DNA provide placements in Christian churches, ranging from October to August. This is seen as a “year in with God, not a year out.”, involving the enrollee to dwell in a Christian environment – either in your own church if you currently belong to one, or a designated church if you’re not currently a member of a church. Your regular day will involve assisting with the day-to-day activities of the church, and to be trained by its members in bible studies. The course assures faith in action, so those who join can expect a really pragmatic experience of living their faith, and not simply the theoretical study.

Further advantages of the placements include:-

• helping 18 year olds and older, as there’s no age limit (they’ve trained people in their 60s!)
• it’s practical; what you’ll learn is what you will do
• preparing you for church based leading
• developing you for the workplace environment
• dependence on the person and power of the Holy Spirit in and through you
• offering an accredited programme via the National Open College Network

There are 3 sorts of course available : Track 1 is the most popular entry point to DNA – it is the fullest DNA expereince. The over-whelming bulk of people decide that this is the best-fit option for them. Track 2 is more suited to you if taking a complete “year-out” is not pragmatically achievable. This could be for reasons like job or family commitments. Track 2 consequently proffers some flexibility. Track 3 offers individuals the chance of coming in to be with us for as many particular training sessions or days as they wish.

The author of 17 books and over 400 journal articles, as well as a play exploring the meaning of infinity, Barrow is perhaps best-known as the co-author, with Tulane University mathematical physicist Frank Tipler, of the 1986 book The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, in which he investigated whether the Earth is indeed fine-tuned for life. Reviewing the book for The New York Times, noted science journalist Timothy Ferris wrote, “I was infuriated by it, disagreed with it and loved reading it.”

In the following essay, written for the occasion of winning the Templeton Prize, Barrow reflects on the majesty of nature, our ever-expanding knowledge of the universe and why religion should always have a place at the table with science.

A little over a year ago I was in a great church the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. Its predecessor was raised in the year 832 to house the mortal remains of St. Mark the Evangelist, which had supposedly been brought to Venice from Alexandria four years earlier by two Venetian merchants. They are alleged to have hidden the remains of the martyred saint under layers of pork so as to avoid the attentions of Muslim customs officials.

The present Byzantine-style basilica, with its distinctive cluster of low domes, was begun in 1063 and consecrated in 1089. Today it sits next to the Doge’s Palace on the edge of St. Mark’s Square, attracting tourists and pigeons rather than pilgrims with a faade to launch a thousand postcards.

I arrived at the church in the early evening with a small group of other scientists for a guided tour after it had closed to visitors for the day. When we entered, it was almost in total darkness. There are few windows, and they are small and far from transparent. We were asked to sit in the center, allowing just a few faint floor lights and an occasional electric candle to guide us to our seats. Above us there was only darkness.

Then, very slowly, the light levels rose above us and around us, and the interior began to be illuminated by a discreet system of hidden sodium lights. The darkness around us gave way to a spectacular golden light. The arching ceilings above us were covered in a spectacular gleaming mosaic of glass and gold. Between the 11th and the 15th centuries nearly 11,000 square feet of gold mosaic was made, square by square, mixing gold with glass through a delicate process that is still not fully understood, to produce this sparkling golden sanctuary. Appearances can be deceptive.

But, on reflection, what was more striking to me was the realization that the hundreds of master craftsmen who had worked for centuries to create this fabulous sight had never seen it in its full glory. They worked in the gloomy interior, aided by candlelight and smoky oil lamps to illuminate the small area on which they worked, but not one of them had ever seen the full glory of the golden ceiling. For them, like us, 500 years afterward, appearances were deceptive.

Getting closer to the stars

Our universe is a bit like that too. The ancient writers who celebrated the heavens’ declaration of the glory of the Lord saw only through a glass darkly. Unbeknown to them and countless others who followed them, the universe has revealed itself by the instruments that modern science has made possible to be far bigger, more spectacular and more humbling than we ever imagined it to be.

