October 29, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
You were right in your surmise that I was with you tonight, and as you imagined, I was standing close to you at the time the preacher (Dr. Gordon) was delivering his discourse, and you felt the influence of my love and sympathy, and also received the thoughts that I was superimposing on your brain.
The preacher's sermon was an advance upon the beliefs of the orthodox in many particulars, but in the most important particular and in the one that will affect mortals most vitally in their progress in the spirit life, he was wrong, very wrong. I refer to his declaration that he saw or knew of no statement in the Bible that would justify him in asserting that there would be an opportunity for the spirits of mortals to receive pardon or to progress from the condition of Hell to that of light and Heaven in the spirit world, when they had not started on that journey in the mortal life. This, as I have told you, is a damnable doctrine, and one that has done more harm all down the centuries from the time of my living on earth, than most any other teaching of the church that claims to be representative of me and my teachings.
Many poor souls have come into the spirit world with this belief firmly fixed in their minds and conscience, and the difficulties have been great and the years long before they could awaken from this belief and realize that the Love of the Father is waiting for them in spirit life just as in the earth life, and that probation is never closed for men or spirits and never will be until the time of the withdrawal of the great opportunity for men to become inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens, and even then the opportunity to purify their natural love will not cease, and never will, until all who have the opportunity shall become perfect men in their natural loves.
Had he searched the Scriptures, in which he so implicitly believes, he would have found an authorization for him to declare that even in the spirit world, the spirits of the unsaved sinners on earth, who died without having become reconciled to God, had the gospel of salvation preached to them.(i.e., in the Hells - 1 Peter 3:19-20).
And furthermore, when he declared that the Bible says that I said that: "He that sinneth against the son of man it shall be forgiven him, but he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come," had the preacher placed the natural and only implied construction on this declaration, he would have found that the sinner who neglected the opportunity on earth, would yet have another chance for salvation in the world to come, as the spirit world is referred to. So that, even according to his own source of belief and foundation of his knowledge of these things of the future, he would be justified and even required, as an honest preacher of the Scriptures, to declare that probation did not end with the physical death of the mortal. It is so sad that the creeds and fixed opinions of these preachers, formed from the teachings of the old fathers, as they are called, should be men of soul development, such as this preacher has and teach the damnable doctrine that I speak of which he declared.
There is a Hell, or rather Hells, just as there is a Heaven or Heavens, and all men when they become spirits, will be compelled to occupy one or the other of these places; not because God had decreed that any particular spirit - because of his earth belief or condition - shall occupy that place, but because the condition of his soul development, or want of development, fits and fixes him for that place and no other.
God has made His Laws of Harmony and these Laws are never changed, and when any particular soul gets into a condition of agreement with these Laws, then that soul becomes at-one with the Father and an inhabitant of His Heavens; and so long as that soul remains out of such condition, it is in Hell, which is the condition of being out of agreement with the harmony of God's Laws. This is Hell and there is no other comprehensive definition of it: every thing or place that is not Heaven is Hell. Of course, there are many gradations of Hell, and the inhabitants of these gradations are made by the condition of their soul development, which is determined by the quantity and quality of the defilement and sin that exists in these souls. The soul is developed as the love becomes purified and sin eradicated, and just as this process progresses, the soul becomes developed.
God has decreed that His universe, both of men and things, shall be harmonious, and only the creature, man, has become out of that harmony; and as the universe shall continue, the only destiny for man is, that he shall return to that harmony from which he fell by reason of his own misdirected will. Had God decreed, as the preacher by necessary implication, declared, that the sinner who dies in his sins shall forever remain in his sins and in a state of antagonism to such harmony, then God, Himself, would necessarily become the cause and power of defeating His own Laws of Harmony, which no sane mortal whether he believes in the Scriptures or not, would or could believe.
God's Laws are fixed and unchangeable and always in harmony with one another and with His Will, and knowing this, every thinking man will know and should know that whenever a proposition or opinion is put forth by preacher or layman or philosopher or scientist that shows that in order for a certain condition or truth to exist, God's Laws will have to work in conflict with or in opposition to one another, then that proposition or opinion is false and has no foundation in fact. And so to accept this declaration of the preacher that there is no probation after death, or as he said, chance to progress out of the Hell which the mortal carries with him to the spirit world, men will have to believe that the Loving Father, for the satisfying His wrath and meeting the demands of His supposed justice, will set His Laws in conflict with one another and destroy the harmony of His universe.
The preacher spoke, as he said, as a scientist, and not as a religious teacher, and yet the deduction that he made when he declared the eternal existence of the Hells violated one of the fundamental Laws of Science and that is that: "Two conflicting laws in the workings of God's universe cannot both be accepted as true, and that the one of these two that is in harmony with all the other known laws must be accepted as true."
Then I say, that founded on the Scriptures or founded on science, the preacher had no basis for making the untrue and deplorable statement that physical death ends man's possibility of progressing from a condition or state of existence in Hell into that of purity and freedom from sin and into harmony with God's perfect Laws and the requirements of His will.
The preacher spoke from his intellect and mental beliefs of long years standing and the memory echoes of what he had heard said by other preachers and teachers who left upon his conscious beliefs their false doctrines. But deep down in his soul, where the Love of the Father is burning and the soul sense is growing, he does not believe this doctrine, for he realizes that this Love of the Father is so much greater and purer and holier than any other love that exists in Heaven or on earth; and the Father from Whom It comes must be holier and more merciful and forgiving and thoughtful of His children than of any mortal father of his children. And then as a mortal father having in his soul the Divine Love, he knows that his child could not commit any sin or offense that could possibly become unpardonable, or that he would not permit, and gladly, the child to repent of at any time. And so he would see, that if he refused to the Father, from Whom this Divine Love comes, a love and sympathy that would cause that Father to be as forgiving to His children as is he, the earthly parent, then the Greatest Attribute of that Father, God, Who is All Love, would not be equal to the love of His creature. The derivative would be greater and grander and purer and more Divine than the Fountainhead from which it is derived.
No, the preacher in his soul does not believe this unnatural teaching, and at times, he travails in his soul at the conflict that takes place between the mental bondage of his intellectual beliefs and the freedom of his soul sense, the creature of the Divine Love that is in him, and the only part of Divinity that he possesses. And thus is demonstrated the great, real paradox of the existence in the same mortal at the same time, of an intellectual belief and a soul knowledge as far apart as the antipodes.
And also is demonstrated the truth, a great truth, that the mind of man and the soul of man are not one and the same, but are as distinct as the creature of a special creation, the mind, and the creation of that which is the only part of man made in the image of his Maker, the soul, must necessarily be.
But some day the soul knowledge will overcome the mental belief, and then the preacher will know that harmony and inharmony cannot exist for all time - that sin and error must disappear and purity and righteousness must exist alone, and that every man and spirit must become at-one with the Father, either as an inhabitant of the Celestial Heavens or as the perfect man that first appeared at the call of God, and by him pronounced: "Very good."
