A couple of weeks after the Kenneth Copeland
convention, Muriel made a profound announcement during the midweek Bible-study
class.
“Jesus has told me that the masters of the
Hierarchy are no longer to be involved in the activities of the Lighted Way”,
she said. “We are now connected only with Jesus of Nazareth, the Father, and
the Holy Spirit. I have been clearly informed that we are not to study any
teachings other than the Bible”.
We had been working with the masters for years,
and I was not able to comprehend Muriel's radical statement. Finally, I
rationalized that, since we had been studying the Bible for several weeks,
perhaps the spirit supervision of our metaphysical center really was now coming
directly from Master Jesus, and he was making appropriate changes.
I remembered reading in the Alice Bailey books
that the supervision of a group is often transferred from one master to
another. This transfer is supposedly part of the process known as the divine
movement of energies. It seemed reasonable that if we were now supervised by
Master Jesus, we would focus on the Bible and temporarily discontinue our work
with the other masters.
A week passed since Muriel's interesting
announcement. The night before the next study class was to be held, I awakened
from my sleep. While in a state of semi sleep, I received a clear, strange
message. “You need to adopt a conventional religion”, the inner voice said.
Deeply impressed, I mentally took note of the message before falling asleep
again.
When I awakened in the morning, the message was
still in the forefront of my mind. Though I wrote it down in my journal, I had
no idea what was referred to by the term “conventional religion”.
Later that day, I attended the Bible-study
class. Only a handful of people turned up, and we seated ourselves in a small
circle. Muriel began her talk. “Last night Jesus awakened me and told me that
Djwhal Khul is not one of us”, she said
abruptly. I leaned forward to listen carefully to what she was saying about my
master.
“Jesus explained to me that Djwhal Khul's
teachings are inaccurate. He is not a perfect being. Djwhal Khul cannot be
involved in the Lighted Way now that we are following Jesus Christ”.
I wondered what on earth Muriel was getting at.
Looking over at my friend Peter, I watched for his reaction. His eyes flashed
over at me, gave me a blank stare, and then focused back on Muriel. He looked
as surprised as I felt.
“Jesus told me that Djwhal Khul has fallen”,
she continued. “He desired knowledge and became filled with pride. This caused
him to consider himself more intelligent than he really was. He was totally
mistaken in the statements he made in the Bailey books regarding the identity
of Jesus”.
I started to feel uncomfortable with what
Muriel was saying. How could she put down my beloved master? I sat in stunned
silence as Muriel explained. “Jesus of Nazareth was not of human descent as
Djwhal Khul claims. He is a divine being. He is the only begotten Son of God.
He was divinity incarnated in human flesh. He is God. Jesus is not a master who
has had past lives. Djwhal Khul was wrong. Jesus is the Christ. He has more
power than any master”.
Then Muriel grinned and said, “I think Djwhal
Khul may be Satan”.
I was dumbfounded.
My anger welling, I almost got up to storm out
of the class in protest over this blasphemy against my beloved Djwhal Khul and
his teachings.
But I calmed myself and tried to sit tight and
hear out the rest of Muriel's revelation.
She continued, “In the Bible, Jesus said, 'I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.' It is absolutely true; there is no other way to reach eternal life than
through Jesus Christ. You cannot obtain immortality through a master. A master
or a guru can raise your consciousness, but at some point everyone has to come
to Jesus. It is only through him that a person can receive eternal life”.
I was now in a state of utter shock. It was the
only time in six years of attendance at the Lighted Way that I had felt like
walking out of the group. It was like torture listening to Muriel's
preposterous statements. I felt relieved when the class was finally over, and I
left immediately.
Feeling angry and confused as I drove home, I
then recalled the message I had received in the middle of the previous night.
The mysterious inner voice had told me I needed to adopt a conventional
religion. I wondered whether this was the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me
that I needed to become a Christian. I did not know what to believe; I
certainly didn't accept Muriel's testimony at face value. My main question was,
“Is it really possible that the conventional Christian churches teach the truth
about Jesus?”
In a mood of utter suspicion, I attended the
following week's Bible-study group. I wondered what incredible statements
Muriel would make this time.
She began with another shocker. “Jesus has been
explaining lots of things to me. During each night, he has been waking me from
sleep and has been telling me the truth about himself and the plan of
salvation. He tells me to write things down before I forget them, so I scribble
messages on a note pad as he talks to me”.
