From: ata@hfsi.uucp (John Ata - FSO)
Subject: Re: THE DIVINE MASTERS
Reply-To: ata@hfsi.UUCP (John Ata - FSO)
Organization: HFSI, McLean VA.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 04:25:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec8.173215.2718@cnsvax.uwec.edu> mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu writes:
>          
>
>                             THE DIVINE MASTERS       
>      
>               Most Christians would agree, and correctly so, that 
>          Jesus Christ was a perfect living Master, and a projection of 
>          God into the physical world, God Incarnate. 
>          
>               But there are some very important related facts that 
>          Christians are COMPLETELY IGNORANT of, as are followers of 
>          most other world religions. 

When another belief begins to redefine the core beliefs of another
religion such as Christianity, one should examine closely what is
being offered here.  Eckankar, with which I am familiar with makes
the following claim: Jesus Christ was a second initiate of
Eckankar and was intimately familiar with Eckankar's teaching.
How?  Of course, before the Herod's massacre of the innocent male
children, Eckankar teaches that Jesus fled into India and became
familiar with the teachings of Eck there.  Now just what is a
second initiate of Eckankar?  Basically, today it's anyone who has
taken the basic set of discourses for 2-4 years (I hear that
they've upped the requirements as earlier, it used to be after the
second year).  Therefore, Jesus Christ was really a peon in the
ladder of Eck spirituality. He had only mastered the astral plane
which was really no big feat in the scheme of things, since giants
such as Paul Twitchell, Darwin Gross and Harold Klemp have reached
all the way up to the Mahanta level (I believe that this was the
14th plane - out of 12 major planes).  Now with this belief in
mind, I think it is fair to say that Eckankar, while trying to be
universal in it's belief and paying lip hommage to Jesus as a
"Perfect Master" etc., is not Christian in nature at all.

>    
>               The followers of some of these Masters founded the 
>          world's major religions, usually PERVERTING the teachings of 
>          their Master in the process.  Christians, for example, added 
>          THREATS of "ETERNAL DAMNATION" in Hell, and DELETED the 
>          teaching of REincarnation. 

This is, of course, nonsense as the justification for
reincarnation is the same ad nauseum recitals of passages that
nearly every New Age religion recites when trying to show
reincarnation as a valid truth.  Basically, it usually is taking
Biblical verses out of context and asserting that reincarnation
was behind it all (e.g. John 9:2).

>       
>               Secondly, and more importantly, after a particular 
>          Master physically dies and leaves this world, there is 
>          NOTHING that He can do for ANYbody except for the relatively 
>          few people that He INITIATED while He was still physically 
>          alive.  (That is simply the way God set things up in the 
>          Universes.)

That's funny, but a lot of Christians would disagree with that statement.

>     
>               Thirdly, the primary function of each Master is to tune 
>          His Initiates into the "AUDIBLE LIFE STREAM" or "SOUND 
>          CURRENT", (referred to as "THE WORD" in John 1:1-5, and as 
>          "The River of Life" in Revelation 22:1), and to personally 
>          guide each of them thru the upper levels of Heaven while they 
>          are still connected to their living physical bodies by a 
>          "silver cord". 

Although the Word is mentioned in John, what evidence do you have
that John's use of "the Word" had any connections with what you
refer to as the sound current other than the fact that they both
reference something audible.  In John's Gospel, the Word was
Jesus:

JOH 1:14    The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have
            seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the
            Father, full of grace and truth.

However, there were audible expressions of God that were not from
Jesus or the Word. Two come to mind, the first is an attribute of
the Father, and the second an attribute of the Holy Spirit.

MAT 17:5    While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and
            a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with
            him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

ACT 2:2     Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from
            heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

No, the Word in John's Gospel has to do with God's Revelation as
His Son to us humans, not merely the audible attributes of God.
This is a clear case where someone can be misled because the
teaching sounds plausible until it is examined closely.

>
>               The teaching of REincarnation also includes the LAW OF 
>          KARMA (Galatians 6:7, Revelation 13:10, etc.).  People would 
>          behave much better toward each other if they knew that their 
>          actions in the present will surely be reaped by them in the 
>          future, or in a FUTURE INCARNATION!

As a further example, let us examine Galatians 6:7 and following verse
in their entirety:

GAL 6:7     Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he
            sows.
GAL 6:8     The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature
            will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit,
            from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Clearly one can see that Paul did not have the doctrine of Karma here but
of divine Justice.  Of course Galatians 6:8 is not referenced at all
above, only the preceding verse.

>          THREATENING manner.  The Christian "Heaven" is located 
>          elsewhere on the Astral Plane.  Good Christians will go there 
>          for a short while and then REincarnate back to Earth. 

Hmmm, this sounds pretty threatening to me...

Robert, my advice to you is to study this teaching thoroughly and
not to accept its precepts because they sound plausible.  You say
that you are not led by blind faith.  Therefore examine the claims
and see if they bear out especially with regard to things you
already know or can research. If they don't (and they don't come
close, IMHO), then throw it away! 

>
>                                            Robert E. McElwaine

-- 
John G. Ata - Technical Consultant | Internet:  ata@hfsi.com
HFS, Inc.		  VA20     |     UUCP:  uunet!hfsi!ata
7900 Westpark Drive	 MS:601	   |    Voice:	(703) 827-6810
McLean, VA  22102	           |      FAX:	(703) 827-3729