THE FUTURE

 

The future will be the future of the religion practiced by Jesus, the religion of the spirit, with the individual engaging in personal and intimate relations with the Universal Father. Men and women will increasingly appreciate that they are the sons and daughters of God and that they have direct access to their spirit Father. God will be recognized as their truest friend.

 

Men and women will not settle for second-hand religion handed down by traditional religious leaders-religion that merely requires the mind assent to dogma and is miracle minded. Men and women will demand first-hand religion - religion validated by the supreme and unquestionable authority of their own personal experience. An individual's faith will no longer be a lifeless creed, rather it will be a faith in spiritual realities that is so compelling that it transforms the entire mode of living and leads to growing consciousness of God's presence.

 

They will think of God as dwelling within them, with the spiritual kingdom within them rather than being 'out there' and ushered in only at the end of an age. They will recognize the personal guidance of the unique fragment of God that dwells within them and which is destined to be the eternal partner of their soul if they choose spiritual (personality) survival.

 

Religious fundamentalism based on reputed written revelation will give way to a willingness to accept living truth from wherever it may come from and follow it wherever it may lead. All of universe reality will be viewed as a revelation of God's love, sovereignty and infinite plans.

 

Men and women will refuse to accept a religion that is out of step with their highest concepts of truth, beauty and goodness. They will refuse to accept a religion inconsistent with facts, science and the universe. It will finally dawn on creationists that evolution is God's technique of creation. Truth seekers will demand a religion that is able to unify all aspects of reality, including their own experience, in a supreme being who is the source and destiny of all reality and who provides its meanings, values and loving and merciful over-control. They will look to the transcendent goal of service concealed behind the horizon of this present universe age.

 

Religious sectarianism and intolerance will fade. Religions will look to other religions to profit from the best in them, rather than to condemn the worst in them. True religion will not require unity of thought, only unity of spirit. The chosen-people mentality will fade. Truth seekers will see claims of religious superiority and infallibility as spiritually enslaving, sin as deliberate disloyalty to God, and pride as the greatest danger to spiritual survival.

 

Prayer will evolve from a request for material favors, to a request to benefit others, to thanksgiving and a request for values - a prelude to true worship of God. The truth of 'ask and you will receive' in accordance with your real spiritual needs will become well known.

 

Much more emphasis will be placed on the worship of God - every will creature's first duty and highest privilege. More people will hear the Father fragment's voice to the soul, which is your personal accumulation of spirit (your potentially immortal spiritual counterpart) that grows as you make personal the experienceable true meaning-values of the universe. Spiritual progress will be seen as being made through decisions, decisions and more decisions. The beautiful harmony of the consecration of one's free will to God's purposes will increasingly ring out.

 

True religion will look for new heroes and a new vision of heroes already known - struggling mortals who have fought the battle of faith and won by following Jesus' perfect example of exquisitely blending the human and the divine in the one life (to illuminate the sole way to be transformed from the human into the divine-endless growth of true, spiritual character).

 

It will be realized that Jesus is the truth, and that of all human knowledge the most important to know is the actual religious life of Jesus and how he lived it. Being our immediate creator, he lived the life of the creature (always seeking to know God's will and in submission to it). The religion Jesus practiced will be contrasted with religions that are largely about Jesus.

 

Religion will disentangle itself from politics, economics and the social system. Religion will contribute to the advancement of civilization by providing the ideal citizen - tolerant, universe minded and devoted to Godly ideals, including the greatest good for the greatest number. The spirit born individual will then be influential in worthwhile areas of human advancement.

 

Religion will shift away from selfish focus on one's own spiritual survival. Men and women will increasingly conceive of eternal life as available simply by demonstrating unshakeable faith in the reality and goodness of God by sincerely striving to do the will of God as that will is constantly revealed by each persons's indwelling Father fragment. In the future, the focus will be on personally imitating God-on pursing the endless quest for perfection while exploring infinity.

 

The religion of the future will exalt marriage, the family, the home and true ethics and morals. It will foster initiative, freedom of thought, and individuality, in religious experience. It will inspire the individual to work to establish the government of all mankind - peace on earth.

 

It will be a religion of actual experience, transforming faith, joy, deep thinking, self- criticism, courage, learning, ongoing relatively true revelation, new meanings, new values, challenges and dynamic service - a rugged, never ending, daring faith adventure of step by step spiritual attainment. The brotherhood of mankind, a high spiritual civilization striving to know and do the Father's will, eventually will be established on earth through intelligent love and service.

 

True religion will entail struggle, hard work, sharing and living the highest values. The faithful will become ever more real, loyal to God, patient, disappointment proof, full of truth, forgiving, wise, unselfish, non-judgmental, self-controlled, trusting in God, unafraid, at peace and able to see with spiritual insight. They will strive for unbroken communion with God. The character fruits of striving to live God's way will become their eternal possession.

 

The progress of true religion will be in the hands of those forward-looking men and women who will dare to construct an appealing way of life out of the highest available concepts of truth. They will not necessarily be accredited by the religions of ecclesiastical authority. Instead, these courageous men and women will rely on other people seeing that their credentials are the far-seeing, intelligent love they bestow on their fellows as they pass by.

 

In the future, the passion of the faithful will be a cycle of worship, truth seeking, and revealing to others, through intelligent service, that everyone is a son or daughter in God's vast universal family. They will serve God only, treating everyone as they conceive that God would so that each contact with a person will result in the greatest possible good to the person. The infinite spiritual rewards of their endless universe careers will unfold day by day.

 

We are on the brink of an amazing era of spiritual enlightenment and devotion to practical spiritual living. It will soon be easy to see that true religion is the most powerful influence on earth. One day the religion practiced by Jesus will rule in the hearts of men on earth.

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