I have written enough for tonight and must stop, but before doing so, I want to say that I have been with you today and saw that you were very happy in your thoughts and in your soul experience. Other spirits were also with you, throwing around you their love and influence. Persevere in your efforts to obtain this Divine Love, and pray to the Father and it will come to you in increased abundance, and with it a wonderful happiness. I will come soon and write you another message. So with my love and blessings, I will say good night and God bless you.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
Showing posts with label Laws of Harmony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laws of Harmony. Show all posts
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Jesus Writes Further on the Origin of Life
February 6, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I come tonight to resume my discourse of several nights ago. As I was saying, man is the creature of God made in perfection and - instantaneously - as it were - not having a slow growth as other creations. And when he was created, he needed no evolution or additional attributes to make him the perfect man. His physical body was perfect and also his spiritual body and his soul.
He had, in addition to these three constituents a "Gift," which by his disobedience he forfeited, and which was never restored to him until my coming and, which when possessed by him, made him more than mere man. As to those things which were made constituent and absolute parts of him, they were perfect, and no evolution was necessary to give them any increased perfection. Man then was a more perfect being than he is now, or ever has been since his fall from his condition of perfection.
After his disobedience and the consequent death of the potentiality of partaking of the Divine Nature of the Father, which is the "Gift" above mentioned, man was left in a state where he depended exclusively upon the qualities, which he then possessed for his future happiness and freedom from those things which would cause him to lose the harmony that then existed between him and the Laws governing his being.
The greatest of all the qualities bestowed upon him was that of the will power, which was wholly unrestricted in its operations. Although, when exercised in a manner which brought this will in conflict with the Laws controlling this harmony, man had to suffer and pay the penalties of such violations. But notwithstanding that these perversions of the exercise of the will brought the sins and errors, which now exist on earth, God did not place any limitations on this exercise.
Man, in his creation, had bestowed upon him appetites and desire pertaining to his physical nature, as well as desires of his higher or spiritual nature, and they were all intended to work in harmony and not in antagonism; and in such workings, man was kept pure and free from sin - which is merely the violation of God's Laws of Harmony. But after the first disobedience, which is the greatest demonstration of the power of man to exercise that will, even when God had forbade him to do so, and after man lost this great potentiality that I speak of, succeeding disobediences became easier; and as these disobediences occurred, man lost to a great extent the desires for the spiritual things, and the animal or physical part of his nature asserted itself, and then, instead of exercising these appetites which belonged to the physical nature in such a wise way that no in-harmony would ensue - and here let me say that even after the fall it was possible and even expected that man would exercise these appetites in the way mentioned, he indulged them beyond their proper functions, and increased such indulgence, until he commenced to find, as he thought, more pleasure in such indulgence than in the thoughts and exercise of his higher nature and the aspirations which belonged to it.
This deterioration of man was not sudden, but gradual until, at one time, he became in a state or condition of being - bordering on that of the lower animals and, in fact, because of this increased indulgence of these appetites, he seemed to be transformed into the lower animal; but yet he remained man, a being created in the image of his Maker.
And from this position of low degradation or degeneracy, man slowly commenced to progress towards the attainment of his original condition before the fall. Never, in all this time, was his freedom of will taken from him, nor attempted to be controlled by God - but always the Laws of Compensation worked, and man suffered as he continued to create sin and evil.
But as man on earth continued to degenerate and to permit, what is sometimes called his animal nature to dominate his spiritual nature, many men died and continued to die, and their physical bodies went back to the dust of which they were created, and their spiritual selves became inhabitants of the spirit world, where they were freed, in a longer or shorter time, from the desire to exercise these animal appetites and the spiritual part of man again asserted itself, until many of these spirits became free from sin and evil and in harmony with the Laws of God controlling their natures and conditions as they existed before their degeneracy and before the disobedience commenced.
And these spirits, thus, made free and in their spiritual dominance commenced to try to assist men while living on earth to direct his will in such ways as to rid himself of submission to these appetites, and to become again a true man as in his creation state, minus the potentiality that I have mentioned. But these efforts on the part of spirits have been slow in their effects, and while men in individual cases, have been almost regenerated, yet as whole the progress has not been as rapid as is desirable - sin and evil still exist in the world, and men's perverted appetites and desires still control them to a large extent.
Of course, this progress from the bottom of degeneracy has taken place in some parts of the earth, faster than in others and, hence, you have your distinction between the civilized and the uncivilized races or nations; but this does not necessarily mean that the civilized people, as individuals, have made greater progress in the manner indicated, than have the individuals of some of the so-called uncivilized nations, for it is a fact that among some men of the former nations are perversions and manifestations of perversions of these appetites that do not exist in the latter nations.
Advancement in the intellectual qualities do not necessarily mean progress in the spiritual asserting itself over the perversions of these appetites, for will is not a thing entirely of the mind, and neither are these appetites and desires, because back of the mind are the affections usually called the heart's desires, which is the seat of these appetites, and from which these desires arise; and as they arise, the will is influenced by them and as the will is influenced come positive thoughts and deeds.
It is not surprising that your scientists believe and preach the doctrine of the evolution of man from a lower species of animal, or from an atom or from something that they cannot just understand or give a name to, because in their studies of the history of mankind, and of the created world, they find that man has developed and progressed amazingly from what appeared to have been his condition in some ages past.
But history does not extend to the time when man was in this lowest condition of degeneracy and, hence, all the conclusions that these scientists reach are based upon facts, sufficient unto themselves, which show the progress of man only after the turning point of his degeneracy. They have no facts and, of course, when the word "facts" is here used, it refers exclusively to the material things of nature showing them the gradual decline of man from his state of being a perfect man to that when his retrogression or degeneracy ceased, and his progress of return to his former estate commenced.
So, if the scientists will believe and teach that man, instead of evolving from an atom or some other infinitesimal something, or from a lower species of animal than man, evolved from his state or condition when he was at the bottom of his degeneracy, to which he had descended from the perfect man, then they will believe and teach the truth, and their theory of evolution will then have as its foundation or basis, a fact, which now it has not - only a speculation.
This in short, is the history and truth of the creation of the universe of man - of man's fall and degeneracy, and evolution and progress. And through all this creation and subsequent existence runs life, permeating it and always with it, and the origin of Life is God.
I have finished and I hope that you will find some instruction as well as entertainment in what I have written. I will come again soon and write you another truth.The fact that you waited for sentences to be formulated to express my thoughts, merely means that I was manipulating your brain so that the proper expression or idea could be conveyed to your hand as I wrote it.
You have my love and blessings, and I am more interested as time passes in you and your work. Keep up your courage and your desires will be fulfilled.
Your friend and brother,
Jesus
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I come tonight to resume my discourse of several nights ago. As I was saying, man is the creature of God made in perfection and - instantaneously - as it were - not having a slow growth as other creations. And when he was created, he needed no evolution or additional attributes to make him the perfect man. His physical body was perfect and also his spiritual body and his soul.
He had, in addition to these three constituents a "Gift," which by his disobedience he forfeited, and which was never restored to him until my coming and, which when possessed by him, made him more than mere man. As to those things which were made constituent and absolute parts of him, they were perfect, and no evolution was necessary to give them any increased perfection. Man then was a more perfect being than he is now, or ever has been since his fall from his condition of perfection.
