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Mysteries of Genesis
Foreword
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[Mysteries of Genesis]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
THE BOOK OF GENESIS is the key to the Bible. In the New
Testament it is quoted twenty-seven times literally and
thirty-eight times substantially. It tells in a very few
words how God first imaged man and the universe and then
turned the development over to Jehovah, who has been in a
process of manifestation for ages and aeons.
The "Five Books of Moses," of which Genesis is the first,
have always been credited to Moses, but that he was the
author seems doubtful in the face of the many stories of
creation found in the legends and hieroglyphs of ancient
Egypt, Chaldea, and other nations that are almost identical
with those of Genesis. It would thus seem that Moses edited
the legends of the ages and compiled them into an
allegorical history of creation.
As printed in English translations there is little to
reconcile Genesis with creation as revealed by modern
geology. It is said that Hugh Miller, the brilliant
Scottish geologist, went insane in his efforts to reconcile
Genesis with the geological record. However more accurate
translations of the Hebrew show that the literal reading of
the English is often not warranted by the original text.
For example, the English Bible reads, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." Fentons translation
renders it thus: "By periods God created that which
produced the Suns; then that which produced the Earth."
When we realize that God is mind (Spirit-mind), we see that
this latter rendition is correct. God creates the ideas
that form the things. Here we have the key that unlocks not
only the mysteries
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of Genesis but the whole Bible. God's creations are always
spiritual. This includes the spiritual man, called Jehovah,
through whom all things, including personal man, Adam, are
brought into manifestation.
We ask our readers to dwell on this initial proposition
until its truth is established in consciousness, because it
is repeated over and over in both the Old and the New
Testament. Jesus said, "I speak not from myself: but the
Father abiding in me doeth his works." Jesus was here
referring both to His personality, the external I, and to
the inner spiritual entity that He named the Father, in
Genesis called Jehovah.
Hebrew words are composite; they contain a variety of
meanings, to be determined by the context. For example the
Hebrew word yom, translated "day" in the English Bible,
means "to be hot"; that is, with reference to the heat of
the day as compared with the cool of the night. The word
yom was also used to represent a period of time, an age.
It will readily be seen that the translator had a rich
field of ideas from which to choose and that he could make
his text historical or symbolical according to his
consciousness. If he thought the original story was a
statement of facts his translation would be to that end.
The Pharisees of Jesus' time were condemned by Him for
teaching the letter of the Scriptures and neglecting the
spirit. The same charge can be brought today against those
who study the Bible as history rather than as parable and
idealistic illustration of the spiritual unfoldment of man.
The Bible veils in its history the march of man from
innocence and ignorance to a measure of sophistication and
understanding. Over all hovers the divine
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idea of man, the perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a
perpetual source of inspiration and power for every man.
Those who seek to know this Lord and His manifestation,
Jesus Christ, receive a certain spiritual quickening that
opens the inner eye of the soul and they see beyond the
land of shadows into the world of Spirit.
The truths in this book will be revealed to you through
your own spiritual unfoldment. Spiritual things are
spiritually discerned. The spiritual revelations that you
seem to get from books and teachers already existed as
submerged experiences in your own soul. The essential
truths have been worked out in this or previous
incarnations, and when you were reminded of the buried idea
it blazed forth as a light from without. So all that you
are or ever will be must come from your own spiritual
achievements.
"Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you."
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[Mysteries of Genesis]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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