Volume 8, Issue 7, page 11
Writer Says Expounders of Gospel Miss
Entirely the Meaning of Christ's Doctrine
By MARTHA BAKER
HME are many teachings advocating
the "saving of souls", but has the
word"soul" really been clearly de-
fined? Men babble on about saving
souls with no understanding of what
a soul is, and how can one tell you
how to save your soul if he doesn't
know the meaning of soul? Most ex-
pounders of the Gospel of Christ
have missed entirely the meaning of
His doctrine, which was not really a doc-
trine, but truth. His teachings offered
man a new way of life --one in which the
real realities of being are preferred
over the old way of materialism. But soon
his so-called followers formalized His
teaching until it was hardly worthy of
the name Christian.
Jesus Christ did not come to found a new religion-yet most of the
world regards Christianity as the teachings of
Jesus. These teachings do not do the Nazarene proper credit, but
debauch His great sacrifice by worshiping Jesus the
man rather than following His footsteps in the regeneration,
doing the word He did and proving His doctrine true.
Jesus not only taught truth but demonstrated the power of Christ
by resuscitating the physical bo dy after He had
allowed men to kill His body on the cross.
The majority of Christian teachings are based on being saved
after death, rather than being saved froin
deathp as Christ taught (II Tim., 1:10). The scriptures, which
reveal the word of God, state: The soul that
sinneth, it shall die (Ezek. 18: 4). It does not say the soul
that sinneth shall die after death of the body. And
Jesus said, If a man keep xy saying, he shall never see death.
In the first chapter of Genesis, God made man in His image and
likeness, yet there was not a man to till the soil
in the second chapter (Gen. 2: 5). But in verse 7 of this same
chapter, the Lord God created a form and breathed the
breath of life into that form and man became a living soul. This
allegorical story illustrates how man becomes a
living soul. It shows that life (spiritl and form (body) when
united become a soul. It also illustrates how life
operating thru mind has the ability to gather to itself that
which it desires to create. The same thing that created man
has given him the ability to create also.
When man really understands that life is God, expressed by
conscious intelligence. and that Christ is that
conscious intelligence operating in diversity. man will begin to
comprehend something of the nature of soul.
The Ego of man, which is the atom seed, or Christ light, hidden
in the heart (deep subconscious), can be
cultivated and expanded until man becomes thedivine image and
likeness of God. or perfect creation which he is, but
NOVEMBER, 1961 The ABERREE
as yet doesn't realize-because he loves darkness (discord, greed,
hate, and all other selfish traits) rather than light
(Christ).
Man is really divine mind in manifestation, but he fails to
express the perfection of divinity because he has
allowed his mind to become saturated with materialistic thinking,
and imagines himself separated from God.
However, he can regain his realization of his divinity by
following the teachings of Jesus Christ, once he
understands what ismeant by possessing his soul. "In your
patience possess ye your souls" (Luke 21:19).
The Ego is essentially right. We see people who act egotistical
and find society criticizes them because of these
undesirable traits, but in reality they are only trying to prove
to themselves that they are greater than society wishes
to acknowledge. If a man knewhis innate greatness, he would never
try to prove it, but accept it and this negative
trait of egotism would disappear. On the other hand, if society
were made up of more people who were aware of
~heir own divinity, they would not be so anxious to lower the
self-esteem of the egotist but help him realize his
divinity.
The soul of man is the mental envelope he has created around the
spark of light, which is the Christ-seed. The
light itself cannot be destroyed but the soul which carries the
memory of ali experiences thru which the Ego has
passed can destroy the consciousness of itself with its own
self-created evil. Without this spark of light, which is
life itself. man could not have created a body. The body is the
soul in manifest form. If it does not express the
divine image and likeness of God, itis because of the false
beliefs man entertains about himself; therefore, the true
image becomes distorted and expresses the error which mind
entertains. With proper understanding of what soul is,
man canbecome conscious of consciousness, thereby regaining the
right estimate of himself, gradually growing in
grace (truth) until he "awakens in his likeness" a fully redeemed
soul no longer subject to
death.
The dual nature of man is expressed because he is both a
conscious and unconscious being.
moving and living inGod as God lives and moves and has being in
him. The more conscious man
becomes of consciousness, the more soul he possesses.
The soul of man in reality is that part of him of which he
isunconscious. For this reason
man has been termed a triune being-the Superconscious (knower),
the conscious (thinker) , and
the subconscious (activator or doer). The Superconscious is the
Wonderful Counselor; the
intuitive leadings and all wisdom come from this mind. The
average man is unaware of this
part of his mind, because he depends too much on his thinker
(conscious mind) that judges by
appearances. If more heed were given to the higher mind, or
uplifted state of consciousness,
man would not make so many mistakes in judgment. He would be led
and directed by God in
anything he desired to do. He would not be