ATONEMENT A LIE

December 30th, 1915

I am here, St. Luke.

    I come to-night to tell you of a Truth that is of very great importance to you and to humankind.  Desire that you shall be very careful in receiving what I may say.  I am in a condition of love that enables me to know whereof I write and to cause what I may say to be accepted by you as true.

    I want to tell you that the Divine Love of which we have been writing is the only Love that can make a spirit, or human, At-One with the Father.  This my theme:  The Atonement.

    This word, as used in the Bible, interpreted by the churches and the commentators on the Bible, carries with it a meaning of some price being paid by Jesus for the redemption of humankind from their sins.  From the punishment that they will have to undergo because of having committed sin.  Also, the idea that God, as an angry and insatiable God, was waiting for the price to be paid, in order for His wrath to become satisfied.  For humans to stand before Him, acquitted of sin and the consequences of disobedience.  This price, according to the teachings of the churches and the persons named, must have been paid by one, who in his goodness and purity, was capable of paying this price.  That is, one who had in him such inherent qualities, by his sacrifice, was of such inherent worth, as to satisfy the requirements of the demands of this angry god whose Laws had been disobeyed.  They also teach that the only way by which such price could have been paid, was by the death on the cross of Jesus, who was the only person in all Creation that possessed these qualities sufficiently to meet these requirements.  That by his death and the shedding of his blood, the sins were atoned for and God was satisfied.  This is the orthodox belief of the atonement and plan of salvation.  In short, a perfect human being free from all sin, a death on the cross and a shedding of blood, which was necessary that the sins of mortals might be washed away, their souls made clean, fitted to become a part of the great family of God.

    All this conception of the atonement is wrong and not justified by any teaching of the Master.  Or by any of the true teachings of the disciples, to whom he had explained the Plan of Salvation and what the At-Onement means.

    I know, that in various parts of the New Testament, it is said that the blood of Jesus washes away all sin.  That his death on the cross satisfies the Father's demand for justice.  Therein, there are many similar expressions conveying the same idea.  These sayings of the Bible, were never written by the persons to whom they are ascribed, but by writers, who in their various translations and alleged reproductions of these writings, added to and eliminated from, the writings of the original writers, until the Bible became filled with these false doctrines and teachings.

    The writers of the Bible, as it now stands, were persons who belonged to the church which was nationalized about the time of Constantine.  As such, had imposed upon them the duty of writing such ideas, as the rulers, or governors of this church conceived should be incorporated in the Bible, for the purpose of carrying out their ideas, in order to subserve the interests of the church.  To give it such temporal power, as it never could have had under the teachings and guidance of the Pure Doctrines of the Master.

    For nearly two thousand years, this false doctrine of the atonement, has been believed in and accepted by the so called Christian churches.  Has been promulgated by these churches as the true doctrine of Jesus.  The one upon which the salvation of human depends.  The consequences have been, that humans have believed, that the only things necessary to their salvation and reconciliation to God, were the death of Jesus and the washing away of their sins by the blood shed on Calvary.

    If humans only knew how futile his death was,  how inefficacious his blood is to wash away sin and pay the debt to the Father, they would not rest in the assurance that all they have to do is to believe in this sacrifice and this blood, but would learn the True Plan of Salvation and make every effort in their power to follow that Plan.  As a consequence, have their souls developed, so that they would come into Harmony with the Father's Love and Laws.

    At-Onement, in its true meaning, never meant the payment of a debt, or the appeasing of the wrath of God.  But simply the becoming At-One with Him, in those qualities that will insure to humans the possession of His Divine Love and the Immortality that Jesus brought to light.  The sacrifice of Jesus could have no possible effect upon the condition of human's soul qualities.  Neither could the blood shedding, make a vile and sinful soul, pure and free from sin.

    God's Universe is governed by Laws, as Immutable as they are Perfect in their workings.  The great thing to be accomplished by the Plan which He provided for the redemption of humans, is to have every human come into Harmony with these Laws.  Because just as soon as that Harmony exists, there will be no more discord.  Sin will not be known to humanity.  So, only that which will bring human into this Harmony, can possibly save them from  their sins and bring about the At-Onement that Jesus and his disciples taught.

    Humans, when Created, were endowed with what may be called a natural love.  That love, to the extent of the quality that it possessed, was in Perfect Harmony with God's Universe.  So long as it was permitted to exist in its pure state, was a part of the Harmony of the Universe.  When it became defiled, or impregnated with sin, or anything not in accord with God's Laws, it became inharmonious and not at-one with God.  The only redemption required was the removing of those things that caused the inharmony.

