Angelic Revelations—the Gospel of God’s Love
Chapter 4
The True Atonement
Luke on the Atonement - continued
The True Meaning of the Atonement (Jesus)
Paul Denies the Vicarious Atonement
Peter Affirms What Paul Wrote About the Vicarious Atonement
The True Atonement
The Redemption of Soul That Jesus Taught Is Not Achieved Through the Blood Sacrifice of Any of God's Creatures
I am here, Luke, writer of the Third Gospel that was
I come tonight to tell you of a Truth that is of very great importance to you and to mankind, and I desire that you shall be very careful in receiving what I may say. I am in a condition of love that enables me to know whereof I write and to cause what I may say to be accepted by you as true.
I want to tell you that the Love of which we have been writing is the only Love that can make a spirit or man at-one with the Father. And this is my theme: "The Atonement."
This word, as used in the Bible and interpreted by the churches and the commentators on the Bible, carries with it a meaning of some price being paid by Jesus for the redemption of mankind from their sins, and from the punishment that they would otherwise have to undergo because of having committed sin; also, the idea that God, as an "angry" and "insatiable" God, was waiting for the price to be paid in order for His "wrath" to become satisfied, and so that man could stand before Him acquitted of sin and the consequences of disobedience.
This price, according to the teachings of the churches and the persons named, had to be paid by one who, in his goodness and purity, was capable of paying this price - that is, one who had in him such inherent qualities, and by his sacrifice, was of such inherent worth as to satisfy the requirements of the demands of this angry God Whose Laws had been disobeyed. And they also teach that the only way such price could have been paid was by the death on the cross of Jesus, who was the only person in all creation that possessed these qualities sufficiently to meet these requirements. And further, that by his death and the shedding of his blood, the sins were atoned for and God was satisfied. This is the orthodox belief of the "atonement" and the plan of salvation.
In short, a perfect human being free from all sin, a death on the cross and a shedding of blood - and both necessary in order that the sins of mortals might be washed away, and their souls made clean and fitted to become a part of the great family of God.
But this conception of the atonement is all wrong, and it is not justified by any teaching of the Master, or by any of the true teachings of the disciples to whom he had explained the Plan of Salvation and what the True Atonement means.
In various parts of the New Testament I know it is said that the blood of Jesus washes away all sin, and that his death on the cross "satisfies" the Father's "demand" for justice; and therein there are many similar expressions conveying the same idea. But these sayings of the Bible were never written by the persons to whom they are ascribed, but rather by writers who, in their various translations and alleged reproductions of these writings, added to and eliminated from the writings of the original writers, until the Bible became filled with these false doctrines and teachings.
The writers of the Bible, as it now stands, were persons who belonged to the church which was nationalized about the time of Constantine (In the fourth century A.D. -ed.). They had imposed upon them the duty of writing such ideas as the rulers or governors of this church conceived should be incorporated in the Bible for the purpose of carrying out their ideas in order to subserve the true interests of the church, and to give it such temporal power as it never could have had under the teachings and guidance of the pure doctrines of the Master.
This false doctrine of the atonement has been believed in for nearly two thousand years, and has been accepted by the so-called Christian churches, and promulgated by these churches as the true doctrine of Jesus, and the one upon which the salvation of man depends. And the consequences have been that men have believed that the only things necessary to their salvation and reconciliation to God were the death of Jesus, and the washing away of their sins by the blood shed on Calvary.
If men only knew how futile his death was, and how inefficacious his blood is to wash away sin and pay the "debt" to the Father, they would not rest in the assurance that all they have to do is to believe in this sacrifice and this blood. Instead, they would learn the true Plan of salvation and make every effort in their power to follow that Plan. And as a consequence, they would have their souls developed so that they would come into harmony with the Father's Love and Laws.
Atonement, in its true meaning, never meant the payment of a debt or the appeasing of the "wrath" of God. It meant simply the becoming at-one with Him in those qualities that will insure to men the possession of His Love and the Immortality that Jesus brought to light. The sacrifice of Jesus could have no possible effect upon the condition of man's soul qualities, and neither could the blood-shedding make a vile and sinful soul pure and free from sin.
God's Universe is governed by laws as immutable as they are perfect in their workings. And the great thing to be accomplished by the Plan which He provided for the redemption of men is to have every man come into harmony with these laws. As soon as that harmony exists there will be no more discord, and sin will not be known to humanity. And so, only that which will bring man into this harmony can possibly save him from his sins, and bring about the At-onement that Jesus and his disciples taught.
