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| Introduction |
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| The Book of Michael is a scripture of Reform Mormonism. A better understanding of the role scripture plays for Reform Mormons, as well as the broader understanding of "scripture" employed by Reform Mormons, can be found in Chapter 5 of the Book of Michael. Most religious organizations have texts which are considered sacred or special. For example, most Christians consider the Holy Bible to be scripture; most Muslims, the Noble Qur'an. Mormonism, a religion founded in America in 1830, has always had a broader definition of scripture than Christians. Orthodox LDS Mormons, the sect headquartered in Salt Lake City, consider four books to be scripture: the Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Reform Mormonism, as a progression beyond Orthodox LDS Mormonism, has an even broader and more dynamic definition of scripture than Orthodox LDS or Christian views. Under that definition, The Book of Michael qualifies as something special. The Book of Michael is intended to provide further guidance and study for Reform Mormons. It is not complete, and will likely continue to develop over many years, just as other scriptures have. It does not claim to be inerrant, or the "Word of God;" most of the absolutes assumed about scripture aren't accepted by Reform Mormons, so most terms used to describe what the world considers historical scripture simply don't apply to The Book of Michael. However, those with a deeper understanding of Reform Mormonism tenets will understand that God can be found in the Book. A deeper understanding of the role of scripture in modern day life can be found in Chapter 5. Chapter 1 explains the need for understanding the nature of God. It talks of the difference between our existence and eternity, the separation of these two spheres (the veil), and God's ability to traverse the veil. Faith is defined relative to our understanding of time rather than as an oblique belief in a being. This forms an important foundation for Reform Mormonism: the individual nature of eternal progression and creative action. All remaining chapters build upon each other. Chapter 2 gives further detail on the nature of existence, God's attributes, the concept of progression in both time and eternity, and the idea of separation from God. Chapter 3 explores the thinking behind commandments and God's lack of need - including obedience. The idea of religious authority is explored. Morality is understood to be far more than a sexual code - it is a system of choices and consequences, part of progression. Chapter 4 explores the concept of "truth" and the notion of a "one true church." A clearer understanding of the role of churches is proposed. Chapter 5 broadens our understanding of scripture and art, and helps explain why these mediums are so important to us as well as misused by some (idolatry.) The artist emerges as a divine apprentice - scripture is reframed as something more universally available than previously thought. Read the Book of Michael and see what you think. If you emerge with questions, then you have succeeded. |
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| Chapter 1 Understanding the character of God and of ourselves; our existence as it compares to that of eternity; faith in God as an eventual understanding of eternity; progression and the veil. |
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| 1 It has been taught that unless we understand
the character of God, we do not understand
ourselves. 2 Developing a full understanding of the character and nature of God is not possible in this life. Our existence here has been designed such that we cannot have this full understanding. 3 The idea that our existence has been designed suggests that some force designed it. This too cannot be fully known in our existence. 4 To begin to develop some understanding of the character of God, we must begin developing some understanding of our existence. 5 Our existence is of time and space. Time as we know it is movement through space. A year of time is the movement of the Earth once around the sun. 6 Our current existence forces us to confront a single point in time and space that we consider to be the present, or now. 7 We do not have a direct connection to points in the past, because we cannot go back and directly experience them; we can only review records of the past. 8 We do not have a direct connection to points in the future, because we cannot go into the future and directly experience them; we can only anticipate or speculate about what they might be. 9 There is much we may be able to influence about the future by learning from the past; this is a pattern we have discovered. Learning about the past in order to influence the future may be one of the reasons why we are experiencing time and space in this current existence. 10 Why do we wish to influence the future? If the answer is to better our situation and our selves, why do we seek to do this? 11 Any betterment we seek to develop in the future is so that when we reach a particular point in the future, we will experience a better or improved condition at that time. We can only experience this betterment when the condition arrives as the present. 12 We do not retire in the evening fully able to guarantee the arrival of a new day. We cannot fully predict the future with accuracy. We believe that a new day will arrive because of the pattern we have experienced in the past. 13 The patterns that we experience influence our beliefs about the future. When we retire at night, we have faith that a new day will arrive in the morning. 14 Faith is not only our belief in something we cannot predict or guarantee in the future, it is also our rational thought based upon the evidence or patterns which seem to exist in the present moment, and our observance of these patterns in records of the past. 15 We perform actions only in the present moment. We think, write, build, design, love and destroy only in the present. We cannot do these things in the past or the future. 16 We can and should observe what we have done in the past. We can and should consider what we can do in the future. These observations and considerations can happen only in the present. 