ETERNAL HELL - FACT OR FICTION?

The New Revelation throws heavenly light on hell.

Received through the Inner Word by

The Prophet Jakob Lorber (1840-1864)

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Though many authors have had different views of what happens in the world beyond, God Himself has revealed the truth about this question that has occupied many a great mind for centuries. In what follows,  mainly direct quotations will be given from what is now called the New Revelation given to the prophet Jakob Lorber, who lived in Austria in the 19th century. In these writings there are many corrections and explanations of wrong interpretations of this subject that has caused much grief and suffering to many people

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In the 'Great Gospel of John' which contains the major part of the New Revelation, the following conversation between Jesus and a so-called Judeo-Greek takes place:

"Lord and Master! When you again arrive upon this earth, will the people also be given one doctrine when you again offer then this teaching, they will likewise say: 'O, do not trouble us with such a doctrine!"

Said I: "Friend! The doctrine I am giving you now is the Word of God, that remains forever: therefore, those people about whom we spoke will receive from Me only this very same teaching. Yet, in those times, it will not be given to them in a veiled manner (as heretofore), but completely unveiled according to the celestial and spiritual meaning. Therein consists the New Jerusalem that will come from the heavens down upon this earth. In its light, people will recognize how their predecessors were cheated by false prophets, just as the Jews now by their Pharisees!

"Then they will no longer blame Me and My teaching for the many calamities upon earth, but the highly selfish and overbearing false teachers and prophets, whom they will have detected in the light of their sciences and arts, very well recognizing whose children they were spiritually,

"When the brilliant light of the New Jerusalem will shine over the whole earth, all liars and impostors will be totally uncovered and receive their reward for the work done. The higher anybody then imagines to stand, the deeper will be his fall. Wherefore, beware already now of false prophets.

Naturally, the scribes and Pharisees of the present day will fight against this new light, since their position and power will be greatly reduced, if the people were to believe in it. There are only a few among them who have even bothered to examine the New Revelation and have given it some thought, but their voices were largely unheard. As it was in the time of Jesus, so it is now - the greatest opponents of His teaching are usually the theologians who are swollen with pride because of their knowledge. So Jesus again befriends those spiritually oppressed by the leaders, for their suffering and good will make them more inclined to listen to the Good Shepherd and for these there is great consolation in the New Revelation writings.

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ETERNAL LIFE IN THE NEXT WORLD.

a) In the Middle Kingdom and in the Heavens.

The dogma of the soul's sleep, with the soul destroyed after death and only recreated by God at the end of time, finds no support in the New Revelation, and Jesus emphatically denies it. He says to the Pharisees: "Being full of idleness, full of sensuousness and full of self-seeking arrogance, you find it impossible to understand the mystery and the truth of the Kingdom of God. You imagine the heaven you hope for to be some kind of over-magnificent and great place above the stars, where faithful souls are received after the death of the body or - in the even more senseless view some of you hold - only after many thousands of years, on the 'Day of Judgment' (which you have never understood), and shall then be revelling forever and ever thenceforth in the greatest life of pleasure." (Great Gospel of John, VII 194, 10)

To His foster-father, Joseph, and his sons, Jesus said: "Since I am with you, why do you not ask Me how things will be with the life of the soul once the body has fallen away? I would, after all, know more about this than you do. Yet I know nothing of any darkness of death, continuing almost forever for the soul, once the body has fallen away, for at the moment when the heavy body falls away from you, will already be in resurrection and live and work on through eternity, that is, if you leave this world as one who is righteous in the eyes of God. If, on the other hand, you die as one who is unrighteous in the eyes of God, then, no doubt, a very long night will lie between your physical death and your true resurrection - but not one you are unconscious of, but one that the soul is well aware of, and that shall be the death of the soul which, indeed, continues for a long time. For a death that the soul did not know of would be no death for it; the death, however, which it shall be aware of in the kingdom of unredeemed spirits will be a great torment to it. (Gr. Gospel VII 209, 12-13)

According to the New Revelation, all souls immediately come to a middle kingdom after death. From there they will proceed to the first heaven or the first hell, of their own free will, depending on whether they decide for humility, love of God and one’s neighbour, or for self-love, arrogance and lust for power. The New Revelation puts it like this: “No one goes to either heaven or hell, for each carries both within him.” (GS II 118, 10)

In certain cases it is possible for a soul to incarnate again in a human body on this earth or, and - this is the case much more frequently - on another body in the universe. The latter applies particularly to the souls of men who belonged to peoples who have known nothing yet of the teaching of Jesus. The New Revelation goes into considerable discussion of the life after death. It is extremely difficult to describe spiritual states, as the New Revelation emphasizes. Descriptions of conditions in the next world are therefore “merely a shadow picture of the great truth, but carefully thought out.” (Pr.97). The passages quoted below are a very limited extract from the complete works of the New Revelation.

