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Although it is a
religion it is not claimed as being a monopoly. Religion is a matter of
one’s own private conscience and of one’s choice. It is said that we are
not Christians. This may be so, in the same way that we are neither
Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Jews. In saying that we accept the lives and
teachings of the leaders of those great religions as well as those of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Spiritualists have often been accused of being anti-Christian. But
Spiritualism is a universal religion embracing all creeds but subservient
to none. We can be Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews or of no religion
at all. We accept Jesus as a great healer and teacher. Having no creeds or
dogmas, Spiritualism bases its philosophy on the principle that God is our
Father and we are all His children, and that we have a duty to Him and
each other.
Spiritualism proves through mediumship that man survives physical death
and that his spirit lives on in another world. It holds that man alone is
responsible for all his thoughts and deeds and that he will receive
compensation or retribution for those deeds according to his way of life
on Earth and will be given the opportunity of making eternal spiritual
progress.
These teachings are all embodied in the teachings of Jesus. The religion
preached by him was pure Spiritualism. He chose his disciples because of
their psychic powers. He healed the sick and performed miracles which
healers today are likewise performing, as he told us we should.
The Church in its Creed, pays lip service to the “Communion of Saints and
the Life Everlasting”. Mediums prove this to be a fact. In his time the
teachings of Jesus were claimed to be heretic to two groups of people -
the Jewish priests on the one hand, who realised he was undermining their
power, and the Roman hierarchy on the other hand, who feared he was about
to lead a rebellion. It was for this, and no other reason, that Jesus was
arrested and suffered crucifixion.
The great work, which Jesus began, was carried on for three centuries
after his Passing by generations of mediums and healers. They suffered
great persecution, being forced to meet in small groups (Circles) and all
the time in the background was the atmosphere of envy and jealousy against
them by those who resented and coveted the power they possessed.
At this time there appeared on the scene a Roman Emperor, Constantine,
who, perceiving the great conflict of religions among his own people and
the steady growth of the young Christian Church, and with his eye on the
main chance, proclaimed Christianity the official State religion, although
he himself did not convert until he lay on his death bed. In the meantime,
given this new popularity and authority, many Christians lost their heads,
introducing a series of edicts and dogmas and a mixed creed of Pagan and
Christian thought. They also introduced Trinitarianism into their religion
at the Congress of Nicaea in AD 325. Previously the early Christians had
been Unitarian.
From that time the power of the mediums dwindled and the early teachings
of Jesus vanished, to be replaced by the orthodox Christianity we know
today. For many centuries Spiritualists were persecuted and put to death,
and even in England, where religious tolerance was supposed to be a matter
understood, it was not until 1951 that Sir Winston Churchill introduced
the Abolition of the Witchcraft Act and Spiritualists were allowed to hold
their church services without fear of prosecution. The last known case of
a medium being burned at the stake was in Mexico in 1957.
Both Spiritualism and Christianity - in fact all the great religions -
subscribe to the principle of immortality which has been proved
irrefutably to countless thousands through Spirit communication, so
bringing us into personal contact with those who have passed through the
veil.
Spiritualism endeavours to find the cause of our social ills and to change
our material thinking into a spiritual one, for by thus transforming the
individual, we can reform society as a whole. Orthodox religion has lost
its influence but man still demands some form of relation with God which
Spiritualism can provide.
Spiritualism opens the door to a wider and more virile religious outlook,
the co-operation between our earthly world and the World of Spirit, which
will continue to grow until the time when Man will no longer regard death
with dread but as a natural transition from the mundane limitations of
materialism to the joyous and endless possibilities of the World to come.
Let us end by quoting from a speech made by that great medium, William
Oaten:-
"Let Christianity get back to the simple saintly life of Jesus and the
Early Church. There is it’s true salvation. Christianity will then rest on
the same foundations as Spiritualism, with Spirit Teachings reinforced by
phenomena produced through mediumship. Cut the creeds and dogmas that have
overlaid the simple truth. Exercise the demons of power that have been
wielded by vested interests. Let it abolish the theatrical stage trappings
which hide the real players, and peer behind the scenes. The function and
purpose of Modern Spiritualism is to take Christianity back to its founder
and enable it to forget it’s wanderings in the wilderness."
Modern Spiritualism has been called into being to do this, and with the
mighty power of the Spirit World behind it, neither priests nor prelates,
principalities or powers, can prevent it’s accomplishment, as long as
Spiritualists are true to the Spirit World, for the Spirit message is ever
the same and the Spirit World is always true to us and itself..
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