17 The single greatest action we perform in the present is the action of making a choice. Any action we are performing in the present moment is a result of a choice. 18 We may choose to spend the present moment reviewing the past. We may choose to spend the present moment anticipating the future. 19 We may choose to spend the present moment engaged in actions such as writing, building, designing, loving, or destroying. 20 The choices we make are our lives, since our lives are composed of the actions we take as a result of any choice we make. It may be that our life is the accumulation of the past into the moment we now experience, or it may be that our life is only the present moment. 21 All faith is an anticipation of the future as a present choice. When you believe that there will be a future moment at which you will make a particular choice, you are demonstrating faith that the future will eventually occur as the present and that at that moment you will take a particular action. You are choosing to spend the present moment in anticipation of this future event. Choosing to spend the present moment engaged in planning for the future is faith. 22 Faith is a creative force. 23 Faith is a concept we can understand because it relates to our existence in time and space. It is connected to the present and our anticipation of a point in the future. 24 Faith is a creative force because it galvanizes action. Faith galvanizes action because it connects the present to the anticipated future moment. 25 The greater the distance in time and space between the present and the anticipated future moment, the greater the faith involved to galvanize action. 26 There may be a variety of existences beyond the confines of time and space. One of the conditions of our existence is that we do not seem to be able to determine any other existences, although we can speculate about them. 27 That we are capable of speculation about existences other than ours suggests that we may be able to examine patterns from the past and develop rational beliefs about them. 28 One speculation is that a being who designed our current existence exists in a state beyond the constraints of time and space. This is based upon the idea that in order to design something, one must have mastery over it. 29 The name God is given to the being we credit with this design and construction, but the design itself seems to suggest that we can only have faith that this is so; we cannot know it. To know it would require us to exist outside of time and space, and this would seem to defeat the entire purpose of the design and construction. 30 To have faith in God, or to believe in God, is to believe that at some point in the future you will receive an explanation that is not receivable in time and space. 31 One idea about the nature of God's existence is that it is in a continuum called eternity. We do not know how to exactly define eternity other than to say that it is not time as we understand it. 32 Time as we understand it is movement through space. Eternity is something other than movement through space, or it has aspects that make it different. 33 One aspect of eternity is that it has no beginning or end; that it has always existed, and will always exist. Movement through space, which we understand to be time, is marked as a series of beginnings and endings. Eternity has no such markings. 34 We think of eternity as something we can potentially experience once we leave our existence of time and space. We think of it this way because our patterns of the past suggest that time and space progress in a serial fashion; if we do not recognize the experience of eternity in the present, and do not seem to have records of it in the past, if we feel it may exist at all we think it must be something which arrives in the future. 35 When we think of eternity as something which will arrive in the future (such as after this existence, or after we die) we have misunderstood the nature of eternity. Eternity cannot arrive, since it is already here. Eternity exists in the past, present, and future simultaneously. If it does not, it is not eternity. 36 Our inability to recognize eternity (as it exists in the present moment) is the veil. 37 The veil can be thought of as the separation between time (movement through space) and the eternal state of existence. 38 Eternity exists in the past, present and future. If we continue to think of eternity as something that will arrive in the future, we are choosing to defer understanding of this existence. It may be one of the purposes in life to recognize eternity in the present. 39 In order to recognize eternity in the present, one must confront the veil. 40 One of the qualities of God is an ability to traverse the veil at will. That such a thing is conceivable suggests that we may be able to learn this ability. 41 On one side of the veil is eternity; the other, time and space. When God traverses the veil into time and space, the appearance and conception of God is objective. When God traverses the veil into eternity, the appearance is spiritual. 42 When we deal with time and space, our appearance and conception is objective. When we deal with eternity, our appearance and conception is spiritual. 43 When we deal with spiritual matters, we are confronting the veil. We are attempting to understand aspects of eternity. 44 When we speak of progression, we are referring to time and space, since progression indicates progress from a particular point in time to another point in time. This type of progression cannot occur in eternity, since in eternity all moments in time exist simultaneously. 45 If there is improvement in eternity, it must take a very different form than our concept of progression. We do not yet understand this. |
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| Chapter 2 God and omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence; God's existence in both time and eternity; progression is understandable only in time and space; we are not separate from God. |
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| 1 Our understanding of the qualities
of God
help us understand qualities of ourselves.