The universe appears big and old, dark and cold, hostile to life as we know it, dangerous and costly to explore. Many a philosopher of the past concluded that the universe was meaningless and antithetical to life: a bleak and black realm in which our little planet is a temporary outcome of the blind forces of nature. Yet, appearances may again be deceptive.

Over the past 75 years, astronomers have illuminated the vault of the heavens in a completely unexpected way. The universe is not only big, but it is also getting bigger. It is expanding. Great clusters of galaxies are moving away from each other at increasing speeds. This means that the size of the universe we can see is inextricably bound up with its age. It is big because it is old.

These huge periods of time are important for our own existence. We are made of complicated atoms of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, along with many others. Maybe one day other forms of terrestrial intelligence will be made of silicon atoms. The nuclei of all these atoms do not come ready-made with the universe. They are put together by a long slow-burning sequence of nuclear reactions in the stars. It takes almost 10 billion years for this stellar alchemy to burn hydrogen to helium, and on to beryllium, and carbon and oxygen and beyond, before the dying stars explode in supernovae and spread their life-giving debris around the universe where it finds its way into grains of dust, planets, and ultimately into people. The nucleus of every carbon atom in our bodies has been through a star. We are closer to the stars than we could ever have imagined.

Driven to understand

Astronomy has transformed the simple-minded, life-averse, meaningless universe of the skeptical philosophers. It breathes new life into so many religious questions of ultimate concern and never-ending fascination. Many of the deepest and most engaging questions that we grapple with still about the nature of the universe have their origins in our purely religious quest for meaning.

The concept of a lawful universe with order that can be understood and relied upon emerged largely out of religious beliefs about the nature of God. The atomistic picture of matter arose long before there could have been any experimental evidence for or against it.

Out of these beliefs came confidence that there was an unchanging order behind the appearances that was worth studying. Great questions about the origin and end of the universe, possibly the sources of all observed complexity, and the potential infinity of space grew out of our religious focus on the great questions of existence and the nature of God.

And, like all great questions, they can turn out to have answers that take us down unexpected paths, further and further away from the familiar and the everyday: multiverses, extra dimensions, the bending of time and of space – all may reveal a universe that contains more than is needed for life, more even than is needed for speculation. We see now how it is possible for a universe that displays unending complexity and exquisite structure to be governed by a few simple laws – perhaps just one law – that are symmetrical and intelligible, laws that govern the most remarkable things in our universe: populations of elementary “particles” that are everywhere perfectly identical.

Reality’s hidden logic

It is to this simple and beautiful world behind the appearances where the lawfulness of nature is most elegantly and completely revealed that physicists look to find the hallmark of the universe. Everyone else looks at the outcomes of these laws. The outcomes are often complicated, hard to understand and of great significance – they even include ourselves – but the true simplicity and symmetry of the universe is to be found in the things that are not seen. Most remarkable of all, we find that there are mathematical equations, little squiggles on pieces of paper, that tell us how whole universes behave. There is a logic larger than universes that is more surprising because we can understand a meaningful part of it and, thereby, share in its appreciation.

Once we thought everything in the universe was made of the things material that we find on Earth. We have now discovered that this too was only a first guess. More than 70 percent of the universe is composed of a form of dark energy whose precise identity is unknown. It reveals its presence by its dramatic effect upon the expansion of the universe. Unlike all other known forms of matter, which exert gravitational attractive forces on other forms of matter and among themselves, this dark form of energy responds repulsively to gravity, causing all material to accelerate away from it, creating an acceleration in the expansion of the universe that began to occur when it had reached about 75 percent of its presence extent. This discovery about our universe was a surprise – like discovering something totally unexpected about an old friend. Again, appearances were deceptive.

So with the universe, as it was that evening in St. Mark’s, things are not always as they seem when we look upward. The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. The architects of our religious and scientific pictures of the universe, and the many commentators on their meanings that followed them, could see only a small part of what there is and knew only a small part of what it has to teach us about our place in the universe. We begin to see afresh the extraordinary nature of our local environment and the link that attaches life to the vastness of space and time. Appearances can indeed be deceptive.

