Stand In The Holy Place

from

Stand  in  the  Holy  Place

Martin Cecil   December 23, 1979  a.m.

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” This passage is taken from the Book of Malachi, almost at the end of the Old Testament of the Bible. Here is indication of something to come, of the initiation of another cycle in the creative process by which man is restored. It wasn’t actually until several hundred years later that the evidence of that new aspect of the creative cycle put in an appearance in form.

Human beings are inclined to look at external events and imagine that these are the controlling influence in what occurs on earth; but there is a heavenly design, of which we have some awareness, and it is consequent upon what is occurring in this sense that the creative cycles are initiated. It might be said that the heavenly conditions must be right and fitting for whatever it is that might be set in motion in a particular sense: this, regardless of external events, although external events do have a relatedness to what is happening in the heavenly sense. Here is the delayed reaction to heavenly events brought about by the human nature state. What happens in the external events is a very distorted reflection, out of step with what is occurring in the heavenly sense.

Our concern is not so much with external events as with what is occurring in the heavenly sense. In this passage which I have just read there is indeed indication of something which should occur. The actual initiation of this new cycle in form took place with the birth of Jesus. There was an interim after the failure of the First Sacred School and the Israelite pattern before it was fitting from the heavenly standpoint to bring to focus all that was necessary to allow this new cycle to be initiated. This occurred some time after it was obvious that the first opportunity had failed. That failure, as we recognize, was made abundantly evident at the time of Solomon, but now a new cycle was about to be initiated. It began to emerge at the time of the birth of Jesus. Here was the greatest promise and opportunity that had ever, in all the recorded history of human nature, been offered to mankind. Of course what was being indicated in these verses which I read was the restoration of human beings to the state of man. This could have occurred at the time of Jesus. Obviously it didn’t, but at the point of initiation this was the expectation. God does not assume failure at the point of initiation. That would be quite fatal, wouldn’t it? He moves on the basis of the expectation of victory.

So, even in the story which has come down to us there was great emphasis upon the glorious nature of this occasion, of this particular event, because the door was being opened to the immediate salvation of man; not the salvation of man delayed two thousand years, but there and then. This was the nature and the quality brought to focus at the birth of Jesus. The expectation was one of victory. He came to offer salvation to the children of men. He did just that, and it was rejected. That rejection culminated in what is spoken of as the crucifixion. It may be said of that event that here was the most heinous crime that had ever been committed on earth. Of course this particular experience came after it was quite evident that the salvation which the Lord Himself was offering to the children of men was not going to be accepted. That was the point of the deepest possible sadness on the part of the Lord. He wept over Jerusalem.

So, having rejected that opportunity, even as the previous one had been rejected, there has ensued a time in world events which has had very little meaning. Perhaps we can look back to the period of time after the days of Solomon, seeing what occurred with the children of Israel — the scattering abroad — and recognize the meaninglessness of all that occurred, even until the time of the birth of Jesus. So also has the same thing happened by reason of the failure of the second opportunity. What has occurred on earth has been virtually meaningless, until from the heavenly standpoint it would be fitting to initiate the third and final opportunity. We ourselves have some consciousness of the nature of this final opportunity. The door has apparently been opened for us to participate consciously in what is now occurring. We recognize responsibility in this, that the door may be opened consciously for others and subconsciously for the vast majority of the population on earth. So it is we have come to this very hour, an hour which falls between the winter solstice and Christmas Day.

Annually there is the initiation of a new cycle. The way human beings calculate time is not of great significance but the actual movement of the earth in its orbit around the sun is significant. It is something that is really happening, whereas the year which human beings designate is mostly imagination. This initiation of another circuit around the sun coincides pretty well with the day that has been chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Year after year for centuries Christmas has been celebrated in the Christian world and a certain significance has been sensed with respect to it, but the celebration has been of a repetitive nature which scarcely at all has allowed anything new to be experienced. It comes and is experienced on the basis of a memory of what went before, possibly reaching right back to the time of the birth of Jesus, but for the most part just a repetition of what occurred last Christmas, an endless and essentially boring repetition.

There seems to be some sort of magic with respect to Christmas because momentarily human beings relinquish some of their human nature habits in favor of better human nature habits that have been found to be acceptable by Christians. And because human beings are alive, some sort of living spirit is poured into the event; but, as I say, here obviously — to anyone who really looks at it — is an endless and virtually meaningless repetition occurring year by year. It certainly has not changed the world. People may pause in their destructiveness for a few moments once a year but the destructiveness goes on. In fact it may even be more virulent, because human beings have had opportunity to catch their breath so that they can go to work again! Here is one of the two most important celebrations of Christianity. While something new, a birth, is presumably being celebrated, virtually nothing new occurs.

