Becoming Perfect and Divine

Righteousness

Prophets on Righteousness God is our Father; the Lord (Michael, who incarnated as Jesus) is our redeemer. God has created the universal hosts, and he preserves them all.    God's righteousness is like the mountains and his judgment like the great deep. He causes us to drink of the river of his pleasures, and in his light we shall see light. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the Most High; (1) to show forth loving kindness in the morning and divine faithfulness every night.    God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness.    (1)  The Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men through many celestial forces and agencies but chiefly through the ministry of seraphim.

Buddhism on Righteousness Cheerfulness and gladness are the rewards of deeds well done and to the glory of the Immortal.    Those who are sure of salvation are forever free from lust, envy, hatred, and the delusions of wealth. While faith is the energy of the better life, nevertheless, must you work out your own salvation with perseverance.    If you would be certain of your final salvation, then make sure that you sincerely seek to fulfill all righteousness. Cultivate the assurance of the heart which springs from within and thus come to enjoy the ecstasy of eternal salvation.

Jainism on Righteousness The Lord of Heaven is supreme. Those who commit sin will not ascend on high, but those who walk in the paths of righteousness shall find a place in heaven.    We are assured of the life hereafter if we know truth. The soul of man may ascend to the highest heaven, there to develop its true spiritual nature, to attain perfection. The estate of heaven delivers man from the bondage of sin and introduces him to the final beatitudes; the righteous man has already experienced an end of sin and all its associated miseries.    Self is man's invincible foe, and self is manifested as man's four greatest passions: anger, pride, deceit, and greed. Man's greatest victory is the conquest of himself. When man looks to God for forgiveness, and when he makes bold to enjoy such liberty, he is thereby delivered from fear. Man should journey through life treating his fellow creatures as he would like to be treated.

Infinitely More The eternal God is infinitely more than reality idealized or the universe personalized.    God is not simply the supreme desire of man, the mortal quest objectified. Neither is God merely a concept, the power-potential of righteousness.    The Universal Father is not a synonym for nature, neither is he natural law personified. God is a transcendent reality, not merely man's traditional concept of supreme values.    God is not a psychological focalization of spiritual meanings, neither is he "the noblest work of man." God may be any or all of these concepts in the minds of men, but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father to all who enjoy spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience personality survival in death.

Nothing Lacking God's primal perfection consists not in an assumed righteousness but rather in the inherent perfection of the goodness of his divine nature. He is final, complete, and perfect. There is nothing lacking in the beauty and perfection of his righteous character.    The whole scheme of living existences on the worlds of space is centered in the divine purpose of elevating all will creatures to the high destiny of the experience of sharing the Father's Paradise perfection.    God is neither self-centered nor self-contained; he never ceases to bestow himself upon all self-conscious creatures of the vast universe of universes.

Justice and Righteousness God is righteous; therefore is he just.    "The Lord is righteous in all his ways." The justice of the Universal Father cannot be influenced by the acts and performances of his creatures, "for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no respect of persons, no taking of gifts."

Divine Mercy Mercy is simply justice tempered by that wisdom that grows out of perfection of knowledge and the full recognition of the natural weaknesses and environmental handicaps of finite creatures.    Mercy is the justice of Supremacy (the Triune God of Time and Space) adapted to the situations of the evolving finite, the righteousness of eternity modified to meet the highest interests and universe welfare of the children of time.    Mercy is not a violation of justice but rather an understanding interpretation of the demands of supreme justice as it is fairly applied to the subordinate spiritual beings and to the material creatures of the evolving universes.

Erroneous Doctrine Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the universe. Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher.    However, love gives and craves affection. Love also seeks understanding fellowship, as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's attitude.    The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed an absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine (1), which is a philosophic attack upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.    (1) In Christian theology, the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion, which supposedly made possible the reconciliation between God and creation.

Virtue Virtue is righteousness - conformity with the cosmos.    Only by living virtue can one know it. Virtue is not mere knowledge nor yet wisdom. Virtue is the reality of progressive experience in the attainment of ascending levels of cosmic achievement.    In the day to day life of mortal man, virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good rather than evil. The ability to choose is evidence of the possession of a moral nature.   Virtue is volitional with personality; righteousness is not automatic in freewill creatures.

