A summary of these teachings.

These teachings are not complex, but when read with a strong background in orthodox Christianity, there is so much Christian doctrine that is challenged, that it can be hard going for one to get the overall perspective. And one cannot really judge a theology without seeing the whole picture. The late Rev R. B. Caddle delivered a series of lectures that have been turned into a summary presented here. While still somewhat lengthy, it has the virtue of giving each topic some coverage. A shorter approach might just be to read what Divine Love Christians believe, as that is almost capable of being set out on one page.

The sumary is reproduced below, and the complete original booklet can be downloaded as an electronic booklet.

THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH

Based on a lecture by Rev. R. B. Caddle (deceased).

He Was Descended from the House of David.

Jesus of Nazareth, beloved elder brother and divine leader to many, was born Jeshua ben Yusef. When rendered into the English language, his name becomes Joshua, the son of Joseph.

His birth took place in the eastern Mediterranean country of Palestine during the reign of the emperor Caesar Augustus, who ruled the Roman empire from 29 B.C. to 14 A.D. At the time of his birth, a despot king named Herod had been appointed by the Roman government and was on the throne in Palestine.

Jesus was the first-born of a young Hebrew couple whose names were Mary and Joseph. Joseph was a successful carpenter by trade and was not considered a poor man, nor was he a peasant or a man of the people. He was, in fact, a descendant of some of the great kings of Israel, notably David and Solomon, and he enjoyed a very fine social position. He was a devout Jew, a Pharisee at heart who sought to uphold the Jewish traditions based upon strict observance of Hebrew law.

Joseph and Mary were legally married and, contrary to today’s prevailing belief, Joseph was not an impotent old man. Nor had Mary been visited by an angel of the Lord telling her that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit. They never felt that Jesus was not their own child; he was conceived and born exactly like other babies - in accordance with God’s laws of reproduction. Thus, he was not born of a virgin; yet, he was born pure of heart and free of sin.

His birth took place in the small town of Bethlehem, in the region of Palestine called Judea. He was born shortly after midnight on January 7, by the western calendar, and not December 25, which is the day generally observed as his birth date in the western world. He was born in a stable, not because his parents were without funds to pay for their accommodations, but simply because it was a time of census-taking and there was no room available in the local inn.

In keeping with Jewish tradition, Joseph wanted to celebrate the birth of his first-born and went out into the street and nearby countryside to look for others who might join him in welcoming a newborn son. And so it was that shepherds appeared and joined with Joseph in offering songs of praise and thanksgiving to God for the safe delivery of Mary and the well being of the child, Jesus.

Two years before his birth, an unusually brilliant star had appeared in the eastern heavens and was observed by three astrologers who interpreted the appearance as the sign of an important event. The Magi, or Wise Men, as they are now called, were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures and knew that these writings contained a prediction that a bright star was to be the forerunner of the birth of a savior.

The light of the star seemed to point in a westerly direction. This determined the astrologers to visit Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, to learn if such an important event had indeed taken place. They purchased gifts to present to the infant and, upon arrival in Jerusalem, inquired in the “Temple.” They were sent to King Herod, who immediately took alarm when the astrologers referred to the birth of a “king of the Jews” - a Messiah. However, the Magi made their way to Bethlehem and paid their respects to Jesus, whose birth had been a humble one, as they had expected.

It is interesting to note that the star - the Star of Bethlehem, as it is called today (Today, such a star would be called a supernova.) - which had first captured the attention of the Magi had disappeared from the eastern skies several weeks after its appearance, and had not been seen at all in the skies over Judea or Israel.

The Flight into Egypt and the Return to Galilee.

At the time Jesus was born, conditions in the land were unstable and dangerous. King Herod was at his worst and many innocent people, both adults and children, were killed wantonly. When he heard the content of the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures that a Messiah, a “king of the Jews,” was to be born, Herod determined the date of the appearance of the brilliant star and the ages of the Hebrew children of Bethlehem that he would have put to death those two years old and younger.

To escape these life-threatening conditions, Joseph and Mary with their infant son set out for Egypt, and, in particular, the town of Heliopolis, near Cairo. Here, they stayed with a relative who welcomed them and assisted them to make their start in the new country.

There was a community of Jews in Heliopolis who congregated together for safety and community life, with a place for worship, a place for the cleansing of women, and also an elementary type of school designed mainly to teach the fundamentals of the Jewish religion and the ability to read and write so as to be able to understand the Scriptures.

The family remained in Heliopolis for ten years, during which time four additional sons and three daughters were born to Mary and Joseph. Joseph practiced his trade of carpentry and was able to provide well for his family. He was hesitant when Mary expressed a desire to return to Palestine. She had become homesick for her people.

However, conditions in Palestine had not improved much after Herod’s death. Archelaus, his successor, continued in a similar manner as Herod, and blood continued to flow. Fortunately, Archelaus was demoted by the Romans to Ethnarch of Judea, then deposed and exiled to Gaul. Conditions in the district of Galilee, where Mary’s people lived, became a little better than elsewhere in the country.

And, so, the family left Egypt to return to Palestine. Jesus was approximately ten years old when the family settled in Nazareth, in the northern district of Galilee. There, he met his cousin John (later to be called the Baptist) and the two became close friends.

After the family’s return, the remainder of his life was spent in Palestine. He did not travel to India or to any other place to learn anything. He studied the Jewish Scriptures thoroughly and effectively while gaining increasing spiritual insight and knowledge directly from the Father through his constant longings for at-onement with the Father.

Contrary to popular belief, Mary and Joseph never suspected that Jesus was a child different from other children or that he would one day choose to fulfill a mission given to him by God. But the truth is that his soul from the moment of birth had enjoyed the pristine purity which the Father has given to all of His children from the time of their creation - a condition that had been lost to them on earth, however, after the first parents refused the Gift of at-onement with Him in His Divine Love and afterward fell from their pure and perfect created state.

At birth, Jesus’ soul was unencumbered by inherited tendencies to sin and was free to fulfill its destiny as created by the Father. His soul was constituted to know the Father and, consequently, from his infancy it was natural for his soul to yearn for at-onement with the Father, thereby drawing to himself the Holy Spirit - that energy of the Father’s Being whose sole function is to carry the Divine Love into the yearning souls of His children. Little by little, the transforming Essence of the Father’s Love infused his soul.

Throughout his childhood and boyhood, because of his constant yearnings for at-onement with God, his soul underwent continual transformation of its nature into the Divinity of the Father. He realized this transformation was taking place as he grew to manhood and enjoyed increasingly closer communions with the Father and an ever growing at-onement with Him.

His Formative Years Were Dedicated to Studying the Scriptures and Receiving the Father’s Divine Love.

Through Mr. Padgett, Jesus’ mother wrote that in his youth, Jesus was considered serious and studious, one who drank eagerly from the fountainhead of the Scriptures and the Talmud, continually showing his love for his family by working hard for them and helping Joseph in his trade of carpentry. He was kind and gentle, yet possessed of a certain mysticism which his parents had difficulty understanding as he grew to manhood.

His mother further wrote that he enjoyed a relationship with the hills and the sky, and had a way of looking at the heavens, as well as an intense way of holding dear the words of the religious teachers, that separated him from his family; but that it was a long time before he showed any signs of a love different from the pure natural love he showed to them.

His Scriptural studies revealed to him that the key to understanding his own soul’s progression lay in the writings of the prophets. He became deeply interested, first, in the life and teachings of Hosea. This prophet was the first to become aware of God’s Divine Love overflowing from Him, more than 750 years before Jesus was born. Hosea had sold his wife Gomer into slavery because of her unfaithfulness, but his awareness of God’s Love, with Its depth of Mercy and Forgiveness, influenced him to buy her back.

