YouTube: Are You Saved?

This subject is prompted by a couple of contacts I’ve had over the last few weeks. One came through YouTube comments correcting all of my errors concerning the end times. The other was a phone call from a concerned woman from Arizona who discovered the church website and felt the need to bring me into alignment with the Bible, at least as she understood it. I love responding to those who are genuinely interested in what we teach. The moment I discover the questions are being used as a setup for answers they already have, the conversation ends.

Why would someone bother to reach out to a complete stranger, especially a minister, and begin questioning their religious beliefs? Their intentions are good, for they’ve been taught that a soul on the wrong religious track is a soul in danger of eternal damnation. However, the thought of spending an eternity surrounded by a bunch of self-righteous Bible thumpers isn’t exactly my idea of a heavenly reward.

Fear, guilt, and shame represent the holy trinity of controlling features incorporated in our religious upbringing. The sin and punishment model has been put forward for so long and from such authority that many accept it as a given. On one hand we’re told that God is love, and the grace of God is our hope. On the other hand, as my caller suggested, those who do not walk in accordance with the Word of God will find that things do not work out so well in the long run.

Somewhere in the middle of Kansas there is a billboard that asks this question: “If you died today, where would you spend eternity?”

It’s a great question worth serious consideration, and a drive through Kansas certainly offers ample time to think about it. Those asking the question assume there are but two answers. You know you are making spiritual progress when you reserve the right to consider alternatives. As for me, I’ll be here, in the presence of God, just like I have always been. I don’t think God would have it any other way.

YouTube: Are We in the End Times?

A member of our YouTube audience posted this comment: “I hear so many Christians say, ‘we’re in the end times’. What does that mean?”

Eschatology is the fancy name given to the study of the so-called end times. The book of Revelation appeared when early Christians suffered under severe persecution from the Roman empire. The book’s intended purpose was to encourage Christians to hold fast, Jesus was coming soon. Following the legalization of Christianity, Revelation fell out of use for hundreds of years. It was during the Middle Ages that interest in the book reignited, but without its historical context. Since that time, doomsdayers have exploited the mysterious imagery as signs that the end was near.   

Of course, there are many ways that human civilization could end. The eruption of a super volcano, an incoming asteroid, a major solar flare, or nuclear war could all do the trick. We can also study the downfall of the once-great world powers of Rome, Greece, and Egypt and see implosion from within as another option.    

One takeaway we can glean from observing this obsession with the so-called end times is that we can fall into the same trap on a personal level. In our challenging moments, we can turn from God within to the belief that we need an external savior. The most effective starting point is to reestablish our expectation in our true center of power—God within. Once we do this, once we rise above the fear of some impending doom, we can move through our challenge from the peace of strength.

In the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, the disciples asked Jesus when their end would be. He said,

“Since you have discovered the beginning, why do you seek the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who shall stand at the beginning, and he shall know the end, and shall not taste death.”

The advice is to be here now. Obsession over the end prevents us from engaging in a new beginning. The transforming power we long for is always with us. Be still and know this power, and you will find your way through any challenge.

YouTube: Predestination: Fact or Fiction?

The debate between predestination and freewill has gone on for centuries. Since we can find support for either idea, I think it is best to reframe the issue beginning with our understanding of God. Seeing God, not as the powerful, humanlike creator, but as the creative life force animating all of creation, predestination would hinder the natural creative process. Though the exercise of freewill yields both positive and negative results, it factors in the influence of each person’s belief system and explains the diversity in human expression. It allows us to challenge the feeling that we are powerless to rise above our current lot in life.

I think we can resolve this debate by seeing predestination and freewill as natural aspects of the human condition. Our complete soul is a predestined condition. We can exercise our freewill to stray away from this divine ideal and create a body-based self-image so far from what we are in truth that suffering is inevitable. This is illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son. The son asks for his inheritance and the father gives it to him, no questions asked. He just says, “Here you are. Go for it.” This is freewill. However, by virtue of the son’s relationship with his father, the option to return home is predestined. There is nothing negative about it. We are all predestined to our spiritual homecoming.  

