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SOME ERRORS OF LITERALIST, PEDANTIC, DOGMATIC AND FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGION
(perspective by T. Bisson)

  Page Six

"Jesus said 'Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way' - so accept our way or perish"?

One of the common objections of the Fundamentalist to liberal Christianity and universal salvation, is a passage found in Matthew 7:14 - "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Here, naturally, the Fundamentalist might say that only by being "born again" (according to their concept of salvation) can a person "get saved" and that all other ways lead to destruction.

However, if the Literalist was able to set aside his conditioning for one second, he would see that he has made for himself a narrow mind instead of the narrow way which Jesus the Christ was talking about.

Once again, we must return to the original Christ, we must look at Christ as Christ was and is. Choosing to be born into poverty although He deserved a King's welcome; working ceaselessly and tirelessly, first for His family and then for mankind; being so humble that He washed the feet of His own followers; teaching endlessly about love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness and the Kingdom of God; healing the sick and bringing hope to the poor and downhearted; giving up all and taking nothing with Him wherever He went, and calling with an unimaginable courage to others to do the same; the King of kings condemned to the Cross by those He truly loved and whom He had come to save, sacrifice in the highest sense because of the love thrown back which crucified Him eventually. All of these things and more, owning nothing of the world, being humble of heart, taking on and enduring to the end the deep heartaches of life and the sorrows of others - these are the kind of things which constitute the narrow way - the Christ Way.

As always, the things of Christ are simple, very simple; but man has taken the simple things of Jesus and added his own complicated dogmatic teachings. And the Fundamentalist, intolerant of other faiths and belief systems to greater or lesser degree, passes into another world to find that he is not so elevated as he expected and has much to work out because of his lack of interest and charitable acceptance of his brother - he has failed to do what he would like to have done to himself: to accept. And now he must learn to truly accept others who think differently to himself but he has cast his thoughts and presumptions in clay although he had the chance to accept others according to the way that Christ demonstrated.

Looking at the mechanics of the transition in general, many pass out of the earth life with their lessons unlearnt because they chose a life of material desire and had no room nor great interest in the state of health of their soul-bodies. And so each goes to his own place according to the state of health of his soul. If it is still full of earthly desire, then the brighter Spheres of God which have been culled out of the hearts and minds of dedicated people willing to sacrifice - these Spheres are not available to the one who neglected his spiritual path while on earth, and much time and hard work has yet to pass before he is in a state of spiritual health where he can climb the steep hill to God through the increasingly purified Heavenly Spheres. While on earth either the desire for power, possessions, the adulation of the masses or freedom from true spiritual commitment were prominent, and the path which leads to the life which God desires the individual to have was not followed nor indeed found.

"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" is of course consistent with Christ's other teachings such as: "It is as difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle". These teachings are not based on dogmatic claims of salvation, they are based on the state of a person's heart and spirituality. Christ Jesus was drawing comparisons between the broad way and the narrow way: the broad way was the way of physical desire of the lesser self, the desire to control and rule others, to possess power and riches, the living of an easy, comfortable and carefree life which avoids true responsibility, burdens and spiritually profitable experiences; and the narrow way was the Christ Way, the Way He laid down in Person as He walked the Earth and gently displayed Divine Love for all to see.

The narrow way as spoken by Christ has nothing at all to do with the acceptance of a contrived metaphysical concept i.e. being made perfect for the upper echelons of Heaven in an instant by accepting an ideal just once while living in a body of flesh on Earth; or in other words, the narrow way as spoken by Christ is not dependent upon being "born again" according to the extreme Fundamentalist Christian dogmatic claim.

"Moral Right" Christianity is better than none?

The conservative literal Fundamentalist says that the resurgence of Moral Right Christianity has brought God to the foreground. And the thinking is that this is good even if the Fundamentalist cannot hold a dialogue with others of other faiths because his scripture apparently tells him that his way is the only way and that all other ways are a consequence of being misled by the Devil.

However, the liberal Christian can hold dialogue with others of other faiths and this brings harmony - unity in diversity - and harmony is of God. It is sad to see those who cannot hold a dialogue with others because they think differently - it is sad for mankind and it is sad for God. If only they would remove their literalism and work with other religious and spiritual pathways, they would see that they hold a great deal in common with others in the way of ideals, goals and general outlook.