Muriel looked perfectly relaxed as she
continued her dissertation. “Jesus told me that he has intervened in the
Lighted Way to bring me into eternal life and to enable me to bring the
knowledge of eternal life to others. He told me I was being influenced by
satanic entities and was in danger of being led astray by false doctrines and
half-truths. Jesus is now teaching me about the resurrection”.
I felt insecure and intimidated as my total
philosophy came under attack from the fundamentally new concepts Muriel expounded.
“Jesus has told me that the Lighted Way is now
no longer a metaphysical center”, she stated. “We are to reorganize ourselves
as a Christian church. We will have to change our name”.
I felt as if my whole belief system had been
pulled from under my feet.
“We are going to do a lot of hymn singing”, she
continued. “We are going to do a lot of prayer work and Bible study. We are
definitely not going to study any of Djwhal Khul's teachings”. Muriel picked up
her Bible and read several passages. We then had a prayer session followed by
silent meditation and closed the meeting by repeating the Lord's Prayer.
I drove straight home. Confusion again clouded
my mind. Walking into my apartment, I sank to my knees before the altar and
prayed as sincerely as I knew how: “Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless me with
wisdom and clarity of mind so that I may know the truth regarding these
matters. I beg that the Lighted Way be protected from any false and astral
influences. May only truth prevail. Heavenly Father, I ask these things in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen”.
In my meditations, the voice of conscience gave
me firm advice that I should not leave the Lighted Way, but should continue to
attend the classes, even though I was unsettled over the changes taking place
there. I still felt a deep love for Djwhal Khul and was reluctant to let go of
the relationship with him. How could he be satanic? I wondered.
Gradually, I began to reason that perhaps Jesus
really was the only begotten Son of God and was now calling me into his fold.
One thought predominated. It was Muriel who had led me to the religious path in
the first place. She obviously knew a lot more than I did about divine matters,
and I needed to give her statements very serious consideration.
At the next class, Muriel again narrated what
she had been told by “Jesus” during the previous week. She emphasized that only
one path led to eternal life, the Christian path. “Ultimately all the people
following the Hindu teachings will have to accept Christianity in order to be
saved and obtain eternal life”, she affirmed.
She stressed that to obtain salvation, one must
believe in Jesus Christ, be his disciple, and become one of the “saints”
described in the book of Revelation.
Muriel told us that the esoteric books were
impure and misleading, and advised us to be on our guard against deceptive
astral spirits who were trying to lead people astray. “These entities, or
demons, may try to influence you and draw you away from the Christian path”,
she warned.
Picking up her large Bible, she began to read. “Put
on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's
schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.
She explained that this passage from Paul's
letter to the Ephesians warns us about the evil powers and principalities
lurking in the spirit realms. We need to go to Jesus in prayer and ask him for
guidance and protection from satanic forces.
This idea of “satanic” forces intrigued me. It
was a concept that Djwhal Khul had repudiated, not that Djwhal Khul's
statements were supposed to matter anymore. According to Muriel's dissertation
the previous week, she thought he might be Satan. I wondered whether Muriel
really believed Satan existed.
My attention switched back to her dialogue. “Jesus
of Nazareth is the Christ”, she declared. “He is God. Of his own free will he
decided to incarnate as a human being in order to take upon himself the karma,
or sin, of the world and give humanity the opportunity of obtaining eternal
life. Through his death on the cross, he lifted the karma of humanity. If we
accept Jesus as our savior, our personal karma is lifted from us; he takes over
our lives and leads us into immortality”.
I had never heard Muriel speak so powerfully.
Her words struck deep into my psyche. It sounded as if Christianity were the
religion closest to God, after all.
Raising my hand, I asked, “Muriel, do you think
that there is a real being of supreme evil, called Satan?”
“I am not sure”, she replied. “Jesus has talked
to me only about satanic forces. There may have been a great devil called
Satan. In the Bible, Jesus said, 'If you are not with me you are against me.'
Everyone who is not a Christian is Satanic, in a way”.
I didn't want to pursue the question further,
so I remained silent. We had an intercessory prayer session and again closed
with the Lord's Prayer.
During the following week I did a lot of
soul-searching. Through Bible reading, prayer, and earnest meditation, I
started to accept the idea that Jesus really was not of human origin and
evolution, as Djwhal Khul had claimed. Concluding that Jesus was rightly the
King of kings and Lord of lords, I decided to let go of all attachment to the
masters and accept Jesus as my personal savior.
