Study Guide and Commentary
ACIM® Text, Chapter 21, Section III
Faith, Belief, and Vision
Legend:
Sans serif text = Material from ACIM 3rd edition (FIP)
Italic sans serif text = words emphasized in all caps in Urtext
Bold sans serif text = alternate or omitted material from the Urtext
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strikethrough sans serif text = Not in Urtext, in FIP edition
Overview of the Section
What a section this section is, short as it may be! It tells us the three main means that the Holy Spirit uses to save us. It makes incredible promises about the power of our relationships. It clarifies that a holy relationship is still a special relationship. And it gives us a powerful practice to use when it feels as if our relationship is falling apart.
Paragraph 1
1. 1All special relationships have sin as their goal. 2For they are bargains with reality, toward which the seeming union is adjusted. 3Forget not this; to bargain is to set a limit, and any brother with whom you have a limited relationship, you hate. 4You may attempt to keep the bargain in the name of “fairness,” sometimes demanding payment of yourself, perhaps more often of the other. 5Thus in the “fairness” you attempt to ease the guilt that comes from the accepted purpose of the relationship. 6And that is why the Holy Spirit must change its purpose to make it useful to Him and harmless to you.
• Study Question •
1. Paragraph 1 discusses special relationships as bargains, which have sin as their goal. Let’s say you have a relationship where the two of you have an unspoken agreement in which one of you earns the money and one of you takes care of the children and the household. And you feel guilty because the other seems to make more sacrifices, so you occasionally make an extra sacrifice. Based on this paragraph, which of the following things are true:
A. The fact that you both make sacrifices is a sign of love.
B. Your extra sacrifices take away your guilt.
C. You have a limited relationship.
D. You hate your partner.
•
Once again Jesus asserts that “all special relationships have sin as their goal” (1:1, my emphasis). This was recently referred to in T-19.IV(B)16:2: “the ego has dedicated the body to the goal of sin.” And in the preceding section, we read, "Suffer, and you decided sin was your goal" (T-21.II.3:5). Recall that I previously defined “sin” as it is used in the Course as synonymous with “separation.” The ego is constantly trying to validate its separated existence, and uses special relationships to do so; that, to me, is the meaning of having sin as the goal of special relationships. The rest of the paragraph is an explanation of how the ego uses relationships toward its goal. Sentence 2 begins with the word “for,” in the sense of “because” or “since,” indicating that what follows is the reason for the preceding statement in sentence 1.
Special relationships are said to be “bargains with reality” that only seem to be a union of two people (1:2). The partners in this bargain have an agreement. They’ve set limits of some kind on one another, and are constantly adjusting the relationship in an attempt to live up to the terms of the bargain. One person demands “payment” from the other to restore a sense of “fairness” between them. But what is really going on is that the ego is achieving its purpose of separation and guilt. The flaw in the relationship is its ego-based purpose, which involves using one another in an attempt to “ease the guilt” of separateness by projecting the guilt onto each other. So often, then, the bargains we make with our relationship partners become tools for making them guilty (1:3–5). It ends up making what purports to be a loving relationship into an expression of hate (1:3).
This is why it is vital to give our relationships to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to change the purpose from sin to holiness, choosing to have it serve His purpose (salvation, wholeness) and stop being a destructive force in our lives (1:6).
Paragraph 2
2. 1If you accept this change, you have accepted the idea of making room for truth. 2The source of sin is gone. 3You may imagine that you still experience its effects, but it is not your purpose and you no longer want it. 4No one allows a purpose to be replaced while he desires it, for nothing is so cherished and protected as is a goal the mind accepts. 5This it will follow, grimly or happily, but always with faith and with the persistence that faith inevitably brings. 6The power of faith is never recognized if it is placed in sin. 7But it is always recognized if it is placed in love.
• Study Question •
2. Speaking of the same relationship as in the first question, what will you not allow to happen as long as you want to keep sin as your goal (there may be more than one right answer)?
A. The goal to be changed to holiness.
B. Recognition of the power of your faith in the goal of sin.
C. A holy relationship.
D. A holy instant in which you and your partner join in a common purpose.
•
Changing the purpose of the relationship is the key to everything. This is what transforms it into a holy relationship. The old habit patterns will linger for awhile, causing “relapse” into bargaining and blaming, but if the goal has been changed, something has profoundly shifted in our minds: “you have accepted the idea of making room for truth” (2:1). This cuts off the ego at its roots. The branches may seem to show life for a while, but the idea that nourished them has been cut off (2:2–3). What empowers the ego is our desire for its goal (2:4). As long as we believe that we want what the ego promises, we’ll “follow, grimly or happily, but always with faith and with the persistence that faith inevitably brings” (2:5).
