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Real religion (continued)
The kingdom of heaven on Earth is neither a social nor an economic order; it is an exclusively spiritual family of God-knowing individuals.
No matter what upheavals may attend the growth of a civilization, religion is genuine and worthwhile if it fosters the sovereignty of truth, beauty, and goodness--and through love and worship this becomes meaningful as consciousness of the presence of God and fellowship with all mankind.
Purely factual knowledge exerts very little direct influence upon the personal performance of the individual. It is what one believes rather than what one knows that dominates our attitude to our fellows.
There is no danger in religion becoming more and more a private and personal experience--provided it does not lose its motivation for selfless, loving service.
Mankind's greatest spiritual jeopardy consists in partial progress--unfinished growth--the forsaking of religions of authority and fear without grasping firm hold upon the revelatory religion of love.
In modern times, religious progress is hindered by the incompatibility of primitive and exclusive belief systems such as those that:
1. Hold to a God who rewards the good and punishes the bad.
2. Cling to humanism while rejecting the gods.
3. Deify either nature or a materialistic pseudo-science.
What is now needed is the harmony that can proceed from acceptance of the conjoint existence of God-consciousness, spirit, mind, and energy.
Religion is not a slavish belief in threats of punishment or promises of magical rewards. Rather, true religion is to know God as your Father and mankind as your family.
Jesus and true religion
The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called upon mankind to seek to achieve the highest ideals in time and eternity--to be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect.
The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the potential of religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore the dignity of mankind when he declared we are all children of God.
Someday religionists will get together and actually effect cooperation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes. And it will be goals rather than creeds that will unify religionists.
Because true religion is a matter of personal religious experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist will have his own personal interpretation of the realization of his own experience.
Future religionists must live out their religion, dedicating themselves to the wholehearted service of God and mankind.
It is high time that men and women should have religious experience so personal and so sublime that it could be realized and expressed only by "feelings that lie too deep for words."
Economic interdependence and social fraternizing will ultimately conduce to the unification of mankind. People, naturally, are dreamers, but science is sobering them so that religion can presently become their activator and with far less danger than previously of precipitating fanatical reactions. Economic necessity ties them to reality and personal religious experience brings them face to face with the eternal realities of cosmic citizenship.
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