Getting down on my knees in prayer, I humbled
myself and cried out to God: “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your
Son to die for our sins. Thank you for bringing me into this new light. I give
thanks that I am saved by my belief in Jesus. I give you thanks for the gift of
eternal life through the death of Christ on the cross. Thank you for his
mission so that I can be forgiven of my sins and have my karma lifted. I ask
for wisdom to understand your plan of salvation. I ask this in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen”.
At this time, the Lighted Way was temporarily
operated from Muriel's home, and we were not conducting any Sunday morning services.
Muriel advised us to go to a Christian church each Sunday to worship the Lord.
She stated that “Jesus” had instructed her to attend a particular church in her
neighborhood. However, we could go to any church we were impressed to attend.
In response to Muriel's advice, I attended
services at a variety of denominations in my neighborhood. The sermons were not
as fascinating as Muriel's talks, but I enjoyed the opportunity of worshiping
the Lord.
In response to directions coming from “Jesus”,
Muriel reorganized the Lighted Way as a Christian church group, choosing the
name the New Lighted Way. We were to start as a house church prior to leasing a
new center in a commercial building. Our brochures were embellished with the
motto Jesus Is Lord.
My diary records the first Sunday morning
service, held in early January.
We were just a small group gathered in Muriel's
large apartment, sitting on neatly arranged folding chairs. The service started
with the singing of a few contemporary Christian songs followed by a
traditional hymn. Muriel prayed and asked for a blessing upon the work of the
New Lighted Way. Ending the prayer, she invoked, “May all that we do glorify
the Son. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ”.
After we were seated, she read from the Gospel
of John. “In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, unless a man is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... I tell you the truth, unless a man
is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God'
Muriel followed the scripture reading with a
sermon based on the necessity of becoming a born-again Christian. She stated
that at some time in the future, when she had access to a swimming pool, we
could receive a water baptism from her. “For now, we have to be born again by
accepting Jesus as our savior”, she declared.
After the sermon, Muriel conducted a candle
lighting ritual. It was similar to the candle lighting ceremony we had been
performing for years when we operated as a metaphysical church.
In turn, each person went up to the altar at
the front. He lighted a candle from a source candle called the Christ candle,
which was burning in the center of the altar table, and placed it adjacent to
the Christ candle.
Muriel asked each person to kneel down before
the altar. She laid her hands on their heads and recited a prayer of blessing.
She then proceeded to channel a message from “God” for that person.
From Muriel's wording, it appeared that the
Christ candle was now regarded as a representation of Jesus Christ himself, rather
than being a vague symbol for the “Christ energy”, a term used when we were a
metaphysical church.
When it was my turn to go to the altar, Muriel
told me to kneel down and hold my hands together in prayer. “Are you in need of
any kind of healing?” she asked.
“Yes”, I replied, “I have been having trouble
with my gastric system again”.
Muriel placed her hands upon my head and said, “Father
in heaven, we ask for a healing of Will's stomach sensitivity. We ask that he
will be completely healed from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. We
ask this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ”.
She now began to channel a personal message: “You
are blessed by the Father. You will have oneness with him. You need to detach
from all the metaphysical teachings, throw away all your books except for the
Bible, and come into the personal presence of Jesus”.
This message was difficult for me to accept. I
had loved all my esoteric books. Returning home, I meditated on the advice.
The inner voice of conscience spoke to me. “Come
unto me and I will give you rest. Seek ye first the kingdom, and all else shall
be added unto you”, it said.
Stepping out in faith, I decided to completely
give myself to Jesus Christ. Throwing into the trash dumpster my library of
metaphysical books, I cleaned out my whole apartment of all books, magazines,
flyers, and brochures connected with the New Age. I resolved to spend my spare
time meditating, praying, and reading God's Holy Bible. Regarding myself as a
born-again Christian, I aspired to come into the living presence of Jesus as
the sole means of my salvation.
This new focus did not mean that I gave up all
my metaphysical beliefs. On the contrary, I still held to many of them.
However, as I read the Bible, some of these beliefs started to come under
pressure.
For example, I read a passage in which the
writer of Hebrews makes a statement totally contradicting the doctrine of
reincarnation. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment...” (Hebrews 9:27).
