St. Paul Writes About the Truth of the Resurrection

January 16, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. Paul, of the New Testament.

I come tonight to tell you of a truth that is important for men to know and which you must place in your Book of Truths. I have written you before on my alleged writings as they are contained in the Bible and which, as I have said, were not written by me as they there appear.

I desire tonight to write for a short time on the subject of the "Resurrection," because, as I see, the church doctrine of the resurrection is founded more on what is ascribed to me than on the writings of the Gospels, though the latter also contain a basis for the doctrine.

I never said there would be a resurrection of the physical body nor of the individual clothed in any body of flesh, but my teachings were that man at death would rise in a spiritual body, and that not a new one made for the special occasion of his departure from the material body, but one that had been with him through life and that came into an individualized form when he first became a living being.

This spirit body is necessary to man's existence and is that part of him which contains his senses and is the seat of his reasoning powers. Of course, the organs of the physical are necessary for the utilization of these senses and without these organs, there could be no manifestations of the senses, which are inherent in the spirit body. Even if a man should lose the perfect workings of his physical organs of sight, yet the power of seeing would still exist in him, although he might not be able to realize that fact; and this same principle applies to the hearing and the other senses.

So when man loses his physical organs, which are necessary for him to see with, he is dead as to sight, just as dead as he ever becomes with reference to all the other organs of sense when the whole physical body dies; and were it possible to restore these physical organs that are necessary to enable him to see or hear, he would be able to see and hear just as he was before their loss. The restoration of these organs does not, of itself, bring him the power to see and hear, but merely enables the faculties of sight and hearing to again use the organs for the purpose of manifesting the powers, which are in and a part of the spirit body.

When the whole physical body dies, the spirit body at the very time of death becomes resurrected and with all these faculties of which I have spoken and thereafter continues to live free and unencumbered from the material body, which these organs being destroyed can no longer perform the objects of its creation. It becomes dead, and thereafter never has any resurrection as such material body, although its elements or parts do not die, but in the workings of God's laws enter upon other and new functionings, though never that of reuniting and forming again the body that has died.

So the resurrection of the body, as taught by me, is the resurrection of the spiritual body, not from death, for it never dies, but from its envelopment in the material form which had been visible as a thing of apparent life.

There is a law controlling the uniting of the two bodies and the functioning of the powers and faculties of the spirit body through the organs of the physical body that limits the extent of the operations of these faculties to those things that are wholly material - or which have the appearance of the material - and when I say material I mean that which is grosser or more compact than the spirit body. Thus, these faculties of sight of the spirit body can, through the organs of the material body, see what are called ghosts or apparitions as well as the more material things, but never, in this way, see things of pure spirit. And when it is said that men or women see clairvoyantly, which they do, it is not meant or is it a fact, that they see through the organs of the physical eyes; but on the contrary, this sight is one purely spiritual, and its workings are entirely independent of the material organs.

Now when this body - the material - dies, the spirit body becomes resurrected, as it is said, and free from all the limitations which its incarnation in the flesh has imposed, and it is then able to use all its faculties without the limitations or help of the physical organs and, as regards the sight, everything in nature, both material and spiritual, becomes the object of its vision; and that which the limitations of the material organs prevented its seeing and which to men is the unreal and non-existent becomes the real and truly existing.

This, in short, is what I meant by the resurrection of the body; and from this you will realize that the resurrection is not to take place at some unknown day in the future, but at the very moment when the physical body dies and, as the Bible says, in the twinkling of an eye. This saying of the Bible attributed to me, I did write and teach. This resurrection applies to all mankind, for all who have ever lived and died have been resurrected and all who shall live hereafter and die will be resurrected.

But this resurrection is not the "Great Resurrection" upon which, in my teachings, I declared the great truth of Christianity to be founded. This is not the resurrection of Jesus that I declared "without which is our faith as Christians vain." This is the common resurrection, applicable to all mankind of every nation and race, whether they have a knowledge of Jesus or not. And many times in many nations has it been demonstrated before the coming of Jesus, that men had died and appeared again as living spirits in the form of angels and men, and were recognized by mortal men as spirits who had a previous earth existence.

So I say, this is the resurrection common to all men; and the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus, as taught by the churches, did not bring the Great Resurrection to the knowledge or comfort of men and did not furnish the true foundation upon which the true Christian belief and faith rest.

Many of the infidels, agnostics and spiritualists assert and claim and truly that the resurrection of Jesus, as above referred to, was not a new thing and did not prove to humanity a future life any more convincingly than had been proved before his time by the experiences and observations of men and followers of other sects and faith, and of no faiths at all.

The great weakness of the church today is that they claim and teach as the foundation of their faith and existence this resurrection of Jesus as set forth above; and the result is, as is plainly and painfully apparent to the churches themselves, that as men think for themselves, and they are doing more than ever in the history of the world, they refuse to believe in this resurrection as sufficient to show the superiority of Jesus' coming and mission and teachings over those of other reformers and teachers who had preceded him in the world's history of faiths and religions. And as a further result, the churches are losing their adherents and believers. Christianity is waning and rapidly, and agnosticism is increasing and manifesting itself in the forms of free thought societies and secularism, etc.

Hence, you will see the necessity of making known again to mankind the true foundationstone of the real Christianity that the Master came to teach and which he did teach, but which was lost as his early followers disappeared from the scene of earthly action and practice and men of less spiritual insight and more material desires, with their ambition for power and dominion, became the rulers and guides and interpreters of the church.

There is a Resurrection, though, that the Master taught, and his apostles when they came into a knowledge of taught, and which I as a humble follower taught, which is vital to man's salvation and which is the true foundation of true Christianity; and which no other man, angel or reformer ever before taught or has since taught.

It is too late tonight to explain this Resurrection, but I will come again very soon and try to make it plain to you and to the world. I will now say good night and God bless you and keep you in His care.

Your brother in Christ,
Paul

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Jesus Confirms St. Paul's Message on the Resurrection   

I am here, Jesus.

I am pleased that Paul was able to write you so successfully as he did upon the two subjects, which I know will prove to be interesting to you and the one that Paul wrote about is very vital to the beliefs of man, for upon the question of the resurrection is founded the doctrine of what is called Christianity, and I must say that that foundation as explained by the orthodox churches and the commentators on the Bible is a very weak foundation and very vulnerable to the assaults of those who are not satisfied with the authority of the Bible or the explanations of its teachings as they now exist. Paul will finish this most important message, and let me impress upon you to make the effort to get in the best condition for receiving it correctly.

Well, I will not write more tonight, but only further say that I am with you in my love and influence and trying to help you in the ways of which we have written you. With all my love and blessings, I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Helen Somerville Writes About Her Strong Conviction That Jesus Was God and How She Suffered Because of this False Belief

January 16, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Hannah Somerville.

I am the spirit of one who lived on earth the life of a leader of a sect that believed in the resurrection of the body and the eternal punishment of those who refused to believe in the vicarious atonement of Jesus and his sacrificial death.

I have been in the spirit world a great many years and have long ago learned the great errors of my beliefs and teachings, and now know that the earthly body does not rise again and Jesus did not make a vicarious atonement, nor did His death on the cross satisfy the justice and demands of an angry God.

I know that other spirits have written you this same denial of a false belief, but I wanted to do so, also, for I realize to such a great extent how harmful such beliefs are. I was in the spirit world a long time before I was relieved of these beliefs, and I stood still in my progress for many years waiting to be called to Heaven and meet my Lord face to face and receive from Him the great commendation of, "Well done, good and faithful servant." But I received no such call, and I never got any nearer to God, apparently, than when I first entered the spirit world. And all this time, I was in such a condition that I was not susceptible to the teachings of other spirits who know the truth and attempted to show me the errors of my belief.

This may seem strange to you, but I want to tell you that the conviction of a strong belief is one that is not easily removed or shaken, and I did not find any greater and convincing force in the assertions and arguments of spirits, than I would have found in the arguments of mortals, had I remained on earth.

I saw many spirits and talked with them, and they told me that Jesus was not God, but merely a spirit like myself, only the perfect one; but I would not believe, for my earth belief could not be shaken.

I even saw a spirit who said he was Jesus and that I must not believe in him as God, or in any vicarious atonement; but yet, I would not be convinced of my errors.

This earth belief is a wonderful thing when it once possesses a man as it did me, and so many spirits have suffered from it, as I suffered.

At last the light came to me, and my soul was set free to progress to the higher spheres. But how much time I lost, and how much unhappiness I needlessly endured I cannot tell you. Now I am in a Celestial Sphere, where I know that Jesus made no vicarious atonement and is not God, but my loving elder brother.

I have never written before and I wanted very much to write, and your band was kind enough to let me do so. My name was Hannah Somerville, and I lived in England and died in 1682.

I have forgotten the name, but it was a sect of dissenters. Yes, and I have given you my correct name. Yes, I can. I believe and know that Jesus was and is the son of God and the most beloved son, too.

I will say good night.

Hannah Somerville

Jesus Writes About the Relationship of Man to the Creation of the World and the Origin of Life

January 15, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight to tell you that you are in a very much better condition than you have been for some time, and your rapport with us is so very much greater, that I feel that I should write you a message upon an important subject which is vital to the salvation of man from the sins and errors of his life on earth, and I will write a portion of what I desire to write.