Only in this way will fundamental extremism in any religion - including violent terror - be made impossible. But sadly, the literalist who is a so-named biblical Christian of the Moral Right, will not at this time tolerate working in harmony with other faiths and beliefs in any great depth, and thereby perpetuates extremism instead of being part of the catalyst which will transform it.

A vast amount of service is being done in this world for man and God by those who don't call themselves biblical or "Fundamentalist" Christians, so really the claim of the "biblical Christian" that it is worth being narrow and separate because more is being done in God's name, is a bogus claim. Any philanthropic work they do for mankind and God could just as easily be done if they didn't follow a separatist concept of faith, and this would be vastly preferable because less offence, friction and bad feelings would be caused.

A Redeemer from the beginning

From the beginning of time God the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Saviour, has been amongst His children seeking to retrieve for them what they have thrown away. The Christ is not limited to being a one-off Redeemer, but He has tried all methods to bring His children out of their ignorance, and He will continue to show His children how they can reclaim their rightful inheritance, and He should not be restricted to the God and Saviour portrayed by limited man-made dogmas.

The Great Redeemer always has attempted, and always will attempt to bring His children out of a state of ignorance into enlightenment. His acts of redemption go far beyond anything which man of this present civilization calls recorded history.

Dogma does not want humanity to know who its God really is

God loves all of His children, whether they consider themselves the only ones saved or whether they know that all will be saved eventually through His most merciful processes. God knows the limitations of the human mind and there is no blame from Him because of man's limitations concerning what is actual Truth and what is only half-truth. There is the evolution of the soul for everyone, and this continues long after this world has been left.

The God who gives life only on this earth to accept a particular man-made dogma (the failure of which shall mean for them torture with no end), is not the God of love who has been seeking the prodigal children since the beginning of time, when they entered imperfection through seeking power by "eating" of the tree with the temptation of instant power, instead of being obedient and doing as God had decreed, and learning about life in its fullness and how to use the freewill without error.

And who could truly love the limited God of Dogma? Surely that love would be somewhat twisted in those who attributed to their God the characteristics which really belong to the lesser and callous side of human beings. No, God is the God who has set into being a process whereby all of His children shall be saved, even if this means thousands of years in awful conditions which are so indescribable that this little earth does not sustain any conditions which are truly comparable. I use the word "are" to describe the hells in the present tense, because the hells - those areas which are dark, darker still, and also those of the "outer darkness" (Matt. 8:12) to which the hypocritical, cheats and exploiters (Matt. 23:14) were to go - already exist and are coexistent with both life on earth and those conditions which are known as Paradise (which can be called the Bright Spheres), and this is clearly evident in Christ's parable of the rich man and the poor man.

"God's justice and holiness demands that there is no universal salvation"?

"But there is no universal salvation because the Bible clearly indicates that the justice and holiness of God will see that all those who oppose Him will be destroyed; therefore there is no universal salvation", so the pedants desire us to believe. In short, the Literalist is trying to convince us that if we do not accept his concept of salvation, then because God's justice and holiness cannot be altered, we must go into an everlasting punishment of eternal hellfire.

However, God is Love, and God's justice is a quality of Love, and God's holiness is a quality of Love. Because God is Love, He is holy, and because God is Love, He is just. Justice emanates from Love and holiness emanates from Love. From Love come all attributes which are Divine, including justice and holiness.

Love has always existed and therefore so has justice and holiness, but they exist because Love is what God is, and out of Love comes justice and holiness. Justice and Holiness are not equal with Love, but they are a part of Love. God is Love. God is not justice but He is just, and God is not holiness but He is holy.

God's justice, being based on Love, demands that all of His creations be redeemed to a state perfection. It is divinely just that anything He creates should not be lost to evil forever but should be saved. God's justice would not be Divine if anything which came from Him was lost forever.

In regard to God's holiness, the Literalist might say that all those not "saved" (again, according to the Fundamentalist concept of salvation) is living in iniquity and will perish in hell because God "cannot look on iniquity". But they have misinterpreted the whole meaning because they forget that God's holiness is based on Love. God's holiness means that He "cannot look on iniquity", and an everlasting punishment would mean that God would have to contemplate iniquity forever, as evil would be sustained for ever without end. Such an idea is absurd. God shall be "avenged", so to speak, when all of His children are returned Home and all of the imperfect characteristics within their souls have been transformed back to perfection by the end of the "Aeon of aeons".

