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#31 published Sept 20, 2003
THE FOUNDATIONS
OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
2. RELIGION AND REALITY
Observing minds and discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the lives of their fellows. Religion requires no definition; we all know its social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual fruits. And this all grows out of the fact that religion is the property of the human race; it is not a child of culture. True, one's perception of religion is still human and therefore subject to the bondage of ignorance, the slavery of superstition, the deceptions of sophistication, and the delusions of false philosophy.
One of the characteristic peculiarities of genuine religious assurance is that, notwithstanding the absoluteness of its affirmations and the stanchness of its attitude, the spirit of its expression is so poised and tempered that it never conveys the slightest impression of self-assertion or egoistic exaltation. The wisdom of religious experience is something of a paradox in that it is both humanly original and Adjuster derivative. [The Adjuster is the spirit of God within you !] Religious force is not the product of the individual's personal prerogatives but rather the outworking of that sublime partnership of man and the everlasting source of all wisdom. Thus do the words and acts of true and undefiled religion become compellingly authoritative for all enlightened mortals.
It is difficult to identify and analyze the factors of a religious experience, but it is not difficult to observe that such religious practitioners live and carry on as if already in the presence of the Eternal. Believers react to this temporal life as if immortality already were within their grasp. In the lives of such mortals there is a valid originality and a spontaneity of expression that forever segregate them from those of their fellows who have imbibed only the wisdom of the world. Religionists seem to live in effective emancipation from harrying haste and the painful stress of the vicissitudes inherent in the temporal currents of time; they exhibit a stabilization of personality and a tranquillity of character not explained by the laws of physiology, psychology, and sociology. [They have and realize the Paradise Peace of Jesus that He has freely given to us !]
Time is an invariable element in the attainment of knowledge; religion makes its endowments immediately available, albeit there is the important factor of growth in grace, definite advancement in all phases of religious experience. Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth. In knowledge alone there can never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows, and knows now. And yet this profound and positive certitude does not lead such a sound-minded religionist to take any less interest in the ups and downs of the progress of human wisdom, which is bound up on its material end with the developments of slow-moving science.
Even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of human experience until they are unraveled and correlated, until their relevant facts actually become meaning through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind. Mortal man views even his physical environment from the mind level, from the perspective of its psychological registry. It is not, therefore, strange that man should place a highly unified interpretation upon the universe and then seek to identify this energy unity of his science with the spirit unity of his religious experience. Mind is unity; mortal consciousness lives on the mind level and perceives the universal realities through the eyes of the mind endowment. The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; [of love, mercy ministry, truth, beauty and goodness] only in the harmony of the triunity [matter (fact) and mind (meaning) and spirit (value)] of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency.
Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.
Evolutionary man does not naturally relish hard work. To keep pace in his life experience with the impelling demands and the compelling urges of a growing religious experience means incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual expansion, factual enlargement, and social service. There is no real religion apart from a highly active personality. Therefore do the more indolent of men often seek to escape the rigors of truly religious activities by a species of ingenious self-deception through resorting to a retreat to the false shelter of stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas. But true religion is alive. Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death. You cannot conceive of religion without ideas, but when religion once becomes reduced only to an idea, it is no longer religion; it has become merely a species of human philosophy.
Again, there are other types of unstable and poorly disciplined souls who would use the sentimental ideas of religion as an avenue of escape from the irritating demands of living. When certain vacillating and timid mortals attempt to escape from the incessant pressure of evolutionary life, religion, as they conceive it, seems to present the nearest refuge, the best avenue of escape. But it is the mission of religion to prepare man for bravely, even heroically, facing the vicissitudes of life. Religion is evolutionary man's supreme endowment, the one thing which enables him to carry on and "endure as seeing Him who is invisible." Mysticism, however, is often something of a retreat from life which is embraced by those humans who do not relish the more robust activities of living a religious life in the open arenas of human society and commerce. True religion must act. Conduct will be the result of religion when man actually has it, or rather when religion is permitted truly to possess the man. Never will religion be content with mere thinking or unacting feeling.
We are not blind to the fact that religion often acts unwisely, even irreligiously, but it acts. Aberrations of religious conviction have led to bloody persecutions, but always and ever religion does something; it is dynamic ! [For much good and some evil, religion is the most powerful Divine-Human force on this planet !]
