To understand the nature of Hell, we must first understand the nature of sin. Sin is violation of God's Law. (1 John 3:4, "Whoever commits sin transgresses the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law.") Sin is not an abstract thing, but the mere result of disobedience to some Law whose operations in conformity to its creation must be pursued, and should always be pursued; and men who violate it must suffer the consequences of such violation; for, as Jesus explains ("Sin Has No Existence Except As it Is Created by Mankind and Man Must Pay the Penalties,") "Mortals may not fully realize that every Law carries with it a penalty for its violation, and this applies to the smallest Law in the material universe as well as to the greatest Law in the Spiritual Kingdom, and this penalty is just as sure in its operation as is the Law itself." That man must pay a penalty for each violation, is because, as Jesus explains, "God has decreed that His universe shall be one of harmony in its workings, and that no man shall destroy or interfere with that harmony, and no man can; but as man is a part of that harmony, his every act which tends to interfere therewith, and it does not, except as to himself, brings upon himself the penalty of that interference (2)."

Sin is not a self-existing entity which has existence outside violation of God's Law. As Jesus continues, "There is no such thing as sin or error in the abstract, for so long as a mortal may know and follow the truth he will never realize the existence of any such thing as sin or error, but the moment that Law of truth is violated, the penalty asserts itself, and man realizes that sin and error do exist; not as an abstract entity, but as a concrete sensitive thing, which will continue to exist, until the violation of that Law ceases, and harmony in its operation is again restored, or rather until man in his thoughts and acts is brought into harmony with the operations of the Law. So you see, God did not create or permit sin or error to exist in the sense that it is an independent entity, waiting to influence men to do wrong and violate His Laws of perfect harmony, but rather that when men in the exercise of their will, which He will not compel, violates one of His Laws, and thereby, as to themselves, interferes with that harmony, they cause the inharmony to arise, which brings with it the pains and sufferings and sins and errors which are prevalent in the world."

Man himself created sin. With the Fall of our First Parents, man created his so-called Original Sin. But instead of saying man created sin, past tense (as in: created it, so that it has been in creation ever since,) it were perhaps more accurate to say that sin is created, each time anew, which each violation of God's Law, and to the degree of each violation of that Law. For even though man created sin, as in: brought its existence into God's universe by being out of harmony with God's Law, sin only lasts for the duration of the disharmony; for sin is not an island unto itself, but the mere resultant of that disharmony, without which it has no existence (3). As Jesus states it, "Let a man who has violated this harmony, and thereby as to himself becomes inharmonious, again get into that harmony, and as to him there would be no sin or error; and let every man do this and there would be no sin or error in all God's universe."

God has decreed that His universe, both of men and things, shall be harmonious. As Jesus says ("The Importance for Mankind Seeking the Divine Love,") "That all men will ultimately be brought into harmony with God, in either the natural love or in the Higher One, is certain, and that all sin and error will finally be eradicated from God's universe is decreed (Isaiah 40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth,") but the time will depend, to a great extent, upon the wills and desires of men." Hence, sin and error do not exist in His universe, except as man brings them into existence by the wrongful exercise of his will. And so, as Jesus explains ("Probation Does Exist Among Spirits in the Hells,") it naturally follows, that "as the universe shall continue, the only destiny for man is, that he shall return to that harmony from which he fell by reason of his own misdirected will (4)." Hell then, as our beloved Divine brother Jesus says, is, "The condition of being out of agreement with the harmony of God's Laws." That gives us both a clear perspective of its purpose and duration--its purpose being to restore man to harmony, and its duration being the amount of time a particular disharmony still exists. Understanding this, it then becomes crystal-clear what Jesus meant when he said that, "Every thing or place that is not Heaven, is Hell (5)."

Understanding thus how the purpose of Hell is to restore man to the harmony God decreed shall exist, two things stand out then with a glaring obviousness. Firstly, that the condition of Hell must naturally end, as having fulfilled its purpose, when a soul is no longer in sin and error. And secondly, that declaring that the sinner who dies in his sins shall forever remain in his sins (6) and in a state of antagonism to such harmony, would be tantamount to saying that God Himself would be cause and power of defeating His own Laws of harmony, which, as Jesus says, "no sane mortal whether he believes in the Scriptures or not, would or could believe." Nor should, I would add.