    Now, the only way in which this inharmony could be removed, was by the natural love becoming again pure and free, from that which defiled it.  The sacrifice on the cross could not furnish this remedy.  Neither could the blood atonement accomplish it.  Because the sacrifice and the blood had no relation to the evil to be remedied.  So I assert, if these things paid the penalty and satisfied God, thereby He had no further claim upon human for any debt supposed to be due Him from human, it necessarily implies that He kept the souls of humans in this condition of inharmony.  Would not permit the same to be removed, until His demands for satisfaction and blood had been met.  That then, when He should be appeased, He would permit humans, by His mere fiat, to again come in Harmony with His Laws and the workings of His Universe.  In other words, He would be willing to let humans remain out of harmony with His Universe and the workings of His Laws, until He had His demands for sacrifice and blood satisfied.

    This, as is apparent to any reasonable human, would be a thing so foolish, that no mere human, in matters pertaining to their earthly affairs, would adopt as a plan for the redemption of those sons of theirs, who had been disobedient.

I see you have a caller, and will continue later.

January 4th, 1916

I am here, St. Luke.

    I wish to continue my discourse on the Atonement.

    As I was saying, unless a human gets into Harmony with God in the natural love, which God bestowed upon them, thereby becomes free from sin and error, there can be no redemption for them.  The death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood cannot cause that Harmony.

    Now what I have heretofore said, relates exclusively to human and their salvation, in respect to their condition of becoming Perfect in this natural love, which all humans have.

    But this is not the Great At-Onement which Jesus came to earth to teach humans.  And the way in which it could be obtained and the effect of its attainment.

    As has been told you, in the beginning God conferred upon our First Parents, not only the natural love, but the potentiality of obtaining It, by the observance of certain Laws and obedience, the Divine Love of the Father.  Which, when obtained, would make a human a part of Divinity Itself.  While it would not make them a god, or the equal of The Father, yet it would give them a Divinity that would cause them to receive the Substance of God's Great Love and not remain the mere image.  As a consequence, human would become Immortal.

    God Alone, is Immortal.  Every part of Him is Immortal.  When humans, shall obtain in their souls, that part of Him which is His Greatest Attribute, His Divine Love, they will also become Immortal.  Thereafter, not subject to death.

    The natural love, which was implanted in the souls of all humankind, is not a part of the Divine Love.  It is not this Divine Love in a lesser degree even.  But is a distinct and separate quality of Love.  All humans possess it.  But in many persons it has become contaminated by the sins that flow from the violation of God's Laws.  So that the redemption, of which I have spoken, is necessary for humans, even as the possessor of this natural love only.

    The Divine Love of the Father, is a Love, that has in It and is wholly composed of, the Divinity which the Father possesses.  No human can ever become a part of that Divinity until they possess this Great Love.  I know it is said that human is Divine because they were Created in the image of God.  Nothing which is a mere image, is ever a part of the Substance, of which it is the image.  Cannot possibly have the Qualities of that Substance.  Commonly speaking, the image may have the appearance and for the ordinary affairs of the mortal life, may serve the purpose of the real, until something that arises that demands the production of the real.  Then the image will no longer serve the purpose.

    Now in the case of the Creation of Human, they were made in the image of God, in one particular only.  That in the matter of soul appearance.  Their physical, or spiritual body was not in the image of God.  For God has no such bodies.  Only the soul of human is in the image of God, the Great Oversoul.  So long as human remains a mere image of the Father, they will never be more than the mere human, that they were at the time of their Creation.  The Substance of the Father will never become a part of them.  While the Substance is Divine, the image can never become Divine, until it becomes transformed into the Substance.

    At human's Creation, a plan was formed, by which that image might become a thing of Substance.  There was given to human, the possessor of the image, the potentiality of obtaining the Substance.  But human, through their disobedience, or failure to comply with, or follow out the requirements of the Plan provided, forfeited this potentiality which had been conferred upon them. Thereby, lost the possibility of having the image transformed into the Substance.  Which was absolutely necessary in order for them to ever become the possessor of any part of the Father's Divinity.  When humans call themselves divine, they assert that which is not true.  Which, since the coming of Jesus to earth, may become True.

    I will not recite what this disobedience of our First Parents was.  Or, in what way they lost the Great Potentiality of becoming Divine.  Will only say that when, by their disobedience, they forfeited this potentiality, it was taken from them by God.  His decree, that in the day they should commit the act of disobedience, they should surely die, was carried out.  They died.  Not the material bodies died, nor their spiritual bodies died, nor their souls.  For humans continued to live in their physical bodies for many years after the day of disobedience.  Their spirit bodies and souls never died, for they still live.  What died and what the sentence passed upon them affected, was the potentiality of receiving the Substance, which would make them Divine and Immortal.  This potentiality was taken from them and never restored, during the long centuries from the time of its death, until the coming of Jesus.

