The Children of Grace

By David C. Campbell

Few people know that orthodox Christianity is very different from its beginnings. In truth, you and I, in past lives, slowly transformed it into a ritual-based 'Sunday Christianity.' We did this to placate our inner needs for things of the spirit, freeing us up for the rest of the week to 'sport in the flesh' with abandon! Yes, it's that simple. Alas, we were not ready for the aestheticism taught by the Master and it took us until the 6th century to successfully bury the original Christianity, described by church scholars as a 'flash in the pan' and labelled generically as Gnostic Christianity. This book traces how and why this happened, showing how we transformed Jesus into the Son of God instead of a pattern for our renewal. His message was then turned backwards by re-defining the law of grace as a 'get out of jail free' card, instead of you forgiving others, as is required to follow 'the Way!'

• Language: English
• Publisher: David C. Campbell
• Release date: Oct 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9780987818300

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THE CHILDREN OF GRACE

Published by: David C. Campbell at Smashwords

Copyright 2011, revised 2012, revised 2017; David C. Campbell

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient at Smashwords.com. Thank you for respecting the work of this author

Cover design: by Cathy Campbell; aka The Cake Whisperer

ISBN 978-0-9878183-0-0

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Orthodox Christian Church

Chapter 2 – James the Just - Righteousness

Chapter 3 – Paul of Tarsus - Zealousness

Chapter 4 – Origen – Commitment

Chapter 5 – Constantine the Great

Chapter 6 – Augustine – The Transformer

Chapter 7 – Justinian – The Devil’s Own

Chapter 8 – Jesus the Christ - The Pattern

Chapter 9 – The Great Commandment

Chapter 10 – The Creator

Chapter 11 – The Sons of Men

Chapter 12 – The Divine Mother

Chapter 13 – Meditation - Links to Your Higher Self

Chapter 14 - Epilogue

Appendix - References and Recommended Reading

THE CHILDREN OF GRACE

Introduction

In the beginning, Christianity was simple to understand, but difficult to apply. It started out as a pattern of behaviour in which you must ‘choose’ to follow in the footsteps of your Elder Brother, the Master Jesus who blazed a trail through life, perfectly demonstrating the Law of Grace, of 'turning the other cheek,' through to the last test, death itself, all the while wielding absolute power! In His final act of grace, of both giving one’s most precious possession, His life, for others, and then forgiving those taking His life, Jesus stamped mastery of the ‘spirit’ and the ‘letter’ of the Law of Moses, into the earth plane, showing ‘the Way’ and opening the door, for all to follow!

Three hundred years later, Christianity began to change. Amazingly, this once persecuted religion, was now sitting 'shakily' atop of the beast, as the official church of the Roman Empire. Successful yes, but good and bad go hand in hand, and as usual, strife arose! The downside to this incredible material triumph was that Christianity found itself struggling to somehow accommodate the brutal forces needed to help rule an empire. The problem? How to fulfill its' mandatory political role, and still maintain the virtue of the church?

Alas, our church leaders, ever the pragmatists, chose the easy path, a compromise requiring the gradual weaning of Christians away from Jesus’ most cherished commandment, 'to love one another, as I have loved you,' back into their more-immediate, but politically important role, as warriors on the battlefields of the empire. To achieve this slight of hand, Thou shalt not kill had to be re-jigged by employing the usual subterfuge, that our enemies are all sub-human ‘gooks and terrorists,’ and that the laws of ‘decent Christian people' do not apply to them (an interpretation previously embraced by their Jewish predecessors).

This newly emerging 'vision' of Christianity was made easier to swallow, if you but 'had faith' in their revised dogma, that Jesus was no longer your Elder Brother, but suddenly a distant powerful God, equal to God the Father, demanding worshipful obedience. Moreover, it was asserted that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was not about manifesting the ultimate act of grace, rather it had mutated into becoming payment for our sins, no less.

