FORGIVENESS

would like to enlighten you on a subject that has been so little understood, ever since men first commenced to distort my teachings on the forgiveness and pardon of the Father.

Forgiveness is that operation of the Heavenly Father that relieves men of the penalties for the sins they have committed and permits them to turn from evil thoughts and deeds to seek God's love and to find the happiness that awaits them. The law of compensation, “That which a man sows that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7), is not set aside, but in the particular case when a man becomes penitent and in all earnestness prays to God for forgiveness, the operation of another and greater law is called into activity. The old law of compensation is nullified as though it were swallowed up by the power of the higher law of God's love (Romans 13:10).

God sees every act of man. As I said when I was on Earth, not even a sparrow falls without my Father knowing it and the hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:29-30). Just because men cannot see God, it does not mean that God cannot not see them, for he does, and their every thought is known and taken into account. Surprising, as it may seem, that account is kept in the memories and consciences of men themselves. When the time comes for them to render an account of their acts, no other place or receptacle is sought for or examined to find this account than these very memories. The memory is man's storehouse of good and evil, and the memory does not die with the death of the physical body. On the contrary, it becomes more active and alive, and nothing is left behind or forgotten when man casts off the encumbrance and the benumbing and deceiving influences of the mortal flesh.

The suffering for sins committed is not the result of God's special condemnation but, in each particular case, is the result of the workings and scourging of the conscience and recollections of man himself. As long as the conscience works, the suffering will continue, and the greater the sins committed, the greater will be the suffering. This implies that a soul who is filled with these memories will be so consumed by them that they will constitute his very existence. He will live with these memories and the suffering and torment that result from them, and they will not leave him until the memories of these sins or the result of them cease to be a part of him and his constant companion - this is the inexorable law of compensation.