Jesus Christ Never Said That He Was The Substitute For Sin (Penal Substitution)
Where Did The Idea That Jesus Christ Died To Appease God Come From?
If by 'sacrifice' and 'atonement' suffering is meant, then Jesus Christ suffered for humanity in a way which man will never understand.
However, if by 'sacrifice' and 'atonement' it is meant that Jesus Christ 'appeased' God by the slipping away of His life on the Cross followed by His reappearance, and that a human being merely needs to accept this fact to receive a place in Heaven eternally, then this is not God's Truth - indeed, it is man's truth derived from the traditions of men from a time when man was in extreme spiritual darkness.
Note: Before continuing with this most sensitive and highly emotive subject, please note the following crucial point about the Blood of Christ made here, which may initially appear contradictory to what is stated further on in this article, but which, with careful study, can be seen as the perfect blend of truth that it is.
If the true spiritual aspect of the Blood of Christ is understood, then all mention of the Sacrifice in the Bible (i.e. Paul, Hebrews, etc.) becomes a beautiful spiritual Truth instead of the literal interpretation passed down through the ages as truth by Christendom:
The precious Blood of Christ - the Lamb of God - was indeed spilt for humanity. But the spilling of His Blood was not for the reason the Traditionalist Christian offers. Christ's death on the Cross was a sacrifice, but not in the sense that has been taught in the traditional manner - that of "appeasing" God.
There is a deeper and more spiritual way to look at repentance and salvation than that offered by the Traditionalist, and it is a point of understanding which is very fine and yet enables our perception of God to be one of true Love with perfect Justice, not that promoted by the Fundamentalist.
It is not being said that Christ did not shed His Blood on the Cross for the whole world, for all mankind, for that He most certainly did. It is being said that the mere acceptance of a metaphysical concept does not make one perfect and is not the sole reason for repentance. This is the crux of the matter - the Traditionalist claims that repentance is accepting that perfection (their concept of salvation) comes from accepting that Christ was an altar sacrifice to make them instantly perfect should they accept the concept itself ("blood-washing", etc.). In effect, repenting and affirming the Dogmatist's belief have been blended as one and are inseparable, and this is considered to have 'saved' that soul, which is now made perfect and fit to reside in the highest Heaven of spiritual power and purity. However, this is mere wishful thinking.
This teaching leaves much to be desired with regard to the truth in full. Indeed, our strength lies in the Cross - not in the dead Christ, but in the living One; not in the Cross of sorrow, but in the Cross of joy; not in Gethsemane or Calvary, but in His glorious rising, and the joy which was cast out upon a wondering world.
That deep step was cut by Him so that those who have lost their way might see the gleam of the shining step, hasten their footsteps and climb in turn. Indeed, Christ died a terrible death so that we would remember Him; simply passing away naturally would not have had such an everlasting and deep influence.
To reiterate this important point, it was absolutely essential for that most gracious Sacrifice to take place in order that the influence that Christ Jesus should leave upon this world should resound throughout the generations, and thereby affect the hearts and minds of mankind from shore to shore, thus providing both spiritual evolution of the soul of the individual and of humanity as a whole.
Without the Crucifixion, the teachings and Example of Jesus Christ would not have had the deep and everlasting effect that they have had. Indeed, if that Sacrifice had not occurred, then the point of progress to which man has presently evolved on this earth would not have been possible due to the extreme selfishness and wickedness of the powers which dominated the world, man would today be worse than barbarians through involution. These things may perhaps be so simple that they are overlooked because often one is looking for a complicated reason - and the mind of man supplies one.
Furthermore, because of the laws that govern the Spiritual World, it is only a matter of "time" in the Spirit, until Christ is seen as one and the same as the Soul of God - and then, all dogmatic thinking and all religious bias having been laid aside, every knee shall bend in deepest reverence to Him, once the loving Heart of the Christ of God - the Redeemer - is recognised, for the Love of God cannot be ignored for ever. The Love of Christ does indeed sustain all life in this world and throughout every sphere or condition where life exists. And Love stops at nothing, even manifesting a human person in the flesh to declare His Love - a Love graphically demonstrated by the spilling of His Blood on the Cross.