    That part of the Divine Nature, or that Divine Attribute, which was the object of this potentiality, which would make human a part of the Divine Nature and Immortal, was the Divine Love of the Father, nothing else.  If, our First Parents, through their obedience, had received this Divine Love, never would mortality, as to the soul, have existed on earth.  Neither sin, or a want of At-Onement with the Father.  But disobedience came and death of the possibility of becoming Immortal ensued.  Humans remained mere humans.  Only an image of the Father and nothing more.

    No human, in all the long ages that I have mentioned, ever had anything more, or greater, in their nature than the natural love of which I have spoken.  Even as to that, human so abused and defiled it, until, at a time they became an outcast from the Father as to this Love.   In other words, they, humans, buried it so deeply under their acts of sin and the violation of those Laws of God, which control this natural love, that they appeared to be forsaken by the Father, even as a mere human being.

    In the history of what is called "God's chosen people," the Jews, it appears that time and time again, these people became such aliens from God in this natural love, that humans, possessed of this love in a purer state than were the common people, were used by the forces of the spirit world, to call these people to a realization of their obligations to God arising out of the gift of the natural love.  None of the prophets, neither Moses, nor Elijah, nor any of the others, was possessed of this Divine Love.  Merely of the natural love, in a purer state, than were the people to whom they delivered their messages.

    In God's Own time and in accordance with His Mercy and Plan, He rebestowed upon humans this Great Potentiality of which I speak.  So that humans should again have the privilege of becoming At-One with Him.  To declare the Rebestowal of this Great Gift, Jesus was sent to earth in the form of human, conceived and born as other humans, but without sin.

    It was at the time of Jesus' coming, the Great Gift was Rebestowed upon both mortals and spirits of mortals then living in the spirit world.  They all, spirits and mortals, received the privilege of becoming At-One with the Father.  Through the Plan of Salvation that He had revealed to Jesus.  Which Jesus taught, in his ministry during the short years of his earthly life.  Which he is still teaching.

    There is no other way in which human can become At-One with the Father.  In which the image can be transformed into the Substance, than the Way that Jesus taught.  Which seems not to have been understood by humans, after the church became a church of temporal power.  After the Bible, or the writings of the apostles were emasculated, the thoughts and desires of humans, interpolated in the place of the Gospel of Peace and Salvation (that was truely taught by Jesus when he lived). Yet there is, in the gospel of John, one declaration of the True Plan of Salvation.  Though, it is little understood and almost ignored in practical teachings and observances of the churches and their members.  That is: "except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."

    These words of the New Birth, are the only words that declare, the True Doctrine of the At-Onement.  No death of Jesus on the cross, no shedding of blood, or washing away of sins by the blood, no paying of any debt, no believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, will bring humans into At-Onement with the Father and make them partakers of His Divine Nature, or fit them to become inhabitants of His Kingdom.  Only the New Birth, is efficacious for this purpose.  No other plan did Jesus ever teach and is not now teaching.

    Then what is meant by the New Birth?

    Humans in their understanding and interpretation of it differ.  It will do no good for me to recite these different interpretations, or what the New Birth is not.  The important thing is, what it is.

    As I have said, the Potentiality that was conferred upon our First Parents, was the privilege of obtaining the Divine Nature and Immortality of the Father, by becoming possessed of His Great Attribute of Divinity, The Divine Love.  Had our First Parents, by their obedience, received the benefits of this Great Privilege, they would have been born again, as you and all other mortals and spirits as well, may now be born again.

    Then the New Birth is;  simply the effect, of the flowing into the soul of a human, of this Divine Love of the Father.  The disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error.  As the Divine Love takes possession of the soul, sin and error disappear.  It, the soul, becomes of a Quality like the Great Soul of the Father.  The Soul of the Father in its Quality of Love being Divine and Immortal.  So, when the soul of human becomes possessed of this Quality of Divine Love, this soul becomes Divine also.  The soul is the human. Then the image becomes the Substance.  The mortal becomes the Immortal.  The soul of human, as to Love and hope, becomes a part of the Father's Divinity.

