The Gospel of Isa Lahat

This is the Revelation of Isa Lahat, the one and only true god. She revealed herself to me in the year commonly known as 1991 CE. Many prophets have come and gone before me, and many prophets will come and go after me. I am no one special. I am not more intelligent, not more pious, not more righteous nor wiser than the next person. All I can say is that Isa Lahat spoke to me and revealed her truth to me. Many will rebuke me and call me a false prophet. Others will call me a blasphemer. Some will threaten me or wish me dead. Maybe someone will actually try to kill me. Thousands before me have been killed over religious differences. I’ll probably die a natural death before that. None of this negates the truth of these words. Thus spoke Isa Lahat to me:

“Dearest Richard, what a joy it is to know you finally opened your heart and mind to the world outside your physical scope. You have been blessed with a long and joyful life. For most of that life you suppressed any questions regarding a possible afterlife, or anything concerning a spiritual world in general, unlike millions of other people. That didn’t stop you from being a generous, loving and caring person. But maybe you sense that you are in the twilight of your days? Don’t worry: you still have some time.

Everyone dies. All people will die. All living creatures die. Others are born. This is the cycle of life. Galaxies are born and galaxies die. Stars are born and stars die. Thus is the cycle of the universe. Even the star you call your sun will die. If you want humanity to outlive the sun, you will have to find ways to spread to another solar system that supports human life. The proliferation of human life will affect humankind’s evolution. It will influence the forming of new kinds of Homo sapiens. Some will adapt to higher gravitational fields, some to lower gravitational fields. It will create new forms of racism. It is in your nature to judge, disregard, and look down upon, fear and or hate anyone or anything other than yourselves. It is part of your nature, part of the biological evolution that you still carry within you. But you also have the capacity to transcend that biological heritage. Use your senses, use your brain. Use your reason: it is what will eventually make you into gods of your own. Eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, to use one of your ancient myths as analogy. Knowledge is always a good thing. Knowledge is not always an easy thing. Don’t fear it. It is true: your morality has always evolved slower than your technology, but look where you started and look where you are now. You are doing better than your ancestors… and maybe your descendants will do better than you: that is up to them.

I am all there is. I am one and all. I can be manifest in everything, but everything is a manifestation of me. Therefore, you can worship whatever you want. It doesn’t matter. I will remain who I am, whether only one person believes that I am, whether all human beings believe that I am, even if no one believes that I am.

Do not impose your beliefs on others. If others want to worship different things than you, or in different ways than you, you are not to look on them with contempt, for all nature is a manifestation of me, and in worshiping any of my manifestations, they worship me. Your worship will only affect that what can be affected by your physical reach, whether it is by your touch, the influence of your words or the capabilities of your technology. If you want to worship a tree, then worship a tree. It will have more chance of living than if nobody cares for trees. And although a tree will most likely outlive a human if left alone, it too will die, even if it is being cared for, even if it is worshiped. If you want to worship the sun, then worship the sun. It will not change its course for your sake.

Don’t believe anyone claiming the truth about an afterlife or prophesies about the future. No one can know the future, and no one has ever come back from death. The priests, bishops and preachers who make such claims, are but dry canals. They pray in public and prey on others. Do not do like them: if you want to pray, pray unseen and alone. Do you make love to your partner for everyone to see? Do you broadcast your most intimate conversations, your deepest secrets to the whole world? The ones who do, crave the attention and complain about it when they get it, for the attention they get is rarely the attention they want. Neither should your prayer be an action seen by all, offering your thoughts up for grabs and to be trampled on by anyone who disagrees with or disapproves of what you prayed for. Do not pray like the millions before or around you in large groups of people, because the comfort and security of your numbers may lead to the arrogance that yours is the right way, and only yours. Humankind has practiced many religions since its earliest history; none are better than the other, none are worse than the other. Belief in one god is no better than belief in another: faith is faith. Belief in many gods is no worse or no better than belief in one god. Do you not need water, as you need the sun also? Do you not need air, as you need the ground underneath your feet? Can you choose to believe you only need the sun to live? You may believe it. You can test it. You will get result, in one way or the other. It is your choice. You may also freely believe or conclude I do not exist. It affects me not. I will not punish you for what you believe, even if you do not believe I exist. I do not intervene in the choices you make. How would you have free will if I did? And how would you learn anything, if you did not have free will?

Do not believe that people making vague prophecies know the future, just as you do not know the future. Even the most renowned preachers, whom you have considered the greatest and wisest, have all been wrong in their prophecies. If prophecy were real, than you would not have free will, and you do. You may not be able to control your future, or whatever nature might throw at you by chance. But you can choose how to act and react in the present.

No faith in god has ever advanced humankind or turned someone into a good person. Not even faith in me. You are free to believe in me or not to believe in me. Only your reason and your increasing understanding of life and the world around you can help you advance and become a beacon of light and beauty of creation. Belief in a god, religious devotion or piety doesn't say anything about a person's kindness and compassion. There are deeply religious murderers and atheist altruists, just as there are atheist murderers and religious benefactors.

Only your own thoughts, reasons and reasoning will determine your choices in life which make you a "good" or a "bad" person. You and you alone are responsible and accountable for the choices you make. Do not lay the justification of your choices on the shoulders of me or any other god you'd like to imagine.

There is no afterlife, not in the sense that humans understand it. There is no heaven humans can buy their way into. There is no heaven you can forbid others to enter. Neither is there that place you call hell. Why would you wish your fellow man to be tortured for eternity? Luckily for all humans, there is no such place. Luckily also for the people who wish such a thing. For their wish is projection of what they fear for themselves. Do you want to do good because it buys you a place in heaven? Are you doing good so you won’t go to hell? What is the merit in that? Can you not do good for the sake of good? Is the joy you derive from that not more reward than any praise you might receive? If you give to get something in return, then it is not giving. To give is not to expect something in return.

Likewise there is no merit in praying when it is done to get something in return. What kind of a god would I be if I answered your prayer if that would mean that I deny someone else’s prayer? What if a cat prays to catch a mouse for food and that mouse prays not to be food for that cat? Has the life of one more value than the life of another? Should I play favorites? The gods that you know to have done so, are the same gods that only give in return for something.

If it helps you calm your mind, then pray. If it comforts you, or helps you to focus, then pray. People think that it is their prayer that has an effect. But it is the mental state required for prayer that can have positive effects. It is no different than meditating without invoking the intervention of a god. So pray if you want or if you like. But praying to a god adds no benefits. Neither does worshiping a god. What good does it do? Does a real god need to be worshiped? Or worse, does a true god need to be feared? Why? It is the regrettable common ground of your biggest contemporary religions: they require submission and obedience of thought. For all religion’s merits, this has held humanity back in many ways. How can you have free will, if you have no freedom of thought?

You have rejected these religions and their anthropomorphic god for good reason. And now you are free to reject me if you should so desire. I will not be less because of it. At times, the sky you see may be cloudy or it may be night: the sun does not stop shining because of it.”