May 28th, 1915.
Received by: James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I want to tell you what I mean by immortality, as you and your friend differed today in your ideas of what it means.
When Adam (as he is called) was told that if he should disobey God and eat of the forbidden fruit, he should surely die, the word death meant death of the soul, so far as its future progress in that which would insure its receiving the Divine essence of the Father's Love was involved. It did not mean the physical death or the death of the body, because it is very apparent that after his doom was pronounced, he lived in the flesh a great many years.
But his soul's progression stopped, and it was only after my coming to earth and teaching the doctrine and truth of man being restored to the condition which Adam occupied before his fall, did mankind have the privilege of becoming immortal again - that is, of being permitted and in condition to obtain that soul progress which would enable them to become one with and a part of the Father in His Love and Affections.
I do not mean that Adam was endowed with this Divine Love when he was created, but that he had that formation of soul potentialities which, if properly exercised, would have brought him in that unison with the Father that would have made his nature Divine; and when he disobeyed the commandments of the Father, he died, so far as that possibility of obtaining the Divine nature was concerned.
As to those who lived on earth between Adam's fall and my revelation of the truth of redemption, they did not receive this nature, or potentiality, and were compelled to live only as mortals and spirits having the natural love. They never were admitted into the Father's heavenly kingdom, but existed merely as spirits having the natural love which was bestowed upon Adam and his race.
Abraham, Isaac and the rest of the persons who are described in the Bible as being children of God, and obedient to his commands, were not partakers of this Divine nature, and became so only after my coming to earth and showing the way to its attainment.
When I was sent to earth, God sent me with the truth as to mankind's redemption, and at the same time conferred upon mankind the privilege of receiving His Divine Essence. No sacrifice or death of mine brought this great boon - but only with my coming came this Love and the way to obtain it.
Adam was not created immortal, but had only the potentiality of immortality, and after his "death" man ceased to have even this potentiality - until God sent it to them with my coming to earth.
When it was said, "as in Adam all men died, so in (me) were all men made alive," it was merely meant that when Adam fell, that which formed a part of his being and made it possible for him to become immortal was taken from him; that is, as to that potentiality and privilege, he died, and was no more able to attain to the condition of soul that enabled him to become one with the Father, or to partake of His Divinity; and that in this condition of death mankind remained until, as I say, I came and brought with me the restored gift of the soul attribute which made it possible for man to again become immortal.
When this gift was bestowed upon man, it was also bestowed upon all those who were then living in the spirit world, but they could obtain it only in the way that was provided for man to obtain it. Understand me, everything that was lost by Adam's fall was restored by my coming with the restored gift; and it embraced every spirit who had ever lived as mortal and every mortal who thereafter lived up to the present time.
My coming, of itself, or the death or sacrifice of me by the Jews, did not restore mankind to the condition that existed in Adam before his fall; I was only a messenger of God sent with that gift, and to teach the truth of its restoration to mankind and to spirits. And when, after my death, I descended into hell, as the Bible says (but which saying does not express the destination of my going, for the true meaning is that I went into the world of spirits), I proclaimed to the spirits the truth of the bestowal of this restored life which had been lost by Adam's disobedience.
All spirits, good and bad, now have this restored potentiality of obtaining the Divine nature that I have spoken of, and immortality. So you see, when Adam died it was the death of the soul quality or potentiality which makes immortality possible.
When the Bible speaks of those men of ancient times who were God's prophets and beloved children as walking with Him, it merely means that they had obtained such a high development of their natural love that they could occupy those spheres in the spirit world (upon their physical death), which made them - mere spirits of mortals - close to the Father and supremely happy. I mean that happiness which does not partake of the Divine nature. They were not in the same condition of soul attributes as was Adam before his fall, for they did not have this potentiality; and any interpretation of anything written in the Bible which gives to any man or spirit at that time the possibility of receiving the Divine Essence of the Father is erroneous and misleading.
As I have said, my death or sacrifice by blood, as is emphasized in creeds and worship of the churches, did not in the slightest degree work to bring about the restoration of this great favor of God to man. They were merely the results of the conditions of the beliefs of men in the Jewish nation, which would not tolerate my declarations of truth. My death, etc., did not appease any wrath of God towards men; but of His own Great Love for His creatures He bestowed this gift, or privilege of the soul, which man had lost by Adam's disobedience.
(question)
It was the disobedience of believing that he was not dependent upon God for the soul quality or potentiality that made it possible for him to partake of God's Divine nature. The tree of good and evil merely represented the knowledge that God had reserved unto Himself of the existence of that which, if known to Adam, would have subjected him to temptations that would destroy this soul quality of which I have spoken. And when Adam ate of the fruit of this tree - that is when he disobeyed God and sought the knowledge of those things which subjected him to the temptations that might cause him to cease to be all good - God took away the potentiality of Adam becoming one with Him and immortal. It was a direct punishment for disobedience, and the result was that man was left mere man, either as a mortal or as a spirit.
