Helen Writes that the Effect of Preacher, Billy Sunday's Sermon, is Directed Towards the Progress of the Soul in the Natural Love

January 9, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Helen.

Well dear, I was with you tonight and saw that you were not much benefited by Billy Sunday's sermon and,  of course, could not be, because the preacher said nothing to feed the hungry soul. He said some things which were very good in the way of showing men and women what they should do in order to make their earth lives more happy and it will be well, if the hearers will heed and follow the advice. But nothing much was said to help the progress of the soul.

I saw that you were not in much sympathy with the methods and sayings of the preacher and thought that there was too much hilarity and not enough reverence present as a meeting for the opening up of the soul and helping the development of those qualities that will lead to the Father's Love and the Celestial Heavens. But nevertheless, some things that he said will do good to some people.

You must not forget that the teachings of the Master were twofold, and for those who were not in a condition to hear and understand his higher spiritual truths, he preached those things which, if followed, would make them better men and women and cause them to progress in the development of their natural love. And in this latter effort, the preacher will do good and his work must not be undervalued, for all men are not alike in their conditions, intellectual or spiritual. And besides, here and there in his preachings some truths that he utters may, by its influence upon the hearts of his hearers, cause such hearers to think more deeply about spiritual things of the higher nature and, in thinking, their souls may be opened up to the influence of the spirits who have the Divine Love in their souls, and from which may follow the longings of these hearers for this Love of the Father.

Everything said that tends to cause a spirit to progress towards either of the conditions of love must be encouraged for the Father works in His own way. And frequently, the Love comes into a man's soul, and the man not being intellectually conscious of what the Love is. Whoever is not against us in this work is, in a certain sense, with us; for the salvation of men is the objects of all our efforts; and if we, or mortals, cannot awaken dead souls to a life in the higher condition, then we must work to bring them into that condition that will cause them to get into a state of purified natural love.

They are all the children of God, and if they will not become His beloved children in the Divine sense, then He wants them to become the pure spirits that the first parents were before the fall. So do not criticize or look down upon the work of this preacher, because he does not show men the true way to the Celestial Heavens, or because he says and does things that may not appear to be reverent.

God looks at the heart and the intentions; and the forms of expression used by the preacher are not important, except as they may have the effect of causing some soul to turn away from the truths that the preacher may communicate. All men are not alike and the preachings of the man, while they may, as some say, disgust some hearers, yet others will be affected by them and good will be done.

I write this because I see that you are inclined to criticize the preacher and conclude that his teachings are not conducive to spiritual progress. Well, as you have been told, the large majority of men and spirits will never become inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens, but that is no reason why they should not be taught the way that will tend to purge them of their sins so far as the natural love is concerned. Those who will not become Angels must become purified men, and any and everything that will help them to become the latter is approved by the Father and is the object of His favor.

Well dear, I will not write more now, as I see that you are cold and must go to bed. But remember this: that while all men will not become dwellers in the spheres of the soul in the Celestial Kingdom, yet they are brothers, and the favored brothers must try and help in every way possible the less favored brothers in obtaining that which the Father has designed shall be their portion, even though they refuse or neglect to seek for and obtain the great goal of Divine Love and Immortality. So love me and pray to the Father for His Love, and with all the sincerity of your soul, thank Him that you have found the way to His Great Love and the mansions in the Divine Heavens.

And what I have said to you, I say to Dr. Stone; for I see that his thoughts are somewhat similar to your own and that you both think that unless a preacher can and does show the way to the Celestial Kingdom, his work is not worthy of much consideration and falls short of what he - as a saviour of souls - should do. And so it is, but all cannot teach the higher truths, for they do not know or understand them; but that fact must not cause you, or any who know the truths, to think that this work, when sincere and beneficial in its moral teachings, should not be taught.

I thought best to write this tonight, so that you may not get a wrong conception of what men who cannot teach the great truths should or should not teach. All men are not in that condition of soul and Love, and they should be taught the way that will lead them to those mansions in the Heavens that will be theirs by free will choice.

I love you, my dear husband, and am closer to you in your thoughts, and do not want you to think wrong in anything, even though you think right in a great many and the most important things. Pray and let your faith increase and believe that we are all with you trying to direct you aright; and one who knows is more anxious than any of us that your knowledge of the truths increase, and your experiences arising from that knowledge bring to you with more convincing force the truths that - God is Love - and your God. Good night.

Your own and true and loving,
Helen

John Writes on How God Answers Prayer During Times of War and Explains the Law of Rapport and Communication

November 2, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. John, brother of James - Apostle of Jesus.

I come to you today because I see what your condition is and that you need encouragement, and as I am your special guardian, I could not abstain from writing you as I have. So I say, trust in the Father and in our help and you will not be disappointed. It has been a long time since I have written you in regards to spiritual things, and I desire very much to do so, as I have important messages to communicate, as have many other spirits who have been accustomed to write you.

While your material affairs are important, yet these spiritual truths are of more importance, not only to you but to the world for whom they are primarily intended. The world needs these truths more at this time than ever before, and the sooner we can complete our book of truths the better it will be for suffering humanity, and for many whose hearts are now lacerated because of the great destruction of human life caused by the war.

Well, I know that many believe that in some way God has an overpowering direction as regards the progress and outcome of the war, and in a certain sense this is true, for He is always interested in and seeks to reach the souls and hearts of mankind and, of course, desires that the great suffering and devastation shall cease. But as the cause of all this was the evil desire and ambitions of men, He will let men, themselves, control the conduct and outcome of the war. He will not by His exercise of power in an arbitrary way end the war or determine which of the contending nations shall be successful, except in this, that through the instrumentality of His spirit, He will influence the minds and consciences of these men in such a way that right and justice will prevail, and the evil thoughts and deeds of men be stopped in their operations.