Well, I will first say that there are so many men and women on the earth, who believe, or assert that they believe, that through their own efforts they can develop those soul qualities which are necessary to bring them in accord with the Soul of the Father, that I find that the task of convincing these persons of the errors of their beliefs, or assumption of beliefs, will be a very great one. This task will not be confined to those who have given real and deep study to the mysteries of life, both on earth and thereafter, but also to a much greater number who have a kind of smattering of this supposed knowledge, which the wiser or more learned publish to the world as a result of their investigations.

It is more difficult to convince the ignorant, who think that they know the laws of being and the plan of the workings of God's universe, than to convince those who have given sincere thoughtful study to the same, because the latter, generally, as they progress in their investigations become convinced that the more they should know as a result of their investigations, the less they really know.

I do not know just what is the most important subject for comment tonight relating to these matters, for there are so many, all of which I must at some time instruct you about; but I will write tonight about "The relationship of man to the creation of the world and the origin of life."

Your Bible says: In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth, etc., out of a void, and continued that creation until there was a perfect Heaven with all its glories, and a perfect earth with inhabitants of every kind - all perfect and made just as an all wise and all powerful God would create; and as a climax to all, man, who was so perfect that he was made in the image of his Creator.

Well, this story is just as good and satisfactory as any that has been conceived and written by man, and is just as worthy of belief, but as a fact it is not true, for there never was a time or period when there was a void in the universe or when there was chaos.

God never created anything out of nothing, but His creations, such as are perceived by and known to men, were merely the change in form or composition of what had already existed, and always will exist as elements, though there will undoubtedly be changes in form and appearance and in constituent elements in their relation to one another.

God was always existent - a Being without beginning, which idea the finite mind, I know cannot grasp, but it is true; and so also everything which is in the universe today always existed, though not in form and composition as they now are; and as they are - they will not continue to be, for change eternal is the law of His universe. I mean as to all things which may be spoken of as having a substance whether they be material or ethereal.

Of course, His Truths never change, and neither do the laws by which the harmony of the universe is preserved and continued perfect. Now, the earth on which you live did not always have an existence, as an earth, and neither did the firmament and the great galaxy of planets and stars, but they were not created out of nothing, and neither was there chaos, for in God's economy of being there is never any chaos, which if it should be, would mean the absence of the workings of His laws and harmony.

But the earth and the firmament were created - at one time they had no existence as such, and at a coming time they may cease to have such existence, and this creation was in an orderly way, according to design, with no element of chance entering into it; and such creation was not through what your wise men may call accretion or evolution - that is self-evolution - for every new or additional exponent of growth or manifestations of increase was the result of God's Laws, which He operated in the creation of the creature.

There is no such thing as self -evolution, or that development which arises from the unassisted growth of the thing developed, and this applies to all nature as well as to man. To grow, to become nearer perfection, implies the decay and disappearance of some elements which have performed their missions and work in the growth of the thing created, and never do the same elements continue in the development of that which the laws in their operations bring to greater and greater perfection.

But in all this work of creation, there are Laws of Disintegration and Apparent Retrogression operating, as well as Laws of Positive Construction and Advancement; and again, these former laws do not operate by chance, but by design just as do the latter class of laws. The All Creator knows when - for the purpose of bringing forth the perfect creature - be it man or animal or vegetable or mineral - the Laws of Decay and Retrogression as well as the Laws of Advancement and Increased Effectiveness shall operate, and He never makes a mistake in setting into operation these laws and never pronounces the result of His work, "Not good."

As has been said, a thousand years are as a day with God, and while for many long years it may appear to man, there are retrogression and delay in bringing to perfection a creature of the Creator's works, yet that apparent retrogression is not such a fact, but only a course or method adopted for bringing forth the higher or greater perfection. I know it is difficult to explain these workings of creation to the finite, earthy mind but you may grasp some conception of what I desire to make known.

Man, in his creation, was not the slow growth as were some of the other creations of God, but was from and at the beginning made perfect, with the exception of the qualities of Divinity and Immortality. He did not grow from a lower creature, as some of your scientists have proclaimed, by the slow process of evolution, and this a self-evolution resulting from inherent qualities which were developed by experience, but he was created the perfect man.

I will stop for the present.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Luke Writes on the Mystery of the Birth of the Soul in the Human Being

January 13, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Luke.

I want to tell you tonight of the mystery of the birth of the soul in the human being. All souls which enter into mortal bodies are, previous to such advent, real living existences and made in the likeness of the Great Soul, though not having the qualities and potentialities of that Soul and, also, not having the form of individualized personality that they have after they become parts of the composition, or form, of the mortal and spiritual bodies of human beings.

The soul, in its existence prior to becoming an indweller in the mortal body, has a consciousness of its existence and of its relationship to God and to other parts of the Great Soul, and more especially of the duplex character of its being; and by this I mean the sexual differences in the two parts of the soul, which in the way that they are united, constitutes the one complete soul.

When the time comes for this soul to become an indweller in the mortal frame, the two parts that I speak of separate, and only one of the parts enters at the same time into a mortal and never into the same mortal; and while this separation is necessary for the individualization of each part of this one complete soul, yet the two parts never lose that interrelationship, or the binding qualities that existed before their separation, and which continue to exist thereafter, and in the great future, after the work of individualization shall be completed, will come together again and reunite in a complete one.

This separation may exist a longer or shorter time, depending upon the similar development of those similar qualities that is absolutely necessary in order that this coming together in the original one, as it were, may take place.

While, as I have said, this soul before its separation has a consciousness of its existence, and when its duplex character leaves it, or rather leaves the two separated parts, and thereafter, until its re-entrance into the spirit world, does not again return to these parts. But in order to regain this consciousness, it is not necessary that both of these parts at the same time shall come again into the spirit life, for if one part becomes a spirit, free from the physical body, and the other part remains in the mortal body, that part that comes into the spirit world may receive the awakening to this consciousness, depending upon certain conditions and developments .

It often happens that both these parts will return to the spirit world, and yet, for a long time, live as spirits without having a restoration of this consciousness, because of various reasons that may exist. The conditions of the development of the two parts may be so vastly different that the realization of this consciousness may be wholly impossible; and very often it is the case that when these two individualized parts are informed that they are the soulmates of each other, they will not believe that information and live on in utter indifference to the fact.

But ultimately, the consciousness of their relationship will come to them, because their development, no matter whether intellectual or spiritual, will tend towards the awakening of this consciousness, which is always present with them, although dormant.

Now, as to what this soul is in its constituent parts or shape or form prior to its separation for the purpose of becoming an inhabitant of the mortal body, we spirits are not informed and do not know. We are often present at the conception, and also the birth of a child, and realize that a soul has become enveloped in the flesh, but we cannot see that soul as it enters into that home of mortal environment, because as to us it is invisible and has no form; but after its lodgment in the human body, we can perceive it and realize its existence, for then it assumes a form, and that form varies in different incarnations, or in the incarnations in different humans.

We have never seen the Soul of God, although we know that there is this Great Oversoul and, hence, we cannot see the soul of any image of the Great Soul until it becomes, as I say, individualized.

I know that men have often wondered and asked the question as to the pre-existence of the soul that has been incarnated, and what qualities and attributes it had during its pre-existence; and, as to these particulars, I wish to say that we spirits, although we are inhabitants of God's Celestial Heavens, have little information, though we know that the soul, and I mean the complete soul in oneness, has an existence prior to its becoming individualized. You may ask how we know this. Well, it will be hard to explain this to you, so that you may comprehend, but this I can say, that we spirits of the higher soul development can, by our soul perceptions, understand the existence of these souls as images of the Great Soul, and the qualities of these images are such that, while we cannot sensibly, as you would say, see these souls or their dualities, yet we are conscious of their existence. To use an illustration, that is not altogether appropriate, you understand that the wind blows, yet you cannot see it.

And we further understand, and such is the result of our observations, that when the soul, and keep in mind that I mean the two parts when I say soul, once becomes incarnated and assumes an individualized form, it never thereafter loses that individuality and, hence, never again returns to its condition of pre-existence and can never again become reincarnated in the existence of any human being.

There is no such thing as reincarnation, and all the theories and speculations of men upon that question, which conclude that a soul once incarnated can again become incarnated, are wrong, for the incarnation of a soul is only one step in its destined progress from an invisible formless existence to a glorious angel or to a perfected spirit.

A soul in this progress never retraces its steps - it is always progress, though sometimes stagnation takes place, but continues as an individualized spirit until it reaches its goal in fulfillment of the Father's plan for the perfecting of His universe.

This is a subject that is difficult of treatment for several reasons, among which is the fact that we spirits, no matter how high our attainments, do not have the information in order to give a full and complete description of the soul and its qualities prior to its incarnation, and you mortals are not capable of comprehending the full truth as we may try to convey it to you.

