Whether we like it or not, the present is bound to the past
in unbreakable links, combining both the good and the evils of
the past. This was recognized in the time of the Nazarene by the
question: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth
having existed long before the birth of the Nazarene, Messenger
of the beginning of the New Era. (1)
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(1) Extensive reference to the time of the Nazarene and the Era
beginning with his ministry is essential to a clear understanding
that (a) the old is connected to the new, however different the
new may be; and (b) that there has been practically no change during
these nearly two thousand years relative to sectism, its division
and relative inculcation or, more properly, activities.
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At the time of the Nazarene, son of the lowly carpenter Joseph, the event itself is proof of the Law. There were three distinct castes among the Jews, one of which was more correctly called an Order or Fraternity. The castes were somewhat similar in their Organization, but widely different in their beliefs and teachings. They were then known as sects and history records them as Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.
Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees were united cordially in sentiment respecting the fundamental doctrines which then constituted the basis of the religion of the Jews which, then as now, was much more a secular law than a religion.
Both rejected belief in the plurality of gods even in manifestation, but did acknowledge the existence of one Supreme Being whom they regarded as the Creator of the Universe and whom they presumed to be endowed with absolute perfection, although this was a contradiction of their positive doctrine that their God was a jealous God who did not hesitate to destroy those not in agreement with him.
Both sects agreed equally that God had selected the Hebrews from among all other peoples then on earth as His own "peculiar people," having bound them to Himself by an unchangeable and everlasting covenant. With the same unanimity they maintained that the mission of Moses was divine; affirming that he was the ambassador (divinely appointed Messenger) of heaven and, consequently that the Law delivered to him at Mount Sinai and promulgated by his mission was divine.
It was also the opinion of the Pharisees and Sadducees that the books of the Old Testament contained ample instructions respecting the way to salvation and eternal happiness, (though their conception of "salvation" was decidedly nebulous), and that whatever principles or duties were embodied in these writings must be reverently received and implicitly obeyed.
However, an irreconcilable difference of opinion existed (and the most vehement disputes prevailed among them) respecting the original source whence all religion had stemmed, the fountain from which it sprang. The Sadducees rejected with disdain the oral law to which the Pharisees paid the greatest deference. The interpretation of the written law yielded still further ground for acrimonious contention.
The Pharisees maintained that the law as committed to Moses and likewise all other content of the sacred volumes had a two-fold sense or meaning; one, plain and obvious to every reader; the other, abstruse and mystical. This was, it may be noted in passing, also a fundamental belief of the Essenes, and later of the Nazarene, who frankly stated that the mass should be taught by symbol, legend and parable.
The Sadducees, on the contrary, would admit of nothing other
than the simple interpretation of the words according to their
literal sense. (2) the Essenes differed with them in this conclusion.
They taught that the words and the law possessed no force or power
whatever in themselves, but merely exhibited the shadows or the
images of celestial objects, virtues and duties. They maintained
as a basic principle that salvation, i.e., Regeneration, a passing
over from the old state (mortal) to the new (Immortal) could not
result by mere faith in the Law, but only by a living, thinking,
desiring, feeling, resulting in doing, as commanded by the Law. (3)
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(2) Unfortunately for humanity as a whole, the formal church later
accepted this idea, added dogma and creed to it as being part
of the word with the result apparent throughout the world in an
age which should have become truly Christian, i.e., Christic.
(3) this is the Law and the doctrine of the New Interpretation
for Government in the New Order of humanity. It is a "returning
to," a linking with, the original Divine Law; hence the statement
that, whether we accept or not, the new is bound to the old -
a Resurrection of the Old in a new guise or raiment.
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In point of numbers, riches, authority and the power of force, the Pharisees took precedence over all other sects. And, as they constantly manifested an extraordinary display - propaganda it would be termed today - of zeal in the cultivation of piety and brotherly love, and a constant outer affectation of superior sanctity in all their activities, the influence they possessed over the minds of the unthinking populace was practically without limit; so much so, that it may be truthfully said they were able to give, and did give, whatever direction they pleased to public affairs.
No attempt has ever been made to successfully contradict the fact that in actual practice, what was erroneously called the religion of the Pharisees was, for the most part, founded on consummate hypocrisy and that in reality, they were generally slaves to every vicious appetite - conceited, arrogant, avaricious, commanding, demanding, dictatorial, consulting only their own desires in their gratification of the carnal nature and demand for power - and this even at the very moment when the majority of them professed to be engaged in the services of him they claimed to be their own special God.
