|
John States That Many Spirits Will
Try to Communicate with Man and
Attempt to Teach False Doctrines as
to Jesus and His Mission.
|
|
|
I AM HERE. John.
I do not write “St. John” because I am not called by that name in
the spirit heavens. And I have written you often enough now that you
will identify me when I merely write “John.”
Well, I heard what the Master said, and I can only add thereto that
I never wrote the things which declare that I preached the blood of
Jesus saves from sin, or that Jesus was a propitiation for the sins
of mankind. Neither in my gospel nor in my epistles nor in
Revelation did I write such a doctrine. As I have told you before,
many things contained in these books were written by others to carry
out certain plans and ideas of the writers. I never said that Jesus
was God and that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost, or that he is
equal with God, or that he saved a man from sin by reason of any
personal qualities which he may have had.
So, let your mind eliminate these false doctrines and receive the
Truths, which the master shall write, with a perfectly unbiased
mind, free from all preconceived ideas.
(An answer to a question by Mr. Padgett
follows.)
I meant that many spirits would try to communicate with man and
attempt to teach false doctrines as to Jesus and his mission, and
that the only spirits who were capable of conveying the Truth, and
worthy of belief, were those who should acknowledge that Jesus was
the son of God in the way that it has been explained to you—not that
Jesus or Jesus Christ was God. Only those spirits who acknowledge
Jesus as the son of God and have received the New Birth, and know
something about the Kingdom of Christ, or of the Gift of the Divine
Love of the Father and the Way to obtain It, as taught by Jesus,
should be acknowledged. All other spirits who have not this
knowledge and, consequently, would not acknowledge Jesus as the son
of God, are not to be trusted as being true followers of Jesus.
This is nothing mysterious or contrary to the laws governing the
conduct or beliefs of men. If a spirit, or man either, knows nothing
about a certain subject, he certainly cannot teach others its
qualities or merits; hence, I was applying an ordinary law of nature
to the way in which spirits should be tried. For I must tell you
now, and it is a Truth, and was a Truth at the time I wrote my
gospel and epistles, just as it is a Truth now, and always will
remain a Truth, that every spirit who acknowledges Jesus is the son
of God is a redeemed spirit, and has received a portion of the
Divine Love, and is progressing in the Kingdom which Jesus is now
forming. And when I gave those instructions to my “children,” as I
called them, I intended that their communications should be only
with those spirits or men who had received this New Birth.
I know that all the spirits who have received this Divine Love in
sufficient abundance are good spirits, free from sin and error, and
that they have the power or inclination to influence mortals not to
sin or to do anything which is contrary to the Will of the Father,
while all the other spirits may or may not exercise the influence of
evil upon mortals.
Hence, try the spirits, and if they do not acknowledge Jesus as the
son of God, let them alone, and do not receive their communications
or teachings because they are not believers in Christ and the New
Birth.
Among my children, or believers in the Christian religion, were many
persons who had the power or gift of communicating with the spirits
of the departed, and they did so communicate; and such
communications were made known to the rest of the congregation and
were believed by them. And, hence, my injunction against communion
with those spirits who were not believers in Christ.
You must not think that this is the only age in which spirits
communicate with mortals, for I must tell you that, in my time, it
was much more common than now. And when worshiping in our
congregations and in our other gatherings, and often in private, we
had these communications.
This was an important part of the services of our meetings, and one
that kept us in constant harmony with the soul power of those who
lived in the spirit form, and from whom we received powers of
healing and of doing good in many other ways.
In those days, healing the sick and doing kindred things were a very
important part of our work as Christians. We believed what Jesus had
told us on earth, and we increased our faith and performed many
works which the people who did not believe as we did thought were
miracles.
To us, the healing of the sick and the doing of these other things
were just as natural as eating and sleeping. I tell you that our
faith then was a certainty. We possessed the Substance that Paul
speaks of, and we expected to do these things, just as we expected
to breathe and be able to do material good to our brothers.
But, after a few centuries, when men came into the church for other
purposes than to receive the New Birth and to do the Will of the
Father, faith, such as I speak of, died. And the power to do these
things was taken away from men, and the church became a congregation
of men having the mere lip worship.
And all through the centuries from then until now, this power has
not been with men, except that, here and there, some true believer,
with a faith such as we had, has appeared and has done wonderful
things.
So, I say, let not what the Bible may say about Jesus being God, and
having those other qualities with reference to the salvation of men,
disturb you in your beliefs in what the Master may write to you.
I will not write more tonight, but will say good night.
Your brother in Christ,
JOHN.
|