“When the body has fallen away, a soul usually is, with regard to space – particularly during its first phase of being – in the same place where it was in the body on earth, i.e. when it enters into the fleshless next world as one that is not yet fully perfected. It does not, however, see or hear anything of the natural world which it inhabited when in its body, even though it occupies space in that very world. Its state of existence is, more or less, as a bright dream in which the soul also lives in a region or landscape that has arisen out of it, acting and behaving as though it were in a wholly natural world, while it does not in the least miss the natural world it has left. “God may, however, often grant that the region it inhabits is destroyed, and the soul finds itself in another one that is wholly in accord with its inner state. With such a soul, it then often takes a long time until many lessons are learned and it comes to see that in everything it thought it owned, there is vanity and nothingness. When the soul has gone through many experiences and phenomena and attained to this insight, it will only then begin to reflect more seriously on its condition and existence, and through this also come to be aware, more and more, that it has left the earlier, earthly world, and a longing will increasingly arise to find a more enduring and unchanging place. When this state has been reached, the soul will be instructed by spirits who have already attained greater perfection as to what it is to do." (Great Gospel VII 66, 10-13) .

"The soul then lives on in the other world (to begin with), as if in a somewhat more waking dream, and often does not know that it has lived in another world before, but lives and acts according to its habitual sensual nature. When warned and told by more aware spirits that it is now in a different world, the soul still does not believe, and it derides and ridicules those who show it the truth. It takes a very long time until such a worldly and flesh-bound soul attains to clearer insight in that other world." (Great Gospel VII 58, 5-6).

"The middle kingdom is the place of preparation, where the souls are prepared for either heaven or hell. The soul and spirit of everyone who dies will arrive in this region immediately after death, and here continue to live in the same way as it has lived on earth." (EM 31, 4). The New Revelation states that the middle kingdom is "more or less what Roman Catholics - very mistakenly - take to be purgatory." (GS II 120, 1).

"The world beyond will be the same by nature as man's inner life; he will create it out of himself and will then (to begin with) live in and upon it, well of ill." (Great Gospel VI 33, 9).

Unperfected and evil souls, having community of interest form associations, though these are far from good, for only the blessed spirits gather in good associations." (Great Gospel VIII 83, 8).

The middle kingdom has three regions. The third and highest region is where the souls of good, pure people are found. "Sometimes such pure spirits may also remain in the third region for several hundred years; yet they lose nothing by this and, on the contrary, can only gain from it, for there is nothing they lack, they are in the greatest state of happiness and bliss." (EM 29, 5).

The spirits of the second region can enter into the third when their souls or, as it were, their substantial bodies, become gradually more and more spiritual, growing wholly one with the spirit." ('Substantial' should not be confused with 'physical' in this case). (EM 30, 2).

"Every soul has to be guided step by step (in the other world), and most become pure and perfect like the purest gold, so that it shall be able to enter into the infinite joys of heaven." (Great Gospel VIII 106, 11).

"I tell you that no human eye has ever seen, nor ear heard, nor any human sense ever experienced the joys and blessedness God has prepared in heaven for those who truly love Him above everything." (Great Gospel VII 170, 14).

"Heaven has three degrees, just as hell has three degrees or stages." (Great Gospel VII 170, 14).

"No one will enter the highest of heavens (third stage = heaven of love) but he who has wholly rid himself of his earthly, worldly will and, instead, has forever and completely taken Mine into himself." (VdH II 288, 1).

"Anyone who does not seek Me (on earth), who does not find and recognize Me and hence also does not love Me, and also will be wholly lacking in love for his fellow man, will never, in all eternity, attain to being My child (I.e. to the highest heaven of love)."

"...those who accept My teaching on earth only in a lukewarm fashion, incompletely or not at all, will arrive in that world in great darkness, and they will find it very difficult to find the bridge from the material to that spiritual world." (Great Gospel I 81, 11).

"Every human being must have his totally free will, if he is to become a spirit with life eternal, and it therefore happens only too often, particularly in these (our) days, that men let their ears be deafened by the siren voice of the world and their eyes blinded by the deceitful light of the splendour of the world. These people then often find it hard and, indeed, often impossible to reach the place they are called to, instead getting where they should not be: to self-love, self-seeking, lust for power, greed, avarice, envy, gluttony, intemperance, debauchery, lechery and whoredom. These things, however, devour life rather than increase it. In the next world they will then have to be very much abandoned by everything that had too much occupied their crude senses, and will have to grow most miserable, that their life may gather itself again in such desert wastes of the spirit. When it has found itself ... then there will also come the help that is needed, but in such a way that it appears not to be forced upon those who are in need, but rather to be wanted by them themselves." (VdH I 148).

