Worldwide Machinations

Worldwide  Machinations

Martin Cecil   August 13, 1980   Assembly

 

Consistently we concern ourselves with what is necessary to uplift—uplift toward a true point of centering. We ourselves have recognized this requirement in our own experience. There is always something higher than we ourselves are. The orientation should be upward if there is to be provided what is necessary from the standpoint of spiritual government. We make use of all our circumstances to extend the spiritual government. We ourselves have upward orientation. We are very much aware that this is what is required of the whole world: upward, right orientation. In any pattern of government there is always the necessity that those who govern should be oriented upward. Of the priesthood it has been said that they rightly represent God to the people and the people to God. To do this the priesthood must be oriented upward.

When this country in which we now are was first initiated this requirement of orientation upward was in the consciousness of those concerned. “One nation under God.” Of course what that might mean may not have been too clearly understood, but at least there was this recognition that there was something higher—if there was to be anything of value in the nation which was forming, it would have to be oriented in that direction. Clearly this was the basic foundation of the country as it began to put in an appearance. One might say that it had been the basic foundation for almost any nation that began to put in an appearance. Monarchies, for instance, were established on the basis of the representation of deity. The British monarchy is based in this idea—in a sense it’s become a figurehead, so that it isn’t real, and yet in another sense it is real because there is a sense not only of duty but of necessity, to play a role that is fitting in that position. That’s a very controlled situation, isn’t it? There is a role to be played upon which a great many people are depending. It’s important to many people that there should be a representation of something that is true to their highest vision. So there is value to the British monarchy on this basis. The Queen is also the head of the church. The divine right of kings was one of the factors in times past because the king was supposed to represent God. Well that’s right. He didn’t do it perhaps, but that’s the proper role he should have been playing. Seeing that there’s not all that much power exercised by monarchy these days, in a direct sense, then people are more comfortable with it actually. They feel the need of something higher, other than what they themselves have elected—most people have little confidence in that—they have little confidence in themselves. It is good to have someone in whom one may have a certain amount of confidence.

In this country there was a recognition of the need for the point of focus in deity; but that was rather a vague thing that was to be known individually speaking, because church and state were separate. And if the population ceased to be concerned with letting God be supreme in their own living, well the nation would disintegrate, because this was the basis upon which it had been initiated. For any government, in any nation, there always is the requirement of something higher. It is because of this that those who are interested in power—there always has been a lust for power in human beings, which comes to special focus obviously in some people; we have seen it exemplified in someone like Hitler, and there have been many such aspiring persons seeking to be supreme in the world; so there are those who have this particular lust for power. This may be interpreted in different ways by different people, according to the level from which you view the situation. There is a presidential election coming up and there are those, strangely enough, who aspire to that position. The idea may be on the part of the electorate, more perhaps than on the part of the individual who is elected, that someone is being put in a position of great power. But in any pattern of government, if it is to work at all, there is always something higher. We recognize that this should be God, from the true standpoint.

Someone who is put in the White House finds himself put in a box. There is very little freedom of movement there and one has to wonder where the enormous amount of money required to be elected to such a position actually comes from, because I don’t know many people in the world who are going to give away their money for nothing in return. Where you see very large sums of money being bandied around, you may be pretty sure that somebody is going to benefit from it. It may still be the fiction that anyone can become President of the United States, but that’s really not the case anymore, at least not unless you have considerable backing from somewhere. And if you have that backing from somewhere, there is an obligation too, somehow. So there is something higher than the President of the United States, in fact. Now of course there has always been the idea that there were shadowy figures in the background who were pulling the strings, accomplishing this and that on this basis; but it has been difficult, thus far, for these shadowy figures really to be located. You find someone who is in a position of apparent authority, such as the President of the United States, then you look beyond him to see why he’s there. “Oh he was elected by the people.” Well there were usually just two candidates who have the possibility of being elected, and they were both backed by somebody or other. It doesn’t really matter who’s elected, there is something higher. And whether it is clearly seen or not—it isn’t for the most part—there is always something higher wherever there is government. Here is a principle—because there is no true government on earth without God, something higher than all those who participate in the processes of government.

