A Rational Theology, As Taught Part 2

**Many G.o.ds.** During the onward march of the Supreme Being, other intelligent beings were likewise engaged, though less vigorously, in acquiring power over the forces of the universe. Among many intelligent beings thus moving onward, there is little probability of any two attaining exactly the same place, at the same time. There is rather the probability of infinite gradation from the lowest to the highest development. Next to G.o.d, there may be, therefore, other intelligent beings so nearly approaching his power as to be coequal with him in all things so far as our finite understanding can perceive. These beings may be immeasurably far from G.o.d in power, nevertheless immeasurably far above us mortal men of the earth. Such intelligent beings are as G.o.ds to us. Under this definition there may be a great number of intelligent beings who possess to a greater or less degree the quality of G.o.dhood. The acceptance of the preceding doctrines makes it almost a logical necessity that there are many G.o.ds or beings so highly developed that they are as G.o.ds, in fact are G.o.ds.

This is a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel.

**Why Man is Man.** It is fairly evident from what has been said why man is man. Man is subject-to eternal laws, and in the far-off beginning he must have exercised his will more slowly or not at all; perhaps, even, as laws came to him he ignored or opposed them. As more knowledge and power are attained, growth becomes increasingly more rapid. G.o.d, exalted by his glorious intelligence, is moving on into new fields of power with a rapidity of which we can have no conception, whereas man, in a lower stage of development, moves relatively at a snail-like, though increasing pace. Man is, nevertheless, moving on, in eternal progression. "As man is, G.o.d once was; as G.o.d is, man may become." In short, man is a G.o.d in embryo. He comes of a race of G.o.ds, and as his eternal growth is continued, he will approach more nearly the point which to us is G.o.dhood, and which is everlasting in its power over the elements of the universe.

**G.o.d's Help to Man.** Self-effort, the conscious operation of will, has moved man onward to his present high degree. However, while all progress is due to self-effort, other beings of power may contribute largely to the ease of man's growth. G.o.d, standing alone, cannot conceivably possess the power that may come to him if the hosts of other advancing and increasing workers labor in harmony with him.

Therefore, because of his love for his children and his desire to continue in the way of even greater growth, he proceeded to aid others in their onward progress.

Knowledge may be transmitted from intelligence to intelligence. G.o.d offered to the waiting intelligent beings the knowledge that he had already gained, so that they need not traverse that road, but might attack some other phase of universal existence. He devised plans of progression whereby the experiences of one person might be used by an inferior one. Each person should give of his experience to others, so that none should do unnecessary work. In that manner, through the united effort of all, the whole race of progressive beings would receive an added onward impetus.

**Man's Help to G.o.d.** The progress of intelligent beings is a mutual affair. A lone G.o.d in the universe cannot find great joy in his power.

G.o.d, being in harmony with eternal laws, can progress best as the whole universe becomes more complex, or advances. The development of intelligence increases the complexity of the universe, for each active individual may bring new relations.h.i.+ps into view, and increases many-fold the body of acquired truth. In that sense, the man who progresses through his increase in knowledge and power, becomes a co-laborer with G.o.d, and may be said, indeed, to be a help to G.o.d. It is a comforting thought, not only that we need G.o.d but also that G.o.d needs us. True, the need G.o.d has of us is relatively small, and the help he gives us is infinitely large, yet the relation exists for the comfort and a.s.surance of man.

**G.o.d's Attributes.** To a.n.a.lyze the supreme intelligence of the universe, the G.o.d whom we wors.h.i.+p, is a futile attempt, to which men of shallow minds, only, give their time. That which is infinite transcends the human understanding. The Gospel accepts this condition, calmly, knowing that, in the scheme of things, greater truths will come with increased power, until, in the progress of time, we shall understand that which now seems incomprehensible. For that reason, eternal, or everlasting, or infinite things are things understood by G.o.d, the supreme and governing Power, but not understood by us. Thus, "eternal punishment is G.o.d's punishment; endless punishment is G.o.d's punishment." Likewise, everlasting joy or endless blessings are G.o.d's joy and G.o.d's blessings. Man acknowledges in this manner that all things are relative to G.o.d.