After his disobedience and the consequent death of the potentiality of partaking of the Divine Nature of the Father, which is the "Gift" above mentioned, man was left in a state where he depended exclusively upon the qualities, which he then possessed for his future happiness and freedom from those things which would cause him to lose the harmony that then existed between him and the Laws governing his being.
The greatest of all the qualities bestowed upon him was that of the will power, which was wholly unrestricted in its operations. Although, when exercised in a manner which brought this will in conflict with the Laws controlling this harmony, man had to suffer and pay the penalties of such violations. But notwithstanding that these perversions of the exercise of the will brought the sins and errors, which now exist on earth, God did not place any limitations on this exercise.
Man, in his creation, had bestowed upon him appetites and desire pertaining to his physical nature, as well as desires of his higher or spiritual nature, and they were all intended to work in harmony and not in antagonism; and in such workings, man was kept pure and free from sin - which is merely the violation of God's Laws of Harmony. But after the first disobedience, which is the greatest demonstration of the power of man to exercise that will, even when God had forbade him to do so, and after man lost this great potentiality that I speak of, succeeding disobediences became easier; and as these disobediences occurred, man lost to a great extent the desires for the spiritual things, and the animal or physical part of his nature asserted itself, and then, instead of exercising these appetites which belonged to the physical nature in such a wise way that no in-harmony would ensue - and here let me say that even after the fall it was possible and even expected that man would exercise these appetites in the way mentioned, he indulged them beyond their proper functions, and increased such indulgence, until he commenced to find, as he thought, more pleasure in such indulgence than in the thoughts and exercise of his higher nature and the aspirations which belonged to it.
This deterioration of man was not sudden, but gradual until, at one time, he became in a state or condition of being - bordering on that of the lower animals and, in fact, because of this increased indulgence of these appetites, he seemed to be transformed into the lower animal; but yet he remained man, a being created in the image of his Maker.
And from this position of low degradation or degeneracy, man slowly commenced to progress towards the attainment of his original condition before the fall. Never, in all this time, was his freedom of will taken from him, nor attempted to be controlled by God - but always the Laws of Compensation worked, and man suffered as he continued to create sin and evil.
But as man on earth continued to degenerate and to permit, what is sometimes called his animal nature to dominate his spiritual nature, many men died and continued to die, and their physical bodies went back to the dust of which they were created, and their spiritual selves became inhabitants of the spirit world, where they were freed, in a longer or shorter time, from the desire to exercise these animal appetites and the spiritual part of man again asserted itself, until many of these spirits became free from sin and evil and in harmony with the Laws of God controlling their natures and conditions as they existed before their degeneracy and before the disobedience commenced.
And these spirits, thus, made free and in their spiritual dominance commenced to try to assist men while living on earth to direct his will in such ways as to rid himself of submission to these appetites, and to become again a true man as in his creation state, minus the potentiality that I have mentioned. But these efforts on the part of spirits have been slow in their effects, and while men in individual cases, have been almost regenerated, yet as whole the progress has not been as rapid as is desirable - sin and evil still exist in the world, and men's perverted appetites and desires still control them to a large extent.
Of course, this progress from the bottom of degeneracy has taken place in some parts of the earth, faster than in others and, hence, you have your distinction between the civilized and the uncivilized races or nations; but this does not necessarily mean that the civilized people, as individuals, have made greater progress in the manner indicated, than have the individuals of some of the so-called uncivilized nations, for it is a fact that among some men of the former nations are perversions and manifestations of perversions of these appetites that do not exist in the latter nations.
Advancement in the intellectual qualities do not necessarily mean progress in the spiritual asserting itself over the perversions of these appetites, for will is not a thing entirely of the mind, and neither are these appetites and desires, because back of the mind are the affections usually called the heart's desires, which is the seat of these appetites, and from which these desires arise; and as they arise, the will is influenced by them and as the will is influenced come positive thoughts and deeds.
It is not surprising that your scientists believe and preach the doctrine of the evolution of man from a lower species of animal, or from an atom or from something that they cannot just understand or give a name to, because in their studies of the history of mankind, and of the created world, they find that man has developed and progressed amazingly from what appeared to have been his condition in some ages past.
But history does not extend to the time when man was in this lowest condition of degeneracy and, hence, all the conclusions that these scientists reach are based upon facts, sufficient unto themselves, which show the progress of man only after the turning point of his degeneracy. They have no facts and, of course, when the word "facts" is here used, it refers exclusively to the material things of nature showing them the gradual decline of man from his state of being a perfect man to that when his retrogression or degeneracy ceased, and his progress of return to his former estate commenced.
So, if the scientists will believe and teach that man, instead of evolving from an atom or some other infinitesimal something, or from a lower species of animal than man, evolved from his state or condition when he was at the bottom of his degeneracy, to which he had descended from the perfect man, then they will believe and teach the truth, and their theory of evolution will then have as its foundation or basis, a fact, which now it has not - only a speculation.
This in short, is the history and truth of the creation of the universe of man - of man's fall and degeneracy, and evolution and progress. And through all this creation and subsequent existence runs life, permeating it and always with it, and the origin of Life is God.
I have finished and I hope that you will find some instruction as well as entertainment in what I have written. I will come again soon and write you another truth.The fact that you waited for sentences to be formulated to express my thoughts, merely means that I was manipulating your brain so that the proper expression or idea could be conveyed to your hand as I wrote it.
You have my love and blessings, and I am more interested as time passes in you and your work. Keep up your courage and your desires will be fulfilled.
Your friend and brother,
Jesus
Friday, May 3, 2013
Albert G. Riddle Writes About His Soul's Progression from the Earth Plane to the Seventh Sphere
January 19, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, your old partner, Albert G. Riddle.
I desire to write to you tonight upon a subject which I think will be interesting, but it is so late now I hesitate to do so. Well, as you think it will be all right, I will do so. I want to write on the subject of the soul's progression as I have experienced it.
As you know, when I first came into the spirit world, I was an unbeliever in things pertaining to the soul, except that I thought that the soul, which in my then opinion was the equivalent of that part of man which survived death, would continue to exist, and progress as the mental qualities of the man should be developed. That the mind was the great and only thing in the future existence and, as the mind was developed more and more on earth, the condition of the man in his progression would be determined.
I had no conception of the soul as a distinct and independent existence from the mind, and I thought that all the qualities and attributes of the mind were those which belong to the soul, and that I had none others. And so I say, I entered the spirit world and did not change my beliefs until a long time after I became a spirit.
But as I continued to live in the spirit world in this belief, I found that the mental faculties and their development did not bring to me the satisfaction which I had anticipated; and also, met some of my friends of earth, who had preceded me by long years, men of great mental acquirements. I found that their condition was not as satisfactory a nature as I had led myself to believe that they should be, for many of these friends were only in the earth plane and some were in darkness, which was wholly contrary to what they should be if my theory of the 'allness' of the mind was true. All this caused me to think and in thinking, I commenced to realize that there might be something wrong in my theory, and that the soul might be a distinct thing from the mind in its nature and functions.
I did not find that these intellectual friends of mine had any very great happiness nor were they satisfied with their condition, and yet they could not by the exercise of any mental progress get out of their condition of darkness. Of course, they were engaged in pursuing studies of one kind or another, and such studies gave them considerable happiness and satisfaction, yet, notwithstanding all this, there was some restraining force that prevented them from going to spheres higher than they were then living in.