The Supreme Being's revelation is correlative with man’s spiritual development - He is revealed in proportion to man’s capacity to comprehend spiritual matters. Today, the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has achieved much spiritual progression within humanity, which simply was absent thousands of years ago.
Humanity today has the capacity to understand the One True God in a fuller way than ever before. With no disrespect to - or belittlement of - the brave men of old, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not, in their minds and consciousness, the One Only God as humanity can today understand Him, but rather much more of a clan deity - supernaturally mighty and powerful - yet a family deity, an anthropomorphic God, namely Jehovah 'elohiym (as they framed Him - "the God Jehovah").
Note: regarding Divine revelation to man: the lesser side of man - according to the degree of his desire for revenge and his lack of mercy - is responsible for preventing inspired messages of the purer, higher Divine attributes to have full control in his understanding, and in his own conceit (again, according to degree) man assumes his own Creator to be like himself - i.e. man anthropomorphises his God to greater or lesser degree.
In one of Jacob's dying statements to his son Joseph he states: "...(The) God ('elohiym=> god, godlike-one, angel), before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God ('elohiym) which fed me all my life long unto this day. The angel (mal'ak=> messenger, angel) which redeemed me from all evil..." (Gen. 48:15,16).
Another instance: "And the God ('elohiym=> god, godlike-one, angel) said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto the God ('el=> god, god-like one, mighty one, angel), that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother" (Gen. 35:1). "And there I shall make an altar to the God (ha 'el) who answered me in the day of my distress" (Gen. 35:3).
It was a theophanic angel (god-like appearance) who stated in Genesis 35:11: "אֵל שַׁדַּי פְּרֵה וּרְבֵה גֹּוי וּקְהַל" => "And the God (the Elohim) said to unto him I am the most satisfying (powerful) (shadday) God ('el)". Note: A careful study of the appearances of celestial beings with messages in the Bible will show that sometimes they speak in the first person singular of Divinity, in a similar manner to human prophets.
The family unit of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob understood Jehovah 'elohiym to be the most powerful God but their culture and the prevailing collective consciousness placed their understanding of God as being superior to the other gods - they were foreign gods now but they were still gods in their minds; to them Jehovah 'elohiym was jealous if anyone worshipped one of the others gods - but those others gods still existed and as far as the family unit was concerned Jehovah 'elohiym was very much anthropormorphised in a similar fashion.
It is interesting to note when reading these records that the being ('iysh=> man) with whom Jacob wrestled (almost certainly a contest of wills) merely had to touch his thigh to dislocate his leg (Gen. 32:24-30). A theophanic angel would certainly appear to Jacob as his concept of 'elohiym: "For I have seen the God ('elohiym) face to face" (Gen. 32:30). Also of interest is that from this reference, we can see a picture built up concerning the intervention of highly developed beings into mankind's society.
In the minds of the early forefathers of the Israelite nation Jehovah 'elohiym was a superior God, yes, but only superior to the "alien (nekar) gods" of Abraham's own father and other neighbours. They did not have the fuller comprehension that humanity is now capable of since the Revelations of Christ concerning the Father - the universal and omnipresent, yet individually intimate Supreme Being.
Please note, a person such as Abraham, was a courageous soul, more so than most of humanity has ever been, totally dedicated to his understanding of a higher being; yet this does not mean that he had an understanding of the One Supreme Being that is possible today, since the coming of Christ and the Holy Spirit in abundance.
The God of Abraham was of an inferior conception of Divinity to the God of Job. Following the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Daniel shows a progressive comprehension and perception of a more and more elevated Being, a perception which culminates in the Christ of God's portrayal of the Divine Heart of the All-seeing, All-powerful and supremely loving Divine Parent.
