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I am here, Jesus.
I will say no more for the present concerning these Messianic passages, but will turn to discuss the subject of some of the miracles which are found in the Old Testament and which were incorporated later into the New Testament. And the first is the raising of the woman's son from the dead. And also the story in which Elisha in the Book of Kings II feeds one hundred men with only the first fruits of some corn and bread, an incident which is just as false as the one in which I am represented as having fed five thousand. And again the story of the angel in Genesis coming to tell Sarah that she is to have a son in her old age, a story that sounded supernatural enough to be used in the story of Gabriel coming to announce to Elizabeth the birth of (John) the Baptist.
In addition, the later New Testament writers turned to Greek mythology or some of their tales regarding my miracles and in that way they read that Poseidon, the god of the sea, walked on the water, which was sufficient for their imagination to have me also walk on the water. And in this way they secured the idea for making my mother a virgin by their reading of the Greek legends that told of a number of goddesses who gave birth to sons although they themselves were virgins, and I can name such instances of Demetrius and Danae who gave birth to Perseus without the benefit of a mate, and several others.
I should also like to call attention to the fact that the story of the water to wine episode at the marriage at Cana was a story that was borrowed from the Greek account of Dionysius of Elis, the god of wine who would make jars of water turn to wine overnight by putting them into a concealed chamber.
All of these instances of miracles which were attributed to me were done not with any maliciousness of heart, but with the obvious desire to stress my supernatural powers to the point of making me a divinity equal with God, or God, Himself, and this was the result of the stress laid on the desire to institutionalize Christianity instead of keeping love of spirituality, and indicates that those in power wished to keep that power by making the priestly order and functions the dominant part of the religion. In this way, the church eventually fell into the same pit of ambition and worldliness which the church accused the Sadducees and Hebrew religious leaders of, and perpetuated a system entirely man-made, lacking in essentials of spirituality, as the Divine Love of the Father for mankind, which had been my paramount reason for my ministry and the cornerstone of all my teachings.
The Functions of the Hebrew Priesthood
When I came to Palestine to teach, I was very much aware of the evils found among the Hebrew priesthood and I also was convinced through my studies of the old prophets and the teachings of the Father that the priesthood was not essential to a religion calling for a direct communication between the human soul and the Heavenly Father through love. But it was not my intention to harm or destroy the prevailing system which had been built up through the centuries to perpetuate the priesthood as an integral part of the organization of the Hebrew nation, whether Israel, Judah, or both, for the nation had been established as one consecrated to God with the priesthood as the intermediaries between God and the people, and the conception was to have the priesthood perform the religious functions of a special or national nature and be the religious leaders of a people designated to be a light to the gentiles -- a people who would eventually lead the pagan peoples into the path of true belief and worship of the eternal God.
And the sacrifices of the animals seemed perfectly consistent with this plan, because these sacrifices enabled the priesthood to live, and in earlier times this priesthood had difficulties in making ends meet because the people were not generous in their contributions towards them. And for that reason the priesthood, as a class, organized for special duties within a society that had developed with those special duties in mind, were not to be attacked in my plan for the redemption of the Jewish people.
But I believed that through the New Covenant, and as all peoples obtained the Divine Love, all people would of their own accord eradicate sin from their souls, as far as they could, to the extent that they received this love and made their own reforms for the betterment of the entire nation, with the development of their natural love tending toward social justice and individual conduct more in accord with the laws of God and also the transformation, at least to some degree, of each human soul, into the Divine soul through the Divine love.
I shall stop now with all my love and blessing upon you, and you may rest assured that we are all working to see that your efforts in behalf of our work will be successful and that the first church for the spreading of the real good news of the Father's Love be established on earth as it is in Heaven.
Your friend and elder brother,
Jesus, Master of the Celestial Heavens.
