The famous parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-31 clearly shows us the states of totem, taboo, and temple at work. In verse twelve of Luke 15, we see a son who wanted his father to give him his entitled part of the father's estate. The father decides to divide the portions of his estate up and give it to his two sons. The father in this portion of Scripture is representative of our Heavenly Father. The Heavenly Father from the state of temple gives to his sons wealth and estate blessed by the pure and holiness of the state of temple. In verse thirteen, we see one of the sons leave the Father's house with all he had and set off to a distant but foreign land. We later see that this son decided to squander his inheritance in wild living. You see, the son in this story took the blessings given to him by the obedience and purity in the state of temple and gave it away in the name to pleasures of taboo that would eventually lead him to the state of totem. Many of us (I included) have done this more than once in our life. We have taken a gift that God has given us and sold the gift to fulfill a taboo that lead us closer to the state of totem. Taboo, in reality, is the rebellion against the prohibitions laid forth by the Word of God leading to the enactment of the powerful longings of the fleshly state of the sinful nature. We see that this son spent all his resources on wild living. It is now apparent to me that this son had a willful desire to appease his flesh by participating in acts of taboo. I personally feel that the son could have possibly have been in bondage and addicted to the taboos that God did not want the son to participate in. Every person alive has fleshly desires of taboo at work within us (Romans 5-7) that our inherent and carnal minds desires to participate in. However, those who choose to sin by disobeying the Bible and willfully perform the acts of taboo show a compromising and an accepting attitude towards the taboo. In fact the entire book of Romans from Chapter 5 to the end of the book also deal with how to conquer the forces of taboo/totem at work in our lives in order to be pure and holy and strive towards the state of temple.
Esau squandered his inheritance and future glory of temple in Genesis by taking the everlasting birthright of his father blessed by God and the concept of temple and sold it out for a bowl of soup that was a temporary quench to a longing in his corrupted flesh. In otherwords, Esau discarded a holy gift from God to appease the state of taboo that drove him closer as the years went by to the state of totem. If you look at the history of Esau and Jacob, Esau became Egypt which represents the sinful nature of our fleshly desires. Jacob received the birthright and was an ancestor of Jesus Christ. The entire Old Testament shows the physical battle of God's chosen people wrestling with totem and taboo in order to be pure and holy in God's sight to live out the concept of temple. In the New Testament, we see Jesus and the Apostle Paul teaching us how to spiritually defeat the workings of the sinful nature of totem and taboo in our lives in order to further consecrate ourselves to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the blessings of God in order to be a blameless temple in the eyes of God.
In verse fourteen, we clearly see that all the blessings accrued were now gone. The assets given in the state of temple had been squandered on taboo acts leading to totem. A famine had now striked the land where the prodigal son now lived. We see that the morally and economically bankrupt man ended up getting a job feeding pigs while still not being able to meet the basic needs of nourishing himself. A son who was never in need due to living in the state of temple now was bound to the state of totem needing to feed himself but no food was available. Submitting to taboo made the prodigal son become closer to the state of totem. I find it amazing that when needy people are living in the state of temple, God supplies their needs (not their wants) according to his riches in glory. The foreign land that promoted the states of totem and taboo did not meet the needs of the prodigal son. The prodigal son remained needy of food to eat. Even though this was not stated in the scriptures, I wondered if the prodigal son was in need of fulfilling the bondages of his flesh (taboo) to "smooth" himself out only to lead into death and destruction (totem)?
We see in verse seventeen that the prodigal son "had come to his senses". Even though the prodigal son had left the father and the state of temple to explore the life of taboo and totem, the prodigal son was still in the state of taboo. If the prodigal son had completely fallen into the state of totem, the prodigal son would have already been dead by now. The faint vital signs still present in the spiritual being of the prodigal son caused the prodigal son to remember how much better it was in the father's house ruled by the concepts of temple. This rebellious and backslidden son has finally realized that the hired hands who worked for his father were better off in all areas of their lives than he was. Not only were their needs met, they had plenty left over to assist other needy people. When one continues to live in the state of temple, God supplies their needs and then have plenty left over for these people to give to the needy who are less fortunate than they are. When Jesus fed the 5000 with only five loaves of bread and two fishes, the scriptures tell us in John 6:1-14 that they had more left over than what they originally had to start with. When we freely receive under the state of temple, we need to be Scriptural and learn to give in the state of temple to those in need as a blessing to those living in the state of temple or as a planting of seed to those who are currently living in the state of taboo almost ready to become totem in an attempt to help these people see the need of Jesus in their lives in order to escape the bondages of taboo/totem and head towards a lifestyle of temple. The prodigal son perishes with hunger. The NIV version states that the prodigal son is "starving to death". Interesting statement here, the prodigal who had it all is not facing physical death. The prodigal who blew his inheritance to live in taboo is now in the clenching jaws of totem almost ready to die. He lived to appease taboo in order to be bound to totem. But the good news is that the prodigal son made a very important decision.
The prodigal son, in verse eighteen, made another choice. Instead of the choice that led him from the blessings of temple to taboo/totem, the prodigal son now decides to arise up and leave the foreign lands of taboo and totem in order to go back to his father for another redemptive chance to experience again a portion of the blessings his father obtained by the blessings of God. A man in the jaws of death decided to live and wanted life. The second course of action the prodigal son did was to put that will in action. He leaves taboo/totem (death) and comes back towards temple (life). In one realm of thought, the quest for things of God are halfway obtained. The prodigal is ready to repent and admit that he was wrong for squandering the fredom of temple for the bondage of taboo/totem. In the other realm of thought, the prodigal son in his state of taboo/totem feels unworthy to be called a son of the father and is willing to come back as his father's slave. Here, the son does not see the bloodlines of once a son, always a son. He feels like the father will permanently banish him for his mistake. Many of us are here in this state today. Many of us in one area of our lives or in all areas of life have sold out the blessings of the temple of God to full the desires of our flesh (taboo) to only get hurt, burned and to almost experience a spiritual death (totem). Because of this thinking we feel like we are so unworthy of repentance, acceptance and forgiveness. We are like the prodigal son in our approach to the heavenly father where we, as sons and daughters of God, expect to be a slave for the rest of our lives.
Many people in the state of taboo/totem never get to the point of leaving taboo/totem to head back towards temple. However, we see the prodigal son in verse twenty rise up to leave the death of taboo and totem to come back to the life of temple. In the remainder of verse twenty, we see that the father spots the son from a long way off. Did the father wait until the son got completely home before taking action? NO! The Bible states that the father ran towards the prodigal son, threw his arms around the son's neck and kissed him. Here, a very important spiritual principle is shown. God does not wait for us to complete the distance to repentance and reconciliation. God looks at our motive and the effort that we have decided to come home and goes out and greets us with joy and compassion. We tend to believe in our natural thinking that before we experience repentance, we must make the complete journey back to God before God wants to acknowledge us. This mentality promotes the spirit of religion rather than true Christianity. In religion, we are expected to come up to God's level and repent and to make amends. You see, we can not do this. All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. If we could come up to God's level, then we would see ourselves as God and therefore be in deeper idolotry. That is what happened with the Tower of Babel as people thought that they could reach up to God and pave their own pathways to heaven. In Christianity, God comes for us in order to redeem us.
Click here for part three of Taboo to Temple.
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