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20th June, 1915
Received by:James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Thomas Paine.
When I died, I did not believe in Jesus as the son of God or as
his messenger sent to show the world that the Father had bestowed
upon it His Divine Love and Immortality and the Way to obtain it.
But now I believe to the fullest these truths and am a follower
of Jesus and the possessor of the Divine Love.
How different would my condition now be if that erroneous and damning
doctrine taught by the churches - that there is no redemption beyond
the grave - were true. I never thought that there was any necessity
for redemption either while on earth or after I should become a
spirit, but thought that if there was a God, He would deal justly
with me and bestow upon me happiness and enjoyment of the future
life according to my idea of His love and mercy.
But I must tell you that I was mistaken in some particulars. God
is Love and He is merciful, but His love and mercy are exercised
only in accordance with His fixed and unchangeable laws - laws that
apply impartially to all men, and which in their operation make
no exceptions. What a man sows
so shall he reap is as true as that the sun shines for you on
earth.
I found the truth of this great law in my own experience and I
paid the penalties of my sins. Jesus could not do this for me and
he never pretended that he could. But he could and does show the
Way by which the operations of the laws which produce these penalties
may be superceded by the operation of other laws which, as it were,
removes the penalties from the individual spirit. This does not
change the law but changes the condition of the spirit which invokes
these penalties; and if men would only learn this Way, they would
not remain in darkness and sin, because they believe and assert
that God's laws never change. If they would only understand that
while the laws do not change, yet the condition of the spirit which
calls for the operation of these laws does change, and new laws
are brought into operation.
I have not time tonight to more fully explain these principles,
but should I in the future have the opportunity, I will be glad
to do so. Christ was and is the
Way and the Truth and the Life.
I am in the first Celestial sphere and my name was Thomas Paine,
the so called infidel. I believed in God, but only one God. Jesus
was never God to me and is not now. And he does not claim to be
God now. So you see even the so called infidel could come into the
Truth and Love of the Father, even after he left the material plane
and became an inhabitant of the spirit world.
So, my dear brother, I will say good night and
God be with you,
Thomas Paine
In Volume I this is dated July, not June, but
the Tablet indicates it was June, and that appears the more likely
date.
This message is a composite of two, being published
in Volume I on page 38I and Volume III on page 358. For more details
see this page.
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