References: Matthew 27,28; Mark 15, 16; Luke 23, 24; John 19, 20, 21.
During the last 2,000 years much has been said about "the cleansing
blood." The blood of Christ has been extolled from the pulpit as the
sovereign remedy for sin; the only means of redemption and salvation.
But if the laws of Rebirth and Consequence work in such a way that
evolving beings reap as they have sown, and if the evolutionary impulse is
constantly bringing humanity higher and higher, ultimately to attain
perfection — where then is the need for redemption and salvation? Even if the
need existed, how can the death of one individual help the rest? Would it
not be nobler to suffer the consequences of one's acts than to hide behind
another? These are some of the objections to the doctrine of vicarious
atonement and redemption by the blood of Christ Jesus. We will try to answer
them before showing the logical harmony between the operation of the Law of
Consequence and the Atonement of Christ.
In the first place, it is absolutely true that the evolutionary impulse
does work to achieve ultimate perfection for all; yet there are some who are
constantly straggling behind. At the present time, we have just passed the
extreme point of materiality and are going through the sixteen Races. We are
treading "the sixteen paths to destruction," and are consequently in graver
danger of falling behind than at any other part of the evolutionary journey.
In the abstract, time is nothing. A number may fall behind so far that
they must be abandoned, to take up their further evolution in another
scheme, where they can continue their journey to perfection. Nevertheless,
that was not the evolution originally designed for them and it is reasonable
to suppose that the exalted Intelligences in charge of our evolution use
every means to bring through in safety as many as possible of the entities
under their charge.
In ordinary evolution, the laws of Rebirth and Consequence are perfectly
adequate for bringing the major portion of the life wave up to perfection,
but they do not suffice in the case of stragglers, who are lagging behind in
the various Races. During the stage of individualism, which is the climax of
the illusion of separateness, all mankind needs extra help, but for the
stragglers some additional special aid must be provided.
To give that special aid, to redeem the stragglers, was the mission of
Christ. He said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He
opened up the way of initiation for all who are willing to seek it.
But not all are in need of salvation. Christ knew that there is a very
large class who do not require salvation in this way, but just as surely as
there are the ninety-and-nine who are well taken care of by the laws of
Rebirth and Consequence and will reach perfection in that way, so there are
the "sinners" who have become "bogged" in matter and cannot escape without a
rope. Christ came to save them and to bring peace and good will to all, by
raising them to the necessary point of spirituality, causing a change in
their desire bodies which will make the influence of the life spirit in the
heart more potent.
His younger brother Sun Spirits, the Archangels, had worked as Race
spirits on the desire bodies of man, but their work had been from without.
It was simply a reflected spiritual Sun-force and came through the Moon — as
moonlight is reflected sunlight. Christ, the Chief Initiate of the Sun
Spirits, entered directly into the dense body of the Earth and brought the
direct Sun-force, thus enabling Him to influence our desire bodies from
within.
So it is with the spiritual impulses which help man to evolve. The reason
why the Earth was thrown off from the Sun was because our humanity could not
endure the Sun's tremendous physical and spiritual impulses. Even after an
enormous distance had been placed between the Earth and Sun, the spiritual
impulse would still have been too strong had it not been sent first to the
Moon, to be used by Jehovah, the Regent of the Moon, for man's benefit. A
number of Archangels were given Jehovah as helpers in reflecting these
spiritual impulses from the Sun upon the humanity of the Earth, in the form
of Jehovistic or Race-religions.
The lowest vehicle of the Archangels is the desire body. Our desire body
was added in the Moon Period, at which time Jehovah was the highest
Initiate. Therefore Jehovah is able to deal with man's desire body.
Jehovah's lowest vehicle is the human spirit and its counterpart is the
desire body. The Archangels are His helpers because they are able to manage
the spiritual Sun forces and the desire body is their lowest vehicle. Thus
they are able to work with and prepare humanity for the time when it can
receive the spiritual impulses directly from the Solar Orb, without the
intervention of the Moon.
Upon Christ, as the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, is laid the task
of sending out this impulse. The impulse which Jehovah reflected was sent
out by Christ, Who thus prepared both the Earth and humanity for His direct
ingress.
The expression, "prepared the Earth," means that all evolution on a planet
is accompanied by the evolution of that planet itself. Had some observer
gifted with spiritual sight watched the evolution of our Earth from some
distant star, he would have noticed a gradual change taking place in the
Earth's desire body.
Under the old dispensation the desire bodies of people in general were
improved by means of the law. This work is still going on in the majority of
people, who are thus preparing themselves for the higher life.
The higher life (Initiation) does not commence, however, until the work on
the vital body begins. The means used for bringing that into activity is
Love, or rather Altruism. The former word has been abused that it no longer
conveys the meaning here required.
During the old dispensation the path of initiation was not free and open,
except to a chosen few. The Hierophants of the Mysteries collected certain
families about the Temples, setting them apart from all the other people.
These chosen families were then rigorously guarded as to certain rites and
ceremonies. Their marriages and sexual intercourse were regulated by the
Hierophants.
The effect of this was to produce a race having the proper degree of
laxity between the dense and vital bodies; also, to wake the desire body
from its state of lethargy during sleep. Thus a special few were made fit
for initiation and were given opportunities that could not be given to all.
The Mission of Christ, in addition to saving the lost, was to make
initiation possible to all; therefore Jesus came from the common people, and
though not of the teacher class, His teaching was higher than that of Moses.
