“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Readers of The Seth Material had asked Seth to elaborate upon data of the three Christs given in Chapter Eighteen, “The God Concept,” of that book. Some wanted to know if one of the three Christs could have been the Teacher of Righteousness; this personage was the leader of the Zealot sect in Judaea early in the first century A.D. There were four known Jewish sects flourishing there at the birth of Christianity.

The Lord of Righteousness, so called, was such a person, but his over-zealous nature held him back.

(In the literature I’ve been reading on the subject, the Zealot leader was always called the Teacher of Righteousness. The interpretation of scanty records, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, has given rise to debate, but it appears he was either Menahem ben Judah, who was killed in A.D. 66 in Jerusalem, or a nephew, who survived and succeeded him.)

You may become outraged, scandalized — or worse, filled with self-righteousness, so that you begin to attack all those with whom you do not agree, because you do not know how else to respond to your own ideals, or to your own good intent (with much emphasis).

[...] They feel powerless, so that many strike out in self-righteous anger or vengeance against a world that they see as cynical, greedy, perverted. [...]

[...] That ideal, however, different in one area than in another, was usually self-righteously applied with a vengeance and fanatical zest, so that all things outside it were seen as evil.

The entire question brings out, however, those more important issues of self-righteousness, for in its name crimes are perpetrated that the self-confessed “sinner” would never attempt.

(Seth has always cautioned us against being too self-righteous; warned us against considering silence, seriousness, or piety as synonymous with goodness or “truth.” [...]

Christendom may well have perished along with the rest of the world, but this possibility would not have been considered, so narrow and evilly self-righteous were the governing powers at the time. [...]

In those days neither did a sane, righteous man give thought to sharing his wealth, or even consider the plight of the poorer classes. [...]

[...] Actually, many criminals are motivated by distorted versions of righteousness. [...]

[...] They are the most self-righteous of the self-righteous, and they will sacrifice almost anything — their own lives or the lives of others. [...]

[...] Indeed, their holy sense of righteousness rises in proportion to the harm they have perpetrated against God’s enemy, no matter who or what this might be.

[...] This applied not only privately, however, but to the mass-accepted revelations of all religions, that could justify righteous wars for God’s sake, or justify murder in the name of peace.

[...] It is sardonic, coolly critical, hip, righteous for the underdog, and with all of this a carrier now and then for new ideas of format for initiators. [...]

[...] Self-conscious righteousness can be a very narrow road. [...]

[...] The American response—generally, now, speaking—to Iranian emotionalism is to become still more self-righteously reasonable, cooler, more superior. [...]

[...] Conflicts between the priests and righteous members of the congregation were frequent. [...]

The message was “Do not condemn yourself or others,” for Christ well knew that self-righteous condemnation of the self or of one’s neighbors served to darken the door through which man might view his own potential and its greater source.

[...] Christendom may well have perished along with the rest of the world, but this possibility would not have been considered, so narrow and evilly self-righteous were the governing powers at the time.

(Pause.) The concentration upon self-righteousness and evidence of corruption leads to its own fulfillment, and in that dark light the expression of the good appears powerless.

(Pause.) No one is as fanatical, and no one can be more cruel, than the self-righteous. [...]

My standards of spiritual behavior, I would say, are as pertinent as your own, as “high,” yet I can honestly say that your self-righteousness blinds you both to the good intent, however misguided, in say even political actions. [...]

[...] But I needle you in a righteous cause, and each of you knows it well. [...]

I mention this so often because, again, I do not want either of you to become self-righteous, for such an attitude narrows any road. [...]