There was more. An important part of this new Christianity, included the claim that Jesus' sin-healing powers were bequeathed to the Christian Church, who were now mandated to forgive sins in the earth plane, a forgiveness which was recognized as valid in heaven (refer: The Gospel of Mathew 16:17-19, for scriptural proof). Then, with nary a blush, the church extended its mandate even further by claiming its' role was akin to a gatekeeper, duly commissioned to cleanse and approve those seeking admission to Heaven.

Of course, one can see that a nice little side benefit of this shift of power from Jesus to the church, was that it allowed the church to grant special dispensation for those killing to protect our religion, and our way of life. Thus, killing for the empire and the church had now become legitimized, so that Christian 'heroes' were able to dispatch their enemies without fear of spiritual consequences.

This was an amazing claim, given for reasons that at best, were unsatisfactory, since no logical explanation was given as to why Jesus would do such a thing, especially given that the very idea is in contradiction to the Law of Moses (what ye sow, ye shall reap) or in Jesus’ own words affirming the intransigence of the law; …it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail; Luke 16:17. Nevertheless, such is their story!

Our Story

Surprisingly, these 'modifications' to Christianity were not unexpected, since they occurred for all the usual reasons, the principle ones being the needs of our empires to expand, usually by engaging in wars of 're-possession.' Yes, that's right, even in the face of the example set by the Master of masters, our lust for gain, culled from our so-called just wars, takes precedence over our needs for spiritual growth, just as it is today.

If you doubt this to be true, think about our history. It is clear from examining our story that no matter what label we attach to ourselves, we are still principally warrior-states, that have always attached a ‘but’ after thou shalt not kill, made obvious by the fact that we spend a lot of time killing one another. In effect, by our actions, at the national level at least, we clearly do not believe in the Law of Moses (or more likely, we do not believe it applies to us, and our righteous actions, taken against our always unrighteous enemies). Rather, we nod in the direction of piety, but in our ‘heart of hearts,’ it is quite obvious, that we subscribe to the 'survival of the fittest law,' or, in the vernacular, 'what you can take and hold onto, is what you deserve!'

Thus, to sate our lust for ill-gotten gain, Jesus’ message ‘of loving one another’ had to change, and lo, so it happened. The process causing change was simple and natural. As Jesus’ message ‘to follow His Way’ expanded outward, others quite naturally inserted their rationalizations, cultural biases, and general lack of understanding (it would be well to remember that most of the early Christians were taught by parables, and only by parables).

These ‘inputs,’ causing change to the Christian dogma, were mostly from succeeding generations, as part of their attempt, to better blend the new ideas of Christianity into the existing needs and culture of the Roman Empire. As a result, the original Christian dogma spiralled downwards, causing more and more confusion, so that slowly ‘it turned backwards,’ into a form whose ‘spirit’ would have been quite unrecognizable to its founders, but eerily similar to the orthodoxy that it had originally supplanted. Surprise, surprise!

Grace Does a Pirouette

An example of the extent of this change can best be shown by examining Christianity’s most revered concept, namely ‘grace’ itself, which is redefined today by the Roman Catholic Church as follows; grace is the free and undeserved help that God gives us, (Ref. 1-7, pg 181). Alas, it requires little research to discover that ‘grace’ was not always defined so. In the good old days, things were much simpler. For instance, during Old Testament times, grace was the measure of your ability to be sinless i.e. a person with little sin in them was considered to be ‘full of grace’ (Mary for instance), and a fall from grace was described as a relapse into sin.

Be aware also that in olden times, grace was something you give to others i.e. that would be the example you set of virtuous living, principally achieved by 'turning the other cheek,' or forgiving and loving others, not something you receive from someone! As well, according to the original Christian message, forgiveness of others breaks the cycle inherent in the Law of Moses, an eye for an eye, which is why the Law of Grace, of giving forgiveness, is known as the spirit of the Law of Moses.

