Why did God forbid us to eat the fruit of knowledge? If it is indeed the knowledge of good and evil, why is the knowledge of good forbidden as well?

Knowledge is not bad per se. But knowledge that is apart from God, that is the source of all the evils and suffering we experience today.

We have been tempted from the very beginning. We have been offered enlightenment in exchange for love, and we took it. We didn't know that enlightenment without love is darkness. We didn't know that knowledge apart from God is foolishness. We didn't know.

That is why our fall had been delayed. And that is why forgiveness had been available to men and not to angels. We have been given time. And we have been given the Ultimate Saving Sacrifice of Love. Shall we take it? Or shall we succumb to the eternal fall of living our own lives in a cold dark alley of knowledge apart from the burning love of God?

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adam and eve, angels, enlightenment, garden of eden, Genesis, love, paradise, redemption, salvation, the fall, the forbidden fruit, the great lie, the serpent

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I believe that the eternity of hell
does not really depend on the weight of one's sins
for no matter what the weight,
God can forgive us with His unfathomable Mercy.

No matter what the weight,
God can make us pay for it
and we can be released
after we have rendered what has been due.

But hell, as it is hell which is eternal
is not based on the weight
or in the multitude of one's sins
but on the condition of one's heart
when one has already received
all that is needed to be received
in order for the heart to make a choice

When the mortal man realizes
he is no longer mortal,
when the veil of time and space
had been lifted up and he sees,
when he becomes such a spirit
as the angels are,
he will render a judgment upon himself

and he will render an eternal decision
as the angels have made

Will he approach God's Divine Mercy
and accept whatever punishment is due his sins?
Or will he despise all that is God's
and turn to the light which is not Light
with those fallen stars
who will never
ever
bow down again
unto Him
who is just
and who is Love.

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eternal punishment, hell, judgment, purgatory, redemption, salvation, why is there eternal punishment in hell

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VISIONARY: My son, at times it is not that there are
no right answers, but that we ask not the right questions.
Would you rather not have asked whether such stars desire
to be lifted up and saved?

INQUIRER: But why shouldn't they desire to? Don't they
know the wrath of the One with whom they can never win?

VISIONARY: It is for the fact that they are fully aware
that they could no longer change their decision. Everything
they now know, they have known from the very beginning.
What they have decided, they have already decided for all
eternity.

INQUIRER: And what of earthlings? Why must these fallen stars
desire them to be fully aware as themselves? Do they desire
for them to be saved thru enlightenment?

VISIONARY: Enlightenment and salvation are two different matters.
Let him beware who desires to be enlightened for full awareness
grapples him on a road of no return. Once there, time ceases
and decisions halt to a final destination. He can no longer
tread the path of perfection he has once desired to walk upon.
Once the veil had been lifted up, it is the heart that makes
the choice. And when the seed of PRIDE has already made its
way unto the seat of his soul, what could make him approach
the throne of the most Divine Mercy? What could make him
exchange the glory of his own beauty for the suffering of the cross?

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: angels, armageddon, can we be enlightened without being saved, enlightenment, enlightenment without salvation, heaven, last battle, salvation

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If man can help himself
he would have helped himself
a long time ago

but man is trapped
in a duality
that is so easily imbalanced on one side
which is that of darkness

how so you may say
how was a conclusion
leaning on to the negative
arrived at
in a world of duality
where both light and darkness
should have had an equal pull on all things?

If it is not in truth
leaning towards the negative,
why then the corruption
that follows all things born of the flesh?
why is death the fate
of all men after his birth?

Children are born with infirmities
and sickness follows man
all the days of his life
til the grave

It's as though there is but an appointed time
given him
to live
to choose
to be redeemed

Before a final destiny is reached

A destiny that has only been delayed
so he can be lifted up
so he can avoid the complete fall
where he has been heading to all along...

‘However greatly the soul itself labours, it cannot actively purify itself so as to be in the least degree
prepared for the Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in that dark fire.
-St.John of the Cross

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: can man save himself, corruption, death, duality, fall of man, God, need to be redeemed, redemption, salvation

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God was there
from the very beginning
but I knew Him not
and I turned away

I looked at the world
and beheld its splendor
til that same splendor
snatched me
and I was thrown
amidst its cold brightness
and I yearned for the warmth of home

In despair I wept
and I cried out to my God:
Rescue me for I desire not these things
and I will have none of this beauty
if only to be back in your arms

And my God heard me
and ran to me
and snatched me away from the world
and took me even
within His heart

Therein only
did I find joy
and peace
and LOVE
atlast!

© Jocelyn Soriano for I Take Off The MASK!, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: God, Inspiration, Life, poem, redemption, religion, salvation, salvation poem

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