Repentance

In temptation man becomes aware of his powerlessness against evil.

He is driven to seek refuge outside of himself—above himself; to seek aid from an invisible power which he calls God—his God.

Because of this it is said, men have discovered God; some say, invented Him. They cannot see Him; yet they seek a way to Him.

They employ rituals to invite His hidden power, in times of stress, of fear and danger, when they see themselves to be powerless against the evil which threatens.

Hence the so-called magic of the past, which has fallen into disrepute. Magic was once true. It was the accepted way of approach to God, and a means of gaining His power.

Rituals became magic, as the word is now understood, when men fell below their primitive significance; when gods became evil; when selfish gain of power displaced, in the minds of men, the remission of sins; when the intent of repentance was lost to view; when external dangers were primarily regarded as the evil to be avoided; when there was no longer spiritual courage to face the entanglement of evils within the self-life of man.

It is true that if these evils, inherited and acquired, should be exposed to any man's view in their full complex and power, he would be appalled to the point of madness.

Therefore a merciful Providence opens man's eyes to them only little by little. In this ignorance is man's protection. Even as in the beginning of life it is his security, his first protective birthright, in which the highest gift of the Lord may dwell. In ignorance only may innocence dwell, until wisdom is born.

Knowledge tempts. It widens the understanding, and exposes the dangers of life. Reflection upon knowledge opens the rational. The rational mind brings freedom of choice. This freedom is the essential human gift; through it the Lord remits sins, with man's cooperation.

In freedom man calls upon and employs the power of God, but this employment is fatal to man's claim of original power in or of himself.

Only God can make the scarlet of sin white, by its remission. But the Lord's forgiveness, His healing, is made manifest only little by little.

The rational man can freely say, "I will not. It is a sin," as if the power were his.

Children can say the same; but actuality is not yet. The child's so saying is not the thing; yet therein power is latent, as in a seed sown. It is a sign that must first be given, and repeated until stamped upon the mind. It is as a gesture acquired by imitation, as when a child sees his parent kneel in prayer.

In such a case the parent is moved by the innocence of the child. The presence of an angel is felt. The kneeling child is a symbol most holy, because unconscious, with no reflection upon self. Such is the power of innocence in ignorance in its effect upon others. The life of everyone so begins.

This precious unconsciousness is born with every generation of men. By it the race is renewed in each generation.

The life of man begins in a meaningless ritual, out of which every meaning may develop, into which every meaning may be inserted, under the Providence of God.

In a supine imitation, in a vague gesture, lies the beginning of human power.

Our sacred rituals have come out of childhood out of the forgotten past. Children love their first learned rituals, by an inborn instinct. Old men hold to them in their higher forms, with reverence. The order of human life throughout insists upon them, upon their elevation. The angels, when raised into heaven, do not depart from them. The angels are but God's children.

Evil spirits make magic of every ritual. They defile them; yet, as defiled, they are instruments of power, the power of evil.

When Israel's high priest placed his hands upon the head of the scapegoat he employed an effective ritual of power. The sins of his people were thereby remitted; they were sent away into the wilderness, into the land of separation, into the infernal region. The Israelites were as children. The evils they feared were outward dangers.

There was no spiritual forgiveness of any Israelite in this priestly ceremony; but such forgiveness was signified for a later generation, and for the heavens above. To Israel it was a communal ceremony—a protection for the tribe, a release from a curse.

John's baptism was for the remission of sins, yet it did not purify the Jews. Their sins were not forgiven, save with a few; yet Israel's salvation was represented thereby.

By this representation of purification the Lord's coming into the world was prepared. Apart from this He could have found no place among men.

The Lord, in the world, preached repentance for the remission of sins.

While the Jewish religion was not exalted through His preaching, the Christian Church was thereby established, of as many as repented.

The Writings teach repentance for the remission of sins as the only way of entrance into the New Jerusalem. They call for self-examination; they insist upon the discovery of evil in oneself. They advise self-searching at stated times; they set the time for this—before partaking of the Holy Supper. Such self-examination, even if only formal, is of value, for all things begin in formalities.

Formal self-examination becomes a habit from religious conscience. Sooner or later it opens to a vital struggle for spiritual life.

To this end the call to the Holy Supper is given by the Church; given that the communicants may prepare. Through self-examination a worthy approach may be made; and formal though that examination may at first be, the ritual of it is of incalculable value; like an open door it invites entrance.

Be assured that the sign of repentance is seen in heaven. If there be sincerity in it, that which is represented in the Supper will be given.

The communion of the Supper is of Divine appointment. It also is seen in heaven, and is there fulfilled. Its significance enters deeply into every repentant heart, into the resolution against sin. This is the living heart of the matter. This resolution, with God's help, holds despite man's weakness.

The weakness of man makes frequent repetitions necessary. All things of human life must be renewed, even with the angels.

Evil, though repented of, is long in yielding. During the world-life it retains the essence of its power; but happily, not always its first place in man.

