“Thorn Bushes and Thistles”:
The Rise of Prophecy, and the Fall of Man
by Eric Heubeck
eBook Summary
According to the Bible, all of the problems plaguing humanity can be traced to the original “Fall of Man” in the Garden of Eden. But what is this “Fall of Man”? It clearly could not have been the result of a choice by Adam and Eve to eat literal fruit from a literal tree. So what does the “fruit” symbolize, and what does the “tree” symbolize, and what does the “eating” symbolize—and what does the “Fall of Man” really symbolize?
The “Fall of Man” is a myth, and was obviously meant to be understood as such by the authors of the Bible; but the true meaning of that myth is anything but obvious. To discover the true symbolic significance of the “Fall of Man” requires undertaking a close examination of Bible text found beyond only those chapters of the Book of Genesis that explicitly describe the Garden of Eden and the “Fall of Man.” In this book, by carefully cross-referencing various passages found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, Eric Heubeck demonstrates that the “Fall of Man” was very likely meant by the authors of the Bible to be understood as symbolizing mankind’s collective and continuing choice to accept and approve of the practice of “religious esotericism”—or, what the Bible calls “prophecy” and “prophesying.”
If that conclusion is correct, then the only way in which mankind could possibly reenter the symbolic “Garden of Eden,” and return to its original condition as intended by God, would be by finally choosing to reject all “prophetical discourse” in authoritative religious writings—and, more primarily, by finally choosing to reject the Lie in whatever form it might take. Once we understand what the mythical “Fall of Man” was actually meant to signify, we will be in a much better position to decide if we as human beings wish to perpetuate it (as we are now doing); or if we wish to reverse it and thereby find our collective salvation as a species.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why all “prophets” are really “false prophets”
How all so-called “prophesying” is actually deceptive and misleading
“Relatively truthful prophets” compared to “relatively untruthful prophets” (i.e., so-called “false prophets”)
Chapter 2: The “Fall of Man” understood as the mythical birth of the desire to “prophesy” and to listen to the deceptive and misleading words of “prophecy”
“Thorn-bushes,” “thistles,” “false prophets,” and “the cursing of the earth”
New Testament authors on the association between the symbolic “serpent” (and “Satan”) and “false prophets” (and “false apostles,” and “false teachers”)
A summing-up of what we’ve established so far
Chapter 3: More on the Biblical symbols of “thorn-bushes,” “bramble-bushes,” and “thistle plants”
The acceptance of “prophecy” and “prophesying” understood as the refusal to “drink” from the “rains” or “waters” of the Holy Spirit; and the “cursing” of the “ground” or “earth” that results from that refusal
Moses and the “burning bush”
Chapter 4: The pre-Crucifixion “Jesus Christ” understood as the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”; and the ascended “Jesus Christ” understood as the “tree of life”
Jesus as the “vine” consisting of a mixture of “good branches” and “worthless branches”
The “Messiah” seen as the “new plant” that replaces the “former plants”
The “crown of thorns” worn by the crucified “King of the Jews”
What does it mean to “recrucify the Son of God in oneself”?
Chapter 5: “Farmers” and “shepherds”: The figures of Cain and Abel
A closer look at Genesis 4:1-5: The two different types of “offerings”
A closer look at Genesis 4:6-7: What does it mean for Cain to “rule over” sin?
A closer look at Genesis 4:8-12: What is the “voice” of Abel’s “blood”?
A closer look at Genesis 4:13-16: The “sign of Cain”
A closer look at Genesis 4:17-22: Cain, builder of the world’s first “city”
Chapter 6: How the writings of the prophet Zechariah link the story of the “Fall of Man,” and the figures of Cain and Abel, with the story of the “Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ”
Proof that metaphorical “shepherds” were meant to be understood as signifying “prophets”; and what that would imply
What Zechariah has to say about the figures of Cain and Abel
The symbols of the “thirty pieces of silver” and the “Field of Blood”
The conceptual interrelations between and among the figures of Jesus, Judas, and Zechariah; and the symbols of “shepherds” and “sheep”
The equivalence between the “Field of the Potter” and the “Field of Blood”
Chapter 7: The death of the “good shepherd”; and the final redemption of Cain through the workings of the “Son of God”
How to think about the conceptual interrelations between and among symbolic figures in the Bible
Zechariah chapters 11 through 13, and the archetype of the “good shepherd”
The initial contrast between Cain and Jesus
The new and improved, “Christ-like” Cain
The final outcome of the death of the “good shepherd”
Against the Lie 