The tenets of this organization are contained in the Universal Proclamation of Human Spiritual Rights, a statement of Spiritual Rights held to be the God-granted rights of the Human Family. The Proclamation was originally ratified by the International Community of Christ, Church of the Second Advent, in 1962 and adopted by the Advocates for Religious Rights and Freedoms in 1981. An amended Proclamation was ratified by the Church and adopted by the Advoctes on October 12, 2000. The full text of the amended Proclamation appears below. For more on the history of the Proclamation, please visit www.humanspiritualrights.info.

BE IT KNOWN THAT: All members of the human family have been endowed with the qualities of God, having been generated originally in the form of Righteous Beings of Light, spiritual, divine and immortal and abiding in Worlds of Light;

FURTHER, BE IT KNOWN THAT: All members of the human family have been alienated from the Worlds of Light, the abode of all Spiritual Beings of Light, and are presently living in a state of ignorance of their divinity and immortality. By so doing the human family lives contrary to God's purpose and is therefore subject to the power of death; this is not God's will nor is it any form of divine punishment, but the result of mankind's violation of the Law of Righteousness;

MOREOVER: The existence of a non-physical universe from which all material life evolved and upon which it is dependent is one of the oldest doctrines of high religion. Therefore, any experience with the non-physical is beneficial to mankind's understanding of existence. The transitory nature of physical life, that is, mankind's mortality, should not be considered the termination of life. An immortal spirit come from the non-material universe is the gift of God. The human family has only to express a spiritual way of life in order to regain its immortality. By so doing, men and women return to their origin. The manifestation of God's redeeming Light upon the world in the visible sun made righteous is the mediating power by which the human family may commune with the spiritual realms whence men and women came and to which they return.

BE IT KNOWN THAT: A new revelation from God has come into the world. This revelation extends to the human family teachings that have been lost. Furthermore, it brings supplemental teachings that instruct mankind in the benefits of the new revelations for the establishment of a new, universal spiritual order of men and women dedicated to the Fellowship of Man as Spiritual Beings. The Word of God gives birth to mankind's Spiritual Beingness and unfolds the Spiritual Consciousness which is greater than and separate from mankind's intellectual and physical nature;

FURTHERMORE: Everyone has the right to change or modify one's religion or credo. To accept that the Word of God as revealed by the founders of the established religions is unalterable and final is to restrain human progress and spiritual evolution. Large numbers and historical longevity do not give any religion the right to be hostile towards or intolerant of its members who wish to learn of new revelations or of the spirit of God's Truth when it manifests. The traditional world religions with their sectarian divisions and many discords cannot claim a monopoly on the true worship of God. No canon, no dogma or creed, no confession of faith or belief as may be based on the supreme authority of scripture or sacred writings of former times should be the final criterion of true religion. Conflicting orthodoxies have resulted in much violence down through history and have set people apart. All high religions have prophesied the coming of God at a future time by natural and supernatural means. This cosmic and spiritual event will draw religion with its multi-cultural structure together in unity for civilization's sake.

THEREFORE: When the eternal Voice of God speaks out to mankind, it is a redeeming force intended to free the human family from bondage to unnatural laws that result in pain, suffering, disease and death, which, though governing mankind's physical nature, all too often impose themselves upon mankind's spiritual nature, keeping men and women in ignorance of God, and therefore dispersing their life energies to the worship of false ideologies, thereby denying them the free expression of their spiritual nature. All men and women everywhere are divine creatures meant to partake of their immortal nature. When they fail to acknowledge this nature, God's Voice speaks out to the human family. Men and women are moved to collect together in religious fellowship for such expression of their spiritual nature and to formulate, organize and create a church, belief, faith or religion or to reveal to an existing church, belief, faith or religion the true doctrines for the re-establishment of the True Religion. The message of such a revelation is the heritage of all members of the human family. Each person has a right to accept it freely if he or she elects; and no individual, group or state has the right to pass judgement on the message or on those inspired to teach it or to act or perform acts against God's plan and purpose. Mankind's mortal being, ideologies, and nations are transitory and impermanent. The Word of God forever manifests to the human family in order for it to reach its spiritual nature, which, as we are told by God, is forever lasting, immortal and divine. This spiritual nature unites all persons together into a universal fellowship regardless of nationality, creed, race, color, sex, religion, ideology, ethnicity, culture, social origin, social status or position, birth or other distinction, proving that all men and women are of the same family, related by spirit, being ever needful of spiritual instruction by those persons moved by the inspiration of God. Therefore, it is good for all persons, all groups and all states to listen, for their own sakes, to the Word of God and to holy persons moved by God with understanding, tolerance and respect;