The intention here is not to deny that the Supreme Being wished to make Himself known to the early Israelites, nor is the intention to belittle those who sincerely offered devotion - the Great God is Divine Love and feels any devotion and love from His children regardless of how imperfect their concept of Him. But rather the intention is to demonstrate the perception and consciousness of the mightiest God in the minds of those from early times in relation to the prevailing existence in regional cultures of others gods.
The perception of God became enlarged through Moses and Joshua, and yet even further up the family line the roots of the beliefs of his ancestors show themselves when the Psalms author claims that Jehovah has no equal among the gods: "Among the gods (ha 'elohiym) there is none like unto thee, O Lord" (Psalms 86:8).
As the years and centuries pass, God becomes less man and more Divine as humanity progresses in its spirituality. Please note: The Supreme Being does not change. Man's understanding of God must evolve. For instance, it is only relatively recently (mid-second millennium A.D.) that Christendom in general has altered its belief that the sun orbits the earth. Such application of intelligent common sense should also be applied to reading the Sacred Record with regard to the development of spiritual consciousness.
Man is used by the Holy Spirit to relay what he can from the Divine inspiration given - given only in the measure required by man at that stage - any more would lead to more confusion than man is in at the present stage.
Human understanding of the Supreme Being is, of necessity, surrounded by the veil rendered naturally with physical existence - i.e. revelation of God comes through a physical medium (Moses, Isaiah, etc.). This physical limitation is in accordance with the capacity of human conception. This is a normal characteristic of the conditions under which humans in the flesh exist - i.e. Divine revelation is limited by physical humans in a physical universe.
As man's understanding of God progresses, he grows in wisdom and realises that occasionally an adaptation, correction or revision of his conception of God is required, and having been genuinely sought, further Divine light is forthcoming from the Centre of Divinity, delivered by a Divine Messenger.
Knowledge does not come to man unless he has the capacity to receive it - and he must also desire it. Knowledge and capacity - or revelation and comprehension - are correlative operations.
Divine Revelation is progressive but Christianity keeps harking back to a lesser Revelation because it misunderstands the purpose of Christ Jesus and claims eternal life to be based on acceptance of a metaphysical belief suitable for a backward deity-worshipping clan steeped in traditions of blood sacrifice. Most disgusting and retarded if you will be honest. Yes, brave men have died for such a belief of the mind, it is true, but many more innocent people have died foul deaths at the hands of those claiming such a notion of salvation must be accepted - apparently in the Name of the Gentle Shepherd.
In the meantime, the Christ Teachings and Example (which is His own Gospel of the Kingdom of Divine Love for His children) are turned into a parody which plays second fiddle by fundamentalist Christians because they put a man-made idea of salvation based on a mere belief of the mind in place of the Way taught and demonstrated by the Master - the Way into a truly spiritual state of being once the physical body has been discarded. That is true spiritual Beauty.
One should re-read the history, bearing in mind that many of the early records were compiled by Ezra and his scribes in an effort to bring together incomplete fragments of beliefs from more remote times and other legendary beliefs which had developed from a seed of truth many generations beforehand and which were passed on by word of mouth, but which in many cases resembled the truth very little, along with those which were purely mythical in nature developed by superstitious minds interpreting physical perceptions.
Furthermore, the first five books, the Pentateuch, were not compiled from complete records; the only large-scale written record saved in completeness contained the laws comprising Mosaic Law as these were physically laid down due to their legal nature; apart from some other smaller records, Ezra and his team had to provide the missing books by calling on memory or providing estimated history.
Reading these records in such a light should provide the reader with the ability to derive a more intelligent and informed understanding of the message of the Sacred Record.
Then Christ can be better understood, and the Supreme Being may be given back the nobility which fundamentalist Christianity has taken from Him in the minds of those to whom it preaches.
Christianity, particularly of the conservative type, has grossly misrepresented Jesus Christ and His Purpose and bears little resemblance to His intention through their short-sighted hijacking of His mission.
