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Why
Jesus Was Not Accepted as the Promised
Messiah by the Chief Priests and Hebrew
Rulers
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I am here, Jesus:
I have been listening to your conversations regarding various verses
in the Old Testament, which show that you are skeptical of the many
supernatural events recorded in them, as well as the prophecies of
Isaiah dealing with the child who would be called God and I would
like to tell you, that the Doctor* and you are correct in the belief
that these verses are not faithfully interpreted and that there is
much in them that is not the word of God, but of scribes who thought
they were doing so. God has never at any time sanctioned despoiling
of any country or people conquered or invaded by the Hebrews, as in
the case of the Egyptians cited by the Doctor. And many other cases
can be cited in which cruelties were inflicted upon human beings
with the apparent approval of God, such as the children who mocked
Elisha the prophet, were supposed to have been cured by him and
devoured by a bear, for the prophet never had recourse to such
curses or revenge on children, and this episode was inserted merely
to show the supernatural power which the prophet was supposed to
possess. And in the same way Peter never recalled from the dead the
person of Tabitha or Dorcas in Joppa, for none can recall to life a
person who has truly died, and so it was that Dorcas was ill, but
not dead, and while Peter had at this time healing powers through
the Divine Love, yet he did not bring back the woman to life, as
recorded in the New Testament, but healed her of her illness.
And with respect to Peter’s healing in Jerusalem, the verses of
which the Doctor read, Peter never stated that this healing was
brought about by me, but by the power of God, and later writers who
were interested in exalting me to the godhead simply substituted the
words “Jesus Christ” instead of God and understood the substitution
to be equivalent to the same thing. And there are many other
instances in the Old Testament and the New Testament of supernatural
events which never took place, and are merely stories, and one of
these was the furnace into which Daniel the prophet and the other
Hebrews were supposedly thrown, heated seven times more than was
wont, without harming them, an account written to encourage the Jews
to have more faith in God because of the supernatural signs He
wrought and which the Jews at that time and of my generation were
eager to obtain as proof of God’s existence and His solicitude for
Israel.
II
I wish to continue with the truths of the New Testament and to speak
about my teachings in the Temple in Jerusalem the autumn before my
death, for it was the first time that I had the opportunity to
present my claims as Messiah before the Chief Priests and Rulers and
most learned amongst the Hebrew people in matters pertaining to
religion, and I made known that my mission was to proclaim the New
Covenant between the Heavenly Father and the people of Israel, and
that the Divine Love of the Father was now present and could be
obtained by all who might seek it through earnest longing of soul,
and that I was the visible sign of its presence, because in my soul
there reposed the nature and essence of the Father in the form of
the Divine Love, and that my soul was of this nature and essence of
the Father and therefore immortal.
But to the Hebrew rulers, my claims appeared false because Isaiah
had prophesied that no one would know from whence the Messiah would
come; whereas, I was well known—being Jesus of Nazareth, for they
deemed a man not to be of his native town, but of the one in which
he lived most of his life and was associated with; thus Jerusalem
was considered the city of the “Great King David,” rather than
Bethlehem, where he was born. The New Testament infers that the
Hebrew leaders did not know I was born in Bethlehem—and that
therefore Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the unknown origin of the
Messiah was applicable to me, but the fact is, they not only knew
where I was from, but they also knew my father, Joseph, a member of
the Sanhedrin, and that he too came from Bethlehem.
This type of argument, however, showed bad faith and a recourse to
technicalities in the determination of the priests not to recognize
me as the Messiah, for that, they felt, would have upset their high
position as the religious leaders of the nation, which they were
unwilling to relinquish; and those technicalities were a subterfuge
and manner of debating issues which were dear to their hearts,
laying emphasis on hair splitting intellectual distinctions
resulting from subtle interpretations of the law foreign to real
basic issues and spiritual insight achieved through soul seeking to
know the truth.
And thus, replying to their minute scriptural objections on their
own terms, I proclaimed that it was not true that they knew where I
was from, or who my Father was, for, whereas they referred to Joseph
as my father, whom they knew well, I referred to God, my Heavenly
Father, whom they did not know, nor did they know from whence I came
as a Divine Soul, nor how or when I was created. The reference of
the Rabbis to my father Joseph were later eliminated from the
Gospels, for mention of my earthly parents was a thorn in the side
of the later Gospel revisionists who labored zealously to make of me
a God-man born of a virgin, and second person of the supposed
trinity, which, of course, has no foundation in fact.
