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I AM HERE. St. Paul.
Yes I am and I want to say just a few words. The book on the "vicarious atonement" that you have been reading--about the ransom price and the blood of Jesus and the sacrifice on the cross--as to these things is all wrong, and you must not believe what it says.
Well, I know the Bible ascribes to me the teaching of these things, but I never did; and I tell you now, as I have before told you, that the Bible cannot be depended on as containing things that I wrote, for there are many additions to what I wrote, and many omissions of what I wrote; and so with the others whose names are stated as the writers of the New Testament. Many things contained in that book were never written by any of the alleged authors of the book. The writings of any of us are not in existence, and have not been for many centuries; and when they were copied and recopied, great additions and omissions were made, and, at last, doctrines and dogmas were interpolated that we never at anytime believed or wrote.
I have to say this, and I wish to emphasize my statement with all the conviction and knowledge of the truth that I possess: Jesus never paid any debt of man by his death or his blood or vicarious atonement. When Jesus came to earth his mission was given him as he progressed in his soul development, and not until his anointing was he wholly qualified to enter upon his mission or the work thereof.
The mission was twofold, namely:--
TO DECLARE TO MANKIND THAT THE FATHER HAD REBESTOWED THE DIVINE LOVE WHICH ADAM OR THE FIRST PARENTS HAD FORFEITED; AND SECONDLY, TO SHOW MAN THE WAY BY WHICH THAT LOVE COULD BE OBTAINED, SO THAT THE POSSESSOR OF IT WOULD BECOME A PARTAKER OF THE DIVINE NATURE, AND IMMORTAL.
Jesus had no other mission than this, and any statement by the preacher or teacher or church doctrines or dogmas or by the Bible, that his mission was other than I have stated, is untrue. He emphatically never claimed that he came to earth to pay any ransom for mankind, or to save them by his death on the cross, or to save them in any other way than by teaching them that the great gift or privilege of obtaining immortality had been bestowed upon them, and that by prayer and faith they could obtain it.
The author of the book is all wrong in his theories, but if you accept the statement of the Bible as true, he makes a very forcible presentation of the Scriptures. But the Scriptures do not contain the truth on this subject, except by the New Birth that Jesus taught, and that being so, his explanations and theories must fall to the ground. Some day and that very soon, he will come to the spirit world and have an awakening, which will cause him much suffering and remorse, because of his teachings of the false doctrines that his book contains.
I did not intend to write so long a letter when I commenced, but your questions required answers, and I could not give you answers in less space. But nevertheless if you shall obtain any benefit from what I have written, the time consumed will be compensated for.
I must stop now, but will come again sometime.
Your brother in Christ,
--ST. PAUL.Vol. II, p. 229