    Now to declare this Plan of Salvation and also the Rebestowal of the Great Gift of the potentiality of the soul, Jesus came to earth.  This was his mission.  None other.  As readers of the Bible will remember and it is a Truth, when Jesus was baptized, anointed and also on the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of God, as it is written, declared that Jesus was His well beloved son and demanded of the people "hear ye him."  Not to believe that he came to die on the cross.  Not to believe that his blood would bring about the At-Onement.  Not to believe in any vicarious atonement, or that God in wrath demanded a sacrifice.  But only "hear ye him."  Jesus, in all his teachings, never taught one of these things.  Only the New Birth, as I have explained it.  This is the only thing necessary to the At-Onement.  He is still teaching it.  He also taught Moral Truths, affecting the conduct and relation of human to human, human to God, in their natural state.  None of these things, or Moral Teachings, were sufficient to bring about the Great At-Onement.  There is no doubt, that the observance of many of these Teachings of Morality and of human's conduct towards God, will have a tendency to lead humans to seek the Higher Love of the Father and help their souls to get in the condition that will make it easier for this Great Love to flow into them.  But these Moral Teachings, or prescribed conduct, will not, of themselves, be sufficient to bring the New Birth.  Hence the At-Onement.

    Now Jesus not only taught the necessity for the New Birth, but he also taught the Way in which It could be obtained.  That Way is just as simple and easily understood as the New Birth itself.  He taught and is now teaching, that through earnest prayer to the Father and Faith, which makes all aspirations and soul longings, things of real existence.  By the Holy Spirit which is the Father's Messenger of Love, or to carry His Divine Love, this Divine Love will flow into the souls of humans, in response to such prayers.  By such Faith, humans will realize its presence.  In this way and this way only, humans will receive the New Birth.  This is wholly an individual matter.  Without the personal, earnest prayer of the supplicant and Faith that comes with the Divine Love, a human cannot receive the New Birth.  No ceremony of church, no laying on of hands, or masses for the souls of the dead, will be efficacious to make the human, or spirit, a New Creature in God.

    What I have written is the meaning of the At-Onement as taught by the Master.  As understood by all the Redeemed of The Father, who are now living in His Celestial Heavens.   There is no other At-Onement possible.

    I have written enough, hope I have made it plain to all humans, the true explanation of the At-Onement.  We who are inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens, know the Truth of my explanation.  Both from personal experience and from the other fact, which no spirit in all the Universe can deny, that only those who have received this Divine Love of the Father in their souls in sufficient abundance, can, or do, inhabit the Celestial Heavens.  All other spirits, no matter what their several beliefs may be, live in the lower spiritual spheres and cannot enter the Celestial Heavens, unless they seek for and obtain the New Birth that Jesus taught and is still teaching.

So my dear brother, without writing more, I will say good-night.  Your brother in Christ, Luke

January 4th, 1916

I am here, Jesus.

    I will write only a few lines.  I desire to confirm what Luke has so clearly explained as to what the Atonement is.

    He has stated the True Plan of God for the Redemption of Humankind.  That is, for the placing of them in the exact relation to Our Father, that our First Parents occupied.   Which relation, by their disobedience, was taken from them.  Never restored until my coming.  Humans must learn the true meaning of the Great Plan for their Salvation. For their becoming At-One with the Father in His Divine Nature.  No other plan has been provided.  No other way is open to humans to receive this Divine Nature of the Father and Immortality.

    The natural love of human, that is, the Love of the Father that God bestowed upon humans, at the Creation of Our First Parents, is a love that is Pure and in Harmony with God's Laws and the workings of the Universe.  Which must be restored to its Pristine Purity, in order for human to come into Harmony with God, as to the Laws controlling it (the natural love).  Humans must, in order to get in this Harmony, become free from all violations of God's Laws, in their conduct towards Him and towards one another.  Many of my teachings were directed to bring about this Harmony.

    The Golden Rule is one.  This Great Teaching, if observed in the conduct of humans towards one another, will tend to bring about the Harmony.  For to human, the most important thing is their own happiness.  When a human shall do unto others, as they would have others do unto them, they will be proceeding towards that condition of conduct and the correct relationship of human to human that will bring Harmony, and observance of those requirements of God's Laws controlling such relationship.

    The observance of the right conduct of human to human, or the regaining of the purity of this natural love, will not bring about the Great Reconciliation to God, in the Divine sense.  That is, make humans At-One with the Father, in His Divinity and Immortality.

    Now I see and understand, why my Great Teaching of the Divine At-Onement, was not considered as important by humans, after my early followers died, as the teachings that should control them in their conduct towards one another.  That is, what may be called my Moral Teachings.

    In those days, the great majority of humans who professed to follow my teachings, as are written in the Bible that the church adopted, thought more of the rewards and happiness that might come to them as mortals, than to those that might come to them after they became spirits.  Just as the Jews had thought for all the long years prior to my coming.  These teachings were merely those of the earth.  As such teachings, whether of the Old Testament, or any other teachings recognized by them, as governing their conduct as mere mortals, were of more importance to them than were the teachings that showed them the way to the Celestial Kingdom.

