After Death, the Judgment: What It Is and What It Is Not.
 "The great day of judgment."

I am here, Jesus

I am here and desire to write a few lines in reference to the "great day of judgment," of which the preacher and teachers of theological things write so often. I know that the Bible, or rather some of the books, lay great stress upon this day when, as they claim, God will pour out His "vials of wrath" upon the ungodly and condemn them to an eternity of punishment.

There is, as you know, a very great diversity of opinion among these learned men as to what is the meaning and significance of this "day of judgment," and when, in a chronological point of view, it will take place. All these varied opinions are held by students and teachers who embrace and proclaim them to the world as being true and free from doubt.

Well, it is certain that all men must die and that there will come the judgment; and that which follows the death is just as certain as is the death itself, and just as reasonable as is the following of any cause by an effect. So men should have no difficulty in believing in the judgment as a fact that cannot be avoided, just as death cannot be avoided.

But the word and the fact, "judgment," when used as an effect or following of death, may have many meanings in the opinions and understandings of many men, depending upon what men may believe as to things that are called religious or scientific or philosophical. To the ultra-orthodox, this term "judgment" means, and necessarily involves, the active pronouncement of a "sentence" by God - this because of and determined by men's lives and thoughts while living in the mortal life, irrespective of any of His general laws and the workings thereof.

God is, Himself, the "Judge" - personal and present - and by Him, in this capacity, is each man's life and works known and digested and made the basis of the "sentence" that He must pronounce in each individual case. God keeps the record of all these acts of men, or, if man is conceded to be his own record keeper, his records are, or will be at the time of the "great assemblage for judgment," opened up or brought into view so that nothing can be lost. Then, upon this record, men will be sent to eternal happiness or to everlasting punishment, or, as some believe, to destruction or annihilation.

Others, not orthodox, who believe in the survival of the soul and the continuing memories of the acts and thoughts of men, teach that the judgment will follow death as a natural consequence of the operations of the Law of Cause and Effect; and the effect cannot be escaped from until, in some way, there comes a realization to the consciousness of men that the effect, in their suffering, has satisfied the cause, and that there is nothing mysterious or unnatural in the appearance and workings of the judgment. They do not believe that God, by any special interposition or personal "punishing," will pronounce the judgment, or determine the merits or demerits of the one called to judgment.

Besides these views, there are others extant and believed in. But the two that I have mentioned are principal ones and are sufficient to show what the large majority of thinking, or, rather, believing, men conclude the term "judgment" should mean or be understood to mean, as used in the Bible. Well, the judgment of the human soul is an important accompaniment of the human life, both in the flesh and in the spirit world. And as regards soul revealments and punishments, hardly anything demands more of the thought and consideration of men; for it is a certainty that these cannot be avoided by men, irrespective of the truth or falsity of their existing beliefs. Judgment as certainly follows what men call death as does night the day, and no philosophy or theological dogmas or scientific determinations can alter the fact, or in any way change the character or exact workings of this judgment.

But judgment is not a thing belonging exclusively to the after death period or condition, for it is present and operating with men from the time that they become incarnated in the human body until they become disincarnate, and thereafter continuously until the causes of effects have been satisfied and there remains nothing to be judged - which happy ending is also a fact.

All men are dependent upon their progress towards the conditions of harmony through established laws that pronounce the judgments. While these laws operate on earth, men are being judged continually for the causes they start into existence, and the after death judgment is only a continuation of the judgment received by men while on earth.

Of course - men may not know this - these judgments, or the effects thereof, become more intensified after men have gotten rid of the influences of the flesh existence and they become spirits having only the spirit qualities. Because of this fact, men must understand and try to realize that the expression "after death, the judgment" has a greater significance, and is of more vital importance, than the saying that "judgment is with men all during their mortal lives."

After death, the causes of the inharmony with the law become more pronounced, and appear in their true meaning and force. Consequently, with this revealment, the effects become more intensified and understood, and men suffer more and realize the darkness, and sometimes the gross darkness, that these effects produce. The inharmony appears in its unclothed and unhidden reality, and the law's workings bring the exact penalties to men that their violations demand.

Man is his own bookkeeper. And in his memory are recorded all the thoughts and deeds of his earth life that are not in accord with the harmony of God's Will, which is expressed or manifested by His Laws. The judgment is not the thing of a day or a time, but is never ceasing so long as there exists that upon which it can operate; and it diminishes, in proportion, as the cause of inharmony disappear.

God is not present in "wrath" demanding "reparation," as does the human who believes himself to have been injured by another. No, the Father is present only in love. And as the soul of the one undergoing the penalty (which his own deeds and thoughts have imposed upon him) comes more in harmony with the Father's Will, He, as you mortals say, is pleased.

Never an "angry" God, "rejoicing" in the satisfaction of a penalty being paid by one of His erring children, but always a Loving Father rejoicing in the redemption of His children from a suffering that a violation of the Laws of Harmony exacts with certitude.

Then as I say, the judgment day is not a special time when all men must meet in the Presence of God and have their thoughts and deeds weighed in the balance, and then, according to their goodness or evil, have the sentence of an angry, or even just God pronounced upon them.

The judgment day is every day, both in the earth life of man and in life as a spirit, where the law of compensation is still working. In the spirit world, time is not known, and every breathing is a part of eternity; and with every breathing, so long as the law requires, comes the judgment, continued and unsatisfied, until man, as a spirit, reaches that condition of harmony whereby the law no longer demands a judgment of him.

But from what I have written, men must not suppose or beguile themselves into believing that because there is no special day of judgment when God will pronounce His "sentence," the judgment therefore is not so much to be dreaded or shunned. No, this state of thinking will palliate only for the moment, for the judgment is certain; and it is to be dreaded no less because the immutable law demands exact restoration instead of an "angry" God.

No man who has lived and died has escaped, and no man who shall hereafter die can escape this judgment unless, in a Way provided by the Father in His Love, he comes into harmony with the laws requiring harmony. "As a man soweth so shall he reap" is as true as is the fact that the sun shines upon the just and the unjust alike. Memory is man's storehouse of good and evil, and memory does not die with the death of the man's physical body. On the contrary, memory becomes more alive - all alive - and nothing is left behind or forgotten when the spirit man casts off the encumbrance and benumbing and deceiving influences of the only body of man that was created to die.

Judgment is real, and men must come to it face to face. Want of belief, unbelief, or indifference, or the application to men's lives of the saying "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," will not enable men to avoid the judgment or the exactions of its demands.

There is a Way, though, in which men may turn the judgment of death into the judgment of life, inharmony into harmony, suffering into happiness, and judgment itself into a thing to be desired. Elsewhere we have written of this Way open to all men, and I will not attempt to describe it here.

I have written enough for tonight. You are tired and must not be drawn on further.

So, with my Love, I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,

Jesus

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