knew my cousin John well since my family's return from Egypt. John was a great psychic and had visions of who I was and what my mission was to be. Later, as adults, we discussed the way I should be revealed to our people. My ministry was worked out by us and was a prearranged plan. Thus, the Gospel (Matthew 3:16) that declares that John did not know me but would anoint the one on whom a dove would descend is not true.

John baptized me as I stepped into the River Jordan waist deep. With the waters cupped in his hands, he poured the water upon my head in the symbolic act of coronation, as the old Hebrew priests had anointed the kings of Israel and Judah. I became the Christ at that moment because I was also anointed by God filling my soul with the essence of divine love. A voice was heard from the spirit realms saying, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

When I said, “The meek shall inherit the Earth” (Matthew 5:5), I did not mean the material Earth, but the promised land of the New Jerusalem in the spirit world; and not for the material body, but for the human soul encased in its spirit body.

When I said, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), what I meant was that those who have lost loved ones can have faith that God's spiritual universe is populated with the souls of those who have departed from the Earth, and that the grave simply took their envelope of flesh.

Upon seeing the merchants in the Temple courtyard, I said to them, “God's house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). I entered with a piece of rope in which I had tied knots. As I swung it about, the animals in the courtyard, of which there were many to be sold as sacrifice for the Passover stampeded, which overturned the tables and scattered the wares.

When I returned to Jerusalem it was Monday of the Passion Week. I had come from the house of Lazarus where I had enjoyed a good breakfast prepared by Mary and served to me by Martha. I know in the Gospels of Matthew (Matthew 21:19) and Mark it is stated that because I was hungry I stopped at a fig tree and when I found no fruit I cursed the tree, which immediately withered.

In actuality, when I came upon the fig tree I saw leaves on it, and thought I might also see fruit, so I stopped for a closer look. I was not hungry and had just eaten, but merely curious because it was not time for fig trees to give fruit. My disappointment did not cause me to curse the tree; as a matter of fact, I never cursed anything or anyone in my life.

At the time of my birth, God's love was bestowed upon mortals and spirits alike for the first time; thus, at the Transfiguration on the Mount, Moses and Elijah, who were the leaders of a group of spirits, had obtained their portion of God's love. The appearance of the three of us together showed that the divine love had been bestowed and received both by myself and by those deserving spirits. The voice heard saying, “Hear ye him”, which proclaimed that I was the well-beloved son (Luke 9:35), was not the voice of God, but of a spirit whose mission it was to make this proclamation.