That is called hope?

Some people naming themselves Christians and thinking of themselves as the few chosen for salvation, assure us: "Our way is full of hope!" This is one of the strangest and most absurd assertions in the universe, because if only a few of our fellow members of humanity are to receive "salvation", then most sensitive people would suffer from a deep depression rather than hope.

How these relatively few "saved" people can eat heartily, sing and make merry at all - when the majority of good people who do not accept their misconceived dogmas are going to receive the eternal torment and horrors of Hell (according to them) - is simply beyond comprehension; and if one points this out to them, they suggest that one need not go to Hell if one just accepts their beliefs (the issue of freewill can enter at this point and that has been dealt with above).

To be able to enjoy life when the majority of ones fellow beings, who can often be more sensitive and spiritual, are going to be tortured forever (for a difference in thinking!) - amounts to a most subtle form of elistist selfishness. This, the unthinking Literalists dogmatically exclaim, is "hope".

The Larger Hope which is God's preordained desire is as follows: that all of His children are to be saved, that God "is long-suffering with us not willing that any should perish", that He awaits the return of the prodigal son with great eagerness and longing, that He cares enough to leave the other sheep to seek the lost one until it is found - that "in the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ" and that there shall be perfect harmony and sweet Divine joy for each and every one of the children He ever thought into existence (albeit after aeons of purification) - that is Hope.

The "Be Saved Or Be Damned" dogma prevents people from seeing the universality of salvation in the Sacred Record

The "be saved or be damned" doctrine is but one of many interpretations which the mind of man has put together, and which have been handed down by man to man, but God loves them for trying and being sincere.

The Bible gives plenty of references to universal salvation, which are unseen by the over-indoctrinated. For instance...

Moreover, how will God be "all in all" (all things in all beings) if the majority of His creations are to be in "everlasting punishment"? (1 Cor.15:28)

Christ waits "until the times of restitution of all things" (Acts 3: 20,21). This time shall be that spoken of by Isaiah: "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isa.45:23).

Indeed, Isaiah tells the truth when he says Christ "shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied". This is the good God who shall save all of the life He has brought into being. Teaching otherwise - that God saves only a small amount of His children - only causes divisions and ill-feelings among people who may be following a spiritual path which is also very Christian in its teachings and which allows them to grow above personal likes and dislikes and to love humanity unconditionally.

The salvation of a restricted few is a misguided teaching which gives a misconception of God and His love. Indeed, before the proud and cruel early Latin race adopted Christianity, early Christians were most certainly Universalists: Gregory of Nyasa, Clement and Origen all clearly refused to dogmatize. When, under Constantine, Christianity became the State Religion of the Roman Empire with its harsh and exclusive instincts, a further distortion was impressed upon Christ's original Universalist Teaching. A study of the Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theologies shows that it was the contact of the earlier Christian Religion with the Latin race which caused an extremely unfortunate bias towards a restricted view of God's Purpose and Christ's Saviourhood.

All are equal in the sight of the Lord, who is the living, radiant Christ, who would welcome anyone into His kingdom who would offer kindness and love to the less fortunate, because they do it to Him. What comes from the heart is what matters, not necessarily that which comes out of the mouth.

The teachings of Jesus were more than interspersed with universal salvation, and the disciples gradually became aware of this, but things have been affected by the mind of man throughout the ages. Because the Law of Consequences have been made of none effect by the Dogma, it is claimed that "teaching universal salvation incites people to sin by letting them become complacent". If Divine Law was taught properly however, and the idea of receiving salvation based only on believing and accepting a concept was consigned to history - then there would be far, far less complacency than exists today under the present collection of theological offerings.

Lazarus and the rich man: "Jesus said the dead and the living cannot communicate"?

Although dealt with elsewhere on this site, the parable of "Lazarus and the selfish rich man" is also considered here under the common objections section because it is often used by Literalists as a means to deny God's most generous gift of Spirit Communion where the Veil between this world and the next is penetrated. The Fundamentalist also uses this parable to spread an erroneous idea that there is instant perfection at physical death for those adhering to Fundamentalist belief, and to reinforce a belief in an eternal Hell for those not adhering to Fundamentalist belief; hence, knowledge of God's mighty plan of redemption is withheld from humanity.

