One Way?

SUN, APR. 23, 1989, 5:26 AM
UNION CLUB, BOSTON

One of the great theological questions in the earth today and throughout human history has been and is: is there one way to God’s favor? But I have told you repeatedly that there are many spiritual paths and many ways to relationship with Me. Isn’t this the answer… No… with the Teaching being completed in a record one paragraph? Obviously not. Listen, o son.

If there is one God and one human family wouldn’t it be simplest to have a single way, with just a few variations? This would give a unity to the human quest… a sense of community, even extending to those who were not following this one way, for they would have a rather clear sense of where they “should be.” As you think about the religions that you know there could be one way, with changes and compromises in present practices. What is this one way?

But then there is the reality of great variations in this human family of Mine. There are great differences in languages and thus in ways of thinking. Your Western way of thinking, even with the power it seems to possess at this time, is not dominant in the human family and would not be “the way.” Could Westerners change? When considering one way, the assumption usually made is others will have to change and that you, whoever you are, are closest to the ideal.

You are seeing… and you might as well write it now… that this is another of those both/and issues. This is the way I recommend that you think. Is this, then, the one way? Consider what this means. There is one way for you – a Presbyterian Christian way, with a strong sense of the reality of eternal, everlasting life. There is one way for Mabel – a fundamental, Bible-based Christianity, with the charismatic practice of hearing Me directly. There is one way for you son Bob – a high liturgical experience with rather much attention to sin and human frailty. You don’t really know of the one ways that the many readers of your Ruminations follow, but you suspect they are diverse. And there do seem to be people whose one way is not consistent or not at all clear.

The one way is that each of you humans has had, has, and will have a soul, the spirit that comes from Me, even in its separation… and that desires to return to communion with Me. Some of these souls are “brand new”… just created. Some are more mature, but are new to the earth. Some are not new to the earth but have not grown from past experiences. A few are mature, from growth in the earth and other realms, are comfortable in their spiritual path, and are moving in distinct ways toward selfless living and a final, volunteer return to Me.

Now is this one way… or many ways? Yes. In one sense you and Mabel and Bob are on the human way. In another your paths are different and almost mutually exclusive. And thus it is with all of humanity. I want you to feel a common tie with each of the billions of humans now alive, some your age, many younger, a few older. Creation by Me, with the spirit that is from Me, makes you all kin.

And yet I like diversity, so there is much, even in this manifestation of spirit. As Jesus I said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life… no one comes to the Father but by Me.” This is one way. Yet this brought forth those who set My actions as the way, while others accept grace as the way, and many mix these in different proportions. Some experience Me in the beauty of the earth. Others even reject this identification with any physical aspects of earth life.