Foreword
Charles Fillmore
Mysteries of Genesis
THE BOOK OF GENESIS
is the key to the Bible. In the New
Testament it is quoted twenty-seven
times literally and thirty-eight times
substantially. It tells in a very few
words how God first imaged man and the
universe and then turned the
development over to Jehovah, who has
been in a process of manifestation for
ages and aeons.
The "Five Books of
Moses," of which Genesis is the first,
have always been credited to Moses, but
that he was the author seems doubtful
in the face of the many stories of
creation found in the legends and
hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, Chaldea,
and other nations that are almost
identical with those of Genesis. It
would thus seem that Moses edited the
legends of the ages and compiled them
into an allegorical history of
creation.
As printed in English
translations there is little to
reconcile Genesis with creation as
revealed by modern geology. It is said
that Hugh Miller, the brilliant
Scottish geologist, went insane in his
efforts to reconcile Genesis with the
geological record. However more
accurate translations of the Hebrew
show that the literal reading of the
English is often not warranted by the
original text. For example, the English
Bible reads, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth."
Fentons translation renders it thus:
"By periods God created that which
produced the Suns; then that which
produced the Earth." When we realize
that God is mind (Spirit-mind), we see
that this latter rendition is correct.
God creates the ideas that form the
things. Here we have the key that
unlocks not only the mysteries of
Genesis but the whole Bible. God's
creations are always spiritual. This
includes the spiritual man, called
Jehovah, through whom all things,
including personal man, Adam, are
brought into manifestation.
We ask our readers to
dwell on this initial proposition until
its truth is established in
consciousness, because it is repeated
over and over in both the Old and the
New Testament. Jesus said, "I speak not
from myself: but the Father abiding in
me doeth his works." Jesus was here
referring both to His personality, the
external I, and to the inner spiritual
entity that He named the Father, in
Genesis called Jehovah.
Hebrew words are
composite; they contain a variety of
meanings, to be determined by the
context. For example the Hebrew word
yom, translated "day" in the English
Bible, means "to be hot"; that is, with
reference to the heat of the day as
compared with the cool of the night.
The word yom was also used to represent
a period of time, an age.
It will readily be
seen that the translator had a rich
field of ideas from which to choose and
that he could make his text historical
or symbolical according to his
consciousness. If he thought the
original story was a statement of facts
his translation would be to that end.
The Pharisees of Jesus' time were
condemned by Him for teaching the
letter of the Scriptures and neglecting
the spirit. The same charge can be
brought today against those who study
the Bible as history rather than as
parable and idealistic illustration of
the spiritual unfoldment of
man.
The Bible veils in
its history the march of man from
innocence and ignorance to a measure of
sophistication and understanding. Over
all hovers the divine idea of man, the
perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a
perpetual source of inspiration and
power for every man. Those who seek to
know this Lord and His manifestation,
Jesus Christ, receive a certain
spiritual quickening that opens the
inner eye of the soul and they see
beyond the land of shadows into the
world of Spirit.
The truths in this
book will be revealed to you through
your own spiritual unfoldment.
Spiritual things are spiritually
discerned. The spiritual revelations
that you seem to get from books and
teachers already existed as submerged
experiences in your own soul. The
essential truths have been worked out
in this or previous incarnations, and
when you were reminded of the buried
idea it blazed forth as a light from
without. So all that you are or ever
will be must come from your own
spiritual achievements.
"Seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you."
Chapter
1
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