Message from Luke, in The Gospel of God’s Love, page 466.
I want to enlarge upon the subject you’ve remarked upon, the expression contained in the writing you just received: “It’s hard to learn of heavenly things in hell.” It’s a statement, in a succinct way, of a great truth, and one, if it were known and fully appreciated by mortals, that would causse them to realize the necessity of thinking and learning of these heavenly things while on earth.
“I know that many say they do not believe in the orthodox hell, or in the necessity of troubling themselves about the future; or that they will take their chance in the hereafter, if there be one. If these persons, would realize the meaning of such a course of life, they would not leave their future to chance, but would, while on earth, seek for these heavenly things, and make a start for the realization of them now, and not wait until they leave the form of flesh.
They say taht a just god will not punish them by condemning them to an eternal torment, and they are correct. And while this just God does not condemn them at all, yet if their thoughts and actions have violated God’s laws of harmony, they are condemned by laws that are just as invariable as is the love of that God. And these laws bring certain punishment, even though it may not be eternal.
“The punishment is certain, but upon the spirit itself depends very largely its duration. If the spirit finds itself in such condition that it cannot make a start towards its redemption until a long time after its entrance into the spirit world, then that punishment will longer continue. And if the start depends, as it frequently does, upon the ability and capacity of the spirit to receive and understand those things that will start it upon its progress, then many spirits will remain for years in the condition in which they find themselves when they first come to their home in the hells.
“There is nothing in these places to induce or help in the understanding of these heavenly things, but on the contraary, there is everything to prevent and obstruct such understanding – hopelessness, the belief in an eternity of punishment, and frequently the want of knowledge that there is any other or better place than where they find themselves.” To be continued…