Food for thought

The Lord Jesus came, bringing His word of salvation for all mankind. At the time of His coming, sent by His Father, the Almighty, mankind had been gravely sinking and at the verge of being drawn to eternal damnation and annihilation. His coming was thus urgent. It was such that the Jews refused to recognise Him as the prophesied Messiah they were expecting. They were expecting a Messiah who would lead them in battle against the Romans and free them from the yoke of Rome.

Their understanding of freedom is one that is obtained through agitation, violent campaigns and most desired, war. About 1,300 years before the Lord’s coming, certain Light forces were set in motion to bring them out of the bondage of Egyptians who were idol worshippers. Among the many gods they worshipped, for example, was the sun. This brought the Jews into collision with their masters who did not treat them with any consideration befitting of the dignity of a human being. 

The emergence of Moses brought them the much-longed for liberation from the toil in the hands of their slave drivers. The Ten Commandments Moses received on Mount Sinai became the liberation power waves with which he led them to Palestine as their homeland. With the Ten Commandments as their golden rule and guide, the Jews turned Palestine into a strong nation which under King Solomon became a flourishing nation.

In the account titled ‘A Short Survey of the True Causes of Historic Events on Earth’, published in the magazine, A New Approach, Dr. E. W. Walkhoff says King Saul and King David laid the foundation and King Solomon raised the region to the point of self-sufficiency, “so strong and suitably equipped for earthly needs as to be able not only stoutly to defend the true knowledge of God, but also to give it on to others.” 

Defending the true knowledge and passing it on did not happen. According to Dr. Walkhoff, “Neither the hardships of past centuries nor their exalted spiritual knowledge, which sets them above all other peoples, is able to overcome the ever-growing craving for sheer material prosperity. Of what use are the proclaimed Laws of God when they are not kept, when human thinking and the satisfaction of personal desires are always the deciding factors!” Neither King Saul nor King David set a pure example for their people. King Solomon, “whose wisdom is still praised today, fortified his earthly power by the unsavoury expedients of intellectual politics. He went so far as knowingly to support the idol worship of his neighbours, the Egyptians. Thus he put to scorn his task on earth, his task of being a powerful warrior of the Light, of the Truth. A deep cleavage sets in among his people!” 
A New Approach is a magazine for “the dissemination of the New Knowledge for True Upbuilding.” 

Moses did battle against idol worship, the Golden Calf, the struggle continuing under Joshua. With the decline that set in among the Jews, and with the death of King Solomon, the Jewish tribes broke into Israel and Judah, two kingdoms that no longer saw eye to eye. The Ten Commandments were all forgotten. Like Moses, prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah fought hard against rising idolatry until 621 B.C. when the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments of God was found again in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Faith was restored but the earthly power had gone. And so, Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar were taken into captivity.  

Ezra renewed the battle to save his people; he enforced obeying the Ten Commandments in Jerusalem in 458 B.C. but acrimony and disunity had gone too deeply. In consequence after some years, particularly when it had fallen into the hands of Persians, Alexander the Great conquered Israel (322 B.C.). It was in the hands of succeeding rulers of foreign nations, the last being in the hands of the Romans in 63 B.C.  There was, therefore, the misdirected longing of freedom led by a Messiah that would entail confronting the Romans on the battlefield. They did not realise it was the freedom of the spirit from the shackles of darkness that the expected Messiah was bringing. This was to be through the Holy Word from the Almighty sent through His Envoy, the Messiah. 

Getting the promises of the Creator wrong as men are wont to do till this day, the political and priestly establishments afraid of losing power and influence connived with Judas who had always wondered why the Lord was not interested in material things. He had observed that many of the deeply-moved listeners to the Words of the Lord Christ and some of those healed were offering their wealth to Him. He wondered why the Lord always rejected the gifts. 

In the calculation of Judas, if the Lord was not interested in earthly things someone else just had to take charge and see to it that the opportunities of the offers were not missed. In his opinion there was nothing wrong in someone else seeing to it that the offers were not frittered. He believed that being the promised Messiah nothing short of royal dignity should accord to Him.  He so got himself enmeshed in how the gifts being rejected by his Master could come to him. He made contact with the Resistant Movement and posing as the representative of the Lord, he led negotiations for an armed rebellion being planned against the Roman authority. After victory the Lord Christ would be proclaimed king of the liberated country, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the coming of a Messiah that would free Israel from bondage. That was the wrongly interpreted promise to mean freedom from the control and yoke of the Romans. 

The rebellion was to break out during the Passover when thousands of participants disguising as pilgrims would be in Jerusalem without arousing the suspicion of the Romans. Part of the plot was to give the Lord a grand reception. The reception was organiaed quite all right and it was what became the triumphal entry of Jesus re-enacted every year in what we call Palm Sunday with dancing and rejoicing. The unexpected elaborate reception unpleasantly surprised the Lord. He was hailed: “Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

The Lord simply entered the Temple and began to address the congregation, among them largely, those who had come to stage the rebellion, but disguised as pilgrims. The Lord Jesus spoke of peace, submission to the Will of the Father, of love for fellowmen and indeed, commanded them to love their enemies! The Romans were the enemies. The Son of God had no understanding of what has been described as “futile, fleeting earthly desires as national pride, political influence or the craving for power.” How could they be asked to love the Romans, the Romans who had held them in bondage? The rebels in the garb of pilgrims were disappointed, believing that the admonition should have been reserved for when the battle was over—in the longed-for Messianic Kingdom of Peace. They felt betrayed. 

