The New Gospel

<p><em>Let us lie in wait for the </em><em><strong>righteous man</strong></em><em>, because </em><em><strong>he reproaches us for sins against the law</strong></em><em>, and accuses us of sins against our training.&nbsp; </em><em><strong>He professes to have knowledge of God</strong></em><em>, and calls himself a child of the Lord.&nbsp; He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because </em><em><strong>his manner of life is unlike that of others</strong></em><em>, and his ways are strange.&nbsp; We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and </em><em><strong>boasts that God is his father</strong></em><em>.&nbsp; </em><em><strong>Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of this life</strong></em><em><strong>; for </strong></em><em><strong>if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.</strong></em><em>&nbsp; </em><em><strong>Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how gentle he is, and make a trial of his forbearance.</strong></em><em>&nbsp; </em><em><strong>Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.</strong></em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">What is he that is born of woman in the midst of all thy terrible Works?&nbsp; He is but an edifice of dust, and a thing kneaded with water, whose beginning is sinful iniquity, and shameful nakedness, and over whom a spirit of straying rules … By Thy goodness alone is man righteous, and with Thy many mercies, Thou strengthenest him.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">The reason why God has delayed to do this [bring on the end-of-days] is His regard for the human race; for He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, and perhaps some not yet born.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Even you, my soul, are better than that [material reality], for you impart energy to the mass of your body and endow it with life, and no corporeal thing can do that for any other corporeal thing.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">If Christ had not been put to death, death would not have died.&nbsp; The devil was conquered by his own trophy of victory.&nbsp; The devil jumped for joy, when he seduced the first man, and cast him down to death.&nbsp; By seducing the first man, he killed him; by killing the last man [Jesus], he lost the first from his snare … By the very death of Christ the devil was overcome: he took, as it were, the bait [Jesus] in the mousetrap [the cross].</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Let the aim of believers in judging mortal life, then, be that while they understand it to be of itself nothing but misery, they may with greater eagerness and dispatch betake themselves wholly to meditate upon that eternal life to come.&nbsp; When it comes to a comparison with the life to come, the present life can not only be safely neglected but, compared to the former, must be utterly despised and loathed.&nbsp; For, if heaven is our homeland, what else is the earth but our place of exile?&nbsp; If departure from the world is entry into life, what else is the world but a sepulcher?&nbsp; And what else is it for us to remain in life but to be immersed in death?</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">First, God lays down for us through the law what we should do; if we then fail in any part of it, that dreadful sentence of eternal death which it pronounces will rest upon us.&nbsp; Second, it is not only hard, but above our strength and beyond all our abilities, to fulfill the law to the letter; thus if we look to ourselves only, and ponder what condition we deserve, no trace of good hope will remain; but cast away by God, we shall be under eternal death.&nbsp; Thirdly, it has been explained that there is but one means of liberation that can rescue us from such miserable calamity: the appearance of Christ the Redeemer, through whose hand the Heavenly Father, pitying us out of his infinite goodness and mercy, willed to help us. &nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">During the campaign [when Bush was running for governor of Texas in 1988 against Anne Richards], Mr. Bush had told a reporter of his belief that the path to heaven comes from acceptance of Jesus as one’s personal savior.&nbsp; Mr. Bush later recalled: “It was, of course, picked up and politicized – you know, ‘Bush to Jews: Go to Hell.’&nbsp; It was very ugly.&nbsp; It hurt my feelings.” … Bush later explained that Rev. Billy Graham had helped him reach this position [that he was not condemning Jews to hell].&nbsp; As he recalled in a 1998 interview, the issue arose when he was visiting his parents in the White House and the discussion turned to religion: he argued that only Christians had a place in heaven, while his mother disagreed.&nbsp; “I said,” ‘Mom, look, all I can tell you is what the New Testament says,’” Mr. Bush recounted.&nbsp; [To decide the matter his mother picks up the phone and calls Billy Graham.]&nbsp; “And Mother explains the circumstances, and Billy says: ‘From a personal perspective, I agree with what George is saying; the New Testament has been my guide.&nbsp; But I want to caution both of you.&nbsp; Don’t play God.&nbsp; Who are you two to be God?’”</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">They [Christian evangelists] point at the torture rack to which they’ve tied him [man], the rack with two wheels that pull him in opposite directions, the rack of the doctrine that splits his soul and body.&nbsp; They have cut man in two, setting one half against the other.&nbsp; They have taught him that his body and consciousness are two enemies engaged in deadly conflict, two antagonists of opposite natures, contradictory claims, incompatible needs, that to benefit one is to injure the other.</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">I thought, “Why would a God create people so imperfect, then blame them for their imperfections, then send his son to be tortured and executed by those imperfect people, to make up for how imperfect people were and how imperfect they inevitably were going to be?”&nbsp; What a crazy idea.&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Major Greene this evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ.&nbsp; All the argument he advanced was, “that a mere creature or finite being could not make satisfaction to infinite justice for any crimes,” and that “these things are very mysterious.”&nbsp; Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity. &nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Among all the prescriptions and ordinances of the Mosaic Law, there is not a single one which says:&nbsp; You shall believe or not believe.&nbsp; They all say: You shall do or not do … Nowhere does it say:&nbsp; Believe …&nbsp;</em></p>

<p><em style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">Is it possible that an infinite God created this world simply … for the purpose of raising orthodox Christians?</em></p>