New Revelations - Part One

I just finished reading the book The New Revelations: A Conversation with God by Neale Donald Walsch. Some may be familiar with his earlier books, Conversations with God (Books 1 – 3), which brought the author to the attention of the reading public. The premise of these books and the many that followed is that Walsch invites God to have a conversation with him. He writes his questions down and God gives him answers and explanations which Walsch also writes down. This back and forth between God and the author has created enough material for some 22 or more books at present.

While Walsch’s questions seem to me to be inane and contrived at times, I found God’s replies certainly thought provoking and spiritually enlightening. But this is a dangerous book! It is dangerous because it will challenge deeply held beliefs about God, traditional religion and Life. I think I can safely say that there are Christians, Jews and Muslims that should not read this book. It will frighten them to the point that they will cry heresy, an abomination and will likely demand that the book be banned… if not burned. This is not the book for them… or is it?

Last year I wrote a THOUGHTS column about my “Vision Quest” and my search for spiritual meaning. I have read or listened to the work of Eckhart Tolle, Dr. Wayne Dyer, James Redfield, Deepak Chopra and many others in my quest for vision and Spiritual Truth. It required me to open my mind, to expand my long held beliefs about God, traditional religion and my place in the Universe. My religious training, culture and traditional beliefs about God, Heaven and Hell were ingrained in me, but they left me with serious questions. Religious dogma only convinced me that man did not understand something, something so fundamental, so important to our spiritual growth. The religious practices of excommunication, stoning and beheading for offenses against God never made sense to me. Who was this vengeful demanding… God?

In Walsch’s book, God lists “5 Fallacies About God.” They are:

1) You believe that God needs something.
2) You believe that God can fail to get what He needs.
3) You believe that God has separated you from Him because you have not given Him what He needs.
4) You believe that God still needs what He needs so badly that God now requires you, from your separated position, to give it to Him.
5) You believe that God will destroy you if you do not meet His requirements.

Despite my religious teaching, training, indoctrination and the well meaning assurances of friends and even family … MY God was not the vengeful, demanding, judgmental deity of the old Testament in the Bible, quick to damn you to the fires of Hell for your transgressions. No, MY God was Abba, Daddy, Father…Mother who lifted me up when I fell. MY God held me when I was hurt or afraid. I talked to MY god as I walked in the woods and listened to His Presence in the wind. MY God did not require me to blow myself up in a crowded market place to get to be with Him in Paradise. MY God was a God of Love and forgiving beyond all understanding.

God tells Neal Donald Walsch that it is our fallacies about God that have led us to this point in time where world peace seems so elusive and our destruction so certain. Human beings are at a crossroads in our evolution as a species. We must come to a NEW understanding about God, Life and who we really are. We are ready to know that our old beliefs no longer serve us. Our old view of the world and our place in it no longer works.

In Part 2, I wish to explore these THOUGHTS further. For now consider this …

Food for THOUGHT…