Man, when created, was endowed with what may be called a natural love, and that love, to the extent of the quality that it possessed, was in perfect harmony with God's Universe. And so long as it was permitted to exist in its pure state, it was a part of the harmony of the universe. But when it became defiled or impregnated with sin, or anything not in accord with God's Laws, it became inharmonious and not at-one with God. The only redemption required thereafter was the removing of those things that caused the inharmony.
Now the only way in which this inharmony could be removed was by the natural love becoming again pure and free from that which defiled it. The sacrifice on the cross could not furnish this remedy, and neither could the blood atonement accomplish it, because the sacrifice and the blood had no relation to the evil to be remedied. So I assert, if these things paid the "penalty" and "satisfied" God, and thereby He had no further claim upon man for any debt supposed to be due to Him from man, it necessarily implies that He kept the souls of men in this condition of inharmony and would not permit the same to be removed until His demands for "satisfaction" and "blood" had been met. Then, when He became "appeased," He would presumably permit men by His mere arbitrary declaration to again come in harmony with His Laws and the workings of His Universe. In other words, He would be willing to let men remain out of harmony with His Universe and the workings of His Laws until He had His demands for sacrifice and blood satisfied.
This, as is apparent to any reasonable person, would be a thing so foolish that, in matters pertaining to his earthly affairs, even a mere man would not adopt such a plan for the redemption of those sons of his who had been disobedient. (I see you have a caller, and will continue later.)
Luke on the Atonement (Continued from the preceding message)
I am here, Luke
I wish to continue my discourse on "The Atonement."
As I was saying, unless a man gets into harmony with God in the natural love which God bestowed upon him, and thereby becomes free from sin and error, there can be no redemption for him; and the death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood cannot cause that harmony. Now what I have heretofore said relates exclusively to man and his salvation with respect to his condition of becoming perfect in this natural love, which all men have.
But this is not the Great Atonement which Jesus came to earth to teach men (and the Way in which it could be obtained, and the effect of its attainment).
As has been told to you, in the beginning, God conferred upon our first parents not only the natural love, but also the potentiality of obtaining (by the observance of certain laws and obedience) the Divine Love of the Father; which, when obtained, would make a man a part of Divinity Itself. And while It would not make him a god or the equal of the Father, yet It would give him a Divinity that would cause him to receive the Substance of God's Great Love and not remain the mere image of his Creator. And as a result, man would become Immortal.
God, alone, is Immortal - and every part of Him is Immortal. And when men shall obtain in their souls that part of Him which is His greatest attribute - His Divine Love - they will also become Immortal, and thereafter not subject to death.
The natural love, which was implanted in the souls of all mankind, is not a part of the Divine Love. It is not this Love in a lesser degree even, but is a distinct and separate quality of love, and all men possess it. But in many persons, it has become contaminated by the sins that flow from the violation of God's laws, so that redemption of which I have spoken is necessary for man, even as the possessor of the natural love only.
But the Divine Love of the Father is a Love that has in It, and is wholly composed of, the Divinity which the Father possesses. And no man can ever become a part of that Divinity until he possesses this great Love. I know it is said that man is Divine because he was created in the image of God. But nothing which is a mere image is ever a part of the substance of which it is the image, and it cannot possibly have the qualities of that substance. Commonly speaking, the image may have the appearance, and (for the ordinary affairs of the mortal life) may serve the purpose of the real until something arises that demands the production of the real; and then the image will no longer serve the purpose.
Now in the case of the creation of man, he was made in the image of God in one particular only, and that in the matter of soul appearance. His physical or spiritual body was not in the image of God, for God has no such bodies. Only the soul of man is in the image of God, the Great Oversoul. And so long as man remains a mere image of the Father, he will never be more than the mere man that he was at the time of his creation - the Substance of the Father will never become a part of him. And while the Substance is Divine, the image can never become Divine until it becomes transformed into the Substance.
At man's creation, a Plan was formed by which that image might become a thing of Substance. There was given to man (the possessor of the image) the potentiality of obtaining the Substance. But man, through his disobedience, or failure to comply with or follow out the requirements of the Plan provided, forfeited this potentiality which had been conferred upon him. He thereby lost the possibility of having the image transformed into the Substance, which was absolutely necessary in order for him to ever become the possessor of any part of the Father's Divinity. And when men call themselves Divine, they assert that which is not true, but which, since the coming of Jesus to earth, may become true.
