The messages began with the words, “Please take notes,” this is not optional. So Helen Schucman an atheist Jewish psychologist began writing and for the next ten years the voice is said to have dictated “in an inaudible voice” over 500,000 words contained in the three volumes. This was done through the process called automatic handwriting, (in which a spirit entity guides the hand )and clairaudience, (hearing from a disembodied spirit) Schucman wrote this hefty volume, and she claims the source of the words was Jesus Himself.
The Course is a spiritual/psychological book put in a systematic teaching consisting in three books (altogether1,188 pages).: a 622-page Text, a 478-page Workbook for Students, and an 88-page Manual for Teachers.
Dr. William Thetford, was one of her colleagues and a clinical psychologist at Columbia University. While he never heard the voice, he was instrumental in the publication of the Course. Raised in the Christian Science church, Thetford believed the Course was a representation of the “original teachings of Jesus” (The Holy Encounter, Sept./Oct. 1990, p. 5).
Schucman and Thetford met Dr. Kenneth Wapnick of the Foundation for Inner Peace In 1972. The Copyright for the Course was turned over to Wapnick and his organization in 1975. In September of the same year the publication of the first edition of A Course In Miracles began. Schucman died in February 1981 and Thetford in 1988.
The primary reason for the Course is the “Correcting of the errors of Christianity…. To foster spiritual development through the study and practice of A Course In Miracles, a set of three books channeled by Jesus. …to teach the Course’s reinterpretation of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering, forgiveness, Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion…” (Foundation for A Course In Miracles, “Forgiveness,” p.3- 4).
From its inception the Course has no qualms saying it is to challenge the word of God written down by the aposltes who personally knew Jesus.
The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year.
“This Course is a beginning, not an end … No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God … He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word” (Workbook, p. 477).
The deception
The course uses common Christian terms with a completely new meaning that is metaphysical. With the intent of correcting errors in the Bible that have offended unbelievers because of their “narrow- mindedness.” “There is no separation of God and His creation.” ( Text, p. 147). The underlying theme of the course is Hinduism disguised in Christian terminology.” It teaches that all roads ” lead to God in the end.”
One learns all this by “Revelation induces only experience” ( Text, p. 7) “When revelation of your oneness comes, it will be known and fully understood” (Workbook, p. 324). This is the mystical panenthism experience where ones worldview changes by new knowledge, called the paradigm shift.
God
“God is in everything I see”[/u] (A Course in Miracles: (Workbook), p. 45.)
[b]The Jesus Christ of the Course
[u]According to the Course, Jesus is merely “an elder brother entitled to respect for his greater experience.” The Jesus of the Course explains, “There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you. I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other” (A Course In Miracles, Vol. 1, p. 5).
“Jesus is a man, who is like all other men, and the Christ idea, which all men possess and must eventually demonstrated. He becomes the pattern for all of us. Jesus the man was used by the Christ to demonstrate the illusion of the world. In actuality, man is still in heaven. It is simply the illusion of sin and death that have caused false senses of reality. However, when man gains his Christ consciousness as Jesus did, then according to the Course, man will also discover the illusion of sin.”
So when you are enlightened you find that sin was never really a part of your nature but what kept you was ignorance of your divine self.
“The course teaches that Christ is not the only begotten son “…Jesus became what all of you must be. …Is he the Christ? O yes, along with you. Is he God’s only Helper? No, indeed. For Christ takes many forms with different names…,” (pp. 83-84).
“The Son of God … is not Jesus but our combined Christ consciousness.”
The course teaches that there is no personal unique “only begotten Son of God” but includes everyone. The course separates Christ from the person who is the only Christ – Jesus, the Son of God. “Jesus was an historical person, but the Christ is an eternal transpersonal condition.”
“The name Jesus refers to one who was a man but who saw the face of Christ in all his brothers…. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer at one with God.”
A “slain Christ has no meaning.” A Course in Miracles: (Text), p. 425.
We are told that “The Name of Jesus Christ is only a symbol. ” It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray. (Teachers Manual, p. 58). So what we have here is inclusivism, that it does not matter what name is used for God, Jesus is only one name among the many. “For Christ takes many forms with different names…” (pp. 83-84).
Man
It directs us to say of ourself “I am as God created me. His son can suffer nothing. And I am his son.”( Course of Miracles p.165)
“The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.” A Course in Miracles: (Text), p. 147.
When God created you He made you part of Him. ( Text, p.100)
“There is no difference between your will and Gods.” (Course of Miracles p.150)
A Course in Miracles likens us to sunbeams thinking we’re separate from the sun, or waves thinking we’re separate from the ocean. Just as a sunbeam can’t separate itself from the sun, and a wave can’t separate itself from the ocean, we can’t separate ourselves from one another. We are all part of a vast sea of love, one indivisible divine mind.
The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power. (A Course in Miracles: p. 125.)
Our ultimate reality, then – the core of who we are – is a single undivided essence. We’re not just similar in our essential nature, Williamson says; we’re the same Stuff.
Reality change
“Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.”
“Seek not to change the world but change instead the way you see it.”