Basically, the Literalist says that the different states into which people go at death are completely separate and never the twain shall meet, neither shall there be any change for the inhabitants of those conditions, i.e. everlasting punishment. There is a very definite misunderstanding in the Literalist's mind about what Jesus meant in this parable.

Christ's parable shows Lazarus and the rich man dying: "...the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;". With absolutely no sleeping or being unconscious for any length of time, they are very much alive in Hades (Luke 16:19-31). Hades in the minds of the Greek Jews at the time represented both Paradise and Hell; 'Abraham's bosom' was a term used for Paradise. The rich man, however, finds himself in a very different part of Hades which is a different locality of Hades-life to that of 'Abraham's Bosom' and is extremely hellish in nature.

Hades, according to the Rabbinical writings, is the place to where both the "just and righteous" and the "unjust and wicked" go after physical death. The rich man gives a clear indication as to the nature of the environment of that particular aspect of Hades into which he passed, and indeed, which he had built up for himself, as he went to his "own place", in the same manner that Acts reports Judas as having done (Acts 1:25). This was an instant transition explaining the "mystery" which Paul also told us about: "…we shall all be changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye".

The selfish rich man lifted up his eyes from his hell: "And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24), but Abraham replied: "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."

Apart from anything else, we see here in Christ's parable the true course taken by the soul after the death of the body; we see clearly that the Literalist doctrine or dogma (receiving salvation solely by acceptance of a belief i.e. Fundamentalist-type "born again") has little bearing on the soul's position after death. Rather, the rich man finds himself in a hellish place through utter selfishness, and Lazarus finds himself truly compensated for the hardship endured during his life. Indeed, Divine Justice. The conditions into which each had passed is based solely on how they had lived their lives, and claiming allegiance to a religious metaphysical belief system does not change that.

Why the Fundamentalists would choose this parable to support his or her way - the dogma that salvation is achieved only by an acceptance of a metaphysical belief and not through living itself - is more than a little baffling; they claim that one can only go to Paradise if one accepts the fact that Jesus was a "blood sacrifice" which took away all of the sin of anyone (who believes it?) and thus is the only way to be "saved", and ignore the fact that Lazarus did in fact belong to a pre-Crucifixion society which followed Mosaic Law and he did not need to be “born again” to go to Paradise. And as the Fundamentalists themselves point out, this was said by Jesus Himself. However, what Lazarus did do was very Christ-like, he suffered mentally and physically, and while the dogs licked his open wounds he was persecuted by poverty and a wilful lack of charity from people including the rich man and his family for which they received their cumuppance. It is so plain what this parable is about.

Abraham continues: "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence". The Literalist assumes that this statement by Abraham means that there is never any contact between those who have passed over. That is where the biggest error arises.

The "gulf" mentioned is not a gulf of a 'physical' nature, it is a gulf of moral and spiritual attainment, or lack of it.

Certainly, in terms of locality, the conditions in which Lazarus and the rich man are different, and yet both localities are coexistent with the earth and those living upon it. The rich man assumes that he can visit his relatives who are clearly depicted as living on the earth at the same time that the rich man was in one of the hells and Lazarus was in Abraham's Bosom; Christ does not relate Abraham as saying that the rich man's relatives are long dead, but the opposite; He confirms the assumption of the rich man that his relatives are living on the earth at that very moment, thus co-existence; but (Abraham points out) it would be a pointless exercise attempting to prove to his relatives the existence of life after death and the inevitable reaping of consequences, to those who did not heed any type of spiritual law, and in the case of the rich man's relatives this was the Law of Moses and the warnings of the prophets (Luke 16:31).

The Literalist is asked to consider this sentence deeply and ask himself or herself why Jesus did not relate Abraham as saying that the rich man's relatives could have had the Literalists' "born again" salvation doctrine that would instantly free them from their sins, thus becoming "saved" and enabling them to be transported to Paradise at physical death, as was Lazarus the begger; but instead, Jesus clearly states that they had the Law of Moses as a religious system to save themselves from the same fate as the rich man's torments. If the Literalists' "born again" salvation doctrine had been the reason for Our Lord's earthly sojourn, then surely He would have made a point of saying it here and not something entirely different.

All this shows many things, not least that there is and always has been a process of spiritual evolution and involution occurring. The hells, Paradise and earth all exist at the same time and each goes to his "own place" at physical death to undertake the next stage of spiritual life he has made for himself. And it sounds as if the next stage of life for the rich man's relatives was going to be a similar state of torment; they were creating a great gulf between themselves and Divine happiness too.

