a coherent and consistent Theology are: (U) Universal Sanctification-reconciliation (Apocatastasis), (P) Pre-determinism (Pro-horidzo), and the (T) Teleology (teleos) which, in congress of forward motion (‘gestalt’), stands upon the first two. That is: the “END” or “teleos” is a *result* of ALL prior ENERGIES “that were”. This is what I call the “U.P.T.” formula.
It is with the faith (Greek:pistis – Proto Indo European: “Bheidh” – mental place where we launch from) that you will listen to my past lectures to understand WHY I believe in the coherency of this formula. Therefore, I will take a pass on ‘proving’ what I have stated up to this point. What I will state now is the “4th Dimension” to this U.P.T. formula. Simply, the etymology and story of the “Apocalypse”.
THE APOCALYPSE
The word “Apocalypse” literally means, “off (with the) cover”; “to expose”; “to reveal”; “to un-cover”; “to show”, etc. Simply: “apo” = ‘off’ + “kalupto” = ‘cover’, ‘lid’, ‘seal’.
So, the Greek “apokalupto” or ”Apocalypse” is NOT just something in the future, rather, it is the “Revealing of ALL that has been hidden” since time immemorial. In this sense, everyone experiences their own “apocalypse” every second as ‘revelations’ reveal themselves to the total sum of your being or ontology to right now.
THE FORMULA “U.P.A.T.” FOUND IN THE SPIRITUAL GRAMMAR OF JOB
Job 42:11 – “Then came there unto him and his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over (P.) ALL THE EVIL THAT THE LORD HAD BROUGHT UPON HIM ……every man also gave him a piece of money and every one an earing of gold. (42:12) (T.) So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning…… “
“Satan” was a literal reality in the Narrative of Job but is diminished to a literary mechanism which becomes dispensable. Evil cannot ‘do’ a ‘work’. It can only *be used to do God’s plan*. Satan is a stylus that carves the predetermined significance upon the rock of meaning.
“(I label U, P, A, and T to show that necessary ‘quadratic’ necessary view.)
(P) Any trial one goes through is a segway to ‘an Apocalypse’. (T) Job’s trials led him to his
*Teleology*. (T.) His *teleology* was the ‘end point’ by which he could (A) understand/ see that (P.) it was GOD that put him through the FIRE of Satan to be purified and, finally, (T.) renewed. (P.) “The Satan” could only act upon the office he was given. (U *.) Remember, Job was prior to Christianity, Judaism, the Prophets, and even the Biblically Legislative brand of Patriarchs which dictated a law code. This means that the only way that Job could have been ‘saved’ was the UNIVERSAL LOVE by which God granted Job without law code or Christianity.
TRIBAL ASPECTS OF APOCALYPSE
For simple association: if you saw Mel Gibson’s movie, “Apocalypto”, you’ll have taken away the *broadest and simplest* explanation for the meaning of “Apocalypse”. The movie is about a tribe of brutal profiteering and conquering “Aztec” Indians (historically, it was the Mayans) putting into bondage other weaker tribes and selling them off to sun god worshipping “Aztecs (again, Mayans)” who cut the heads off their victims for the sake of appeasing the sun god. This act of ‘social cannibalism’ is not new to the Aztecs if one only reads James Frazier’s “Golden Bough”. At the end of the movie a new “Apocalypse” occurs when the Spanish Armada arrives ending, historically, the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan peninsula. This is yet a new Apocalypse.. All to say: ‘the end of an *AEON* or AGE and the beginning of a new AEON. Isn’t this word, AEON, the very word used in Revelation 20-22 for “eternal” in the English? —might I say, a horrible and derailing English translation. For a deeper study into Social Cannibalism one can refer to this topic in a doctoral thesis at UMI titled, “Social Cannibalism. Also, the 12 volume treatment given to Mankind and his social taboos by Sir James Frazier, quod vide.
As a side note:
Concerning ‘advancement’ from social cannibalism and into Catholicism I go as follows: whether the argument can be made that spreading Catholicism in the Yucatan peninsula was a relatively good (if one is to not take the ‘centricity’ of Jesus’ Gospels) thing or not can be up to you to make. I would say (1) all things are ‘good’ under God’s Providence —i.e., “good” as *beneficial to build the ‘full house of meaning’ * and (2) that ‘new archetypes’ were infused into such cultures with the precise progression needed to make the higher idea of a Christ figure. Therefore, Spanish Medieval Catholicism was a necessary ‘afterthought’ or ‘echo’ of the original Christ figure —-which, to me, is better than nothing and it was a *start* to that which was previously barbarous and laden with superstition. Arguments can be ensued, and will be I’m sure.
BIBLICAL APOCALYPSE
We must dispense with child’s play concerning the faulty English translation of “eternity” and “apocalypse” and return to the Glossary by which the entire New Testament had faith in to use…namely, the Paideia of the Greeks. I have done enough work on this subject on my website, The Fullness Of Meaning Christian Ministries.com (fomcm.com), to convey a solidly backed Word bank supporting a new and fresh look at an etymologically sound Scripture.
Since I address at the top of this piece what “Apocalypse” means, I will again, from prior lectures, address the tangential word to apocalypse, “AEON”.
“Indefinite time” or “AEON” does not have to mean “infinity”, though it could. The WAY in which Aeon and Aidion were used as ‘indefinite times’ were poetically and philosophically expressed a complimentary union of ideas.
Such a poetical employment of words could be used to create the seemingly “irrational” mental state of either the poet or the characters by which they participate. Therefore, subsuming the ‘rational’ or ‘reasonable’ for a beautiful alien ‘irrationality’, if conveyed by the poet correctly, could arrest one’s senses and lure one’s self out of the lust, greed, covet, anger world—i.e., suspend one from the mire of social relativism which leads to nihilism.
This beautific apocalyptic irrationality created words fit for philosophical treatise and revelatory Biblical writing—-paratactic writing – for the words has concretized into ‘meaning’ and a correlative ‘semiotic commitment’ for the ‘abstract’ had occurred. Hence, the mathematical philosophers and prophets had a ground to work from.
From here, I hope to begin my statement of faith as the U.P.A.T. or – “Universal Pre-Determinative Apocalyptic Teleology”. For audible aesthetic convenience only I place “apocalyptic’ before “teleology”.