John Writes to Confirm the Truth as to the Existence of the Hells

December 19, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

I merely want to say that I have listened to the message that you have read, and to the remarks of your friend and yourself, and I believe that you have a true conception of the truth as to these hells.

Swedenborg gave you a true description of their conditions as they actually exist, and Herod told you with the certainty of experience what he found to be true and I, John, who have visited them in the efforts to allay the sufferings of the spirits who inhabit them, tell you that they exist as places, with all the darkness and surroundings that cause the sufferings of the unfortunate spirits to increase. I desire to make this statement so that this question of what hell really is may be settled for all time, so far as you are concerned.

I know that many mortals console themselves with the belief that because of certain natural laws, there cannot possibly be any hells, such as the orthodox teach and that, therefore, there cannot be any hells at all. But this conclusion drawn from the premise is not correct. The mere fact that because a man or spirit cannot burn eternally and never be consumed does not justify the inference that such spirit cannot be punished by surroundings which have a fixed locality.

No, man must not rest in the belief of there being no such hells - as Swedenborg has described - because if they do, they will be woefully mistaken and surprised should they live such lives on earth as will cause them to be placed in these hells. I merely wanted to say this much tonight, as I don't want you to receive any communication which is not in accord with the truth. It is of such vital importance that you receive nothing but the truth, that we who are interested in this work have determined that nothing but the truth shall come to you, and that whenever error or misstatements creep in we will carefully correct the same.

So without writing more tonight, I will say that I am,

Your brother in Christ,
John

Herod Writes Further On the Description of the Hells

December 18, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Herod.

Let me write just a line before you close, as I am anxious to tell you of a matter that may be of importance to you in reference to the descriptions of the hells which you received last night from Swedenborg.

He says that the hells are places as well as conditions, and that they have as a part of them certain appearances and surroundings that make the sufferings of the evil spirits increase. Well, this is true, and in addition I wish to say that not only are these appearances and surroundings real and existing to the consciousness of the spirit, but are real as a fact, independent of the consciousness. If there were no spirits in these hells, these appearances and surroundings would exist just the same.

So you see, a great many mortals whom I have heard express their opinions to the effect that hell is a mere condition of the recollections of the spirit, and nothing more, are altogether wrong in such opinions, and they will find that the consolation, if any there be from such opinions, will not be found whenever they may become inhabitants of these hells.

I have passed through all of them, and know whereof I write; for there is no teacher so efficient and convincing as the teacher called experience.
I know that if I had only my recollections and remorse as the cause of my sufferings. they would have been much lighter and not so excruciating as they were. No, mortals will not find any consolation in such a hope, for there is no foundation for such hope, and the poor, deceived mortal who bases his ideas of hell on such a hope will be sadly disappointed. When you consider a moment, you will see that there is nothing unreasonable in the facts that I have stated.

You and all others who believe in the happiness of the higher spiritual spheres, not to mention the Celestial Spheres, believe that the happiness of the spirits who inhabit these spheres is increased and made more real by the beautiful surroundings and the fruits and living water that so many spirits have described as being a part of that higher existence. Then why is it not as reasonable to suppose that in the hells there are surroundings and appearances that will make the conditions of spirits whose evil lives have caused them to become inhabitants of these hells of even more unhappiness and create more suffering and misery. This supposition is one that no reasonable argument can prove to be incorrect.

I merely wanted to add what I have said to what Swedenborg wrote, for I know that conviction must come where statements are based upon actual experiences and where knowledge is derived from sufferings which came from the actual existence of things that are sometimes alleged not to exist.

I will not write more now, but in closing will say that I have long since left these hells and am now an inhabitant of higher spheres and a follower of the blessed Master.

When on earth I was known as Herod the King of Judea, and the poor, miserable, mistaken man who thought that by slaying the babes of Bethlehem, he would maintain his power as ruler.

So good night and God bless you.
Herod

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Mrs. Padgett Confirms Herod's Message   

I am here, Your own true and loving Helen.

Well sweetheart, you have had a letter tonight from a spirit who ought to know what he is writing about, as he was a most wicked man and, as I have been told, suffered the torments of the lowest hells.

But as to you personally, I want to say that it will make no difference to you what the nature of the hells is, or whether there be any or not. You will never see them unless, when you come over, you have a desire to visit them for the purpose of doing good to some poor unfortunate. And I thank God for this assurance and knowledge.

I will not write more tonight.