As already explained, the children of Israel were backward both spiritually and ethically - they were capable of submitting their own children to sacrificial fires - and they required strict laws to stop their evil downfall and the consequences that were irrevocably attached to it which they amassed on a daily basis as they violated the laws of Divine Love which can never be circumvented.
Thus it was impressed upon Moses (who had strong mediumistic abilities) that laws were required. But the message is only as pertinent as the instrument through whom it comes, and such a one was brought up and educated in Pharaoh’s palace in Egypt; thus he was fully indoctrinated into the powerful religious ideas which dominated Egyptian culture and society such as the offering of sacrifices, as well as the prevailing attitude towards such in the surrounding regions.
Hence, we see the further reliance on blood-sacrifice to appease and angry, jealous, belligerent and, according to some stories, sadistic being who doled out disproportionate punishments - such as being put to death for collecting wood for a fire on the Sabbath.
In spite of certain messages getting through that God did "not require animal sacrifice", the idea was thoroughly instilled within the psyche of the children of Israel even from the beginnings as a small clan right up to the full-blown nation. This applied equally to those who watched, namely His disciples, who listened in awe, wonder and reverence to Christ who had come to spread a Gospel of Divine Love for humanity.
For those disciples - who loved Christ greatly but who understood Him so little - it was always going to be a possibility that they would see His death as some type of propitiation for sin to abate an outpouring of hatred from an awfully angry being - the being of their ancestors and their records - the being who displayed the baser emotions of a man, the being who required revenge and obsequious offerings to assuage that violent outflow, the being who was framed by man as a superior man with all the worse attributes of the lesser man.
Such an idea of propitiation came naturally to them, so very naturally indeed.
Then there were the priests of that time, those who provided no comfort at all but who poured fear and anxiety into the people about the same Jehovah 'elohiym who was superior to all other gods. They reiterated and reiterated that without many coins, trinkets, livestock and jewels - submitted on their own altars and laid in their own coffers - then that fearsome being would bring upon the people fates worse than a thousand deaths.
Jesus, the pure Christ of God, pointed out to all who would listen that the priests were vipers who prayed on the houses of widows once they had passed on. He warned of a malevolent teaching amongst the Jews by their priests – the warning was for those who, in their hearts, wanted to obey their God Jehovah according to their own understanding, for those who grew up in a culture indoctrinated with superstition infused by an evil ministry (Matt. 12:39, 16:4), for those who accepted unquestioningly the traditions of generations (Mark 7:13) - traditions which coursed through their veins, traditions expounded by priests upon whom the Master Teacher was now pouring condemnation: "Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." And yet they still could not throw away their past as far as offering blood and life to appease their Jehovah was concerned.
But everywhere there is always an inspired flower or two, and to such a one Christ said that he was "not far from the Kingdom of God" when He heard him say: "...to love God with all the strength and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices".
And so we see Christ's own stance on the subject of His death on the Cross. Love for others is of primary importance before all burnt offerings and sacrifices put together.
Yet the heavily indoctrinated followers of Christ - so used to the offering of the flesh and blood of bulls and goats in response to sin - could not grasp this fact, and they erroneously assumed His death to be some type of prize-offering which would satisfy their Ruler once and for all. And Christ's own beautiful Gospel of Divine Love and the humble and contrite heart trailed behind the gospel created out of the traditions of men - which was never sanctioned by the Supreme Being because, in spite of inspiration, man had created an admixture of good and evil due to his own spiritual state at the time.
Hence, humanity has been offered - mistakenly - one reason for the coming of the pure Soul in the Person of Jesus the Christ, and one reason alone, namely so that He could die to be the ultimate "blood sacrifice" because He was God's Son - and that believing such a concept is the only way to realign the believer with God.
However, Christ's Gospel was very different to man's gospel. Christ said that He must be about His Father's business, i.e. His Gospel, which was, in essence, that the Supreme Being had a truly Divine Love for humanity and that He cared intimately for His children, and that He would die for each one individually, and that such a Love was the Kingdom, and all were destined to be in full union and communion with Him and that Kingdom because He had brought into being spiritual laws that would ensure it. This was Good News indeed.
