The Path

I have talked to a number of people in the last twenty years or so who have told me that they are on a spiritual path. I wondered what that path consisted of, but was unable to learn what it is. What does it mean to be on a spiritual path? As I look at the subject, I wonder if I’m on one. I wonder if those who have told me that they were on a spiritual path really understood what they were talking about? When I look at the subject realistically, I believe that only a few of them really understand what a spiritual path is all about. Not all people really know what it is they are saying. I know a woman in California who was bragging about being spiritual not religious. I asked her what she meant by that and she couldn’t answer me. I had the feeling that she was just repeating what she heard other people saying that sounded good to her.

For me, to be on a spiritual path means that I have a belief in the Creator, I read the Bible, I believe in Jesus and read spiritual books written by some very spiritual and saintly people. But I think that there is more to it than that. I think that we as humans must go the extra mile by living the teachings of Christ, not those of man. It has been said that we have a Christ like nature within us and we need to learn how to express it. Again, I’m not sure of what is meant by that, but I’m trying to.

When we live as man has dictated, we are living a materistic life and that life is a life of sorrow. We have forgotten what the Creator has given us. The Creator has given us this world to be a part of its nature. Living by the Laws of Nature that govern everything in existence. Without those laws there would be total chaos on earth. Everything would be “doing its own thing” in that there would be nothing to control it or make it work together as a unified whole. Is this what it means to be on a spiritual path? To live in harmony with all life, living by natural law and doing what is right, loving and charitable?

We each have our own idea of what it means to be on a spiritual path, but do we really know what that path is all about?

A flower blooms

A flower blooms

A rose of white

A song has been sung

Where is the sun?

The perfume so nice

And just like you

It brings out your beautify

So that you shine bright

So the flower blooms all night long

Where’s love so bright

And a song so light

We are not alone and just right

Blooming as a rose so bright

Salvation

I believe that it’s only fair that a Spiritualist describe what he may mean by the word “salvation – saved” and reflect on what Christianity means by it.

What is important is the fact that Spiritualists accept and believe in the Fatherhood of God – sometime called Infinite Intelligence, the Source of all creation, etc. We also believe in personal responsibility. We are personally responsible, as individuals, for all the good and evil deed done here in physical life. We believe in Eternal progress Open to every Human Soul.

That being said, we also don’t believe in vicarious atonement. We don’t believe that anyone can atone for our “sins” except us. This puts the responsibility “squarely on our shoulders”, not the man Jesus Christ. Jesus main purpose in his ministry was to teach man that God is a God of love. God is not a God of wrath whereby man is put to death for his sins because he doesn’t believe in a personal Saviour; and will spend eternity in a hell. Do we need to be saved from our sins? In that we need to change our way of thinking and acting towards our fellowman - yes. If we believe that we need a Saviour, then God has provided for us to work out our sins through Him.

It was Paul the apostle who taught that we must accept Christ as our personal Saviour, confess our sins to God and be baptized. Jesus taught that he died on the cross FOR ALL, no exception. “Jesus Christ the righteous…is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) “…who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time (1 Tim. 2:6)

The early church fathers taught “Universal Salvation which is demonstrative of the true love of God and declares that all of His children shall eventually receive the unimaginable fuller life that God has prepared for them without exception; anything less and God certainly could not truly be considered as being "Love". For to willingly create life with the foreknowledge that the majority of it should be subjected to a hideous eternal torture, violates all notions of decency and common morality, let alone true love”.

We could argue the point all day and still not convince anyone that God is a God of love and as such has provided a way for ALL His children to come to Him.

The question may now come up “what about Spiritualisms belief in continuity of life”? Well, this is a true statement. Spiritualists do believe in continuous life. We, like Christians, believe “absent from the body, present with the Lord”. Or, absent from the body, present in the Spirit World. Where do Christians go when they die? They go to be with the Lord – heaven, which is the Spirit World. Why should we argue over words? Words only have the meaning we put on them. Spirit World – heaven…

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that there is a place called purgatory. A place where church members, have an opportunity to work out their sins before going to be with the Lord. We say that this purgatory is one of the darker areas, dimension, of the Spirit World that provides the same purpose. So, what does “salvation” mean?

Salvation is described as:

· (n.) The redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to

o eternal death, and the conferring on him of everlasting happiness.

· (n.) Saving power; that which saves.

· (n.) The act of saving; preservation or deliverance from destruction,

danger, or great calamity.

