Samuel Writes About What Actually Happened at Jesus' Crucifixion

March 27, 1921
Received By James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write a few lines tonight, as I have not written you for a long time and desire to tell you of the scene that was depicted to you tonight by the words and music at the church.

I was present at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus and saw all that took place and the wonderful display of the forces of nature that were presented to you tonight in the drama of the crucifixion. Well, as you may not know, many of the scenes that were so forcibly presented to your imagination never had any reality in fact and the drama was the production of the oriental mind, which was so often used to depict things that had their origin only in such eastern imaginations.

When Jesus was crucified, there was no great concourse of people; because he was considered as a common malefactor paying the penalties that followed the violation of the law that he was charged with violating. Of course, there were soldiers and a large number of the members of the Jewish Sanhedrim and a few followers present, but there was no unusual crowd to witness the execution.

He was not the only one crucified at the time and the other two were considered just as the Jews considered him - violator of their laws and one to be punished by hanging on the cross. The words that he is supposed to have uttered at the time of his extremis were not uttered by him and no words that he may have spoken could have been heard by any of his followers, for they were kept away from the immediate scene of his execution, and it was only after he had been pronounced dead and found ready to be removed from the cross, that his followers were permitted to approach his body and remove it from the tree. The others, who were engaged in the execution did not hear any words of his, and as I have said, his followers could not hear and, thus, be able to report any supposed saying of his. So far as known, he died as bravely - that is without fear or doubt as to the future as did any other who has suffered the same fate.

The words that he is supposed to have uttered were not so uttered, and he did not call upon the Father for His help, or to cause the bitter cup to pass from him, and all reports of what he said or did at that time are not true, but merely the imaginings of those who wrote of him in later times. There was no sudden breaking up of nature or things material, and the accounts of the graves opening, and the bodies arising therefrom and being seen and talked with in the city are purely fiction and have no foundation in fact.

I know that Christians of today will not be ready to receive these statements as true, because of the long years of belief in these things that have obtained during the centuries. Why men should want to believe in these representations of things that never happened, it is hard to understand, for in themselves that have no significance except that mere endeavor to make as dramatic and impressive on humanity the wonderful circumstances that they allege surrounded the death of Jesus. If they will only think, they must realize that the death of Jesus, accompanied by all the startling environments described in the Bible, did not afford one iota of help in way of saving a human soul or teaching that soul the true way to the Father's Kingdom. His life is what had the effect and not his death; and the sooner men learn that Truth, the sooner will they learn the fact that no death of Jesus could save them from themselves, or show them the way to the Celestial Kingdom.

I know that men will not want to believe what I have written and continue in their belief that all these tragic circumstances surrounded the death of Jesus. And I suppose that this belief will continue with them for a long time to come. But what I have said is true, and no man can by any possible workings of God's laws find any hope or assurance of immortality in these things.You may ask me how I know that Jesus uttered no words at the time of his death, and I can answer by saying that he told me so himself.

He has not been present tonight at any of the churches, where his death on the cross is celebrated, and will not be until after the time of the great worship and adoration of him by the churches has gone by. This worship is all very distasteful to him and are such that he does not desire to witness and, hence, he remains in his home in the high Celestial Spheres. He desires men to worship only the One True Father that he worships and, thus, receive the true benediction of the Father.

Well, I see that you are tired and I will not write more. With my love, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Samuel

**********

Helen confirms that Samuel wrote the preceding message.

I am here, your true and loving Helen

Well dear, I see that you are tired and I will not write much.

The message that you received is from Samuel, who was present at the crucifixion in spirit and heard and saw what took place, and so can be believed. I know also that what the Bible contains as to the crucifixion of Jesus is very erroneous and written by men to impress their followers of the importance of Jesus' death.

I will not write more now. So believe that I love you with all my heart and want you to be happy. Good night.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Jesus Writes that God Delegates Spirit Angels to Answer Prayers for Material Things

September 19, 1920
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

Let me say a few words tonight as I see that you were disappointed in the sermon that the preacher delivered tonight.

Well, you must not be so disappointed because he knows only that which he could deduce from the teachings of the Bible and while what he said was true, yet it is not all of the truth for he discussed only one of the attributes of God and that is the loving care that he has for and exercises over the children of earth. To most men, this view of God is satisfactory and gives them much comfort and assurance in the security that arises from the knowledge that there is such a loving and caring Father; and to these men, this assurance is of wonderful blessedness and comfort, and it is well that men can have this conception of God - a Father who is always solicitous for their happiness and welfare and to whom they can pray in the faith that he will hear and answer their prayers.

But as we have written you before, the things that men generally pray for, and expect to receive in response thereto, are not the things that God in his own personality bestows upon men in answer to such prayers. His great gift is His Divine Love, and these things of the material - or earthly in themselves - he leaves to his ministering spirits to bestow, or in other words, He delegates His Angels to so come into contact with and influence the souls of men that they may feel that their prayers have been answered, as they have.

The preacher's conception of God does not extend beyond these attributes that in themselves are sufficient to answer men's wants and make them better and happier. I will come soon and write you of God's attributes and hope that you will get in condition that I may make the necessary rapport.

It has been some time since I have written you of these higher truths that are so important to men, and regret that such is the fact, but now that you have had your vacation, and feel that you are willing and anxious that our communications be resumed, I will try to assist you in getting in that condition of soul that will enable the messages to be written you. But as you know, much depends upon yourself and you must try with all the energies of your soul to obtain a greater inflowing of the Father's Love, for only from it can come the condition that is necessary. Pray more and think deeply of the spiritual truths that have already been written you, and we will come together in closer communion and be able to give and you receive the messages.

I am glad that you have thought more of these things during the past few days, and hope that your thoughts will continue and that your longings will flow more to the Father. You cannot now appreciate the necessity for this condition, and if you could, I know you would give all your thoughts and longings and energy to the accomplishment of the work.

Well, I will not write more tonight, but will be with you and pray with you and try to influence you in the efforts to perform the mission that has been given you. Have more faith and believe that you will succeed and you will not be disappointed.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes that Man is Spiritual and Must Have Spiritual Food and is Anxious to Continue Writing Messages

February 14, 1920
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

Well, my disciple, I realize that your desires are that I shall deliver a message to you tonight, and I am anxious to do so, yet I see you are not in condition that I may take possession of your brain that is necessary in order to write satisfactorily. I am sorry that this is so, but it is a fact, and we will have to wait awhile longer, which will not be very long, for you are much improved, and if you continue to pray you will soon become in that soul condition that will enable me to make the rapport.

There are many messages yet to be written and I am anxious that you receive them in order that they may be delivered to the world, for the world is now awakening to a greater realization of the fact that man is spiritual and must have spiritual food. The war is causing many people to think of the hereafter and the destiny of the soul; and the knowledge that the world now has of the future life is very meager and unsatisfactory, merely a knowledge that the spirit survives death and experiences more or less happiness in the spirit life.

As you know, this is not the vital thing in the destiny of man, for while a knowledge of the survival of man from the death of the physical may and does give a great deal of consolation to the near and dear ones who are left on earth, yet that fact does not, in the slightest degree, determine the condition or destiny of the soul that has left its home in the flesh; and there are no means, now known to men, to show that destiny, except some things written in the Bible, which are the subjects of much speculation and controversy and want of belief. The consolation of those who have faith in the Bible is founded on that faith, or rather, in most cases, belief; but there are a number of believers in the truths of the Bible with a conscious soul perception of their real meaning, who have that faith which makes certain to them the facts of destiny and the possession of love in their souls.

I will come soon and endeavor to write a formal message; in the meantime let your prayers ascend with more earnestness and longings to the Father. As you know, I love you as my brother and disciple, and am with you as you pray each night, uniting in our prayers, and you must let your faith increase and believe that your prayers are being heard, and will be answered to the fullest. I will not write more now.

So my brother, good night, and may the Father bless you with His greatest blessings.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes on the Importance of Knowing the Way to the Celestial Kingdom and the Plan of Salvation

October 18, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

Let me write a few lines for I must tell you of an important truth that is necessary for men to know in order to reach the Celestial Kingdom, and a knowledge of the plan of salvation.

I know that the Bible contains many sayings attributed to me in reference to this plan, and many of my alleged sayings are believed in by those who claim to be Christians, which are not true, for I never said them and they are contrary to what I received from the Father as to the true plan of men's redemption from sin, and as to the only way, by which, they can obtain the true at-onement with the Father and a knowledge of their own immortality.

Many of these sayings were written by men who knew not the only way to a oneness with the Father, and were the results of the teachings of the manuscripts that then existed and were received by the Jews as the revelations of Moses, and of many of the prophets who had no knowledge of the Divine Love or of its rebestowal upon humanity. These men made me say those things that accorded with their ideas of what was necessary to a salvation or possibility of their becoming at-one with me and with the Father, and in writing their ideas confused the truth with what they supposed was the truth as contained in the Old Testament; and much harm has been done by attributing many of these sayings to me, because of the supposed authority that is thereby attached to them.