Jesus spent long periods of time contemplating God’s Divine Nature of Love. He soon came to realize that material possessions meant nothing in the Sight of the Father and, moreover, material possessions could not procure this Divine Love for anyone.

His increasing at-onement with the Father gave him a clear perception into the spiritual meanings of the Old Testament prophecies pointing to the New Covenant of the Heart which God would make with His children, whereby they would be rendered free from sin and error and incapable of sinning, and would know God through coming into possession of His own Spirit - His Divine Love. The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in particular, emphasized the new heart that man was to possess when God would implant His Spirit into man’s heart and thereby remove the stony heart from man’s bosom, replacing it with a heart of flesh.

From these inspired Scriptures, Jesus realized that the Love which he had received directly from the Father was intended for all of mankind, that they might know the Father’s true Nature and become partakers of His Divine Love which bestows inner peace and joy, healing of heart, soul and body, as well as enduring faith and life everlasting.

Already spiritually pure and, by now, in abundant possession of the Father’s Divine Essence of Love within his soul, he readily discerned the Divine Will of the Father for mankind and the Father’s Plan for the salvation of His children through the re-bestowal upon their souls of His very Essence and Substance. By the time he was 20 years old, he wondered if he might be the promised Messiah who was prophesied in the Scriptures to show his people the Way to deliverance from sin.

Through his second chosen mortal instrument, Dr. Daniel G. Samuels, Jesus has supplied us with a complete explanation of his soul’s transformation into the Divine Nature of the Father. His sermons on the Old Testament of the Bible written through Dr. Samuels set forth the prophecies foretelling the Messiah to come as well as the re-bestowal on man of God’s Divine Love, recounting historically the spiritual progress made by his people through the centuries which enabled the Father, at His appointed time, to rebestow this Great Gift.

In his own words, Jesus wrote through Dr. Samuels:

As the result of his development of soul in God’s Divine Essence, Jesus was the first child of God to be given true insight into the moral and spiritual nature of mankind. With a heart and soul that had become a very part of the Father’s Divinity, he was able to view all of mankind through the Father’s Eyes, so to speak. He had a clear understanding of the souls of men as they had been created - noble and virtuous and pure in the natural love qualities, undefiled by anything not in harmony with the Father’s Laws of Perfect Love.

He perceived the fine spiritual attunement with these Laws which had been enjoyed by the first human parents, who had been created just a little lower than angels but had been given the privilege of becoming divine angels and at-one with the Creator through longing for, and receiving, His Divine Love.

Jesus saw that if the first parents had embraced the Father’s Divine Gift, they and their descendants would not have experienced the degeneration of their souls which occurred after they chose, instead, to be independent of God. Never would they have lost the knowledge of their true relationship with God or suffered their fall into spiritual darkness that brought them great hardship, disease and pain.

In his studies of the Old Testament prophecies, Jesus realized that through the spiritual insight of their prophets, the Hebrews little by little began to perceive God’s true Nature. From a tribal god of “punishing wrath” for failure to comply with His “demands,” He gradually began to be conceived of as a Father of Love, with a tenderness for the Hebrew nation like that of a bridegroom for his bride (the prophets Hosea and Ezekiel ); or as a mortal father who loves his erring children, forgiving them and sorrowing in the sins they have committed (Hosea and Second Isaiah ); as a Saving Father of love and mercy Who desired to make it impossible for His children to continue to sin or be separated from Him by implanting into their hearts and souls His own Spirit (Jeremiah and Ezekiel); or as the Watchful Shepherd, showing His love for His sheep by searching them out and bringing them to the Safety of His Fold (Ezekiel), where they would be assured of eternal fulfillment through His Care and Love.

Within himself, Jesus felt the Father’s Glory and recognized those Divine qualities of love, mercy, justice and wisdom which the prophecies foretold would be possessed by the Messiah. In his heart, he felt the quickening of the Father’s Love with Its kindness and forgiveness, Its compassion for suffering, and Its joy in righteousness.

The New Heart within him, born of the Father’s Essence of Love in his soul, blessed him with compassionate understanding of the hardships and struggles endured by his people throughout their long history. He was fully aware of the tender Love flowing from our Heavenly Father, and knew that He was anxious to free His children from sin and suffering, and desirous, only, to bestow supreme happiness and eternal life upon them.

His Public Ministry.

Strange as it may seem to some, it was not until his thirty-third year, in 26 A.D., that Jesus began his public ministry with the help of his cousin John, whom he had known well since the family’s return from Egypt.

John was the son of a priest who served in the Temple in Jerusalem, and his family were all pious and devoted, filled with a strict interpretation of the laws which the Jews believed had been received from God through Moses. To his father, these laws of Moses and the Ten Commandments represented the most important part of the Jewish religion, and he taught John a strict moral code which he absorbed in his youth and which later became the cardinal principles of his brief ministry as the harbinger of the glad tidings of Jesus.

As a youth and young man, in order to earn a livelihood, John had worked in the wheat fields. But his true vocation was that of a prophet in the sense that Elijah was - that is to say, to proclaim to the rulers and the people to repent of their evil ways and to return to the path of righteousness that God had directed the Jews to follow as the great goal of the religion calling for love to God and one’s fellowman.

The two cousins had discussed the broad outlines as well as the details of their respective missions and, in accordance with the Old Testament sayings and indications, it had been thought advisable for John to be a forerunner to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming. This meant that John would preach in various places ahead of Jesus so that, when Jesus arrived, the way would have been prepared for him - that is to say, curiosity and speculation as to his message would have been awakened by John.

As a significant beginning to both their ministries, John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan, an act that symbolized spiritual purity of the soul and observance of God’s Commandments. It was at this time that Jesus became the Christ - the anointed of the Father - with the complete transformation of his soul into the Divine Essence of the Father taking place. A voice from the realm of spirit was heard, saying: "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

Following the baptism, John preached near the banks of the Jordan and never strayed far from it. He was convinced in his heart that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that he was the prophet who was to announce the Messiah’s coming. Yet, because he recognized the greatness of Jesus’ soul condition, he felt unworthy to “unloosen Jesus’ shoes,” as he put it.

John preached repentance, and he meant a repentance in the traditional sense of the word - a turning away from sin and error in a renewed obedience to the laws of Moses, with love to God and one’s neighbor, which leads to the condition of the perfect natural man.

Jesus also preached repentance, for he said: “Repent ye, for the Kingdom of God is at hand; believe in the glad tidings.”* But the meaning Jesus gave to repentance was not that applied by John; for Jesus meant not only a turning anew to God but a seeking of the Divine Kingdom of Heaven through prayer. And he taught that the Great Gift of Divine Love and everlasting life that had been rebestowed upon mankind by the Heavenly Father was evident in his person; and that a soul’s yearning for God’s Love, or its seeking for this Love through earnest, sincere prayer, was true repentance.

When Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous but the sinner to repentance", he meant that sinners could receive the Gift of the Divine Love as well as the righteous, for it was available to all. But, alas, it was not the righteous but the sinners of his day who repented and sought God and His Love, while the righteous, or those who considered themselves righteous, refused, in their self-satisfaction, the great free Gift that was theirs for the asking.

* By “Kingdom of God,” Jesus did not mean Paradise, which was the only Heavenly Kingdom known by the Hebrews and the only Kingdom available to mankind before Jesus’ disclosure of the availability of the Father’s Divine Love. He meant the Divine Kingdom of Heaven, which would be inhabited by those souls redeemed by the Father’s Divine Love from sin and error and completely transformed into God’s Divine Nature. The Divine Kingdom is also referred to as the Celestial Heavens, or Celestial Kingdom.

