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Hell
and the Duration of Punishment.
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I AM HERE. Paul, the Apostle.
I merely want to say that I was present at the church tonight and
listened to the preacher tell his congregation what he didn't know
about hell. What he said, in many particulars, was untrue. However,
it was pleasing to hear him tell his people that there was no
physical suffering, although he didn't explain to them why there
could be no such suffering. I mean that no spirit, when he goes into
hell, carries with him his physical body, or any other body that has
such substance that would be affected by fire and brimstone and the
other unreasonable things that the churches have for so many years
taught and terrified their members with, and, as a consequence,
caused them to believe that the Father is such a “cruel" and
“wrathful" Father, “demanding" that His “cravings for satisfaction"
be supplied by the sizzling of the bodies of His children in fire.
No, this damnable doctrine is not true, and I am glad to see that
the churches are ceasing to believe it or teach it!
But the doctrine that the preacher taught is quite as bad, and as
useless as the former, for the reason that punishment of sinners and
those who are out of harmony with God is a fact which they all will
realize when they come to the spirit world. With that being so, to
teach that this punishment is everlasting is as harmful as the one
that I first mentioned. How strange that preachers and teachers will
try to cause their people and listeners to believe that God is such
a “wrathful" and “vindictive" Being, having less love and mercy than
the most wicked earthly father has for his children! It is so very
deplorable that these supposed instructors of what God is should
make such attempts to blaspheme Him, completely disregarding His
Great Qualities of Love and Tenderness and His Desire that all His
children become happy.
Oh, I tell you that these preachers will have a woeful sin to answer
for when they come to an accounting! And this will not be at the
“great judgment day," as they teach, but will be just as soon as
they enter spirit life and realize the great harm that they have
done to many who have followed them in their teachings. And they
will realize that awful result very soon after their entrance into
the spirit world. For they will have come to them, as clouds of
witnesses, the spirits of those who were under their instructions on
earth, bringing with them all the evidence of the results of their
erroneous beliefs and the stains of this great sin of blasphemy.
I, Paul, write this, for I have suffered from this very cause
myself. When on earth, I taught some doctrine like unto the one that
these preachers are now teaching, and, even now, I realize that I am
responsible to some extent for many false beliefs. But I thank God
that I am not responsible for all that is ascribed to me in the
Bible, and that if my true teachings were known and taught, the
blind and erroneous beliefs that are now so prevalent among
Christians would not exist. I tell you that mortals do not conceive
of the great harmful and deplorable results that flow from their
beliefs in the Bible in many particulars. This book is one of
falsehoods and forgery and imputations that have no resemblance to
what the Master or any of his apostles taught. And you can readily
realize how anxious we all are that these errors and untruths be
removed from the minds and souls of men.The hell of the orthodox
preachers, as formerly taught—that is, a hell of brimstone and
fires—is not the true hell and has no existence save in the minds of
these orthodox believers.
The true hell is a place and a condition, and one is not separated
from the other. And, while the condition of the soul and the beliefs
of men create the hells to a very large extent, yet, hell is a fixed
abiding place, made and established, and of such a character as to
suit the inhabiting of it by the soul according to the condition of
that soul. To illustrate, a soul that is less vile and less filled
with evil thoughts and the recollection of evil deeds and false
beliefs is in a very different place from the soul that has more of
this evil in it. The former soul would not find its habitation in
the same place as the latter soul, any more than the highly
developed soul would find its home in the same place as the soul
that is less developed.
Heaven is a place, or many places, suited to the development of the
soul. At the other extreme, hell is a place suited to the souls that
are in a condition of degradation and evil. I mean to be understood
as saying that place and condition of soul are correlative terms—the
home of the soul depending on the condition of the soul.
As these different hells vary, so they are suited for the souls of
spirits according to the defilement of soul.
As I said before, hell is a place as well as a condition. And the
man who believes that it is nothing more than a condition of his
mind or soul will be wonderfully surprised as well as disappointed.
I know the condition of mind and soul creates a man's hell to a very
large extent, and that it is the chief source of his suffering and
the darkness that surrounds and envelops him. Yet, this condition is
not the only source of that suffering or of the darkness in which he
finds himself.
Hell is also a place. It is a place that has all the appearances and
ingredients that are in exact agreement with a person's state as
produced or caused by the condition of his mind or soul. It is not a
place of universal character, fitted for the habitation of all souls
irrespective of conditions of degrees of defilement and sin and
darkness. It is not a single place, forming a common home for all
fallen souls, but is composed of many and different places. And, as
has been said, there are many hells, having gradations of appearance
and surroundings that are suitable for causing the additional
sufferings which souls may have to endure.
The expression, “the lowest depths of hell," is not a meaningless
one, but portrays a truth—a real, existing fact that many spirits
are now experiencing the reality of. In its broadest sense, hell is
every place outside of heaven; and heaven is that place where
everything entering into it—its appearance and qualities and its
inhabitants—is in perfect harmony with the respective Laws of God
and His Will concerning the same. And this statement involves the
fact that there are several heavens. The heaven of the redeemed, or
those who have received the Divine Essence in their souls and have
become of the Divine Nature of the Father, is a distinct heaven from
that wherein those live who have been restored to the perfect
condition of their natural love that the first parents possessed
before the fall—the condition of the restitution to mankind of that
perfection which was lost by the disobedience of the first man and
woman.
Mortals usually believe that heaven is a condition. And the Bible,
in which so many believe, attempts to describe this heaven with its
streets of gold, and pearly gates, etc.; and, as a fact, it is a
real, substantial place, having all the elements and appearances of
a home of bliss which help to bring happiness and joy to its
inhabitants, in addition to the happiness which their soul
perfection and development cause them to have.
Then, as heaven is a place, having real substance that is
perceptible to the spirits who inhabit it, why should not hell be a
place of real substance also, with those qualities and appearances
exactly suited to add to the unhappiness of those who are fitted for
it? The spirit world, both heaven and hell, are places of substance,
having their planes and divisions and limitations of occupancy. They
are not mythical, invisible conceptions of mind, as you mortals
ordinarily conceive ghosts to be. Also, the spirits of mortals are
real and more substantial than are the physical bodies of mortals.
Further, these planes and divisions, whether of heaven or hell, have
a more real existence than mortals have in their places of
habitations or confinement in the earth life.
The hells are places of darkness and sufferings, but in them are no
fires or brimstone, etc., as have been so commonly represented by
the preachers and teachers of the orthodox churches, because there
is nothing therein that would feed fires or that fires could affect.
And there are no devils or Satan, though there are evil spirits of
men who are more wicked and vicious and horrifying than have ever
been pictured of the devil and his angels.
In your communications, you have had some very realistic
descriptions of hell from those who are actually living therein and
who are realizing its tortures and realities, and I will not take
the time here to attempt to describe it in detail. I will only say
that, as it has not entered into the minds of men to conceive of the
wonders and beauties of heaven, neither have they ever conceived of
the horrors and sufferings of hell.
BUT, FROM ALL THIS, MEN MUST NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE PUNISHMENT AND
DARKNESS WHICH THE SPIRITS OF EVIL ENDURE IN THE HELLS ARE
SPECIFICALLY INFLICTED BY THE FATHER BECAUSE OF ANY “WRATH" THAT HE
MAY HAVE TOWARDS THESE SPIRITS, OR TO GRATIFY ANY “FEELINGS OF
REVENGE," OR EVEN TO SATISFY ANY “OUTRAGED JUSTICE," FOR IT IS NOT
TRUE.
MAN, WHEN HE BECOMES A SPIRIT, IS HIS OWN JUDGE AND EXECUTIONER,
SUBMITTING TO AND RECEIVING THE INEXORABLE RESULTS OF THE LAW THAT
WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWS THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP. THIS IS A LAW THAT IS
NECESSARY TO PRESERVE OR BRING ABOUT THE HARMONY OF GOD'S UNIVERSE,
WHICH, OF COURSE, IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. AND WHILE IT MAY APPEAR
TO MAN, AT FIRST SIGHT, TO BE A HARSH AND CRUEL LAW, YET, IN ITS
WORKINGS AND RESULTS, EVEN TO THE INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT WHO MAY SUFFER
IN THE REAPING, IT IS A MOST BENIGN AND BENEFICIAL LAW BECAUSE THE
DARKNESS AND SUFFERINGS OF A FEW YEARS, AS YOU MORTALS SAY, BRING
ABOUT AN ETERNITY OF LIGHT AND HAPPINESS.
THE LAW MUST RULE. BUT IN ALL THE APPARENT HARSHNESS AND SUFFERING
AND WANT OF MERCY, THE GREAT DIVINE LOVE OF THE FATHER OVERSHADOWS
THE SUFFERER AND FINALLY MAKES THE DEFILED AND WICKED SOUL BECOME
ONE OF PURITY AND GOODNESS.
MEN MAY NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF THIS FACT: THAT IF IT WERE POSSIBLE
FOR THESE EVIL SPIRITS TO LIVE IN HEAVEN, THEIR SUFFERINGS AND
UNHAPPINESS WOULD BE GREATER THAN WHAT THEY ENDURE BY LIVING IN A
PLACE THAT IS MORE IN AGREEMENT, IN ITS SURROUNDINGS AND
APPEARANCES, WITH THEIR OWN DISTORTED CONDITIONS OF SOUL. SO, EVEN
IN THEIR HELLS, THE FATHER IS MERCIFUL AND GOOD TO THEM.
Regarding the second proposition by the preacher in his
sermon—namely, the duration of suffering or of the life of the
spirit in hell—his conclusion was that this duration of the spirit
in hell is eternal, everlasting, and without end. How it must have
hurt and violated the teachings of his soul and his conception of
the Loving Father to have come to such a conclusion! But, yet, being
bound by his creeds and the domination of his belief that the Bible
is the sole authority upon hell as well as heaven, in the conviction
of his mind (and here I want to emphasize mind, for his heart was
not in agreement), he declared that the duration of the sufferings
and life of the hells is eternal, and that the saying of Jesus
proved it to be, not only because it was in the Bible but also
because the true meaning of the original Greek word can have no
other translation. He said this not knowing, or, if knowing, not
recalling, that Jesus, even if he used such expression, did not
speak in Greek, and that in order to obtain the true meaning of the
word used by Jesus in back of the Greek word, he, the preacher, must
go to the word as it was uttered by Jesus for its true meaning.
So many preachers and commentators on the Bible attempt to determine
a most vital truth by a shade of meaning that they conceive a
particular word in its original may have had. But they are not
justified in concluding that such word had, at the time used, such
shade of meaning, or that the original, as they conceive it to be,
was the original word actually spoken or written. They seem to lose
sight of the fact that the writings of the Bible—I mean the
manuscripts to which they make reference to prove the correctness of
their conclusions—are far removed from the original writings, and
that, by reason of the copying and recopying of the word upon which
they rely, the shade of meaning that they give it in their
interpretations may not be an exact translation of the word
originally used. Of course, they have no way of learning this fact;
and, consequently, they have to resort to the best authority that
they can have access to. But, under such circumstances, it is not a
justifiable thing to have a vital question of man's future and
destiny determined by the shade of meaning that may be given to one
or more words, without reference to other declarations of the same
book* that have relation to the subject matter of the inquiry.
The preacher said that, in his conclusion as to the question, he
must be governed by the Bible alone, that he had no right to indulge
in speculation concerning the philosophies of other men, and that he
could find nothing in the Bible that would justify him in coming to
any other conclusion than that the duration of punishment in hell is
eternal. Well, he was not honest with himself; for if he had
searched a little more deeply and had given as much credence to
other parts of the Bible as to the passage that he quoted, he would
have found a strong statement to the effect that the evil spirits in
hell have the possibility of leaving it; and not only that but also
that a part of the great mission of Jesus, upon whose supposed
declaration the preacher based his conclusion, was to show the Way
and induce these spirits of evil to leave their hells. This was the
Master's first work after he became a spirit, and he would not have
attempted to preach to these wicked spirits in hell if there had
been no possibility of their ever leaving it.**
Also, the preacher might well have considered more deeply the
contradiction presented in the Bible that, at the time of Noah,
because of their great sins when mortals, God punished His children
as He never punished any other of His children for their
disobedience, utterly destroying them by one great catastrophe,
removing His only living human creatures from the face of the earth,
and thus leaving only Noah and his family to serve as a reminder of
the great failure of God Himself in His Creation of the most perfect
and the “Very Good."
No, in addition to recognizing this obvious contradiction, if the
preacher had searched the Bible, he would have found that the hell
that contained the spirits of all the human race that were living at
the time of the flood (except Noah and his family) was not eternal
in its duration.
And, again, had the preacher searched even further, he would have
found that the Master himself declared by necessary implication
that, at least for some of the wicked who became inhabitants of
hell, there was the possibility of release upon certain conditions.
I refer to the declaration attributed to him where he said, “He that
sinneth against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but he
that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world nor in the world to come." ***
Now, to any reasonable man, there is only one interpretation of this
declaration, and that is: that for any and all sins, except that
against the Holy Ghost, there is forgiveness in the next world as
well as in the mortal world. And that being a fact, it is an
irresistible conclusion that the Father would not compel a spirit to
remain in hell after He had forgiven that spirit's sins.
No, the preacher had not searched the Scriptures, as he was duty
bound to do. Could he have rid his mind of the beliefs that the
creeds of his church had driven into his intellect, and of the
teachings of the ancient fathers, as well as of the churches that
had taught such false and damnable doctrines for so many years, his
conclusion would have been very different.
The preacher repudiated the old teachings that there would be
physical suffering in hell, or fire or brimstone, etc., and
expressed his commiseration for those preachers and others who had
taught such doctrine, and for their awful responsibility and
accounting. And his commiseration was needed and appropriate. But I
want to say here that he needs as much commiseration, if not more,
for the preaching of his false doctrines, as did those preachers to
whom he refers. He has more light, or may have, and his accounting
will be correspondingly greater.
I HAVE WRITTEN A LONG LETTER, AND YOU ARE TIRED AND I MUST STOP.
BUT, BEFORE DOING SO, LET ME DECLARE THE TRUTH TO BE THAT HELL IS
NOT A PLACE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, THAT ALL THE HELLS, AS WELL AS
OTHER PARTS OF THE SPIRIT WORLD, ARE PLACES OF PROGRESSION, AND THAT
THE PRIVILEGE OF PROBATION IS NOT TAKEN FROM ANY SPIRIT, NO MATTER
HOW WICKED; FOR ALL ARE GOD'S CHILDREN. AND, IN HIS PLANS FOR THE
PERFECTING OF THE HARMONY OF THE UNIVERSE AND MAN'S SALVATION, ALL
THE HELLS WILL BE EMPTIED AND THE HELLS THEMSELVES DESTROYED.
But men must not think from this that the duration of suffering in
these hells is necessarily short, for that is not true. Some of the
evil inhabitants of these places have been in such darkness and
suffering for centuries, as mortals count time, and may be for
centuries more. But the time will come when they will have the
awakening to the fact that they may become children of light; then,
when they make the effort to progress, they will succeed.
THE SOONER THAT MANKIND LEARNS THAT HELL IS NOT A PLACE OF
PUNISHMENT TO SATISFY THE “WRATH" OF AN “ANGRY" GOD, BUT MERELY THE
NATURAL AND NECESSARY LIVING PLACE OF THE SPIRIT WHOSE CONDITION OF
SOUL AND MIND DEMANDS THAT LOCATION, THE BETTER OFF THEY WILL BE.
FURTHER, THAT THAT CONDITION CHANGES, AND IT WILL CHANGE. THE HELL
OF A SPIRIT'S HABITATION WILL CHANGE UNTIL, FINALLY, FOR THAT
SPIRIT, ALL THE HELLS WILL DISAPPEAR.
You are tired and I must stop. So, thanking you, and leaving you my
love and blessing, I am
Your brother in Christ,
PAUL.
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