Jesus and Beelzebul (Rabel)

(Back) Jesus Visits Martha and Mary The Parable of the Rich Fool (Next)

^11:14And he was casting out a demon that was dumb. And it came to pass, when the demon was gone out, the dumb man spake; and the multitudes marvelled. ^11:15But some of them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the demons casteth he out demons.^11:16And others, trying him, sought of him a sign from heaven. ^11:17But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. ^11:18And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. ^11:19And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. ^11:20But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you. ^11:21When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods are in peace: ^11:22but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. ^11:23He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

(Ed reads verses 14-20)

Then He gives a parable to elaborate on that. Now, it is significant that so much of Jesus' active ministry consists of casting out, overcoming and getting rid of. Now think about that. We say here that we are seeking to follow the pattern of Jesus Christ in our lives, in our ministries; yet at the same time, there are many Truth students who have to learn to stop resisting the right use of denials. They say, "I do not need denials. I have affirmations." But, yet, they are not realizing the significance of the fact that in Jesus' ministry, so much of it consists in doing just what we say denial is supposed to do, cast out, overcome, get rid of. In our Bible text, He casts out a devil of dumbness and when examining His work through this same period, we find numerous instances of Him casting out devils, demons, getting rid of all kinds of afflictions and plagues which have invaded various individuals.

Now, notice in these acts, He does not paste something onto the already existing condition of the person. He does not take a deaf and dumb man and tack on the ability to speak. He first casts out the deafness and dumbness and then take it from there. This is exactly the same thing that people are saying erroneously, when they say, "I don’t need denials. I can just use an affirmation." Jesus tells us many times that you cannot stuff Truth into an error-filled area. You must get rid of the error, first, to make a womb, so to speak, a matrix, for the new manifestation that you are desiring to have established.

Now this and all these incidents of the getting rid of and casting out that Jesus does, while all this would have a certain amount of interest for us on the biographical, historical level, that is simply as information about Him, it has an even more important interest for us on the metaphysical level, because it reveals an inevitable fact of life for us, which we will do well to pay attention to. There is one thing, folks, which no amount of academic study, physical research, or gathering of facts has ever been able to do, and that is to tell us when, where, and exactly how human beings take up existence on this dimension life in a primate body. This has never been found, never been explained and I throw in my two-cents worth: it never will when these methods are used to find out, because it did not happen through those kinds of channels, observable, factual channels. Now, there are many theories and much, much speculation about this; and some of it sounding quite plausible. Every once in a while, someone, a professor or some person comes forth with what they call proof of how it happened, usually somewhere around Africa. They have some bones to show, and big deal - proof. Then the newspapers print stories which cause much excitement and all kinds of verifying explanations go; a lot of money is spent, the hopes are raised; and, as always, the proof turns out, once again, to be no such thing has been proved at all. The excitement dies down, the mystery remains, and the reasons for this is that outer appearances shall never give the answer to the question of man's real entry into the realm of life wherein he inhabits a body patterned after the Christ. The real answer to this question can only be found in the realm of Mind, but whether or not we can answer when, where, how we arrived, the one thing that we can always know is that we are here.

We do exist in the physical, primate type of body, we do have a human consciousness and a human nature, which contains a very real adversary, and we are living a life which is formed and governed according to how we use this great, unexplainable something called consciousness, and the adversary, how we deal with the adversary. This adversary is self, the sense of separate identity, the sense of a separate, independent identity, which is a part of consciousness, and is the adversary to mankind; but he serves a purpose, a very useful purpose, which the sooner we learn the purpose of, the quicker we can learn to agree with our adversary quickly and then cause him to no longer remain an adversary. That purpose, that validity, that self, the adversary, has, if we let him carry it out, he always brings to the individual opportunities for choice.

Without him, we would not be given opportunities for choice. You would be, again, back in Eden, totally instinctive, totally obedient instinctively. By availing ourselves of freedom of choice, we are different from being totally obedient instinctively; therefore, our obedience has value. Then our obedience is creative rather than instinctive, as it was in Eden. It was all pleasure without realizing that it was pleasure. I do not want that kind of pleasure. I do not want pain; if I have to make a choice, I will take that kind of pleasure, but if I have my choice between pleasure that is purely the result of instinctiveness, instinctive obedience and pleasure which is the result of right use of opportunities of choice, I will take that. The adversary does that for us, but he becomes Satan, the devil, tormentor, when we allow him to overstep his role of validity and take on a responsibility which is not rightfully his. That would be when he not only brings us opportunities for choice but makes the choices for us. Then we are in trouble, deep trouble, you understand.

Now, we have a teacher, the wayshower, who attained the development beyond the limit of human consciousness and who entered into oneness which is divine; this is Jesus Christ, and through His teachings and examples, we can follow Him into that same Super-conscious level in which He abided there. We only catch momentary glimpses and go in and out of it, usually in the dream state; and so it does not register too clearly with us, but we follow Him into abiding, into conscious awareness of Super-consciousness by following His instructions.

