Peter did at a later date!
Jesus said to them, “Who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16)
With all the nations, after Babel, turning to gratification and power, it became necessary for a new nation to be raised. Abram is the father of this people, a new nation dedicated exclusively to being God’s People.
. . . or as in the priest of Salem in the days when the call came that a peculiar peoples would proclaim His name . . .
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This nation was to be used for the renewing of the mind of man, restoring his memory through spiritual discernment.
. . . a peculiar people, set aside for a purpose—as a channel through which there might be the discerning of the spirit made manifest in flesh.
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Thinkest thou that the grain of corn has forgotten what manner of expression it has given? Think thou that any of the influences in nature that you see about you—the acorn, the oak, the elm, or the vine or anything—has forgotten . . . ? Only man forgets! And it is only in His mercy that such was brought about. For what was the first cause? Knowledge—knowledge! What then is that cut off in the beginnings of the Sons of God? Becoming entangled with the daughters of men, and the Daughters of God becoming entangled with the sons of men! As in Adam, they forgot what manner of men they were! Only as he lives, [as] he manifests that life that is the expression of the divine, may man begin to know who, where, what and when he was!
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Peter and Abram share several features in common, and reflect a universal spiritual pattern. As a result of their spiritual development, both men had their names changed: Peter to Simon, and Abram to Abraham. Their spiritual perceptions established them as the first patriarchs, or fathers, of their “church.”
Peter’s realization of the Christ in Jesus established him (or the awareness itself) as the “rock” of the New Testament church.11 Perhaps Melchizedek bestowed a similar blessing on Abram. Abram’s awareness was the foundation upon which the Old Testament was built.
The discernment of the Spirit manifesting in the flesh is the base, or cornerstone, for this spiritual movement which began after Babel and the dividing of the nations, the foundation succeeding generations could return to and enlarge upon, building an ever-expanding body of souls attracted to each other for a common purpose.
. . . for as given of Old, no soul can say that Christ is come of God save the Holy Spirit convict him of that statement.
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Just as Abram was able to see Melchizedek as the Son of a Living God, Melchizedek was able to recognize in Abram the elements of spirituality and worldliness that would establish him as the leader of this new movement. In the following Cayce puts forth a simple, far-reaching concept which in its application can be a working principle for all.
Nations were set up then in various portions of the land [after Babel], and . . . set about to seek their gratifications. Very few—yea, as ye will recall, it even became necessary that from one of these groups one individual, a man, be called. His ways were changed. His name was changed.
Did it take sin away from the man, or was it only using that within the individual heart and purpose and desire even then, as man throughout the periods of unfoldment put—in his interpretation—that of material success first?
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Abram’s desire for material success was a principal motivation, but he had the willingness and the wisdom to let the Spirit direct him in the fulfillment of his ambitions. Perhaps Melchizedek tutored him in this awareness and coached him in harmonizing his material desires with their spiritual source.
The earlier chapters of Genesis have been symbolic accounts of the Adamic race as a whole. With Abram, the book begins to focus exclusively on the development and history of a particular people. Yet this people remain a symbol of mankind. As a struggling, seeking, oft-cursed, oft-blessed race, they are a microcosm of Humanity in its search for God, manifesting all the potential within for good and evil.
Melchizedek
These become hard at times for the individual to visualize; that the mental and soul [bodies] may manifest without a physical vehicle.
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Perhaps one reason why Melchizedek was able to impress Abram was that this high priest, like Adam and Enoch (and many of the so-called Eastern masters today) was a “living soul.” Melchizedek was not a flesh man. It is written of him:
Neither his father nor his mother is recorded in the genealogies; and neither the beginning of his days nor the end of his life. (Hebrews 7:3)
Thus, he was “a living soul.”
For as He hath given, “The earth, the heavens will pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Know that the soul, the psychic forces of an entity, any entity, any body, are . . . eternal—for they are without days, without years, without numbers . . .
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Cayce described the three primary appearances of Jesus—Adam, Enoch, and Melchizedek—as “in the perfection” (5749-14) and distinguished them from the later ones which were “in the earth”—Joseph, Joshua, Jeshua, and Jesus. It is also written of Melchizedek that “he is a priest forever.” (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:17)
In his resurrected body Jesus is “without days or years” and once again High Priest “after the order of Melchizedek.”
Though He were the Son, know that there was the lonesomeness, the fear of those influences that beset those He loved. Yet, knowing He hath entered into that glory, becoming the high priest of His people, they that seek Him daily, and having sat down on the right hand of the Father, then through Him ye have that promise, “Lo, I am with thee.”
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The Offices of High Priest
Just as Abram began the line which eventually resulted in the ultimate incarnation in the flesh of the Son of the Living God, Edgar Cayce told a woman that in a very distant and ancient age, she had begun activities and established a line which made the appearance of Melchizedek possible. Although Melchizedek’s genealogy is not known, Edgar Cayce said that in prehistoric Egypt [884] had been his great-great-grandmother:
. . . we find the entity was in what is now known as the Egyptian land, during those experiences when there