In the spirit world, when a man has committed sins on Earth, The Law of Compensation demands that he must pay the penalties for these sins until there has been full expiation, or until The Law of Compensation has been fully satisfied. And the Law does not change in its operations, nor can any man avoid or run away from the inexorable demands of the Law. He cannot of himself abate one jot or tittle of the penalties, but must pay "to the last farthing," as the Master said. In the Laws of God, effect follows cause with unerring certainty. Every seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. Close to The Law of Compensation comes the notion of Karma; but Karma, although its workings resemble The Law of Compensation, is a term associated with religions based on reincarnation, and therefore not applicable (7).

In 1 Timothy 6:18-19, we come across the notion of coming prepared for the spiritual world, "That they do good, that they be rich in good works (...), Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on Eternal Life." And in Matthew 6:19-20, Jesus admonishes us in like manner, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." This Scripture can only be understood if we recognize the allusion to The Law of Compensation given in Matthew 6:21, where Jesus tells us that our seat of habitation upon entrance into the spiritual world will be with our deeds, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt them, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (8)."

If you look for an exact, historical, wording "The Law of Compensation", then your search will be in vain, for such a literal reference is not to be found in either the Bible or the Quran. However, there are a great many texts that de facto hint to The Law of Compensation. In the Bible there is, for starters, The Great White Throne Judgment of the Book of Revelations, where it is said that books are being kept of our deeds, and that we will be judged according to our works: " (...) And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books." Although The Bible never directly speaks of The Law of Compensation, the phrase "judged according to their works" clearly suggests its existence. And we see this matched in 1 Corinthians 3:8, "Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." Again, the wording "his own reward according to his own labor" leaves little room for interpretation. Even in II Corinthians 5:10 we read a cogent case in favor of The Law of Compensation: "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." But Jesus said it best, of course, when he spoke, "As you sow, so shall you reap." (Galatians 6:7) He did not say, "As you sow, so shall you, totally disproportionate to your deeds, either be consigned to Hell or granted admittance to Heaven," but he pointed, quite literally, to The Law of Compensation; as you sow, so shall you reap: measure for measure.

God created The Law of Compensation, so that Man himself be his own Judge, "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:2) Jesus tells us here, very directly, that there is no punishing God, and that no Judgement will be pronounced, other than that resulting from the workings of The Law of Compensation, drawing its food for operation immediately from the repository which is our own conscience (9).

The so-called Judgement 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 as they are good or evil, have the sentence of an angry, or even just God pronounced upon them. But rather, as Jesus explains ("After Death, the Judgment. What it Is and What it Is Not,") "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 causes of inharmony disappear." Jesus says, very directly, that we will not come under a pronounced Judgement from our Father, but that instead our own lips shall render the Verdict, "For by your words you will be declared righteous, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:37)

Books of our deeds are being kept in the Quran too, as we can read in Surah Az-Zalzalah (The Earthquake), verse 6: "On that Day will men proceed in companies sorted out, to be shown the deeds that they had done." Ironically, the highest granularity of exactitude of The Law of Compensation is found in the Quran, again in Surah Az-Zalzalah (The Earthquake), 7-8: "Then, he who hath done an atomweight of good, shall see it. And he who hath done an atomweight of evil shall see it." Not only does the Quran generally link our fates to our deeds, it even attests to the precision of The Law of Compensation, down to an "atomweight". As the poet says: the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.

Then there is, of course, the word of Matthew 5:26, "Verily, I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last farthing." Not "until you have paid the last farthing" (a quarter-penny) holds two operative words: "until", and: "paid". Both tell us, unequivocally, that there is no Eternal Damnation. The preposition "until" ("up to a stipulated time") attests to there being the possibility of, and condition for, our redemption: when we have paid our debt to the last farthing. If we combine Jesus' word here with his in the former part of Matthew 12:32, "He that sinneth against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him," then there is only one inescapable conclusion: our sins can be forgiven, and will be forgiven when we have reaped what we sowed: The Law of Compensation.

If we now look at the latter part of Matthew 12:32, "but he that sinneth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come," then, as Jesus revealed, to any reasonable man, there is only one interpretation of this declaration, and that is: that for any and all sins, except that against the Holy Ghost (10), there is forgiveness in the next world as well as in the mortal world. And that being a fact, it is an irresistible conclusion that the Father would not compel a spirit to remain in Hell after he had paid the last farthing.

Jesus did not say the debt of our sins is unpayable; instead, he said that sins come with a price, and that this price is measured with a precision down to a quarter-penny, and that we will be let out when we have paid our dues. He did not say, "Verily, I tell you, you will never get out, no matter how much you pay." But he said, "Verily, I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last farthing."