    When the church, which my apostles founded, came under the control and government of humans, with only the temporal interests at heart, the more importance was attached to those things, which as the rulers and leaders of the church thought, would cause the people to conduct themselves in such a way, as would tend to increase the power and influence of the church.  Hence, the Great Truth of the New Birth was neglected.  Salvation was declared to be, by means that could be more readily utilized by the officials of the church.  In other words, salvation became a thing which depended on the church and not on the individual.  So you see, the great harm that was done by these teachings and the great power the church acquired.

    Salvation is a thing between God and the individual.  Can be obtained only by the individual becoming At-One with The Father.  Who cares not for the teachings of the church, or of humans.  Unless, these teachings, will bring the souls of humans in Harmony with Him.  I say, cares not, but that does not just express what I mean.  For God does care whenever His Creatures are taught false doctrines.  As He is waiting and anxious to bestow upon every human, His Divine Love.  Even He cannot, or will not, make such bestowal, unless humans follow the Plan which He has prescribed.  He could not have adopted any other plan.  For the only way in which humans can become At-One with Him, is to become, as it were, a part of Him.  To partake of His Divine Nature and Attributes.  Unless the soul of human receives from the Father, these Qualities, it can never become At-One with Him.

    As Luke said, my death, or blood, or any supposed vicarious atonement, could not have made a humans soul a possessor of the Divine Love of the Father.  Because, they could not bring human into that relationship with the Father that would cause the soul of human to open up to the inflowing of this Divine Love.  Let no human suppose, that by a mere belief in me as the son of God and the savior of the world, or that I died for them, they can become At-One with the Father.  For it is not true and has worked great harm to humankind.

    Only the pure, honest, sincere aspirations of the soul of a human, for this Great Love of the Father, can possibly bring about this At-Onement, that is necessary in order for that human to become a part of God's Divinity and partake of His Divine Nature.

I have written enough and will close.  Your brother and friend, Jesus

March 18th, 1916

I am here, St. John, Apostle of Jesus.

    I wish to write to-night on a subject that is of importance to the members of the orthodox churches, as to the belief in the efficacy of the atonement of Jesus, by his death and crucifixion.

    All the orthodox believe, their preachers and evangelists teach, in their sermons and addresses, the teachers of Bible classes instruct their students, that the blood of Jesus and his death on the cross were the two factors, in his career on earth, that save humans from their sins and satisfy the great penalty of death which overhangs them, because of human's first disobedience and the sins that followed therefrom.

    Well, this doctrine has prevailed in the beliefs and teachings of the church, ever since the church became established by the convention that met in pursuance of the orders of Constantine.  When the books that now constitute the Bible were given the sanction of the church as canonical. Before this time, some of the early fathers believed in the doctrine of the atonement as above stated.  The controversies between them and others, who did not subscribe to this doctrine were very bitter.  At times, very unchristian, according to the Christianity that prevailed among the early followers of the Master, or according to his teachings.

    From that time until the present, although the great Roman church has been seceded from, reforms have been made by churches founded on such reforms, this doctrine has been incorporated in and believed by most of the churches.  No matter what name they may have adopted and what form of government they may have prescribed.  This doctrine constitutes the foundation principles of these various bodies of church entity.  To-day, these principles are as much a part of faith and teachings of the churches, as they ever were in all the centuries that have passed.

    Of course, with this cardinal doctrine, there have also become incorporated in these faiths and teachings certain other principles.  Which apply more to the individual members of the church, than to the church itself as a body.  I mean belief in the Truth that there is a close relationship between God and the individual, which may be established by prayer and the longings of the soul for the inflowing of God's Divine Love.  The regeneration of the nature of human by the influence of this Divine Love by the Father.

    In these latter days, this Truth has been known to, its workings experienced by, a comparatively few of those who call themselves orthodox Christians.  The large majority has depended upon the belief in the doctrine, that Jesus, by his sacrifice and death, paid the debt which humans owed to God.  When the members of the church, in an intellectual belief, assert that they believe in and accept Jesus as their Saviour because he paid the debt.  By the shedding of his blood washed away their sins and made them at one with the Father, thereby, became saved from the wrath of the Father.  In a moment become the truly redeemed and accepted children of God.  That as long as they maintain that belief and attend to their duties as such members and observe the regulations of the church, they are safe and fitted for the enjoyment of heaven and the presence of the Father.  They also believe that unless a human accepts Jesus as his Saviour, in the way I have mentioned, that human will be eternally lost.  In the beliefs and teachings of some of these members, will be sent to hell to be eternally damned and punished.

    Well one view of this doctrine is just as true as the other. Or rather, just as untrue.  Because, both of these phases of belief have no foundation in fact.  Are not in accord with the teachings of the Master.  Or, with the fact, as I know it to be.  Not from any mere belief but from personal experience and observation.