Because of the meaningless experience in the world of mankind over the last two thousand years, we have seen the necessity for a new awakening if the fulfilment of the true purpose of restoration is ever to be achieved. Perhaps we have come to that awareness ourselves, in company with many others, because there has been some measure of awakening in our own experience, awakening to something fresh and new and vibrant and living, enabling us to be aware of the deadly boredom of repetition. There may have been some reluctance on our part to admit the boredom and the meaninglessness of the repetitive nature of Christmas. This would be heretical, wouldn’t it? We would be liable to be stoned. (Many people are at Christmas!)

Little is gained by proclaiming these things to people in general. They wouldn’t believe them or accept them — only superficially if they did — but from our standpoint it needs to be very vivid in our own awareness, because if there has been any awakening on our part it is surely an awakening to something new in actual experience. How sad if the actual experience merely places an old, rigid, boring form upon the spirit of awakening. But as long as the forms of Christmas are sustained the awakening spirit has very little opportunity to bring forth what would naturally appear in form if there was the freedom to let it happen. But no, there is the inclination to keep sacred the disintegrating forms, and that’s what they actually are; they are only kept alive because human beings once a year pour their life force into them. Sustaining the old forms prevents the experience of the new.

So it is we come to this time this year in an awareness, not only of a new year in the offing according to human calculations and a new year factually from the standpoint of the orbiting of the earth around the sun, but an awareness also of what is initiated from the standpoint of what we have referred to as the Third Sacred School — the third and final opportunity. Here is a new birth indeed, which carries the greatest possible promise. While the restoration might have occurred under the hand of Jesus, so that that was the greatest possible promise at the time, it didn’t happen, so the opportunity passed away. But it is the same opportunity now, indeed made possible in this day by reason of the presence of Jesus on earth before, and is no less tremendous than what He brought. Obviously so — the purpose is exactly the same: the restoration of man. It was possible then and it is possible now. It is possible now by reason of what is being born now, by reason of what is taking form because of the heavenly initiation in spirit. There are many worldly events in our immediate vicinity and further afield. We can be troubled and disturbed by many things; but we also at the same time have an awareness of this great promise, of this tremendous opportunity, an opportunity that is so vast that it is almost incomprehensible mentally speaking. But we may have a feel for it. We may have an awareness that transcends any interpretations of the mind, and we may share this awareness in this hour, and indeed in each hour, as we move together in the emergence of this creative cycle, letting it take form on earth.

The evidence of this new experience, new opportunity, new promise in this day and age, is revealed by what has been spoken of as the coming of the Comforter. The Comforter, you will recall, was to reprove the world. Now that doesn’t indicate the production of very much comfort for the world. I would suggest that actual reproof being offered to the world in an effective way would be a very uncomfortable experience for the population of the world, and yet it is the only way by which the true state of man could come to pass, and the true state of man includes what one may well refer to as comfort. It is not an uncomfortable state. What we have now is the uncomfortable state. I don’t think too many people would argue with that point. We have considerable experience of discomfort; otherwise we wouldn’t be inclined to complain so much. Perhaps we may have ceased to complain because we have seen the futility of it — I trust so anyway, but that doesn’t dispose immediately of the discomfort; however it does set in motion the means by which discomfort may be dispelled.

We do not undertake these things merely because we wish to be comfortable; because that comfortable state will undoubtedly be preceded by a very uncomfortable one. I do not know that we need to reconcile ourselves particularly to this. We should rejoice because the true state is on its way, and whatever may happen in the interim is accepted with rejoicing because it is part of the process by which the restoration may come. The world has to be reproved. The evidence of the coming of the Comforter is this reproof. In one passage from the Gospels relating to the words of Jesus there is indication that the real crunch comes when the abomination of desolation is seen as standing in the holy place. This passage at the same time may indicate that when the abomination is seen as standing in the holy place we need to stand in the holy place so as to occupy the position where before was the abomination of desolation.

There has been some speculation as to what the abomination of desolation might be, and presumably we have seen something in this regard, but I would like to bring it to particular focus this morning. What is the most abominable and desolating thing that has occurred on the face of the earth thus far in the history of the human nature world? I have mentioned it already this morning: the crucifixion of Jesus. There has been and could be nothing more abominable, more desolate than that, and the abomination of desolation has been put in the holy place. That’s right, isn’t it, from the standpoint of Christianity. It’s been there right along, but now there are those on the face of the earth who begin to see it. And when ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, then something begins to happen. That seeing comes to the extent that the truth is experienced in living. Then we begin to have a true vision. We may have a theoretical vision before that, and we all have, no doubt — and we have been told about the real nature of the crucifixion — but to really see what that is there must be the experience of the truth in expression in one’s own living. Then you see the real horror of it: this abomination of desolation that has been enshrined in the holiest place in Christianity. Christianity itself may be seen as constituting the remains, the meaningless remains, of the Second Sacred School.