In my thinking, I attempted to make this
statement compatible with my reincarnation beliefs by assuming the biblical
writer was ignorant about the reality of past lives. He simply was not advanced
enough in consciousness and knowledge at that time to know that man lived
several incarnations.
Muriel herself was still talking about her own
past lives. I concluded that if the reincarnation doctrine were inaccurate,
then no doubt Jesus would soon inform us of our error.
My meditations encouraged me to live a
sanctified life and withdraw from the secular world even more than I had while
on the metaphysical path. I regarded my apartment as a kind of monastery with a
population of one.
With candles and incense burning, I often knelt
in front of the altar to pray, sometimes combining prayer with meditation as I
remained on my knees for an hour or two. I still used the metaphysical
visualization rituals and invocations, but modified them to be more in harmony
with my new faith. My goal was to seek the living presence of Jesus Christ and
obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.
“You are going to move into a new, closer
relationship with Jesus”, channeled Muriel one evening as I stood before her in
front of the altar. We were conducting our candle lighting ordinance. Muriel's
eyes were closed, and I assumed she was speaking in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
“Tonight Jesus is going to wake you up out of
your sleep and talk to you directly, just as he has been doing with me. He will
give you a message of revelation. You will be surrounded with great glory, and
you will walk in a cloak of glory”.
I found the message interesting, but did not
think about it again that evening. At the end of the service, I drove home,
enjoying the Christian music playing on my car radio.
“This is an earthquake”, I said to myself as I
awakened in the middle of the night. A wave of fear swept over me.
My bed trembled.
I looked up expecting to see the pictures
swaying on their mountings. Strange, they were not moving.
Focusing my ears to listen for the creaking of
the apartment-building timbers, I couldn't hear anything, even though my bed
was still shaking. I thought, “This is weird”.
Suddenly, I heard a voice.
“Wilfred, I want you to take death seriously.
You may not have long to live. I want you to exercise on a regular basis”.
“Jesus”, I exclaimed intuitively.
I carefully listened to hear whether the voice
would tell me more. Everything was deathly quiet. I noticed my bed had stopped
shaking. I felt strange, and a bit afraid.
Recalling Muriel's prophecy, I realized it must
have been the voice of Jesus talking to me, just as Muriel had predicted
earlier in the evening.
Lowering my head down on the pillow, I relaxed
and took a deep breath. I thought, “How unusual; he called me by my christened
name, which I had not used for years”.
“Jesus” seemed to speak to me audibly, but I
heard it with some kind of “inner” ear. It was definitely quite different from
the voice of my higher self, that clear voice of conscience which often spoke
into my mind.
I felt concerned as I pondered on the content
of the message. “Jesus” seemed to be warning me that my health was not very
good. Maybe my cardiovascular system was in poor condition, and I lacked
exercise. I concluded I had better do what “Jesus” advised and start exercising
regularly, perhaps jogging.
Climbing out of bed, I wrote down the message.
It had affected me profoundly. I was intrigued that “Jesus” had personally
awakened me to give me a direct message. However, apprehension over the content
of the message seemed to override my appreciation of this new level of
experience with “Jesus”.
I recalled how Muriel had often told us in the
class that she had been awakened in the night by one of the masters, or
recently, by “Jesus”. She claimed she was then given prophetic messages. Now I
understood what she had been talking about.
I wondered what was going to happen next in
this new, close relationship with God.
As you are following my story at this point, it
almost seems that the Holy Spirit was intervening in a miraculous manner at the
Lighted Way to bring to us the true gospel. The “conversion” of our New Age
center now becomes more suspicious. Let me describe to you what happened next.
At the following Bible-study group, Muriel
began to speak. “Jesus has been teaching me many interesting things”, she said
as she opened her Bible. “I am going to read from First Corinthians, chapter
fifteen.
She looked down and began to read. “So will it
be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it
is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is
raised a spiritual body; for the perishable must clothe itself with the
imperishable, and the mortal with immortality”.
Muriel gave an explanation. “Through the power
of Jesus Christ, one can start a process of translation into the resurrection
body”, she said. “The old self, the personality, has to be refined into the
Christ self. It takes effort and discipline to do this, but Jesus gives us the
strength and knowledge”.
In my reading of the Bible, I had wondered how
the resurrection fitted in with the New Age scheme of things. So I listened
eagerly to Muriel's revelation.