The exercise of freewill is most productive when it harmonizes with the true nature of the soul. This is illustrated in the son’s decision to return home. However, our excursions into the far country teach us the value of our true home. In this sense, the exercise of freewill with negative results can ultimately lead to our most productive and meaningful spiritual path.

Must we suffer before we find this path? No. But while our negative choices may lead to negatively painful results, all choices ultimately lead to home. In this sense, there are no wrong decisions.

The act of incarnating in a body has created the temptation to believe in two powers of spirit and materialism. It is easy to forget that our true home is spirit. Because this is true, we are all destined to return to this awareness. And if we take the more scenic route home, we’ll still get there all the same.   

YouTube: Your God Connection: An Easter Perspective

The Easter story is about Jesus enabling unity with God. The catch is that this unity occurs after this life, when we make it to our heavenly abode. Jesus taught something different, and he seemed confident that some in his audience would have a spiritual awakening that would reveal their God connection.

“There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28).

Many of us grew up believing we were separate from God, destined one day to return home. We’re now learning that we are one with God, a concept difficult to grasp given our upbringing. Seeing God not as the old man in the sky, but as the creative life force animating all beings, allows us to use different metaphors to illustrate our shared unity.

Think of a river meeting a hydroelectric dam. God is the river; you are the dam. Just as the river flows in one direction, so God as the creative life force flows in one direction—from the inside out. The river is raw, universal power. The dam converts the river’s power into electricity that lights a city.

God is our limitless source, flowing within us and turning the turbine of our executive faculties: imagination, faith, will, judgment, and elimination. Using these faculties, we direct this raw power of God in ways of our choosing. This seems to be the point Jesus was making when he said this:  

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil” (Luke 6:45).

As you awaken to the truth of your oneness with God as the creative life force flowing through you at this very moment, you become more aware of how you use these faculties that convert this universal energy into the specific expression you call your life.  Your God connection is your key to the quality of life you desire.

YouTube: The Million Dollar Question; Does God Require Sacrifice?

One of the most popular summaries of the Christian message comes from John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

This passage raises two important questions concerning the nature of God. Is the love of God conditional? Did God require the sacrifice of His only Son?

According to John, one must believe Jesus died for our sins to gain eternal life. The implication is that whoever does not believe in him will perish and will not have eternal life.

Then we’re told that God “gave his only Son”. We understand this to mean that God gave his Son to be put to death as a sacrifice for our sins. How can such a human sacrifice be a requirement with a God who loves the world? The unconditional love of God would be better expressed in this way:

For God so loved the world that he ensured none would perish but all would have eternal life.

This is certainly more in keeping with the lesson of the prodigal son. The father so loved his son that he welcomed him home, no questions asked, no conditions imposed.

We cringe when we read of cultures that practiced human sacrifice to appease the gods. However, as Christians, we’ve become so accustomed to Jesus as a human sacrifice that we have somehow disconnected pagan barbarism from Christian theology. The principle, however, is the same. A life is given to change the behavior and attitude of God.

From a spiritual perspective, one of the most important issues we must sort out is our understanding of God. A God that requires sacrificial appeasement cannot be considered a God of unconditional love.

YouTube: The Jesus Question

Most of us in this country have a Christian background, which prompts us to look to the sayings of Jesus for guidance on spiritual matters. How we think of Jesus makes all the difference on what we hope to find. The mainstream Christian thinks of Jesus as the Savior who offered the only way to eternal salvation. The American New Thought movement, which flourished in the nineteenth century, saw Jesus as the Wayshower, one who understood and expressed fully his Christhood, and invited all people to do the same.

