Good Friday - the crucifixion and the death of salvation-error
SPIRITUAL TOPICS > Jesus of Nazareth
Good Friday - the agonising Crucifixion of ChristWhy Christ never came with the intention of being crucified
Why his crucifixion could not bring redemption according to the Laws of Creation
Hundreds of millions of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in a manger in the sheepfold in Bethlehem with emotion, but also the agonising death on the cross on Good Friday as the culmination of a sacrifice with which he is said to have taken upon himself and atoned for the sins of mankind on their behalf. But is such an approach valid?
In normal, everyday life, it is important to us that everything we get involved in is comprehensible and logical - because we know that without clarity and logic, we won't get very far and would set ourselves up for failure.
It is only with logic that we have been able to make the astonishing technical advances of which we are now the beneficiaries. It is logic that has underpinned the sciences for thousands of years, determining and driving them forward. We also use logic to try to design our social rules and laws and thus realise the smoothest possible coexistence - at least in theory. We even use psychology to try to get to the bottom of our states of the soul in order to work on ourselves and thus achieve a better quality of life and greater self-knowledge.
There is only one area where we almost always conspicuously ignore logic: religion and everything to do with God! This is about ‘faith’, no matter how much it contradicts any healthy consideration, any clear feeling and therefore any logic! So we accept downright adventurous explanations that we would firmly reject in all other areas! And the representatives of the religious communities that are widespread among us praise us for our ‘firm faith’.
But it is precisely this approach that should actually warn every believer, because if God is the Creator of the world and thus of the Laws that apply in it and the organising force of all events, including the processes and laws found in the sciences, then God can never be separated from logic. After all, it would be contradictory if individual sub-areas were to be excluded from consistency and therefore testify to God's imperfection!
The events of Good Friday, i.e. the extremely agonising crucifixion of Jesus, also raise one uncomfortable question after another, which can only be concealed in a makeshift manner by a violent, blind faith:
- How can a supposedly loving, all-powerful God demand such an agonising death from his own, completely innocent son?
- How would we categorise a person, e.g. a king, who would demand such a thing of his own son? Would we not regard him as a cruel, arbitrary and unjust despot?
- If God in his omnipotence, according to most believers, can do whatever he wants in his actions and is not subject to any restrictions: Could God not have accomplished this alleged redemption without the sacrifice of his Son?
- According to the same strange logic: could he not even have simply made all people on earth believers by an act of will and spared his Son this torment?
- But would such an arbitrary act really be perfect, or would it not rather contradict perfection?
- If God thereby ransoms mankind from the devil, as is widespread in some views: Does God need such an unworthy bargain? Who is stronger: God or Lucifer?
- Wouldn't God himself be violating his 5th commandment with this desire: ‘Thou shalt not kill!’?
- Is a vicarious transference of sins even compatible with justice ?
- Would not Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus be an indispensable part of the divine plan of salvation and therefore intended by God?
- Should Judas not therefore be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind?
- Doesn't his suicide after completing his deed rather speak in favour of the opposite?
- Where does the redemption that supposedly took place 2000 years ago show itself in any form?
- Where are the redeemed? Where is the associated world peace and upswing?
- Since this alleged redemption only concerns Christians: can a loving and just God allow billions of people to be born into other cultures and thus lose their possibility of redemption?
For many people, these are ‘heretical’ questions. But the fact that virtually nobody can answer them conclusively shows that reality must be completely different from what believers think. Even more heretically: could it not be that the teachings of the Churches are largely false, as they cannot be integrated into a logical system of thought and call into question the perfection of God? Could it not be that the popular phrase ‘God's ways are unfathomable’ is primarily intended to avoid having to admit that we are at our knowledge's end?
Because God's ways are not as unfathomable as they are often portrayed by clerics or theologians. They are based on the perfect, self-acting Laws of Creation that God has put into his Creation, which have a constant effect on us and on all other events and without which neither the smallest nor the largest process could take place. And we can and should learn about these laws so that we can understand the logic of creation.
