The Final Call

This Man Jesus

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[Editor’s note: The following text on the life of Jesus and the significance of certain religious holidays is excerpted from an Easter Sunday message delivered by Minister Louis Farrakhan on April 15, 2001.]

In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

Then there is another mystery. It is said that Jesus died on a Friday, and, they call it Good Friday. I tried to figure that one out, and, I came to the conclusion that the good in it was that His Death, not His Birth, or His Ministry meant the beginning of the religion or the faith. His Death meant salvation for those whom they say He died for. If a man dies for your sins and my sins, tell me why is there a judgment? If he died for my sins, then, I do not have to pay my debt because it has been paid. What is all this talk about the punishment of hell if Jesus died for me?

It is said He would be dead for three days. He dies on a Friday and on early Sunday morning He gets up, but, He did not die early Friday morning because he was on the cross for 11 to12 hours just hanging there, before He finally gave up the ghost. So, that had to be Friday evening. From Friday evening until Saturday evening is 24 hours. From Saturday evening until Sunday evening would be 48 hours. So, what are you talking about three days in the grave?

We have raised these questions because we need to understand how Christianity has become corrupted and is far away from the Real Message of Jesus Christ. If the scripture tells us that Satan would deceive the whole world, then, that is a pretty big deception, but, what is this deception about? The deception of Satan is about Allah (God), because Satan understood that he had a limited season to do his work, but, on the Coming of Allah (God), Satan would be discovered, uncovered, revealed and Satan’s world would begin to be upset by the Presence of Truth.

Whenever pagans are convinced of the Truth of Divine Revelation, they are never happy until they can incorporate some of their old ways into the truth. They can never do it while the bearer of truth is present. They can only do it after the bearer of truth is gone. Jesus never told the people to worship Him. Jesus told the people to follow Him and to worship the Father. He never tried to equal Himself to His Father. He never taught three gods.

The Jews were given the Law by Moses, which starts with the Commandment that, "The Lord, your God, is one God and thou shalt have none other gods before Him. And, thou shalt not make any graven images, any statues, and bow down to them or worship them." That is the law. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, they got angry with Jesus and accused Him of breaking the law, and, the words of Jesus were, "I have not come to change the law but to fulfill what was written in the law." So, the greatest change would be if Moses and all the prophets from Abraham on up taught that Allah (God) is One, and, Jesus said He did not come to change the law, but, then started teaching that Allah (God) was three in one—a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost—and that the three of them were equal.

Jesus never said He was a third part. He said, "Worship the Father. There is none good but the Father." When he was on the cross, one man said, "If you be the son of God take yourself down from this cross and get me down too." Jesus could not take Himself down nor one of the thieves that was mocking Him. He cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." Who was he calling? He said, "My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me?" Those nearby said, "Behold, He calls for Elijah … let us see if Elijah will take him down."

When King Constantine accepted Christianity he wanted to appease the pagans because Christianity would then become the religion of Rome. The Romans were worshipers of a sun god. They worshiped the sun as a god. So, since Jesus was called the Son of Allah (God), they tried to incorporate sun worship with the worship of Jesus as the Son of (God).

They said Jesus was born on the 25th day of December, but, the scripture says there were shepherds abiding in the field tending their flocks by night. In Palestine in December it is cold. The sheep are in the barn. Shepherds are not out in December, but, they are out in September and October.

The sun worshipers saw the sun leaving them because the days were getting shorter, and when it got to the 21st of December, which is called the winter solstice, the sun appears to stand still. It is the shortest day of the year. The sun worshipers determined that at the time when the sun stands still and begins its journey back toward them, where the days start getting longer, they call it the birth of the sun. They burn a Yule log and they have a holly wreath, which is round-looking like the sun.

If you look in the 10th chapter of the book of Jeremiah, it says, "The heathens go in the forest and they cut down a tree and they deck it with silver and with gold." What do you do at Christmas time? You let them sell you a tree and you put it up in your living room and dress it down with tinsels. You put little balls on the branches of the tree. These balls represent the sun. You put candle lights in your windows, which represent the sun.

Around March 21, between the last part of March and early April we get what is called the vernal equinox, where the sun is in a certain position relative to the earth. When the sun and the earth are in this position, winter ends and spring begins. When spring comes it is marked by the springing to life of the earth after its death in winter. The sap begins to rise in the trees and the trees begin to bud. Flowers begin to come out of the trees and on the bushes. So, you have your Easter bonnet with little flowers on it and you feel springy.

What is the significance of a rabbit? The rabbit is one of the fastest producers, so the rabbit is used for Easter to show that spring has sprung and life has come back into the earth from its death, and, as the sap rises in the tree you find nature beginning to take its course. When the pagans were worshiping the goddess of fertility, which means that they had these sexual orgies, during this time, when Christianity became the religion of Rome, not wanting to give up their paganism they began to incorporate sun worship into the worship of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

King Constantine had a vision of a cross. The interesting thing about this cross was that there was a snake climbing up on it. A snake cannot be upright. A snake has to get up on something that is standing up and it weaves its way around the thing that is standing and then can attack you from above. Constantine saw these Latin words, "In Hoc Signo Vinces," meaning "With this sign we conquer." So, Moses is lifting up a serpent, a human being that has a nature to lean toward that, which is against the will, the way, the practice of Allah (God).

Allah (God) says in the Qur’an that everything submits except the rebellious devil. The sun submits, the moon submits, the stars submit, the mountains submit, the fish, the birds, the bees, and, the animals, they all submit. Well, what is wrong with us that we are in rebellion to Allah (God). Who taught us rebellion? Paul said that sin is transgression of the law. The scripture says that as by one man sin entered into the world and death came also by sin. All men have sinned and death is upon all men.

Constantine wanted to use the cross, not a fish, because he wasn’t fishing people out of the sea of sin. That is the work of Jesus, not Constantine, and not Christianity as Christianity is taught, preached and practiced. Christianity tolerates sin and it makes you believe that Jesus died for your sins so you can keep on raising hell without ever facing a Day of Judgment.

The True Teaching of Jesus is what you want. It is what I want. The True Teaching of Jesus Christ is what the whole world needs. If Satan is going to deceive us, he has to deceive us about the most important person, and, the most important person is Allah (God) and Jesus because Jesus is the one that ends the power of Satan. He absolutely overcomes death.

If you are on a horizontal level, you are living your life, not as an upright human being, but, you are living your life as a low-life human being with a dog-like existence. A people that have taken their low desires as a god besides Allah (God), a lying, thieving, people. You are operating on a dead level. When you operate on that level, you are not of Jesus. You are of Satan, but, he has masqueraded so well, he has you thinking you are with Jesus, but, you are with Satan all the time.