“We replied, ‘That is not an order you can give with any authority.
Admittedly, in your own eyes you are like the Anakim, and the people
who are here are like dwarves. But nonetheless you have no power or
jurisdiction here except by fraud, and that is not valid. Tell your people
that we have been sent here from heaven to assess whether religion exists
among you or not. If it doesn’t, you will be thrown out of the place.
Propose the following to your people, therefore—a point in which lies
the essence of the church and religion. How do they understand the fol-
lowing words in the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father, you who are in the
heavens, your name must be kept holy; your kingdom must come”
[Matthew 6 : 9 – 10 ]?’
“When the others heard this, at first they said, ‘What is this?’ But
then they said they would propose it. They left and conveyed this propo-
sition to their people.
“Their people replied, ‘What kind of a proposition is that?’ But they
understood the hidden agenda. They thought, ‘They want to know whether
these words support the orientation of our faith to God the Father.’ So they
said, ‘The words are clear that we must pray to God the Father, and because
Christ is our Mediator, we must pray to God the Father for the Son’s sake.’
“Soon in their indignation they decided to come over to us in person
and tell us this. In fact, they said that they were going to twist our ears.
They left that place and came to a stand of trees that was near the houses
where the children and their teachers were. In the middle of the trees
there was a raised level area like a natural stage. They went onto that stage
hand in hand. We were there waiting for them. There were piles of sod on
the ground there. They sat on these piles, because they had said to each
other, ‘We are not going to stand up in front of them; we’ll sit down.’
“One of them who was able to make himself appear to be an angel of
light had been ordered by the rest to speak to us. He said, ‘You have pro-
posed to us that we reveal our opinions on the first words of the Lord’s
prayer and how we understand them. Therefore I am telling you that we
understand those words to mean that we have to pray to God the Father.
Because Christ is our Mediator and we are saved by his merit, we have to
pray to God the Father with a belief in Christ’s merit.’
[ 6 ] “We said to them, ‘We are from the community in heaven called
Michael. We have been sent to assess and investigate whether you who
have gathered in that place have any religion or not. The idea of God
permeates every aspect of religion. Through that idea a partnership [with
§113 the lord the redeemer & redemption 161