I have made this effort to give you some faint idea of the soul, as you are in good condition tonight to receive my ideas, but I realize how inadequate my attempt has proved to be. But from it, you can understand that the soul has an existence prior to its finding its home in the physical body, that it is duplex and has a consciousness of the relationship of its two parts, that after it has received the experience of the mortal life and received an individuality, it returns to the spirit world, and that at some time that consciousness will come to it again, and the two parts will become one, unless in the development of these separate parts have arisen barriers that may prevent their reuniting. And further, that this soul will never again retrace the steps of its progression and become reincarnated.

I will now close and with my love and blessings say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

Jesus Writes that the Chief Object of His Mission on Earth Was to Teach the Re-Bestowal of the Divine Love

January 12, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I will continue my discourse. As I was saying, the chief object of my mission on earth was to teach the re-bestowal of the Divine Love upon man and the way to obtain it; and the secondary object was to teach men those moral truths which would tend to make them better in their conduct towards their fellowman and purer in their natural love.

And so it is, that in my teachings of these moral truths, the effect of these teachings was to bring man more in harmony with the laws of the Father, which control the operations of the natural love. I never at any time intended that men should understand that these moral truths would bring about their union with the Father in the divine sense, or that the possession of this natural love in its purest state would enable man to become a partaker of God's Divine Nature, or an inhabitant of His Kingdom.

But as I have said, the only object, apparently that these compilers and writers of the Bible had to accomplish, was to persuade men that the observance of these moral teachings in their conduct was all that was necessary to enable them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

I know that it is said that love and almsgiving and kind deeds will work to a man's salvation and enable him to become at-one with the Father and to enjoy the presence of God in the high Heavens, but this is not true. The good deeds, which men perform in the way of helping his fellowman, will live after him and will undoubtedly work towards a man becoming perfect in his natural love, but they will not bring that man in at-onement with the Father in the Higher Love, which is so necessary to his full salvation.

My messages to you, while they will not take one jot or tittle from the moral teachings, yet they will show to man the necessity and way to obtain a full reconciliation with the Father and a home in the Celestial Spheres.

I will come to you again and write upon a subject which is important to you and which men should understand. So with all my love I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes That the Great Gift of the Re-Bestowal of Divine Love Was Not Known or Ever Dreamed of by the Jews

January 11, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I will continue my discourse of last night.

I was saying that the Jews and the teachers of the church that became established - or rather controlled - after the death of my followers, and those who understood the true teachings of my disciples, taught the conduct of men towards their fellowmen, and the observance of certain ceremonies and feasts were the important things for men to learn and practice in order to gain salvation, rather than the truths which made man a child of the Father and at-one with Him through the operations of the New Birth.

Of course, before my coming, the Jews could not have taught the truth of the New Birth, because the Great Gift of the re-bestowal of the Divine Love had not been made, and it was not possible for that Great Truth, which was necessary for Immortality and the possibility of man's partaking of God's Divine Love to be known to the Jews and, hence, they could not teach it; and their teachings were limited and confined to the things which would make them purer in their natural love and in the relation of that love to the Father.

God, at that time, while He never gave them the privilege of becoming at-one with Him in the Divine Love, or even of becoming such beings in their character and spiritual qualities as were Adam and Eve, commonly supposed to be our first parents, yet did require of them obedience to His laws which would develop in them their natural love to such a degree as would cause it to become in harmony with His laws that controlled and governed their natural love.

If you will study the Ten Commandments, you will see that these commandments deal only with the natural love and by their observance would tend to make men better in that natural love and in their conduct with one another and in their relationship to God, so far as that love brought them in communion with Him. This natural love, as I have said, was possessed by men, just as the first parents possessed it, and was never taken from them and in its purity was in perfect harmony with God's creation and the workings of His universe; but not withstanding these great qualities, men were mere men and had in them no part of the divinity of the Father.

And this being so, the Jews, while they were supposed to be more in contact with God through the prophets and seers than were any of the other races or sects of God's children, yet, never looked for a Messiah that would come with any other or greater power than that which would enable them to become the great ruling nation of the earth to whom all other peoples would be subordinated and subjected and powerless to ever again conquer or subject their nation to bondage. In a way, this Messiah was to be a kind of supernatural being having power, which no other man ever had and a kind of god to be worshiped and served in their earthly lives.

Many of the Jews, notwithstanding what may be said to the contrary and the teachings of the prophets, believed in other gods than the one which Moses declared, as is evidenced in their histories both sacred and secular, for whenever their God, that is, the God of Moses, did not treat them just as they thought He should, they would create and worship other gods - even the golden calf. So I say they never expected a Messiah who would be other than a most powerful ruler on earth.

Their ideas and beliefs of the life after death were very hazy, and even that part of them known as the Pharisees, who believed in a kind of resurrection, never conceived that when they should drop the mortal life, they would be anything different in their qualities and characters from what they were as mortals, minus the physical bodies, and the great increased happiness which would come to them as such mortals, changed in their appearances.

This was the idea of the common people and also of the priests and scribes; and notwithstanding the many beautiful and spiritual psalms ascribed to David, the happiness or glory that they might expect was only that which would come to them as spiritualized mortals having only the natural love.

So you see, the GREAT GIFT of the Father that is the rebestowal of the Divine Love, was not known or even dreamed of by the Jews, nor conceived of nor taught by their scribes, nor even by their great prophets, or law-givers such as Moses and Elias and others.Their conception of God was that of an exalted personal being, all powerful and all knowing, and one whom they would be able to see face to face, as they might any king or ruler when they should come into the Heavens which he had prepared for them, and where he had his habitation.

I will defer the writing until later.

Jesus

Jesus Writes About the Importance of Seeking the Divine Love and Not Be Satisfied by Merely Developing the Natural Love in a Pure State

January 10, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight to tell you of a truth which is important to all mankind, and which I desire that you receive just as I write it, so give your best care to receiving just what I shall attempt to write.

I have read with you tonight many sayings contained in the alleged epistles of Paul and Peter, and I realize that they do not seem to be consistent with the truth that has been declared to you by myself and by the apostles who have written to you, and I desire that you shall understand some of these inconsistencies and discard from your mind these sayings of the epistles wherever they do not agree with what we have written or what we shall write.

In the first place, the continual reference of these epistles to my being God is all wrong and must not be believed; also the statement that my blood washes away sin or that I died on the cross for the salvation of men, or that I took upon myself the sins of mankind and thereby relieved them from the burden of their sins, and the punishment which they must suffer in expiation of their evil deeds and thoughts.

Again, when it said that from the beginning, the Father had foreordained my death on the cross that man might be redeemed from the penalties of sin in all men who lived thereafter are all wrong and have no foundation as facts in the plan of God for the salvation of man and the restoring of the harmony of His universe and the eradication of all sin and error from the world.

Neither Paul nor Peter wrote these things and never did I teach them, for they are not in accord with the great plan of salvation; and the further away will be the realization by them of the truth of the only plan the Father has provided for their redemption, which I came to earth to declare and explain to my apostles first, and then to the whole world.

In these epistles too much emphasis is given to the importance of faith and works. I mean faith in the mere beliefs, which these epistles taught followed by works and not enough importance to the foundation truth of man's redemption from sin and becoming reconciled to the Father. I mean the New Birth by the inflowing into their souls of the Divine Love of the Father's through the ministrations of the Holy Spirit.

Many of their teachings as to man's conduct towards man and as to the lives that the recipients of these truths should lead as effecting their own purification and becoming in a condition of righteousness are true and are as applicable to the conduct and living of men today as they were in the days in which the apostles taught. But when the epistles teach or lead men in any particular to understand that these, what may be called merely moral principles, will enable a man by their observance to enter into the Kingdom of God, or the Celestial Kingdom, they are false and misleading, and men when they become spirits will realize that while leading the lives which these teachings call them to lead, they will become very happy and occupy conditions and positions in the spirit world that will make their happiness far superior to that which they enjoy on earth and even enable them to become occupants of higher spiritual spheres; yet they will never be permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Father, which can only be attained to by the possession of Divine Love.

So I say, men must understand and realize the difference between the results to them from leading merely good and moral lives which affect and develop the natural love and those results which ensue from the New Birth.

I have attempted to explain to you why the great and important truth of my mission to earth, as I explained it to my apostles, and as was taught by them and written by them, was not preserved and contained in the Bible as now written and accepted by the church as canonical. The great desire in those days was to show and impress upon men those teachings which affected their conduct on earth and to hold out to them the rewards that would following such living, and also the rewards which would follow their lives in the spirit world which would become their homes after death. And, as I have said, the leading of lives in accordance with these teachings would ensure men a great happiness in the spirit world, but not the happiness which my teachings, if observed, would lead to.

In the various copyings and compilations of the writings of the apostles many changes from the originals were made, and those persons who performed this work, and I mean by this the dignitaries and rulers of the church did not know the difference between those things which would bring about a purification of the natural love, and those things which were necessary to fit a soul for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. And, hence, when they came to perform this work, they made the error of teaching that the living of the moral life would entitle the soul to a reward which they supposed would be the Kingdom of Heaven and immortality. And this erroneous teaching has prevented many a man from gaining the right to the Kingdom of Heaven, as they honestly and sincerely believed would be theirs, when they came to pass into the spirit world.

