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Questions Regarding the
Teachings of ACIM

By Reja Janaki Joy Green*

QUESTION: DID GOD MAKE THE WORLD?

ANSWER:  There is a lot of fear around this question which is quite often asked by Course in Miracles students especially after reading these ideas in the Course:

"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father." ACIM OrEd.Tx.10.69   

"The world was made as an attack on God." ACIM OrEd.Mn.24.2 
 

"God did not make the body because it is destructible and therefore not
of the Kingdom. The body is the symbol of what you think you are. It is clearly a separation device and therefore does not exist."ACIM OrEd.Tx.6.62  

"Nothing that God knows not exists." ACIM OrEd.Tx.30.43

           When we address the question "Did God Make the World?" we may want to ask, what is meant by "GOD" and the "WORLD".

           Are we thinking that GOD is a Divine BEING, separate from us, all powerful and mighty. Or are we thinking that GOD is but LOVE, all encompassing , unlimited and timeless. 

           And are we thinking that the WORLD is this three dimensional world, solid and real beyond a shadow of a doubt? Or are we thinking that the WORLD is merely the misperception of the REAL WORLD. 

           Since FEAR is operating here perhaps we should first take a good look at our FEARS. Aren't they always attached to who we believe we are and what we believe our world is?

           Our fears rush in when there's a threat of loss: Loss of what we identify with ~ our minds, our egos, our bodies, our professions, our possessions, our activities, or our construct of what this world is. 

           The first fearful statement at the top of this article was:

"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father..." ACIM OrEd.Tx.10.69 

           This thought is fearful since it perpetuates our sense of separation. How could our Father not have created that which we cherish as real and as our own. And yet there is the operative word 'perceive'. He is telling us "The world as YOU perceive it..." 

           And when we read on, we find there is hope ~  

"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable. Therefore, there must be another world which you do not see." ACIM OrEd.Tx.10.69 

           One of our Lessons 129 is thus, "Beyond this world there is a world I want" and in this lesson we find this Guidance:

"God will be there. For you have called upon the great unfailing Power Who will take this giant step with you in gratitude. Nor will you fail to see His thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth. You will not doubt what you will look upon. For though it is perception, it is not the kind of seeing that your eyes alone have ever seen before." ACIM OrEd.WkBk.130.10

           We cherish what we have made since we think it is the truth about who we are and what is real. And we'll resist any and all attempt to take these away from us until the pain of holding on is too great to bear. Just as the scribe and co-scribe of A Course in Miracles Helen Schucman and William Thetford came to the conclusion that there must be another way, we eventually come to open our hearts to a 'shift in perception', to a Miracle.

            The next phrase at the beginning of this Article was:  

           "The world was made as an attack on God." ACIM OrEd.WkBk.SpTp241.1-5

           When we read this our fear might ask...

....“How could this magnificent world be made as an attack on God?” and yet when we read further we find the following Guidance in the very same section: 

“As sight was made to lead away from truth, it can be redirected. Sounds become the call of God. And all perception can be given a new purpose by the one Whom God appointed savior to the world. Follow His light and see the world as He beholds it. Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you. And let Him give you peace and certainty, which you have thrown away but Heaven has preserved for you in Him. “ACIM OrEd.SpTp241.4

           The world ‘as we perceive it’ is an attack on God and yet when we have a changed perspective, offered by the Holy Spirit, we find that:

"All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision and lets you see the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos and removing all illusions which had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder and a blade of grass a sign of God's perfection. From the forgiven world, the Son of God is lifted easily into his home." ACIM OrEd.Tx.17.12

           The next fearful phrase at the beginning of this Article is,

“God did not make the body because it is destructible and therefore not of the Kingdom. The body is the symbol of what you think you are. It is clearly a separation device and therefore does not exist.”  ACIM OrEd.Tx.6.62

           We perceive our bodies as symbols of our separation from each other and from God and yet our bodies do not exist in reality as we perceive them.  Our bodies do not represent who we are and in this same section we learn of another way of perceiving the body:

“The Holy Spirit sees the body only as a means of communication and because communicating is sharing, it becomes communion.” ACIM OrEd.Tx.6.65  

           The misperceptions of OUR BODIES and the WORLD and GOD are just false perceptions although these errors are made with the power of the All that Is ~ ITSELF since there is nothing else, ever.

“Mind reaches to itself. It does not go out. Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; you within it, and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever." ACIM OrEd.Tx.18.56

           The last fear provoking phrase from the beginning of the Article is:

“Nothing that God knows not exists.” ACIM OrEd.Tx.30.43

           And as with the other phrases, the Guidance in the rest of the section says it all! We are not separate from our Creator and never will be. Nothing Real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.

“And what He knows exists forever, changelessly. For thoughts endure as long as does the mind that thought of them. And in the Mind of God there is no ending nor a time in which His Thoughts were absent or could suffer change. Thoughts are not born and cannot die. They share the attributes of their creator, nor have they a separate life apart from his. The thoughts you think are in your mind, as you are in the Mind Which thought of you. And so there are no separate parts in what exists within God's Mind. It is forever one, eternally united and at peace.”   ACIM OrEd.Tx.30.43

*Janaki Joy Green [Reja-Joy] RYT200 is one of the founding members of the Course in Miracles Society [CIMS]; Reja facilitates the local ACIM Study Group, is enrolled in the CMC Ministerial Program; Teaches Hatha Yoga at Unity of Omaha and resides with her loving husband Chris Green in Omaha, NE Http://www.rejajoy-yoga-studio.com

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