Way to the Celestial Kingdom

 

This mediated message deals with the way to the Celestial Kingdom and points out that in some aspects, the Bible teachings and statements ascribed to Jesus on this subject are inaccurate. The reason is that the Bible compilers had limited knowledge of what Jesus taught and reinterpreted his sayings their own way. For related information, go to this page and the articles listed there.

 

The Importance of Knowing the Way to the Celestial Kingdom.

Many Statements in the Bible Are Untrue. (JESUS)

(October 18th, 1919 | Received by James Padgett)

 

I AM HERE. Jesus.

Let me write a few lines, for I must tell you of an important Truth that is necessary for men to know to gain a knowledge of the Plan of salvation in order to reach the Celestial Kingdom.

I know that the Bible contains many sayings attributed to me in reference to this Plan, and many of my alleged sayings are believed in by those who claim to be Christians which are not true. I never said them, and they are contrary to what I received from the Father as to the true Plan of men’s redemption from sin, and as to the only Way by which they can obtain true atonement with the Father and a knowledge of their own immortality.

Many of these sayings were written by men who knew not the only Way to a oneness with the Father, and were the results of the teachings of the manuscripts that then existed. They were received by the Jews as the revelations of Moses and of many of the prophets who had no knowledge of the Divine Love or of Its rebestowal upon humanity. These men made me say those things that accorded with their ideas of what was necessary for salvation, or for the possibility of their becoming at-one with me and with the Father, and, in writing their ideas, confused the Truth with what they supposed was the truth as contained in the Old Testament. Much harm has been done by attributing many of these sayings to me because of the supposed authority that was attached to them.

My disciples never taught and never understood that their salvation, or that of any man, depended upon faith in me as the son of God; or that I, the mere Jesus, had in me any virtue to forgive sin or to ensure an entrance into the true Kingdom of God; or that I, as the man Jesus, was a son of God in the sense that the Bible teaches. They knew that the Father had revealed to me the Truth, and that I had in me that Love which, to a large extent, made me like unto and at-one with the Father. They also knew that my teachings of the rebestowal of the Divine Love were true, and that when they or any man should possess this Love, to the extent of that possession, they would become at-one with the Father and also with me, who possessed It to a greater degree than any man. I say they knew this and taught it to the people, as I had taught it to them. But when the compilers of the present New Testament came to declare my sayings and teachings, they knew not of this Love, and, hence, could not understand what many of my true expressions meant. They gave them an interpretation, so far as my real sayings are concerned, that would comply with their own knowledge.

No, I am not correctly quoted in many of these sayings, and, I may say, in the large majority of them. For when they were written, as now contained in the New Testament, men had lost the knowledge of their true meaning, and, out of their own minds, recorded that which they thought was what I had really said.

I do not see how these false sayings can be corrected except to take each saying and show its falsity by its incompatibility with what I now say. This would take too much time and expend much energy that could be employed better in declaring what the truth actually is. BUT THIS I WILL SAY: THAT WHENEVER THESE SAYINGS IMPART THAT I CLAIM TO BE GOD, OR THAT I COULD, OR DID, FORGIVE MEN OF THEIR SINS, OR THAT WHATSOEVER SHOULD BE ASKED OF THE FATHER IN MY NAME WOULD BE RECEIVED, ARE ALL UNTRUE AND HAVE GREATLY MISLED THE TRUE SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE AND IMMORTALITY.

My disciples were close to me and understood my sayings better than all others. Yet, they did not understand all the truth, and left the mortal life with many expectations that were not fulfilled and, in the very nature of the same, could not be fulfilled. In certain non-essentials, they were influenced in their beliefs and expectations by their training in the teachings of these Old Testament manuscripts, and were very largely Jews in their beliefs when they died. They understood the vital things that determined their relationship to God and to their existence in the future world, but, as to many of the non-essentials, they retained the faith of their fathers and were not able to receive all the truth which I could have taught them.

I MUST NOT LINGER TO CORRECT THESE ALLEGED SAYINGS OF MINE,  BUT MUST OCCUPY MY TIME AND YOURS IN DECLARING AND REVEALING THE TRUTH AS IT EXISTS NOW, AND EXISTED THEN, THAT YOU AND THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT WHEREVER AND WHENEVER THESE BIBLE SAYINGS OF MINE CONFLICT WITH WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN AND SHALL WRITE YOU, THESE STATEMENTS ARE UNTRUE AND WERE NEVER SAID BY ME. THUS, IN THIS GENERAL WAY, I WILL MAKE PLAIN TO MEN THAT THE BIBLE MUST NOT BE RELIED ON OR BELIEVED IN, IN ALL PARTICULARS, AS CONTAINING THE TRUTH OR MY DECLARATIONS OF THE TRUTH.

I was saying that the Jews and the teachers of the church that became established, or, rather, controlled after the death of my followers, and those who understood the true teachings of my disciples, taught the conduct of men towards their fellowmen. However, the observance of certain ceremonies and feasts was regarded as the important thing for men to learn and practice in order to gain salvation, rather than the Truths which made man a child of the Father and at-one with Him through the operation of the New Birth.

OF COURSE, BEFORE MY COMING, THE JEWS COULD NOT HAVE TAUGHT THE TRUTH OF THE NEW BIRTH BECAUSE THE GREAT GIFT OF THE REBESTOWAL OF THE DIVINE LOVE HAD NOT BEEN MADE. AND IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THAT GREAT TRUTH, WHICH WAS NECESSARY FOR IMMORTALITY AND THE POSSIBILITY OF MAN’S PARTAKING OF GOD’S DIVINE LOVE, TO BE KNOWN TO THE JEWS; HENCE, THEY COULD NOT TEACH IT. THEIR TEACHINGS WERE LIMITED AND CONFINED TO THE THINGS WHICH WOULD MAKE THEM PURER IN THEIR NATURAL LOVE, AND IN THE RELATION OF THAT LOVE TO THE FATHER.

God, at that time, while He never gave them the privilege of becoming at-one with Him in the Divine Love, or even of becoming such beings in their character and spiritual qualities as were Adam and Eve (commonly supposed to be our first parents), yet, He did require of them obedience to His Laws, which would develop in them their natural love to such a degree as would cause it to become in harmony with His Laws that controlled and governed their natural love.

If you will study the Ten Commandments, you will see that these Commandments deal only with the natural love. Their observance would tend to make men better in that natural love, and better in their conduct with one another and in their relationship to God, so far as that love brought them in communion with Him. This natural love, as I have said, was possessed by men, just as the first parents possessed it, and was never taken from them, and, in its purity, was in perfect harmony with God’s Creation and the workings of His Universe. But notwithstanding these great qualities, men were mere men and had in them no part of the Divinity of the Father. And, this being so, the Jews, while they were supposed to be more in contact with God through the prophets and seers than were any of the other races or sects of God’s children, yet, never looked for a Messiah who would come with any other or greater power than that which would enable them to become the great ruling nation of the earth to whom all other peoples would be subordinated and subjected and powerless to ever again conquer or subject their nation to bondage.

In a way, this Messiah was to be a kind of supernatural being, having power which no other man ever had, and a kind of god to be worshiped and served during their earthly lives.

Many of the Jews, notwithstanding what may be said to the contrary in the teachings of the prophets, believed in other gods than the one which Moses declared, as is evidenced in their histories, both sacred and secular. For whenever their God—that is, the God of Moses—did not treat them just as they thought He should, they would create and worship other gods— even the golden calf. So, I say, they never expected a Messiah who would be other than a most powerful ruler on earth.

Their ideas and beliefs of the life after death were very hazy. And even that part of them known as the Pharisees, who believed in a kind of resurrection, never conceived that, when they should drop the mortal life, they would be anything different in their qualities and characters from what they were as mortals (minus the physical bodies), or would experience anything more than the greatly increased happiness which would come to them as such spiritualized mortals.

This was the idea of the common people, and also of the priests and scribes. And, notwithstanding the many beautiful and spiritual psalms ascribed to David, the happiness or glory that they might expect was only that which would come to them as spiritualized mortals having only the natural love.

So, you see, the Great Gift of the Father—the rebestowal of the Divine Love—was not known or even dreamed of by the Jews, nor conceived of, nor taught, by their scribes, nor spoken of even by their great prophets or lawgivers such as Moses and Elias and others. Their conception of God was that of an exalted, Personal Being, All- Powerful and All-Knowing, Whom they would be able to see face to face, as they might any king or ruler when they should come into the heavens which He had prepared for them, and where He had His Habitation.

As I was saying, the chief object of my mission on earth was to teach the rebestowal of the Divine Love upon man and the Way to obtain It, and the secondary object was to teach men those moral truths which would tend to make them better in their conduct towards their fellowman and purer in their natural love.

And so it is that, in my teachings of these moral truths, the effect of these teachings was to bring man more in harmony with the Laws of the Father which control the operations of the natural love. I never at any time intended that men should understand that these moral truths would bring about their union with the Father in the Divine sense, or that the possession of this natural love in its purest state would enable man to become a partaker of God’s Divine Nature or an inhabitant of His Kingdom.

But, as I have said, apparently the only object that these compilers and writers of the Bible had to accomplish was to persuade men that the observance of these moral teachings in their conduct was all that was necessary to enable them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

I know it is said that love and almsgiving and kind deeds will work to a man’s salvation and enable him to become at-one with the Father and to enjoy the Presence of God in the high heavens. But this is not true. The good deeds which a man performs in the way of helping his fellowman will live after him, and will undoubtedly work toward his becoming perfect in his natural love. But they will not bring that man into atonement with the Father in the higher Love which is so necessary for his full salvation.

While my messages to you will not take one jot or tittle from the moral teachings, yet, they will show to man the necessity and Way to obtain a full reconciliation with the Father and a home in the Celestial Spheres.

I will come to you again and write upon a subject which is important to you, and which men should understand.

So, with all my love, I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,

JESUS.

 

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