Many of these teachings are intended to make a reformation in the lives of men and to purge their souls from sin and error so far as the natural love forms a part of the condition of the soul; and I taught these moral truths to a very large extent, for such teachings were necessary, because men's will was out of harmony with God's Laws, which affected the natural love, as well as out of harmony with the laws that affected the Divine Love of the Father; and it is the object and plan of God to bring into harmony both of these loves, and thereby enable man to enjoy those things which are provided and waiting for him.

As I said when on earth, "Narrow is the way and strait is the gate which leads to life everlasting and few there be that enter therein," I repeat now; for it is apparent from the observation of the way in which mankind from the beginning have exercised their wills, which God leaves free to their own volition, that a vast majority of men will never enter in at the strait gate, but be contented to live in the spheres and happiness which their natural love, in its perfect state and progress, will fit them for.

That all men will ultimately be brought into harmony with God, in either the natural love or in the Higher One, is certain, and that all sin and error will finally be eradicated from God's universe is decreed, but the time will depend to a great extent upon the wills and desires of men and, hence, while my great mission in coming to earth and teaching men was to show the way to the Celestial Kingdom, yet a lesser part of my mission was to teach them a way to their redemption from sin and error that would result in the purification of the natural love; and to my great regret and to the untold injury to man, my moral teachings were more at large set forth in portions of the Bible, as now accepted, than were my teachings of the Higher Truths.

I will not write more tonight but will continue later. Well my dear brother, I see that you are in a much better condition spiritually than you have been for some time, and you must thank the Father for it. Your conception of last night's experience is true, and you received a wonderful amount of the Divine Love, and I was was with you in love and blessing. So continue to pray and trust in the Father and you will realize a wonderful happiness and power and peace. I must stop now.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Priscilla Stone, Mother of Leslie R. Stone, Writes that She Has Progressed to the First Celestial Sphere

January 10, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Mother.

I am here, the mother of the dear boy,* and I want to tell him that I am exceedingly happy in my new home, as I am now in the First Celestial Sphere of which he has heard a great deal, and what he has heard is all true and more besides. I cannot attempt to tell him at this time, what a glorious home I have and how the good Father has provided for my happiness everything that the heart and soul can wish for. This is the result of that Divine Love which he talks so much about, and which he has to some extent, and which I know will be his in an abundant degree, even before he comes to the spirit world. There is no conception of what the power of this great Love can do to make mortals and spirits both happy, and the mortal who learns the way to possess it is blessed above every other mortal of your earth life.

But he must not think that because I am so happy and so much nearer the fountainhead of the Father's Love, that I am not still interested in him and loving him with all my heart for it is a fact that the more of this great Love that I receive into my soul, the more love flows from me to him, and the more my efforts are to have him get into his soul this Divine Love and the knowledge that he is an accepted child of the Father and is an heir to the great Kingdom which Jesus is now establishing in these Celestial Spheres.

Well, I must not write very much tonight as it is late, but I do want him to know that I, and all of his folks who are in these higher spheres, are trying to help him and make him feel the influence of our love and blessing. So tell him to believe in his mother and in the Master with all his heart and soul. His father is also very happy and is progressing and I know is endeavoring with all his faith to progress to my sphere and get with me, and then we will be one in actual living as well as in the knowledge that we are one and always have been.

So with all my love, I will say good night and thanking you, I will leave my love for my boy and the prayer of a mother that he may continue in the favor of God and in the progress of his soul.

His Mother,
Priscilla Stone

*Dr. Leslie R. Stone

St. John Writes a Note of Encouragement to James E. Padgett to Have Faith in the Spirit's Promises

January 7, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

Well, I came to write only a few lines as you are not feeling too well and not in condition to receive any formal message tonight. But I will say that notwithstanding what you have read tonight in reference to your material affairs, you must have faith and expect that our promises will soon be realized. The work must be done and you must be placed in condition to do it without interference. If you could realize the powers that are at work in their endeavor to bring about what is necessary to place you in condition to do this work as we desire it to be done, you would not lose faith or doubt that all the promises made will be fulfilled. We recognize to the fullest the importance of this matter and we will not permit much more time to elapse until the end desired is brought about.

You and your friend, who is interested in the means that we have adopted for bringing the consummation of our plans, will soon be enabled to start the business that we have told you of, and you must both have faith.

I will not write more tonight and with my love to you and your friend, who is present, I will say good night and God bless you both.

Your brother in Christ,
John

George H. Butler Writes About the Horrors of Hell and Describes His Home of Ugliness and Torment

January 5, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am a spirit who cannot tell you of the joys of Heaven, but I can describe the horrors of Hell. For just as these other spirits described to you their homes of beauty and happiness, I can describe my home of ugliness and torment. Do you wish me to do so?

Well, know then that when I lived on earth, I was a man of very considerable intellectual powers and acquirements and, also, of an intense animal nature; so much so, that it overcame my judgment and what moral qualities I had, and I became at last a slave to my appetites which were varied, especially my appetite for drink. I had many friends of position, social and otherwise, and I was considered a brilliant newspaper writer and had access to the inner political circles that were then in control of the government.

My weakness, or rather the effect of the strength of my animal nature, was known to many of my friends and they, in many ways, tried to help me and rescue me from my evil and destructive course of living; and, at times, I would succeed in reforming my conduct; but, alas, not for any great length of time, when I would again relapse into my deplorable habits and become the controlled victim of my destroying appetites.

Of course, human friendship and sympathy had their limits and, finally, my friends gave me up as lost and past redemption, and I surely and quickly sunk lower and lower in my moral condition and, at last, died a drunkard, unwept and unsung except for the evil that I had done. It was undoubtedly a relief to my friends and acquaintances when I passed over and forever relieved them of the shadow of my presence and the ghost of what I had been.

But such was my end and when I came to the spirit world, I found that I still was deserted by friends who had become spirits before me, except some who liked the flowing bowl as I did on earth, and who were inhabitants of the unattractive place that I found myself in when my habitation became fixed. I never, when on earth, thought much of the future life, except to convince myself that there was no Hell and if there was a God, He was not bothered about me, a mere man of many millions. But oh, the fatal mistake! And the unexpected realization of the fact that there is a Hell!

Whether there is a God I don't know, for I have never seen Him or felt His influence. But since I came to you tonight and heard the messages of those two spirits who described their wonderful homes and their condition of happiness and ascribed them all to the kindness and care of God, I have commenced to think that there may be a God, and that my mistake was greater than I have heretofore realized; but this is a digression from what I started out to write.

That there is a Hell; I know to my sorrow and sufferings. For I have been the occupant of one for, oh, these many years; and it is always the same place of horrors and darkness, except sometime it is lighted by the flame of lurid light that comes from the anger and sufferings of some unfortunate like myself.

In this Hell of mine, and there are many like it, instead of beautiful homes, as the other spirits described, we have dirty, rotten hovels all crooked and decayed with all the foul smells of a charnel house ten times intensified. And instead of beautiful lawns and green meadows and leafy woods filled with musical birds making the echoes ring with their songs, we have barren wastes and holes of darkness and gloom and the cries and cursings of spirits of damnation without hope. And instead of living silvery waters, we have stagnant pools filled with all kinds of repulsive reptiles and vermin and smells of inexpressible, nauseating stinks.

I tell you that these are all real and not creatures of the imagination or the out flowing of bitter recollections. And as for love, it has never shown its humanizing face in all the years that I have been here - only cursings, and hatred, and bitter scathings, and imprecations, and grinning spirits with their witch-like cacklings. No rest, no hope, no kind words or ministering hand to wipe away the scalding tears, which so often flow in mighty volumes.

No, Hell is real and Hell is here. We do not have any fire and brimstone, or grinning devils with pitch forks and hoofs and horns as the churches teach; but what is the need or necessity for such accompaniments? They would not add to the horrors or to our torments. I tell you my friend that I have faintly described our homes in these infernal regions and I cannot picture them as they are.

But the horror and pity of it all is that hope does not come to us with one faint smile to encourage us that there may at some time be an ending to all these torments and, in our hopeless despair, we realize that our doom is fixed for all eternity. As the rich man in Hell said, if I could only send Lazarus to tell my poor, erring brothers on earth of what awaits them, how gladly I would do so and save their souls from the eternal torment.

Well, I have written you a long letter and am tired, because it is the first time that I have attempted to write for many long years, and I find some difficulty in gathering my thoughts so as to be able to write in an intelligent and collected manner. So I must stop.

Well, I will say that you are the best friend that I have had since I became an outcast while on earth, and that I will do whatever you may advise, but you must not expect me to have much hope, not doubting your desire to help me, but merely your ability.

Well, I don't understand, but I will trust you and will try to believe what you say - only don't create in me that of which I have been deprived of for so long, I mean - hope - and have me disappointed. Well, I have looked, as you advised, and see some spirits who are so beautiful and so bright that I can scarcely look at them. Never before have I seen such spirits or imagined that such could exist. They must be gods, or why all the great happiness and beauty and love which they have. Tell me, what does it all mean! Is it a star of hope that has come to me from afar and bids me trust that these Hells shall not be my home forever? Oh tell me, I pray, you are they the spirits of real mortals who lived and died as I did?

