By Abdu Rafiu
Today is Good Friday and it is a special day in Christendom. The day marks the anniversary the Lord Jesus Christ was dragged through all manner of humiliation, through mockery. He was beaten by soldiers; He was jeered at; ignorant mobs spat at Him. “And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe.” (John 19: 2). The scriptures go further: “And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
“And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, ‘shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And He bearing His Cross went forth into a place called the place of a scull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Where they crucified Him and to others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.” (John 19: 12-18). Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible and Christian Standard Bible.
Matters built up fast before this stage after the Lord Jesus recalled back the soul of Lazarus into its physical body in Bethany. This act caused so much stir and sensation in Jerusalem and the Great Sanhedrin had to call a special meeting session to discuss the situation. At the session, they asked themselves: “What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: And the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” (John 11: 47-48)
According to historical records, it is reported that Caiphas the High Priest who presided at the meeting now saw that the right moment had come for him to put life into the enmity that he harboured. Seeing that his colleagues were confused and perplexed, he took advantage of their perplexion to throw out the last scintilla of hesitation that he might have had left running through his veins to move against the Lord Jesus. He drew the attention of the colleagues to Paragraph 82 of the penal code of Israel. That code stated: “Even the execution of an innocent person can serve in the maintenance of law and order, and the salvation of God’s people.” Caiphas then said to them. “It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perishes not.” (John 11:50). Cleverly applying the code, he succeeded in convincing his colleagues that “now the troublesome and dangerous Nazarene really must be done away with.” The session rose with the decision to put the Redeemer, Jesus Christ to death.
Thus, an announcement to this effect went out seeking information on His whereabouts. “Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.” (John 11:57).
The Lord got wind of the plot and withdrew to Samaria where He was safe. When the Passover drew close however He returned to Jerusalem, There He drove away money changers and traders with their wares lining the way to and around the Temple. The clergy overseeing the Temple took offence; he accused Him of interfering with their flourishing trade in sacrifices and offerings. For four days the Lord Jesus preached in the Temple. It was impossible to arrest Him there amidst the strong protective throng of His listeners and admirers. The priests and scribes took counsel on how they could put an end to what they considered was an unbearable situation. It was in their perplexity and anxiety that from nowhere what they considered as help presented itself. Judas Iscariot, a trusted disciple went to them and declared himself willing to deliver his master. He had had his own grouse against the Lord that the Lord was not interested in material things. He had ill-at- ease, watched Jesus rejecting all material offers. He had witnessed how listeners, deeply moved, or those healed through miracles and those overwhelmed by His sheer person, His carriage and the power of His Words, had offered their wealth to the Lord Jesus. But to Judas’ chagrin and disappointment the Lord declined the offers. If Jesus was truly the promised Messiah it was in the nature of things, Judas reasoned, that accruals from royal dignity should be His lot. Why should they be wandering about like vagrants with all the offers of gifts? he asked himself, and if the Lord was not interested someone else simply should see to it that the opportunities offered were not missed. He delivered the Lord Jesus to the enemies–to the establishment, political and priestly–desirous of getting rid of Him. He linked with the Resistant Movement who had planned to embark on an armed rebellion to free Israel from the yoke of Rome. He negotiated with the movement posing as a representative of Jesus.
I have gone this length to alert us that the Mission of the Lord had been misrepresented not by just a few. Jesus brought Holy Words, pointing the Light-Way out of chaos and confusion in which mankind had been enmeshed. The preparation of the Messiah who had been prophesied by Isaiah and Daniel would come had not been completed and Jesus the Son of God had to come urgently as an act of emergency, according to revelations of these times. The decline among mankind was such that some help had to be sent to arrest the situation. The coming of Imanuel, the Spirit of Truth, and, according to Daniel, God With Us, and the Eternal Mediator—as well as the World Judge, had to be reprogrammed to fall in the End-Time. It was Angel Gabriel who had to announce the coming of the Son of God.
With the humiliation, scorn and hostilities as in the foregoing, that in the worst gruesome act of cruelty and inhumanity, ended in Golgotha, how can anyone, on deep reflection, say it was an act of will of His Father that He was sent on the mission to die for sinners, for an innocent man to die in place of sinners and outlaws? Is it not more conceivable that He had come to show the way out of the burden of sins in which mankind had been entrapped?
Dr. Seye Aluko in continuation of his piece, “Then, Pilate Called for Water” points to distortions that have, over thousands of years, assailed Teachings of the Truth Bringers, be they the Teachers of Mankind, the Prophets—those of the Lord, too, not spared.
Here SEYE ALUKO, an engineer and music maestro, goes:
It is well known that numerous taunting words were thrown at Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross. The malevolent crowd that milled around Him hatefully demanded that He should descend from the cross if He truly was The Son of God.
The interpretation advanced by Christian orthodoxy for Christ’s reluctance to descend from the cross, was that His death was necessary for the redemption of sinners. This philosophy is called “Christ’s Vicarious Redemption on The Cross.”
However this interpretation is wrong!
Christ did not descend from the cross because He could not do so! The fact that He was the Son of God did not mean He was above the Laws His Father placed in Creation. Indeed, He himself did say that he had not come to abolish the Laws but to fulfil them. Nobody, actually nobody, not even (a “Son of God,)” can descend from a cross to which He has been, brutally nailed.
The tenets of Christ’s vicarious sacrifice at Calvary are sugar-coated, indeed honey-laced and saccharin-sweet. They gain credence in the following hymn:
“On a hill far away / stood an old rugged cross / The emblem of suffering and shame / and I love that old cross / where the dearest and best / for a world of lost sinners was slain /…”
(“The Old Rugged Cross.” George Bennard 1873-1958).
