This blog is Nuggets of Gold 1, taken from
chapter 19 of my new book Increate Love by
John Thwaytes. I am making 4 blogs out of this chapter.
Chapter
Nineteen
Nuggets of
Gold
I
get great joy and bliss from researching the UB and collecting quotes for the
discussion of various topics. For me it is like prospecting and gold mining. I
feel that I am finding gold nuggets of valuable information, priceless wisdom.
Here are some of them.
The
UB was composed by great celestial beings of all types upto the level of
Trinity Sons of of the Government of the finite Superuniverse of Orvonton. I
want to give evidence that it contains explicit admissions that it is neither
complete nor perfect, and that there are many things unknown to the authors.
Here is one example:
108.4.5 We are cognizant of many
spirit phenomena in the far-flung universe which we are at a loss fully to
understand. We are not yet masters of all that is transpiring about us; and I
believe that much of this inscrutable work is wrought by the Gravity Messengers
and certain types of Mystery Monitors. I do not believe that Adjusters are
devoted solely to the remaking of mortal minds. I am persuaded that the Personalized
Monitors and other orders of unrevealed prepersonal spirits are representative
of the Universal Father’s direct and unexplained contact with the creatures of
the realms.
The
above statement agrees with information given recently by our reflectivators at
Monjoronson Com that a large contingent of reserve Mystery Monitors is being
mobilized for bringing our world into an era of life and light right now. It is
clear to my mind that the Father is not obliged to follow the methods of any
religion, even if it is actually revealed. He is free to follow any methods He
wants to at any moment, and thus always works in ways that are mysterious and
beyond imagination as well as through ordinary well-known methods. That's why
things can be true even if they are not included in a valid religious belief
system. Right now I am trying to figure out how Maitreya (or Raj Patel ?)
relates to the UB and to Monjoronson, and that is certainly mysterious.
Monjoronson admits that he has not given us his own real name yet. My guess is
that these persons have to use mysterious methods for their own security against
actual or potential enemies. It must be necessary, otherwise they would surely
work in a more transparent way. Anyhow, I am keeping an open mind about such
matters. If Maitreya really over-shadowed Jesus, as Benjamin Crème claims, he
must in fact be Sananda, the Mystery Monitor who personalized at Jesus' baptism
by John. Sananda is more than the Master of Masters, he is a subinfinite
personalization of the Absolute Father. No one else over-shadowed the already
divine-from-birth Jesus in the UB account.
UB Paper 143 Section 2. Lesson on
Self-Mastery
143.2.1 The Master was a perfected
specimen of human self-control. When he was reviled, he reviled not; when he
suffered, he uttered no threats against his tormentors; when he was denounced
by his enemies, he simply committed himself to the righteous judgment of the
Father in heaven.
143.2.2 At one of the evening
conferences, Andrew asked Jesus: “Master, are we to practice self-denial as
John taught us, or are we to strive for the self-control of your teaching?
Wherein does your teaching differ from that of John?” Jesus answered: “John
indeed taught you the way of righteousness in accordance with the light and
laws of his fathers, and that was the religion of self-examination and
self-denial. But I come with a new message of self-forgetfulness and
self-control. I show to you the way of life as revealed to me by my Father in
heaven.
143.2.3 “Verily, verily, I say to
you, he who rules his own self is greater than he who captures a city. Self-mastery
is the measure of man’s moral nature and the indicator of his spiritual
development. In the old order you fasted and prayed; as the new creature of the
rebirth of the spirit, you are taught to believe and rejoice. In the Father’s
kingdom you are to become new creatures; old things are to pass away; behold I
show you how all things are to become new. And by your love for one another you
are to convince the
world
that you have passed from bondage to liberty, from death into life everlasting.
143.2.4 “By the old way you seek to
suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are
first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in
your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you
endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious,
acceptable, and perfect will of God. Forget not — it is your personal faith in the
exceedingly great and precious promises of God that ensures your becoming
partakers of the divine nature. Thus by your faith and the spirit’s
transformation, you become in reality the temples of God, and his spirit
actually dwells within you. If, then, the spirit dwells within you, you are no
longer bondslaves of the flesh but free and liberated sons of the spirit. The
new law of the spirit endows you with the liberty of self-mastery in place of
the old law of the fear of self-bondage and the slavery of self-denial.
(JRT)
What does spiritual renewal of the mind imply? Broadly, mind deals with
meanings and spirit with values. It is principally the value of actual
existential love in action that renews the mind, especially when it is based on
rational thought about the realities of the spirit realm.
143.2.5 “Many times, when you have
done evil, you have thought to charge up your acts to the influence of the evil
one when in reality you have but been led astray by your own natural
tendencies. Did not the Prophet Jeremiah long ago tell you that the human heart
is deceitful above all things and sometimes even desperately wicked? How easy
for you to become self-deceived and thereby fall into foolish fears, divers
lusts, enslaving pleasures, malice, envy, and even vengeful hatred!
143.2.6 “Salvation is by the
regeneration of the spirit and not by the self-righteous deeds of the flesh. You
are justified by faith and fellowshipped by grace, not by fear and the
self-denial of the flesh, albeit the Father’s children who have been born of
the spirit are ever and always masters of the self and all that pertains
to the desires of the flesh. When you know that you are saved by faith, you
have real peace with God. And all who follow in the way of this heavenly peace
are destined to be sanctified to the eternal
service
of the ever-advancing sons of the eternal God. Henceforth, it is not a duty but
rather your exalted privilege to cleanse yourselves from all evils of mind and
body while you seek for perfection in the love of God.
143.2.7 “Your sonship is grounded in
faith, and you are to remain unmoved by fear. Your joy is born of trust in the divine
word, and you shall not therefore be led to doubt the reality of the Father’s
love and mercy. It is the very goodness of God that leads men into true and
genuine repentance. Your secret of the mastery of self is bound up with your
faith in the indwelling spirit, which ever works by love. Even this saving faith you have not of yourselves; it also is the gift
of God. And if you are the children of this living faith, you are no longer
the bondslaves of self but rather the triumphant masters of yourselves, the liberated
sons of God.
(JRT)
This confirms Saint Thomas Aquinas' teachings about prevenient and efficacious
grace. We have to adopt an attitude of humble openness to grace.
143.2.8 “If, then, my children, you
are born of the spirit, you are forever delivered from the selfconscious bondage
of a life of self-denial and watchcare over the desires of the flesh, and you
are translated into the joyous kingdom of the spirit, whence you spontaneously
show forth the fruits of the spirit in your daily lives; and the fruits of the
spirit are the essence of the highest type of enjoyable and ennobling
self-control, even the heights of terrestrial mortal attainment — true
self-mastery.”
Equality of man and of religions:
92.7.3 The many religions of Urantia
are all good to the extent that they bring man to God and bring the realization
of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any group of religionists to conceive
of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes bespeak more of theological
arrogance than of certainty of faith. *** There
is not a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the
best of the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth.
Religionists would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors’ living spiritual
faith rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and
outworn rituals.
92.7.4 All these religions have
arisen as a result of man’s variable intellectual response to his identical spiritual
leading. They can never hope to attain a uniformity of creeds, dogmas, and
rituals — these
are intellectual; but they can, and some day will, realize a unity in true
worship of the Father of all, for this is spiritual, and it is forever true, in
the spirit all men are equal.***
UB Paper 68 Section 3. Socializing
Influence of Ghost Fear
68.3.1 Primitive desires produced
the original society, but ghost fear held it together and imparted an extrahuman
aspect to its existence. Common fear was physiological in origin: fear of
physical pain, unsatisfied hunger, or some earthly calamity; but ghost fear was
a new and sublime sort of terror.
68.3.2 Probably the greatest single
factor in the evolution of human society was the ghost dream. Although most
dreams greatly perturbed the primitive mind, the ghost dream actually
terrorized early men, driving these superstitious dreamers into each other’s
arms in willing and earnest association for mutual protection against the vague
and unseen imaginary dangers of the spirit world. The ghost dream was one of
the earliest appearing differences between the animal and human types of mind.
Animals do not visualize survival after death.
68.3.3 Except for this ghost factor,
all society was founded on fundamental needs and basic biologic urges. But
ghost fear introduced a new factor in civilization, a fear which reaches out
and away from the elemental needs of the individual, and which rises far above
even the struggles to maintain the group. The dread of the departed spirits of
the dead brought to light a new and amazing form of fear, an appalling and powerful
terror, which contributed to whipping the loose social orders of early ages
into the more
thoroughly
disciplined and better controlled primitive groups of ancient times. This
senseless superstition, some of which still persists, prepared the minds of
men, through superstitious fear of the unreal and the supernatural, for the
later discovery of “the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.” The
baseless fears of evolution are designed to be supplanted by the awe for Deity
inspired by revelation. The early cult of ghost fear became a powerful social
bond, and ever since that far-distant day mankind has been striving more or
less for the attainment of spirituality.