    Oh, how the pure teachings of the Master have been distorted and made the means of preventing so many human souls from reaching the Heaven of Happiness that they wished for.  That they thought would be theirs when they should give up their mortal lives.  This doctrine, so long believed, has worked the damnation of many a human, as regards their soul development and their becoming At-One with the Father.  Reaching the Heavens that are prepared for those who obtain that soul Union with the Father.

    I know it may seem surprising to some, who are really, true believers in this doctrine.  As they think, in the truths of God and the teachings of Jesus.  Which are believed to be infallibly contained in the Bible, that I announce the falsity of these beliefs.  Their utter ineffectiveness in enabling these sincere people to obtain that which they so earnestly desire.  But such is Truth.  Truth never changes, never compromises with untruth.  Never permits the erroneous beliefs of a really sincere mortal to swerve in one iota from the results and consequences of that false belief.  The great injury, that this false doctrine has done to humanity and is now doing, will continue in the world to come, until the belief in Truth shall supercede the belief in that which is false.  Thus not everyone who shall say "Lord, Lord," will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

    These false beliefs have operated in two ways to injure humans and render them unfit for an entrance into the Celestial Kingdom.  First, by the belief that brings about the injury that results from the positive operation of error, which is great.  Next by the want of belief in the Truth, which prevents progress in the acquirement of those qualities which belong to and are necessary parts of that Truth.

    When humans believe in the doctrine that I have stated, they become satisfied.  Knowingly, or not, remain in a state of false security.  Not attempting to develop the soul qualities, which are the only ones that are in relationship with God.  Their mental beliefs are strong and may increase in strength, but their soul communions with the Father and their growth and expansion in the soul development, becomes stagnant, as it were, dead.  This is the great injury that these false beliefs do to the human and to the spirit.  I mean, in their individual capacity.  For it must be known as a Truth, that the salvation of humans, or their soul progress towards an At-Onement with the Father, is an individual matter solely.  Humans, as aggregations, or in church communities, are not redeemed from sin, nor as such, can they have any relationship with the Father, or receive His Divine Love, which is the only salvation.

    There is only one possible way in which human can come in Unison and At-Onement with the Father.  Thereby, fitted to enjoy, or inhabit, the mansions in His Celestial Kingdom, which Jesus spoke of when on earth.  That is the way that will make the soul of human, like the Soul of the Father.  A partaker of His Divine Qualities of Love and Life.  No belief that will not bring about this uniting and commingling, as it were, can possibly make the soul of human a partaker of these qualities that are a part of the Soul of God.

    Then let human consider for a moment what possible connection there can be between these Soul Qualities of God, and the death and blood of Jesus.  God is the Creator of Life and death.  Also of blood and flesh.  He can destroy as well as Create.  Had the sins of human called for the sacrifice, of that which was mere flesh and blood, or the extinguishment of a life that God had Created, in order to pay the penalty of that sin, then a God who demanded such a payment, this implies of course, that such a God was wrathful.  Could only be appeased by something that He could not of and by Himself obtain.  Would not possibly be satisfied with that which He had Created and over which He still had absolute control.  Which He could destroy and make non-existent at any time He pleased.  Jesus' life was already a possession of God.  When he surrendered that life he did not give to God anything that He did not already own and could not have taken.  When his blood flowed on the cross, it was not that which God could not have made flow at any time and in any manner.  So the absurdity of such a doctrine is too apparent for serious consideration.

    For its logical meaning is that God was demanding a debt that had long been unpaid, all wrathful, unsatiable and would be satisfied only with the death of a living being and the flowing of his blood.  That death and that flow of blood in one way, or manner only, namely, on the cross.  Yet with all this demand, that has been sounding down the ages for centuries, relentlessly and unpityingly, He became satisfied and His wrath assuaged by seeing His Own Creature die.  That Creature, His best beloved son.  By hearing the trickling of the blood of that Creature from a wooden cross.  By all which, the life and the blood being already His to let live, or destroy, as He might see fit, human became at one with Him.

    The simple reduction of such a proposition is that God, in order to pay a debt that was owing to Him, accepted in payment thereof that which was already His and which no power, or being, in all His Universe could have taken from Him.

    Now, I say all this reverently, as your preachers say.  The fact is, that the mere assertion of such a doctrine, as I have been dealing with, is so blasphemous that no treatment of it, showing its falsity, could be irreverent.

    Again, the absurdity of believing that God demanded that Jesus should die on the cross, as one of the necessary accompaniments of his death, in order to carry out God's plan for this death and make the payment satisfactory, is so apparent and absurd, that I and all of us spirits in the Celestial Kingdom of the Father wonder that mortals can believe such an unreasonable dogma.