Such love I have never seen; and they look at me with such encouragement and almost human eyes of love and beckon me to come with them. I have asked if Mr. Riddle is there, and one spirit comes to me and says yes, and that he is glad to have me come with him, as he knew me on earth and is acquainted with my sad life. And now I remember him, for he was a friend who lived in the same city as I did.

He says: "Come George, and I will try to show you the way to light and relief from your sufferings." And I am going, and as I go a beautiful, glorious spirit comes to me and lays her hand on my head and says: "God bless you my brother and may His Divine mercy be yours;" and she tells me that they all love me and will help me.

Oh, tell me what does it all mean! Am I dreaming? Are you real and are they real, or am I in one of the deliriums that I used to have on earth? Oh, so beautiful and heavenly. But they say no, that they are real spirits and once lived on earth - sinful mortals like myself.

How can I ever thank you? I am overcome and cannot write more, but I will come again. So my dear friend good night, for I am going.

G.H.B.

My name is George H. Butler, and I died in 1886.


* * * * * * * * * *     
   
Helen Writes to Confirm Mr. Butler's Message    

I am here, Your own true and loving Helen.

Well my dear, you have had a variety of writings tonight, and I have been greatly impressed with the last message that you received, for the writer was a very intelligent spirit and seemed to be without hope in his soul. He was a very dark spirit and did not seem to have any love in his soul, but was the picture of despair and grief. He firmly believed that his position in Hell was fixed for all eternity and, hence, the hopeless despair in which he was.

I am so glad that he came to you and described these Hells, for he was capable; and no one can describe them as he who has lived in them for many years and suffered and experienced all their torments.

He seems to be very grateful, and I think that hope has come to him. He has gone with Mr. Riddle, who is much interested in him. We will all try to help him to progress. So you must pray for him now. We all will. It is late, and I will not write more.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Abraham Lincoln Writes His Testimony and is a Follower of Jesus' Teachings

January 5, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am your friend in Christ and desire to write a few lines, but it will not be about religious matters, for I heard what the Master said, and he knows what is best.

Well, I am in the Seventh Sphere and am very happy and enjoy all the delights of a soul redeemed and am in the way of progress to the higher spheres where some of your band live. How beautiful must be their homes because, when they come to the lower spheres, they have such beauty and are so filled with the Father's Love that I know they must live in homes of transcendent beauty where happiness is supreme.

I am not one who knows all that there is in the Heavens provided by the Father, but I know enough to say that, "No eye of man has seen and neither has his heart conceived of the wonderful things that the Father has prepared for those who love Him and do His will."

In our sphere, the glory of our habitations and surroundings that we have are beyond all conceptions of mortals, and beyond all the powers which we have to describe. Your language is poor, indeed, when we attempt to use it to describe our homes and our happiness. Never a sigh, nor a thought tainted with the slightest flavor of unhappiness or discontent. All our wishes are gratified, and Love reigns eternally and without stint.

Never, when on earth, did I conceive that one man could love another as one spirit here loves his brother spirit. The mine and thine are truly the ours, and no spirit is so happy as when he is doing something to make another spirit happier; and then, love between the opposite sexes is so pure and glorified.

My home is not in any of the cities but is in the country among beautiful fields and woods where the purest waters flow in silver streams of living light, and the birds of paradise in all their glorious plumage sing and make merry the echoes of the hills and rocks, for we have hills and rocks as well as plains and beautiful meadows and placid lakes and shining waterfalls, all praising God for His goodness.

So why will not every mortal try to attain to this Heavenly condition of love and happiness, when it is so easy for him to do so? The Divine Love is waiting for all and needs only the seeking and the believing in order to make the mortal an heir to all the glories of this Heavenly place.

But the mind of man, in its superimposed importance and in the conceit of the wonderful powers of his reasoning faculties, keeps the simple childlike faith from making him a child of the Kingdom.

Oh, I tell you, if mortals only knew what is here ready for them to obtain and make their own, they would not let the supposed greatness of their minds, or the cares and ambitions and desires for earthly possessions, keep them from seeking this great and glorious inheritance, which is theirs by merely claiming it in the way made known by the Master.

And he - what can I say of him - the most glorious and beautiful and loving of all the spirits in God's universe. When on earth I looked upon him and worshiped him as God, sitting on the right hand of the Father - way up in the high Heavens, a way off waiting for the coming of the great judgment day; when he would separate the sheep from the goats and send each to his eternal place of habitation - whether to Hell or Heaven - only he knew, and I did not and could not until the great judgment should be pronounced.

But now, when I see him as he is, and know that he is my friend and elder brother, a spirit such as I am, with only love for his younger brethren, be they saints or sinners, and a great longing that all may come and partake of the feast which the Father has prepared, I feel that the loving brother and friend is more to me and my happiness is greater than when I looked upon him as the God of judgment having his habitation away off beyond my vision or reach. He is so loving and so pure and so humble. Why his very humility makes us all love him almost to adoration, and if you could only see him, you would not be surprised that we love him so much.

Well, my friend, I have written a little more than I intended, but I am so filled with Love and so happy in having such a friend as the Master, that I can hardly restrain myself. I will come again sometime and write you upon some spiritual truth, which I so much want you to know.

When on earth, I was not an orthodox to the full extent, but my early belief that Jesus was a part of the Godhead I did not succeed in getting rid of, although my mind often rebelled at the thought; but the early teachings of my mother lingered with me, and maturer thoughts and development of mind could never entirely eradicate this belief in Jesus as being part of God. Some have said and thought that I was almost an infidel, but this is untrue, for I always believed firmly in the Father and, as I have told you, in Jesus.

I was also to some extent a spiritualist, that is, I believed in the communications of spirits with mortals, as on numerous occasions I have had such communications and have acted on advice that I received through them. But I never learned from any of these communications any of the higher truths, which I now know and which are so important for mortals to know and which, if men only knew and taught, would make their religion a live, virile, all pervading and satisfying religion.

We are all interested in your work and are co-workers with you in revealing these great truths. May God bless and prosper you and cause you to see the realities of the great Divine Love is the prayer of your brother in Christ.

A. Lincoln

Jesus Writes That the Love of the Father is Flowing Into James Padgett's Soul in Abundant Streams of Power and Quantity

January 5, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I merely want to say that I am glad to see that you are in condition of soul, which makes you more at-one with the Father, and which must convince you that the Love of the Father is flowing into your soul in more abundant streams of power and quantity.

I know that you have not been in the best condition of mind as regards your beliefs and doubts during the past few days, but you must not let such experience discourage you, for such conditions will arise as long as you are in the flesh; and you must not think that, because of the doubts, you are not receiving this Love in your soul - for you are - and after a while, it will become so very abundant that the doubts will rarely appear to disconcert you.

I will not write much tonight, as I think you are in need of meditation over what has been written you lately, before more truths shall be presented to you. So think of what has been written you and you will find yourself much benefited.

With all my love, I am your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes That Salvation is a Thing Between God and the Individual Receiving His Divine Love

January 4, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I will write only a few lines, and because I desire to confirm what Luke has so clearly explained as to what the atonement is. He has stated the true plan of God for the redemption of mankind, that is, for the placing of them in the exact relation to our Father that our first parents occupied, and which relation by their disobedience was taken from them and never restored until my coming.

Men must learn the true meaning of the great plan for their salvation and for their becoming at-one with the Father in His Divine Nature. No other plan has been provided and no other way is open to men to receive this Divine Nature of the Father and Immortality.

The material love of man - that is, the love of the Father that God bestowed upon men at the creation of our first parents - is a love that is pure and in harmony with God's laws and the workings of the universe, and which must be restored to its pristine purity in order for man to come into harmony with God as to the laws controlling it; and men must, in order to get in this harmony, become free from all violations of God's laws in their conduct towards Him and towards one another; and many of my teachings were directed to bring about this harmony.

The Golden Rule is one and this great teaching, if observed in the conduct of men towards one another, will tend to bring about the harmony. For to man, the most important thing is his own happiness; and when a man shall do unto others as he would have others do unto him, he will be proceeding towards that condition of conduct and the correct relationship of man to man that will bring harmony and an observance of those requirements of God's laws controlling such relationship. But the observance of the right conduct of man to man, or the regaining of the purity of this natural love, will not bring about the great reconciliation to God in the Divine sense; that is, make men at-one with the Father in His Divinity and Immortality.

And now I see and understand why my great teachings of the Divine atonement was not considered as important by men, after my early followers died, as the teachings that should control them in their conduct towards one another, that is, what may be called my moral teachings.

In those days, the great majority of men who professed to follow my teachings, as are written in the Bible that the church adopted, thought more of the rewards and happiness that might come to them as mortals than to those that might come to them after they became spirits, just as the Jews had thought for all the long years prior to my coming. These teachings were merely those of the earth, and as such teachings, whether of the Old Testament or any other teachings recognized by them as governing their conduct as mere mortals, were of more importance to them than were the teachings that showed them the way to the Celestial Kingdom.

And when the church, which my apostles founded, came under the control and government of men with only the temporal interests at heart, the greater importance was attached to those things which, as the rulers and leaders of the church thought, would cause the people to conduct themselves in such a way as would tend to increase the power and influence of the church. And, hence, the great truth of the New Birth was neglected and salvation was declared to be by means that could be more readily utilized by the officials of the church. In other words, salvation became a thing which depended on the church and not on the individual. So you see the great harm that was done by these teachings and the great power the church acquired.

