ON LOVE; PART MCCCXLI
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God.
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
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It IS NOT often that we mingle politics and current events into our writing but with our current subject matter it IS NOT possible to properly see the reality of the church’s view on abortion, homosexuality, contraception and fornication without touching on the state of politics today. The divisions between the political left and the political right ARE fueling much of the debate on the first two ideas and this IS most evident in any political news coverage. The idea of protecting the Life of the unborn IS today as much a political divide as it IS a religious one and in many respects moreso as the politics, pushed by conservative religious figures, has staked out this as their political cause célèbre, a banner if you will that separates the right from the more liberal views of the left. How many of these right leaning people Truly care ‘spiritually’ about the idea of abortion IS difficult to say but we should understand that a fair number of such persons DO seek out abortive services when the need arises. We should understand as well that there ARE liberal minded people whose ‘spiritual’ conviction IS against abortion and that these often can side with the conservatives in order to bring to power persons of like mind. On both sides of the issue it IS the reality of glamour that keeps men fixated upon their chosen views which ARE fortified on the right by the fixation of the church and their most constant indoctrination while on the left a fixation on the idea of ‘rights’, women’s rights to be sure, supersedes. We must remember that it IS on the side of women’s rights that the courts have ruled and that the struggle to change the secular laws regarding abortion IS clothed in purely political attire. It IS the hope of the conservative right that their election of like minded persons will allow for the change of the law from a secular idea based in fact to a religious idea based in the doctrines of men and this in a country where most persons ARE NOT religious Christians.
We should remember that the scriptural basis for the doctrinal beliefs regarding abortion ARE keenly lacking as the scriptural references that they use to support their ‘pro-Life’ stance DO NOT speak in any way about the idea of abortion. We should understand as well that abortion, like homosexuality, has likely been with us from the beginning days of men in this Earth. Over the last two essays we have cited several of the scriptural references that ARE used to support the anti-abortion stand of the church and none that we have explored IS specific to the ideas that ARE being pushed; perhaps this IS why the idea that abortion IS murder has surfaced as the prima facie defense of their stand. This IS based upon the idea that Life begins at conception and here we should remember that there ARE those who take this even further with claims that even sperm and eggs must be protected; to this end much of the church has also come out against the idea of contraception. We must again repeat our own position regarding abortion which IS that there IS a definite wrong here when this procedure IS used as a method of birth control. In saying this we DO NOT advocate for laws to prevent a woman from having an abortion but rather that there should be an educational program that shows alternatives to both the abortion and the need for future abortions through proper contraception. Such education should NOT be religious in nature but psychological along with a bit of common sense morality designed by persons versed in this area of expertise. The church should have little to say in this regard because its own record of promoting scripture as the reason IS severely flawed and this especially when we look upon the ‘alleged’ actions of our God who, for example, demanded that King Saul should “go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” (1 Samuel 15:3). While such biblical realities, and there ARE many much the same as this, ARE ignored, while the slaughter of the “infant and the suckling” ARE NOT seen in terms of the Lord’s view of such children, the church continues to use the obscure ideas regarding God’s KNOWING the child in the womb as their evidence that the Lord IS against abortion. The doctrinal idea gleaned from the psalm that we cited in the last essay IS but one of many Old Testament sayings that the church relies upon to support their position. We also cited words from the Prophet Jeremiah which testify to the fact that the growing fetus IS KNOWN by God, an idea that IS akin to Jesus’ saying that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30) which IS an idea that much of the church also takes out of context and ofttimes takes literally. The greater point here IS that the church has adopted their positions on abortion to their own satisfaction and has willingly distorted biblical sayings to accommodate them. At the same time they ignore the slaughter of the “infant and the suckling” which ARE ordained by the same Lord and in the same text; add to this the prophet’s words against the fetus, or even the child, in the womb, We read that “Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up” (Hosea 13:16).
