|
Talks on Truth
Lesson 9
[<- Go back to Lesson 8]
[Talks on Truth]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson IX
The Church of Christ
He came unto his own, and they that were his own received
him not.--John 1:11.
THE PURE doctrine of Jesus Christ has never been popular
with those who like formality and rites in religion.
2. The disciples of Jesus were from the ranks of the common
people, unlearned in the lore of the scribes and without
reputation, religiously or otherwise. They, in their turn,
became filled with the Holy Spirit, and did unusual works
in healing and teaching, yet their converts were not
largely from orthodox circles. It was the "common people"
who gladly heard them and their Master. The aristocracy and
the organized church opposed them at every turn. They were
stoned, quartered, and burned, and their doctrines never
became the popular religion. Pure Christianity was
literally killed in less than three hundred years after the
Crucifixion. What is called Christianity is a combination
of paganism,
Page 102
Israelitism, and the letter of Jesus' doctrine without the
spirit.
3. This heterogeneous mass became acceptable because it was
sanctioned by kings and enforced as the church of the
state. As it had a little from all the religions, it
offered balm to the forced worshipers from each sect, and
thus quickly became popular. It is not the doctrine of
Jesus Christ, however, and never has been, in any of its
many forms and sects. Here and there a gleam of Truth has
come to spiritually awakened devotees, and they have broken
away from the institution and formed newer and higher
standards of Truth; but all have been far short of the
original doctrine set forth by Jesus and His disciples.
4. Jesus never organized a church on earth, nor did He
authorize anyone else to do so. He said to Peter, "Upon
this rock I will build my church." He did not tell Peter
that He was to be the head of the church, with a line of
popes to follow. He said, "I will build my church"
(ecclesia, assembly, or called-out ones). Jesus Christ is
still the head of His "assembly," and its only organization
is in Spirit. Whoever attempts to organize it on earth,
with creeds, tenets, or textbooks of any kind or
description as authority, is in direct opposition to His
word and His example. He gave but one guide, one source
from which His followers should receive their inspiration:
"The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he
shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all that I said unto you."
Page 103
5. The puerile claim that this promise was for His
immediate disciples only is hardly worth considering,
because of so many texts in which He plainly states that
His ministry and words are for the world. He further said,
"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 unto
him."
6. It was this same Spirit of truth in Peter that perceived
the Christ, and of which He said, "Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven."
This revealment of Truth direct from Spirit is the rock
upon which the one and only church of Jesus Christ is
built. All other authorities are spurious.
7. That the one and only true Church of Christ is without
authority or head on earth is evident from the accepted
words of Jesus Himself. He never authorized the history of
His life as recorded in the Gospels, so far as known; yet,
accepting them as such history, on their face they bear out
the claim of a spiritual church, with only the Holy Ghost
as mediator between man and God. It is evident that Jesus
saw the tendency among men to make idols of the Scriptures,
and it was His aim to do away with that sort of idolatry.
Instead of a command to "search the scriptures," as given
in the Authorized Version, the American Standard Version
tells us that Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees (John 5:39)
in these words: "Ye search the scriptures, because ye think
that in them ye have eternal life; and these
Page 104
are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to
me, that ye may have life."
8. It is the eternal binding of the thoughts to some
external authority in book, creed, or tradition that keeps
men in bondage to the lower world. When the mind is
perfectly free to search out the higher truths of
existence, there flow into the consciousness a vigor and a
virility that set in motion all the crystallized thoughts,
and fresh life stirs the whole man. Instead of confining
the infinite God in the little being of parts and passions
conceived by some good but ignorant church father of bygone
ages, the open mind flows forth in its own native freedom,
and its God is a whole universe, larger in every way than
was his of the limited concept. So it is with all the
questions of doctrine that form the stock in trade of
hereditary religion. What our forefathers discussed for a
lifetime, fought bitter battles over and left undecided,
the free-minded man sees through in a moment's
consideration. He sees through it with unerring accuracy,
because his point of view is far removed from the narrow
bigotry engrafted by creeds and dogmas into the susceptible
mind of the infant churchman.
