Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1363

1363. But by now terrestrial human beings have advanced so far that much of what is taught today in the form of their religion or what they were taught at their mother's knee as being what is finished or completed in life, is increasingly losing popularity and credence, for people are beginning to see that it cannot be what is finished and thereby cannot be what is perfect either. Is it not for precisely this reason that people do not believe in an "eternal damnation" or an "eternal hell" for the beings? Is it not for the same reasons that people can no longer believe in the sacraments as the ultimate in life or something that life has finished or completed? Is it not precisely for this reason that people give up baptism, confirmation and the established church? Are not people beginning to feel that these phenomena cannot possibly be the ultimate key to the "kingdom of heaven"? Are not people beginning to understand that a godhead or providence that demands the crucifixion and fatal mutilation of His only begotten son in order that He (the godhead) will even consider forgiving His enemies (the sinners), cannot be the ultimate or the completed peak of ethical thinking or moral genius? Are not many terrestrial human beings of today able to forgive their enemies without demanding that the fate of others be bloodied by murder, torture and crucifixion? Is not the mental attitude of such human beings expressive of a more finished result in the creation of moral perfection or justice than that of the Godhead? Was it not a higher or more perfect mental ability that manifested itself in the world redeemer's words when he prayed for forgiveness for his executioners? Did he demand the spilling of any being's blood, the torture or crucifixion of any being in return for his forgiveness? Was it not with the entire force and strength of his soul that he asserted the revelation of love that shone out over the world from the cross of Calvary down through the centuries: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"? Is it conceivable that he harboured any wish or any ulterior motive of revenge, persecution or torture of any being whatsoever? But if he had no wish in that direction, the son of God on the cross would of course have been far greater and more loving than the Godhead. But if the crucifixion had been a revelation of a mentality that emanated far greater understanding and love towards "sinners" than the Godhead did, the crucifixion on Calvary would in reality have been the destruction of the old view of the Godhead. After a human being in flesh and blood had revealed that it had a mentality that far outshone the mentality previously ascribed to the highest being or the Godhead, it became clear that the old view of the Godhead thereafter had to become uncertain and hesitant, and begin to die. It was beginning to be understood that the eternal Godhead had to be at least as loving and understanding as the radiant son of God on the cross. And thus began a new world epoch based on this, though almost two thousand years had to elapse before the world began to understand that it was really the old heathen, wrathful and vengeful god that died on the cross of Calvary, and that after this, the mentality of Christ became the increasingly authoritative world ideal, the revelation of the finished mentality in Nature's great process of creation, and thereby, as God's mentality, the model or ideal for all future perfecting of the terrestrial human exercise of will, perception and appearance.