STATEMENT OF BEING

WHO AND WHAT GOD IS—WHO AND WHAT MAN IS

FIRST LESSON

[As you begin this course of instruction, please set aside all your previous theories and beliefs as much as possible for the time being. By doing this, you will save yourself the trouble of trying to force "new wine into old bottles" throughout the course. This is a reference to a parable of Jesus (Matthew 9:17), suggesting that new ideas require a fresh, flexible mind rather than being squeezed into rigid, old ways of thinking. If there is anything as we proceed that you do not understand or agree with, simply let it rest passively in your mind until you have received the entire course. Many statements that might naturally cause resistance or debate will become clear and easy to accept a little further on. After the course is completed, if you wish to return to your old beliefs and ways of living, you are at perfect liberty to do so. But for the time being, be willing to become like little children; for, as a Master of spiritual matters once said, "Unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." original: "Except ye become as little children ye can in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3). If the material seems repetitive at times, please remember that these are intended as lessons, not lectures.]

When Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, he said to her, "God is Spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." original: "God is Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24). He did not say, God is a Spirit. The word a, which is italicized in many of our Bibles, was added interpolated To interpolate means to insert words into a text, often by later translators, which were not in the original version. by translators. To say "a spirit"