Teacher-Brother Dave's initial comments: I am presenting some of my Topical Studies from the fully public domain, 2097 page, Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth and with my added comments. The Revealed text is free of copyright, so you may freely share individually these supernal quotes with your friends and relatives. But my order of selections, font types for emphasis and my added comments are Copyright 2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org All Rights Reserved. Contact me first about using the whole Study or group of Studies.
[My added comments of explanation below are in these square brackets]
Topical Study 91 "All about LOVE -- Fatherly and Brotherly"
Compiled 10/30/2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 6 of many]
PAPER 38 MINISTERING SPIRITS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE
2. ANGELIC NATURES
[Paper:Section.Paragraph]
38:2.1 Angels do not have material bodies, but they are definite and discrete beings; they are of Spirit nature and origin. Though invisible to mortals, they perceive you as you are in the flesh without the aid of transformers or translators; they intellectually understand the mode of mortal life, and they share all of man’s nonsensuous emotions and sentiments. They appreciate and greatly enjoy your efforts in music, art, and real humor. They are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. [We each have the ministering services of a pair of Seraphim, one is more active, the other is more passive, roughly similar to an ideal male and an ideal female nature.]
38:2.2 Though seraphim are very affectionate and sympathetic beings, they are not sex-emotion creatures. They are much as you will be on the mansion worlds, where you will “neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be as the angels of heaven.” For all who “shall be accounted worthy to attain the mansion worlds neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither do they die any more, for they are equal to the angels.” Nevertheless, in dealing with sex creatures it is our custom to speak of those beings [both male and female humans] of more direct descent from the Father and the Son as the sons of God, while referring to the children of the Spirit as the daughters of God. Angels are, therefore, commonly designated by feminine pronouns on the sex planets.
38:2.5 You do well to love them, but you should not adore [worship, honor as a Deity] them; angels are not objects of worship. The great seraphim, Loyalatia, when your seer “fell down to worship before the feet of the angel,” said: “See that you do it not; I am a fellow servant with you and with your races, who are all enjoined to worship God.”
7. CHERUBIM AND SANOBIM
38:7.1 In all essential endowments [,lower ranking,initially,] cherubim and sanobim are similar to seraphim. They have the same origin but not always the same destiny. They are wonderfully intelligent, marvelously efficient, touchingly affectionate, and almost human. They are the lowest order of angels, hence all the nearer of kin to the more progressive types of human beings on the evolutionary worlds. [The long resident midwayers on Earth are even closer to humans. The lower angels can travel up to three times the speed of light: 3C, or 21 times around the equator of the Earth in one second. Midwayers are slower, only 2C speed, or 14 times around the full 25,000 mile diameter of Earth per second. Humans on Earth can only run about 25 feet per second or less for a short period of time. Middle level super-angels travel about 50,000C; highest Sons of God and highest Spirits travel at infinite speed instantly, or even "instanter" !! That's good to remember to keep us over-egotistical humans a little more humble ! Ha ha]
PAPER 39 THE SERAPHIC HOSTS
4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM
39:4.11 What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an intelligent appreciation of universe brotherhood; one could not take so much and give nothing. As you ascend the personality scale, first you learn to be loyal, then to love, then to be filial, [as a loving son of God to Him,] and then may you be free; but not until you are a finaliter, not until you have attained perfection of loyalty, can you self-realize finality of liberty. [Then, everything you want to do will perfectly be done as God wills !]
9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION
39:9.3 Many fascinating avenues of ministry are open to the completion Seraphim, but just as they all craved assignment as destiny guardians in the pre-Paradise days, so in the post-Paradise experience they most desire to serve as bestowal attendants of the incarnated Paradise Sons. They are still supremely devoted to that universal plan of starting the mortal creatures of the evolutionary worlds out upon the long and enticing journey towards the Paradise goal of divinity and eternity. Throughout the whole mortal adventure of finding God and of achieving divine perfection, these spirit ministers of seraphic completion, together with the faithful ministering spirits of time, are always and forever your true friends and unfailing helpers.
PAPER 40 THE ASCENDING SONS OF GOD
0. Introduction
40:0.9 The story of these beings, from the lowly animal-origin mortals of the evolutionary worlds to the Personalized Adjusters of the Universal Father, presents a glorious recital of the unstinted bestowal of divine love and gracious condescension throughout all time and in all universes of the far-flung creation of the Paradise Deities.
6. THE FAITH SONS OF GOD
40:6.1 [Two important paragraphs !] The mortal races stand as the representatives of the lowest order of intelligent and personal creation. You mortals are divinely beloved, and every one of you may choose to accept the certain destiny of a glorious experience, [!!!] but you are not yet by nature of the divine order; you are wholly mortal. You will be reckoned as ascending sons the instant fusion takes place, but the status of the mortals of time and space is that of faith sons prior to the event of the final amalgamation of the surviving mortal soul with some type of eternal and immortal Spirit. [Humans on Earth are Father-fused, others are Spirit-fused; and some are Son-fused]
40:6.2 It is a solemn and supernal fact that such lowly and material creatures as Earth human beings are the sons of God, faith children of the Highest. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.” “As many as received him, to them gave he the power to recognize that they are the sons of God.” While “it does not yet appear what you shall be,” even now “you are the faith sons of God”; “for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, whereby you cry, ‘our Father.’” Spoke the prophet of old in the name of the eternal God: “Even to them will I give in my house a place and a name better than sons; I will give them an everlasting name, one that shall not be cut off.” “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts.”
10. ASCENDANT DESTINIES
40:10.13 Thus, in the final analysis, it would be hardly proper to use the words “greater” or “lesser” in contrasting the destinies of the [Father-, Son-, and Spirit-fused] ascending orders of sonship. Every such son of God shares the Fatherhood of God, and God loves each of his creature sons alike; he is no more a respecter of ascendant destinies than is he of the creatures who may attain such destinies. The Father loves each of his sons, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, unlimited, eternal, and unique — a love bestowed upon this son and upon that son, individually, personally, and exclusively. And such a love utterly eclipses all other facts. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature to the Creator.
40:10.14 As mortals you can now recognize your place in the Family of divine Sonship and begin to sense the obligation to avail yourselves of the advantages so freely provided in and by the Paradise plan for mortal survival, which plan has been so enhanced and illuminated by the life experience of a Bestowal Son. [Our Sovereign Universe Creator Jesus Christ Michael !] Every facility and all power have been provided for insuring your ultimate attainment of the Paradise goal of divine perfection.
PAPER 45 THE LOCAL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
6. ADAMIC TRAINING OF ASCENDERS
45:6.3 On the seven mansion worlds [our next seven, much higher, soul-reality Heavens for rehabilitation from gross animal-origin tendencies and further soul elevations] ascending mortals are afforded ample opportunities for compensating any and all experiential deprivations suffered on their worlds of origin, whether due to inheritance, environment, or unfortunate premature termination of the career in the flesh. This is in every sense true except in the mortal sex life and its attendant adjustments. Thousands of mortals reach the mansion worlds without having benefited particularly from the disciplines derived from fairly average sex relations on their native spheres. The mansion world experience can provide little opportunity for compensating these very personal deprivations. Sex experience in a physical sense [but higher soul and then Spirit loving male-female relationships forever persist even up on eternal Paradise !!] is past for these ascenders, but in close association with the [super-human Adam and Eve type] Material Sons and Daughters, both individually and as members of their [nuclear] families, these sex-deficient mortals are enabled to compensate the social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their deficiency. Thus are all those humans whom circumstances or bad judgment deprived of the benefits of advantageous sex association on the evolutionary worlds, here on the system capitals afforded full opportunity to acquire these essential mortal experiences in close and loving association with the supernal Adamic sex creatures of permanent residence on the system capitals.
PAPER 46 THE LOCAL SYSTEM HEADQUARTERS
5. THE JERUSEM CIRCLES
46:5.10 1. Circles of the Sons of God. Though the Sons of God possess a social planet of their own, one of the transitional-culture worlds, they also occupy these extensive domains on Jerusem. [A Spiritual Headquarters, not the lowly material city named Jerusalem on Earth. No relationship ! Note the difference in spelling.] On their transitional-culture world the ascending mortals freely mingle with all orders of divine sonship. There you will personally know and love these Sons, but their social life is largely confined to this special world and its satellites. In the Jerusem circles, however, these various groups of sonship may be observed at work. And since morontia [soul] vision is of enormous range, you can walk about on the Sons’ promenades and overlook the intriguing activities of their numerous orders. [Roughly, if we had that visual acuity here on Earth, we could probably read fine newspaper print fifty miles distant or more. We would also see far more colors than the limited seven rainbow colors seen here.]
