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October 19th, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Luther.
I came to tell you that you are not much benefitted by the book
(Pastor Russel's - "Atonement.") you have been reading
tonight, because it ignores the very foundation of the plan of man's
redemption - that is the Divine Love which the Father bestowed on
mankind at the coming of Jesus. The blood atonement is all wrong
and misleading, and has done much harm to the truths of God and
to mankind.
I will admit that there are many truths stated in the book and many that will do much good to humanity to understand and believe, but because of the great error in the vital point of the declaration as to the plan of man's salvation, these truths which the book contains may not do the good that they otherwise might.
Of course you who understand the true plan of salvation may make the true discrimination between those declarations which declare the truth and those which do not. But on the whole I do not see that the teachings of the book will do you much good.
Well, I know that the passage in John refers to the spirits of men who once lived on earth and who communicated to the members of the early church in their places of worship, and elsewhere John has explained to you, and what he said, I have been informed by others of the apostles, is true.
The author of that book has certain theories, and, of course, he is construing all the teachings of the Bible in such a way as to sustain his theories. But he is wrong as he will discover when he comes to the spirit world.
He teaches that the soul as well as the body of man goes into the
grave to await the great Day of Judgment, and there is no such place
as the spirit world inhabited by the spirits of departed mortals
and to maintain this position he quotes from some of the old books
of the Bible. But these books were not written by men inspired by
God to declare the truths, and the quoted expressions are merely
the result of the purely human minds of the authors, who did not
know what they wrote to be a fact, but because of the conditions
in which they were in, they concluded that such assertions must
be true. Let not the writings of these old writers or of the present
day writers either, cause you to hesitate to believe what the Master
may write as being true.
I merely wanted to say this as I saw that you are interested in this book and I wanted to warn you against letting it influence you in any way.
Yes, I say that Jesus Christ did come in the flesh, and I know
it, for he is here a spirit and once lived on earth, but that fact
does not prove that any spirit who acknowledges that, is a true
follower of him or a redeemed spirit of the Father.
There are many spirits in the spirit world who believe that Jesus,
the spirit whom they sometimes meet, once lived as a mortal, and
would, if asked, say that he lived in the flesh, but they are not
believers in the Divine Love of the Father, or have had the benefit
of his great plan of salvation or acknowledged him as the savior
from sin and error. So that the
test set forth in the Bible may have been considered a true
test in the days of the early church, yet it is not now a very safe
one for the reason that I have mentioned.
And if a test is necessary, I think a better one would be: try
the spirits and everyone who does not acknowledge that Jesus is
the best beloved son of God, and brought to the knowledge of mankind
the rebestowal of the Divine Love, and declared to men the way in
which that Love may be obtained, is not a spirit that should be
communicated with for the purpose of learning spiritual truths.
This test is better, because no spirit who has not received this
Divine Love, or the New Birth, will acknowledge the existence of
these things, because it has no knowledge upon which to make the
acknowledgment. I must not write more tonight, but I hope the little
that I have said may help you and others who have doubts, as to
what the meaning of that part of the Bible, which refers to the
trying of the spirits, is. I am very anxious to write you again
as to some of the higher truths pertaining to the spirit world,
and soon I hope that I may have the opportunity.
I will say good night.
Your brother in Christ,
Martin Luther
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