While the church will state that such ideas against children, born and unborn, ARE the words and actions of the Lord against His enemies, this makes NO True sense against the dual ideas of “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). When we conflate these Truths with the stated principal that God DOES NOT change, the Old Testament ideas of slaughter become a distinctly human issue, an issue that can be keenly observed in so many bible stories that ARE the production of the minds of men in barbarous and superstitious times. There IS yet one more scripture that IS used to support the anti-abortion efforts of the church; this from Exodus where we read “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life” (Exodus 21:22-23). It IS ONLY in the interpretations and preconceived ideas of those that stand against abortion that the idea here IS taken to mean that if “her fruit” should die that this IS murder. That the text DOES NOT support this conclusion IS evident even in the view of the Jews regarding this part of their own law; most ALL interpret this idea of “if any mischief follow” to pertain to the woman ONLY and that the ‘price’ to be paid in the previous verse relates to any outcome for “her fruit“. While much of these ideas on ALL sides can be debated, there IS NO True reality upon which the church can honestly stand regarding abortion. Yet they have carved out a strict doctrinal forbiddance with some calling abortion murder from the early church, an idea that was also much debated in those times. This brings us again to the idea of contraception. While the entire church IS not as hard and fast against contraception as it IS against abortion, most ALL denominations and sects have prohibitions against its use with some adding caveats that will allow for it under given circumstances. By and large there IS still today a church stand against contraception while a seeming majority of church members DO either favor the use of birth control or use it themselves. Not much IS said regarding this issue when compared to the idea of abortion but we should understand that the best way to stop abortions IS to use birth control up to and including the nearly universally forbidden ‘morning after pill’ called Plan B. We should remember here that the church’s aversion to birth control has NO basis in scripture save for the ideas we cited in the last essay which should have NO force in any debate on contraception. Again, while it may be True that ‘Life’ begins at conception, this ‘Life’ DOES NOT define anything but the human animal which, in this embryonic state, IS NO different than the embryo or zygote produced by any animal….it IS NOT yet a human being endued with Soul. We should note here that some of the church fathers, Augustine among them, upon whom much doctrine yet relies embraced the idea that a fetus was NOT a child until ensoulment and if we could see this in terms of viability, perhaps we could understand the entire concept in a less dogmatic way. While there IS NO scripture against this idea of viability, there IS NONE in its favor either and this IS much the same in regards to both abortion and contraception.
We should also understand that there ARE several Christian denominations and sects that DO NOT prohibit contraception and perhaps if the rest of the church could clearly see how that such prohibitions alienate so many of their followers and ARE a part the reason for the diminishing numbers of Christians identifying with them, they would drop their scripturally unfounded ideas. This however IS NOT in the likely to happen as the church has convinced itself that their doctrines, however ill-conceived they may be, ARE their Truth. This brings us back to our main premise: that the church has chosen out its various doctrinal positions as the more convenient approach to the Lord and one that DOES NOT require that they should DO and teach men to keep his words. In the end there IS little difference between the church’s promotion of ‘salvation‘ through affirmations and confessions or rites and rituals and their stance on such things as abortion and contraception; ALL ARE but the “commandments of men” founded in that same vanity to which ALL men ARE subjected. While the Apostle James tells us that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10), the church still divides sin. Most ALL of the church looks past such things as adultery and fornication while focusing upon abortion and homosexuality and the reasoning here should be easily seen through the idea of convenience. It IS rather easy to impute sin to another person rather than to admit one’s own failings and this IS especially True when most ALL that men DO IS in sin against the Truth of their intended focus. We must remember that the Great Commandments set the stage for the human reality of sin and evil; in these we ARE shown that one’s focus must be on God first and foremost as the commandment IS that we focus on the Lord