Christ's parable is about how to behave and live during the earth life and He is giving a severe warning of how it will be for those who ignore their duties to the less fortunate, allowing them to suffer needlessly, and instead simply serve themselves; it is a severe warning because He wants people to realise it is a reality. Christ was showing that although there was communication between those in very different conditions, there could be no relief for those who had brought upon themselves - through negligence and their own self-seeking motives - the consequences that must be faced.

In other words, we are being told that the selfishness of the rich man was such that on his arrival in his new state, there was no escape from his predicament because of the health of his soul - his spiritual state - and the consequences he must face. He had done it to himself through utter selfishness and must suffer the results.

Thus there was not going to be relief from his burning torment by any cooling water (from Lazarus) because not only was there no accomodation for such a thing in his present environment but the scales of Divine Justice could not be altered and he therefore had to reap what he had sown and there was no relief possible, not even a temporary respite from that which scorched him. When a person is sent to jail then he forfeits the privileges that the free man has, and in the rich man's case, the "sentence" he had brought upon himself did not include the quenching of his fiery torment with "water". So he pleaded for water but even those who wanted to bring things from the free man's heaven could not, because they cannot exist in the rich man's hellish condition and the "prison" does not permit such things: "...they which would pass from hence to you cannot".

Neither was there any escape for the rich man or others in the same self-imposed hellish predicament to a more congenial condition: "...neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence" (Luke 16:26). He was in his own condition and the gulf was the gulf he had fixed himself.

But let us not forget the wonderful love of Christ. However permanent the position this self-imposed torment may appear to be to one who has put himself there (and very permanent it seems to such a one), there is always a time when, after a hellish purification (or "age-long pruning"), such a one will have eventually had enough selfishness 'pruned' away, to be able to learn something of the selfless nature of the Gospel of Love from Christ and His angels, and slowly but surely be able to lighten the conditions around. The gulf which was fixed through selfishness and wickedness, can, piece by piece, be transformed into a bridge by learning selflessness, compassion and love, and all those Divine qualities exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:6).

God is all-wise and all-loving, and has accounted for everything in His Plan for the redemption of His children. There may be those of God's children who fix a great gulf between their self-centred, unsympathetic and uncompassionate natures, and the spiritual health and attainment to be gained by learning from God and those ministering spirits who work for Him who would relieve them of their "debt", as it were, but the Law of Consequences which has been in force from the very beginning for the redemption of God's children cannot be altered; those who have imprisoned themselves in such a way must remain in their self-created jail until all "debts" are paid, yet because of God's love and wisdom, they shall at some future time be free of their darkness - God has ordained it.

Indeed, we can see the state of such a one in another parable told by Jesus: "And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him" (Matt. 18:34). It is impossible to disassociate this parable from the parable of the selfish rich man under discussion because the state of the wicked servant and the selfish rich man is the same state, albeit in parable form. The Fundamentalist will probably have missed this association due to his erroneous assumption that he, and those who think like him, will be the only ones who are not going to Hell for eternity. However, it is important to notice the word "until" in Christ's parable about the wicked servant. He, like the selfish rich man, must reap what he had sown "until" he should "pay all that was due".

This is brought powerfully home to us by the example of Christ Himself when He left His dead body on the Cross and went in His Spirit to teach people who were once wicked (who had since undergone a long 'pruning' period and were now ready to learn) about His Gospel of Love; Christ was: "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the **Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing" (1 Pet. 3:18-20).

**NB: This should be 'in the spirit' but the interpreters, being conditioned to a limited salvation doctrine, altered this to 'by the Spirit' to fit in with their scheme of things as continuity of life was either consciously or unconsciously ruled out by them i.e. they could not contemplate that the spirit leaves the physical body alive and sentient, or they could not condone the Universal Salvationist ascription that those killed in the Flood were able to be redeemed from the hells.

"But some Spiritualists openly deny Christ"?

Every one is different but some generalization must be made to cover the following subject. It is, perhaps, misleading to make a generalisation because there is such a wide range of attitudes concerning those who deny Christ. There are those who do not despise Christ but find the traditional teachings wanting and remain open-minded about the issue. But some there are who name themselves Spiritualists and consider themselves to have 'discovered' the highest truth there is; and these few repudiate Christ and deny His existence whether it be His earthly sojourn or His Omnipresence, and do not see the need to protect their gifts by following the spiritual principles He demonstrated.

