A Course in Miracles
Manual for Teachers
Section 11
How Is Peace Possible in This World?
This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be
impossible here. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem
impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also
promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth
is man’s inheritance.
The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and
yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God’s Word has promised
that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible.
But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises
are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what
this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you
choose this.
Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether
your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say
different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to
try to reconcile them. God offers the world salvation; your judgment would
condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the
inevitable end of life.
God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your
judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It
must be so.
The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you
have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those
who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was
made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation,–one
without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems
possible,–God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His
Judgment substitutes for yours.
And through this substitution is the ununderstandable
made understandable. How is peace possible in this world?
In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the
Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.
Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those
who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped!
It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see
that is impossible.
Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world
redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in
joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has
entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by
being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it
leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It
is no longer, “Can peace be possible in this world?” but instead, “Is it not
impossible that peace be absent here?”
Manual for Teachers
Section 11
How Is Peace Possible in This World?
This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be
impossible here. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem
impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also
promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth
is man’s inheritance.
The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and
yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God’s Word has promised
that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible.
But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises
are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what
this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you
choose this.
Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether
your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say
different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to
try to reconcile them. God offers the world salvation; your judgment would
condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the
inevitable end of life.
God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your
judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It
must be so.
The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you
have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those
who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was
made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation,–one
without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems
possible,–God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His
Judgment substitutes for yours.
And through this substitution is the ununderstandable
made understandable. How is peace possible in this world?
In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the
Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.
Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those
who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped!
It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see
that is impossible.
Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world
redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in
joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has
entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by
being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it
leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It
is no longer, “Can peace be possible in this world?” but instead, “Is it not
impossible that peace be absent here?”