The Continuum “Concept”

WED., JUNE 28, 1995, 2:40 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

I haven’t commented, in some time, on this continuum “concept” that you use in a variety of ways. You do refer to it more often than most of your colleagues, and so you should be reminded how I feel about it and how it can apply to Me.

It is related, of course, to the both/and thinking that I recommend more often than either/or… though different issues will require different “balances.” The premise is that with many issues there are extreme positions or interpretations, and there are incremental positions away from one extreme or the other, including some of the “other.” ( 2:50 / 2:56 ) Consider this example: I, the Holy Spirit as an active “member” of the Godhead. One extreme would be that toward which I have pushed you – I am equal with God, the Father and Creator, and with Jesus, the Son and Savior from sin, and I am the most active with humans in the earth, as Teacher, Guide, and Counselor. The other end of the continuum would be… there is no God, no Jesus, and no Holy Spirit… this is a completely natural world, with no supernatural beings or actions. Between there could be – there is a God, but no Jesus and no Holy Spirit… there is God and His Son, Jesus, but they have given up powers to change earth and human conditions… there is God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, but God is highest, Jesus is lower in power and influence, and Spirit is of least importance and has the least influence. And, of course, there are many more variations in the relative influence of each extreme.

How would it apply to death, the subject of your most popular course? There is a certain similarity, you’ll notice, to My “personal” example. At one end death is the end of life, for there is no spirit, no consciousness, no afterlife. When the brain dies there is no more consciousness and therefore no more life. Its opposite would see death (as I have taught you) as merely a transition from earth life, with its many limitations to life in the spirit, all part of a spiritual “journey” on a particular spiritual path back to union with Me, from whence you have come. You will then know much more and have a good assessment of what spiritual progress you made in the earth life you have just completed, with the body you just have “dropped.” You can see, can’t you, that a more orthodox Christian perspective would be somewhat away from this second extreme, with death being the end of this one earth life, the only one you’ll have, with spirit continuing on eternally, after judgment on motives and actions in this human life, in either heaven, a desirable future, or hell, a lifetime of suffering for sins or for lack of commitment to Me, as Jesus, Who was My Savior.

How is it best to live here in the earth? One extreme favors complete, simple adaptation to the environment, with personal muscle power, the sun, and natural manifestations of nature as sources of energy, and no development of technology in order to make life “easier.” The opposite pole of the continuum would include maximum use of technology for an easier life and a complete remaking of the environment so that personal adaptations are never necessary. One pole produces very little waste and puts high value on this minimum “production.” The other simply accepts waste as a consequence of the good life and uses technology to “process” the waste material.