Knowing what we don’t know

There are some who say that just because we use our minds to appreciate the order and complexity of the universe around us, there is nothing more to that order than what is imposed by the human mind. That is a serious misjudgment. Were it true, we would expect to find our greatest and most reliable understanding of the world in the everyday events for which millions of years of natural selection have sharpened our wits and prepared our senses.

And when we look toward the outer space of galaxies and black holes, or into the inner space of quarks and electrons, we should expect to find few resonances between our minds and the ways of these worlds. Natural selection requires no understanding of quarks and black holes for our survival and multiplication.

And yet, we find these expectations turned upon their heads. The most precise and reliable knowledge we have about anything in the universe is of events in a binary star system more than 3,000 light-years from our planet and in the subatomic world of electrons and light rays, where it is accurate to better than nine decimal places. And curiously, our greatest uncertainties all relate to the local problems of understanding ourselves – human societies, human behavior and human minds – all the things that really mattered for human survival. But that is because they need to be complex: Were our minds simple enough to be understood, they would be too simple to understand.

In all the science we pursue, we are used to seeing progress. Our first attempts to grasp the laws of nature are often incomplete. They capture just a part of the truth, or they see it through a glass only darkly.

Some think that our progress is like a never-ending sequence of revolutions that overthrow the old order, condemned never to converge upon anything more definitive than a more useful style of thinking. But scientific progress doesn’t look like that from the inside. Our new theories extend and subsume old ones. The former theories are recovered in some limited situation – slow motions, weak gravitational fields, large sizes, or low energies – from the new. Newton’s 300-year-old theory of mechanics and gravity has been superseded by Einstein’s, which will be succeeded by M theory or its unknown successor in the future. But in a thousand years’ time schoolchildren will still study Newton’s theories and engineers will still rely upon them just as they do today. They will be the simple limiting form for slow motions and weak gravity of the ultimate theory, whatever it turns out to be.

In our religious conceptions of the universe, we also use approximations and analogies to have some grasp of ultimate things. They are not the whole truth, but this does not stop them being a part of the truth a shadow that is cast in a limiting situation of some simplicity. Our scientific picture of the universe has revealed time and again how blinkered and conservative our outlook has often been, how self-serving our interim picture of the universe, how mundane our expectations, and how parochial our attempts to find or deny the links between scientific and religious approaches to the nature of the universe.

Sir John Templeton has sought to encourage this impartial dialogue in the firm belief that religion and science can supply mutual illumination and appreciation of the wonders of our universe and inspire us to seek out and comprehend the truth in new ways – a truth that is unfailingly unexpected and so often not at all like it first appears.

John D. Barrow is a theoretical physicist and Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University and winner of the 2006 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. This article was written for Science & Theology News.

The sins of the flesh takes many forms. If mankind doesn’t know what is sin they are not held accountable untill told. Some call this the “Age of Accountability.” This is what this series is all about.

To inform and to in-lighten. Look closely what Paul says about judgment of different types of people. The Apostle Paul backs up what I have said in Romans 2:12, For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
Romans 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law, and in Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. “I had not known sin, but by the law:” The Law of Judgment or Mercy. For there are still those that live in both. Sin is a learned system.

Mankind in this day and age are without excuse as far as knowing the difference between right and wrong. All men know that there is a God and they also know that there will be a judgment. The law of man was based on the laws of God. We have God in our Laws, on our Money and even at the very doors of the Supream Court . Thou Shall Not ! Atheist say they don’t believe in God, well I’m afraid that God doesn’t believe in an Atheist. Now lets take a look at the sin, Effeminacy. Effeminacy; [from effeminate.] The softness, delicacy and weakness in men, which are characteristic of the female sex, but which in males are deemed a reproach; unmanly delicacy; womanish softness or weakness.(Cross Dressers.)

