^1.73.1 It infuriated me – and I became passionately, vociferously angry to see
people dressed in rags, thin and hungry, diseased, crippled,
yet heartlessly browbeaten by Jewish leaders who burdened them
with meaningless traditional laws and observances, threatening them
with Jehovah’s punishment if they did not obey. I declared to all who
would listen to me that these poor people had enough to bear
without being crushed by senseless measures restrictive of pleasure.

^1.74 What was the point of life at all if we were not born to be happy?
^1.74.1 I refused to believe in a ‘just’ God according to Jewish traditions.
^1.74.2 The biblical prophetic warnings of Jehovah’s judgment and anger
against people, disgusted me.
People were human, after all, doing whatever their human natures
prompted them to do. They had been born sinful
– so why should they be judged and condemned to lives of suffering
and poverty because they had broken the Ten Commandments?
Where was the sense in such statements?

^1.75 To me, this Jewish belief depicted an illogical, cruel “God”,
and I wanted nothing to do with “Him”.
^1.75.1 It seemed to me that if such a deity existed, it followed that
mankind was doomed to eternal misery.
^1.75.2 The simplicity and freedom I found on the hillsides, the plains, the lakes
and the mountains, refreshed my inmost spirit and quietened
my angry murmuring against the Jewish God.
^1.75.3 Consequently, I refused to believe a word
that the Jewish Elders tried to teach me.

^1.76 However, during my middle twenties, a new line of questioning
took possession of my thoughts.
^1.76.1 As I walked ever more frequently alone in the hills,
my rebellion was gradually replaced by an all-consuming
longing to know and understand the true nature of THAT
which must surely inspire and respire through creation.

^1.77 I reviewed my lifestyle and saw what suffering my actions had caused
my mother and many other people.
^1.77.1 Although I felt such deep compassion for the weak and suffering,
my rebellious nature had prompted much thoughtless
and selfish behavior towards my family.
^1.77.2 My underlying love for them now welled up in me and I found
myself becoming equally rebellious against my past behavior.

^1.78 I heard talk about John the Baptist and the work he was doing
amongst the Jews who came to listen to his words even from Jerusalem.
I decided to visit him to be baptized myself.
^1.78.1 On my way to the River Jordan, I felt exhilarated at the prospect
of being baptized and starting a new life.