Perspectives, Yet Again

SAT., SEPT. 26, 1998, 6:14 AM
FARM, STUDY

This morning you shall ready yourself for a presentation in the early afternoon, one that certainly is familiar, but… you’re liable to be “rusty”. You don’t do it often, as you did during your working career, and without the guitar it just “is not the same”. So, accept the help that your Spirit Friend doth offer in this early hour.

Presumably, I should be 100% Christian, with nothing positive to say about the other four. The Christian, as you define and describe it, does include some important elements of truth in relation to death. As Jesus, the Christ, I did choose to die, symbolically, so that you all might have eternal life with Me. (You needn’t bother yourself with… what about the many who lived and died before My time on earth? Just let it apply to you and to Christian since that time of crucifixion.)

But which is the more dominant “requirement” – believing fully in Me or living a sinless life… or a sinful but forgiven one? I consider all of these and would value diversity even in this criterion. Fundamentally, however, the perspective says there is one earth life, each with a “brand-new” spirit. Whatever the length and circumstances you are judged, on one or both requirements, and then are either close to Me for eternity or away from Me, the basic definition of hell. Yes, it is a “tough one”, with more judgment that leads to reward or punishment than mercy and forgiveness. “The gate is narrow”… “few are chosen”… “you had your chance…”

A “softening” of this perspective is evident in the one you call Life After Life. On the testimony of those who had a near death experience, a “preview” of what happens when the “real end” of earth life comes. I am there and ever-ready to help you review your life and see, rather objectively, how you have lived… your strengths and weaknesses. There is no external judgment, only love… and the question, “What will you do with the rest of your earth life, if this is not your time?” You have a spiritual body, without imperfection or handicap. There is temptation, certainly, to go on and see what is beyond the barrier. Is it a final judgment or more chances to “get it right?”

Reincarnation, from My perspective (a perspective on a perspective?), includes the important premise that this earth life, now being experienced is only part of a longer spiritual journey. You begin life as a spirit “hatched” from Me, Holy Spirit, with potential for growth toward unselfish service, some of it here in the earth. Mostly you are outside of time, and time, in the earth, is of no real consequence. Some grow quickly, some grow and then regress and grow again, and still others are slow, slow in seeing what life is about.

The other two perspectives have no premise of life before or after the earth experience. This is it! The Humanistic accepts the human as the highest form of life, with something like spirit which is part of human relationships and of reactions to other earth experiences. Though there is no actual after-life, one can die… to nothingness… with some assurance of being remembered, for the life you have lived and its “accomplishments”. There is high value on human life. It could be called idolatry… but there is no other god. It strives to prolong life, no matter what the conditions or the cost.

The Ecological is a strange favorite of Mine. Though there is no recognition of Me, as Creator and Sustainer, the reality of the whole web of life is affirmed. Humans are the highest evolved form of life, but your life, here in the earth (all there is), is quite dependent on natural processes and other creatures, including those too small to detect. Death is simply necessary for life to continue. Capacities to adapt make longer life possible, for all forms of life. As a counter those who cannot adapt, to whatever the circumstances, have shorter lives.