Voluptuousness; indulgence in unmanly pleasures; lasciviousness = (Feeling or devoted to sexual love or desire: Amative, Amorous, Concupiscent, Erotic, Lecherous, Lewd, Libidinous, Lustful, Lusty, Salacious, & Asexual. Of, concerning, or promoting sexual love or desire: In American legal jargon, lascivious is a semi-technical term indicating immoral sexual thoughts or actions. It is often used in the legal description of criminal acts in which some sort of sexual activity is prohibited to differentiate that activity from innocent conduct.

For example, a lewd or lascivious act would refer to sex crimes such as child rape. Whether an action amounts to lascivious conduct rests to a large degree on whether society is currently condemning the action. For example, lascivious cohabitation refers to a mostly archaic crime of living with a member of the opposite sex, and having sexual intercourse (Homosexuals) with him or her.). Having unsuitable feminine qualities, not manly, womanish, Having qualities more appropriate to women than to men. Characterized by excessive softness or self-indulgence, the trait of being effeminate (derogatory of a man)

This is men (or Women) who are pretending to be something that they are not. Having the hardness of Heart, ignoring the basic law of nature. 1st. Co 6:9-10; Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Be not deceived, God is very specific on sin and its consequences. God has never made man sinful in nature, man creates his own sin after birth and makes his own choice weather to be an effeminate. The old excuse, “They cant help what they are.” is not acceptable with God. He destroyed Sodam and Gamorah for that very fact. The life style that many live today are learned Characteristics and made by freedom of Choice. Our Television is becoming full of debotchery and learning tools that will turn many into something they are not. Sin comes by the acceptance of society of lifestyles and acts that are against nature and against God.

Many say that, “I serve no gods”, but in fact they are serving not one, but many. As such stated by Paul Himself in Galations 4:8, “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.” This is not a disease of the flesh but a disease of the mind and spirit. A Spirit that is in bondage to Sin and Satan. In other words man was not born into Homo-sexuality nor into being an effeminate.

Remember this, write it down, burn it into your memory; “God will not create something that He has already Condemned!” Here is Gods answer to those that do not believe His word and will not obey His laws of Conduct. Psa 50:16-22; But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.

These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. end part 4. ars

Temple of Spirit & Truth Ministries http://www.ourchurch.com/member/a/arsmithsermons/

I do not claim to be able to prove anything concerning the spiritual realm, and I would be very skeptical if someone claimed to know everything about it. Communicating with spirits at will could be deceiving and some times even dangerous. Besides, it is not, in my opinion, a healthy (natural) activity, and I have never had the curiosity of experimenting with spiritualism. Perhaps I have been influenced by major O.T. prophets who clearly forbade such activities. The reasons they give in the Bible make sense to me, but I won’t go into it in this article.

Personally, during my 30 years’ of spiritual quest, I have come to rather believe than disbelieve in the existence of the spirit world. Further it is supported by Scripture that there is a fierce warfare going on in the spiritual realm, which unfortunately reflects on mankind, here on earth. The more we know about this invisible spiritual warfare, the better equipped will we be to ensure that WE humans decide about the future of our planet and not any invisible, friendly or hostile, entities – angels or demons.

Through meticulous and unbiased study of the Bible – which, by the way, I do not consider to be God-inspired in its entirety, as it contains many discrepancies and contradictions – I have come to classify spiritual entities into four categories, which I shall describe below:

1st: The Spirits (consciousness) of dead persons, which, under certain conditions, can “communicate” with the living.

2nd: Spirits (benevolent or malevolent) that can be released by prophets.

3rd: The Spirits of nations (principalities).

4th: Spirits which appear to be the crystallization of virtues or vices formed by the emotions, thoughts or words, i.e. by the spiritual energy of humans.

All four categories of spirits are found in the Bible, although the differences among them are not always distinct. Especially the second and fourth categories could both concern man-created spirits. Regarding the Angels, the Bible seems to differentiate them from ordinary spirits, but I cannot expand on them within the limited space of this article.