"Therefore strive hard (spiritually) and do not let yourselves be dazzled by the treasures of this world..." "...the more you are storing up spiritual treasures through all kinds of good works, the better shall you fare over there. Anyone, however, who is mean and close-fisted will, in time to come, have himself to blame when he finds the storage chambers in his heart to be almost completely empty. Night, darkness, hunger, misery and all kinds of travail will be his lot, until he finally comes round to, first of all, grow active in himself, so that through this he may attain to some form of ability to serve." (Great Gospel IV 96, 4-5)

The children of the world, when they are later perhaps reformed (in the next world), will remain spiritual inhabitants of those bodies in the universe and of those associations that they are in accord with, on and in which they were purified, but they shall never be about the eternal Father's House in the middle of the highest heaven as My true children are who, with Me, shall always judge the whole of infinity eternally and forever." (Great Gospel III, 1-2). ('Judgment' in the New Revelation denotes 'direction' to the sphere that souls belong to, and 'ruling' means an increasing capacity for service).

"No one should think that he will, in time to come, in the next world, find himself in a state of eternal, inactive, sweet rest, for that would be the death, particularly of the spirit or the soul. The more spiritual a person becomes in his inner life, the more active he will also be, and this wholly and entirely." (Great Gospel VI 226, 16).

"The great state of bliss of a perfected soul consists in its being equipped and provided with the truly divine creative power, and being able to bring about, out of godlike wisdom, all that God brings about and lets arise in just the same way." (Great Gospel VII 67, 2).

"For ever onwards you shall come to know new marvels, but still never, in all eternity, reach the end of them." (Great Gospel IV 254, 2).

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b) Further Development of the Soul in the Next World.

The Catholic Church teaches that the destiny of man is decided in his life on earth and that, after death, heaven or hell is waiting for the soul. A change in the status of the soul at the moment of death - a state of grace or of mortal sin - is said to be impossible in the next world after death. (This is sometimes supported from so-called revelations from lost souls or devils, which - 'by the force of command of the Blessed Virgin' are made to tell the truth - assure us that their loss is eternal. It is possible that this is how these souls may feel, especially since they were taught such doctrines while on earth. Ed.) (Coll. Lac. VII, 517, 550, 564, 567. Decision of the Holy Office, against the theosophists, on 18th July, 1919 A.DO. 2189). This doctrine is clearly refuted in the New Revelation. The soul is able to develop further also in the next world, for good or ill. It is made very clear, however, that an omission in life on earth can only be made up for in the next life by very much greater effort, strain, and enormous loss of time. The New Revelation has the following to say on this point:

"Innumerably many angels proclaim My gospel to the souls of the dead. Those who hear, accept and follow it will also attain to the blessed state, though not as easily as on this earth, where man often has to go through very difficult struggles with the world, with his flesh and with many other things - though only of short duration - with all the patience, self-denial, meekness and humility he can muster. (Great Gospel, X 2, 5).

The gospel is preached in the other world, as mentioned; "Be, however, most diligent when on earth", it says in the New Revelation, "for the right state of being a child of God, for My innermost and most pure heaven of love, can only be achieved from earth. For the first and second heaven, provision can still be made in the next world." (Great Gospel IV 247, 9).

"It depends on the state of inner morality in which the soul left its body. If this is in accord with the good laws that exist, the state of the soul in the next world will surely also be such, and from this the soul will be able immediately to take its place at a higher level of perfection of free life, and progress to a higher level." (Great Gospel V 225, 9). The facial features also change as development progresses - "They grow younger and attain greater nobility." (BM 30, 2).

In most cases further development will proceed "somewhat slowly, but that does not matter, for there can be no question ever of a soul being wholly lost ... And even if due to very great indifference it may have been completely swallowed up by the opposite pole - which, indeed, would be a very bad thing - yet, after time has run its cycle, this soul will have to put up with being put through yet another trial of the flesh, on this earth or also on another, for there are innumerable ones in infinite space, - without knowing or even having an inkling that it has already, once before, gone through a trial of the flesh. Nor would such knowledge serve it, as it would merely cause the soul to relapse again into its original evil ways and so the second trial of life would be purely in vain and to no purpose." (Great Gospel V 232, 2).

"In the great beyond, everything is harder and more troublesome than on earth, and for very many souls who have sunk too deep, away from My ordinance, it will take a length of time that in your terms is beyond imagining, until they shall have found the way to My eternal and unchanging order." (Great Gospel X II3, 2).

"A soul that has already become pure out of its own better nature will, of course, progress quickly and easily. Yet, what will be the fate of a soul in that other world that does not have half or a quarter of the way of My ordinance and, therefore, also will not be able to find one? You see, that already is hell itself." (Great Gospel X 113, 6-7). "Thus each in his failings and worldly ways will, in time to come, find his very own cross that will cause him much trouble in the world of the spirit, unless he has wholly or completely victoriously overcome it in this world with, indeed, very much less effort." (Hi II p. 221, 6).