PAPER 47 THE SEVEN MANSION WORLDS
3. THE FIRST MANSION WORLD
47:3.6 From the resurrection halls you proceed to the Melchizedek sector, where you are assigned permanent residence. Then you enter upon ten days [Earth days? If System time, that would be about just over 29 Earth days] of personal liberty. You are free to explore the immediate vicinity of your new home and to familiarize yourself with the program which lies immediately ahead. You also have time to gratify your desire to consult the registry and call upon your loved ones and other Earth friends who may have preceded you to these worlds. At the end of your ten-day period of leisure you begin the second step in the Paradise journey, for the mansion worlds are actual training spheres, not merely detention planets.
6. THE FOURTH MANSION WORLD
47:6.3 It is during the period of training on world number four that the ascending mortals are really first introduced to the demands and delights of the true social life of morontia creatures. And it is indeed a new experience for evolutionary creatures to participate in social activities which are predicated neither on personal aggrandizement nor on self-seeking conquest. A new social order is being introduced, one based on the understanding sympathy of mutual appreciation, the unselfish love of mutual service, and the overmastering motivation of the realization of a common and supreme destiny — the Paradise goal of worshipful and divine perfection. Ascenders are all becoming self-conscious of God-knowing, God-revealing, God-seeking, and God-finding. [We are ever-progressing student-teachers ... and more !]
8. THE SIXTH MANSION WORLD
47:8.4 The union of the evolving immortal soul with the eternal and divine Adjuster [the pure Spirit Essence of God within you -- God's will] is signalized by the seraphic summoning of the supervising superangel for resurrected survivors and of the archangel of record for those going to judgment on the third day; and then, in the presence of such a survivor’s morontia associates, these messengers of confirmation speak: “This is a beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” This simple ceremony marks the entrance of an ascending mortal upon the eternal career of Paradise service. [Fusion with your Thought Adjuster usually happens on one of the next seven soul-level mansion worlds; but with some, fusion may happen during your first life on Earth, or up in any one of the next 570 mansion worlds, or even up on Salvington, the high spiritual headquarters of our local universe, and where Jesus rules as Universe Sovereign !]
PAPER 48 THE MORONTIA LIFE
4. THE REVERSION DIRECTORS
48:4.7 3. Prophetic joy. It will perhaps be difficult for mortals to envisage this phase of humor, but we do get a peculiar satisfaction out of the assurance “that all things work together for good” — for Spirits and morontians as well as for mortals. This aspect of celestial humor grows out of our faith in the loving overcare of our superiors and in the divine stability of our Supreme Directors.
6. MORONTIA WORLD SERAPHIM — TRANSITION MINISTERS
48:6.8 Even on Earth they counsel the human teachers of truth and righteousness to adhere to the preaching of “the goodness of God, which leads to repentance,” to proclaim “the love of God, which casts out all fear.” ...
7. MORONTIA MOTA [higher soul wisdom, and here showing comparable lower wisdom that we can understand]
48:7.28 26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.
PAPER 50 THE PLANETARY PRINCES
5. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION
50:5.6 3. The material-comfort era. [Today, this is close to our stage of development on Earth !] After food problems have been partially solved and some degree of security has been attained, the additional leisure is utilized to promote personal comfort. Luxury vies with necessity in occupying the center of the stage of human activities. Such an age is all too often characterized by tyranny, intolerance, gluttony, and drunkenness. The weaker elements of the races incline towards excesses and brutality. Gradually these pleasure-seeking weaklings are subjugated by the more strong and truth-loving elements of the advancing civilization.
PAPER 52 PLANETARY MORTAL EPOCHS
6. EARTH’S POST-BESTOWAL AGE
52:6.4 2. Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love.
52:6.7 [Important !] 5. Spiritual insight. The brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the recognition of the Fatherhood of God. The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Earth is to effect the spiritual transformation of present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal love are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization of the brotherhood of man.
PAPER 54 PROBLEMS OF THE LUCIFER REBELLION
1. TRUE AND FALSE LIBERTY
54:1.8 There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness. Only true and genuine liberty is compatible with the reign of love and the ministry of mercy.
2. THE THEFT OF LIBERTY
54:2.5 No being in all the universe has the rightful liberty to deprive any other being of true liberty, the right to love and be loved, the privilege of worshiping God and of serving his fellows.
4. THE MERCY TIME LAG
54:4.2 Parents, those who have borne and reared children, are better able to understand why [Jesus Christ] Michael, a Creator-Father, might be slow to condemn and destroy his own Sons. Jesus’ story of the prodigal son [three important parables by Jesus on God's love and saving mercy are in Luke ch 15] well illustrates how a loving father can long wait for the repentance of an erring child.
54:4.5 There are many reasons known to us why the Supreme Rulers did not immediately destroy or intern the leaders of the Lucifer rebellion. There are no doubt still other and possibly better reasons unknown to us. The mercy features of this delay in the execution of justice were extended personally by Michael of Nebadon. Except for the affection of this Creator-Father for his erring Sons, the supreme justice of the superuniverse would have acted. If such an episode as the Lucifer rebellion had occurred in Nebadon while Michael was incarnated on Earth, the instigators of such evil might have been instantly and absolutely annihilated.
54:4.6 Supreme justice can act instantly when not restrained by divine mercy. But the ministry of mercy to the children of time and space always provides for this time lag, this saving interval between seedtime and harvest. If the seed sowing is good, this interval provides for the testing and upbuilding of character; if the seed sowing is evil, this merciful delay provides time for repentance and rectification. This time delay in the adjudication and execution of evildoers is inherent in the mercy ministry of the seven superuniverses. This restraint of justice by mercy proves that God is love, and that such a God of love dominates the universes and in mercy controls the fate and judgment of all his creatures.
Topical Study 91 "All about LOVE -- Fatherly and Brotherly"
Compiled 11/02/2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 7 of many]
PAPER 54 PROBLEMS OF THE LUCIFER REBELLION
5. THE WISDOM OF DELAY
[Paper:Section.Paragraph]
54:5.1 Of the many reasons known to me as to why Lucifer [rebelled 200,000 years ago, and was removed from power by Jesus Christ Michael A.D. 30 -on] and his confederates were not sooner interned or adjudicated, I [a long tested, ascendent,Trinity-embraced hman Son of God who is now a Mighty Messenger] am permitted to recite the following:
54:5.2 1. Mercy requires that every wrongdoer have sufficient time in which to formulate a deliberate and fully chosen attitude regarding his evil thoughts and sinful acts.
54:5.3 2. Supreme justice is dominated by a Father's love; therefore will justice never destroy that which mercy can save. Time to accept salvation is vouchsafed every evildoer. [Even long after physical death and resurrection in a higher soul form !]
54:5.4 3. No affectionate father is ever precipitate in visiting punishment upon an erring member of his family. Patience cannot function independently of time.
54:5.5 4. While wrongdoing is always deleterious to a family, wisdom and love admonish the upright children to bear with an erring brother during the time granted by the affectionate father in which the sinner may see the error of his way and embrace salvation.
6. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE
54:6.1 Whatever the difficulties evolutionary mortals may encounter in their efforts to understand the Lucifer rebellion, [of 200,000 years ago, also causing defaults of Lucifer's assistant, Satan, and then our biological uplifters, Adam and Eve, 37,000 years ago] it should be clear to all reflective thinkers that the technique of dealing with the rebels is a vindication of divine love. The loving mercy extended to the rebels does seem to have involved many innocent beings in trials and tribulations, but all these distraught personalities may securely depend upon the all-wise Judges to adjudicate their destinies in mercy as well as justice. [Material Sons of God Adam and Eve are now rehabilitated. Lucifer and Satan are confined by the order of our Sovereign Creator Son of God Jesus Christ into a higher spiritual detention sphere awaiting final judgment decisions which always include the love of God the Father and the mercy of our Creator Son of God Jesus Christ. See and believe John 12:31-32]
54:6.2 In all their dealings with intelligent beings, both the Creator Son and his Paradise Father are love dominated. It is impossible to comprehend many phases of the attitude of the universe rulers toward rebels and rebellion — sin and sinners — unless it be remembered that God as a Father takes precedence over all other phases of Deity manifestation in all the dealings of divinity with humanity. It should also be recalled that the Paradise Creator Sons are all mercy motivated.
54:6.3 If an affectionate father of a large family chooses to show mercy to one of his children guilty of grievous wrongdoing, it may well be that the extension of mercy to this misbehaving child will work a temporary hardship upon all the other and well-behaved children. Such eventualities are inevitable; such a risk is inseparable from the reality situation of having a loving parent and of being a member of a family group. Each member of a family profits by the righteous conduct of every other member; likewise must each member suffer the immediate time-consequences of the misconduct of every other member. Families, groups, nations, races, worlds, systems, constellations, and universes are relationships of association which possess individuality; and therefore does every member of any such group, large or small, reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of the rightdoing and the wrongdoing of all other members of the group concerned.
