Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.
What does this mean?
Isn't it a magical formulation, except a new holy magick?
This accessible study of witches, from their western origins in Greece and Rome, to their persecution in the 16th century and 20th-century paganism, aims to challenge some commonly held misconceptions about witches and witchcraft. Many witches, for example, were male and witches went unharmed and unpersecuted for much of history. Maxwell-Stuart discusses the connection between magic and heresy, sterotypical images of witches through the centuries and methods used to identify suspects. Chapters also consider famous trials and witches and the social and religious context for the witches who `plagued' North America and Protestant England in the 17th century
This provocative collection of rites, spells, amulets, curses, and recipes of the early Coptic Christians documents Christianity as a living folk religion resembling other popular belief systems - something quite different from what theo-logical and doctrinal traditions have led us to believe.
Like The Nag Hammadi Library, this extraordinary collection of little known incantatory texts radically alters our perception of Christianity as primarily a highly theological and orthodox tradition. These texts and illustrations show that the folk practices of the earliest Christians are quite similar to the day-to-day beliefs and rituals of spirituality that imbue indigenous primal religions and popular religion generally.
Placing these previously unknown ancient texts in historical context and explaining their significance, Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith also reveal the place of healing, prayer, miracles, and magic in the Christian teaching practice. Illustrated with line drawings and photographs from the original ancient documents and containing a plethora of rituals, curses, and spells, Ancient Christian Magic is the practical and liturgical companion to the narrative and theological texts of The Nag Hammadi Library.
"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
The Catholic Church sees the Mass or Eucharist as "the source and summit of the Christian life", to which the other sacraments are oriented.[13] The Catholic Church believes that the Mass is exactly the same sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered on the Cross at Calvary.
"With no less arrogance he began as follows in issuing a circular letter in the name of his procurators, "Our Master and our God bids that this be done."..."
...
"They even had ladders brought and his shields and images torn down before their eyes and dashed upon the ground; finally they passed a decree that his inscriptions should everywhere be erased, and all record of him obliterated..."
This is the end of the Domitian Project. You cannot praise "Jesus is Lord" unless you are "...in the Holy Spirit" and you cannot curse "Jesus" unless you are not in the Spirit of God. Obviously Post-Damnatio but there are some people who are still followers of Domitian and his reign.
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.
What does this mean?
Origen, Contra Celsum, 6.28
Now he ought to have known that those who have espoused the cause of the serpent, because he gave good advice to the first human beings, and who go far beyond the Titans and Giants of fable, and are on this account called Ophites, are so far from being Christians, that they bring accusations against Jesus to as great a degree as Celsus himself; and they do not admit any one into their assembly until he has uttered maledictions against Jesus.
Catena fragm. 47 on 1 Corinthians 12:3
There is a certain sect which does not admit a convert unless he pronounces anathemas on Jesus; and that sect is worthy of the name which it has chosen; for it is the sect of the so-called Ophites, who utter blasphemous words in praise of the serpent.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
The attitude of the spirit-people to the historical Jesus is summarized by Paul in the shocking phrase 'Anathema Jesus" They found the idea of a crucified saviour repugnant and preferred to think in terms of "the Lord of Glory", a super-human saviour from above. Paul could not accept this separation of Jesus and Christ, because as one of Paul's oldest commentators most perceptively put it, Jesus is the truth of Christ (Eph.4:21). Only a being of flesh and blood, anchored in space and time, can demonstrate the real possibility of the restored humanity proclaimed in the gospel.
IIRC, the "spirit-people" had distorted Apollos' teachings which was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Philo of Alexandria.