It was these odious features in the character of the Pharisees that drew upon them the most pointed rebukes of the Master-Teacher, who was able to read their minds and their inmost desires. Rebukes were administered to them with far greater severity than those bestowed on the Sadducees who, although they had departed widely from the principles of genuine spiritual concepts, nevertheless did not attempt to impose themselves upon the rest of their fellow men; nor were they governed by an insatiable greed for the acquisition of honors, powers and worldly goods, as were the Pharisees.
The Pharisees admitted the Immortality of the Soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of reward and punishment. They likewise believed, in part, in the free agency of man, but, beyond this they believed man's action to be controlled by a decree of fate, although they had no idea what this "fate" or Law of Reaction was or how it functioned. These were no more than points of doctrine and were neither understood nor explained. In fact, no attempt was made to ascertain the basis of the Laws they professed to believe or in what manner the Laws influenced their action.
The Sadducees were much inferior to the Pharisees in point of numbers, but, to counterbalance this, their sect was composed almost entirely of persons distinguished for opulence and prosperity. Those who belonged to them were frankly devoid of sentiments of benevolence and compassion towards others; whereas it must be said in their favor that the Pharisees, despite their open hypocrisy, were ready to relieve the needy and afflicted.
The Sadducees were fond of passing heir lives in an uninterrupted course of ease and pleasure - so much so that it was with difficulty that they could be prevailed upon to undertake the duties of the government or other public functions. Civic duty meant nothing to them. Their leading tenet was that all of man's hopes and fears terminate with the present life. The soul, if such existed, they believed to be involved in one common fate with the body and that, like it, the Soul would perish or be annihilated.
As a natural result, it was easy for them to maintain that
obedience to the Law - what is today known as the Divine Law -
would be rewarded by the Most High God with length of days and
an abundance of the good things of life, such as honors, distinction
and riches; while the violators of the law, correspondingly, would
find their punishment in temporary suffering and afflictions of
the present time. (4)
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(4) Lopsided or unbalanced as was this tenet, it was based on
the Law itself. The violators of the Law, as a result of the Reaction
of their actions, are punished in ways too numerous to mention,
while those who obey the Law are rewarded in one manner or another,
now and in the future. This aspect of the Law antedated the Nazarene
by unknown time and he fully agreed with it as is clearly and
succinctly pointed out by his statement: "As ye sow, so shall
ye reap." and again: "Bread cast upon the waters shall
return after many days."
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The Sadducees always connected the favors of heaven, little as they professed to believe in it, with a state of worldly prosperity and high places and would not regard any as virtuous or as befriended by heaven, except the fortunate and the happy. They had no thought of compassion for the poor and miserable; these were merely being paid off by the Law. Their desires and hopes were wholly centered in a life of profitable activity, pleasure, leisure, ease and voluptuous gratification.
The smallest sect of all three, the Essenes, were distributed
in a number of cities and throughout the countries of Syria (a
remnant being the Ansaireth), Palestine, and Egypt, where the
select class had become Initiate Priests. Their bond of association
embraced not merely a community of tenets and the similarity of
manners and particular observances, but extended also to a community
of goods. Their demeanor was always sober and chaste and their
mode of life, (5) in every respect, was subjected to the strictest
regulation. They submitted also to the superintendence of governors
whom they appointed over themselves and who held their position
for life.
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(5) the most perfect example of those people were/are the American
Indian, Arcanely known as "God's children." No group
on earth were ever, as a whole, as honest, chaste, moral truthful
and religious, as these native children.
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The Essenes, as a community, devoted their active life to production, principally agricultural, which they held to be man's most sacred occupation, since it supplied the first and most essential of mortal man's physical needs; in meditation and prayer; and, among the priestly class, to those Spiritual exercises which helped them to remain in communion with the Godhead.
The Essenes were most sedulously attentive to the calls of justice and humanity and every moral duty. They were firm in their belief in the unity of God or one supreme Being with His numerous attributes, and in Principalities and Hierarchies lesser than the One supreme being, but essential in the exemplification of the Divine Law.
They believed and taught that the Soul of man had fallen (retrograded) as a result of disobedience to the Creative (generative or procreative) Law, from a state of purity and Light into darkness and ignorance - the darkness of the body which gave residence to the Soul. They considered Souls, during their continuance in these bodies to be confined, as it were, within the walls of loathsome prisons which had to be changed (transmuted) into temples wherein God might dwell, through obedience to the dictates of the Divine Law.