PAPER 56 UNIVERSAL UNITY
10. TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS
56:10.20 [Important two paragraphs here !] To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the full revelation of divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh [highest] stage of Light and Life have learned that love is the greatest thing in the universe -- and they know that God is love.
56:10.21 Love is the desire to do good to others.
PART III THE HISTORY OF EARTH
PAPER 68 THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION
5. LAND TECHNIQUES — MAINTENANCE ARTS
68:5.8 Prepastoral society was one of sex cooperation, but the spread of animal husbandry reduced women to the depths of social slavery. In earlier times it was man’s duty to secure the animal food, woman’s business to provide the vegetable edibles. Therefore, when man entered the pastoral era of his existence, woman’s dignity fell greatly. She must still toil to produce the vegetable necessities of life, whereas the man need only go to his herds to provide an abundance of animal food. Man thus became relatively independent of woman; throughout the entire pastoral age woman’s status steadily declined. By the close of this era she had become scarcely more than a human animal, consigned to work and to bear human offspring, much as the animals of the herd were expected to labor and bring forth young. The men of the pastoral ages had great love for their cattle; all the more pity they could not have developed a deeper affection for their wives. [!!]
6. EVOLUTION OF CULTURE
68:6.9 Many races learned the technique of abortion, and this practice became very common after the establishment of the taboo on childbirth among the unmarried. It was long the custom for a maiden to kill her offspring, but among more civilized groups these illegitimate children became the wards of the girl’s mother. Many primitive clans were virtually exterminated by the practice of both abortion and infanticide. But regardless of the dictates of the mores, very few children were ever destroyed after having once been suckled — maternal affection is too strong.
PAPER 75 THE DEFAULT OF ADAM AND EVE
5. REPERCUSSIONS OF DEFAULT
75:5.2 [Biologically uplifting to mankind, Adam and Eve came down to Earth about 38,000 years ago. Deceived by Lucifer, Satan and Caligastia, they became impatient and blended with selected humans (Nodites) long before they had reproduced far more of their superior race as God had desired to further uplift us.] It was in the despair of the realization of failure that Adam, the day after Eve’s misstep, (of mating too soon with humans) sought out Laotta, the brilliant Nodite woman who was head of the western schools of the Garden, and with premeditation committed the folly of Eve. But do not misunderstand; Adam was not beguiled; he knew exactly what he was about; he deliberately chose to share the fate of Eve. He loved his mate with a supermortal affection, and the thought of the possibility of a lonely vigil on Earth without her was more than he could endure. {Today, in a higher Heaven, Adam and Eve remain fully rehabilitated by our Nebadon Universe Sovereign Creator Jesus Christ Michael ! They did not deliberately sin; they were very sinfully misled. Hard for many to believe, but the added physical burdens on all mankind here actually work to promore more faith, trust and soul growth. We will be thankful for that later, if not immediately now !]
PAPER 77 THE MIDWAY CREATURES
9. THE PERMANENT CITIZENS OF EARTH
77:9.12 [Important !] The entire organization of high Spirits, angelic hosts, and midway fellows [superhuman permanent Earth residents on a level midway between purely spiritual seraphim angels and physical mankind here. They know our true history on Earth; and they work diligently for the realized and appreciated Sovereignty of our Master Jesus in the minds of mankind,] is enthusiastically devoted to the furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the universe — the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man [in and as Jesus ! and as God's will within each moral human !] and then, by a sublime sort of [Father-Son-human-sons of God, Family] partnership, carrying man up to God and on to eternity of service and divinity of attainment — alike for mortal and midwayer.
PAPER 82 THE EVOLUTION OF MARRIAGE
1. THE MATING INSTINCT
82:1.1 Notwithstanding the personality gulf between men and women, [male and female natures and attitudes remain forever different even up on the many soul and Spirit Heavens and also eternally on Paradise ! Spirit male-Spirit female working pairs will continue, and that is good, beautiful and true !] the sex urge is sufficient to insure their coming together for the reproduction of the species. This instinct operated effectively long before humans experienced much of what was later called love, devotion, and marital loyalty. Mating is an innate propensity, and marriage is its evolutionary social repercussion.
PAPER 83 THE MARRIAGE INSTITUTION
1. MARRIAGE AS A SOCIETAL INSTITUTION
83:1.5 Primitive marriage was primarily industrial; and even in modern times it is often a social or business affair. Through the influence of the mixture of the Andite stock [Adamic and Nodite mixed race] and as a result of the mores of advancing civilization, marriage is slowly becoming mutual, romantic, parental, poetical, affectionate, ethical, and even idealistic. Selection and so-called romantic love, however, were at a minimum in primitive mating. During early times husband and wife were not much together; they did not even eat together very often. But among the ancients, personal affection was not strongly linked to sex attraction; they became fond of one another largely because of living and working together. [If today's selfish pleasure mania is not soon controlled, society will again collapse for decades or centuries. The Godly nuclear family is the social foundation of civilization.]
2. COURTSHIP AND BETROTHAL
83:2.5 [Much earlier human history, many thousands of years ago] Increasing love, romance, and personal selection in premarital courtship are an Andite contribution to the world races. The relations between the sexes are evolving favorably; many advancing peoples are gradually substituting somewhat idealized concepts of sex attraction for those older motives of utility and ownership. Sex impulse and feelings of affection are beginning to displace cold calculation in the choosing of life partners.
6. TRUE MONOGAMY — PAIR MARRIAGE
83:6.7 Monogamy is the yardstick which measures the advance of social civilization as distinguished from purely biologic evolution. Monogamy is not necessarily biologic or natural, but it is indispensable to the immediate maintenance and further development of social civilization. It contributes to a delicacy of sentiment, a refinement of moral character, and a spiritual growth which are utterly impossible in polygamy. A woman never can become an ideal mother when she is all the while compelled to engage in rivalry for her husband’s affections.
PAPER 84 MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE
0. Introduction
84:0.1 Material necessity founded marriage, sex hunger embellished it, religion sanctioned and exalted it, the state demanded and regulated it, while in later times [up to about A.D. 1950 or so] evolving love is beginning to justify and glorify marriage as the ancestor and creator of civilization's most useful and sublime institution, the home. And home building should be the center and essence of all educational effort. [!! How many grade-school, high-school and colleges focus on the need for marriage, family and home training ? This is a serious problem - the breakdown of the moral family with proper child raising to adulthood !]
1. PRIMITIVE PAIR ASSOCIATIONS
84:1.1 Marriage was not founded on sex relations; they were incidental thereto. Marriage was not needed by primitive man, who indulged his sex appetite freely without encumbering himself with the responsibilities of wife, children, and home. ["Party animals" today are primitive men; and today, even some women are also devolving socially and morally back to selfish "herd sex" until ever-more deadly STD's eliminate that problem. Wise humans count the costs before acting irresponsibly.]
84:1.2 Woman, because of physical and emotional attachment to her offspring, is dependent on cooperation with the male, and this urges her into the sheltering protection of marriage. But no direct biologic urge led man into marriage — much less held him in. It was not love that made marriage attractive to man, but food hunger [!] which first attracted savage man to woman and the primitive shelter shared by her children.
84:1.6 A family of some simple sort was insured by the fact that the reproductive function entails the mother-child relationship. Mother love is instinctive; it did not originate in the mores as did marriage. All mammalian mother love is the inherent endowment of the adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe [Creative Mother Spirit who gives us all seven adjutant mind-spirits] and is in strength and devotion always directly proportional to the length of the helpless infancy of the species.
84:1.7 The mother and child relation is natural, strong, and instinctive, and one which, therefore, constrained primitive women to submit to many strange conditions and to endure untold hardships. This compelling mother love is the handicapping emotion which has always placed woman at such a tremendous disadvantage in all her struggles with man. Even at that, maternal instinct in the human species is not overpowering; it may be thwarted by ambition, selfishness, and religious conviction.
5. WOMAN UNDER THE DEVELOPING MORES
84:5.13 Civilization never [!] can obliterate the behavior gulf between the sexes. From age to age the mores change, but instinct never. [!] Innate maternal affection will never permit emancipated woman to become man’s serious rival in industry. Forever [!] each sex will remain supreme in its own domain, domains determined by biologic differentiation and by mental dissimilarity. [As I stated above, even after we are all Spirit-perfected for about one trillion years of spiritual ascension and granted eternal Paradise Residence, all Divine-Human Spirits will differ with either masculine or feminine charisterics; and they will work better together. As with magnets, opposite polarities always attract and do not repel.]
