Church Universal and Triumphant

By: Dr. John Ankerberg / Dr. John Weldon; ©2001

Drs. Ankerberg and Weldon take a brief look at the purpose, origin and doctrinal teachings of the Church Universal and Triumphant.

 

Church Universal and Triumphant

(from Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, Harvest House, 1999)

INFO AT A GLANCE

Name: The Church Universal and Triumphant

Purpose: To help “dethrone the Synthetic [false] Image of Man and replace it with man’s Real Image as Deity. By obedience to the teachings of the Ascended Masters and occult practices such as yoga, visualization, occult chanting (e.g., decreeing things to happen) and energy manipulation, the planet can be cleansed of its karma and a New Era en­tered into. The Church claims to offer the best path to spiritual enlightenment and the true interpretation of the Bible. Current leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet is nearly deified and is held to be the only mouthpiece for God on earth.

Founder: Mark Prophet

Source of authority: The teachings of the Ascended Masters and Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Revealed teachings: Yes.

Occult dynamics: Spiritism, necromancy, kundalini yoga, a form of ritual “magic” in which “decreeing” is practiced up to five hours per day.

Examples of key literature: Climb the Highest Mountain; Pearls 0f Wisdom (weekly tract); Heart to Heart (formerly Royal Teton Ranch News).

Attitude toward Christianity: Rejecting.

Quotes:

“Be of good cheer. The Ascended Masters have overcome the world” (citing John 16:55 in El Morya, The Chela and the Path, p. 70).

“The Ascended Masters are not only sane and well organized, but they are also godly and profound to the nth degree.” (Climb the Highest Mountain, p. 209.)

Note: As in many other cults and new religions, the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) Ascended Masters go out of their way to reach those in the Christian church. Their revelations contain hundreds of Scripture references, they claim their church is truly Chris­tian and that they honor and believe in Jesus Christ. Further, they claim that they do not deny true biblical doctrine and they maintain their church is not an occult group practicing spiritism.

The theme of the “Ascended Masters” is not unique to the Church Universal; a number of other occult organizations lay claim to contact with the same allegedly advanced spirit entities. The church itself claims to be founded by the same “Ascended Masters” that, in their eyes began H. P. Bavatsky’s Theosophical Society, Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science movement and Guy and Edna Ballard’s “Mighty I AM” religion.^[1] Nevertheless, while Christian Science does have some similar teachings, it is Theosophy and the “Mighty I Am” cult that bear the closest similarities in belief and practice to the Church Universal and Triumphant.

Other occult groups who believe they are receiving revelations from this conglomeration of spirit hierarchies (the Ascended Masters) include The Holy Order of Mans (which re­cently claimed to have revised its theology along biblical lines) and The White Lodge in Del Mar, California (publishing the multi-volume spirit-written “Books of Azrael”). It should be noted, however, that the White Lodge appears to be a part of The Church Universal and Triumphant, as indicated by CUT records.^[2]

Nickolay Roerich (1874-1947), the famous painter, set designer and archaeologist was one of many people heavily influenced by the Theosophical “Masters,” and he made ar­chaeological expeditions to the Far East as a result of their influence in his life. His book of spiritistic revelations, Leaves of Morya’s Garden (“Morya” or “El Morya” being an Ascended Master), reportedly helped lay the foundation for Mark Prophet’s Summit Lighthouse orga­nization in 1958, the precursor to the Church Universal and Triumphant. Mark Prophet claimed that his personal contact with “El Morya” was instrumental in founding the Church Universal.

Another link to the Ascended Masters is Baird T. Spalding’s popular five-volume Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. This is an account of Spalding and friends’ alleged amazing occult experiences with “the Masters” while on a purported research trip in the Far East in 1894. No one on the trip remains alive, and none of the story was ever documented, but thousands today accept the books as true accounts. DeVorss and Co., the books’ metaphysical publishing house admits that despite several publisher investiga­tions to document the story, no evidence could be found in substantiation (publisher’s note to the 1964 edition).

Characteristic with the teachings of “Ascended Masters” everywhere, the theology of Life and Teachings is typically unbiblical. The teachings of Ascended Master “Jesus” are pantheistic, monistic, gnostic and occult, not biblical. “Jesus” denies and opposes His earlier biblical teachings about Himself, God, salvation and hell. Volume two, chapter five has “Jesus” making such declarations as, “Hell or the devil has no abiding place except in man’s mortal [erroneous] thought…. If God rules all and is All, where could either be placed in God’s perfect plan?” “God is Impersonal Principle.” “When I said ‘I am the Christ, the only begotten of God’, I did not declare this for myself alone.” “The Christ means more than the man Jesus….”^[3]

DOCTRINAL SUMMARY

God: An impersonal energy that can be manipulated by man.

Jesus: Currently an Ascended Master, highly evolved spirit guide.

The Christ: Higher consciousness.

The Holy Spirit: Cosmic energy sustaining the cosmos.

The Trinity: A symbol for man’s inward divinity.

Salvation: Realization of one’s inner divine nature through occult practice and develop­ment. All people will eventually find enlightenment or salvation.

Man: In his true nature, one essence with God.

Sin: Ignorance as to one’s divine nature.

Satan: A lieutenant of Lucifer.

The Second Coming: Receiving the Christ consciousness.

Fall: A descent into “material consciousness” that masks awareness of one’s divinity.

Death: Transition to a new incarnation on earth or a higher spiritual plane. Reincarnation culminates in an eventual reabsorption to the Divine essence.

Heaven and Hell: States of consciousness.

NOTES

1. ↑ El Morya, dictated to Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Chela and the Path (Los Angeles: Summit University Press, 1977), pp. 121-22.
2. ↑ The author has a xerox copy of a canceled check associating the Lodge with the Church; a decree from the Keepers of the Flame handbook said that at 10 P.M. every night decrees of protection are said for “The White Lodge in Del Mar.”
3. ↑ Life and Teachings, Vol. 2, pp. 50-55.