Recently, we had a discussion on the nature of God. One of the members of the discussion got a message from Spirit that suggested that GOD represents Generation, Organization and Destruction. It is an interesting view of God. If we look at generation as being very similar to creation, this view of God is very much that of the Old Testament.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. God created Adam and Eve, and then tossed them out of the Garden of Eden for disobeying His command. God is wrathful, but God is willing to take a payoff or a bribe to make up for any errors, which are known as sins. The more formal name for this process is a sacrifice.
One of the clearest insights into the Old Testament version of God occurs in Genesis when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to prove Abraham’s absolute obedience to God. God called it off after Abraham piled up the wood, bound Isaac, put him on the pyre, and was ready to kill him. I can’t help but think that Isaac was traumatized by this whole exercise. This story has never helped me accept God as being loving and forgiving.
We can contrast God versus The Creator of All That Is. The Hebrew God, and every other God of every other religion, is an invention of people in that particular religion. Most of the characteristics attributed to God were given by men because men generally had the leadership positions in nearly all religions. Women in the Old Testament were mainly mothers, prostitutes, queens and concubines. God was a man, and according to the creation story, Adam and God were about the same size.
The Creator of All That Is has no direct voice, holy book, or prophets. There is no spokesperson for The Creator of All That Is that claims to know the will and rules laid down by the Creator. Spiritualists call the Creator of All That Is the Infinite Intelligence. Spiritualists believe that the Infinite Intelligence is responsible for everything, and that there is a plan in place that we are executing and the Creator is observing.
Spiritualists have a set of principles that are largely based upon real experiences. We have some dogma in the Declaration of Principles, but our beliefs are fairly benign compared to a God that would have someone’s child threatened with death to prove allegiance to our faith. Spiritualists believe that no person is ever beyond redemption, and we don't operate by trying to scare the hell out of you. You can view the Declaration of Principles at http://christianspiritualisttemple.org/gpage3.html.
The value of understanding the difference between God and the Creator is that people are more than willing to kill or be killed over their version of God that they believe to be true. Passions are not so high for defending the Creator of All That Is. There is a lot of merit in merely admitting that we don’t know what the Creator wants, but we have faith that it will all work out for the Universal good. We may disagree with you, but we aren't about to hurt you to prove we are right. We are also willing to admit we may be wrong. We'll see what happens later.
This approach of looking to the Creator for guidance provides a lot of leeway, but it isn’t entirely a free for all. The Golden Rule is not only a good idea, but it appears to be the way the Universe operates. Karma is a concise statement of the personal responsibility that we recite each week with regard to the consequences of our decisions and actions.
As spiritualists, we need to remember to apply the Golden Rule to ourselves. When we do and say unto our selves as we would do and say unto others, and vice versa, we have pretty well covered the most important thing we need to be doing. We need to treat each other and our selves with kindness, respect and love. The concept is simple. The doing is not so easy.
One of the most divisive beliefs of any religion is that it is somehow special to the Creator. I suggest that we accept that each religion has one or more special Gods, and that everyone in that religion should be following the teachings of that God. The God of that religion appreciates that the followers are doing what that God teaches, and punishment will come to those in the religion that stray from that religion’s beliefs.
The Creator of All That Is doesn’t operate with many specific rules. It is hard to imagine that the Creator of a total Universe of about 1 septillion stars and probably 10 septillion planets is concerned with what a few people on one speck called Earth believe or does not believe about the Creator. Neither believers nor non-believers have any impact on the Creator beyond how we treat each other and the rest of the creation.
You can pick a religion and a God and follow the teachings and you will progress on the Spirit Path. You can pick no religion and have reverence for The Creator of All That Is, and you will progress on the Spirit Path. You can deny all Gods, religions and the Creator, and you will still progress on the Spirit Path. Whoever you are, and whatever you do, you are part of the Creation and you are on a spiritual journey.
Don’t let the details of what you think God wants confuse you. None of us really know how we got here or where we are going. The Creator wants us all to treat the creation as a wonderful and continuing event. Be the best human being that you can be. Treat everyone with respect and love. Have a good time. Leave the rest up to the Creator.
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