All three of the definitions above say that salvation is a saving from. “The main meaning as used by Christianity is a saving from sin. In the Old Testament of the Bible, it was a concept, unlike the later Christian ideology, was not spiritual or individual: salvation was deliverance from any circumstance that prevented communal existence. This might be political circumstances (Persian defeat of Babylon was seen by Isaiah as Yahweh’s salvation of Israel), but can exist to such matters as poverty, disease and slander”. (Wikipedia)

Spiritualists say, “We believe that the nature of humankind is to be good, not evil. We do not believe in sin and repentance, only spiritual progression by natural law”. Spiritualists believe that sin is no more than wrong decisions, wrong actions and thoughts. Decisions that have gotten a person into some kind of trouble and they need to do something about them, here or hereafter”. Otherwise, Natural Law tells us that we will make restitution for our wrongs in this life or the next. If a person is practicing personal responsibility and “doing unto other as we would have them do unto us”, we are following the Principles of Spiritualism, Natural Law, and the teaching of Christ.

Sin [An act that is regarded by theologians as a transgression of God's will] a big word used for centuries to control and keep under control an ignorant un-educated people. The priesthood for countless centuries was in total control of society determining who would live and who would die, who would be saved and who would not. Not being saved meant that a person would spend all of eternity in hell, a place of eternal fire and punishment.

“Spiritualists believe that each and every person is responsible for his or her own happiness or unhappiness on Earth. We all create our own experiences. Therefore, if you live by the adage: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, you can expect either happiness or unhappiness, depending on how you live your life, how you take care of yourself; and how you treat others”.

“The belief that we are all Spirit and that Spirit is God is central to Spiritualism. Spiritualists don’t believe that members must be “saved” and Spiritualists don't go out trying to “save” anyone. The Spiritualist viewpoint is about saving oneself and the belief that we are all responsible for our own salvation, happiness and unhappiness”.

“After physical death the spirit lives on in the Spirit World which is divided into a number of "planes" varying in character from heaven as conventionally understood to hell as conventionally understood”.

“Spiritualism has a basis of salvation by works – the actions in this life determining the relative position or "plane" in the Spirit World attained by the spirit immediately after physical death. But it does not end there as the spirit can progress to "higher" planes within the Spirit World. This progression is based on actions – aided by other denizens of the Spirit World – and thus renders salvation available to all. Believers in reincarnation basically accept this also with the addenda that a combination of the actions of the physical life, and afterwards in the Spirit World, leads to the appropriate station in a new physical life.” [Writings of Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp.]

Salvation is a gift of God to His children through Jesus Christ – a gift for all, not just a few. I would like you to understand that God, Infinite Intelligence, is a God of love, not a God of wrath. God has always made a way for his children to come to Him. God loves us even in our sinful ways and will never depart from us. God is within, not external to us.

In the Appendix to “Our Life After Death” the appendix is written in support of Universal Salvation is which the writer talks about how some words the original Greek New Testament were miss-interpreted to agree with the theological beliefs of the church. Today, the new translations from the Greek have had a number of those words translated correctly so that the true meaning of the Greek is used. The original Greek New Testament never used eternal to say that man would spend an infinite length of time in hell and punishment. The word eternal was never used. The original Greek used words that had a time limit to them even if that time limit was a very, very long time. How long? The Greek writers never indicated, but that it is not an infinite period of time. The original Greek New Testament also talked about ALL God’s children would eventually be saved and return to His presents.

The Bible when the original text is properly translated always represents God as a loving God and He, through Jesus Christ sacrifice, provided a means for ALL to return to Him. This is something that Spiritualists do believe and teach. Even the mediums of the late 1800s when asked, while in trans, about Biblical things, always gave a true interpretation of the Bible text, not that which was given and taught by the church.

So we say, all of humanity whether an individual becomes a “born again Christian, or not, will be save.

Can a Christian be a Spiritualist?

Can a Christian be a Spiritualist? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. Just because Spiritualism doesn’t preach that one must belong to a certain denominational church or believe in Christ as savior, confess their sins to God doesn’t mean that individual Christians can’t be Spiritualists. Oh you say, yes, Spiritualists do believe in God, and Christ but not as savior, per sa. When Modern Spiritualism was just getting started in the mid 1800s, all Spiritualism was known as Christian Spiritualism. This was because the people involved in Spiritualism were originally members of denominational Christian churches. Spiritualists in the early days believe in the teachings of the church and even used them in their churches. Until recent years, all Spiritualist churches had a Bible on their pulpits. They know that Jesus was one of the most gifted mediums of his time. “Medium” yes medium. There is the story in the Bible where Jesus was talking to a woman of Samaria at a well where he told her all about her life and what was happening at the time he met her. Gospel According to Saint John 4:19 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet”. Webster’s dictionary says that a “prophet an authoritative person who divines the future”. Is a Spiritualist also a prophet? In many ways the answer is yes. They often do give people information about future events in their lives. However, a “Spiritualist mediumship” in no way gets involves with fortune telling. The work of a medium is to prove the reality of survival after so called death and to pass on practical help and understanding when needed. The information a medium gives a person is meant to help them make their own decisions in their life, not make them for the person.

