THE  GREAT  AWAKENING

PART II

CHAPTER 14

The First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the Creation, for Christ is the Son of God.  The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the rule of fear and the healing of the mind.

An idol is a wish, made tangible and given form, and thus perceived as real and seen outside the mind.  What is an idol?  Nothing!  It must be believed before it seems to come to life, and given power that it may be feared.  Its life and power are its believer's gift.  The "devil" is a frightening concept because he seems to be extremely powerful and extremely active.  He is perceived as a force in combat with God.  The devil deceives by lies, and builds kingdoms in which everything is in direct opposition to God.  This is the anti-christ, the strange idea there is a power past Omnipotence, a place beyond the Infinite, a time transcending the Eternal.

Here the world of idols has been set by the idea this power and place and time are given form, and shape the world where the impossible has happened.  Here the deathless come to die, the all-encompassing to suffer loss, the timeless to be made slaves of time.  Here does the changeless change; the Peace of God, forever given to all living things, give way to chaos.  And the Son of God, as perfect, sinless, and as loving as his Father, come to hate a little while; to suffer pain and finally to die.  Where is an idol?  Nowhere!  Can there be a gap in what is Infinite, a place where time can interrupt Eternity?  A place of darkness set where all is Light, a dismal alcove separated off from what is endless has no place to be.  Nothing and nowhere must an idol be, while God is Everything and Everywhere.

What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear Eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years.  And what are you who live within the world except a picture of the Son of God in broken pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay.  You have nailed yourself to a cross and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head.  Yet you cannot crucify God's Son, for the Will of God cannot die.  His Son has been redeemed from his own crucifixion and you cannot assign to death whom God has given Eternal Life.  The dream of crucifixion lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not Reality.  While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep.  And as long as you believe that you can crucify him, you are only having nightmares.

All forms of anti-christ oppose the Christ.  And fall before His face like a dark veil that seems to shut you off from Him, alone in darkness.  Yet the Light is there.  A cloud does not put out the sun, nor darken by one whit the Light Itself.  The Second Coming of Christ is the awareness of Reality, and not its return.  Only this awareness heals, because it is the awareness of Truth.  An idol is established by belief and when it is withdrawn, the idol "dies".  Open your mind to change.  Learning is all that causes change.  Listen silently and learn the Truth of what you really want.  No more than this will you be asked to learn.  But as you hear it, you will understand you need but come away without the thoughts you did not want, and that were never true.  The Second Coming of Christ is merely the return of Sense.