He Proclaimed Himself To Be the Messiah in the Synagogue of Nazareth.

Soon after he had been baptized by John and anointed by God as the Christ, Jesus presented himself in the synagogue at Nazareth as the one God had sent to declare the re-bestowal of immortality through the Divine Love upon all who would seek Its redemption from sin and a rebirth into Its eternal qualities.

His sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth was a very important one, in that he claimed he was the Messiah before the entire congregation. Such a claim created a sensation. He based his sermon on the 61st chapter of Isaiah and it was prophetic, in that it dealt with the release of the captives from captivity as had occurred to the Hebrew people, and was therefore known by the Hebrews of his time as a great prophecy that had already taken place.

Usually, commentaries based on this text were historical in nature and were conceived with the purpose of extolling the Goodness of God towards His chosen people; and, among those who had a more spiritual discernment, the meaning of the delivery of the slaves was construed to be a turning away from sin on the part of evildoers, who were slaves to sin.

This was good as far as it went but, of course, the meaning was restricted to the purification of the soul and not the transformation of the soul and the elimination of evil from the soul through the work of the Divine Love.

When Jesus recited the passage from Isaiah, he did not recite merely the lines recorded in the New Testament, but proceeded as was the custom to read the entire chapter, and the main passage in that chapter was: "My soul exulteth because it is invested with the salvation of the Lord."

And, in reading that passage, he implied that his own soul rejoiced because it had been endowed with immortality, which is the real meaning of salvation. And this immortality of his soul was the result of its having received a sufficiency of the Divine Love which was now available through the Loving-Kindness of the Heavenly Father. And that was the meaning of the declaration he made to the listeners in the synagogue: "Today is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."

And it was from that passage from Isaiah that he proclaimed himself as the Messiah possessing a soul conscious of its immortality. And he also proclaimed the glad tidings that this immortality which was his could now be for whosoever should seek it through earnest and sincere prayer to the Father for His Divine Love.

When Jesus recited the passage on the delivery of the captives, he meant freedom from sin, not through adherence to the Mosaic law alone, which was the case before his coming, but through the efficacy of the Divine Love of the Father in the soul, which so reacts upon and transforms the soul that it loses its desire for sinful thoughts and deeds.

And when he read, "The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me and has anointed me to proclaim the glad tidings", he meant that the Father had appointed him to preach the re-bestowal of the Divine Love which had been made a reality in his own soul and, that, having been anointed the Christ through the Love Principle working in his soul, he was to preach the re-bestowal of the Divine Love to all mankind and teach the Way to at-onement with the Father through the Divine Love.

Thus, he had come as the Messiah to proclaim immortality for all mankind through prayer for the Father’s Love, and that sin and sickness could now be eradicated through the Father’s Great Gift.

Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, long expected by the Hebrews. However, he was unable to perform any miracles of note at that time because of the peculiar situation he was in, having lived for twenty years or more in Nazareth and the people who had known him for so long were now suddenly asked to believe he was the Messiah. This was very difficult for them to do, for it was not a question of asking strangers to accept him and his teachings and healings but, rather, to have people change their minds about him after they had been formed for twenty years. Faith on the part of the recipient of the healing gift is required; and, since he had never healed in his native town before his public ministry, the people were skeptical that he could suddenly perform what he had not done for the past twenty years. And thus it was that this strange current of incredulity prevented him from exercising his healing powers at the commencement of his public ministry.

The Spiritual Condition of the World When He Lived on Earth.

The history of the Hebrew nation found in the Old Testament of the Bible provides clear evidence that the human soul has always been the true recorder of mankind’s progress in regaining their original estate of purity and goodness in the natural love.

Although there were long periods in their history when the fundamental worth of the human soul was not recognized as a special creation of God, there were men and women within the Jewish nation who rose above the attitude created by spiritual blindness and proved, in a way that left no doubt in the hearts and minds of those sensitive to truth, that the created qualities of our human souls are loving, just and merciful; that this superior creation of the Father’s Divine Will is capable of a selflessness and generosity which can be shown in the noblest of human deeds.

When Jesus was born on earth, the Hebrews were struggling under the tyranny of the Roman Empire. The barbarism practiced by the pagan conquerors, in addition to the cruelties evoked by the Hebrew rulers, placed an unrelenting, heartless yoke of oppression upon the Jews and their way of life.

The group of Palestinian Jews known as the Pharisees was composed of the common people - the artisans and the tradesmen downtrodden by the rich and the aristocratic priests who cared nothing for the Scriptures except as their own interests were therein protected. Their Jewish opponents, the Sadducees, were considered the elitist group. These two religious parties disagreed frequently over the interpretation of the Oral law, which was the Hebrew code of unwritten interpretations of the Mosaic law.

The Pharisees were deeply concerned with immortality of the soul, inasmuch as their own plight on earth made them seek for justice in an ideal world beyond the grave, and they felt that God’s righteousness had to, of necessity, embrace that Kingdom where justice and righteousness would be the established order. That is why the Pharisees were willing to listen to Jesus and his mission; yet, they were not capable of understanding the Principle of the Divine Love and salvation through the Divine Love.

For some centuries, the Pharisees had battled stubbornly against the Sadducees’ denial of immortality, and had clung to the faith of man’s entry into Paradise through keeping the Ten Commandments and the Torah, and the decrees, precepts and interpretations which stemmed from these holy works, so that Divine Love, and salvation from It, were alien to their thoughts and fundamental concepts of religion.

Jesus wrote through James Padgett that, at the time he lived on earth, the world was almost devoid of spiritual conception of the true relationship of God to man, and God was viewed as a Being of Power and “wrath,” only. It was because of this conception of Him that the Jews were so devoid of the true knowledge of His Nature and Attributes. They only knew Him as a God Who was interested in their material welfare, and did not realize that He was a God Who wanted them to know Him as their Spiritual Father and Savior from the sins and evil natures that they possessed.

Consequently, when Jesus came, those who accepted him as their Messiah looked upon him as one who would redeem them from the condition of slavery which their Roman conquerors had placed them in, and would make them a great and independent nation, more powerful than all the nations of the earth and fitted to rule the whole world.

Even his disciples, until shortly before his death, looked upon him merely as a savior of them from the burdens which the Roman yoke had placed upon them. The only one of his disciples who had any approximate realization of what his coming to earth meant was John, and that was because of the great amount of love that was a part of his nature and being.

To John, Jesus explained his real mission and taught him the spiritual Truths which he came to teach, and the only Way in which mortals could receive the Love of the Father which was necessary to make them one with Him and partakers of His Divinity.

Hence, only in John’s Gospel is written the one necessary requirement to a full salvation and redemption of mankind: "That men must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Jesus wrote through Mr. Padgett that the other disciples had more or less a conception of this necessary Truth, but not the full comprehension of what it involved. Peter was more possessed of the Divine Love than were the other disciples, except John, and, with this possession, he also understood that Jesus was the true son of the Father. But he never understood, nor declared, that Jesus was God. He was a man filled with zeal and ambition, but his development of Love was not sufficient to enable him to fully realize, until after Jesus’ death, that Jesus’ Kingdom was not to be an earthly one. When the conviction came to him in all its Truth and fullness, he became the most powerful and influential of Jesus’ disciples.