Patience Not Inexhaustible That which cannot be at some point coordinated with cosmic reality will eventually be destroyed.    When the provisions of endless mercy and nameless patience have been exhausted in an effort to win the loyalty and devotion of the will creatures of the realms, justice and righteousness will prevail.    That which mercy cannot rehabilitate justice will eventually annihilate.

Spirit Led Mortals The consciousness of a human life dominated by spirit (the Thought Adjuster) is attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of the spirit led mortal, "for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance."    Spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while they still tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life glimmering on the faraway shores of another world.   They have already begun to comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."    Throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope that transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit.

Interrelationships Beauty, rhythm, and harmony are intellectually associated and spiritually related.    Truth, fact, and relationship are intellectually inseparable and associated with the philosophic concepts of beauty.    Goodness, righteousness, and justice are philosophically interrelated and spiritually bound up together with living truth and divine beauty.

Spirit Humor Spirit humor never alludes to the misfortunes of the weak and erring.    Further, spirit humor is never blasphemous of the righteousness and glory of divinity.

Fetishes The visible insignias of priestly and kingly office (manners such as kneeling, saluting, bowing and ring kissing) will eventually be regarded as fetishes.    The fetish of the state as supreme has passed through many stages of development, from clans to tribes, from fuedal lords to sovereignty, from totems to flags. Fetish kings have ruled by "divine right."   Men have also made a fetish of democracy, the exaltation and adoration of the common man's ideas collectively called "public opinion." One man's opinion, when taken by itself, is not regarded as worth much, but when many men are collectively functioning as a democracy, this same mediocre judgment is held to be the arbiter of justice and the standard of righteousness.

Evolution of Taboos The habitual violation of a taboo became a vice; primitive law made vice a crime; religion made it a sin.    Among the early tribes the violation of a taboo was considered both a crime and a sin. Any calamity in the community was regarded as punishment for tribal sin.    To those who believed that prosperity and righteousness went together, the prosperity of the wicked occasioned so much worry that it was necessary to invent hells for the punishment of prosperous taboo violators.

Incarnations The Michael Sons begin their work of universe organization with a full and just sympathy for the various orders of beings whom they have created.    The Michael Creator Sons have vast stores of mercy for all their different creatures, even pity for those who err and flounder in the selfish mire of their own making.    But such endowments of justice and righteousness will not suffice in the estimate of the Ancients of Days. These rulers of the Super Universes will never certify a Creator Son as a Universe Sovereign until he has really acquired the viewpoint of his own creatures by actual incarnation experience in the environment of their creatures.    In this way Creator Sons become intelligent and understanding rulers. They come to know the various groups over which they rule and exercise universe authority. By living experience they possess themselves of practical mercy, fair judgment, and the patience born of experiential creature existence.

Righteousness Prayer   Lord, teach us how to live this life in the flesh while preparing for the next life of the spirit. Speak to us, Lord, and we will do your bidding. Teach us the good paths, and we will go right. Grant that we may attain union with you. We know that that religion is right which leads to union with righteousness. God is our wise nature, best thought, and righteous act. May God grant us unity with the divine spirit and immortality in himself.

Attaining Righteousness    Until men attain Paradise levels, goodness will always be more of a quest than a possession, more of a goal than an experience of attainment. But even as mortals hunger and thirst for righteousness, they experience increasing satisfaction in the partial attainment of goodness. The presence of goodness and evil in the world is in itself positive proof of the existence and reality of man's moral will (the personality) that identifies these values and is able to choose between them.

Spiritual Evolution Spiritual evolution is an experience of the increasing and voluntary choice of goodness attended by an equal and progressive decrease in the possibility of evil.    With the attainment of finality of choice for goodness and of completed capacity for truth appreciation, there comes into existence a perfection of beauty and holiness whose righteousness eternally restrains the possibility of even the concept of potential evil.    Such a God-knowing soul casts no shadow of doubting evil when functioning on such a high spirit level of divine goodness.

Progressive Righteousness   "And this kingdom which I declare to you is not a reign of power and plenty. The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of meat and drink but rather a life of progressive righteousness and increasing joy in the perfecting service of my Father who is in heaven. For has not the Father said of his children of the world, 'It is my will that they should eventually be perfect, even as I am perfect.'"

The Beatitudes (1) In his sermon on the Beatitudes, Jesus first talked about those who were poor in spirit, hungered after righteousness, endured meekness, and who were pure in heart.    Such spirit-discerning mortals could be expected to attain levels of divine selflessness as to be able to attempt the amazing exercise of fatherly affection. They would be empowered to show mercy, promote peace, and endure persecutions, and throughout all of these trying situations to love even spiritually unattractive men with a fatherly love.    A father's affection can attain levels of devotion that immeasurably transcend a brother's affection.   Faith and the love strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness.  (1) See Jesus' sermon on The Beatitudes given to the apostles in their ordination ceremony. Scroll to Section 3.

Fasting "Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."    Jesus was speaking metaphorically.   It is dangerous to abstain from food to improve one's appetite for spiritual endowments. Prolonged fasting, either physical or spiritual, tends to destroy hunger.

Beatitudes on Persecution "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. I demand of you a righteousness that shall exceed the righteousness of those who seek to obtain the Father's favor by almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. If you would enter the kingdom, you must have a righteousness that consists in love, mercy, and truth - the sincere desire to do the will of my Father in heaven."

Man's Suffering "The Father in heaven does not willingly afflict the children of men. Man suffers, first, from the accidents of time and the imperfections of the evil of an immature physical existence. Next, he suffers the inexorable consequences of sin (the transgression of the laws of life and light). (1) And finally, man reaps the harvest of his own iniquitous persistence in rebellion against the righteous rule of heaven on earth. But man's miseries are not a personal visitation of divine judgment. Man can, and will, do much to lessen his temporal sufferings. Study the Book of Job just to discover how many wrong ideas of God even good men may honestly entertain; and then note how even the painfully afflicted Job found the God of comfort and salvation in spite of such erroneous teachings. At last Job's faith discerned the light of life pouring forth from the Father as healing mercy and everlasting righteousness." (1) See The Spheres of Light and Life

Dramatic Lesson The leader of the Pharisees induced a man with a withered hand to approach Jesus to ask if it would be lawful to be healed on the Sabbath day. As this man stretched forth his withered hand, it was made whole.    This was the first case of a miracle wrought by Jesus in response to the challenge of his enemies. The Master performed this so-called miracle, not as a demonstration of his healing power, but as a protest against making the Sabbath rest day of religion a veritable bondage of meaningless restrictions placed upon mankind.    The man returned to his work as a stone mason, proving to be one of those whose healing was followed by a life of thanksgiving and righteousness.

Lord of Righteousness "When men and women ask what shall we do to be saved, you shall answer, Believe this gospel of the kingdom; accept divine forgiveness. By faith recognize the indwelling spirit of God, whose acceptance makes you a son of God. Take away the filthy rags of self-righteousness and clothe my son with the robe of divine righteousness and eternal salvation. It is forever true, the just shall live by faith. Entrance into the Father's kingdom is wholly free, but progress (growth in grace) is essential to continuance therein. You cannot buy salvation; you cannot earn righteousness. Salvation is the gift of God, and righteousness is the natural fruit of the spirit-born life of sonship in the kingdom. You are not to be saved because you live a righteous life; rather is it that you live a righteous life because you have already been saved, have recognized sonship as the gift of God and service in the kingdom as the supreme delight of life on earth."

Whole-Soul Belief Kingdom believers should possess an implicit faith, a whole-souled belief, in the certain triumph of righteousness. Kingdom builders must be undoubting of the truth of the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn how to step aside from the rush of life (escape the harassments of material existence) while they refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit through worshipful communion.

Slavish Fetishism Jesus was always trying to impress upon his apostles and disciples that they must acquire, by faith, a righteousness that would exceed the righteousness of slavish works, which some of the scribes and Pharisees paraded so vaingloriously before the world. Though Jesus taught that faith, simple childlike belief, is the key to the door of the kingdom, he also taught that, having entered the door, there are the progressive steps of righteousness which every believing child must ascend in order to grow up to the full stature of the robust sons of God.

