The New Revelations: A Conversation With God By Neal Donald
Walsch (Book Review by the Reverend Ron Jones)
Thank you Denise for squeezing a second article into the
Newsletter. I hope that everyone will find time during the busy
holiday season to read this book by Neal Donald Walsch. I need to
re-mind myself of it, too, because many of its themes are relevant
to emotions rekindled in me during the recent Presidential election.
Walsch sets forth a challenge to us: in order to save the world
from itself, we must change our beliefs about God and life. His
thesis is that our ideas about God and life have led us into a depth
of global despair that is causing us to destroy ourselves. He is not
suggesting that now is a time for despair. Despair is what has
created the problem. Despair is why some of us are tuning out to the
problems of our country and the world. More despair will not solve
anything. We need to repair, not despair. And as we seek to repair
the damage we have done, we need to explore the matter of why we are
still doing it.
Walsch asserts that we have a major problem as a species on this
planet. Rather than encouraging a sense of oneness among us, we are
encouraging divisions among us that are leading not just to wars but
to the end of civilization as we know it. Many understand the
severity of the problem but few seem to understand its nature. We
say that the problem is this person or that political perspective or
those cultures. And we keep trying to solve it at every level except
the level at which it exists: the level of belief. The problem
facing the world today, according to Walsch, is spiritual. "Our
ideas about spirituality are killing us! We keep trying to solve the
world's problems as if they were political problems, or economic
problems, or even military problems, and they are none of these.
They are spiritual problems!"
"We keep saying that OUR Holy Book is what has given us the
authority to treat each other the way we are treating each other.
The message of all the sacred scriptures is basically the same. What
is different is how human beings interpret them. We are separating
ourselves over these differences in interpretation, and killing each
other as a result of these differences. We disagree about what a
particular book says and what it means, and we use these
disagreements as justifications for (all kinds of inhumanity)."
Walsch's point is that there are many holy writings and sacred
scriptures, but everyone acts as if there is only one. OUR
scriptures are sacred. All the rest are blasphemies. "This spiritual
arrogance is what has caused us our greatest sorrow as a species. We
have suffered more and caused other people to suffer more over our
ideas about God than over our ideas about anything else in the human
experience. We have turned the source of our greatest joy into the
source of our greatest pain." So we must find a way to overcome this
history--to transcend these beliefs.
"All sacred texts were written by special human beings who
understood enormous truths--human beings who were deeply inspired.
But WE can understand enormous truth, too. WE can be deeply
inspired, too. Divine inspiration is the birthright of every human
being. We are all special! We simply don't know that.
We simply don't believe that, because our religions have told us
we are not. They have told us that we are sinners, that we are
unworthy, that only a very few among us have ever achieved a level
of worthiness to be inspired by God--and that all of those people
are dead. They have convinced us that no one living today could
possibly achieve that level of worthiness...."
Walsch admits that we in Unity are more open to new ways of
thinking than most. But he says that even we need to stay alert,
especially when it comes to our children, because that is our real
hope. We must continue to teach our children the Truth, because
"...so many people believe in an intolerant God, and thus condone
their own behaviors of intolerance. They believe in an angry God,
and thus condone their own behaviors of anger. They believe in a
vengeful God, and thus condone their own behaviors of vengeance.
They believe that they are struggling for a higher cause, or a
grander purpose, or that God is on their side."
Walsch challenges us to change our entire worldview. We have
everything it takes to accomplish this. We merely have to change our
beliefs about God. EVERYTHING depends on what we believe about God.
So, what are some beliefs we have about God that create crisis,
violence, killing, and war? Here is Walsch's list: "First, some of
us believe that God needs something. Second, some of us believe that
God can fail to get what God needs. Third, some of us believe that
God has separated us from God because we haven't given God what God
needs. Fourth, some of us believe that God continues to need what
God needs so badly that God now requires us, from our separated
position, to give it to God. Fifth, some of us believe that God will
destroy us if we don't meet God's requirements."
Walsch also sets forth five fallacies about LIFE that are leading
us astray. "First, that human beings are separate from each other.
Second, that there is never enough of what we need to be happy.
Third, that to get the stuff that there is never enough of, we must
compete with each other. Fourth, that some of us are more deserving
of stuff than others of us. And fifth, that it is appropriate for us
to resolve severe differences created by all the other fallacies by
killing and enslaving each other."
The five fallacies about life, combined with the five fallacies
about God, make for a deadly litany of error thinking. They are what
Walsch says we must change if we're ever to realize our dream of a
world living in peace and harmony. We can't change the world by
political or economic means. We must change our beliefs. "We seem to
think we are being terrorized by other people, but in truth we are
being terrorized by our beliefs!"
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
children of God." The overriding desire of humankind is peace, but
our current beliefs don't render us peaceful. The good news is that
the changed consciousness of just a few individuals can change the
balance of spiritual energy on this planet. So our prayers count.
Our entire LIVES count. Walsch proposes a means to achieve peace on
earth. If we pursue it, we will shift everything on our planet.
Indeed, we will be peacemakers and will be called children of God.
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