Vicarious Atonement
A WHOLE chapter—indeed a whole volume—might be written upon the crudities of religion. To us in the spirit world there appears so much in the religions of the earth world that is really crude, and most of it is a survival of what the earth calls paganism.Again from the point of view of the spirit world, there is often very little to choose between the peculiar rites practised by some native tribe and the equally peculiar rites performed by some of the Orthodox religions of the more ‘civilised’ parts of the earth world. The crudely carved idol of the natives has as much real significance in it as the upholding of some fantastic Christian belief.
It is the custom of the white man upon earth to sneer in a superior way at his dark brother because he is religiously so far in advance of the latter; and the latter is but a heathen, after all, who must be converted to the true religion—as expounded by the representative of the particular ‘true’ faith sent out to perform the task. The Christian does not realise that much of his religion has been taken bodily from that of the ‘heathen.’ The Christian sets an extraordinarily bad example to his black brother in other ways than in the enormous contentions which exist between one religious sect and another.
The Church to which I belonged when I was upon earth possesses some of the most elaborate of rites. It is, in fact, a vast and well-ordered religious organisation, having no doubts whatever upon any question or problem concerning the ‘salvation’ of man. Every contingency that is likely to arise in the lives and habits and thoughts of its adherents has been fully covered by the Church’s laws and 'commandments.' Its members are bound, even as I was, by those laws and ‘commandments,’ and individual religious interpretation is condemned.
In contrast to all this there are numerous earthly religions that practise a severe austerity in their services, admitting into them nothing which is not of the plainest description and completely free from all ‘taint’ of ritualism. The number of such religions upon earth is large, each disagreeing with the others in their beliefs, and each claiming more or less to be the ‘one, true Church.’
From time to time, the earth world witnesses attempts at what some sections of the Church call ‘Christian Unity,’ where members of a number of religious denominations meet to discuss their various beliefs in the hope of finding some ‘least common factor’ upon which they can all be in full agreement, and so effect thereby some sort of unity. These essays at spiritual unity are doomed to failure, and they will always be doomed to failure for just so long as the Churches are founded upon fallacious doctrines.
Between the two great extremes, which I have just mentioned to you, of elaborate ritual on the one hand and severe simplicity upon the other, every imaginable sort of religion and religious practice, creed, and dogma is to be found. The vastly varying and differing sects which are spread throughout the earth world, each with its numerous followers, amount in the aggregate to some hundreds of separate religious sects, and all of them claiming to have been founded upon some one injunction or another that was reputed to have been given by Jesus himself, or upon some text or other to be found elsewhere in the New Testament.
Each of these religious bodies will positively claim to be a true Church—if not the true Church—on the strength of its scriptural foundation. And in each form of religion, the New Testament is hailed as the true, inspired Word of God. Out of the inspired Word of God, then, there has come all this religious turmoil, and controversy and contention!
One of the principal articles of belief among early generations of man upon earth was the belief in the absolute need of offering sacrifices to the gods. They were mostly blood sacrifices of either human beings or animals. The offering of blood, it was earnestly believed in those far off days, was the only oblation acceptable to the gods, and the only means of appeasing their wrath.
How this could have pleased, or conciliated, or helped the particular god was one of the ‘mysteries’ of religion. This primitive and barbaric belief of the essential need for blood sacrifices has been passed on to the Christian religion, where people are still being taught upon earth that God sacrificed His only son upon the cross for the salvation of mankind.
Could any belief be of a more terribly gross nature; could any belief be a greater travesty of the very nature and essence of the Great Father of heaven and earth? Could any belief be more barbaric and horrible?
Is it to be wondered at when folk say that they do not know how to love God as they are taught to do by their religious instructors, when they are told that God, the Father, demanded not only a blood sacrifice, but that the sacrificial victim should be His only son. Could this be a God of love?—is a question that would spring to the mind of any normally constituted person.