with “all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“. The Truth in this IS founded in the reality of man, that he IS the Soul which IS ever ‘connected’ to the Lord and which IS part and parcel of Him, and, as such, ALL that detracts from this realization as a man in this world IS sin. Jesus tells us that “the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” and in this reality we should see that to DO one IS to DO the other and to DO both IS the Truth of salvation, a Truth that puts one’s own egoic personality behind the reality of agape. This however IS the human problem, putting one’s self-interests, one’s egoic response to the world, behind one’s view of others and of every neighbor across the globe. The Master shows us this in simple sayings to His disciples that ARE often repeated in the church by ill understood. We read this in His words to His apostles who ARE striving with each other concerning “which of them should be accounted the greatest“; to this Jesus says “he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve“. Jesus shows us this by His example and His continuing words saying “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 24, 26-27). This IS the reality of letting go of one’s own personality and seeing the greater Truth which IS “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17), in the reality of agape, as the Apostle Paul tells us. In the human experience that IS “rooted and grounded” in vanity however this IS most difficult and this difficulty IS greatly exacerbated by the teachings of the church which fails to see the reality of men and the Truth of what IS agape. It IS this same personality that seeks to find the failure in others rather than seeing one’s own failures and it IS sore easy to pick out vulnerable segments of the human family upon which to place those self-failures. Jesus addresses this human failing to which, after 2000 years, men still remain aloof to in their hearts as they ARE yet grounded in vanity; the Master says “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).
The connection between these sayings which run concurrently in Matthew’s Gospel and nearly so in Luke’s IS NOT clearly seen by the doctrinal thinker as a singular instruction regarding one’s view of others. Moreover, most ALL neglect to connect the reality of these words to the Truth of agape which IS explained for us in the second of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule. John Gill shows us a view of the idea of “Judge not, that ye be not judged” as he offers us the words of: the famous Hillell, who lived a little before Christ’s time; “Do not judge thy neighbour, (says he,) until thou comest into his place” 8. This IS but another view of the commandment, of the True idea that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” and another reality of the Golden Rule. We should understand that these words on judgment ARE inseparable from the deep Truths that ARE the Master’s words that end with the command that we must “first cast out the beam out of thine own eye“. If we could see that throughout the history of the church the chosen moral battles were ever staged by men whose own lives were NOT clear of sin we can perhaps understand the way that this plays out yet today in the church’s stance against such things as abortion and homosexuality. We should understand here that the mote and the beam need NOT be of the same value, the same type, or even related in any way although this IS the way that Jesus’ words ARE understood by many. James shows us the Master’s view on sin in the simplicity of his saying that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” and if we could understand that the value of the beam IS the fullness of any man’s sins based in the vanity of Life, we can understand the greater point of the idea that men should “Judge not, that ye be not judged“. And it IS here that we should apply the rest of the idea to the most basic ways of men in this world and see one’s own fate, spiritually to be sure, in the idea that “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again“. Here of course we must NOT apply the doctrinal ideas of forgiveness and judgment as acts of God but rather as the final self-conviction that the Soul brings upon the actions of his expression in this Earth. To realize such self-conviction within one’s Life in this world IS the reality of Repentance and an integral part of the need for men to “mortify the deeds of the body” in which such ideas as judgment ARE included. While the popular doctrinal idea that everyman must stand before the Lord in judgment of his Life IS indeed True, the reality of this encounter IS missed through men’s failure to understand the relationship between the True man, the Spirit manifest as Soul, with the One God. Most ALL fail to see that every Soul IS part and parcel of the Lord and IS forever One with that “One Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“**.