I will not recite what this disobedience of our first parents was, or in what way they lost the great potentiality of becoming Divine. I will only say that when they forfeited this potentiality by their disobedience, it was taken from them by God. And His Decree - that in the day they should commit the act of disobedience they should surely die - was carried out, and they died. Not the material bodies died, nor their spiritual bodies, nor their souls, for men continued to live in their physical bodies for many years after the day of disobedience. Their spirit bodies and souls never died, for they still live. But what died, and what the sentence passed upon them affected, was the potentiality of receiving the Substance which would make them Divine and Immortal. This potentiality was taken from them and never restored during the long centuries from the time of its death until the coming of Jesus.
That part of the Divine Nature, or that Divine Attribute which was the object of this potentiality, and which would make man a part of the Divine Nature and Immortal, was the Divine Love of the Father, and nothing else. And if our first parents through their obedience had received this Divine Love, never would mortality as to the soul have existed on earth, and neither sin nor a want of at-onement with the Father. But disobedience came, and death of the possibility of becoming Immortal ensued. And man remained mere man - only an image of the Father and nothing more.
No man, in all the long ages that I have mentioned, ever had anything more or greater in his nature than the natural love of which I have spoken. And even as to that, man so abused and defiled it that he became eventually an outcast from the Father as to this love. In other words, he (man) buried it so deeply under his acts of sin and the violation of those Laws of God which control this natural love that he appeared to be forsaken by the Father, even as a mere human being.
In the history of what is called God's "chosen people," the Jews, it appears that time and time again these people became such aliens from God in this natural love that men (possessed of this love in a purer state than were the common people) were used by the forces of the spirit world to call these people to a realization of their obligations to God arising out of the gift of the natural love. None of the prophets-- neither Moses nor Elijah nor any of the others - possessed this Divine Love, but merely the natural love in a purer state than that possessed by the people to whom they delivered their messages.
But in God's own time, and in accordance with His Mercy and Plan, He rebestowed upon man this great Potentiality of which I speak, so that men should again have the privilege of becoming at-one with Him. And to declare the rebestowal of this Great Gift, Jesus was sent to earth in the form of man conceived and born as other men, but without sin.
It was at the time of Jesus' coming that the Great Gift was rebestowed upon both mortals and spirits of mortals then living in the spirit world. And they all (spirits and mortals) received the privilege of becoming at-one with the Father through the Plan of salvation that He had revealed to Jesus, which Jesus taught in his ministry during the short years of his earthly life, and which he is still teaching.
There is no other way in which man can become at one with the Father - in which the image can be transformed into the substance - than the way that Jesus taught, but which seems not to have been understood by men after the church became a church of temporal power, and after the writings of the apostles were emasculated, and the thoughts and desires of men were interpolated in the place of the gospel of peace and salvation.
Yet there is in the gospel of John one declaration of the true plan of salvation, though it is little understood and almost ignored in practical teachings and observances of the churches and their members. And that is: "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."
These words of the New Birth are the only words that declare the true doctrine of the atonement. No death of Jesus on the cross, no shedding of blood or washing away of sins by the blood, no paying of any debt, and no "believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," will bring men into at-onement with the Father or fit them to become inhabitants of His Kingdom. Only the New Birth is efficacious for this purpose, and no other plan did Jesus ever teach, and is not now teaching.
Then, what is meant by the New Birth?
Men in their understanding and interpretation of it differ, and it will do no good for me to recite these different interpretations, or what the New Birth is not. But the important thing is what it is!
As I have said, the potentiality that was conferred upon our first parents was the privilege of obtaining the Divine Nature and Immortality of the Father, by becoming possessed of His Great Attribute of Divinity - the Divine Love. And had our first parents by their obedience received the benefits of this great privilege, they would have been born again, just as you and all other mortals (and spirits as well) may now be born again.
Then the New Birth is simply the effect of the flowing of this Divine Love of the Father into the soul of a man, and the disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error. As the Divine Love takes possession of the soul, sin and error disappear. It (the soul) becomes of a quality like the Great Soul of the Father. And with the Soul of the Father being Divine and Immortal in its quality of Love, so, when the soul of man becomes possessed of this quality of Love (the soul being the man) this soul becomes Divine also. Then the image becomes the Substance, the mortal becomes the Immortal, and the soul of man, as to love and hope, becomes a part of the Father's Divinity.