We recognize the need for spiritual government and therefore acknowledge that there must be something higher than we are. If we provide the means by which the spiritual government can be extended, we only do that because there is something higher than we are. The same principle holds true in the governments of the world. There is no government that is supreme to itself. It may look that way. This is particularly so in the areas where there are dictatorships—but there is always something back of the dictator; there is always something higher. In this upside-down world we can say it’s higher. It’s really lower until we have the world the right way up. There are nefarious controls in operation in the world, relative to the governments of the world, which are not on the front pages of the newspaper—because the same sort of controls that are back of the governments are back of the newspapers too. So we have rather a tight situation here which relates to what has been called the antichrist.

If we recognize that there is the Christ, and springing forth from God is the means for true government on earth, and every place else in the universe as far as that’s concerned, and we see that this operates on the basis of human beings insofar as this world is concerned, then we may recognize that the same principle is at work in the reverse sense, in view of the fact that it might be said that the devil runs the world the way things are now. Perhaps it’s changing a little. We trust that it certainly will, because we do what is required of us. But there must be human beings to do it. And if there is the government of Christ on earth, which is the government of God on earth in a specific sense relative to this world, then the government of the world as it now is functions on the basis of the same principle, only in the reverse.

We look at the governments of the world as though they were separate entities vying with each other. We know the principle: divide and conquer. So here on the surface are all these things occurring between the countries of the world, between the governments of those countries, which look like conflict and no doubt is warfare. We see the massive confrontation that occurs between the superpowers. And it is supposed that they have sort of traded things off so that a balance might be maintained. But we recognize human nature everywhere. If human nature is on both sides, then the ultimate focus relative to human nature in fact is on both sides. And the fact of sides is something that keeps people from recognizing the truth of the matter. If we can all be embroiled in conflict, then we are looking at happenings that are not the real happenings. The things that are described in newspapers and read about in books for the most part are not the real happenings at all. Political science, for instance, is phony. It’s dealing with things that are on the periphery and never seeing what really is going on behind the scenes. If the reality of divine nature experienced on earth through human form comes to focus somewhere—we have some consciousness of what that focus is—then we may see on the reverse side of the coin that human nature comes to focus somewhere.

In all generations there have been those who have delved—particularly in recent times—into the picture to see if they couldn’t come up with this nefarious bunch who are playing both ends against the middle, and maintaining a focused control relative to what is happening on earth for all people—the antichrist. We could say that if there is a Christ, there is an antichrist. In the true state one might say there isn’t a Christ and there isn’t an antichrist; there is just the way things are. In view of the false duality that has put in an appearance, we can see from this stance a Christ and an antichrist—the Archangel and the devil disputing over the body of mankind. That dispute comes to focus in the Archangel on one hand and in the devil on the other hand. The devil requires human form to operate, just as God requires human form to operate. As there begins to be a focus for the operation of the government of God on earth, we may recognize that there will be a balancing—seemingly balancing for the moment—focus in form of the devil.

The devil is pictured as a rather obvious sort of an entity. He’s really devilish! But we know very well that good and evil are opposite ends of the same stick, the stick of human nature. Therefore if you are seeking out some obvious devil in human form somewhere, you are not likely to find it. Virtually all the troubles that have come into the world may be traced back to good people. So the devil would likely be related to some of the best people. This is an interesting thought. But when we come right down to it, we need to recognize two things—one relative to the focus of the government of God and one relative to the focus of the government of the devil: in either case it is essential that there should be the substance of operation. We are beginning to become increasingly aware of the spiritual substance essential to government. After the fall of man that spiritual substance insofar as human experience was concerned began to be dissipated quite rapidly. Those who were on hand at that time had some awareness of what was required to maintain government. This spiritual substance was required, but it was dissipated. So there had to be a substitute made which would serve the same purpose, but in the government of the devil, the government of the antichrist. We know what that substance is; we know what the substitute for pneumaplasm is; we call it money. Therefore the control of the devil on earth requires this substance to operate, and it is through this substance that the operation of government is carried on. We are aware that there are great concentrations of money in various areas. Do you think all this happened just by chance? Or that conflicts have arisen this way and that way just by chance? There is always seemingly a reasonable explanation. Human nature is very good at that, isn’t it? We have great experience in justifying, excusing ourselves for doing things that we know darn well we shouldn’t do. We have expertise in human nature, which is very competent in rationalizing, explaining away almost anything. This spreads a veil of confusion over the whole human consciousness. You can’t seem to get ahold of anything. And there are all kinds of red herrings flapping around, and people catch sight of these things and go greedily after them with the best of intentions—good people trying to make a better world but doing everything actually to make it worse. And yet you could never convince such good people that what they were doing was destroying the world or playing into the hands of the devil.