Salvation is a thing between God and the individual and can be obtained only by the individual becoming at-one with the Father, who cares not for the teachings of the church or of man, unless these teachings will bring the souls of men in harmony with him. I say, cares not, but that does not just express what I mean, for God does care whenever His creatures are taught false doctrines, as He is waiting and anxious to bestow upon every man His Divine Love. But even He cannot or will not make such bestowal, unless man follow the Plan which He has prescribed. And He could not have adopted any other plan, for the only way in which men can become at-one with Him is to become, as it were, a part of Him to partake of His Nature and Attributes; and unless the soul of man receives from the Father these Qualities, it can never become at-one with Him.

As Luke said, my death or blood or any supposed vicarious atonement could not have made a man's soul a possessor of the Divine Love of the Father, because they could not bring man into that relationship with the Father that would cause the soul of man to open up to the inflowing of this Love. Let no man suppose that by a mere belief in me as the son of God and the savior of the world, or that I died for him, he can become at-one with the Father, for it is not true and has worked great harm to mankind.

Only the pure, honest, sincere aspirations of the soul of a man for this Great Love of the Father can possibly bring about this atonement that is necessary in order for that man to become a part of God's Divinity and partake of His Divine Nature.

I have written enough and will close.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Luke Writes Further On the Atonement, Part 2

January 4, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. Luke.

I wish to continue my discourse on the Atonement.

As I was saying unless a man gets into harmony with God in the natural love, which God bestowed upon him, and thereby becomes free from sin and error, there can be no redemption for him, and the death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood cannot cause that harmony.

Now what I have heretofore said relates exclusively to man and his salvation in respect to his condition of becoming perfect in this natural love, which all men have. But this is not the great atonement, which Jesus came to earth to teach men and the way in which it could be obtained and the effect of its attainment.

As has been told you, in the beginning God conferred upon our first parents not only the natural love but the potentiality of obtaining it by the observance of certain laws and obedience, the Divine Love of the Father, which - when obtained - would make a man a part of divinity itself; and while it would not make him a god, or the equal of the Father, yet it would give him a divinity that would cause him to receive the substance of God's Great Love and not remain the mere image and, as a consequence, man would become immortal.

God alone, is Immortal, and every part of Him is Immortal, and when men shall obtain in their souls that part of Him which is his Greatest Attribute - His Divine Love - they will also become Immortal and thereafter not subject to death.

The natural love, which was implanted in the souls of all mankind, is not a part of the Divine Love. It is not this love in a lesser degree even, but is a distinct and separate quality of love, and all men possess it; but in many persons, it has become contaminated by the sins that flow from the violation of God's Laws, so that the redemption, of which I have spoken, is necessary for man even as the possessor of this natural love only.

But the Divine Love of the Father is a Love that has in it and is wholly composed of the Divinity, which the Father possesses, and no man can ever become a part of that Divinity until he possesses this Great Love. I know it is said that man is divine because he was created in the image of God, but nothing which is a mere image is ever a part of the substance of which it is the image and cannot possibly have the qualities of that substance. Commonly speaking, the image may have the appearance and for the ordinary affairs of the mortal life may serve the purpose of the real until something that arises that demands the production of the real, and then the image will no longer serve the purpose.

Now in the case of the creation of man, he was made in the image of God in one particular only, and that in the matter of soul appearance. His physical or spiritual body was not in the image of God, for God has no such bodies, and only the soul of man is in the image of God, the Great Oversoul. And so long as man remains a mere image of the Father, he will never be more than the mere man that he was at the time of his creation, and the Substance of the Father will never become a part of him; and while the Substance is Divine, the image can never become Divine until it becomes transformed into the Substance.

At man's creation, a plan was formed by which that image might become a thing of Substance, and there was given to man, the possessor of the image, the potentiality of obtaining the Substance; but man, through his disobedience or failure to comply with or follow out the requirements of the plan provided, forfeited this potentiality, which had been conferred upon him and thereby lost the possibility of having the image transformed into the Substance, which was absolutely necessary in order for him to ever become the possessor of any part of the Father's Divinity. And when men call themselves "divine," they assert that which is not true, but which, since the coming of Jesus to earth, may become true.

I will not recite what this disobedience of our first parents was, or in what way they lost the great potentiality of becoming Divine, but will only say that when, by their disobedience, they forfeited this potentiality, it was taken from them by God, and His decree - that in the day they should commit the act of disobedience they should surely die - was carried out and they died; not the material bodies died nor their spiritual bodies died, nor their souls, for men continued to live in their physical bodies for many years after the day of disobedience, and their spirit bodies and souls never died, for they still live. But what died and what the sentence passed upon them affected was the potentiality of receiving the Substance, which would make them Divine and Immortal. This potentiality was taken from them and never restored during the long centuries from the time of its death until the coming of Jesus.

That part of the Divine Nature, or that Divine attribute, which was the object of this potentiality and which would make man a part of the Divine Nature and immortal, was the Divine Love of the Father and nothing else; and if our first parents, through their obedience, had received this Divine Love, never would mortality as to the soul have existed on earth, and neither sin nor a want of atonement with the Father. But disobedience came and death of the possibility of becoming immortal ensued, and man remained mere man, only an image of the Father and nothing more.

No man in all the long ages that I have mentioned ever had anything more or greater in his nature than the natural love of which I have spoken; and even as to that, man so abused and defiled it, until at a time he became an outcast from the Father as to this Love. In other words he, man, buried it so deeply under his acts of sin and the violation of those Laws of God, which control this natural love, that he appeared to be forsaken by the Father even as a mere human being.

But in the history of what is called "God's chosen people," the Jews, it appears that time and time again these people became such aliens from God in this natural love, that men, possessed of this love in a purer state than were the common people, were used by the forces of the spirit world to call these people to a realization of their obligations to God arising out of the gift of the natural love. None of the prophets - neither Moses nor Elijah nor any of the others - was possessed of this Divine Love, but merely of the natural love in a purer state than were the people to whom they delivered their messages.

But in God's own time, and in accordance with His Mercy and Plan, He re-bestowed upon man this great potentiality of which I speak, so that men should again have the privilege of becoming at-one with Him. And to declare the re-bestowal of this Great Gift, Jesus was sent to earth in the form of man conceived and born as other men, but without sin.

It was at the time of Jesus' coming the Great Gift was re-bestowed upon both mortals and spirits of mortals then living in the spirit world, and they all, spirits and mortals, received the privilege of becoming at-one with the Father through the Plan of Salvation that He had revealed to Jesus, and which Jesus taught in his ministry during the short years of his earthly life, and which he is still teaching.

There is no other way in which man can become at-one with the Father - in which the image can be transformed into the Substance - than the Way that Jesus taught, but which seems not to have been understood by men after the church became a church of temporal power, and after the Bible or the writings of the apostles were emasculated and the thoughts and desires of men interpolated in the place of the gospel of peace and salvation. Yet there is in the Gospel of John one declaration of the true Plan of Salvation, though it is little understood and almost ignored in practical teachings and observances of the churches and their members, and that is: "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."

These words of the New Birth are the only words that declare the true doctrine of the atonement. No death of Jesus on the cross, no shedding of blood or washing away of sins by the blood, no paying of any debt and no believing in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, will bring men into atonement with the Father and make them partakers of his Divine Nature or fit them to become inhabitants of His Kingdom. Only the New Birth is efficacious for this purpose, and no other plan did Jesus ever teach and is not now teaching.

Then what is meant by the New Birth? Men in their understanding and interpretation of it differ, and it will do no good for me to recite these different interpretations or what the New Birth is not; but the important thing is, what it is. As I have said, the potentiality that was conferred upon our first parents was the privilege of obtaining the Divine Nature and immortality of the Father by becoming possessed of His Great attribute of Divinity - the Divine Love. And had our first parents by their obedience received the benefits of this great privilege, they would have been Born Again, as you and all other mortals and spirits, as well, may now be Born Again.

Then the New Birth is simply the effect of the flowing into the soul of a man of this Divine Love of the Father, and the disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error. As the Divine Love takes possession of the soul, sin and error disappear; it, the soul becomes of a quality like the Great Soul of the Father; and the Soul of the Father in its Quality of Love being Divine and Immortal. So when the soul of man becomes possessed of this Quality of Love, this soul becomes Divine also - and the soul is the man - and then the image becomes the Substance, the mortal becomes the Immortal and the soul of man, as to love and hope, becomes a part of the Father's Divinity.

Now to declare this Plan of Salvation and also the re-bestowal of the Great Gift of the potentiality of the soul, Jesus came to earth. This was his mission and none other. As readers of the Bible will remember, and it is a truth, when Jesus was baptized and anointed and, also on the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of God, as it is written, declared that Jesus was His well beloved son and demanded of the people: "Hear ye him." Not to believe that he came to die on the cross, not to believe that his blood would bring about the atonement, not to believe in any vicarious atonement or that God in wrath demanded a sacrifice, but only "Hear ye him." And Jesus in all his teachings never taught one of these things, but only the New Birth as I have explained it. This is the only thing necessary to the atonement, and he is still teaching it.

