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Part XXIII
IN THE CONSECUTIVE order of time there have been seven distinct divine overshadowings. We may illustrate these overshadowings by the baptism of the Spirit which occurred nineteen hundred years ago. God was manifest in the flesh. After the crucifixion and resurrection, the Lord dematerialized and became the Holy Spirit. This was one of the Spirits of God, and will result in the development of the church at the end of the dispensation now with us. The seven spirits of God operative at the end of the age, are the spirits actuating the seven churches, which represent seven distinct principles of immortal life.
The “sea of glass before the throne” does not mean the vast ethereal blue, as Totten stated, but the mental perspicuity of the minds which possess the truth. It is said to be like crystal, because the crystalline form of truth is manifest primarily in one mind. Truth crystallized is not like truth fluent. Water is the symbol of truth in its communicative state.
The four beasts are the same noted in Ezekiel, and also in other parts of Revelation. These beasts are the lion, the bullock, the man, and the eagle. They have their correspondence in the Zodiac of the physical heavens. The beasts of Revelation do not belong to the physical, but to the anthropostic Zodiac. The lion (one of the beasts) is the principle and application of commerce in its every domain. These beasts were full of eyes before and behind. These are intellectual powers that enable one to apply the experiences of the past to things present and future. From what had occurred in the past, they could observe the things to come. This means merely, that they had all prophetic power.
The lion is the power of commerce; the calf (bullock), the liberty of commerce; the man, the adjustment of commerce; and the eagle, the appropriations of commerce. The four beasts represent the four cardinal principles of the new Church, which ramify into all the activities of the divine natural order. As these activities are the functions of the golden candlestick, and the candlestick has its six branches, it follows that the wings or powers must reside in the six wings of the central church or central power. Wings always signify powers.
If we can define the primary and fundamental laws of commerce, we can determine the character of each of the six wings. We have said that the lion signifies the power of commerce. The first two of these wings pertain to the head. They are distinctively, the love of commerce and the wisdom of commerce. Commerce means more than the function as exercised in the secular domain; but in whatsoever field it is considered, it is conducted on the basis of six distinct principles and elements of execution. The love of commerce, to be divinely legitimate, must include the love of its pursuit for its highest and best uses. This can only be true on the basis of love to the neighbor. This would involve the highest wisdom, which is always the accompaniment of the supreme love.
The wings that accompany the body are the relations of the uses of commerce to the body, which, in the body politic, involve the economical uses of commerce in the interests of the masses instead of in the interests of the few, as in the perverted commerce now operative throughout the world. The wings which cover the body, in this special domain, include the industrial system, and the collective and distributive system. The ultimates of commerce are the feet, and in this are involved the two elements of life—perpetuity and enjoyment.
In the consideration of this subject in the higher domain, in the order of consecution, we begin with the Lord in his Messiahship at the beginning of the age. As the central star of the alchemico-organic cosmos radiates its energies to the circumference and limitation of its spheres of operation, so the mental and spiritual essences from the anthropostic Star are radiated to the extremity of the dispensation, where they culminate in the materialization of the new Church. John saw down through the age,in the spirit, the progressions of spiritual life as they corresponded to the coincident progressions of external human existence.
The Wonderful Applied Law of Correspondence the Key to All Knowledge or Science
When one is able to translate the language of spiritual things into the language of natural things, or vice versa, we may comprehend from the one, the significations of the other. Jesus was the head of the church in the consecutive order of its progress through the dispensation. He was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, because he was the center of that commerce which would culminate in the regeneration of the Sons of God. As the Lion, He was the center of the collection of the Lambs of God, which he gathered with his arm and carried in his bosom; and also the center from which distribution was made, in the dissemination of the seed of reproduction, or, what is the same, regeneration. His two wings were the powers of his possibility to impregnate the church for regeneration. This possibility was inresident with two loves and their corresponding wisdoms; the love of the Lord to quicken his people, and the love of his people to be quickened. This included their corresponding wisdoms. Jesus knew how to baptize his church, and they knew how to be baptized. His love for his people and their love for him did the work of the first and highest powers.
The two wings which cover the body, are the confession of and obedience to the Lord. The body could not exist in its heavenly sphere of uses without these two principles and their application to the continuation of spiritual life. Without the confession of the humanity of the Lord and God, there could be no heavenly influx, by which heavenly perpetuity is maintained and perpetuated. The end of the dispensation is reached in the manifestation of the new Church, manifest as the seven distinct orders. These seven churches are the seven planets of anthropostic existence, and they correspond to the seven planets in the alchemico-organic (physical) cosmos. These are two powers which cover the feet. The feet of the dispensation reside in the consummated new Church. The first wing is the manifestation of the Messenger of the Covenant, and the second wing is his acknowledgment. Here again are applied the two great laws of confession and obedience.