    To follow this absurd proposition to its logical conclusion, it was necessary not only, in order that the debt might be paid, that Jesus should die on the cross, but that Judas should become the traitor, that the Jews should clamor for his death and that Pilate should pronounce the sentence. These were all necessary means to the satisfaction of the debt.  Being so, why is it then that Judas, Pilate and the Jews are not saviors of humankind also?  Even if you say in a secondary sense.  Jesus could not have clamored for his own death, or erected his own cross, or nailed himself thereto.  Or, pierced his side with a spear in order that the blood might flow.  For if he had done this he would have been a suicide.  But it may be, there would have been more of the elements of the payment of a debt in that method of dying than in the way in which his death was brought about.

    No, I tell you, I, John, who loved the Master more than all the others and who was closer to him, who was with him when he was nailed to the cruel cross, which I think of with horror and who was among the first to take his body from the tree and first felt his blood upon my hands, tell you that the death of Jesus on the cross did not pay any debt that humans owed to God.  Nor did his blood wash away the sins of any human.  Oh, the pity of it all, is that mortals for all these long years have believed that they were saved by his sacrifice and blood.  By such belief, have never come any nearer to the Master, or in At-Onement with the Father.

    As I and others have written you, the only way in which human can be saved from his sins and become in At-Onement with the Father, is by the New Birth.  Which the Master has described to you as being the result of the flowing into the soul of a human, of the Divine Love of the Father.  The disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error.  As this Divine Love flows into a human's soul, it permeates that soul, as does leaven the batch of dough.  That soul partakes of this Divine Love, thereby becomes like the Father in His Divine Nature.  Fitted to inhabit His Celestial Kingdom.

    Now, you can readily see that there can be no possible relationship existing between the death of Jesus on the cross, his blood, and the giving to the soul of a human those Divine Qualities that belong to the Father's Nature.  These Qualities are not imparted to human by death and blood, but by Life, Love and Faith, which comes with that Divine Love.  Here, when I say Faith, I do not mean the mere intellectual belief of which I have spoken.

    As we have before written, when the First Parents were Created, they were not given this Divine Love.  But the mere possibility of obtaining It, upon their seeking for It in the Way that God had provided.  It was not forced upon them.  It was optional with them whether they would receive It and become fitted to inhabit the Celestial Kingdom of Heaven.  When they committed their act of disobedience, they forfeited this privilege.  As to it, died.  Were left without a mediator between themselves and God.  Here I don't mean any mediator, in the way of paying a debt, for they owed no debt to God.  They were merely, as you mortals might say, disinherited children.  The only mediator that human needed after that time, was one through whom might come the Glorious Tidings, that the Father had changed His Will, or forgiven the disobedience, to the extent of restoring their original state, which is the Rebestowal of the privilege of obtaining into their souls His Divine Love.  In this sense, never was there any mediator between God and human.  Until, the coming of Jesus and his announcing to human, that the Father had changed His Will and had restored to humankind the Great Privilege of partaking of His Divine Nature and Immortality.  Thus, as in the first humans, Adam and Eve, all humans died.  So in the man Jesus, were all humans made alive.  Jesus was the mediator, not only in declaring to humans the Rebestowal of this Great Gift of the Divine Love and Immortality, but also, in showing the Way by which humans could and must seek for that Gift, in order to possess It.  The Great Gift of God to humans was not Jesus, but the Potentiality of obtaining the Divine Love of the Father.  Thus becoming Divine and fitted to reside in the mansions of the Celestial Kingdom of Heaven.

    Thus, Jesus became the Resurrection and the Life.  Brought Immortality to light.  How much greater a saviour, than by paying a supposed debt by his death and blood.  No, he is the saviour of humans by his living and his teachings.  For he was the first to receive this Divine Love, to become Divine himself.  The First Fruits of the Resurrection.  We have explained to you before in detail, some of the Truths that I have declared in this message.  It is not necessary to further explain them here.

    In closing, I wish to declare with all the emphasis that I possess, arising from a Knowledge, based upon the teachings of the Master and my personal experience as a possessor of this Divine Love and a partaker of the Father's Divine Nature, that no vicarious atonement of Jesus, nor the shedding of his blood, saves any human from sin, or makes them a Redeemed Child of the Father, or fits them for a home in the mansions of the Celestial Spheres.

    With a love that can come only from a Redeemed and Divine Nature, I love all humankind.  I am working to help them find the way to Life, Immortality and Happiness, beyond the conception of mortals, or spirits, who have not received this New Birth of the Divine Love of the Father.

I have written enough for to-night and you are tired.

