There has been no "fall of man." The
history of the human race is one of progressive evolution and the Adamic bestowal
left the world peoples greatly improved over their
previous biologic condition. (75:8.1)
When once you grasp the idea of God as a true
and loving Father, the only concept which Jesus ever taught, you must
forthwith, in all consistency, utterly abandon all
those primitive notions about God as an offended
monarch, a stern and all-powerful ruler whose
chief delight is to detect his subjects in
wrongdoing and to see that they are adequately
punished, unless some being almost equal to
himself should volunteer to suffer for them, to
die as a substitute and in their stead. (188:4.8)
The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God,
of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the
favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and
even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and
primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened
age of science and truth. Such beliefs
are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and
the divine rulers who serve and reign in the
universes. It is an affront to God to believe,
hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in
order to win his favor or to divert the fictitious
divine wrath. (4:5.4)
"But, my son, you should know that the Father
does not purposely afflict his children. Man
brings down upon himself unnecessary affliction as a result of his
persistent refusal to walk in the better ways of
the divine will. Affliction is potential in evil,
but much of it has been produced by sin and iniquity. Many unusual
events have transpired on this world, and it is
not strange that all thinking men should be
perplexed by the scenes of suffering and
affliction which they witness. But of one thing
you may be sure: The Father does not send
affliction as an arbitrary punishment for
wrongdoing. The imperfections and handicaps of
evil are inherent; the penalties of sin are
inevitable; the destroying consequences of
iniquity are inexorable. Man should not blame God
for those afflictions which are the natural result
of the life which he chooses to live; neither
should man complain of those experiences which are
a part of life as it is lived on this world. It is
the Father's will that mortal man should work
persistently and consistently toward the
betterment of his estate on earth. Intelligent
application would enable man to overcome much of
his earthly misery." Jesus, (148:5.3)
Then Jesus made this final statement: "The
Father in heaven does not willingly afflict the
children of men. Man suffers, first, from the
accidents of time and the imperfections of the
evil of an immature physical existence. Next, he
suffers the inexorable consequences of sin--the
transgression of the laws of life and light. And
finally, man reaps the harvest of his own
iniquitous persistence in rebellion against the
righteous rule of heaven on earth. But man's
miseries are not a personal visitation of divine
judgment. Man can, and will, do much to lessen his
temporal sufferings. But once and for all be
delivered from the superstition that God afflicts
man at the behest of the evil one. Study the Book of
Job just to discover how many wrong ideas of
God even good men may honestly entertain; and then
note how even the painfully afflicted Job found
the God of comfort and salvation in spite of such
erroneous teachings. At last his faith pierced the
clouds of suffering to discern the light of life
pouring forth from the Father as healing mercy and
everlasting righteousness." Jesus, (148:6.11)