The True Character of Koreshan Cosmogonic Form in Contrast with the Uncertain Modern Astronomy
We have shown in our publications the true character of cosmogonic form, and have placed this revelation in contrast with the uncertain Copernican system of astronomy. We have devoted much energy and effort to bring the questions of Koreshan Universology prominently before the people for public discussion. In this effort we have been held up to insolent ridicule and most bitter persecution, consonant with the invariable rule to which every innovation upon prevailing public sentiment is subject. We would not be worthy of consideration, if our doctrines were not important enough to excite the animosity of the sentiment in both the secular and religious phases of thought which our system assails.
We have pushed our claims to a knowledge of cosmology, until the advocates of the spurious “‘sciences” begin to feel their insecurity, and the necessity for defending their right to the title of “scientist” and “scientific.”’ So long as the ‘scientific’ world rested in absolute security upon the ignorance of the laity, it felt no necessity for the discussion of the question of the Koreshan Cosmogony; but our persistence in the advocacy of the truth, in contrast with the audacious assumptions of the Copernican advocates, incites a growing uneasiness regarding the stability of an astronomy which has nothing but assumption upon which to rest its claims to acceptation.
The whole batch of assumption and absurdity called modern science, is assaulted in front and rear by the consistent and determined purpose of the apostles of Koreshan Universology. We know that when our System is considered of enough consequence to receive candid notice from thinking men, and when the advocates of the prevailing system of astronomy begin to comprehend the fact that their premises, which they confess to be mere assumptions, are being analyzed by honest investigators, and are known to be worthless as foundations for the building of the superstructure of science, they will be compelled to make an open defense of their untenable position.
The Copernican system of astronomy had its rise in the dark age; and there is not an astronomer of note who does not know and confess that there is nothing but assumption for its foundation. It is responsible for the agnosticism so much in evidence, and for the attitude of that stupendous farce, the “higher criticism.” There is not a phenomenon manifest that is not easily and rationally explained and accounted for from the standpoint of the Koreshan Universology, whether belonging to the domain of physical or psychical manifestation; and per contra, there are no phenomena, either psychic or physical, rationally accounted for on the basis of the modern system of so called science. All that Koreshanity asks, is a fair chance at the absurdities of the so called scientific claims of the age. This chance we will make, for we know we have the truth and are making progress toward a comparative hearing.
The Confessed Hypotheses or Guesses of Darwin a Sample of Modern So Called Science
Says Darwin, in “Animals and Plants,’ Vol. I, page 9: “In scientific investigations it is permitted to invent any hypothesis, and if it explains various large and independent classes of facts, it rises to the rank of a well-grounded theory.” It is to this absurd proposition that the most of our “scientific” theories, if not all of them, owe their existence. He further says, that “The undulations of ether and even its existence are hypothetical, yet every one now admits the undulatory theory of light.”
We agree with Darwin, that the undulatory theory of light is a mere hypothesis; that is, a mere guess; but we deny his statement that “every one now admits the undulatory theory of light.” ‘The principle of natural selection,” he says, “may be looked at as a mere hypothesis, but rendered in some degree probable by what we positively know of the variability of organic beings in a state of nature,—by what we positively know of the struggle for existence, and the consequent almost inevitable preservation of favorable variations,—and from the analogical formation of domestic races.”
Darwinism, as Darwin himself affirms, is predicated entirely upon “scientific” guesses; and these, he declares, constitute the basis of all scientific claims. Speaking of natural selection, he says: ‘Now, this hypothesis may be tested,—and this seems to me to be the only fair and legitimate manner of considering the whole question,— by trying whether it explains several large and independent classes of facts; such as the geological succession of organic beings, their distribution in past and present times, and their mutual affinities and homologies. If the principle of natural selection does explain these and other large bodies of facts, it ought to be received.”
“Please accept my theories,” says the eminent “scientist,” ‘because I can explain many things upon my hypothesis.” The Koreshan Scientist might beg the question and say, please accept our theory of Universology, because there is not one thing that we cannot explain scientifically upon our premise. But we ask no man to accept anything on the basis of a mere hypothesis. A knowledge of the construction of the universe and its functions, with the laws and principles of life depending upon such knowledge, is too important a matter to be left to mere conjecture—mere hypothesis.