We should understand that this view of God IS both unpersonalized, NO personality IS imputed, and it IS Universal, that IS that it goes beyond the scope of any religion. It IS at the door of religion that most ALL Truth stops as it IS overwhelmed by the doctrinal views of men, views that ARE founded in vanity, in illusion and glamour, which IS our “bondage of corruption“. This IS the same “corruption that is in the world through lust” which Peter shows us must be escaped if we ARE to find the “exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (1 Peter 1:4). We should understand that naught can exist except it be a part of some aspect of the “One Boundless Immutable Principle” that IS our God. While ALL things of this Earth ARE equally subjected to this same idea of vanity, it IS ONLY man that can realize that Truth as it flows from one’s Soul, one’s unction and Christ Within. Without this ability for such realization, one IS forever lost in the morass of vanity which Vincent defines for us as: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. It IS in this condition that men have, from the beginning, sought out ideas that allow for a man, the religious man to be sure, to see himself in a superior position to others and it IS from this position that the doctrinal fixations over the centuries have evolved. Such fixations ARE but a distraction from the Truth, from understanding the reality of sin and Repentance. We should understand that there ARE many distractions in the church today, its ‘persecution’ of such ideas as abortion and contraception and homosexuality among them, that keep followers focused upon such church causes and away from the inconvenient Truth. This Truth sees NONE of the invented distractions as important and here we should see that these distractions begin with the very premise of salvation through confession and affirmation or through rites and rituals. This first distraction IS the beginning of men’s failure to see the Truth; in this the reality of Jesus’ words IS NOT taught: that we should keep His words, especially His words regarding agape. This primary distraction IS then compounded the church’s reliance upon the out of context, misrepresented and misapplied sayings from the writings of the apostles, many of which men arbitrarily impute to themselves, and here of course the emphasis IS ever on the Apostle Paul. To this the church adds their view of others, of those who would seek out abortion and contraception or those that may be homosexual and intent on living a normal Life. To this add the fixation upon the ‘end times’ found in many quarters of the church along with their prophetic idea regarding the return of the Christ and we have the plight of most of the denominations and sects throughout the history of the church. There IS of course much more to distract from the simple Truth of keeping His words, a Truth that opens the door to ALL Truth and the promises of the Master who tells us, through our trifecta, the reality of our salvation IS here and now. We read:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him . He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
Keeping His words brings us the real Truth which “shall make you free” rather than the carnal ideas of men which they may think ARE Truth but instead ARE that deception which James shows us saying “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). Truth IS singular and NOT one of the church’s distractions from the Truth ARE included in the Truth. In this Truth that IS the basis for most ALL of Jesus’ words IS the reality of the Great Commandments toward which ALL men should strive. The further toward fulfillment of these High Ideals one can move, the greater his measure of realization of this Truth and the greater the understanding one can have as a man in this world. And we should understand here that ALL human failings that ARE become today’s fixation of the church retain NO meaning through an understanding heart of agape which DOES NOT judge nor impute wrongs to others. It IS perhaps this understanding heart of agape that represents that freedom of which the Master tells us “the truth shall make you free” and, to be sure, this understanding heart of agape IS the primary component of that fruit of which the Master tells us “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). While it IS clear that the Master’s intent in these words on Truth IS to show us that the Path to this Truth IS through His words, this reality IS missed by the doctrinal thinker who sees his ‘salvation‘ in those doctrines that ARE based in the misapplied and misunderstood writings of Paul and the other apostles. The second part of our trifecta IS also clear but ONLY when men can see the idea of “the will of my Father” as synonymous with the words of the Master who tells us that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me“. In these words from our trifecta IS the reality of the idea of the “kingdom of heaven“, an idea that IS Matthew’s preferred way of referencing the Kingdom of God. When we can see the idea of “the will of my Father” as the same as the words and commandments of the Master, we can then see the Path to the Kingdom and here we should try to understand that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) as Jesus tells us. Jesus IS clearly showing us the Path to the Kingdom and if we can conflate these two parts of our trifecta we can perhaps see the relationship between the Kingdom Within and the Truth….that to have one IS to have both. The third part of our trifecta IS also rather clear as it makes some of the doctrinal thinkers self-imputed ideas moot. These ideas ARE the Christian’s professed belief that they Love the Lord and the doctrinal idea that by their confessions and affirmations, by their rites and rituals, that they have the Presence of God in their lives. Jesus clearly tells us that “If a man love me, he will keep my words” as He also shows us the converse of this saying “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings“. While the clarity here IS deafening, this reality IS ignored by those in the church that profess Love for the Lord while being among those that willfully “keepeth not my sayings“. We should understand that the idea of willfully here IS in regard to the way that the Truth of Jesus words IS set aside by a church that looks to their own doctrinal ideas to ascertain their Love. Such doctrinal ideas ARE NOT in accord with the Truth that IS the essence of the Great Commandments as the reality of this Love IS neither understood nor pursued. While the doctrinal Christian professes his Love for the Lord in contradiction to Jesus’ words, he also takes possession of the Presence of God in his Life which requires the same realities as DOES that Love….that men will “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“. It IS to this man who “will keep my words” that Jesus says “my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” yet the doctrinal thinker imputes this Presence to himself based upon doctrinal assertions which have NO basis in scripture save for other self-imputed ideas. This returns us to our selection from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In this selection, as in many others throughout his writings, we have these same ideas from our trifecta presented in more human terms which begin with the reality of our focus upon the things of the self versus a focus upon the things of God, “the things of the Spirit“. Repeating our selection we read:
“they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope, Becauseexpectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:5-23).
