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January 3rd, 1916.
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I am with you tonight to warn you against letting any doubt enter
your mind or heart, as to our actually writing to you, for we and
none other are actually in communication with you.
The book that you read
(Pastor Russell - On Spiritualism) is a snare and a lie, for there
are no angels who have become devils as the author of that book
declares. Never were there any angels who through ambition or any
other reason revolted against the power of government of God, and
thereby lost their estate as angels. Never was there any Lucifer,
and never were there any angels who were thrown from the battlements
of heaven into hell, as it has been written and as I told you before,
there are no devils and no Satan, considered as real persons and
fallen angels.
The only spirits in the spirit world are those who at one time
were mortals and who lived lives on earth, shorter or longer, and
whenever angels are mentioned in the Bible, or rather in the New
Testament in places which contain my sayings or those of the apostles,
and I mean those sayings which were actually said, the word angel
always refers to the spirit of some mortal who had passed the line
between life and death as commonly understood.
I desire to tell you of these things at large very soon and to
instruct you as to who were the angels of God that are supposed
to have had an existence prior to the creation of man and of the
world; and who the inhabitants of heaven were before the Spirit
of God entered into man and caused him to become a living soul as
the Bible says. But the time is not yet ripe for me to instruct
you in these matters, because there are so many more important truths
to be first taught you, truths which are vital to man's salvation
and happiness to those on earth and in the spirit world.
But this you must believe, that no devils ever write you or in
any manner manifest to or through any of the numerous mediums who
are used to show the existence of spirits of men in the spirit world,
no matter whether these mediums be good or evil. There are spirits
of all kinds just as there are mortals of all kinds, having all
the traits and characteristics of mortals, and some of these spirits
may be justly called wicked or evil spirits, and even devils. But
they are nothing more or less than spirits such as I describe.
l know that the belief of the majority of mankind is that there
are such things as devils and that they are independent creations
of God, made by Him to tempt and inflict all kind of trouble and
unhappiness on mortals, and because of the great number of years
that these beliefs have existed, and the fact that many of the churches
still teach that such devils do exist, and are at all times trying
to tempt and injure men, it is hard and will be difficult to induce
men to believe that there are no such things as devils, which is
the truth.
I know that the Bible in many places speaks of my casting devils
out of men, and of men being possessed of devils, and of the apostles
casting out devils, and of their not being able to cast out some
of these devils, but I tell you now that the Bible is all wrong
in this regard, and the writers and translators of the Bible never
understood what the word devil, as used in these various instances,
meant or was intended to mean. As I have told you, there was never
any devil or devils in the sense mentioned and taught by the churches,
and consequently, they never could have possessed mortals nor have
been cast out of them. It is true, that by the workings of the law
of attraction, and the susceptibility of mortals to the influence
of spirit powers, mortals may become obsessed by the spirits of
evil - that is evil spirits of men who once lived on earth - and
this obsession may become so complete and powerful that the living
mortal may lose all power to resist this influence of the evil spirits,
and may be compelled to do things that the mortal will not desire
to do, and to show all the evidence of a distorted mind, and present
appearances of a lost will power, as well as of the ability to exercise
the ordinary powers given him by his natural creation. And in these
instances referred to of casting out devils, wherever they occurred,
and they did occur in some of the instances mentioned, the only
devils that existed were the evil spirits who had possessed these
mortals.
And this obsession obtains today just as it did then, for the same
laws are in operation now as were in existence then, and many a
man is in a condition of evil life and disturbed mind from the obsession
of these evil spirits; and if there were any men of today in that
condition of soul development and belief that my disciples were
in, they could cast out these so called devils just as the disciples
cast them out in the Bible days.
But men have not this faith, though there are many who have been
blessed with the inflowing of the Holy Spirit; but they have not
the belief that such work as the disciples performed can be performed
by them now, and, in fact, the most of them believe that it would
be contrary to God's will to attempt to exercise such powers, and
hence, they never attempt to do such work.