Now, in the Bible text we just read and in similar places in the Gospel, Jesus illustrates for us a very necessary activity that we must carry out in our lives, the necessity to cast out, overcome, and get rid of. Now, these activities can take up a major portion of time, effort, for those of us who seek self-improvement and consciousness-purification, because as workers in the way of Truth, we frequently have to cast devils out of ourselves, overcome certain faults and weaknesses and get rid of so many afflictions. This is a big part of human living, and it is going to take up much of our time and cost us much effort; but it is also a useful activity. Often I like to think what it would be like if we couldn't do it.

What if we didn't have denials to use? In other words, what if we only had eleven faculties and one of the missing ones would be renunciation? You could not use denials, not have a choice about it. What if you and I just had to put up with everything which once entered us? What if we couldn't cast out, overcome, and get rid of? What then? It would possibly mean such things as these: once you felt angry, you had to stay angry, you would never get over it but would remain an angry person forever; once the body became ill or was injured, it would have to remain ill or injured, there would be no getting rid of illness or overcoming of injury; once your feelings got hurt, you stayed hurt, you could not overcome this, you would remain an emotionally upset person forever. You see, we could go on; but the point is that we have arrived at a level of existence where we are able to utilize at least twelve great spiritual faculties. One of these gives us the power to cast out, overcome, get rid of, and say “No” to devils, demons, deaf-and-dumb spirits, evil spirits, Belzebub, the devil, etc., according to the Bible. Now, in more modern language, not symbolic, we would say, negativeness, errors, lies, illness, misconception, anything which is not real, true, or needful to our correct living, anything which is not in conformity to principle as we know it. We can use this great power on these things and have good results. This is what healing is all about. This is what self-improvement is all about; it is about that necessary part of existence illustrated by Jesus in the act of casting out, overcoming, getting rid of. You see, we are very fortunate; primarily the renunciation faculty and denial should be used as a saying "No" when confronted with that which "no" should be said to; but does this always happen? No. Too often we let down our guard, or we are vulnerable or we even accept the thing we should be saying "No" to.

Then we have not really used the renunciatory or denial faculty or technique sense but, thank God, it is not too late. Like most of the faculties, they are pivotal in action; so that the denial and renunciation faculty can work for us even after we have not said "No" in time and have become afflicted. The thing has entered us. Now, you can use that same faculty and that technique to pass out or get rid of the thing which you did not say no to, and it will work for you. This is the simplest teaching in the world. Most people are not alert most of the time, so they do not utilize their faculties at the moment of golden opportunity. One of the ones we most neglect is the renunciatory faculty. Few people even know they have it! There are millions of people who do not realize they can say "no" to certain kinds of thoughts, beliefs and mental suggestions.

You must not deny the faculty of denial, which is the nay-saying faculty. It is not "I don't need that because I will choose only the good." You are not built that way yet, you see; you have not developed into that yet. You are still a human being, and you need this faculty and if you do not use it, you will suffer needlessly and it will atrophy definitely. Then you will become too vulnerable to too many things. Pay attention to Jesus. He says you cannot put new wine in old wine skins; and he says other things, but some of us still choose to take a shortcut in developing spiritual consciousness. Because the denial and the renunciatory activity usually always entails admitting to oneself "I made a mistake", we hate to do this, so we try to cop out in advance, saying, "I will only accept Truth, and I do not care about a no-no saying faculty." We are just deluding ourselves, folks; and there is no need for this.”

Q. I look at the judgment faculty as a kind of our ability to take nothing within, but we sometimes use it improperly. Sometimes we use the judgment faculty to say "Yes, I accept that" or "No, I don't." How does that relate?

A. The judgment faculty is the decision-formulater. It will decide that "Yes" should be said or that “No” should be said. The will must give its permission, and then another faculty says the "No" or "Yes". The judgment faculty does not do that. It only formulates what is "Yes" or "No" to be said to, then the will gives permission, it is the executive of the mind; then the faculty that does the thing does it, renunciation if it is no, faith if it is yes. The faculties all work in alignment, and each has its sphere, but they must cooperate.

Q. The term "implied denial" is one that I am not comfortable with.

A. Yes. Technically, that is not correct, but it is referring to something that is correct, which is that some persons, through proper exercise of the denial faculty and of the faith faculty have established what we call a persistent highly quickened attitude, which comes into play as a denial when it is needed, rather than going back to the technique of denial. They exercised it to the extent that it has produced this very strong and persistent attitude which reacts on time with a "No" toward an exposure to an error belief or a negative mental influence; and that is usually what they mean by implied denial. It simply means that the person does not repeat the technique as a separate action on each occasion, but he has had to repeat it at some time to have developed that attitude of knowing; and it is very effective.

