The Bible and the Word of God

EOM Ida Mingle

The Bible and the Word of God have been used so interchangeably as to create the belief that they are the same. The Bible is the symbol of which the Word of God is the reality. The Bible is a record of the Word's unfoldment in humanity, the identification of the Creative Principles in consciousness, about which the Bible speaks, being the actuality of the Word. God expresses by means of Man, His expression being both relative and absolute. The expression pertaining to the race as a whole is recorded in the Bible as an evidence of a power that governs humanity, and a record of the unfoldment the race is to make to consummate the Plan of Creation and to manifest the spiritual realities.

The Bible

The Bible deals with man in both his mortal and immortal nature. It is a description of the processes through which the race passes to unfold the ideals designed by God to be manifested at the end of Time. Time is the period of progression instituted by the Divine Intelligence in which the spiritual forces are materialized, though their materialization is climaxed with the process of regeneration and re-birth by which the spiritual fruits are to be revealed. The Bible as a record is applicable to the progression of the generation from Adam, though all generations are the further unfoldment of the Divine Intelligence, hence, all Bibles partake of the same spirit and are similar in their text.

The Bible deals with both life and death because both are means by which the Divine Principles are identified. Since divine qualities become identified on the material plane, if the material progression were not subject to decay and dissolution, there would be one great aggregation of material bulk that would obstruct the further unfoldment of the spiritual powers. Under the divine law the spirit forces are made matter and matter is dissolved, being reduced to the essences of spirit that it was before it was formed, these spirit-essences being translated into other and higher forms of expression. When spirit and form have reached their limit of progression in Time, the Lord of both heaven and earth performs the Messianic service by which all things are re-born and manifested as they were designed to be by the God-being.

Because the Bible is a record of the race's unfoldment it is both literal and spiritual, historical and allegorical, figurative and metaphysical, symbolical and prophetical. It is an exposition of the activities of consciousness necessary to form the Word of God, or identification of the divine principles. But it is the Word made flesh that has its influence upon the race, though the influence projected from the reading of the Bible prepares the race to receive the Word's activities. Because the ideas surrounding the Biblical characters have an allegorical or prophetical meaning does not imply that the character is a myth. The character is the identification in the flesh of the Word's unfoldment, people being born into the world to perform spiritual services and thus progress the work of the Lord, who comes at the proper time to climax the spiritual progression with the resultant spiritual fruits.

The compilation of the Bible by a body of men representing the ecclesiastical authority of the times was not an error but the expression of the Infinite Intelligence by means of mankind by which there was accomplished that which was needful. While man is permitted to think he has self-will and independent action while developing self-consciousness, the activities of self-conscious egos are not outside of the direction of the lords of the universe. If there were books left out of the Bible that should be in it; it was because they did not belong or else an offense had to be created by which people would grow into a greater wisdom and love. When one realizes that God is the one power and the one presence, expressing in two poles of progression, that is, for and against a central idea that stands back of the dual world, one will see that the two aspects serve as means by which one gains that which is the Truth. All activities belong to the Game of Life and all serve in promoting the qualities of intelligence, though ignorance is a very necessary prelude to gaining wisdom. In the degree that man knows himself can he know the Bible and interpret its meaning. But until one understands the activities of life and has gained a considerable degree of wisdom and love the Bible is a closed book, not intended to be opened to the soul except as the soul is opened to the development of spiritual understanding.

The Word of God

The Word of God is Christ, the principle of Being, which unfolding as consciousness manifests as Man. Man is manifested when he partakes of the nature of God, that is, of Christ. Man is the Living Word of God when identified in life. This is to say that egos gaining the unity of the male-female Creative Principle within consciousness are the Son of Man in whom the Son of God (Christ) is expressing. The kingdom of heaven that is to be revealed, and about which the Bible in the record of the words of Jesus speaks, will be made up of Christed egos, the aggregation of them constituting the Son of Man race. The will of God will be done in this Christed humanity, the divine qualities being directly expressed and revealed.