9. The mind of man is like a clear stream that flows from
some lofty mountain. It has nothing at its point of origin
to corrupt or to distort it, but as it flows out into the
plain of experience, it meets the obstruction of doubt and
fear. It is here that dams are built and its course is
turned in many ways.
10. Whoever formulates a creed or writes a book, claiming
it to be an infallible guide for mankind;
Page 105
whoever organizes a church in which it is attempted, by
rules and tenets, to save men from their evil ways; whoever
attempts to offer, in any way, a substitute for the one
omnipresent Spirit of God dwelling in each of us, is an
obstructor of the soul's progress.
11. But those very things are the first attempted by the
mind that is not in constant openness to the influx from
the Father. Man is by nature an organizer. It is his
function in the God-head to formulate the potentialities of
Principle. It is through man's conscious ego that the
Father makes Himself manifest to him as infinite
externality. The within and the without are one only when
man recognizes that he draws all his life, his substance,
and his intelligence from infinite Spirit welling up within
him.
12. Many have caught sight of the fact that the true church
of Christ is a state of consciousness in man, but few have
gone so far in the realization as to know that in the very
body of each man and woman is a temple in which the Christ
holds religious services at all times: "Ye are a temple of
God." The appellation was not symbolical, but a statement
of architectural truth. Under the direction of the Christ,
a new body is constructed by the thinking faculty in man;
the materials entering into this superior structure are the
spiritualized organic substances, and the new creation is
the temple or body of Spirit. It breathes an atmosphere and
is thrilled with a life energy more real than that of the
external form. When one who has come into the church of
Christ feels the stirring within him of this body of
Page 106
the Spirit, he knows what Paul meant when he said, "There
is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."
13. Most of the opposition to the church of Christ comes
from those who have never felt within them the stirring of
this spiritual body, who refuse to believe the experiences
of those who have. They live in the intellectual-spiritual,
and when the Holy Spirit proceeds to organize an abiding
place within them, they refuse Him recognition and call Him
"mortal mind," "the Devil," or "an unclean spirit."
14. It is this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that Jesus
said could not be forgiven. Everything that a man does or
has done, the Father freely forgives except the cursing of
His Holy Spirit by calling it an unclean spirit. He who
understands the law of mental action can easily see why
this cannot be forgiven. Mind organizes its states of
consciousness according to methods inherent in Being. First
is the idea, the center in which the form is generated.
This form is projected from that center to a circumference,
and in its line of structure in the consciousness of man it
proceeds to occupy the place of preexisting forms. The idea
of perfection, held in the mind, will build a body having
for its attributes all the harmony possible to the organism
in which it is born. "God giveth it a body even as it
pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own." That
"seed" is the true idea held in your mind, through which
the Holy Spirit nourishes and grows in you the new body.
15. If you refuse to receive the sensible ministrations
Page 107
of this Holy Spirit, you, of course, cut off the builder of
the eternal temple in which God makes His permanent
dwelling place in you.
16. When you refuse to receive this baptism of the Holy
Ghost, your flesh is not quickened, and it must eventually
go back to dust. In that case you are again sent to school
to learn the lesson in another earthly experience.
17. This is the law. Let him who has ears hear the law; let
him not oppose the construction of the temple that Spirit
builds in obedience to the thought held by the mind, and
his body shall become an enduring, deathless habitation of
the living God. Let us, each one of us, see to it that this
opposition to Christ and His methods is not found within us.
18. If our teaching has been such as to disparage the
entertainment of the new sensations in the body when in
prayer or in the silence, let us cast those ideas out of
our mind and throw ourselves wholly into the care of
Spirit. The mind of the flesh vigorously opposes this
newcomer in its domain, and if you side with it and
ignorantly cast out Spirit, you eventually will find
yourself without a body. Having sinned against the Holy
Ghost, you become homeless in consequence.