Today, part of the root-problem in understanding these concepts is that Christians are taught that that God is forgiveness, and that He has already forgiven you. This is true, but unstated is that there is a price to pay for this forgiveness, that price being you must forgive others first. When you do so, your action initiates the flow of forgiveness through you, which automatically draws in God's forgiveness to replenish the forgiveness you gave to others. I.e. Like attracts like! That's how it works! It is all about flowing the 'right stuff' through you, hence forgive me as I forgive others is in the Lord’s Prayer.

This 'flow process' is God's Grace, and it is also the methodology you must employ to receive His goodness of any kind. This means that God's love is omni-present and omni-available, but God mimics your actions. Need I say again that, the rule of the law is to give first, and give always!

The Eight Principal Actors

To resurrect the original message, direct from Jesus (yes, it’s still in the Bible), the methodology used in this book will be to show the reader how the orthodox church, and its minions, gradually intervened to change the message, mostly through strategic editing, of the philosophy and fate of selected key Christian leaders, who played integral roles in this drama, as it unfolded.

There were eight such individuals in this category. In order of presentation, they are; James the Just, the Lord’s brother; the much-maligned Apostle Paul; the great Christian theologian and scholar Origen; Constantine, the so-called warrior saint; the somewhat amazing and transitory genius Augustine; the infamous Emperor Justinian and his manipulative consort, Queen Theodora; and your Elder Brother Jesus the Christ, of course.

The naming of Jesus as your Elder Brother above may offend some, but it does not denigrate Him in any way, after all, Jesus is the one claiming this relationship to you to be true (refer John 10:24-38 for proof). The problem to be resolved is not Jesus' status, but ours, and our penchant for accepting our role as 'lowly grovelers,' when in fact, we are clearly described in scripture as joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

Therefore, the message in this book is that it is you, who must 'get up off your knees' and transform yourself to your true state, so that you can contribute your light to this darkness, and help reveal ‘the Way’ of Jesus the Christ, to others! You may think that you know yourself, but herein you will find that the mystery of your true role in the earth, together with that of the mysteries surrounding the historical treatment of your seven companion actors, has been clouded indeed, for over 1400 years, but clouded for a mighty purpose, as you will soon see!

The Layout

The chapters that follow will begin with a brief examination of the philosophy and practices of today’s orthodox Christian Churches, so that we can all have a common understanding of the dogma subscribed to by the majority of Christians. We do this principally because one of my great epiphanies in writing this book was the discovery that a surprising number of practising Christians know very little about their religion, since church activities are more about cultural celebrations, rather than rituals to enhance spiritual growth.

With this brief knowledge-base about today's Christian dogma in hand, we will then turn back to Christianity’s beginning years, to analyze the important happenings during the early post-crucifixion history of the church, to show the reader how James the Just and Jesus’ family were mostly edited out of the literature, and how the Apostle Paul was modified to suit a new purpose. This new purpose, developed in the early years, began in earnest, centuries after Paul’s time, under the tutelage of Constantine, and later under Augustine, between 300-500 CE.

This early work at changing the Christian message was capped in the 6th century by the devilish medaling hands of the Emperor Justinian, and his equally voracious and deadly consort Theodora, who amidst war, plague, and chaos, succeeded in causing the church to veer away from the original message, given by the Master Jesus, replacing it with the framework, which eventually evolved into today’s orthodoxy.

Specifically, the actions of this Emperor resulted in the beginning of the demise of reincarnation, leading to the church initiating the process of reverting back to a belief in a single-lifetime, coupled to a ritual, faith-based Temple worship, similar to that of the Sadducee Jews, who were in power at the time of the crucifixion. Unlike the Sadducees, their Judean contemporaries, the Pharisees and the Essenes, belived in reincarnation, according to the historian Josephus, who lived during these times.

Of course, doubters could point out that it is no simple task to turn a church inside-out, and radically change its dogma, which is true. Therefore, in order for the ‘Empire’ to successfully establish this new Christian message, the old one would have to be discredited. And as you will see, ‘the old one’ mostly consisted of a large measure of ‘Gnostic Christianity,’ a school of thought described as the path of knowledge (Gnosis), achieved through meditation, prayer and works.