To essay an answer to such a question is to lead one into a wilderness of theological complexities which have little relation to the truth. The maintenance of such a doctrine as that God demanded a blood sacrifice of his son is to impute the most horrible and diabolical qualities to the Father of the universe. This sacrifice, ecclesiastics will tell you, was necessary for the remission of the sins of the people on earth. God demanded it, it will be affirmed. That is pure paganism—and without a vestige of truth behind it.
We are each responsible for our own sins. We must pay the penalty ourselves for any transgressions of spiritual laws; no one can do that for us. Thus is true justice administered throughout the spirit world to all alike, impartially, infallibly, and exactly.
'Redemption' cannot be bought for us. But even if ‘redemption’ were to be bought—by some strange mutation of spiritual laws—it would be a worthless article, because there is no individual in the spirit world, or upon earth, who could for one instant of time substantiate the claim of being a ‘redeemer’.
Even the most illustrious souls who dwell far and away above us here in these realms of light, even they have no power to remove the burden which mortal man can lay upon himself by the life he has led upon earth. Man is his own ‘redeemer’. He always has been, and he always will be.
We cannot shift on to other shoulders the weight which we must carry ourselves. But we shall have every assistance in lightening that burden, and the means to do so will be shown to us readily upon our merest wish. That is as far as any person can go.
The Father of Heaven asks for no appeasement; He requires none. Neither does he need placating by the offering of sacrifices, albeit they be bloodless sacrifices.
In the spirit world we do not ever think in terms of ‘body and blood.’ Orthodoxy exults in the terms, and will point to the famous gathering of Jesus and his friends so shortly before he passed into the spirit world. At this last meeting he is supposed to have said, when taking bread and wine into his hands, this is my body...this is my blood. And asked his friends to repeat this same assembly in his commemoration. From this simple wish has sprung a wealth of dogma and doctrine and ritualistic practices. In the latter there is supposed to be re-enacted the sacrifice, in a bloodless manner, which Jesus made upon his death. Let us examine the subject from the point of view of the spirit world.
Orthodoxy lays enormous stress upon the ‘body and blood’ of Jesus. What spiritual significance do they bear? The answer is none. The physical body is the vehicle which the spirit body uses during its sojourn upon earth. The blood that streams through that body is one of its vital forces, but the spirit body, which is resident within it, animates the physical body.
The blood that runs through the veins of the physical body can be released in such quantities that the physical body can no longer receive the animation of the spirit body. When you pass into the spirit world, you have no further use for your physical body. It counts as nothing in your mind.
By comparison with the superlative excellence of your spirit body, the earthly body was just a ponderous, awkward, and very vulnerable structure. But it served its purpose. With our new body we do not think in terms of ‘body’ and ‘blood.’ We have both, but they are indestructible and cannot be harmed. A ‘sacrifice’ of ‘body and blood’, that is to say, a religious service wherein a piece of bread is held to be the body of Jesus, and a cup of wine to be his blood, becomes, in the eyes of us here in the spirit world, a revolting conception.
If it is felt that a commemorative gathering would be helpful, then there is no reason why some description of service should not be held. But any suggestion, any thought even, of ‘body and blood’ should be ruthlessly expunged. Incidentally, such service has very little spiritual value—if any at all.
The spirit world is not concerned with ritualistic observances whether they embody strange doctrines or not. The theologian will claim that such services are necessary for man upon earth if he is to have the ‘grace of God’ upon him. That is rubbish.
God is not dependent upon some trumpery religious device in order to pour down upon man His force and power. The force and power of the Father of the universe are to be had upon the instant and in any place whatsoever. Such down-pouring requires no religious apparatus, no special building, no formularies, no man-made conditions or qualifications.
It may be objected that I am condemning communal ‘worship’ as of no account in the spiritual scheme of things; that the services of the Church, in fact, are useless. I do not condemn worship services in the Church, but I do affirm that the majority of them are spiritually worthless.
A church service, of which the vital or central part is based upon a false doctrine, is completely worthless spiritually. Again, the object of such service must be taken into consideration. If it is intended as an act of propitiation to the Father, it is valueless. The Father needs no acts of propitiation.
