Cynicism (religion)

121:4.43. The Cynic. Al­though the Cyn­ics traced their phi­los­o­phy to Dio­genes of Athens, they de­rived much of their doc­trine from the rem­nants of the teach­ings of Ma­chi­venta Mel­chiz­e­dek. Cyn­i­cism had for­merly been more of a re­li­gion than a phi­los­o­phy. At least the Cyn­ics made their re­li­gio-phi­los­o­phy demo­cratic. In the fields and in the mar­ket places they con­tin­u­ally preached their doc­trine that “man could save him­self if he would.” They preached sim­plic­ity and virtue and urged men to meet death fear­lessly. These wan­der­ing Cynic preach­ers did much to pre­pare the spir­i­tu­ally hun­gry pop­u­lace for the later Chris­tian mis­sion­ar­ies. Their plan of pop­u­lar preach­ing was much af­ter the pat­tern, and in ac­cor­dance with the style, of Paul’s Epis­tles.

98:0.2For a long time in Eu­rope the Salem mis­sion­ar­ies car­ried on their ac­tiv­i­ties, be­com­ing grad­u­ally ab­sorbed into many of the cults and rit­ual groups which pe­ri­od­i­cally arose. Among those who main­tained the Salem teach­ings in the purest form must be men­tioned the Cyn­ics. These preach­ers of faith and trust in God were still func­tion­ing in Ro­man Eu­rope in the first cen­tury af­ter Christ, be­ing later in­cor­po­rated into the newly form­ing Chris­tian re­li­gion.

131:1.1The resid­ual teach­ings of the dis­ci­ples of Mel­chiz­e­dek, ex­cept­ing those which per­sisted in the Jew­ish re­li­gion, were best pre­served in the doc­trines of the Cyn­ics. Ga­nid’s se­lec­tion em­braced the fol­low­ing:

121:4.6These philoso­phies were semire­li­gious; they were of­ten in­vig­o­rat­ing, eth­i­cal, and en­nobling but were usu­ally above the com­mon peo­ple. With the pos­si­ble ex­cep­tion of Cyn­i­cism, they were philoso­phies for the strong and the wise, not re­li­gions of sal­va­tion for even the poor and the weak.

131:1.2“God is su­preme; he is the Most High of heaven and earth. God is the per­fected cir­cle of eter­nity, and he rules the uni­verse of uni­verses. He is the sole maker of the heav­ens and the earth. When he de­crees a thing, that thing is. Our God is one God, and he is com­pas­sion­ate and mer­ci­ful. Ev­ery­thing that is high, holy, true, and beau­ti­ful is like our God. The Most High is the light of heaven and earth; he is the God of the east, the west, the north, and the south.

131:1.3“Even if the earth should pass away, the re­splen­dent face of the Su­preme would abide in majesty and glory. The Most High is the first and the last, the be­gin­ning and the end of ev­ery­thing. There is but this one God, and his name is Truth. God is self-ex­is­tent, and he is de­void of all anger and en­mity; he is im­mor­tal and in­fi­nite. Our God is om­nipo­tent and boun­teous. While he has many man­i­fes­ta­tions, we wor­ship only God him­self. God knows all—our se­crets and our procla­ma­tions; he also knows what each of us de­serves. His might is equal to all things.

131:1.4“God is a peace giver and a faith­ful pro­tec­tor of all who fear and trust him. He gives sal­va­tion to all who serve him. All cre­ation ex­ists in the power of the Most High. His di­vine love springs forth from the ho­li­ness of his power, and af­fec­tion is born of the might of his great­ness. The Most High has de­creed the union of body and soul and has en­dowed man with his own spirit. What man does must come to an end, but what the Cre­ator does goes on for­ever. We gain knowl­edge from the ex­pe­ri­ence of man, but we de­rive wis­dom from the con­tem­pla­tion of the Most High.

131:1.5“God pours rain upon the earth, he causes the sun to shine upon the sprout­ing grain, and he gives us the abun­dant har­vest of the good things of this life and eter­nal sal­va­tion in the world to come. Our God en­joys great au­thor­ity; his name is Ex­cel­lent and his na­ture is un­fath­omable. When you are sick, it is the Most High who heals you. God is full of good­ness to­ward all men; we have no friend like the Most High. His mercy fills all places and his good­ness en­com­passes all souls. The Most High is change­less; and he is our helper in ev­ery time of need. Wher­ever you turn to pray, there is the face of the Most High and the open ear of our God. You may hide your­self from men, but not from God. God is not a great dis­tance from us; he is om­ni­pres­ent. God fills all places and lives in the heart of the man who fears his holy name. Cre­ation is in the Cre­ator and the Cre­ator in his cre­ation. We search for the Most High and then find him in our hearts. You go in quest of a dear friend, and then you dis­cover him within your soul.

131:1.6“The man who knows God looks upon all men as equal; they are his breth­ren. Those who are self­ish, those who ig­nore their broth­ers in the flesh, have only weari­ness as their re­ward. Those who love their fel­lows and who have pure hearts shall see God. God never for­gets sin­cer­ity. He will guide the hon­est of heart into the truth, for God is truth.

131:1.7“In your lives over­throw er­ror and over­come evil by the love of the liv­ing truth. In all your re­la­tions with men do good for evil. The Lord God is mer­ci­ful and lov­ing; he is for­giv­ing. Let us love God, for he first loved us. By God’s love and through his mercy we shall be saved. Poor men and rich men are broth­ers. God is their Fa­ther. The evil you would not have done you, do not to oth­ers.

131:1.8“At all times call upon his name, and as you be­lieve in his name, so shall your prayer be heard. What a great honor it is to wor­ship the Most High! All the worlds and the uni­verses wor­ship the Most High. And with all your prayers give thanks—as­cend to wor­ship. Prayer­ful wor­ship shuns evil and for­bids sin. At all times let us praise the name of the Most High. The man who takes shel­ter in the Most High con­ceals his de­fects from the uni­verse. When you stand be­fore God with a clean heart, you be­come fear­less of all cre­ation. The Most High is like a lov­ing fa­ther and mother; he re­ally loves us, his chil­dren on earth. Our God will for­give us and guide our foot­steps into the ways of sal­va­tion. He will take us by the hand and lead us to him­self. God saves those who trust him; he does not com­pel man to serve his name.

131:1.9“If the faith of the Most High has en­tered your heart, then shall you abide free from fear through­out all the days of your life. Fret not your­self be­cause of the pros­per­ity of the un­godly; fear not those who plot evil; let the soul turn away from sin and put your whole trust in the God of sal­va­tion. The weary soul of the wan­der­ing mor­tal finds eter­nal rest in the arms of the Most High; the wise man hungers for the di­vine em­brace; the earth child longs for the se­cu­rity of the arms of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther. The no­ble man seeks for that high es­tate wherein the soul of the mor­tal blends with the spirit of the Su­preme. God is just: What fruit we re­ceive not from our plant­ings in this world we shall re­ceive in the next.”

98:6.2Oc­ci­den­tal re­li­gion thus lan­guished un­til the days of the Skep­tics, Cyn­ics, Epi­cure­ans, and Sto­ics, but most im­por­tant of all, un­til the times of the great con­test be­tween Mith­ra­ism and Paul’s new re­li­gion of Chris­tian­ity.