Now the devil is very specifically human beings—not the vast majority of the population of the world, but certainly the focus of the devil could not put in an appearance if there wasn’t something to be focalized. What is focalized is the human nature that is present in everybody. And if one can devise a method of utilizing human nature which is universally present, then you can really build an empire. And people have done this—empires have come and gone; great leaders have come and gone. We live in a world these days which has, like it or not, become very much one in the external sense. So the prize is considerable if one is interested in such a prize: the world, to be exact. Heretofore, within recorded history, it has not been the whole world because it wasn’t as unified as it is today—one couldn’t call it unified; but it is in a certain sense, with communications and so on. Here is a prize indeed.

We might recall something with respect to the Master’s experience as it is recorded for us—the occasion of His temptations, as they have been called. The first one was, “Make these stones bread,” and relates in that sense to food, I suppose. The world is full of starving people. Human beings look for bread. One of the best controls that can be exercised over people is to get them hungry. They will do almost anything to get food. So this is a very usual ploy in the world, used at whatever level it may be, sometimes on a grand scale, sometimes on a small scale, a method of keeping human beings subject to the devil because they have got to eat, after all. Withhold the food and human beings will behave like animals in the sense of their subconscious drives. They are worse than animals, aren’t they? But it can readily be seen how control can be established over people on the basis of bread. And if people don’t have bread, they are not interested in the word of God, the proper element of control. They are willing to sell their souls to the devil. We can see that that, from the standpoint of those who are starving, is quite reasonable. But there are others who are taking advantage of what human beings do under that sort of a circumstance.

Then there was the matter of casting oneself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Nowadays in the welfare states in which we live, there is less and less need to take any responsibility. If human beings relinquish responsibility, they are relinquishing it to someone. It isn’t as though all responsibility vanishes. But someone assumes responsibility and those who have relinquished it are then slaves. Here is a way of convincing people that they are acting for their own benefit by surrendering responsibility. You surrender responsibility to the government. But then, who’s the government? The people you elect or Mr. Moneybags behind the people you elect? And so it’s a sort of con game, isn’t it? Everybody is being conned into surrendering their responsibility in order to receive—they are paying for it with the surrender of their responsibility—in order to receive security; “We will be borne up. It doesn’t matter what we do; somebody is going to hold us up”. And everybody becomes completely flabby, depending upon everybody else supposedly. It’s a democratic country, after all. When the fact of the matter is that in the surrendering of these responsibilities to some parental government, one is reverting into childhood and is then beholden to whoever it is that has taken over the responsibility. But then you have to keep going back and back and back because whatever level of government may be considered, there is always something beyond it, something higher than that. We see it from the standpoint of municipal government, county government, state government, federal government. Are you going to stop there, do you think? No. There is something back of the federal government. It doesn’t look as though it’s one thing that is back of the federal government of the United States. It doesn’t look as though it’s the same thing that’s back of the federal government of the United States as is back of the government of the Soviets. No, after all these are in conflict. Well as long as everybody can be conned into a consideration of the conflict, the real state of affairs is not seen.

I bring this out so that there may be a recognition that the more the government of God comes into form and expression on earth, the counterbalance of the government of the devil appears in focus. If we recognize that the restoration is the restoration of the government of God through human beings on earth, then from the standpoint of the opposite end of the stick—it’s not the same stick by any manner of means—there is the government of the devil coming increasingly to focus. This occurs out of the sight of virtually everybody, just as, thankfully, the government of God has been out of the sight of virtually everybody. But we might anticipate, from the standpoint of the government of the devil, that somewhere along the way he has it made, as he thinks, in which case there is no more need to keep it out of the sight of anybody, because nobody can do anything about it anyway. It’s a fait accompli.