So my dear brother, with all my love and the blessings of a heart filled with the Love of the Father, I am, Your brother in Christ, John.

June 4th, 1916

I am here, St. Luke, writer of the third Gospel that was.

    I desire to-night to write a short message on the question, "What is the use in believing in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as a salvation from sin?"

    I know that this belief is at the foundation of the so-called Christian religion, is the cornerstone of most of the churches as they now exist.  But as such a belief is false and does not effectuate the object claimed for it, I must declare the utter uselessness of such a belief and the great harm it is doing to humankind.

    A thing is just what its internal qualities make it.  I mean by this, what the ingredients of its composition causes it to really be, and these ingredients cannot be supplied unless they have in themselves, an existence of those qualities which are sufficient to make that composition just what is necessary and required to produce the thing in its genuine substance.

    This applies to things of the soul.  Unless the qualities of the soul are such, as to eliminate the elements of sin and everything that prevents that soul from coming into Harmony with the Laws of God, that soul will continue in sin and separation from the Divine Nature of the Father.

    The soul is in each individual, an entity, which is distinct and separate from the soul of every other human.  Is dependent for its qualities, not in what that other human may do, or not do, but upon that which will make those qualities like, or in substance, the same as the qualities of that thing which is desired or sought for, as a necessary acquirement in making the substance of that possessed and that desired, similar.

    According to the belief of which I speak, the sacrifice mentioned causes the salvation of human by appeasing the wrath of God and lifting from human the condemnation under which they were suffering, and by accomplishing such an object, human became a new creature in their soul qualities, and was given the qualities that are required to make them like unto the Father.  Therefore, they, human, has nothing further to be done for them in order to relieve them entirely from the possession of this sin, and from the demands of God, the sacrifice is sufficient to bring about these results.

    As we have told you, and as even the followers or possessors of these beliefs assert, Divine Love is the great necessity to effectuate the union between God and human.   This Divine Love must dwell in the soul of human as well as in the bosom of the Father, waiting its bestowal on human.  It can be obtained only by sincere seeking on the part of human.  No other way is provided, by which it can be obtained.  The sacrifice, or the shedding of blood, does not cause the inflowing of this Divine Love into the souls of humans.  The mere fact, even if it were true, that an angry God had been appeased, or debt paid, or a mortal is redeemed, would not cause this Divine Love to become a part of the souls of humans.  I know that it is asserted that these things, in some mysterious way, reconciles God to human.  Thereby, causes the acceptance of human by God. When that is done, all the sins and depravity of a human's soul immediately become no longer a part of their soul's qualities, the soul is perfected and its condition is that which enables it to become of a nature like that of the Father.

    But a difficulty with this conclusion is, that only Jesus and God are the one that are participating in this great work of redemption.  Human is eliminated from the necessity of doing anything, except to believe that the sacrifice is sufficient to cause their full salvation, and all that it means.

    How this belief, that the sacrifice or the flowing of the blood, can make a sinful soul pure, or become a partaker of the Divine Nature of the Father, has never been explained by the teachers of the Christian doctrines, in any way that is consonant with reason.  Cannot be so explained.  For the one reason that is of itself sufficient, and that is, that the sacrifice does not work such a consummation.  No one human, not even Jesus, can do the work of another, or for another, that will produce the results necessary to insure the reconciliation mentioned.

    It is claimed that Jesus died to save all humans from their sins, or that they that believeth on the name of Jesus shall be saved from their sins.  But the question again arises; how and in what way?  Can it be argued that his death made the impure human clean, even though they believed it did?  Can his blood shed on Calvary cleanse the soul of any human?  I know that it is claimed that in some mysterious way it does, but no one explains the how.

    Can anyone of the great theological teachers tell you by what mysterious, or other process, this blood operates on the Mercy, or Love of God, so that the sinner is saved from their sins, or from the penalties which the violation of God's Laws entail?  I know that they cannot.  For the same reason as before stated, that the blood does not accomplish these results.  Then what is the use in accepting such belief when it cannot be understood, or explained, and is the blindest of blind beliefs of mortals?

    No, no sacrifice of Jesus, no shedding of his blood and no vicarious atonement as it is called, can save a human soul from sin, or bring it into the Divine Love of the Father, or cause it to become a partaker of the Divine Nature.  We have already in previous messages declared and explained to you what and what only brings to humans salvation.   I will  not here repeat.  But will say this:  "that except a human be born again, they cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."  Nothing less is sufficient and nothing added to can in any way bring about human's salvation.

    I will not write more to-night, as what I have said should cause humans to think and understand, upon what false and baseless foundation they stand when they rely upon the belief in Jesus sacrifice to save them from their sin.

With all my love and blessings I will say, good-night.

Your brother in Christ, Luke