Man, as he is considered ordinarily, is a creation which passed through what you would call a long period of development, as have all of God’s creatures during that period of the earth’s development, which enabled living beings to come into existence and survive.

Man’s nature is therefore both animal, or, material, in accordance with the conditions of his physical being, and spiritual, at the same time, in accordance with the soul qualities and attributes given to him at the time God bestowed a soul upon him. In short, man’s nature is dual, and thus we have man with animal passions and feelings and interrelated with these are those emotions and feelings which belong to his spiritual nature as a result of having received a soul. The Bible’s reference to the creation of man, refers to the creation of man in the image of God, or to the time, when God, the Great Soul, conferred upon man a soul, and made him the greatest of His creations.

In other words, man possesses a double set of emotions, and the activity or dominance of the animal feelings in man sets in motion those thoughts and actions related to his material or animal existence, and this is not out of harmony with the laws of God, but it is only when these thoughts and resultant actions are in violation to the law of God that they are sinful and cause unhappiness. The influence of these sinful emotions and thoughts and actions upon the soul is such that the spiritual emotions and aspirations of man becomes dormant, and as though not existing, and the soul itself is incrusted with evil. Man knows when his physical passions and resulting actions violates God’s laws, and he must therefore exercise his will to prevent such violations and allow his feelings to be exercised for the purpose for which they were given him and also to permit the development of his spiritual nature and with it the knowledge of his soul and the relationship which it has with God, it’s creator.

Through prayer, thoughts and soul longings, the spiritual nature in man can be developed so as to dominate the personality, and he will act in accord with the feelings and emotions of his soul; if, however, his animal emotions are allowed to dominate the spiritual emotions of man and transgress the laws of God concerning them, then the soul becomes incrusted with these baneful excrescences, or, shall I say, the soul is contaminated by them, and when the mortal dies and the spirit enters the spirit world, the soul must undergo a period of suffering in which the contaminating elements acquired in the earth life are eliminated from the soul and the soul assumes its pristine purity.

This purification of the soul obeys the dictates of God’s law of compensation, for no such soul is permitted a place in God’s spiritual heavens. The Paradise of the Hebrews cannot be reached without such purification, yet the time consumed, as you would say, in this process of purification depends upon the soul itself; upon the awaking which it has of its condition, and those circumstances in the spirit world, mainly his own will, as well as the help of others, which will enable him to make the necessary progress, all souls in the spirit world will be eventually purified.

This was the condition of man before the bestowal of the gift of the Divine Love, which I brought to light during the time of my public ministry in Palestine. For no man, before I came with this gift, could achieve At-onement with the Heavenly Father with transformation of his soul into a Divine Soul, through the pouring out of the Divine Love into his soul through earnest prayer to the Father for this Love, the Father’s Essence, and brought into man’s soul through the ministration of His Holy Spirit.

This then briefly, is the evolution of man from the natural being to the purified soul and, if he so desires it, to the state of the divine angel. The soul is the seat of the spiritual emotions, comes from God, and has the potentiality of becoming At-one with God, if it so desires, while the gift of the Divine Love, obtained through earnest prayer to the Father, is still available.The material feelings, also the creation of God, have nothing of the soul substance and have no permanent existence in the spirit world, but they do exist in the spirit world for a certain period, for man passes over from the mortal life, with all his earth desires and feelings; these, and their perversions, which harm the soul, however, eventually become evanescent in the course of the spirit life.

Jesus of the Bible

and

Master of the Celestial Heavens