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October 1st, 1916
Received by:James Padgett.
Washinton D.C.
I am here, Saint John.
I come tonight to write a few truths upon the subject of the preacher's
(Dr. Gordon's) sermon, as I was present with you and heard his declarations
as to the end of the world. I know that among men there are, and
have been since the time of the Master, differences in opinion as
to when this important event is to take place, and as to the meaning
of the end of the world. Well, men know just about as much now as
to the time of this event as they have known all down the centuries,
and understand the meaning of these prophecies as well as did men
from my day down to the present.
In the first place, I will say, there will be no end of the world
from any of the causes mentioned by the preacher, and in the next
place, there will be no end of the world at all as understood and
declared by the orthodox preachers, and as is expected by most of
the professing Christians. The world, meaning the earth, will not
have an end in the sense of annihilation, but it will continue to
revolve on its axis, and to have seed time and harvest, and produce
and reproduce those things that are necessary to sustain human life,
and have its appropriate seasons of heat and cold, and move along
in its orbit as it now does, until some change, we know not of now,
may come and destroy it; but such change, not any of the prophecies
of the Bible, admitting that there are prophecies, can apply to
the end of the world in the sense that the preacher understood and
declared.
If humanity would only understand that the world that was lost by the disobedience of the first parents, was the world of man's immortality and happiness and not the physical world, and that Jesus came to declare the restoration of that world upon condition, and the end of that restoration, then would they know that the material world is not involved in the plan of man's salvation, or in Jesus' mission, or in the declarations of Jesus as to the coming of the end.
Men will continue to be born, live a short time and die the physical death, and as to each individual man the end of the material world comes when he dies, for, thereafter, his habitation will be in the spirit world, and never more will he have life on earth. All men at some time will have to die the physical death, then why should it be necessary to include in the plan of God for the salvation of men the destruction of the material world? For planets and worlds and stars to crash together and destroy, would mean that the orderly workings of God's laws must be interfered with, in order that men might be destroyed or saved, according as they might be snatched up into the air, or left to their own weakness on earth.
Such interpretations of God's intentions or plans, or of Jesus
coming again to earth is all wrong and absurd. Jesus
will never come to establish his kingdom on earth and reign as Prince
of Peace and Lord of Lords, for the Kingdom which he and all
his followers, both on earth and in the spirit world, are seeking
to establish is in the Celestial Heavens, and it is the Kingdom
of God, not made with hands or by the mere fiat of any spirit no
matter how high he may be, but made and populated by the souls of
men who have experienced the New Birth and received the Divine Essence
of the Father. Of this Kingdom Jesus is the Prince, but only because
of his great and exceeding possession of the Divine Love of the
Father, and his more perfect at-onement.
Jesus is not seeking to establish a kingdom on earth, but is working
for the purpose of leading men to the New Birth of the spirit, and
of showing them the way to the Celestial Kingdom; and also is he
working to help men by his love and suggestions, and so also the
other good spirits, to cast sin and error from their hearts, and
strive to regain the condition of perfect manhood in the perfection
of their natural love; and also to help men to get in this condition
of soul regeneration, or in that of the purification of their natural
love while they yet live on earth, so that love to God in the divine
sense, and love to God in the created sense and brotherly love will
cover the whole earth, and men be at peace and happy while yet clothed
in the flesh. Such a condition of mortal existence may be called
the Kingdom of God on earth, but it will not be the kingdom which
Jesus came to earth to establish - that is the Kingdom of Heaven.
This Kingdom has its seat and abiding place in the Celestial Spheres
whence it will never be removed.
So then, when the Bible teaches of the world coming to an end and
passing away it does not mean the material world, but the world
of men's thoughts and deeds and sinful conditions that are not in
harmony with God's laws or the laws of His creation. This is the
world that shall be destroyed when righteousness shall cover the
earth as the waters do the deep, and brotherly love reign among
men. Even today there are some men living on the earth who are so
separated from the world, that as to them the world has no existence,
not the material world, but the world of sin and unrighteousness,
which is the only world to be destroyed. There shall be wars and
rumors of wars and times of trouble , etc., such as never were,
and then shall come the end. Not the wars of the cannons' roars
or the bursting shells or the mutilated flesh, or the making of
widows and orphans or the ruthless changing of mortals into spirits,
but the wars of the spirits of good and evil, of love and hate,
of purity and sin, of joy and despair, and of knowledge of truth
and belief in error - all to be fought in the souls of men with
such intensity and earnestness, creating such mind and spirit trouble
as never has been, and causing rumors thereof to flood the earth
and the habitations of men.
Then shall come the end of the world - the world of evil and sin
and despair, and hatred and belief in error. This world shall pass
away, and truth and love and peace and good will shall be established
on the earth forever. The earth of this present day, then becoming
to men so peaceful and filled with love and brotherly kindness,
that to them it will seem as if the City of God had been let down
from heaven on to earth. Let mortals know that Jesus has already
come to earth and is among men, and that since the time of his becoming
the Prince of the Celestial Kingdom he has been with men and spirits
teaching them the way, the truth and the life. By the Holy Spirit
have the truths of the Father spoken to men as a still small voice,
and by the communions of souls has the Master led men to the love
and mercy of the Father.
As in my time when he came to the Jews with his message of love
and life eternal, they knew him not and rejected him, so now many
men, and spirits too, refuse to listen to him and learn the way
through the straight gate to the Father's love and immortality.
Let men study the prophecies and the times and the seasons, and
calculate the time of the end, and predict the near approach of
the Master's coming in the clouds, and prepare themselves to be
snatched up in the air and become of the heavenly hosts, yet they
will find that all these things are vanities of vanities, and only
as each individual passes beyond the veil of flesh will he realize
the end of his mortal world has come, and then will all his speculations
as to himself become realities, and the certainty of the world's
end become an established fact. But men will continue to live on
earth and die, and in succession others be born to die, and so on
until.... only God knows.
So I say to men, prepare not for the passing away of the heavens
and the earth, but for the passing of themselves from the earth
to the great world of spirits; and remember, that as they sow, so
shall they reap - a certainty that is never changed - a truth that
no speculation can make untrue. The end of man's world comes each
day to some mortal, and that end may lead to a glorious immortality,
or to a temporary or a long darkness and suffering. Thus are the
prophecies being fulfilled and the speculations of preachers and
teachers and leaders of the unthinking are robbing men of the vital
truth that the end of the world is coming each moment and day and
year.
Oh! preacher and teacher and leader, your responsibility is great,
and the accounting must be made. The reaping must follow the sowing
as certainly as the day follows the night, and what will your harvest
be? The end of the world for some mortal is the important now!
I have written enough for tonight as you are tired. So believe
that I love you and am praying for the Father to bless you, and
to so fill your soul with His love, that when the world comes to
an end for you, you shall find the Kingdom of Heaven waiting to
receive you.
good night.
Your brother in Christ,
John
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