A Question of Nudity

CHAPTER 73

Cephas speaks on behalf of himself and the other male Apostles to Yeshua about the uncomfortable feelings that they had when nude in mixed company at the baths of Tiberius. Yeshua responds by speaking about making one’s weaknesses their strengths and expounds upon the virtues of a strong and passionate marital bond and the service the men must give to their wives to make it so.

 1 And it came to pass that on the following day, Yeshua met with Miriam and his other Apostles in the mountains west of Capernaum and taught them further concerning the mysteries of Elohim.

 2 When he had finished speaking, Cephas spoke to him, saying, “Yeshua, as you know our minds, I have no doubt that you know there is something that has been troubling me and my brethren since our time in the baths of Tiberius.”

 3 “I know,” Yeshua affirmed. “But I have been waiting for you to broach the subject; that you might grow in the understanding of both your strengths and weaknesses.”

 4 Cephas looked at Miriam and said unto her, “Forgive me, Miriam, for discussing this in front of you as it is a subject of men. But as an Apostle, you are like unto a man in the things you have heard and seen. Therefore, I know that Yeshua would not put you out of the conversation, nor will I ask such a thing. Nevertheless, do not take offense at the subject.”

 5 Miriam gave a slight smile and said unto him, “Fear not, Cephas, I am not a delicate flower, and I will not wilt under the heat of your conversation with Yeshua, even if it is a conversation for men.”

 6 Being assured of this, Cephas continued speaking his thoughts to Yeshua and, waving his arm to include all of the other male Apostles, said, “Our visit to the baths of Tiberius the other day left all of us very uncomfortable, and it was not from your confrontation with the Sanhedrin, but from our time in the baths.

 7 In the past when the community has gone to the baths, we have allowed the women, girls, and young children to go in for a time, if they were to go in nakedness, and when they had departed, the men went in and took their turn.

 8 But this last time, you had everyone go into the baths together in nakedness. You must know this was a very difficult thing for us to see women other than our wives naked in such close proximity. This problem was made greater by having so many people at once in the baths, which forced us to be closer to everyone than we were comfortable or accustomed to.

 9 I have spoken with all of my brethren here, and to a man they attest that they had no lust for any of the naked women milling about them, but this was not easy. In fact, it was a very difficult thing and took so much of our willpower that we did not enjoy the baths at all, for we were constantly averting our eyes and working mightily to avert our thoughts.

 10 Normally, soaking in the baths is a most blissful experience, where thoughts of the world and the challenges of life vanish for a few hours, and there is a serenity and peace and oneness experienced with the spirit within.

 11 This last time was a far different experience, where we had to fight with ourselves instead of communing with ourselves.

 12 If we, your Apostles, had so much difficulty, we must consider that the other men of the community had even greater challenges.

 13 You have told us that we should be able to have no lust or impure thoughts, even when a naked woman is before us. But to a man, we are sad to say, that we have not reached that pinnacle of virtue, save it is with such focus and willpower that other thoughts are barely possible.

 14 You have said that we should be able to look upon a naked woman as a beautiful work of art by Elohim, the master artist, as is man. In truth, when we were in Hyppos, we saw statues and frescoes of naked women, and no effort was needed to keep impure thoughts at bay. But the naked body of a living woman of flesh is entirely different!

 15 Forgive me for speaking so much on this subject and being so weak that this is even something of which we must speak. Our humble request is simply that our future visits to the baths can once again be segregated, that the baths may again be one of the great pleasures of life instead of one so full of trepidation and challenge that we simply desire to remain at home.”

 16 Yeshua stroked his beard for a moment as he contemplated the words of Cephas. Then he said unto him, “Brother Cephas, know that you will never be tested beyond your power to overcome and that all temptation is to help you become stronger.

 17 The weak man gives into his lusts, be it for food or idleness or sexual thoughts or proclivities. But the strong man grows mightier by each test of his strength, until the day when that which used to be a test is a test no more, nor even a temptation, for he has overcome himself and his weaknesses become his strengths.

 18 Single young men should not be in the close presence of any young woman, save both are fully clothed, for it is too much to ask a young man to hold back the tide of his thoughts when faced with such a powerful temptation as a naked young woman, and that is why no young men were present with us in the baths at Tiberius as I had asked them all to remain in the communities.

 19 But for a man who is married and lives and loves the laws of Elohim, there should be no temptation seeing the nakedness of a woman not his wife, especially if she is a sister of light and is not enticing him in any way by her words or actions. Even if that were the case, any sage or Adept of the Celestine Light should be stronger than the adversary—the natural man within.

