CREEDS v. TRUTH
when the twenty-five theologians who had been examin-ing Church beliefs for fifteen years, in the hope of arriving at some sort of conformity within the Church of England, published their weighty report, “Doctrine In The Church of England", in January, 1938, Silver Birch was asked to com-ment on some extracts which were read to him. The extracts are printed in italics:
TRUTH is most easily understood when you become as little children and allow your minds to become freed from all the misconceptions that come from the errors of the past.
Truth comes when, like a little child, you seek with sim-plicity, with the desire not to establish a new creed or doctrine but only to find that which is true, no matter how great the sacrifice involved.
Those who have promised loyalty to certain teachings are not in the best position to find truth, for sometimes the soul struggles hard between its allegiance to that which it has sworn to believe and that for which its mind strives in order to give it satisfaction.
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The Resurrection of Jesus is an act of God wholly unique in human history.
Did it take fifteen years to arrive at that conclusion? How it is that those who betray the Nazarene are those who call themselves Christians!
Resurrection is part of the law of life. Resurrection comes to every soul when it is resurrected from the body of matter when death arrives. Resurrection belongs to no one man. It belongs to all the children of the Great Spirit, for everyone in turn must pass through the portal of death, leaving behind the body of matter, and begin a new life in the realm of spirit. in the body of spirit, which has been preparing itself all the time.
The Nazarene did nothing contrary to natural law. He came to fulfil the Law, and all his actions and all his teachings were part of the Law, Did he not say: "All these things shall ye do and greater things than these shall ye do"？ If you elevate the Nazarene to so remote and inaccessible a place in the high heavens that no child of the Great Spirit can reach him, then you have destroyed the whole value of his mission, for the essence of the Nazarene's life was to demonstrate what could be achieved by all the children of the Great Spirit if they would but allow the fullness of the Great Spirit to reveal itself in their lives.
And when he passed to the world of spirit he returned, as many returned before him and as countless thousands have returned since. There is nothing unique in the universe, for the laws of the Great Spirit are always in operation, and the
mere fact that anything has ever happened is proof of the existence of law.
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Baptism, even infant baptism, is a means of deliverance from the domination of influences which predispose to sin. In the life of the unbaptised saint there is a defect.
No priest possesses the power of magic, to make of water anything but water. Because a priest takes drops of water and sprinkles it on the brow of a child, he does not in any way do anything which affects the child's life in your world of mine. Those drops of water were drops of water before and they were drops of water afterwards. The priest has no power to change their chemical constituents and to make them do something which is contrary to the Law.
The soul is unaffected by baptism, for none has the power to evolve your soul for you. That you must do for yourself, by the quality of the life that you live in the world of matter. The effects of your actions cannot be removed by any other, but only by the compensation that you make and the retribu-tion that you have to suffer.
Saintliness has nothing whatever to do with baptism. Saintliness consists of allowing the Great Spirit to shine through your life, so that you achieve as much of perfection in daily life as you can reach whilst you are in the world of matter.
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God could work miracles if He pleased, but the commission is divided as to whether or not miraculous events occur.
Would they have been sure if they had deliberated for another fifteen years? How piteous a spectacle, the blind lead-ing the blind! These are your teachers and they cannot tell you whether or not these things happen! There are no miracles. There never have been miracles. There never will be miracles.
The Great Spirit is the Great Spirit, and the laws of the Great Spirit are perfect in their operation. They were con-ceived by Perfection. If the Great Spirit has to suspend the laws that Perfection created, then chaos must result. If the Great Spirit has to interfere in the scheme of creation to pro-vide for events which He has not foreseen, then the Great Spirit ceases to be Perfection. The Great Spirit becomes im-perfect. If the Great Spirit has to perform a miracle to bestow favours on some, then the Great Spirit is a partial deity and not the Infinite Spirit of all life. How they belittle the Great Spirit with their puny conceptions!
Because they are ignorant of the higher laws, because they do not know the power of the spirit, because they themselves are not touched by that power which comes from our realms they cannot understand these happenings wrought through mediums.