I found that there were higher spheres where the mind was developed to a much greater degree and where many spirits, who believed in the supremacy of the mind, lived and enjoyed the pursuits of their studies. At times, some of these spirits would come to our plane and tell of the wonderful development and happiness in these higher spheres and urge us to make the effort to progress and become inhabitants of them, and you may be assured we were willing and anxious to make such progress. But try as I would, and as my friends would, the efforts produced no visible effect and we continued in darkness.
Being of an inquisitive nature, I sought for the reason of our inability to get out of the darkness. At last I found that the mind was not everything, but the development of the moral qualities were necessary to enable us to progress as we desired, and that in order to develop these qualities, something more than the mere exercise of the mental faculties were required.
Conscience must be satisfied and our recollection of evil deeds on earth must be gotten rid of, and our qualities of soul, which determined our position and condition in the spirit world, must be so adjusted to the demands of the Laws of Harmony, so that we could be able to advance in our progress to that place which such adjustment would entitle us to occupy.
I further found that the darkness in which we lived was not created by any defective condition of the mind, for many spirits whose minds were highly cultivated and possessed of unusual knowledge were in just as much darkness as were many spirits of very meagre mentality and information.
All this knowledge came to me and caused me to seek a way to improve my moral nature and to get rid of the recollections of those things which tainted and darkened such nature, and I sought very diligently, but it was slow work and the efforts required were great.
But some progress was made, and if I had continued long enough and used my will powers in urging the cultivation of kind thoughts and love for the truth and affection, etc., I would undoubtedly have progressed from darkness.This had been the experience of many spirits who believed as I did, that the mind was the thing and depended upon their own will and exertions to bring the desired results.
But while in this condition of struggle and slow progress, I would occasionally meet spirits who seemed to be of a higher order and more beautiful than was I, and naturally I wondered what the cause was, although strange as it may seem to you, I never made the inquiry until one day I met some of our folks who had this beautiful appearance and seemed to be so perfectly happy.
Naturally in our conversation, I asked them the cause of their happiness and when they told me, I was so surprised that I gave very little credence to what they said, because what they told me was so similar to what I had heard on earth in the orthodox churches. I supposed that these friends had brought with them their old orthodox faiths and emotions and were deceiving themselves as to the cause of their appearances, and that the probable cause was that they were more moral than I, when on earth and, hence, their recollections of earthly sins were less and conscience was not so severe on them and, therefore, they had gotten out of their darkness into light with the resultant appearance of beauty and happiness. I would not at first accept their explanations of the cause of their conditions and continued for sometime longer in the effort to improve my moral condition and advance in my mental acquirements.
But there was one other thing I noticed and, that is, that while these beautiful friends had not the mental development, apparently, that some other spirits who had progressed out of the darkness into the higher spheres of light, yet the beauty and seeming happiness of these friends were so much greater and of a different nature from the happiness and appearance of those more highly mentally developed spirits.
And again, I thought and concluded that even moral and mental development could not explain the cause of the difference between the appearances and happiness of these friends and those of these more mentally developed spirits; so I again determined to seek the cause and, as a consequence, I sought these friends with the intention and desire to listen more seriously to what they might tell me and to open my mind to the secret as it was to me.
Well, I listened to them and they told me that their progress and condition was caused by the soul development which they had received in seeking for and obtaining the Divine Love of the Father. That the soul is the great and important part of being spirits; that the condition of the soul development determines the position and appearance and happiness of the spirit; that the spirit body and mind are both subordinate to the soul, and whenever the mind submits to the control of the soul and the will of the mind, as you may say, to the will of the soul, that then the progress to the highest sphere will commence, and the spirit who is thus progressing will show the state of his advancement by the appearance of his beauty and happiness.
They further explained to me the nature and power of the Divine Love and its great developing potentialities and the absolute necessity of its entering into and possessing the soul in order for it to make its greatest progress; that as this Divine Love became more and more a part of the soul's possessions, the soul took on itself the Divine Nature of the Father, and all these things which had a lodgment therein, and which tended to make it dark and sinful, disappeared and as these things disappeared, the soul mounted to higher spheres and became happier and more beautiful, and the spiritual body correspondingly manifested this happiness and beauty.
All these things and many more, these friends told me and urged me to seek for the Divine Love of the Father and offered in every way to help me. At first I could not understand what seeking this Divine Love meant, but they took great pains to instruct me, and told me that only through prayer and faith would it come to me; that while this Love was waiting to fill the soul of every spirit and anxious to do so, yet only by earnest, sincere seeking would It enter the soul and fill it with Its Great Essence.
At last they persuaded me to pray to the Father and then prayed with me, but it was hard to have faith in that which my mind did not understand and could not grasp. But they said, the soul has its faculties and is not dependent upon the mind for this faith, and upon my exercising these soul faculties would depend the question of my receiving this love and this faith, for as Love came, faith would come also, which faith was not a mere mental belief, but something greater and different.
Well, I continued to pray for this Love and after awhile, I felt a sensation which I had never felt before within my soul and, as I prayed, this feeling increased and faith in a small degree came to me, and I realized that there was a Love possessing me that was never with me before. I continued, thus, to seek and pray until at last this Great Love came to me in great abundance flooding, as it were, my whole soul and happiness unspeakable came to me and, as these friends said, light and beauty also.
Well, you can imagine that my longings and desires became insatiable. The darkness disappeared. My recollections of the evils of my life became fainter and fainter and suddenly I found myself in the Third Sphere, which then appeared to me to be the very Heaven of Heavens and the very fountainhead of beauty and happiness.
Now during all this time, and it was not accomplished in a day, I gave no attention to the development of my mind, or to the acquiring of knowledge of the material things, as I might say, of the spirit world, but when I found myself in the beautiful sphere that I have mentioned, it seemed to me that my mental faculties had expanded beyond all possibilities of belief and knowledge of things, that I had never before heard or conceived of, came to me with wonderful clearness.
But the soul - and not the mind - was the thing! And Love - this Divine Love of the Father - made happiness mine and everything beautiful and satisfying. He, who seeks only the development of the mind and lets the soul slumber, is poor indeed; but he who seeks the development of the soul finds that as his soul develops his mind does also, and rich he is beyond compare.
Well, I continued in this soul development and in the increased happiness and the attainment of great brightness, and more than all the possessions of this Great Love, until I passed through the Fifth Sphere, where everything was much more beautiful, and Love so more abundant than in the Third Sphere, and entered the Seventh Sphere, where I now am. I will not attempt to tell you the glories of this sphere, for I feel that words are inadequate to do so. Then in a faint, unsatisfying way have I attempted to rehearse to you the soul's development and the wholly sufficient thing that it is.
And my advice to all mortals, based on my own personal experience, is to seek with all their might and earnest efforts the development of the soul, and that of the mind will follow. This they can commence while yet on earth, and they will find that progress after they have crossed the border line will be much more rapid and easier.
Well, it is late and I have written long enough. But I wanted so much to write to you tonight upon this subject of the soul development as I see its vital importance to the future happiness of man and to his immortality.