Man does not understand G.o.d fully, yet an understanding between man and G.o.d does exist in that, G.o.d in the course of his progression has gone over the road that we are traveling and therefore understands us fully. He understands our difficulties, our hopes, our sorrows, our faults and our follies. G.o.d is supreme, and his justice is perfect; his love is unmeasurable and his mercy without end; for his justice and love and mercy are tempered by the memory of his own upward career. G.o.d's relation to man is, in a literal sense, that of father to son, for we are of the same race with G.o.d. We may rest secure that G.o.d's attributes are, with others, those that man possesses, made great and beautiful. He is our Father who knows and understands us.

CHAPTER 7.

MAN IS THAT HE MAY HAVE JOY.

Is the increasing power of man a sufficient reward for the effort and struggle that must accompany progression? This is a question that comes to every student of the Gospel. Power in itself may not be the ideal end of existence. It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine if there is a.s.sociated with power, gifts that make worth while the eternal searching out of knowledge in order that greater power may be won.

**Consciousness and the Universe.** Intelligent spirits have possessed, from the beginning, a consciousness of the world in which they found themselves. They must have been susceptible, from the first, of feeling pleasure and pain, and must have had equivalents of our senses, which, possibly, were keener than those we now possess.

When they were placed in opposition to any law of nature, pain or its equivalent undoubtedly resulted exactly as today. When they moved along with law, joy must have been sensed, as today. Intelligent beings can not rejoice in pain, therefore, from the beginning, to avoid pain and to secure joy, they have searched out and obeyed law.

The more advanced the intelligence, the greater the number of laws that are understood to which adaptation may be made, and therefore the greater the possibility of joy. The search for increasing power, carried on by all normal beings is then really a search for a greater and more abiding joy. There is no G.o.dliness in pain, except as it is an incident in securing more knowledge. True freedom, which is full joy, is the complete recognition of law and adaptation to it. Bondage comes from ignorance of law or opposition to it.

**The Primeval Condition.** Man's approach to a fullness of joy is pictured in his revealed history. Through the veil of forgetting we see but dimly our pre-existent condition. The Gospel student does not really concern himself, greatly, with the details of the life before this one; so much needs to be done in this life that he is content with the great outlines of pre-existent life, which may a.s.sist him to understand the eternal journey of intelligence. Of the primeval condition of man little is known. He found about him many forces, operating in diverse ways, and to control them, and thus to sense joy, he began to study them. The story of that early day of striving for the greatest goal has not been told to mortal man.

**The First Estate.** Matter exists, perhaps, in many forms, but may be cla.s.sified, as the ponderable matter of earth, known directly through the senses, and, as the imponderable matter which cannot be sensed directly by man. This second cla.s.s, often called spirit matter, is perhaps most important, for it is not unlikely that from it are derived all other forms of matter.

It was of first importance that the intelligent beings aiming at the conquest of the universe, should learn to understand, thoroughly, the properties of universal matter, in all of its forms. As nearly as can be learned, the efforts of man were first devoted to education in the properties of spirit matter. We were begotten spirits by G.o.d, who thus became our Father, and we are his sons and daughters. Our career in the spirit world is often spoken of as man's first estate.

How long man remained in the first estate, is not known. Undoubtedly, however, it was long enough to enable him to become thoroughly familiar with the manifestations of all forms of spirit substance.

Only when education in this division of the universe was completed were we permitted to enter the next estate.

**The Second Estate.** The kind of matter characteristic of this earth and the so-called material universe, also forms an important part of the universe. No spirit can acquire real mastery over the universe until this form of matter is so thoroughly understood as to be used and governed. The next step in the education of these intelligent beings was therefore to teach them familiarity with gross matter. Consequently, the spirits pa.s.sed out of the spirit world, and were born into the world of earthly things, the world we now occupy, as men and women clothed upon by a body consisting of gross matter, so that intimate familiarity with the nature and possibilities of gross matter might be acquired. This is called the second estate of man.

The business of man is to become so thoroughly acquainted with earth conditions, that through the possession of an earthly body, he may go on, forever.

**The Third Estate.** We pa.s.s out of this, but reappear in another world, for a brief time separated from our earth-won body, but finally possessing bodies of both kinds of universal matter. In this estate, both the spirit matter and the grosser matter composing our final bodies are represented by their essences, and therefore permit perfect freedom and ease of movement and thought. These celestial bodies, as they are called, connect the intelligence with all parts of the universe, and become mighty helps in the endless search for truth.