I do not think that it was ever said that if Adam should eat of the tree of life, he would live forever and become as a god, because he was already the recipient of this tree of life: in that attribute of his soul which could, by its proper development, make himself like the gods. And here you must understand that "gods" could mean only those who possessed this Divine nature of the Father. There was only one God, and all other living beings in the spirit world were merely those who were possessed of the God-like qualities of love and obedience; none were gods. The angels of God were merely the spirits that I have last described.
When it was said that man was made a little lower than the angels, it meant that while these angels had that Divine nature perfected to a more or less degree, man had only the potentiality of soul that would enable him to obtain that development which would perfect him so that he could become an angel. But this saying does not apply to any man born after Adam, and before my coming with the announcement that God had restored to man this Divine attribute which Adam had forfeited.
So you see, the loss of immortality does not mean the death of the physical body, but the death of that quality or potentiality of the soul which enabled man to become like the Father in certain of His Divine attributes. And more strictly speaking, the mere possession of the soul of this quality is not immortality, or rather it does not make a man or spirit immortal, but merely gives him such quality of soul and potentiality that, by its proper development, he may become immortal.
In the future, all men, either as spirits or mortals, will possess that soul quality or potentiality, until the great day of judgment shall again take from those who have not, at the time, perfected their souls into the enjoyment of the Divine nature, as I have explained. When that day comes, those who are without this Divine essence in their souls will be forever deprived of the privilege of receiving the great gift of this Divine Essence, or in other words, of God's Divine Love. And after that time, those spirits who have never acquired this Divine nature will be permitted to live merely as spirits enjoying their natural love - just as Adam after his fall, and all spirits and men who lived between that time and my coming, lived only in their natural love. This is the second death. Adam's was the first, and the great day of judgment will declare the second. And after that, never again will man have the opportunity of partaking of this Divine Essence of the Father and becoming "as one of the gods."
Men may reason to the utmost of their limited intellects in the way of saying that God would not subject his creatures to this second death and thereby deprive them of this great boon of becoming partakers of His Divine nature, and the great happiness that comes with it, but such reasoning, or the conclusion reached, will not change the fact. What I tell you is the fact, and many men, to their sorrow, will when too late realize that it is true.
And men will not be justified in complaining of this. The opportunity is now given and will in the future be given to all men and spirits to become the children of the Father, in the angelic and Divine sense, and if they refuse to do so, they can have no grounds upon which to base the accusation of injustice against the Father or His Love.
He will still be their Father, even though they may not accept His Great Gift, and they will from the natural love bestowed upon them be comparatively happy; but they will not partake of His heavenly Kingdom. They will be like the guests invited to the marriage feast, who, because of various excuses, declined to attend. While they were not deprived of other food and sustenance, yet the more precious food which the host had provided for them at the feast, they never partook of, and never thereafter had the opportunity to.
Many of my parables in the Bible illustrate this great truth when properly understood - as men did in those days when I was on earth, but now harden their hearts and shut their intellects to the truths of these parables and to my teachings.
Of course, ultimately, all these men will be saved from sin and error, and in fact, sin and error will be destroyed entirely. Men and spirits will live in comparative happiness; but they will live in death and not in life, so far as the life of the soul, with its possibilities of becoming Divine and of enjoying the great happiness which the Divine Love of the Father bestows, is concerned.
So you see, immortality does not pertain to the physical body or to the spiritual body, or to the soul unqualifiedly, but to those qualities of the soul which makes it possible for the soul to become in its nature Divine. And immortality does not mean mere continuous existence, because every spirit and every soul may live through all eternity in their individualized form. When it was said in the Bible that I brought immortality and life to light, it did not mean that I showed man merely that they would, as spirits, continue to live forever, but it meant that they would live forever in the Father's Kingdom, with natures Divine and not capable of being deprived of the great and true life which is found only in that Kingdom.
So let you and your friend think over what I have written, and in places where my meaning may not appear plain, I will try, by the inspiration of my knowledge and power, to enlighten your souls and intellects. You are both very mediumistic and easy recipients of inspiration, and as your souls seem to be attuned to the truth, and as you are seeking earnestly for the truth, I will endeavor with all my powers to inspire you with such intellectual thoughts and spiritual perceptions as will enable you to see these truths in all their nakedness - face to face, and not as through a glass, darkly.
I must now stop - and give you my blessings, and the blessing of the Father.
Your friend and brother, Jesus