7. THE IDEALS OF FAMILY LIFE
84:7.10 Love of offspring is almost universal and is of distinct survival value. The ancients always sacrificed the mother’s interests for the welfare of the child; an Eskimo mother even yet licks her baby in lieu of washing. But primitive mothers only nourished and cared for their children when very young; like the animals, they discarded them as soon as they grew up. Enduring and continuous human associations have never been founded on biologic affection alone. The animals love their children; man — civilized man — loves his children’s children. The higher the civilization, the greater the joy of parents in the children’s advancement and success; thus the new and higher realization of name pride comes into existence.
84:7.26 Civilization regards the parents as assuming all duties, the child as having all the rights. Respect of the child for his parents arises, not in knowledge of the obligation implied in parental procreation, but naturally grows as a result of the care, training, and affection which are lovingly displayed in assisting the child to win the battle of life. The true parent is engaged in a continuous service-ministry which the wise child comes to recognize and appreciate.
84:7.29 Human society would be greatly improved if the civilized races would more generally return to the family-council practices of the Andites. They did not maintain the patriarchal or autocratic form of family government. They were very brotherly and associative, freely and frankly discussing every proposal and regulation of a family nature. They were ideally fraternal in all their family government. In an ideal family filial and parental affection are both augmented by fraternal devotion.
[If you are interested in learning much more about the evolution and current importance of marriage-home-family life, please peruse all of Papers 82, 83, and 84 given by a very high Paradise-level Primary Supernaphim. (Super-Angel.) She is now here on our confused planet as the Chief of all of Earth's many Seraphim !]
Topical Study 91 "All about LOVE -- Fatherly and Brotherly"
Compiled 11/04/2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 8 of many]
PAPER 85 THE ORIGINS OF WORSHIP
2. WORSHIP OF PLANTS AND TREES
[Paper:Section.Paragraph]
85:2.3 The cults of tree worship are among the oldest religious groups. All early marriages were held under the trees, and when women desired children, they would sometimes be found out in the forest affectionately embracing a sturdy oak. [!] Many plants and trees were venerated because of their real or fancied medicinal powers. The savage believed that all chemical effects were due to the direct activity of supernatural forces. [Thus, many still call alcoholic drinks, like whiskey, "spirits". Much delusion and errors remain in a large number of humans on Earth ! More true education is urgently needed; thus we are gifted with this supernal Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth !!]
PAPER 90 SHAMANISM — MEDICINE MEN AND PRIESTS
0. Introduction
90:0.3 Evolutionary religion is born of a simple and all-powerful fear, the fear which surges through the human mind when confronted with the unknown, the inexplicable, and the incomprehensible. Religion eventually achieves the profoundly simple realization of an all-powerful love, the love which sweeps irresistibly through the human soul when awakened to the conception of the limitless affection of the Universal Father for the sons of the universe. But in between the beginning and the consummation of religious evolution, there intervene the long ages of the shamans, [of shame ! such as popes, prelates, priests, pastors, psychics, belief in 'saints', gurus, temple tycoons, etc.] who presume to stand between man and God as intermediaries, interpreters, and intercessors. [God and you are directly related in Jesus and in Their combined Spirits around and within you, and all humans ! Enjoy direct personal God-consciousness at all times and in all places ! Amen !]
PAPER 91 THE EVOLUTION OF PRAYER
4. ETHICAL PRAYING
91:4.1 No prayer can be ethical when the petitioner seeks for selfish advantage over his fellows. Selfish and materialistic praying is incompatible with the ethical religions which are predicated on unselfish and divine love. All such unethical praying reverts to the primitive levels of pseudo magic and is unworthy of advancing civilizations and enlightened religions. Selfish praying transgresses the spirit of all ethics founded on loving justice.
91:4.3 In all your praying be fair; do not expect God to show partiality, to love you more than his other children, your friends, neighbors, even enemies. [Jesus commands us to love our (so-called) enemies; because they are equal sons of God as you are ! We are all in one spiritual Family of God, thanks to the actions of Jesus Christ Michael here in Spirit and as God the Father, from A.D. 30 -on !!] But the prayer of the natural or evolved religions is not at first ethical, as it is in the later revealed religions. All praying, whether individual or communal, may be either egoistic or altruistic. That is, the prayer may be centered upon the self or upon others. When the prayer seeks nothing for the one who prays nor anything for his fellows, then such attitudes of the soul tend to the levels of true worship. Egoistic prayers involve confessions and petitions and often consist in requests for material favors. Prayer is somewhat more ethical when it deals with forgiveness and seeks wisdom for enhanced self-control.
5. SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS OF PRAYER
91:5.2 But prayer need not always be individual. Group or congregational praying is very effective in that it is highly socializing in its repercussions. [in the worldwide and universe-wide perfecting brotherhood of man under God !] When a group engages in community prayer for moral enhancement and spiritual uplift, such devotions are reactive upon the individuals composing the group; they are all made better because of participation. Even a whole city or an entire nation can be helped by such prayer devotions. Confession, repentance, and prayer have led individuals, cities, nations, and whole races to mighty efforts of reform and courageous deeds of valorous achievement.
91:5.7 But the minds of greater spiritual illumination should be patient with, and tolerant of, those less endowed intellects that crave symbolism for the mobilization of their feeble spiritual insight. The strong must not look with disdain upon the weak. Those who are God-conscious without symbolism must not deny the grace-ministry of the symbol to those who find it difficult to worship Deity and to revere truth, beauty, and goodness without form and ritual. In prayerful worship, most mortals envision some symbol of the object-goal of their devotions. [The realization of the Glorious Infinite, Eternal, Universal Spirit Luminosity (Divine Light) OmniPresence of God should be fully sufficient over all mere physical or intellectual symbols.]
7. MYSTICISM, ECSTASY, AND INSPIRATION
91:7.1 Mysticism, as the technique of the cultivation of the consciousness of the presence of God, is altogether praiseworthy, but when such practices lead to social isolation and culminate in religious fanaticism, they are all but reprehensible. Altogether too frequently that which the overwrought mystic evaluates as divine inspiration is the uprisings of his own deep mind. The contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and loving service in unselfish ministry to one’s fellow creatures.
91:7.10 [True inspiration:] 5. To enhance his love for, and appreciation of, truth, beauty, and goodness.
91:7.13 But prayer has no real association with these exceptional religious experiences. When prayer becomes overmuch aesthetic, when it consists almost exclusively in beautiful and blissful contemplation of paradisiacal divinity, it loses much of its socializing influence and tends toward mysticism and the isolation of its devotees. There is a certain danger associated with overmuch private praying which is corrected and prevented by group praying, community devotions. [That could be a private spiritual fellowship in various homes or outdoors in nature as well as in larger churches]
8. PRAYING AS A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
91:8.4 To some individuals prayer is the calm expression of gratitude; to others, a group expression of praise, social devotions; sometimes it is the imitation of another’s religion, while in true praying it is the sincere and trusting communication of the spiritual nature of the creature with the anywhere presence of the spirit of the Creator.
91:8.12 Words are irrelevant to prayer; they are merely the intellectual channel in which the river of spiritual supplication may chance to flow. The word value of a prayer is purely autosuggestive in private devotions and sociosuggestive in group devotions. God answers the soul’s attitude, not the words.
PAPER 92 THE LATER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
1. THE EVOLUTIONARY NATURE OF RELIGION
92:1.5 One Asiatic people taught that “God is a great fear”; that is the outgrowth of purely evolutionary religion. Jesus, the Revelation of the highest type of religious living, proclaimed that “God is love.”
4. THE GIFT OF REVELATION
92:4.8 4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Earth the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father.
7. THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
92:7.5 Primitive religion was largely a material-value consciousness, but civilization elevates religious values, for true religion is the devotion of the self to the service of meaningful and supreme values. As religion evolves, ethics becomes the philosophy of morals, and morality becomes the discipline of self by the standards of highest meanings and supreme values — divine and spiritual ideals. And thus religion becomes a spontaneous and exquisite devotion, the living experience of the loyalty of love. [Fatherly and brotherly]
92:7.11 Religious meanings progress in self-consciousness when the child transfers his ideas of omnipotence from his parents to God. And the entire religious experience of such a child is largely dependent on whether fear or love has dominated the parent-child relationship. Slaves have always experienced great difficulty in transferring their master-fear into concepts of God-love. Civilization, science, and advanced religions must deliver mankind from those fears born of the dread of natural phenomena. And so should greater enlightenment deliver educated mortals from all dependence on intermediaries in communion with Deity. [Personal God-consciousness is now beginning to replace priests and pastors in the pervasive man-made dogmatic churches.]