Now to declare this Plan of salvation, and also the rebestowal of the Great Gift of the potentiality of the soul, Jesus came to earth. This was his mission, and none other. As readers of the Bible will remember - and it is a truth - when Jesus was baptized and anointed, and also while on the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of God (as it is written) declared that Jesus was his well- beloved son and demanded of the people, "Hear ye him!" Not to believe that he came to die on the cross, not to believe that his blood would bring about the atonement, not to believe in any vicarious atonement, or that God in "wrath" demanded a sacrifice, but only "Hear ye him!" And in all his teachings, Jesus never taught one of these things, but only the New Birth as I have explained it. This is the only thing necessary for the true atonement, and Jesus is still teaching it.
He also taught moral truths affecting the conduct and relation of man to man, and man in his natural state to God; but none of these moral teachings were sufficient to bring about the Great At-onement. There is no doubt that the observance of many of these teachings of morality, and of man's conduct towards God will have a tendency to lead men to seek the higher Love of the Father, and help their souls get in the condition that will make it easier for this Great Love to flow into them. But these moral teachings of prescribed conduct will not, of themselves, be sufficient to bring the New Birth, and hence the At-onement.
Now Jesus not only taught the necessity for the New Birth, but he also taught the Way in which it could be obtained. And that Way is just as simple and easily understood as the New Birth itself. He taught, and is now teaching that through earnest prayer to the Father, and faith (which makes all aspirations and soul longings things of real existence), and by the Holy Spirit (which is the Father's messenger of Love, or that which carries his Divine Love), this Love will flow into the souls of men in response to such prayers. And by such faith, men will realize Its presence; and in this way, and this way only, men will receive the New Birth.
This is wholly an individual matter. Without the personal, earnest prayer of the supplicant, and faith that comes with the Love, a man cannot receive the New Birth. No ceremony of church, no laying on of hands, or masses for the souls of the dead will be efficacious to make the man or spirit a new creature of God.
What I have written is the meaning of the True Atonement, as taught by the Master, and as understood by all the redeemed of the Father, who are now living in His Celestial Heavens. And there is no other atonement possible.
I have written enough, and hope I have made the true explanation of the Divine Atonement plain to all men. We who are inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens know the truth of my explanation, both from personal experience, and from the other fact, which no spirit in all the universe can deny: that only those who have received this Divine Love of the Father in their souls in sufficient abundance can or do inhabit the Celestial Heavens. All other spirits, no matter what their several beliefs may be, live in the lower Spiritual Spheres, and cannot enter the Celestial Heavens unless they seek for and obtain the New Birth that Jesus taught and is still teaching.
So my dear brother, without writing more, I will say goodnight.
Your
brother in Christ,
Luke
The True Meaning of the Atonement
I am here, Jesus.
I will write a few lines because I desire to confirm what Luke has so clearly explained as to what the True Atonement is.
He has stated the true Plan of God for the redemption of mankind - that is, for placing them in the exact relation to our Father that our first parents occupied, and which relation, by their disobedience, was taken from them and never restored until my coming. Men must learn the true meaning of the great Plan for their salvation and for their becoming at-one with the Father in His Divine Nature. No other plan has been provided, and no other way is open to men to receive this Divine Nature of the Father and Immortality.
The natural love of man - that is the love that God bestowed upon men at the creation of our first parents - is a love that is pure and in harmony with God's Laws and the workings of the universe, and which must be restored to its pristine purity in order for man to come into harmony with God as to the laws controlling it. And in order to get in this harmony, men must become free from all violations of God's Laws in their conduct towards Him and towards one another. Many of my teachings, in fact, were directed to bring about this harmony.
The Golden Rule is one. And this great teaching, if observed in the conduct of men towards one another, will tend to bring about the harmony; for to man the most important thing is his own happiness. And when a man shall do unto others as he would have others do unto him, he will be proceeding towards that condition of conduct, and the correct relationship of man to man, that will bring harmony and an observance of those requirements of God's Laws controlling such relationship.
But the observance of the right conduct of man to man, or the regaining of the purity of this natural love, will not bring about the great reconciliation to God in the Divine sense - that is, make men at-one with the Father in His Divinity and Immortality.
And now I see and understand why my great teachings of the Divine Atonement were not considered as important by men, after my early followers died, as the teachings that would control them in their conduct towards one another - that is, what may be called my moral teachings.
In those days, the great majority of men who professed to follow my teachings, as written in the Bible that the church adopted, thought more of the rewards and happiness that might come to them as mortals than of those that might come to them after they became spirits - just as the Jews had thought for all the long years prior to my coming. These teachings were merely those of the earth; and such teachings, whether of the Old Testament or any other teachings recognized by them as governing their conduct as mere mortals, were of more importance to them than were the teachings that showed them the way to the Celestial Kingdom.
