The Bible in The Master Key System: Haanel's Use

Charles Haanel quotes the Bible throughout The Master Key System, mostly in the wording of the King James Version, and he usually calls Jesus "the Great Teacher." He does not use scripture as church doctrine. He reads it as an older statement of the same mental laws he describes in scientific language, and he criticizes traditional theology quite sharply. The question-and-answer section at the end of the book goes further, quoting Dean W. R. Inge on the Bible and Darwin and speaking of a coming "Christ consciousness."

The Verses Haanel Quotes

Bible verses appear in many of the 24 parts, usually without a chapter and verse reference. The main ones, with their King James sources:

• Part Four: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God?" This joins 1 Corinthians 3:16 ("Know ye not that ye are the temple of God") with a phrase from 2 Corinthians 6:16 ("ye are the temple of the living God").
• Part Five: "The word has become flesh," an adaptation of John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh."
• Part Six and Part Twenty: "In Him we live and move and have our being," from Acts 17:28.
• Part Eight: sowing the "wind" and reaping the "whirlwind," from Hosea 8:7.
• Part Ten: "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," from Matthew 6:29.
• Part Eleven: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," Mark 11:24, and "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," Hebrews 11:1.
• Part Twenty: the "Kingdom of heaven" that is "within" us, and Job's words, "The thing I feared has come upon me."
• Parts Twenty-One and Twenty-Four: "the Truth shall make you free," from John 8:32, and mountains "cast into the sea," from Mark 11:23.

The 1919 St. Louis edition also quotes Galatians 6:7, "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap," and describes a changed person in New Testament language: "old things have actually passed away, all things have become new, he is born again."

How Close the Quotations Are to the King James Text

Checked against the King James Version, some of Haanel's quotations are exact and others are from memory or adapted. Mark 11:24 in Part Eleven matches the King James wording word for word, and so do Hebrews 11:1 and Matthew 6:29. Others differ:

• In Part Ten he quotes the Great Teacher as saying, "It is not I that doeth the works, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the work." John 14:10 in the King James reads, "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." The opening clause is Haanel's.
• Luke 17:21 says "the kingdom of God is within you." Haanel writes "Kingdom of heaven."
• Job 3:25 reads, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me." Haanel shortens it to "The thing I feared has come upon me."
• The Part Eleven exercise asks the student to concentrate on "the quotation taken from the Bible, 'Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.'" Here "What things soever" has become "Whatsoever things," and Haanel builds his comment on that word: "Notice that there is no limitation."

Haanel also credits Hebrews 11:1 to Paul. That was the traditional attribution in his day, though the authorship of Hebrews has long been disputed.

Jesus as the Great Teacher

In the 24 parts Haanel names Jesus only once, in a study question. Elsewhere he refers to him by title. In Part Eleven he first discusses Plato and Swedenborg, then says that "a still greater teacher has said" the words of Mark 11:24. The study questions for that part ask, "What great Teachers advocated it?" and answer: "Jesus, Plato, Swedenborg."

The method they "advocated" is belief that a desire is already fulfilled. Haanel treats Mark 11:24 as the clearest statement of it, and the week's exercise is to concentrate on that verse. Part Twenty does the same with Acts 17:28: the exercise is to concentrate on the fact that "In Him we live and move and have our being" is "literally and scientifically exact!"

The course ends on the same note. The last study question of Part Twenty-Four returns to John 14:10. Haanel explains that the Father "is the Universal Mind and that He does really and truly dwell within you," and that "the wonderful promises made in the Bible are fact, not fiction."

Scripture Read as Mental Law

Haanel's reason for quoting the Bible is stated in Part Eleven: "The truth must be told to each generation and to every people in new and different terms." He sets the Great Teacher's words, Paul's definition of faith and the law of attraction side by side and says each statement, when analyzed, "is found to contain exactly the same truth."

He applies the same idea to prayer. The introduction to Part Twenty-One says the answer to prayer is "subject to law," and that "An understanding of this law takes the foundation of Christianity out of the realm of superstition and credulity and places it upon the firm rock of scientific understanding." In the study questions for Part Twenty-Two, asked whether the system is scientific or religious, he answers: "Both. True science and true religion are twin sisters."

This is why his Bible quotations sit so easily beside his teaching on the Universal Mind and the subconscious mind. For Haanel, the verse and the law describe one thing.

Criticism of Theology

Haanel's respect for the Bible's words does not extend to traditional theology. The introduction to Part Seventeen says the God a person worships shows the "intellectual status of the worshipper," and describes "the God of Moses, who conceived it expedient to rule by coercive measures; hence, the Ten Commandments."

In Part Twenty-Two he writes that "until recently theology has been trying to teach an impossible Creator, one who created beings capable of sinning and then allowed them to be eternally punished for such sins." The result, he says, was "to create fear instead of love," and that "Theology is now busily engaged in apologizing for Christendom." In Part Twenty-Four he adds that the word "God" "does not convey the right meaning," because most people take it to mean something outside themselves.

Strong as these lines are, they are criticism in print, not evidence for the story that the book was suppressed or banned by the church.

The Bible and Darwin: Dean Inge

The general question-and-answer section at the end of many editions takes up theology directly. Asked how the course can ignore it, Haanel answers: "A few centuries ago it was thought that we must choose between the Bible and Galileo. Fifty years ago it was thought that we must choose between the Bible and Darwin." He then quotes "Dean W. R. Inge, of St. Paul's Cathedral London":

"Every educated man knows that the main facts of organic evolution are firmly established, and that they are quite different from the legends borrowed by the ancient Hebrews from the Babylonians. We are not required to do violence to our reason by rejecting the assured results of modern research. Traditional Christianity must be simplified and spiritualized."

William Ralph Inge was Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London from 1911 to 1934. The wording above is as Haanel gives it. This article has not traced it to a specific book by Inge.

Christ Consciousness

The same end section contains Haanel's only use of the phrase "Christ consciousness." Asked whether present conditions point to "the second coming or the Millennium," he replies: "We are not looking for the Christ child, but the Christ consciousness." What he expects, he says, is "a more general realization of the Truth which is to make men free." He grants that it is "barely possible" one man or woman will first realize this truth, but says "the preponderance of evidence is for a more general awakening."

What This Means for Readers

Readers from a Christian background will find many familiar verses in The Master Key System, often given new meanings. Readers with no religious interest can follow the course without accepting any doctrine. Either way, it helps to read his Bible verses next to the original text, since the small changes he makes often show the point he wants to draw.