The Essenes observed great abstinence, allowing themselves
but little bodily nourishment to avoid what we know as congestions,
resulting in disease and premature old age, and little gratification
of the senses. The ceremonies and rituals of external forms with
which Moses had become familiar in Egypt, and which were enjoined
on them by him to be observed in the worship of God, were not
regarded by them as essential except as symbolizing the greater
worship (devotion) taking place within the temple that is man.
Like the Initiate Priests of Egypt, they maintained that the ritualistic
forms or ceremonies should not be permitted Neophytes, until they
had personified the Spirit of them by that interior development
known as Soul Consciousness or Illumination - following the awakening
and bringing into Consciousness of the Christos (6) as a Divine
Spark from God hidden in all normal men.
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(6) since the beginning of the Great Work in its present form
in 1905 and the New Interpretation for the present age or New
Order of the Ages, the emphasis on the term Christos as the Divine
principle in Man which, by effort and development becomes the
Christ, has suffered much ridicule. Every effort has been made
to scorn the ancient use of the term with which the Nazarene was
familiar, and the formal church translated it into a human being.
Much to the chagrin of all, the certainty of the existence
of the Essenes, the Nazarene's sojourn among them after Egypt,
his stay with them for the finishing touches of his education
and development - a Post-graduate as it were - and the Christosizing
of the spiritual self into the Christic being, have been verified
by the numerous manuscripts lately unearthed and partly translated.
It is no longer a secret that the ancient Aryans and later the
Greeks made us of the word: Christos.
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Although throughout Sacred and Arcane literature we find the Nazarene repeatedly denouncing, in the most bitter terms, both the Pharisees and Sadducees, there is not a single instance of him ever accusing the Essenes. In all respects the Nazarene's inculcations correspond with those of the Essenes, as do the present Manistic or New Order interpretations harmonize with the inner teachings of the Master-Teacher.
The Nazarene was constantly impressed with the fact that he was to manifest Sonship with the Father, but that to know Him, to become like Him, he must be like Him - must be raised up in His likeness. The mortal must be changed - transmute. Mortality must put on Immortality.
The corruptible must put on Incorruption, but, in putting on incorruption, it is not necessary to lay aside the material body, for the material is change-able, not only at death but during life. It is indeed for this purpose that man has come to the earth plane and has an earthly, carnal body.
In this mystery of the transmutation, the Master-Teacher had been fully instructed and his life among the Essenes was such as to bring about this change in him. During his ministry and in all his teachings, he taught this doctrine - how to accomplish the change from the corruptible to the incorruptible. This was indeed the purpose of his ministry.
God is intelligence - Universal Intelligence and Wisdom. This Universal Intelligence is in all things. "All that is, was made by him." Without this Wisdom and Intelligence nothing can exist, for God is in all things. The Infinite Wisdom is all that is, all that has been, and all that ever will be. The Universal Intelligence controls all things and is changeless.
The Nazarene was quick to recognize that the God with whom he had become familiar while among the Egyptians was the same God recognized by the Essenes. He was the Creator, the Controller, the Ruler of the Universe, not as a personal God, but through the activities of the Laws He had set into motion concurrently with the creation of the Universe.
He was taught that God was not, contrary to the inculcations of the Hebrews, a jealous, a destroying, a vindictive God, but a Being of Light and that in pure Light there can be no evil of any kind; further, that though men were either punished or rewarded, it was not directly by God, who did not want them to suffer, but by the Reaction of the Laws which they had themselves set into motion and with which He, being absolute, could not interfere in their operation of dispensing justice.
The Nazarene was constantly impressed, by both the teachings and the behavior of the Essenes, that man must learn to manifest Sonship with the Father. In order to be capable of doing this, man must, by his every effort, become like Him. The mortal self must be changed, all evils transmuted; mortality gradually putting on Immortality; the corruptible put on Incorruption. This requires the laying aside of the grossly material body and taking on the Spiritual body.
To the degree that man lays aside or draws away from the unrealities - the changeable things the world has to offer and from all that the carnal man seeks for self-satisfaction, such as ambition based on selfishness, fame, and self-glory - he is able to come into an ever greater realization of his divine possibilities.
He is made aware that the Soul's Awakening, his Spiritual development, alone offers the key to the door of Wisdom. This development, a gradual growth, is not alone the subduing and controlling of the gross physical or carnal desires, but is the process of bringing into consciousness the Divine Spark, the Christos awaiting the time of its resurrection or manifestation.
The Nazarene's stay with the Essenes included final reparation for his ministry; the condemnation of the evils then rampant and the teaching of the Divine Law and its final manifestation. The conditions of the times, always symptomatic of a changing age or cycle, the need of the people go be brought out of their lethargy so that a reign of justice might be established, the fearful results of long misrule without a single element of true righteousness and justice, the activities of the religious sects lacking wholly in saving doctrine - all these things cried out to high heaven for a change.