Because they seem to think that the events of the days of the Nazarene contradict what is known today of the physical laws. they are compelled to think of miracles. Yet, if they under-stood the operation of the laws of the spirit, they would see that the Great Spirit is the same yesterday, today and for ever, and that His power is available and accessible to all who enable His gifts to be exercised in their lives.
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A miracle, if it occurs, is not a breach of order, but expresses the purpose of God, which also determines the order of nature. It is therefore nothing irrational or capricious.
They do not understand that all the laws of the Great Spirit have always been in existence, will always be in existence. You only discover in your world of matter the operation of laws because through your inventions you are enabled to register some of the more subtle phases of universal life. But you have not created anything. You have only discovered that which always was in existence.
It is impossible for something new to be created, for all that is part of creation already exists. Nothing can happen to contradict the laws of the Great Spirit, for all the laws already exist, whether you know of their existence or whether you do not.
It is not necessary for the Great Spirit to create new laws, for all the laws are in existence. All that is necessary for the universe is here now, always has been, always will be. The Great Spirit, being perfect, has foreseen all that is needed in every stage of existence.
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From the Christian standpoint the Bible is unique, as being the inspired record of a unique revelation.
How dark are their minds! How they are engulfed in the inky blackness of superstition! How thick is the wall that surrounds them! How deeply they have entrenched them-selves behind the fortress of superstition!
Ever since your world of matter has been the world of matter, teachers have come to reveal the Great Spirit to His children. They have spoken the language of their day. The revelation was adapted to the demands of their day, to the country in which they lived, to the stage of growth and development of the people. It had to be given in such a manner as it was capable of being understoodーnot too high, so as to be beyond their reach.
But always the process of evolution has been at work and, as the children of the Great Spirit have evolved and grown, so new teachers arose, new seers, new prophets and new visionaries, each with his visions, his dreams, his prophecies, his message, his inspiration, his truth, his teaching adapted to the needs of his day. There is no finality in revelation, for the Great Spirit is perfect.
The revelation of today is in line with the revelation of yesterday. We do not deny the truths taught by the Nazarene. The Nazarene did not deny the truths taught by Moses. And those who will come after us, in the world of your tomorrow, will not deny the truths taught by us today.
But, because the children of tomorrow will be at a higher stage of evolution, the truth that is to be revealed to them must be more progressive than the truth that is revealed to you today.
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For him (the Christian), Christ is the one, and the necessary. mediator. Christ's access to the Father was direct; we have our access to the Father through Him.
No. The Great Spirit is within you. You are in the Great Spirit. "The kingdom of heaven is within," taught the Nazarene. How little they know of their own Christian teachings! You are never separated from the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is never separated from you.
There is nothing you can ever do, no vile crime that you can commit of so degrading an intensity that can ever cut you off from the Great Spirit. The tie that binds you to the Great Spirit is imperishable and therefore you can never be lost.
You approach the Great Spirit direct, as you learn to allow the Great Spirit to express Himself in your lives. Each one of you has a portion of the Great Spirit and you require nobody to stand between you and the Great Spirit of life.
That was not the purpose of the Nazarene. He came to teach the people how to live their lives, that the fullness of the Great Spirit might be expressed.
Theology is the curse of the world of matter. It puts man-kind in shackles. It puts his soul in prison. To be freed, he must learn to sever himself from all limiting creeds and restrictive dogmas and to find the unfettered truth that comes in spiritual inspiration. The mind of man cannot exceed the inspiration of the Great Spirit.
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The Resurrection confirms man's hope of immortality.
So much to learn! So much to learn! You live because you have part of the Great Spirit within you. Matter only exists because of spirit. Spirit is the eternal reality. Spirit is indes-tructible, imperishable, immortal, infinite.
You will live beyond the grave, beyond the fire of crema-tion, because you are spirit. Nothing in the world of matter, nothing in the realms of spirit, can destroy the imperishable divinity which is yours, the gift of life conferred on you by your entry into this world
Because you are a spirit, you live. Because you are a spirit you survive the grave. Because you are a spirit you will continue to live for ever and for ever. It has nothing to do with any teacher. It is part of your birthright, part of your heritage.