In the doctrinal habit of self-imputation concerning the spiritually positive ideas presented by Paul, the whole of the apostle’s message IS lost. As a substitute for the requirements imposed, that we “mortify the deeds of the body” for example, the doctrinal approaches of men have opted for those distractions which we discuss above. Much of this because even such ideas as that we should “mortify the deeds of the body” IS also imputed to the doctrinal thinker by himself and by his doctrinal teaching; many believe that they have either accomplished this or that it IS NOT necessary. In this view he ONLY sees the need for others to “mortify the deeds of the body” and here many specifically look toward those with a homosexual lifestyle. It IS apparently easy to single out such persons for attack in ways that ARE similar to the doctrinal obsession with abortion and, to a lesser degree, contraception. While it IS easy to see Paul’s personal aversion to homosexuality it IS even easier to see in the apostle’s words clear statements against carnal fornication of which homosexuality IS but a single aspect. It IS against fornication that the bible teaches and in this we should try to see that the carnal effect IS but a symbol of the greater spiritual sin which IS focus upon the self rather that focus upon the things of God which the Great Commandment commands men to DO. While there IS NO real scripture against the ideas of abortion and contraception, there ARE several places where the scriptures ARE presumed to be against homosexuality. Perhaps the first of these IS the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where the doctrinal idea reflects that the whole of the cities ARE homosexuals and violent ones at that. The scene IS set as Abraham “sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground” (Genesis 18:1-2). The word that IS rendered as men IS the Hebrew enowsh which Strong’s tells us IS: properly, a mortal 9a with NO designation of sex. We should see here that the story tells us that Abraham sees these men as angels or other spiritual beings and which some interpret as including Jehovah who speaks to Abraham and Sarah as the Lord about the promise of a child. We should understand that the very nature of Jehovah IS a biblical mystery and if we credit to Jehovah the acts of the Lord from the Book of Exodus onward, including the slaughter of “both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” as we read in many parts of the Jew’s historical record, perhaps we can glimpse the necessary separation between the mysterious Jehovah and the “One Boundless Immutable Principle” that IS our God. If we can try to see Jehovah in tribal terms as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob“, as “the LORD God of Israel” (Exodus 3:6, 5:1) we can then perhaps make better sense of the specific problems with such slaughters being the acts of the One God who IS defined for us by the Apostle John who tells us that “God is love“. This IS of course contrary to many centuries of Judaeo-Christian theology and doctrine but can go a long way in men’s understanding of God and the way that this “One Boundless Immutable Principle” works through men, men perforce of some great measure of Truth and Power in their day and time who act in accord with the customs and beliefs of men in their day. While such ideas ARE attached to the mysteries that ARE revealed in the Truth, they DO NOT matter in relationship to the objective of everyman which IS ever to be Truly “led by the Spirit of God“
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
- ** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
