Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

CHURCH OF GOD

A symbol of the form of thought occupied by the religious consciousness which is a mental emotional state of soul venerative of conceptions of Wisdom, Love and Truth. The Church of the Living God was, is and ever will be to the end of time seated in the inner sanctuary of the human soul, or causal-body.

"Christ also loved the church, an gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself glorious church, not having spot wrinkle or any such thing; but that should be holy and without blemish.” - EPH. v. 25-7.

To bring about the completion of the evolution of the inner nature (church) of the soul, the Self, who is Love, involved himself in the soul's lower nature. He became incarnate in order that, being born in the soul, he might sanctify it, and having purified it by truth (water), and by the expression of the Divine Life (word), he might, as the Saviour of the causal-body (church), complete it in every respect, so that it should be a glorious vehicle of the Spirit, pure and perfect, holy and without blemish.

"The Church is formed out of Christ's bones and flesh; and it was for this cause that the Word, leaving His Father in heaven, came down to be 'joined to His wife,' and slept in the trance of His passion, and willingly suffered death for her, that He might present the Church to Himself glorious and blameless, having cleansed her by the laver (of regeneration), for the receiving of the spiritual and blessed seed, which is sown by Him, who with whispers implants it in the depths of the mind; and is conceived and formed by the Church, as by a woman, so as to give birth and nourishment to virtue." - METHODIUS, The Banquet, etc., Ante-Nic. Lib., p. 28.

"The Lord's church in heaven." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 191.

"Inward sanctity, pure love, disinterested attachment to God and man, obedience of heart and life, sincere excellence of character, this is the one thing needful, this the essential thing in religion; and all things else, ministers, churches, ordinances, places of worship, all are but means, helps, secondary influences, and utterly worthless when separated from this. To imagine that God regards anything but this, that he looks at anything but the heart, is to dishonour him, to express a mournful insensibility to his pure character. Goodness, purity, virtue, this is the only distinction in God's sight. This is intrinsically, essentially, everlastingly, and by its own nature, lovely, beautiful, glorious, divine. It owes nothing to time, to circumstance, to outward connections. It shines by its own light. It is the Sun of the spiritual universe. It is God himself dwelling in the human soul." - W. E. CHANNING, The Church.

"See what the religious world really is in its idea. A world everywhere aware of and rejoicing in the priority of God, feeling all power flow out from Him, and sending all action back to report itself to Him for judgment, - a world where goodness means obedience to God, and sin means disloyalty to God, and progress means growth in the power to utter God, and knowledge means the understanding of God's thought, and happiness means the peace of God's approval. That is the only world which is religious." - PHILLIPS BROOKS, Light of the World, p. 47.

See Also

AGNISHTOMA
ALTAR OF SACRIFICE
BISHOP
CONVERSION
EARTHQUAKES
HOUSE IN HEAVEN
MANSIONS
POPE
PYRAMID
RIB
TEMPLE
TABERNACLE
WOMAN