The question is, what happens to the Spiritualist when he/she dies? Christianity says that non-Christians sleep in the grave until the “great day of judgment”. When a Christian dies he/she is then “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. We answer this by saying that we go to be with the same Lord and heaven that Christians go to when we die. However, what Christians don’t know is that we also believe that the criminal, etc. will go to a lower spirit world where they will be given an opportunity to make restitution for their wrongs, and then be able to progress to higher spirit worlds. You can’t accept that, ah? That’s ok. You see it has been proven by thousands of mediums that life continues after the change called death and that is the only think that Spiritualists are really saying. Yes, we also believe that we can communicate with the so-called dead, as a proven fact. Did Jesus go into the grave and sleep when he died? No. He was very much alive and came back many times to teach and be with his disciples.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s scientists and highly educated men and women investigated Spiritualist phenomena and came to the conclusion that it was real, not a fakery or even fraudulent in any way. However, their were a large number of people who took advantage of the “darkened séance room” to defraud the sitters. That is one major reason the scientist went to extreme measures to assure that no fraud was possible with the people they were investigating. [See Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books “History of Spiritualism” Volume I and II.]

All Spiritualist churches and associations make sure that the people who attend their activities are not asked to set aside any of their own religious beliefs or even stop attending their denominational church. The director of the church I attend is a Jewish woman who is married to an Anglican Priest and her best friend is a Catholic nun.

One of the main things that I want the reader to know is that God has provided for each and everyone of His spiritual children no matter what wrong choices, sins, they had made or are making here on this earth plain. Something Christians just can’t accept non-Christians because their Bible and denominations refuse to believe in them and their teachings. People who were not born and raised in particular denomination are lost.

When one reads the Bible one finds dozens of examples of Spiritualist phenomena, especially in the Old Testament. Jesus was not only a special son of God, but one of the greatest men who ever lived. There is no doubt about it. Jesus was a gifted healer, teacher and prophet. One only needs to read to Bible to know this.

Is God a God of wrath and does he hate sin? No, God is not a God of wrath but God is a God of love but He does hate sin. Because he hates sin he has provided a way for all his children in this physical world to make restitution for their sins. Whether you believe that Jesus is the only way or not makes no difference. God is a God of love and loves every man woman and child in this world. Even all non-Christians who have lived here from the beginning of time? The bible tells us that God is perfect and His creation is perfect and He created He them in His own image. So why would a perfect God create a human being in His image, and then have to send a son to be killed by them? The answer is that God in His infinite wisdom gave man total free will; free will to choose between right or wrong. Can it be that only the church can determine what is right and what can be considered as wrong? Can perfection produce non-perfection? Can it be true that humanity could only become Christian after the death of Jesus? What about the billions, trillions who came into this world long before Jesus did? Were they lost to eternal hell fire and brimstone?

One of the biggest things that people in this world do is judge each other. It doesn’t matter whether or not a person has been told from birth “don’t judge others.” They judge others just the same because that is what their parents and grandparents did. If you were a non-Christian before you became a Christian, was their any hope that you could be saved? You say yes, but how do you really know this? You were no doubt told by a Christian that you were called by God to be saved and that is why you are. Choice. That is what you were given. A choice to choose between what Christians considered right over wrong.

I could go on for pages talking about all the things mentioned above and would not exhaust the subject. Whether a person believe in Jesus or not doesn’t mean that they are lost for all eternity. If it were so, God would not be a God of love.

Dammed If We Do and Dammed If We Don’t

It is indeed a shame that “Christians” cannot accept any belief or beliefs other than their personal and religious denominations. I have attended a member of a fundamentalist churches, Baptist churches, Nazarene and several others even Roman Catholic. All of those churches have their good and not-so-good beliefs that I can and cannot agree with. It’s the way things are.

Some of us have been in church from shortly after our births until the present. We believe that what our church teaches is all there is. It just isn’t so. There are thousand of beliefs and teachings in this world that make more sense and appeals to humanity in general than any one particular teaching. It is true that our beliefs are among the best there is, however, is it all it could be? The answer of course is no. All religious teachings have within them the dogmas and creeds, prejudice and beliefs of their pastors and denomination leaders.

As we look at the many religions in this world, we can’t help wonder why there are so many. If there is only one true living God and only one God who is the source of all creation, then why all the controversy? We are all part of that creation and need to know that.

Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God and that we are just human beings not begotten by anyone. It is not so, we are all begotten of the same God that Jesus was. God created all there is and that, for me, settles it. However, my beliefs are mine and they may not agree with someone else’s. That is as it should be.

I have become a Spiritualist because I have been a medium from birth. That means that I have been sensitive to the Spirit World for a long time. However, I only became aware of the totality of that 30 years ago. As a Spiritualist, I believe in the Spirit World and that all humans go there when they die. Christianity teaches the same thing, but with restrictions. They also teach that only born Christians, believe in Jesus Christ, as Saviour will actually go there when they die. They say “absent from the body, preset with the Lord”.