Through Mr. Padgett, the disciple John has given us an insight into the minds and hearts of himself and his fellow disciples, in the following quoted words:

 

...People, I know, think that we at that time were very spiritually developed and had an understanding of the great truths taught by the Master which were superior to what men have now: but I tell you that this is a mistake. We were comparatively ignorant men, fishermen by occupation, and had no education above the ordinary working man of that time. And when Jesus called us to become his apostles, we were as much surprised and hesitated as much as you did when the similar mission was declared for you. Our knowledge came with our faith in the great Truths which the Master taught, and from our observation of the great powers which he displayed, and also from the influence of the Great Love that he possessed. But when mankind think that we easily understood the great Truths which he taught, they are mistaken. Only after the descent upon us of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost did we fully come in accord with the Father, or fully appreciate the great Truths that the Master had taught. Of course, we learned many things which men of that time did not know, and our souls became developed to a large extent, but not sufficient to bring us a knowledge of the wonderful meaning of the Truths which made men free and brought them in unison with the Father....

Jesus’ mission extended also to the inhabitants of the spirit world. His declarations of the re-bestowal by God of His salvation upon man had been heard and taken to heart by many living in the spirit spheres. In particular, Moses and Elias, who had progressed in the purification of their natural love to its supreme excellence, followed Jesus’ example and earnestly sought the inflowing of the Divine Love into their souls.

For the purpose of demonstrating to both mortals and spirits that the Father’s Love was available and was already possessed by His children, both mortals and spirits, Jesus led Peter, James and John up a mountain to a prearranged meeting with Moses and Elias. After earnest prayer to the Father for the inflowing of the Divine Love into their souls, the appearances of Jesus, Moses and Elias became exceedingly bright and shining, giving evidence to those present mortals and spirits, alike - that the Divine Love had been rebestowed and received by both mortals and spirits.

The three disciples were awestruck and fell to their faces because of the exceeding brightness of Jesus’ countenance and the glory of his power which illuminated his whole being. Elias wrote through Mr. Padgett that, during the meeting, the appearances of Moses and himself were shining and bright, as described in the Bible; but Jesus was brighter, for he had more of the Divine Love in his soul and could manifest It to the wonderful degree that he did, notwithstanding his physical body.

The voice heard at that time, interpreted as the voice of God proclaiming that Jesus was His well-beloved son, "Hear ye him", was in reality the voice of one of the divine spirits whose mission it was to make the proclamation.

He Counseled Peace with Rome.

There was a deep anger felt by the Hebrews in general, as well as a growing determination on the part of many, to throw off the Roman oppressors and to regain the independence of the Jewish nation. But Jesus knew God’s Will for His children and preached against war and uprising, firmly counseling peace with Rome, just as the prophets of old had counseled peace in their day with the neighboring kingdoms that constantly threatened the Jewish way of life.

The history of prophecy was a declaration against wars and evil behavior, and one that stood for peace. The prophets saw the moral evils of the people as the reasons for the buffeting and threats of disaster which faced the Hebrews and, with intense love of their people and God, and with wonderful understanding that return to God’s Laws would, through faith, clothe them with His Protection, they thundered powerfully against sin and evil. They supposed God to be the “Divine Avenger” of evil which He could not tolerate, while clearly aware that the policies and doings of the Hebrew nations, themselves, were the causes of their own difficulties.

When Jesus preached in Palestine, his message, in addition to the Glad Tidings of the Father’s Love, was social and political. His people, by accepting the New Birth, could thereby eliminate sin from their hearts and bring about a new era of the Brotherhood of Man, wherein all the people would be equal before the Law, and justice and righteousness would prevail in the land.

He also conveyed that the Divine Love would give his people an insight into the transitory nature of the Roman overlordship and, with this Love in their hearts, they would overcome the Roman yoke and remain secure in their faith in God and be peaceful. Thus, the fire of the Zealots would be transformed into the warm glow of understanding; and the later rebellions leading to the destruction of the Temple would have been avoided.

Through Jesus, God had given His highest Spiritual Law yet known to mankind - His Divine Love - at a time when the Hebrew people were being torn and afflicted by the cruelest and most brutal of oppressor nations, Rome. Only a possession of the Divine Love in abundance could have given the Israelites the fortitude, courage and faith to endure, and overcome, the great storm of evil that vented its wrath upon the nation, or enabled them to perceive this yoke as it really was - a storm of great violence, but withal, a passing storm in the ocean of eternal time, and one from which Israel could take refuge.

Human love was not equal to the immense task of coping with the greater human evil that was ancient Rome, as was evident at a later day, when rebellious Jews saw the destruction of their Temple.

“Through the Power of God Will the Son of God Heal and Be Glorified.”

The brutality of the Romans was felt most keenly by the poor, who were left helpless in the face of Roman injustice because of the moral wrongs they also suffered at the hands of the Hebrew ruling class. These aristocrats neglected to uphold the charitable teachings of the Hebrew religion: to oppress not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; to shed not innocent blood; and to walk not after other gods. The moral teachings of the Ten Commandments - the Law - were willingly set aside by the Hebrew priests, whose worldly ambition blinded them to the plight of their less fortunate brothers.

Forced to live under conditions of deprivation that fostered sickness and early death, the grinding hardship of unrelieved poverty with its untreated diseases left the poor without hope.

The deep love and respect Jesus felt for each child of the Father flowed from the Christ Principle within his soul as he brought the Father’s Compassionate Love and Comfort into the lives of those who were suffering. His blessings of love and healing were longed for by all who lived with sickness and pain, yet had faith in their hearts that God could heal them.

He was welcomed no less by those who loved him as their brother in Christ, having embraced the Truths of Immortality which he had brought to light. His appearances before the people to teach them of God’s Immortal Love were eagerly looked forward to because his quietly spoken words were not only those of a caring brother and teacher, but in his beautiful voice there was an authority that sprang from his profound communion with the Source of all Life and all Love.

To those who did not accept his message of soul salvation, he taught the purification of their natural love by renunciation of sin and a strict observance of the Ten Commandments received by Moses. This teaching, if followed, would prepare them for Paradise - the Kingdom of the Perfect Natural Man - where happiness awaited all whose souls became restored to their original purity and perfection.

But the supreme happiness, he told them, with the assurance of immortality and a home of bliss in the Divine Kingdom of Heaven, would come to those who would seek to be Born Again through taking into their souls the Divine Essence of their Heavenly Father. In this way, they would become possessors of the New Heart and the Divine quality of immortality, never to be separated from their Father of Love again.

All who listened to him with an open heart knew inwardly that God had sent him with the Truth of Redemption to show them the Way to happiness through eternal at-onement with God. Within our brother’s heart there was a place for the meek and the downtrodden, the lonely and the forsaken, the sinner as well as the outcast - all were the objects of his love and tender ministrations.

As the fulfillment of his Divine mission, the Christ Principle within his soul radiated outward in Its eternal qualities of unfailing love, compassion, tenderness and loving-kindness. He untiringly demonstrated the restorative powers of the Father’s Nature to all with faith in the Power of God by healing, instantaneously, bodily afflictions for which there was no known cure.

“I Came for the Poor and the Meek.”

Neither the distresses nor the untreated diseases of the downtrodden escaped Jesus’ awareness, so great was his love for the poor, and so finely attuned in heart and soul to their needs both spiritual and material. Into their midst he came, bringing a New Promise from our Heavenly Father, a New Hope founded on the Love which the Father was offering to His children to free them not only from their burdens of sin and sickness, but to lift them above the sufferings inflicted by the harsh injustices of life.

Those he freed of sickness and disease felt new life within. Some who had not been able to stand got up and walked; others experienced the straightening of crooked limbs and regained the use of arms, hands, legs that had become wasted through illness and disease. Still others, thought to be dead, were called back from the deep sleep of coma, or suspended animation. Many, scourged by leprosy and branded as unclean, were mercifully delivered from this heartrending disease.