My disciples never taught and never understood that their salvation, or that of any man, depended upon faith in me as the son of God or that I, the mere Jesus, had in me any virtue to forgive sin or to ensure an entrance into the true Kingdom of God or that, I, as the man Jesus, was a son of God in the sense that the Bible teaches. They knew that the Father had revealed to me the truth, and that I had in me that Love, which to a large extent made me like unto and at-one with the Father; that my teachings of the rebestowal of the Divine Love was true and that when they, or any man, should possess this Love to the extent of that possession, they would become at-one with the Father, and also with me, who possessed it to a greater degree than any man. I say, they knew this and taught it to the people as I had taught it to them; but when the compilers of the present New Testament came to declare my sayings and teachings, they knew not of this Love and, hence, could not understand what many of my true expressions meant and gave them an interpretation so far as my real sayings were concerned, that would comply with their knowledge.

No, I am not correctly quoted in many of these sayings, and I may say in the large majority of them, for when they were written, as now contained in the New Testament, men had lost the knowledge of their true meaning, and out of their own minds recorded that which they thought was what I had really said.

I do not see how these false sayings can be corrected, except to take each saying and show, by its incompatibility with what I now say, its falsity. This would take too much time and expend much energy that could the better be employed in declaring what the truth actually is. But this I will say that whenever these sayings impart that I claim to be God, or that I could or did forgive men of their sins, or that whatsoever should be asked of the Father in my name would be received, are all untrue and has greatly misled the true seeker of knowledge of Immortality.

My disciples were close to me and understood better my sayings than all others, and yet they did not understand all the truth, and left the mortal life with many expectations that were not fulfilled and in the very nature of the same could not be fulfilled. They were in certain non-essentials influenced in their beliefs and expectations by their training in the teachings of these Old Testament manuscripts and were very largely Jews in belief when they died. They understood the vital things that determined their relationship to God and to their existence in the future world, but as to many of the non-essentials, they retained the faith of their fathers and were not able to receive all the truth, which I could have taught them.

I must not linger to correct these alleged sayings of mine, but must occupy my time and yours in declaring and revealing the Truth as it exists now and existed then, and you and the world may know that wherever and whenever these Bible sayings of mine conflict with what I have written and shall write you, they are untrue and were never said by me. Thus, in this general way, I will make plain to men that the Bible must not, in all particulars, be relied on or believed in as containing the Truth or my declarations of the Truth.

I will soon come and write a message on a vital truth and hope that you will be in condition to receive it. I will now say good night and God bless your efforts and keep you safely in His care.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Job Writes on the Book that Mr. Padgett Was Reading, Which is About the Natural Love and not the Divine Love

February 19, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Job.

Let me say a few words tonight upon a subject that is of importance to mankind and to the future of man.

I see that you have been reading a book professing to give communications from a spirit who claims to be possessed of a divine mission in the way of teaching men the truths of the soul and of the way to immortality and life. Well, you may accept what is said with some degree of truth as to the condition of spirits who are progressing in the development of their natural love, and as to the facts that await a soul after it has left the mortal life. Many of the statements contained in the writings are true and should be accepted and acted upon by mortals who desire a knowledge of the true way to a kingdom of the purified soul and to a reconciliation to God in the way of renunciation.

God is good and not the hateful and merciless being that your orthodox beliefs teach and is always the same now as in the days of old when men's conception of Him were determined by their own ideas of what a God should be, and what men should believe him to be. But there are many things taught in the writings of the book that are not true, though in accord with the knowledge possessed by the writers and suited to the condition of the medium through whom the messages were delivered.

The writers were spirits who were highly developed intellectually and morally and had knowledge of the truths to an extent that made what they said powerful expositions of the truth as they knew it to be; but beyond the fact that men must, in order to become pure and holy, do those things which the Law of Harmony in their natural love demands, they could not teach.

Now, while this is all true, yet they did not know of the higher truths that make a man or the soul of a man divine and at-one with the Father and could not teach, because they did not possess any knowledge of, and only so far as they knew, must, their teachings be accepted as truth. They were far in advance in their renditions of the disclosures contained in the Bible, both as to God and Jesus, and the final destiny of man, and their revelations should be accepted in place of the teachings of the Bible. They were not only acquainted with the laws of God as dealing with man in his relation to good and evil, but also with the laws as to man's release from the consequences of his acts and deeds of earth, and as to his release from the consequences of his evil acts.

I would like to write now, but the rapport is broken.

Good night,
Job

John Wesley Writes that the Condition of Man is Such that it is of the Utmost Importance for Them to Learn the Truths

November 15, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John Wesley.

I desire to speak to you upon a matter which is very closely associated with your mission and the work you are now doing. I am one of those spirits who are engaged in the carrying on of that work on this side of the borderline, and know the importance of the work and the necessity for its being done as rapidly as possible, so that men may have the opportunity to learn and know and teach the truths of God.

I am with you quite frequently as you receive the messages from the spirits, who are revealing these truths, and read your mind and soul, and know your exact condition regarding your conception of the task that has been imposed upon you and which you have assumed to do; and, hence, can tell you with almost certainty of your attitude towards this great undertaking, and when I say attitude, I do not mean only that of which you are conscious, but also that which is apparently latent but which, nevertheless, is operating and obstructing or assisting the progress of the work.

I am glad to say that just now you have a fuller appreciation of your position in the matter and of the necessity for completing the writings and the dissemination of the truths that they contain; and if you continue in this attitude and permit your desires therein to intensify and become manifested in actual performance, the work will progress rapidly and the great end in view will be accomplished.

If you will consider for a moment, you will realize that there is nothing in all your earth so important to mankind as the knowledge of these truths, for they deal with and affect that which belongs to the eternity of the hereafter and the future of the souls of men and lead to a destiny which will be a Divine existence or a mere living of the perfect man of his original creation.

Of course, men are really more interested in their future destiny than in any or all things of earth and the life thereon, but give less attention to the ascertaining of the truths of the same than to many merely human things which exist only during the short earth life; and this is not to be wondered at, because they have no satisfactory or convincing means of learning what this destiny is or may be. It is natural for the desires and interests of men to be attracted to that which has certainty and probability of realization, rather than to that which is devoid of the elements that give assurance and hope founded on knowledge.

As you know, many of the expectations of men as to the future are based entirely upon what is called faith, which itself is founded upon what the teachers of the Bible call the mysteries of God, and which are not the subject of research or study, because God in His wisdom retains to Himself, with a jealous care, the understanding of these mysteries; and so men, in their lives, accepting the mysteries and applying the faith, turn their thoughts to these things very rarely and even then, in a perfunctory way, applying the idea that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Consequently, men live more for the present and in a way let the future come and find them in a condition that surprises and injures them, and makes for them a destiny that - were the truth known to them - need not be theirs.

When men shall be able to learn the truths that affect, or rather create, their destinies if believed in and lived, they will not be so indifferent to the life of the future, even though they retain their interests in the life of earth.

And now, in this generation, when men are thinking for themselves and not resting satisfied with the dogmatic teachings of their supposed leaders, they are becoming incredulous and demanding more light and are refusing to accept the teachings of the mysteries as satisfying to their feelings of want of those things which will give them an assurance of the truths of living as mortals. Such faith is dying, and men prefer its death to the living in the uncertainties. But this preferring to, thus, die does not imply - nor is it really true - that they are not in their souls interested in the eternity part of their lives and all that it means. But becoming hopeless because they see no succor from their unsatisfied condition, they resort to the moral teachings and conduct for their salvation having the hope that a right living in accordance therewith will result in a future as well as a present in which there must be some happiness and that "all will be well."

This, I say, is the condition of many men today, and because thereof, the ground is fallow for the planting and the nurturing of the truths that are being revealed to you; and so you must appreciate what the revealment and dissemination of these truths mean to the world at this time.

I know that you must give much time and labor to the work of fulfilling your mission, and also that you must live a large portion of your life and thoughts with the spirits who are using you for the great object in view; but this apparent sacrifice will soon cease to be a sacrifice and become to you a joy and source of never-ending benefit to your soul and its future.

So you must work and think thoughts of the spiritual and, above all, continue in earnest prayer to the Father for increased bestowals of His Love; and you will not be disappointed. I felt that I should write you as I have and while you, I know, expected some spirit to communicate some unknown and important vital truth, yet I believe that what I have said may serve to facilitate the delivery of the messages. I will not write longer tonight.