With all my love, I am your own true and loving
Helen

Josephus, a former Jewish Historian, Writes that God Has No Chosen People and He Loves All of His Children

August 8, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am Josephus.

I am the Jewish historian and now a Christian. You are not a man to let alone. I mean that I must write some of my knowledge of the things of those ancient days, for I see that you are selected to do a great work and I want to contribute to the truth of Jesus' life on earth. He lived just before I wrote, but I had heard of him many times, and I know that he was a real existing being. In my history of the Jews, I mentioned him and when the learned say that what is there said is interpolated, they say what is not true; for he did live and taught in Palestine as the New Testament claims.

I never met him, but the wonders of his works were circulated all over the country and caused much agitation on the part of the leaders of the Jews. I never wrote much about him, because we all looked upon him as a mere agitator and destroyer of our religion, and to such we never gave much notoriety in our writings.

But this same Jesus of Nazareth lived as a man and was crucified by the Romans at the clamor of the Jews. I want to tell you this, because it is claimed that he never lived on earth.

I am a follower of him and believe in his teachings and have received the New Birth that he taught. I live in the Celestial Heavens where only his followers live. He was the true son of God, and his mission was to show men the way to God's Love and to declare the rebestowal of the Divine Love. I tell you that this is the most important truth in all the Heavens, except this, that God is Love. These two constitute the hope of mankind and furnish the means by which man may acquire immortality.

Without this New Birth, men will remain merely men, and will not partake of the Divine Love, and the home in the Celestial Spheres. I say this, because I know from experience what this New Birth means, and from observation, that those who have never received it cannot enter these Spheres. So man must believe this great truth.

Many Jews have become believers since becoming inhabitants of the spirit world, but the large majority of the inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens are those whom we called Gentiles. God had no chosen people in the sense that He designed to save any particular nation in preference to all others. He knows no preference. All are His children and the great gift is for all who ask for it in faith.

I must not write more tonight, but with your permission will come again.

Vespasian is a Christian now, but he never was while on earth, notwithstanding that it was said that he was. He continued a pagan as long as he lived, but he knew something of the Christian teachings. And after he had been in the spirit world a considerable time, he received the light and was Born Again. He is in the Celestial Heavens and a follower of the Master.

So you see, many Jews and Gentiles and pagans who rejected the Master and his teachings on earth have since becoming spirits, had the opportunity, and embraced it, of becoming partakers of the Divine Love and followers of the Master.

Well, you may be surprised to know that Herod is also a Christian. But no pen can portray the sufferings that he had to undergo. Oh, the long years of repentance and torment and darkness. His experience was a Hell, indeed. But the Love and mercy of the Father were even sufficient for his redemption, and among all the spirits of our Celestial Heavens, none are more humble and meek than is this same Herod. His life, voluntarily assumed, is one of service and devotion to the Master. I think that his love for the Master is so great, that even he cannot appreciate it.

I will, with all my love and earnestness, accept your invitation, for the work is of the greatest importance and the time is ripe. Oh, what an awakening there will be when the truths of God, which the Master is communicating through you, shall come to the knowledge and consciousness of mankind.

I am your brother in Christ and a fellow worker and so I will say with all my love and best wishes,

Goodnight,
Josephus

Jesus Writes About His Birth and Life up to the Time of His Public Ministry

June 7, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I want to write to you to-night about my birth and life up to the time of my public ministry.

I was born in Bethlehem, as you know, in a manger and when I was a few days old, my parents took me to Egypt in order to avoid the soldiers of Herod who were sent to destroy me and who did kill a great number of male infants of less than two years of age. The Bible story of my birth and the flight of my parents and the murder of the innocents is substantially correct; and I only wish to add to it that when my parents arrived in Bethlehem, they were not compelled to seek the manger of a stable in order that I might be born on account of poverty - for they were supplied with funds and everything that was needed to make my birth comfortable for my mother and as a matter of fact, my father was not poor in the world's goods as poverty was considered in those days.

The Bible says the wise men came and brought offerings of gold and frankincense to my parents, or rather to me, but my parents have told me that it did not amount to so very much, so far as the money value of the same was concerned and that their expenses of fleeing to Egypt was met by the funds that my father had prior to his reaching Bethlehem.

After they arrived in Egypt, my father sought the home of a Jew who was his relative and lived there for a long time doing the work that his trade fitted him to do; and by his work supported the family and to an extent educated myself and my brothers and sisters, for I had four brothers and three sisters and were all, except myself, born in Egypt.