And when the church which my apostles founded came under the control and government of men with only the temporal interests at heart, more importance was attached to those things which (as the rulers and leaders of the church thought) would cause the people to conduct themselves in such a way as would tend to increase the power and influence of the church. And hence the great Truth of the New Birth was neglected, and salvation was declared to be by means that could be more readily utilized by the officials of the church. In other words, salvation became a thing which depended on the church and not on the individual. So you see the great harm that was done by these teachings, and the great power the church acquired.
Salvation is a thing between God and the individual, and it can be obtained only by the individual becoming at-one with the Father, who cares not for the teachings of the church, or of man, unless these teachings will bring the souls of men into harmony with Him. I say "cares not," but that does not just express what I mean. God does care whenever his creatures are taught false doctrines, and He is waiting and anxious to bestow upon every man his Divine Love. But even He cannot, or will not, make such bestowal unless men follow the Plan which He has prescribed. And He could not have adopted any other Plan; for the only Way in which men can become at-one with Him is to become, as it were, a part of Him in partaking of his Nature and Attributes. And unless the soul of man receives from the Father these qualities, it can never become at-one with Him.
As Luke said, my death or blood or any supposed vicarious atonement could not have made a man's soul a possessor of the Divine Love of the Father because they could not bring man into that relationship with the Father that would cause the soul of man to open up to the inflowing of this Love. Let no man suppose that by a mere belief in me as the son of God and the savior of the world, or that I died for him, he can become at-one with the Father; for it is not true and has worked great harm to mankind.
Only the pure, honest, sincere aspirations of the soul of a man for this Great Love of the Father can possibly bring about this true atonement that is necessary in order for that man to become a part of God's Divinity, and partake of His Divine Nature.
I have written enough and will close.
Your
brother and friend,
Jesus
The Belief by the Churches in the Efficacy of the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus Has Caused Much Harm to Mankind
I am here, John
I wish to write tonight on a subject that is of importance to the members of the orthodox churches as to the belief in the efficacy of the "atonement" of Jesus, by his death and crucifixion.
All the orthodox believe, their preachers and evangelists teach in their sermons and addresses, and the teachers of Bible classes instruct their students that the blood of Jesus and his death on the cross were the two factors in his career on earth that save men from their sins, and satisfy the great penalty of death which overhangs them because of man's first disobedience, and the sins that followed therefrom.
Well, this doctrine has prevailed in the beliefs and teachings of the church ever since the church became established by the convention that met in pursuance of the orders of Constantine (The convention referred to was the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 A.D.-ed.). Then, the books that now constitute the Bible were given the sanction of the church as canonical. Before this time, some of the early fathers believed in the doctrine of the atonement as stated above, and the controversies between them and others who did not subscribe to this doctrine were very bitter and at times very unchristian - according to the Christianity that prevailed among the early followers of the Master, or according to his teachings.
From that time until the present (although the great Roman church has been seceded from, and reforms have been made by churches founded on such reforms) this doctrine has been incorporated in and believed by most of the churches, no matter what name they may have adopted, or what form of government they may have prescribed.
This doctrine constitutes the foundation principles of these various bodies of church entity. And today these principles are as much a part of the faith and teachings of the churches as they ever were in all the centuries that have passed.
Of course, with this cardinal doctrine, there have also become incorporated in these faiths and teachings certain other principles which apply more to the individual members of the church than to the church body itself. I mean belief in the Truth that there is a close relationship between God and the individual, which may be established by prayer and the longings of the soul for the inflowing of God's Love, and for the regeneration of the nature of man by the influences of this Love of the Father.
But in these latter days, this Truth has been known to, and its working experienced by a comparatively few of those who call themselves orthodox Christians. The large majority have depended upon the belief in the doctrine that Jesus, by his sacrifice and death, paid a presumed debt which man owed to God. Accordingly, these members of the church intellectually believe in and accept Jesus as their savior because he paid that presumed debt, and by the shedding of his blood, washed away their sins and made them at-one with the Father; furthermore he allegedly saved them from the "wrath" of the Father and, in a moment, made them the truly redeemed and accepted children of God. They believe further that as long as they maintain this belief and attend to their duties as such members, and also observe the regulations of the church, they are safe, and fitted for the enjoyment of heaven and the Presence of the Father.
They also believe that unless a man accepts Jesus as his savior in the way I have mentioned, that man will be eternally lost, and (in the beliefs and teachings of some of these members) that he will be sent to hell to be eternally damned and punished.