The Word of God is God according to the Bible. The Bible sets forth the operation of God in consciousness and is believed when witnessed by the Christ within. Jesus said, "Ye search the Scripture because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; but these are they that bear witness of me." The Scriptures bear witness of the Word. When the Word, which is God's activities, is identified in consciousness Man bears witness to the truth of the Bible records, not through reading the Bible but through having lived and loved sufficiently to have gained consciousness of the Truth which is Christ. The Word of God as Christ is the mode of expression by which the Infinite Intelligence is made known. Christ, the Word of God, which is God in action, is operative by means of Man-Woman Creative Principle. This is not to say that Christ is operative by means of men and women for they do not constitute the Word, but are inverted in their function and nature to the principles of Being. But when the inverted men and women reverse the activities of consciousness, gaining the Christ center, they are united in the Man-Woman Creative Principle and bring forth the image and likeness man, which is the spirit and body of the Word. The embodiment of the Word as the first living consciousness was Jesus Christ, "the first-born of every creature".

The Word in Absolute and Relative Expression

The absolute expression of the Word is given to the world in certain cycles of progression, it being the Means to the Cause by which the powers of God are projected into the consciousness of the race and the universe. This is called the coming of Christ. Christ in the first and second coming is the totality of all activities of the Word, being that which identifies both spirit and body in spiritual qualities. Adam, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Esther, Lot's wife, and other Biblical characters represent the relative expressions of the Word that develop the consciousness in the race that makes for the absolute manifestation. This is to say that many people are required to develop the Infinite Intelligence in its many angles of expression. The many segregate their spiritual forces to the few who perform the relative spiritual service, the few in the relative expression yield to the One who absolutely expresses the laws of the Lord by which consciousness is baptized with the Holy Spirit and the race is made ready to manifest other and more glorious activities of the Divine Intelligence or Word that is God. Thus generations come and go each unfolding more of the divine qualities until a great cycle of generations, in government of the Word in absolute authority, yields the spiritual harvest as the resurrected egos who partake of the nature and quality of Christ, the Son, being identified as sinless, sickless, deathless spiritual being.

The Word of God is not recorded entirely in what is called the Bible. The Bible is a record of the principles of Being and their outworking. But the Word records itself in music, teaching, reading, or wherever the spirit of Man touches the Divine Intelligence, though its absolute expression will be seen in the kingdom of Man to be formed at the end of Time. The absolute expression of the Word is never of the intellect though the forces of the intellect contribute toward developing the mechanism of consciousness which functions the Word. The absolute expression of the Word is first ideas of Truth that are conveyed to the Mind by means of the coordinated action of the Creative Principle identified in the brain as the pineal gland and the pituitary body. These function the primal Male-Female qualities of God in the heavenly aspects of consciousness, the heavenly aspects being sensualized and made flesh by means of the sexual function. The reversal of the sexual forces in the process of regeneration is that which dissolves the mortal elements and nature and resurrects the spiritual man, who is the embodiment of the Word as the flesh of God. The flesh of God is substance, the reality of being, and is neither spirit nor matter but the culminated result of both of these aspects of development translated into the divine qualities. It is the work of Christ as Jesus, the embodied Creative Principle, to perfect the consciousness and to resurrect the ego. Hence, the surrender of the will of the flesh (sexual forces) to the Divine Will is the essential that makes for redemption from death and sin.

The Living Word

The Living Word is consciousness identified in Christ. Consciousness is spirit, soul, and body coordinated, their coordination functioning as mind. Mind is God known; the mysteries of the Unknown made Known. The Living Word is Man-Woman, that is, a biune creature. Being biune, the ego is father-mother in nature, therefore reproductive of the divine qualities. When egos become reproductive of the divine qualities, bringing forth the Son-Daughter of themselves, they will have transcended the sexual function and its mode of generation. These are with Jesus Christ in the order of life that brings forth the Word, that is, the power and qualities of God directly. and will constitute the order of Melchizedek, the spiritual harvest to be gained at the end of mortality.

