Message published in The Gospel of God’s Love, page 346.
“I am the spirit of one who died a great many years ago, in a far distant country, when the truths of Christianity were known and practiced by the followers of the Master in the purity in which he taught them.
“I was a disciple of his, but I am not known to history, and like a great many others who lived in those days, I worked in a humble way among the poor and simple of earth. My work was mostly in the country, outlying, but close to Palestine, and I was one who received from the spirit world communications of those spirits who had lived on earth as Christians. These messages were received in our public worship, and interpreted or made plain to the common people by those teachers who had the gift to do so. It was such communications as these that John referred to when he advised us to “try the spirits” to learn whether they were “of God” – in other words, to learn whether they were followers of the Master, who had a knowledge of his teachings, and who came to teach us the truths as they saw them to exist in the spirit world.
“I know that Jesus taught about the new birth and the divine love and the rebestowal of the great gift which had been forfeited by our first parents. I also know that he never taught us to look upon him as God, or that any death he might die would save us from our sins or bring us into at-Onement with the Father. Or that God demanded any sacrifice in order to satisfy His “wrath” or pay any debt that humans might owe him. No, the things last mentioned were not embraced in our faith, or in our understanding of what the Master’s teachings were.
“We also had many wonderful powers which Jesus possessed, in the way of healing, casting out evil spirits, and the like. We never looked upon them as miracles, but as a result of the exercise of powers which came to us when we received the divine love, and had faith which made this love and all that accompanied it things of real existence.
“Jesus was always a man of love and mercy and benevolence, and never tired of his work of doing good for the mortal.” To be continued…