Gnosticism

It may surprise most readers to learn that Gnostic schools dominated the first 300 years of Christianity, and that most of the early church leaders were active or former Platonists (meaning they all believed in reincarnation), including Augustine and his colleagues. Nevertheless, Gnostics were mostly destroyed or driven underground by the end of the 6th century, thanks in no small part to the diligent efforts of Emperor Justinian, and his autocratic ways.

Therefore, part of our task will be to briefly explain the philosophy, fate and current resurrection of the lost part of Jesus’ message, namely Gnostic Christianity’s inner path to God. Be cautious here! The Gnostic path (the inner path) is directly linked to the outer path, the orthodox Liturgy, just as your subconscious mind is directly linked to your conscious mind – one does not supplant the other, they work together, hand in glove.

To employ a simple visual analogy, the changes to Christianity can be likened to a bird that could originally soar heavenward, using its two wings to give it the power of flight. The bird’s right wing represents ‘the outer path’ consisting of the sacraments, outer prayer and works (treating your brother as yourself). The bird’s left wing represents ‘the inner path’ consisting of inner prayer and meditation used to attune to our inner source, our inner power. This left wing, or the inner path, was severed by the leaders of Christianity in the 600-1200 CE period These changes caused our now one-winged Christian bird to flop around in circles on the ground, bound and confined to the earth plane, by this new dogma.

Interpret this 'hobbled-bird' analogy, representing our state of spiritual understanding, to mean that our task in this book is to study how and why this happened, and more important, to learn how to re-embrace and regrow our left wing, so that together with the orthodox church, we can both fly heavenward once more. Thus, it is not the intention of this book to discredit orthodox Christianity, rather to ‘turn it back around’ and to re-connect it with its’ true inner Gnostic path, by re-constructing ‘the Way’ of Jesus the Christ! This we mean to do!

Note: Be cautious about accepting any dates for when these changes to the Christian dogma actually occurred. Was it the 600-1200 CE time spread given above? Maybe not! The truth is these changes may have occured much later in time, say during the years of terror under the Inquisition (from 1200-1800 CE), or earlier, who knows, since the true history of the church has been re-written so-often, and so selectively, that we must satisfy ourselves with a ‘best guess’ at when and how, many of the key events actually transpired.

The Great Adjudicator

To soothe the doubters and resolve disputes about which philosophy is the original Christian message (the one-winged bird or the two-winged bird), we will then turn to the Biblical words and teachings of an impeccable adjudicator, namely Jesus Himself! He will tell you exactly what He wants from you, in His own words, with no reliance on any form of ‘immeasurable faith,’ or other sources!

Shining light on His message will also surprise you, since you will find that His true requirements are no easy task indeed, but the rewards are both commensurate with the actions required from you, and are logical! Herein you will also learn that the real truth is that Jesus never went anywhere! In fact, His promise to you, given below, in His own words, is that today, now, He is as close to you in your heart, as you will allow Him to be!

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20).

Although some religious institutions may beg to differ, claiming that they are directed by scripture (albeit edited scripture, as you will soon see) to be intermediaries between man and God, their true, more important role is that of 'helpmeets' assisting pilgrims on the Path, and the sooner they return to this function, the better for all, including them!

Finally, to provide direction forward, the meditation methodology for regaining your true path in the earth will be provided in the last chapter (to hear 'the voice' and open 'the door'). This path will be prefaced by a description of who you really are, who Jesus and God are, and what your relationship is to the Godhead, and to nature itself. After that, you will have little excuse for not acting! And my promise to you is that if you understand this material, and apply it, using the methods given in the final chapter, and the philosophy in this book, your life will regain power, the power to awaken the dreamer, and THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE, as a student of ‘will,’ a Child of Grace!

Chapter 1 – Today’s Orthodox Christian Church

Remembering: I remember a discussion in my spiritual study group recently about the nature of Jesus. The question on the table; ‘was Jesus a myth or a real person?’ Of those present, 3 Protestants, 3 Roman Catholics, and 1Russian Jew, the decision was split. As part of an aside, I mentioned to one of the Roman Catholics that their dogma included the concept that the soul was created at conception. To my surprise, he was indignant at my remark. He retorted that my statement was untrue and that the soul came from your parents. The other Roman Catholics agreed. They continued making other claims about their faith that I knew were not part of Roman Catholic doctrine. This exchange shook my pre-conception that all Roman Catholics knew their catechism by rote, yet here they stood before me making claims that were not factual. After the meeting, I gave further thought to their knowledge, eventually concluding that I knew more about their religion than they did, mostly because I had researched it for this book. It then dawned on me, and this was my epiphany, that over my many years of being associated with Protestant Christianity, I was in the same boat - I didn’t know anything about Christianity either. In other words, during all of the time that I had been in my Protestant church (I attended up until the age of 12 and then later in my 30’s so that my children could learn about religion), I never learned anything about Christianity other than the mantra that Jesus was the Son of God, who died for our sins, and if you are a good person, had faith in Jesus and His sacrifice (whatever that means), then you will go to Heaven. My ‘eureka moment’ was the realization that, unless they seek out the knowledge for themselves, most Christians do not know very much about Christianity.

The Source

Before discussing the fate of the eight major players listed in the introduction, this first chapter will provide an author-biased summary of the current orthodox Christian philosophy, their rituals, and how they came to be. Necessarily, a lot of the focus will have to shift onto the modern Roman Catholic Church, since they claim that they were the only Christian Church in the early post-crucifixion years when many of the important rituals and dogma of Christianity were developed.

In many respects, this material will be revealing to readers since most of us in the west have grown up with the Christian religion and have never really questioned its authenticity or content (if you think about it, you will discover that most religious celebrations are more about your culture, than your spirituality).

My Early Life

To better orient the reader to the biases inherent in any religious description (my biases) we will start with a brief tale about my own erstwhile attempts at bonding with religion. In this way, you will gain a little knowledge about the perspective of the author.

First and foremost, I was never much of a Christian, except in name only! My early spiritual training began in a Protestant Christian church during the 1940’s and 1950’s, although with little passion, given that no one in my family exhibited any real enthusiasm for this type of activity. Instead, on Sunday morning my parents would call out from their bedroom, instructing me and my two older brothers, to get up and go to Sunday school. That’s right, they didn’t even bother to go with us, but instead they confined their role to setting the rules! So much for a family religious pattern to follow!

To be honest, it was more than obvious to us that religion was not very important to my parents, especially given that my father, a non-practicing Masonic Lodge member, made no secret of the fact that he thought that all religions were rackets. Alas, the message from their direction and their example was firmly set, and true to form, my brothers and I popped out into puberty, as good little ‘agnostic type Christians,’ fully prepared to carry on the ‘scoffing’ family tradition.

Consequences

As a consequence, by my early twenties, I had written off religion as being a ridiculous fantasy, having instead, adopted the firm belief that reality followed logic. Unfortunately for this smug certainty on my part, stress trumps logic, a fact that I discovered when anxiety over exams at university caused my protective ‘veneer of certainty’ to crack. The driver, in this event, was ‘immanent exam failure panic,’ which forced me to struggle to find help of any sort, which surprisingly, showed up from a very strange source – that being the right side of my brain – you know, the female intuitive side of your brain.

This rarely entertained influence on my part, suddenly opened up to me when my crisis anxiety forced a little of this right-brain light to flow in. The immediate result was my mind seemed to expand, and normally dark nooks and crannies lit up, making the true meaning of events seem much clearer. And as my normal hold on reality shifted, I grudgingly began to accept that yes, there was science in the earth, but it was not alone, it had company, it co-existed with magic. What’s more, this magic was everywhere! And because of this new awareness, I began to look at things with ‘new eyes,’ becoming conscious of many other anomalies in this ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ that we call life.