PAPER 94 THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS IN THE ORIENT
4. THE HINDU RELIGION
94:4.10 Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel — the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make [Jesus Christ's] Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion. [Today, Christianity is making strong gains in India !]
6. LAO-TSE AND CONFUCIUS
94:6.11 The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric of the culture of almost a third of Earth's humans. These Confucian precepts, while perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by the imperial efforts of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius.
8. THE BUDDHIST FAITH
94:8.8 Closely linked to the doctrine of suffering and the escape therefrom was the philosophy of the Eightfold Path: right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation. It was not Gautama’s intention to attempt to destroy all effort, desire, and affection in the escape from suffering; rather was his teaching designed to picture to mortal man the futility of pinning all hope and aspirations entirely on temporal goals and material objectives. It was not so much that love of one’s fellows should be shunned as that the true believer should also look beyond the associations of this material world to the realities of the eternal future.
9. THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
94:9.2 The spread of Buddhism from its homeland in India to all of Asia is one of the thrilling stories of the spiritual devotion and missionary persistence of sincere religionists. The teachers of Gautama’s gospel not only braved the perils of the overland caravan routes but faced the dangers of the China Seas as they pursued their mission over the Asiatic continent, bringing to all peoples the message of their faith. But this Buddhism was no longer the simple doctrine of Gautama; it was the miraculized gospel which made him a god. And the farther Buddhism spread from its highland home in India, the more unlike the teachings of Gautama it became, and the more like the religions it supplanted, it grew to be.
12. THE GOD CONCEPT OF BUDDHISM
94:12.3 Among these believers it is taught that the soul, upon experiencing death, may elect to enjoy a sojourn in Paradise prior to entering Nirvana, the ultimate of existence. It is proclaimed that this new salvation is attained by faith in the divine mercies and loving care of Amida, God of the Paradise in the west. In their philosophy, the Amidists hold to an Infinite Reality which is beyond all finite mortal comprehension; in their religion, they cling to faith in the all-merciful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suffer one mortal who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the attainment of the supernal happiness of Paradise. [Some Trinity concepts are now evolving in Buddhism.The Truth Spirit of God is worldwide ever-teaching all truth-seekers and Truth-lovers !]
PAPER 95 THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS IN THE LEVANT
3. EVOLUTION OF MORAL CONCEPTS
95:3.4 In the soil of these evolving ethical ideas and moral ideals the surviving doctrines of the Salem religion flourished. The concepts of good and evil found ready response in the hearts of a people who believed that “Life is given to the peaceful and death to the guilty.” “The peaceful is he who does what is loved; the guilty is he who does what is hated.” For centuries the inhabitants of the Nile valley had lived by these emerging ethical and social standards before they ever entertained the later concepts of right and wrong — good and bad.
PAPER 96 YAHWEH — GOD OF THE HEBREWS
1. DEITY CONCEPTS AMONG THE SEMITES
96:1.15 The idea of Yahweh has undergone the most extensive development of all the mortal theories of God. Its progressive evolution can only be compared with the metamorphosis of the Buddha concept in Asia, which in the end led to the concept of the Universal Absolute even as the Yahweh concept finally led to the idea of the Universal Father. But as a matter of historic fact, it should be understood that, while the Jews thus changed their views of Deity from the [savage volcano fire] tribal god of Mount Horeb to the loving and merciful Creator Father of later times, they did not change his name; they continued all the way along to call this evolving concept of Deity, Yahweh. [God has never been revealed by name; but in and by our Universe Crteator Sovereign Jesus and his true love and lavish mercy !!]
4. THE PROCLAMATION OF YAHWEH
96:4.6 Moses proclaimed that Yahweh was the Lord God of Israel, who had singled out the Hebrews as his chosen people; he was building a new nation, and he wisely nationalized his religious teachings, [even though not true in Spirit !] telling his followers that Yahweh was a hard taskmaster, a “jealous God.” But nonetheless he sought to enlarge their concept of divinity when he taught them that Yahweh was the “God of the spirits of all flesh,” and when he said, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Moses taught that Yahweh was a covenant-keeping God; that he “will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers because the Lord loves you and will not forget the oath by which he swore to your fathers.” [that salvation is by faith in God's loving Father nature, and not merely by works !Many Christians today remain confused on that !]
96:4.9 The most unique and amazing feature of the religious history of the Hebrews concerns this continuous evolution of the concept of Deity from the primitive god of Mount Horeb up through the teachings of their successive spiritual leaders to the high level of development depicted in the Deity doctrines of the [two] Isaiahs, who proclaimed that magnificent concept of the loving and merciful Creator Father.
5. THE TEACHINGS OF MOSES
96:5.4 Moses was a believer in Providence; he had become thoroughly tainted with the doctrines of Egypt concerning the supernatural control of the Nile and the other elements of nature. He had a great vision of God, but he was thoroughly sincere [and in spiritual errors] when he taught the Hebrews that, if they would obey God, “He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will multiply the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land — the corn, wine, oil, and your flocks. You shall be prospered above all people, and the Lord your God will take away from you all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon you.” He even said: “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth.” “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. You shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.”
96:5.7 Little of the mercy of God was taught the Hebrews during these early times. They learned of God as “the Almighty; the Lord is a man of war, God of battles, glorious in power, who dashes in pieces his enemies.” “The Lord your God walks in the midst of the camp to deliver you.” The Israelites thought of their God as one who loved them, but who also “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” and “cursed their enemies.” [Many humans today greatly sin with desires of a chosen people, race and nation; and murdering wars being "God's will of terrible wrath, destruction and eternal burning hellfire" The U.S. military today has "hellfire missiles". When will Godly religionists rise up and demand the end to all wars by having a strong international Peace Army ? The United Nations and NATO are just feeble attempts to date.]
6. THE GOD CONCEPT AFTER MOSES’ DEATH
96:6.2 The spell of the extraordinary personality of Moses had kept alive in the hearts of his followers the inspiration of an increasingly enlarged concept of God; but when they once reached the fertile lands of Palestine, they quickly evolved from nomadic herders into settled and somewhat sedate farmers. And this evolution of life practices and change of religious viewpoint demanded a more or less complete change in the character of their conception of the nature of their God, Yahweh. During the times of the beginning of the transmutation of the austere, crude, exacting, and thunderous desert god of Sinai into the later appearing concept of a God of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews almost lost sight of Moses' lofty teachings. They came near losing all concept of monotheism; they nearly lost their opportunity of becoming the people who would serve as a vital link in the spiritual evolution of Earth, the group who would conserve the Melchizedek [about 4,000 years ago] teaching of one God until the times of the incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all. [Jesus Christ Incarnated here 7 B.C - A.D. 30, and returned back here in Spirit as He the Spirit of All Truth and as our God, May 18, A.D. 30 - on !]
7. PSALMS AND THE BOOK OF JOB
96:7.3 No collection of religious writings gives expression to such a wealth of devotion and inspirational ideas of God as the Book of Psalms. And it would be very helpful if, in the perusal of this wonderful collection of worshipful literature, consideration could be given to the source and chronology of each separate hymn of praise and adoration, bearing in mind that no other single collection covers such a great range of time. This Book of Psalms is the record of the varying concepts of God entertained by the believers of the Salem religion throughout the Levant and embraces the entire period from Amenemope to Isaiah. In the Psalms God is depicted in all phases of conception, from the crude idea of a tribal deity to the vastly expanded ideal of the later Hebrews, wherein Yahweh is pictured as a loving ruler and merciful Father.
96:7.4 And when thus regarded, this group of Psalms constitutes the most valuable and helpful assortment of devotional sentiments ever assembled by man up to the times of the twentieth century. The worshipful spirit of this collection of hymns transcends that of all other sacred books of the world. [Stated as of A.D. 1935. Now we have superior writings and even this supernal Revelation !]
96:7.6 In Palestine the wisdom and all-pervasiveness of God was often grasped but seldom his love and mercy. The Yahweh of these times “sends evil spirits to dominate the souls of his enemies”; he prospers his own and obedient children, while he curses and visits dire judgments upon all others. “He disappoints the devices of the crafty; he takes the wise in their own deceit.” [It is true that your Theology largely determines your actions. Believing in a god of hate, wrath, destruction,blood and hell causes many humans to try copy their sinful and blasphemous concepts of God !]
