Precepts of the Christian Metaphysical Society include:
* Immaterialism Over Materialism
* Individualism Over Hierarchy
* Essence Over Surface
* Transcendence by Grace and Works
* Infinity vs. Totality (Freedom vs. Confinement)
* Respect for the Path the Other is On: No Hostility To Other Paths
* Cosmos From Logos, Not From Nothingness: thus, intelligent communication pervades the universe, not just intelligent design.
May this introduction to ramifications be gratifying to your need to comprehend some basic principles. It is best to take things a step at a time, rather than try to engulf the entirety at one glance. This measured approach will meet with approval by educators and pupils alike.
Practical applications of "Immaterialism Over Materialism" includes:
Devoting mind to pondering the Invisible God and the invisible events occurring in heaven and in your own heart as you grow in obedience and reverence.
Treasuring the words that have come to us from the invisible realm, our blessed communications from the spiritual spheres, reciting these words, teaching and obeying and transmitting them to all humanity.
Looking to what cannot be seen (what is prayed for) as eventualities, instead of locking down their non-occurrence in the immediate present.
Walking by (limitless, unconditioned, abstract) faith, not by (limited, conditioned, concrete) sight.
Doing things and making decisions based on the spiritual quality that will be negated or enhanced in self and others as a result.
Sacrificing time, money, effort, desires, feelings, justice for the sake of another. Regarding all others as superior, in many ways, to yourself, thus operationally unable to condemn, despise, or exalt yourself over them. You may confront, reprove, correct, joke about, or dismiss them, but you are unable to feel insulted or vengeful.
Resolved to never do anything from a base camp of hate, greed, envy, or anger.
Ethics based on both visible results and invisible rules.
Practical applications of "Respect for All Paths" includes:
There is no record of Jesus ever engaging in a heated debate with an atheist. The closest He came to this was a brief interlude with a Samaritan woman, saying that her clan did not worship correctly, and the Jews had the salvation (at least the doctrine of it), but that now there is true worship that is not location-based, but universal, doable anywhere at any time.
Thus, we consider arguing with an atheist or someone of another faith to be violation of evangelism. Debating is a verbalized form of using force against another person in a combative act of mental aggression.
Evangelism is for those who have ears to hear it. Not for those who don't.
Emphasizing where someone is right, not bashing them for what you think may be wrong in their life or opinions, is the key.
Never debate someone, because that debate is conducted solely in order to "win" the debate and convert someone to your ideas, which is a form of egoism and domination, in contradiction to taking up the cross daily and following Him.
Never try to "argue somone into faith" with assertions and counter-assertions, debunking and denouncing, spitting and arm-waving and stomping your feet.
Only discuss matters of faith with a sincere seeker.
This is the commonly known "Pearls Before Swine" commandment, but I hate to bring that up, because it's inflammatory.
If someone's path has led them to atheism, we must respect that and not try to punch holes in it and present an opposing view. That is called intellectual violence.
God, faith, the Bible, the spiritual realm -- they don't need anybody to "defend" them, "prove" them, or "explain" them.
They just need people to get born again, acquire a spiritual dimension from the holy spheres, and then start learning how to walk in obedience and believing, radiating the Christ within, guided by suggestions and advice from the Holy Spirit, seeing each person as Jesus and treating them as such, as Jesus commanded us to do.
Be a peacemaker in all possible realms. That includes inter-personal relations, conversations, and choice of what discussions to participate in and what to not.
Faith is not a human achievement, so there is no way one person can impart it magically to another. You either have faith, due to a past karma, or you don't, due to current state. In other words, the seeds of faith are planted at a very young age. Those who spit the seeds out grow into withered trees producing bad fruit. There is no need to belabor the point.
Manifest the love of God.
God will prove Himself to a sincere seeker.
God can grant that seeker the gift of faith so that the spiritual world and the savior of it will be crystal clear and serviceable.
The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The materialist cannot admit the reality of something that comes into play from beyond mind, for he exalts the human above the divine, which he calls "nonsense" because he does not, and unbeknownst to him, cannot, know them.
Deluded by his grandiose theories and devoted to his passions for unworthy things, he resents the fact that there are believers in something he denies. He will feel bigger if he can lure someone into the arena and then proceed to do battle against faith and people of faith and practice of faith.
He sees religion as being the source of all mankind's ills, and irreligion as innocent, normal, and to be enforced upon all, until there is no more religion anywhere. That would make the world better, according to the God-hater. Then he'd be happy because his anger at God and the strict commands of God cannot be stirred up as long as nobody mentions God anymore.
He thinks atheism makes him smart, whereas the Bible says "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." The two systems of thinking clash, and cannot help but clash, but he enjoys the clashing because part of his sinful nature includes the desire to quarrel, stir up strife, get upset at people who are different from him.
Leave them alone. They are in that position for a reason.
Move on to those who need and want your words from the other realm.
Move on to the immaterialists, non-mammonists, and sincere seekers.
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