It has been taught that we must learn
to
become Gods ourselves; to do so, we
must
discover aspects of God that we can
emulate
and develop ourselves. 2 There is value in both the understanding of ourselves and our efforts to emulate qualities which improve ourselves. 3 It has been taught that God is omniscient (all knowledgeable), omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (everywhere present.) 4 In these teachings, the use of the word all has been meant to convey relativity to our understanding of knowledge, power, and presence. 5 In the existence of time (movement through space) we view knowledge as something that can be obtained, suggesting that there is more knowledge than we currently possess, and that in the future, if we choose to, we may seek and obtain more. 6 Eternity, existing as it does in all time simultaneously, would access all knowledge simultaneously. If God can traverse the veil at will, then in an eternal state God would possess all knowledge (relative to what we understand knowledge to be) and when in time and space God would experience knowledge via progression. 7 If there is a method of improvement in eternity, we are not yet able to comprehend it. 8 Since God can exist on both sides of the veil, we can understand, therefore, that God can have all knowledge relative to God's mastery of the eternal state and be progressing relative to God's mastery of time and space. This situation mirrors our own. 9 The access to all knowledge that God has through mastery of the eternal state is what gives God all power. God's ability to traverse the veil at will gives God the ability to manifest power obtained in the eternal state in time and space. When we are able to traverse the veil at will we may also share in this power. 10 When in the eternal state God is everywhere present because eternity is not bound by time and/or space as we understand it. We can only understand this concept in the present. If we could pierce the veil - only possible in the present moment, but theoretically possible at any moment of the past or future, in any location - we would discover eternity. In this state God is everywhere present; at all places and at all times. 11 When God traverses the veil and exists in time and space, the objective part of God becomes physical. This objectification of God then exists in time and space, and has the appearance of limitation (because it is an objectification, required to exist in time and space.) 12 God does not shed God's eternal nature when traversing the veil, and so God can exist in both time and space and eternity simultaneously. 13 We exist in both time and space and eternity simultaneously. 14 There is a part of us which is physical objectification, meant to function in time and space. There is a part of us which is eternal, meant to exist in eternity. 15 We are formed in the image of God, in that God exists in a physical, objective form for a purpose, and in an eternal form for a purpose. We exist both in physical, objective form for a purpose, and in eternal form for a purpose. 16 We feel we are familiar with the objective part of ourselves because we can experience it with our senses, and have methods of reviewing our physical pasts and treating our physical conditions. We discover routinely that there is much we still do not yet know about our objective physical existence. To learn more we are required to confront assumptions about objects. 17 We have varying degrees of confidence in our understanding of the eternal, as it is experienced in a manner foreign to rational exploration. The yearning felt by humanity to uncover more knowledge in this regard demonstrates the degree to which we feel we do not yet understand eternity. To learn more about eternal aspects we are required to confront the veil. 18 It does not seem likely that confrontation with the veil will result in piercing it. Yet every confrontation with the veil results in an experience with it which develops into a pattern over time. The observance of this pattern provides a rational basis for belief in a future point in time at which eternity will be understood. 19 The veil is confronted within ourselves. Eternity, in the form that we can most readily begin to comprehend it, resides within ourselves. 20 It has been taught that we are in a state of separation from God. 21 Some objectifications of God suggest physical limitations to God. Ascribing physical limitation to God seems at odds with the teaching that God is omnipresent. Acceptance of the idea that God can traverse the veil at will and can therefore exist in an objective state on one side of the veil, and an eternal state on the other, suggests that ascribing physical limitation to God is myopic. 22 God in the eternal state is everywhere present. 23 Because there is a part of us which is eternal, God is present within that part of us. 24 We may consider ourselves physically distinct from a particular time and space objectification of God, but we cannot consider ourselves separate from God, since God is omnipresent, and therefore can be found in that eternal part of us. 25 The sense that we are physically separate from God is the effect of the veil; it is illusory. If all things exist in both time and space and an eternal state, God is present in all things, including those in time and space, since the eternal must encompass time and space. 26 If God is in all things, our respect for God can be demonstrated in how we respect things. 27 It has been taught that we return to God when we die. 28 We are not separate from God. Our existence after this life is not known, though we may develop an understanding of eternity with removal of the veil. Our ability to interact with God is not incumbent upon our ability to traverse the veil. 29 Interaction with God is an interaction within. Interaction with an objectification of God can be useful. Of more use is interaction with God in the eternal state. To interact with God in the eternal state, the most accessible point is within ourselves. |
