Principle 26: Miracles represent freedom from fear. “Atoning” means “undoing.” The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles. (T-1.I.26)

COURSE REFERENCES

The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.

(Introduction .1:8,2:1-4)

Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end. (T-1.28.1-3)

In this phase of learning, working miracles is important because freedom from fear cannot be thrust upon you. (T-1.II.2:6) You are free to establish your kingdom where you see fit, but the right choice is inevitable if you remember this:

Spirit is in a state of grace forever.

Your reality is only spirit.

Therefore, you are in a state of grace forever.

Atonement undoes all errors in this respect, and thus uproots the source of fear. (T-1.III.5:3-7)

The escape from darkness involves two stages: First, recognizing darkness cannot hide. This step usually entails fear. Second, the recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could. This step brings escape from fear. Hide nothing and understand peace and joy.

The real purpose of this world is to use it to correct your unbelief. You can never control the effects of fear yourself, because you made fear, and you believe in what you made. In attitude, then, though not in content, you resemble your Creator Who has perfect faith in His creations because He created them. Belief produces the acceptance of existence, and so you can believe what no one else thinks is true. It is true for you because it was made by you. (T-1.VI.4:1-6)

All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:

Perfect love casts out fear.

If fear exists,

Then there is not perfect love.

BUT:

Only perfect love exists.

If there is fear,

It produces a state that does not exist.

Believe this and you will be free. Faith in this solution is God’s gift to you. (T-1.VI.5:1-9)

To concentrate on error is only a further error. The emptiness engendered by error and fear must be replaced by forgiveness. (T-1.IV.4:1)

Before the separation the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear did not exist. Both the separation and the fear are miscreations that must be undone for the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement. This heals the separation by placing within you the one effective defense against all separation thoughts, making you perfectly invulnerable. (T-2.III.2:2-4)

Both miracles and fear come from thoughts. If you are not free to choose one, you are also not free to choose the other. By choosing the miracle you have rejected fear, even if only temporarily. (T-2.VII.3:1-3) You have been fearful of everyone and everything. You are afraid of God, of Jesus and of yourself. You have misperceived or miscreated everyone and believe in what you have made. You did this because you were afraid of your own thoughts. (T-2.VII.4-7)

The fearful must miscreate, because they misperceive creation and are in pain. If you attack error in another, you will hurt yourself. You cannot know your brother when you attack him. You are making him a stranger by misperceiving him and thus you are afraid of him. Perceive him correctly so that you can know him. There are no strangers in God’s creation. (T-3.III.7:1-7)

The fundamental conflict in this world, then, is between creation and miscreation. All fear is implicit in the second, and all love is implicit in the first. The conflict is therefore one between love and fear. (T-2.VII.3:13-15)

It has already been said that you believe you cannot control fear because you yourself made it, and your belief in it seems to render it out of your control. Yet any attempt to resolve the error through attempting the mastery of fear is useless. In fact it asserts the power of fear by the very assumption that it need be mastered. The true resolution rests entirely on mastery through love. In the interim, however, the sense of conflict is inevitable, since you have placed yourself in a position where you believe in the power of what does not exist. (T-2.VII.4:1-5)

Nothing and everything cannot coexist. Fear is really nothing and love is everything. The initial corrective procedure is to recognize temporarily that there is a problem, but only as an indication that immediate correction is needed. This establishes a state of mind in which the Atonement can be accepted without delay, and thus no further ramification of the fear will be in evidence. Ultimately no compromise is possible between everything and nothing. (T-2.VII.5:1,3,8-10)

You are indeed essential to God’s plan. Without your joy, His joy is incomplete. Just as your light increases every light that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go and take their place beside you in God’s plan. God’s messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair. They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Father’s gifts as theirs. (W-100.4:1-4)

God asks you to be happy, so the world can see how much He loves His Son, and wills no sorrow rise to abate his joy; no fear to beset him to disturb his peace. You are God’s messenger today. You bring His happiness to all you look upon. You bring His peace to everyone who looks on you and sees His message in your happy face.

No one who lives in fear is really alive. When everything you retain is lovable, there is no reason for fear to remain with you. This is your part in the Atonement. Fulfill it without delay, and BE HAPPY that only GOD IS.