October 1st, 1916
Received by:James Padgett.
Washinton D.C.
I am here, Saint John.
I come tonight to write a few truths upon the subject of the preacher's (Dr. Gordon's) sermon, as I was present with you and heard his declarations as to the end of the world. I know that among men there are, and have been since the time of the Master, differences in opinion as to when this important event is to take place, and as to the meaning of the end of the world. Well, men know just about as much now as to the time of this event as they have known all down the centuries, and understand the meaning of these prophecies as well as did men from my day down to the present.
In the first place, I will say, there will be no end of the world from any of the causes mentioned by the preacher, and in the next place, there will be no end of the world at all as understood and declared by the orthodox preachers, and as is expected by most of the professing Christians. The world, meaning the earth, will not have an end in the sense of annihilation, but it will continue to revolve on its axis, and to have seed time and harvest, and produce and reproduce those things that are necessary to sustain human life, and have its appropriate seasons of heat and cold, and move along in its orbit as it now does, until some change, we know not of now, may come and destroy it; but such change, not any of the prophecies of the Bible, admitting that there are prophecies, can apply to the end of the world in the sense that the preacher understood and declared.
If humanity would only understand that the world that was lost by the disobedience of the first parents, was the world of man's immortality and happiness and not the physical world, and that Jesus came to declare the restoration of that world upon condition, and the end of that restoration, then would they know that the material world is not involved in the plan of man's salvation, or in Jesus' mission, or in the declarations of Jesus as to the coming of the end.
Men will continue to be born, live a short time and die the physical death, and as to each individual man the end of the material world comes when he dies, for, thereafter, his habitation will be in the spirit world, and never more will he have life on earth. All men at some time will have to die the physical death, then why should it be necessary to include in the plan of God for the salvation of men the destruction of the material world? For planets and worlds and stars to crash together and destroy, would mean that the orderly workings of God's laws must be interfered with, in order that men might be destroyed or saved, according as they might be snatched up into the air, or left to their own weakness on earth.
Such interpretations of God's intentions or plans, or of Jesus coming again to earth is all wrong and absurd. Jesus will never come to establish his kingdom on earth and reign as Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords, for the Kingdom which he and all his followers, both on earth and in the spirit world, are seeking to establish is in the Celestial Heavens, and it is the Kingdom of God, not made with hands or by the mere fiat of any spirit no matter how high he may be, but made and populated by the souls of men who have experienced the New Birth and received the Divine Essence of the Father. Of this Kingdom Jesus is the Prince, but only because of his great and exceeding possession of the Divine Love of the Father, and his more perfect at-onement.
Jesus is not seeking to establish a kingdom on earth, but is working for the purpose of leading men to the New Birth of the spirit, and of showing them the way to the Celestial Kingdom; and also is he working to help men by his love and suggestions, and so also the other good spirits, to cast sin and error from their hearts, and strive to regain the condition of perfect manhood in the perfection of their natural love; and also to help men to get in this condition of soul regeneration, or in that of the purification of their natural love while they yet live on earth, so that love to God in the divine sense, and love to God in the created sense and brotherly love will cover the whole earth, and men be at peace and happy while yet clothed in the flesh. Such a condition of mortal existence may be called the Kingdom of God on earth, but it will not be the kingdom which Jesus came to earth to establish - that is the Kingdom of Heaven. This Kingdom has its seat and abiding place in the Celestial Spheres whence it will never be removed.
So then, when the Bible teaches of the world coming to an end and passing away it does not mean the material world, but the world of men's thoughts and deeds and sinful conditions that are not in harmony with God's laws or the laws of His creation. This is the world that shall be destroyed when righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters do the deep, and brotherly love reign among men. Even today there are some men living on the earth who are so separated from the world, that as to them the world has no existence, not the material world, but the world of sin and unrighteousness, which is the only world to be destroyed. There shall be wars and rumors of wars and times of trouble , etc., such as never were, and then shall come the end. Not the wars of the cannons' roars or the bursting shells or the mutilated flesh, or the making of widows and orphans or the ruthless changing of mortals into spirits, but the wars of the spirits of good and evil, of love and hate, of purity and sin, of joy and despair, and of knowledge of truth and belief in error - all to be fought in the souls of men with such intensity and earnestness, creating such mind and spirit trouble as never has been, and causing rumors thereof to flood the earth and the habitations of men.
Then shall come the end of the world - the world of evil and sin and despair, and hatred and belief in error. This world shall pass away, and truth and love and peace and good will shall be established on the earth forever. The earth of this present day, then becoming to men so peaceful and filled with love and brotherly kindness, that to them it will seem as if the City of God had been let down from heaven on to earth. Let mortals know that Jesus has already come to earth and is among men, and that since the time of his becoming the Prince of the Celestial Kingdom he has been with men and spirits teaching them the way, the truth and the life. By the Holy Spirit have the truths of the Father spoken to men as a still small voice, and by the communions of souls has the Master led men to the love and mercy of the Father.
As in my time when he came to the Jews with his message of love and life eternal, they knew him not and rejected him, so now many men, and spirits too, refuse to listen to him and learn the way through the straight gate to the Father's love and immortality. Let men study the prophecies and the times and the seasons, and calculate the time of the end, and predict the near approach of the Master's coming in the clouds, and prepare themselves to be snatched up in the air and become of the heavenly hosts, yet they will find that all these things are vanities of vanities, and only as each individual passes beyond the veil of flesh will he realize the end of his mortal world has come, and then will all his speculations as to himself become realities, and the certainty of the world's end become an established fact. But men will continue to live on earth and die, and in succession others be born to die, and so on until.... only God knows.
So I say to men, prepare not for the passing away of the heavens and the earth, but for the passing of themselves from the earth to the great world of spirits; and remember, that as they sow, so shall they reap - a certainty that is never changed - a truth that no speculation can make untrue. The end of man's world comes each day to some mortal, and that end may lead to a glorious immortality, or to a temporary or a long darkness and suffering. Thus are the prophecies being fulfilled and the speculations of preachers and teachers and leaders of the unthinking are robbing men of the vital truth that the end of the world is coming each moment and day and year.
Oh! preacher and teacher and leader, your responsibility is great, and the accounting must be made. The reaping must follow the sowing as certainly as the day follows the night, and what will your harvest be? The end of the world for some mortal is the important now!
I have written enough for tonight as you are tired. So believe that I love you and am praying for the Father to bless you, and to so fill your soul with His love, that when the world comes to an end for you, you shall find the Kingdom of Heaven waiting to receive you.
good night.
Your brother in Christ,
John.