I am a possessor of this Divine Love, and from this you will understand what my love is for you, and how earnestly I pray to the Father to bless you and help you in the great work which is yours to do. Good night. I am

Your brother in Christ,
John Wesley

**********

Helen confirms that John Wesley wrote.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well, dear, you have worked hard tonight and had a long message from Wesley, and so I will not detain you a great while. I merely want to say that your condition is very much improved, and we feel very certain that now the messages can be delivered without much delay and with comparative ease. We send our love and pray for your happiness. Good night.

Your own true and loving
Helen

Helen Writes the Epistles in the Bible are Not the Same that the Apostles Wrote

October 29, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well dear, I see that you have been reading portions of the Bible tonight and that you have not found in the same any mention of the Divine Love in the sense that it has been explained to you or any evidence that the writers had any knowledge of the Love in the way of being Born Again. Of course, they used the expression, but the meaning that they gave to it is altogether different from the one that Jesus gave the other night.

Now you have been told that he taught the Apostles this true meaning and that they to a more or less extent understood it, and especially John, and as a truth, being the very foundation of the truth of salvation. It may be surprising to you that if John wrote the epistles which are ascribed to him, he did not speak of or attempt to explain the meaning of this New Existence. But the epistles do not mention the New Birth in the light of the explanation that has been given to you, and you may very reasonably infer that these epistles were not written by any of the Apostles to whom they are accredited, but by some writers who had some knowledge of the moral truths of Jesus' teachings and of the great one expressed as that: "They should love their brethren as themselves."

You will find very little in any portion of the Bible that will show you that the great truth of the New Birth was understood by the writers thereof; and all that you will find is that love between man and God, and man and man, with all that flows from it, such as patience and kindness and charity, etc., is the fulfilling of the Christian doctrines. No distinction is made between the natural love of man and the Love of God bestowed upon him at his creation and the great Divine Love, which man never possessed until the coming of the Master.

It may seem strange that this knowledge that the Apostles and many others had in the time of the Master when on earth should have been lost to the world, but it is a fact and, as a consequence, the teachings of Jesus as to this great truth have for all these long years failed to work out his mission. Well, I could write for a long time on this matter but it is not necessary, as you already know of these things. Good night.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Pastor Charles Russell Writes that He Realizes the Falsity of His Teachings

July 31, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Pastor Russell.

Let me say a word, as I have been with you today as you read the book of which I was the writer. I see that you are aware of the erroneous interpretations of the testament that it contains of the false constructions that are drawn from the quotations of the Bible, and also that you feel that a great injury is being done to those who read and believe in my teachings.

Well, I realize the falsity of my teachings and the wrong and injury that are being wrought among those who have been followers of me; and how great will be their surprise when death comes to them, for what I said was impossible - they will find to be true that they are more alive than they ever were while living in the flesh.
This I have realized to my great surprise and suffering.

When I was about to leave the flesh, and for long years before, I believed that when I died, I would go into the literal grave and would thereafter be in a state of oblivion, knowing nothing until the day of the first resurrection, when I and all those who believed that we were of the little flock would be called into the presence of Jesus and there become his co-workers and co-judges of men during the millennium, when the rest of the world would be tried and finally judged to either a life of happiness, as men restored to the condition of Adam before the fall, or to total annihilation.

But as I passed from the body, I found that I had a spiritual body in which was contained all the faculties of mind and appetites of the flesh that were a part of me when on earth; and, also, the memories of all that I had thought, and taught, when trying to lead my followers into the truth, as I supposed. I was more alive than ever before, and conscience soon began to do its work of reproval and bring to me remorse and regret for the great harm that I had done to many of my fellow men by reason of my teaching a faith that is wholly untrue and destructive to the soul's salvation.

The soul! Ah, this is the thing that I blasphemed against, for I taught that there was no such thing or entity as the soul after the separation of the body and life; that it then ceased to have an existence and would never again come into existence until the first resurrection, which would be the first awakening of the little flock to a consciousness of its existence. To me the will was the great thing, and while that never ceased to exist, yet it lay in a dormant state and was as dead, knowing nothing.

How vitally misleading was this teaching - and how my followers will find themselves deceived and will suffer from the want of knowledge of the fact that the soul is the man and is susceptible to progressing in the knowledge of the truths of God while on earth, as well as after it becomes an inhabitant of the spirit world. I have had a tragic awakening with all the consequences of a tragedy in which I was one of the important actors and the principal cause of the results of the tragedy.

I know what death means, and what life means, for I died merely to live, and to live a life in which at this time is much suffering and regret, accompanied by the knowledge that I have before me a work greater than I can perform in many long years in the future. I must now try to undo what I - for so many years - did to the injury of those who believed in me; and when I realize that there is hardly a way, until these followers of mine become spirits like myself, in which I can do this work, my suffering becomes almost unbearable. Only through the medium of the mortal can I reach these people, and because of my teachings, they will not believe what I may attempt to communicate through a mortal medium (which medium I wrote against and reviled and alleged that they were only creatures used by the devil and his minions to deceive mankind).

If I had only known the truth, and thereby abstained from preaching untruth in this particular, how different my lot would now be. But I believed what I taught, and taught what I believed. It was all a lie, and though I believed it, yet that fact does not lessen my regrets, for I see with the clearness of the spirit that my thoughts and teachings are believed by many of my followers because I taught them; and, consequently, they will suffer from their beliefs; and the fact that I believed these erroneous things and taught in good faith will not, in one iota, save them from the darkness and sufferings which will certainly become theirs.

Unfortunate is the man who believes spiritual untruths; but accursed is the man who teaches them, and thus deceives those who are earnestly seeking for the truth. I would like to write more tonight in reference to this matter and my condition and the heavy burden which I am now bearing, but your wife says I must not write more now as you are not in condition to be further drawn on. So, thanking you, and having the hope that at some time in the near future I may again communicate with you, I will say good night.

Your friend,
Pastor Russell

**********

Helen confirms that Pastor Russell wrote and is in much darkness as a result of his erroneous teachings while on earth.


I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well dear, you have just received a letter from Pastor Russell, who, as he says, has been with you during the day as you read one of his books, and who was most anxious to write you. He is in considerable darkness and feels the great burden of seeing many persons of earth whom he taught, studying and believing his teachings of the vital truths of man's salvation, which teachings he now realizes, to his own suffering, are untrue and lead away from the realities of the life in the spirit world and the teachings of the Master as to things spiritual.

He was very anxious to continue his message, but I thought it best to stop him as he was very earnest and was drawing too much on your vitality. He will come again sometime after you shall have become stronger.

Helen 

John Writes that Men or Prophets Cannot Tell What Will Happen Centuries Ahead.

March 10, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

I see that you are in a much better condition tonight and that your soul is more in harmony with the spirits of the higher spheres, and we could write now, but your hand and arm are tired, and this is a matter that we always consider and try not to cause you any unnecessary fatigue.

Other spirits are here tonight, hoping that they might have written, but under the circumstances they will not. The Master is here also, and says that he will not attempt to write tonight as he intended, but will soon come and deliver a message.

I am glad that you are feeling so much better spiritually and physically, and I feel that you will continue to do so. So pray more to the Father and turn your thoughts to spiritual things, and you will find a wonderful happiness that even the worries of your daily life cannot take from you.

(John responds to questions asked by Mr. Padgett.)

No, emphatically. And those who believe that there ever lived such mortals are greatly mistaken. The highest of us spirits cannot know or foretell the future in the sense in which the seers and prophets are supposed to have done in the centuries of which the Old Testament wrote.

No man, whether in the flesh or in the spirit, ever has the omniscience of the Father and to foretell what will happen centuries ahead is a power that belongs only to the Father. So that all the attempted application of prophecies as contained in the Bible to the happenings, or future happenings of the present day, are futile and without any justification. Man must depend upon the condition and acts of this day to determine what will happen in the short time that some expect the world to last.

What a position for them to take, when we, who live so close to the Father, cannot possibly know. All this, of course, refers to the material affairs of men in their lives on earth. As to spiritual things, we can tell what the future of each man or nations of men will be if certain conditions are observed or not observed.

Well, I will write you on this subject when the opportunity presents itself. I will not write more now. With all my love and the blessings of the Father I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Jesus Writes on the True Meaning of the Saying "Christ may be in you"

March 3, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I desire tonight to write you in reference to the way in which, as the preacher advises, "Christ may be in you."

I know that it is almost universal among preachers of the orthodox church to teach their hearers that the way to salvation is to get Christ in them and thereby they will be enabled to come into unity with the Father, and cease to remain subject to the effects of sin and evil. Well, this teaching is the true foundation of salvation for the Celestial Heaven, provided it be understood by the preachers and the people what the true meaning of "Christ in you" is, and unless this meaning be comprehended, the fact that preacher or people may believe that they have Christ in them will not work the results that they may suppose or desire.

Many, and l may say the most, of these professing Christians, have ideas of what this expression means in order to become effective that are not in accord with the true meaning of this condition of the soul. They believe that all that is necessary is to believe on Jesus as their saviour by his sacrifice and death, and that in so believing they have Christ in them, and that nothing else is required. They have no conception of the distinction between Jesus, the man, and Christ, the spirit of truth, or more correctly, the spirit that manifests the existence of the Divine Love in the soul.

Christ is not a man in the sense that he is Jesus the son of the Father, but Christ is that part of Jesus, or rather quality that came to him after he fully received into his soul the Divine Love, and was transformed into the very Essence of the Father in His Love. Christ is, thus, not a man but is the manifestation of this Love as bestowed upon Jesus, and made part of his very existence. And when men use the expression, "Having Christ in you," if they could correctly understand the true purport of the same, they would know that it, the expression, means only that the Divine Love of the Father is in their souls.

The indiscriminate use of the words, "Jesus and Christ," is the cause of much misunderstanding among these Christians as to a number of the sayings of the Bible. Jesus became the Christ only because he was the first to receive into his soul this Divine Love and to manifest its existence, and this Christ principle is one that all men may possess with the result that they will become at-one with the Father in His substance of Love and Immortality.

It would be impossible for Jesus, the man, to get into or become a part of any mortal, and it would be equally as impossible for Christ, as the man Jesus, even though perfect and free from sin, to become a part of anyone. No, the meaning of "having Christ in you" is to have this Love of the Father in your soul, which can only be obtained through the working of the Holy Spirit as the instrument of the Father in bringing this Love into the soul.

To many who hear the preachers' exhortations in this particular, the expression is only a mystery, which they accept merely intellectually and feel that by such acceptance they have the possession of this Christ, which is the only evidence of the truth of the Father's Love. Good night.

Your friend and brother,
Jesus

John Writes that Many of the Sayings in the Bible He Did Not Write or Authorize to be Written

March 2, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

I will not write now, except to say, that your spiritual condition is much improved and you are advancing in your soul perceptions of the truth and of the reality of the Father and His Love.

Yes, I know, but you must remember two things with reference to the writings in the Bible ascribed to me, namely:

First, that many of the sayings therein contained, I did not write or authorize to be written; and, secondly, that at the time I lived on earth and wrote, my knowledge of the truth and of God was not so great or so correct as it is now.

I realize that some things I then believed and taught were not in accord with the truth, as I now know it to be, even my conception of Jesus and his mission on earth, and his return to earth, was not true. Then, although I was a close companion of the Master and had many lessons of instructions from him, I was a quite ignorant man and did not grasp the spiritual meanings of his teachings, and up to the time of my decease, my beliefs were more colored by things of the material than by those of the spiritual.

For instance, I, as did the other disciples, supposed that he was coming to earth again in a short time - at any unexpected time - and set up his kingdom on earth. Now, this is a fact, notwithstanding that he had said that his kingdom would be a spiritual kingdom, though existing on earth. I could not dissociate from my conception of the establishment and existence of this kingdom, the idea that in some way it would be an actual, visible kingdom in which the Master would be the king, and rule as other kings ruled, except it would be a rule of righteousness.

All this may seem a little strange to you. but if you will consider for a moment that my teachings as a Jew were to the effect that when the Messiah came, he would actually rule on earth as a king, you will understand how difficult it was for me to get the idea, or make the distinction between that kind of kingdom and one which would be purely spiritual.

At some time, I will write you more fully on this matter, for I realize its importance, as many, yes a majority of the professed Christians, now believe that Jesus, at sometime, will come to earth and establish a material kingdom and rule all the nations of the earth; and some of these enthusiastic Christians believe that they will be of the elect and become princes and sub-rulers in that kingdom as material men called by the resurrection to again become the human, although glorified, as some of them express their faith. Well, they will be disappointed, for when they shall have passed from the mortal to the spirit, they will forever remain spirits, and the only kingdom that they will live in thereafter will be a spirit kingdom; and that, whether the kingdom of the restored man or of the Divine Angel will not be on the earth.

I must stop now. So pray to the Father and strive for a deeper and more abiding faith, and you will realize the truth and this experience. Good night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Jesus Writes about After Death, the Judgment. What it is and what it is not.

February 25, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I am here and desire to write a few lines in reference to the "Great Day of Judgment," of which the preacher and teachers of theological things write so often. I know that the Bible, or rather some of the books, lay great stress upon this day when, as they claim, God will pour out His vials of wrath upon the ungodly and condemn them to an eternity of punishment.

There is, as you know, very great and diverse opinions among these learned men as to what is the meaning and significance of this day of judgment, and when, in a chronological point of view, it will take place; and all these varied opinions have many students and teachers who embrace and proclaim them to the world as being true and free from doubt.

Well, it is certain that all men must die and there will come the judgment, and that which follows the death is just as certain as is the death itself, and just as reasonable as is the following of any cause by an effect. So men should have no difficulty in believing in the judgment as a fact that cannot be avoided, just as death cannot be avoided.

But the word and the fact, "judgment," when used as an effect or following of death, may have many meanings in the opinions and understandings of many men, depending upon what men may believe as to things that are called religious or scientific or philosophical.

To the ultra-orthodox this term "judgment" means and necessarily comprehends the active pronouncement of a sentence by God, because of and determined by their lives and thoughts while living in the mortal life, irrespective of any of His general laws and the workings thereof. God is Himself the judge - personal and present - and by Him in this capacity are each man's life and works known and digested and made the basis of the sentence that He must pronounce in each individual case. God keeps the record of all of these acts of men, or, if man is conceded to be his own record-keeper, his records are, or will be, at the time of the great assemblage for judgment, opened up or brought into view so that nothing can be lost; and then, upon this record men will be sent to eternal happiness or to everlasting punishment or, as some believe, to destruction or annihilation.

Others, not orthodox, who believe in the survival of the soul and the continuing memories of the acts and thoughts of men, teach that the judgment will follow death as a natural consequence of the operations of the Law of Cause and Effect; and the effect cannot be escaped from until, in some way, there comes to the consciousness of men a realization that the effect in their suffering has satisfied the cause and that there is nothing mysterious or unnatural in the appearance and workings of the judgment. They do not believe that God by any special interposition or personal punishing will pronounce the judgment, or determine the merits or demerits of the one called to judgment.

Besides these views, there are others extant and believed in, but the two that I have mentioned are principle ones and are sufficient to show what the large majority of thinking or rather believing men conclude the term judgment as used in the Bible should mean or be understood to mean.

Well, the judgment of the human soul is an important accompaniment of the human life, both in the flesh and in the spirit world, and as regards the questions and punishments, hardly anything demands more of the thought and consideration of men, for it is a certainty that beliefs, true or false, he cannot avoid them. Judgment as certainly follows what men call death as does night the day, and no philosophy or theological dogmas or scientific determinations can alter the fact, or in any way change the character or exact workings of this judgment.

But judgment is not a thing belonging exclusively to the after-death period or condition, for it is present and operating with men from the time that they become incarnated in the human until they become disincarnate, and thereafter continuously until the causes of effects have been satisfied and there remains nothing to be judged, which happy ending is also a fact - for all men are dependent upon their progress towards the conditions of harmony with the laws that make effective as well as pronounce the judgments. While on earth these laws operate and continuously man is being judged for the causes that he starts into existence, and the after-death judgment is only a continuation of the judgment received by men while on earth.

Of course, men may not know this. These judgments, or the effects thereof, become more intensified after men have gotten rid of the influences of the flesh existence, and they become spirits having only the spirit qualities. And because of this fact, men must understand and try to realize that the expression: "After death, the judgment," has a greater significance and is of more vital importance than the saying that: "Judgment is with men all during their mortal lives."

After death, the causes of the in-harmony with the law becomes more pronounced and appear in the true meaning and force and, consequently, as this is true, the effects become more intensified and understood, and men suffer more and realize the darkness, and sometimes the gross darkness, that these effects produce. The in-harmony appears in its unclothed and unhidden reality, and the Law's workings bring to men the exact penalties that their violations demand.

Man is his own bookkeeper, and in his memory are recorded all the thoughts and deeds of his earth life that are not in accord with the harmony of God's Will, which is expressed or manifested by His Laws. The judgment is not the thing of a day or a time, but is never ceasing so long as there exists that upon which it can operate, and it diminishes in proportion as the causes of in-harmony disappear.

God is not present in wrath demanding as does the human who believes himself to have been injured demanding reparation by the one causing the injury. No, the Father is present only in love, and as the soul of the one undergoing the penalty, which his own deeds and thoughts have imposed upon him comes more in harmony with the Father's Will, He, as you mortals say, is pleased. Never an angry God rejoicing in the satisfaction of a penalty being paid by one of His erring children, but always a loving Father rejoicing in the redemption of His children from a suffering that a violation of the laws of harmony exacts with certitude.