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| Chapter 3 Fallacy of interaction with God dependent upon obedience; commandments and their origin; God's lack of need; fallacy of judgements and rewards; morality, choices and consequences are to be learned; God's power resides in all people. |
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| 1 It has been taught that people must obey
God; that in order to interact with God in
a future state, people must achieve requirements
that God has set. 2 You have immediate access to God within yourself at any moment in this existence. While in the next existence we may understand the nature of eternity more fully, access to God is not different than it is in this existence. 3 When you are in an eternal state, do you expect to visit with God as you imagine in time in space? For what reason would God prefer to exist as a particular objectification when God could choose to exist in an eternal state wherein you have access to God immediately rather than by physical proximity? 4 We presently have full access to God. In the next existence, interaction with God will not be significantly different. What we learn in this life relative to interaction with God will serve us in the next. 5 In order to believe that God's intent is for people to obey commandments, one must understand why God would seek to establish commandments. It is easy to understand why people would want other people to obey commandments, and therefore it is easy to understand why people might ascribe to God the idea of commandments. 6 Commandments always come to us from other people. Be wary of their intention, as many problems in Earth's history have been caused by those who claim God's sanction, convince others of it, and then lead others to destructive acts that impede their progression. 7 God exists within you, and you have as direct a connection to God as anyone else. 8 For what purpose would God command you? People who give commands to other people do so for their pleasure, or for their need. Do you imagine that God would command you for pleasure or need? 9 The Eternal God is everywhere present, has all knowledge, and as a result is all-powerful. What need does such a being have? How will your obedience change God's state of having all? 10 It is difficult to suggest even a single item that God would need, as God's omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience suggest that all needs are already met. 11 God has no need. 12 In our eternal state, we have no need. The concept of need is an element of existence in time and space. 13 We are at our most content when we are not focused on our physical state. We are most content when we are at peace internally, with that part of us which is eternal. 14 Confronting the veil, or brushing into that aspect of our eternal selves which has no need, often brings about peace and contentment. 15 When we are focused on our needs, we are focused on our existence in time and space. When we are focused on that part of us which is eternal and one with God, our needs melt away. 16 When people proclaim a commandment as given from God they are projecting their desire to control others upon an objectification of God. 17 The fact that people feel need is projected upon God. 18 If God already possesses all things, all knowledge, and is everywhere present, what is God to gain by requiring particular actions of people? 19 It has been taught that people must obey God, that God has given people commandments. This is not true. God has no need for us to obey commandments. This teaching is true of people, not of God. It serves the purposes of other people, and those who choose to be lead by them. It can serve no purpose for a being that already possesses all. 20 It has been taught that to interact with God in a future state we must achieve certain things. This is not true. God has no need of our achievement. This teaching is true of people, not of God. It serves the purposes of other people, and those who choose to be lead by them. 21 To base belief of future accessibility to God upon conformity to rules set by others in this existence, and to act in conformity to those rules, is to engage in a convoluted game. 22 It has been taught that all people are in a fallen state, or will be punished for sins and transgressions. 23 The idea that people are in such a state is a game. Those who choose to involve themselves in this game may learn much from it; it is not necessary, however, and it is only a game. 24 The idea that you will return to God after this life, incumbent upon a performance in a game, requires you to believe that you are presently separate from God. This is easy to believe because of the veil. 25 You are, in actuality, not separate from God. Your performance in a game will not change this. You cannot change the fact that part of you is eternal and therefore not separate from God. 26 God is omnipresent, and therefore everywhere present. God is present in you, for you are part of everywhere. You therefore cannot be separate from God. 27 One cannot be closer to God than when one confronts the veil internally and seeks interaction with the God within. 28 The God imagined as an objectified being external to you in time and space is more removed from you than the God within. Because you can see and hear representations of this objectification, it may seem easier to interact with in this existence, but at the price of proximity. 29 To further your progression, understand the differences between the choice to interact with physical objectifications of God and God within ourselves. Both are useful if understood. 30 It has been taught that you will be judged in the next life and sorted into kingdoms that represent rewards or punishments. 31 Rewards, punishments and kingdoms are a system designed by people for the purposes of people. They exist effectively only in our time and space existence. Rewards and punishments lose their meaning when viewed in the eternal existence. 