So with all my love and blessings, I am
Your brother in Christ,
Albert G. Riddle
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, your old partner, Albert G. Riddle.
I desire to write to you tonight upon a subject which I think will be interesting, but it is so late now I hesitate to do so. Well, as you think it will be all right, I will do so. I want to write on the subject of the soul's progression as I have experienced it.
As you know, when I first came into the spirit world, I was an unbeliever in things pertaining to the soul, except that I thought that the soul, which in my then opinion was the equivalent of that part of man which survived death, would continue to exist, and progress as the mental qualities of the man should be developed. That the mind was the great and only thing in the future existence and, as the mind was developed more and more on earth, the condition of the man in his progression would be determined.
I had no conception of the soul as a distinct and independent existence from the mind, and I thought that all the qualities and attributes of the mind were those which belong to the soul, and that I had none others. And so I say, I entered the spirit world and did not change my beliefs until a long time after I became a spirit.
But as I continued to live in the spirit world in this belief, I found that the mental faculties and their development did not bring to me the satisfaction which I had anticipated; and also, met some of my friends of earth, who had preceded me by long years, men of great mental acquirements. I found that their condition was not as satisfactory a nature as I had led myself to believe that they should be, for many of these friends were only in the earth plane and some were in darkness, which was wholly contrary to what they should be if my theory of the 'allness' of the mind was true. All this caused me to think and in thinking, I commenced to realize that there might be something wrong in my theory, and that the soul might be a distinct thing from the mind in its nature and functions.
I did not find that these intellectual friends of mine had any very great happiness nor were they satisfied with their condition, and yet they could not by the exercise of any mental progress get out of their condition of darkness. Of course, they were engaged in pursuing studies of one kind or another, and such studies gave them considerable happiness and satisfaction, yet, notwithstanding all this, there was some restraining force that prevented them from going to spheres higher than they were then living in.
I found that there were higher spheres where the mind was developed to a much greater degree and where many spirits, who believed in the supremacy of the mind, lived and enjoyed the pursuits of their studies. At times, some of these spirits would come to our plane and tell of the wonderful development and happiness in these higher spheres and urge us to make the effort to progress and become inhabitants of them, and you may be assured we were willing and anxious to make such progress. But try as I would, and as my friends would, the efforts produced no visible effect and we continued in darkness.
Being of an inquisitive nature, I sought for the reason of our inability to get out of the darkness. At last I found that the mind was not everything, but the development of the moral qualities were necessary to enable us to progress as we desired, and that in order to develop these qualities, something more than the mere exercise of the mental faculties were required.
Conscience must be satisfied and our recollection of evil deeds on earth must be gotten rid of, and our qualities of soul, which determined our position and condition in the spirit world, must be so adjusted to the demands of the Laws of Harmony, so that we could be able to advance in our progress to that place which such adjustment would entitle us to occupy.
I further found that the darkness in which we lived was not created by any defective condition of the mind, for many spirits whose minds were highly cultivated and possessed of unusual knowledge were in just as much darkness as were many spirits of very meagre mentality and information.
All this knowledge came to me and caused me to seek a way to improve my moral nature and to get rid of the recollections of those things which tainted and darkened such nature, and I sought very diligently, but it was slow work and the efforts required were great.
But some progress was made, and if I had continued long enough and used my will powers in urging the cultivation of kind thoughts and love for the truth and affection, etc., I would undoubtedly have progressed from darkness.This had been the experience of many spirits who believed as I did, that the mind was the thing and depended upon their own will and exertions to bring the desired results.
But while in this condition of struggle and slow progress, I would occasionally meet spirits who seemed to be of a higher order and more beautiful than was I, and naturally I wondered what the cause was, although strange as it may seem to you, I never made the inquiry until one day I met some of our folks who had this beautiful appearance and seemed to be so perfectly happy.
Naturally in our conversation, I asked them the cause of their happiness and when they told me, I was so surprised that I gave very little credence to what they said, because what they told me was so similar to what I had heard on earth in the orthodox churches. I supposed that these friends had brought with them their old orthodox faiths and emotions and were deceiving themselves as to the cause of their appearances, and that the probable cause was that they were more moral than I, when on earth and, hence, their recollections of earthly sins were less and conscience was not so severe on them and, therefore, they had gotten out of their darkness into light with the resultant appearance of beauty and happiness. I would not at first accept their explanations of the cause of their conditions and continued for sometime longer in the effort to improve my moral condition and advance in my mental acquirements.
But there was one other thing I noticed and, that is, that while these beautiful friends had not the mental development, apparently, that some other spirits who had progressed out of the darkness into the higher spheres of light, yet the beauty and seeming happiness of these friends were so much greater and of a different nature from the happiness and appearance of those more highly mentally developed spirits.
And again, I thought and concluded that even moral and mental development could not explain the cause of the difference between the appearances and happiness of these friends and those of these more mentally developed spirits; so I again determined to seek the cause and, as a consequence, I sought these friends with the intention and desire to listen more seriously to what they might tell me and to open my mind to the secret as it was to me.
Well, I listened to them and they told me that their progress and condition was caused by the soul development which they had received in seeking for and obtaining the Divine Love of the Father. That the soul is the great and important part of being spirits; that the condition of the soul development determines the position and appearance and happiness of the spirit; that the spirit body and mind are both subordinate to the soul, and whenever the mind submits to the control of the soul and the will of the mind, as you may say, to the will of the soul, that then the progress to the highest sphere will commence, and the spirit who is thus progressing will show the state of his advancement by the appearance of his beauty and happiness.
They further explained to me the nature and power of the Divine Love and its great developing potentialities and the absolute necessity of its entering into and possessing the soul in order for it to make its greatest progress; that as this Divine Love became more and more a part of the soul's possessions, the soul took on itself the Divine Nature of the Father, and all these things which had a lodgment therein, and which tended to make it dark and sinful, disappeared and as these things disappeared, the soul mounted to higher spheres and became happier and more beautiful, and the spiritual body correspondingly manifested this happiness and beauty.
All these things and many more, these friends told me and urged me to seek for the Divine Love of the Father and offered in every way to help me. At first I could not understand what seeking this Divine Love meant, but they took great pains to instruct me, and told me that only through prayer and faith would it come to me; that while this Love was waiting to fill the soul of every spirit and anxious to do so, yet only by earnest, sincere seeking would It enter the soul and fill it with Its Great Essence.
At last they persuaded me to pray to the Father and then prayed with me, but it was hard to have faith in that which my mind did not understand and could not grasp. But they said, the soul has its faculties and is not dependent upon the mind for this faith, and upon my exercising these soul faculties would depend the question of my receiving this love and this faith, for as Love came, faith would come also, which faith was not a mere mental belief, but something greater and different.
Well, I continued to pray for this Love and after awhile, I felt a sensation which I had never felt before within my soul and, as I prayed, this feeling increased and faith in a small degree came to me, and I realized that there was a Love possessing me that was never with me before. I continued, thus, to seek and pray until at last this Great Love came to me in great abundance flooding, as it were, my whole soul and happiness unspeakable came to me and, as these friends said, light and beauty also.