The New Testament is also full of references to demons, i.e. malevolent spirits, and these, too, should be the subject of a separate article. Some demons, however, might be man-made and fall into the aforementioned 4th category, while others might belong to the 2nd category of spirits.

In any case, the invisible world seems to be full of inhabitants strange to us, some friendly to humans and some very hostile and dangerous, of which even the writers of the Bible appear to know rather little. The discernment of spirits is not an easy task. So I shall proceed very cautiously. None of my comments on this matter should be received unquestionably as a doctrine. It is the individual’s highest responsibility, in his/her quest for spiritual Truth, to constantly seek personal revelation from God through prayer and meditation.

1st: Spirits of the Dead.

Although there are a few Biblical verses to the contrary, most Bible writers believe that a soul survives the death of its body, and they refer to such entities as “spirits of the dead”.

Here are some relevant verses:

“The Egyptians (…) will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.” (Isa.19: 3) This verse implies that the spirit of man not only survives death but it can also be contacted by the living through mediums and spiritists.

A Biblical case where someone contacts the spirit of a dead person is that of king Saul. In his desperation to seek advice concerning the war of the Philistines against Israel, Saul resorted to contacting the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel, through a medium (1 Samuel 28:7-15). (Later Saul was punished for this sin – 1 Chr. 10: 13-14)

2nd: Spirits released by prophets.

The Bible maintains that God intervenes in the affairs of the world only through his representatives, the prophets. They are the ones who speak on behalf of the Almighty and release His blessing or judgment upon individuals, nations or mankind as a whole.

The major Old Testament prophets often judged Zion in the name of God:

“When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” (Isa. 4: 4) Isaiah, just as all the prophets of the O.T., believed that sin must be “washed away” by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. And judgment can come through the word of a prophet much earlier and more fiercely than the natural process of recompense of the law of retribution.

Some define those spirits just as “spiritual energy” released by prophets. Whether this spiritual energy is provoked and/or reinforced by some kindred spiritual entities already existing in Universe, is anybody’s guess.

Unfortunately, many zealous “Christians” have inherited this “spirit of judgment” from the O.T. and they are very dangerous to be around to. They use the name of the Lord to pass judgments on others. But Jesus said: “Bless and not curse.”

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication (…).” (Zech. 12:10a) The spirit of grace also could (and should) be released through the intervention of a prophet, which helps people to repent of their sins and turn to God. And this is exactly what God expects his prophets and all believers to do. The following scripture confirms this: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord; so turn and live.” (Ez. 18: 32)

3rd: Spirits of Nations.

>From various Biblical verses it appears that there are spirits that represent nations. They are called “princes”.

We read about the “prince” of Greece, the “prince” of Persia and the prince of Israel, who is Michael the Archangel! (Dan. 10:18-21)

Daniel maintains that each nation has its own spiritual prince, an angel or archangel that serves its interests. Whether these princes are real angelic beings, assigned over the nations by Divine Providence in the beginning of time, or man-created ghosts formed over the millennia by the solidification of the collective subconscious of people of the same language, religion and traditions, is a difficult philosophical question that only a true mystic could closely answer.

The Apostle Paul suggests that these “principalities” over nations are not of flesh and blood, but they are spiritual hosts in heavenly places.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6: 10- 12)

4th: Spirits of virtues or vices.