Last but not least, every believer might be puzzled by the fact that Jesus, who travelled the land for years with his message of God and was tirelessly active in enlightenment, never spoke of the divine necessity of his redemptive death, but only ever spoke of the need for people to change and fulfil the will of God the Father - in other words, to finally lead a life that is uplifting in every respect. Of course, this would have been completely different if this agonising death had been the centre of his mission, as has been claimed by the clergy for a long time to this day!
The crucifixion
Most believers let the ‘redemption event’ sink in with a pleasant shudder. However, they prefer not to know exactly what indescribable agonies Jesus had to suffer. This is demonstrated by the outraged reactions to the film ‘The Passion of the Christ’ by Mel Gibson and the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber, both of which were seen as a scandal by many people with a religious orientation, even though they portray the actual events quite accurately and honestly!
But let's take a brief look at the physiological course of Jesus' crucifixion:
‘Firstly, here is an extract from Frank Thadeusz, Mordsache Jesus Christus, in: Der Spiegel Geschichte, No. 6/2011, p. 77:
... Obviously, Jesus was not at all relaxed about his fate. During the last meeting with his disciples, he was sweating blood - a clear symptom among doctors of severe stress or even fear of death ...’ Dramatic ‘was the torture with the flagrum, a kind of whip with several leather straps with sharp bone splinters or lead cones woven into the ends. ‘It's like having a baseball smashed against your ribs with full force - it causes very severe pain that can last for weeks,’ says Zugibe. Perhaps Jesus was punished with the maximum number of 40 blows permitted under Jewish law. ‘There is little doubt that the brutal flogging was a major reason for his early death,’ says Zugibe. His chest and lungs in particular must have been severely damaged. Covered in blood and stained with vomit, Jesus was then subjected to a torture that had been devised just for him: the Roman soldiers placed a woven crown of common thorn on his head and beat him with a stick. This torture had previously been underestimated as a mere insult to the ‘King of the Jews’ ... In fact, however, the sadistic coronation had brought Jesus much closer to his end. The result was pain like after treatment with a red-hot poker ... The maltreated Saviour was already close to death when his tormentors fixed him to the cross. The Romans probably used thick iron nails twelve centimetres long. When they were driven through the heels, numerous nerve bundles were torn in two. ‘Jesus suffered one of the worst pain conditions known to mankind’, concludes Zugibe ... With every slightest movement on the cross, the pain raced through his body like an electric shock ... It was only after what felt like an eternity that the death that brought salvation came.’ (1)
‘... As the arms tire, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles to knot them in deep, mercilessly throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself up. Hanging from his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralysed and the intercostal muscles are unable to move. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled. Jesus struggles to lift himself to even get a short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and bloodstream, and the spasms partially subside. Convulsively, he is able to push himself to exhale and inhale the life-giving oxygen.’ (2)
Good Friday - a millennia-old ‘fake news’:
The belief in a reconciliation with God through the brutal
death on the cross of the completely innocent Jesus of Nazareth
The God-ordained death of a saviour?
It should be clear from these descriptions that such bestialities can never be connected with a great, loving Creator! On the contrary: it is once again a serious abuse of the free decision-making ability left to man, who did not shy away from murdering a completely innocent bringer of light sent by God in the most brutal way. However, in the incorruptible law of reciprocal action, this event brought with it the most severe consequences not only for the perpetrators, but for the whole of humanity that made such a thing possible. It also means, of course, that this agonising death of the Son was unwanted by God and is entirely the fault of mankind!
This is why the name ‘Good Friday’ in the English language is completely out of place for this fateful day, because in reality it is the darkest, the worst Friday in the entire history of mankind! The brutal murder of a Son of God who had only come to help us humans and save us from a spiritual downfall!
If we try to think naturally for once, then we will quickly have the reason for the ‘rendering harmless’ of the great bringer of truth, which the Grail Message, on which all the extended knowledge on this page is based, explains as follows:
"Neither was the death on the cross a necessary sacrifice, but a murder, a dastardly crime! Every other explanation is a misinterpretation which either has its origin in ignorance or is meant as an excuse. Christ certainly did not come to this earth with the intention of letting Himself be crucified;
neither does redemption lie in the crucifixion! Christ was crucified because of His teaching, as a troublesome Bringer of Truth!