When I became of proper age, I attended the common school provided for small children and was taught those things that had to do with the religion of the Jews, and some things that were not religious in their nature. I was never taught the philosophy of the Egyptians or of the other pagan philosophies; and when it is stated that I received my religious ideas or moral teachings from any of these philosophers, they are mistaken. My education as to these matters of religion was derived from the teachings of the Old Testament, or rather from Jewish teachers whose text book was the Old Testament.

My development in the knowledge of the truths, which I taught during my public ministry, was caused by my inner spiritual faculties, and my teacher was God who, through His angels and through my soul perceptions, caused to come to me those truths or rather the knowledge of them, and in no other way did I obtain it. I was not born with the knowledge that I was the son of God sent to earth to teach these great truths, or to announce to mankind the rebestowal of the great gift of immortality, and the means of acquiring it. But this knowledge of my mission came to me after I became a man and had the frequent communions with God by my spiritual senses.

I was never in the presence of the Jewish priests, expounding to them the law and asking questions when about twelve years of age, as stated in the Bible, and not before my first appearance after I became a man did I attempt to show priest or layman that I was the messenger of the Father, and sent by Him to proclaim the glad tidings of immortality restored, and of the great Love of the Father which was necessary to make all men at-one with Him, and to give them a home in His Kingdom.

I never was a sinful boy or man and did not know what sin was in my heart; and strange as it may seem, I never sought to teach others these truths until after my mission was declared by John the Baptist. In my boyhood days, I was the same as other boys and engaged in the plays of childhood and had the feelings of a child and never thought I was anything else than a child. In no wise was I different from other children, except in the particular that l have named, and any account of me to the contrary is untrue.

My teachings were those that the Father had committed to me from the beginning, but which I was only conscious of after I became a close communicant of the Father, and learned from Him my mission. So you must believe that I was a son of man as well as a son of God, and that in the literal sense. I would not have been true to my mission had I claimed that I was the only son of God, for it is not true - and men should not so teach it.

Yes, I know it was said that my mother was told of the object of my birth and what a blessed woman she was, but this is not true. My mother, as she has told me, had no reason to suppose that I was different from other children born of men. The story of the Angel of God coming to her and telling her that she must submit to the birth of a child who would be begotten by God or by His Holy Spirit, and that she - as a virgin - should bear and give birth to that child, is not true, for she never in all her life told me that she had any such visitor; and I know that she would be as much surprised, as are many men, that such a thing as the birth of a child by a virgin could take place. So you see the Bible account of my being begotten and all the attending circumstances are not true.

My father, Joseph, never supposed at any time that I was not his child, and the story of the angel coming to him and telling him that he must not put her away because of appearance is not true, because he never in all my conversations with him, intimated that I was other than his own child.

Between the time that I was twelve years of age and my public ministry, I lived at home with my parents, and assisted my father in his business of carpenter, and during all this time no hint ever fell from him that I was not his child, or that I was different from other children, except that I did not do sinful things.

When I commenced to get this Divine Love into my soul, I became very close to the Father, and this relationship resulted in my realizing that I was sent by God with a mission to perform and a great and important truth to declare; and at last the voice in my soul told me that I was my Father's true son and I believed it and commenced to teach and preach the truths of His Love bestowed and the salvation of men.

I knew John the Baptist when I was a child growing up. He was my cousin and we often played together and afterwards discussed the truth of my mission and the way in which it should be made known to the world. John was a great psychic and saw in his vision who I was and what my mission on earth was and, hence, when the time came, he made the announcement of my coming. He realized the difference in our missions and spoke of his not being worthy to unloosen my shoes. But, yet, he did not fully understand my mission and the great truth of the bestowal of immortality upon man by the Father.

I first became the Christ when I was anointed by my Father, and that occurred at the time of my baptism by John. I, as Christ, am different from myself as Jesus. Christ means that principle which the Father has conferred upon me, which made me at-one with Him in the possession of this great love. Christ is that Love itself made manifest in me as man. This Christ principle is universal and is everywhere, just as is the Holy Spirit, but I am limited in my place of occupancy just as you are.

I never as Jesus merely promised the great gift mentioned in the Bible, such as, where two or three are gathered together there will I be also; for it would be impossible for me to be in all places at the same time. But Christ, being without form or limitation, is omnipresent and, consequently, may fulfill my promise in this regard. Christ is as much alive today as ever. He was never crucified and never died as did Jesus.

Well, I think you are too sleepy now to continue, well, because you need sleep. I know of no special influence being exerted over you to produce sleep. I will continue in the near future.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus