All the religions and spiritual practices of the world can be broken down into two spiritual paths: the natural love path that leads to a habitation in the Kingdom of the Perfect Natural Man and a Divine Love path that leads to the Celestial Kingdom.

Natural Love Path

In the beginning, when God created human beings, He conferred upon our first parents the natural love. It was a wonderful gift that brought much happiness to them. It was responsible for their conjugal love and is also responsible for the love between a mother and child, brotherly and sisterly love, romantic love, and soulmate love. While in its purified state it can bring a great amount of happiness, it is not immune to sin. It can become tainted and defiled and lacks stability to keep the affections constant.¹ARDT, Vol II, Jesus Discuses the Love of Man, or Natural Love, in Contrast to the Divine Love Which is Necessary to Obtain In Order to Give Man the Highest Degree of Happiness. Our first parents (Aman and Amon) learned this after the fall – when they rejected God’s gift of Divine Love and tried to become divine using their own will power. The first sins of pride, arrogance, and independence defiled their souls. As time went on, these sinful tendencies carried over to their progeny, and humankind’s moral nature sank lower and lower until he became almost like the condition of the beasts in the field.²ARDT, Vol II, Divine Love is a Privilege Gift of the Father

One of the primary reasons for this rapid degeneration of humanity’s moral nature is that progeny are affected by the sins of the parents. When a child is conceived, gestates and is born, the child not only partakes of the physical nature of its parents, but also of the qualities and condition of the parents’ spirit and soul. The spirit and soul of the child is susceptible to, and in a way absorbs, the influence of the spirit and soul of the parents, not only at the time of conception but also during the period of gestation, and even for years afterwards. This occurs to such an extent that this influence continues beyond the earthly existence of the parents and into the life of the progeny to the third and fourth generation.³ARDT, Vol II, Luke Explains the Biblical Text: The Sins of the Parents Are Visited upon the Children unto the Third and Fourth Generations.

So what must humans do in order to become again the perfect creation of God, as was the condition of the first parents before their fall?

While the created soul of each human is pure and perfect, and they must realize that fact, yet, because of the long ages of living in and nurturing sin and its results, humans have covered their pure souls with such a deep and fallacious covering that they have never yet been able to get a correct idea of what the soul really is. It appears in all its frailties and ugliness, as it really is. But never was a greater mistake made and never have humans been so little successful in discovering the truth of things as in this matter of the true condition of the hidden soul, waiting only to be relieved of its covering in order to shine again in all its purity and truth. So, the first thing for humans to do is to realize the true condition of their own souls, and then make the effort to rescue such souls from this false and unnatural condition, and let it appear again clean, pure and beautiful.⁴ARDT, Vol II, What Men Should Believe in Order to Again Become the Perfect Man.

Once one understands they were originally created good, pure and happy, then they must use their will power to obtain knowledge that will enable them to know themselves and their relationship to what is true and good. This knowledge will come as they examine themselves and learn the difference between right and wrong. They must also realize that they have a Father in God, their Creator, and that He has a love for them which will always bring happiness and peace if they will respond with their own love. Many desirable qualities will flow to a person from the knowledge that there is a Father Who loves them.⁵ARDT, Vol II, Professor Salyards Discusses the Object of Man’s Life on Earth, and the Necessity of Doing Certain Things Whereby Man Can Become the Perfect Man—but Not the Divine Man.

Once a soul is able to discern right from wrong, they will be able to use their will power to supplant evil thoughts and deeds by good thoughts and deeds in order that the defilement of their soul may be removed and the soul purified.⁶ARDT, Vol II, What Is the Correct Way in Which a Man Should Live on Earth in Order to Receive the Cleansing from His Sins So That He Can Acquire the Purification of His Natural Love? But this process will be slow and sometimes hardly perceptible, for the long years of misbelief in the idea of original sin, and that God created evil and error for the purpose of defiling human nature without any inherent goodness or the possibility of becoming regenerated, unless by the operation of some miracle; will make it difficult for the acquiring of the true belief as to whatthe person and their nature are, and enable them to become the master, and not remain the servant.⁷ARDT, Vol II, Jesus Continues His Message on How a Mortal May Obtain the Development of His Soul Without the Help of the Divine Love.

God is the Father of all, and loves all His children. As He originally provided for their happiness, so now, He desires that all may be happy, even though they may not seek that Divine Love which makes mortals and spirits more than mere perfect humans.

Divine Love Path

As mentioned above, when the first parents were created, in addition to having bestowed upon them those things that made them perfect and in harmony with the laws and will of the Father, God also provided them the potentiality or privilege of receiving the Divine Love, if they would seek for it in the only way that God had planned for its attainment. But instead of embracing this great privilege, they became disobedient and exercised their own will. This lead them not only to the fall from the condition of the perfect human being in which God had created them, but also to the loss of the great privilege of receiving the Divine Love. This opportunity was not again available until the coming of Jesus who taught the way to obtain this Love and exemplified it.

What is Divine Love?

The Divine Love differs from the natural love of humans with which they were endowed when created and which all people possess in a more or less perfect condition. Divine Love is that love which belongs to or is a part of God, possessing His Nature and composed of His Substance. When possessed by a person to a sufficient degree, it makes them divine and posessing the Nature of God. The Divine Love contains the divine, which the natural love does not.

Many write and believe that all people, irrespective of the kind of love they have in their souls, possess what they call “the divine spark,” which needs only the proper development to make all humans divine. However, this concept of the natural state of humans is wrong, for the human soul has not in it any part of the divine, and never can have, unless that soul prays for, receives, and has developed this Divine Love.

The bestowal of this love was intended to transform humans from the merely perfect creation into the Divine Angels, and thus create a Kingdom of God in the Celestial Spheres, where only that which is divine can enter and find a habitation.

What is the way that leads to the Celestial Kingdom?

The observance of the moral precepts and the cleansing of souls from sin by following these precepts, will not lead to this kingdom, for the stream can rise no higher than its source. The source of the soul in a merely purified state is the condition of the “perfect human”. This is the condition in which humans were before their fall. Hence the result of the observance and living by the merely moral precepts and the exercise of the natural love in its pure state is, that man will be restored to the condition of the perfect human – the created human in whom there is nothing of the divine. But this restored condition of the soul will be so perfect and in harmony with God’s will and laws governing the highest and most perfect of His creatures, that the soul will find happiness. Yet, it will continue to be only a created being, having nothing more than the image of the Maker.

The way is plain, and no mystery prevents humanity from comprehending the meaning thereof. When Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God,”⁸Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. – John 3:3 he disclosed the only true way to the Celestial Kingdom. Unfortunately, the vast majority of souls – priests, teachers and people – have never understood this truth. It has been hidden to their spiritual senses with no special significance. Many believe, and place all their hopes in the orthodox doctrines of the vicarious atonement – the washing of the blood, Jesus’ sufferings on the cross and bearing all the sins of the world, and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead – doctrines as harmful to the salvation of humankind as they are without foundation in fact or effect.⁹ARDT, Vol I, The only Way to the Kingdom of God in the Celestial Heavens.

The true meaning of being born again and the “secret” to the Divine Love path is this: “That people shall believe with all the sincerity of their minds and souls that this Great Love of the Father is waiting to be bestowed upon each and all of them, and that when they come to the Father in faith and earnest aspiration, this love will not be withholden from them. In addition to this belief, they should pray with all the earnestness and longings of their souls that God open up their souls to the inflowing of this Love, and that then may come to them the Holy Spirit to bring this Love into their souls in such abundance that their souls may be transformed into the very Essence of the Father’s Love.”

The person who will thus believe and pray will never be disappointed, and the way to the kingdom will be theirs as certainly as the sun shining day by day on the just and the unjust alike. No mediator is needed, nor are the prayers or ceremonies of priests or preachers, for God comes to each person, hears their prayers, and responds by sending the Comforter, which is the Father’s messenger for conveying into the souls of his children this great Divine Love. This is the only way to the Celestial Kingdom of God and to the divine nature in love. There is no other way whereby it is possible to reach this kingdom and the certain knowledge of immortality.

Meditate on these great truths, and in meditating believe, and when believing, pray to the Father for the inflowing into your soul God’s Divine Love. In doing so, you will experience belief, faith and possession of what can never be taken from you – no, not in all eternity. It is up to you to choose your destiny. Will that destiny be the perfection in the natural love or becoming a Divine Angel living in the Celestial Kingdom?