Well, you can imagine that my longings and desires became insatiable. The darkness disappeared. My recollections of the evils of my life became fainter and fainter and suddenly I found myself in the Third Sphere, which then appeared to me to be the very Heaven of Heavens and the very fountainhead of beauty and happiness.
Now during all this time, and it was not accomplished in a day, I gave no attention to the development of my mind, or to the acquiring of knowledge of the material things, as I might say, of the spirit world, but when I found myself in the beautiful sphere that I have mentioned, it seemed to me that my mental faculties had expanded beyond all possibilities of belief and knowledge of things, that I had never before heard or conceived of, came to me with wonderful clearness.
But the soul - and not the mind - was the thing! And Love - this Divine Love of the Father - made happiness mine and everything beautiful and satisfying. He, who seeks only the development of the mind and lets the soul slumber, is poor indeed; but he who seeks the development of the soul finds that as his soul develops his mind does also, and rich he is beyond compare.
Well, I continued in this soul development and in the increased happiness and the attainment of great brightness, and more than all the possessions of this Great Love, until I passed through the Fifth Sphere, where everything was much more beautiful, and Love so more abundant than in the Third Sphere, and entered the Seventh Sphere, where I now am. I will not attempt to tell you the glories of this sphere, for I feel that words are inadequate to do so. Then in a faint, unsatisfying way have I attempted to rehearse to you the soul's development and the wholly sufficient thing that it is.
And my advice to all mortals, based on my own personal experience, is to seek with all their might and earnest efforts the development of the soul, and that of the mind will follow. This they can commence while yet on earth, and they will find that progress after they have crossed the border line will be much more rapid and easier.
Well, it is late and I have written long enough. But I wanted so much to write to you tonight upon this subject of the soul development as I see its vital importance to the future happiness of man and to his immortality.
So with all my love and blessings, I am
Your brother in Christ,
Albert G. Riddle
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Jesus Writes That He is Not God and Explains Free Will and the Violation of God's Laws of Harmony
December 25, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I come tonight, because I see that you are lonesome and feel the need of companionship, and I come to you as a brother and friend to cheer you and make you feel that though you have no mortal friend with you, yet you have a friend in the spirit who is closer than a mortal brother and who loves you with a deep and abiding love.
To-day has been one in which the people of your land have celebrated what they suppose is my birthday and have also worshiped me as one of the triune Godhead, as they believe. But as I have told you before, such worship is all wrong and is very distasteful to me and only makes me the more anxious and determined that this great falsehood shall be exposed and not believed in any longer.
There is only one God and that is the Father, and He alone must be worshiped, for He alone can save mortals from the result of their sins and from the consequences of the great fall of the first parents. I do not want men to look upon me as anything more than an elder brother who is filled with the Divine Love of the Father, and very close to Him in the Qualities of Love and Faith.
I am a spirit who is possessed of a knowledge of the Attributes of the Father, that no other spirit is, and yet am only one of his children as you and the rest of mankind are, and for my own brothers to worship me as God makes me very unhappy, seeing that they can have such a little knowledge of the Truths of the Father.
Tomorrow this worship and praise will be continued and I must look upon it with all the distaste that I have, and realize that I am not able to set men aright in their beliefs and worship. Oh, I tell you the harvest is ripe and the laborers are few, but very soon, I hope this truth of the oneness of God, and the brotherhood of myself with all humanity may be revealed to mankind through the messages that you may receive and transmit to men.
The one Great Truth that is the foundation of men's salvation is the New Birth, and the fact that the Divine Love of the Father is waiting for every man to let it enter his soul and make him at one with the Father.
I am with you very often and am trying to impress you with the great necessity of having these truths revealed, as men's souls are longing for the truth, and their intellects are dissatisfied with the present teachings of theology, and the sayings of the Bible in many places. While this is to be deplored, yet the time will come when the light, that I came into the world to disclose, will shine for every man who may come within the reach of my teachings.
Last night, I was reading as you read an article, which advocated the eliminating from the Christian teachings of a large part of the New and nearly the whole of the Old Testament, and the formulating of a faith based entirely on my sayings and the writings of some of the Bible writers. Such a plan is one that should be investigated by the thinking Christians of the present day and in a modified way adopted.
The only difficulty in carrying out this plan effectively, and having it produce the results desired, is that the Bible does not contain many sayings of mine disclosing the truths and does contain many sayings attributed to me which I never said.
Take that saying over which a controversy is now being had, and which is referred to in another article contained in the book mentioned, that is, that I said, "I came not to bring peace to the world, but rather a sword."
Now, while it appears in Matthews' Gospel as coming from me, I never said it, nor used any expression that would convey the meaning that some of the commentators are endeavoring to place upon the words. I never taught war upon a man's neighbors and never at any time was such a thought a part of my teachings to the disciples or to any others. No, militarism is all wrong and against all the precepts of truth, and it should not, for a moment, be believed by any Christian or by anyone else that such action was ever advocated by me.
While the truth will cause a division, as I know, among men as to what the truth is and may even separate and cause bitter thoughts and even hatred to arise in the souls of men towards their fellow men, and even brother may come to dislike brother, yet the accomplishing of such results was not the object of my coming to earth and teaching the truths, but rather are the results of the unavoidable conflict between truth and error.
Truth cannot compromise even for the sake of peace, and error will not submit or acknowledge its untruth so long as it can get any mortal to believe in and advocate it.
And because of the great gift of free will to man, truth itself, with all the power and knowledge of the Father back of it, will not compel a man to accept it against his will and, hence, as man is very fallible and thinks and believes according as his finite, mental faculties convince him that a certain thing is or is not true, he will not be willing to surrender his convictions until the truth shall come to him in such a way as to persuade him of its reality; and as men differ so much in the operations of their minds and reasoning faculties there will necessarily be a great division among them as to what is and what is not true. And, hence, there will arise disputes and hatred and even wars among them in maintaining their respective beliefs and opinions as to what is truth.
While these feelings of discord must necessarily follow the advent of Truth, yet I did not come for the purpose of bringing a sword, but for the purpose of showing men what the Truths are and of causing harmony and belief in these Truths. Never is hatred, nor discord nor, war among men justified - no matter what the cause - and if men will only learn the Truth, there will never exist such feelings or acts.
Truth is of itself, a thing apart, and admits of no variations or modifications and, hence, the minds of men must submit to and embrace Truth; it will never accommodate itself to the beliefs of men. One is fixed and unchangeable, and the other is always changeable, and until founded on a knowledge of the Truth, will at sometime or other have to change, because in the end, Truth will be established in the hearts and minds of men, so that harmony and peace shall reign in all God's universe.
Error does not exist in the world because God created it or permits it to exist, but solely because there belongs to man an unrestricted will, which controls and influences his thoughts and acts, and which in turn is influenced by the desires and appetites of the mortal.
I know it is said that if God did not permit evil and carnal thoughts and desires to exist in the world, there would be no reason or possibility for man to exercise his will in a way that would bring him to all these feelings of hatred, etc., that I speak of. But this is merely saying that if a man had not the power of free will, he would commit no sin and indulge in no error, for you must know that in his creation he was given not only the privilege and the power, under certain conditions, to become a being entirely free from sin - which is merely the violation of God's established laws - but also the privilege and power to violate these laws. As he wills so shall he be.