Indeed, such as these have a lot to learn and a lot to work out when the body is no more (perhaps a long time after leaving the physical covering behind). Being able to hear and see spirits does not mean that the individual is acquainted with Divine Truth. Enlightenment comes by degree and according to the measure of release of the Spirit within. These types of person calling themselves Spiritualists have never encountered or entered into the Christ vibrations and are ignorant of the Light which such vibrations bring. These people can cause much disunity between God's children, although they seem content with such disharmony, and a small number even seem to thrive on rebuking the very existence of the Christ.

If the Spiritualist is bound by the chains of the earth and still desires personal gain for something which should be free, then that Spiritualist is harking to the voices and influence of disembodied spirits who do not know the real Christ, and who are in fact still earthly in their thinking and aspirations. Certain people may have something of the gifts of hearing and seeing released, but they are still bound by earthly thinking and listen to the voice of the world.

Such Spiritualists along with the spirits they listen to, know about life after death to a certain degree, yet have not sought the Truth for Truth's sake, but instead, have sought knowledge about life after death for the sake of gain which is associated with the physical mind. These people see no need to sacrifice and suffer to safeguard their gifts, and indeed consider their gifts as not merely a source of material income on which to survive but a means of making more money than is necessary to live on, and they desire the fame of the world.

Their spiritual ambition is lacking but their material ambition is strong and these two are a sorry mix which brings much anguish if spirit communication is involved; but such people justify themselves by saying they need the income to pass on the truth that they claim to be ultimate and yet it is more misleading the more materialistic they are. They must learn that God will provide what they need rather than what they want, and the power is decreased by degree the more they desire the material, and those disembodied souls who are still earthbound are drawn to them and believed by themselves and those who listen. Such is also the case with regard to life in general where the power of spiritual truth is diminished because the way of the world has taken first place. But beware the one with spiritual gifts who uses them for desires belonging to the world alone because they harvest grief in abundance.

The truths that Christ taught such as humility, self-denial and self-sacrifice are inwardly despised by a small number of people who have some of the aspects of the outer manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit available to them, although they may claim to adhere to some similar teaching, and in the same breath seeking and desiring in their hearts and minds something very different perhaps. These people are child-souls, and the gifts they have which are meant to be sacred, are used as toys for their amusement and for the amusement of others. For misleading others the results are grievous indeed.

The law of attraction is applicable here, and like attracts like. The attitude of mind of a small number of Spiritualists (but certainly not all Spiritualists) is very similar to the outlook and attitude of mind of a small number of Fundamentalists (but not all Fundamentalists). They are insulting to others, and have no time or desire to understand men and women who think differently to themselves. There are all grades of spiritual evolution and development. The different needs of individuals in their spiritual progression means that only a certain level of illumination can be achieved at whatever stage the individual is at (the individual may be advanced in some areas, and lacking in others).

However, when the temptation of the desire for gain is stronger than the resistance of the individual - whether this gain is in the form of possessions, the adoration of the populous or the desire for notoriety, or even the desire for power over others - then the spirits which are drawn to that individual possess similar desires and are often worse as far as progression of the soul is concerned. This is a reality, and much anguish and suffering occurs to the one who abuses his or her gifts. The truth must be spoken because where real love is, idle flattery must stand aside.

There are some calling themselves Spiritualists who think that the use of the gifts of the Spirit is something new, and they think that their use of these gifts (in the limited fashion which they think is the sum total of the subject) is their domain, and do not wish to associate these gifts with something sacred or holy, which they are in the form of spirit return and Spirit communion. Such idle use of these gifts will cause them to want to flay themselves at a later stage because they will then see how sacred these gifts were. These people either deny the Christ or simply think the Christian-vibration is just another path, but they do not realize that the Love-vibration and the Christ-vibration are synonymous - they are one and the same thing. By following the Way shown by Christ for man to follow, they could have entered more deeply into the Love-vibration - by bearing their heavy cross, by seeking to follow the path of humility, by not seeking notoriety or 'celebrity' status, and by not seeking to use holy and priceless gifts for the entertainment of the mind.