Evil is sometimes in the blood; is there like a disease. The man cannot in constancy be withheld from it. But if his heart is repentant the Lord's mercy abides with him. He is raised after a fall, again and yet again, until death brings release from his bodily infirmities. In such a case his repentance is bitter; his pride is broken. His life he sees as a failure; yet in the end he finds salvation.

In the spirit such a penitent can be confirmed. The angels see his motives only. Motives make the spirit of man despite every bodily failing. His confirmation is of an inner degree. The body of a man is never saved. There was but one exception to this.

Because of the proprial life into which man is born, the Lord inflows into him with a force inconceivably great; but man does not so feel it.

Man's freedom requires that the Divine force should be unfelt. Never is it sensed as an overwhelming drive, but as an equable balance. This balance is ever maintained, though constantly shifting, called changes of state.

Thus man is held between the mercy of the Lord and his own self-condemnation. He is so placed that he may not be overpowered. He stands hesitantly between the two.

The angel pressed Lot to hasten his departure from Sodom; yet he lingered until the angel laid hold of his hand, "in the clemency of Jehovah," and led him forth without the city.

This is the story of man's choice between the forces of good and evil. With man it is a lingering choice. The past has its proprial pleasures, the evil city—its allurements—follow after those who flee from its destruction. One can escape only if an angel takes him by the hand.

This angel is the presence and power of the Lord's mercy. It is so throughout life, and in every temptation. The safe mountains are before, and the burning city behind.

Though man goes haltingly with the angel on the way to the mountain, he is safe on the way only if he does not look back. Man's look is the direction of his life.

In turning to the Lord through repentance the end of life is determined, though the way to its fulfillment may be arduous. At every step aid is given; not obviously, but from within, felt as an urge to self-compulsion, as a constraint of conscience to keep within the law of an ordered life. Man is helped in this by a faithful performance of the rites of his religion. These may be to him even as an angel's hand, guarding and guiding.

Ritualistic compliance was Israel's protection. So also it is ours. It holds us within the walls. Its benefits may not be obvious; yet hidden within such rituals, secret powers are stored. By them we are bound together as one in the worship of our God.

Once a year the sins of Israel were remitted. Not otherwise could that tribe have held together. The ceremony of remission was a warrant of their security, presented before the angels as the spiritual salvation of the race of man; so much so that heaven itself was under-bound and supported by that primitive rite of the scapegoat. As a safeguard to a wandering tribe it came of Providence into outward contact with the ultimate order of heaven, and sustained that order. There could scarcely be a greater miracle of power than this—a miracle of support whereby the heavens, for a time, were sustained by and through a significant formality.

The church since that day has been raised, twice raised. New revelations have been given. The life beyond the grave made manifest; spiritual values openly expounded; the way to heaven uncovered; a spiritual rebirth seen to be the requirement of heaven; the process of regeneration, the way thereto—all these are now unfolded and seen to be infolded in the ancient rituals, so that we now know that we also have need of a scapegoat upon which to lay our hands, that our sins may be sent away to the land of separation.

Every reaction to life is ritualistic; nothing else can be predicated of man as a reactive vessel. Only life in se is real. Everything else is a form—a sign, an image, a ritual.

The first and fundamental need of human life is that the way should be opened for the uncovering of the latent evils—those that are hidden, concealed under the deceptive pleasures of the self-life of man. These evils are ever self-excusatory; they are felt as good. Their disguise must be removed before the higher life, called spiritual, can find place. Their condemnation must be made before man can meet with his Lord. They cannot be carried into His presence. They have no place at His Supper.

The ritual of the Supper, if it is in the heart of man, is one with entrance into heaven. Evil must first be laid down. The Supper afterwards is for the freed man. Only the full grown can approach it. The freed man only can sense and confess his own unfitness. This is the way of approach, in humility before God, and in the face of one's evils, confessed and repented of.

All are called to the Supper. Those who would best not go up to it are the unbelievers, and the non-repentant, lest in so doing they become the more a child of the devil. But this is hidden from our eyes. Man's life is known to God alone; yet each one may know of his desire; can sense his own impurities, and pray that he may be cleansed. He can add resistance to his prayers, as of his own doing, even while confessing his impotence.

Man is a vessel, nothing more, nothing less by the power of God a living vessel, and human; gifted with the competence of choice between good and evil in himself; gifted with the power of repentance and the attainment of heaven; gifted with the allowance of refusing heaven for the pleasures of the low life of his body and its perverse passions, if that be his choice.

A voice from heaven said...Actual repentance is to explore self; to know and acknowledge your evils, to make yourself guilty, to confess them before the Lord; to implore aid and power to resist them, and thus to desist from them, and lead a new life, and all these as of yourselves. Do these things once or twice in a year, when you approach the Holy Communion; and afterwards when sins...recur, say to yourselves, We will not do these things because they are sins against God. This is actual repentance. (Apocalypse Revealed 531)