Jerusalem was the pride of Israel. It was then a city not to be proud of, but to be ashamed of; to hide in darkness that its nakedness be not exposed to human vision. Under the Seleucidae, first by Pompey and finally by Herod, Jerusalem had been subjected to the most terrible sieges. Blood had been shed in torrents; the Roman legions had butchered the populace and innumerable crucifixions had polluted the surrounding country.
After such horrors and the humiliation following on the Roman occupation, Herod, in irony, after decimating the Sanhedrin and reducing the pontiff to a trembling slave, rebuilt the temple with greater magnificence, pomp and glory than ever. To the people, however, who had been robbed and tortured, was given no relief. The city was filled with beggars and starving people and with innumerable ones who had suffered torture.
The borders of the pool of Siloam were crowded with cripples, lepers, paralytics, and even maniacs; and yet the priests of the temple - priests in name only - followed their routine of ceremonies and sacrifices and their jumble of words without being capable of offering the slightest relief.
It was from such sights and conditions that the Nazarene was catapulted into his mission. He, who had been carefully sheltered and knew little of "man's inhumanity to man,' (which first tortured him as only a God's Messenger is capable of feeling torture and then flooded his heart and Soul with the mission before him), that fated Jesus, the son of Joseph, Initiate of the Essenes, entered upon his mission as Savior of the race, beginning with the first century (the Christian Era) of the past Age.
And now another such time has come upon us. Universal injustice rules and the cry of sorrow constantly rises to high heaven. Again has the cyclic law begun to operate. The time of a New Dispensation is at hand and one who feels even as the Nazarene, son of Joseph, felt, and as others before him felt, is among men to point out the errors, rebuke the unjust, and invoke the operation of the Law of Justice so that right may prevail.
But the world is large! There are many cities. The population is innumerable. The Messenger cannot enter all the temples to chastise and cast out "the money changers," (profiteers of various kinds). Therefore his voice must be made to thunder throughout the Nation (the New World - America - the land overshadowed with wings - the Eagle) for the people to take warning:
"Have ye, O my people, not heard of the Law which one of my brethren of the long ago phrased and gave to the children of men for their guidance, and which read: 'As it is above, so must it become below,' lest men perish from the face of the earth.
"And are ye not aware that in his love, my brother Hermes sought to teach men that the Law whereby my Father, who is in heaven, governs justly and righteously those who are with my Father in his heavenly home, is the same Law which shall be for the governing of men in their dealings with their fellow men.
"If ye have heard, then ye have forgotten or, in your arrogance, ye seek to defy the Laws of my Father and listen to those of the lesser worlds where the carcass of the dog , the leaf of the tree, and every drop of water is peopled with millions of creatures, all of them terrible and fearful in their nature since they know not of any law but the fight for their own existence. Each species preys upon the others and devours each the other, and the greater of one species devours the lesser of another, and so on, eternally - one preying upon another, knowing no Law but the self, one destroying another.
"And not it has come to pass that favored men in the new paradise, protected by the spirit of God, have become selfish and have listened to the wiles of the serpent. Now man, like the lesser creatures, preys upon man and exploits him for selfish purposes and even his own brother no longer feels safe; so that now the Father has sent me to teach men anew the Laws of their salvation that they may accept them before it is too late.
"Ye of the chosen people of the new land have forgotten or are disobeying the commandments of my other Brother, the Nazarene who became the Christ, yet ye foolishly and with great evil, are trying, in defiance of the divine Law, to ‘put new wine into old bottles,' and because of your ignorance ye shall be made to ‘pay unto the uttermost farthing,' for ye are not seeking to do your Father's will, but immoral desires of your own carnal selves. Instead of offering to serve your brethren, ye are seeking to unrighteously govern them. Your father has said that ye shall govern yourselves, and that ye shall not interfere with the households of your elder brethren, lest their sins be placed against you and ye be destroyed with them.
"‘As above, so below,' did my Brother instruct ye, and this is the Law of the heavens. Ye shall help your elder brethren, but ye shall in no wise seek to govern them. ‘I have given ye a new land and have made ye a separate people, that ye may do my Will and help thy brethren,' saith my Father and, if ye obey not, then shall ye not come into paradise, not shall ye reap the blessings of the New Age nor, be under the shadow of the Eagle's wings.