In the Bible we also find references to spirits of virtues and talents (spirit of wisdom, spirit of love, spirit of truth, spirit of discernment, spirit of science, spirit of arts, etc.) (Gen. 41: 38-39) (Ex. 31: 1-3)

Apparently all virtues and talents are spirits. Are these spirits or talents man-made, inherited, cultivated in previous lives (if reincarnation is a fact) or are they separate entities existing in the Universe, i.e. “gifts” bestowed on man as God chooses? The answer to this is not a simple one. In my opinion, some virtues (“spirits”) could have been formed by man’s efforts, in this or previous lives, others could have been inherited, and others still could be the gifts of the Spirit of God.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take of the spirit which is upon you, and put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it alone. (…)’ So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. Then the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.” (Num. 11: 16-17, 24-25)

There is yet another way of obtaining spiritual gifts, namely by transference from someone who already possesses them. In the above verses we read that Moses gave some of his spirit of prophecy to seventy elders of Israel by covering them with a cloud of spiritual energy that he had projected unto them. In other cases of the O.T. this transference takes place by anointing with sacred oil (Ex. 30: 30). In the N.T. the transference of spiritual gifts from one to another takes place with the laying on of hands. However, the above scriptures reveal that the elders prophesied only at that moment. They did not do so again. Apparently, the gifts of the Spirit that one receives by transference from another stay with the recipient only temporarily. In order to keep them permanently, one has to acquire certain spiritual qualities by devotion to God.

Here is another instance of spirit transference: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him; cause him to stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight.” (Num. 28: 18-19)

So Joshua, who already had the spirit, received some more spiritual gifts from Moses, when the latter laid his hands upon him. The next scripture confirms this: “And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him;” (Deut. 34: 9a)

The Bible also refers to spirits of vices, e.g., a spirit of pride or a haughty spirit, spirit of anger, of fear, of greed, of lust, of envy, etc. Could these “evil” spirits be what the New Testament calls “demons”? Are all or some of these “demons” created by man’s free will and sustained by man’s own spiritual energy? Could, some of them, have been pre-existing in the spiritual realm before they entered (possessed) the body of a person? This, too, does not seem unlikely. In any case, Jesus seems to have been very busy delivering people of demons during his ministry.

This has been a brief analysis of the different categories of spirits found in the Bible. The subject of spirits is vast and the difficulty in fully grasping its various dimensions and implications partly arises from our inability to accurately define the nature and the origin of a spirit. Moreover, true knowledge of the spiritual world and how it interacts with man, presupposes true knowledge of our own spiritual nature and the purpose of our life and Creation as a whole.

Personally, I have no illusions that in this life we may have the true answers to all our questions concerning the above. But this does not mean that we should not pursue knowledge, wisdom and revelation.

Further more, a sincere and superior cultivator of Tao disregards his material enjoyments, he would not demand for good clothes, jewelry, big car or house. He is retreating and withdrawing all his material living. He does not really want any position or fame and he practises Tao firmly where many finally will become enlightening masters or preachers of Tao. Outwardly he may look behind and dull in his living but actually he is advancing in the practice of Tao.

Tao practitioners are similar to common people. Superior cultivators do not dress special clothes; they do not wear special shoes. They also have to earn money for a living and they do not set up something novel and unique with the aim of gaining popularity. They are similar to common people in every way. Their behaviors and talking is the same too as common people and they humble themselves as late-learners in Tao center.

It is described that a person with superior virtues looks like a valley. A valley accepts everything, like water will flow from high place to low place and valley is a low place. Although with vast virtues, he feels inadequate because he wants to learn everything and he wants to help every one and because he cannot help every one, he feels inadequate.

A person who is building virtue hides himself from being known in doing good deeds. He builds unknown virtue which is also called hidden virtue. Quality virtue is like a flood which will affect a lot of people. A virtue without any quality inside will not affect anyone. A wise man said that if we get along with some evil people for some time and still cannot change them to become good, then we are not good persons in many ways because there is no good quality virtue in us to affect them. Our virtues are of poor quality which cannot affect them to change.

When an average person received Tao, he would keep it sometimes and lose it sometimes. When he gets up in the morning and feels good, he would like to practise Tao and say Tao is precious. But when he gets up and feels lousy, he would not like to practise Tao and might say Tao is untrue. He is sometimes aware of Tao and sometimes unaware of Tao. Likewise some people are happy to be vegetarian initially for a few months but then feel uncomfortable to be vegetarian later. Just like people doing important assignments where initially they are very hard working but then slack and have no good ending like the Chinese say, “Have head but no tail.”