It was not His death on the cross that could and should bring redemption, but the Truth He gave to mankind in His Word!
The Truth, however, was irksome to the religious leaders and heads of the temples of that time. It was an annoyance because it severely undermined their influence. It would be exactly the same today in many places! Mankind has not changed in this respect. The teachers of that time took their standing, it is true, on the good old traditions as do those of today, but through those who practised and interpreted them these traditions had become nothing but rigid and empty forms, wholly wanting in life, the same as may often be observed today!
But He Who wanted to bring the necessary life into the existing Word naturally also upset their practices and explanations, but He did not upset the Word itself. He liberated and redeemed the people from the debasing rigidity and emptiness, and this was naturally a great vexation to those who soon recognised how effectively this would interfere with their false leadership!
For this reason the Bringer of Truth, the Liberator from the burden of erroneous interpretations, had to be rendered suspect and persecuted. As in spite of all their efforts they did not succeed in ridiculing Him, they sought to discredit Him. His “earthly upbringing” as the son of a carpenter served to brand Him as “unlearned and therefore incompetent to give explanations”, as “a layman”! Just as it is today with everyone who exposes the rigid dogma that chokes every free and vital aspiration from the very start!
His opponents carefully avoided going into His explanations as such, because they quite rightly felt that they would lose in a purely objective discussion. They contented themselves with slandering Him maliciously through their bribed agents, and finally did not shrink from availing themselves of an opportune moment to accuse Him publicly and falsely and bring Him to the cross, in order to remove the danger He represented to their authority and power!
His violent death, in the form at the time used by the Romans to execute people, was not in itself the redemption, nor did it bring redemption. It atoned for none of mankind’s guilt, liberated them from nothing, but burdened them still more with a dastardly murder!
If still here and there a cult has arisen which sees in this murder a necessary and principal part of the Son of God’s Work of Redemption, this only distracts man’s attention from the greater value which alone could bring this redemption. It diverts him from the true mission of the Saviour, from that which necessitated His coming from the Divine Sphere to the earth!
The purpose of His Mission, however, was not to suffer death on the cross, but to bring the Truth into the maze of dogmatic rigidity and emptiness
which debase the human spirit, and to explain the relations between God, the Creation and mankind as they actually are!
Through this knowledge the illusions which the constricted spirit of man added, and which covered up the reality, had feebly to fall away of their own accord. Not till then could man see clearly before him the way leading upwards!
Redemption lies solely in the bringing of this Truth and the consequent liberation from errors!
It is redemption from obscured vision, from blind faith! The word “blind” most suitably depicts this false state!"
...
It is a great mistake for men to believe that through the death on the cross the forgiveness of their sins is guaranteed. This thought is followed by the terrible harm that all those who believe this are held back from the true road to redemption, which lies only and solely in living the Word of the Saviour, according to the explanations given by Him, Who knew and could overlook all. And these explanations give practical examples of the need to obey and observe the Divine Will as expressed in the Laws of Creation, and also show what happens if It is obeyed and what follows on disobedience!
His Work of Redemption lay in bringing this enlightenment, which exposed the defects and abuses of religious practices because it carried the Truth within itself and thus brought Light into the ever-increasing darkness of the human spirit. His Work of Redemption did not lie in His death on the cross, neither can Holy Communion nor the Consecrated Host bring immediate forgiveness of sins! Such a thought is contrary to all Divine Law! And consequently the power of men to forgive sins falls away! A man only has the right and also the power to forgive what he has personally suffered at the hands of another, and then only when, quite freely, his heart bids him do it."
(Grail Message, Vol. II, 45. Lecture: "The Crucifixion of the Son of God and the Lord's Supper")
© Stiftung Gralsbotschaft, Stuttgart
Reference of quotes above:
Painting: Cornelis de Vos, calvary (public domain)
(1) http://www.theologe.de/kreuzigung.htm
(2) http://www.soulsaver.de/glaube/kreuzigung/