68.3.4 Hunger and love drove men
together; vanity and ghost fear held them together. But these emotions alone,
without the influence of peace-promoting revelations, are unable to endure the
strain of the suspicions and irritations of human interassociations. Without
help from superhuman sources the strain of society breaks down upon reaching
certain limits, and these very influences of social mobilization —
hunger,
love, vanity, and fear — conspire to plunge mankind into war and bloodshed.
68.3.5 The peace tendency of the
human race is not a natural endowment; it is derived from the teachings of
revealed religion, from the accumulated experience of the progressive races,
but more especially from the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
86.4.3 Early man was also much
concerned about his breath, especially in cold climates, where it appeared as a
cloud when exhaled. The breath of life was regarded as the one
phenomenon which differentiated the living and the dead. He knew the breath
could leave the body, and his dreams of doing all sorts of queer things while
asleep convinced him that there was something immaterial about a human being.
The most primitive idea of the human soul, the ghost, was derived from the
breath-dream ideasystem.
86.4.4 Eventually the savage
conceived of himself as a double — body and breath. The breath minus the body
equaled a spirit, a ghost. While having a very definite human origin, ghosts,
or spirits, were regarded as superhuman. And this belief in the existence of
disembodied spirits seemed to explain the occurrence of the unusual, the
extraordinary, the infrequent, and the inexplicable.
86.4.5 The primitive doctrine of
survival after death was not necessarily
a
belief in immortality. Beings who could not count over twenty could hardly
conceive of infinity and eternity; they rather thought of recurring
incarnations.
86.5.10 Early in evolution sleep was
regarded as proving that the ghost soul could be absent from the body, and it
was believed that it could be called back by speaking or shouting the sleeper’s
name. In other forms of unconsciousness the soul was thought to be farther
away, perhaps trying to escape for good — impending death. Dreams were looked
upon as the experiences of the soul during sleep while temporarily absent from
the body. The savage believes his dreams to be just as real as any part of his
waking experience. The ancients made a practice of awaking sleepers gradually
so that the soul might have time to get back into the body.
86.5.11 All down through the ages
men have stood in awe of the apparitions of the night season, and the Hebrews
were no exception. They truly believed that God spoke to them in dreams,
despite the injunctions of Moses against this idea. And Moses was right, for ordinary dreams are not the methods employed
by the personalities of the spiritual world when they seek to communicate with
material beings.
86.5.12
The ancients believed that souls could enter animals or even inanimate objects.
This culminated in the werewolf ideas of animal identification. A person could
be a law-abiding citizen by day, but when he fell asleep, his soul could enter
a wolf or some other animal to prowl about on nocturnal depredations.
87.5.14 It was not merely out of
curiosity that the ancients sought to know the future; they wanted to dodge ill
luck. Divination was simply an attempt to avoid trouble. During these times,
dreams were regarded as prophetic, while everything out of the ordinary was
considered an omen. And even today the civilized races are cursed with the
belief in signs, tokens, and other superstitious remnants of the advancing ghost
cult of old. Slow, very slow, is man to abandon those methods whereby he so
gradually and painfully ascended the evolutionary scale of life.
6. Coercion and Exorcism
87.6.1 When men believed in ghosts
only, religious ritual was more personal, less organized, but the recognition
of higher spirits necessitated the employment of “higher spiritual methods” in
dealing with them. This attempt to improve upon, and to elaborate, the
technique of spirit propitiation led directly to the creation of defenses
against the spirits. Man felt helpless indeed before the uncontrollable forces
operating in terrestrial life, and his feeling of inferiority drove him to
attempt to find some compensating adjustment, some technique for evening the
odds in the one-sided struggle of man versus the cosmos.
87.6.2 In the early days of the
cult, man’s efforts to influence ghost action were confined to propitiation, attempts
by bribery to buy off ill luck. As the evolution of the ghost cult progressed
to the concept of good as well as bad spirits, these ceremonies turned toward
attempts of a more positive nature, efforts to win good luck. Man’s religion no
longer was completely negativistic, nor did he stop with the effort to win good
luck;
he shortly began to devise schemes whereby he could compel spirit co-operation.
No longer does the religionist stand defenseless before the unceasing demands
of the spirit phantasms of his own devising; the savage is beginning to invent
weapons wherewith he may coerce spirit action and compel spirit assistance.