When an inferior man heard of Tao, he laughs and thinks of it as foolish. Sometimes when we introduce Tao to some ones, after they have received Tao, they laughed loudly and said, you are a fool, do you believe this is called receiving Tao? They don’t believe in Tao, they even laugh at the way they received Tao and by this, we know that they are inferior cultivators or not predestined to participate in the great mission of Tao. Once a very senior cultivator of a certain religion laughed at a Tao cultivator and told him not to be foolish to believe in such nonsense. There are also people who had openly slandered Tao in words and writing. Hence if Tao is not being laughed at, it is not the Great Tao.

Cultivation of Tao nowadays is different from the past. We need not have to renounce and forget about the world and this is the advice from my Heavenly Teacher JiGong:

“Cultivating Truth does not expect you to throw away the UNREAL completely. You say the parents are unreal and hence you are unfilial to them. Is that correct? You say money is unreal and hence you do not go to work. Is this correct? It is only when your basic duty is completed that you can achieve the REAL. It is only when Man’s basic duty is completed can one accomplish the rank of being ‘god’. It is only in having the REAL that one can see the UNREAL. However, when you have fully realized the Truth of Life and the Universe, there won’t be any more REALS or UNREALS in your heart.”

Whether we are superior or inferior cultivators, out of a hundred charitable actions, filiality comes first according to Tao of Heaven. It is wrong that we are spiritual and cultivating and we do not take care of our aged parents and families. It is said, “When a son obtains and attains Tao, seven generations of his ancestors will ascend to Heaven.”

Author: T.A Chew

T.A Chew, an accountant by profession wishes that people of the world can respect each other and live in peace by not belittling others. First be good to our own parents, treat them well with love and care and then extend it to others. Cultivation is to change for the better and if we are inferior cultivators, one day we can be superior cultivators. Website: http://www.white-sun.com

Heaven says even if the Gate of Hell is closed, man will still plunge in. The Gate may be narrow yet man walks through it. Man moves from a suffering plane to another but why must man still fall in? Man was warned of the pit and told of its environment but those who do not realize this will still walk on this dark road alone. We are advised to find the dust particles that weigh us down. Cleanse ourselves of it in the best way and we may feel weightless and escape from this great suffering in Hades.

The Path that returns upwards we must find otherwise we will remain in this state or to Hades. The Path may not be smooth and easy, but with sincerity and diligence we will be able to find and walk on it. The best effort that can carry man across the suffering land still lies within and no one except himself with guidance from above can do it. With sincerity in the Search, the heart-felt feeling is not only felt by man but by Heaven as well.

The heart that I am talking is not the organ within man. The heart that is formless is the true self. The power or effort created by it can be so strong that nothing can ever break it. Such power is not written in books nor is it found in any form. It is invisible and yet powerful enough to take control of all things. Dig out this formless heart and the power lies within.

Upon finding the Path we must bear in mind that we must truly walk on it. Destination and direction may be shown, but will remain like a mirage to man if he merely knows. The compassionate love and merciful way are shown by Heaven to all beings. Do not misuse such compassion but give thanks with your heart. The compassion, though it cannot be seen clearly but it can be felt by the one who realizes it.

Man must realize that all beings have the right to live. Anything that has life can sometimes prove to be better than man. Since man has the highest intelligence among all beings, he must set his goal right and prove to be better than others. If not, he is wasting his return in a human form and worse still, to Hades in his next life.

Man prays in many ways. He sets up altars that are different and magnificent to the eyes. Fresh fruits and flowers are offered as offering of respect and incense burnt twenty-four hours a day but if all these are for show, then they will go into waste and still go to Hades. What Heaven seeks is the sincerity of the heart and obviously killing another fellow innocent man intentionally cannot return to Heaven whatever the belief.

We should not be too serious over prayer things. The most important still lies within man and even without any image of the Heavenly Beings it is not wrong because all are formless. Anything that can be seen is only an object and all objects are merely illusions. Truth has no form nor is it an object, yet it receives Universal acceptance. Therefore, not all visible things are in their real forms. Humans have shapes and forms, yet they do not project the true self, for it is within and hidden in man.

Merits and demerits are given in accordance with actions seen and done throughout. Each pure action is like planting good seeds and the reverse is true. In planting good seeds, the harvest will be good and the more seeds sown, the more good fruits one will obtain. Any action has a reaction and so, take care that the reaction is beneficial to man otherwise to Hades one has to go. Never let rotten seeds be planted and life is short.

Author: T.A Chew

T.A Chew in 1995 after a bright flash of light suddenly saw the fire of the Underworld. In there sinful souls go through punishments for sins committed on Earth. Hades is never to be taken lightly for they are real. Never wake up and find yourself really there. Website: http://www.white-sun.com

>From the moment one embraces the doctrine of instant salvation by the blood of Jesus, one becomes overwhelmed with gratitude for this “free gift” and he/she naturally endeavors to pass it around to others. Thousands of Evangelical missions have spread all over the world propagating the inerrancy of the Bible – the “Word of God” – from which, however, they leave out what does not match with their doctrines. There is no doubt, and this can be proven, that most of those missions are politically sponsored, as they serve subtle imperialistic schemes.

It is extremely difficult for instantly “saved” Christians to be set free from their deception because it is so comforting! Who would give up such a “free gift” of eternal salvation? It takes greater love for the Truth than for security, in order for a deceived Christians to see the light. And, of course, one must get rid of the fear of damnation, in order for his/her spiritual eyes to open and start the long and difficult process of de-conversion.

The “free eternal salvation” dogma has, unfortunately, obscured the central message of Christ’s teaching, and has bewildered many a good Christian, who find it difficult to solve their inner conflict over the issue. Moreover, people of other faiths, or no faith at all, are discouraged to come closer to Christianity and know the wonderful spiritual teachings of Christ and the truly worthwhile aspects of Christian Religion.

There are, of course, many verses in the New Testament to support the instant “salvation by faith”, but there are also more verses to refute it. And, as with other Christian beliefs, one must study the Bible diligently and unbiasedly and endeavor to establish each Truth by many verses.

Of course, God is unfathomable to be described in a book, whether the Bible or the Quran, or any other “holy” book for that matter, and the most subtle and dangerous idolatry is the idolatry of a Book. As far as I am concerned, the only “Book” written by God is the Universe, and we should endeavor to know our Creator by observing and studying His Creation, starting from our own nature. The “holy” books, often presenting a god made in the image of man, might be misleading – and they have been – while those who fanatically adhere to the “letter” therein have been responsible for many a bloody war throughout history.

Let us now see several Biblical verses that contradict the doctrine of instant salvation, and, as with everything else, “those who have ears let them hear”:

“He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” (1 Peter 3: 10-11)

“Therefore, my beloved, … work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2: 12)

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret; but worldly grief produces death.” (2 Cor. 7: 10)

“And you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake; but HE WHO ENDURES TO THE END WILL BE SAVED.” (Matt. 10: 22)

“Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven; for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5: 19-20)

“…’Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, … You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.’ And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ At that saying his countenance fell, and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.” (Mark 10: 17b, 18a, 19-22)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8: 51)

“And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’ And he said to them, ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able’.” (Luke 13: 23-24)

“Strive for peace with all men, and for holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb.12: 14)

“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers’.” (Matt. 7: 21-23)

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’.” (Matt. 16: 24-25)

“And Peter opened his mouth and said, ‘Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him’.” (Acts 10: 34-35)

“Blessed are those who keep his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life …” (Rev. 22: 14a)

Well, I think these Biblical verses are enough to convince us that “salvation” is not so easy as modern, “born again” Christians want to present it… And it is not my fault that such verses exist in the Bible.