Jesus, the Christ of God, taught and expressed the Kingdom in the most explicit manner that humanity could understand. And in His evangel was expressed the spiritual laws of the Redeemer. Those who obeyed those laws would be led to eternal happiness and content; those who wilfully violated those laws would be reduced to profound misery and self-inflicted retribution as a consequence. The Great Teacher made this plain for all to see and understand - "As you mete so shall it be meted unto you".
"And Jesus led them about in the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and heralding the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every debility among the people" (Matt 4:23).
Much of chapter 4 in Luke is taken up by Jesus healing and curing the sick and diseased, and spreading His teachings which revolved around selfless love towards others; and then He said to them: "To other cities also I must bring the gospel of the kingdom of God, for this was I commissioned" (Luke 4:43).
Christ's teachings were not full of the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. Yes, Christ's immense Love for humanity is declared: "I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me", but nowhere, in all of the recorded teachings of Jesus, does He declare penal substitutionary atonement about Himself - and one would expect such a doctrine to be everywhere in Christ's teachings if this was the fulcrum upon which salvation balanced!
Christ went about healing the sick and broken-hearted; He spoke of repenting from violating the laws of Divine Love (knowledge of Divine Love is already within because "the Kingdom of God is within"); He demonstrated the path of humility in His manner and life for all to follow, indeed an unsurpassable and unthinkable humility shown by the very fact that He would abandon His Godhead to live "lower than the angels" as a human being; He taught the importance of not withholding forgiveness from others not least because it hinders spiritual progress; He impressed upon His hearers the requirement of the offering of charitable love as well as the practice of many other virtues; He established teachings that expounded selflessness and kind deeds, and many other noble attributes that were of directly opposite character to the character of the enforcers of religious law, i.e. the priesthood with their literalistic legalism, who stipulated, among other things, stringent adherence to the offering of blood to keep their overlord subdued - indeed, an idea instilled within people with such a ferocious indoctrination that it was natural to assume that the powerful being they feared required human blood - even for those who knew and loved Jesus Christ, yet understood Him little.
Christ laid the groundwork that would allow humanity to pass through a spiritual cleansing by adopting the Foundation of His true Gospel. That Way has always been and it always will be - the Way is indeed the Truth and the Life. It is simple, too simple it would seem, for the complicated mind of man, who has obscured the beautiful Way laid down by Christ - albeit the hard and narrow Way - with his own glosses that declare salvation through adoption of a belief alone.
Let us be honest, let us be simple like Christ. If each man, woman and child followed Christ's simple commandment to love each other as He loved us, then today would not humanity be living in a paradise on earth? Yes, without a doubt. Surely there is the key to salvation!
God's Divine Love is given in a way man finds it impossible to fathom. Where Divine Love is there is no such thing as forgiveness or the withholding of forgiveness. Man, in his own conceit, assumes that his God is like himself with his desire for revenge; with his urge to see those who oppose him suffer. In his heart and mind man mounts his God in man's image, so unlike the forgiving and loving God that Jesus the Christ of God came to portray - He who was "...the visible manifestation of the invisible God (Col. 1:15)".
Throughout the ages Christianity has offered the blasphemous, sacrilegious, foolish and utterly vile teaching that a human must accept an article of faith, i.e., that Christ died to "appease" the Supreme Being, nay worse if that were possible, that the Creator of all Life required the sacrificed blood of a beautiful and gentle Human Being (in the manner of an animal sacrifice) to satisfy His sense of "justice" - in order that the human can be spiritually fit for the rarefied atmosphere of a heaven into which only he or she shall pass based solely on their acceptance of that hideous idea.
And let us not forget that through understanding Christ, we can understand our Father God: "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father" said He. We should look through Jesus, His life, His love, and we should see something of the invisible Supreme Being that He came to reveal. God is Love, no less. Humanity should claim back the real Christ Jesus, and give back to Him the Divine Beauty that He and the One He came to represent deserve.