They would seek to limit the Great Spirit, the Divine Architect, the Power which maintains the whole universe in all its multitudinous expressions—to what? To one being who lived for thirty-three years in the world of matter. And they would seek to restrict His bounty to those who espouse a creed. Oh, no! Oh, no! They shame the meaning of the word "Religion". Did they but know it, they make the Nazarene weep tears of bitterness and sorrow, and they con-tinue to crucify him.
You are not the salt of the earth because you call yourselves Christians. You are not the salt of the earth because you belong to a Church. You will not be judged in my world by the label you have worn on earth. Your championship of a creed will not matter. All that will be of any account is one thingーhow much of the Great Spirit have you expressed whilst you were on earth?
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Fundamental to the Christian doctrine of the Atonement is the conviction that it is essentially the work of God, who, in Christ, reconciles mankind to Himself.
Is this a repetition of the old teaching of the atonement? Does it mean that a jealous and angry god had to be appeased by the blood sacrifice of the one he loved? Does it mean that the Great Spirit is more cruel and more heartless than an angry human being？ Does it mean that the Great Spirit demands blood to be shed to reconcile Himself with His children?How pitiable a conception is this of the Great Spirit and of the mission of the Nazarene!
Must blood be shed to appease the Great Spirit, of whom it was taught by the Nazarene He was full of the love and mercy and gentleness of a loving Father? You are all placed in the world of matter to build your own characters and accomplish your own soul evolution.
If you choose the paths of selfishness you must pay the price. If you choose the paths of service, you receive the reward that comes in the growth of character. It is all fixed by the operation of Law, and not even the greatest of the great teachers can alter the operation of those laws.
All else is a doctrine of cowardice and injustice. If you have done wrong, be a man and pay the price! Do not attempt to shelve your responsibilities on to the back of another. In our world, the saint, the altruist, has reached a higher level than the selfish man because his soul has grown much more. How else could it be? Could one man be selfish and reach, after what you call death, the same level as he who devoted his whole life to service? Is it thus that you would mock the Great Spirit and His perfect justice?
Of course not. Life is what you make it. No matter what your sphere, no matter what your occupation, whether you be born of high or low parentage, whatever your rank or title, your colour or race or nationality, you all have oppor-tunities for service. If you neglect them you pay the price, and none can interfere.
Let me finish by quoting the words of the Nazarene: "That which a man sows he must reap."
Then Silver Birch commented:
I WOULD ask you to compare the simple truths taught by the Nazarene and enunciated by us with the language presented by those who are supposed to be your leaders of religion.
We come to you with a simple message, one that does not do any injustice to your reason, that in no measure is an insult to your intelligence. It brings in its train proof that it is what it claims to be, simple spirit truth.
First we bring you what your world demandsーevidence that the ones you love are still by your side and that “death" makes no division.
Then we reveal that the power of the spirit inspires instru-ments who uplift humanity. It comes with a richness in all its fields of labour, seeking to make life sweeter and more harmonious.
Then we bring the rays of healing to alleviate the distress of bodies racked in pain and anguish. We strive to do everything within our power to demonstrate that ours is a divine mission, intended to point the way for all of you to live lives of service.
We repeat the truths taught in other days by those who received a measure of inspiration. We point to the laws of the Great Spirit and show how they have always been in operation. And, using those same laws, we repeat today the phenomena that occurred yesterday.
And yet those who should make themselves accessible to all this power of the spirit refuse to allow it to reach them. They hide themselves in the secluded convents of theology. They enclose themselves in the monasteries of creedalism.
They are afraid, for they know that once all this truth is available to every child of the Great Spirit you have no need for priest or clergyman or bishop or archbishop. You can learn how to enable yourselves to become the instruments of the Great Spirit.
The few things you have told me are added confirmation that the power of creedalism is waning and that our mission is succeeding.
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