February 28th, 1917.
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
Let me write you a line, for I am interested in what has just been written you, for when I lived on earth, I was a Swedenborgian or New Churchman, and believed in the doctrines of that Church, and especially in the corner stone of its beliefs, and that is that Jesus was God, and the only God to be worshipped as such and accepted as the incarnate God, who came to earth and lived and taught among men the coming of God into the flesh.
Well, I, when on earth was a leader or preacher in that Church, and during the course of my ministry I not only taught but wrote many pamphlets and some books upon this doctrine of God becoming man in the form of Jesus, and on many other doctrines, that I now know to be untrue.
And my authority for saying that this fundamental doctrine of the Church is untrue, is that I have seen and talked with Jesus in the spirit world, and learned that he is only the spirit of a mortal, but the highest and most glorious spirit in all the heavens, and is not God; and I have never seen God nor any spirit who has seen Him with the spirit eyes, though Jesus and others of the highest spirits say that they have seen Him with their soul perceptions, which must be true because Jesus is so much like God in this: that he cannot tell a lie.
But I know that there is a God, and my knowledge is based on certainty, but the basis of this certainty I cannot explain to you, as you could not comprehend my explanation. But God lives and rules and loves, and is present with us and with you in some or many of His attributes, and Jesus is not this God.
I wish that I could come to my people and tell them of the errors of their beliefs, and the truths as they exist and to the extent as now known to me, but I have no hope of ever being able to do so, for one of the cardinal doctrines of the Church is, that with the passing of Swedenborg passed the possibility of all communications between God or his angels and mortals as to spiritual truths, and that it is contrary to God's will that mortals should attempt to penetrate the veil that separates the two worlds.
How such beliefs as I taught now cause me suffering and regret, for I see no way of remedying the wrong that I did, and of turning the thoughts of my followers into the paths that lead to truth and the certainty of heaven.
As this is my first attempt to communicate, I am somewhat tired and must stop. But I thank you for the opportunity, and hope that some time I may have the privilege of again writing. Notwithstanding my erroneous beliefs, I have in my soul some of the Father's Divine Love, that enables me to sign myself,
Your brother in Christ,
Chauncey Giles.