From The Gospel of God’s Love, page 206.
“Among the writings of the Bible there are many things declared to be truths that are contradictory and unexplainable, and which, if they were the “word of God” or even the teachings of Jesus, would contain no contradiciton or admit of any compilations that were not consistent, one with the other.
“The Bible has changed and perverted the whole plan of God for the salvation of mortals, and has substituted a “plan” that arose from the limited wisdom of mortals who believed that they had a knowledge of God and His designs, and who were largely influenced by the teachings of the Jewish scriptures. This fact was conspicuously shown by these writers’ substitution of Jesus, in their plan of salvation, in place of the animals of sacrifice in the Jewish plan of salvation. As the God of the Jews, in order to be appeased and satisfactorily worshipped, demanded blood, so the God of these Christians, in order to be appeased and satisfactorily worshipped, demanded blood – and that, the blood of His dearly beloved son.
“As these additions, emasculations, and interpretations of the original teachings of the Master continued, the increasing want of comprehension of spiritual things, and the growing “wisdom” of their own finite intellects caused these copyists to conceive this “plan” on the part of God for man’s salvation. As the copying continued, the thoughts of these copyists became more centered on this “plan,” and so these copies were gathered together and considered in an effort to have some agreement in the declaration of this “plan.” As the new copies were made, they were constructed with the view of showing forth this agreement.
It must not be supposed that these early manuscripts, that were the basis of the Bible, were copied and preserved in a maner that caused them to be isolated one from the other, and that they were not all known to the persons involved in the copying. These, what may be called basic copies, were in circualtion at the time the Christian fathers wrote; they had access to them and quoted from them and helped to give them the interpretations that now prevail in the churches (along with additional interpretations since those days).
“Humans now know that among these Christian fathers were bitter disputes as to what was part of “the word” and what should be accepted or rejected.”
To be continued…