- How did religions and churches come into existence?
- What is God's relationship to churches?
- What is the intention for participating in a God-centered religion?
- What goals do God-centered religions have?
- Why do most religions seem to die?
- What is God's relationship to religions?
- What about people who do not believe God exists?
- Would God ever "pull the plug" on anyone?
1. How did religions and churches come into existence?
Long ago, and even today, people have looked into the depths of the astral heavens at night and asked the big questions, “How did it all begin? What or who made all of this? What and who is God? Where do I fit in?” This is the beginning of wonderment and discovering God outside and then the Presence of God within.
Their questions arose through the urging of their Divine Fragment. This fragment is quite literally the pilot within us who is continuously showing, guiding, leading, urging, and enlightening the way toward God. When we acknowledge the yearning that develops within us to become closer to God by ritual or ceremony, and to be like God, we have begun the practice of religion.
Early religious practices and religions came into existence when people attempted to satisfy their deep yearning for a close relationship, even the embrace and union, with The Creator that brought their world into existence. They asked questions, deep questions, as to how their world came into existence, and they wondered who did this great thing.
As in the beginning of all relationships, sometimes the going is rather rocky and uncertain, tentative and unsure, but if there is sincere searching for answers within, then Truth becomes discovered and the relationship deepens in meaning. Relationships develop naturally when two people are interested in a relationship with each other. It is best when the relationship is intimately personal, which is something Divine Fragments strive to achieve. Yet, not everyone is able to achieve this level of intimacy, whether between themselves and another person, or with God.
Historically, those who have asked deep questions have often received deep answers and also the deep emotional connection that occurs when they come into personal contact with God, in a “God moment,” with their Divine Fragments. In the past, those who received such contact became excited, often began to worship God, and founded religions to help others have a similar relationship. Over time, the religions' rituals and rules began to crowd out the personal relationship and experience they were meant to initiate and support.
2. What is God's relationship to churches?
Churches are organizations and have no soul, no personality, and no survivability factor to continue their existence after members leave. It is the individual that God loves.
In a church filled with God-conscious individuals, God is present in a capacity that most cannot understand. God's presence is powerful, even palpable in the hearts of those present. When church rituals infuse fellowship, communion of souls, and friendship, know that God is present. God is the multiplying factor in the communion of individuals when they seek to worship God, to find joy in God's presence, and to find God's presence in others. God is that factor that raises the ante of commitment when you feel exalted in your rituals. It is God in you that flows out to all others.
Churches are not necessary to worship God, but the fellowship and friendship that are shared in churches offer God powerful opportunities to uplift downcast hearts. Churches are a place where individuals go with the intention of sharing themselves with God, where they can receive God in peace, in love, in fellowship, and in communion with others. Yes, churches are not God's concern, but they are places that allow people to come together, and that is what has enriched poor hearts and souls with eternal love.
3. What is the intention for participating in a God-centered religion?
To worship God, to get to know God better, and to develop a personal relationship with God as a friend and companion.
4. What goals do God-centered religions have?
To help church members communicate with God and to worship God.
5. Why do most religions seem to die?
The point of a religion’s decline begins when it narrowly interprets how its followers should practice their faith and their relationship with God. When that happens, it is based on an incomplete set of information about that relationship. When individuals have a meaningful contact with God, they often believe that they have found the one and only way to relate to God. But that is only one of many ways.
Because the Presence of God is within each one of us, each of us could have our own religion with our own personal religious practices for being in relationship with God. Some of those practices aid our relationship with God and some do not. Those who desire to be in relationship with God need only be pragmatic. What to do is simple — be with God. Share your time with God as you would another friend. Talk to God as you walk in a park, along a river, down the street, or as you do your daily chores.
Though God is The Creator, God is always our friend, first. We can have a personal relationship with God if we want one. It is on a personal basis that God is in relationship with you.
6. What is God's relationship to religions?
Some people believe that their religion is the chosen religion or that they are special people for being members of that religion. Yet, God is not in the business of picking and choosing among or between individuals or religions. God has already chosen each one of us, whether we are religious or not. God has given each of us the opportunity to have a personal relationship as Mother/God-child and as Father/God-child. God has given every one of us the opportunity to choose to become a real, active, and important part of the universe. No one is forgotten and no one is unimportant to God.
Look at it from God's perspective—God desires to have a religious experience with each of us. That is, God desires to be in personal relationship with each of us and has done the largest share of the work to begin and to support that relationship. The First Source and Center of the universe invested a fragment of Itself in each of us. That fragment is not dormant but active, though it is not intrusive to our conscious thinking.
God does not tell you, "Go to the temple and worship," but God does open windows of awareness for you to look through to the other side where God is, to be in a personal relationship, if you choose. This is the beginning of having a religious experience with God, and God with you. But you must choose, as in any relationship, to participate.
7. What about people who do not believe God exists?
After we pass through our brief lifetime, we will arrive in the resurrection halls of the next immediate spiritual, non-material dimension. There, we will begin remedial classes and review our lifetime and learn the lessons we missed. Those who believe God may exist but don't think God is relevant, or believe that there is no proof to support God's existence, will be given full awareness of the universe as it truly exists, after they arrive. Then, with full awareness of the choices of their life in the universe, they can make a choice of whether to be a part of it or not. Once we become fully aware of all the potential consequences of our decisions, we then become fully responsible for the decisions we make.
8. Would God ever "pull the plug" on anyone?
No one leaves their existence without making a conscious decision, with full awareness that it is no one else's decision but his or her own. To leave their existence requires a personal decision with full knowledge of the consequences of that decision. Every aspect of our existence is personal to God, who aids us in our long spiritual career to find It. God's ability to experience the universe is diminished when The Creator's human children decide not to participate in the experience of Creation. It is not God who "pulls the plug" but the individual who decides not to continue his or her infinite ascendant journey toward perfection and the First Source and Center of the universe.