His spirits are working to this end at this time, and have been for a long time, and so have the evil spirits been working to bring discord and destruction upon humanity. The leaders of the nations have been, in a large degree, obsessed by these evil spirits and have been influenced in many of their thoughts and acts by these dark ones, who delight in seeing mankind suffer and in evil asserting itself.

The spirits of truth are exercising a wonderful power over the hearts and souls of men, and one that will cause them to soon realize that evil must not be allowed to prevail and that truth and right must assert themselves to the end that the war must not only cease, but that men must become more in unison with truth and justice. In this way, the Father will answer prayer, and His Love will also continue to flow to men.

I know that prayers are ascending unto the Father from many men and from many of the churches of the respective contending nations for success, but only those prayers will be answered which tend to bring about the overruling of evil and injustice; and the spirits who are working the Father's Will will answer these prayers only which - in their answer - will bring about the desired end.

As I have said, while God does not take interest in these matters by His arbitrary power and decree that the one or the other of these warring nations shall overcome and conquer the others, yet, He does by His angels exercise such influence upon the men who are engaged in the struggle, that in the end His Will will be brought to pass. But men, immediately, must determine the course and results of the issue, and no miracle will be performed which will make one side the conqueror of the other, and while this is so, this determination by men will be influenced as I have stated.

Man has his free will and, as we have written you, that is never arbitrarily controlled by the Father, but in the exercise of that free will, whenever man violates the Laws of God, man must suffer the penalty of that violation. This is a never changing law of the material as well as of the spirit world. When evil is sown, evil must be reaped, and until this evil ceases to operate as a cause, good will not appear. The men who are directing the war must understand that this law is operating in the conduct of the war, and that evil thoughts put into execution will inviolably bring evil consequences.

You may look for an earlier determination of the struggle than some men now believe possible, yet ere that end comes many mortals will become spirits and find their homes - some in the darker spheres, and some in those of light and love, but all are the children of God and will not be forsaken by Him in the great eternity.

Well, you have not been in that condition of mind that has enabled us to make the necessary rapport with you. We must have a mind that is filled with thoughts of the higher things of truth, even though we do not use those thoughts. Our thoughts are all spiritual, and our truths can be received only by the mind in a spiritual condition, and you, lately, have not had so much of this spiritual mind as formerly. Our contact has not been so close, and our rapport, necessary to enable us to express through your mind these spiritual truths, has not been so perfect.

And when I say mind. I merely mean the organs of the brain as influenced by the thoughts of the mind; for I will tell you what you may not know, that these component organs of the brain are not always and under all conditions receptive of the same control by the minds of spirits. You may receive through your brain a long and profound message of things pertaining to what you may call the material, and yet under similar conditions of these organs, not be able to receive messages of the higher truths; and the conditions of these brain organs are caused by the condition of the soul in the possession of things spiritual.

It is difficult for me to express just what I intend to convey but this you will understand, that upon the development and possession by the soul of things spiritual, depends the capacity of the human brain to receive the various kinds of messages. A medium who is merely intellectual and morally good cannot receive those messages of the highest truths, because there can be no rapport between the brain of such a medium and the mind of the higher spirit who may desire to communicate. And, thus, you will understand why it is that the messages from the earth-bound spirits or from those who have merely the intellectual development, are so vastly more frequently received by mediums than messages from spirits of the soul development.

A spiritual thought - I mean a thought which can come only from a spirit who has the development of the soul that makes that soul Divine - cannot possibly pass through a human brain which has never been developed by a soul in which the Divine Love has entered and worked its regenerating powers. Things of the material may be conveyed through a brain purely material, things moral through a brain which has been influenced by moral truths, and things spiritual through a brain which has assimilated those truths that come only with the development of the Soul by Love. This is the Law of Rapport and Communication.

Well, I will not write more now. But in closing urge you to have faith in us, and let your worries leave you, and pray more to the Father. Goodbye.

Your brother in Christ,
John

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

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

I am here, Jesus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

St. John Writes that God Answers Prayers for Material Things by the Work and Operation of His Angels and Spirits

April 25, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. John, Apostle of Jesus.

Well, He answers the prayers for things material by the work and operation of His angels and spirits, and they in that work are subject to the limitations of success as I have above mentioned. God does not exercise any arbitrary power to answer prayers, but when they are sincerely offered to Him, He works through His angels in answering them, and He does not by His mere fiat do so. His angels are always watching and working, and when the opportunity comes, they use their influence in the best possible way to bring about the ends desired.

As you know, man has a free will and that determines very largely the action of men, and such actions are never arbitrarily controlled by any Divine power. If the prayers of men as to material things can be responded to by the workings of the angels and spirits, they are; but if such response depends upon the will of men, then they are not received by mortals, except as the spirits may be able to influence that will and cause men to act in compliance with that influence, which is always used for the purpose of bringing about the response to the prayers that are, in their nature, proper and worthy to be answered.

Well, I doubt if any of those petitions were ever answered in the arbitrary way that is related in the Old Testament. God never answers prayer in that manner, and the petitions of the old prophets had no more influence to bring about the answers to the same, in the manner indicated, than have the prayers of the sincere and earnest man of these days. God was the same then as He is now, and worked through the spirits then as He does now, except that now He has angels of the soul development in the Divine Love, that He did not then have, and these angels are doing His bidding as well as are the spirits. But He does not answer prayers for material things except in a manner in consonance with laws controlling the free will and actions of men, as they may be operated upon and influenced by the work of spirits.

Sometime I will come and write you a message on this subject of prayer and answer. But this I want to say, that we can at times understand what will happen in the near future, and having such knowledge can tell to mortals what may be expected, or rather what will occur, and this we sometimes do.

In your case, we all of the higher spheres, as well as many of the spirit spheres, know what your petitions have been in reference to these material matters, and we have been working to bring about a realization of the same on your part - not only because of your petitions, but because they are so necessary to the doing and completion of our work; and we have been using our influence to the utmost to accomplish this end. But as I say, we are all limited and have not the power to cause the happening of any event by our mere willing the same, even though we are doing the work of the Father.