The Word progresses itself by means of people, egos who gain the wisdom and love of God gaining Christ and becoming the embodiment of the Word. To embody the Word is to become an organism receptive to the operation of the Divine Will, its activity producing the new creature in Christ. Many mysteries attend the formation of the Living Word, but these are understandable by those who are in the process of regeneration, and who suffer many things for the kingdom of heaven's sake. For the spiritually progressed are servants of the Law and are not exempt from that experienced in the life of the first Son if they would become like him in being. Yet, it is not the self-consciousness that suffers but it is Christ who suffers in consciousness, ultimately overthrowing all necessity of growth by experience, with its attendant pains and fleshly tribulations. When the Truth which is Christ shall make man free, then he will be free for ever more.

Movement of the Word

The Bible or sacred books of various races and ages shows the Word's progression in a given turn of the wheel of evolution and involution. There are seven turns of the six day's movements, each revealing the Word in its particular form of expression. Two hundred years ago consciousness was expressing in one form of thought and feeling, and in the last one hundred years in a different way of expression. The last twenty-five years have shown a decided change in the intelligence and feeling of the race, indicating the Word's expression at the end of the cycle of mortality.

The movement of the Word is both progressive and retrogressive, even as the zodiacal laws of the universe. The retrogressive movement is the backward one that follows a cycle in which the progressive movement has been dominant. The progression of the Hebrew dispensation was from interior to exterior, hence was progressive; but the progression of the Christian dispensation has been from exterior to interior hence has been retrogressive. The retrogressive movement is from matter to spirit, while the progressive is from spirit to matter. In reality it is the retrogressive that brings one to Christ, the center of the Word, even as it is the experiences in darkness in life that bring the added wisdom and love.

The "Fall" associated with the Adamic generation was the beginning of the retrogressive movement of the Egyptian dispensation, and marked the descent of the God-forces in the direction of matter. This culminated in the ascent of Jesus, the harvested spiritual fruit of the ages that preceded. The sowing of Jesus Christ as the "flesh and blood of the Word" into the soil of humanity was the beginning of another descent, this climaxing at the end of Time in its complementary ascent. The descent of the Spirit and the ascent of the Body in this four-fold movement completes the Word's progression, revealing the united spirit and body as the coordinated Man-Woman creature. This creature is Christ's embodiment, and will be present as the fourth dimensional ego, who having the powers of heaven and of earth will unfold consciousness, manifesting the form necessary for expression, independent of the mode of birth and death. The revelation of the Christed egos is the Living Word manifested, and that for which the ages have waited. A revelation given the writer a few years ago says, that no one has ever yet ascended into heaven; but that the first to descend will be the first to ascend, "The resurrection has never yet taken place for the time had not come when Body could be included in the scope of God's action. But now the time has come for the Spirit and the Bride have made themselves ready."

Principle of Resurrection

The Principle of Resurrection is identified in consciousness not only as an ideal but as a reality also. This is to say, that the principle, operating by means of Jesus, is now an identified action of God in consciousness, for the gained result in one ego is sufficient to incorporate the working principle into those ready to receive it, and to manifest a similar sonship. An ego, ascending into the God-consciousness, has progressed through the racial current from its lowest to its highest forces, hence, has the progression of the entire race gained in God. The opening of the laws of God in a gained Christ state of consciousness is equivalent to their opening in the entire race, and thus the action of God as the coming of Christ is universal, though centralizing in the individuals functioning the God-qualities. The resurrection of Jesus is important only as it is perceived to be the outworking of a Principle of God effecting the entire race. To see what appears to be an out of-the-ordinary action of God by which one person attains a super state, without seeing the relation the attainment bears to all people is a sentimental interpretation of Divine Principles, but does not assure a similar resurrection to anyone. Sentiment must unite with science to identify sufficient wisdom and love which will enable one to know the Truth that makes free.