87.6.3 Man’s first efforts at
defense were directed against the ghosts. As the ages passed, the living began
to devise methods of resisting the dead. Many techniques were developed for
frightening ghosts and driving them away, among which may be cited the
following:
87.6.4 1): Cutting off the head and
tying up the body in the grave.
87.6.5 2): Stoning the death house.
87.6.6 3): Castration or breaking
the legs of the corpse.
87.6.7 4): Burying under stones, one
origin of the modern tombstone.
87.6.8 5): Cremation, a later-day
invention to prevent ghost trouble.
87.6.9 6): Casting the body into the
sea.
87.6.10 7): Exposure of the body to
be eaten by wild animals.
87.6.11 Ghosts were supposed to be
disturbed and frightened by noise; shouting, bells, and drums drove them away
from the living; and these ancient methods are still in vogue at “wakes” for
the dead. Foul-smelling concoctions were utilized to banish unwelcome spirits.
Hideous images of the spirits were constructed so that they would flee in haste
when they beheld themselves. It was believed that dogs could detect the
approach of ghosts, and that they gave warning by howling; that cocks would
crow when they were near. The use of a cock as a weather vane is in
perpetuation of this superstition.
87.6.12 Water was regarded as the
best protection against ghosts. Holy water was superior to all other forms,
water in which the priests had washed their feet. Both fire and water were
believed to constitute impassable barriers to ghosts. The Romans carried water
three times around the corpse; in the twentieth century the body is sprinkled
with holy water, and hand washing at the cemetery is still a Jewish ritual. Baptism
was a feature of the later water ritual; primitive bathing was a religious
ceremony. Only in recent times has bathing become a sanitary practice.
87.6.13 But man did not stop with
ghost coercion; through religious ritual and other practices he was soon
attempting to compel spirit action. Exorcism was the employment of one spirit
to control or banish another, and these tactics were also utilized for
frightening ghosts and spirits. The dual-spiritism concept of good and bad
forces offered man ample opportunity to attempt to pit one agency against
another, for, if a
powerful
man could vanquish a weaker one, then certainly a strong spirit could dominate
an inferior ghost. Primitive cursing was a coercive practice designed to
overawe minor spirits. Later this custom expanded into the pronouncing of
curses upon enemies.
87.6.14 It was long believed that by
reverting to the usages of the more ancient mores the spirits and demigods
could be forced into desirable action. Modern man is guilty of the same
procedure. You address one another in common, everyday language, but when you
engage in prayer, you resort to the older style of another generation, the
so-called solemn style.
87.6.15 This doctrine also explains
many religious-ritual reversions of a sex nature, such as temple prostitution.
These reversions to primitive customs were considered sure guards against many
calamities. And with these simple-minded peoples all such performances were
entirely free from what modern man would term promiscuity.
87.6.16 Next came the practice of
ritual vows, soon to be followed by religious pledges and sacred oaths. Most of
these oaths were accompanied by self-torture and self-mutilation; later on, by
fasting and prayer. Self-denial was subsequently looked upon as being a sure
coercive; this was especially true in the matter of sex suppression. And so
primitive man early developed a decided austerity in his religious practices, a
belief in the efficacy of self-torture and self-denial as rituals capable of
coercing the unwilling spirits to react favorably toward all such suffering and
deprivation.
87.6.17 Modern man no longer
attempts openly to coerce the spirits, though he still evinces a disposition to
bargain with Deity. And he still swears, knocks on wood, crosses his fingers,
and follows expectoration with some trite phrase; once it was a magical
formula.
7. Nature of Cultism
87.7.1 The cult type of social
organization persisted because it provided a symbolism for the preservation and
stimulation of moral sentiments and religious loyalties. The cult grew out of
the traditions of “old families” and was perpetuated as an established
institution; all families have a cult of some sort. Every inspiring ideal
grasps for some perpetuating symbolism — seeks some technique for cultural manifestation
which will insure survival and augment realization — and the cult achieves this
end by
fostering
and gratifying emotion.
87.7.2 From the dawn of civilization
every appealing movement in social culture or religious advancement has
developed a ritual, a symbolic ceremonial. The more this ritual has been an
unconscious growth, the stronger it has gripped its devotees. The cult
preserved sentiment and satisfied emotion, but it has always been the greatest
obstacle to social reconstruction and spiritual progress.