Everything in nature may be turned into an instrument of harm if the laws, which establish the functionings and workings of these things, are violated. Sin as an abstract thing does not exist, but is the result of disobedience to some law whose operations in conformity to its creation must be pursued and should always be pursued; and men who violate it must suffer the consequences of such violation.
Mortals may not fully realize that every law carries with it a penalty for its violation, and this applies to the smallest law in the material universe as well as to the greatest law in the Spiritual Kingdom, and this penalty is just as sure in its operation as is the law itself.
A man may be created, physically, almost perfect and so long as he lives in that way, which does not violate some physical law which is operating to keep him in that physical perfection, he will suffer no pain or in-harmony in his being; but just as soon as he does violate this law, the penalty therefore asserts itself and he suffers. Now this arises not because there was existing in the abstract any pain or suffering and had not man violated this law, he would never have known that there was such a thing as pain or suffering; but when he did violate the law, there came into operation the penalty which, as I said is always the result of violating the Laws of Harmony.
And the same principle applies to the moral and spiritual universe. As I said, there is no such thing as sin or error in the abstract, for so long as a mortal may know and follow the truth, he will never realize the existence of any such thing as sin or error, but the moment that Law of Truth is violated, the penalty asserts itself, and man realizes that sin and error do exist; not as an abstract entity, but as a concrete sensitive thing, which will continue to exist until the violation of that law ceases and harmony in its operation is again restored, or rather until man in his thoughts and acts is brought into harmony with the operations of the law.
So you see, God did not create or permit sin or error to exist in the sense that it is an independent entity, waiting to influence men to do wrong and violate His laws of perfect harmony, but rather that when men in the exercise of their will, which He will not compel, violates one of His laws and thereby, as to themselves, interferes with that harmony, they cause the in-harmony to arise, which brings with it the pains and sufferings and sins and errors which are prevalent in the world.
Let men think, if they can, of sin or error in the abstract, and then try to describe it. What is the result? Only vacuity.
So I say, God did not create sin or error, but gave to man that great gift of will, free and not subject to His control, and then man became the responsible being that he is. But in giving man this great gift, He did not relinquish or subordinate His will to that of man nor did He confer upon man the power to change or modify His immutable laws, which He, Himself, will not do. And within the limitations that man can exercise his will, that is when such exercise does not interfere with the will of God or His laws, man may exercise that will with impunity, and without responsibility, as it were, but when in the exercise of that will he infringes upon the will of God or violates one of His laws then, while man is not controlled in the exercise of his will, yet for such violation he must pay the penalty which such violation calls into operation.
God has decreed that His universe shall be one of harmony in its workings, and that no man shall destroy or interfere with that harmony, and no man can; but as man is a part of that harmony, his every act which tends to interfere therewith - and it does not, except as to himself - brings upon himself the penalty of that interference.
Let a man who has violated this harmony, and thereby as to himself, becomes inharmonious, again get into that harmony, and as to him there would be no sin or error; and let every man do this and there would be no sin or error in all God's universe.
So, I repeat, there is no sin or error, in the abstract, in all the universe, and they appear only when man in the exercise of his will interferes, as to himself, in the harmony of God's laws. It makes no difference what the cause of this interference may be, or in what way the will of man may have been exercised, or for what reason, to bring about this in-harmony, the effect is the same. Because harmony and in-harmony cannot exist together no matter what the cause may be. No matter that in one case the cause may appear excusable or even, apparently forced on the individual. The excuse for, or apparent justification of the cause, will not make what is inharmonious unite and work in unison with God's Laws of Harmony.
And, hence, the man whose will may be excused in the way mentioned by reason of heredity, or environments, or want of proper mental or moral instruction is just as much out of harmony with the violated law, as is the man who willfully violates the law. The penalty must be enforced just the same in each case, as the only remedy is the restoration of the harmony.
But there is this difference between the individuals of what may be called the involuntary class and the individuals of the voluntary class, the former will find it easier, and with more rapidity, to get into this condition of harmony than will the latter.
So men must not accuse God in permitting sin and error to exist in the world, as they do not exist, except as man brings them into existence by the wrongful exercise of his will. All sin and error bring their sufferings, and if there were no sufferings, and men were permitted to exercise their wills irrespective of the laws which govern the universe without incurring the penalties, then the only result would be that anarchy would prevail in all God's universe where men live, and in the spirit universe as well, for the will and its great franchise of unrestricted exercise pass with the mortal when he leaves his material body.
So with all my love I will say, good night.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I come tonight, because I see that you are lonesome and feel the need of companionship, and I come to you as a brother and friend to cheer you and make you feel that though you have no mortal friend with you, yet you have a friend in the spirit who is closer than a mortal brother and who loves you with a deep and abiding love.
To-day has been one in which the people of your land have celebrated what they suppose is my birthday and have also worshiped me as one of the triune Godhead, as they believe. But as I have told you before, such worship is all wrong and is very distasteful to me and only makes me the more anxious and determined that this great falsehood shall be exposed and not believed in any longer.
There is only one God and that is the Father, and He alone must be worshiped, for He alone can save mortals from the result of their sins and from the consequences of the great fall of the first parents. I do not want men to look upon me as anything more than an elder brother who is filled with the Divine Love of the Father, and very close to Him in the Qualities of Love and Faith.
I am a spirit who is possessed of a knowledge of the Attributes of the Father, that no other spirit is, and yet am only one of his children as you and the rest of mankind are, and for my own brothers to worship me as God makes me very unhappy, seeing that they can have such a little knowledge of the Truths of the Father.
Tomorrow this worship and praise will be continued and I must look upon it with all the distaste that I have, and realize that I am not able to set men aright in their beliefs and worship. Oh, I tell you the harvest is ripe and the laborers are few, but very soon, I hope this truth of the oneness of God, and the brotherhood of myself with all humanity may be revealed to mankind through the messages that you may receive and transmit to men.
The one Great Truth that is the foundation of men's salvation is the New Birth, and the fact that the Divine Love of the Father is waiting for every man to let it enter his soul and make him at one with the Father.
I am with you very often and am trying to impress you with the great necessity of having these truths revealed, as men's souls are longing for the truth, and their intellects are dissatisfied with the present teachings of theology, and the sayings of the Bible in many places. While this is to be deplored, yet the time will come when the light, that I came into the world to disclose, will shine for every man who may come within the reach of my teachings.
Last night, I was reading as you read an article, which advocated the eliminating from the Christian teachings of a large part of the New and nearly the whole of the Old Testament, and the formulating of a faith based entirely on my sayings and the writings of some of the Bible writers. Such a plan is one that should be investigated by the thinking Christians of the present day and in a modified way adopted.
The only difficulty in carrying out this plan effectively, and having it produce the results desired, is that the Bible does not contain many sayings of mine disclosing the truths and does contain many sayings attributed to me which I never said.
Take that saying over which a controversy is now being had, and which is referred to in another article contained in the book mentioned, that is, that I said, "I came not to bring peace to the world, but rather a sword."