Most of this work that we have been talking about if not saying "No" to when the encounter occurs, then the denial if it seems to be too late, of course is the renunciation faculty. This is the power primarily to say "No" to anything in ourself which we will have to then cast it out if we allow it to enter, overcome it, or get rid of it. Jesus made much use of this great power, and He told us many times that we can use it just as He did.

Here we have to touch upon the question that has already been implied here in class: "But why should I have to use this power of renunciation so much? Why must I find it necessary to deny in the first place? If evil and error are not real, then how come they can exist in my life? Where did all these things come from, which I must cast out, overcome and get rid of? Why don't my affirmations protect me from exposure to them?"

The answer as to where all this came from and why it is as it is, is that it all comes from wrong thinking in individual minds and from error in race consciousness collectively. I am going to say something that will make some of you bristle, but take it easy. As long as one person in our human sense is still thinking erroneously, you and I will have to cope with it. I do not care how good you are or how many metaphysical courses you have taken or how high that consciousness of yours has risen, as long as you are still part of the human family, one of your brother’s and sister's errors is still something you are going to have to cope with. Now, this is not a bad thing, but it is a thing to reconcile ourselves to; so it is no good for me to sit in my ivory tower and say, "I only accept Truth." And then I am bugged with all kinds of things. "I do not want to say no to anything. I am a yes girl or boy." You are a yes and no human being, both masculine and feminine; and as long as we have need for either one, either for ourselves or on behalf of any other human being, there it stays, until it is fulfilled. This answer, of course, will not satisfy all minds, especially at first; but it is the only answer we have. Its correctness has been proved many times. It is the only answer which gives us something we can work with and do anything about. Here, where you are dealing with something like this, high-falutin idealism stinks. It does not do the job. Practical Christianity does do the job, so park your impractical idealism at the door for awhile, when you are dealing with life dilemmas. Take it up again when you are in the privacy of your holy communion.

There it is in its right place, and it will serve you well. It would seem, then, that the wisest course of action is not to wonder and worry about where it all came from and why we have to cope with it but rather to just go ahead, use the power we have been given to cope with it. Cast it out, overcome, and get rid of. This is what Jesus did. We learned that Jesus is challenged because He used denial: challenged, criticized, and was even more greatly because it worked, and the criticism took the form of, "You must be using the devil to cast out the devil." Doesn't that make a lot of sense! "You must be using evil to get rid of evil." So Jesus rebukes all that and says, "A house divided against itself must fall." Now it is surprising how persistent the belief is in the minds of many persons that harmful methods should be used in correcting negative situations. People still are ruining their health, spoiling their world, and shortening their life in vain efforts to have two wrongs add up to a right. It is one of the oldest con games in human history, and it is still being played.

Try to have two wrongs add up to one right. Take a history book of any nation, of any era in our world, and you will find you are reading about persons or nations knocking themselves out to achieve their ends by using foul means. That is what all history books are about, trying to achieve their ends by using foul means. So this is what war is all about, prisons are all about, lawsuits are all about, this is what profit-mad business is all about, this is "what's wrong with the world" is all about. It is a house thinking it can build itself up by actually dividing against itself. It cannot be done, even though it is forever being tried.

Now take this into your own personal life, and you will see that this holds true. If you and I ever try to attain something that we consider good for us, but we use negative or unrighteous ways to get it, all we shall really get out of it is a fall. That is all, really; no matter what outer appearance of success we may seem to have, the one and only way that anyone really good, really worthwhile and satisfying can be attained by any human being is according to the principles of Truth, which Jesus refers to as ... "Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." When negativeness, selfishness, violence, cruelty are used, the user becomes the house divided against himself; and the end result will be this drastic fall, fall in his own well-being.

Now, notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say a house divided shall fall, only that a house divided against itself will fall. This is a significant detail. In the Bible, you remember a house means an individual consciousness. You and I often have to divide a house or partition our consciousness, or think about different things in different ways. This is dividing your house, and there is nothing wrong with that. We do this for useful and constructive purposes, and then this causes greater growth and wider diversity of interest. It leads to a greater sharing of blessings, and a house can be divided for the good of itself and others. But Jesus warned only of a house divided against itself. Now this consists of thinking or feeling or acting in ways which are actually working against our own consciousness of good, and we often mistake the end as being a total sanction for whatever means are used; but this is not correct. Only right means can bring right ends. To resort to harmful means can only result in harmful ends, and it is not difficult to find examples all around us, which bear this out. As an alcoholic longs for inner peace and well-being, but he abuses his mind and body with large doses of the poison of alcohol. He becomes a house divided against himself. All you need to ask is, "Have you ever met a peaceful and practicing alcoholic?"

Text of the original transcript of last paragraph of p.192 through p.197.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-06-2014