This background is to show how the revelations of the Word of the Light often get misinterpreted or twisted. It also demonstrates the fall of the Jews, a people specially prepared to receive the Messiah in their midst, being the first people on earth to recognise the existence of only one God. As I have once pointed out in these pages, because they were the closest to the Truth it became natural that the Lord being the Truth and the Light would incarnate in the midst of a people who had come to the recognition of the Truth that is God and the consciousness of only one God. A chain of prophets were sent to preserve their memory of their unique destiny and high tasks.

In their rigidity, despite all evidence to the contrary, they did not believe that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God and they accused Him of blasphemy. And thus began the plot to get rid of Him instead of opening up to absorb His liberating Divine wisdom. According to section 21 of their penal code, “The convicted blasphemer will be stoned.” They also accused Him of healing on the Sabbath Day.

Section 52 of the penal code states in their clear insinuation, and which could be invoked in the unrelenting effort to rope in and get rid of the Lord, stated: “A pseudo-prophet is a renegade preacher who seeks by means of visions, illusions, false oracles, magic, exorcism, hallucinations or genuine miracles to seduce Israel to apostasy. Section 55 which was connected with the foregoing Section 52 then stated: “A pseudo-prophet must be judged by the Great Sanhedrin, and be executed in Jerusalem.” 

A man who had suffered from infirmity for 38 years received healing when Jesus went to the sheep market pool in Bethesda. The man was waiting for his turn to enter the moving water. “The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured; It is the Sabbath day: It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them. He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk.” (John 5: 10-11).

The Lord saw the man in the Temple afterwards and told him: “Behold, thou art made whole: Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which made him whole.” (John 5: 15-16)  After the Lord brought Lazarus back to life after being dead for four days, “Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, ‘what do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe in Him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.”(John 11: 45-48).  

Even in Nazareth, his earthly native town, He taught on the Sabbath Day, the Nazarenes were angry. They frowned at it and sought to scornfully deride Him, saying: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Jones and of Juda, and Simon? And aren’t His sisters here with us?” Even at home, he did not feel welcome. His ‘brother” James insulted Him, saying He was only being “tolerated” in the home. His mother, Mary, did not understand Him and distanced inwardly. There was the motherly fear and she tried to divert Him from His Path to the Temple life. It was only Joseph, His earthly father that understood Him and answered His questions. He bade goodbye to mother and home! Not until the Lord was being marched to Golgotha did memories flushed back to her and she had the proper recognition of Him and the grace and privilege that the Lord accompanied by angels came through her. That was the path strewn with thorns that the Lord trod, such were the hostilities He faced in practically every direction He turned!

With all the self-evident conspiracies by the Establishment, flowing from, first, finding the Lord’s teachings irksome and second, fear of losing influence and power having taught wrongly and now they had the correct teachings that aroused and got people enraptured, concluding that the Lord had come to die as a sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind is a gross misrepresentation of His sacred mission of love. He died because of the sins of mankind but not for their sins, not for the remission of our sins. Because mankind did not recognise Him they watched Him fall a victim of the hate and hostilities of the priests and political authorities.

And He asked: “What have I done that you want to kill me?” Multitude who massed around Him wanting to hear more of His Teachings could not come to His rescue. Rather they mocked Him: They shouted “Crucify Him.”  An announcement was made reminding the Jews that it was their duty to give information about His whereabouts. “Now, both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he was, he should shew it, that they might take Him” (John 11: 57).

The Lord had withdrawn to Samaria where He was safe. It was when the Feast of Passover was drawing close that He decided to return to Jerusalem despite the danger— unknown to Him that Judas had entrapped Him negotiating with the Resistance Movement. The plan was to mobilise the Jews to have Him as their king.  During the Passover, The Lord preached for four days, following which He cleared the Temple of people trading in offerings. This did not go down well with the Temple administrator who complained that Christ had interfered with their flourishing business.

The error of misrepresenting the Lord’s Mission has gone on for more than 2,000 years. One wonders if this should not be embarrassing to anyone who can think just a little. Alas, there was dancing on Palm Sunday, the day that called for sobriety. There was rejoicing in all lands when what the day called for was deep reflection on the murder of the Lord Who had brought Love and Holy Peace. He who had come to show mankind the way to everlasting life.

In his unique and monumental work, A Gate Opens, Herbert Vollmann says: “The purpose of His (Jesus Christ’s) coming was to show men how they can free themselves from their sins, and how they have to behave in future in order not to be sinful again. For Jesus, too, had to consider the free will of man.

“Man cannot leave the World of Matter (Subsequent Creation), to which the earth also belongs, and reach Paradise, until he has severed the last particle of sin. That was what Jesus meant by the words: ‘Thou shall by no means come out of thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Matthew 5: 26).”
No thought is even being given to the Son of Man at all. Is the Son of Man one and the same with the Son of God, Jesus? It is food for thought!