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Transcript

September 20, 1970 (tape 201-A, CD 25)
Sermon

 

I am going to dedicate this sermon to a brother in the service of God, the Rev. Harold F. Cohen, Chaplain of the University of Loyola in New Orleans. He wrote to me concerning their new movement and what they call charismatic or the Pentecostal approach of the Roman Catholic Church.

And I want to say to you, dear Brother Cohen, that this dedication is not a challenge but it is a message to you from our Lord Jesus as given unto me in my study. It is not challenging the Roman church, the Protestant church or any other church, for this Order is not interested in a church but the truth as it is and has been always.

And so it is, Rev. Harold F. Cohen, I take my text this morning as the composite text of the whole of the New Testament. For in this is the words and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Order is dedicated and has received our Lord as Master of this Order and has accepted that there is but one way and that is the way of the New Testament and our Master’s words.

There may be many schools of different nature but basically they are all, fundamentally at the very foundation, teaching the same few basic principal truths which the Father in heaven which created this solar system handed down unto us. And in the finality we only seek to bring the truth which has been the worship of Christ the first born Son of the Father unto this world that it may be truly added by all of us here and by all of us in this world into the doctrine and the teachings of all churches. And that the truth and the law and the mysteries may be revealed and may be taught to all men.

We have no ambition to build churches, we have no ambition to destroy churches or teachings. Our only ambition, our only striving is to teach those whom are teaching that they may fully give unto the youth of the world and anyone else who is seeking the teachings of this New Testament and the teachings which have gone before it that support it — the true worship of the Christos and the Father in heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For somehow or other, man through these hundreds of years since our Lord was here as the great Messiah, now Lord of this Earth, and so close that his very breath is our breath, his very life is our life. Somehow man has always sought to have his way either in the material world or in the spiritual world in one way or another. And somehow, as in the ancient Hebrew rituals of the sacrificing of the fatted calf, man has not understood. For it is not until we are able as a body of dedicated brothers and priests able to make that same sacrifice that was in the Jewish temple, the fatted calf — the overfilled mind. Until we have put our mind upon the altar, until we have laid down our whole being can we listen to the voice of the Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ from within our holy temples which have been prepared for him.

I am not a professional theologian, so to speak, and I claim no degrees in that particular aspect of theology. I am a Doctor of Divinity rightfully earned, but I know and I have been shown one particular thing. And it is supported by our Lord Jesus and his words and I have often thought of it as I have read the lengthy works supporting some particular little passage or phrase of our Lord’s teaching.

I have understood their writings, I am very appreciative of the great number of hours and the great effort that they have made in order to get to the point where they could read and understand the many languages and the hours of dedication in giving these interpretations. I do not belittle them nor do I belittle any man who acclaims or does assume the robe or the way of the ministry in any form or any church. But as I read their works and listen to their discourses I am so convinced that the Master Jesus Christ, our Lord of this Earth was so right when he said, “Unless ye be as little children ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven”. For unto this work, it cannot be of yourself and ye can only be of our Lord.

There are many things in this day that are attracting the young people in their search for good, in their search to satisfy that appetite that comes from within. And it can only be supplied through the true and the truth of our Lord Jesus, not something interpreted, but the reality. And you know it is an interesting thing when we study back through the annals of history, that we find that Christians existed long before our Lord and Master came here but he sure had a big job to straighten things out in the formal church and dogmatic teaching.

For Christ was worshipped thousands of years before our Lord came and he’ll be worshipped thousands of years from now and has been worshipped thousands of years before. Why cannot we use, why cannot we appreciate as Christians the very word which we annex and take as the title of our sect? Catholic, not Roman, not Moscowan, not Croatian, but just Catholic? Catholic in the way of the universal teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is not this sufficient? With all of the realities which back it up. With the practices of thousands of years prior to his coming in the ancient wisdom teaching which explain the mysteries. And did he not tell us that in those days, in these days which we are now going through that the mysteries would be revealed.

Rev. Cohen, and I wanted to say Brother Cohen, I see you searching and I see every brother of the Order of Jesus searching for the great truth but it is not in Pentecostal or speaking of tongues. It is not in the analysis of the truth. It is not in one part of the word of God — it is in the whole word brought forth in all its beauty and reality. And I say to those whom are seeking to bring the Spirit into manifestation as the old Pentecostal and old free Methodists used to do and I know and I understand these religions because I was brought up in a Free Methodist home. And I have been taught by some of your theologians as a Roman Catholic and I have worshipped at the Temple of Giza and I have walked the water and the fire and I know from which I speak and I speak the word of our Lord Jesus.

Come back to the teachings of the Testament as they are and seek to know and to acquire the Light and look within thy Self and accept and find thine own being. And when thy mind is still and thy mind has been placed upon the altar of God Almighty through our Lord Jesus Christ then will you hear his true voice, then will you hear the true word and then the Spirit will motivate the realities of creation unto you and there will be no mysteries.

For there is a pitfall in the Pentecostal approach, for when the ego goes on its demon- stration. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven within you and all of these things shall be added unto you.”

This I give to you as my answer to your letter. Not in vindictiveness but just saying, ‘Come, brothers, let us follow the teachings which you have declared as your motto of that order, the Society of Jesus. Let him speak through you and may God bless you throughout the world.

Amen