Christ Jesus did not deny Moses, the law, nor the prophets. On the
contrary, He acknowledged them all and showed the people that they were His,
as they pointed to One Who was to come. He told the people that those things
had served their purpose and that henceforth Love must supersede Law.
Christ Jesus was killed. In connection with this fact, we come to the
supreme and fundamental difference between Him and the previous teachers,
through whom the Race Spirits worked. They all died and must be reborn again
and again to help their peoples bear their destiny. The Archangel Michael
raised up Moses, who was taken up to Mount Nebo to die. He was reborn as
Elijah. Elijah returned as John the Baptist; Buddha died and was reborn as
Shankaracharya; Shri Krishna says, "Whenever there is decay of
Dharma...and...exaltation of Adharma, then I myself come forth for the
protection of good, for the destruction of evildoers, for the sake of firmly
establishing Dharma. I am born from age to age." When death came Moses' face
shone and Buddha's body became alight. They all reached the stage when the
spirit begins to shine from within — but then they died.
Christ Jesus reached that stage on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is of
the very highest significane that His real work took place subsequent to
that event. He suffered; was killed — and resurrected.
Being killed is a very different thing from dying. The blood that had been
the vehicle of the Race-spirit must flow and be cleansed of that
contaminating influence. Love of father and mother, exclusive of other
fathers and mothers, must go — otherwise Universal Brotherhood and an all-
embracing Altruistic Love could never become an actuality.
When the Savior Christ Jesus was crucified His body was pierced in five
places; in the five centers where the currents of the vital body flow; and
the pressure of the crown of thorns caused a flow from the sixth also.
When the blood flowed from these centers, the great Sun-spirit Christ was
liberated from the physical vehicle of Jesus and found Himself in the Earth,
without individual vehicles. The already existing planetary vehicles He
permeated with His own vehicles and in the twinkling of an eye diffused His
own desire body over the planet, which has enabled Him thenceforth to work
upon the Earth and its humanity from within.
At that moment a tremendous wave of spiritual sunlight flooded the Earth.
It rent the veil which the Race-spirit had hung before the Temple to keep
out all but the chosen few, and it made the Path of Initiation free
thenceforth to whomsoever will. So far as concerned the Spiritual Worlds,
this wave transformed the conditions of Earth like a flash of lightning, but
the dense, concrete conditions are, of course, much more slowly affected.
Like all rapid and high vibrations of light, this great wave blinded the
people by its dazzling brilliance, therefore it was said that "the Sun was
darkened." The very opposite was what actually occurred. The Sun was not
darkened, but shone out in glorious splendor. It was the excess of light
that blinded the people, and only as the entire Earth absorbed the desire
body of the bright Sun-spirit did the vibration return to a more normal
rate.
The expression, "the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus," means that as the
blood flowed on Calvary, it bore with it the great Sun-spirit Christ, Who by
that means secured admission to the Earth itself and since that moment has
been its Regent. He diffused His own desire body throughout the planet,
thereby cleansing it from all the vile influences which had grown up under
the regime of the Race-spirit.
Under the law all sinned; nay, more — they could not help it. They had not
evolved to where they could do right for Love's sake. The desire nature was
so strong that it was an impossibility for them to rule it altogether,
therefore their debts, engendered under the Law of Consequence, piled up to
monstrous proportions. Evolution would have been terribly delayed and many
lost to our live wave altogether if some help had not been given.
Therefore Christ did come "to seek to save that which was lost." He took
away the sin of the world by His cleansing blood, which gave Him entrance to
the Earth and its humanity. He purified the conditions and we owe it to Him
that we are able to gather for our desire bodies purer desire stuff than
formerly, and He continues working to help us, by making our external
environment constantly purer.
That this is and was done at the expense of great suffering to Himself, no
one can doubt who is able to form the least conception of the limitations
endured by that Great Spirit in entering the hampering conditions of
physical existence, even in the best and purest vehicle possible; nor is His
present limitation as Regent of the Sun, and therefore only partially
confined to the Earth, yet the limitations set by the crampingly low
vibrations of our dense planet must be almost unendurable.
Had Christ Jesus simply died, it would have been impossible for Him to
have done this work, but the Christians have a risen Savior; One Who is ever
present to help those who call upon His name. Having suffered like unto
ourselves in all things and knowing fully our needs, He is lenient toward
our mistakes and failures so long as we continue trying to live the good
life. We must ever keep before our eyes the fact that the only real failure
is ceasing to try. Upon the death of the dense body of Christ Jesus, the
seed atom was returned to the original owner, Jesus of Nazareth, who for
some time afterward, while functioning in a vital body which he had gathered
temporarily, taught the nucleus of the new faith which Christ had left
behind. Jesus of Nazareth has since had the guidance of the esoteric
branches which sprang up all over Europe.
In many places the Knights of the Round Table were high Initiates in the
Mysteries of the New Dispensation. So were the Knights of the Grail — to whom
was finally confided Joseph of Arimithea's Grail Cup, which was used by
Christ Jesus at the Last Supper. They were afterward entrusted also with the
Lance which pierced His side, and the receptacle which received the blood
from the wound.
The Druids of Ireland and the Trottes of Northern Russia were esoteric
schools through which the Master Jesus worked during the so-called "Dark
Ages," but dark though they were, the spiritual impulse spread, and from the
standpoint of the occult scientist they were "Bright Ages" compared to the
growing materialism of the last three hundred years, which has increased
physical knowledge immensely, but has almost extinguished the Light of the
Spirit.
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