"Truly, I tell you: Here one hour counts more than a thousand years do there. Inscribe these words deeply in your heart!" (Great Gospel VI 13, 10).

"Those, on the other hand, who never are in a position to learn something of My teachings while in this world, will be given guides on the other side who shall lead them to the bridge that lies between this material world and the world of the spirit over there. If they follow their guides, they shall also cross this bridge to enter into true life. If, however, they stubbornly adhere to their teaching, they shall be judged for their conduct of life, according to their teaching, as mere creatures, and shall not attain to being children of God." (Great Gospel I 42, 12).

"Therefore, do not concern yourselves over those who now, and in later times, will not be able to learn of Me, for My Father knows them all and has not called a single one of them into existence for their eternal perdition, but to eternal resurrection, out of his love and wisdom." (Great Gospel XI p. 245)

It is different for the souls of people from the civilized world who have known the teaching of Jesus: "I shall not judge them in person, but the eternal truth, that is also within them, and which they are exceedingly hostile to, will judge them and put them to flight in My presence." (Great Gospel X 154, 9). "But even for such souls that have condemned themselves, I have told you (the apostles) two comforting things, firstly, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, and then in what I have told you, that in My Father's house there are many dwelling places - and to express Myself more clearly - very many houses of teaching and correction, where even the human devils, who on earth are the most depraved, can be taught and made to mend their ways." (Great Gospel X 154, 10).

Minds capable of deeper insight have always known, from intuitive vision, that God's mercy is greater than churchmen are ready to admit. "For Goethe, for instance, the cosmos created by God is a vast place where a world of spirits are schooled, among them also the souls of men who have died."

"Where then is this day of judgment described as so terrible in harmony with My teaching, according to which scarcely a decillionth of men would attain to heaven, the others going to hell for ever and ever?" (Great Gospel XI, p. 245).

The bishops of antiquity falsified the Gospels (Great Gospel XI, p. 246), and in the 4th century Augustine established the dogma that "by far the greater majority of all men will go to eternal perdition (Non omnes, sed multo plures non fiunt salvi; Enchiridon ad Laurentium, c 07), including all heathens who have led a virtuous life, and in consequence, the teaching of a merciful heavenly Father has been perverted. This, the Lord said to Lorber, "was in many ways the reason why very many people have completely turned away from My teaching." (Great Gospel XI p. 243).

The consequences of this perversion of the gospel message are becoming more evident day by day. "The final authority of the Christian faith", the Catholic theologians Professor Karl Heinz Ohlig and Heinz Schuster, have written, "cannot lie in a human institution or in the authority of an office upheld by a human person (teaching profession, hierarchy), but solely in that 'auctor' (originator, ground) of Christian hope: in Christ Jesus." (Kammeier, Wilhelm: "The forgery of history about Christianity", Issue I, 1940, p. 46).

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WHAT JESUS SAYS IN THE NEW REVELATION REGARDING GOD'S JUDGMENTS AND HIS DESIRE FOR OUR ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS; THAT PUNISHMENT IS ALWAYS DISCIPLINARY AND CAN NEVER LAST ETERNALLY.

Above all, the New Revelation writings emphasize that God, as the most perfect Love and an endlessly merciful Father of all men, spirits and angels, does not want the sinner's death and eternal damnation, but his spiritual perfection and his eternal, blissful life.

Therefore, there can be no mention of a judgment on the part of God - either on earth or in the beyond - whereby those who were believers in this short earthly life, once and for all, attain to eternal life, sharing in all heavenly bliss, while the non-believers are condemned for all eternity to a never-ending, most horrible distress. What kind of a horrifying, punishing God of revenge must this be, Who would deal in this manner with the weak, imperfect beings He Himself created! - He, Who Himself gave man the commandment to love his enemies, to bless those who curse him (Matt. 5, 44) and to forgive "seventy times seven" those who have sinned against him! (Matt. 18, 22).

No, this can never, at any time be, in the intent and spirit of our Heavenly Father, Who has endowed every person with His nature - some a more, some a less difficult one - yet Who, nevertheless, through instruction and fatherly guidance, wants to lead to eternal life in God and mature to a child of God, both the sinner encumbered with strong soul-sparks of the anti-order (arrogance and selfishness), the 'vessel made unto dishonour' (Rom. 9, 21) and the righteous with the stronger soul-sparks of God's order (love for God and the fellow man), the 'vessel made unto honour.' (To understand this one must read more of the New Revelation about the creation of spirits, their fall, and dispersal into particles of creation, and the gradual leading back of all creation to God. Every human being who comes to earth has to take on a portion of the fallen creation, the body being made up of the lowest and farthest removed from God, and to transform it with the help of God. Jesus, as far as His humanity was concerned, was no exception).

Jesus addressed all men without distinction when He spoke the words valid for eternity: "You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," and "If you forgive men their faults, your heavenly Father will forgive you also." - And in the 'Great Gospel' (of the New Revelation) we read:

"O you fools! Could there ever be a father of some love for his children, who would imprison for life a child who had offended against his command and, on top of this, have it flogged every day of its life? If a human father will not do this who, after all, is only human and evil, how much less the heavenly Love and Goodness." (Great Gospel VI/243, 9).

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Therefore, according to these heavenly fundamental truths contained in the New Revelation writings, we arrive at totally different ideas about 'eternal condemnation' from those which, conceived through a literal interpretation of some scriptural texts, have become Church dogma in Christendom after the vengeful nature of the blind human soul.

In Lorber's work 'From Hell to Heaven', a spirit in the beyond says this to the Lord: "There is one thing I still need for my heart to be completely at rest, namely, enlightenment concerning the concept of a so-called eternal punishment, occurring in almost all Christian sects. Is there such a thing, or is there not? For if man is to receive an eternal reward for the earthly minutes he conducts himself properly, it stands to reason that there must also be an eternal punishment for a time of bad conduct. I find this assumption quite logical."

The Lord replies: "You do, but not I. Since I Myself am eternal life, I can certainly never have created a being for eternal death! A so-called punishment, wherever it may occur, can therefore always only be a means for the attainment of one main, fundamental goal (i.e. the blissful perfection of the beings), but not ever of an, as it were, hostile anti-goal."

Says the one thus instructed: "Yes, O Lord, I do understand this now. But in Scripture, in words coming from Your own holy mouth, it is only too clearly indicated that there is an 'eternal fire which never goes out', and a 'worm that never dies'! Indeed, it is written: 'Away with you, who are accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his servants!' - O Lord, I know many texts which vividly portray hell and its eternal fire. Yet, if there is no eternal punishment, I absolutely fail to see how an eternal fire which never goes out and a worm that never dies can be mentioned in scripture."

Says the Lord: "My dear friend! It is true that an eternal death is mentioned, which is like an everlasting judgment, and this judgment is caused by My eternal, immutable order. The latter is the so-called fire of wrath, or rather fire of zeal, of My will which, of course, must remain forever unchangeable, since otherwise all creation would suddenly come to an end.

"Whoever allows himself to be enticed by the world and its matter (which necessarily must be - and remain - under judgment, or it would not be 'world'), must be considered lost and dead for as long as he cannot forsake the judged matter. Thus, for the sake of the created beings, there must be an eternal judgment, an eternal fire and an eternal death. But from this it does not follow that a spirit imprisoned in judgment must remain imprisoned for as long as this judgment can last - any more than on earth, if you had built a strong prison, the prisoners would be sentenced to remain there for the whole time the prison would last.

"Is it not obvious to everyone that 'prison' and 'imprisonment' are two different things? Of course, the prison is - and remains - forever, and the fire of My zeal must never go out. But the prisoners remain in the prison only until such time when they have changed and bettered themselves.

"By the way, in the whole of Scripture you find not a word about an eternal rejection or condemnation of a spirit, but only about an eternal condemnation of the non-compliance with My eternal order. Truly, depravity or anti-order is forever condemned, but the depraved only as long as he is living in depravity!

"Thus, truly, there is also an eternal hell - yet no spirit who, on account of his depravity, would be condemned to eternal hell, but only until his betterment. Surely, I said to the Pharisees: "Therefore, you will be all the more condemned (or, for a still longer time condemned!) - "but never: Therefore you will be condemned forever! - Can you now understand your so intimidating Scriptural texts?" (H to H II/226, 9 on; I/24, 5 on; Gr. Gospel VI/243, 6 on).

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Basic Rule: Preservation of Spiritual Freedom.

As in earthly life, for the sake of human freedom and guidance of the souls in the beyond, being the task of the spiritual servants of God, i.e. the guardian spirits and angels, must be very gentle and inconspicuous.  For, since the human souls are to be educated away from the constraint and imperfection of the created being to the highest independence and that no co-ercion must take place, but only an almost imperceptible enlightenment and guidance through the 'gentle whispering' of the spirit.

In 'The Great Gospel' the Lord explains this to a Roman centurion, who wishes for a more rapid enlightenment of souls, when He says:"I, Who should know best how man must be constituted in order to be a man and not an animal man, tell you that man is only in his body an ingenious and wisely organized machine whose health, maintenance and usefulness do not depend on the freedom of the human will, but solely on Him who has created and built it. When there is something wrong with the machine, its Master can easily help through His almighty will, without thereby in any way prejudicing the individual's freedom of cognition, faith and will. However, if I did this also to someone's soul, its own life-force consisting in its free love, its quite as free thinking, searching and recognizing, as well as in its faith and free voliotion, would be as good as broken up and destroyed, and with it also all individual independence.  What would then such a soul benefit from it and what, in the end, I Myself?

"Therefore, man's soul must gain the inner living light of its indwelling spirit out of God through proper instruction and then through its own searching, excamining, recognizing, believing and willing, then it has been truly helped forever. Any other, imposed help, as suggested by you, would only have a destructive effect upon its life-elements and never a healing one." (Great Gospel VIII/126, 5 on).

"How difficult it often is for a worldly soul tending towards indolence, to comprehend the purely good and true and resolve to act accordingly, you can notice in your own children. And so, a soul depraved already here will, no doubt, at first fare much worse in the great beyond, because in its physical life it was motivated by all kinds of errors, resulting in wrong and evil acts. Such a motivation is like a hardening of the soul's love and will, both of which constitute man's life and individual being. If I suddenly removed such a soul's love and will, that would be the end of the entire soul.

"Therefore, such souls must be treated very gently, so that they can be gradually led onto the right road. This requires supreme divine love, wisdom and patience. For such a soul must always, as it were, through outside influences, through its volition, striving and acting enter into situations where it becomes spontaneously aware of its great errors. Once a soul begins to become aware of these, it feels the desire to learn why it reaches only gloomy and barren wasteland, instead of 'green pastures'.

"Only in such a condition is it time to send to such a soul a wise spirit of seemingly equal rank, who can then discuss many a subject with it. Thereby such a lost soul obtains more light and recognizes, as it were, quite spontaneously its great errors and begins to yearn, more and more, for the true light. When this happens, a soul however benighted, finds soon and easily the true light of life. But a sudden conversion of the soul, as suggested by you, would mean as much as its total destruction. (Great Gospel VIII/129, 6 on)

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Also, the Lord's well-known parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus (Luke 16, 19 on) shows that a worldly soul continues to develop in the beyond,. - In the beyond, the rich man, who in his earthly life did not believe in the God of Abraham and was devoid of any love for his fellow mmen, driven by torment and distress, because of his alienation from God, is allowed to 'lift up his eyes', i.e. to attain to a higher cognition, accept Abraham's faith as the true one and progress in the love for his fellow man, so much so, that he implores Abraham to earnestly warn his brothers, who are still living on earth, devoid of faith, lest they also come to this place of torment.

Does not the progress of the former benighted worldling in the cognition of love indicates a continuing development of the soul in the beyond? Will God's love and mercy forever prevent this converted soul from approaching the heart of God, and thus perfection and beatitude.

Also the parable of the Prodigal Son, showing how the father meets the repenting child halfway, with open arms, should be mentioned here. Has this example of endless mercy is valid only for the brief earthly existence of man? No! It is obvious that also in the beyond there is no forever unbridgeable chasm. And the voice of both reason and heart will fully endorse what is said about these words of the parable in Lorber's work 'From Hell to Heaven.'

THE UNBRIDGEABLE CHASM.

There, a blessed spirit says to the Lord: "How could there be a redemption from hell, if there is a forever unbridgeable chasm between those who are in heaven, in the bosom of Abraham, and those whose terrible fate is in hell? That there can hardly ever be a redemption from hell becomes evident also from another Bible text, where the so-called sinners against Your Holy Spirit are threatened with either a very difficult redemption or none at all. And this, O Lord, out of Your most holy mouth! What then, do the 'unbridgeable chasm' and those who sin against the Holy Spirit mean?"

The Lord replies: "Here, too, the chasm signifies the forever unbridgeable difference between My free order prevailing in the heavens and the anti-order of hell which is in everything diametrically opposed to it. Therefore, this text only denotes the incompatibility of order and disorder, and not a perpetually closed gate, so to speak, for him who finds himself there (i.e. in the anti-order or 'hell').

"However, it is a foregone conclusion that one who, in his wickedness, has almost turned into hell himself, will not so soon and easily escape 'hell', since you should know only too well how difficult it is for a proud evil-doer, imprisoned in his pride and lust for power, to enter into the meekness and humility of the heavens. It is not exactly impossible, but nevertheless very difficult. In the future, you will often experience how difficult it is to lift someone completely out of hell. The proud keeps reverting to pride, the lecher to lechery, the indolent to indolence, the envious to envy, the avaricious to avarice, the liar to falsehood, the reveller and glutton to reverlly and gluttony, the thief to thieving, the murderer to murder, the coarse to coarseness, the sensualist to sensual pleasure, etc. No matter how often they are rebuked for their inordinate inclinations, as soon as they are given the freedom towards self-determination, which is essential for eternal life, they keep falling back into the same sinful passions. With every relapse they become progressively weaker and it becomes harder for them to give up their evil passions and, as purified spirits, to pass into My true, divine freedom. But with human spirits many a thing is impossible which, to Me, is after all, quite possible. Do you comprehend this?"

ETERNAL TORMENT OF HELL.

Since hell is not a 'dungeon-like place of punishment', but a 'spiritual state of the soul', it is clear that when Holy Scripture speaks of the 'eternal torment' awaiting the unfortunate souls, it is not material fire and the like, but spiritual torment and sufferings which the obdurate would create themselves in the experiences of their inner spiritual life through their own wicked attitude.