"And the Father, my God, speaks yet further unto me, saying:
"‘I gave unto my people a new earth and great leaders, and for a little while my people obeyed me and listened to my Voice, but as my people gained strength and reaped many blessings, they became more and more defying. In their conceit they forgot my Laws and set up idols, until, lastly, they are no longer the instruments of my Will and have substituted Moloch (god of gold and possessions and power) for their God.
"‘And now it has further come to pass that great plagues in the form of great vices are upon the people of my paradise, and in their pride men have given into their brethren new edicts to obey in defiance of my Word that my children should be free, and they have multiplied the evils, and now the children who still hear the murmur of my voice are accursed with greater evils.
"‘And those who still hear my voice are being enslaved by having much of their little taken from them, so that greater injustice may be done, and the innocent are being debauched and destroyed, and the mothers of my children are punished unmercifully and without justice.
"‘And now it has come to pass that those men, who no longer hear my voice (know God's Will or the Divine Law), have set themselves up as judges (dictators) and in defiance of my Messengers (the founders of the country who wrote the Constitution) are attempting to set up another kingdom (Sparta) such as I, thy God, destroyed for its wickedness and the debasement of the hearts of my mothers. They seek in their ignorance and self-glory to take unto themselves little children of whom "is the kingdom of heaven" to defile them.
"If the many of my children (the multitudes not engaged in making Law) will not arise and destroy these false gods, then shall my voice (my Laws) be invoked and my blessing (promises) shall be withdrawn and the angel (the Eagle) shall hide her head and cast her shadow (wings) no longer over the land promised to my children (the New World).
"‘These things I, the Lord they God, say to thee, Manisis, my Messenger, that thou mayest warn they brethren to forsake their evil ways and return to their God (obedience to the spirit of the original Constitution) to cease to take from my children the bread I gave them (interfere with those rights of men which do not trample upon the rights of others or bring loss or sorrow), lest I withhold my love and have (permit) their disobedience (their own unjust, foolish and ignorant edicts) to turn upon them and destroy them'."
Many, many centuries before the country now known as America was discovered by Eric the Red, Jehovah Adonai, the Father of Light, not Jehovah the angry, the destroyer) made a promise that the land should be given unto the descendants (Manasseh) of one of them; that this land should become ultimately an earthly paradise, where right and justice should govern and where man should know the fruition of the millennium.
"...to the land shadowing with wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia ....All ye inhabitants of the world and ye dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifteth up an ensign (emblem or flag) on the mountains..." _Isaiah 18:1-3.
"Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph (his descendants) and upon the top of the head of him that separated from his brethren. _Deut. 33:16.
"Thine eyes...shall behold the land that is very far off. _Isaiah 33:17
"No weapon that is formed (by those without - mark this) against thee shall prosper..." _Isaiah 54:17.
America is this "land that is (was then) very far off," this new land, "shadowing with wings," and no weapon shall be potent to destroy the country except those forged by the citizens within.
The wisdom that permitted the discovery to the children of Joseph and that guided the true sons of these settlers (Aryans, Nordic's and Anglo Saxons) in the drafting of the Constitution, is the same promised through the mouth of the Nazarene, that another should come to manifest the Law - and no mistake is possible.
"Now the enemies within the land "shadowing with wings" have arrogated to themselves the divine right to interfere with (forge a weapon against) the Constitution that was drafted through the instrumentality of the Divine Wisdom, and to defeat the Divine purpose or the Divine incentive which resulted in the discovery of the land "beyond the rivers of Ethiopia" and the formulation of the Law which should govern that land.
"As a consequence of this there is bitter discontent throughout the Nation; consummate injustice; a colossal misdirection of energy and the vast funds of the people; a gradual restriction of their Divine rights and personal privileges; a decay of virile manhood; a coarsening of refinement in God's mothers - women - and a lack of Personal Responsibility.
"Instead of man being the master of his fate, he is becoming not only a cringing weakling in the embrace of fate, but likewise the chattel of every self-constituted henchman of an unGodly regime based on edicts instead of fundamental Laws."
The condition of Jerusalem, the holy, over which the Master-Teacher wept at his advent, was as nothing in comparison with the pitiful state of "God's selected" Children in otherwise glorious America and, the age being ripe, the conditions reaching the brink of destruction, the second prophecy - that of the coming of a Messenger - is about to be fulfilled. Men shall be unmercifully chastised and their evils held before their face in letters of fire, by day and by night, as has happened before.
Thus comes Manisis, not as a Savior to be prayed to and
supplicated, but as a servant; a Messenger, bearing the truth
which, accepted and obeyed, will be the salvation of all who will
pay heed. After him will follow the scourges which will lay heavily
on the wickedness of man. This is the prophesy.
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