It is particularly incumbent on each of us to absorb these words of Jesus, and read them for what they truly say. And so, when we hear Jesus say, "He that sinneth against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him," we should not try and misconstrue his words because old doctrines will not allow for the possibility of expiation of sin. And when Jesus says we can get out after having paid the last farthing, we should not let our hearts be overrun by the preponderance of our doctrinal baggage teaching us Eternal Damnation. Instead, we should believe our Brother Jesus meant what he said, and let his words prevail over others' thoughts on what he meant.

This is in effect the Law of Compensation: that when a person has committed sins on earth, the Law demands that he must pay the penalty of these sins until there has been full expiation (11), or until the Law is satisfied. The key-phrase here is "until the Law is satisfied". For next to the long expiatory way of satisfying the Law, where sins have to be paid for to the last farthing, thus bringing with it forgiveness in the end, there is a Higher Law, the Law of Love, which can bring about Divine Forgiveness. Because when one receives the Divine Love, that soul then become sinless to the degree it has received this Divine Love. Sin is being removed, as we read in Romans 8:11, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." As Jesus explains ("How the Soul of a Mortal Receives the Divine Love, and What its Effect Is,") "So far as the Divine Love is present, sin and error have no existence, because it is just as impossible for this Essence and sin and error to occupy the same parts of the soul at the same time, as it is for two material objects to occupy the same space at the same time."

It must be very clearly understood, that when we receive a portion of the Divine Love, the Law of Compensation is not set aside. But the nature of the Divine Love being such that, when received, causes the purification of that soul through possessing it and thus forcing from it the excrescences that mar and defile that soul, God, in thus forgiving our sins, does not annihilate the Law of Compensation, but removes that upon which this Law may operate (12). When we receive a portion of the Divine Love, the Law of Compensation is not pushed aside. In fact, it still functions, unto itself, in the exact same manner as before: operating on that which it can operate. Except, of course, that having received the true Grace of the Father, His Divine Love (and thus having sin removed from the soul,) the Law of Compensation may, in its workings, appear to that soul as if the very Law itself had been instructed to ease up on that soul. But this is decidedly not the case. The workings of the Law of Compensation are still as inexorable as ever before--the only difference being that It finds less to operate on in that particular soul. Therefore, the Divine Love of God, when given to us, is not the abolishment of the Law, but the fulfilment of the Law (13).

One may ask, Have we not "all sinned and fall short of the glory of God?" (Romans 3:23) So, since "even our righteousnesses outside of God are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6), then how can we possibly lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven? And when one were to ask such a question, one would see it told, in truth, that we can indeed not hope to accomplish the act of salvation by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9), "For it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the Gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast." Saved "by Grace" indeed. For not only, through the Divine Love, has the Father bestowed upon man the privilege of arising from the condition of death to Life; but, instead of having to follow the long expiatory way of satisfying the Law, where each and every sin has to be paid for to the last farthing, the removal of sin as the result of obtaining the Divine Love, puts the soul in a position where it, to the degree it received the Divine Love, does not have to undergo the literal judgements that the World is going to suffer. 1 Corinthians 11:32, "... when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the World." (14)

There is an underlying element of subtlety to the words of Matthew 7:2, "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again," that may be easily overlooked, or misconstrued, but which is nonetheless pivotal to a correct understanding of the Padgett messages. Superficially, Matthew 7:2 reads as saying, "If you are harsh to others, God will be equally harsh to you; so you better be kind to others." The subtlety now lies herein, that this is not merely a simple case of measure for measure in the strictest sense of recompense. That is, there will not just come upon us some compensatory judgement, akin and proportionate to what we dished out; but, we will, quite literally, judge ourselves the way we judge others.

It is therefore so important that we become the forgiving beings that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:2, for if a person be harsh and unforgiving, he will be harsh and unforgiving to himself. One day the famous English evangelist John Wesley was in conversation with a man who said, "I never forgive." Wesley then paused for a few seconds, and wisely replied, "Then, sir, I hope you never sin!"

Naturally, when we still live out of harmony with God, we feel no particular need to judge ourselves. Or, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:31, "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." But when a person comes to the spirit world, that person will then, sooner or later, have an awakening as to his sinful state, and the recollections of his former transgressions cause him anguish and suffering. And as long as conscience works, he will suffer; and the greater the sins committed, the greater will be the suffering. Sin itself calls the Law into operation (1 Corinthians 15:56, "The strength of sin is the Law.") And such "judgment" is only the resultant of the workings and scourgings of our own conscience and recollections of our deeds. Paraphrasing Shakespeare, Our judgements in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to Heaven.

