Davis Offor, known to many Nigerians as “Clarus,” the comical houseboy character he played and interpreted so well in The New Masquerade, the popular NTA soap created by James Iroha aka Gringory (late), raised some eyebrows, recently, when he claimed, in an interview with Saturday Sun that there’s nothing like forgiveness of sin in this world nor in the one to come, contrary to the widely-held Christian belief that Good Friday brought forgiveness and salvation from sin closer to humanity through the vicarious sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary. The actor who became blind later in life, insists that going by the Karmic law which posits that ‘whatever a man or woman sows they must reap,’ everybody that sinned must pay for it, either in this life or in the next cycle of life, even if they later repented. Apart from the Easter story, Rev. Offor who is today a mystic-minister (a post he’s held for about 27 years) with Aetherius Temple, a London-based mystic order but with a branch in Aba, Abia State, talks about other Christian religious doctrines that his religious order finds objectionable:
Could you tell us a little about the Aetherius Temple and what its adherents believe?
Our link in the chains of succession is stronger than the links in the chains of the Popes because before the current Pope, they had about 1,000 Popes before him. But our own is right from St. Peter himself to our ‘Cosmic Master’ Rev. George King known as Master Aetherius. So, I feel excited to have discovered this path, the Aetherius Society. Before the Aetherius Church, there were some other mystic organizations. But I discovered this to be the ultimate. If you talk in terms of school, it is the highest school of religious thoughts that we have on earth now.
How?
The cosmic masters from other planets – Jesus, Buddha, just name them, formed the society. Aetherius is a Master from the same planet that Jesus came from. But he represents the entire earth in the inter-planetary parliament building in Saturn. That’s why they address him as ‘Your Excellency’. Why the cosmic masters formed the Aetherius Society is because the teachings that Jesus and other Masters brought to us in their days have been watered down.
Is it in terms of their moral teachings or the stories used to illustrate them?
It is in their moral teachings.
Let me give you an instance. Somewhere in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus was quoted to have said if a man looks at a woman and lusts after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his mind. Has the church adulterated or watered it down?
That statement is not authentic because when He was said to have given the teaching, there were no recorders or reporters like you there.
Does it mean that men are now free to look at women and lust after them?
No, I am not saying so. What I am saying is that those sermons on the mount are very beautiful things; they are good morals. It was during the sermon that He also taught Our Lord’s Prayer. But because of these adulterations, on the 20th December 1961, Jesus gave in London, the new Lord’s Prayer that we use here.
What’s the new Lord’s Prayer?
Oh Divine and Wondrous Spirit; Oh, Everlasting Lord of Hosts. Send forth now through me Thy Great and lasting Power. Allow me, Oh Mighty God, the lasting privilege of radiating to all the world, Thy Great Love so that those who suffer may be given the power and energy to rise above their weaknesses. Oh, Mighty God, in great humility do I ask you to send forth Your Power to give me this privilege of being a channel so that my suffering brothers may be helped and guided and healed and lifted into Thy light so that those who know not may look up and in doing so receive through their higher selves Your Divine counsel. Oh Mighty God, this day have you granted me a divine privilege. I ask now to give me the strength so that never again will I turn from my inner vision of You. Oh, Shante, Shante, in praise of Your greatness, Oh God, doth my soul sing. Grant me the energy to sing on, forever and forever. That’s the new Lord’s Prayer that He gave on the 20th of December, 1961.
But in the Lord’s prayer you are complaining about, we have this line that talks about ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgave those who trespassed or offended us.’ Is that part of the prayer also watered down?
I am not sure that Jesus put that as part of the prayer.
Why?
There’s nothing like forgiveness of sin.
Why do you say so?
If you say there’s forgiveness of sin, then you are neglecting the law of Karma which says that as you sow, you shall reap. So, who will reap the one you sowed? The truth is, if I wrong you now, I may apologise and say I am sorry. That’s ok, but once that thing happens I have to pay for it by law.
So, there’s nothing like forgiveness of sin? Why then do we talk about Jesus coming to die for our sin during the Easter period so that we might be forgiven?
In coming to die for our sin, Jesus was saying: ‘Don’t destroy this earth. Let me die. Give them time to change.’ That’s what He did for us. It’s not as if He came to die so that all our sins would be forgiven. No, no. You have to pay for all the sins you committed.
That is to say, there’s no repentance then.
Someone can repent but he will pay for all that he did. Repentance can only lead you to sow better seed and to begin to do good. But the wrongs you did before you repented you have to pay for them by the virtue of Kharmic law.
If you killed somebody, how do you pay for it?
Let me give you an instance from the Bible. When Elijah caused the death of the prophets of Baal, he didn’t die immediately. They used the chariots of fire, what we know today as UFO, to take him to Venus. Now, when he got there, he had to come back to pay for what he did. In Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, we were told that Elijah would come back again to earth. In Matthew 11 verses 13 and 14, Jesus was telling people around him that this John the Baptist that you see was the Elijah that they said would come back again. Elijah had to come back as John, to pay for what he did; you know he was a cousin to Jesus.
But in Luke 1:17, it was clearly stated that he will go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah and not that he is Elijah-come-back-to-life …
But it is not what is said in this place I am quoting in Matthew. And, John himself was in a school in a certain monastery and he introduced Jesus to that school and he finished before Jesus. And, when Jesus started to practise, John was in jail. He was waiting for Jesus to come and do something and bring him out of prison. Jesus ignored him because He knew that he has a Kharma to pay. He came back to pay for what he did in the past.
There are many people whose stories are recorded in the Bible, who killed at one time or the other. Yet, I did not read about them coming back in another life cycle to pay for the sin they committed. Take, for instance, Cain who killed his brother, Abel. How do you explain that?
When I mentioned Elijah and John the Baptist, I was only trying to give you an example. I am not too sure about the Cain’s story because it is not everything that happened that you have a reliable record. Go and read books. If you do, you will understand what I am saying.
Now, that’s a big problem: at one point the answer is in the Bible and you are quoting from it to support your view, at another time, the answer is in the books of mystics.
If nobody pointed those ones out, you don’t blame me; you blame those who wrote or who are writing the books. It is also possible they wrote about them somewhere but you and I have not read them.
When you look at the law of Kharma you are talking about I don’t see it being applied in all situations and that makes one wonder whether it is real or a figment of some people’s imagination.
I am sure in your village, there are people you can identify came back to life in another cycle called reincarnation. I will use myself as an example. My second son, when he was born in Enugu, after the Nigerian Civil War, I had a powerful intuition that this guy is my father-come-back to life. And, when they went to baptize him in the Catholic church, I gave him my father’s name, John. Now, I watched him to see whether I would see something in him that could strengthen my conviction. When we moved to Aba, I was telling my wife that this Nnamdi (that is his Igbo name) is my father, John come-back-to-life. My wife said that the boy himself has said so. She said that two of them were in the kitchen, one day, talking. He was washing plates and he turned to my wife and said: ‘Mummy, Daddy does not know that I am John his father.’ I believed it came to him as a flash. That’s what happens. He had to tell who he was.
How many children do you have?
Five.
Out of the five, you have only one coming back as your father. Now, the question is, the other children you have, who did they come back as?
My daughter, Olanma, is my grandmother. I knew this because when my wife was pregnant with her, two people came to my wife to say that they saw my late grandmother in a dream waiting to board a bus. And, they asked her where she was going and she told them she was going to see us in Enugu. I am talking about two different accounts from two different people. If you understand the law of Kharma, you won’t have any problem. You would take everything that comes to you as a lesson for you, not punishment.