Because these souls spontaneously distance themselves from the primordial source of all light and life, God the Father, thereby depriving themselves of the influx of the divine spiritual life-force, their inner spiritual life is devoid of light and warmth, i.e. of divine love, wisdom and power. In their innermost being they keep becoming darker, colder and more quarrelsome, to the utmost degrees of spiritual pain and torment. And it is this extreme darkness, coldness and lack of peace in the soul which constitute the torment of hell. (Comp. E.M., Ch. 58; Great Gospel X/III, 5).

Why is this torment 'eternal'? Are the souls forced to live on for all eternity in such torment, as punishment for their sins? No, this cannot be the will of an all-merciful God! Also in its hellish grades, the spiritual torment is only meant to mellow the obdurate souls, prepare them for the willing acceptance of higher and better knowledge and mature them for the pure, heavenly love. Thus, the torment lasts only for as long as the 'sinner' does not return to the divine order. - If he reforms, which for the obdurate souls of the lower regions is extremely difficult, and happens only after the most painful experiences, he is relieved of his torment. His inner spiritual life becomes more full of light and warmth, i.e. it is enlivened with new, happy images. Thus a soul can - albeit often only with great difficulty - escape from the first and second grade of hell. However, it is hardly possible from the lowest, third grade, where the most implacable cvontempt of God and life dwells - although even here there are probably no set limits to God's endless mercy.

FALSE PREACHING ON HEAVEN AND HELL.

Of the over-zealous threatening with hell, the Lord has this to say:

"If you believe that either hell or heaven should serve as motivation for keeping men from evil and turning them towards the good, you are still grounded in a basically wrong belief. For the totally depraved man ridicules your hell and your heaven, and the really righteous man is good without your hell and your heaven.

"According to your understanding of the matter, hell and heaven would have a particularly depraving effect on every human being. For he who does the good only for the sake of the reward, lends his money at high interest; and whoever does that, has no love for the fellow man and even less love for God. However, let us leave our heaven and hell and cast a look at your 'pious people'! Look, they will begin to rage even worse than the most greedy money lender whose debtor has absconded with the borrowed money. Since they no longer have to fear any punishment in hell, such people can then only be restrained by ratified secular laws.

"Right from the beginning, people have done the wrong thing when they implanted in their children an excessive fear of hell and described to them heaven with all its pleasures, appealing to the human senses. Thereby they did achieve a kind of fear of God which, however, because it was so easy to end in hell and so hard to gain heaven, never developed into true love for God and the fellow man, but with the weaker hearts developed into an ever-growing fear and with the stronger ones, possessing more inner light, into complete indifference concerning God and the fellow men. For these stronger people had no faith of their own but merely pretended to believe, so that the common people would stick to their faith and not rebel against those for whom they had to work.

"A further consequence of this is the almost total godlessness prevailing among men who, had not the secular laws restrained them with the force of the sword, would long ago have risen in anger against their masters and, by the use of violence, challenged their right to suppress them.

"Look, all this is the result of such a false concept of justice in men who, at all times, preach in the harshest terms that God forever rewards the good in heaven, yet owing to His inexorable justness, metes out everlasting punishment to the wicked, making them suffer unheard of eternal, relentless torment in the most horrible hell." (Great Gospel VI/243, 3 on).

HELL CONDEMNS ITSELF.

This is what the Lord has to say to a spirit who disputes the love and justice of God:

"Truly, in the whole of eternity, there is not a single case where even one spirit had been condemned by God! But I can show you countless cases where spirits, owing to their freedom of will, scorn and blaspheme the Deity, not for all the world wanting to be dependent on Its endless love, since they fancy themselves to be lords even over the Deity!

"However, as the Deity can only bestow the abundance of Its endless love on those who wish to enjoy it, it becomes clear that those who hate and scorn the Deity and its endless love above all, and blaspheme it, cannot partake of this love because they stubbornly refuse to do so.

"Such beings love only themselves and hate everything that does not whole-heartedly appeal to their selfish ego. For them, the love for God and the fellow man is a destructive abomination, a curse within their heart, and God merely the insipid fancy of a spoilt zealous heart, a folly of an utterly stupefied intellect, and fellow man not worthy of any consideration.

"If free spirits, obdurately clinging to these ideas, cannot be healed of their pernicious delusion by any means afforded to their freedom, and prefer to suffer forever all their self-created bitterness and misery, rather than submit to the most gentle commandment on the part of the Deity - say, can in this case, the Deity be denounced for such a self-condemnation? And if, through Its omnipotence, love and wisdom, the Deity lovingly segregates such apostates from their blessed friends, yet leaves them in their segregation the fullest freedom, can It be called hard-hearted and unloving" (H to H I/24, 5-9).

"If the Deity were to judge the spirits, who must become absolutely free, with Its omnipotence, this would mean an end to all freedom forever. Instead of free spirits, the Almighty would merely create puppets under judgment, but not ever self-determining spirits who are free and independent from the Deity and destined to become gods themselves, once they reach perfection. Therefore, divine wisdom decrees such conditions for depraved human beings, so that they can be brought back onto the right road. Although this is also a judgment and, as it were, a coercion, it concerns only the outer man, allowing the inner man to awaken more speedily and easily, and thus return to his true destiny." (H to H I/25, 4 on).

ACCORDING TO YOUR LOVE.

"Through your heart you will, after death of your body, step out into God's endless space and, depending on the nature of your heart, you will find this to be either heaven or hell.

"For there is nowhere a specially created heaven or hell, but all that goes forth only from the human heart. And thus, everyone prepares for himself either heaven or hell in his heart, depending on whether his actions are good or bad, and he will be living according to his belief, his will and actions, since his will was nourished by his belief, thereby passing into action.

"Let everyone examine the inclinations of his heart, and he will easily discover what kind of spirit prevails in his heart. If his inclinations draw the heart and its love towards the world and he feels within him a longing to become great and respected in the world, if the heart that is inclined to become proud feels discomfort with poor mankind and has the urge within to dominate others, without having been chosen for it by God, the seed of hell is already lying in the heart and, if not overcome and nipped in the bud, will obviously prepare for such a person nothing but hell after the death of his body.

"However, if a man's heart is full of humility and he feels happy to be the least among men, to serve all and disregard his own self because of his love for his brothers and sisters; if he willingly obeys his superiors in all things, for the benefit of his brothers and loves God above all, then, in his heart, the heavenly seed grows to a true and eternally living heaven. And this man, who thus has already all heaven in abundance in his heart, which is filled with true faith, the purest hope and love, can after the death of his body not possibly get anywhere else but to the Kingdom of God which he has already carried in his heart in all abundance for a long time." (Great Gospel II/8, 6 on; VIII/18, 2 on; X/197, 10 on; VI/244, 7).

THE GREAT INTERMEDIATE REALM.

What happens to the human soul after the shedding of its mortal physical body? What is its first destination spatially and spiritually? On this subject we hear the following through Lorber: Every unperfected soul is, after its passing, lifted by its guardian spirits up to the middle atmospheric region, the so-called 'intermediate realm', where many souls of its kind are floating about in a dreamlike state.

In Lorber's work 'The Spiritual Sun', the following is said about the first level of existence in the beyond: "Look at the natural-spiritual sphere of your earth, the so-called 'intermediate realm', known also by the term 'Hades', which is approximately what you (albeit quite erroneously) as Roman Catholics understand as 'purgatory'. At best, this realm can be likened to a great entrance-hall, where everyone, without distinction of rank and station, enters, preparing himself, so to speak, to be admitted to the guest rooms proper. Also this 'Hades' is that first natural-spiritual state man enters immediately after death.

For nobody enters immediately into either heaven or hell, except in the former case, a person who was already on earth completely reborn owing to his pure love of the Lord or, in the latter case, one who was particularly malevolent blasphemer against the Holy Spirit. (Elsewhere in Lorber's writings 'blaspheming the Holy Spirit' is explained as resisting it constantly, perhaps to the end of one's life, in which case grace cannot penetrate it. Ed.) Without an entering into the intermediate realm, in the first case - heaven, in the second case, however, immediately the lowest hell would have to be expected. Heaven, because such a person is carrying it already within in the highest perfection, and hell, because such a person has already lost completely all that is heavenly.

The great 'intermediate realm' is the main sphere of action for all heavenly spirits. There they are all kept very busy. For, just imagine this region, where every hour of your day many thousands of new arrivals appear. These must all be probed immediately and taken to the place completely corresponding to their nature - or, in other words, they must be promptly led into a state which corresponds exactly to their basic love. - Therefore, they must be examined and probed in all their inclinations. And the road to wherever their inclinations draw them most powerfully must be prepared for them spiritually.

"Indeed, every physician must know his patient thoroughly before he can prescribe a medicine for him which can cure him completely. Also in the beyond nobody derives any benefit from a seeming cure. Therefore, there too, every new arrival must first make a general confession from the beginning to the end of his life. When this has been done, a change takes place in the soul's state, which is called the complete unveiling. In this state every spirit stands completely 'naked', after which he enters into a third state called vastation, or the mortification of all that which man has brought with him into the beyond (of earthly desires and seaknesses). (Sp. Sun, II/120; comp. also E.M., Ch. 30 on).

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"And none of My earthly children can ever be lost, but all must be saved, whether here or over there. The work on them will never stop, and all the blessedness of My angels consists in only one thing - to help save them."
(From "Words of the Father" Vol. 2, p. 54).

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