The Principle of Resurrection being centralized in the Cosmic Mother Germ-Cell or Egg of Creation very naturally relates to the seed-life of egos. The sperms and ovum of males and females are the separated and sexual state of the One Primal Germ which is the Father-Mother as One, the Creative and Formative Principle of God. Since it was the separation of the Father-Mother Germ Cell that led to the sexual state, it follows that the overcoming of the sexual state is that which will unite the potencies of the male-female forces within the one organism, and raise up the ego unto the love of the Lord. The love of the Lord gained is the Virgin Mary Principle, the Mother in which is the Father, the Creative Parents. The raising up of the Creative Germ (Divine Feminine Principle) is possible only in those who follow Christ in the regeneration, hence, they deny themselves, take up the cross, and enter into the consciousness of virginity. The union of the male and female forces, that is, the wisdom and love of the consciousness, is the Truth gained. Truth is the Principle of God which moves in the Love gained, the two constituting the male-female creative matrix. This matrix, in its Absolute identity, is present in only one ego of a given cycle, though relatively sustained by all who have gained the spirit of oneness.

The attainment of Truth and Love involves the overcoming of the loves of the flesh as well as the hates, the wisdom of God opening to the consciousness of one so progressing. This is not an unloving state but the acme of love. "Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends." Mortals, materially progressing, think they love when pursuing their self desires, but the highest attainments of mortals are the fruit of the animal life, and only as they die can there be resurrected their equivalent spiritual qualities. The death of both the ideas and the sentiments, developed in mortality, is involved in the denial of self, essential toward following Christ in the regeneration and entering into the laws of God that make for eternal life and joy. Resurrection, in its ultimate, is the manifestation of a new creature, Christed in Mind and Body.

The various aspects of intelligence developed are the male forces, while the various aspects of love developed are the female forces. These forces united and raised to spiritual qualities, make the ego eligible to impregnation by the Holy Spirit (Father-Mother Cosmic Force) that goes forth at the coming of Christ, Only the virgins with oil in their lamps (forces of love conserved in their bodies) can meet the bridegroom and go into the marriage feast of God, where the male and female forces unite to form the god state of being. The gospel indicates, and the hope is omnipresent in the heart of man, that the time will come when the ego will be clothed with incorruptible flesh. This flesh is the product of the Word (Jesus Christ, the Will of God) and is formed from the mysterious operation of the Seed, united in its male-female forces. Only those egos who enter into the oneness of the Christ Seed through overcoming the sexual tendencies gain the mysteries, and are eligible for bodily redemption. The twain that is one flesh, is the Father-Mother Creative Force, operative in the consciousness of the "overcomer."

Mystery of Christ and Sex

The mysterious relation of Christ to the Seed, and the outworking of the laws of God by means of the redeemed seed, is that which associates marriage and religion as the dominant factors of progression. Affairs of state are always in keeping with the condition of marriage and religion. The breaking up of the present marriage system, as well as the agitation surrounding the marriages of people of different religions, are preludes to the dissolution of the old order of life and the formation of a new. Though the absolute change comes through a cosmic or universal action of God, the relative aspects only objectifying the principles outworking on the under side of consciousness. Marriage is the means by which egos die in and to materiality, as well as the means by which the Christ Spirit is crossed into matter, though the latter is the operation of the holy aspect in contradistinction to the unholy aspects attending mortal progression. Christ gained in consciousness must be crossed or crucified into the hells of mankind to effect the dissolution of its forces, which serves also in forming the substance of the Lord's body. The operation of the Holy Marriage Principle is the operation of Jesus Christ, the movement of the Divine Will to bring about a higher order of Life and Love.