FOR: Such holy persons as are moved by the Word of God and who have experienced a spiritual regeneration and rebirth realize fully that mankind's physical and mortal nature, as well as the material world and all within it, is perishable, impermanent and destined to pass away through the space of time and, therefore, is of small consequence when compared to the human soul and the human spirit which are known to be immortal and divine. Such holy persons have dedicated themselves and their whole fortunes to a divine mission. Theirs is a living sacrifice in which they dedicate their whole beings to the instruction of the human family so that all persons may share in their own divinity. Such sacrifice and dedication should not go without respect and recognition by all men and women, by all groups and by all states and nations. Such persons become the patrons of God, universal citizens of the world, their revelations being the property of all persons everywhere. Any individual, group, state or nation that denies the existence of God, or fails to acknowledge mankind's spiritual nature, have full liberty to believe as they wish by their own free will; but, they do not have the right to act against, or cause acts to be perpetuated against, such holy persons under pain of the loss of God's grace. By so doing they oppose God, they oppose the human family and they oppose themselves. History records that holy persons, prophets, teachers and preachers have been crucified, persecuted, purged or otherwise martyred because of their mission, and their followers made to suffer inhumane treatment, imprisonment, torture and degradation in a manner unfit for any member of the human family. Such overt acts are often directed against holy persons, not because they practice any wrong or evil doing against men and women or their religious or civil institutions, but because they teach that the sovereignty of God is above the sovereignty of the state in its rightful jurisdiction over men and women as spiritual beings. But, in spite of such unfair treatment at the hands of wicked persons, holy persons have been resurrected as spiritual beings, made immortal, divine and joined in the Godhead. Their sacrifice has never been in vain; for their resurrection demonstrates to the world laboring under pain, fear, hunger, poverty, suffering, anguish, disease and death that they may partake of their divine nature through association with a universal, spiritual order to which all persons everywhere may belong equally and freely by divine right. No secular power can free mankind from pain, fear, poverty, suffering, anguish, disease and death, as evidenced by the world's continuous civil strife, revolutions, wars and uprisings within and between manmade borders that separate men and women into states and nations, the very act of which causes fear, suspicion and hostility towards one another.

THEREFORE, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF CHRIST, CHURCH OF THE SECOND ADVENT, PLEDGES TO: Dedicate itself to educate, instruct and inform all members of the human family regarding the existence of an invisible organism of God to which all men and women may belong, regardless of their nationality, creed, race, color, sex, religion, ideology, ethnicity, culture, social origin, social status or position, birth or other distinction so that they might realize their spiritual rights as divine creatures joined in the Godhead in order to form a spiritual order of persons moved by God and to offer them sanctuary, fellowship, enlightenment and to encourage their missions as ordained by God, and furthermore, to edify by peaceful and organized methods all secular powers, groups, individuals, states or earthly powers that may seek to attack such holy persons, their beliefs, faiths or religions in any way and to seek protection for such persons by other individuals, groups, powers, states, nations or earthly powers in every way possible in order for the ordained Will of God to be fulfilled among the human family. Such an order is a divine institution having its origin in the Will of God; it is by no means opposed to the social structure or to civil law and order, but, it is dedicated to informing the human family that there are invisible as well as visible powers manifest on earth, and that mankind need understand them both. Such understanding can come about only through proper education and religious instruction. It is the right of every man and woman to receive such instruction if he or she so freely elects; and it is not within the right of any person, group, power or ideology to deny it to any member of the human family;

FURTHERMORE, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF CHRIST, CHURCH OF THE SECOND ADVENT, SHALL ENDEAVOR TO: Promote the articles of this proclamation before all peoples and all nations of peoples on earth in order to unite all men and women into a universal fellowship based upon the premise that the human family is divine, immortal and part of the Godhead, and is therefore required to respect the Dominions of God firstly, and the Dominions of Man secondly for the mutual benefit of the human family.

ARTICLE I
Every member of the human family, equally and without distinction, is invested by God with a spiritual nature; thus, each and every person should be considered by every other person as a spiritual being entitled to freely exercise this spiritual nature as a normal, inherent expression which everyone is pledged to respect in reverence to God. Every human being is an individual expression of the Godhead and is therefore sacred and divine, created in the image of God. Each person's spiritual rights take precedent over any material rights, and no person, group of persons or social organization should have the power to deny these rights.

ARTICLE II
All members of the human family, while expressing their spiritual beliefs, faiths or convictions privately or in a church, temple, synagogue, monastery, convent or other place of worship or in collective religious assembly, are in essence united together in an invisible, spiritual organism animated by God to which every person, group of persons, social and religious organizations are obligated to respect and to hold superior to any and all other distinctive organs, whatever they might be.

ARTICLE III
Every and all members of any religious organization, whether they be spiritual ministers, teachers, prophets, healers of the spirit, evangelists, monks, rabbis, brothers, sisters, scholars, or the ordained clergy in general, as well as the laity of such institutions, are deserving of mutual respect from one another and from individuals and all social or religious organizations; and none are privileged by God to discriminate against such persons or to disrespect, punish, torture, imprison, confine or treat them in any way that might be contrary to their will, dignity and self-respect, or to deprive such persons of their sacred right to worship God in their own way as they may freely elect.

