1. Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. 2Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? 3We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. 4It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. 5This is regarded as “the way of nature,” not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life. 6The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,—all this is taken as the Will of God. 7And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.
2. In this perception of the universe as God created it, it would be impossible to think of Him as loving. 2For who has decreed that all things pass away, ending in dust and disappointment and despair, can but be feared. 3He holds your little life in his hand but by a thread, ready to break it off without regret or care, perhaps today. 4Or if he waits, yet is the ending certain. 5Who loves such a god knows not of love, because he has denied that life is real. 6Death has become life’s symbol. 7His world is now a battleground, where contradiction reigns and opposites make endless war. 8Where there is death is peace impossible.
3. Death is the symbol of the fear of God. 2His Love is blotted out in the idea, which holds it from awareness like a shield held up to obscure the sun. 3The grimness of the symbol is enough to show it cannot coexist with God. 4It holds an image of the Son of God in which he is “laid to rest” in devastation’s arms, where worms wait to greet him and to last a little while by his destruction. 5Yet the worms as well are doomed to be destroyed as certainly. 6And so do all things live because of death. 7Devouring is nature’s “law of life.” 8God is insane, and fear alone is real.
4. The curious belief that there is part of dying things that may go on apart from what will die, does not proclaim a loving God nor re-establish any grounds for trust. 2If death is real for anything, there is no life. 3Death denies life. 4But if there is reality in life, death is denied. 5No compromise in this is possible. 6There is either a god of fear or One of Love. 7The world attempts a thousand compromises, and will attempt a thousand more. 8Not one can be acceptable to God’s teachers, because not one could be acceptable to God. 9He did not make death because He did not make fear. 10Both are equally meaningless to Him.
5. The “reality” of death is firmly rooted in the belief that God’s Son is a body. 2And if God created bodies, death would indeed be real. 3But God would not be loving. 4There is no point at which the contrast between the perception of the real world and that of the world of illusions becomes more sharply evident. 5Death is indeed the death of God, if He is Love. 6And now His Own creation must stand in fear of Him. 7He is not Father, but destroyer. 8He is not Creator, but avenger. 9Terrible His Thoughts and fearful His image. 10To look on His creations is to die.
6. “And the last to be overcome will be death.” 2Of course! 3Without the idea of death there is no world. 4All dreams will end with this one. 5This is salvation’s final goal; the end of all illusions. 6And in death are all illusions born. 7What can be born of death and still have life? 8But what is born of God and still can die? 9The inconsistencies, the compromises and the rituals the world fosters in its vain attempts to cling to death and yet to think love real are mindless magic, ineffectual and meaningless. 10God is, and in Him all created things must be eternal. 11Do you not see that otherwise He has an opposite, and fear would be as real as love?
7. Teacher of God, your one assignment could be stated thus: Accept no compromise in which death plays a part. 2Do not believe in cruelty, nor let attack conceal the truth from you. 3What seems to die has but been misperceived and carried to illusion. 4Now it becomes your task to let the illusion be carried to the truth. 5Be steadfast but in this; be not deceived by the “reality” of any changing form. 6Truth neither moves nor wavers nor sinks down to death and dissolution. 7And what is the end of death? 8Nothing but this; the realization that the Son of God is guiltless now and forever. 9Nothing but this. 10But do not let yourself forget it is not less than this.