In more practical terms, I was not so easily fooled anymore! This epiphany that I experienced at university, during the 1960’s, had startling effects upon my personal search for life’s meaning. I began to reassess all of the positions that I had accepted without question, prior to this turning point in my life. And with these new eyes, I could see further into the distant horizon and it became more and more apparent to me that those in charge down here were telling me things that served their own self-interest, and not necessarily mine.

Pilgrim’s Progress

With this new clarity of mind, my first order of business was to find a replacement theory for the ‘talking ape’ religion (meaning the theory of evolution), which I had embraced since my youth. After studying the alternatives, I eventually focused in on a spiritual study group program, based upon ‘mystical sources’ defined in the ‘Note' below. It involved a philosophy, described as a parallel to Christian Gnosticism, which included many of the concepts that I had rejected earlier, including reincarnation, karma and the most misunderstood Teacher of all time, our Elder Brother, Jesus who became the Christ!

Note: In this book, the references I call ‘mystical sources,’ represent source material from the works of a group of mystics that I have studied over the years, Steiner, Goldsmith, Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Irion, etc., who tend to agree with the underlying story line in Christianity, but not to the orthodox spin on the role of Jesus or the church. Although many of these sources formed the basis of my understanding, the majority of the relevant information comes from the writings of two primary mystics, the books of Jacob Boehme (1575 – 1624 CE) a 17th century German mystic, and the many excellent authors and their books on the ‘readings’ of Edgar Cayce (1876 – 1945 CE), a famous twentieth century American clairvoyant. The story of these two mystics will be explained in greater detail in the appropriate chapters. That said, be aware that most of the points made in this book rely on Biblical references, whereas mystical sources are generally used to buttress or augment the point being made, and as part of my understanding of the subject.

As part of my overall study, I accumulated background information on religions, which proved to be truly an eye opener. With respect to Christianity, after only a cursory examination of the Bible, I gathered an amazing number of revelations about what was actually required to fulfill the terms of this religion, and it certainly was not the same stuff that I was taught in Sunday school, which in short was - to be a good person, believe that Jesus as the only Son of God, have faith that he died for my sins, and voila! I will be saved.

That would be nice, were it true, however the very words of Jesus, in the Bible, point to much more dire requirements in order to be saved – but more about that later! For now, bearing in mind my obvious biases from my stunted religious upbringing, we will get on with providing an abbreviated version of the current orthodox Christian message!

The Story in its Simplest Form

Without getting into too much detail about orthodox Christianity, their story, in its simplest form, is that we were all born with ‘original sin,’ for reasons that are never really explained satisfactorily (logically). Nevertheless, according to this dogma, we are all sinners and to help us conquer our sinning ways, God sent His only Son, Jesus into the earth, 2000 years ago to help. In His role as Saviour, Jesus led a perfect life, which included miraculous healings of the sick, walking on water, and raising the dead. The virgin-born Jesus, who is claimed to be equal to God the Father, was then crucified as a surrogate sacrifice, to wash away our sins.

After the crucifixion, Jesus ministered to those in Hell and then was resurrected from death after 3 days, appearing first to Mary Magdalene, and then to His other followers. This amazing feat of resurrection was witnessed by 100’s of Jesus’ followers, including His Apostles and disciples. A short time later, after ministering to his principle followers, Jesus ascended to heaven with the promise from accompanying angels, that He would return on Judgment Day, to cull the good from the bad, the good being redeemed to heaven and the bad sent to Hell.

The Roman Catholic Input to the Dogma

But that was 2000 years ago, what about today? After all, presumably, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was for those living before and up to the crucifixion, but what to do with the people born after the crucifixion? The answer, provided by the earliest Christian church, the Roman Catholic Church, is simple. Jesus formed His church, the Roman Catholic Church, to which He delegated His powers to prepare ‘sinners’ for success on Judgment Day.

