The Spiritualist Minister and The Bible

One may ask if a Spiritualist Minister can preach from the Bible as a denominational ministers or priests. The answer is a definite Yes. This is so because the Spiritualist will preach from a spiritual standpoint not from a doctoral or dogmatic point of view. That is not to say that an individual minister or priest would not preach from a spiritual point of view – they do.

For example: As we take a look at a particular passage from the Bible, we see that it says in Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. When we look at this passage there is no argument about what it says. In the beginning God tells us that God has always existed, even long before the creation of this physical universe, however, not the beginning of God’s existence. Like all denominational ministers and priests, we as Spiritualist believe the same things they do about the “beginning”.

So, if the beginning is only referring to this physical universe, then what do we believe about God? Spiritualists like denominational ministers, priests and their congregations believe that God has always existed. “Spiritualists believe in the Source of all Creation, Infinite Intelligence or Infinite Being, most commonly known in Christianity as ‘God’”. “Spiritualists recognize this source in a greater scope of awareness, in that “God” cannot be limited as an anthropomorphic being (likeness of a human person) but must be all–inclu­sive, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and manifesting through all forms of life and matter”.

[Infinite Being: The word Infinite reflects the idea of ultimate, while the word Being refers to a state of awareness, rather than a doing activity. In finite Being is infinite consciousness without a focus upon any specific activity].

We could go on to describe God as described by other religions on earth and even though the name used to representing God may be different; there is only one God, Infinite Intelligence, Source of all Creation.

We can now ask “how did God create the heavens and the earth”? There are provable a million ideas on how God did it, however, I believe that God took a small portion of Himself (essences) and made all that is in this physical universe. God spoke verbally (The Word) and the essence was transformed into the physical and spiritual universes. Whether one could consider this as the “Big Bang” is up for speculation. God being all-powerful and all knowing could do anything that He had in mind because He just knew how to do it.

Well then, what about heaven? We believe that Heaven is the dwelling place of God unseeable with human eyes, where no one knows. If heaven is the dwelling place of God, then where do we go when we physically die, if any place? The Christian denominations believe that “those who are in Lord” go to be with Him when they die. OK, where do those who are “not in the Lord” go? To Christians, “they sleep in the grave until the “Great Day of Judgment”. Spiritualists believe that when a person’s physical body dies, the person’s spirit/soul goes to a Spirit World. We also believe that there are a number of dimensions to the Spirit World, where individuals of various dispositions go. Jesus said, “In my father’s house are many mansions.” In the Spirit World there are a number of places, dimensions that have the appearance of being very dark in comparison to those that are extremely bright. The spirit dimension a person first goes to when they physically die depends on the individual’s spiritual growth while they were in the physical world. If the person had been a criminal, they would go to one of the darker dimensions until they make restitution for their wrongs, sins. Others, the average person, would go to the lowest spirit dimension of light so that individuals there can spiritually guide them as they continue to growth spiritually. However, all individuals in the Spirit World are continuously helped in their spiritual growth. The individual’s spiritual growth allows them to progress to higher and higher dimensions of light with the ultimate goal of returning to the pres­ence of God. Each of these dimensions is brighter than the previous one; and a person has to grow to the spiritual perfection that the higher dimension requires before they can advance. There have been a number of books and articles describing the Spirit World, and we believe all human beings go there when they die.

With all of that being said, it is a highly controversial subject because we only have the writings of individuals who have been there spiritually; from a near death experience, dreams or when they have physically died and told us through mediums about the Spirit World. The denominational churches can only tell us what their denominations believe and from the way in which they interpret the Bible about the heaven and who can or cannot go there.

I talked about God, heaven and now what about the earth? Well, the Bible is quite specific about that. The Bible says that God created the earth. OK, I mentioned above what I believed God used to create the universe, so, the earth is made of “God stuff.” There is nothing to say that God created the earth from self or used existing material to create it. It seems that it doesn’t really matter what or where the “stuff” came from, it just is. Scientists say that nothing can be “created or destroyed only change form”. It can only be changed from one thing into another.

Spiritualist Minister can teach a lesson from the Bible, and it only goes to show that anyone can use whatever spiritual books or writings they wish to preach on a subject. And it doesn’t matter whether the subject has been adequately covered as a denominational minister might do. The fact is anyone can preach a sermon or give a spiritual talk about any subject he/she wishes.