19. Pronounce every experience good, and of God, and by
that mental attitude you will call forth only the good.
What seemed error will disappear, and only the good will
remain. This is the law, and no one can break it. The
Adversary always flees before the mind that is fixed on the
pure, the just, and the upright. There is no error in all
the universe
Page 108
that can stand for one moment in the presence of the
innocent mind. Innocence is its own defense, and he who
invokes the Father with pure motive and upright heart need
not fear any experience. God has not forgotten His world
nor the children of light. It is His will to build in you
His eternal habitation, and He will do it in a manner so
attractive that you will be delighted with the process
after the first few moves have been made. It is not always
pleasant to tear down old brick and mortar, but when the
new structure begins to go up, there is rejoicing.
20. So you will find in your experience with the work of
the Holy Spirit in reconstructing your organism that the
present structure must be literally torn down atom by atom.
It is in its present state temporary and without the
conscious life of the indwelling Spirit. You, with the
race, have separated yourself from God in consciousness;
that separation extends to the body, the most remote plane
of consciousness. In returning, the Father, the inner
Spirit that is and ever has been pure, first recognizes its
true estate. This recognition is on the plane of causes,
the ideal, and may remain there for a long time. But the
law of seedtime and harvest prevails here, as in the
natural world, and the idea is the seed that will spring
forth from its subjective realm. This, when watered by the
Holy Spirit through your receptive thought, grows a new
organism that will be a permanent battery from which you
will radiate the transcendent powers of Spirit forever and
forever.
21. When this is done, creation is a perfect,
Page 109
homogeneous symphony of life, light, and love. Discord is
eliminated; sin, sorrow, and everything that in any way
interferes with the highest ideal of existence are
dissolved, and man realizes that his dominion is to be the
obedient outlet of the inexhaustible inlet. Herein is God
glorified and His inexhaustible resources are not limited
by man, but allowed full and free flow into a universe
without height or depth, without beginning or ending.
22. The true church of Christ is never organized upon the
earth, because the minute that man organizes his religion,
he ceases to be guided wholly by the free Spirit of truth,
and to that extent he falls away from the true church.
23. Many of the Protestant sects were in their incipiency
very close to the original church. Wesley was led by
Spirit, and his ministry was characterized by a spiritual
glow and power that was felt all over the religious world.
He was free; he had the freedom of Jesus Christ back of
him, yet he and his followers were despised by the
organized church, and it was a stinging epithet to be
called a Methodist.
24. The church of Jesus Christ still waits for a ministry
that will represent it as it is--an organization in heaven
without a head on earth, without a creed, without a line of
written authority. This church exists, and must be set up
in its rightful place--the minds and the hearts of men. It
can never be confined to any external organization; whoever
attempts such a movement, by that act ceases to represent
the true church of Christ.
25. There is need of such a church, an imperative
Page 110
need that it be set up. Whoever advocates such a setting
up, may for a season expect the opposition of the organized
institutions on every hand, but the final outcome must be
victory.
26. There can be but one leader for man in his search for
God--the Spirit within him. When he unreservedly gives
himself up to this Spirit he finds that the old world of
forms and their limitations are no longer of interest. A
new world is opened to his vision. What was the goal of his
human life becomes a mere toy to his expanded concepts of
God and the destiny of man.
27. He finds that the church of Jesus Christ is not a
church at all, under the new definition. He has looked upon
his religion as having to do with the salvation of his
soul--a sort of school in which he is coached in catechism
and creed, that he may be prepared to go to a place called
"heaven" after death.
28. When the true church is revealed to his soul, all this
illusion of the animal man is dissolved. He finds that the
church of Jesus Christ has to do with the world right here
and now; that it is not a religion, as he has been
accustomed to regard religion; that it is an organic
principle in nature working along definite lines of growth
in the building up of a state of consciousness for the
whole human race.