He did this by appointing the Apostle Peter, who in turn delegated this power to the next Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church, who were charged with leading the flock and to forgiving our sins, on Jesus’ behalf, from the crucifixion on up until the final trumpet of Judgment Day, which can occur at any moment.

With regard to meeting your fate on this final day, Roman Catholic beliefs are that diligent practice of the church sacraments, day in day out, will fully prepare the supplicant for success on Judgment Day, a day in which the good souls and their physical bodies will be culled from the bad ones, and then drawn off to Heaven, whilst the bad guys will fuel the fires of Hell for eternity, or something equally awful! And to repeat the important point; Judgment Day can occur at any moment!

At this juncture, the critical reader might ask; if it is true that the Roman Catholic Church was in fact given the task and the authority to prepare sinners, then what is the process used by the church to accomplish this function?

Role of Church

As stated above, the answer is that today Roman Catholics, and most of the rest of orthodox Christianity for that matter, claim that Jesus is equal to God the Father, and as such makes a rather potent sacrifice, so much so, that the main role of the crucifixion became to ‘wash away our sins!’ A more intellectual spin is that the crucifixion can also be interpreted as ‘an example,’ of such magnitude and power, that it has the capability of removing ‘the inclination to sin’ from believers.

Nevertheless, this ‘cleansing’ sacrifice was then linked to ‘original sin,’ and then to the ‘church sacraments,’ as a means to forgive the sins of the every-day parishioner (I use the word ‘today’ above because this theory was developed over time, meaning that it did not originate from Jesus, even though the Church would vehemently argue otherwise).

The principle church sacraments, mentioned above, that are now linked to ‘the sacrifice’ are Baptism, Confirmation, the Mass, together with the Eucharist, Confession and the Last Rites. In the case of Baptism (and Confirmation), it became recognized as the pre-imminent sacramental ceremony, during which the person is renewed so that the Grace of the Christ can be infused into the person, making him/her a child of God, a convert to Christianity, and duly cleansed of ‘original sin,’ or duly cleansed of the inclination to sin!

After receiving this cleansing from original sin by baptism, the supplicant must then participate in Confirmation, the Mass, Confession, the Last Rites and obeying church guidance and stewardship. These ceremonies are practiced, to ensure the thorough cleansing of the parishioner of his/her daily sins, to prepare him/her properly for Judgment Day.

Furthermore, within the Mass, participation in the Eucharist is given great importance, since it was directly mandated by Jesus to His disciples. You may recall that the origin of this Eucharist ceremony is described in the Christian gospels wherein at ‘the last supper,’ just before His crucifixion, Jesus offered His disciples bread and wine, as a symbol of the coming sacrifice of His body and His blood. Concerning this event, the Roman Catholic Church places great emphasis on the quote from Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke Ch. 22 v 19, wherein Jesus takes the bread and gives it to His disciples saying;

"This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me."

This statement, particularly the latter part, is taken as a commandment, from Jesus, to the Roman Catholic Church, directing them (the Apostles) to form a priest-class, to administer and replicate the Holy Eucharist Ceremony to all Christians, which is considered to be a re-enactment of the healing power of the crucifixion.

This means that the bread and wine is considered to be the actual body and blood of Jesus. Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Priest, taking power directly from Jesus (via the Pope), is actually carrying out the administration of the crucifixion’s sacrifice, and healing powers, during today’s ceremony of the Mass, and its’ importance is without peer!

Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Protestants, accept most of this doctrine, except they do not recognize the authority of the Roman Catholic Church (they recognize their own authority), plus their focus is less on the sacraments and more on scripture and faith in Jesus, as the only Son of God, who will forgive and save you if you have faith in Him and live a Christian life, as defined by these various churches. Some Protestant Christian sects go even further claiming that scripture (the Bible) is a sacred text, that must be taken literally, because it contains the actual, unchangeable words of God.