We see something a little differently here, because the same thing may be said to be true relative to the government of God. There is a certain point at which it is a fait accompli. The government of the devil doesn’t know that. It has no way of knowing. In fact what is happening in this unification process from the standpoint of the devil can be most useful from the standpoint of God. There is a point when the victory seems sure for the devil. He can come out of hiding, so to speak. And suddenly everybody is amazed to see what has really been going on and how they have been fooled and conned—and in a position now that they can’t do anything about it. But all the world has been unified in this fashion. Here is an irresistible force present, the government of God, which can overtop anything that the devil can do. We think of the devil as utilizing nuclear weapons, for instance; here is the power. But if you have nobody to fight, if the whole world is enslaved, what do you want these weapons for? They are useless. There is nobody to direct them at. Certainly not against the government of God, because those who compose that government—who are they? They aren’t all in one place anyway. The only value of nuclear weapons is if you can get everybody in one place.

This one aspect of the government of the devil relates to fear, doesn’t it? Fear is something to control people. Get people looking at these fearful things and they are hypnotized. So from the standpoint of individual human beings there is an awful danger here. The thing that is projected is not the danger—nuclear weapons—because if there is in fact a unification taking place in the world, do you suppose that there is likely to be a nuclear war? Those concerned are not interested in destroying themselves. But it’s a good ploy: scare everybody to death—that on the one hand; of course, greed on the other. Greed and fear are the two things which keep human beings in line. People think they are going to benefit by being taken care of so nicely by a government of benefaction. Do you think that’s really what it is? For the moment it seems all right, but gradually the moral fiber is being sapped out of people.

Do you see how it is, that there is nothing that can meet this state of affairs except on the basis of the government of God—on the basis of those who are no longer in any way subject to the controls which operate to the benefit of the devil? Could we say that’s true of us yet? If there are some apparent seeming benefits around, well let’s use that to the advantage of doing what needs to be done. We can use the devil’s weapons against himself. The only way that people subject to human nature can see to deal with such a threat that is present, if they awaken to it, is to get into a battle with it, to protest, to object, and if necessary to pick up baseball bats or whatever and go to war. But against whom? That is not the way. That merely insures the slavery, the subjection. It looks so reasonable and anybody can argue about it. From our standpoint there is only one thing that is reasonable, and that is to stop being subject to the devil in our own living moment by moment, so that there is something emergent which cannot be manipulated. Greed and fear are the two factors of manipulation. It doesn’t matter what the fear is about, as long as it’s there. And there is the greed element, isn’t there? “Well we want more. We want principally more money.” Aha, that’s the substitute substance, isn’t it? That’s the devil’s substance. Well if we have some spiritual substance, this substitute substance can be allowed, if it’s freed up, to conform with what is present in the spiritual substance, and therefore be of value. But it isn’t a substance that we would use in any way to manipulate anybody. And we ourselves rightly cannot be manipulated by it.

We participate in the government of God, which is possible by reason of spiritual substance. Spiritual substance in the government of God brings everything into the dominion of God. And we anticipate this. But it is not going to be done by the devil’s methods. And it’s not going to be done because we get into a battle with the devil. It’s not going to be done because we become afraid of what we begin to see—and we are going to need to begin to see what is really happening. We have seen a very low level thus far, never penetrated very far. There are some people in the world who think they have seen something working, but we need to see what is really happening. So I draw all these things to your attention so that you may be aware of the absolutely essential fact of being clear of the devil, so that nothing of the devil’s domain can manipulate us. It still does to a certain extent. But by reason of our passion for the Lord we can be easily brought clear. On no other basis will we be brought clear. Passion for the Lord: the First Great Commandment. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Absolutely! Then we are in position to allow that true government to be a reality on earth and capable of handling anything that the devil may do.

© emissaries of divine light