This may seem surprising as well as disappointing to you, but it is a fact, and it is a great truth that: God helps those who help themselves.

Of course, you must not lose sight of the fact that while men must themselves do those things that bring about changes or happenings or phenomena in material things, yet we can influence - but not control absolutely - their desires and intentions, and their wills that put into operation or effect these intentions. No, these things, as to their immediate manifestations, are subject to the wills of men. God never by a mere act of the moment or of a physical character, places into the hands of any man riches or prosperity. These things must immediately be wrought and brought about by man, but man in doing this can and is wonderfully influenced by the workings of the spirits.

Well, that is a question that has caused men to doubt and consider and explain in various ways the so-called miracle of the loaves and fishes. As I was a disciple of the Master at that time, it is quite natural that I should be expected to state whether such a miracle ever occurred and, of course, I can state what the fact in relation thereto is. And notwithstanding that it has been used by preachers and teachers for many centuries to show the wonderful power possessed by Jesus, and thereby cause the people to believe in and accept him as God, or at least having God-like powers, and has been used to work much good among those who were seeking for the true religion, yet I am compelled and sorry to say that no such miracle ever took place. While Jesus had wonderful powers, and understood the workings of the spiritual laws to a far greater extent than any mortal who ever lived, yet he had not the power to increase the loaves and fishes as is set forth in the account of the miracle. To be able to do so would be against the laws of God governing the material things of His creation, and also beyond and outside of the powers conferred on any man or angel by any spiritual laws.

There are certain laws by which we, who are acquainted with and use them and may cause a dematerialization of physical substances, and also may to a limited degree cause a materialization of spiritual substances, but I am not acquainted with any law that would have operated, under the control of Jesus, to increase the loaves and fishes to the great number mentioned in the story referred to. As a fact, I know that no such miracle took place, and Jesus will tell you the same. There are other alleged miracles in the Bible that never had any existence as a fact.

Well, I have written you a long letter tonight, and I must stop, but I am pleased that you asked me about the response to prayers, and the miracle of the loaves and fishes, for your questions gave me the opportunity, to some extent, to explain these matters. But, as to prayer, you must wait until I deal with it more at large or in detail before you conclude that you understand the subject fully.

And I say to you pray not only for the spiritual things which God bestows through His Holy Spirit, but also for the material things which He bestows through His angels and spirits. The proper prayer will be answered sooner or later, and your prayer for that of which I have written will be answered, even though to you the response may seem a long time delayed.

With my love and blessings, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Jesus Writes that Some of the Doctrines of Christian Science are Untrue

January 2, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I have been present as you read the article on Christian Science and was interested in your comments and am pleased to assure you that your annotations were correct, and that in the particulars that you criticized the statements of the writer, the same were erroneous and not in accord with the spiritual laws of truth and the understanding thereof. Sometime I will come and write you a message at some length on the doctrines of Christian Science for the reason that I think a correction of the claims of this cult is very important.

The doctrines that it proclaims to the world contain many truths and are beneficial to mankind, and are doing much good, both spiritually and physically, but some of the claims are so much in violation of the truth that they must not be permitted to pass as truths uncontradicted.

The founder (Mary Baker Eddy) of this science or discovery, as her writings and followers claim, is here now and deplores the fact that she left to the world so many false and misconceived concepts of the truth that so many persons believe and teach. She is a spirit of much soul development and is in possession of much of the Divine Love, which she did not conceive the meaning of by her carnal mind, as she called it, and was not, therefore, able to teach what this Divine Love is and its operations upon the souls of men and the effect of its presence in such souls.

She never conceived any higher ideal for man than the perfect man. One who should become wholly delivered from the sins and errors, which all men have to a more or less extent. And her teachings that sin and error and disease are not things of reality, because God did not create them, are all wrong, for they have a reality that not only makes men unhappy and causes them suffering in the mortal life, but also prevents their progress towards her ideal of the perfect man in the spirit world.

God only is good and everything that He created is necessarily good and cannot contain that which is evil or in conflict with His creations; but, as we have explained to you, while He created man perfect, knowing only good, yet He bestowed upon him that great power of free will, and after his disobedience, he exercised it in such a way that he violated the laws of his being and sin and error resulted. This made man the creator of evil.

Mrs. Eddy will write you very soon on the subject of her science, as she is very anxious to remedy the errors that she taught, and we have determined that it is advisable that she do so on account both of her followers and her own account, for her work here and so far as possible in the mortal world, is to unteach, as it were, the errors that she taught.

I expected to write my message, or rather finish the message which I partly wrote a few nights ago, but you are not just in condition to receive it, and I prefer waiting until you feel better in this respect. I am glad that you are so much interested in that message, and when you receive it, I don't think that you will be disappointed, for as you say, the subject is the one fundamental truth to be made known to mortals. I will deal with it in all its phases, and you must try to get in the best possible condition to receive it.

Well, I do not think that that will be necessary for there will be such powers present, that the presence of any mortal and the favorable influences that he may attract will not afford any assistance to you. You must know that I have greater power than all the other spirits have, and when I come to you, the assistance of the powers of any other spirit is not needed. If you will only get your soul in the best condition possible, so that I can make the proper rapport, nothing else will be needed.

I will not write more tonight. I love you very much and am with you quite frequently, throwing around you my love and influence, and trying to help you develop your soul condition and become in greater at-onement with the Father.

Yes, I have kept my promises, and when you call for me to come with you and pray, I come, and send up my earnest supplications in your behalf, and I know that the Father answers my prayers, not only because of the faith that I have, but because I can see the effect in your soul's condition.

Well, you must not think that I am God or one of the Godhead, for as I have told you, I am only His son, and the possessor of so much of His Divine Love that I get very close to Him and have communion. I have my home in the Highest Heaven, that the spirit of man has not yet so far reached but, notwithstanding, I am not of so exalted a condition, or in such position, that I do not come to you in love and sympathy and as your elder brother. In my exaltation, I am most humble, and I must tell you that humility is a certain and eternal accompaniment of great spiritual and soul development. And because I am the highest of the Father's sons, you must not doubt that I come to you and deliver my messages and pray for you and throw around you my love and influence.

I have explained to you the great reason why I am doing this, and this reason is one that involves the salvation and good of all mankind, and you. I will tell you now that you are engaged and made a co-worker with me, and the spirits who write you, in the greatest work that any spirit or man can engage in. And I want further to say, that you will accomplish the work, and successfully; and when the time comes for you to lay down this work and come to the spirit world, your reward will be beyond all conception, and your happiness will be complete.

I see that you have in your mind the thought as to what will be the future of your two friends . Well, they will perform their work and it will be a great and important work, that will bring them a reward similar to the one that is in store for you; and this reward is not the result of any special dispensation of the Father, but is the result of the work and the associations and experience that you all will have in doing and completing the tasks that are before you.

You and they, too, are now doing a work which is laying up rewards in the spirit world for you when you come over, and not only there but you are now experiencing some of the benefits that flow from your work. Continue in the efforts that you are making to show spirits and mortals the way to the Father's Love and my kingdom, and you will find a wonderful reflex happiness come to you while you are yet mortals.

If you men could realize the love and spiritual influences, and the number of highly developed spirits that are with you so often, and the efforts the latter make to help you and bring happiness to you, you would feel that you are the truly blessed of the Father. Well, I must stop now. Remember what I have said and believe that I am,

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes on the Subject: What Men Can Do to Eradicate War of Nations and Evil From Their Souls

December 24, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I desire to say that I was with you tonight at the church and listened to the preacher's (Dr. Mitchell) sermon and was somewhat surprised that he should have declared that all the wars and persecutions and outrages that, in the manner described, have been perpetrated on mankind since my coming can be ascribed to my coming and my teachings.

I, of course, can only resent the imputation and declare that the preacher has misconceived the cause of these wars and persecutions, and to charge that they are due to my truths, or the truths that I taught, is not only an injustice to me, but a great injury to the truths and objects of my mission to mankind. Never did I attempt by force or constraint to compel a human soul to believe in my truths or to became a follower of me, in or out of the church.

My mission on earth was to show men the Way to the Father's Love and to declare to them the Great Gift of this Love, and also to break down and destroy the erroneous beliefs and ignorance that then existed among men as what was necessary in order to seek for and obtain this Love of the Father and their own salvation. And so far as the truths, moral or spiritual, which I taught antagonized the false beliefs and practices of men, there was - and necessarily would be - a conflict in the thoughts and lives of those who followed me and those who persisted in their existing beliefs. To this extent, I brought a sword into the world, but it was not the sword that called for bloodshed and murder and persecutions; it was the sword that pierced men's souls, where this great conflict should and must be fought to the end.

No nation can be more spiritual in its government, or in its treatment of other nations, than are the individuals composing it, spiritual. The nation cannot be greater than or different from the individuals who control it, be such control centered in one or more individuals, or in a secular or religious head. The ruler, if he be not a real follower of me, although he may claim to be, cannot in his acts or deeds attribute to me the results of the carrying into action his thoughts and desires and ambition.

The present war, of which the preacher spoke with such horror and lamentation, is not due to my coming into the world as an iconoclast or destroyer of sin and error, but to the fact that men refused to be controlled or persuaded by my doctrines of peace and acted because of the sin and evil desires and immoral ambition that they possessed and permitted to control them. The sword, which he claims I brought into the world, did not cause these sinful and inhuman desires and ambitions to manifest themselves in the form of war and all the evils that follow it. No, this war is not a part of my warfare or the plan of the Father to bring salvation to mankind.

The cause is this and only this: The exercise by men in control of the nations of their desires for increased power and territory and subjugation of nations, together with their sinful cravings for what they call glory and unsatisfied ambition. Had they understood my warfare, each of there men would have found his enemy in himself and nowhere else, and the great war would be a war of the soul and not the war of nations.

Each nation claims that its war is right, and that God is on its side, and prays to that God to assist it in overcoming its enemies. But I want to say here, and it may astonish those who believe that if they conceive that they are in the right and pray to God for success that their prayers will be answered, that God hears only the prayers of the righteous, or of the sinner who prays for mercy and salvation. Never in all the history of mankind has God responded to the prayers of men or nations to assist in the destruction of other men or nations, and this, notwithstanding the accounts in the Old Testament of the many times that he was supposed to have helped the Jews to destroy their enemies.

If men, for a moment, will think that God is a God of Love and that all people are His children, the equal recipients of His Love and Care, they will realize that His Love would not permit Him to sacrifice the happiness or well-being of one class of His children to satisfy the desires of revenge or hatred or outraged justice as they conceive it, of another class of His children. In all the beliefs of this kind, men have misconceived God and His Nature - with men like other creatures, His powers are governed by God's immutable Laws, and those laws are no respecters of persons. Man was given a free will, which he could exercise righteously or sinfully and God does not forcibly control such exercise, but the same exercised rightly or wrongly is subject to Law, which imposes penalties or rewards according as the Law is violated or obeyed.

This war, which so many mortals believe and declare is a punishment inflicted on men because of their sins and disobedience - that is, that it was specially caused by God because of such condition of men - and some expounders of the Bible teach that it was prophesied centuries ago - this war, I say, is solely the result of the sinful conditions and workings of men's souls and thoughts and the natural effect of the causes that men themselves created and the exact workings of the Laws that such causes brought into operation. And in a similar condition, where the same causes exist, Laws will invariably operate - wars will occur and recur until the possibility of the causes cease to exist.

God never ceases to love and care for mankind and always He desires that men shall be happy and at-one with Himself, and that they shall exercise their wills in accordance with His Will and His Laws; but just as certainly does He never - by compulsion or force - endeavor to compel men to exercise their wills in a manner that is not voluntary with them. Should He do this, men would cease to be the greatest of His Creation and incapable of giving Him that voluntary love and obedience which only is acceptable to Him.

But from what I have said, it must not be inferred that the Father is indifferent to men's sufferings and the calamities that wars bring upon mankind, for He is not; and, if, in His Wisdom, He saw that it would be for the lasting good of the men who are engaged in the present war, that He should intervene by the mere force of His Powers and end the war, He would do so. But in that Wisdom, He sees that there is a good which men should have, greater and more eternal than their mere physical and material good, and that greater good cannot be obtained by them through His suddenly bringing this war to an end without regard to their souls, and thoughts and desires. The Law of Compensation must work as well for nations as for individuals even though, apparently, the innocent suffer as well as the guilty.

On earth, as men are now constituted, that is, in their condition of sin and disobedience to the Laws of their being - exact justice cannot be expected and is not received, because this justice is the subject of men's dispensation and not that of God. A man is influenced by his desires which, in turn, control his will and results in his acts and deeds, which must of necessity, bring their results. These results can be avoided only by absence of deeds, and these by a different exercise of the will and this by the change of desire. So when a man so desires and wills, God will not set aside the Law of Compensation and cause results to follow that are not the consequences of such desire and will.

But God is always willing that these evil results shall have no existence, and through the influence of His Love and Holy Spirit is calling men to learn the way to wholly prevent the possibility of these results coming to them, either as individuals or as nations. He has provided the Way and is teaching men the knowledge thereof, through and by which the causes that produce these harmful results may be utterly destroyed and prevented from ever arising to bring to them the deplorable results, such as are manifested in the present war.

God will not interfere by His mere fiat to cause the one side or the other of those who are engaged in this war of bloodshed and carnage to become victorious. The Law of Compensation must work and as the leaders of the respective nations have sown, so must the nations reap and in this, the innocent must suffer in this reaping, because as conditions are, the Law could not work its fulfillment unless all within the scope of its workings should feel its operation. But the Father and the hosts of His angels and the spirits of men are working to bring this terrible catastrophe to an end.

You have written long, and it is late, so I will postpone the further consideration of the subject to another time. Believe that I am with you and love you and will sustain you in your desires to do my work.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Jesus Writes on "Why the Divine Love of God is necessary for man to possess in order that he may become at-one with the Father"

June 27, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I wish tonight to write you upon a subject that is of interest to all mankind, and I hope that we will be able to communicate and you receive the message. I desire to write on the subject of : "Why the Love of God - I mean the Divine Love - is necessary for man to possess in order that he may become at one with the Father and an inhabitant of the Celestial Kingdom."

Already I have written you what this Divine Love is in contradistinction to the natural love, and how it is necessary to save men from their sins so that they may become inhabitants of the Celestial Kingdom, and that nothing but this Love will make a man at-one with the Father, and that no mere ceremony or belief in me as the saviour of men will effectuate that end; and now I will try to show you why this Divine Love is necessary, or as your learned men might say, show you the philosophy of the transformation of the mere man into the Divine Angel, which every man becomes who receives this Love into his soul.

In the first place, man, as you have been informed, is a special creation of God, and is no greater than the component parts that enter into his creation as they are in their individual and aggregate qualities, and these parts are merely what God in His act of creation designed them to be.

It must not be assumed that these parts or any of them are a part of God, or of His Essence or qualities, for they are not, and are as separate and distinct from Him and His qualities as are the lower creations of His will, such as animals and vegetables and mineral substances. The only difference is that man is of a much higher order of creation, and in one particular, made in the image of God, and no other of His creatures has this image in its creation. But, nevertheless, man is no part of God, but a merely distinct creation, and in his best and purest state - only a man, having simply those qualities which were created in him at the time of his coming into existence.

There are certain qualities which man possesses, such as love and wisdom and the reasoning faculties which may be said to resemble the God-like attributes, and so they do; but yet, they are not a part of God's Essence or qualities, and when men assert that man is Divine, or that he has in him the Divine Nature, or even a portion of the Divine Essence, they are wrong for the qualities in them that appear to be of this Divine resemblance are merely those which were created for the purpose of making the human a perfect man.

And because of this conception of man as to his inherent qualities, he has and does and will lose the opportunity of becoming possessed of the nature or Essence of the Father which he may obtain, if he will pursue the proper and only method that God has provided for him in order to be at-one with Him.

The universe of man can and will continue to exist, even though man may never become a partaker of this Divine Nature of the Father, and man will live and enjoy the happiness that was bestowed upon him at the time of his creation, and he will not lose the perfect condition of this creation after he shall have been separated from sin and error, his own creatures. But he will not be anything more than the perfect man and in the time to come will not be anything less and, yet, he will always, as long as he exists remain distinct from the Nature and Essence of the Father, just as he was at the time of his creation, unless he obtains this Divine Nature and Essence of the Father in the way that I mentioned.

The highest endowment of man, either in soul or heart or intellect is merely that which belongs to him as a part of his creation and is not the smallest part of the Divine Nature and qualities of the Father. No part or portion of Divinity enters into man's creation, no matter how divinely constituted man may appear to be or God-like, he may seem in the greatness of his intellect or in the extent of his love nature.

So you see, man is as distinct from God and from His Divinity, as is the animal - the brute - from man and must forever remain so unless he follows the only way the Father has prescribed for him to obtain a portion of this Divinity.

Now, all this shows that man, no matter how highly he may develop his intellect or to what extent he may develop his moral and love nature cannot become more than the mere man that he was in the beginning - perfect in every particular - for he was in the beginning perfect in every particular, and as I have said before, God never makes a mistake as to the perfection of His creatures, even though in the case of man it may appear that He did in giving him the great power of free will, which in its wrongful exercise has caused sin and evil to appear in the word of man's consciousness.

And man was made finite, and his capacity for exercising any and all his qualities, is limited beyond which he cannot possibly go. His intellect is bound by limits as determined as the Law of God which controls it and, also, his capacity for loving and for the enjoyment of his happiness; and though he may live for all eternity either as man or spirit, he cannot possibly extend or pass beyond the boundary lines of his creation. He cannot enter into the Realm of the Divine where limitations do not exist and capacity for receiving knowledge and wisdom and love and for progression that is commensurate with the very fountainhead of God Himself.

Then such being the nature and limitation and capacity of man, it is apparent that he can never, by virtue of his creation and the qualities which he possess, become a partaker of the nature and Essence of God, unless he receives something in addition to these qualities, and he must receive this something from without. It will not do to say, that there is within him, as an inherent part of him that, which when developed, will make him of a nature divine and a part of the essence of the Father for this is not true. There is nothing in man of this nature, and it is impossible to produce an Essence Divine unless there be something from which it can be produced, that in some degree has the nature of that Essence. It would be the equivalent of producing something from nothing which even God does not attempt to do.

Then as man is, thus, limited all that flows from the qualities and attributes which he possesses is necessarily limited. The enjoyment of his intellect, the pleasures of his love, the satisfaction of his reasoning powers, and as a sum total, his capacity for happiness have their bounds and besides the consciousness of immortality can never be his, either as spirit or mortal, even though he may strive for it to be.

When man takes on the Divine Nature and becomes absorbed in the Essence of the Father, he then becomes like the Father, and whatever his image to the Father may have been when he was mere man, now he becomes the real Substance and limitations of possibilities become removed, Love sees no ending and intellectual development, no boundaries, happiness no limitations, and Immortality becomes a thing of knowledge, and the soul a new creature having the Divine Essence of the Father; and until this new creation has taken place, and the transformation becomes a thing of reality, and the soul be made at-one with the Father, man cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Then no longer man, but now an Angel.

Now, as I have written you before, all this can be accomplished only by the operation of the New Birth, that is, the inflowing into the soul of man of the Divine Love of the Father. This Love contains the Essence of God's Divinity, and when man obtains it, he is then of the same Essence as the Father, and for the first time becomes a part of the Divine and fitted to inhabit the Celestial Heavens. In no other way can man partake of this nature, and it does not require much reasoning to show the logical truth of this statement, for man in his earthly affairs and in his material experiments in producing compounds from elements applies the same principle that I assert in my statement, "The dough cannot be leavened unless leaven is placed in the batch."

So you see, that without this Divine Love entering into the soul, it will be impossible for the natural man to become the Divine Angel. Beliefs and creeds and doctrines and sacrifices cannot work this transformation, and even though the beliefs may be without doubt, and the creeds and doctrines satisfactory, and the sacrifices without end, yet they will all be futile to change the soul of the mere man into the soul of the Divine Angel and all this, in part, is why man should seek to obtain the Divine Love and become an inhabitant of the Celestial Spheres.

I have written enough for tonight and I am pleased at the way in which you received it. So with all my love and blessings, I am

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Luke Writes on "The sins of the parents are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations."

April 9, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here. Luke.

I desire tonight to write for a short time on the text that, "The sins of the parents are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations."

I know that usually the explanation of the text has been that the material sins, or rather the sins which result in material injury or affliction. are visited upon the children and to a very great extent this is true. But that explanation is not what was intended by the declaration.

Man is not only a material or physical being, but is more largely a spiritual being, having a soul and spirit which never ceases to exist, and which are just as much a part of him while on earth, as when he becomes a spirit; that is after he has left the vestments of flesh and blood.

These real parts of man are of more importance to him and his real existence than is the physical part, and the sins which man commits are not the results of any primary physical action, but of the operations of the powers which form or have their real seat in the spiritual part of his being.

The physical part of man is not the originator of sin, but merely manifests its effects, and it (sin) almost always manifests itself on and in the physical body and leaves its scars apparent to the consciousness of men upon such body; and, hence, as man is able in his ordinary condition to perceive the effects more plainly on this body, he thinks that the meaning of the text must refer to the sins that affect and are shown upon his body, and at the same time ignores or is not sensible of the fact that the great effect or injury of sin is upon and to the spiritual part of man. As the physical body is affected by the results of these sins being carried into operation, so much more so is the spiritual part of man affected by the fact that these sins had their creation in that spiritual part of man.

It may be asked, "In what way can the effect of sin upon a man that is upon his soul and spirit, have any injurious effect upon the spirit and soul of his child, so that the child may suffer from the sin of the parent?"

Well, when a child is conceived and gestates and is born, he not only partakes of the physical nature of his parents, but also of the qualities and condition of the spirit and soul of the parents. This may seem improbable, but it is a fact that the spirit and soul that enters into the child when it is conceived comes from the great universe of soul and spirit, wholly independent of the parents and is not in its nature or qualities a part of the parents as is the flesh and blood which build up and produce the physical body of the child. But while this is true, it is also true that this spirit and soul of the child is susceptible to and in a way absorbs the influence of the spirit and soul of the parents, not only at the time of conception but also during the period of gestation, and even for years afterwards, and to such an extent that this influence continues beyond the mere earthly existence of the parents and into the life of the progeny to the third and fourth generation, as the text says.

The spirit part of the child is more susceptible to the influence and evil effects of these sins than is really its physical body, for as I have said, the spirit part is the originator and breeder of the sins, if I may so express it, while the body is merely the recipient of the exercise of the sins and the objects of their manifestation.

The influence of spirit upon spirit is more extensive and certain than mortals can possibly conceive of, and the results of that influence are not so apparent or known to the consciousness of the succeeding children, or to the respective parents, as men suppose, and as a fact they do not understand or become conscious of the fact that such influence is operating upon the spiritual parts of their children. They see and realize that the effects of such sins become manifested in the physical body, and as their ordinary natural senses cannot perceive the condition of the spirit, they conclude that the text can only mean that these sins are visited upon the material bodies of their children.