Faith is a major theme of this section, and here we begin to learn more about it. Notice: We have faith, but in the wrong thing. When our faith is in the ego’s goal (sin) we don’t recognize it as faith, but that is what it is (2:6). When we shift the goal, when love becomes everything we want, we will always recognize our faith in it (2:7). And, when we want only love, we will see nothing else (T-12.VII.8:1).
Paragraph 3
3. 1Why is it strange to you that faith can move mountains? 2This is indeed a little feat for such a power. 3For faith can keep the Son of God in chains as long as he believes he is in chains. 4And when he is released from them it will be simply because he no longer believes in them, withdrawing faith that they can hold him, and placing it in his freedom instead. 5It is impossible to place equal faith in opposite directions. 6What faith you give to sin you take away from holiness. 7And what you offer holiness has been removed from sin.
• Study Question •
3. What feat can faith accomplish that is even greater feat than moving mountains?
•
The reference here is to the familiar verse in the Bible, Matthew 17:20 (RSV): “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” We read that and, perhaps, feel inspired, but we don’t really believe that faith could move a mountain. It seems “strange” that something so insubstantial and invisible as faith could affect a massive physical object. But from the perspective of an enlightened mind like that of Jesus, it is our skepticism that seems strange; “Why?” he asks (3:1).
The power of faith is enormous. Faith has stripped power from the Son of God, who shares God’s power. Compared to that feat, moving a mountain is nothing (3:2–3). What keeps us in chains is only our belief in the chains. Our experience of being liberated is simply the reflection of the transfer of our faith from our chains to our freedom (3:4). The only change is in the object of faith. Faith can really only be in one goal or the other, sin or holiness. Faith given to one is taken away from the other.
I choose to place my faith in my freedom, not my chains; in holiness and happiness, and not in sin and misery. Faith is omnipotent; nothing can stand in its way.
Paragraph 4
4. 1Faith and belief and vision are the means by which the goal of holiness is reached. 2Through them the Holy Spirit leads you to the real world, and away from all illusions where your faith was laid. 3This is His direction; the only one He ever sees. 4And when you wander, He reminds you there is but one. 5His faith and His belief and vision are all for you. 6And when you have accepted them completely instead of yours, you will have need of them no longer. 7For faith and vision and belief are meaningful only before the state of certainty is reached. 8In Heaven they are unknown. 9Yet Heaven is reached through them.
• Study Question •
4. True or false, even though many religions stress belief, it has no real value; only certainty, not belief, is useful on the spiritual path.
•
What is the distinction between faith and belief? I look at them this way: I can believe in something without putting my faith in it. For instance, I can believe that you have promised to do a certain thing without having any faith that you really will do it. So, I can believe that you are a holy child of God, but not have active faith that you will behave like one.
Vision is related to faith and belief in that vision is what I use to perceive something. I can see your divine nature with vision, but maybe not really believe in what I’m seeing. I can believe in it without having faith in it. So, as I understand them, vision leads to belief, and belief can lead to faith. They all work together to bring us to the goal of holiness (4:1).
The Holy Spirit’s vision reveals the real world to us in place of the sinful world we have been placing our faith in (4:2). It is the only thing He ever sees (4:3). When our belief and faith waver, and we begin to believe once again in the sinful world our body’s eyes show us, “He reminds you there is but one,” one world, one direction (4:4). He gives us His own faith, belief, and vision (4:5). We can accept His gifts, and as we do, allowing them to replace our misplaced faith and belief, they gradually grow to fill all our vision until, like Him, we see nothing else but holiness. And at that point we no longer need faith or belief or even vision itself, because we will have reached a state of absolute certainty (4:6–7). In Heaven, there is no such thing as faith, belief, or vision, and yet they are the means for reaching Heaven. They are the tools of the unlearning process (4:8–9).
Paragraph 5
5. 1It is impossible that the Son of God lack faith, but he can choose where he would have it be. 2Faithlessness is not a lack of faith, but faith in nothing. 3Faith given to illusions does not lack power, for by it does the Son of God believe that he is powerless. 4Thus is he faithless to himself, but strong in faith in his illusions about himself. 5For faith, perception and belief you made, as means for losing certainty and finding sin. 6This mad direction was your choice, and by your faith in what you chose, you made what you desired.
