JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS [PART I]

I believe that there was a man called Jesus, the same that was called by some the son of David and by others the Son of God and by quite a number of names, believe that he was a very good man from all accounts of him, but to take his own story, he was not the man represented in our days. This man always admitted a wisdom superior to himself. Now if there was a power superior to himself, what was this power? It must be God. Now is God inferior to himself, for this man Jesus prayed to this wisdom. How do you reconcile that prayer where he says: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This was the earthly man. Then the earthly man could pray like all other men? Yes, like earthly men. The ignorance of the people attributed to Jesus what he as a man never asked for or desired. On the contrary, he tried to prove to the people that there was a higher intelligence than they had ever acknowledged, except as a power without knowledge. This wisdom that Jesus had put him above the errors of the age.

The ignorance of the people could not understand and in their zeal to worship what they could not understand they confounded the man Jesus with his power as they called it and named it Jesus Christ. So now they worship the shadow of a substance called Christ. Christ is the name of something that the people applied to Jesus and in their ignorance they called it God manifest in the Flesh. This explanation is as clear as any part of their belief.

Every one knows that there cannot be a shadow without a substance to reflect it. So when you speak of a thing, it shadows forth a form that has matter or substance. Now this world is made of matter and when we speak of anything that has form, the thing spoken of casts a shadow in the mind and the senses are attached to the shadow. For instance, if you speak of a man, you make a man in your mind; this is the shadow of your belief. Your senses are attached to the shadow of your belief, so if the shadow embraces a very bad man, the shadow is the same, and the effect on the body corresponds to the effect that the shadow produces.

Now when Christians speak of Jesus, they shadow forth a being with form and without form which is three persons, and only one that fills all space and yet is condensed into one person or being with all love, all hatred, and all power, but who will not use it, who knows all things and dictates all our acts so that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without his knowledge. Then they make another shadow of a man that fills some six and a half feet in height and contains all the power and wisdom of the above. This man they shadow in the mind as standing in one place calling persons to believe and they shall be saved. When asked, Saved from what? The answer is: From their sins. When I ask, What is sin? Everything wrong. If I ask if there is anything wrong of itself, I get no answer. So I come to this conclusion: that wrong is in ourselves and not in God and to act wrong is to do something that we have a feeling is not right. So if you agree that to injure another is wrong, you shadow forth your belief and the punishment attached to it, and your punishment is just according to your belief.

Now the truth is we believe in two powers: one wisdom called God, and the other, the devil. These were the names of these two powers in the days of Jesus. He acknowledged these two powers and tried to explain them. The true power was called Christ or God or by some other name. These powers have always been a mystery to the world. For when they hear the same person speaking through the same organs, it is very hard to believe and give the credit to another power. So when the people heard the man Jesus speak of himself and then of what he called God, it was a mystery to them. Therefore they in their ignorance put God in the man Jesus and called him Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now if the people had understood Jesus they never would have associated the Christ with him, any more than they would the science of mathematics with a man. Jesus was a man of flesh and blood as you or I, and he never intimated that he was anything more but always gave to Science or God the credit of all the impressions which he felt and which the natural man could not. Now this to you is a mystery, that one person can be two. But when you understand what the two means it will be plain enough to see what Jesus was trying to make the people understand. The people had no idea of Science, but thought that everything that happened which they could not account for was a mystery. So when they saw a phenomenon, they attached it to some invisible power. Their superstition put every phenomenon in some mysterious being. They were looking for some power to be developed that would put them in possession of some wisdom from heaven. So all that Jesus could say was of no force. The people would make him more than he wanted them to. (To be continued)