Those who are resurrected from the dead, that is, redeemed in spirit and body, at the end of mortality are the virgins or neuter beings. These are non-propagative, but the function they perform in service to the Divine Will is the means by which the Love of God is projected into the consciousness of the race, and by which it is also raised into a higher state of mind and body. The whole process of Creation is carried on by means of the male and female factors of being, though until their oneness is identified in Christ, the principles of Being are inverted on the manifest plane and adulterated conditions arise from the separated (sexual) state. The reborn humanity will be quickened in the qualities of being so as to have the capacity to conform to the Divine Will, thereby ultimately ushering in the kingdom of heaven in the earth. The entrance of the Christ love into the race is causing the hells and hates to arise that they may be dissolved and annihilated, though their forces serve in forming the Christ qualities to be revealed as higher states of being.

The Principles of Resurrection involve the sacred mysteries of Christ and the Cross and are understandable only by those who gain the consciousness suitable for their operation. The material interpretations placed upon the activities of God are the means by which those functioning in materiality get the benefit of the Christed forces, for all receive according to their capacity of development. The resurrection of the first-born god being is the beginning of redemption, though the operation of the God Principles at this time in those who are Christ's is the "greater works" controlled from the Cosmic Mother Principle operative to bring forth the children of God. For the Principles of Resurrection are again operative on the spiritual planes to effect a higher expression of mind and body. The resurrection from the dead is not the raising of people from the graves, but is the translation of the so-called living (who are either dead in sin or dead in Christ) into higher qualities of being,

The mystery is in the death of the life gained. "He who seeks to save his life shall lose it; but he who will lose his life for my (Christ's) sake, shall find it unto life eternal." Jesus was accounted worthy to die. This is to say, that when one has gained the life of the lower kingdoms, viz., the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human, one is accounted worthy to be conjoined with the Divine Principles by which the god state of being is gained, This involves the dying to the consciousness gained, the Principle of Resurrection being operative at this point to bring forth the new creature in Christ, who is born not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of the will (love) of God.

Plan of Redemption and Racial Progression

The Plan of Redemption exists because in the law of Life provision is made for the outworking of the Divine Principles. This is to say that the Principles, being the activities of God, are operative in consciousness (humanity), the fulfillment being also contained in the Principles. The Principle by which a problem in mathematics is worked contains the capacity of the proper solution, though a problem is essential to manifest the fruit of the Principle. Life is the problem in which the Principles are operative. Egos must gain life before the Principles of God (Jesus Christ) can open and reveal themselves. All men are dead until reborn of the spirit. Their rebirth is in the raising of the forces, developed in sex sense, to the spiritual qualities. Sin is progression in imperfections, and all are dead in sin. The gaining of the imperfections in the Perfect is that which transcends death with life. While mortals cannot gain the Perfect, in its Absolute quality, they can live sufficiently that they are ready to die to the activities of sin, and by so doing die to the aspects of death which permits the forces of life to spring up. Man can not die to sin, however, until he is alive in sin. This is to say, that sin is the process by which one develops the wisdom and love of consciousness. Egos have had millions of years in which to progress in sin, hence, some are ready to die to sin which is automatically to become alive. The life that is complementary to death which springs up at the death to sin is that which invites the operation of the laws of Jesus Christ (eternal life) by which both temporary life and death are converted in their forces into the substance of eternal being.

The Plan of Redemption is operative in Jesus Christ, the Mediator between the dual states of consciousness developed as life and death. Jesus Christ is operative as the united Spirit of God and humanity, this producing the cosmic whorl of Creative Force by which each state of consciousness is raised to the next higher quality of being, with the wastes precipitated in the translation dissolved and annihilated. The potential sons of God, being dead to the animal life which is death, and dying also to Christ which is the Spirit of Life, become the central function of the Word by which the resurrection is effected. The resurrection is the raising into the next qualities of being all the forces of the universe and the race, manifested at the end of mortality as the raised-up spiritual beings, the fruit of the Christ-Seed.