Well, one view of this doctrine is just as true as the other, or rather, just as untrue, because both of these phases of belief have no foundation in fact, and are not in accord with the teachings of the Master. Nor are they in accord with the fact as I know it to be - not from any mere belief but from personal experience and observation.
Oh, how the pure teachings of the Master have been distorted and made the means of preventing so many human souls from reaching the heaven of happiness that they wished for, and that they thought would be theirs when they should give up their mortal lives!
This doctrine, so long believed, has worked the damnation of many a man as regards his soul development, his becoming at-one with the Father, and his reaching the heavens that are prepared for those who obtain that soul union with the Father.
I know it may seem surprising to some who are really true believers in this doctrine and (as they think) in the truths of God and the teachings of Jesus, which are believed to be infallibly contained in the Bible, that I announce the falsity of these beliefs, and their utter ineffectiveness in enabling these sincere people to obtain that which they so earnestly desire.
But such is Truth; and Truth never changes, never compromises with untruth, and never permits the erroneous beliefs of a really sincere mortal to swerve one iota from the results and consequences of that false belief. And the great injury that this false doctrine has done to humanity, and is now doing, will continue in the world to come, until the belief in Truth shall supersede the belief in that which is false. Thus, not everyone who shall say: "Lord, Lord" will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
These false beliefs have operated in two ways to injure man and render him unfit for an entrance into the Kingdom: first, by the belief that brings about the injury that results from the positive operation of error (which is great); and next, by the want of belief in the Truth, which prevents progress in the acquirement of those qualities which belong to, and are necessary parts of that Truth.
When men believe in the doctrine that I have stated, they become satisfied, and (knowingly or not) they remain in a state of false security, not attempting to develop the soul qualities which are the only ones that are in relationship with God. Their mental beliefs are strong, and may increase in strength, but their soul communions with the Father, and their growth and expansion in the soul development become stagnant and, as it were, dead.
This is the great injury that these false beliefs do to the man and to the spirit - I mean in his individual capacity, for it must be known as a Truth that the salvation of man, or his soul progress towards an At-onement with the Father is an individual matter, solely. Men, as aggregations or in church communities, are not redeemed from sin; nor as such can they have any relationship with the Father, or receive His Divine Love, which is the only salvation.
There is only one possible way in which man can come in unison and at-onement with the Father, and be thereby fitted to enjoy or inhabit the mansions in His Kingdom which Jesus spoke of when on earth, and that is the Way that will make the soul of man like the soul of the Father, and a partaker of His Divine qualities of Love and Life. No belief that will not bring about this uniting and commingling, as it were, can possibly make the soul of man a partaker of these qualities that are a part of the soul of God.
Then, let man consider for a moment what possible connection there can be between these soul qualities of God, and the death and blood of Jesus.
God is the Creator of life and death, and also of blood and flesh, and He can destroy as well as create. Had the sins of man called for the sacrifice of that which was mere flesh and blood, or the extinguishment of a life that God had created, in order to pay the penalty of that sin, then a God Who demanded such a payment (and this implies of course that such a God was "wrathful" and could only be "appeased" by something that He could not of and by Himself obtain) would not possibly be satisfied with that which He had created, over which He still had absolute control, and which He could destroy and make nonexistent at any time He pleased.
Jesus' life was already a possession of God. When he surrendered that life, he did not give to God anything that He did not already own and could not have taken. And when his blood flowed on the cross, it was not that which God could not have made flow at any time and in any manner.
So the absurdity of such a doctrine is too apparent for serious consideration. This doctrine's logical meaning is that God was demanding a debt that had long been unpaid, He being all "wrathful" and "insatiable," and that He would be satisfied only with the death of a living being and the flowing of his blood - that death and that flow of blood in one way only; namely, on the cross. And yet, with all this "demand" that has been sounding down the ages for centuries, relentlessly and unpityingly, He became satisfied, and His wrath assuaged by seeing His Own creature die - and that creature being His best beloved son. And by hearing the trickling of the blood of that creature from a wooden cross, the life and the blood being already His to let live or destroy as He might see fit, man became at-one with Him.
The simple reduction of such a proposition is that God, in order to cancel a debt that was owing to Him, accepted in payment thereof that which was already His, and which no power or being in all His Universe could have taken from Him.
Now I say all this reverently, as your preachers say, but the fact is that the mere assertion of such a doctrine as I have been dealing with is so blasphemous that no treatment of it, showing its falsity, could be irreverent.
