True Meaning of "The End of the World"

 

I am here; St. John

I come tonight to write a few truths upon the subject of the preacher’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." 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 most of the orthodox preachers, and as expected by most of the professing Christians.

The world 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 not the physical world, and that Jesus came to declare the restoration of that world, 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 will come when he dies, for thereafter his habitation will be in the spirit world, and never more will he have an existence on earth. And since all men at some time will have to die the physical death, 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 stars to crash together and be destroyed (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) would require that the orderly workings of God’s laws be interfered with.

Such interpretations of God’s intentions or plans (including the predictions of Jesus coming again to earth) are untrue 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. The Kingdom of God is not made with hands, or by the mere fiat of any spirit, no matter how high he may be, but is 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, and his more perfect at-onement with the Father.

Jesus is not seeking to establish a kingdom on earth, but is working for the purpose of leading men to a new birth of soul, and of showing them the way to the Celestial Kingdom. And he (and other good spirits) also are working, by their love and suggestions, to help men cast sin and error from their hearts, and so to regain the condition of perfection in their natural love, so that the love of God in the divine sense, and love to God in the created sense, and brotherly love (in both senses) will cover the whole earth, and will men be happy and at peace, even while yet clothed in the flesh. Such a condition of mortal existence may rightly 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 earth, who are so separated from the world of sin that, as to them, this world has no existence. Not the material world, but the world of sin and unrighteousness is the only world to be destroyed.

There shall be “wars and rumors of wars" and times of trouble, etc. Not the wars of cannons roars, and bursting shells and mutilated flesh, or the making of widows and orphans and 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 much intensity and earnestness.

Let mortals know that Jesus has already come back 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.

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. Only as each individual passes beyond the veil of flesh, will he realize that the end of his mortal world has come; and then will all his speculations become realities, and the certainty of the “world’s end" become (as to himself) an established fact. But men will continue to live on earth and die, and in succession others will be born and 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. 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.

Goodnight. Your brother in Christ, John