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What is The Soul-Esteem Center?
The SEC is an independent and inclusive spiritual community coming together to share the experience of God, to discover and develop spiritual confidence, and to learn the practical application of spiritual principles. We are focused on the oneness of all life, the healing power of Love, and the co-creative relationship between God and the individual.
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What is Metaphysics?
The word “metaphysics” means beyond the appearance—beyond the physical. At The SEC, we like to think of “metaphysical spirituality” as being a study of the nature of God and of humankind’s relationship to the Divine. It is an exploration of ultimates beyond literal interpretation, beyond physical data, and beyond the five-sensory world. It embraces the multi-sensory dimensions of intuition, direct knowing, divine synchronicity, and divine guidance. It is the study of consciousness evolution.
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What is God?
God is the Supreme Being, the One Creative Power, the Absolute. God embraces the masculine and feminine principles of all life and is considered the All-In-All unmanifest and manifest; the Universal Spirit or Divine Self who individualizes as centers of consciousness for self-awareness; Divine Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, and Infinite Intelligence.
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Is The Soul-Esteem Center a “Christian” Church?
Not in the traditional sense. The difference is, we view Jesus as a very vital part of spiritual evolution, but do not worship him as God. Also, we take the stand that humankind is spiritually perfect and is not born into sin, but is free to discover and reveal that perfection through individual choice and decision. We think of The Soul-Esteem Center as a spiritual community focusing upon “non-religious spirituality.”
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What does The SEC believe about Jesus Christ?
We think of the Christ as a “principle,” as the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind—as the actualized spiritual man. In human terms Christ means “the anointed; the Messiah,” and was a name or title applied to Jesus of Nazareth, who demonstrated the Christ principle in himself. He taught his followers that each person must seek to reveal the higher self, the spiritual man, the Christ within. We use the acronym ENUFF to represent the five major teachings that Jesus gave us: Eternal Life, Nonjudgment, Unconditional Love, Forgiveness and Father within.
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Do we use the Bible?
Yes, as well as other spiritually inspired works. We use an “interpretive” approach to the Bible as opposed to a literal approach, looking for the teachings and messages that are often hidden behind the literal words.
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Do we believe in evil?
We teach that there is one God, one Power, in the Universe, and therefore there is no power of evil and no evil entity. We acknowledge the appearance of evil in our world, but understand that evil is mankind’s misuse of the One Creative Power.
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Does God punish us for our sins?
The word sin is an old archery term meaning “missing the mark.” Since we believe in a God of Love and Forgiveness, it is not God who punishes us when we miss the mark or make a mistake, but the Law of Cause and Effect which balances the scales. This is equivalent to “we reap what we sow,” and follows the natural consequence of spiritual law.