What is Spiritualism?
Contributed by Centre Christian Spiritualist Church
Spiritualism is a way of life. It combines philosophy, science and
religion. It covers a very wide field, and therefore, you cannot expect
to understand it without a certain amount of study.
Spiritualists mainly agree on seven principles:
1. The Fatherhood of God.
2. The Brotherhood of man.
3. The communion of spirits and the ministry of angels.
4. The continuous existence of the human soul.
5. Personal responsibility.
6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for all the good and evil
deeds done on earth.
7. Eternal progress open to every human soul.
The primary object of spiritualism today is to prove the survival of
human personality after death. Death is the doorway to a
new and wider life. From the day of our birth we each
have two bodies, the material or earthly body, which can be seen, and
the spiritual body, which is unseen during life but is a
counterpart of our earthly body. These two bodies are
linked by a cord. In a similar fashion, before birth a baby is joined to
it's mother by a cord. When it is born the cord must be
cut.
When we die, the cord linking our two bodies is severed. The material
body returns to the earth whence it came, and the
spiritual body becomes the vehicle of our spirit. We are
spirit here and now - we don't have to wait until death to become
spirit. Death, as a rule, becomes like sleep - there is
no pain. When we awake, conditions seem much the same to
us as before we "died." We take with us into the beyond no material
possessions, such as clothes or money - they are no
longer needed. But we do take our character and our
individuality. In every way we are the same individuals immediately
after death as before, with all our faults and virtues.
The home that awaits us in the spirit world depends upon the life we
have led on earth. If we have honestly tried to do the
best we can, then we need have no fear of death. We have
fitted ourselves for the result which is automatic, a better, happier
life where we are reunited with our loved ones and
friends.
If on the other hand, there has been more selfishness than goodness and
service in our lives, we will automatically have to pay
the price. This is part of the law of sowing and reaping,
which is only another way of saying that effect must follow cause. It is
perfectly summarised in the sixth principle (printed
above) which says that hereafter there are compensations
and retribution for all the good and evil done on earth.
Acts of service that we have performed will naturally increase our
spiritual status. Sins of omission or commission will
just as naturally retard it. There is, however, no hell in which
its inhabitants are colonised for eternity. Once self realisation dawns
and the soul is ready to advance, there are enlightened
spiritual beings who will show the way to progress.
The practical application of Spiritualism is the supreme necessity for
all of us to lead the best kind of life we can on earth,
to practice qualities of compassion and kindness and to
give service wherever we can.
Heaven and hell are really states of mind, not geographical locations.
Even here we can live in heaven or in hell, the choice is
ours. The world we inhabit after death is not far away up
in the sky. It is round and about us, interpenetrating the world in
which we now live. Those we have "loved and lost awhile"
are not in some far off, inaccessible place seated on
pink clouds at the right hand of God and playing golden harps. Very
often, they are close by our side, striving to help and
guide us, and loving us just as they did before parting.
The evidence reveals that love, like life, is stranger than death. It is
love that proves to be the compelling force, striving to
break down the barriers, which man in his ignorance has
created, between this world and what is called the next, in order to
achieve spirit communication. Often there is grief on
both sides of the veil. There are the tears shed over
loved ones who had died and the grief they experience when they try to
reach us but fail to make their presence known.
There are many spheres of existence that are invisible to us because
they function in a different manner from the earth.
Millions of vibrations of sound are lost to us because
they are outside the range of our hearing. And millions of vibrations of
sight fail to be registered because they are beyond the
scope of our eyes.
Microphones and radio receivers enable us to hear what is normally
beyond the range of our ears. The telescope and
television will bring into focus what is beyond our vision. The
inhabitants of the spirit world are very real even though we cannot see
or hear them.
There are, however, highly sensitive individuals who have developed
their innate psychic faculties with the result that they
can tune in to the spirit world and its denizens. These
human television and radio sets are mediums. They become the agents
through whom spirit communication is achieved.
There is nothing supernatural about this happening, though it is
supernormal. Everything in the universe is in accordance
with natural laws. They are devised by God, and God is
perfect. If it was God's will that we should be ignorant about His
natural law then we would know nothing about them.
God in not only perfect but all-powerful. God is spirit. He is not an
old man with a long white beard who sits on a throne in
heaven. To picture God as a human being is to impose
limitations. Were He human He could not be in all places at once,
neither could He hear every prayer.
God is not a person but the creative universal spirit. Wherever there is
life there is spirit., and wherever there is spirit there
is life. We exist because a spark of divinity is within
each one of us. This is a divine relationship in which God is our Father
and we are all His children.
We can, by our lives, fan the spark into a flame so that a greater
expression of divinity is made known through us. The
result will be to sustain, uplift and help us in our spiritual
development. And we have the free will to reject and ignore the spark of
divinity. The result is that we fail to make the progress
we should and deny ourselves the beauty that life has to
offer.
We do not believe in vicarious atonement as preached in some orthodox
religions. We regard Jesus as an example, not a saviour.
Man has no saviour but himself. We are each personally
responsible for our sins and must atone for them here or hereafter. It
is far more moral to acknowledge our sins and try to make
amends than to try to place them on the shoulders of
another. We believe that Jesus was divine, but only in the sense that we
are all divine. There is a difference of degree but not of kind.
We also believe, as the Bible states, that Jesus developed His psychic
faculties and was a master of spiritual law. More over he
was in close touch with the spirit world and demonstrated
his survival after his death. His teaching of brotherhood, love humility
and service is the basis of Spiritualism as we know it
today.
We do not claim to know everything - no one does. Knowledge is infinite
and we shall always be learning. What we do maintain is
that we have caught a glimmer of truth. It inspires us to
search for more, rejecting anything that does not appeal to our
God-given reason and accepting that which is logical and
uplifting.
What makes Spiritualism unique is the evidence of survival after death
that is obtainable through mediumship. Whereas, most
religions preach an after-life as a hope, faith or
belief, we maintain that any reasonable person can prove it for
themselves.
We do not ask you to believe what we say. What we do suggest is that you
study the literature and then make your own inquiry.
There are several excellent books available which will help you to gain
a greater understanding of spiritualism and everlasting
life.
We thank Centre Christian Spiritualist Church
<http://users.bigpond.com/judybibby/index.htm> from Western Australia
for this informative article. Please visit their website at
http://users.bigpond.com/judybibby/index.htm
<http://users.bigpond.com/judybibby/index.htm>
source: spiritnetwork.com
