Sure. No sweat. When a person achieves enlightenment (or Self-realization, as it is sometimes called) he becomes God individualized in a fully conscious way, rather than just being God individualized in an unconscious way. Everyone is God individualized in an unconscious way...because everything is constructed out of the intelligent energy and various manifested stuff that is an extension of God into what we call Space and Time.

In being God individualized the person can then most certainly be termed the child ("the Son") of God. She could also be termed "the Daughter of God", in such a case (but the Jews had a very patriarchal society, and would not have given much of a welcome to that notion). Meaning, he/she is now the fully fledged Son/Daughter on a conscious level.

I am told that when one achieves that consciousness one cannot help but love all beings and all of creation, and I believe it. I've met such a person and had ample opportunities to see how a person like that conducts himself/herself in regards to the World in general. To put it simply, such a person acts impeccably according to the Golden Rule, and renders profound service unto others, and does it courageously, steadfastly, and with great joyfullness and committment. Such a person can also get tough with others when conditions require it, but not to harm them...in fact, to help them. He can even become a warrior under extreme conditions, and that has happened here and there in the past. The Baghavad Gita gives some interesting examples of such a situation, though they can be interpreted as an allegory for the "inner struggle" within any human being between his own potential for darkness and light.

He then speaks as the consciousness that IS God, and says, "Before the World was formed I AM." What he/she says then is absolutely true, from that level of consciousness. He's not talking about his physical body (which is transitory), he is talking about the eternal living Spirit which he is experiencing on a conscious level.

When he says "No one comes to the father except through the Son", he is again stating a simple fact. You cannot come to the whole God, the One, the Father/Mother except through becoming the Son/Daughter first. Only through individualizing as God yourself can you fully encounter the all-embracing Oneness that is God. You don't do it through Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha (though they could help guide you in doing it)...you do it by going within and finding what Jesus found inside yourself. When you succeed in that you ARE the Son of God. You're like a conscious cell in the body of God. Most of the cells in that body are instinctive and only conscious of their own individual separateness and their own ego drives.

Jesus was suggesting that people follow his example, not worship him. They have mostly chosen to worship him. Why? Because they are lazy, in all probability, and would rather have someone else do it all for them like a magician doing a magic trick...or because they just don't understand the principles involved...and the traditional churches (mostly) have not done very much to clarify that situation. In fact, they have obscured it in order to increase their power over people.

Now I realize, Gene, that you may scoff at this explanation, and that's your right. But give it some consideration. It is one possible answer to your perfectly reasonable question.

You see, merely worshipping is a simple, child-like process. Self-realization is a tremendous challenge, and very few people take it on, let alone achieve it in a single lifetime. Maybe one in ten thousand does, if that. Maybe one in a hundred thousand. I doubt that I will manage it in this lifetime. But I've seen it. And it's quite simply the most beautiful thing I've seen, along with the grand beauty of Nature itself.

- LH