ARTICLE IV
Every member of the human family is born into the material world out of contract between man, woman and God; and such offspring is the property of God. Parents and secular and religious institutions have a just right to exercise jurisdiction over such issue, but such jurisdiction should in no way be interposed to deny a person spiritual expression if such person be moved by the spirit of God to worship as he or she pleases or to dedicate his or her material and spiritual qualities to serving God or the human family in any just and dignified manner as he or she may elect; nor should any material jurisdiction be placed over the spiritual jurisdiction of God to cause such person to be discriminated against, attacked, subjected to cruel or inhumane treatment, tortured, imprisoned, confined, injured or otherwise degraded or harmed physically, mentally or spiritually by direct or indirect means through law, force, device, technique, power or other means that may be impinged upon the senses.

ARTICLE V
All members of the human family are the Children of God. Men and women may establish such institutionalized forms of government as they may choose, but such governments have no right to interfere with mankind's spiritual rights. No government has the right to regiment members of the human family directly through slavery and slave trade, or indirectly by requiring servitude to a political, economic, industrial, national, social or religious organization at the expense of any person's right to exercise a spiritual way of life on a daily basis.

ARTICLE VI
Each member of every human race is a member of the greater human family and regardless of ethnic, social or national origin has no God-given right to war against another, individually or collectively, or to cause physical, mental or spiritual harm to another by any means whatsoever, for such is against the will of God and the conscience of Man as a spiritual being. It is also reprehensible to God to force those ordained to the service of God to act violently against another member or members of the human family with intent to harm or kill. Any temporal power so acting or otherwise coercing an ordained individual to act against his or her conscience in this regard does so against the law of God.

ARTICLE VII
It is the right of every member of the human family, if such member so elects by willful consent, to place his or her spiritual interests before any material interests. No person expressing spiritual convictions as an ordained member of any religious body can in good conscience live a material life that is contrary to such spiritual beliefs or faith in God. If any person is deprived of his or her spiritual liberties by any power against his or her will, such person has the God-given right to protest by peaceful legal petition any depriving power in order to defend his or her faith for himself or herself and for others.

ARTICLE VIII
Every member of the human family Christian or member of any world religion as well as those of no professed faith has the right to subscribe to this proclamation and to be informed of the manifestation of God's Cross of Enlightenment in the heavens for the universal salvation of the human family. If this right be denied by any state or power exercising control over mankind's mortal nature, such state or power is petitioned by means of this document to acknowledge the existence of invisible powers ruling the immortal nature of mankind over which no visible power may exert control. Thus, all members of the human family are entities within themselves and the Godhead firstly, and as such are sacred, divine and immortal. Any and all physical or mortal attributes are of secondary consequence; for if mankind's spiritual nature be not exercised in fellowship, human existence as we know it shall be lost. A spiritual life, therefore, becomes essential for the perpetuation of the human family by improving earthly conditions through contact with the ultimate reality, which is God.

ARTICLE IX
All members of the human family have the God-given right to worship or pray to God privately or collectively, and to peacefully assemble in order to worship, pray, discuss, hear, learn, teach, instruct or to receive instruction in any and all the arts, sciences, theologies, philosophies, doctrines, concepts, precepts or laws of any religion, church, sect or denomination in order to express their religious and spiritual convictions. Further, they have the God-given right to privacy of home, residence, family, church, temple, assembly, synagogue, seminary, monastery, convent or other place of sacred gathering, and to correspond or freely move among themselves or to associate among themselves anywhere in the world as they may choose. Furthermore, no such home, residence, family, church, temple, assembly, synagogue, seminary, monastery, convent or other place used in religious expression, worship or belief should be disturbed by any person, group of persons or by any social, religious, political, economic, industrial or other power.

ARTICLE X
As social order is devised for the well-being and overall good of society, spiritual order is necessary for its growth and perpetuation. Spiritual power is the true aim of all existence, heaven is the center of all beingness, and God is the giver of spiritual benefits only. All too often secular wealth and power are thought to be the goals of human existence, the earth is considered to be more important than the Worlds of Light, society is supposed to be the center of all activity and the highest good, and God is invoked to enrich the individual or nation materially.

ARTICLE XI
Religious freedom constitutes a basic and fundamental human right. All states and secular powers should encourage any person's spiritual conviction by benevolent and charitable attitude; for the perpetuation and prosperity of the state depends upon the ethical and moral character of society in pursuit of intellectual and spiritual expression. A balance between spirituality and the material life is thus attained without conflict or opposition.

ARTICLE XII
These articles are not to be interpreted to replace any civil law or laws or to cause anyone to place himself or herself above civil law and order.

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