GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast
GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast
244. From God to Jerry to You – Entering the New Axial Age: The Future of Spiritual Development
In this episode of From God to Jerry to You, Dr. Jerry L. Martin explores a profound and timely revelation: the arrival of a New Spiritual Axial Age.
God’s message to Jerry wasn’t just about retelling a familiar story; it was about reframing it for an era in which the world’s faith traditions meet, interact, and evolve in ways never before possible.
Jerry shares how God explained that humanity is living in an extraordinary period of spiritual transformation. The old religious frameworks are loosening, yet there is a renewed hunger for the Divine.
This is not about creating one universal religion, but about opening pathways for spiritual growth through dialogue, exchange, and creative adaptation across traditions.
Listeners will hear how the original Axial Age — the time of Socrates, Confucius, the Hebrew prophets, and Hindu sages — reshaped human consciousness, and how today’s spiritual landscape mirrors that transformative energy.
From the personal God of the Old Testament to the Hindu concept of the Atman, Jerry illustrates how these truths, when received in new contexts, can spark fresh revelations and foster spiritual development.
God’s vision invites people of all backgrounds to draw wisdom from multiple sources, not blending them into sameness, but allowing each tradition to inspire new insights and deepen the understanding of Divine reality.
Join us for an episode that bridges faith and philosophy, history and the present day, and invites you to see your spiritual path as part of a larger, living story.
Other Series:
The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:
The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.
From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.
Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.
Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.
What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.
What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.
What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.
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- 📖 Get the book
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Scott Langdon 00:17: This is God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, a dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L Martin. He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions and God had a lot to tell him. Episode 244.
Scott Langdon 01:09: Welcome to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. I'm Scott Langdon, your host, and I'm thrilled to be able to bring you another episode of From God To Jerry To You. When I first interviewed with Jerry and Abigail for this job in February of 2020, I thought I would simply be helping a retired philosophy professor do promotional work for his book God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher. But when we first met, Jerry told me that God asked him to tell God’s story.
Hasn’t God’s story already been told? I had the same question Jerry did. That’s when I learned about this new axial age we’ve been entering.
In this week’s episode, join Jerry as he takes a deeper dive into what God revealed to him — about what God’s story, and hence all of our stories, have been leading up to. Here now is Jerry Martin. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 02:20: I've always felt that the revelations to me came at a unique time in history, and I'm going to tell you why. And it's going to involve the concept of an axial age.
You and I are surrounded, in fact, by world-historical change, and yet you don't notice it. Life goes on from one day to the next. Did people at the time realize they were in the Renaissance? Or say, later, “We are in the Enlightenment”?
Often with large-scale transitions, something is gained but much is lost. An emerging order can feel like chaos. This was true in the great Axial Age — to use Karl Jaspers’ term. Long before the birth of Christ, prophetic voices from Socrates to Confucius, from the Hebrew prophets to the Hindu visionaries — all within a few hundred years of each other — raised human consciousness to a new level in ways threatening to the old orders.
This was the period in which the world’s religions were founded. Sometimes they're now called the Axial Age religions.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 03:33: I learned all these things after God first spoke to me and told me, “I want you to tell my story.” At the time, I objected: “Hasn’t your story already been told?”
“It is time for it to be told again — and not in the same way,” God explained.
We are entering an unusual time in the history of the world. The old religions are coming apart, yet there is renewal of religious spirit. Many of the great religions rested on a relatively clear reception of messages from me. The new spirituality does not. It is aimless, made up, impressionistic, psychologized, sometimes flaky — and even dangerous and demonic.
Well, that sounds bad. But God continued: “There is gain here as well. The old revelations were limited. They fit the understanding of people at the time.”
Later, God explained that each religion captures a different aspect of the divine reality. God told me, “Each enables me to show a different side of myself.” God led me through the ancient scriptures of each religion and what truth was being expressed in each case.
Today we all grow up being aware of multiple religions. We’re no longer sheltered within the religion dominant in our culture. Others may be present in our school or workplace. We see them on the internet.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 05:30: It was not until the end of God: An Autobiography that these divine communications were put in this larger, up-to-the-minute context. You are now at a different time in history. You stand on the threshold of a new spiritual era — a new axial age.
For the first time, spiritually attuned individuals will draw their understanding of spiritual reality not just from the scriptures of their own religious tradition, but from the plenitude of my communications to men and women.
I knew that as people became aware of the richness of the world’s religions, they kind of wanted them all to say the same thing — somehow expressible in a heartwarming blend. But God rejected that idea.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 06:32: The upshot will not be a bland acceptance of all so-called scriptures and theological traditions, as if they all said the same thing — as you can see, they do not. Nevertheless, God did say it’s time for them to come together — not merely putting the pieces together, but in a dynamic way, a way that lends itself to forward development.
“Well, what do you mean, Lord?”
As people take in elements from other traditions, they will make something of that. It won’t just be a passive reception. It will be a creative, very dynamic process.
For example, as a Christian takes in the truth of the Atman — “truth” in scare quotes, because the Hindu truth of the Atman is not the final truth; it leaves the Christian perspective out — that understanding of the Atman will be shaped and expanded and connected to other elements not present or not so fully present in the Hindu tradition.
As the Hindus or Chinese fully take in the personal God of the Old Testament, as they take in the reality of Jesus, they will be transformed.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 08:10: And then I asked, “Resulting in a single world religion?”
There is no way human beings will all subscribe to a single religion, but they will no longer be hermetically sealed, looking at one another over tall, thick walls, sending bullets — or, when you’re lucky, flowers — back and forth.
It will be a creative ferment in which religions feel free to borrow from each other, and individuals will feel free to borrow from all religions and create their own creeds and rituals.
Well, at this point I pictured a big swap meet where everyone brings the truths of their religion, and then they kind of trade ideas back and forth until everybody has done all the trades they care to do — and that would all be over.
Dr. Jerry L. Martin 09:10: So I asked, “Once religions and individuals take in truths and revelations from each other, will that be the end of the process?”
God responded, “Of course it won’t be the end. There will be new developments — new communications from my side, and new developments and events and consciousness from the world’s side. The cutting edge of spiritual development will continue.”
Well, there you have it — the occasion, the world-historical occasion in the new axial age into which God: An Autobiography fits. It is a set of revelations not unique in human history, but unique at this point in time, speaking to the changes in the new axial age. Thank you for visiting with me.
Scott Langdon 10:23: Thank you for listening to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. Subscribe for free today wherever you listen to your podcasts and hear a new episode every week. You can hear the complete dramatic adaptation of God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin by beginning with episode one of our podcast and listening through its conclusion with Episode 44. You can read the original true story in the book from which this podcast is adapted, God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher, available now at amazon.com, and always at godanautobiography.com. Pick up your own copy today. If you have any questions about this or any other episode, please email us at questions@godanautobiography.com, and experience the world from God's perspective as it was told to a philosopher. This is Scott Langdon. I'll see you next time.