This is the third estate of man.

Such then are the three estates, and as far as known, all the estates of man.

Whether the outline, as here presented, in its details, is precise or not, matters little. The essential thing is that man has to undergo experience upon experience, to attain the desired mastery of the external universe; and that we, of this earth, are pa.s.sing through an estate designed wholly for our further education.

**Everlasting Joy.** It follows that, in each estate, with each onward step, a profounder knowledge of the laws of nature is attained.

When conscious, active wills are thus at work, the new knowledge makes possible a more perfect adaptation of man to law. The more completely law is obeyed the greater the consciousness of perfect joy. Throughout eternal life, increasing knowledge is attained, and with increasing knowledge comes the greater adaptation to law, and in the end an increasingly greater joy. Therefore it is that eternal life is the greatest gift of G.o.d, and that the plan of salvation is priceless.

CHAPTER 8.

MAN'S FREE AGENCY.

The question of the rights of each intelligent being as pertaining to himself and to all others must always have been and must always remain a chief one.

**In the Beginning.** In each intelligent being has resided, from the beginning, an individual and distinct will, which, of itself, has been acting in some degree upon the external universe. Each being, with its developing will, has learned more and more of natural forces and of the methods of controlling them. Each has striven to adapt his knowledge of surrounding forces to his own particular needs or desires. Clearly, since many wills have been so engaged, it might easily occur that different wills might use acquired knowledge in different ways to suit their different desires. It is easily conceivable, therefore, that one will might attempt so to control the surrounding forces as to give itself joy, yet to affect another will adversely. In general, whatever is desirable for one is desirable for all, since all spirits are cast in the same mold and have the same derivation. Nevertheless, when individuality is a.s.sumed, it is equally clear that there is always a possibility of one will crossing another to the detriment of one or possibly both.

The universal plan may follow its developing path, unhindered, only when all the intelligent beings within it labor harmoniously together for the upbuilding of each and all. The only solution for the problem of the possible conflicts resulting from the activities of a great number of beings is an agreement among them relating to the general good. Laws established for the community of beings must be obeyed as rigidly as those found in external nature. Each may act freely and to his full power in any desired way so long as the general laws respecting the freedom of all others are not violated. The right of an individual can never transcend the rights of the community.

**The Council in Heaven.** A dim though wonderfully attractive picture has come down of an event in the spiritual estate of man, the first estate, that deals directly with the great question of the one and the many, the individual and the community.

There had been born, in time, a family of spirits, the innumerable destined hosts of earth, who, at length, seemed fitted for further education in another field. G.o.d, the Father of these spirits, saw that they were ready for further light, and came down among them, to discuss their future. As the Supreme Being, G.o.d had in mind a plan, the Great Plan, whereby each spirit could enter upon his second estate and become acquainted with the properties of gross matter. However, as each intelligent spirit possessed a free and untrammeled will which must be respected, G.o.d called together the spirits in question, and presented the plan for their approval.

In the Great Council then held, of which a dim and distant picture only has been left, the great question was with respect to man's free agency. The essence of the proposed plan was that the spirits, forgetting temporarily their sojourn in their spirit home should be given a body of grosser matter, and should be subject to this form of universal matter, and even be brought into a temporal death. To bring an eternal, free spirit under the bondage of matter and forgetfulness, it was necessary for some one to begin the work by, figuratively speaking, breaking a law, so that the race might be brought under the subjection of death. This may be likened, roughly, to the deliberate breaking, for purposes of repair or extension, of a wire carrying power to light a city. Someone had to divert the current of eternal existence, and thus temporarily bring man's earthly body under the subjection of gross matter. Adam, the first man, was chosen to do this work. By the deliberate breaking of a spiritual law, he placed himself under the ban of earthly death and transmitted to all his posterity the subjection to death. This was the so-called "sin of Adam." To obtain or give greater joys, smaller pains may often have to be endured.