If the service is performed because it is alleged that God demands worship, then again it has no significance. God does not ever demand worship of any kind or description. If the service be held for the ‘remission of the sins’ of the congregation, then once more the service is of no avail.
The most magnificent service ever conducted in the largest and most ornate cathedral with the maximum of solemnity, pomp, and ritualistic display, and in the presence of a whole hierarchy, will not, in the smallest, minutest degree remove from a single ‘sinner’ one fraction of the burden which a mis-spent life has loaded upon the shoulders of the breaker of spiritual laws. No pleading, however eloquently delivered or prolonged, will achieve that object.
Those peculiar religious devices, known to the orthodox world as the sacraments, through which, it is held, the grace of God will descend upon man, are just man-made institutions whereby the people can be kept in proper subjugation. Mysteries are necessary in maintaining the Church’s power and authority. It would never do for the people to know as much as their ministers of the Church.
By withholding as much as possible, their fear of God is increased, and with that well inculcated, the people will do just as they are told. The authority of the Church will be maintained and all will be well—so authority itself may think.
All is not well. All is very ill, indeed, with the countless thousands who have been misled, misguided, and befooled by their supposed religious mentors. The Church has built up an elaborate system of observances and doctrines, most of which, it will be claimed, have their foundation in the New Testament because they were actually instituted by Jesus himself.
Dishonest or ignorant scribes have put into the mouth of Jesus sayings which we, in the spirit world, know positively he could never have uttered. Jesus is supposed to have spoken about his ‘Church.’ That is a falsity of the worst kind. On no occasion was Jesus interested in establishing any Church. He dealt solely with spiritual truths; he was at no time concerned with the creation and establishment of peculiar sacramental devices upon which man’s salvation would have to depend.
He knew that no one, either on earth or in the spirit world, can take upon himself the character or functions of a ‘redeemer’ or a ‘saviour’ in the sense in which those two terms are known, meant, and understood by the Church and most of its followers. Jesus dealt only with spiritual truths, not with religious fancies and their ritualistic trimmings. He stated the truth, bare and unadorned; he made no claims for himself beyond the fact that he knew and spoke the truth upon all matters appertaining to man’s spiritual purpose and destiny.
Of the full comprehensive truth that Jesus spoke during his brief, active life upon earth, scarcely the smallest fraction has been recorded; that is to say, recorded for posterity to read. Much more was originally written down, but it was deleted. It was far too simple in its content to please some minds, especially those who could not see the sense in allowing the people to know too much about themselves and their spiritual make-up and destiny.
There was so little to be made out of the truth as Jesus proclaimed it. There were no mysteries with which to hold folk in spiritual subjection, to bring them to heel with fear of terrible punishments to come if they disobeyed authority. Primarily, God must be a God of Fear. If love came into the picture, it was merely done to temper the fear somewhat. The great thing was to avoid the wrath of God, because when He was not filled with wrath, then one could look for a display of that love.
From a simple farewell meal, taken in company with a dozen friends, there has arisen a form of church service which bears not the slightest resemblance to what it is supposed to commemorate. Those few friends were asked not to forget Jesus after he was gone from their presence physically. They were asked to meet in some such fashion, and by exercising the psychic faculties which they possessed, they would be enabled to see him again and hold converse with him collectively, as it had become their custom so to do.
While each one could by his own powers perceive Jesus, it was the pleasantest form of communion when they should foregather. Jesus could then tell them something more of the great unseen world, the spirit world, of which he had become a permanent resident. Those followers were happy that their great friend was able to be with them, though the world outside was unaware of it. The dreadful tragedy of his end upon earth was quickly submerged by his actual presence among them.
Indeed, it is the natural thing, here in the spirit world, to find that the glories of the new life, its beauties, its illimitable prospect, and its joys, collectively help to banish from the mind whatever unpleasantness, disaster, tragedy, or horrors may have been attendant upon the actual transition.