32 God does not wait to judge and reward or condemn you, because God does not wait to judge and reward or condemn God. You are not separate from God; God does not wait to judge and reward or condemn himself. 33 It has been taught that if God does not wait to judge us, that people will behave immorally. People behave immorally despite the belief that God waits to judge them. 34 People behave immorally when they violate the God within. Morals are personal understandings about behavior made as an individual progresses. We judge our own morality based upon our actions compared to our understanding. This judging happens instantly rather than eventually. 35 Learning to judge for ourselves is an important act of progression. Some people have chosen not to progress further in this area by choosing to believe that judgment is deferred. In the eternal state, judgment cannot exist in the manner in which we are familiar, and in the state of time and space, judgment can only happen in the present. If we are to learn and progress, we must deal with judgment as an immediate event. 36 It has been taught that we must take an eye for an eye. It has also been taught that we must forgive. In order to progress, we must learn to choose the best action for the circumstance. 37 When we choose, we must accept the results of our choice; that is the price paid for the freedom to choose. The result of a choice is a consequence. In order to progress, we must understand that consequences will follow our choices and that we must accept responsibility for the consequences. 38 At the forks in the road for each choice we make, a different series of potential consequences may play out down any particular path. When we choose a particular path, we must do so knowing that we will encounter those consequences that will occur. 39 The choice to take a particular path must be made not with the knowledge of all consequences that await, but with the knowledge that the consequences which arrive do so because of our choice to follow a particular path instead of another. In this manner, we accept responsibility for the consequences that follow the choices we make. 40 When we accept responsibility for our choices, the consequences we encounter provide additional choices and knowledge. When we do not accept responsibility for our choices, we become less able to make better choices, and we encounter less knowledge. 41 To progress, we must both make choices and accept responsibility for choices. As we progress, we must learn from the consequences and make better choices. 42 It has been taught that some people have the power of God. 43 The power of God is faith. Faith is the moving force of all action. 44 God resides in all people, because no one is separate from God. Because God is everywhere present, God is within each of us. 45 The power of God is the power of the God within you. This power is manifest as a creative force when you exercise it. Every time you make a choice you exercise some of this force, for within every choice is the potential for creative action. 46 In order for you to make a choice of creative action, you must first believe that your action will result in something. This is faith. 47 Every person possesses the ability to exercise this creative power. 48 It has been taught that God has given this power to some people but not others. 49 By what method, and for what purpose, would God remove from each person this creative ability such that only some people retain it? 50 Each individual's opportunity to progress is fostered by this power. It exists in each of you, regardless of your acknowledgement or invocation of it. You demonstrate it every time you make a choice. 51 Those who claim to make choices in the name of God do so of their own claim. Anyone is free to choose to make such a claim, as God is not separate from any person, and your creative actions are as God-sanctioned as any other. The choice to claim that one's actions are sanction by God is merely another creative action. 52 That millions of people may agree that some people's choices are authorized or sanctioned by God cannot invalidate that the single choice made by a being not so recognized is ultimately as creative or powerful. 53 People who wish to exercise the power of God need only turn within themselves to discover and use this power. The power is demonstrated every time a choice is made. The power is refined when responsibility for choices is accepted and the person learns how to make better choices. 54 It has been said that in order to exercise the power of God one must be ordained. 55 For what purpose would God restrict the use of this innate power already within each person? 56 God has already provided the creative power within each person irrespective of any of person's claims. 57 People use ritual to explore and focus their understanding of God, but they also use ritual to influence other people. The teaching that God has restricted the use of this power already placed within every being by way of a ritual is a teaching people use to influence each other. Such teachings foster progression in some people and impede it in others. 58 The ritual of ordination is useful in helping a group of people understand an accepted title or function within a group, but the power of God cannot be given, removed, or transferred in this manner. 59 The power of God exists in each person by design and cannot be given, removed, or transferred. 60 It has been taught that unless one has been authorized to use God's power, one cannot. It has been taught that women are not authorized to use this power. 61 The power of God resides within all people, men and women. Women cannot have this power removed from them; they can only be influenced to make choices that do not improve their use of this power. 62 If a woman chooses to use this power, it becomes manifest. 63 Many women have chosen to not exercise this power. The consequences of that choice may include limitation in progression in those aspects where use of that power is helpful. 