I further told them that, if they knew the Father, they would also
know me, His Son, as being sent from Him, and recognize me as the
Messiah, and quoting from Isaiah, as the Hebrew leaders did, I
stated that the Father had said; “Incline your ear and come unto me;
Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make a covenant with you
even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him Os a
witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”
And this that I said, was known to all who received instruction
concerning the Heavenly Father, so that they knew He had appointed a
Messiah over them in a descendant of David, hence they should accept
me as their Messiah, in as much as I had indeed come to enable their
souls to live, by making available to them the gift of immortality
in the Father’s Divine Love, accompanied by the power of healing and
miracles which I performed through the Father, and thus attested to
the truth of my mission.
And I further informed them, that, if they wished to ascertain the
truth of my words, they should try and
test my teachings that the
Father’s Love was now available, and pray for it to the Father in
earnest prayer, and see whether, if this was done in sincerity, the
Father’s Love, conveyed through the Holy Spirit, would burn and glow
in the soul, by which sign they would realize His Love was present
therein.
And I also stated that these teachings were not mine, but those of
the Father—which I had been commanded by Him to proclaim to the
children of Israel, and that, having been sent by Him, I could do
nothing of my own, but what I saw done unto me by the Father—that is
to say, what power I received of the Father. I did not say I could
do what I saw the Father do, or imitate Him, as the Gospel states,
for that would give me a power equal to that of the Father, which is
blasphemy, for no mortal or spirit will ever, through all eternity,
have power equal to that of the Father, and the revision was made
many years later in conformity to the false doctrine, elaborated in
the early Greek period of Christianity, after my death, of making me
co-equal to the Father; and here would like to say that, if such an
absurdity were admitted for one moment, it lends itself to its own
destruction, and proves its own falsity, for, never having seen the
Heavenly Father lay down His life for His sheep, Israel, neither
could I, Jesus, have laid down mine, in the sense that it is
understood in the New Testament, that my shed blood and sacrifice on
the cross gives remission of sins.
I quote from the Psalms and from Samuel the prophet on the Davidic
covenant, saying, “I will set up thy seed after thee which shall
proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom. He shall
build a house for my name, I will establish the throne of his
kingdom forever, I will be his Father, and he shall be my son.
Thus if they knew the Father and honored His word, they would know
me as well for I proclaimed the eternal salvation of the soul
through His Love, which was evidenced in my own soul and witnessed
to by His power acting through me. I also testified that while they
did not know the Father, I, indeed, knew Him and was sent by Him—and
I stated that God was my witness to the truth of my mission—a
mission which I undertook for His glory, and not my own.
Neither did I break the Mosaic law regarding the Sabbath, when I
healed and made whole one of the Father’s children on that day, for
if circumcision was superior to the Sabbath, wherein one member of
the body was restored, how much more important than the Sabbath was
that act wherein the whole body was restored?
Hence I stated that their rejection of me as the Messiah, on the
grounds of my having healed on the Sabbath day, was merely a
subterfuge to refuse me recognition and to conceal their own
violation of the Mosaic law—making one body member more important
than the body itself, and it was they, not I, who was guilty of
transgression. I further stated that even as the Father knew and was
in me through having bestowed upon me the gift of His Love through
response to my soul aspirations and prayer, and this Love was His
nature and essence, even so did I know the Father and in the same
way was in Him.
I never said I was the Good Shepherd, for that referred to the
Father, and this statement was inserted many years after my death,
in order to raise me up to being equal to God. Instead, I stated
that the Father is the Good Shepherd—the sheepfold being the Kingdom
of ‘Heaven, and that I was the door through which the sheep came
into the sheepfold and into the presence and knowledge of the
Shepherd, or the Porter, who opens the door and is the Father. The
Father gives Eternal life to His sheep, and I am the way, the door,
by which the sheep may enter the sheepfold of eternal life. In the
Psalms it was pointed out that the Good Shepherd, ‘God, would use
David, or, better said, a root of David, as a helper in bringing the
sheep into the fold.
I think I have said enough on this subject and have explained many
things that are obscure in the New Testament, and with my blessings
upon you and the Doctor, and upon all my disciples who are doing the
Father’s work, I shall stop and sign myself,
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens
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