87.7.3 Notwithstanding that the cult
has always retarded social progress, it is regrettable that so many modern
believers in moral standards and spiritual ideals have no adequate symbolism —
no cult of mutual support — nothing to belong to. But a religious cult
cannot be manufactured; it must grow. And those of no two groups will be
identical unless their rituals are arbitrarily standardized by authority.
87.7.4
The early Christian cult was the most effective, appealing, and enduring of any
ritual ever conceived or devised, but much of its value has been destroyed in a
scientific age by the destruction of so many of its original underlying tenets.
The Christian cult has been devitalized by the loss of many fundamental ideas. ***
87.7.5 In the past, truth has grown
rapidly and expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism
expansile. Abundant truth and an adjustable cult have favored rapidity of
social progression. A meaningless cult vitiates religion when it attempts to
supplant philosophy and to enslave reason; a genuine cult grows.
87.7.6 Regardless of the drawbacks
and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and
even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and
appropriate symbolism. Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new
and expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties. This enhanced symbol must arise out
of religious living, spiritual experience. And this higher symbolism of
a
higher civilization must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God
and be pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man.
87.7.7 The old cults were too
egocentric; the new must be the outgrowth of applied love. The new cult must,
like the old, foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty; but it
must do more: It must facilitate spiritual progress, enhance cosmic meanings,
augment moral values, encourage social development, and stimulate a high type
of personal religious living. The new cult must provide supreme goals of living
which are both temporal and eternal — social and spiritual.
87.7.8 No cult can endure and
contribute to the progress of social civilization and individual spiritual attainment
unless it is based on the biologic, sociologic, and religious significance of
the home. A surviving cult must symbolize that which is permanent in the
presence of unceasing change; it must glorify that which unifies the stream of
ever-changing social metamorphosis. It must recognize true meanings, exalt beautiful
relations, and glorify the good values of real nobility.
87.7.9 But the great difficulty of
finding a new and satisfying symbolism is because modern men, as a group,
adhere to the scientific attitude, eschew superstition, and abhor ignorance,
while as individuals they all crave mystery and venerate the unknown. No cult
can survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery and conceals some
worthful unattainable. Again, the new symbolism must not only be significant
for
the group but also meaningful to the individual. The forms of any serviceable
symbolism must be those which the individual can carry out on his own
initiative, and which he can also enjoy with his fellows. If the new cult could
only be dynamic instead of static, it might really contribute something worth
while to the progress of mankind, both temporal and spiritual.
87.7.10 But a cult — a symbolism of
rituals, slogans, or goals — will not function if it is too complex. And there
must be the demand for devotion, the response of loyalty. Every effective
religion unerringly develops a worthy symbolism, and its devotees would do well
to prevent the crystallization of such a ritual into cramping, deforming, and
stifling stereotyped ceremonials which can only handicap and retard all social,
moral, and spiritual progress. No cult can survive if it retards moral growth
and fails to foster spiritual progress. The cult is the skeletal structure
around which grows the living and dynamic body of personal spiritual experience
— true religion.
87.7.11 [Presented by a Brilliant
Evening Star of Nebadon.]
100.5.6 If one is disposed to
recognize a theoretical subconscious mind as a practical working hypothesis in
the otherwise unified intellectual life, then, to be consistent, one should
postulate a similar and corresponding realm of ascending intellectual activity
as the superconscious level, the zone of immediate contact with the indwelling
spirit entity, the Thought Adjuster. The great danger in all these psychic
speculations is that visions and other so-called mystic experiences, along with
extraordinary dreams, may be regarded as divine communications to the human
mind. In times past, divine beings have revealed themselves to certain
God-knowing persons, not because of their mystic trances or morbid visions, but
in spite of all these phenomena.
110.5.4 While their mortal hosts are
asleep, the Adjusters try to register their creations in the higher levels of
the material mind, and some of your grotesque dreams indicate their failure to
make efficient contact. The absurdities of dream life not only testify to
pressure of unexpressed emotions but also bear witness to the horrible
distortion of the representations of the spiritual concepts presented by the Adjusters.
Your own passions, urges, and other innate tendencies translate themselves into
the picture and
substitute
their unexpressed desires for the divine messages which the indwellers are
endeavoring to put into the psychic records during unconscious sleep.
110.5.5
It is extremely dangerous to postulate as to the Adjuster content of the dream
life. The Adjusters do work during sleep, but your ordinary dream experiences
are purely physiologic and psychologic phenomena. Likewise, it is hazardous to
attempt the differentiation of the Adjusters’ concept registry from the more or
less continuous and conscious reception of the dictations of mortal conscience.
