A Course in Miracles Text Made Simple

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Chapter 30: The New Beginning

Section III. Beyond All Idols

Read A Course in Miracles, Chapter 30, Section III. (pages 630-633)

What is an idol?

An idol is a specific form in the ego’s world of differences that we believe will bring us happiness. When we ask for specific things, we are trying to replace God’s oneness with special, unique things that are different from the all-ness of God’s universal Beingness as Love. When we ask for idols, we ask for the experience of fear because we ask to be separate from our completion. And so we seek for completion outside ourselves where it cannot be found.

Jesus tells us, “It is as if you said, ‘I have no need of everything. This little thing I want and it will be as everything to me.’ And this must fail to satisfy because it is your will that everything be yours. Decide for idols and you ask for loss. Decide for truth and everything is yours.” (1:6-10)

When we ask for idols, what are we really seeking for?

When we seek for special things and special people in a world of differences we are seeking for completion. When we think we have separated off from what is whole, we feel an underlying sense of lack and incompletion. We feel we are lacking something. We feel a hole and we try to fill it up with specific forms (special bodies and special forms) that we think will bring us the feeling of completion we so desperately want.

What is the Course’s definition of sin?

In paragraph three Jesus tells us: “For sin is the idea you are alone and separated off from what is whole. And thus it would be necessary for the search for wholeness to be made beyond the boundaries of limits on yourself.” (3:7-8 italics added)

With this definition we see that when we identify with being separate and alone, or think that anyone in this world of separation is separate and alone, we are believing in the false idols of the ego. This belief in sin (being separate and alone) is what hell is. This belief in sin brings with it feelings of guilt, unworthiness, sadness, loneliness and incompletion. This false sense of being incomplete leads us to looking for idols (separate forms) ‘outside’ ourselves for happiness and completion.

Is completion God’s Will?

Now we are seeing that we have been looking for completion in all the wrong places. We are learning that when we accept God’ gift of everything instead of unique forms of special bodies or special forms, that we will feel complete.

Jesus tells us, “God knows not form. He cannot answer you in terms that have no meaning. And your will could not be satisfied with empty forms, made but to fill a gap that is not there. It is not this you want. Creation gives no separate person and no separate thing the power to complete the Son of God. What idol can be called upon to give the Son of God what he already has?” (4:5-10) Here we see that God has already given us completion.

What is our true function?

It is our true function to accept what has already been given to us in our Creation. Here we are told, “Completion is the function of God’s Son. He has no need to seek for it at all. Beyond all idols stands his holy will to be but what he is. For more than whole is meaningless. If there were change in him, if he could be reduced to any form and limited to what is not in him, he would not be as God created him.” (5:1-5)

Here we see that our true function is to be as we were created, whole, perfect and complete. We are one with our Father and we cannot be without Him. Our completion lies in our accepting all that God has given us. Here we have and are all that is. Here we are not trying to be something else other than what we are in our Creation.

Our function is to accept the fact that we are still as God created us. We have not changed anything. Love is. God is. There is nothing else. As we accept what is eternally true, we feel complete. We know and experience complete joy and peace as we are willing to be the universal, limitless Love we already are.

What do the Thoughts of God wait for?

Jesus tells us, “The Thoughts of God are far beyond all change and shine forever. They await not birth. They wait for welcome and remembering.” (8:1-3 italics added)

Here we see that we will be aware of God’s Thoughts (our true Identity as one with God) as we are willing to remember what is always true. We are still Love in the Mind of Love and this will never change. We may dream about false idols, of being separate and alone, weak and vulnerable, but we can never make these false ideas our reality. 

We are still safe in the Mind of God. We have not changed anything. As we give welcome to the truth, we will remember where we have always been, safe in the Mind of our Father, safe in Heaven — our completion — forever.

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