The Way has been cleared by Christ for all to follow who would aim for the highest and the best. Those who wish to follow properly the Christ, may undertake the training by adverse experiences and material denial, to free the higher self in a greater degree. These may then be better in a position to help those who are sick through the abuse of their own freewill in the dark planes. People with this desire of helping their fellow brothers and sisters in the dark planes, can train now while still in the flesh. The Cross upon the hill shines bright as a light to all men to see the Way, and Christ holds up the lantern of Love as Leader and Guide.

So many calling themselves Spiritualists assume that because spirits come back to the earth plane, they must be spiritually free, but this is a great mistake. The spheres closest to the earth plane are often a greater temptation than the earth, because those who inhabit them take the so-called beauty of those spheres and do not seek to give anything in return. Certainly, many spirits may come back to contact their loved ones on this earth, but what desire do they have to help their brothers and sisters who have fallen into the dark planes?

The answer, alas, in so many cases, is no desire to help them at all - they have not even considered doing as the Master did, and taking upon themselves denser garment upon denser garment so that they can minister to those spiritual lepers who wander and grope as invalids, incapable of getting free without help. Thus, Spiritualists who allow these spirits to come back are opening up a channel which is meant to be used for Spirit-Communion, and the gifts of the Spirit are abused and Divine power is wasted on entertaining the mind and comforting the lesser self alone. Both Spiritualist and so-called guide are still in need of a spiritual awakening as to their own purpose for using Spirit Agency.

Spiritualists who deny the Christ so quickly, will at one stage see for themselves that they could not even have lifted the arm of their physical body without using the power of the Christ. And at such a time of self-revelation, any excuse that the teaching of the Christ Way was lacking in those who were supposed to be teaching about Christ, will seem to themselves a very poor excuse indeed for repudiating the Christ, Who is bound to them in every way, and Who has watched them and has sought to help them since the beginning of their being. Anguish is experienced by degree when just a partial light of revelation comes as to the heavy price paid by Love for the sake of His children - and in this connection, there is nobody at all, who shall not feel some measure of compunction because realisation of the illimitable and unbounded love of the Christ for His creation is made ones own when greater freedom comes at a future time.

But the one who has repudiated Christ will go from condition to condition and gradually the meaning and reality of the Christ will dawn on him or her, and he or she will go back over their own past in minute detail and will hear their own words of ingratitude and repudiation but worse still, they will see that others listened to them and have been led even deeper into the thickets of the earth plane. This anguish must be worked out by the one concerned by insistently calling to those they misled and seeking to bring them up from the mire they find themselves in.

There are some spirits who will deny the truth to be found in the Sacred Record to a very large extent, refuting most of what is recorded. While the Bible is not infallible, what is written therein is true for the most part (but of course is open to interpretation). The word of God found within those sacred pages has been misread and misinterpreted by the physical mind of man throughout the ages, and passed on from man to man - but for the largest and greatest part, the events and spiritual messages are accurate. If there is something which seems a little faulty to the sincere seeker, then he or she must remember how those records came to be in his or her possession: many stories were handed down from mouth to mouth until they were put into written words, and this fact, coupled with the knowledge that some mediums are held back by the things associated with the material world, helps to explain something as to those little faults - but there is very little in the Bible which is the fault of the physical mind of man, and, as has been said, for the largest part is accurate.

Genuine trance mediums would be disintegrated if truly 'taken over' by the Soul of Jesus of Nazareth

Also, there are well-meaning and loving Spiritualists who listen to spirits who, during the earth-life were deluded as to their own true identity although they appear loving themselves in many respects. God our Father does not interfere with freewill and is also very fair-minded; if a person in the flesh thinks that they are someone who they are not, and yet that person is good and loving to others while he or she is on the earth plane, then at physical death that spirit enters a fitting state. The change of the body does not change the attitude towards life or the desires of the heart, and the same 'person' lives on but in another world. Thus, there are spheres 'close' to earth inhabited by spirits who do not know much of a higher Truth but who, nevertheless, find themselves in conditions which are 'pleasant' (in comparison to the dark spheres where those who have been selfish and wicked to their brothers and sisters go).