These are problems which will have to be solved through individual
discrimination and personal decision. But a human being would do better to err
in rejecting an Adjuster’s expression through believing it to be a purely human
experience than to blunder into exalting a reaction of the mortal mind to the
sphere of divine dignity. Remember, the influence of a Thought Adjuster is for
the most part, though not wholly, a superconscious experience.
(JRT)
In these matters it is essential, for your own safety, to avoid pride and
presumption. That is why I made no claim that chapter 16 comes from anything
other than my own imagination. Even if it were more than that, I would not
claim it unless I were 101% certain.
110.5.6 In varying degrees and
increasingly as you ascend the psychic circles, sometimes directly, but more
often indirectly, you do communicate with your Adjusters. But it is dangerous
to entertain the idea that every new concept originating in the human mind is
the dictation of the Adjuster. More often, in beings of your order, that which
you accept as the Adjuster’s voice is in reality the emanation of your own intellect.
This is dangerous ground, and every human being must settle these problems for
himself in
accordance
with his natural human wisdom and superhuman insight.
110.5.7 The Adjuster of the human
being through whom this communication is being made enjoys such a wide scope of
activity chiefly because of this human’s almost complete indifference to any
outward manifestations of the Adjuster’s inner presence; it is indeed fortunate
that he remains consciously quite unconcerned about the entire procedure. He
holds one of the highly experienced Adjusters of his day and generation, and
yet his passive reaction to, and inactive concern toward, the phenomena
associated with the presence in his mind of this versatile Adjuster is
pronounced by the guardian of destiny to be a rare and fortuitous reaction. And
all this constitutes a favorable co-ordination of influences, favorable both to
the Adjuster in the higher sphere of action and to the human partner from the
standpoints of health, efficiency, and tranquillity.
150.3.2 Late that evening Jesus gave
the united group a memorable talk on “Magic and Superstition.” Inthose days the
appearance of a bright and supposedly new star was regarded as a token
indicating that a great man had been born on earth. Such a star having then
recently been observed, Andrew asked Jesus if these beliefs were well founded.
In the long answer to Andrew’s question the Master entered upon a thoroughgoing
discussion of the whole subject of human superstition. The statement which
Jesus made atthis time may be summarized in modern phraseology as follows:
150.3.3 1): The courses of the stars in the heavens have
nothing whatever to do with the events of human life on earth. Astronomy is a
proper pursuit of science, but astrology is a mass of superstitious error which
has no place in the gospel of the kingdom. ***
150.3.4 2): The examination of the internal organs of an
animal recently killed can reveal nothing about weather, future events, or the
outcome of human affairs.
150.3.5 3): The spirits of the dead
do not come back to communicate with their families or their onetime friends
among the living.
150.3.6 4): Charms and relics are impotent to heal disease,
ward off disaster, or influence evil spirits; the belief in all such material
means of influencing the spiritual world is nothing but gross superstition.
150.3.7 5): Casting lots, while it may be a convenient way of
settling many minor difficulties, is not a method designed to disclose the
divine will. Such outcomes are purely matters of material chance. The only
means of communion with the spiritual world is embraced in the spirit endowment
of mankind, the indwelling spirit of the Father, together with the outpoured
spirit of the Son and the omnipresent influence of the Infinite Spirit.
150.3.8 6): Divination, sorcery, and witchcraft are
superstitions of ignorant minds, as also are the delusions of magic. The belief
in magic numbers, omens of good luck, and harbingers of bad luck, is pure and
unfounded superstition.
150.3.9 7): The interpretation of
dreams is largely a superstitious and groundless system of ignorant and
fantastic speculation. The gospel of the kingdom must have nothing in common
with the soothsayer priests of primitive religion.
150.3.10 8): The spirits of good or
evil cannot dwell within material symbols of clay, wood, or metal; idols are nothing
more than the material of which they are made.
150.3.11 9): The practices of the
enchanters, the wizards, the magicians, and the sorcerers, were derived from
the superstitions of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the
ancient Canaanites. Amulets and all sorts of incantations are futile either to
win the protection of good spirits or to ward off supposed evil spirits.
150.3.12 10): He exposed and
denounced their belief in spells, ordeals, bewitching, cursing, signs,
mandrakes, knotted cords, and all other forms of ignorant and enslaving
superstition.
(JRT) The above
teaching of Jesus alone is enough to make this book worthwhile.
Signed
at Malbazar on May 16,2012 – John
Robert Thwaytes
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