But the rationalization of these verses “where the dearest and best / for a world of lost sinners was slain /” is nothing but a distortion, far from the truth! God does not require blood to be shed on His behalf, how much more the blood of Jesus, His only-begotten Son! Besides, how could the anger of Nature against Christ’s death be more tellingly expressed, than by the protests of a violently disturbed earth, and the Darkness which engulfed Golgotha at noon? Earthquakes raged un-abashedly, and the mighty curtain in the “Holy of Holies” in the Temple of Jerusalem, was rent in twain. These facts show that the elements were aghast at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by punny human beings!
(Matt. 27:25).
But who can actually correct these untruths? Who can be a true helper for men? Who can clarify the exact relevance the crucifixion of Christ bore with respect to the salvation of we sinners?
“Abd- ru-shin” (1875-1941) has tried to unassailably put the misplaced signposts in their right places! We may wish to know who he was which I intend to answer before delving far into his work and legacy. His clarifications about the true Mission of Christ are an opener and very disarming. Without any iota of truth, he lays bare the Work and Life of Jesus Christ. Through his explanations, Christ is even placed in far loftier heights that was ever conceivable to mankind.
Abd-ru-shin, (a German national born with the civil names “Oscar Ernst Bernhardt), if I may state again, started out in life as an accomplished writer and playwright, and his forays into the writing profession were merely a preparation for his actual task in life, which was to bring to this earth a Divine “Message of Truth.” The name “Abd-ru-shin,” is a word which translated from the Arabic word means: “Son of the Light,” or “Son of the Holy Spirit.” Abd-ru-shin wrote a book of Truths which is titled “In the Light of Truth, The Grail Message.”
The Grail Message gives innumerable clarifications about the true Mission of Jesus Christ.
In one of his several lectures, Abd-ru-shin writes:
“Crucifixes are erected by the thousands as a token that Christ suffered and died for the sake of humanity. On all sides they call out to the faithful: “remember it!”…because of your sins the saviour came – that is unassailably and literally true! But this does not mean that your sins have been taken from you!”
(From the Lecture “The Redeemer,” pg.236, The Grail Message of Abd-ru-shin).
Abd-ru-shin wrote his message by his own hand, unlike many of the earth’s other great Teachings which were written by other men, at second, third and even tenth-hand, long after their original Truth-Bringers had departed earthly life. Much as the authors of many writings strove to be true to the teachings they tried to pass to their fellow men, the deficiency of human memories naturally interfered in their work. Therefore, many a work, cannot claim to project inviolable truth, because of many obstacles experienced in their compilations and translations.
We have been told: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.”
(John 21:25). Illuminated Family Edition; and
(John 21: 25) Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible.
Misconceptions in matters of faith do not advance, rather they impede spiritual progress. True, it is acknowledged that Christ performed many miracles, but in spite of these, the Lord could not have descended from a cross to which He had been “securely” nailed; the feet were heartlessly nailed and so were his palms and He was left in horrendous agony. The Lord Christ could not come down from the cross because He was also subject to the dictates of the Natural Law. Apart from His Divine power and Celestial origin, being in the flesh He was subject to the Laws to which every man was subject. This was why He had to be born as a baby. He did not just appear on earth as a fully-grown person. He had to grow up as an infant, an urchin, an adolescent, and finally reach the stature of a fully-grown man. He had to go through the normal practices of men on earth. He felt hunger and thirst! Matthew states:
“Now in the morning: as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is this fig tree withered away!”
(Matt.21: 19—20).
Christ wove His parables out of everyday experiences. He counseled that every Jew should give tribute unto Caesar, the Roman Governor over Israel, and this allegiance to earthly governance is expressed in the following dialogue:
“And he saith unto them [of the Jewish tribute money] Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him Caesar’s. Then said he unto them “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God, the things that are God’s.”
(Matt. 22: 20-21).
Men have proven to be so content to believe the unbelievable. This is because enough refection, weighing and examining is not done. Take as example, the Lord Jesus said He would return to the Father, and that we would see Him no more? That He would send “another?” the Spirit of Truth, Who is “The Son of Man?” “The Comforter?” “The “Bridegroom?” “Imanuel?” He said: “But the Comforter, which the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14: 26).
Elsewhere He is quoted as saying to His Disciples:
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart I will send him unto you.
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
“Of sin, because they believe not on me;
“Of righteousness because I go to my Father; and ye see me no more;
“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
“He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine; and shall shew it unto you.
“All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” (John 16: 7-15).
It can be seen with the clarifications, that many of what we regard as unassailable gospel truths may, in fact, not be so.
However, it is each person who will need to see the imperative of unsparingly making the efforts in finding out by himself, through weighing and examining, to see human thinking, additions and subtractions in what we read, hear and spread! It is such efforts that lead to conviction.
If we wish to believe that a man named Jonah survived after having been three days in the belly of a whale; then- so be it!
Should we not be alert enough to put oil in our lamps as we await the advent of the Comforter? Should we not reflect more deeply about the actual role of Abd-ru-shin, who has written for our benefit a complete “book of Truths” titled The Grail Message?
He states: “With my words I lead to God, and also to Jesus! However, in a more vital way than has been known in the past, and not as people have trimmed it through their propensity for spiritual comfort!
“Jesus shall not be given up as the Son of God through my Message! He must now be recognized as such all the more, but not as the servant and slave of a decayed humanity in order to carry their burden of guilt, or to redeem it so that they may have it easier.”
(From the Lecture “Believers Merely Out of Habit,” pgs 917/918 excerpted. The Grail Message of Abd-ru-shin).
By SEYE ALUKO, an Engineer in Lagos.
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The Guardian
