T-3.VII Creating versus the Self-Image
1. Every system of thought must have a starting point. ²It begins with either a making or a creating, a difference we have already discussed. ³Their resemblance lies in their power as foundations. ⁴Their difference lies in what rests upon them. ⁵Both are cornerstones for systems of belief by which one lives. ⁶It is a mistake to believe that a thought system based on lies is weak. ⁷Nothing made by a child of God is without power. ⁸It is essential to realize this, because otherwise you will be unable to escape from the prison you have made.
2. You cannot resolve the authority problem by depreciating the power of your mind. ²To do so is to deceive yourself, and this will hurt you because you really understand the strength of the mind. ³You also realize that you cannot weaken it, any more than you can weaken God. ⁴The “devil” is a frightening concept because he seems to be extremely powerful and extremely active. ⁵He is perceived as a force in combat with God, battling Him for possession of His creations. ⁶The devil deceives by lies, and builds kingdoms in which everything is in direct opposition to God. ⁷Yet he attracts men rather than repels them, and they are willing to “sell” him their souls in return for gifts of no real worth. ⁸This makes absolutely no sense.
3. We have discussed the fall or separation before, but its meaning must be clearly understood. ²The separation is a system of thought real enough in time, though not in eternity. ³All beliefs are real to the believer. ⁴The fruit of only one tree was “forbidden” in the symbolic garden. ⁵But God could not have forbidden it, or it could not have been eaten. ⁶If God knows His children, and I assure you that He does, would He have put them in a position where their own destruction was possible? ⁷The “forbidden tree” was named the “tree of knowledge”. ⁸Yet God created knowledge and gave it freely to His creations. ⁹The symbolism here has been given many interpretations, but you may be sure that any interpretation that sees either God or His creations as capable of destroying Their Own purpose is in error.
4. Eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a symbolic expression for usurping the ability for self-creating. ²This is the only sense in which God and His creations are not co-creators. ³The belief that they are is implicit in the “self-concept”, or the tendency of the self to make an image of itself. ⁴Images are perceived, not known. ⁵Knowledge cannot deceive, but perception can. ⁶You can perceive yourself as self-creating, but you cannot do more than believe it. ⁷You cannot make it true. ⁸And, as I said before, when you finally perceive correctly you can only be glad that you cannot. ⁹Until then, however, the belief that you can is the foundation stone in your thought system, and all your defenses are used to attack ideas that might bring it to light. ¹⁰You still believe you are an image of your own making. ¹¹Your mind is split with the Holy Spirit on this point, and there is no resolution while you believe the one thing that is literally inconceivable. ¹²That is why you cannot create and are filled with fear about what you make.
5. The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the “devil”. ²It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. ³Look at your life and see what the devil has made. ⁴But realize that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a lie. ⁵Your creation by God is the only Foundation that cannot be shaken, because the light is in it. ⁶Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. ⁷Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. ⁸Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict. ⁹You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. ¹⁰As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. ¹¹There is no death, but there is a belief in death.
6. The branch that bears no fruit will be cut off and will wither away. ²Be glad! ³The light will shine from the true Foundation of life, and your own thought system will stand corrected. ⁴It cannot stand otherwise. ⁵You who fear salvation are choosing death. ⁶Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and perception, are irreconcilable. ⁷To believe that they can be reconciled is to believe that God and His Son can not. ⁸Only the oneness of knowledge is free of conflict. ⁹Your Kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from beyond this world. ¹⁰Only in this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. ¹¹The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.