As a father writes to his son, Dr. Arbelee, "But my son, thanks be to God, the Father of us all, there is another provision of the Father which exists and is freely given to all men who will seek for it, and that is the Divine Love of the Father, in which are forgetfulness and Mercy and oblivion of the thoughts and acts of earth, and which is greater than the great Law of Compensation, of which I have just written. When this Love comes into the soul of man, with It comes forgetfulness, which is the only forgiveness in the economy of God, and the demands of the Law of Compensation cease, and the soul becomes freed from the Law. As Paul has said, then is a man without the Law." [ Romans 8:2, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death." ]

Forgiveness is forgetfulness (15). But forgetfulness, I would say, not in literally having no remembrance of our sins, but in no longer having our sins remembered against us, as well as sins against us no longer being remembered.

When Joseph was in Egypt, he had been beaten, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and suffered in prison. Now, Joseph could have been bitter and complaining, but God helped him forget the injustices. Joseph forgot the glaring sins and ugly mistakes of his own father. Genesis 41:51, "And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, that is, Forgetting, For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house." God had helped Joseph not remember his father's sins against him, and hence allowed Joseph to become "highly fruitful" through His Mercy of forgetfulness.

Forgiveness truly revolves around forgetfulness; forgiveness being rooted in the Mercy of the Father, allowing us to forget--our trespasses against others, and offences against us alike. And so, when God says, "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," (Jeremiah 31:34,) no actual memory loss is meant; God still remembers, of course, but no longer remembers against. Or better, frees us from remembering against ourselves.

If we bear in mind that sin does not exist in the abstract, but is rather the inharmony caused by violation of God's Law, then forgiveness, in the sense of a magnanimous God turning a blind eye to our inharmonies, such forgiveness is indeed not of our Lord. For the only remedy to inharmony is the restoration of that harmony. As Jesus says, "No special providence will be extended to any man, and if he comes to the marriage feast without his wedding garment, he will be cast out and not be permitted to enjoy the feast."

But God naturally helps us attain that harmony; for is it not His greatest desire that we become at One with Him?

Forgiveness and the restoration of harmony are actually one and the same. And in Romans 4:7-8 they are neatly mentioned in conjunction, "Blessed (16) are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin."

This is actually a rather engaging duet of forgetfulness and forgiving. But one that only becomes evident upon examination of the Greek word translated to "covered" (epikalupto,) which means: "to cover over completely, to obliterate." This means our sins are blotted out forever, not just covered, as in: hidden from view. And so, what reads as simple "AND" clauses, is really one being the result of the other: our sins are not forgiven AND covered, but forgiven BECAUSE they are covered! Because they have, in the restoration of the harmony, been utterly obliterated from our soul.

In Isaiah 43:25 the Hebrew word "machah" means precisely the same: "to wipe out, to blot out, to obliterate." And, again, the EXACT same would-be "AND" clauses are used, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; (17) and I will not remember your sins."

And so, the ability to forgive ourselves, is actually God allowing such feelings of Mercy to permeate our souls, that we will finally feel worthy enough to receive the Divine Love. For as long as our judgements remain harsh and unforgiving, we will ourselves feel unworthy of becoming recipients of His unspeakable Gift, and will continue to pay, to the last farthing, the unyielding penalties that follow our transgressions. The Celestial definition of Forgiveness then, as Ann Rollins defines, "Is that operation of the Divine Mind which relieves us of the penalties of our sins (18) that we have committed, and permits us to turn from our evil thoughts and deeds and seek the Love of the Father, and, if we earnestly seek, to find the happiness which is waiting for us to obtain."

The order of having put The Law of Divine Love above The Law of Compensation, is of itself a momentous token of a Loving God, who loves Man more than He hates sin. For God could still have set The Law of Compensation above The Law of Divine Love, and Man could then still have been allowed to dwell with Him in His Celestial Heavens (19) after having paid off all sin. And this would then still have been perfectly Just, and would have left Man no valid grounds to complain, for it can never be reasonably argued it be unjust that Man make right what he did wrong. But by setting highest The Law of Divine Love, God unequivocally says He is, above all else, a God of Mercy, not of Retribution.

In Christ,

- Rev. Mark Kramer

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