The process of elimination, as we might call it, may take a short or long period, according to various factors of circumstances, among which must be reckoned the mentality of the person concerned. It is the shock of transition that makes itself felt most prominently and not necessarily the mode of transition.
Here is another important point which it is well to emphasise. The actual process of passing permanently into the spirit world through the death of the physical body is precisely the same with every human being born upon earth. Although the physical causes of transition may vary a thousandfold, the spiritual process is exactly the same in all cases. Jesus was no exception to this natural spiritual law.
There was therefore no resurrection ‘upon the third day’ as it is usually stated in the different creeds. Resurrection just does not take place. Whither would a person arise—and whence? If an individual, following his transition, finds it expedient to lapse into the refreshing and revitalising sleep that is such a common occurrence in these lands, then he will do so. He will eventually awake; it may be after many months have elapsed or merely after the passage of an hour or two of earthly time. But that awakening is just an ordinary function, and it is no more a ‘resurrection’ than is your awakening every morning in your earthly bed—and for the same reason. You have in both cases merely emerged from a natural sleep. We do not have a ‘resurrection’ here in the spirit world, at any time of our lives.
The transition of Jesus, as far as the spiritual process is concerned, was exactly in accordance with the law that governs all transitions. The process does not admit of any alteration or variation, any modification or exception. The ‘death’ of Jesus and his speedy return in his spirit body to his friends demonstrated, to them, in the simplest and most convincing way, what he had himself told them so often during his earthly life. He proved to them beyond a shadow of doubt that man survives the grave, that ‘death’ means death of the physical body only; that the spirit body and the personality which it harbours are indestructible and imperishable.
He proved to them that death does not end everything; that man lives on and on. He showed them that while man can utterly destroy the life that is in the physical body, and commit butchery upon that body, the soul of man cannot be touched in the same way. Man cannot lose his soul.
Jesus clearly demonstrated to his old friends whom he had left behind that not only was life continuous and uninterrupted by death, but that it was possible and pleasurable and commendable and profitable for dwellers in spirit lands to return to the earth to visit their friends there, to talk with them, to help them and advise them where necessary, to continue the pleasant intercourse which the transition had seemingly disrupted.
Jesus showed that it was right and proper for the one world to hold converse thus with the other. And he came right into the midst of his friends on earth and offered them the comfort of his actual presence. He practised exactly what he had formerly preached—blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Those companions of old did not, in their sadness, have to turn to dismal texts; they did not have to trust in some mysterious and inexplicable ‘faith.’ They were not thrown back upon ‘hope.’ They were not told it was the ‘will of God.’ Instead, Jesus came and stood in their presence as one of them, as he had done a thousand times before when he was incarnate. His visible tangible presence did what no quotations from ancient chronicles could do; it did what no abstruse theological disquisition could ever accomplish. It brought supreme comfort and joy to a dozen or more sad hearts.
Jesus was the great exemplar of communication between our two worlds, yours and mine. He showed that with proper development and under proper auspices it is indisputably right for the two worlds to hold a normal converse through the exercise of psychic faculties in a normal rational way.
Jesus, among others, pointed the way for all mankind to follow, but Orthodoxy will have none of it. Communication with the spirit world is devilish and damnable, and no good can come of it. The whole thing reeks of hell, and if it does not drive a person mad, he will merely escape that to roast in hell for all eternity. None but evil spirits come back to earth, and they do so for the purpose of dragging down to their own filthy level those who are foolish or misguided enough to ‘dabble’ in such pernicious practices. It is all necromancy; a calling-up of the dead. The good spirit will not come. If any claim to be a good spirit, it is a devil masquerading as an angel of light. What unutterable puerile nonsense! And what colossal ignorance!
There will be some—perhaps many—who will affirm that not only am I a devil, but that I am the very Prince of Darkness himself. Let them think so if it gives them any satisfaction. There are others, far, far greater than I am who have been regarded as demons from the realms of darkness, so that therein I find myself in good company!