“Man has created this illusionary World from “…false perceptions. It is born of error, and it has not left its source.” Because Man believes he is separated from God, through his own ego and mistaken beliefs, Man has created the reality in which he now finds himself.
If you go deeply enough into your mind and my mind, we have the same mind. The concept of a divine, or “Christ” mind, is the idea that, at our core, we are not just identical, but actually the same being. “There is only one begotten Son” doesn’t mean that someone else was it, and we’re not. It means we’re all it….
“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
“The effect of the ego’s belief in separation, which is its cause; the thought of separation given form; the world, being the expression of the belief in time and space, was not created by God…. The World of separation reinforces the ego’s belief in sin and guilt, perpetuating the seeming existence of this world” (Glossary-Index For A Course In Miracles, p. 168).
“I am affected only by my thoughts. It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. For in this single thought is everyone released at last from fear.” (A course in Miracles, The Foundation for Inner Peace, Huntington Station, N.Y. Lesson 228, p. 461.)
No Sin
“If we could prove that the cause had no effect then the cause can no longer exist. If something is not a cause it is not real, because everything that is real must be a cause and thus have an effect. If we remove the effect we are also eliminating the cause.”
We live in a world that is an illusion or dream-state, then by necessity, everything that the physical body does in this make-believe world must also be an illusion. This would necessarily include the false concepts of sin and death. As Volume 2 of the Course demands, “…sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause” (p. 179). A similar parallel is made about death. “Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem” (Vol. 3, p. 63).
“There is no sin; it has no consequence. Combined Volume, (Workbook), p. 183)
But contradicting this it teaches “Sin is defined as `lack of Love.’ Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished,” (A Course In Miracles, p. 8).
“The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.” (A Course in Miracles: p. 237.
Further contradicting the statement that sin has no consequence Kenneth Wapnick, of the Foundation for Inner Peace, explains, “If we now attempt to follow the Holy Spirit’s thinking, and we want to prove that the world is not real and that the sin of separation never happened, all that is needed is to prove that sin has no effect.”
“Now, if the greatest effect of sin in this world is death, demonstrating that death is an illusion simultaneously demonstrates that there is no sin. This also says that the separation never occurred. We therefore need someone to show us that there is no death. By undoing death that person will also undo sin and will simultaneously show us that there is no separation; the separation never occurred and the only reality, the only true Cause, is God. That person was Jesus. And his mission was to show that there is no death.”
Herein lies the internal contradiction of the Course that not only challenges the Bible but is self contradictory. If sin does not exist why try to remedy it. If there is no sin then there certainly is no death.. Yet they claim “Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem,” (Vol. 3, p. 63). Like its predecessor Christian Science, it denies reality. If there is good how can one say ” evil does not exist” ( Text, p. 38). Reality is reduced to being explained by what one dislikes as an illusion and what one does like is not an illusion.
The deception is propagated by what we would call fallen spirits (demons who accuse God and try to convince what God says in h His word is not true). “Helpers are given you in many forms…. Their names are legion, but we will not go beyond the names the Course itself employs. The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions” (Manual/Clarification of Terms 5).”
This is not what the Bible says, but the Course does not intend to use the Bible accurately except to borrow its terms. Christ did not come to save man from our illusions but from sin which he taught was very real as well as the consequences for it. However Volume 2 of the Course stresses “…sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause,” (p. 179). The Bible says for this reason Christ came into the world to save SINNERS, Paul writes Christ died for us while we were yet SINNERS. It should become apparent for any student of Scripture that the Jesus of the “Course” is not the Jesus of the Bible. The course teaches the very opposite of Jesus’ purpose to come to earth to rescue mankind. “The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation” (Text, p. 237).
“The crucifixion did not establish the Atonement; the resurrection did. Many sincere Christians have misunderstood this” (Text, p. 36) Again mimicking Christian Science, the Course denies the only way to be reconciled through God by his death on the cross. This should not be surprising as William Thetford who was instrumental in the publication of the Course was raised in the Christian Science church.
“The journey to the cross should be the last ‘useless journey. ’” A Course in Miracles: p. 52. “Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’” A Course in Miracles: p. 52.
“The full awareness of the Atonement, then, is the recognition that the separation never occurred” ( Text, p. 98). Herein is the teaching of antichrist according to the Bible, a denial that we are sinful and in need of the atonement that took place on the cross by the unique God/man Jesus Christ.
The demon ( fallen spirit) who dictated all this, tips his hat as he sates, “Do not make the pathetic error of “clinging to the old rugged cross.” The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. This is not the Gospel I intended to offer you” (Text, p. 52). Mocking the cross as the way to salvation comes not from God, but the enemy of God, the accuser who is Satan the devil.
Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson gave the Course national attention when she was featured in Time magazine. Called “the Mother Teresa for the `90’s” by some of her supporters, Williamson is one of the best known promoters of the Course (Time, 29 July 1991, p. 60). Since then it has become popular in Hollywood and accepted by the public. Numerous celebrities have learned the courses metaphysical wisdom through Williamson, Cher, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Perkins, Lesley Ann Warren, Tommy Tune, Roy Scheider, David Geffen, Dawn Steel, Oprah Winfrey, Raquel Welch, and Rosanne Arquette.
