I AM HERE. Euliam.

I am the spirit of a Jew who lived in the time of Jesus and was a member of the Sanhedrin. I sat as one of his judges at the time of his condemnation for blasphemy and iconoclastic teachings against the beliefs and doctrines of the Hebrew faith, and was one of those who voted for the sentence of death upon him. In doing so, I was as honest in my conviction and action as it was possible for an earnest believer in his faith to be.

Consequently, I was without prejudice against Jesus as a man and, as I believed, a fanatic. And it was only because I was convinced that he was an assailer of, and dangerous to, our religion and the welfare of my race that I consented to his death. Mortals of these days cannot fully understand the exact relationship of Jesus and his teachings to the security of our religion and the preservation of the faith which we believed had been handed down to us by God directly through our prophets and teachers. And when we were confronted with what we believed to be the destructive and irreligious teachings of Jesus, and after making the numerous efforts to suppress him by threats and persuasion without effect, we concluded that our absolute and indisputable duty to God demanded that he be removed from the sphere of his activity, even though such result could only be accomplished by his death.

If mortals of the present day could understand our deep religious convictions and the sense of obligation that rested upon us to protect and keep whole the divine doctrines and teachings of our faith, and especially that one which declared the Oneness of God ^[1], they would not judge the action of the Jews in condemning Jesus to death to be an unusual or unexpected thing. To us and to our religion, he stood in the position of a breeder of sedition, just as men in modern times have occupied the position of breeders of treason towards the civil governments, and have suffered the punishments which were inflicted upon them with the approval of such governments.

But he appeared to us to be not only guilty of treason to our national life but also guilty of treason to the higher and God-given life of the religious government of our race—the chosen one of God, as we sincerely and zealously believed. Even in latter days, men have appeared and claimed to be the especially anointed of God with missions to perform. They have gathered a following of people around them whom they have impressed with the truth of their character and mission and teachings, and, for a short time, they were permitted to declare their claims and doctrines. Then they were suddenly brought to death by the decree of those who were in authority, having been judged to be troublemakers and enemies of the church or state. And, now, they have been forgotten and their doctrines have disappeared from memory.

Only in the instance of Jesus has his particular death been remembered through all the ages. And those who were the cause and were responsible for his death have been desecrated and cursed, and charged with the murder of God.

Well, I write this to show you that the Jews who took the life and demanded the crucifixion of that just man were actuated by motives other than, or different from, those that have caused the very followers and worshipers of that Jesus to murder and crucify, many times since, other men who have claimed to be the sons of God endowed with special missions for the salvation of mankind.

The sincerity of the Jews who took part in this great tragedy cannot be assailed. Even their Roman masters understood at that time that the demands for the death of Jesus did not arise from personal spite, or from the satisfaction of any revenge against the individual. They arose solely because the Jews believed, and so declared, that Jesus was an enemy and would-be destroyer of the divine faith and teachings of the Israelite nation, and a seducer of the people. And it is only because of the subsequent rise and spread of his teachings and the Truths that he declared—which have made so large a portion of the inhabitants of the earth followers of him—that the act of the Jews in causing his death has been called the great crime of the world, and that the people, themselves, have become hated and persecuted, and destroyed as a nation, and scattered to all points of the earth.

I do not write this to excuse or palliate the great error which we committed in causing the crucifixion and death of the true son of God, but only to show that the Jews (though as I now know, mistakenly) did that which other men with the same faith and convictions and zealousness for the religious preservation of the nation would have done in similar circumstances, be these men Jews or Gentiles or pagans.

But the great element of tragedy in all this is not that Jesus was crucified, but that the Jews were so mistaken and failed to recognize and accept Jesus as their long-looked-for Messiah and deliverer—not from their material conditions of bondage, but from the bondage of sin and error in which they have lived for so many centuries. This, I say, was their tragedy, and it has been their lasting and deadly tragedy from that time until the present day. And the prospects are that it will continue to be theirs for many years to come, and that generations of Jews will pass from the earth life to the spirit world under the shadow of that great tragedy.

They still believe—and that belief is a part of their existence, and as firmly fixed as in the days of the great mistake—that they have Abraham for their father, and that his faith and example are sufficient to show them the true Way to God and salvation; that they are the chosen people of God, and that by worshiping the one and only God and observing the sacraments and feasts and Commands of God that were given to them by and through Moses and the prophets, and as are contained in the Old Testament, they will find the Heaven of God here on earth and rest in the bosom of Abraham after death. They believe further that the observance of the moral and ethical precepts of their Bible is all that is necessary to develop their spiritual natures, that there is nothing beyond such development to be desired or to be sought for, and that they will attain the Adamic condition of reward and happiness at some time, which is the ultimate of man's future existence.

Some are still looking for the coming of a Messiah who will restore their former glory to them and rule on earth as the king and governor of all the nations, and that they will be his chosen subjects and selected to assist in the administration of that Messiah's kingdom.

And I want to say to my people, with the certainty of knowledge arising from experience and actual observation, that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah who brought to the world, and first to the Jews, the Truth of God and His Plans for the salvation of mankind, and the potential restoration of all that they had lost by the fall of their first parents because of their disobedience. And if the people of my nation had received him and accepted and followed his teachings, they would not now be the scattered, homeless, and persecuted race on earth that they are. Nor would they now be satisfied in the spirit world with their homes and happiness in the Spiritual Heavens, but many of them would be inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens and the possessors of immortality and God's Divine Love.

You have received many messages describing the Plan of the Father for the salvation of men, and what the Divine Love is, how It may be obtained, and what Its effect is upon the soul of man and spirit when once possessed. And I will not attempt to enter into an explanation of these things at this time. But with all the love that I have for my race, added to a knowledge of the great error and insufficiency of their faith to bring them into atonement with God, I advise and urge them to seek the Truth and apply it to their individual souls. And I affirm that the Truth is contained, and the Way may be found, in the messages that you have received from Jesus and the other high spirits.

I am a believer in these Truths, a follower of the Master, and an inhabitant of the Celestial Heavens. But I want to say that these Truths did not come to me as a part of my faith until many long years of life in the spirit world, and that I lived in darkness and suffering for some of these years. I will say good night and subscribe myself as

Your brother in Christ,

EULIAM.