A Course in Miracles-Theological Beliefs

By: Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon; ©2000

Continuing the look at the popular A Course in Miracles, this week Drs. Ankerberg and Weldon explore their redefinition of key religious terms.

Introduction

The following list gives a representative sampling from Course theology to document the anti-biblical nature of A Course in Miracles. Remember that “Jesus” is supposedlyspeaking, and every individual is described as “the [or a] Son of God.” Obviously, when Jesus described Himself in the Bible as God’s “one and only son” (John 3:16,18), He was denying Course teachings and indicating the most probable source of inspiration for this material. (All quotes except the first three [under “God”] are referenced by volume and page from A Course in Miracles; see 325/330/331.)

God

• “The Course says that God is impersonal…” (Kenneth Wapnick, in 319:11).
• “God Himself is incomplete without me” (324:182)
• “God [is] simply… a nonphysical love force that is neither vengeful, judgmental, nor punishing—only loving and forgiving” (324:43-44)

Man

1:89 God created you as part of Him. That is both where you are and what you are. It is completely unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change it now or ever. It is forever true. It is not a belief, but a Fact.

3:67 As God created you, you have all power.

2:353-54 “I am the holy Son of God Himself.” Here is your declaration of release from bondage of the world…. You are the holy Son of God Himself…. Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You need but tell yourself: “I am the holy Son of God Himself. I can­not suffer, cannot be in pain; I cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do/All that salvation asks.” … The Son of God has come in glory to redeem the lost, to save the helpless, and to give the world the gift of his forgiveness…. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail … hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do….

Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. Your glory is the light that saves the world. Do not withhold salvation longer. Look about the world, and see the suffering there. Is not your heart willing to bring your weary brothers rest? … They suffer pain until you have denied its hold on you. They die till you accept your own eternal life. You are the holy Son of God Himself. Re­member this, and all the world is free. Remember this, and earth and Heaven are one.

Sin

• 1:375 Sin is the grand illusion….
• 3:81 True perception… is the means by which the world is saved from sin, for sin does not exist. And it is this that true perception sees.
• 1:377-78 When you are tempted to believe that sin is real, remember this: if sin is real, both God and you are not…. Joyously [release] one another from the belief in sin.

Guilt

1:243-44 The idea that the guiltless Son of God can attack himself and make himself guilty is insane. In any form, in anyone, believe this not. For sin and condemnation are the same, and the belief in one is faith in the other, calling for punishment instead of love. Nothing can justify insanity, and to call for punishment upon yourself must be insane.

See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself…. Guilt makes you blind, for while you see one spot of guilt within you, you will not see the light Do not be afraid to look within…. Can you see guilt where God knows there is perfect innocence?

Forgiveness

• 2:475 We are forgiven now. And we are saved from all the wrath we thought belonged to God, and found it was a dream.
• 3:79 Forgiveness is for God and toward God but not of Him. It is impossible to think of anything He created that could need forgiveness. Forgiveness, then, is an illusion….

Jesus Christ

3:83 There is no need for [anyone’s] help [in order to] enter Heaven for you have never left…. The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion…. Yet who can save [anything] unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions. In his complete identification with the Christ… Jesus became what all of you must be. He led the way for you to follow him…. Is he the Christ? 0 yes, along with you.

The Incarnation and Second Coming

1:58 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 ego’s rule and the healing of the mind.

Atonement

1:32-33,87 If the crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it does appear as if God permitted and even encouraged one of His Sons to suffer because he was good. This particularly unfortunate interpretation, which arose out of projection, has led many people to be bitterly afraid of God. Such anti-religious concepts enter into many religions. Yet the real Christian should pause and ask, “How could this be?” Is it likely that God Himself would be capable of the kind of thinking which His Own words have clearly stated is unworthy of His Son?

The best defense, as always, is not to attack another’s position, but rather to protect the truth. It is unwise to accept any concept if you have to invent a whole frame of reference in order to justify it. Persecution frequently results in an attempt to “justify” the terrible misperception that God Himself persecuted His Own Son on behalf of salvation. It is so essential that all such thinking be dispelled that we must be sure that nothing of this kind remains in your mind. I was not “punished” because you were bad. The wholly benign lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any form….

I have been correctly referred to as “the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,” but those who represent the lamb as blood-stained do not understand the meaning of the symbol….

The message of the crucifixion is perfectly clear: “Teach only love, for that is what you are.”

If you interpret the crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended. The Apostles often misunder­stood it, and for the same reason that anyone misunderstands it. Their own imperfect love made them vulnerable to projection, and out of their own fear they spoke of the “wrath of God” as his retaliatory weapon. Nor could they speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger, because their sense of guilt bad made them angry (emphasis added).

Salvation

• 2:125 You are one with God. Again, how simple is salvation! It is merely a statement of your true identity.
• 1:11,53 A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct… Salvation is nothing more than “light-mindedness.”…
• 1:47 The journey to the cross should be the last “useless journey….” Do not make the pathetic error of “clinging to the old rugged cross….” This is not the Gospel I intended to offer you. We have another journey to undertake, and if you will read these lessons care­fully they will help prepare you to undertake it.
• 1:90 The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation [from God] never occurred….

Death

3:63-64 Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem…. And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this….

Death is the symbol of the fear of God…. The grimness of the symbol is enough to show it cannot coexist with God…. He did not make death because He did not make fear. Both are equally meaningless to Him….

Teacher of God, your one assignment could be stated thus: Accept no compromise in which death plays a part…. And what is the end of death? Nothing but this; the realization that the Son of God is guiltless now and forever. Nothing but this.

Judgment

1:29,88,158 The Last Judgment is one of the most threatening ideas in your thinking. This is because you do not understand it. Judgment is not an attribute of God….

No one is punished for sins, and the Sons of God are not sinners…. Do not fear the Last Judgment, but welcome it…. The Second Coming is merely the return of sense. Can this possibly be fearful?

Hell

3:66 As long as any mind remains possessed of evil dreams, the thought of hell is real. God’s teachers have the goal of wakening the minds of those asleep….

The Devil

1:45 The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the “devil.”

The Creation

3:81 The world you see is an illusion of a word. God did not create it.

Time

3:41 The world of time is the world of illusion.

 

Conclusion

The above Course teachings prove beyond any doubt that the Jesus of the New Testa­ment could not be its source. This means that the entity who dictated the Course to Helen Schucman lied when he claimed to be Jesus Christ. Thus, the most logical possibility for the true author of the Course is a demon, a spiritual underling of Satan, the one Jesus called liar and “a murder from the beginning” (John 8:44)