Steps to Righteousness Faith is the price you pay for entrance into the family of God; but forgiveness is the act of God that accepts your faith as the price of admission. The reception of the forgiveness of God by a kingdom believer involves a definite and actual experience and consists in the following four steps, the kingdom steps of inner righteousness: 1. God's forgiveness is made actually available and is personally experienced by man just in so far as he forgives his fellows. 2. Man will not truly forgive his fellows unless he loves them as himself. 3. To thus love your neighbor as yourself is the highest ethics. 4. Moral conduct, true righteousness, becomes, then, the natural result of such love.

Motive The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive. The highest forms of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual fellowship with God the Father that so certainly and directly manifests itself as outward and loving service for man. Jesus taught that the religion of the kingdom is a genuine personal experience, which no man can contain within himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of family conduct, the service of one's brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the brotherhood.

The New Age By teaching that the kingdom is within (the Thought Adjuster), by exalting the individual, Jesus struck the deathblow of the old society in that he ushered in the new dispensation of true social righteousness. The world has little known this new order of society because it has refused to practice the principles of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. When this kingdom of spiritual pre-eminence does come upon the earth, it will not be manifested in mere improved social and material conditions, but rather in the glories of those enhanced and enriched spiritual values that are characteristic of the approaching age of improved human relations and advancing spiritual attainments.

Message Lost The kingdom of Jesus' teaching, the spiritual ideal of individual righteousness and the concept of man's divine fellowship with God, became submerged into the mystic conception of the person of Jesus as the Redeemer-Creator and spiritual head of a socialized religious community. In this way, a formal and institutional church became the substitute for an individually spirit-led brotherhood of the kingdom. While the church was an inevitable and useful social result of Jesus' life and teachings; the tragedy consisted in the fact that this social reaction to the teachings of the kingdom so fully displaced the spiritual concept of the real kingdom as Jesus taught and lived it.

Revelations to Earth Jesus said: "Why do you still look for the Son of Man to sit upon the throne of David and expect that the material dreams of the Jews will be fulfilled? Have I not told you all these years that my kingdom is not of this world? The things which you now look down upon are coming to an end, but this will be a new beginning out of which the gospel of the kingdom will go to all the world and this salvation will spread to all peoples. And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, even as he has already bestowed upon this world him who became the prince of darkness (Caligastia, the original rebel Planetary Prince of Earth), and then Adam, who was followed by Melchizedek (the current acting Planetary Prince of Earth), and in these days, the Son of Man (Jesus). And so will my Father continue to manifest his mercy and show forth his love, even to this dark and evil world. So also will I, after my Father has invested me with all power and authority, continue to follow your fortunes and to guide in the affairs of the kingdom by the presence of my spirit (the Spirit of Truth of the Master Creator Sons), who shall shortly be poured out upon all flesh (Pentecost). Even though I shall thus be present with you in spirit, I also promise that I will sometime return to this world, where I have lived this life in the flesh and achieved the experience of simultaneously revealing God to man and leading man to God. Very soon must I leave you and take up the work the Father has intrusted to my hands, but be of good courage, for I will sometime return. In the meantime, my Spirit of the Truth of a universe shall comfort and guide you."

Anxiety The apostle Thomas asked Jesus what his followers were to do during what Thomas thought was a temporary absence of Jesus. Jesus answered: "And even you, Thomas, fail to comprehend what I have been saying. Have I not all this time taught you that your connection with the kingdom is spiritual and individual, wholly a matter of personal experience in the spirit by the faith-realization that you are a son of God? What more shall I say? The downfall of nations, the crash of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, the end of an age, even the end of the world, what have these things to do with one who believes this gospel, and who has hid his life in the surety of the eternal kingdom? You who are God-knowing and gospel-believing have already received the assurances of eternal life. Since your lives have been lived in the spirit and for the Father, nothing can be of serious concern to you. Kingdom builders, the accredited citizens of the heavenly worlds, are not to be disturbed by temporal upheavals or perturbed by terrestrial cataclysms. What does it matter to you who believe this gospel of the kingdom if nations overturn, the age ends, or all things visible crash, since you know that your life is the gift of the Son, and that it is eternally secure in the Father? Having lived the temporal life by faith and having yielded the fruits of the spirit as the righteousness of loving service for your fellows, you can confidently look forward to the next step in the eternal career with the same survival faith that has carried you through your first and earthly adventure in sonship with God."