“Wealthy Houston lawyer’s daughter Marianne Williamson, 39, has become the most eminently eccentric Jewish exponent of “Jesus. ” A gorgeous and successful New Age guru living in Los Angeles, Williamson lectures to thousands on “miracle-mindedness” at up to $10 a head and was an Oprah Winfrey talk-show guest February 4. Oprah told her 14 million viewers she had experienced “157 miracles” in her life as a direct result of reading Williamson’s first book, A Return to Love. As a result her first printing sold out that day and propelled the book to No.1 on the new York times self help best seller list. Williamson states “For that, my deepest thanks to Oprah Winfrey. Her enthusiasm and generosity have given the book, and me, an audience we would never otherwise have had” (Marriane Williamson –A Return to Love p. ix)
Williamson, who officiated at Liz Taylor’s [Oct. 6] wedding, is founder of Centers for Living (New York City and L.A.) for people with AIDS and other “Life-challenging” illnesses. The organizations have been beset by bad publicity revolving around her notorious temper and ‘tyrannical streak.” (Entertainment Weekly, 3/6/92, p 31)
Williamson claims that A Course in Miracles was her personal “path out of hell.” Since its first printing in 1976, it has sold some 850,000 copies and has spawned over 1,000 study groups in the United States and abroad. As Williamson puts it, “No religion has a monopoly on the greatest story ever told.” Williamson believes her message appeals to “people who seek Jesus, but without the judgment, the guilt, the punitive doctrine.” She also claims “you can find truth anywhere.”
Buddhism, Jung, Abe Lincoln, Gandhi, Star Wars, or any religion. This falls into the thinking that all truth is Gods truth, but the truth is subjective since it is left up to the individual what they consider false, if anything.
An excerpt from March 9, 1992 article in People magazine states Williamson studied Zen, meditation and the Ouija board, ran a metaphysical bookstore, and finally began speaking to groups in a trendy amalgam of Christianity, Buddhism, pop psychology and 12-step recovery wisdom. She refers to herself as ‘the bitch from God.” (quoted in CIB june 1992 vol.8 no.6)
Recently I read an article in our local paper the Honolulu Weekly, of Marriane Williamsons invitation to the governors statewide conference on volunteerism. Creating a caring community at the Hilton Hawaiin Village. It was reported Williamson thinks our Islands as a center of psychic energy the heart chakra of the planet. This is what the new agers believe. Which is why a crystal pyramid was erected on the Island of Kaui.
Williamson believes “We are holy beings, individual cells in the body of Christ” (Marriane Williamson –A Return to Love p. 32)
Putting the Course in her own words “Even if he takes another name, even if he takes another face, he is in essence the truth of who we are’ (ibid. p. 296)
“Jesus and other, enlightened masters are our evolutionary elder brothers” (p. 42)
In the same way New Agers view Christ consciousness she states “The concept of a divine, or “Christ” mind, is the idea that, at our core, we are not just identical, but actually the same being. “There is only one begotten Son” doesn’t mean that someone else was it, and we’re not. It means we’re all it. There’s only one of us here. (p. 30-31). The idea of panentheism that we are all one interconnected in the divine being has become a popular way of spirituality.
In the Honolulu Weekly article it read “Though popular, Williaimson has her detractors. Forbes magazine wrote in May 1994 that Williamson was part of a new wave of “wild women gurus” – self-proclaimed “goddesses’ who make money by stimulating spiritual feminist discourse that encourages women “run for the woods: ‘a la poet Robert Bly’s mandate to men in his 1990 book, Iron John.
In 1992, Marianne Williamson published A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course In Miracles which “occupied the number one position on the Publishers Weekly non-fiction best-sellers list for eleven weeks!” (The Holy Encounter, July/Aug. 1992, p. 2).
Williamson has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, which received more pro viewer mail than any other show for 1992. She also appeared with Barbara Walters on the ABC television news show 20/20 (Ibid., July/Aug. 1992, p. 2; July/Aug. 1993, p. 9). Oprah plugged the book … announcing she’d personally bought 1,000 copies for distribution to the spiritually needy. This sent the book soaring to the top of the New York Times best seller list
Newsweek magazine reported The book became the fifth-bestselling nonfiction work of 1992.
The Course has been taught at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral and has been embraced by psychologists and even theologians. Many christian churches unaware of its danger have incorporated its teachings.
Oprah Winfrey will begin teaching the course on her XM Satellite Radio program this year (January 1, 2008). “Oprah & Friends” will offer a lesson a day in a year-long course on A Course in Miracles. Covering the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.” 2 Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.” 3 Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.” (reference Warren Smith)
One can view the course as a frontal attack upon the Bible’s literal interpretation. A denial of the Bible and the historic church’s held belief based on Scripture that man’s problem is sin and that we are in need a saviour. It is new age, Occultic and a synthesizing of all beliefs preparing people for a one world religion in which Jesus is just one of many teachers with the truth. And this is what the enemy of God would want. In the end it makes him have no truth at all, but demotes him to just another discoverer of his own divine potential, no more or less than anyone else.