Charles Fillmore, an American mystic that became Unity’s co-founder, adopted this view as the cornerstone of his teachings. Assuming Jesus attained immortality in the body, he believed that anyone who aligned with his Jesus Christ standard could also lift this fleshly clothing to such a high vibratory level that we would no longer age or experience physical death. His model placed the soul in a state of evolution, traveling through multiple incarnations with the goal of reaching the ultimate prize of immortality. In his book, The Spiritual Journey of Charles Fillmore, Neal Vahle includes this quote:

“This question is often asked by Unity readers. Some of them seem to think that I am either a fanatic or a joker if I take myself seriously in the hope that I shall with Jesus attain eternal life in the body. But the fact is that I am very serious about the matter.”

As I point out in my book, The Complete Soul, I find this interpretation of Jesus places him impossibly out of our reach. The basic premise of the mystic is that God, as omnipresent Spirit, is centered as the soul of every person. As such, the soul is complete. What evolves is our understanding of who and what we are as spiritual beings. Our objective is not to overcome the death of the body, but to understand that the soul is already immortal. The spiritual journey is all about moving from the body-based self-image most of us operate from, to the understanding that we are spiritual beings going through this human experience. The condition of the body is not the barometer of the soul.

The truth that comes through our current near-death research is, I believe, closer to the ideal that Jesus taught. This research reveals the immortal nature of the soul, not at the end of a very long evolutionary process, but now, at this very moment. Getting a true glimpse of our divine Self is the truth that sets us free.

YouTube: The Defining Factor

Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

While the Bible often gives God a distinct and commanding voice, sometimes through a heavenly messenger, I think our best conceptualization is the still small voice given to Elijah.

But what is a still small voice? It’s not really a voice at all. We should think of it more as an impulse than a voice speaking words. It is the impulse to be free. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus opens his ministry by quoting from the book of Isaiah. When we go back to the Hebrew scripture, here’s what we find:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

By this account, it is clear that the focus of his ministry is to “let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” He also says that those who have learned from the Father will come to him. In other words, those who have learned to listen to the still small voice of God will understand what he is talking about.

Why do we crave freedom? Because the soul is already free. At the spiritual level, there are no restrictions. We encounter restrictions at the physical and material levels. Jesus is teaching people how to work with these seeming contradictory conditions. While most were waiting for a messiah to appear and set them free, Jesus was teaching that freedom begins as a perceptual shift. If you seek first the kingdom of God, that is, if you learn to heed the quiet voice of God, it will help clarify your vision and make straight your path.

Though we may not have thought of the inner impulse to be free as the voice of God, doing so will help us realize that we desire freedom because our soul is free already. We are being prompted at all times to claim our inherent freedom.

YouTube: The Voice of God

When we think of God’s voice, we might imagine a booming sound echoing across the universe, one that would coincide with the muscular figure depicted in so many classical paintings. In Unity, we are most familiar with Elijah’s still small voice that comes after the mighty winds and earthquakes.

While the Bible often gives God a distinct and commanding voice, sometimes through a heavenly messenger, I think our best conceptualization is the still small voice given to Elijah.

But what is a still small voice? It’s not really a voice at all. We should think of it more as an impulse than a voice speaking words. It is the impulse to be free. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus opens his ministry by quoting from the book of Isaiah. When we go back to the Hebrew scripture, here’s what we find:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

By this account, it is clear that the focus of his ministry is to “let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” He also says that those who have learned from the Father will come to him. In other words, those who have learned to listen to the still small voice of God will understand what he is talking about.

Why do we crave freedom? Because the soul is already free. At the spiritual level, there are no restrictions. We encounter restrictions at the physical and material levels. Jesus is teaching people how to work with these seeming contradictory conditions. While most were waiting for a messiah to appear and set them free, Jesus was teaching that freedom begins as a perceptual shift. If you seek first the kingdom of God, that is, if you learn to heed the quiet voice of God, it will help clarify your vision and make straight your path.

Though we may not have thought of the inner impulse to be free as the voice of God, doing so will help us realize that we desire freedom because our soul is free already. We are being prompted at all times to claim our inherent freedom.