64 Many people choose not to use this power. The consequences of that choice are usually a reduction in experience and knowledge. 65 Each person who chooses not to exercise this power must accept the consequences of that choice. 66 Women are as free to exercise this power as men. It is the choice of any individual. Within the choice itself is the power of God. Turn within yourself to make this choice. 67 It has been taught that only those who are worthy can exercise the power of God. 68 Worth is a valuation made by people. To suggest that God applies worth as a valuation to people suggests that God would value some people more than others. 69 God does not value some people more than others. 70 Because God does not value some people more than others, God has given his creative power to all people. The choice to use this power is the power itself. That you have the choice is your indication of this power within you. 71 God does not remove the power from you based upon valuation or the result of choices you have made. It may at times seem to you that you do not have this power, but the idea that you do not have it, or that it has left you, is an illusion. 72 God will not remove this power, or choice, from you, because God is everywhere present. To remove this power from you God would have to remove himself from you. God does not remove himself from any place, because he is omnipresent. God does not remove himself from himself. 73 God will always be with you. You will always have the choice. |
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| Chapter 4 One as all or limitation; truth is observed in the present moment; all truth is part of a larger truth; churches are for the fostering of progression. |
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| 1 It has been taught that there is
only one
true church. The words are correct,
but this
combination, its interpretation and
application,
are rarely correct. 2 One, as a reference so to something singular, must either include all things, or indicate a smaller portion, excluding the rest. One cannot refer to anything other that these two options. 3 When one refers to all, it signifies unity. When one does not refer to all, it excludes part of the all, signifying limitation. 4 When we use the word one, we must indicate our intent with its use. If our intent is to indicate a limitation, we must specify the limitation in order to be understood. 5 True, as an indication of the state that things are in, is a present observation subject to change. An observation of what is true cannot be made in the past or in the future - it can only occur in the present moment. 6 Something that was true in the past may not be true in the present. Our observation about what was true will change because the nature of our existence is to learn things. As we learn new things, our observations about the past change. 7 Our observations made in the present relative to the state of things are always true to us. 8 In the future we may learn things that make our current observations seem untruthful. This is the normal process of acquiring knowledge. 9 Truth, therefore, is an assessment made about the state of things as they exist in the present moment. 10 It has been taught that God has sanctioned only one church as true. 11 If we take the usage of one to mean all, then truth is understood as individual determinations of people about the present. If we take the usage of one to mean a limitation, then truth is understood as a comparative determination of people about the limitation vs. all else. 12 Any singular observance called truth cannot be disputed, if we accept that individual truth occurs as an individual's choice relative to present observation. 13 If the all meant by one is true, its divisions are true. Divisions of a larger truth are also true. 14 Churches, existing inherently as limitations excluding all else, are true, as they are part of a larger truth. The parts they exclude are as true as the parts they include, as both are parts of a larger truth. Delineation of one part from another cannot reduce or increase truthfulness of something already true. 15 All churches are true, as all churches combined form the larger truth. 16 It has been taught that one must believe in a particular limitation exclusively in order to receive God's favor or sanction. 17 For what purpose would God subdivide himself and exclude truth from certain parts of his existence? For what purpose would God give sanction to a division of truth? It is easy to understand why men might claim that one church is more true than another, but God would have no purpose in doing so, as God is in all churches, being in all things. 18 Truths can be experienced in every church that exists. There is no exclusivity on truth. 19 Our existence in time and space allows for the existence of churches. The role of a church is to aid the individual in their progression. There are a wide variety of churches because people are in widely varying states of progression. 20 Churches have no function in an eternal state of existence. Progression is an attribute of existence in time and space. Churches exist only to facilitate our progression in this state; they have no applicability in the eternal state. 21 A single individual is more important and powerful than an entire church. This is because part of an individual is both subject to progression in time and space, and existence in the eternal state. Churches cannot and do not exist eternally. 22 It has been taught that unless you belong to the one true church, you cannot return to God. 23 But I say unto you, you will return to God regardless of the Church you belong to. You should belong to every church that facilitates your progression. You can belong to all churches. That is the one true church. |
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| Chapter 5 Scripture as art; art as a similitude of creation; idolatry examined; all scripture of value. |
