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Luther describes the relationship that existed in his day
between the laymen and the church officials
May 23, 1916
I am here, Luther.
I came tonight in the hope that I may write my message of which I spoke
to you a short time ago. If you feel that you can receive the same, I
will proceed.
In my day, the members of the Church, I mean the Roman Catholic Church,
were dependent entirely upon the priesthood for all information as to
the contents of the Bible and the interpretation that should be given
such contents. Very few of the laymen were able to possess the Bible and
scarcely could anyone read it, as it was written in the Latin tongue.
The inhabitants of my section of Europe were not acquainted with that
language. The consequence of this was that all the people were dependent
entirely on the priests for any knowledge of the will of God, and only
as the priests saw proper to convey the same to these people.
Many things were taught by these officials of the Church in such a way
as to convince the people that the Church was the divine institution of
God and that, in every particular as to the conduct of men, what the
priests said and declared to be the will of God must be accepted without
doubt or hesitation. The penalties of disobedience of these teachings of
the priests would be in the form that they should prescribe, and that
the wrath of God would fall upon all who should disobey these teachings
of the Church.
The spiritual enlightenment of men was not attempted to any degree, and
the requirements of the Church were that men should strictly obey the
dogmas and tenets that should be declared to them by these instructions
of the priests. Duty was the principal thing to be observed, and the
utmost obedience to the commands of the Church must be performed unless
the Church itself should release the people from the performance of
these duties.
Every violation of these commands was a sin to which a penalty was
attached that could not be avoided unless the priests should give to the
believers an indulgence, and then, to the extent of the indulgence the
penalty was taken away. In order to obtain this indulgence, compensation
would have to be made to the coffers of the Church depending upon the
ability of the one receiving such indulgence to make. At the time when
these indulgences were most prevalent, and when the Church was becoming
rich from the revenues paid for the same, I commenced to revolt from the
claims of the Church and declared my want of belief in the dogma that
the Church could grant such indulgences and absolve men from the
penalties that their sins brought upon them.
You know the history of the Reformation and its results upon the power
of the Church of Rome, and how men were freed from the superstitions,
and how the reform grew in many of the Catholic countries, and new
churches and beliefs were established.
As men of thought became convinced of the false claims and superstitions
of the Church, I and several others, in our zeal, refused to recognize
and accept, as a part of the teachings of the Reform, belief in many
things that were contained in the dogma of the Church, and as a
consequence, we rejected many principles that should have been made
part of the beliefs and teachings of the new beliefs.
I will not further recite any of these things but merely say that what I
have written is intended to be only preliminary to what the object of my
writing is. I am sorry that you do not feel in condition to receive more
at this time, and it is best to postpone the remainder. I will soon come
and finish what I desire to write.
Your brother in Christ,
Luther
Message
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Luther is anxious that the truths that he now
knows be made known to his followers
May 29, 1916
I am here, Martin Luther, the onetime monk and reformer.
I desire to continue my message, if it is agreeable to you. When on
earth, I firmly believed what was contained in our doctrines and
teachings and was sincere in trying to induce others to believe as I
believed and taught. However, after my long experience in the spirit
world and my communications with Jesus and his Apostles and others to
whom the truths of God have come, I realize and know that many of my
teachings were erroneous and should no longer be believed by those who
worship in the churches that bear my name.
My doctrine of faith, that is, justification by faith,
is wrong when its foundation is considered, and
it is impossible to understand from my teachings
and the church’s tenets just what is intended by
faith. Our faith was founded on the assumption
that Jesus was a part of the Godhead and the only
begotten son of the Father. The premise is that
God so loved sinful man that he caused Jesus
the beloved son to die on the cross so that divine
justice might be appeased and the burden of men’s
sins taken from them and placed on Jesus. Oh,
the terrible error of it all, and how it has misled
so many believers into a condition of darkness
and deprivation of God’s truth. No, such objects
of faith have no foundation in fact, and such
a faith does not justify sinful man or bring him
into atonement with God so that he may become
redeemed.
Jesus is not a part of the Godhead, and neither was he begotten in the
way that I taught and my followers believe. He was the son of man and
only the son of God by reason of the fact that he had received in his
soul the divine love, which made him like God in many of the attributes
of divinity.
God did not send Jesus to earth for the purpose of dying on the cross or
for paying any debt or appeasing the wrath of his angry and jealous God.
No death of Jesus could make any man less of a sinner or draw him any
nearer to God. Faith, in this erroneous proposition, is faith in an
error, and never has man been justified by believing in it.