Topical Study 91 "All about LOVE -- Fatherly and Brotherly"
Compiled 11/06/2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 9 of many]
PAPER 97 EVOLUTION OF THE GOD CONCEPT AMONG THE HEBREWS
1. SAMUEL — FIRST OF THE HEBREW PROPHETS
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97:1.2 Samuel sprang from a long line of the Salem teachers who had persisted in maintaining the truths of Melchizedek [a Son of God who appeared here 4,000 years ago to keep the Light of Truth alive and to prepare the way for the incarnation here of our Creator Son of God Jesus Christ Michael about 2,000 years later] as a part of their worship forms. This teacher was a virile and resolute man. Only his great devotion, coupled with his extraordinary determination, enabled him to withstand the almost universal opposition which he encountered when he started out to turn all Israel back to the worship of the supreme Yahweh of Mosaic times. And even then he was only partially successful; he won back to the service of the higher concept of Yahweh only the more intelligent half of the Hebrews; the other half continued in the worship of the tribal gods of the country and in the baser conception of Yahweh.
97:1.3 Samuel was a rough-and-ready type of man, a practical reformer who could go out in one day with his associates and overthrow a score of Baal sites. The progress he made was by sheer force of compulsion; he did little preaching, less teaching, but he did act. One day he was mocking the priest of Baal; the next, chopping in pieces a captive king. He devotedly believed in the one God, and he had a clear concept of that one God as creator of heaven and earth: “The pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he has set the world upon them.”
4. AMOS AND HOSEA
97:4.1 A great step in the transition of the tribal god -- the god who had so long been served with sacrifices and ceremonies, the Yahweh of the earlier Hebrews -- to a God who would punish crime and immorality among even his own people, was taken by Amos, who appeared from among the southern hills to denounce the criminality, drunkenness, oppression, and immorality of the northern tribes. Not since the times of Moses had such ringing truths been proclaimed in Palestine.
97:4.2 Amos was not merely a restorer or reformer; he was a discoverer of new concepts of Deity. He proclaimed much about God that had been announced by his predecessors and courageously attacked the belief in a Divine Being who would countenance sin among his so-called chosen people. For the first time since the days of Melchizedek the ears of man heard the denunciation of the double standard of national justice and morality. For the first time in their history Hebrew ears heard that their own God, Yahweh, would no more tolerate crime and sin in their lives than he would among any other people. Amos [falsely] envisioned the stern and just God of Samuel and Elijah, but he also saw a God who thought no differently of the Hebrews than of any other nation when it came to the punishment of wrongdoing. This was a direct attack on the egoistic doctrine of the "chosen people," and many Hebrews of those days bitterly resented it.
97:4.5 Hosea followed Amos and his doctrine of a universal God of justice by the resurrection of the Mosaic concept of a God of love. Hosea preached forgiveness through repentance, not by sacrifice. He proclaimed a gospel of loving-kindness and divine mercy, saying: "I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness." "I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away."
[Of course, God never has anger or wrath; those are even sub-human, animal-level emotions ! God is Infinite, Absolute, Eternal, all-perfect and thus forever unchanging; but human views on the perfect nature of God will ever evolve without end ! Periodic Epochal Revelations also upstep human Theology and much more.]
97:4.6 Hosea faithfully continued the moral warnings of Amos, saying of God, “It is my desire that I chastise them.” But the Israelites regarded it as cruelty bordering on treason when he said: “I will say to those who were not my people, ‘you are my people’; and they will say, ‘you are our God.’” He continued to preach repentance and forgiveness, saying, “I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away.” Always Hosea proclaimed hope and forgiveness. The burden of his message ever was: “I will have mercy upon my people. They shall know no God but me, for there is no savior beside me.”
97:4.7 Amos quickened the national conscience of the Hebrews to the recognition that Yahweh would not condone crime and sin among them because they were supposedly the chosen people, while Hosea struck the opening notes in the later merciful chords of divine compassion and loving-kindness which were so exquisitely sung by Isaiah and his associates.
5. THE FIRST ISAIAH [There were two Isaiah prophets]
97:5.1 These were the times when some were proclaiming threatenings of punishment against personal sins and national crime among the northern clans while others predicted calamity in retribution for the transgressions of the southern kingdom. It was in the wake of this arousal of conscience and consciousness in the Hebrew nations that the first Isaiah made his appearance.
97:5.3 Speaking to the fear-ridden and soul-hungry Hebrews, this prophet said: “Arise and shine, for your Light [of God] has come, and the Glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with his robe of righteousness.” “In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the Angel of his Presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.”
97:5.6 Ever the burden of Micah’s message was: “Shall I come before God with burnt offerings? Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? [No, No, No, No !] He has shown me, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” And it was a great age; these were indeed stirring times when mortal man heard, and some even believed, such emancipating messages more than two and a half millenniums ago. And but for the stubborn resistance of the priests, these teachers would have overthrown the whole bloody ceremonial of the Hebrew ritual of worship. [Even today, many Christians do not yet realize the terrible blasphemy of our all-loving, merciful Father God by their "blood atonement - blood sacrifice - sacrificial Lamb"doctrines !! They will realize this, in a few more decades or less ! Amen !]
6. JEREMIAH THE FEARLESS
97:6.3 Jeremiah also preached of the just and loving God described by Isaiah, declaring: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.” “For he does not afflict willingly the children of men.”
7. THE SECOND ISAIAH
97:7.4 The Jewish priesthood made liberal use of these [Jewish altered Babylonian and Chaldean] writings subsequent to the captivity, but they were greatly hindered in their influence over their fellow captives by the presence of a young and indomitable prophet, Isaiah the second, who was a full convert to the elder Isaiah’s God of justice, love, righteousness, and mercy. He also believed with Jeremiah that Yahweh had become the God of all nations. He preached these theories of the nature of God with such telling effect that he made converts equally among the Jews and their captors. And this young preacher left on record his teachings, which the hostile and unforgiving priests sought to divorce from all association with him, although sheer respect for their beauty and grandeur led to their incorporation among the writings of the earlier Isaiah. And thus may be found the writings of this second Isaiah in the book of that name, embracing chapters forty to fifty-five inclusive.
97:7.12 And this preacher of a supernal [high, heavenly] God never ceased to proclaim this God of love. “I dwell in the high and holy place, also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit.” And still further words of comfort did this great teacher speak to his contemporaries: “And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters fail not. And if the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a defense against him.” And once again did the fear-destroying gospel of Melchizedek and the trust-breeding religion of Salem shine forth for the blessing of mankind.
97:7.13 The farseeing and courageous Isaiah effectively eclipsed the nationalistic Yahweh by his sublime portraiture of the majesty and universal omnipotence of the Supreme Yahweh, God of love, Ruler of the universe, and affectionate Father of all mankind. Ever since those eventful days the highest God concept in the Occident has embraced universal justice, divine mercy, and eternal righteousness. In superb language and with matchless grace this great teacher portrayed the all-powerful Creator as the all-loving Father.
10. THE HEBREW RELIGION
97:10.8 And thus the successive teachers of Israel accomplished the greatest feat in the evolution of religion ever to be effected on Earth: the gradual but continuous transformation of the barbaric concept of the savage demon Yahweh, the jealous and cruel spirit god of the fulminating Sinai volcano, to the later exalted and supernal concept of the supreme Yahweh, Creator of all things and the loving and merciful Father of all mankind. And this Hebraic concept of God was the highest human visualization of the Universal Father up to that time when it was further enlarged and so exquisitely amplified by the personal Teachings and Life example of his Son, [Jesus Christ] Michael of Nebadon. [our local universe Created over 400 billion years ago by our Christ Michael and continuously upheld and still evolving for maybe 600 billion more years in this first, Supreme Grand Universe Age. Now, there are just over 3.8 million human-inhabited evolving planets and always 570 higher soul reality Heavens for our further ascension and soul perfection to then continue on in even higher and many more Spirit-ascension Heavens, and then eternal Paradise Residence and Ultimate-level adventures ... and on higher and higher without end !!]
PAPER 98 THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS IN THE OCCIDENT
1. THE SALEM RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS
98:1.4 As a consequence of these factors in religious evolution, there presently developed the popular belief in the happy-go-lucky gods of Mount Olympus, gods more human than divine, and gods which the intelligent Greeks never did regard very seriously. They neither greatly loved nor greatly feared these divinities of their own creation. They had a patriotic and racial feeling for Zeus and his family of half men and half gods, but they hardly reverenced or worshiped them.
2. GREEK PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT
98:2.1 A lightly regarded and superficial religion cannot endure, especially when it has no priesthood to foster its forms and to fill the hearts of the devotees with fear and awe. The Olympian religion did not promise salvation, nor did it quench the spiritual thirst of its believers; therefore was it doomed to perish. Within a millennium of its inception it had nearly vanished, and the Greeks were without a national religion, the gods of Olympus having lost their hold upon the better minds.
7. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
98:7.1 A Creator Son did not incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and bestow himself upon the humanity of Earth to reconcile an angry God but rather to win all mankind to the recognition of the Father’s love and to the realization of their sonship with God. After all, even the great advocate of the [false] atonement doctrine [Paul] realized something of this truth, for he declared that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”
PAPER 99 THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RELIGION
2. WEAKNESS OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION
99:2.4 Religionists are of no more value in the tasks of social reconstruction than nonreligionists except in so far as their religion has conferred upon them enhanced cosmic foresight and endowed them with that superior social wisdom which is born of the sincere desire to love God supremely and to love every man as a brother in the heavenly kingdom. An ideal social order is that in which every man loves his neighbor as he loves himself.
4. TRANSITION DIFFICULTIES
99:4.4 No matter what upheavals may attend the social and economic growth of civilization, religion is genuine and worth while if it fosters in the individual an experience in which the sovereignty of truth, beauty, and goodness prevails, for such is the true spiritual concept of supreme reality. And through love and worship this becomes meaningful as fellowship with man and sonship with God.
99:4.7 There is no danger in religion’s becoming more and more of a private matter — a personal experience — provided it does not lose its motivation for unselfish and loving social service. Religion has suffered from many secondary influences: sudden mixing of cultures, intermingling of creeds, diminution of ecclesiastical authority, changing of family life, together with urbanization and mechanization.
99:4.8 Man’s greatest spiritual jeopardy consists in partial progress, the predicament of unfinished growth: forsaking the evolutionary religions of fear without immediately grasping the revelatory religion of love. Modern science, particularly psychology, has weakened only those religions which are so largely dependent upon fear, superstition, and emotion.
5. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF RELIGION
99:5.2 [Two important paragraphs:] Always keep in mind: True religion is to know God as your [loving and merciful] Father and man as your brother. [in the Family of God !] Religion is not a slavish belief in threats of punishment or magical promises of future mystical rewards.
99:5.3 The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called mankind to the achievement of its highest ideals in time and eternity -- to be perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect. [Amen !]
PAPER 100 RELIGION IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE
0. INTRODUCTION
100:0.2 Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists. Love supplies the soil for religious growth — an objective lure in the place of subjective gratification — yet it yields the supreme subjective satisfaction. And religion ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living.
1. RELIGIOUS GROWTH
100:1.6 Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical health, inherited temperament, and social environment. But these temporal conditions do not inhibit inner spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. There are present in all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not specifically inhibited. The certain technique of fostering this constitutive endowment of the potential of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
2. SPIRITUAL GROWTH
100:2.2 Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs.
100:2.4 Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one’s nearness to God and the measure of one’s usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.
100:2.6 The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal. [Love is the highest spiritual value !] Mortal man is entitled to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the satisfaction of human affections; he is benefited by loyalty to human associations and temporal institutions; but these are not the eternal foundations upon which to build the immortal personality which must transcend space, vanquish time, and achieve the eternal destiny of divine perfection and [Paradise] finaliter service.
3. CONCEPTS OF SUPREME VALUE
100:3.1 Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service. It is the enlistment of the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving God and serving man. Religion pays any price essential to the attainment of the supreme goal, the eternal prize. There is a consecrated completeness in religious loyalty which is superbly sublime. And these loyalties are socially effective and spiritually progressive.
100:3.7 Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man may manufacture a machine, but its real value must be derived from human culture and personal appreciation. Man’s sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality — living faith. [!! And our faith is a free gift from God !!]
Topical Study 91 "All about LOVE -- Fatherly and Brotherly"
Compiled 11/11/2015 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 10 of many]
PAPER 100 RELIGION IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Cont.
4. PROBLEMS OF GROWTH
[GROWTH IN LOVING WITH UNDERSTANDING, share this with others worldwide !]
[Paper:Section.Paragraph]
100:4.1 Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living is creative living, original and spontaneous. New religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the place of older and inferior reaction patterns. New meanings only emerge amid conflict; and conflict persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the higher values connoted in superior meanings.
100:4.2 Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving.
100:4.3 But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding. [Even the perfect Paradise Peace of our Master-Maker Jesus Christ is freely given by Him to all believers!]
100:4.4 In physical life the senses tell of the existence of things; mind discovers the reality of meanings; but the spiritual experience reveals to the individual the true values of life. These high levels of human living are attained in the supreme love of God and in the unselfish love of man. If you love your fellow men, you must have discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because he placed such a high value upon them. You can best discover values in your associates by discovering their motivation. If some one irritates you, causes feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love.
100:4.5 [a powerful story, please share !] In the mind's eye conjure up a picture of one of your primitive ancestors of cave-dwelling times -- a short, misshapen, filthy, snarling hulk of a man standing, legs spread, club upraised, breathing hate and animosity as he looks fiercely just ahead. Such a picture hardly depicts the divine dignity of man. But allow us [Melchizedek Revelators under Jesus here in Spirit] to enlarge the picture. In front of this animated human crouches a saber-toothed tiger. Behind him, a woman and two children. Immediately you recognize that such a picture stands for the beginnings of much that is fine and noble in the human race, but the man is the same in both pictures. Only in the second sketch you are favored with a widened horizon. You therein discern the motivation of this evolving [perfecting in Spirit] mortal. His attitude becomes praiseworthy because you understand him. If you could only fathom the motives of your associates, how much better you would understand them. If you could only know your fellows, you would eventually fall in love with them.
100:4.6 You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor's motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man. [Amen ! In seeking and in following Jesus as He the Spirit of Truth of God, we will, within His love, help transform this needly world into its destiny of Divine Light and progressing Life, one Beloved person at a time !]
6. MARKS OF RELIGIOUS LIVING
100:6.1 Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.
100:6.5 But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.
100:6.6 One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle Paul, who said: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”
100:6.8 Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and grandeur because it is a genuine experience. But revelatory religion is excellent [from above, supernal] as well as genuine. The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual vision create new levels of love and devotion, of service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social outlook produces an enlarged consciousness of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
7. THE ACME OF RELIGIOUS LIVING [Our Master Jesus !]
[a few selections]
100:7.5 Jesus’ originality was unstifled. He was not bound by tradition or handicapped by enslavement to narrow conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence and taught with absolute authority. But his superb originality did not cause him to overlook the gems of truth in the teachings of his predecessors and contemporaries. And the most original of his teachings was the emphasis of love and mercy in the place of fear and sacrifice.
100:7.8 He loved men as brothers, at the same time recognizing how they differed in innate endowments and acquired qualities. “He went about doing good.”
100:7.9 Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a blind and unreasoning optimist. His constant word of exhortation was, “Be of good cheer.” He could maintain this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust in God and his unshakable confidence in man. He was always touchingly considerate of all men because he loved them and believed in them. Still he was always true to his convictions and magnificently firm in his devotion to the doing of his Father’s will.
100:7.12 Jesus was consistently cheerful, notwithstanding he sometimes drank deeply of the cup of human sorrow. He fearlessly faced the realities of existence, yet was he filled with enthusiasm for the gospel of the kingdom. But he controlled his enthusiasm; it never controlled him. He was unreservedly dedicated to “the Father’s business.” This divine enthusiasm led his unspiritual brethren to think he was beside himself, but the onlooking universe appraised him as the model of sanity and the pattern of supreme mortal devotion to the high standards of spiritual living. And his controlled enthusiasm was contagious; his associates were constrained to share his divine optimism.
PAPER 101 THE REAL NATURE OF RELIGION
5. RELIGION EXPANDED BY REVELATION
101:5.11 Personally revealed religions are sponsored by the bestowal Spirits representing the three persons of the Paradise Trinity and are especially concerned with the expansion of truth. Evolutionary religion drives home to the individual the idea of personal duty; revealed religion lays increasing emphasis on loving, the golden rule.
6. PROGRESSIVE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
101:6.8 The teachings of Jesus constituted the first Earth religion which so fully embraced a harmonious co-ordination of knowledge, wisdom, faith, truth, and love as completely and simultaneously to provide temporal tranquillity, intellectual certainty, moral enlightenment, philosophic stability, ethical sensitivity, God-consciousness, and the positive assurance of personal survival. The faith of Jesus pointed the way to finality of human salvation, to the ultimate of mortal universe attainment, since it provided for: [All of this is important, and will be presented here:]
101:6.9 1. Salvation from material fetters in the personal realization of sonship with God, who is Spirit.
101:6.10 2. Salvation from intellectual bondage: man shall know the truth, and the truth shall set him free.