No conclusion is certain which is not founded upon and grounded in a positively demonstrated premise. It is for this reason that the Koreshan System stands out distinct and unique. It predicates nothing upon guesswork; its first step in the discussion of any proposition is the correct establishment and proof of its premise. Darwinism is a fair sample of the processes by which modern scientific conclusions are invariably reached.
When in conversation with Professor Harkness, of the United States Naval Observatory, we asked him if the Copernican system was not predicated upon assumption, he replied: “We have to assume something.” We maintain that if a premise be assumed, then the conclusion is equally an assumption.
Fact and Phenomenon Differentiated
Let us take the principle of optics in its application to the definition of the phenomenon of the rotundity of the earth, as an illustration of correct reasoning from an established premise, as followed by the logician of the Koreshan School of Science. We herewith accompany our argument with diagrammatic illustrations of the principles involved in the argument. Two lines may be extended parallel with each other, as in the case of the two rails of a railroad track. The diagrams represent certain known facts in optics, which we declare shall not be overruled, set aside, nor ignored for the purpose of sustaining an unwarrantable “scientific” theory. If any man is too lazy to reason, or too mean to investigate another’s reasoning, we do not expect to make any impression; or if he is so wedded to a theory because his grandfather believed in it, that he will not change his opinion for the truth’s sake, he will naturally pass this argument by; but for the honest man there is only one alternative.
The two lines, a f, extending the length of diagram 1, may be taken to represent the tracks of a railroad, five feet apart. In the major premise of this proposition are involved the facts as they are, not as they appear. The measurement of the space at both ends of the track shows that the rails at each end are just five feet apart. There is no element of assumption in this part of the premise. We wish to thoroughly impress upon the student the fact, that so far we have not had to “assume something.” The rails are straight and parallel, and five feet apart. These are facts of practical and certain measurement.
From B to c in either direction the track indicates one mile; (the entire length of the diagram representing two miles;) in observing the distance from B to c, either way, the track appears to narrow down to a vanishing point at c. This appearance is the minor premise. Let it be remembered that the minor premise involves a fact, but that fact is an appearance, involved in which are certain optical laws which we will apply logically in another part of this argument. Do not forget the fact that we are arguing from premises that are proven to be true, and that we differ from the ordinary “‘scientific” logician, in that we work from a demonstrated premise— not from an assumption.
It Is Necessary to Distinguish Facts of Reality from Facts of Appearance
The purpose of this part of the argument is to show the reason for an appearance, which is in direct opposition to the fact. Why does the space five feet wide at F F, appear as a point at c? Note the dotted lines beginning at S S, and extending to the arrow; they make a comparatively long picture upon the surface indicated by the arrow. Now, note the dotted lines beginning at F F, and extending to the surface marked retina. These lines vanish at the point upon the surface thus marked; for this reason they appear to come to a point at c. If we take this appearance as a fact, we are’ led into an interminable labyrinth of difficulties. The “scientist” establishes his assumptions upon these appearances, ignoring the facts and laws of optics. The objects ed are in fact at ed,as represented in diagram 1, but they appear to be at c.
We are to distinguish the facts of reality from the facts of appearance, and show the character of the appearances, and how these appearances have led the short-sighted “‘scientists” into their aggregate of errors, which they delight to call by the title of science. Thus far there is no element of assumption; we assume nothing. We have shown that space is annihilated in appearance by the law of distal perspective; that foreshortening is an inevitable law of optics, and we hold that these laws are totally ignored by every so called scientific astronomer. The pseudo scientists shall not continue to foist their fallacious systems of astronomy upon a deluded public, without a perpetual protest.
It will be remembered that diagram 1 represents the point of observation at B, from which the objective point is seen as at c, but which in reality is at FF. The line D D D, extending to c, is not what it appears to be from the outlook or visual point at B. The apparent line at c, which appears to be only a line, is the entire breadth of five feet—the distance across the track at FF. If a middle rail extend midway between the two rails of the track, it will be seen the entire length of the line, or nearly so, and seem to blend with the two other rails at c; the five feet have vanished to a mere point at c, therefore a space five feet wide appears like a mere line.
(To be continued.)
Editorial transcription checked against the cited scans; historical claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 28, No. 12 · Dec 1914 · PDF pp. 6–8