There are some spirits claiming to be highly evolved spiritual beings, and there are a number who will also claim to be Jesus Himself and actually believe they are Him (it should be noted that claims by trance mediums that Jesus actually uses their bodies in precisely the same way as other spiritual beings use their bodies for trance communication, should be viewed with extreme caution, for the spiritual power of Christ would instantly disintegrate a human body if the same method is used). And so, the mediums who listen to these spirits are impressed by what such disembodied souls tell them, and believe the claim of the spirit as to their identity.

It should be understood that the Law of Divine Love governs all life. Therefore anyone, either in the flesh or in the Spiritual World, who can help another of God's children to follow the Law of Love receives the blessing of the Father God, even if what they teach is faulty as far as the higher Divine Truth is concerned. If there are spirits living in their 'own world' of understanding which they believe to be true even if it is far from ultimate Truth, and yet they are able to bring others a little closer to the Law of Love, then they receive the blessings of Love anyway because Love yearns for His children to be free from anything which inhibits them from receiving His wonderful love.

So, the freewill not being interfered with, a person can choose to believe what they will. Often there are many different levels of teaching because not everybody is able to learn the same things. The unfortunate thing about Spiritualists who listen to spirits who deny the Divinity of Christ (that Jesus was not God) is that they miss out on so much revelation of the true love of God in its highest aspects.

For instance, what would it tell a person about God's love if an ordinary mortal washed the feet of his friends? Very little. But what would it tell a person about the love of God if God Himself washed the feet of His friends? A great deal indeed - the sweetness and humility of God! The humility of subjecting Himself to His own laws so as to be able to help redeem His fallen children wandering around in their sadness; the love which made Tenderness Personified suffer the worst temptations and rejection of love a human could ever experience; the Great Heart Who yearned to give comfort to His suffering little ones by showing them that He could undergo the worst sufferings and even feel separated from His Godhead temporarily (the Crucifixion), and therefore so could they but that they would never have to take on anything like His earthly suffering. Indeed, the revelation of the love of God through His Manifestation as Jesus of Nazareth showed mankind a thousand, thousand things, about Divine Love, many of which pass unnoticed.

One of the wonders of His Manifestation as Man - God as Man, is that it is so inclusive - there is a message for everyone according to what they are able to believe and accept as true, for not everyone can believe or understand the same truth. Thus Jesus Christ the Man is seen as God by some, and those (whether human or spirit) who cannot achieve that realisation also benefit even if they only see Him as a great celestial Teacher and nothing more.

Although the child of God can never become the Great Parent, within each of God's children is Divinity in miniature - gifted at creation - which means that all of the gifts of God are there, in miniature, waiting to be released by spiritual advancement - this being achieved over aeons of time in fullness by effort and striving and climbing the steep and narrow hill to God - and one of these gifts is the gift of discernment. Earnest prayer, sincere motive and honest desire, and communing with the Spirit within, shall enable the individual to discern the truth contained within each item that comes under his or her attention; and by seeking the things which are of God first, the bright and glorious ones are able to guide the soul into the Truth of all matters.

The only real peace, hope and joy, is to know that God's Plan includes peace, hope and joy for everyone else too

There are those who consider salvation to be theirs alone and the largest part of humanity do not receive it. That is their idea of happiness, peace and joy. One wonders how they can be happy with that conclusion; it must be a strange kind of happiness indeed. In Reality, God is much greater than that though; He has planned real happiness.

There is no end as there was no beginning to the Love of God and its varied manifestations in countless forms, all expressing miracles of infinite Love and Grace.

There are dark spheres made ugly by the folly and selfishness of man, and there are Bright Spheres made beautiful by sacrifice and enhanced by the melody culled out of the hearts and minds of those seeking to do the mundane task, and those which are dark have the potential to draw a little nearer to that which is lighter still. All these shall be brought together as one in God's Plan through spiritual evolution, and will transcend the beauty which we cannot even conceive of now.

Hence, even the bright spheres are themselves only relatively age-long, and they will be further transformed over countless aeons into something greater in God's Mind. Heaven, as we call it, is far beyond anyone to attempt to understand, far beyond the scope of the human mind to grasp even a fraction of the reflection of the degree of light and purity which exists and always has existed in such a state of spiritual perfection.

Into such states of Being, God has ordained that each one shall enter regardless of how many aeons it takes, no matter how far each one wanders - universal salvation has been ordained by God. This is the only real happiness, peace and joy. So, to God we offer our humble obeisances for the all-glorious future He has in store for those who seek to do His Will and keep His Word.

Tony Bisson