The Divine tenderness of the Love within Jesus’ soul gave comfort and reassurance to the bereaved and the grief-stricken. The compassion of the Love brought peace to the troubled hearts; while those cast down by the harshness of the times were restored in spirit. Many were freed of the torment of obsession by evil spirits.

The Father’s Healing and Comforting Nature from within Jesus’ soul had the power to soothe, to bind up the wounds of the heart, and to turn the hope of the heart to a Loving and Merciful Heavenly Father.

The Kingdom of Heaven was with mankind. Through the Infinite Mercy of the Father, it had become available, once again, to His children, regardless of race, belief or station in life. Anxious to bestow His Love upon His children, our Father had written His Divine Law within Jesus’ heart and in his inward parts, making of him the first fruit of the resurrection - the living Christ, a being in whose soul resided the Eternal Love of God’s Divine Nature in an active state; a live soul, deriving its life from the Divine of the Universe.

Because Jesus had longed so fervently to be at-one with God throughout his life, and had received the Divine Love in such great abundance, he had become the Way, the Truth and the Life. He was the perfect example of God’s Love made manifest in man’s heart. As a result, he was able to give mankind their first awareness that they were loved by a Heavenly Father of unending Love and Mercy, and that they could become eternally at-one with their Father through experiencing the New Birth of soul into His Divine Nature.

Never had such Love been seen on earth! Wherever he went, he radiated the Goodness of the Father’s Divine Nature and stood out among men as the example of what the Father had intended when He had given the first parents the privilege of taking into their human hearts and souls His Own Essence and Substance.

And yet, in the deep humility of the great Love possessing his soul, he never claimed to be God but only His son, sent with the New Heart promised in the Scriptures and with the Glad Tidings of the Lord’s re-bestowal of salvation upon His children.

Our brother traveled the roads and footpaths of Palestine as the living example of the New Covenant of the Heart which God had promised His children many centuries before through His prophets. The Divine Love, perceived through the spiritual vision of Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had now become a reality to the human heart and soul and was exemplified, in all of its Divine Splendor and Beauty, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Why the Chief Priests and Rulers of the Hebrew Religion Rejected His Claim of Messiahship.

It was during the autumn of the year 28 A.D. that Jesus had the opportunity to present his claims as Messiah before the chief priests and rulers and most learned among the Hebrew people in matters pertaining to religion. He made known that his mission was to proclaim the New Covenant between the Heavenly Father and the children of Israel and that the Divine Love of the Heavenly Father was now present and could be obtained by all who might seek It through earnest longing of the soul. And, further, that he was the visible sign of Its presence because in his soul there reposed the Nature and Essence of the Father in the form of the Divine Love; and that, his soul, being of this Nature and Essence of the Father, was therefore immortal.

But, to the Hebrew rulers, his claim appeared false because Isaiah had prophesied that no one would know from whence the Messiah would come, whereas he was well known as Jesus of Nazareth. In his day, a man was known not to be of his native town but of the one in which he had lived most of his life and was associated with. Thus, Jerusalem was considered the city of the great King David, rather than Bethlehem where he was born.

The New Testament infers that the Hebrew leaders did not know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and that, therefore, Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the unknown origin of the Messiah was applicable to him. But the fact is that they not only knew where he was born but they also knew his father, Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, and that he, too, came from Bethlehem.

This type of argument showed bad faith and a recourse to technicalities in the determination of the priests not to recognize Jesus as the Messiah; for that, they felt, would have upset their high positions as the religious leaders of the nation, which they were unwilling to relinquish. And these technicalities were but a subterfuge and manner of debating issues which were dear to their hearts, laying emphasis on hair-spitting intellectual distinctions resulting from subtle interpretations of the Mosaic law foreign to the real basic issues and spiritual insight achieved through soul-seeking to know the Truth.

Replying to the main Scriptural objections on their own terms, Jesus proclaimed that it was not true that they knew where he was born and Who his Father was. For, whereas they referred to Joseph as his father, whom they knew well, he referred to God, his Heavenly Father, Whom they did not know. Nor did they know from whence he came as a divine soul, nor how and when he was created. The reference of the Rabbis to his father, Joseph, was later eliminated from the Gospels because mention of Jesus’ earthly parents was a thorn in the side of later Gospel revisionists who laboured zealously to make of Jesus a “god-man” born of a virgin and the second person of a supposed Trinity, which has no foundation in fact.

He further told them that, if they knew the Father, they would also know him, His son, as being sent from Him, and would recognize him as the Messiah. Quoting as the Hebrew leaders did, he stated that the Father had said: "Incline your ear and come unto me; hear and your soul shall live and I will make a covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people."

And what he said to them was known to all who received instruction concerning the Heavenly Father, so that they knew that the Father had appointed a Messiah over them in a descendant of David. Hence, they should accept him as their Messiah, inasmuch as he had, indeed, come to enable their souls to live by making available to them the Gift of immortality in the Father’s Divine Love, accompanied by the power of healing and miracles which he was able to perform through the Father, thus attesting to the Truth of his mission.

He further told them that, if they wished to ascertain the Truth of his words, they should try, and test, his teaching that the Father’s Love was now available, and pray to the Father in earnest prayer to see whether, if this was done in sincerity, the Father’s Love, conveyed by means of the Holy Spirit, would burn and glow in their souls, by which sign they would realize His Love was present within their souls.

He also stated that these teachings were not his own but were those of the Father, and he had been commanded by the Father to proclaim them to the children of Israel. And that, having been sent by the Father, he could do nothing of his own but what he saw done unto him by the Father that is to say, what power he received of the Father.

He did not say that he could do what he saw the Father do, or imitate Him, as the Gospels state, for that would give him a power equal to the Father, which is blasphemy. For no mortal or spirit will ever, through all eternity, have power equal to that of the Father. And the revision was made many years later, in conformity to the false doctrine elaborated in the early Greek period of Christianity after Jesus’ death, of making him co-equal to the Father.

However, if such an absurdity was admitted for one moment, it lends itself to its own destruction and proves its own falsity; for, never having seen the Father lay down His Life for His sheep, Israel, neither could he, Jesus, have laid down his in the sense that it is understood in the New Testament - that his shed blood and sacrifice on the cross give remission of sins.

He quoted from the Psalms and from the prophet Samuel on the Davidic covenant: "I will setup thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his Kingdom. He shall build a house for my name; I will establish the throne of his Kingdom forever; I will be his Father and he shall be my son."

Thus, if they knew the Father and honored His Word, they would know Jesus, as well; for he proclaimed the eternal salvation of the soul through God’s Love which was evidenced in his own soul and witnessed to by His power acting through him.

He also testified that while they did not know the Father, he, Jesus, indeed knew Him and was sent by Him. And he stated that God was his Witness to the Truth of his mission - a mission which he undertook for God’s Glory and not his own.

Neither did Jesus break the Mosaic law regarding the Sabbath when he healed and made whole one of his Father’s children on that day. For, if circumcision was superior to the Sabbath, wherein one member of the body was restored, how much more important than the Sabbath was that act wherein the whole body was restored?

Hence, Jesus stated that their rejection of him as the Messiah on the grounds of having healed on the Sabbath day was merely a subterfuge to refuse him recognition and to conceal their own violation of the Mosaic law - making one body member more important than the body, itself. And it was they, not he, who were guilty of transgression.

He further stated that, even as the Father knew and was in him, through having bestowed upon him the Gift of His Love through response to his soul’s aspirations and prayer, and this Love was the Father’s Nature and Essence, even so did he know the Father and, in the same way, was in Him.