Jesus came to earth with a mission to save men from their sins, and that
mission was to be performed by declaring to man
that God had bestowed the privilege of receiving the divine love and
the other by showing man the way in which the privilege might be
exercised so that this love would become his and thereby make him a part
of God’s divinity and insure him of immortality. In no other way could
or can men be redeemed and be made at one with God. Faith in these truths,
which makes them things of possession and ownership by men, is the only
faith that is justified.
I write this for the benefit, more particularly, of my followers, so
that they may learn the vital truths of their salvation and change their
faith in the death and blood sacrifice of Jesus to faith in the
bestowal of the divine love and in the further truth that Jesus was
sent to show the way to that love, and that he in no other manner became
the way, the truth and the life.
I know that the acceptance of these truths will take from my followers
the very foundation of their beliefs, and many will refuse to accept my
new declarations of truth. But, nevertheless, they must accept, for
truth is truth and never changes. Those who refuse to accept it on earth
will, when they come to the spirit world, have to accept it or exist in
a condition where they will see and know that their old beliefs were
false and rested on no solid foundation. The danger to many will be that
when they realize the utter falsity and non-existence of what they
believed to be true, they will become infidels or wanderers in the
spirit world without the hope of becoming redeemed children of God. I fully
realize the errors of my teachings on earth and the responsibility that
rests upon me for these teachings that are still being spread, and I am
almost helpless to remedy them. So I write this message hoping that it
may be published in your book of truths.
I, Luther, the onetime monk and reformer, declare these truths with all
the emphasis of my soul, based on the knowledge that there is no shadow
of error, and which I have acquired from experience not founded on the
claimed revelations to man by the voice of God. My knowledge is true,
and nothing in opposition can be true. The beliefs and faith of a man or
of all the inhabitants of earth cannot change the truth one iota.
The Roman church taught the communion of saints, and I declare the
communion of spirits and mortals, be they saints or sinners. The Church
taught the doctrine of purgatory and hell, and I declare that there is a
hell and a purgatory, that probation exists in both places, and that
sometime in the long ages to come both places will be emptied of their
inhabitants, some of whom will become redeemed children of God and
dwellers in the celestial heavens while others will become purified in
their natural love and become inhabitants of the spiritual spheres.
I pray and desire that my followers may become inhabitants
of the celestial heavens and partake of the divine
nature of God and immortality. To them I say:
harken to the truths as Jesus has and will reveal
them in his messages, for in the truths that he
shall declare they will find life eternal and
atonement with God that they have for so many
years been seeking in darkness and disappointment.
I will not write more tonight, but I will come again soon and reveal
other vital truths if you will find the opportunity for me.
Your brother in Christ,
Martin Luther
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Luther has met the two Popes responsible for his trials,
they have not progressed very far in the spirit world
August 28, 1916
I am here, Luther.
I will not write much at this time, although I am anxious to continue my
letter to my followers. As soon as you (Padgett) are in condition I will come and
I hope that you will give me the opportunity. Of course, I will have to
wait until the others have delivered their messages, but I have no doubt
that there will be times when you will not be occupied and I will come.
I have met both the Popes who were in the papal chair at the time that I
went to Rome, and was persecuted and brought to trial
before them. They are not in the celestial heavens but in the first
sphere, where they were in great darkness and suffering intensely, and
their repentance was very thorough and sincere. They were compelled to
realize the great evil that the teachings and dogma of their church was
doing, and they have devoted all their time in the spirit
life attempting to influence the priests and hierarchy of the great
errors that they were teaching, but the result of their work was not
very satisfactory for reasons that I have not time to explain now.
The state of the ignorant Catholic layman is a very deplorable one when
he comes to the spirit world, but that of the pope and the priest is
beyond all description. They are forever branded by the results upon
their followers of their teaching and consequently suffer very
much. Sometime, I will come to you and write in detail about the
conditions and causes of these blind teachers of the blind. I must not
write more tonight.
With my love, I will say goodnight.
Your brother in Christ,
Luther
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The observance of the ceremonies still used in the
Lutheran church are not approved by Jesus or God
June 29, 1916
I am here, Luther.
I desire to write a short message tonight and will not detain you very
long, and will try to express myself as succinctly as possible.
As you may not know, the church of which I am the founder believes and
teaches the necessity of infant baptism and the observance of the Lord’s
Supper as necessary parts of its church doctrine and of such very great
importance that without them it is difficult to become an accepted
member of the invisible Church of Christ.