Addendum I.
Concerning The Great Fulfiller
Mosaic Law And Its Fulfilment By Christ
When something which is un-fulfilled becomes something which is fulfilled, then it has undergone a transformation, i.e. it is no longer in an un-fulfilled state, it is in a different state - it is fulfilled.
For example: The purpose of a caterpillar is un-fulfilled until it becomes transformed into a butterfly, i.e. the treasure within the caterpillar has emerged from within the outer shell; there is a new condition of life brought forth, something beautiful and able to soar in a different dimension of existence. The purpose of the caterpillar has been fulfilled.
The caterpillar was not destroyed; if it had been destroyed, then its purpose could not have been fulfilled - there would have been no butterfly.
Rather, the caterpillar has gone through its lifecycle according to design, it has served its purpose and it is ready to pass away, vanish.
The external shell of the caterpillar is the letter of the law of Moses. It cannot bring fulfilment; it passes away, vanishes.
The butterfly is the Spirit of the law of Moses. It brings fulfilment as the heart and mind are now filled with the Law of Love because of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
"...a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter is killing, yet the spirit is vivifying" (2 Cor.3:6).
At the heart of the law is a treasure from which the law sprang.
Christ exposed this treasure when He fulfilled the law.
He fulfilled the Law of Love.
Through Christ's compassionate intervention (e.g. "no longer is it an eye for an eye" etc.), the culture created in the process leading up to the fulfilment of the law by Christ, did not have to be abandoned by those in the Spirit who belonged to it, simply needed adapting accordingly, because Christ had made it possible to "be in the world but not of it".
One must consider the common-folk, such as Mary the mother, simple and sincere, wanting with all her heart to obey her God, the Lord Jehovah; and the little Jesus growing up with her, knowing her whole way of life, knowing her way of thinking, knowing it all to be inextricably connected to generations of customs. The Christ was the Grand Fulfiller, yet He fulfilled with the deepest compassion.
Addendum II.
Mosaic Law From A Scholarly Perspective
Generally, "inspiration" is implanted in the medium (the receiver and transmitter of Spirit-Communication) and the spirit of the medium delivers the expression given to man, an expression formed and shaped by the existing content of mind of the medium (its understanding, knowledge and concepts) and his or her mental surroundings. For example, the laws of Moses would be Moses' own expression of the original imprint by Spirit. It should not be too surprising that Moses, having been brought up in the Egyptian royal court, would be fully acquainted with precise civil laws, the earliest laws dating back to 3000 years BC. Nor should it be a surprise that some Mosaic laws should be similar in content and structure to that which prevailed hundreds years beforehand in Babylon, i.e. Hammurabi's Code (probably around 1760 BC).
Joel S. Baden of Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut, wrote a refreshingly independent in-depth commentary on the book by David P. Wright: "Inventing God's Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi", an academic book written on the question of literary dependence of the Covenant Code (Mosaic Law) on the Law of Hammurabi (Hammurabi's Code).
In response to Wright's proposal that the Covenant Code was a polemic response by Israel to the earlier Law of Hammurabi, Baden writes: "...It is perfectly reasonable, to my mind, that the author of the Covenant Code should have used the Law of Hammurabi because of its high standing as a major legal text, as a template and guide when creating his own Israelite law code, without writing as a direct response to the Law of Hammurabi per se."
Baden concludes: "...Wright has made a major contribution to our understanding of the composition of the Covenant Code even if one accepts only the barest bones version of his thesis, that the Covenant Code has some dependent relationship to Law of Hammurabi. Read alongside the conceptually similar works of Bernard Levinson and of Jeffrey Stackert, Wright’s book takes us one step closer to a full picture of the development of Israelite law. He has further done scholarship a significant service by again showing that literary dependence can be seen not only in word-for-word correspondence but also in the intelligent revision of an earlier text..."
