Hi, welcome to another episode of Contemplate This, where we discuss your spiritual questions.
In episode one I discussed ‘What is New Thought?’
And a question that comes up that is very much related to that often is ‘Are we Christian
or not?’
Do we rise up out of the Christian tradition?
I remember years ago when I was educating my about religion and holidays, that when
Christmas rolled around, and we were talking about it being the birth of Jesus, he realized
at some point that Jesus was not Christian.
Jesus was Jewish and it was a big shock to him.
And it’s interesting that the founder of our teaching, Science of Mind and Spirit,
Ernest Holmes, who we speak a lot about here at Mile Hi, he said to us very clearly that
we weren’t Christian, he also reminded us that Jesus, himself, was not Christian.
Jesus was not promoting Christianity, that came later.
Jesus was promoting a life where he promoted people to be in touch with the Divine within
them, the Father within that doeth these good works.
And so Ernest Holmes would even say to us that he doesn’t know of any tradition that
was actually practicing what Jesus taught because people have gotten wayward in their
interpretation of the message of Jesus and in their practices as related to Jesus’
ministry.
So while Ernest Homes would say that we are part of the Christian tradition, it is mostly
because we believe that Jesus was one of the greatest prophets, if not the greatest prophet,
to ever walk the earth.
That he taught us about love, and he taught us about the connection that we all have to
the Divine Presence.
Where we are not Christian like is that we have not fallen into, or feel that the traditions
that have us putting Jesus up on a pedestal, putting Jesus up to be something special and
different than us.
That’s not something that New Thought or Science of Mind and Spirit really resonates
with.
While we support and love people who feel that way, and we don’t criticize them and
we don’t make them wrong, we just have a different way of interpreting and seeing the
words in the gospel, that Jesus reportedly said, where he invited us all to remember
who we are and reminded us that ‘it is the Father within us that doeth the works’ and
reminded us that these things he was doing that we could do and even greater.
Those phrases are really important to us and seem to me to be the key of our relationship
with that wonderful prophet Jesus.
I also recognize that, for myself personally, that a lot of the ideals that we attribute
to Jesus and God and other prophets are often separating and make them out to be up on a
pedestal and for me, any great spiritual teacher that I’ve ever come in contact with who’s
really grounded and centered in the love of this universe doesn’t want to be put up
on a pedestal like that.
Wants to help people understand the notion of the truest love that’s available to all
of us, which is within us.
That’s what we believe Jesus taught and that’s why we are Christian in that we absolutely
support and believe in Jesus, but we’re not traditional in our Christian beliefs.
And so that’s kind of where we stand with this one.
I hope this week that you’ll give this some contemplation and if you have comments, please
put them down below.
I would love to hear from you.
If you have other questions you’d like to ask, we’d love to hear them.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Have a great week.