This is not to say that there isn’t something true — obviously there was something true in the Second Sacred School also — but it has been nullified, and nullified absolutely, by the placing of the abomination of desolation in the most sacred place. As there are those who begin to see this factually, not merely theoretically, there is the evidence of the coming of the Comforter, which is reproof of the world — of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. “Of sin, because they believe not on me,” were the words of the Master. This is true enough, but not according to the concepts of men, certainly not according to the usual Christian concept, because belief would tend to find focus in the crucifixion. “He came to save the world by being crucified.” That’s a lie of the devil! That is not what He came to do, as we well know. He came to offer salvation to the world and the world crucified Him. That may be a fact! In other words the world rejected salvation, substituting crucifixion for salvation. Of course by doing that the world established the nature of its own end. It might have established the end of salvation, but it didn’t.

What is the sin that must be reproved? The sin is the failure to exemplify the truth in action, the truth in living. If a person does not exemplify in his living the spirit of truth, then he is a sinner. It is said, rightly, that all men are sinners, simply because of this. The belief in Jesus merely is an indication of an acceptance for oneself of what He revealed in Himself. He expressed the truth in living, we express the truth in living, and it is this that reproves the world of sin. If there is no one on earth who expresses the truth in living, the world is not reproved of sin. It is the coming of the Comforter, the spirit of truth, into the expression of living that reproves the world of sin. Certainly it is not saying to people: “If you do not believe that Jesus died for your sins you’re a sinner.” What nonsense! Human beings have worshiped the abomination of desolation and kept it in the holy place. What a horror!

If we are here on earth for any reason at all we are here to make possible the reproof of sin, and that is simply what we have spoken of as spiritual expression. But it must be a reality and not a fancy, not something merely thought about, theorized about. We have seen; a lot of people haven’t. Because we have seen, there is no cloak for our sin, if it continues. There is no excuse whatsoever. We are immediately on the spot. Others may not yet be on that spot, so let us not be self-righteous in condemning others who do not see. I suppose if there is any condemnation at all it is simply with respect to those who do see but don’t do. So we are here to let the world be reproved of sin because we reveal the truth in our own living. And the reproof also is of righteousness. When sin is reproved there is righteousness in the experience of the one who is offering the reproof of sin. Again, we have called it spiritual expression, the expression of the truth in living. “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” With healing in his wings. Because there is the facility for spiritual expression, so that we live and move and serve in the heavenly spirit symbolized by wings, healing is offered.

Here is my Christmas Message

The familiar trappings of Christmas superficially remain comfortable and satisfying to many

but they cannot conceal the desolation and emptiness of human hearts wherever people exist on earth.

How many of those starving hearts actually hunger and thirst after righteousness?

Only such shall be filled.

But how? Unless righteousness is factually present on earth it cannot happen.

Let it be present because of us.

Let our living give glory to God, exemplifying the truth and the power of love.

Let man, the evidence of God, be born on earth once more.

We look not to others for this fulfilment. We see that it is in fact our responsibility; not our responsibility to make others over the way we think they should be, causing them to believe the things we think they should believe, but it is our responsibility to be the truth in the living of our own lives. Then there is righteousness on earth, for the reproof of the world and for the filling of the void in the hearts of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Only those shall be filled. But who is going to judge as to how many human beings hunger and thirst after righteousness, or how few? This reveals itself once the righteousness is present by which the true hungering and thirsting may be filled; otherwise it can’t be proven.

We hear the strident ways of human beings in the news. We hear very little of those who may be hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It is made to seem as though the world is filled with morons. Undoubtedly there are many such, but what of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness? If we who see, and know, and understand, do not make available on earth what would fill their hungering hearts by our own living, they will starve. There is concern in the world once again for physical food supplies. Perhaps this is just a reflection of the lack that there has been of spiritual food supplies, and we are responsible for these. Others may rise up to help feed people physically in whatever ways may be possible, but who is going to do it spiritually? And this is the only thing that matters. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Does God have a mouth on earth? Does He have hands and feet on earth? Does He have a facility on earth for the expression of the truth of His love? Here is the challenge for us, the challenge to accept the promise and let it be revealed that that promise has been accepted. Reproof. The reproof of sin and the reproof of righteousness and the reproof of judgment.

The prince of this world is judged, and when the fact of righteousness is present the fact that he is judged is revealed. The question always is as to the extent to which we ourselves have accepted the promise, so that the abomination of desolation is no longer sustained in the holy place. While we may see that as coming to a very particular focus in the general sense by reason of the attitude that Christians have had toward the crucifixion, we also recognize that it is part of the very fabric of human existence, where the devil is sustained in the holy place, the destructive devil of hate, of fear — the devil of destruction. Let us stand together in the holy place, that the reality of righteousness may be a fact on earth, that the spiritual food for the filling of empty hearts may be available to the children of men. Praise the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, that indeed there may be the reality of peace on earth and the evidence of goodwill toward men.

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