 20 If you are married and fulfilling your duties to serve your wives and give their bodies intimate pleasures, you should be so complete and fulfilled yourself that there is no temptation or test in seeing a woman who is not your wife in nakedness.

 21 If this is not true, then it is not your willpower that must be improved, but your attention to the righteous fires of love and lust that should be burning at home.

 22 Nevertheless, impure thoughts or unrighteous lust for someone other than your wife is like a poison that can destroy not only you, but also others whose lives you touch.

 23 For this cause, until you and your brethren and the other brothers of light in the community can be masters of yourself in this, we shall return to segregation in the baths. And while the Children of Light remain in community in the land of Palestine so shall it stay, until the men of the community can overcome themselves insomuch that virtue of thought prevails without the need for constant willpower and personal surveillance as you have indicated was the case at Tiberius.

 24 But the time will come when you are far from this land and in a place where the Community of Light shall stand apart as a world of its own.

 25 When you see the dawn of that day, surely it is time to begin to live a higher law of righteousness, step by step, until soon, other than the single young men, the entire community could go about in nakedness, and there would be no impure thoughts or lust for any to whom you are not married.

 26 And even among the single young men, impure thoughts can be overcome if the desire to be in harmony with the Celestine Light of Elohim is strong enough.

 27 Much grief is left behind, and many fine qualities emerge, when a young man and a young woman marry shortly after their eighteenth year, as is the custom among most of the diverse peoples living in the land of Palestine.

 28 The blessings of this are evident in lasting marriages of love, where righteous lust is satisfied at home with the beloved; where affections do not wander; where children grow up balanced, comforted in their hearts, and delightful in their dispositions.

 29 But there are some, such as the Didorites, that disdain marriage and simply choose to take mates and live together for such time as it pleases them.

 30 The results of this are equally evident: In the years of early adulthood, lust for others besides their companion is rampant, fornication and adultery are common, relationships seldom last even until the oldest child is of age, and growing up without an example of committed love produces young men who live for lust and are incapable of a deep and abiding love.

 31 In years of later adulthood, the passions of lust fade, even into nothingness, leaving those who built their lives upon nothing, with an emptiness that cannot be filled.

 32 Verily, I declare unto you, as in all things, you reap what you sow, and those that sow iniquity shall reap the whirlwind. Before the last Child of Light leaves this land, the Didorites shall be no more. Their days are already numbered.

 33 They shall be consumed unto death by the fires created from their lusts. That which gave them pleasure shall give them pain, which pain shall increase day by day until many will take their own lives rather than suffer another day.

 34 Those who take not their life, but endure the pain hoping for relief from sources unknown, merely prolong the inevitable, and their end shall be all the worse, until the Didorites are no more.

 35 So shall misery and unhappiness, and often disease and early death, fall upon all who seek to gratify their carnal lusts without a bond of love and a commitment of fidelity in marriage. And those who live long in the years shall most often find only a great loneliness at the end of their sojourn in life.

 36 But even for the lost, there is always redemption if they will repent in fullness and sincerity and choose to live in the light. But let them not procrastinate their day of repentance, for they know not when their last breath shall be, even this day.

 37 I tell you these things that you might learn the wisdom that comes from the Celestine Light, that you might understand that impure thoughts and unrighteous lust are most easily conquered by an early marriage, founded on love, where lust is given fulfillment within the marriage, and the man seeks the pleasure of his wife or wives, first and foremost.

 38 You have told me this day that in the baths at Tiberius, you had challenges controlling your thoughts for women other than your wife. And I say unto you that if this is so, you must each look to your own marriage, for if you are serving your wife and seeking her loving and lustful pleasure each day, first and foremost, your own lusts will be more than satiated, and being brothers of light, you will then find the nakedness of other women not a temptation at all. Such a thing will not even occur in your thoughts.

 39 We speak often of being in the world but not of it, and that which we speak of today is of great measure your fulfillment of that admonition.

 40 It is my honor to know each of you. It is my honor to be with you each day. I am uplifted by the strength of your characters, even to speak today of this rather than let it linger and fester in the shadows of your thoughts.

 41 You are far-greater men than you allow yourselves to acknowledge. Yet even in your greatness, you are still as babes compared to the men you will yet become.

 42 But if you are to become those men, you must tend to the fires of love and lust within the walls of your own home. Upon this firm foundation, you will have a serenity the world cannot know and a shield through which the darts of temptation cannot penetrate.”