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A WORD WITH THE THEOSOPHISTS
The following letters appeared recently in the Poona Observer. Were it not for a few flagrant misconceptions in letter the first and which it seems almost hopeless to dispel from the minds of the average public, it would not be worth noticing. But since a Theosophist undertook the weary task, we republish it together with the answer.
To the Editor of the Poona Observer:
Sir,—The anxiety of the Theosophists to overturn all existing religions, and first of all and especially the Christian religion, makes them not overscrupulous in the means used. Nothing could be more wild and absurd than their attempts to identify Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul with the ancient adepts in Occultism. The Apostle of the Gentiles was converted to Christianity by a miraculous event, while on his way to Damascus. He was then a fierce soldier and was actively engaged in a cruel persecution of the Christians; after his conversion the whole course of his life was changed and he became an ardent propagator of the new faith. It may be said that he was an occultist when he wrote his epistles, and that when caught up in Heaven and was shown things that it was not lawful for men to mention, that he was simply in a state of self-induced mesmeric deep and had released his soul from his body, to roam for a time in the realms of the spirit world; but if so he manifestly saw and heard such things which established his belief in doctrines which are rejected by the Tibetan occultists, viz., a belief in a personal deity and the divinity of Christ, etc. The attempt to prove Christ an adept is absurd equally. Christ gave up his life and took it again, raised the 358 dead, and cured every description of malignant diseases by touch or word of mouth, and did other great miracles; great, not because they were done on a large scale, but from the nature of them. With regard to the loaves and fishes—it does not matter whether five loaves became five thousand or five loaves became six, miraculous power was still required; similarly, if a wineglass of water could be converted into wine, it is equally the same as if a large quantity of water had been changed and a large company supplied with the wine. To sup port the theory that Christ and Saint Paul were adepts, the facts of their lives must be ignored as well as the doctrines they are reported to have taught.
Some Theosophists have probably recognized these difficulties, and seem to think the easiest way of disposing them is to deny that any such persons as Saint Paul and Christ ever existed. Sensible people should ask themselves this question: Are such Philosophers safe guides?
ZERO.
*** We think “Zero” has rather mistaken the Theosophical idea regarding Christ. The Theosophists do not, as far as we are aware, deny the possibility of the divinity of Christ- they only assert that he was so perfect a man as to have attained the highest possible form of earthly existence; in other words, something so akin to the godhead, as to be indistinguishable from it. Again, “Zero” may have heard the fundamental belief of the Theosophists is nothing is impossible. Thus, to deny the divinity of the Saviour would be to impeach their own watchword.—Editor, Poona Observer.