The basis for ecumenism and beyond

Christianity teaches that Jesus is God. Judaism and Islam deny it. Hinduism says there are many incarnations of the divine, many mystics have seen, united with, and become one with God. Hinduism is more right in their view. This does not take away power from Jesus, it brings him within an ecumenism of a very ancient religious tradition.

It was not because of “original sin” that we have lost sight of the God Within, it is ignorance. Ignorance may not help us live better lives but it is not a sin. Jesus died because he brought knowledge of the Father Within to the West, which was knowledge already experienced in the East. Jesus died for this reason as a martyr, not because of our original sins.

As to the differences between the trinitarian God of Christianity, the unitary God of Judaism, or Krishna of Hinduism, they are all defining the same God Within, the same Father Within, which means their differences in this regard fall away. Every religion is a genuine response to the God Within and each have their methods of reaching and speaking about the God Within. This is the solid ground of ecumenism.

The real difference in religions is seen between the God Within and the Godhood reached through materiel and supermaterial evolution. It is here where the Evolutionary Christian Church (ECC) moves beyond the God Within or the Father Within of the great religions. It is in the Evolutionary Outward Path where variety is encouraged. Variety and cooperative competition are helpful in the upward evolution of all groups toward Godhood in the cosmos. In this sense pluralism is the way to proceed among religions, the same as among different political states.

We need to transform the Inward God, the Father Within, experienced by many great masters, and convert this incomplete God into the real Godhood reached by material and supermaterial evolution. This is the Twofold Path. Real Godhood is independent of our experience of the God Within, which is only a blissful symbolic experience (a beatific vision) of the Godhood reached by evolution, and first seen in the Inward Path of the great religions.

We will not correctly define Godhood, Absolute Truth, or the Real until we have actually evolved to Godhood. At this time our mission is to improve our minds and bodies through upward evolution toward Godhood. This can complete and fulfill the earlier revelations of the great religions, not reject them.