#32 published Sept 27, 2003
THE FOUNDATIONS
OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
3. KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND INSIGHT
Intellectual deficiency or educational poverty unavoidably handicaps higher religious attainment because such an impoverished environment of the spiritual nature robs religion of its chief channel of philosophic contact with the world of scientific knowledge. The intellectual factors of religion are important, but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and embarrassing. Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking. [The burning All Truth of GOD and JESUS as One Spirit of Truth in YOU as SOUL now ! is far Transcendent to your gross, limited, mis-taught, present FINITE MIND ! However, you must utilize your mind as fully as possible. Be assured, this mighty revelation of Truth will certainly assist us in this good goal.]
Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the universe -- morontia mota, the superphilosophic sensitivity for truth discernment and unity perception. [in you as Spirit-led Soul]
Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence.
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.
Science, knowledge, leads to fact consciousness; religion, experience, leads to value consciousness; philosophy, wisdom, leads to co-ordinate consciousness; revelation (the substitute for morontia mota) leads to the consciousness of true reality; while the co-ordination of the consciousness of fact, value, and true reality constitutes awareness of personality reality, maximum of being, together with the belief in the possibility of the survival of that very personality.
Knowledge leads to placing men, to originating social strata and castes. [The "up-and-outs" spiritually; easily categorize the many poor "down-and-outs" socially, for awhile here] Religion leads to serving men, thus creating ethics and altruism. Wisdom leads to the higher and better fellowship of both ideas and one's fellows. Revelation liberates men and starts them out on the eternal adventure. [Where the Good Spirit of JESUS IS, there is True Spirit Liberty of Self-control and thrilling service in the worldwide spiritual Brotherhood of all Persons, and not the false liberty of animalistic selfish and fearful assertions - leading to mindless and souless "preemptive" wars worldwide, ever increasing in devastations. We are NOW standing in the Good Judgment of God in Jesus Christ ! See John 12:31-32 Are you repenting or rejoicing ? ]
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. [BE NOW the Beloved Son of God in Jesus Christ Michael that You ARE !]
Science vainly strives to create the brotherhood of culture; religion brings into being the brotherhood of the spirit. Philosophy strives for the brotherhood of wisdom; revelation portrays the eternal brotherhood, the Paradise Corps of the Finality. [Much more on this later, and forevermore ! The Finality Corps of God seeking, Finding and Revealing as our Father God so wills ...]
Knowledge yields pride in the fact of personality; wisdom is the consciousness of the meaning of personality; religion is the experience of cognizance of the value of personality; revelation is the assurance of personality survival. [as an ascending son of God ! I am a Son of I AM; I Am eternally Certain in JESUS !]
Science seeks to identify, analyze, and classify the segmented parts of the limitless cosmos. Religion grasps the idea-of-the-whole, the entire cosmos. [of I AM Personality, Spirit, Mind, Matter; the First and Final FATHER-Force] Philosophy attempts the identification of the material segments of science with the spiritual-insight concept of the whole. Wherein philosophy fails in this attempt, revelation succeeds, affirming that the cosmic circle is universal, eternal, absolute, and infinite. This cosmos of the Infinite I AM is therefore endless, limitless, and all-inclusive--timeless, spaceless, and unqualified. And we [Sons of God in the Authority of of our Sovereign Jesus] bear testimony that the Infinite I AM is also the Father of JESUS Christ Michael, maker of our large Universe, and the God of human salvation.
Science indicates Deity as a fact; philosophy [and current Buddhism] 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.
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 [God's Gift of His prepersonal spirit within you; and AS YOU --- to eventually make you Godlike: Perfect -- as JESUS NOW IS ] that attaches the feeling of reality to man's spiritual insight into the cosmos.
In science, the idea precedes the expression of its realization; in religion, the experience of realization precedes the expression of the idea. [Know Him in Spirit now ! and slowly perfect in trying to convey-share that through soul to mind pictures and relationships] There is a vast difference between the evolutionary will-to-believe and the product of enlightened reason, religious insight, and revelation -- the will that believes.
