A: Definitely. That is this: Agree instantly that there are no adversaries, because there is only one power.
You will find on page 13 of the book The Letters, the whole secret of spiritual healing. The entire secret is on one page. (Note: The book Joel is referring to is currently published as The Early Years, and we believe that he is referring to the Chapter 2, titled “God.” We have quoted that excerpt below.) When you come to the realization that God is not to be used for the purpose of getting rid of error, but that error is to be recognized as no power, then you’re in spiritual healing. Then you’ll be agreeing with your adversary.
The adversary is sin, disease, and death, and the minute you agree that they are not enemies, they’re not powers. They’re just universal beliefs that have fooled us into accepting them as powers. But when you once begin to perceive that you’re not in any religious teaching that teaches that there is a God that heals disease, or that there’s a Christ that heals disease—those are just, well, that’s just terminology, religious terminology, but it’s not truth. God never heals disease. God never did heal disease. God would be a cruel monster if he ever healed disease, because of all the other disease that he hasn’t cured.
If God had the power to cure you or me of disease, and he left all these other people in disease, you don’t want that kind of a God, even for your benefit. The secret of spiritual living and spiritual healing is: God is your life. God is individual identity, individual being, and in Him there is nothing that defileth or maketh a lie. Therefore, these appearances, which we call the adversary, whether you call them sin, disease or death, or whether you call them mortal mind or carnal mind, if you recognize that they’re not enemies; they’re just thoughts, beliefs, appearances, arm of flesh, or nothingness, you’re the victor. But not while you treat them as evil.
Excerpt from Chapter 2, “God,” in The Early Years
Man is the manifestation of God, and how can we know man until we know that of which he is constituted? The manifestation of God is not a mortal, a material being. God can be manifest only in Its nature, character, and quality. Therefore, the attempt to heal or enrich a human cannot be the way to manifest God. As we dwell in thought on what the nature of divine being is, we behold man, the manifestation of divine Being, and there we find the infinity, eternality, and harmony of our own being. “Therefore the world (mankind) knoweth us not, because it knew him (divine being) not.”2 God manifests Itself as love, life, being; and man is that love, life, and being made manifest.
“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”3 What is truth? Christ Jesus said, “I am the truth.”4 Did this apply to person or principle? Was this truth a personal quality or condition, or was it the very principle of his being? “Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?”5—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”6 A principle is being revealed for all who have ears to hear. Truth is universal, and if Jesus declared: “I am the way, the truth, and the life,”7 this declaration is the truth about you and me. Truth is universal, impersonal, and impartial, and is therefore the truth about you and me. Then, we should be the truth and thereby discover that “to truth there is no error.” “I am the life.” Therefore, be the life and discover that in life there is no death. “I am the light of the world.”8 Therefore, be the light and learn that in light there is no darkness. Claim your true identity and be it.
There is but one life, one mind, one being, and this One is God. This constitutes your identity. Then, “Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils”9—seek no longer to improve, heal, or save him, but remember that “ye must be born again” as the Christ, “the Son of the living God.” In losing your life (your human sense of life) you will find yourself to be pure spiritual being, as the life and the light.
We know that there is but one being and that this One is our only being. Then, the qualities and activities of divine being are the qualities and activities of my being and of your being. This is the being referred to in, “I and my Father are one.”10 Is this not clear? “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”11 Can any message be more clear or more simple? “I am the light of the world”12 and “Ye are the light of the world.”13 Do you believe this? “Thou art the Son of the living God.”14
1This excerpt is from Recording 221B: 1958 New York Closed Class, “God Is ‘I’.” It is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available at www.joelgoldsmith.com or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
2 1 John 3:1.
3 John 8:32.
4 See John 14:6.
5 Matthew 16:13.
6 Matthew 16:16.
7 John 14:6.
8 John 8:12.
9 Isaiah 2:22.
10 John 10:30.
11 John 14:9.
12 John 8:12.
13 Matthew 5:14.
14 John 6:69.