Relation of Bible to Man

The principles of Being are in consciousness to be unfolded by Man as divine qualities. The Bible is but a record of the Word's unfoldment up to a certain time, yet the fulfillment of the Word's progression in this cyc1e is not set forth in the Bible but in the egos who attain to the qualities of Being. The Book of Revelation is the whole play of Life surrounding the Word though its activities are hidden under mystical figures. Man is the living Word, the Book of Life when he has gained the Son (Christ). Man is the book to which nothing can be added or taken from referred to in the last chapter of Revelation.

The different Biblical characters are representative of the divine qualities. As Man develops the qualities of Being he expresses David, John, Mary, etc. Every proper name can be traced to its root-word and the quality it represents be determined. For example, Nazareth means separated; Galilee, a circle; Jerusalem, place of peace; Bethlehem, house of bread; David, well beloved; Joseph, increase; Mary, rebellion; John, oil; Jonah, dove; Capernaum, hamlet of the Comforter; Rachel, ewe; Jacob, heel catcher; Peter, rock. The study of the Bible reveals one's own unfoldment in the divine will. The story of Job is the story of the life of every ego going through the particular process of regeneration indicated. The story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar is the life-story of every ego, separated in his nature from his true wife (the Bride; Feminine Christ Principle) and who must sojourn awhile with the bond woman (Hagar; harlot) before being united with the Princess (Sarah) to bring forth Isaac (laughter; joy of the Lord).

The Bible is a wonderful exposition of the unfoldment of consciousness, not only from a mental standpoint but from a physical as well, the various qualities being identified as the function of the organism, through which the Word is ultimately revealed. The purpose of the Word is to be manifested as spiritual man. This man will have form according to the consciousness developed, body being the outline of form in Divine Mind by which the heavenly invisible is made tangible and real. The embodiment of the Word is Jesus Christ, the united spirit of God and Man. It is Jesus Christ who has authority over the translation of the elements of matter to their spiritual equivalent, being the High Priest of transubstantiation who converts the elements of mortality into the immortal, incorruptible nature. Those who partake of the operation of the Divine Will, being in surrender of the wills of the flesh, come under the mysterious process of regeneration and translation, being converted alive in the living organism of the Word. These living egos will constitute the Lord in the second coming, being the flesh of humanity translated into the Word's embodiment, that is, the Lord's Body.

Agitation About the Bible and the Word

Agitation is a very necessary power of destruction by which fallacious ideas and beliefs are leveled down and the truth promoted. The effort to destroy the authenticity of the Bible is one means by which attachment is removed from the symbol and developed in the direction of the reality. Since Man, in his resurrected state, is the Word, the belief in the Bible as the Word of God must be shaken and consciousness prepared to behold the living organism of the Word. The exaltation of the Bible and the belittling of man are not in keeping with a well-ordered state of intelligence. The destruction of the love for the Bible with a turning of this love in the direction of humanity in which God reveals Him-Herself as the sons and daughters of God must necessarily precede the appearing of the re-born humanity. The fulfilling of Truth with the revealed fruit of the Ages of necessity fulfills the present bible, the Living Book of Life being the next record to be given as a guide to unfolding humanity. The Living Book of Life will be consciousness identified in Christ, ever expressing the powers and qualities of the Infinite in greater wisdom, love, and life.

Old and New Testaments

The Old Testament indicates discipline by law (Moses) through which the ego passes in the development of the lower self, The New Testament reveals the unfoldment of the higher self by means of love (Jesus), and sets the standard of spiritual attainment. Revelation reveals the operation of Cosmic Force (Creative Principle) to close the cycle of mortality and to usher in the fruit of the ages as the Immortal Order of Life. As one understands the principles of life within consciousness, he can divide the Word aright, that is, see the importance of the material and the spiritual progression in service to God to manifest the Creation. The consummation of both Testaments is the Living Word, the Book of Man identified as spiritual being.