November 30th, 1916
Received by:James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Luke of the New Testament. Yes, I desire to write tonight a few lines upon a subject that has never yet been written on, and I know it will interest you. My subject is: - "What is the most important thing in all the world for men to do in order to bring about the great millennium that the preachers proclaim will come before or after the coming of Jesus?
Of course, in stating the question thus I do no intend to be understood as consenting to the doctrine that Jesus will come to earth in physical form, on the clouds with a great shout, etc., as many of the preachers teach, for that event will never happen, because, as we have written you before, he has already come to earth or rather to men in the spiritual way that we have explained. Neither do I intend to embrace in the phrase, "the greatest thing," the Divine Love, for that, of course, is the greatest thing in all the earth and in the heavens, as well; but by this expression I mean the greatest thing that men can do, independently of the assistance of the Divine Love.
Well, as commonly understood, the millennium is a time or period of a thousand years when peace will reign on the earth, and the devil, as is said, will be bound and not permitted to roam over the earth, causing sin and destruction of souls, and sickness and the other sins that now so generally beset mortals. Of course there is no personal devil in the sense of a Satanic majesty, but there are spirits of evil which abound in the unseen world and are constantly with mortals, exercising upon them their influence of evil, and suggesting to them thoughts and desires that eventuate in sinful and wrong deeds. But these evil ones are merely the spirits of departed mortals and are not beings of a superior kind in power and qualities.
Sin, as we have told you, was never created by God, nor is it the product or emanations of any of God's perfect creations but is wholly the result of the wrongful exercise of man's appetites and will, when the desires of the flesh are permitted to overcome the desires of his spiritual nature. With sin comes all the evils and discords and inharmonies that constitute man's manner of living his earth life, and until these things, which are not a part of his original nature, but which are the creation of the inversion of that nature, be eliminated from his thoughts and desires and appetites, the millennium will never be established on earth, and neither will Satan be bound in chains and prevented from doing his work of soul destruction.
Now, the converse of this proposition is true, and the possibility of its occurring, is also true, and the question is how can this be brought about, for to bring this about is "the most important thing for men to do. When the cause of the present condition of mankind in sin and sorrow and unhappiness is definitely determined, then will readily appear what is necessary to remedy the condition and remove the cause; and, hence, when the remedy is applied and removal made, the millennium will surely come, for this glorious time of man's desired and looked for happiness is merely one in which peace rules and discord does not exist, and every man is his own brother's keeper in love.
Then what are the causes of the present condition of existence on earth, marred and tainted and controlled by sin and error and disease? These causes are two-fold - the one arising from man's fall from his created perfection of body, mind and soul, in permitting and encouraging the animal nature to subordinate the spiritual and thereby, by the over-indulgence of the former, causing the carnal appetites to grow and transform the man into a lover of sin and things evil; and the other arising from the influences which the spirits of evil, who are always endeavoring to make close rapport with men, and exercise their evil influence over him.
While the personal Satan does not exist, yet the idea conveyed by the necessity of binding him in order to bring about this millennium is a true one, and applies to the actual relationship of men to these evil spirits, except this, that in the case of the latter it is not necessary or even possible to bind them, but to loosen them - that is to loosen their rapport with or influence over men, for when that is done, men become, as it were, free, and these evil spirits are as if they were not.
So you see, as a preliminary to the ushering in of this greatly desired time of peace and purity, men must cease to believe that it will come with the coming of Jesus in a manifested physical way, as a mortal conqueror might come with legions of followers and noises of drums and by force of arms or greatness of power subdue his enemies. This will never be, for no man is an enemy of Jesus, but all are his brothers, and he is not now making and never will make war on any human being, only on the sin and defilement that is within his soul; and this war can never be waged by power or force of legions of angels, for so great is the power of man's will and so respected is its freedom of action by the Father, that there is no power in heaven or earth that can or will change a sinful soul into a pure one by force and threats and conquering legions of angels, even though they might be led by Jesus, which will not happen. No, the soul is the man, and that soul can be made pure and sinless only when that soul desires and consents that such a condition may become its own.
So, it should not be difficult for men to understand that this erroneous belief, that Jesus will come in this semblance of a human conqueror and establish this great time of peace, is doing them much harm and delaying the actual time of the coming of this event. The effect of this belief upon the soul is that everything is to be accomplished by the work of Jesus, and nothing by themselves, except to believe in his coming and wait, and be ready to be snatched up in the clouds, and then help the hosts of heaven to destroy all of their late fellow mortals who had not believed with them, and put on the robes of ascension as they literally or figuratively designate such robes.
They thus believe, and in their minds they may be honest, yet their souls may be disfigured and tainted with sin and the life's accumulation of sin, so that they could not possibly be in condition to enjoy a place of purity and freedom from sin. And some of them expect and claim that they will be the judges of others of their fellow mortals, because of the deeds done in the body, and yet in how many cases would it prove to be the blind and sinful judging the blind and sinful.
But they further claim that Jesus, by his great power, and the fact that they believed that he would come again to earth and establish his kingdom, will in the twinkling of an eye make them fit subjects for his kingdom, and qualified to judge the unrighteous and help cast them out of his kingdom. No, this can never be the way in which the millennium will be established, and the sooner men discard this belief and seek the truth and the true way to purity and perfection, the sooner the hope and expectation of mankind will be realized.
Your brother in Christ,
Luke.