They said this of the resurrection of Christ: “ What did Jesus’ resur rection prove? Jesus’ resurrection proved that through the Christ in him man is master over the physi cal body, that under divine law he can take the body up or he can lay it down. Jesus was put to the test of overcoming death, and His tri umph is an example to all men” {W eekly Unity, April 18, 1954). Apparently Unity followers are expected to “ triumph over death” but there are as many deaths among them as in other groups, in spite of a declaration like this: “ Christianity shows you how to come right back into life, and that is the only salvation for me. If you believe faithfully in the Christ Life you will never die” ( Talks on Truth, p. 150). Unify and Reincarnation Resurrection of the body at the coming of Christ, as taught in the Scriptures when spirit and body will be reunited, is not the hope of the Unity followers; it is rather the heathen belief that the souls of the dead successively return to earth in new forms or bodies. Charles and Cora Fillmore wrote in Teach Us to Pray: “ The early Christians taught that those who had passed away were asleep. This is not true of all persons, but those who have lived a long, strenuous life and are weary want rest and fall asleep . . . Others who have lost their body early in life are ready for immediate action in re incarnation and do not find sleep necessary. Eventually all souls re incarnate on the earth as babes and in due time take up their problems where they left off at death. But before they do reincarnate they sometimes try to communicate with their loved ones here on earth. This is never satisfactory and leads to nowhere” (pp. 50, 51). w ou will remember that Charles Fillmore was in terested in spiritualism from a youth. Apparently he gave that up for the New CONTINUED
Requests for literature are promptly complied with and courteous letters written from their headquarters, including invitations to visit the plant. If people would only real ize that they do not mean by Chris tian terms what we who take the Scriptures literally believe them to mean, so many would not become enamored of their system. Fillmore taught that the body was being transformed into that permanent “ spiritual” form day by day: “ In the process of developing out of the natural into the spiritual not only the mind but the body also is affected. The energy locked up in the cells of the physical is re leased and the body of flesh is trans formed into a radiant body of light. This is a day-by-day transformation of the cells until the whole body is ‘electrified’ and passes over into the fourth dimension or kingdom of the heavens. Jesus accomplished this transformation of His body and it became an electrical dynamo broadcasting life germs throughout our race consciousness. We are to follow Him in this transformation” {Teach Us to Pray, Charles and Cora Fillmore, pp. 68,69). It was this transformation that Charles Fillmore was looking for when he died. He had written in Christian Healing: “ Your body will be so transformed within and even without that it will never go through the change called death. It will be a resurrected body, be coming more and more refined as you catch sight of the free truths of Being, until it will literally disap pear from the sight of those who see it with the eye of sense” (p. 224). Unity has the same difficulty in explaining death that Mrs. Eddy did. Some of the explanations they have come up with are: “Death is caused by a specific microbe that can be recognized and bred just as the microbes of various diseases” (Talks on Truth, p. 21). “ The body is shocked to death by the violent thought voltage of the unwise mind” ( Talks on Truth, p. 152).
neither sprinkled nor immersed, hut are showered with rose petals. When a marriage is solemnized, there is no mention of possible ‘sickness’ or of ‘until death do us part,’ and at funerals the departed is never said to have died, but to have undergone ‘transition’ or ‘crossed to the invisible side of life.’ The whole tone is so cheerful, in deed, that a Jewish businessman who attended a Unity funeral re cently requested that he might be buried with a similar ceremony. ‘These Unity folks,’ he said, ‘make you glad you’re dead.’ Actually, Unity optimism doesn’t stop at death, because the sect embraces a belief in reincarnation. We have all lived on earth many times be fore, Unity teachers say, and shall be born again and given new op portunities to achieve oneness with the Almighty. God is too kind to limit us to only one chance at life, as they see it, and we shall be granted many opportunities to im prove ourselves, until at last we all achieve Christlike perfection and thus create a heaven on earth,” * Their Statement of Faith on page 4 includes this declaration in regard to death: “We believe that the dis solution of spirit, soul and body, caused by death, is annulled by re birth of the same spirit and soul in another body here on earth. We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful provision of our loving Father to the end that all may have opportunity to attain immortality through regeneration, as did Jesus.” M any persons are shocked to learn that Unity un equivocally teaches the Hindu doctrine of rein carnation. There is no reason why this should not be generally known since they will send their Statement of Faith to anyone who writes in for it. So far as I can determine, there is no concealment of any of their teachings as in some cults.
*American magazine, March 1947, “M er chandisers of Faith,” Clarence Woodbury.
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