He also taught moral truths affecting the conduct and relation of man to man, and man to God in his natural state, but none of these things or moral teachings were sufficient to bring about the Great Atonement. There is no doubt that the observance of many of these teachings of morality and of man's conduct towards God will have a tendency to lead men to seek the higher Love of the Father and help their souls to get in the condition that will make it easier for this Great Love to flow into them; but these moral teachings or prescribed conduct will not, of themselves, be sufficient to bring the New Birth and, hence, the atonement.

Now Jesus not only taught the necessity for the New Birth, but he also taught the Way in which it could be obtained, and that Way is just as simple and easily understood as the New Birth itself. He taught and is now teaching that through earnest prayer to the Father and faith, which makes all aspirations and soul longings things of real existence, and by the Holy Spirit which is the Father's Messenger of Love - or to carry his Divine Love - this Love will flow into the souls of men in response to such prayers; and by such faith men will realize its presence, and in this way, and this way only, men will receive the New Birth.

This is wholly an individual matter and without the personal, earnest prayer of the supplicant and faith that comes with the Love, a man cannot receive the New Birth. No ceremony of church, no laying on of hands or masses for the souls of the dead will be efficacious to make the man or spirit a new creature in God.

What I have written is the meaning of the atonement as taught by the Master, and as understood by all the redeemed of the Father, who are now living in His Celestial Heavens, and there is no other atonement possible.

I have written enough and hope I have made it plain to all men the true explanation of the atonement. We who are inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens know the truth of my explanation, both from personal experience and from the other fact, which no spirit in all the universe can deny, that only those who have received this Divine Love of the Father in their souls in sufficient abundance can or do inhabit the Celestial Heavens; all other spirits, no matter what their several beliefs may be, live in the lower spiritual spheres and cannot enter the Celestial Heavens, unless they seek for and obtain the New Birth that Jesus taught and is still teaching.

So my dear brother, without writing more, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

Jesus Writes Further There Was Never Any Lucifer, Devils or Satan Considered as Real Persons and Fallen Angels

January 3, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I am with you tonight to warn you against letting any doubt enter your mind or heart as to our actually writing to you for we, and none other, are actually in communication with you.

The book that you read (Pastor Russell on Spiritualism) is a snare and a lie, for there are no angels who have become devils as the author of that book declares. Never were there any angels who through ambition or any other reason revolted against the power of government of God and thereby lost their estate as angels. Never was there any Lucifer, and never were there any angels who were thrown from the battlements of Heaven into Hell, as it has been written and as I told you before. There are no Devils and no Satan considered as real persons and fallen angels.

The only spirits in the spirit world are those who at one time were mortals and who lived lives on earth, shorter or longer, and whenever angels are mentioned in the Bible, or rather in the New Testament in places which contain my sayings or those of the apostles, and I mean those sayings which were actually said, the word "angel" always refers to the spirit of some mortal who had passed the line between life and death as commonly understood.

I desire to tell you of these things at large very soon and to instruct you as to who were the angels of God that are supposed to have had an existence prior to the creation of man and of the world; and who the inhabitants of Heaven were before the Spirit of God entered into man and caused him to become a living soul as the Bible says. But the time is not yet ripe for me to instruct you in these matters, because there are so many more important truths to be first taught you - truths which are vital to man's salvation and happiness to those on earth and in the spirit world.

But this you must believe that no Devils ever write you, or in any manner manifest to, or through, any of the numerous mediums who are used to show the existence of spirits of men in the spirit world no matter whether these mediums be good or evil. There are spirits of all kinds - just as there are mortals of all kinds - having all the traits and characteristics of mortals, and some of these spirits may be justly called wicked or evil spirits, and even devils; but they are nothing more or less than spirits, such as I describe.

l know that the belief of the majority of mankind is that there are such things as devils and that they are independent creations of God made by Him to tempt and inflict all kind of trouble and unhappiness on mortals, and because of the great number of years that these beliefs have existed, and the fact that many of the churches still teach that such devils do exist and are at all times trying to tempt and injure men, it is hard and will be difficult to induce men to believe that there are no such things as devils, which is the truth.

I know that the Bible, in many places, speaks of my casting devils out of men, and of men being possessed of devils, and of the apostles casting out devils, and of their not being able to cast out some of these devils, but I tell you now that the Bible is all wrong in this regard, and the writers and translators of the Bible never understood what the word devil, as used in these various instances, meant or was intended to mean. As I have told you, there was never any devil or devils in the sense mentioned and taught by the churches and, consequently, they never could have possessed mortals nor have been cast out of them.

It is true that by the workings of the Law of Attraction and the susceptibility of mortals to the influence of spirit powers, mortals may become obsessed by the spirits of evil; that is, evil spirits of men who once lived on earth. And this obsession may become so complete and powerful that the living mortal may lose all power to resist this influence of the evil spirits and may be compelled to do things that the mortal will not desire to do and to show all the evidence of a distorted mind and present appearances of a lost will power, as well as of the ability to exercise the ordinary powers given him by his natural creation. And in these instances referred to of casting out devils, wherever they occurred, and they did occur in some of the instances mentioned, the only devils that existed were the evil spirits who had possessed these mortals.

And this obsession obtains today just as it did then, for the same laws are in operation now as were in existence then, and many a man is in a condition of evil life and disturbed mind from the obsession of these evil spirits; and if there were any men of today in that condition of soul development and belief that my disciples were in, they could cast out these so called devils just as the disciples cast them out in the Bible days.

But men have not this faith, though there are many who have been blessed with the inflowing of the Holy Spirit; but they have not the belief that such work as the disciples performed can be performed by them now and, in fact, the most of them believe that it would be contrary to God's will to attempt to exercise such powers and, hence, they never attempt to do such work.

But when men learn that in all ages God is the same, that His laws work the same way, that mankind is the same so far as the soul's possibilities are concerned, and that the faith which God made possible for man to attain to may be possessed by him now - just as it was possessed by my disciples, then they will attempt this work of beneficence and will succeed, and the sick will be healed and the devils cast out, the blind made to see, and the deaf to hear, and the so-called miracles will be performed as they were in my days on earth.

There is not and never was such a thing as a miracle in the sense of having an effect produced by a cause which was not the result of the ordinary workings of God's laws, for these laws in their workings never vary, and when the same law is called into operation upon the same condition of facts the same results will always be produced.

So, let a mortal have in his soul the same amount of God's Divine Love, which the Bible writers meant or should have meant, when they spoke of being endowed by the Holy Ghost, and let him have the necessary faith that when he prays to God, He will give him the power to exercise this Love in a sufficient degree to produce the desired results, and then try to exercise the power of casting out devils or healing, etc., and he will find that success will attend his efforts. God is the same at all times and under all circumstances, and only mortals vary in their conceptions and conditions.

So I say, there are no devils as independent creatures of God, in contradistinction to the spirits of men who once lived on earth, and you must believe that there are not.

I tell you now that the teachers of such false doctrines will have to pay the penalties for their false teachings when they come to the spirit world and see the result of these false teachings, and no relief will be granted until they have paid the last farthing. To believe such doctrines entails results that are bad enough for any spirit to endure, but to teach others these beliefs and convince them of their truth, entails upon the teacher, whether he actually believes them or not, sufferings and duration of sufferings of which men have no conception.

I will not write more tonight but will, in closing, say that you have my love and blessings, and my promises I will fulfill, so that you will realize your expectations and be in condition to perform the work that you have been selected to do.

Well, you let doubt come into your mind and, as a consequence, your soul does not respond, although, strange as it may seem the Divine Love is there, but when this mental doubt exists, it is as if it were a covering which prevents the existence of the Love in the soul to shine forth and produce the great feeling of happiness and joy which otherwise you might experience.

The mental condition of the mortal, undoubtedly has a great influence on the consciousness of the man as to his possession of this soul development and the Divine Love and, consequently, there will have to be this continuous fight as long as life lasts on earth between the mental conditions and the soul's consciousness. But as the mental beliefs are brought into harmony with the soul's condition, more and more the fight will grow weaker and less frequent, and it is possible that they will cease altogether, and the mental beliefs become entirely and absolutely subordinated or rather absorbed in the soul's consciousness of its being possessed of this Divine Love of the Father.

So my dear brother, I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes That There Are No Such Things as Fallen Angels

January 2, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come to tell you that you have not been in a very good condition of spirituality since last night when you read that book.

Well, in the first place I want to say that there are no such things as the fallen angels, or any spirits except the spirits of those who once lived as mortals, and who are living now as spirits. Of course, many of them are what may be called evil spirits, but they are not devils in the sense that the author describes them.

There never were any rebellions in Heaven of any of the Angels of God and, whenever such a thing is mentioned in the Bible, it has no foundation in fact for there never was a Seraphim or any other angel that fell and became the devil or Satan, as he is called, and you must not let your thoughts disturb your belief in our writing to you for we who profess to write to you actually do write.

I know that it is very largely believed in the churches that there are such beings as devils of whom Satan is the chief, but such belief is wholly erroneous and has worked a great injury to the cause of truth and to my teachings.