“Through Christ's divine power, the actual
atoms of the physical body are transformed into the refined atoms of the
resurrection body. Once you have built up this body of immortality, you are
able to live an eternal life here on the planet”.
Hmmm, I thought, from what Muriel is saying, it
seems that the resurrection is not going to be a rapture process, as most
Christians assume.
She continued. “Only through the power of Jesus
Christ can one end the cycle of death and rebirth, that process of
reincarnation. If you go to Jesus, confess your sins, and ask him to transform
your life according to his will, then your karma will be lifted. The power of
Jesus will begin the process of building up the resurrection body of
immortality. This is the spiritual body that the apostle Paul talked about. It
is built out of the mortal body by means of the Christ energy coming from
Jesus.
As I listened to Muriel, I recalled that for
several years she had claimed that her body was undergoing a rejuvenation
process. She had openly stated that she was gradually getting younger and would
eventually reach an age of twenty-eight. She had asserted that once she reached
this young age, she would live an immortal life here on the earth in the
glorious New Age of love and light.
From what Muriel was saying, it sounded as if
the Bible talked about the same process, but it was the resurrection power of
Jesus that activated the transformation rather than some vague, cosmic “Christ
energy”.
Muriel again read from her Bible. “Blessed and
holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no
power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign
with him for a thousand years”.
Looking up, she then explained. “This text from
the book of Revelation describes the resurrection process I am going through.
This process that translates the atoms of the mortal body into the refined
atoms of the immortal body is known as the first resurrection. Those who
translate through the power of Jesus are part of the first resurrection. They
will live on this planet during the thousand-year millennium of peace and
prosperity. This millennium is the New Age”.
Muriel bent over and placed her Bible on the
floor.
“The Bible teaches that there will be a second
resurrection”, she said. “It is for those who don't make it into the New Age.
They fail to accept Jesus and thus do not undergo the translation. They will be
judged and will get a second chance later”.
Muriel paused and looked at us as if to invite
questions. I didn't fully understand what she had said, but remained silent.
“Jesus told me that we are on the path of
eternal Sonship”, she continued. “We are to live a righteous life by following
his example in the Bible. It is our goal to become sons of God and be one with
the Father, just as Jesus was one with the Father”.
Muriel beamed as she began to speak again. “Jesus
informed me that I am now a member of the Melchizedek priesthood. It is the
royal priesthood of Christ and is spoken of by the apostle Paul in Hebrews”.
Everyone in the class sat motionless. I didn't
know what to make of her statement. Who was I to contradict her status?
At the end of the lecture, Muriel invited the
class members to come up to the altar to receive a blessing.
Muriel's explanation of the resurrection
process was totally different from what the Bible teaches. Christianity has
historically taught that the resurrection will be an opening up of the graves
of those who have died in Christ - the dead saints. (In biblical usage, the
word saint describes all Christians who are saved and have eternal life through
their faith in Jesus.) Brought back to life, they will ascend out of the
ground, clothed in their resurrection bodies. Scripture states that those “who
have done good will rise to live” (John 5:29). They are “raised imperishable”, “raised
in glory”, “raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
We are told that this resurrection occurs at
Christ's second coming and that “the dead in Christ will rise first. After
that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). According to
the Bible the resurrected saints and the living saints are transformed into
glorified beings “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”
(1 Corinthians 15:52).
It is now clear that the Holy Spirit had not
intervened at the Lighted Way. We were simply experiencing a deepening of the
Mastermind's plot of deception. We were being deliberately converted into a
counterfeit Christian church organization in order to attract a new type of
clientele and fulfill a new mission. Our function was to help spread
counterfeit Christianity.
Even though the Bible replaced all our former
metaphysical textbooks and we called ourselves born-again Christians, we still
relied upon MEDITATION as a means of receiving doctrinal information from “God”.
---------
IMPORTANT
NOTE
To prevent any confusion, for the remainder of
this book I will use italics to
indicate that I am referring to the counterfeit version of the Godhead. For
example, Jesus Christ and the Father will denote Satanic angels
masquerading as Jesus Christ and the Voice of God, respectively. Where
statements are made by others, the use of italics
will indicate that in my opinion the counterfeit is involved, even though that
person believed in all sincerity that he was dealing with the real Jesus or
real Holy Spirit. Italics will also
denote counterfeit divine qualities.
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Chapter 10
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Chapter 10
