"promising" short cuts into the kingdom.
But we should be constantly reminded that there are no shorter cuts than those taught by Jesus. He said that the kingdom of heaven suffered violence under John the Baptist and the other prophets up to the time of John and that the violent took it by force. Then He called attention to John the Baptist as the reincarnation of Elijah. Of all the old prophets Elijah was the most violent and destructive. He at one time called down the fire of Jehovah and destroyed four hundred of the prophets of Baal. This violent and destructive rise of the power of the word finally reacted upon the cells of Elijah's body and burned them up, and he was taken up into the heavens in a chariot of fire.
It is popularly taught that Elijah is a saint in heaven, but this cannot be true because, as Jesus plainly taught in Matthew 11:14, he appeared again in the earth as John the Baptist. Neither did John get into heaven. He expressed the Elijah spirit by condemning Herod and then having his head cut off by way of reaction to his destructive thought. All this instructs us in the power of our mind to bring peace, harmony, and health into our life by right thinking. All that Jesus taught about man and his mighty mental capacity is being confirmed by modern psychology and by the discoveries of science in the realms invisible. For us it is not only a privilege but an absolute necessity to bring forth that perfection of character and form which was originally imaged in our soul by God-Mind.
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