1. If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. ²It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. ³But herein lies the split. ⁴For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape punishment. ⁵All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself, and escape the penalty of denial. ⁶It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. ⁷For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

2. The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. ²The world you see is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. ³Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. ⁴For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. ⁵Children are born into it through pain and in pain. ⁶Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. ⁷Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. ⁸They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. ⁹They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. ¹⁰And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. ¹¹Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel.

3. If this were the real world, God would be cruel. ²For no Father could subject His children to this as the price of salvation and be loving. ³Love does not kill to save. ⁴If it did, attack would be salvation, and this is the ego’s interpretation, not God’s. ⁵Only the world of guilt could demand this, for only the guilty could conceive of it. ⁶Adam’s “sin” could have touched no one, had he not believed it was the Father Who drove him out of Paradise. ⁷For in that belief the knowledge of the Father was lost, since only those who do not understand Him could believe it.

4. This world is a picture of the crucifixion of God’s Son. ²And until you realize that God’s Son cannot be crucified, this is the world you will see. ³Yet you will not realize this until you accept the eternal fact that God’s Son is not guilty. ⁴He deserves only love because he has given only love. ⁵He cannot be condemned because he has never condemned. ⁶The Atonement is the final lesson he need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.