**The Need of a Savior.** The purpose of the earth career was, however, two-fold, to learn to understand gross matter, and to acquire a body made of the essence of such matter. The bodies laid in the grave must, therefore, be raised again. As the spirits, by their own act had not brought upon themselves death, so by their own act they should not conquer it. It was necessary, therefore, that someone, in time, should reunite the broken wires and reestablish the flow of eternal life, and thus to conquer death. For this work Jesus Christ was chosen. Jesus actually came on earth, lived and taught the ancient Gospel again to the children of men, and in time suffered death so that the act of Adam might be atoned for. By this work, the purpose of the earth-life was completed, and thus Jesus Christ became the central figure in the plan of salvation.

Why death, so-called, should be necessary for us to achieve an intimate knowledge of matter, and why Jesus should die to permit the current of eternal life to flow freely between the earthly body and the eternal spirit, are not fully known. Through Adam man was brought on earth, subject to death; through Jesus, the Christ, he was lifted out of death to continue an eternal life in a.s.sociation with the earth-acquired body.

**Man's Part in the Great Plan.** In this great gathering in the heavens many questions arose. By Adam man was to come on earth; by Jesus he was to be resurrected. In both of these great acts, man had no part, beyond permitting himself to be acted upon. In the plan, what was to be man's part?

Lucifer, a great leader in the Council, proposed that, since others were acting for man in bringing him on and taking him away from the earth, it was not necessary for man, during his earth-career, to exercise his own will. Lucifer proposed that, in spite of himself, his will, his desires and his individuality, man should be placed on earth, and be taken from it, and without effort, be filled with a knowledge of earth conditions. All men should be forced into salvation. Jesus Christ, who became the Savior of men, objected to this change in G.o.d's plan, as it interfered with the essential right of intelligent beings to act for themselves. Jesus insisted that, as without will there can be no growth, man, placed on earth through the agency of Adam and resurrected and brought into a full life through the agency of Jesus, should retain, during his earth-career, his full free agency. Though he might walk an forgetfulness of the past, and have no visions of the future, he would yet be allowed a free and untrammeled agency as he walked in the clearness of the earth's day.

While upon earth he might learn much or little, might accept a law or reject it, just as he had been, privileged to do in all the days that had gone before.

These two views regarding man's part in the plan led, we are told, to a great difference of opinion among the spirits.

Naturally, the first proposition appealed to many, for it is the easy way of obtaining victory, if victory it may be called. The other way seems always somewhat hard and bitter, though in the end the joy obtained surpa.s.ses that attained without effort. Lucifer, who led the fight for the first method, could not agree to the original plan which was finally accepted; and so, in that great, dim day, many of the spirits followed Lucifer, and have not yet entered upon their earth-careers, but are independently and in opposition to G.o.d's will, following paths that are not leading them onward. The majority accepted G.o.d's law, as championed by the Son, though it is said that many weak and fearful spirits remained neutral, daring neither to accept nor to reject either proposition. The hosts who accepted the plan of G.o.d, girded themselves with the necessary strength to begin the pilgrimage, ending in an earthly death, but reaching, through the resurrection, into an eternal life of exceedingly great progress.

**Free Agency.** On the earth, as elsewhere, then, the free agency of man, as expressed in the individual will, is supreme. Though our environment is that of gross matter, and though we dwell in forgetfulness of the past, our free agency is as vigorous as ever.

However, the free agency of man cannot transcend the plan which all of us of earth accepted, together, in the day of the Great Council.

Man's will is always circ.u.mscribed by great laws that are self-existent or that are formulated or may be formulated for the benefit of the race. The many must devise laws whereby individual and community progress are simultaneous. It is the full right of the individual to exercise his will in any way that does not interfere with the laws made for the many; and, under proper conditions, the laws for the many are of equal value to the individual. Under the law we are free.

CHAPTER 9.

THE GREAT PLAN.

The plan proposed by G.o.d for the government of the spirits who entered upon their earth careers is revealed only so far as it is necessary for the guidance of man. We may remain certain that the Great Plan is based upon eternal laws that always have been and always will be operative. Matters pertaining to man's earth-life are matters of eternal interest; and the laws formulated for the guidance of man on earth must be laws which in some form are fundamental for the guidance of man in any place and at all times. Nothing is temporary or transient about the Plan itself, for it rests on eternal foundations.