In evolution, religion often leads to man's creating his concepts of God; revelation exhibits the phenomenon of God's evolving man himself, while in the earth life of Jesus Christ Michael we behold the phenomenon of God's revealing HimSelf to man. Evolution tends to make God manlike; revelation tends to make man Godlike. [Our Master/Maker JESUS Christ Michael IS NOW STILL 100% fully GOD and 100% fully MAN as ONE Divine-Human Perfect Person !!! --- His loving injunction-command to each of us is: "BE YOU PERFECT; EVEN AS I AM PERFECT !"]
Science is only satisfied with first causes, religion with supreme personality, and philosophy with unity. Revelation affirms that these three are one, and that all are good. The eternal real is the good of the universe and not the time illusions of space evil. In the spiritual experience of all personalities, always is it true that the real is the good and the good is the real.
[Yes, this is a powerful Revelation to this world; those Spirit-led know this. Only about 2% so far has been published here; much more will follow. Too much revelation may be blinding to some or many. These added comments in brackets are by Teacher-Brother Dave. I do personally answer all your sincere questions and comments by email.]
#33 published Oct 04, 2003
THE FOUNDATIONS
OF RELIGIOUS FAITH
4. THE FACT OF EXPERIENCE
Because of the presence in your minds of the Thought Adjuster, [God's Spirit within your mind] it is no more of a mystery for you to know the mind of God than for you to be sure of the consciousness of knowing any other mind, human or superhuman. Religion and social consciousness have this in common: They are predicated on the consciousness of other-mindness. The technique whereby you can accept another's idea as yours is the same whereby you may "let the mind which was in Christ be also in you. " [If you cannot master your mind; you may freely ask, in faith, for the perfect Mind of our Master Jesus Christ ! What would He do? What would He have you do?]
What is human experience? It is simply any interplay between an active and questioning self and any other active and external reality. The mass of experience is determined by depth of concept plus totality of recognition of the reality of the external. The motion of experience equals the force of expectant imagination plus the keenness of the sensory discovery of the external qualities of contacted reality. The fact of experience is found in self-consciousness plus other-existences-- other-thingness, other-mindness, and other-spiritness.
Man very early becomes conscious that he is not alone in the world or the universe. There develops a natural spontaneous self-consciousness of other-mindness in the environment of selfhood. Faith translates this natural experience into religion, the recognition of GOD as the reality--source, nature, and destiny-- of other-mindness. But such a knowledge of God is ever and always a reality of personal experience. If God were not a Personality, He could not become a living part of the real religious experience of a human personality.
The element of error present in human religious experience is directly proportional to the content of materialism which contaminates the spiritual concept of the Universal Father. Man's prespirit progression in the universe consists in the experience of divesting himself of these erroneous ideas of the nature of God and of the reality of pure and true spirit. Deity is more than spirit but the spiritual approach is the only one possible to ascending man.
Prayer is indeed a part of religious experience, but it has been wrongly emphasized by modern religions, much to the neglect of the more essential communion of worship. The reflective powers of the mind are deepened and broadened by worship. Prayer may enrich the life, but worship illuminates destiny.
Revealed religion is the unifying element of human existence. Revelation unifies history, co-ordinates geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, and psychology. Spiritual experience is the real soul of man's cosmos.
5. THE SUPREMACY OF PURPOSIVE POTENTIAL
Although the establishment of the fact of belief is not equivalent to establishing the fact of that which is believed, nevertheless, the evolutionary progression of simple life to the status of personality [I am a beloved son (or daughter) of I AM ! You as "I am being" is your Gift, from the Universal Father God, of freewill Personality ! and sonship relationship ! ] does demonstrate the fact of the existence of the potential of personality to start with. And in the time universes, potential is always supreme over the actual. In the evolving cosmos the potential is what is to be, and what is to be is the unfolding of the purposive mandates of Deity. [With our Father God, how great is our Potential of Final Destiny !]
This same purposive supremacy is shown in the evolution of mind ideation when primitive animal fear is transmuted into the constantly deepening reverence for God and into increasing awe of the universe. Primitive man had more religious fear than faith, and the supremacy of spirit potentials over mind actuals is demonstrated when this craven fear is translated into living faith in spiritual realities.
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.
[Yes, this is a powerful Revelation to this world; those Spirit-led know this. Only about 2% so far has been published here; much more will follow. Too much revelation may be blinding to some or many. These added comments in brackets are by Teacher-Brother Dave. I do personally answer all your sincere questions and comments by email.]
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