Then, as I say, the judgment day is not a special time when all men must meet in the presence of God, and have their thoughts and deeds weighed in the balance, and then, according as they are good or evil, have the sentence of an angry, or even just God pronounced upon them. The judgment day is every day, both in the earth life of man and in life in the spirit, where the Law of Compensation is working. In the spirit world, time is not known and every breathing is a part of eternity, and with every breathing so long as the Law requires, comes the judgment, continued and unsatisfied, until man, as a spirit reaches that condition of harmony, so that for him no longer the Law demands a judgment.

But from what I have written, men must not suppose, or beguile themselves into that state of belief that will cause them to think that because there is no special day of judgment when God will pronounce His sentence, the judgment, therefore, is not so much to be dreaded or shunned. No, this state of thinking will palliate only for the moment, for the judgment is certain, and is and will be no less to be dreaded, because the immutable law demands exact restoration instead of an angry God.

No man who has lived and died has escaped, and no man who shall hereafter die can escape this judgment unless he has, in a way provided by the Father in His love, become in harmony with the laws requiring harmony. "As a man soweth so shall he reap" is as true as is the fact that the sun shines upon the just and the unjust alike. Memory is man's storehouse of good and evil, and memory does not die with the death of the man's physical body, but on the contrary, becomes more alive - all alive - and nothing is left behind or forgotten when the spirit man casts off the encumbrance and the benumbing and deceiving influences of the only body of man that was created to die.

Judgment is real, and men must come to it face-to-face, and want of belief or unbelief or indifference or the application to mens lives of the saying "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" will not enable men to avoid the judgment or the exactions of its demands.

There is a way, though, in which men may turn the judgment of death into the judgment of life - in-harmony into harmony - suffering into happiness - and judgment itself into a thing to be desired. Elsewhere we have written of this way open to all men, and I will not attempt to describe it here. I have written enough for tonight. You are tired and must not be drawn on further. So with my love I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes that the World is Now Awakened to a Greater Realization that Man is Spiritual and Must Have Spiritual Food

December 16, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

Well, my disciple, I realize that your desires are that I shall deliver a message to you tonight, and I am anxious to do so, yet I see that you are not just in condition that I may take that possession of your brain that is necessary in order to write satisfactorily. I am sorry that this is so, but it is a fact, and we will have to wait a while longer, which will not be very long, for you are much improved, and if you continue to pray, you will soon become in that soul condition that will enable me to make the rapport.

There are many messages yet to be written and I am anxious that you receive them in order that they may be delivered to the world, for the world is now awakened to a greater realization of the fact that man is spiritual and must have spiritual food. The war is causing many people to think of the hereafter and the destiny of the soul; and the knowledge that the world now has of the future life is very meager and unsatisfactory, merely a knowledge that the spirit survives death and experiences more or less happiness in the spirit life.

As you know, this is not the vital thing in the destiny of man, for while a knowledge of the survival of man from the death of the physical may and does give a great deal of consolation to the near and dear ones who are left on earth, yet the fact does not, in the slightest degree, determine the condition or destiny of the soul that has left its home in the flesh; and there are no means, now known to men, to show them that destiny, except some things written in the Bible, which are the subject of much speculation and controversy and want of belief.

The consolation of those who have faith in the Bible is founded on that faith, or rather, in most cases, belief; but there are a number of believers in the truths of the Bible with a conscious soul perception of their meaning, who have that faith which makes certain to them the facts of destiny and the possession of Love in their souls.

I will come tomorrow night and endeavor to write a formal message. In the meantime, let your thoughts turn more to the things of the spirit, and your prayers ascend with more earnestness and longings to the Father.

As you know, I love you as my brother and disciple and am with you as you pray each night, uniting in your prayers, and you must let your faith increase and believe that your prayers are being heard and will be answered to the fullest. I will not write more now. So my brother, good night, and may the Father bless you with His greatest blessings.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Luke Writes on the Subject of the Devolution and Evolution of Man

July 22, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. Luke, writer of the third gospel that was. Well, I desire to write a few lines on the subject contained in the book, which you were reading tonight. I mean the book dealing with the creation and fall of man.

Well, the man who wrote the book is endeavoring to reconcile the Bible doctrine of the creation and fall of man with the scientists' doctrine of evolution, and to show that these two views of the subject are not antagonistic, and if properly understood may be used, one to support the other. But in this, he has not succeeded, nor can he for this reason, if there were no others, that man did not evolve from the beast or lower animal, but was always man, the creature of God, perfect in his creation and wholly natural.

There was nothing of the supernatural about him and he never possessed any nature of the superman from, which he fell at the time of his disobedience. He has never been anything more or less than the perfect creation of his Maker, although he has degenerated in his qualities and in the exercise of his will.

Evolution, or the doctrine of evolution, has its limitations and its founder, or those who follow him either wholly or in a modified way, are not able to retrace this doctrine to the fall of man and, hence, when they attempt to pass beyond that stage when man seemed to have been very degenerate and a product of the animal progenitors, they get into the field of speculation and knowledge ceases to exist.

Man was not created with any of the Divine qualities, as the writer seems to think, but was made the merely natural man that you see now, without the defilement of his soul qualities which involves only the elimination of those things from his soul that cause the departure from the condition of his creation. That is, when he was created he was in perfect harmony with the will of God and His laws and when he shall be restored to that harmony of unity with these laws, he will then be in what was his before the fall.

So the idea put forward by the author that man was created with something of the Divine in him, which took him out from a kind of physical condition of imperfection, and that when he lost these Divine qualities, he fell into that imperfect condition, is all wrong. The great truth connected with man's creation is that man was created perfect; that as regards his order of creation or the qualities of his moral and physical nature. there could be no progress, for the next step in progression would be the divine.

Thus, you will see that he was so wonderfully and perfectly made, that he was only a little lower than the angels, and by angels I mean the souls of men which have ceased to be incarnate and have partaken of the Divine Love and become a part of the Father in His Divinity of Love - not the mere souls in the spirit world which have only the development of their moral qualities, because these, whenever they have become purified and in harmony with the laws and will of God, are only men perfected in their natures and organisms as they were at the time of man's creation.

I say, the perfect man possesses those qualities and attributes that were his at the time of his creation, and he cannot progress or become greater or other than he was at the time of such creation. He was made perfect as a creation, and beyond the perfect there can be nothing greater evolved from the qualities and faculties, one and all, that made him perfect. And to progress, there must come into his nature from without - the Divine Love - that which will add to these qualities and faculties, which you may understand is no part or method of evolution.

When the first parents fell, they lost that which destroyed the harmony of their existence with the Laws of God, and also were deprived of the great potentiality of becoming Divine in their natures of Love and Immortality, like unto the Father - but as mere created men, they fell from perfection and not from divinity. Nor were they by that fall deprived of the possibility of living forever in the physical bodies, because those bodies were made only for the purpose of enabling the souls to individualize themselves and thereafter die and become dissolved into their derivative elements.

The physical body was never created to live forever, and men were never created to live on earth forever, for a greater and larger world was provided for their eternal habitation, where things are real and only the spiritual exist. The earth is a mere image of the realities of the spirit world and exists only as the nursery for the individualizing of the soul. That you may not misconceive my meaning, remember the soul is the man - the ego - and that when man fell, it was not the physical part of man that fell, except as it was influenced by the soul, but it was the soul that fell; and the sentence of death was not pronounced upon the physical, but upon the soul potentialities and, hence, you may see that when man shall again become the perfect man, it will not be necessary that the physical body be restored.

Even if it were not contrary to the physical laws of the universe or to speak more correctly to the laws controlling the material part of the universe that the material body of man be resurrected and again be housed in the soul, it would not be necessary - for the soul has its spirit body, which manifests its individuality. There is no necessity for the resurrection of the physical body, and there will be no such resurrection, for God never does a useless thing.

As I say, man has never ceased to be the man of God's creation, although he has become degenerate and defiled, and at one time in the history of his existence devolved to that degree where, save for the essential qualities of his creation, he appeared to be lower than the brutes; but he was always the man of God's creation and never an animal of the lower order.

The scientists in their geological search and research and in their finds of fossils and traces of ancient man, and in their biological theories, conclude that man was of a lower degree of intelligence and manner of living, and they may be justified in so concluding, and also that he has gradually evolved from that condition and state and draw apparent correct theories therefrom, yet when they attempt to go further, they enter only into the realm of speculation and become lost in the darkness of mystery. They can rightly acclaim the evolution of man from where they lose him in their retracing of that evolution, but can know nothing of his devolution anterior to that time; and, hence, their speculations are without foundation of substance.

No, man has not evolved from the lower animal, but only from himself when he reached the bottom of his fall. In this particular, the history and experience of man is this: he was created perfect; he sinned; he fell from the condition of his created state.