The following is an example of certain similarities between the Covenant Code and the Hammurabi Code (whilst acknowledging obvious differences, the same basic content, formulation and sequence is apparent to both scholar and layman alike):
Exodus 21:28-30 (Law of Moses)
28. lf an ox gores a man or woman and he dies, the ox shall be stoned, its flesh shall not be eaten; the owner of the ox is not liable. 29. lf an ox is a habitual gorer, from previous experience, and its owner has been warned, but he did not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death. 30. If ransom is laid upon him, he shall pay the redemption price for his life, according to whatever is laid upon him.
Law of Hammurabi 250-251 (Pre-existing Law of Moses)
250. If an ox gores a man while passing through the street and kills (him), that case has no claim. 251. If a man's ox is a habitual gorer, and his district has informed him that it is a habitual gorer, but he did not file its horns and did not control his ox, and that ox gores a man (lit. son of a man) and kills (him), he shall pay one-half mina (= thirty shekels) of silver.
In short, from a scholarly perspective, the author of Mosaic Law was, in certain laws, strongly influenced by the author of a pre-existing non-Israelite code.
Addendum III.
Mosaic Law Was Received By Spirit Messengers
From the perspective of the mechanics of spiritual revelation, it is evident that Moses was inspired to produce a Law ("inspiration" being defined as receiving ideas from which physical words are formulated by the mind of the medium); a Law in which he draws much of its framework based upon pre-existing legal laws and concepts. This is in contrast to other forms of mediumship such as direct trance, automatic writing (on paper), etc., where human words are clearly defined; if such had been the case then Spirit would not need to use a revision of pre-existing non-Israelite laws devised by Hammurabi, the sixth Amorite king of Babylon.
Moses was inspired to create a Law in the name of God. From his personality, and from the content and makeup of the knowledge and concepts existing in the mind of Moses, was formulated and expressed the physical manifestation of the concepts in purer form which had been implanted in his mind (inspired), which culminated in Mosaic Law in the name of the God Jehovah (YHWH) who was first revealed by the patriarch Abraham as the God of Israel.
In the Name of the Supreme Being, a powerful band of messengers operated on the wayward Jewish nation through the strong mediumship (instrument of Spirit-Power) of Moses by inspiration; and this powerful band of spirits operated through the Jewish nation on the world. A code of religious observance was introduced and advanced; a system of government was developed in detail; laws and regulations were laid down which were adapted and adjusted for the specific necessities of a great people at a time of great crisis of their history.
The Law of Moses was specifically for the Jewish nation at a specific time in a changing past age. Due to the Jewish nation having been heavily under the Egyptian influence for hundreds of years, it had absorbed into its consciousness a polytheism which provided it none of the deep mysteries of truth of the One True Supreme God.
The laws inspired and developed through the mediumship of Moses were designed to bring to the Jewish nation a consciousness of the One Being who was its Ruler and who cared for it and its duty to Him; the laws also ensured that a loving duty to ones fellow being was recognised as a Divine commandment.
Hence, the revelation by Jesus Christ of the treasure within the Law of Moses, that the pure foundation upon which all the law and the prophets hinged was:
"You shall be loving the Lord your God out of your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength, and with your whole comprehension, and your neighbour as yourself" (Luke 10:27, Matt.22:37 [CLV]).
Spirit revelation is in accordance with the spiritual capacity and needs of humanity at the time. The Law of Moses was impressed upon him in the seclusion of the heights of Sinai where Spirit Communion is at its purest (note the essential similarity to the Spirit Communion on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus communed with the spirits of Moses and Elijah).
In conclusion, the Spirit of Mosaic Law has been revealed by Jesus Christ and the letter of Mosaic Law is no longer applicable to those who have outgrown that which was designed for a people steeped in Divine ignorance of a distant age. The purpose of the Law of Moses was to reveal a duty to love God and to be in loving-kindness and charity with ones neighbour. Now those grandest of commandments can be lived by the Spirit and in the Spirit through the Grace of Jesus the Christ.
