Immediately after uttering the phrase “the correction of hell and damnation,” Marshall Vian Summers uttered a phrase containing a word I have never heard him use in the past 4 years. The phrase was

…the abomination of religious violence…

The word “abomination” was a new word for me. He might have used the word as a noun, declaring religious violence as an existing abomination. He might have used the word as a verb, expressing his hope that the world’s religions categorically reject violence as an option. Either option would be consistent with his message.

Step 287 of Steps to Knowledge teaches “With Knowledge I cannot be at war.” Here is a paragraph from that step:

“With Knowledge you cannot be at war. You cannot be at war within yourself or with others, for with Knowledge there is only Knowledge and there is confusion in the world. Confusion does not require attack. Therefore, with Knowledge you are not at war, for you have one mind, one purpose, one responsibility, one direction and one meaning. The more your mind becomes uniform, the more your external life will become uniform as well. How can you be at war within yourself when you are following Knowledge? War is born of ambivalence where opposing value systems conflict with each other to gain your recognition. Competing ideas, competing emotions and competing values all wage war on one another, and you are caught in the middle of their great battles.”

If I am at war, then it is a dead giveaway that I am not following Knowledge. If I am at war on the outside, then it is but a reflection of a war taking place on the inside. If God is working to unify the world and unify the universe, then war in God’s name is, well, an abomination. It is a negative image, an opposite misrepresentation of God’s character. Here are some related quotes from other New Message writings.

“You are asked to end your ceaseless conflicts and to never think that you can conduct violence here on Earth in the name of God, for that is an abomination. There are no holy warriors. There is nothing holy about war.” (From the revelation “The Will of Heaven,” received May 17, 2011)

“To declare war on another nation or on another people in the name of God is a violation of God’s Will and purpose for humanity. This is never justified. War is never justified in the name of God—ever, in the history of humanity, now or in the future. Let this be your understanding, for should you make an exception here, you are doing it for your own purposes. You are doing it for reasons that you are not honestly expressing—the desire for power, the desire for revenge, the acquisition and control of resources, the hatred of another people, grievances from the past. These are the reasons you go to war, never to fulfill God’s purpose and destiny, never as an expression of God’s Will for humanity. If such is claimed in religious books, it is because it has been added by people. It is a human invention.” (From the revelation “The Admonition,” received February 1, 2008)

I know some people are reading this and wondering, “Does the New Message teach pacifism then, Douglas?” “How does this New Message teach people and nations to respond when war is waged against them?” I consider these to be reasonable questions, worthy of a detailed answer. I plan to answer those questions at a future date. But for now, I offer the examples of Generous King Hatim Tai and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to show that not being at war does not mean being passive.

I pray for the worldwide condemnation, the abomination of religious violence.

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