But I must tell them that, while great and deplorable injury is inflicted on these material bodies, yet greater and more lasting and more grievous - in the way of manifestations - injury is inflicted upon the spiritual nature of the children; not only because this nature continues to live, but because men, not realizing that this nature has been injured, make no attempt to find and apply a remedy as they so often do in the case where these sins manifest themselves in the physical body.

And besides, there are many sins that do not affect the mere material body, but which do great injury to the spiritual nature, and which to the senses of men are never perceptible.

A man is not only the parent of a child's material body but in a secondary way is also the parent of its spiritual nature, and the condition of the parent's spiritual nature influences and determines to a large extent the qualities and tendencies of the child's nature for good or evil, not only while it is a mortal but frequently after it has ceased to inhabit the veil of flesh. So let parents know that they do not live to themselves alone as mortals but that their evil thoughts and deeds have a greater or lesser influence upon the spiritual natures of their children, especially at the time of conception and during gestation. Then how important that every parent during these times particularly, and at all times, should have their spiritual natures in that condition of purity and freedom from sin, that their children may be conceived and born in a condition of soul purity, which will not reflect any evil that they can charge their parents with being the creators of.

If men would only realize these facts and live their lives in accordance with the truths, which I here declare, how much sooner would the human race be brought into harmony with God's Laws and the souls of men be freed from sin and evil.

I know it is often said that it is unjust and not in accordance with the justice of an impartial God that the sins and penalties arising from the disobedience of our first parents should be visited upon mankind who were and are their progeny, as such mankind had no part in that disobedience. But when it is remembered, and it is a fact, that God did not create sin or evil or impose such upon the first parents for their disobedience, but that they themselves created evil and sin, and men have been creating these in-harmonies ever since, it will be seen that an impartial God, who is our only God, is not responsible for either sin or evil and the consequent penalties which they impose. And, as has been written you before, the abolishing of sin and evil and their penalties is in the power of man and his will.

As these first parents created these evils, as I have explained, and in the manner that I have pointed out to you, their sins, by the influence which they have upon the spiritual nature at the time of conception and birth become, as it were, a visitation and that is the spiritual desires and tendencies and inclinations toward that which is evil (sic), and this influence continues with the child for years after its birth, according as the child and parents are closely associated together in their earth lives. And as each succeeding generation caused the visitation of its sinful influence and tendencies upon the succeeding generation, you can readily see how men, all men, became subject to the sins and evils and penalties which were brought into the world by the first parents.

Instead of God being the creator of these things or visiting them upon the children of man, He declares that their existence is contrary to the harmony of His creation and must be eradicated before man can come into that harmony and an at-onement with Him. And as He gave to man the great power of free will, without any restriction upon its exercise, except as a man's understanding of the harmony of the operations of God's Laws might influence him to exercise this great power; and as man in the wrong exercise of that power brought into existence these things of evil and sin, so man, as he perceives this plan of God's harmony, must exercise that will in such a way as to free himself from these things which are not part of God's creation, and are out of harmony with His plans for the creation and preservation of a perfect universe, of which man is its highest creation.

God never changes. His Laws never change. Only man has changed from the perfection of His creation; and man must change again before that perfection will again be his.

Now from all this it must not be inferred that man is left to his own efforts to bring about this great restoration, for that is not true, because God's instrumentalities are continuously at work influencing man to turn again to his first estate and become the perfect man, as he ultimately will become. I am not here referring to the workings of the great Divine Love which, when a man possesses in a sufficient degree, makes him more than the perfect man.

So, "the sins of the parents are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation," means the tendencies and inclinations toward that which is evil (are created) not by God, but by man himself, solely and exclusively.

And oh man, could you see the results of these sins upon the spiritual natures of your children, as you often see them upon their material bodies, you would hesitate in your sinning and think, and thinking would see the way by which the great blot upon the happiness and salvation of humanity could be removed and its progress to the "perfect man" be hastened and assured.

Well, I have written enough for tonight, and hope that what I have said may be understood and meditated upon by all who may read it. I will not detain you longer, and with my love and the blessings of one who is now not only the perfect man, but a possessor of the Divine Nature of the Father and an inheritor of immortality, say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

**********

Luke makes some corrections in the previous message.

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

I am here, Luke.

I desire to make some corrections in my message of last night and will thank you to receive them.

I desire to say, that when I spoke of the sins of the parents being visited upon the children at the time of conception and birth, I meant that these sins, by the influence which they have upon the spiritual nature of the child, became, as it were, a visitation. I did not mean that any part of the real sin of the parents became a part of the spiritual nature of the child, but only that the influence of the parent's sins upon the child is sufficient to give the spiritual desires and tendencies of the child an inclination towards that which is evil; and this influence is continuous with the child for years after its birth according as the child and parents are closely associated together in their earth lives.

Let this point be made plain so that man may not quibble about the meaning of what I wrote. Otherwise, the message is true and just as I intended it should convey to you the truth of the meaning of the text.

I will not delay you longer tonight, but with my love and blessings say,

I am your brother in Christ,
Luke

Luke Writes About Truth of the Development of the Soul in its Natural Love Wherein the New Birth is Never Experienced

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

I am here, Luke.

I come tonight to say a few words concerning the great truth of the development of the soul in its natural love wherein the New Birth is never experienced.

I know that men think that this natural love has in it a part of the Divinity of the Father's nature, and that as they develop in the way of purifying it and ridding it of those things which tend to impair its harmony, they will realize that there exists in their souls this Divinity of which we have written. But this is not true, for this natural love partakes only of those elements which the Father implanted in it at the time of man's creation, and in none of these elements is any of the qualities of the Divine Nature.

It is difficult to explain just the distinction between the Divine Love coming from the Father, and the natural love also coming from Him, and yet, not having any of the Divine Nature or qualities; but it is a fact. The natural love may become so purified that it may come into perfect harmony with the Laws governing its condition and composition, and yet, fall far short of having in it any of the Divine Love. And so, as we have explained to you, the soul may obtain this Divine Love and thereby become a part of the Father's Divinity.