Jesus never said that he was the Good Shepherd, for that referred to the Father; and that statement was inserted many years after his death in order to raise him up to being equal to God. He did say that the Father is the Good Shepherd, the sheepfold being the Kingdom of Heaven, and that he was the door through which the sheep came into the sheepfold and into the Presence and Knowledge of the Shepherd, Who opens the door, and is the Father.

The Father gives eternal life to His sheep, and he, Jesus, is the Way, the door, by which His sheep may enter the sheepfold of eternal life. In the Psalms, it was pointed out that God, the Good Shepherd, would use David, or a root of David, as a helper in bringing the sheep into the fold.

“The Kingdom of God Is in the Midst of You.”

When certain spokesmen for the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered that in his person it had already come; for, wherever he went, he brought with him the Kingdom of God. This is the true meaning of the verse: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them saying: The Kingdom of God cometh not by observation (meaning as a visible manifestation for beholding the Kingdom through the eyes of mortal man) for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."

The Greek word “entos” was erroneously translated by the original Gospel copyists: it does not mean “within” but “in the midst of.” The incorrect translation arose from the fact that the translator sought to write not what the Greek word actually meant, but what seemed to make sense to him in the light of his own imperfect understanding of these verses. For he thought that mere faith in Jesus and fidelity to the rite of communion, which at that time had already become an established practice, made Jesus and, therefore, God, one with him.

There are some religious cults today which have mistakenly understood the translator’s word to indicate that the Kingdom of God is that part of man, the soul, which comes most directly from God and, that, in developing and perfecting the attributes of the soul, man develops the Kingdom of God within himself.

In truth, development of the faculties of the soul will help man to purify his soul and enable him to reach towards the Paradise of the first parents before their fall from grace. This, however, is not the state of the soul achieved through the transformation which takes place only through the efficacy of the Divine Love, which enters the prayerful soul through the workings of the Father’s Holy Spirit.

The soul condition that corresponds to Paradise - purification of the soul - is the state of the perfect natural man, but has nothing of the divine angel or at-onement with the Father.

And there are some who point to I Corinthians 3:16: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" But these individuals fail to understand that the temple of God referred to is the soul and not the body, for the body does not enter into salvation, nor was it fashioned in the image of God, as was the soul. Jesus teaches us that every soul that seeks the righteousness of the Father becomes as a temple of God in purity; but every soul that seeks God’s Divine Love becomes as a temple filled with the Essence of God, Himself; for the soul is then at-one with God.

Having Christ in You.

In addition, there are those who mistakenly believe that the Kingdom of God is within them because Christ is within them - in accordance with the teachings of the church - and, without understanding or knowing what the Christ is, feel they possess at-onement with God through faith in Jesus’ name and in the “efficacy” of his shed blood and the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Now, the word “Christ,” as it is generally used today, is used in the sense of “anointed,” or “the Messiah,” or “Savior”; and this is true. But, actually, “the Christ” means the Principle of the Father’s Divine Love made available to mankind, as it was first shed abroad in Jesus’ soul.

And it is when this divine love enters the soul of a mortal or spirit who seeks it in earnest prayer to the Father that at-onement with the Father takes place, and in no other way - no blood shed on the cross or any mysterious sacrament of bread and wine.

For only the Father’s love has the power to cause the errors and evils of the human soul to be dispelled from it and to thus give man a new heart, free from sin and transformed from the image of the Father into his very essence and substance.

So that, “having Christ in you” means having the Father’s Divine Love dwelling in your soul. "Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.... And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:10,16)

John made it clear that when he spoke of love, he meant God’s Love - God’s Divine Love for man - and, that, where this Divine Love is, there also is God, and there is the Kingdom of God. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. ( 1 John 4:12)

The Kingdom of God may dwell within us but only if we follow the Way shown by Jesus and seek It through earnest longing and prayer to the Father for the Gift of His Divine Love. And with His Divine Love will come eternal life and the things necessary to sustain it, in this world and in the next.

God’s Love Will Again Be Withdrawn from Mankind.

According to Jesus, Divine Love is the one great thing in God’s Economy of Real Existence. Without It, all would be chaos and unhappiness; but where It exists, harmony and happiness also exist. He wrote through James Padgett:

 

...I say this because I know from personal experience that it is true. Let not men think that God is a God Who wants the worship of men with the mere intellectual faculties; that is not true. His Love is the one thing that can possibly unite Him and them. This Love is not the love that is a part of man’s natural existence. The love that men have, who have not received a part of the Divine Love, is not sufficient to make them one with the Father. Nor is that love the kind that will enable them to enter the Celestial Spheres and become as the angels who are filled with this Divine Love and who do always the Will of the Father. This Love is found only in the souls of those who have received It through the ministrations of the Holy Spirit - the only instrumentality of God’s Workings that is used in bringing about the salvation of men. God’s Love is not that which needs the love of man to give It a Divine Essence. But, on the contrary, the love of man must be completely enveloped in, or absorbed by, the Divine Love of the Father in order to become divine in its nature. So, let man know that his love is but the mere shadow of what the Father’s Love is, and that, as long as he refuses to receive this Love of the Father, he will be compelled to remain apart from the Father and enjoy only the happiness which his natural love affords him. My Father is not desirous that any man should live through all eternity without this Love. But the time will come, and very soon, when the privilege of obtaining this Love will be withdrawn from mankind. Men may think that this time of separation will never come, but in that they are mistaken; and, when too late, they will realize it. The harmony of my Father’s Universe is not dependent upon all men receiving this Divine Love because, in the workings of God’s Laws of Harmony on men’s souls, all sin and error will be eradicated and only truth will remain. But the mere absence of sin does not mean that all parts of God’s creation will be peopled by spirits and men who are equally happy or who are filled with the same kind of love. The man who is free from sin and has only the natural love will be in perfect harmony with other men possessing the same kind of love. But he will not be in harmony with those spirits who have this Divine Love and the supreme happiness which It gives. And, yet, such differences in love and happiness will not create discord or want of harmony in the universe. But the spirit who has this Divine Love becomes, as it were, a part of Divinity, Itself, and will never be subjected to temptation or unhappiness. He will be free from all powers that may exist for leading him to unhappiness - as if he were a very god. I mean that his divinity cannot possibly be taken from him by any power or influence or instrumentality in all the Universe of God. This Love makes a mortal and sinful man an immortal and sinless spirit destined to live through all eternity in the presence of, and at-one with, the Father. So, if only men would think and realize the importance of obtaining this Divine Love, they would not be so careless in their thoughts and aspirations concerning those things which will determine their future state through all eternity.

Jesus saw his mission as teacher of the good tidings that the Creator had rebestowed His Divine Love on mankind, and that His Love was available to anyone who sought It earnestly and sincerely. He perceived that this Divine Love would remain available for a time, after which It would be withdrawn a second time, with man experiencing the second death. This became his sole occupation and interest, with the result that he gave up the opportunity to take a wife and to have a home and a family of his own.

He used many stories to explain the Divine Love and Its workings: for example, the leaven in the dough; the oil in the lamps; the foolish virgins. In addition to the Divine Love, he taught other truths such as the creation of man; the Kingdom of the Perfect Natural Man (the Paradise of the Hebrews); soul development; the forgiveness of sins; resurrection; the employment of love. He was able to heal those with faith and he also performed many acts which were called miracles; yet, some acts credited to him did not take place.