His condition at the bottom of his fall was inferior in some phases to the brute animal. After long centuries, he commenced to rise from his base condition and had made progress when the scientists by their discoveries found evidence of his then condition, and since then he has been the subject of their "evolution." But the scientists and all mankind must know that all during these centuries of descent and ascent, man was always man, the greatest creation of God, and the most fallen.

Well, I have written enough for tonight, but as I was with you to-day as you were reading and saw the misconceptions of the writer of the book, as well as those of the scientists to whom he referred, I thought it advisable to write the few incompleted truths about the subject. I will soon come and write. So with my love and blessings, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

Paul Writes About the Methodist Preacher Who Has Divine Love and Encourages Mr. Padgett to Tell Him the Truths of God and Salvation

July 3, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Paul.

Let me write a few lines, as I desire to say a word about the condition of the man to whom you were talking a short time ago on matters connected with your work and the messages that you are receiving. I mean the Methodist preacher. (Dr. Mitchell)

As you may judge from his conversation, his mind is open to the reception of the truth, and his beliefs in the dogmas of the Bible teachings are not such as to cause him to be unduly biased, so that if the truth be presented to him with any degree of reasonable force, he will give consideration to the same. Of course, he is an orthodox in the way of believing in the plan of salvation provided by God, as recognized and enunciated by the creeds of the churches, and to him Jesus is God, and his sacrifice and vicarious atonement are truths vital to the salvation of mankind; and that the man who does not believe in these necessary prerequisites cannot possibly become reconciled to God or be at-one with Him. To him, Jesus is God, and the only saviour of men, and without Him (Jesus in this sense) it is not possible for man to escape the great condemnation.

Now, while all this is true as regards the preacher's belief, yet he does not believe positively that the man who dies in his sins, as the churchmen term it, will be condemned to a separation from God for all eternity. His belief on this question is not fixed, and his love for mankind creates in him a hope that this may not be so, and that some means will be provided by which such an awful condemnation will not be imposed on men.

He has in his soul much of the Divine Love, without having the consciousness that this is a separate and distinct Love from the natural love that has been to some extent purified. In fact, he has no conception of any Love of God other than the love that was given to men at the time of the creation of the first parents, and which every human being born since that time has received, although it has become defiled by sin and error and the willfulness of man. He believes that man, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, is cleansed of this defilement of the love with which he was endowed, and by the atonement of Jesus is brought into a state of reconciliation with the Father, and no other or different love is necessary for the redemption of the fallen human. That Jesus, by his sacrifice, is all that is required; and when a mortal, by his belief and acceptance of that sacrifice, receives Jesus into his life and nature, he becomes a redeemed child of God.

Of course, he cannot fully understand just the method by which this change is brought about. He believes that there is something mysterious connected with the manner in which the resultant condition of goodness and purification and the change of the vile man into an angel, which flows from the sacrifice and acceptance and belief, yet the man is so changed, and the manner thereof is known to God, and it is not necessary for man to understand. This is a path which does not demand knowledge, a mystery of God which need not be inquired into; only: "Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved." I say that this belief is his and is sufficient for him, and in it he rests securely.

Well, he is comparatively happy in his belief and is willing to retain it for, as he sometimes thinks, if he renounces it, where and unto what shall he go? He can see nothing to take its place, and he is wise not to give it up. For in Jesus is salvation, when Jesus is correctly understood; and as the preacher turns his thoughts to Jesus and sends forth his soul's longings to the Master and what he represents, his soul at times catches a true conception of the very Jesus, although this conception does not agree with and is not the same thing as his intellectual comprehension of the Jesus of the Bible as interpreted by the creeds.

I am glad that you had the conversation with him, and I believe that as he listens to the unfoldment of the truths, as contained in the messages, his mind will take on a new and true conception of the truth, and his soul open up to a greater inflowing of the Love that will make him at-one with the Father, and transform that soul into the very substance of the Father's Divinity in Love.

I would advise you to present these truths to him, for he is an important factor in the work of man's salvation, when it is considered that one soul is of more worth than the whole world. He has the opportunity to show the way to salvation to many souls by the preaching of the truth, and any personal sacrifice which may come to him as a result of learning and believing the truths is not to be considered. While his material happiness on earth is to be considered and not thrown away whenever it is possible to retain it in connection with the teachings of the truth, yet his soul's happiness and that of many other souls are of more importance than the mere material happiness that arises from ignorance of the truth, or the living in that ignorance. So I say, let him know the truth no matter what the consequences may be, for in the end happiness will come to him, even on earth, as well as in the great eternity.

I will not write more now. So, with my love, I will say good night, and God bless you and the preacher, for I am interested in him, and in the future may possibly sustain a closer relation to him than is now possible by reason of his false beliefs and the want of the necessary rapport with him.

Your brother in Christ,
Paul

Rev. Fontaine Writes of His Experience of Passing into the Spirit World and the Results of His False Beliefs

July 1, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me say only a few words as I am anxious to write and tell you that I was with you tonight on your last visit to the home of my son (Mr. Fontaine), and was hoping that the opportunity would present itself for me to write; but, as you know, I was disappointed, and I know that my daughter was also, for she expected that in the event that you should call at her brother's home, she would be able to get a communication from me.

As I could not write there, I thought I would accompany you home in hope that I might write, as I am now doing, for I heard you say that you had received a letter from your wife every night, and if that should happen tonight, that I might have the chance to write.

Well, I want my daughter to know that I approve of her searching for the truth, which she may find in spiritualism, if properly sought for; and, notwithstanding that some of my family do not believe in it and treat it with indifference or disbelief, yet, in it many truths may be found. It is a truth itself and is waiting for mortals to investigate and learn that it is true, and that in it are those truths that will lead them to much greater happiness than they now have on earth, and infinitely more than they can possibly find should they come to the spirit world without a knowledge of these truths.

As they, I mean my family, know that I was a strict orthodox and believed in the teachings of the Bible as the church to which I belonged taught, and which I, myself, taught, and died firmly established in that belief, and came into the spirit world wholly impregnated with this belief, expecting to meet Jesus and be admitted to the presence of God; and, according to my beliefs, I was justified in having such expectation. But, alas, how different was my experience when I left the mortal world and how my expectations shattered in a moment, as it were!

As my spirit left my body, I was fully conscious of the change that was taking place, and knew that I was dying, but was perfectly calm and without a particle of fear. I suffered no pain, or dread of what I should meet, but rather felt a happy expectation in the thought that my troubles of the earth life were past forever, and that soon I would be at rest and find my home among the chosen children of God and have Jesus welcome me and take me in his arms of love.

All the expectations that I possessed before my passing were with me, and much accentuated, and no doubt of my realizing the same for a moment entered my mind to disturb my hopes. I also expected to meet my loved ones who had gone before and enjoy the happiness of their presence and purified condition of soul.

Well, I soon found myself a spirit, dissevered from my body, possessed of joy and, as mortals say, lighter than air. Figuratively speaking, I seemed to be walking on air with nothing to interfere with my ascension to the bright realm where I expected to find my beloved ones and the Christ of my beliefs and love.

I hardly realized my separation from my body before some of my loved ones met me, and welcomed me with love and cheer, and told me that they were so happy that I had come over, and that I must not be afraid or doubt that I was then an inhabitant of the spirit world.

I could scarcely tell you how happy I was and how the memories of the cares and burdens of my earth life left me, and how I seemed to be in an atmosphere of love and heavenly joy. The meeting with them was more than I had anticipated, and I thought how it had not entered into my mind when on earth to conceive of the beauty and grandeur of the spirit home, which Jesus had said he was in Heaven preparing for all those who believed in him, and in the great sacrifice and atonement that he had come to earth to make for men and which he did make.

But soon, I remembered that my great expectation was to see Jesus, and feel the influence of his love, and also, get into the Heaven where the Father was and join with the mighty hosts in singing halleluias and songs of thanksgiving. And I then asked my angel loved ones where Jesus was, and when I should enter into the presence of the Father, and receive His benediction of approval as a faithful and obedient child.

And then, in a loving way and, in a manner to make my disappointment less intense, they told me that Jesus was in the Celestial Spheres, and the Father, they had never seen - that He was a way up in the Spheres where no spirit had yet entered, nor had any spirit seen His face or heard His voice - no matter how exalted and developed that spirit might be. That I was mistaken in my beliefs and that it was only by the development of my soul in Love could I possibly ascend to the Celestial Spheres where the Master was.

That belief in the blood washing or in the vicarious atonement would not fit my soul for the Celestial Spheres, and that only the Divine Love in my soul and the freedom from my erroneous beliefs would enable me to become a possessor of the mansions that Jesus was preparing for those who became in at-onement with the Father. That what they told me was the truth, and that sometime Jesus would tell me the same thing; and while I could not go to his home, yet he frequently came to the earth plane and endeavored to help and comfort spirits who had not the soul Love that enable them to become children of the higher spheres.