But when men learn that in all ages God is the same, that His laws
work the same way, that mankind is the same so far as the soul's
possibilities are concerned, and that the faith which God made possible
for man to attain to, may be possessed by him now just as it was
possessed by my disciples, then they will attempt this work of beneficence
and will succeed, and the sick will be healed and the devils cast
out, the blind made to see, and the deaf to hear, and the so-called
miracles will be performed as they were in my days on earth.
There is not and never was such a thing as a miracle in the sense
of having an effect produced by a cause which was not the result
of the ordinary workings of God's laws, for these laws in their
workings never vary, and when the same law is called into operation
upon the same condition of facts the same results will always be
produced.
So, let a mortal have in his soul the same amount of God's Divine
Love which the Bible writers meant or should have meant, when they
spoke of being endowed by the Holy Ghost, and let him have the necessary
faith, that when he prays to God, he will give him the power to
exercise this Love in a sufficient degree to produce the desired
results, and then try to exercise the power of casting out devils
or healing, etc., and he will find that success will attend his
efforts. God is the same at all times and under all circumstances,
and only mortals vary in their conceptions and conditions.
So I say, there are no devils as independent creatures of God,
in contradistinction to the spirits of men who once lived on earth,
and you must believe that there are not.
I tell you now, that the teachers of such false doctrines will
have to pay the penalties for their false teachings when they come
to the spirit world, and see the result of these false teachings,
and no relief will be granted until they have paid the last farthing.
To believe such doctrines entails results that are bad enough for
any spirit to endure, but to teach others these beliefs and convince
them of their truth, entails upon the teacher, whether he actually
believes them or not, sufferings and duration of sufferings of which
men have no conception.
I will not write more tonight, but will, in closing, say that you
have my love and blessings, and my promises I will fulfill, so that
you will realize your expectations and be in condition to perform
the work that you have been selected to do.
Well, you let doubt come into your mind, and as a consequence,
your soul does not respond, although, strange as it may seem, the
Divine Love is there, but when this mental doubt exists, it is as
if it were a covering which prevents the existence of the Love in
the soul to shine forth and produce the great feeling of happiness
and joy which otherwise you might experience. The mental condition
of the mortal, undoubtedly has a great influence on the consciousness
of the man as to his possession of this soul development and the
Divine Love, and consequently, there will have to be this continuous
fight as long as life lasts on earth, between the mental conditions
and the soul's consciousness. But as the mental beliefs are brought
into harmony with the soul's condition, more and more the fight
will grow weaker and less frequent, and it is possible that they
will cease altogether, and the mental beliefs become entirely and
absolutely subordinated or rather absorbed in the soul's consciousness
of its being possessed of this Divine Love of the Father.
So my dear brother, I will say good night.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
I feel I must record a personal comment here. I know there are
those who feel that any criticism that is levied against the work
of James Padgett is going to result in substantial damage to the
value of his work, and lead to people throwing up their hands in
horror. However, as recorded elsewhere,
mediumship is a tricky business, and anyone who thinks that Padgett
could not channel error, is in my opinion, wide of the mark.
In my experience this message is flawed. I understand not only
was Lucifer an angel who existed, but that he was in the Celestial
Administration of this planet and several others. I also understand
that he chose a path of iniquity, because of pride, and I also understand
that he no longer exists, and at the time this message was recorded,
he had been locked up nearly 2,000 years. I base my information
on another celestial known to me, who claims to have been one of
those who did not fall for Lucifer's sophistries. Again, for reasons
I do not understand, James Padgett virtually never refers to "angels"
and one could be left with
the opinion none exist. This is, in my view, very far from the
truth.
Just to make sure however of what I am saying here, I agree "devils"
do not, and never did exist. That is taking the definition to mean
an evil power equal to the Creator. It also appears that the angels
who sided with Lucifer were guilty of poor judgement, rather than
pure evil. It seems Lucifer simply wanted things done his way, rather
than God's Way. One should note that this particular issue is completely
irrelevant in evaluating the Padgett Messages and their explanation
of Divine Love, which stands out as a unique revelation of the greatest
importance.
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