Now, while it appears in Matthews' Gospel as coming from me, I never said it, nor used any expression that would convey the meaning that some of the commentators are endeavoring to place upon the words. I never taught war upon a man's neighbors and never at any time was such a thought a part of my teachings to the disciples or to any others. No, militarism is all wrong and against all the precepts of truth, and it should not, for a moment, be believed by any Christian or by anyone else that such action was ever advocated by me.
While the truth will cause a division, as I know, among men as to what the truth is and may even separate and cause bitter thoughts and even hatred to arise in the souls of men towards their fellow men, and even brother may come to dislike brother, yet the accomplishing of such results was not the object of my coming to earth and teaching the truths, but rather are the results of the unavoidable conflict between truth and error.
Truth cannot compromise even for the sake of peace, and error will not submit or acknowledge its untruth so long as it can get any mortal to believe in and advocate it.
And because of the great gift of free will to man, truth itself, with all the power and knowledge of the Father back of it, will not compel a man to accept it against his will and, hence, as man is very fallible and thinks and believes according as his finite, mental faculties convince him that a certain thing is or is not true, he will not be willing to surrender his convictions until the truth shall come to him in such a way as to persuade him of its reality; and as men differ so much in the operations of their minds and reasoning faculties there will necessarily be a great division among them as to what is and what is not true. And, hence, there will arise disputes and hatred and even wars among them in maintaining their respective beliefs and opinions as to what is truth.
While these feelings of discord must necessarily follow the advent of Truth, yet I did not come for the purpose of bringing a sword, but for the purpose of showing men what the Truths are and of causing harmony and belief in these Truths. Never is hatred, nor discord nor, war among men justified - no matter what the cause - and if men will only learn the Truth, there will never exist such feelings or acts.
Truth is of itself, a thing apart, and admits of no variations or modifications and, hence, the minds of men must submit to and embrace Truth; it will never accommodate itself to the beliefs of men. One is fixed and unchangeable, and the other is always changeable, and until founded on a knowledge of the Truth, will at sometime or other have to change, because in the end, Truth will be established in the hearts and minds of men, so that harmony and peace shall reign in all God's universe.
Error does not exist in the world because God created it or permits it to exist, but solely because there belongs to man an unrestricted will, which controls and influences his thoughts and acts, and which in turn is influenced by the desires and appetites of the mortal.
I know it is said that if God did not permit evil and carnal thoughts and desires to exist in the world, there would be no reason or possibility for man to exercise his will in a way that would bring him to all these feelings of hatred, etc., that I speak of. But this is merely saying that if a man had not the power of free will, he would commit no sin and indulge in no error, for you must know that in his creation he was given not only the privilege and the power, under certain conditions, to become a being entirely free from sin - which is merely the violation of God's established laws - but also the privilege and power to violate these laws. As he wills so shall he be.
Everything in nature may be turned into an instrument of harm if the laws, which establish the functionings and workings of these things, are violated. Sin as an abstract thing does not exist, but is the result of disobedience to some law whose operations in conformity to its creation must be pursued and should always be pursued; and men who violate it must suffer the consequences of such violation.
Mortals may not fully realize that every law carries with it a penalty for its violation, and this applies to the smallest law in the material universe as well as to the greatest law in the Spiritual Kingdom, and this penalty is just as sure in its operation as is the law itself.
A man may be created, physically, almost perfect and so long as he lives in that way, which does not violate some physical law which is operating to keep him in that physical perfection, he will suffer no pain or in-harmony in his being; but just as soon as he does violate this law, the penalty therefore asserts itself and he suffers. Now this arises not because there was existing in the abstract any pain or suffering and had not man violated this law, he would never have known that there was such a thing as pain or suffering; but when he did violate the law, there came into operation the penalty which, as I said is always the result of violating the Laws of Harmony.
And the same principle applies to the moral and spiritual universe. As I said, there is no such thing as sin or error in the abstract, for so long as a mortal may know and follow the truth, he will never realize the existence of any such thing as sin or error, but the moment that Law of Truth is violated, the penalty asserts itself, and man realizes that sin and error do exist; not as an abstract entity, but as a concrete sensitive thing, which will continue to exist until the violation of that law ceases and harmony in its operation is again restored, or rather until man in his thoughts and acts is brought into harmony with the operations of the law.
So you see, God did not create or permit sin or error to exist in the sense that it is an independent entity, waiting to influence men to do wrong and violate His laws of perfect harmony, but rather that when men in the exercise of their will, which He will not compel, violates one of His laws and thereby, as to themselves, interferes with that harmony, they cause the in-harmony to arise, which brings with it the pains and sufferings and sins and errors which are prevalent in the world.
Let men think, if they can, of sin or error in the abstract, and then try to describe it. What is the result? Only vacuity.
So I say, God did not create sin or error, but gave to man that great gift of will, free and not subject to His control, and then man became the responsible being that he is. But in giving man this great gift, He did not relinquish or subordinate His will to that of man nor did He confer upon man the power to change or modify His immutable laws, which He, Himself, will not do. And within the limitations that man can exercise his will, that is when such exercise does not interfere with the will of God or His laws, man may exercise that will with impunity, and without responsibility, as it were, but when in the exercise of that will he infringes upon the will of God or violates one of His laws then, while man is not controlled in the exercise of his will, yet for such violation he must pay the penalty which such violation calls into operation.
God has decreed that His universe shall be one of harmony in its workings, and that no man shall destroy or interfere with that harmony, and no man can; but as man is a part of that harmony, his every act which tends to interfere therewith - and it does not, except as to himself - brings upon himself the penalty of that interference.
Let a man who has violated this harmony, and thereby as to himself, becomes inharmonious, again get into that harmony, and as to him there would be no sin or error; and let every man do this and there would be no sin or error in all God's universe.
So, I repeat, there is no sin or error, in the abstract, in all the universe, and they appear only when man in the exercise of his will interferes, as to himself, in the harmony of God's laws. It makes no difference what the cause of this interference may be, or in what way the will of man may have been exercised, or for what reason, to bring about this in-harmony, the effect is the same. Because harmony and in-harmony cannot exist together no matter what the cause may be. No matter that in one case the cause may appear excusable or even, apparently forced on the individual. The excuse for, or apparent justification of the cause, will not make what is inharmonious unite and work in unison with God's Laws of Harmony.
And, hence, the man whose will may be excused in the way mentioned by reason of heredity, or environments, or want of proper mental or moral instruction is just as much out of harmony with the violated law, as is the man who willfully violates the law. The penalty must be enforced just the same in each case, as the only remedy is the restoration of the harmony.
But there is this difference between the individuals of what may be called the involuntary class and the individuals of the voluntary class, the former will find it easier, and with more rapidity, to get into this condition of harmony than will the latter.
So men must not accuse God in permitting sin and error to exist in the world, as they do not exist, except as man brings them into existence by the wrongful exercise of his will. All sin and error bring their sufferings, and if there were no sufferings, and men were permitted to exercise their wills irrespective of the laws which govern the universe without incurring the penalties, then the only result would be that anarchy would prevail in all God's universe where men live, and in the spirit universe as well, for the will and its great franchise of unrestricted exercise pass with the mortal when he leaves his material body.
So with all my love I will say, good night.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
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