the goal of life or science and revelation: chapter xvii (the likeness of God)

“So the Christ came that he might take of the flesh and the blood of man to create a seed whose substance was spirit. This seed was planted in his people on the day of Pentecost, and like the kernel of wheat (see John 12:24) it grew, matured, and multiplied; and will continue to grow until the fulness of time comes, when the “harvest of the world” is gathered in – the harvest of the first planting of Christ, the Seed-man. (see Mark 4:26-29.)

Thus, Christ generated in the world, through the unity of Spirit and flesh, a quality that did not exist therein until his time – a superior quality belonging to a plane next beyond the plane of creative-life, or the spirit of the mundane. As the prophet said of him, “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahveh shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10.)

The force of the prophet’s words, “He shall see his seed”, was strengthened when he said, “More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith Yahveh”, for ultimately more will be the seed of the Christ-life – the union of Spirit with matter that took place in his body, by which sons and daughters of God are born – than the spirit of generation.

Again, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit – that which was begotten in the Christ was spirit clothed with the substance of flesh. This subtile element of the thought-qualities of the Christ, planted in the race, in the lives of men and women, being a quality purer, higher, holier and therefore more potential than had before existed in the race, made the spiritual potency of man more tenacious.

Through this potency, and through this only, can immortality be attained; through it, and through it only, can mind be formed in man that will be able to know spirit and, at the same time, to know the things of earth. Through it, man recognizing the Father, will unite with the Spirit of God and become Immanuel, God with us, or God in us; God manifest in the flesh – “The Likeness of God.””

Hiram Butler