Through Mr. Padgett, the apostle Peter wrote of exaggeration in the Bible accounts of some of the acts performed by Jesus:

 

...I have seen what you were reading (Luke’s Gospel) and must inform you that many of the supposed miracles of healing and raising of the dead, and the controlling of the laws or expressions of nature, never occurred. No, these accounts are not true and are the results of the imaginings of men who attempted to add to the book that Luke wrote. Of course, there is a true foundation for some of these alleged miracles, but, as to others, there is no foundation in fact. Jesus did heal the sick, and cure the blind and the deaf and the withered hand and the palsied man, and resurrected the supposed dead, but not in the way described in the New Testament; and it is not good for men to believe in the truth of all of these miracles. (James Padgett interrupted to ask a question.) Well, that incident never occurred, for, in casting out evil spirits, Jesus would have had no authority or power to permit them to enter into the swine. And it would not have been in consonance with his love and ideas of what was just to have allowed the swine to receive these spirits and thereby perish, as the account says. And, besides, the result of such a happening would be that the property of the innocent owners would have been taken from them and lost. In all Jesus’ performance of miracles, or in any of his teachings, never did he ever do or say that which worked wrong to a human being. To him, all men were the objects of his love and the salvation which he came to earth to show men the way to.

One of the more prevalent myths of today was dispelled by Peter in the following comment:

 

...(Mr. Padgett asked a second question.) There is some little truth in that, for we were in a storm and afraid. He slept, and we awakened him, but he did not rebuke the storm and the waves and cause them to subside. Rather, he allayed our fears by his talk and example and, to us, it became as if there were no storm. For, when fear left us, it was as if we were not sensible of the storm so far as the dread of drowning or perishing was concerned. No, this is another interpolation and should not be believed.

Other interpolations of New Testament events have been pointed out through Dr. Samuels. Jesus has given us an accurate account of the so-called miracle of the loaves and fishes, as follows:

 

...The first supposed miracle is that of my having fed thousands of hungry listeners who were without food and who simply, by my supposed powers, were supplied bread and water on the occasion of my preaching to them in the hills of Trans-Jordan. Well, I must say that the many people who ate with me that supper ate fish and bread and wine, and even figs and dates, as well, which the New Testament does not mention. But this food had been either brought along with them or, as in the case of fish, had been caught by the fishing boat of my disciples and then cooked by some of the women who were present at the time. In other words, the meal which we all enjoyed at the time was a substantial one and was one that was retained in the recording of my activities in Trans-Jordan by later writers - who received it from my disciples. But this meal had nothing miraculous about it except that all food is miraculous, as it comes from the Heavenly Father for the sustenance of His children; but it was not a miracle in the sense that the New Testament interprets it and conceives it to be.

Perhaps one of the most controversial “miracles” ascribed to Jesus was his so-called act of walking on water, another interpolation which he has cleared up in the following explanation given through Dr. Samuels:

 

...I wish to add that, during that evening, my disciples took their fishing boat and turned their way back to Galilee in the vicinity of Capernaum, and I remained behind to dismiss the multitude, which was not four or five thousand but considerably less, and I then withdrew to pray. I later took one of the little boats of the many that were anchored near the shore and made my way in it that night. As the wind was strong, I was eventually able to catch up with them. They were happy to see me and took me into their fishing boat, but with the moonlight shining on my white robe, it appeared, as they later told me, that I looked like a ghost, and that, standing up near the mast of the boat, it seemed that I was walking on the waves. From this episode has come the unfortunate story of my having walked on the waters; and I say that this, too, has had a deterrent effect upon my mission as the Messiah of all men.

The Divine Love which possessed his soul made him feel he was the dearest brother to all men and women. He taught the truth that God’s Great Love was equally available to women as it was to men, and he stressed that no man should impose upon a woman any condition or law which he himself was not prepared to live by. The story of the woman taken in adultery actually took place, and he spoke to her accusers as it is portrayed in the New Testament.

As to his changing water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana, this is another misrepresentation of the facts, for he simply used water jugs which were available to procure wine from a nearby wine dealer, after paying for it.

Never did he curse anything or anybody, at any time - neither a fig tree nor the towns of Chorazin or Capernaurn - for he came to save and not to destroy. The story of the fig tree barren of fruit was written many years after the event by one interested in showing Jesus’ divinity through the only way he could understand Messiahship – as a being in possession of supernatural powers rather than great soul development.

His teachings disturbed the priests and the upper class, who saw him as a threat to the divine faith and teachings of the Israelite nation - the Hebrew religion which Jesus never sought to destroy but upheld, in every sense of the word, its emphasis on justice, mercy and democratic principle, which were at the very heart of Judaism.

At first, his joy in teaching liberation of the soul and its resurrection from spiritual death unto eternal life elicited the support of the Pharisees, as they saw in him a leader who would assist them in throwing off the Roman yoke. But Jesus was not interested in an earthly Kingdom. He was preparing his fellowman to inherit a spiritual Kingdom - a Divine Kingdom - to be inhabited by all whose souls would yearn to be born again into the Divine Nature of the Creator. This Kingdom by its very nature would far surpass the Paradise of the Perfect Man, for life within the Divine Kingdom would be completely filled with the effulgence of the Father’s Divine Love flowing from the Fountainhead of His Habitation and into the souls of all who were actively seeking at-onement with Him.

The more successful he was in his mission, the more determined the priests and leaders became to eliminate him, feeling he was undermining their influence and the Hebrew religion.

Death By Crucifixion.

It was on the eve of his arrest by Pilate that Jesus gave his disciples the Eleventh Commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. The meaning of the Commandment, which is paramount to the religion preached by the Foundation Church of Divine Truth, was explained by our elder brother in the following words:

 

...I meant that since I loved mankind, and especially my followers, with the Love that came to me from the Father’s Essence, the disciples were to seek the Divine Love in prayer to the Father and love one another with this Divine Love. Thus, we were all to be one in the Father’s Love. This was the Commandment to be obeyed by my followers, and binding upon them, just as the Ten Commandments were binding upon all Jews of that time, and even of this day, as the moral precepts given to mankind by God through Moses.

While at prayer on the Mount of Olives, he was arrested and taken to the Jewish Assembly, the Sanhedrin, where he was declared to be an enemy and would-be destroyer of the divine faith and teachings of the Israelite nation and a seducer of the people.

But he hadn’t been betrayed by Judas, the youngest of his disciples, for silver; and it was not ordained that Judas should betray him, as the Bible claims. We now know the true motivation behind Judas’ act from the apostle John, in the following words delivered through James Padgett:

 

...He (Jesus) never taught that it was ordained by God that Judas should betray him. In fact, the death of Jesus was never a part of that which the Father considered as necessary to the performance of his mission. Of course, it was certain that Jesus would die. But the manner of his death was not foreordained, as my Gospel written in your Bible declared. Judas was not a bad man, as he is depicted to be. And his “betrayal,” as it is called, of the Master was not for the purpose of gratifying any avarice that he might be supposed to have had, or because of any jealousy or desire to revenge a wrong, but it was because he was impulsive and had a belief in Jesus’ powers and ability to overcome the Jewish leaders in their fight to defeat the objects of Jesus’ mission. And he thought he would be doing the Master and his cause a great benefit by having it demonstrated to these Jews that the Master could not be silenced or harmed by any act of theirs. It was really an act that grew out of his love for and belief in the greatness of the Master’s powers.

Jesus was sentenced by Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, after being questioned by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. Pilate ordered him crucified. It was the spring of 29 A.D.; his ministry had lasted slightly less than three years and three months. He was thirty-six years old.

Now, Jesus did not die to save anyone from sin. He was not a sacrificial lamb - a pagan concept and practice which Abraham, enlightened by God, had abandoned. He chose death rather than deny his mission and those things which he had proven to be true. Also, he knew there is life, and life abundant, beyond the grave; for man is essentially a spiritual being, and physical death is merely the process by which he returns to the world of spirit, from whence his soul had come.