The men who teach this false doctrine will have a great sin to atone for when they come to the spirit world and especially will the author of the book you were reading and not only for this false doctrine but for others which he teaches. He will find as soon as his breath leaves the body that there is a spirit world, and that he is a living spirit and one who will find come to him the recollections of all his false teachings. I know that it may be said that he actually believes what he preaches but that fact will not alter the fact that his teachings are untrue and that he must pay the penalties of these false teachings until at last they shall no longer exist on earth.

This may seem unjust when it is considered that he may be honest in his beliefs but, as I said, on earth the man who believes these false doctrines and teaches other men to believe them will have to pay the penalties of results of these teachings, not because they injured him and not even if taught insincerely, but because they injured others and as a consequence, placed those whom he taught in a condition which is not in unison with the truth or with the laws of God. And that condition can only be reversed (reinclosed - as printed) by the truth (or knowledge of the truth) being possessed by these misguided beings. They can only come into the possession of the truth by being untaught as it were these falsehoods and being taught the truths. This will be the work of the author mentioned and all those who assist him in teaching these doctrines until all who have ever been deceived by such teachings have been shown the error of the same and brought to a knowledge of the truth.

This will arise not because of any special punishment inflicted upon him by God, but because of his realization of the great harm he has done to those who believed in and followed him in these teachings. He will need no other punishment than that of his own recollection and his conscience.

So I say, give no further heed to what you may have read and believe that I, Jesus, am actually writing to you and that all the others who claim to write are the spirits that they actually represent themselves to be.

I was with you tonight at church and heard the lecture and, while it was undoubtedly interesting to many in the audience, yet it has no basis of fact upon which to rest. The medium did not know the things that she predicted and no spirit controlled her to make the prophecies and, if such had, she would not have been able to make such predictions. The only reason that the medium had for making the prophecies were the facts that she knows now exists that will probably bring about the future as she stated it. But no reliance can be placed upon what she attempts to foretell, and if some of the things happen that she predicted, it will not be because she predicted them or because any spirit inspired her to make such predictions, but because they will be the natural effects of course that now exist or which will probably arise in the future.

Well, as to the discourse of which she spoke, she doesn't know any more nor have any greater reason to declare that such a disease will prevail in your country than you have, and she has no reasons upon which to found any such prophecy. I do not see any condition which will bring about such disease in the way that she describes it. Of course, there are men dying all the time of some disease or other and men will continue to so die and some may die of the trouble that she speaks of or of those akin to the same. But such disease will not prevail in the way that she described. So on the whole you need not give any credence to what she said in the particulars mentioned.

I have been with you a great deal today and I was glad when you went to the church of your birth this morning, while you do not believe in the wine and the bread as representing my blood and body, yet many of the people who partook of these have the Divine Love of the Father in their souls and are very close to the Kingdom and the influence that attended this service was very spiritual. Many of the spirits of mortals who had attended this church were present exercising a very spiritual influence on the worshipers and you could feel the presence of the same.

I must not write more tonight, but will say that you must trust in my love and believe that I am with you very often trying to help you and make your soul feel the great Love of the Father flowing into it.

And with my love and blessings and that of the Father, I will say good night.

Your friend and brother,
Jesus

Helen Writes That the Book James E. Padgett Read Did Not Have a Good Influence on Him

January 1, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Helen:

Well, I see that you are not in such a good condition tonight in your development, and I am sorry for I want so very much that you have this Love of the Father in all its beauty and fullness.

I see that the book* you read did not have a good influence on you, but you must not let it trouble you or cause you to doubt, for I am your own true Helen and am writing to you. I am not the spirit of some lost angel of God, but the spirit of the women who was your wife on earth.

The writer of that book will find to his surprise and sorrow. when he comes to the spirit world, that his teachings are all wrong and very injurious and will have to pay the penalties for his false teachings; for he has prevented many a person from coming into the truth and learning that there is no such thing as a dead spirit.

So as I say, pay no further attention to what you have read.

Your own true and loving,
Helen


*Pastor Russell on Spiritualism

Luke Writes on the Truth of the Atonement, Part One

December 30, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. Luke.

I come tonight to tell you of a truth that is of very great importance to you and to mankind, and desire that you shall be very careful in receiving what I may say. I am in a condition of Love that enables me to know whereof I write and to cause what I may say to be accepted by you as true.

I want to tell you that the Love - of which we have been writing - is the only Love that can make a spirit or man at-one with the Father, and this my theme: The Atonement.

This word, as used in the Bible and as interpreted by the churches and the commentators on the Bible, carries with it a meaning of some price being paid by Jesus for the redemption of mankind from their sins and from the punishment that they will have to undergo because of having committed sin; and, also, the idea that God, as an angry and insatiable God, was waiting for the price to be paid in order for His wrath to become satisfied and for man to stand before Him acquitted of sin and the consequences of disobedience.

This price, according to the teachings of the churches and the persons named, must have been paid by one who in his goodness and purity was capable of paying this price; that is, one who had in him such inherent qualities and, by his sacrifices, was of such inherent worth as to satisfy the requirements of the demands of this angry God whose laws had been disobeyed. And they also teach that the only way by which such price could have been paid was by the death on the cross of Jesus, who was the only person in all creation that possessed these qualities sufficiently to meet these requirements; and that by his death and the shedding of his blood, the sins were atoned for and God was satisfied. This is the orthodox belief of the atonement and plan of salvation.

In short, a perfect human being free from all sin, a death on the cross and a shedding of blood, which was necessary that the sins of mortals might be washed away and their souls made clean and fitted to become a part of the great family of God.

But all this conception of the atonement is wrong and not justified by any teaching of the Master, or by any of the true teachings of the disciples to whom he had explained the plan of salvation and what the atonement means.

I know that in various parts of the New Testament, it is said that the blood of Jesus washes away all sin, and that his death on the cross satisfies the Father's demand for justice; and therein, there are many similar expressions conveying the same idea. But these sayings of the Bible were never written by the persons to whom they are ascribed, but by writers who, in their various translations and alleged reproductions of these writings, added to and eliminated from the writings of the original writers until the Bible became filled with these false doctrines and teachings.

The writers of the Bible, as it now stands, were persons who belonged to the church which was nationalized about the time of Constantine and, as such, had imposed upon them the duty of writing such ideas as the rulers or governors of this church conceived should be incorporated in the Bible for the purpose of carrying out their ideas in order to subserve the interests of the church and to give it such temporal power as it never could have had under the teachings and guidance of the pure doctrines of the Master.

For nearly two thousand years, this false doctrine of the atonement has been believed in and accepted by the so-called Christian churches and has been promulgated by these churches as the true doctrine of Jesus and the one upon which the salvation of man depends; and the consequences have been that men have believed that the only things necessary to their salvation and reconciliation to God were the death of Jesus and the washing away of their sins by the blood shed on Calvary.

If men only knew how futile his death was and how inefficacious his blood is to wash away sin and pay the debt to the Father, they would not rest in the assurance that all they have to do is to believe in this sacrifice and this blood, but would learn the true plan of salvation and make every effort in their power to follow that plan and, as a consequence, have their souls developed so that they would come into harmony with the Father's Love and Laws.

Atonement, in its true meaning, never meant the payment of a debt or the appeasing of the wrath of God, but simply the becoming at-one with Him in those qualities that will insure to men the possession of His Love and the Immortality that Jesus brought to light. The sacrifice of Jesus could have no possible effect upon the condition of man's soul qualities, and neither could the blood shedding make a vile and sinful soul pure and free from sin.

God's universe is governed by laws as immutable as they are perfect in their workings, and the great thing to be accomplished by the plan, which He provided for the redemption of men, is to have every man come into harmony with these laws, because just as soon as that harmony exists there, will be no more discord and sin will not be known to humanity. And so only that which will bring man into this harmony can possibly save him from his sins and bring about the atonement that Jesus and his disciples taught.

Man, when created, was endowed with what may be called a natural love, and that love, to the extent of the quality that it possessed, was in perfect harmony with God's universe, and so long as it was permitted to exist in its pure state was a part of the harmony of the universe; but when it became defiled or impregnated with sin or anything not in accord with God's Laws, it became inharmonious and not at-one with God, and the only redemption required was the removing of those things that caused the in-harmony.

Now, the only way in which this in-harmony could be removed was by the natural love becoming again pure and free from that which defiled it. The sacrifice on the cross could not furnish this remedy and neither could the blood atonement accomplish it, because the sacrifice and the blood had no relation to the evil to be remedied. So I assert, if these things paid the penalty and satisfied God and thereby He had no further claim upon man for any debt supposed to be due Him from man, it necessarily implies that He kept the souls of men in this condition of in-harmony and would not permit the same to be removed until His demands for satisfaction and blood had been met; and that then, when He should be appeased, He would permit men by His mere ipse dixit to again come in harmony with His Laws and the workings of His universe. In other words, He would be willing to let men remain out of harmony with His universe and the workings of His laws, until He had His demands for sacrifice and blood satisfied.

This, as is apparent to any reasonable man, would be a thing so foolish that no mere man in matters pertaining to his earthly affairs would adopt as a plan for the redemption of those sons of his who had been disobedient.

I see you have a caller and will continue later.