The scientists who have studied Spiritualism a 160 years ago came to the conclusion that what Spiritualist teach about the Spirit World is correct. Some of those scientists have even come back through a medium and told about the Spirit World. They have said that there are Protestants, Catholics and Hindu, in fact, people of all religious beliefs, in the Spirit World. Some even continue to attend churches of their faith there. This maybe hard for some to believe, but it’s true. Just because we die doesn’t mean that we have given up our beliefs. We have only gone from a physical life to a spiritual life.

Again, there is only one living God and we all believe in Him in one way or another. Spiritualists don’t necessarily give up any of their religious beliefs if they were not Spiritualists from birth. In fact, they are encouraged to keep their religious beliefs and only incorporate into those beliefs that there really is a Spirit World and we can communicate with it. It is our choice.

Do Spiritualists believe in Jesus Christ as saviour? Some do and some don’t. It is up to the individual as to whether they will keep their beliefs in him as their church teaches or not. I do.

Passage of Time

Does the passage of time really heal all wounds? Or is it just a pretense of life; something professed rather than having intention or purpose? We live our lives believing that we are ok and that we have always made right decisions and done no wrong to anyone. We never think that we have made wrong decisions, actions (sins) that will effect us later in life. Forgotten and never to be brought up again ̶ so we think. You may then ask what am I getting at?

When we take a look at our lives in relation to natural law, we find that the laws are in effect 24/7. Laws like the Law of Karma, and the Law of Cause and Effect. Our wrong decisions and actions whether we remember them or not, they are always with us. They just go into the archives of our minds where we don't think of them again. However, these two laws tells us that time does not cover up or do away with our wrong actions and decisions. We are responsible for everything that happens in our life from the beginning to the end. It is because of wrong actions and decisions that we in later years develop sickness in our bodies, cancer, alzheimer's, dementia or some other physical or emotional problem.

We work hard looking for something new to bring about true happiness, love, joy and understanding into our life. We don't think about any of the wrongs of (that) the past make during our life. We don't think or believe that they will come back on us in later years. Even if we do think about them, it's only for a moment and then we put them out of remembrance forever.

We are good at believing that we can do no wrong and that if we do, nothing will really become of it. We understand that sin is nothing more than wrong actions, wrong decisions that we have made that cannot affect us in any way; at least some people do. Actions and decisions are just a part of life.

When we do think about our wrongs, we rarely experience any kind of feelings of guilt. We didn't worry about them at the time and they don't effect us now. However, do our wrongs of the past effect us today? If so, is their a way for us to correct those wrongs and get on with our lives?

The answer is yes. We can move on by recognizing the fact that the source of our wrongs started with us and is on going. Recognizing this, we can then take responsibility for all those wrongs and make restitution for them. How?

How indeed? Recognition is a starting place. Recognizing the source of a problem by sitting down and review our life. Meditating on it in order to understand how our wrongs are affecting us now. Is it something that we can put our finger on? Was it something that happen last week, last month, maybe last year or the year before, or maybe even many years ago? As we review our life we will find the source of the our problems. Once we recognize the source and how it is affecting us now, we can make new decisions to correct those problems.

Sometimes we have had problems with another person and that person has died. Can we right the wrong we had with them? Yes, we only need to call out their name within our minds and sincerely ask their forgiveness. A simple thing to do, and the so called dead will hear us and will forgive us.

If there are other people we have wronged who are still alive but we have lost track them, we can do the same thing we did for the deceased person. We can try to find out where they are living and go to them, or write to them and ask their forgiveness.

One person in our life that we do more wrong to than any other person is our spouse. Even after asking them for forgiveness time after time, we still continue to do wrong to them. It can get to the point where they can take no more and they say "I've had it, I cannot forgive you for that..." However, it is up to us to make every effort to correct our wrong action and make every effort to be forgiven and do no more harm to the one you love. This can be the most difficult thing for a person because of our. Non-corrected wrongs with a spouse is often the source for a divorce and long term hatred.

Our wrong actions and decisions are a source of problems that accumulate in our lives and is a source of problems in later life. Even if we believe in reincarnation we know that the reincarnated life is often plagued with karma and it must be dealt with. If not, it will continue from life time to life time until it is dealt with.

We must make a review of our lives in order to keep us from developing problems in the future. By dealing with problems now, as they come up can set us on a higher spiritual path of true love, joy and happiness.

In an attempt to correct all the wrongs in our life, maybe the words of the Dalai Lama can help. He said "What makes you a better person is: - all what fills you with compassion, - makes you more sensitive, more detached, more amiable, more human, more responsible and more respectful of ethic."

This is good advice for any person who desires a life free of guilt and fear over our wrong actions and decisions of the past.