CHRIST ReturnsThe Future on planet Earth
Letter 9 rosepage 310
9.14.1 In the time of Paul, this would have been unthinkable.
His was a simple message of salvation by my death on the cross
which was not the message I brought to my countrymen in Palestine.
9.14.1.1 He was perpetuating a Jewish tradition of
sacrificing another to pay for one’s own sinning.
What shameful cowardice!
9.14.1.2 Yet, Paul also performed a great service to humanity,
since he set in motion a movement
which would be the means of blessing all races equally.
9.14.1.3 He outlined a mode of thought and daily conduct which would bring harmony into the lives of those who tried to live according to his teachings.
9.15 In all probability, some Jewish traditionalists will vociferously
reject my words again, the second time of coming,
they will resent my constant allusion to the ancient Jewish practice
of sacrificing animals and birds in the Temple to please God
and obtain forgiveness of sins,
but no matter what their objections may be, the historical fact remains
that the Temple was a place for offering burnt sacrifices
and the smell thereof hung over Jerusalem.
9.15.1 And all the while I knew that the whole edifice of the Temple
was dedicated to a myth, a figment of man’s imagination,
a rationalisation of what men’s minds could not comprehend spiritually.
9.15.2 I was there!
9.15.3 I felt the hot stones under my sandalled feet and the sun on my head.
9.15.4 I argued with the Pharisees, bore their mockery and sneers
with some amusement and watched them as they dogmatically taught
a burdensome way of life of continual obedience to a worthless tradition
concerning eating and drinking which was entirely unnecessary!
9.15.5 I was there!
9.15.6 At times, my amusement ignited a spark of mischief in my mind
and I handed out to the Pharisees the same kind of analytical mockery
of their personal habits, their ostentatious clothing and their laws,
as they applied to me and my teachings.
9.15.6.1He is a fool!”, they said, and loudly ridiculed
my statement “The Kingdom of God is within you”.
9.15.6.2Tell us – how could ‘God’ be within a person?” they shouted derisively.
9.15.6.3 Using a barrage of contemptuous arguments,
they called on the prophets and compared their
concepts of the Almighty Jehovah with my descriptions
of the simple Father who even had thought for the birds.
9.15.6.3.1 How could this be, they demanded, when birds were regularly
sacrificed in the Temple for payment of men’s sinning?
9.15.6.3.2 Would Moses have instituted such a holy practice of burnt sacrifices
if birds and beasts were of any consequence in the eyes of the Almighty?