Well, you can imagine my astonishment and disappointment and how the nakedness of my beliefs appeared to me! And as I thought of the long life that I had given to the cultivation and establishment of these beliefs and expectations in my own mind, and that I had no other knowledge or hope of salvation, I become doubtful of everything that was told me; and my God became no God, and Jesus, as my saviour, became no longer my saviour, but a man who had deceived me during all the long years of my life; and I became resentful and hardened and refused to believe in anything.

For I thought that, while on earth, I was honest with myself and honest with God, and that when the Bible had been certified to me as God's true revelation, with the certain and only plan of man's salvation, and I had devoutly believed in its plan and endeavored to live the life that entitled me to salvation, thus, as I say, I thought of these things and the realization of my deception made me rebellious, and I almost hated spirits and God.

For a while, I was permitted to indulge in these thoughts without interruption, and then my friends told me that these thoughts were very harmful and would prevent me from learning the true way to salvation and happiness, and that the longer I indulged in my feelings of resentment and thoughts of having been deceived, the greater would be my stagnation in my progress and the darker would become my surroundings.

Very soon they told me that all things in the spirit world were controlled by the unchangeable laws of God, and that these laws required that I should go to the place that my soul's condition fitted me for, and that they would have to leave me for the time being. And they said further, that all the beliefs in all the world will not determine the place in which a newly arrived spirit will have to find its home, unless those beliefs be true; and that the beliefs that I had, and on which I depended for my salvation, were not true.

Well, I found my place, and with it darkness, in which I remained for a long time, refusing to believe what was told me as to the true way to light and happiness, and, just here, I want to say, that it is not an easy thing to lay aside or get rid of the beliefs of a life time on earth, even though the surroundings and disappointment of the spirit show that such beliefs must be false; and that belief - a merely intellectual belief - is a very important factor in determining the temporary destiny of the soul.

I have written a long time and I will not relate in detail how I learned the truth and found the light, and was started on my progress to the higher spheres or how Jesus came to me and showered on me his love and told me of the things that would be mine, if I would only follow his advice. He said that the great stumbling block to the progress of a spirit in its search for the truth and the mansions in the higher spheres is this erroneous and damning belief in his vicarious atonement, etc., and which so many spirits who come to the spirit world bring with them.

I am now very happy and am in the Fifth Sphere, where there are beauty and happiness beyond all conception; and if the opportunity was mine tonight, I would endeavor to give you some faint idea of my home and its surroundings, and of the beautiful spirits who are my associates.

Some day, I know this home will be hers, for she will not have the burdens of the beliefs that I had to overcome. And just here, I must say, that as she knows how very dear she is to me, and how much I, who have so much of this Great Love of the Father in my soul, must love her, she must also know that I would not deceive her for all the world; and knowing this must take my advice and seek for this Great Love of God, which made such a happy spirit of her father. Let these old orthodox beliefs as to the plan of salvation leave her, and pray direct to the Father for His Love, and she will receive all that is necessary for a great earthly happiness and for a joy unspeakable in the spirit world.

I am with her very often in her earthly troubles and try to help and console her, and sometimes I do succeed a little. She must remember that these trials are only for a moment, and then will leave her forever, and that the love and influence which her father is throwing around her will never leave her; and that in that moment which mortals dread the most - I mean of death - her father and other loved ones will be with her and take her in their arms of love, and she will have never a fear or dread as to where she is, for love will be so great that her soul will respond in such a way that all else will be forgotten. So tell my daughter to try to not let her troubles and cares worry her so that she will neglect the presence of the consolation, which we try to bring to her.

Well, I have written as much as I feel that I am justified in doing as your time is needed for others as well, but your wife, who is so good, says that I must not fear that I have consumed too much, for she is always interested in the making known to mortals those things that will make them happy on earth and certain of Heaven.

I should like to say something to my wife, but I see that she is not in condition to receive my message, for she is suffering as I suffered, unconsciously, in the dogmatic beliefs of her church. Oh, if I could only come to her in my appearance of earth and tell her of the errors of her beliefs, and of the truths that have made me free and a true child of the Father, I would do so with the rapidity of light, and with the hope that my love for her would give me. I never loved her on earth as I do now, and when she comes to the spirit world, she will not come a stranger, for a greater love than she has ever conceived of will meet her, and she will know the lover.

Tell my daughter to read what I have written to her mother, and even though her mother will not believe, yet some of the things that I have said will find a lodgment in her memory, which will come with her to the spirit world and help her in her disappointment in not having her expectations realized. And what I have said to you, my daughter, I say to my sons, and urge them to think of these things that are so vital to them as mortals as well as when they become spirits.

Sometime, with your permission, I will come again and write to my folks. So thanking you and with my love to all my dear ones, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Fontaine

**********

Helen Confirms the Message from the Orthodox Minister

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well dear, you are a little tired and I must not write much. The spirit who wrote you was at the home of his son as he says, for as you know I was there and I saw him there. He came home with you and I told him to write, for I knew that he was very anxious.

He is a very bright spirit and has much of the Love in his soul and is anxious that his wife and children should believe what he wrote. What a privilege they have in having such a father to be with them, and give them the influence of his Love. If mortals could only understand the great fortune of having a dear one in the spirit land who has the amount of Love in his soul that the spirit who wrote you has.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Jesus Writes on the Only Way Men Can Reach the Kingdom of God or the Way to the Perfect Man

May 5, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight to write on the only way by which men can reach the Kingdom of God, or the way to the perfect man.

This is a subject that many men and teachers have endeavored to explain to mankind, and the ways described have been as varied and sometimes contradictory as the thoughts and education of these men have differed; and all have sought to base their teachings and conclusions on the Bible. I, of course, mean those who profess to be Christians. As to other teachers and reformers, as they have been called, their teachings are based on the doctrines of the various sects to which they have belonged or professed allegiance. But the Kingdom of God is more peculiarly a phrase that is found in and belongs to the Christian Bible, and to some extent in the Hebrew scriptures.

In considering the subject of this message it is first important to understand what is meant by the "Kingdom of God." Some understand or conceive it to be a kingdom on earth in which the will and laws of God will be followed and obeyed by men in the mortal life, and others understand it to be that Kingdom of God, which exists and will continue to exist in perfection in the spirit world; and some few, that Kingdom which will find its home or place of existence in the Celestial Spheres.

Now, the way to each of these kingdoms is not the same, although in pursuing the way to one, and that the Celestial Kingdom, the way to the others, must necessarily be followed, or in other words, he who follows the way to the Celestial Kingdom pursues that course which, in its pursuit, will cause him to do those things and obey those laws of God that are necessary to establish the kingdoms on earth and in the spirit world; but he who pursues only the way that leads to the establishment of the kingdom on earth and in the spirit world cannot possibly become an inhabitant of the Celestial Kingdom. The Kingdom of God on earth, or in the spirit world, may be obtained by man, or spirit, by obeying the will of God in those essentials that will work a purification of his natural love and cause that coming into harmony with His laws which affect and control man as mere man; that is, that will restore man to the condition of perfection that existed before the fall of the first parents; and many of my teachings, when on earth, of which there are preserved a number in the Bible, were intended to instruct men into that way of life that would develop their moral qualities and free them from the taint and destructiveness of sin in which they were then and are now living.

By the observance of my teachings and sincere obedience to these moral precepts, man will lose those things that belong to his appetites and passions and evil thoughts and desires, and realize that in their places will come a purer love and more spiritual desires and thoughts which lead to a cleansing of his heart and soul, and which means a living and thinking in harmony with the will and laws of God. For God is all good, and all His laws require that man shall become good in order that this kingdom in the spirit world shall be established.

Naturally, and I mean according to His creation, man is good, and not the depraved creature that for so many centuries the teachings and doctrines of the church have declared him to be; and when he shall arrive at that state of goodness that was his in the beginning, he will merely have rid himself of those contaminating appetites, thoughts and desires that made him the sinful and inharmonious being that he now is.

So, from this, you will see that the work of man, in order to enable the kingdom to become established on earth, is largely a work of renunciation; and this truth was taught by prophets and teachers prior to the time of my coming to earth and teaching the way to the Celestial Kingdom; and the same truth applies to the spirits that shall make up and establish the kingdom in the spirit world.

In these kingdoms of the purification and regaining of the perfected natural love, there will be nothing of the Divine Nature of the Father, except as may be generally said, all the objects of His creation, by reason of being such objects, may partake of the image of the divine. But this is not the divine. The Divine in its true sense is that which partakes of the very essence and nature of God and not that which is merely the object of His creation.

Man, in body, soul and spirit body, is only a creation of God and, as to the soul, an image of its Creator, but this creation was not made of any, the least part of the essence or substance of God; and this creation can, if it so please the Father, in its composite and coordinated existence, be utterly destroyed and reduced to the elements of which it was created, without in the smallest degree affecting the true substance or nature of God. So you will see that in truth, there is in or of man nothing of the divine; and, hence, when the Kingdom of God shall be established on earth, or in the spirit world, there will be therein, nothing of the divine, only the existence of the perfect creatures, living and thinking in harmony with the laws of God which control their creation and existence.

