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Is Past, But Not Current, Initiation Status Qualification
for Living in the Nation of God?
QUESTION:
As far as living in the Nation of God is concerned, suppose I had achieved First
Degree in a prior lifetime but had not achieved it in this lifetime, would I
be barred from living in the Nation of God?
RICHARD:
Until you have re-achieved Initiation in this lifetime you would not be able
to live in the Nation of God. An Ego can, however, incarnate as an infant to
parents who are Initiates in the Nation of God and if he has been an Initiate
in a prior lifetime. But in order to get there this time you actually have to
go through the initiation ceremony. There are more than a billion Egos who
have made it to at least Initiation. Most of these have not incarnated for
many thousands of years because the risk of losing their advancement in
backward cultures has been so great. So the world has rarely seen Initiates.
Nation of God
There
was a question whether there will be efforts to bring more people into the Kingdom of God from among survivors in other
parts of the world. Richard replied that very few people will come into the Kingdom of God after the turn of the century
except as children incarnating into families already established there. He
brought up an idea from C. S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity. Lewis had drawn
an analogy to the effect that ordinary man is to the man-of-Christ as an
ordinary horse is to a horse with wings. The aerodynamic feat involved in
creating a horse that could fly would hardly seem to be more formidable than
the changes an individual must undergo in order to become First Degree.
Richard made reference to a verse from the ninth chapter of Mark where Christ
said, “If thy hand offend thee, cut it off.” This is really what we must be
prepared to do in order to make ourselves into the new men and women who will
populate the Nation of God. The things in us which are negative and thus
detrimental to our progress toward attaining the Virtues must be removed,
even though a negative pattern may he so much a part of us that becoming rid
of it is like losing a hand or a foot. The man or woman who has the courage
to amputate his negative ways will find that he can grow in ways which more
than compensate for the old habits. (01-1970)
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