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| 1 It has been taught that scripture
is the
Word of God. 2 People write all scripture. Scripture is art. 3 Art is a creation that signifies something greater than the sum of its material composition. 4 The act of creating art involves creative decision; creative decision is faith. 5 The artist believes that by making the choice to organize material in the present, a point in the future will arrive when the efforts of their work can be experienced by other people as something greater than the original organization of material. 6 Faith that the future moment will arrive in which the artist's organization can be realized in the present is the galvanizing force that brings about creative decisions. 7 Faith that at a future moment a world would be realized is the galvanizing force by which God organized this existence. 8 When people engage in creating art, they are organizing material that already exists, but the result of the organization creates something that did not exist. 9 That element of art that is truly created rather than organized, but as a result of the organization, is a reflection of the veil; it offers a view of the eternal. 10 People progress at different rates. All people are at different states of progression; no two are in the exact same state of progression. 11 Different people, based upon their state of progression, interpret that part of art that is more than the sum of its material organization - the part that reflects the eternal - differently. This is why some art will appeal, or be understood, or provide a view of the veil, to some people while at the same time seem little more than material organization by others. 12 God is in all art, as God is in all things. 13 If the phrase Word of God is meant to suggest the literal speaking of God, then art is not the Word of God. If the phase Word of God is meant to suggest a means by which a view of the eternal may be explored, and new knowledge thereby obtained, then art is the Word of God. 14 When the artist engages faith and organizes materials such that they result in the creation of a view of the eternal for those who are at a particular level of progression, the artist has engaged in a similitude of the creative act of God. With every such act an individual becomes more like God. 15 Those who compose scripture organize material such that its result creates something new - a view of the eternal not experienced prior to the organization. All scripture created historically was organized in this manner. 16 One may choose to simply view and understand art for the view of the eternal it provides, or one may attempt to view art with an understanding of the intent of the artist. Both views offer knowledge. 17 It has been taught that idolatry is to be avoided. 18 Idolatry is a condition based upon the length of time someone chooses to limit oneself from new knowledge by choosing to select a particular piece of art or concept for exclusive study or devotion. 19 The act of focusing on a particular object, conceptual or literal, for study and acquisition of knowledge, can be useful. The limitation of new knowledge is not useful. 20 The decision to limit exposure to new knowledge is individually made based upon a person's moral construct. When it is taught that idolatry is to be avoided, what is meant is that we must individually judge when such limitation has become unhealthy, and choose to pursue new knowledge when such limitations no longer are to our benefit. 21 It has been taught that scripture contains laws that people must obey, and that scripture must be treated with reverence. 22 God does not give laws to men through art. People may choose to influence other people by infusing elements of control over others with the art they organize. While such creations may fulfill the role of art, and are of God in that God is in all things, they may also inspire idolatry. The view of the eternal created by art can have a powerful impact. 23 Take care to treat art as man-made. Those who organize art have no inherent right or power to declare law or demand obedience, nor right to declare their art as exclusively sanctioned by God. 24 Your view of art and its interpretation can have a powerful impact upon your knowledge and understanding of the eternal. Gain wisdom as to how your view changes over time and the proper role of those who create art. 25 It has been taught that some art is worthy of designation as scripture, and that such designation makes that art superior to other forms of art. 26 Designation of some art as having significance to people based upon their level of progression is appropriate so long as it does not become idolatry and begin to limit their progression. Such selection may be based upon tradition, historical interaction, communal experience, and personal ability to view the eternal. Individuals must make their own decision as to when new knowledge has been limited due to such designations and seek to continually progress by not allowing designations to inhibit their acquisition of knowledge. 27 For some people certain designations of scripture may offer continual knowledge acquisition throughout their lifetime without approaching levels of idolatry. For others, some scripture may not offer what is needed for a view of the eternal, and exploration of any and all other scripture may be needed. 28 People have created all scripture and all art. All art is an expression of faith. It is all therefore available for you to explore and use, to view the eternal and gain new knowledge. Choose to designate that which is important to you carefully and do so without limiting yourself from all of the other forms of organization and creation available to you. 29 We are that we might have joy; explorations of the eternal through the similitude of God's creative act bring more joy into this existence. |
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