Rev. Joseph Murphy, Ph.D.
Excerpt from:
THIS IS IT: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
Church of Divine Science
Los Angeles, 3rd ed., 1948 Revised
“I AM the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me.” (Isaiah 45:5). You, the reader, are the one and only being there is. When you say, “I AM,” that means the sum-total of all the personalities in the world. All other conceptions are projections in space of the one being, yourself. In the Bible, which is a text book on psychology–metaphysics and man’s moods and feelings–the “I AM” is constantly referred to as, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 11:25). “I am that I am.” (Ex. 3:14). These and similar sayings shine forth in all their true brilliance when once we see that Jesus, the Christ, was not speaking of Himself personally, but of the principle of Being inherent in all mankind.
What Truth students fail to see is that there is only one man, for the same reason that there is only one God. God and man are one–”I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” (John 14:11). You cannot divide One; infinity cannot be divided or multiplied. The seeming divisions are the illusions of separation. We must give recognition to that innermost Self which is pure Spirit, and which is not subject to any condition whatsoever. We feel that we are conditioned by time and space, but these conditions have no place in essential Being. The true recognition of the “I AM” is the acknowledgment of the Self within you. God, the Father, eternally subsisting in His own Being, sends forth all forms of His will. Likewise, all forms return to the formless One, according to an immutable law.
You, the one man, can comprehend the infinite Self within you by a limitless expansion of your conception of God. You thus return to the Universal Being as a son coming home to his father. The more we study the Bible the more we realize that, by the art of meditation–i.e., by going inward–we become greater in our knowledge and comprehension of the mysteries contained therein. The road inward is the road to greatness, the Royal Road of the Ancients, and for all men who desire to become united with the Supreme Cause, the root and substance of all.
Rebirth means to ascend inwardly from the lesser to the greater by an inner realization, or by the lifting up of consciousness from one step to another. The consciousness, being lifted up by contemplation, dwells on the fact that I am now the being I long to be, and to make it real I must feel it. This realization is an inner awareness of the new state of consciousness or rebirth.
There is not a single note that was ever played that any man cannot play. Anything that has ever been felt by any holy man, any man can feel. There are no facts or secrets hidden in the dim past that any man cannot bring to light. You are the only Being there is. You have a memory of all that has passed, consequently all tones, moods, vibrations, knowledge and wisdom are within you. There is no language that ever was spoken that you cannot speak. There is no voice that you cannot reproduce, because all is within you.
YOU have always lived! “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58). “When all things cease to be I AM.” You, man, wrote the Bible! You may have forgotten it, but if you meditate on its passages, the subjective self within you will reveal to your conscious mind what you meant, when YOU wrote it thousands of years ago.
Time is an illusion; God is the eternal NOW. Thousands of years are as an instant. Aeons are as a day. Therefore, shed now the belief in time and the idea that we have to come back again and again to this earth plane–one time as John, another visit as Mary–in order to gain more experience, to perfect ourselves and become as Jesus, the Christ.
We are sometimes told that it is almost impossible for us to become as Jesus, or Moses, or Elijah in one lifetime; it takes several lifetimes; moreover, many say that we have some “karma” to work out in this life. In other words, we must expiate for the sins and crimes committed in past lives before we can be purified. Some state that it is almost impossible to change certain physical conditions in this life, particularly, if one happened to be born with a congenital disease or deformity.
This teaching is false and a contradiction of everything the Bible teaches, namely, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jer. 32:27). “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 30:17). “…Who healeth all thy diseases; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Ps. 103:3,5). “I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death.” (Hosea 13:14).
A cripple is not instantly healed because of his or your belief. Likewise, if a man’s leg is amputated, the reason he does not grow another leg is because his father and mother, the authorities of certain textbooks, plus tradition and race belief, all contributed to the false belief and teaching he received as a baby. He holds a firm conviction within himself now that God cannot grow another leg for him. He firmly believes that nothing can be done for him except to wear an artificial leg. “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 8:48).
Regarding the belief of some people that we must suffer for errors of the past or for sins committed centuries ago, there is no basis for this false concept. If a person believes that he must suffer for something he has done, he will suffer. It is all based on belief.
The only loss, limitation, restriction or evil in the world is our belief in loss, our belief in limitation, our belief in restriction and our belief in evil or disease. This is known as “the son of perdition” or sense of loss spoken of in the Bible. “Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18). “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17). “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.” (Ps. 86:5).
The reader should stop, think and realize for a moment that a God who says, “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you,” by necessity of His greater Love, blots out all of the past. He wipes away all tears, and forgives you immediately. Can you imagine a God asking you to forgive those who trespass against you, and in another breath refusing to forgive Himself? “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him.” (Ps. 91:15). “I, even I, am he that blotteth out all transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” (Isaiah 43:25).
Man completely detaches himself from the past by partaking of a great psychological and mystical feast of peace and happiness. Realizing the presence of God within him, he rises in consciousness to the joyous conviction that he is NOW the being he longs to be. Having fixed this state within him, a silent inner knowing possesses him; all former doubts and fears pass away and shall be remembered no more. By sustaining this silent inner feeling, that which he felt inwardly becomes expressed outwardly.
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