So that the way in which these two kingdoms of the non-divine can be established, is by man pursuing that course of thinking and living that will enable him to renounce and get rid of those things - foreign to his true nature - which prevent him from coming again into the exact harmony with the will of God as expressed and made obligatory by the law of man's creation.

The observance of the moral law will enable men to accomplish this end. The love with which man was endowed, as the perfect man, enables him, as it becomes purified and more harmonious, to love God and to love his fellow-man as himself, for this natural love is one that in its perfection and nature is universal, and in its exercise every man is his neighbor's brother.

The progressive qualities of this love which every man may obtain, are truly and wonderfully set forth by Peter in one of his epistles as contained in the Bible (II Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 5, 6, 7) and if men will seek these successive steps in acquiring the purifying development of this love, they will obtain the great object sought for. As I have written, the Bible contains many of my teachings which if followed, will lead to this end, and men will realize the Kingdom of God on earth.

And here let me correct one mistaken belief or idea that has so long prevailed among mankind, and which, in its results, has delayed the coming of the kingdom on earth; and the correction is, that God by His mere fiat, or irrespective of the desires and workings of men's souls, will not establish this kingdom. Its establishment depends upon men, themselves, and until their loves become and they become in harmony with God's will, this kingdom will never be established.

I know that it is believed and taught and emphasized, and men place all their hopes and expectations of a heaven of bliss on the statement, that I will at sometime come in the clouds of Heaven with a great shout, to earth, and by the power which they believe exists in me, establish the Kingdom of God - a kind of kingdom in which I will be the king and rule supreme, and receive as my subjects those who believe in and worship me, and send those who do not into eternal damnation and outer darkness.

Well, this is pitiable, untrue and all erroneous. This kingdom will never be established in this way, for only man, himself, can call into existence this kingdom, only by becoming the pure perfect man that existed when God's earthly kingdom had at man's creation, its existence. Man alone, brought sin into the world, and man must himself destroy sin, and then harmony with the Father's will will be restored, and also this kingdom.

But, from what I have written, it must not for a moment or in the slightest degree be inferred even, that God is not taking and will not take any part in the reestablishment of this kingdom, for it is a fact, that He is working through His Angels upon the souls and thoughts of men to bring this kingdom on earth; but He will not force its establishment - it must come voluntarily on the part of men.

When He created man, He gave him a free will - the most wonderful of the natural gifts to man - and He will not, by the exercise of His power arbitrarily control the direction of that will, but as to it leaves man supreme. Of course while this is so, yet if man in such exercise contravenes the laws of God, man must suffer the consequences, for He never changes or sets aside His laws. Man may exercise his free will as he desires and as his thoughts and appetites may influence him to do, but the freedom of exercise does not prevent the imposition of the penalties that the laws prescribe when they are violated. Thus you see there is freedom without limitation, but every inharmonious exercise of that freedom must invite the infliction of that which necessarily follows the violation of harmony.

God wants and is patiently waiting for the love of man, and is always the loving Father who delights not in the suffering of His creatures, for He wants their love to come voluntarily and without constraint or fear of punishment or hope of reward, except that reward which must necessarily follow the blending of God's Love and the love of man.

Then I say, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is not the Divine Kingdom, and has not in it that which is necessarily divine, except the love of God to His creatures to bless and make them happy. His essence and substance are not conferred upon them, for if they were, men would not remain in the kingdom of earth, but would, to a degree, be in the Celestial Heaven, even while on earth, and as I know some men, while still mortals, are in this Divine Heaven.

Now, what I have said with reference to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, applies with equal truth to the Kingdom of God in the spirit world, for there the inhabitants are merely the spirits of men after they have surrendered their physical bodies, and become purified in their natural love and in harmony with the will and laws of God controlling their existence as perfect men.

While the Kingdom of God has not yet been established on earth, it has been in the spirit world, for in the highest sphere of that world the souls of men have become purified and harmony has been restored, and the souls of men enjoy the supreme happiness that was bestowed upon them at the time of their first creation, which God pronounced very good. Sometime you will have described to you the bliss and wonderful happiness of that kingdom; and I will not say that this is beyond all conception of men, and was established not by the mere power and will of God, but by the exercise of the will of men after they became spirits in renouncing evil and sin, and having their thoughts and desires and soul in its natural love purified and made harmonious. And here I must say, that all men who have ever lived, or who shall ever live, will, at sometime live in this Kingdom of God in the spirit world, or in the Kingdom of the Celestial Spheres; but the large majority will find their homes in the former kingdom.

The hells and dark places will be emptied of their inhabitants and abolished forever, and, surprising as it may seem to mortals, not by the fiat of God, but the exercise of men's will and desires and longings for the attainment of the purification of their love, and by their reaching the goal of their aspirations. But God will be with them in their efforts, and his angels will do his will in helping mortals and spirits along this way to the spiritual kingdom.

Then how important it is that mortals should understand and realize the great work that they must do in establishing the kingdom on earth and the kingdom in the spirit world, and not rest supinely in the mere intellectual belief that God will in His own way and at His own time, establish this kingdom, and that they who believe in God and observe the creeds and doctrines of their churches and perform their duties as church members, will become inhabitants of that kingdom, and in a moment become pure and undefiled and in harmony with the will of God and His laws.

It is a very harmful belief, because the only way to this kingdom is the way of renunciation and purification, and all the beliefs ever possessed by men that do not lead to this purification of men's souls, will not lead to this kingdom. Man, with the help of the Father, must hew his own destiny, and the Father, without the effort of man will not make for him a destiny that his condition of soul and love do not entitle him to.

But there is a Kingdom greater and different and unlike these kingdoms of which I have been writing, and that is the Celestial Kingdom of God; and only those who receive of the Divine Essence can become inhabitants of this Kingdom. The souls of men must become transformed into the very Nature Divine of God, and the natural love of man be changed in all its qualities and elements into the Divine Love of the Father.

I have written that many of my moral teachings are recorded in the Bible, and that I came, or rather my acceptance by the Father as His beloved son, and the reception into my soul of His Divine Love qualified me to teach the way to the several kingdoms; and as was said in that Book, what was lost by the disobedience of the first man was restored by the coming of the second, and that only means, that by reason of the knowledge that came to me of truth and of the laws of harmony that govern God's universe, I was enabled to teach men the way to a return to the purity and development of their souls in natural love that existed before the great loss caused by the disobedience of the first man. I was not to bring about this restoration by any great power or Godlike qualities of omniscience that I might be supposed to possess, but merely by teaching men to love God and their brothers, and to pursue that course of living and thinking that would necessarily enable them to renounce sin and evil and come into a state of harmony with the laws of their creation.

Now, while I taught these moral truths, I also taught the great spiritual truths that show men the way to the Celestial Kingdom, for in my communions with the Father there came to me not only the Divine Love which transformed my soul into the substance of the Father in its love qualities, but also the knowledge by which this Divine Love might be acquired and the certain way to the Celestial Kingdom, even though to a degree while in the flesh.

But my spiritual teachings that show the way to the Celestial Kingdom were not so well understood by my hearers - and not even by my intimate disciples - but more so by John, and consequently were not preserved in the Bible, as were my moral teachings. And as to the Bible, I mean the original manuscripts were not written until many years after my death. Even in these manuscripts not many of my teachings as to the way that leads to this Celestial Kingdom, were contained; and afterwards when these manuscripts were copied, and the copies recopied, these important truths were not preserved - scarcely any. Though the fundamental ones, namely: God is love, and except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven were retained.

And as time went by and the recopying continued, fewer and fewer of my precepts were preserved, and men came to know less and less of these higher truths, and, consequently, the mere moral teachings became better understood and were used by the teachers and instructors of the masses to lead men to a kingdom of God.

And in addition to this, these leaders changed even these moral truths and the interpretations of the early writers in such a way as to enable these leaders to attain to wealth and power and control over the common people in their beliefs and observances of worship. The God of love then, to a large extent, became a God of hatred and wrath, inflicting punishment upon those who dared to disobey those injunctions that the hierarchy of the church placed upon them as the demands and will of God.

But these matters have been written upon more fully elsewhere, and I will not further enlarge upon them, and will now disclose the true way that leads to the Kingdom of God in the Celestial Heavens. Well, we have written a long time tonight, and I think it best to postpone my further writing till later. I must say this though, that I am pleased that you are in so much better condition, and I feel that now we can proceed more rapidly with our messages.

Remember this, that my promises will be fulfilled, and you must have faith. I am with you very often, and love you as you know, and will continue to pray to the Father for you. So trust me and be assured that I am helping you in your desire. Good night and God bless you.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus