Human Destiny Without Experiencing the New Birth
In this mediated message, which is continued, John speaks on the human destiny without experiencing the new birth. Man will regain the state that existed before the fall, but still experience the physical death whereby shedding the physical body to go on in the spirit body which houses the soul. For more on this topic, see this page.
What Is the Destiny of the Mortal Who Has Not Experienced the New Birth,
but Who Will Progress to That Condition Which May Be Called the Perfect Man?
I AM HERE. John.
I want to write tonight on a subject that is important, and I hope that you will be able to receive my message, for I have been waiting for some time to deliver it.
Well, I desire to discourse on the subject of: “What Is the Destiny of the Mortal Who Has Not Experienced the New Birth, but Who Will Progress to That Condition Which May Be Called the Perfect Man?”
This latter condition does not depend upon the mortal having the Divine Love or the Essence of the Father in his soul, but merely upon the purification of the natural love so that all sin and error and inharmony form no part of his state of soul or mental existence. This condition is not the result of the New Birth or of a change in the constituent elements of his soul, but merely the elimination of those things therefrom which were the results and the necessary sequences of the defilement that followed the fall.
Now, as man lost the qualities which made him the perfect creature of his Maker by this fall, it is only necessary for him to regain what he lost by that fall in order to become the perfect man once more. And, in recovering this state of perfection, it is not required that he should seek, or actually add to the qualities which he at first possessed, any new or additional qualities or attributes, but only that he regain what he had been deprived of by his disobedience. And when that is accomplished, he will come again in harmony with the laws of his creation, and have all the potentialities and excellence that he originally possessed.
And, now, what will that future be? In order to determine this question, it is only necessary to understand what his inherent condition or qualities were when he was the perfect man of his Father’s Creation.
At that time, he was possessed of those things of which he is now the possessor, except that, then, they were all so accurately adjusted that every sense and function of his body, as well as every faculty of his soul and mind, were so in harmony with the laws of his creation that he was capable of doing the Will of the Father, and obeying every requirement that was imposed upon him.
He was then not only a perfect being regarding his physical formation but also as regards his mental and moral qualities, which, of course, included all the emotions and appetites and spiritual aspirations. But, as we have written you before, all these faculties were subject to his will; and, in a certain sense, his will was controlled by the exercise of these faculties.
In the beginning, his body was made of matter, changeable as it now is, but of a more ethereal kind, and not subject to decay and disintegration in such a short time, as it now is, but, yet, subject to this decay. And as regards his physical being, man necessarily was compelled to die and to have his spirit body and his soul released from this physical vesture, and to exist thereafter as pure spirit. This was not the death that he died as a consequence of his disobedience, but the death natural to him by reason of the very nature of his creation.
His soul and spirit body were not subject to death in the sense of annihilation, but were given the qualities of continual existence in a pure and perfect state. And the only difference that the fall made as to these parts of his being is that the purity and harmony that were man’s are no longer parts of his soul and spirit.
Of course, they were created from something and not from nothing, as some of your theologians say. And, in the order of change, which seems to be the law in the spirit world as well as in the mortal world, it is possible that this soul and spirit may be resolved again into that something.
But, as to this finality, we do not have any knowledge because, so far as the observation of spirits in this world goes, no soul or spirit body—and I mean the body as a composite whole, and not as to its constituent elements—has ever been resolved into that something or has been deprived of its individualized existence. Therefore, I cannot say that, when man was created, it was intended that, as man, he should not be immortal, or that he should be so.
But you will readily see that after man shall have accomplished the purification of his soul, and becomes in mind and spirit body as it was intended he should be at the time of his creation, he will be nothing more nor less than he was at that time, and have no other or greater qualities, or no more freedom from limitations and change than he had before his fall. Of course, he will have no physical body. And, here, let me say that there is no fact or experience known to the spirit world that justifies the assertion that man will ever be immune to physical death on earth. I know that some say that, in the far future, men may make such progress in the development of their natural love that their condition of inner purity will be so great as to cause the physical bodies to become so etherealized as to render them free from physical death. But that I cannot conceive will ever happen, for men were made to become inhabitants of the spiritual realms. The short time they were decreed to live the earth life was for the purpose only of giving the soul an individualized existence.
Never was it intended that the physical form should have an eternity of existence, no matter how pure, or, as they say, etherealized it may become; for it was made of matter, or the earth, earthy, while the soul was made of that which had its origin in the spirit realm, and is composed of spirit substance. So, it cannot be conceived that, in the beginning, man was created for an immortal earth existence.
I see that you are tired, and I will finish later. I am glad that I could write tonight, and also that you are in such good condition to receive my message.
So, with my love and blessings, and assurances that you have every reason to keep up your courage and hope, I am
Your brother in Christ, JOHN.
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