And again, believing that God "demanded" that Jesus should die specifically on the cross to carry out His "plan" for a particular kind of death that would make the payment "satisfactory" is so manifestly absurd that all of the spirits in the Kingdom of the Father wonder that mortals could believe such an unreasonable dogma!
To follow this absurd proposition to its logical conclusion, it was necessary not only that Jesus should die on the cross, in order that the debt might be paid, but also that Judas should become the traitor, that the Jews should clamor for his death, and that Pilate should pronounce the sentence. Presumably, these were all necessary means to the satisfactory payment of the debt. But if this were so, why is it then that Judas and Pilate and the Jews are not saviors of mankind also - even if, as you say, in a secondary sense? Jesus could not have clamored for his own death or erected his own cross, or nailed himself thereto, or pierced his side with a spear in order that the blood might flow. If he had done this, he would have been a suicide. But it may be that there would have been more of the elements of the payment of a debt in that method of dying than in the way in which his death was brought about.
I, John, who loved the Master more than all the others, and who was closer to him; who was with him when he was nailed to the cruel cross (which I think of with horror), and who was among the first to take his body from the tree, and first felt his blood upon my hands, tell you that the death of Jesus on the cross did not pay any debt that man owed to God. Nor did his blood wash away the sins of any man. And, oh, the pity of it all is that mortals for all these long years have believed that they were saved by his sacrifice and blood, and by such belief, have never come any nearer to the Master, or in At-onement with the Father!
As I and others have written to you, the only way in which man can be saved from his sins, and become in at-onement with the Father is by the New Birth - which the Master has described to you as being the result of the flowing into the soul of a man the Divine Love of the Father, and the disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error. As this Love flows into a man's soul, it permeates that soul, as does leaven the batch of dough; and that soul partakes of this Divine Love, and thereby becomes like the Father in His Divine Nature, and fitted to inhabit His Kingdom.
Now you can readily see that there can be no possible relationship existing between the death of Jesus on the cross, and his blood, and the giving to the soul of a man those Divine qualities that belong to the Father's Nature. These qualities are not imparted to man by death and blood, but by Life and Love, and faith which comes with that Love. And here, when I say faith, I do not mean the mere intellectual belief of which I have spoken.
As we have before written, when the first parents were created, they were not given this Divine Love - only the mere possibility of obtaining it, upon their seeking for It in the Way that God had provided. It was not forced upon them, but it was optional with them as to whether or not they would receive It, and become fitted to inhabit the Kingdom of Heaven. When they committed their act of disobedience, they forfeited this privilege, and (as to it) died, and were left without a mediator between themselves and God. And here I don't mean any mediator in the way of paying a debt, for they owed no debt to God. They were merely, as you mortals might say, disinherited children. And the only mediator that man needed after that time was one through whom might come the glorious tidings that the Father had changed His will, or forgiven the disobedience to the extent of restoring His original offer - the privilege of obtaining His Divine Love into their souls. And in this sense, never was there any mediator between God and man until the coming of Jesus, and his announcing to man that the Father had changed His will, and had restored to mankind the great privilege of partaking of His Divine Nature and Immortality.
Thus, as in the first man, Adam, all men died, so in the man Jesus all men were made alive. And Jesus was the mediator not only in declaring to man the rebestowal of this Great Gift of the Divine Love and Immortality, but also in showing the Way by which men could and must seek for that Gift in order to possess It. The Great Gift of God to man was not Jesus, but rather the Potentiality of obtaining the Divine Love of the Father, and thus becoming Divine, and fitted to reside in the mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus Jesus became the Resurrection and the Life, and brought Immortality to light.
How much greater a savior this is than by his paying a supposed debt by his death and blood! No, he is the savior of man by his living and his teachings, for he was the first to receive this Divine Love, and to become Divine himself. And thus he became the first fruit of the Resurrection.
We have explained to you before, in detail, some of the Truths that I have declared in this message, and it is not necessary here to explain them further.
In closing, I wish to declare with all the emphasis that I possess, arising from a knowledge based upon the teachings of the Master, and my own personal experience (as a possessor of this Divine Love, and a partaker of the Father's Divine Nature) that no vicarious atonement of Jesus, nor the shedding of his blood saves any man from sin, or makes him a redeemed child of the Father, or fits him for a home in the mansions of the Celestial Spheres.
With a love that can come only from a redeemed and Divine nature, I love all mankind, and am working to help them find the Way to Life and Immortality, and happiness beyond the conception of mortals or spirits who have not received this New Birth of the Divine Love of the Father.
I have written enough for tonight, and you are tired.