101:6.11 3. Salvation from spiritual blindness, the human realization of the fraternity of mortal beings and the morontian [soul wisdom] awareness of the brotherhood of all universe creatures; the service-discovery of spiritual reality and the ministry-revelation of the goodness of Spirit values. [of love, mercy, servive ministry, truth, beauty and goodness]
101:6.12 4. Salvation from incompleteness of self through the attainment of the Spirit levels of the universe and through the eventual realization of the harmony of Havona [the one billion ultimate-absolute-level high spheres around Paradise] and the perfection of Paradise.
101:6.13 5. Salvation from self, deliverance from the limitations of self-consciousness through the attainment of the cosmic levels of the Supreme mind and by co-ordination with the attainments of all other self-conscious beings.
101:6.14 6. Salvation from time, the achievement of an eternal life of unending progression in God-recognition and God-service.
101:6.15 7. Salvation from the finite, the perfected oneness with Deity in and through the Supreme by which the creature attempts the transcendental discovery of the Ultimate on the postfinaliter levels of the absonite. [a higher transcenddental levdel]
101:6.16 Such a sevenfold salvation is the equivalent of the completeness and perfection of the realization of the ultimate experience of the Universal Father. And all this, in potential, is contained within the reality of the faith of the human experience of religion. [tremendous !] And it can be so contained since the faith of Jesus was nourished by, and was revelatory of, even realities beyond the ultimate; the faith of Jesus approached the status of a universe Absolute in so far as such is possible of manifestation in the evolving cosmos of time and space.
101:6.17 Through the appropriation of the faith of Jesus, [a Gift to all humans !] mortal man can foretaste in time the realities of Eternity. Jesus made the discovery, in human experience, of the Final Father, and his brothers in the flesh of mortal life can follow him along this same experience of Father discovery. They can even attain, as they are, the same satisfaction in this experience with the Father as did Jesus as he was. New potentials were actualized in the [our local] universe of Nebadon consequent upon the terminal bestowal of [Jesus Christ] Michael, and one of these was the new illumination of the path of Eternity that leads to the Father of all, and which can be traversed even by the mortals of material flesh and blood in the initial life on the planets of space. Jesus was and IS the New and Living Way whereby man can come into the divine inheritance which the Father has decreed shall be his for but the asking. In Jesus there is abundantly demonstrated both the beginnings and endings of the faith experience of humanity, even of Divine Humanity. [as our good God-Man Creator-Savior Spirit Person Jesus Christ Michael IS ...]
10. RELIGION AS MAN’S LIBERATOR
101:10.6 Never can there be either scientific or logical proofs of divinity. Reason alone can never validate the values and goodnesses of religious experience. But it will always remain true: Whosoever wills to do the will of God shall comprehend the validity of spiritual values. This is the nearest approach that can be made on the mortal level to offering proofs of the reality of religious experience. Such faith affords the only escape from the mechanical clutch of the material world and from the error distortion of the incompleteness of the intellectual world; it is the only discovered solution to the impasse in mortal thinking regarding the continuing survival of the individual personality. It is the only passport to completion of reality and to eternity of life in a universal creation of love, law, unity, and progressive Deity attainment.
PAPER 102 THE FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
0. Introduction
102:0.1 To the unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave. The devotional labors and inspirational genius of the best of men are doomed to be extinguished by death, the long and lonely night of eternal oblivion and soul extinction. Nameless despair is man’s only reward for living and toiling under the temporal sun of mortal existence. Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty, and good.
102:0.2 But such is not man’s end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning. And all this doom of darkness and all this destiny of despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the most humble and unlearned of God’s children on Earth.
102:0.3 This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the Spiritual, from the human to the Divine, from time to Eternity.
1. ASSURANCES OF FAITH
102:1.1 The work of the Thought Adjuster [the pure Spirit Essence of God within you ! God's will !] constitutes the explanation of the translation of man’s primitive and evolutionary sense of duty into that higher and more certain faith in the eternal realities of [continuous Spirit] Revelation. There must be perfection hunger in man’s heart to insure capacity for comprehending the faith paths to supreme attainment. If any man chooses to do the divine will, he shall know the Way of Truth. It is literally true, “Human things must be known in order to be loved, but divine things must be loved in order to be known.” But honest doubts and sincere questionings are not sin; such attitudes merely spell delay in the progressive journey toward perfection attainment. Childlike trust secures man’s entrance into the kingdom of heavenly ascent, but progress is wholly dependent on the vigorous exercise of the robust and confident faith of the full-grown man.
3. KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND INSIGHT
102:3.4 Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion leads to increased social service.
PAPER 102 THE FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
3. KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND INSIGHT
102:3.7 Science sorts men; religion loves men, even as yourself; wisdom does justice to differing men; but revelation glorifies man and discloses his capacity for partnership with God. [Beautiful, true and good !]
102:3.11 Science indicates Deity as a fact; philosophy presents the idea of an Absolute; religion envisions God as a loving spiritual personality. Revelation affirms the unity of the fact of Deity, the idea of the Absolute, and the spiritual personality of God and, further, presents this concept as our Father — the universal fact of existence, the eternal idea of mind, and the infinite Spirit of life.
102:3.12 The pursuit of knowledge constitutes science; the search for wisdom is philosophy; the love for God is religion; the hunger for truth is a revelation. But it is the indwelling Thought Adjuster that attaches the feeling of reality to man’s spiritual insight into the cosmos.
PAPER 102 THE FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
5. THE SUPREMACY OF PURPOSIVE POTENTIAL [!!]
102:5.3 You can psychologize evolutionary religion but not the personal-experience religion of spiritual origin. Human morality may recognize values, but only religion can conserve, exalt, and spiritualize such values. But notwithstanding such actions, religion is something more than emotionalized morality. Religion is to morality as love is to duty, as sonship is to servitude, as essence is to substance. Morality discloses an almighty Controller, a Deity to be served; religion discloses an all-loving Father, a God to be worshiped and loved. And again this is because the spiritual potentiality of religion is dominant over the duty actuality of the morality of evolution. [!! Tremendous Revelation !!]
6. THE CERTAINTY OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
102:6.1 The philosophic elimination of religious fear and the steady progress of science add greatly to the mortality of false gods; and even though these casualties of man-made deities may momentarily befog the spiritual vision, they eventually destroy that ignorance and superstition which so long obscured the living God of eternal love. The relation between the creature and the Creator is a living experience, a dynamic religious faith, which is not subject to precise definition. To isolate part of life and call it religion is to disintegrate life and to distort religion. And this is just why the God of worship claims all allegiance or none.
102:6.2 The gods of primitive men may have been no more than shadows of themselves; the Living God is the Divine Light whose interruptions constitute the creation shadows of all space. [Very profound ! Stated otherwise, Something only comes from Something ! Creation from nothing is a serious error.]
102:6.3 The religionist of philosophic attainment has faith in a personal God of personal salvation, something more than a reality, a value, a level of achievement, an exalted process, a transmutation, the ultimate of time-space, an idealization, the personalization of energy, the entity of gravity, a human projection, the idealization of self, nature’s upthrust, the inclination to goodness, the forward impulse of evolution, or a sublime hypothesis. The religionist has faith in a God of love. Love is the essence of religion and the wellspring of superior civilization.
102:6.7 Belief may not be able to resist doubt and withstand fear, but faith is always triumphant over doubting, for faith is both positive and living. The positive always has the advantage over the negative, truth over error, experience over theory, spiritual realities over the isolated facts of time and space. The convincing evidence of this spiritual certainty consists in the social fruits of the Spirit which such believers, faithers, yield as a result of this genuine spiritual experience. Said Jesus: “If you love your fellows as I have loved you, then shall all men know that you are my disciples.”
7. THE CERTITUDE OF THE DIVINE
102:7.3 Those who would invent a religion without God are like those who would gather fruit without trees, [!] have children without parents. [!] You cannot have effects without causes; only the [Universal Eternal Father-Infinite] I AM is causeless. The fact of religious experience implies God, and such a God of personal experience must be a personal Deity. You cannot pray to a chemical formula, supplicate a mathematical equation, worship a hypothesis, confide in a postulate, commune with a process, serve an abstraction, or hold loving fellowship with a law.
102:7.5 The intellectual earmark of religion is certainty; the philosophical characteristic is consistency; the social fruits are love and service.
102:7.8 Only an unqualified reality, an absolute, could dare consistently to be dogmatic. Those who assume to be dogmatic must, if consistent, sooner or later be driven into the arms of the Absolute of energy, the Universal of truth, and the Infinite of love. [!!! Our gracious, all-loving Father God !!!]
102:7.10 Of God, the most inescapable of all Presences, the most Real of all facts, the most Living of all truths, the most Loving of all Friends, and the most Divine of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe experiences.
