The Messiah Herald Issue 08 January 2018 | Page 8

DID JESUS DIE TO SAVE US? Christian dogma states that Jesus Christ’s crucifixion was a necessary sacrifice for our salvation - but the canonical Bible doesn’t fully represent early Christian thought. A HIERARCHY WAS FORMED EARLY on in the history of the Christian movement. This meant that all Christian texts would be judged by the Church. The Church had decided that the concept of Jesus dying for the sins of humanity would be a focal point of the religion. As a result of this decision, all Christian literature that did not adhere to this notion was categorically labelled heretical by the Church. This included the gnostic gospels. The gnostic gospels, which were only made available to the public in recent history, do not lay emphasis on the crucifixion as being such a significant aspect of faith; rather they focus on the esoteric interpretations of the wisdom dispensed by Jesus. The gnostic texts present an alternative perspective on the crucifixion. According to the Letter of Peter to Philip and the Gospel of Mary, the crucifixion was merely a test of faith for followers of Jesus Christ. 8 In the First Apocalypse of James, Jesus says, ‘Never have I suffered in any way, nor have I been distressed. And this people has done me no h arm.’ [ROBINSON, 265] The Second Treatise of Great Seth asserts, ‘I was not afflicted at all, yet I did not die in solid reality but in what appears, in order that I not be put to shame by them.’ [BART EHRMAN, LOST SCRIPTURES (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003), PAGE 84] The Acts of John states ‘Neither am I he who is upon the cross...Therefore I have suffered none of the things which they will say of me...(they say) that I was pierced, but I was not wounded; that I was hanged, but I was not hanged; that blood flowed from me, yet it did not flow; and, in a word, those things that they say of me I did not endure.’ [BART EHRMAN, LOST SCRIPTURES (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2003), PAGE 107] According to the Gospel of Philip, when Jesus said, ‘“My God, my God, why, lord, have you forsaken me?” He spoke these words on the cross, for he had left that place.’ Outside of Gnosticism, the concept of a lookalike being crucified rather than Jesus is supported by Islamic scripture, which declares that rather than dying, he physically ascended to the higher realms. [KORAN 4:157] THE CRUCIFIXION EXPLAINED T HE QUESTION arises: if the one on the cross was not Jesus, how were the Romans, Jews and Christians alike unable to recognise him? To understand the reality of the crucifixion, it is crucial to understand the spiritual human anatomy. A human being is a compound of many spirits which have different physical and spiritual functions. Along with the Main Soul, there are 6 other auxiliary spirits in the body. 6 out of the 7 spirits relate to the higher realms while the Carnal Self relates to our phenomenal world. The Carnal Self has nothing to do with the realms beyond this phenomenal world; after death, one’s Carnal Self remains in the grave. The Carnal Self is not the reality of man; the reality of a man is his Main Soul. Every spiritualist aims to purify the Carnal Self, which is the only spirit in the body that is negative in nature. When a person manages to enlighten all the spirits in their body, they can perform spiritual journeys to all the realms the spirits hail from. One’s enlightened spirit resembles them in appearance. All the spirits in the body are ethereal in nature for except the Carnal Self. Some of the 7 spirits release sub-spirits when they are fully enlightened: the Main Soul produces 2, the Spiritual Heart produces 3 and the Carnal Self produces 4. So including the body, spirits and sub-spirits, an enlightened human being is capable of producing 17 versions of themselves. This is only possible when the spiritual sciences are employed. 1 In other words, an enlightened human being is capable of being in 17 different places at once. His Divine Eminence Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi states, ‘There are so many of you in you, but you are not aware of this secret.’ MESSIAH HERALD / ISSUE 08 / JAN 2018 History is a testament to the fact that many of God’s friends were able to be in different places at one time. The famous saint of Baghdad, Abdul Qadir Jilani, was found at 9 different places at a time. Once, he was invited to the houses of different people on the same day. Later, they disputed amongst each other. One person said, ‘He was with us.’ The other person replied, ‘No, he was with us.’ A third man chimed in, ‘You are both liars. He was with us.’ Later they went to Abdul Qadir Jilani and asked, ‘Why don’t you tell us where you were?’ He said, ‘I was at 9 different places at a time. My body was in the worship place and my souls were with you.’ When the average man has the potential spiritual power to be in 17 places at the same time, what can be expected from Jesus Christ? Jesus is the giver of eternal life, the Son of God, Spirit of God and Word of God. How could such a divine being be required to suffer just to forgive the sins of humanity? Does his own divine might and power not enable him to provide salvation? These arguments bring into question the canonical interpretation of the crucifixion. In light of the soul sciences, we now know what really happened during the crucifixion. It explains why the people who witnessed the crucifixion were completely convinced that it was Jesus Christ himself on the cross. It also explains why the non- canonical gospels and the Koran deny these claims. It was not another human being who took Jesus’ place on the cross. Nor was it Jesus Christ himself on the cross. Rather, the one on the cross was a sub- spirit of Jesus Christ’s Carnal Self. 1 You can learn about the method of enlightening your souls on page 14. 9