So, my dear brother, with all my love and the blessings of a heart filled with the Love of the Father, I am
Your
brother in Christ,
John
Paul Denies the Vicarious Atonement
I am here, Paul
Yes I am here, and I want to say just a few words. The book on the "vicarious atonement" that you have been reading - about the ransom price and the blood of Jesus and the sacrifice on the cross - is all wrong, and you must not believe what it says.
Well, I know the Bible ascribes to me the teachings of these things, but I never taught them. And I tell you now, as I have told you before, that the Bible cannot be depended on as containing things that I wrote; for there are many additions to what I wrote, and many omissions of what I wrote. And so it is with the others whose names are stated as the writers of the New Testament.
Many things contained in that book were never written by any of the alleged authors of the book. The writings of any of us are not in existence, and have not been for many centuries. When they were copied and recopied, great additions and omissions were made, and ultimately doctrines and dogmas were interpolated that we never believed or wrote at any time.
I have to say this, and I wish to emphasize my statement with all the conviction and knowledge of the Truth that I possess: Jesus never paid any debt of man by his death or his blood, or an alleged vicarious atonement.
When Jesus came to earth, his mission was given to him as he progressed in his soul development. And not until his anointing was he wholly qualified to enter upon his mission or the work thereof.
The mission was twofold; namely: to declare to mankind that the Father had rebestowed the Divine Love which Adam (or the first parents) had forfeited, and secondly, to show man the Way by which that Love could be obtained, so that the possessor of It would become a partaker of the Divine Nature, and Immortal.
Jesus had no other mission than this. And any statement by the preacher or teacher, or church doctrines or dogmas, or by the Bible that his mission was other than I have stated is untrue. Emphatically, he never claimed that he came to earth to pay any ransom for mankind, or to save them by his death on the cross, or to save them in any other way than by teaching them that the Great Gift (or privilege of obtaining Immortality) had been bestowed upon them, and that they could obtain It by prayer and faith.
The author of the book is all wrong in his theories. But if you accept the statement of the Bible as true, he makes a very forcible presentation of the Scriptures. However, the Scriptures do not contain the Truth on this subject, except by the New Birth that Jesus taught. And that being so, his explanations and theories must fall to the ground. Someday, and that very soon, he will come to the spirit world and have an awakening which will cause him much suffering and remorse because of his teachings of the false doctrines that his book contains.
I did not intend to write so long a letter when I commenced, but your questions required answers, and I could not give you answers in less space.
But nevertheless, if you shall obtain any benefit from what I have written, the time consumed will be compensated for.
I must stop now, but will come again sometime.
Your
brother in Christ,
Paul
Peter Affirms What Paul Wrote About the Vicarious Atonement
I am here, Peter the Apostle
I write to corroborate what Paul said - both as to the errors of the author of the book that you have been reading and of the Bible upon which he bases his arguments and conclusions.
There are some of the epistles credited to me, and I did write some to the members of the church over which I had supervision. But the epistles as contained in the Bible are untrue and conflicting with my beliefs in many particulars, then and now; and I never wrote such conflicting statements. I never wrote that Jesus paid a ransom for mankind, or that his death on the cross saved men from the death which they inherited from Adam, or anything of the kind that insinuated that men were saved by any act of Jesus which satisfied the "wrath" of God or, as the author said, "satisfied Divine Justice."
Justice was not an element in the Plan of man's salvation - only Love and Mercy, and the desire of the Father that man become reconciled to Him; that is, come to Him and receive the Great Gift of His Divine Nature. No blood-shedding or death of Jesus or vicarious atonement could have accomplished this, for none of these things would affect the soul development of a man. The matter of soul development is an individual matter, and can only be accomplished when man seeks for the Great Gift of Divine Love, and receives it in his soul and develops it. He then becomes a partaker of the Divine Nature, and one with the Father.
How deplorable that men will teach this erroneous doctrine of blood atonement! How very much harm it is doing to mankind - and to spirits as well. For many spirits come into the spirit world with their beliefs so firmly established in this doctrine that they frequently remain for years in that condition of belief. This causes stagnation of their souls' progress, and greatly delays their obtaining a knowledge of the Truth.
This author, when he comes to the spirit world, will undoubtedly have to pay the penalty of his erroneous teachings. And very probably that penalty will be that he will have to "unteach," if I may use the word, all the spirits who believed in and followed his teachings of these false doctrines when on earth.
But men will know the Truth someday, and the Truth will make them free.
You must try your best to get in condition to take the messages which the Master desires to write, so that they can be published to the world.
I am
your brother in Christ,
Peter