29. Thus the church of Jesus Christ is an exact science. It
has its part in the economy of Being, as the organizer of
the unorganized. It does not refer to things abstract, but
to things concrete. Whoever
Page 111
looks upon it as an abstraction has wholly misconceived it.
30. God never performs miracles, if by miracle is meant a
departure from universal law. Whatever the prophets did was
done by the operation of laws inherent in Being and open to
the discovery of every man.
31. Whatever Jesus of Nazareth did, it is likewise the
privilege of every man to do. The ability to do such works
as He did is simply a question of discernment. Discernment
comes through the functioning of an orderly organic
structure, which is in the soul of every man. It is first a
state of consciousness, a perception of what is in the
potential; this then formulates itself into a working
structure that becomes in every man the permanent church of
Christ.
32. The church of Christ covers every department of man's
existence and enters into every fiber of his being. He
carries it with him day and night, seven days of the week.
He lives in it as a fish lives in water; as he becomes
conscious of its enveloping presence, he is transformed
into a new creature. Life becomes an ecstasy, and his cup
is full to overflowing.
33. The burdens of the human drop out of sight just as fast
as the organic church is constructed. The construction of
this church is orderly, definite, and exact. It is not done
in a moment, but little by little the man is built from the
within to the without, a new creature in consciousness and
in body.
34. This means that your body will be so transformed
Page 112
within and even without that it will never go through the
change called death. It will be a resurrected body,
becoming more and more refined as you catch sight of the
free truths of Being, until it will literally disappear
from the sight of those who see with the eye of sense.
35. This is the way in which the last enemy, "death," is to
be overcome. The corruptible shall put on incorruption
right here and now. Be careful not to defer this change to
some future state, some day of judgment, some sound of a
last trump, but recognize it in the light of an organic
change occurring in and through your body, from day to day,
until you literally shine with the glory of the noonday sun.
36. This is the promised New Jerusalem, a city in which
neither the sun nor the moon is necessary. This is the city
of God within you, and your body shall become so
illuminated by the brilliancy of your mind that the light
streaming forth will be brighter than that of the sun. This
is not a fanciful sketch, but a statement of facts based
upon spiritual dynamics of which the body is the dynamo.
37. Metaphysicians in this age have caught sight of the
possibilities that are man's when he consciously recognizes
his relation to God and proceeds to carry out in thought,
and to act right here, that which he perceives to be true
in Spirit; but many of them are not wise in their methods
of attaining the ultimate organic building. They have made
connection with the realm of ideas, but are loath to comply
with the requirements of organic growth from the generative
idea to its concrete structure.
Page 113
This growth is the construction of the church of Jesus
Christ in each one of us, and it is a most delicate and
intricate process. No external architect is here allowed;
only Spirit can tell what is necessary from day to day, and
Spirit can be heard only by the attentive ego.
38. If you have any ideas of your own as to how this new
body is to be constructed, drop them immediately. If you
have been before the public as a teacher of divine science,
and have set up in consciousness abstract theories about
the unreality of the body and its sensations, you will be
willing to give them all up before you can be received into
the regeneration. Although you may have served Truth long
and faithfully, do not be rebellious if all your labors
seem as dust and ashes. The rebellious Israelites never
entered the Promised Land. You must be obedient. You must
be willing to give up all your plans, your hopes, and your
ambitions. Spirit wants all your attention. If you have
done good, you will be rewarded, but you must not claim
your good as a merit card that gives you any preference in
the regeneration. You must be willing to become as nothing
in the sight of men--virtually crucified for your good
works. Then your personal mentality loses its center, the
atoms of your being swiftly change their polarization from
the material to the spiritual plane, and you come forth
from the tomb of sense with a body of light.
Page 114
[Go forward to Lesson 10 ->]
[Talks on Truth]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
|