• Study Question •
5. Let’s say that you are a Course student, yet you have a hard time having faith in the spiritual truths the Course talks about. You want to forgive, but your mind is weak and locked into your current perceptions of things. According to this paragraph, which of the following things are true about you?
A. You have no faith.
B. You have very powerful faith in nothing.
C. You are faithless in who you really are.
D. You have faith in your illusion of being powerless.
•
And so we return to the notion that we all have faith. Being without faith in something is “impossible.” The only difference is what we have faith in (5:1). And the direction of our faith is a matter of choice. We’ve been living with a strong, rock-solid faith in our unworthiness and weakness. We have had “faith in nothing” (5:2). No matter how much you may believe that your faith is weak, your faith is extremely powerful, and that is proved by the fact that you, the all-powerful Son of God, have believed that you are powerless1, the victim of the world you see (5:3)! In such a state you are both faithless and faith-full: faithless to yourself, but “strong in faith in [your] illusions about [yourself]” (5:4).
As pointed out in the previous paragraph, faith and belief do not exist in Heaven, where they are unnecessary. We made them up along with the world. They were tools the ego used to cause us to lose certainty and to find sin instead of holiness (5:5). In that primal instant you chose to have faith and belief in your weakness and imperfection (because these proved your independence from your Source), and your faith “made what you desired” (5:6). Thus the world was born.
Paragraph 6
6. 1The Holy Spirit has a use for all the means for sin by which you sought to find it. 2But as He uses them they lead away from sin, because His purpose lies in the opposite direction. 3He sees the means you use, but not the purpose for which you made them. 4He would not take them from you, for He sees their value as a means for what He wills for you. 5You made perception that you might choose among your brothers, and seek for sin with them. 6The Holy Spirit sees perception as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy relationship is all you want to see. 7Then will you give your faith to holiness, desiring and believing in it because of your desire.
• Study Question •
6. Based on this paragraph, what is the original reason that the human body was given eyes?
A. In order to see God’s beautiful creation.
B. In order to catch prey and defend itself from attack.
C. In order to see which partners are more desirable.
•
We made faith and belief to find sin and make it (seem) real to us, but the Holy Spirit can use them to lead us in the opposite direction, away from sin (6:1–2), just as He uses everything we made to serve the ego’s goal—bodies; special relationships; perception; faith; belief. He is aware of all of these things, but He does not see “the purpose for which you made them” (6:3). He does not want to deprive us of anything we have made, no matter why we made them.2 He sees another value in them all, “as a means for what He wills for you” (6:4). Although we made perception to facilitate choosing among our brothers (6:5), making some special, and accepting them, while rejecting others, the Holy Spirit sees it “as a means to teach you that the vision of a holy relationship is all you want to see” (6:6).
The Course speaks of wrong perception, right perception, and finally vision. The Holy Spirit is working with us to transform our perception until it is purely “right,” at which point perception itself is replaced with knowledge. “"…perception must be straightened out before you can know anything” (T-3.III.1:2). Being willing to see our brothers and sisters as sinless is the way home. When we’ve come to the realization that all we want to see is the vision of a holy relationship, our belief and faith will align with that desire: we will believe in the holiness of the relationship, and give our faith to it (6:7).
Paragraph 7
7. 1Faith and belief become attached to vision, as all the means that once served sin are redirected now toward holiness. 2For what you think is sin is limitation, and whom you try to limit to the body you hate because you fear. 3In your refusal to forgive him, you would condemn him to the body because the means for sin are [Ur: is] dear to you. 4And so the body has your faith and your belief. 5But holiness would set your brother free, removing hatred by removing fear, not as a symptom, but at its source.
• Study Question •
7. According to this paragraph, when you see someone as a body, why is that (there may be more than one right answer)?
A. You want to imprison him in his body because you want to punish him, you have not forgiven him.
B. You want to keep him limited to his body because you fear the love that he really is.
C. Your goal is sin, and so you have given the body—the means of sin—your faith and belief.
•
Vision, then draws in our faith and belief, redirecting them from the ego and its goals to the new goal of holiness (7:1), just as the Holy Spirit will do with everything “that once served sin.” And a shift in perception, a new choice for vision instead of judgment, has far-reaching effects. It end up removing hatred and fear from our minds.
In our unholy relationships, ,we have allowed our faith and belief to rest on the body (7:4) because bodies can be “the means for sin,” the way we can demean and belittle others by identifying them as simply physical beings, limited and small (7:2–4). When a brother stumbles, we refuse to forgive him because doing so cuts him down to something we can look down on, thus exalting our own ego self (7:3). But, having turned our brothers and sisters into sinful enemies, we end up fearing and hating those we limit in this way (7:2).
The vision of holiness, on the other hand, sets our brother free. Our hatred is removed and our fear is banished, not by superficial palliation, but profoundly, by removing the source of our fear, which is our choice to use judgment, to perceive him as merely a body (7:5).
Paragraph 8
8. 1Those who would free their brothers from the body can have no fear. 2They have renounced the means for sin [the body] by choosing to let all limitations be removed. 3As they desire to look upon their brothers in holiness, the power of their belief and faith sees far beyond the body, supporting vision, not obstructing it. 4But first they chose to recognize how much their faith had limited their understanding of the world, desiring to place its power elsewhere should another point of view be given them. 5The miracles that follow this decision are also born of faith. 6For all who choose to look away from sin are given vision, and are led to holiness.
• Study Question •
8. Paragraph 8 describes a process that we go through in acquiring vision. Please place the following parts of this process in sequence.
A. You desire to place the power of your faith somewhere else, should you be given another point of view.
B. The power of your faith and belief see beyond the body.
C. You desire to look on the holiness in your brother.
D. Your recognize how much your faith in the body has limited your understanding of the world.
E. You are given vision and experience miracles.
•
Once we have perceived another person as not a body, we cannot fear them (8:1). The reverse is also true: We cannot free another from their body unless we are willing to see them without fear. It’s a choice we must make “to let all limitations be removed,” looking past the body to see the eternal, holy child of God it is hiding (8:2). Our desire, our wanting, moves us to look with vision rather than judgment, which engages our belief and faith in the holiness that lies “far beyond the body” (8:3). We no longer allow the sight of bodies to obstruct our vision; we employ belief and faith to see that which is invisible to the body’s eyes. “Faith is…the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, ESV).
Before that can happen, however, we must deliberately become aware of how we have misdirected our faith, believing that the physical world and the body were the only real things, or at least “more real” than invisible spirit, a misdirection that severely limits our understanding of the world (8:4). We must desire and choose to redirect our faith in a more profitable direction (8:4,6), if such a direction should show up, which of course it has, given by the Holy Spirit. When we make that choice, miracles will follow (8:5). Fear and hate will vanish, and vision will reveal the holiness of all things (8:6).
Paragraph 9
9. 1Those who believe in sin must think the Holy Spirit asks for sacrifice, for this is how they think their purpose is accomplished. 2Brother, the Holy Spirit knows that sacrifice brings nothing. 3He makes no bargains. 4And if you seek to limit Him, you will hate Him because you are afraid. 5The gift that He has given you is more than anything that stands this side of Heaven. 6The instant for its recognition is at hand. 7Join your awareness to what has been already joined [the two of you in your holy relationship]. 8The faith you give your brother can accomplish this. 9For He Who loves the world is seeing it for you, without one spot of sin upon it, and in the innocence that makes the sight of it as beautiful as Heaven.
• Study Question •
9. Based on this paragraph, if you believe that the Holy Spirit asks you to give up something that makes you happy in exchange for His gifts, what will result from this belief (there may be more than one right answer)?
A. To bargain is to limit is to hate because you fear. You thus will limit, hate and fear the Holy Spirit.
B. You will become a good Catholic.
C. Rather than purchasing His gifts, you will limit them.
D. He will take your sacrifice as a sign of love from you and give you His love in return.
•
When Spirit calls, we may hesitate to respond, thinking that to answer that call will require some sort of sacrifice on our part. It’s not surprising we think that way, because, in the ego thought system within which we’ve been operating, the way to achieve what we want is through demanding sacrifices of some sort from others (9:1). We make bargains, and a bargain in essence is a contract of mutual sacrifice. “You give me this, and I’ll give you that.” So, when the Holy Spirit calls, we expect to be called on to sacrifice.
But the Holy Spirit knows one thing for certain: “sacrifice brings nothing” (9:2). He doesn’t work that way (9:3). We are projecting our way of thinking onto the Spirit, trying to limit Him to the same small-minded mode of operation we believe in. The hidden motive of our projection is that we are afraid of the Spirit. We believe in our own guilt, and anticipate some sort of punishment or penance (9:4).
What is being offered to us is not a call to sacrifice, but a priceless gift, more valuable than anything we could ever find in the material world (9:5). It’s time for us to recognize it as such (9:6)! How? By opening the eyes of our faith, belief, and vision, to let the union that already exists in our holy relationship bloom in our awareness (9:7). Allow yourself to place your faith in your brother (or sister), because it can and will show you the innocence and holiness that is there. The Holy Spirit loves the entire world, including your partner in relationship, and He is “seeing it for you, without one spot of sin upon it, and in the innocence that makes the sight of it as beautiful as Heaven” (9:8–9). The vision of the Holy Spirit can be ours!
Imagine for a moment what it will be to look upon Heaven: no more tears, no more death, no more pain, no more hatred, only pure, innocent, eternal life! Try to imagine how it will feel to awaken to all that. And then, try to imagine that you are looking at the world, and at your brother or sister, and knowing that what you see is just a beautiful as that celestial vision.
There has been more than one time in my life when I have looked at a person and felt that, because of what I could see in them, I knew in that moment, with a sense beyond mind, that God exists. I think that’s what this is talking about.
Paragraph 10
10. 1Your faith in sacrifice has given it great power in your sight; except you do not realize you cannot see because of it. 2For sacrifice must be exacted of a body, and by another body. 3The mind could neither ask it nor receive it of itself [without enlisting the body]. 4And no more could the body. 5The intention is in the mind, which tries to use the body to carry out the means for sin in which the mind believes. 6Thus is the joining of mind and body an inescapable belief of those who value sin. 7And so is sacrifice invariably a means for limitation, and thus for hate.
• Study Question •
10. Paragraph 10 discusses the idea of sacrifice in relation to the body and the mind. Why, according to this paragraph, does your mind want to feel connected to your body?
A. Because your mind desires sacrifice, but only your body can give and receive sacrifice.
B. Because the body can give pleasurable sensations.
C. Because the mind feels lonely and wants the company.
•
Our false expectation of being asked to sacrifice, and of the positive benefit of the mutual self-sacrifice that lives in the bargains that are at the foundation of so many of our relationships, amounts to faith in sacrifice. We believe that sacrifice has “great power” (10:1). Think of all the “love stories” that involve someone’s sacrifice for their beloved. Think of the firm conviction that if you have sacrificed for someone, they are obligated to love you. Think of the millenia-old belief that God demanded the sacrifice of death from His own Son as some kind of payment for sin. We do not realize how blind our faith in sacrifice has made us.
Sacrifices are physical, not mental. A mind can conceive of sacrifice, of course, and ask for sacrifice, but the sacrifice itself must be asked from, and carried out by, a body. A mind cannot sacrifice; it is eternally whole. It must use the body to carry out sacrifice. On the other hand, a body does not ask for or receive sacrifice on its own. Sacrifice entails the mind and body joining to collaborate (10:2–4). “The intention is in the mind, which tries to use the body to carry out” the sacrifice (10:5).
The point here is that, to believe in sacrifice, we have to believe that mind and body are joined, that the mind is in the body (10:6). The ego tries to confuse the mind with the body, causing us to believe that the mind is as limited as the body. "Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created" (T-18.VIII.5:2). Belief in sacrifice, then, is just another way the ego tries to limit our self-awareness to the body, “and thus [a means for] hate” (10:7). Separateness fosters hatred because it fosters competition and fear. Thinking of human beings as nothing but bodies makes it possible to believe we can attack others without affecting ourselves, when, in fact, we are all part of the One Mind.
Paragraph 11
11. 1Think you the Holy Spirit is concerned with this? 2He gives not what it is His purpose to lead you from [sacrifice]. 3You think He would deprive you [make you sacrifice] for your good. 4But “good” and “deprivation” are opposites, and cannot meaningfully join in any way. 5It is like saying that the moon and sun are one because they come with night and day, and so they must be joined. 6Yet sight of one is but the sign the other has disappeared from sight. 7Nor is it possible that what gives light be one with what depends on darkness to be seen. 8Neither demands the sacrifice of the other. 9Yet on the absence of the other does each depend.
• Study Question •
11. Paragraph 11 explains why the Holy Spirit does not deprive you for your good, illustrating this with the analogy of the sun and moon. What does the moon symbolize, and what does the sun symbolize?
A. Happiness; sacrifice.
B. Deprivation; good.
C. Good; deprivation.
D. They simply illustrate the principle of two mutually exclusive things.
•
Since sacrifice promotes separation, limitation, and hatred, how can we think for even a moment that the Holy Spirit wants to use sacrifice with us, in any way (11:1). He is trying to lead us away from sacrifice, not into it (11:2).
We imagine that we are called to sacrifice for our own good (11:3). Seems crazy, and it should seem crazy, yet, isn’t that the traditional concept of sacrifice? We think we are being asked to sacrifice something for some greater reward. I remember a Christian song that had people sing, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.” The idea implicit in that line is that, although we are being asked to sacrifice and suffer now, the reward in Heaven will make it all worthwhile. That is utter nonsense. It’s a teaching that has been used by malicious leaders to keep people in check while they are being exploited.
To be “deprived” cannot possibly be anything “good” (11:4). Saying that good depends on sacrifice is like saying that sight of the sun depends on sight of the moon (11:5–6). Sun and moon are linked by the light of the sun, given to the moon, but “neither demands the sacrifice of the other” (11:7), and yet the sight of them is mutually exclusive. Gain is good; sacrifice is loss. They are opposites, and cannot depend on one another. The Holy Spirit wants only our good. "The Holy Spirit never asks for sacrifice, but the ego always does. When you are confused about this distinction in motivation, it can only be due to projection" (T-7.X.5:5-6).
Paragraph 12
12. 1The body was made to be a sacrifice to sin, and in the darkness so it still is seen. 2Yet in the light of vision it is looked upon quite differently. 3You can have faith in it to serve the Holy Spirit’s goal, and give it power to serve as means to help the blind to see. 4But in their seeing they look past it, as do you. 5The faith and the belief you gave it belongs beyond. 6You gave perception and belief and faith from mind to body. 7Let them now be given back to what produced them, and can use them still to save itself from what it made.
• Study Question •
12. Which of the following are true about how we will one day see the body?
A. Differently.
B. As a miracle of creation.
C. We will have faith in its ability to serve the Holy Spirit’s plan.
D. We will look past it, to the holiness beyond it.
E. We will see it as a sacrifice to sin.
•
The body can be seen as an object to be sacrificed, to suffer for sin, or it can be “looked upon quite differently” (12:1–2). The difference comes with vision. It is possible even to have faith in the body “to serve the Holy Spirit’s goal,” and you can empower your own body “to serve as means to help the blind to see” (12:3). As long as we do not make the fatal error of believing that we are the body, that mind is part of the body, we can employ it as a useful communication device.3 As we enlighten others, opening their spiritual eyes, they too, as we do, will “look past” the body (12:4). With vision they will see the one spirit we all share. The perception and faith and belief we which we previously gave to our bodies really belongs beyond the body, to the immaterial mind that transcends all bodies, yet which can use the body “to save itself from what it made” (12:5–7), the world of limitation. We are being called to put our faith and belief in our own minds, in the mind that we are, rather than in our bodies. The power of our mind must be reaffirmed and re-established in our awareness. We must proclaim:
The power of decision is my own (W-pI.152).
I rule my mind, which I alone must rule (W-pII.236).
The power of decision is [my] one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. [I] can decide to see it right (T-12.VII.9:1-2).
• Study Question •
13. Summary: Please summarize the main themes of this section in a paragraph. You may focus on those themes that struck you the most, but please include a contrast between using faith, belief and perception for the goal of sin vs. using them for the goal of holiness.
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Answer Key
1. C,D
2. A,B,C,D
3. Keeping the Son of God in chains while he believes in them.
4. False
5. B,C,D
6. C
7. A,B,C
8. D,A,C,B,E.
9. A,C and possibly B
10. A
11. B
12. A,C,D
13. My summary: You made faith, belief and perception to serve the goal of sin, to limit your brother to his body out of fear. Desire to look past his body and to see his holiness, and the Holy Spirit will redirect your faith, belief and perception to serve the goal of holiness.
1 The theme of our belief in powerlessness continues on through the chapter. For instance, "Do you not see that all your misery comes from the strange belief that you are powerless" (T-21.VII.1:1).
2 We have been told this about our special relationships earlier in the Text. "In His function as Interpreter of what you made, the Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which you have chosen to support the ego, as learning experiences that point to truth. Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love" (T-15.V.4:5-6). Also: "I have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them" (T-17.IV.2:3). Here, Jesus applies the same principle to perception, faith, and belief.
3 [Resurrection] is the dream in which the body functions perfectly, having no function except communication (M-28.1:6).
The Holy Spirit sees the body only as a means of communication (T-6.V.5:5).
Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. Being the communication link between God and His separated Sons, the Holy Spirit interprets everything you have made in the light of what He is. The ego separates through the body. The Holy Spirit reaches through it to others (T-8.VII.2:1-4).