A few more excerpts will serve to show how com- j pletely Unity has embraced this repulsive and blasphe- I mous conception: “ Reincarnation is the gospel of the | second chance . . . Reincarnation is God’s loving answer g to that universal cry of the human heart distressed by MW its missing of the shining mark . . . Imagine some cir- cumstance taking a person into the beyond in the midst * of a busy life of youthful activity . . . Is he not likely | to seize the first favorable opportunity of re-entering the | portals of birth, choosing, if he has earned a choice, such f a parentage and such environment as will help him to | have the experiences and the opportunities that his soul needs and desires . . . You will continue your progress | from the point where you left off, and you will rear a i new body, perhaps a finer one . . . Eventually you will i have purified your mind . . . your body . . . to such a ■© degree that you do not need to relinquish it to corruption H but will be able to quicken it to spiritual expression as did | n Jesus the Christ” (pp. 65-99, portions Teach Us to Pray). B B This then is the way Unity attains eternal life, the . to purifying process going on after death through reincar- § nations. If more people were aware of this logical and ^ ultimate conclusion of their teaching that immortality ^ of the body can be attained on earth, surely they would S i « turn away in horror from this imported heresy. N Z UNITY AND HEAVEN, HELL AND SATAN Naturally Unity has no need of heaven: “ The place f -I that Jesus went to prepare is here . . . in the mind” tq (W hat Practical Christianity Stands For, p. 11). “ It is » > popularly taught that Elijah is a saint in heaven, but this cannot be true because . . . he appeared again in y* the earth as John the Baptist. Neither did John get into I heaven” (Teach Us to Pray, p. 72). And of hell, Charles Fillmore said: “ Hell is a figure §r of speech which represents a corrective state of mind. v _ When error has reached its limit, the retroactive law I asserts itself, and judgment . . . brings the penalty upon the transgressor . . . This purifying process is the SB| penalty taught by Jesus — the judgment passed upon to sinners—the fire of hell. When it is received in the right , x spirit this fire burns up the dross in character and puri- > fies mind and body” (Christian Healing, pp. 112, 113). ■ ■ This is wholly false. The Lord Jesus spoke of hell as f l l a literal place of torture: “ . . . hell, into the fire that c never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, ^ and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43, 44). H j But Fillmore denied this: “ There is no warrant for ■ the belief that God sends men to everlasting punishment” ( Christian Healing, p. 114). «MB No wonder he embraced such terrible lies of Satan as reincarnation and salvation by one’s own works when Q he so definitely rejected the clear teaching of Christ! w For lack of space I am unable to discuss the teachings c of Unity in detail and have not touched upon their ^ “ specialties”—health and prosperity. However, from this I brief sketch it is clear how completely unscriptural is I their basic theology. What Dr. Haldeman said of | Christian Science applies as well to Unity: “ It comes in | sheep’s clothing. It comes in the name of Christ, talks | Christ, invites the sons of men to Christ, and calls itself j Christian; but inwardly, in its essential character—it is | a ravening wolf, concealing its teeth until the deceived | soul is within its grasp. It is the wolf that would enter s - the fold of the Good Shepherd, tear His sheep and devour $ them.” God keep you from its Satanic influence! EDITOR'S NOTE: A complete booklet on this subject by Dr. Talbot Is available from the Blola Book Room, 560 South Hope Street, Los Angeles 17, California.
One cannot get a clear picture of the Unity view of sin: “ Good is all; evil is that which might be if man forsook his guiding light. In the serene mind of God there is no duality, no good-and-bad, no understanding- and-ignorance. The brilliancy of all-knowing Mind dis solves all shadows, all negations” (Christian Healing, Fillmore). Fillmore advised his followers in Unity, January 1936: “ Stick to it . . . and say, ‘I am not a sinner. I never did sin. I cannot sin. I am from above.’ ” There is no acknowledgment of man’s responsibility to God for his acts. UNITY AND PRAYER What kind of prayer do Unity adherents practice? Certainly not the form or kind of prayer the Bible teaches. Unity’s peculiar “ praying” is called “ entering the silence.” This is how the members define it: “We first withdraw ourselves bodily and mentally from the outside world . . . Then be still, absolutely still. Relax every part of your being, and believe that it is being done . . . If you find your mind wandering, bring it right back by saying again: It is being done; Thou art working in me; I am receiving that which I desire . . . Speak words of thanksgiving to this innermost Presence . . . Continue giving thanks that while you waited you did receive, and that what you receive is now manifest” (Lessons in Truth , p. 103). This is but one example. UNITY 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; their hope is rather the heathen belief that the souls of the dead successively return to earth in new forms or bodies. In other words, Unity unquivocally teaches reincarnation. 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 reincarnation and do not find sleep necessary. Eventually all souls reincarnate 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). Of course, this is all fiction. There is not one word of truth in it. The Word of God makes very clear what happens to a believer at death. Paul wrote: “ For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phil. 1:23); “ For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens . . . whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord . . . absent from the body . . . present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:1, 6, 8). Evidently the goal of Unity is the same as that of the Hindu, the extinction of the flame of life, final emanci pation, reunion with Brahm, cessation of being. “With each degree of dawning spiritual consciousness we are coming closer to that great ultimate, the incarnation of Christ. We should not be content with less than that . . . Our human incarnations are steps along the way to the great incarnation” (p. 61). The only difference between this and the Hindu and Buddhist teaching is just in names; they use Christ whereas the East Indian religions use “ Nirvana” and “ Brahm.”
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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