The Twentieth and Twenty-first Sayings (Part 5)

And The Man continued his commentary.

“‘If we build churches and acquire great material possessions, these in themselves cannot help us to affect the sun or the cosmos for the good of the universe. That would not carry out the Will of God. Indeed, that would tend to serve our own human needs more than spiritual needs. Large buildings, in imitation of that which God has already created for us in nature, are superfluous. God, speaking through the prophets, has told us that altars made by human hands, like churches, are rejected by God.

“‘True religion and true worship are not a matter of faith, belief, sacrifice, or living a dogmatic set of laws, but living The Way revealed by God as a new spiritual people. The new spiritual personality is created or generated by God’s Presence and the force and the Light of the sun. The Light, being God’s Truth, Righteousness, Image and Word, represents a new condition in the universe which we are instructed how to use for our own spiritual evolution back to the Godhead.

“‘As I have said many times before, just as an embryo is conceived by the act of man and woman, the new spiritual person is conceived by the joining of a person with the Image and the Word of God. Thus God creates that person anew. Faith or belief systems, or adherence to a church idea created by the mind of Man cannot create new life, physically or spiritually. All living things generate their own kind, offspring similar to themselves.

“‘It is a law of nature that each species reproduce itself. Spiritual people are reproduced by God in the sun in accordance with The Teachings. As a new species of spiritual persons, they are restricted to The System itself – they are a product of that System. Generation of a Light body is something that is unique to this Teaching, this Way, this System that we have repossessed in this Church. This is very difficult for people to understand.

“‘Man has inherited a spirit. This spirit has a dual aspect. It has the capacity to come under the influence of the Powers of Darkness which make it grossly materialistic and plunges it deeper into error and eventual dissipation into chaos. It also has the capacity to come under the influence of the Powers of Light. When God’s Word has incarnated within Man’s spirit, a Soul is born to that person. The person then becomes spiritual with new faculties of perception which puts that person into a new dimension of reality. This is The Way that Jesus was attempting to teach members of the early Church, and it explains why they were not afraid of death. Jamil has revealed this same Way to us in modern times and he has shown us the means by which it is achieved.

“‘In the Catholic or Protestant churches in the world there is no spiritual rebirth of the kind spoken of by Jesus in the first Church, and now restored in the new Church, because the former are not teaching the means or the methods by which spiritual life can be recreated. The people who believe in the church are good people; they express themselves emotionally, intellectually, and have an appreciation of God. But they do not recreate or generate a Light body nor come into possession of a Soul as taught by Jesus. This, we know is fundamental.

“‘Ministers of this Church guard the secret means of obtaining this new birth. And, by secret, we mean sacred. This new birth is not attainable outside of The Community. Many people find fault with that fact. They say that this rebirth should be possible to anyone who wishes it, even outside of this Community. It is important for you to understand the concept that each species reproduces itself.

“‘If you look at the sun and other people do not, if you follow The System and other people do not, if you look upon the Image of God in the sun and other people do not, if you follow The Way and abide by the codes and the ethics and exemplify the Light, then you will respond to that System. Those people outside of The System cannot be expected to respond to it because it is beyond their power to do so. Some people find this very difficult to understand.

“‘The ministers or the persons within this System participate in a divine Marriage to God. And the Teachers of this Church officiate and oversee this marriage by teaching others how to apply The System and The Way within The Community. Some people may reason that it is not necessary to have Teachers, Overseers or order in The Community. They may reason that it is possible to obtain positive results by looking at the sun through disorder, by living any way they choose and still obtain a desired effect. That is not possible.

“‘The divine State is reserved for those people who participate within the mystery; it is not for those outside of it. Let us review what Jamil tells us in the Twenty-First Saying: “The destiny of the whole world shall be determined by ministers ordained to The Teaching of the New State. Each minister shall pledge to serve the New Nation beyond any human allegiance of family, society or nation, as an act of love of God.” The profundity of these words only has meaning and far-reaching significance when understood properly. The cosmos is not to be denied.’”

“‘In the old Church, a life of chastity and celibacy is considered a sacrifice. In this New Church, by devoting ourselves to The Way, we make a gift to God.

“‘A life of dedication, overseeing The Community, reflecting to the sun, invoking God to shine forth to prevent the material sun from negating requires that an individual live The Way and have access to power that enables one’s thoughts to be measured in the sun. If you are powerless, you cannot affect the sun.

“‘Jesus and the Essenes emphasized the gift of spiritual love over sacrifice. Jesus made the ultimate gift by his crucifixion to show that the spirit was supreme. His followers, by the thousands, also gave their lives for the same reason. Modern Christians forget that this gift to God made by these people is still having an effect in the sun. And they were able to bring this effect about by emphasizing spiritual values and their love of God.

