christianmystics.com

From "The Sermon on the Mount" by Emmet Fox

Glimpsing one tiny corner of the universe, and that only with half-opened eyes, and working from an exclusively anthropocentric and geocentric point of view, men built up absurd and very horrible fables about a limted and man-like God who conducted his universe very much as a rather ignorant and barbarous prince might conduct the affairs of a small kingdom. All sorts of human weaknesses, such as vanity, fickleness and spite, were attributed to this being. Then, a far-fetched and very inconsistent legend was built up concerning original sin, vicarious blood atonement, infinite punishment for finite transgressions; and, in certain cases, an unutterably horrible doctrine of predestination to eternal torment, or eternal bliss, was added. Now, no such theory as this is taught in the Bible. If it were the object of the Bible to teach it, it would be clearly stated in a straight-forward manner in some chapter of other; but it is not.

The "Plan of Salvation" which figures so promantly in the evangelical sermons and divinity books is ... completely unknown in the Bible. There never was any such arrangement in the universe, and the Bible does not teach it at all. What has happened is that certain obscure texts from Genesis, a few phrases taken here and there from Paul's letters, and one or two isolated verses from other parts of the Scriptures, have been taken out and pieced together to produce the kind of teaching which it seemed to them ought to have been found in the Bible.

Jesus knows nothing of all this. He is indeed anything but a Pollyanna, as they say, or a cheap optimist. He warns us, not once but often, that obstinacy in sin can bring very, very severe punishment in its train, and that a man who parts with the integrity of his soul -- even though he gain the whole world -- is a terrible fool. But he teaches that we are only punished for -- and actually punished by -- our own mistakes; and he teaches that every man or woman, no matter how steeped in evil and uncleanness, has always direct access to an all-loving, all-powerful Father-God, who will forgive him and supply His own strength to him to enable him to find himself again; and unto seventy times seven, if need be.

Jesus has been sadly misunderstood and misrepresented in other directions, too. For instance, there is no warrant whatever in his teaching for the setting up of any form of Ecclesiasticism, of any hierarchy of officials or system of ritual. He did not authorize such a thing, and, in fact, the whole tone of his mentality is definitely anti-ecclesiastical. All through his public life he was at war with the ecclesiastics and other religious officials of his own country. They first hindered, and then persecuted him, with a perfectly sound instinct of self-preservation -- they felt that the Truth, as he taught it, was the beginning of the end for them -- and they finally put him to death. Their pretensions to authority as the representatives of God, he ignored completely; and for their ritual and their ceremonies he evinced only impatience and contempt.

If you understand and accept the teachings of Jesus; and if you make every effort to practice them in every department of your own daily life; if you seek systematically to destroy in yourself everything which you know should not be there, things such as selfishness, self-pity, resentment, condemnation and so forth -- not feeding or nourishing them by giving in to them, but starving them to death by refusing them expression; if you extend the right thought loyally to every person or thing within your ken, especially to the people or things you dislike; then you are worthy to be called the salt of the earth.

If you truly live this life, then it does not in the least matter what your present circumstances may be, or what difficulties you may have to struggle against, you will triumph over them all -- you will make your demonstration. And not only will you make your demonstration, in the quicklest possible time, but you will be, and in a very positive and literal sense, a healing and illumining influence on all around you, and a blessing to the whole human race. You will be a blessing to men and women in remote places and times, men and women of whom you have never heard, and who will never hear of you -- a light of the world, in fact, startling and wonderful as that may sound.

"Indignation, resentment, the desire to punish other people or to see them punished, the desire to "get even" the feeling "it serves him right"; all these things form a quite impenetrable barrier to spiritual power or progress."