He had accomplished his mission on earth. Once he became convinced of his Messiahship, and told his family that he must attend to his Father’s business of proclaiming the glad tidings of His Love and for that he had been born, his life was the personification of the New Heart which had been prophesied in the Scriptures - the Divine Love of God in man’s soul.

He was buried in a cave whose entrance was blocked by a huge stone and guarded by Roman soldiers. His soul, however, with its accompanying spirit body, had risen immediately after his physical death on the cross, and he went about his business as a spirit.

He went into the hells and preached the salvation of God’s Divine Love to those in darkness and suffering. He also ascended into the higher realms of the spirit world to proclaim the availability of the Father’s Love and the possibility of eternal at-onement with the Father.

Once the ritual of burial had been accomplished, he returned to the cave and set about to remove his mortal remains. Three days had passed. Using the Divine powers of the Father’s Essence within his soul, he dematerialized his physical body into the surrounding atmosphere, leaving the shroud (The shroud remains preserved today, and is known today as the Shroud of Turin.) which had covered him neatly folded in a corner of the cave.

A bright spirit sent by the Father rolled away the stone blocking the entrance to the cave. By using ectoplasm obtained from one of the Roman guards whom he put into a trance, the spirit materialized a physical body. Energies were then transmitted to him by many good spirits present, and he was able to accomplish the feat of rolling away the heavy stone.

Jesus left the cave, but not before he had materialized a body resembling flesh and blood, again using the powers at his disposal. He appeared to Mary and Peter, fulfilling his promise that he would rise in three days. He later appeared to the travelers on the road to Emmaus, and to his disciples meeting in the upper room where Thomas was present and asked to be reassured that he was, indeed, beholding the Master.

Jesus explained through Mr Padgett that it was necessary for him to materialize in this manner to show that he was still alive, even after physical death through crucifixion. At that time in their spiritual development, this was proof in the eyes of his disciples that he was the Messiah. However, the real understanding of his Messiahship came to all of them at Pentecost, when the knowledge came to them with overwhelming conviction that Jesus had brought the Father’s Love and Its Divine qualities to light.

The Fulfillment of the Eleventh Commandment- The Pentecost.

The Commandment which Jesus gave to his disciples at the Passover supper - to love one another with the Divine Love with which he loved mankind and his disciples - came to the fruition of its fulfillment 50 days following his death, when mental concept of his mission was replaced by the emotions of love and great sorrow in his followers.

His disciples and followers who had remained faithful to him after the crucifixion and who, after his appearances to them, sincerely mourned their loss in his death, had loved him wholeheartedly as their Rabbi and were filled with a deep grief and love that made their souls ready to receive the Father’s Love when It was poured out upon them.

It came into their souls with a great inflowing and burning of the heart and they, being greatly confused and excited by this phenomenon which they were unable to explain, related contradictory stories about the occurrence which later writers sought to organize into the account we are familiar with in the Bible today.

The Divine Love which Jesus had taught them of, and which they had understood only mentally, became a living reality in their hearts and souls at the time of the Pentecostal Showering upon their souls of God’s Precious Essence. Because It was conveyed into their souls with such power and in such abundance, they knew, convincingly and overwhelmingly, that Jesus had come to bring the very Essence of the Father to mankind if they would but seek It through earnest prayer.

This inflowing of the Divine Love later became known as “receiving the Holy Spirit” - erroneously, of course, because it is the Holy Spirit which conveys the Father’s Love into the human soul. It is not, as is thought, a divine person, but simply that Attribute of God that brings the Love into the soul of whosoever seeks It in prayer. There is but one God, the Father, and not the triune concept that is a basic doctrine in the Christianity of today.

The end of the Jewish dispensation, or the end of the Hebrew world, came with the Pentecost, for it was at that time that the Divine Love of the Father, which was first bestowed upon Jesus, was granted to his followers in abundance, and the Mosaic laws, the highest laws available to mankind prior to Jesus’ coming, were superseded by the New Covenant of the Heart and the New Birth of the soul.

Epilogue.

Perhaps the most moving description of Jesus’ soul when he lived on earth and lovingly ministered to his fellowman has been given us by his mother. In her words, we are able to truly appreciate and value the fine loving traits of character inherent in Jesus as a result of his soul’s development in God’s Divine Love.

Mary writes:

 

...His natural love, which as a young man would have turned him to thoughts of love and marriage, deepened into Divine Love, and absorbed by It, held a marvelous feeling of filial and fraternal devotion, and made him feel like the dearest brother to all men and women - all mankind - taking away from him the thought of women and family life. He loved all people with a love which showed itself in kindness, in service, in helping others, in healing wounds of sicknesses, in alleviating sorrow and giving sympathy and comfort for the depressed, the bereaved, the heartbroken and the helpless. He brought hope and taught salvation to thousands. Even when they did not understand, there was a sincerity, an absolute faith and conviction in the eternal life of the soul which spoke to people’s hearts, if not to their minds, and many felt he was the light to the Jewish people who would show the Way to God and to peace, in this world and in the next. Jeshu showed this faith and conviction and love up to the last, on the cross at Golgotha; it was a courage and a patience beyond human capabilities. And, at last, at the foot of the cross, I understood something of what he said and what was in his soul, even just before the end, when I grieved for the one I considered a good son, dying because of a disturbance which manifested itself in a different path in religion and defiance of Roman power. How mistaken was I, my family and my husband! We understood, yes, after his death, when pain and grief and love had brought some of the Divine Love into our souls. Joseph preached away from home; Jacob founded the Jerusalem sect; Judah and Thomas became his apostles. His Divine Love turned him to God, to think of God and long for God’s Presence; to pray, to avoid sins, to take on in his character virtues of kindness, of humility, of service and consideration of others so as not to hurt their feelings; and these were to him of the highest importance. His, too, were qualities of firmness, faith and conviction; of courage, of fortitude and high resolve, that faced and found death with tranquility, patience and a oneness with the Love of God that shatters all imagination. Such was my son Jeshu on earth.

Jesus has explained that the great compelling fact of the crucifixion is that, while he dematerialized his physical body and died as to its existence, yet his soul has lived on through the intervening centuries and will continue to live throughout all eternity; that this eternal life became a reality through his constant and fervent prayers to the Heavenly Father for the inflowing of His Divine Love into his soul and at-onement with Him; that what is really alive is Jesus’ immortal soul, with his teachings which show the Way to achieve immortality of soul through longing to the Father.

For it is the Divine Love that gives eternal life, and not any mysterious ritual of supposedly eating his body and drinking his blood through the symbolic use of bread and wine, as practiced among some religious organizations.

Through Mr. Padgett, John, the apostle, has reassured all mortals who love Jesus and long for his presence that, sooner or later, as the laws of his limitations permit, he will be with them and will comfort and help them, if they will enable him to make the rapport. This is what is meant by his standing at the door and knocking. When the door is opened, the rapport is made and then his love and influence will be felt. In the following endearing words, John wrote:

 

...So, let all mortals love Jesus with the fervor and fulness of their souls, and crave for his love; but in doing so, not forget or fail to know that, in thus loving, in order to become like Jesus, they must seek for the greater Love of the Father, and give to Him all their souls' longings and desires for the inflowing of this love into their souls. And the more they receive of this great divine love, the better able they will be to love their great brother, Jesus

This document, published first in 1990 by the F.C.D.T. was scanned in its entirety in April 2009 and slightly edited in 2011 to form this web based summary.