“‘Let us be realistic. The modern-day Church has become materialistic. The value of churches is measured in terms of material nature – members, wealth, power, prestige, influence in the secular affairs of Man, the number of churches or temples, or the number of clergy. None of these things have value as a spiritual force, only as a human and materialistic force. Thus the churches of today, and I am speaking specifically about the Christian churches, are more materialistic than spiritual.

“‘The concept of God in the modern Church is emotional. Materiality is a blessing. The churches have become more realistic over the centuries, knowing full well that society and heads of state are impressed with their numbers and their material wealth. They have long since ceased to work in accordance with God’s Divine Plan and are more anxious to solve human or emotional needs. They are incapable of affecting the ruling sun or the cosmos for the overall good of humankind.

“‘We can see why the New Ministers of The Community are obliged to maintain their independence from the Church of the Old Dispensation and take the necessary oaths and vows of Overseeing The Community to transform the world by means of the Sun – the spiritual Sun. This Ministry requires a new dedication. And it is only a new ministry, different from the existing ministry, that can change the world. There is no other way to transform the world because humankind, as we know, is spiritually ill; it has become selfish, materialistic, and worldly.

“‘Devotion to God is the only way to immortality; if a person is worldly then that person dies with the death of the body, for the spiritual Soul has not been created. People in the sun adhering to The System and to The Way become transfigured, according to The Teachings. Those who absorb the energy from the sun and look upon the Image of God, which is eternal Light and Truth, are made a new species. To understand God and to know God, future humankind must `burn away’ the material body and replace it with a Light body nurtured by the Breath of God from the Sun.

“‘The Child states, very simply, that if you look upon the image of the sun and allow the Word and the Image of God to manifest within you, and if you live The Way, a new person will come forth. And this person has an effect upon the sun and can alter the world in which we live. This is the whole concept.’”

The Twentieth and Twenty-first Sayings (Part 3)

And The Man continued instructing the Companions of The Way.

“‘It is the obligation of the New Ministry to preserve The Teachings and to instruct the whole world, including secular religions, in them. Man’s religions serve Man and his social order, as you all know, but they fail to inspire humankind because, being ignorant of The Teachings, they are not in agreement with Cosmic Law which dictates that God must be active in the affairs of Man and must be available to spiritual people. Therefore, these religions, being ignorant of this new condition, are not representative of the Religion of God and must be viewed as the religions of Man and his human society.

“‘Cosmic Law – the Divine Law of God – is to be served more than the law of Man. God does not respond to Man’s laws; on the contrary, Man responds to God’s Laws. So the Divine Law, being established first in Heaven and in the Light of the Sun, is to be established on earth according to Divine Order.

“‘A living theocracy is to come into being to serve God so that His Will may be established upon the earth and in the heart and the soul of Man.

“‘If Man is to understand and experience God, he must break away from Man’s laws that were created to serve Man and not God. That does not mean that Man should live in a state of anarchy or that we care to do away with law. On the contrary, all spiritual people must be conscious of the good of law and order in the State, but people must not serve civil law first and relegate spiritual Law to a secondary role.

“‘God lives today. The priests of the Roman Church, as well as the ministers of the Protestant churches, emphasize that God lived in the past and is no longer active today in the laws of the nations. In reality, God is dead as far as the affairs of Man are concerned – God is relegated to ancient history. Though He is no longer available to heads of state, God once walked and spoke with those in power. Something went awry in the course of history.

“‘How are we to gather sufficient numbers to establish the Divine State, or Nation, spoken of by Jamil? How are we to make this Nation effective as a spiritual force in the face of large, heavily populated nations with their economic, political, military and material power? We are told by Jamil that any alteration of the world must begin with the individual. And the individual can affect the world when that individual is joined with others in Community. Though spiritual evolvement begins with the individual, one’s influence is limited until such time as one joins in Community and abides by the laws of that Community. The effect of individuals collected in Community is measured in the sun – the material sun – of our universe. And the world reacts to that effect – the sun’s power is more powerful on the earth than the natural forces of the earth itself. We thus comprehend the power that is in the hands of the adept.

“‘In The Community, the individual who becomes enlightened must be prepared to stimulate the world. And the individual must make a pledge to God in order to achieve this stimulation. This can only be done if the individual exemplifies the Light by living what we call The Way. By exemplifying the life of Jamil, one causes a reaction in the sun. Therefore, all things in a person’s human life – fame, power, material benefits, pleasures, family, the State – must play a secondary role in order that one may live the spiritual or Holy Way.

“‘Whatever one must relinquish in order to achieve the State of Light should not be considered as a sacrifice, but as a gift to God. A sacrifice creates the opposite result of what is desired. A gift to God is given as an act of love and always achieves the desired result.

“‘We must emphasize the value of spiritual Love more than any kind of sacrifice, or the idea of sacrifice. The individual is asked to love God and not make sacrifices. Only the pure spirit of a reborn soul is acceptable to God – any other gift has no meaning. A pure spirit and reborn soul are the products of a lifetime of dedication, and the greatest gift that can be made by any human.’”