CREDO
Established by Henry Kuck
Later ordained as
Rev. Frederick Herman Wilhelm Kuckherman
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The transcribed personal notations recorded In his special Journal “What I believe” begun in 1843 and concluded in 1853.
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Shortly after Mr. Kuck arrived in the Knoxville community, he was enthusiastically accepted as school teacher, and then was sought after to lead religious services in the church that had been established previously but which was now without a minister. Thus he did not seek the ministry, but the ministry sought him, and in it he served for almost half a century.
At first he would read from several books of sermons which he had at his command, but these seemed dull and often disagreeable. It was in 1847, after being licensed as a minister, that he began to prepare and deliver his own sermons, based on his personal study of the Bible and what he observed from the natural phenomena about him.
Young Kuck was not “prepared” for the ministry. He had no High School, College or Seminary training. He had only the Bible from which to study and this he interpreted on the basis that his own ability of reasoning would permit.
As a scholar and also a careful observer of natural life that existed about him in his wilderness frontier, he gathered overwhelming evidence that his God had to be a God of Love and Harmony – not a God of jealousy and vengeance.
The notations faithfully transcribed and condensed from his168-page Journal are listed in the following pages of this treatise. They are worthy of considerable study.
Respectfully submitted,
E. R. Kuck
I regard the account in the first chapter of Genesis to portray the true order of creation.
Each order of creation, including every species of life, was immediately energized with perfect, harmonious and
Eternal motivation to fulfill every purpose of each specific creation.
Each species of life was created to reproduce itself in similar likeness, but in infinite variety.
The description of day as “and evening and the morning” for each of the first six days of creation represents an
abnormal definition of day. Possibly each day is meant to represent an era of time, for it is recorded in
2 Peter 3: 8: “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with God as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”.
The seventh day is not so defined and suggests that it has not ended – that we are living in the seventh day.
The seventh day is designated as a day of rest from the toils of creation, but does not represent a cessation in
the propulsions and activities of all his creations which continue on in perfect, harmonious and
eternal obedience to his established rules. Therefore, God rests in action (Gott rugt in Werksamkeit).
This God of creation must be a universal (algemeinen) God who defies human description and definition.
Perhaps the most appropriate description is found in ‘Exodus 3: 14: “And God said unto Moses, I AM that I AM;” and he said, “This thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you”.
And later expressed by Jesus Christ in St. John 8: 57-58: “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before
Abraham was, I AM”.
The two-letter word, AM, denotes a force in the universe that is timeless and eternal, represented only as the ever-present NOW. The AM also represents an all-powerful force that is everywhere present and always operative in full accordance with an all-knowing Mind (geist) that directs all activity in the universe. This AM is God, for God himself said so.
The second chapter of Genesis portrays man’s conception of creation. The order of creation is reversed and God is referred to as Lord God – giving a personal, human relevance.
This represents a deliberate attempt to humanize God as either to make God man-like or to make man God-like.
This Lord God or Jehovah God in later chapters of the Old Testament becomes the personal God of the Jews or Israelites.
This God eventually assumed all the baser human qualities by sanctioning constant warfare among the Biblical people; causing many tribulations and giving sanction to the adultery of David and the bastardy of Solomon and his thousand wives.
Whereas the universal God – the I AM – was a God of Love, Peace and absolute Harmony, the Lord God of the Israelites was a jealous, awesome being that would punish and destroy at will.
Therefore, I will regard any references to the universal God – I AM – as true and consequential, but any references to the Lord God as irrelevant.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
I accept the Garden of Eden story as an allegorical account, describing a paradise of coexistence and harmonious living together of all the world’s creations in the first instance including man.
The account is dramatized by a snake talking to the woman, and God appearing personally to drive the man from the Garden.
The site of the Garden is neither geographically nor historically placed.
There is no record of its discontinuance.
Only man is excluded from the Garden.
The purpose of the account is to reveal the development of a separate intellect by man.
This development of intellect by man differentiates him from all other forms of creation, and causes his incompatibility with natural life.
Man’s first revelation by his intellect concerns the misuse of sex, which makes man the only living being to engage in adultery.