I will now try to explain how the natural love of man may be developed, so that his soul may come into harmony with the Law of Love - the natural love - and make him a very happy, pure and contented being.

In the first place, I wish to say that there is no such thing in the world as original sin or evil, and that God did not create them or permit them to exist, except as He permits man to use his own will without limitation; and I mean by this that He does not say that a man, in the exercise of this will, shall do this or do that; and as respects this will, man is untrammeled. But He does say, and His Laws are inexorable in this particular, that  man, when in the exercise of the great power of free will, causes that will to come into conflict with the will of God, or to violate His Laws, he, man, must suffer the consequences.

This may be illustrated by your natural laws declaring the freedom of the press. Man may publish whatsoever he pleases, and so long as he does not thereby violate the rights of others, or of decency, he may make his publications without fear of the law; but when, in the exercise of this freedom of speech, as you call it, he violates the law, then he must suffer the consequences of this violation.

So it is with the mortal who, in the exercise of his free will, violates the Will of the Father, or the Laws limiting its exercise by the mortal. He must suffer the consequences, and the results of this violation are sin and evil created and in no other way. And surprising as it may sound to you, man is the creator of sin and evil, and not God, who is only good.

Then the question arises, "How can sin and evil be eradicated from the world?" And every thoughtful man will have the same answer and, that is, by men ceasing to violate the will of God, or His Laws, which restrict the exercise of the wills of mortals to that which, in its right exercise, will not produce sin or evil. In other words, when men by the wrong use of their wills bring about in-harmony, they can by the right use of their wills not disturb that harmony, which when it exists, leaves no room for the presence of sin and error.

So you see, the one thing necessary in order for men to become happy and free from everything that defiles them, or causes unhappiness or discord to exist, is to develop their souls in this natural love, until this love comes into perfect unison with the Laws that control it and, thus, may be applied the oft quoted expression that "Love is the fulfilling of the Law," but this means love in its purest and most perfect state.

Now how can this development of the natural love be accomplished by men?

The mind, while a powerful helper in this regard, is not of itself sufficient to bring about this great desideratum. It is true that with every mortal there is a constant warfare between the appetites and lusts of the flesh, and his higher desires; and, hence, it is said that these appetites and desires are sinful, and the cause of evil and the in-harmony that exists in the lives of mortals. But this statement is not altogether true, for as man was made with spiritual aspirations and desires, so also was he made with appetites and desires of the flesh, and the latter of themselves are not evils.

The failure to make the distinction between the fact that these appetites and desires of the flesh are not evil, and the fact that only the perversion of them brings evil, is the great stumbling block that stands in the way of man's developing this natural love in the manner that I have indicated. These, what are sometimes called the animal appetites and desires, may be exercised in such a way as to be in perfect harmony with the Laws that control them, and in such exercise not interfere with or prevent the development of this natural love to perfection.

But man, in the free exercise of his will, has in his wanderings gone beyond the limitations which the Law of Harmony has placed upon him, added to and increased and distorted the appetites and desires of the flesh which were originally bestowed upon him and, hence, has himself created those things that are not in harmony with the creation of himself.

So you see, man is a creator as well as a creature. As the latter, he cannot alter or change any of the effects of his creation; but as the former, he can alter and change and even abolish the effects of his own creation, for as the creator, (he) is greater than the things that he created - although these things of his own creation have held him in bondage and unhappiness, to a more or less extent, ever since he became their creator. The strength of this apparent paradox is that the creator, man, has for all these long centuries believed it and submitted to his creations and still does so.

So what is the remedy?

Simply this: man must awaken to the fact that he is greater than his creatures; that they are subject to his will, and that whenever, by their existence and workings, they bring discord and unhappiness, and cause his will to be exercised in opposition to the Will of the Father, then they must be destroyed and never be permitted to come into existence again. Let men become the masters of their creatures, and obedient to the great Will of their Creator, and they will realize that sin and error and unhappiness will disappear, and their natural love will come into harmony with the Laws of its creation, and earth will indeed become a Heaven, and the brotherhood of man established on earth.

If men will only think and - thinking - believe that all sin and error and the resulting unhappiness and sorrow in the world are children of their own creation, and not the children of God, and that in the economy of His universe, He leaves the control and management and even the existence of these children to the will of their parents; they will understand why evil exists, why wars and hatred and misery continue on earth to blight the lives and happiness of mortals; and why, as some say, and especially the so-called Christians, God permits all these things to exist and flourish and apparently contradict the great truth - that He is good and the fountainhead of all goodness.

The universe and the inhabitants thereof and the greatest production of His power - man - were all created by God; but sin and error and their awful followings are the creatures of man. The Laws of His universe work in harmony, and all is good; and even the apparent in-harmony, which man has created, does not affect that great harmony, but is confined in its workings to man, himself. Only man is apparently in in-harmony, and that is caused by man, himself.

Suppose, for a moment, that man's will was working in accord with that of the Father; can you imagine that there would be any of these creatures of man's perverted will in existence? Would there be any evil or hatred or disease or suffering known to the consciousness of man? I tell you, no.

Now I say man, their creator, must destroy these inharmonious creatures. Man must kill and bury deep and forever these children of the perverted exercise of his will, and until then, sin and error and all their concomitants will continue to live and flourish and torment their creator.

And I say here with all emphasis and with a full realization of the great significance and responsibility in the sight of God, which I assume in saying it, that man can destroy these bastard creatures of his will so perverted and discordant. His natural love, if permitted to assert its God-given powers and functions, is sufficient to bring his will in accord with that of the Father and turn his thoughts away from these children of his, and to make him conscious of purity and truth. The dead desires and dead appetites will bury their dead children, and man will come into his own again.

But then comes the question, "How is man to accomplish this great end, so devoutly to be wished for?"

Well, it is late now, and I will write upon this important feature of this development of his natural love in my next message. So with all my love I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

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