====== The Inner Life ======
== THE HERALD OF THE NEW AGE | MARCH 1937 ==
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=== THE SOUL ===
By Sterling E. Nicholson
GOOD morning, friends. We want to talk to you this morn
ing about the Soul. We desire to lead every listener to an
understanding that there is much more to life than just coming
here for a few years and then passing into eternity.
Most theologians tell us that we are manifest on this plane
of existence generally less than one hundred years, and then we
go to a place called heaven or hell. They tell you that the wicked
will suffer and burn throughout all eternity for the mistakes that
they have made in this short life-time here. Such doctrine as
that is based on a false understanding of the Holy Scriptures.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again. Jesus did
not say that he would possibly be born again, or that he might
be born again, but Jesus said that he must be born again. So can
we say to many souls that dwell on the earth plane, that they
must be born again, and not only must they be born again, but
they will be born again. For every soul that was back in the
loins of Adam must some day return unto the Father’s House.
It is every minister’s duty in this age, as it always has been
every minister’s duty, to be willing to cast away every pre-conceived idea and supposition, so that they can declare the TRUTH
unto ears that are listening for the voice of God for this age.
It is the TRUTH that sets men free from error, and to have the
TRUTH, we must accept the Lord Jesus Christ as He is for this
age. He is a Quickening Spirit, for Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today and forever.
When we have learned that the Lord Jesus Christ has come
into His temple to abide therein, and we know that we are a
temple of the Living God, then, and not until then, are we pre
pared to tell mankind the Way of Salvation. When the Holy
Spirit begins to reveal and unfold God’s Eternal TRUTH unto
us, generally we find that many of the things that our natural
minds accepted as TRUTH, begin to fade away.
I can speak for myself, and say, that I had to be willing to
un-learn all I did know, so that I might understand the program
of God for this age. I have found that in Him is all wisdom and
knowledge.
I want to read you a Scripture contained in Second Corinthians,
chapter Five, verse One, “We know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, ETERNAL in the heavens.”
I want you to notice that this house in the heavens is an
ETERNAL house. You never reach this house by going through
the grave, for those in the graves know not anything. This
house in the heavens has no beginning nor end, for it is an
ETERNAL creation of God. This house is in the heavens, yet
not far from the earth. John dwelt in this house while on the
isle of Patmos. Paul was caught up into the third condition in
this house, yet Paul was standing on the earth.
I don’t believe they had any balloons in that day, neither do I
believe that man needs some gospel-ship to come and take him
to this City of God, but I do believe that any man can be lifted
spiritually into this ETERNAL creation of God. Further I be
lieve that any man that is not lifted into this creation of God in
this life time, will have to be lifted there at some future time.
You were created at the beginning of time a living soul, but
in Adam all have died, but in Christ shall all be made alive.
Some men attempt to explain that God is a trinity, but if the
word trinity is used at all it should be used for man. God is
ONE, but man is a trinity composed of body, soul and spirit.
God’s Spirit “descends” into man, and lifts man from the dust
of the earth, and the mortal puts on immortality. The spirit,
soul and body become one, and then that temple can say that,
“I and My Father are One.”
Man casts aside his body because of sin. Man goes to the
grave because of sin. But if you do put your body in the grave,
then you must be born again, for some time you must redeem your
body.
Man is a soul, and man has always existed. If you had a be
ginning then you will have an ending. Did you ever stop to
realize that there are always about the same number of souls
on the earth and allied planes? Did you know that there are
always the same souls on these planes? Did you know that you
have always existed? Did you know that you have been on this
earth many times before?
The Father’s House is Eternal in the heavens. You were one
time in the Father’s House, and if you are not in the Father’s
House today, then you have fallen from that condition. When
you have learned the lessons of life, and when you have become
disgusted with earthly wisdom, then God breathes upon you, and
He lifts you spiritually into His Eternal House.
What Jesus said is true, that “No man cometh unto Me, unless
My Father draw Him,” and “No man has ascended up to heaven
but he that came down from heaven.” When all the false
doctrines, and all the false beliefs pass away, then you will find
yourself in the Father’s House again. God is no respecter of
persons, so in due time every soul will pass through the veil and
enter the Holies of Holies, and that soul will understand that
God is Spirit.
Every soul has come down from the heavens. Many descend
into the lowest pits of life, but God is there to lift them. It
takes many births and re-births before we regain our right to
heaven and to enter the New Jerusalem, which is the City of God,
Eternal in the heavens.
What you or I call heaven is un-clean in the sight of God,
for all of man’s heavens pass away with a great noise. And
praise God when the heavens of man have passed away, for then
we find ourselves in the Eternal City of God.
Regardless of what a man might say, no man goes to heaven or
hell when he goes to a literal grave. Truth is Truth, and it
matters little what men say, for God’s plan shall come to fulfillment anyway.
You were not created when you came to earth this time. You
always have been, and always shall be. Hell and heaven are
ever-present spiritual truths. Heaven and hell are not reached
by going through the grave. There is a great gulf fixed between
heaven and hell, and it takes the Baptism of the Holy Ghost to
lift you from hell and put you in heaven. Then you have just
started on your upward journey. Many heavens will you pass
through, and some day, praise God, you will awake in His like
ness, and you will find that you are in the stature of the Perfect
Man. The heavens contain the Lord Jesus Christ until every
son of man has entered the heavens; and when every son of man
has been brought back home, then shall God be ALL IN ALL,
and the earth shall be as the heavens.
—Broadcast over WEXL, Jan. 31, ’37.
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