Restrictions "You must not seek to promulgate truth nor to establish righteousness by the power of civil governments or by the enaction of secular laws. You may always labor to persuade men's minds, but you must never dare to compel them. You must not forget the great law of human fairness which I have taught you in positive form: Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them."

Positive Teaching "You are not to be passive mystics or colorless ascetics; you should not become dreamers and drifters, supinely trusting in a fictitious Providence to provide even the necessities of life. You are indeed to be gentle in your dealings with erring mortals, patient in your intercourse with ignorant men, and forbearing under provocation; but you are also to be valiant in defense of righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive in the preaching of this gospel of the kingdom, even to the ends of the earth."

Clarification "Now that I am leaving you, seeing that the hour has come when I am about to go to the Father (crucifixion), I am surprised that none of you have asked me, Why do you leave us? Nevertheless, I know that you ask such questions in your hearts. I will speak to you plainly, as one friend to another. It is really profitable for you that I go away. If I go not away, the new teacher cannot come into your hearts. I must be divested of this mortal body and be restored to my place on high before I can send this spirit teacher to live in your souls and lead your spirits into the truth. And when my spirit comes to indwell you (Pentecost), he will illuminate the difference between sin and righteousness and will enable you to judge wisely in your hearts concerning them."

Jesus' Prayer Jesus prayed for unity among his followers, but he did not desire uniformity. Sin creates a dead level of evil inertia, but righteousness nourishes the creative spirit of individual experience in the living realities of eternal truth and in the progressive communion with the divine spirits of the Father (the Thought Adjuster) and the Son (the Spirit of Truth). In the spiritual fellowship of the mortal believer with the divine Father there can never be doctrinal finality and sectarian superiority.

A Higher Righteousness Jesus' attitude toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation (forgiveness of an offense by ignoring it).  Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus disclosed to this world a higher quality of righteousness.1 He taught men not to resist evil, but to find through him a goodness that effectually destroys evil. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master's love means eternal survival and rehabilitation 1 Righteousness is equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles, affections of the heart, and conformity of life to the divine law.

Two Baptisms  Jesus foresaw that a social organization, or church, would follow the progress of the true spiritual kingdom, and that is why he never opposed the apostles' practicing the rite of John's baptism.  Jesus taught that the truth-loving soul, the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for God, is admitted by faith to the spiritual kingdom. At the same time the apostles taught that such a believer is admitted to the social organization of disciples by the outward rite of baptism.

Triumph of Righteousness Many things that happen in the course of a human life are hard to understand, and difficult to reconcile with the idea that this is a universe in which truth prevails and righteousness triumphs. It appears often that slander, lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness (sin) prevail. In the end, of course, faith does triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity. The life and death of Jesus are eternal proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of the spirit-led creature will be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross, saying, "Let us see if God will come and deliver him." It is no coincidence that the sky looked dark on the day of the crucifixion, and that it was gloriously bright on the resurrection (Easter) morning. It was still brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of Truth descended upon this world.

Mind and Matter To say that mind "emerged" from matter explains nothing. If the universe were merely a mechanism, and if mind were not separate from matter, there could not be different interpretations of observed phenomenon. The concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness are not inherent in either physics or chemistry. A machine cannot "know", much less perceive truth, hunger for righteousness, and cherish goodness. Machines do not think, create, dream, aspire, idealize, hunger for truth, or thirst for righteousness. They do not motivate their lives with the passion to serve other machines and to choose as their goal of eternal progression the sublime task of finding God and striving to be like him. Machines are never intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, ethical, moral, or spiritual. A mechanism deteriorates, but it cannot progress.