The shame of adultery caused man to hide his body, first with a fig leaf and later with skins and clothing. Of all life’s creations, man alone adorns himself with clothing.
The account is intended to reveal the differences and consequences experienced by life under the natural intelligence of nature and the humanly conceived intellect of man.
Certainly this wilderness paradise I have entered gives sure and ample proof that every creature and everything wherein there is life endowed with a complete and immediately available intelligence that is always sufficient for its purpose and performance.
One cannot help but observe how throughout the entire natural kingdom of plants, flowers, shrubs, trees, fowl, fishes and all life of every form and description there exists a pattern of grandiose beauty, perfection of form, optimum performance, intelligence beyond description, and an effortless sense of being.
Wildlife needs no doctors, dentists, teachers or morticians or any other services demanded by man.
No forms of wildlife require schooling, yet there are no retarded children in Nature’s domain. Their lives are constantly regulated by an unerring intelligence (instinct) that is sufficient for their needs.
Mysteriously, all forms of wildlife are subject to the instinct of the mating season that in turn governs its young to be born at the most advantageous season for their best growth and development. Nor is any form of wildlife capable of adultery. Only man has perverted God’s most vital life force of procreation to his own self pleasure and abuse.
The death phenomena concerning all of Nature’s creations is most interesting. Does the beauty demonstrated In a ripening field of wheat denote death or merely the fulfillment of the life span of wheat? Why do all forms of wildlife (aside from accident) provide their own burial in burrow, cave or thicket when instinct informs them of their time of passing?
As a man after a day of heavy toil will crave sleep, just so will wildlife search its secluded spot and painlessly Pass into eternal sleep. Wildlife does not fear death when instinct calls.
From all of my observations I have made the following conclusions:
- The principle of life does not die – only its manifestations.
- The activity we recognize as life in plants, animals and humans is merely the active, temporary material manifestation of the invisible life principle (God) that operates as an immutable law of the universe.
- The principle of life, whether plant or animal, is an eternal force of perfect, self-expressing, self-creating, self-supporting energy. Each form of life is limited to its own peculiar life cycle, involvinggermination or conception, growth, reproduction and maturity. The requisite to life is vibrant health that in Nature’s domain is never sick until its life cycle has been performed.
Such was the order of life and its regimen in the Garden of Eden and is today still the same in any area where the influence of man has not yet penetrated.
However, I believe the real intent of the Garden of Eden story concerns the fate of man.
It relates about his departure from the natural ways of the Garden through the development of a separate, finite and sensuous mind.
This finite and sensuous mind in man is responsible for the commission of sins of every kind and degree.
It is the atonement for and the salvation from these sins that has occasioned the need for religious reform.
On the other hand every form of creation excepting man reacts with absolute obedience to God’s universal, unerring intelligence that directs it. It cannot sin, and therefore does not require salvation.
Cleanliness, orderliness and moral obedience tempered by unrestrained love are the cardinal requisites to fulfill every demand of God’s universal law and the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
Of these virtues will I preach and know that I will not mislead any man.
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The following special events notations appear in his Journal:
MY FIRST FUNERAL SERVICE
Yesterday I performed my first funeral service. It was a double service for Adolph Meckstroth, aged 23 years, and Henty Snethkamp, aged 28 years. Both men were simultaneously killed while felling a tree on January 31, 1843.
Author’s Note: On March 18, 1844 Mr. Kuck married the widow of Adolph Meckstroth – Mrs. Maria E. Meckstroth.
JUNE 17, 1853
Last week I was ordained as a minister in the Lutheran faith. During my examination my answers were criticized as being pantheistic (Panthe – ismus) in character. I did not know and do not yet know what the word means, but it must be bad, as any reference to it is forbidden.
The ordination was completed, based on the following three pledges:
- That I would immediately change my name from Henry Kuck to my baptismal name – Frederick Herman Wilhelm Kuckherman.
- That I would not knowingly express pantheistic views in my sermons.
- That I will uphold and observe the rules and regulations of the Lutheran church denomination.
P. S. In order not to violate my second pledge, I will henceforth not use the Old Testament but the New Testament entirely for my sermons.
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END OF OLD TESTAMENT NOTATIONS