booknetsaWebster-secretSocietiesAndSubversiveMovements

system of the Jewish hierarchy and the ancient hope of a Redeemer who should restore Man to the state of
felicity he had lost at the Fall was transformed into the idea of salvation for the Jews alone (57) under the
ægis of a triumphant and even an avenging Messiah.(58) It is this Messianic dream perpetuated in the modern
Cabala which nineteen hundred years ago the advent of Christ on earth came to disturb.
The Coming Of The Redeemer
The fact that many Christian doctrines, such as the conception of a Trinity, the miraculous birth and
murder of a Deity, had found a place in earlier religions has frequently been used as an argument to show
that the story of Christ was merely a new version of various ancient legends, those of Attis, Adonis, or of
Osiris, and that consequently the Christian religion is founded on a myth. The answer to this is that the existence
of Christ on earth is an historical fact which no serious authority has ever denied. The attempts of such
writers as Drews and J. M. Robertson to establish the theory of the " Christ-Myth " which find an echo in
the utterances of Socialist orators,(59) have been met with so much able criticism as to need no further refutation.
Sir John Frazer, who will certainly not be accused of bigoted orthodoxy, observes in this connexion:
The doubts which have been cast on the historical reality of Jesus are, in my judgement, unworthy of
serious attention.... To dissolve the founder of Christianity into a myth, as some would do is hardly less absurd
than it would be to do the same for Mohammed, Luther, and Calvin.(60)
May not the fact that certain circumstances in the life of Christ were foreshadowed by earlier religions
indicate, as Eliphas Lévi observes, that the ancients had an intuition of Christian mysteries? (61)
To those therefore who had adhered to the ancient tradition, Christ appeared as the fulfilment of a prophecy
as old as the World. Thus the Wise Men came from afar to worship the babe of Bethlehem, and when
they saw His star in the East they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. In Christ they hailed not only Him who
was born King of the Jews, but the Saviour of the whole human race.(62)
In the light of this great hope, that wondrous night in Bethlehem is seen in all its sublimity. Throughout
the ages the seers had looked for the coming of the Redeemer, and lo ! He was here; but it was not to the
mighty in Israel, to the High Priests and the Scribes, that His birth was announced, but to humble shepherds
watching their flocks by night. And these men of simple faith, hearing from the angels " the good tidings of
great joy " that a Saviour, " Christ the Lord," was born went with haste to see the babe lying in the manger,
and returned " glorifying and praising God." So also to the devout in Israel, to Simeon and to Anna the
prophetess, the great event appeared in its universal significance, and Simeon, departing in peace, knew that
his eyes had seen the salvation that was to be " a light to lighten the Gentiles " as well as the glory of the
people of Israel.
But to the Jews, in whose hands the ancient tradition had been turned to the exclusive advantage of the
Jewish race, the Rabbis, who had, moreover, constituted themselves the sole guardians within this nation of
the said tradition, the manner of its fulfilment was necessarily abhorrent. Instead a resplendent Messiah who
should be presented by them to the people, a Saviour was born amongst the people themselves and brought
to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord; a Saviour moreover who, as time went on, imparted His divine
message to the poor and humble and declared that His Kingdom was not of this world. This was clearly
what Mary meant when she said that God had " scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts," that
He had " put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree." Christ was therefore
doubly hateful to the Jewish hierarchy in that He attacked the privilege of the race to which they belonged
by throwing open the door to all mankind, and the privilege of the caste to which they belonged by revealing
sacred doctrines to the profane and destroying their claim to exclusive knowledge.
Unless viewed from this aspect, neither the antagonism displayed by the Scribes and Pharisees towards
our Lord nor the denunciations He uttered against them can be properly understood. " Woe unto you, Lawyers
! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering
in ye hindered.... Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men: for ye neither go in your selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." What did
Christ mean by the key of knowledge? Clearly the sacred tradition which, as Drach explains, foreshadowed
the doctrines of Christianity.(63) It was the Rabbis who perverted that tradition, and thus " the guilt of these
perfidious Doctors consisted in their concealing from the people the traditional explanation of the sacred
books by means of which they would have been able to recognize the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ."
(64) Many of the people, however, did recognize Him; indeed, the multitude acclaimed Him, spreading their
garments before Him and crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of
the Lord ! " Writers who have cited the choice of Barabbas in the place of Christ as an instance of misguided
Nesta H. Webster — Secret Societies and Subversive Movements — Part I
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