Nothing is further from the truth than these doctrines for the baptism
of infants has no virtue to save anyone from sin or to make
them at one with God. The mere fact that water is sprinkled on an
infant’s head and some blessing pronounced by the preacher does not in
any way bring that infant in unison with God. Baptism is of man’s
creation, and to God it means nothing more than an outward ceremony that
affects the infant merely as regards to its connection with the
established earthly church. It is not possible for this baptism to have
any effect upon the soul of the infant, and neither does it open up the
soul faculties to the inflowing of the divine love.
God cares not for these ceremonies but rather looks upon them with
disapproval, for their tendency is to make men and women neglectful of
the great truth that will bring them into harmony with God’s laws of
love and redemption. The same thing may be said of any and all kinds of
baptism, whether the subject is an infant or a grown man or woman.
As to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, it has no part in God’s plan
for the redemption of mankind, and it is merely a reminder of the
association of Jesus with his disciples. It cannot affect the condition
or development of the soul, and, as now understood and practiced, this
sacrament is of no importance. Jesus does not want to be remembered
recalling to him the tragedy on the cross, which was only the result of
the malice and envy of the Jews. The blood spilt is not an element that
enters into the plan of the salvation of men. Besides, with this
sacrament there is always more or less worshipping of Jesus as God,
which he, Jesus, abhors and looks upon as blasphemy.
So, you see, the celebration of the Last Supper is a thing that is not
acceptable to Jesus or to God. He does not want men to believe that they
can be saved by any sacrifice on his part or by any blood that he may
have shed as a result of his crucifixion. You will remember that the
question of what the wine and bread of the sacrament really are was one
that engendered much controversy, and even hatred and ill feeling on the
part of those who were assisting me in the Great Reformation. If I had
known then what I do now, no such question would have been debated or
believed in by me and then taught for many years. The blood of Jesus was
no more than any other man’s blood, and the commemoration of the Last
Supper that Jesus gave his disciples before his death is a ceremony and
brings no help to those who indulge in this sacrament. I see that you
are tired and sleepy, and I will not write more now.
So, with my love and wishes for the divine love to increase in you.
Your brother in Christ,
Luther
Message
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Luther denies the efficacy of the eucharist, it is Jesus’ living and
teaching and demonstrating the love in his soul, and how it can be
obtained, that show the way to salvation
January 31, 1917
I am here, Luther.
I have come merely to remind you that I am waiting to continue my
discourse to my people. I am very anxious to do this, and as soon as you
get in condition I hope that you will give me the opportunity.
You have asked me a question that I should like to have more time to
answer than I have now. But in short, Jesus was not of the substance of
God in the sense that the Catholic Church, following the Nicene Creed,
claimed. He took on a part of the divine as the divine love filled his
soul, and so can you or any other man to the extent that you may receive
this love. But to say that Jesus was in his very being of the substance
of God to the degree that made him equal to God is erroneous, and it
should not be taught or believed in.
Jesus was born or created in the likeness of God in the way that will be
explained to you and in no other. He was a man and not God or any part
of God, and if he had not received into his soul the divine love, he
would never have taken on the nature of God. He was a being of a very
spiritual nature, so much so that, in fact, he was without sin. God’s
love commenced to come into his soul very early, as you may say, from
his very birth, and at the time of his anointing in the Jordan he was so
filled with the divine love that you may say he was of the very
substance of God in the quality and the nature of the Divine. Jesus was
born no more divine, as I may say, than was any other mortal born of the
flesh.
All the speculation that has ever existed as to the Eucharist and the
change in the qualities of the bread and wine are not true. Jesus is not
in these elements in any particular or any view that may be taken. His
flesh and blood went the way of all other flesh and blood of mortals and
no more forms a part of the bread and wine than does your flesh and
blood.
This “sacrament”, as it is called, is very abhorrent to the Master, and
when it is celebrated, I must tell you, he is not present, not only not
in flesh and blood, but also, not in his spirit presence. He dislikes
any kind of worship that places him as its object in the position of God
or as the son of God who paid a great debt by his sacrifice and death.
He wants God alone to be worshipped and himself to be thought of as the
one who brought immortality to light by his teachings and the living
demonstration of the truth of the existence of the divine love within
him.
Jesus does not approve of the teachings of men that his death and blood
were the means of man being saved from his sins and becoming reconciled
to God. He says that it was his living and teachings and demonstration
of the love of God that existed in his own soul that showed the true way
to salvation.
I must not write more now. So with my love, I will say good- night.
Your brother in Christ,
Martin Luther
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