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I am here, Jesus:
I am here tonight to write you again on the truths of the New Testament, but I will postpone my message tonight in order to take up the answers to the questions raised by Dr. Stone.
Now, the Jews were much aggravated and incensed at the thought that any mortal could call himself the son of God, not in the sense that all human beings are the creatures, or sons, of God, but in the special sense that I stated -- that I was in the Father and the Father was in me. This seemed to the Jews as blasphemy because it was putting me on an equal level with God; and the Jews felt that such blasphemy, which they felt destroyed the meaning of God to the Hebrew people, deserved death. And as they were not permitted to carry out their sentences of death by the Roman overlords, they sent me to the Roman Procurator with the accusation that I was attempting to cause a revolution against Caesar by proclaiming myself King of the Jews.
The Jews expected a Messiah who would lead the people to victory over the Romans in warfare and free the country from foreign rule, but there was no unanimity as to who and what the Messiah would be, and there were those who thought that, coming from God and being sent by God, the Messiah would be a being who would live forever in the flesh. Such was their ignorance of things spiritual and their utter carnality of mind that all their religious and spiritual speculations and aspirations were centered upon the material plane. And, thus, there were those who felt that the Christ would live forever, and could not understand that the Christ meant the Christ Principle, or the very Essence of God, which is the Divine Love.
This Infinite Love of God, being of the Essence of the Father, exists forever, and I taught that to live forever one must be born again of the Essence of the Father; but it was impossible for the Jews to understand that the flesh had no part in this rebirth and that immortality meant immortality of the soul. And that is why Nicodemus raised the question, "How can a man be born a second time from his mother's womb in order to be reborn?"
Thus it was that many Jews failed to recognize me as the Messiah because they expected a Messiah immortal in the flesh. But after my crucifixion and resurrection, these Jews understood the meaning of my teachings when they saw me alive and apparently raised from the dead. And they realized that my soul was alive, and they then believed in my teachings and they turned to the Father and His Divine Love. But some of them were converted because they saw me resurrected and felt that I must be the immortal being who they thought was to be the Messiah.
Now, with respect to my teaching the truths despite the threats against my life made by the Jews, I understood that my mission had to continue regardless of the consequences because I knew that this mission had been given to me by God and I had been sent by Him to declare the truths of the New Birth. And I knew there was danger, but I expected to be able to escape the Jews, and I would have, had it not been for the impulsiveness of my youngest and most tempestuous disciple.
And many of the sayings showing I had come to die on the cross are entirely false and without foundation, for they considered my crucifixion and blood the way to salvation, or I may say, salvation itself. And this is not true, and I did not come to die on the cross, nor was it fated that it so be. Nor can I say that I was a savior to mankind because of my death on the cross; but there was no alternative, if I was to be faithful to the mission which the Father had given me.
No, I am not a savior because of my preferring the cross to denying my Messiahship and my God, and I was simply performing my mission to the end. And I would not be Jesus, the Christ, if I had not persisted until the end. My crucifixion was the result of sin in the world which I had come to destroy through my teachings; and in the end, sin will be destroyed and man will turn to the Father's Love and become Divine Angels, or will become a purified soul and live in the paradise of the first parents before their fall.
I think this should satisfy the good Doctor* as to the questions he asked me, and so, with my love to him and to you, whom I urge to seek the Father's Love in more and more abundance to eliminate carnal thoughts and become closer to the Father, I shall stop and say good night.
Your elder brother and friend,
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens
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* Dr. Leslie R. Stone.
