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May 5th, 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.
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