Abby to God:
Dear God, I have been wanting to ask You for some time: What is hell? Is it real? Is it something we need to worry about? It has been suggested that I will go to hell if I don't change my beliefs or my ways.
I really do not understand why anyone would think that about me. I know I am not perfect, but frankly it doesn't strike me that they are either.
Just after I read today's Heavenletter this morning, I got an e-mail forwarded from a friend of mine that was a poem from the point of view of someone who died in an accident before they were "saved" and therefore they went to hell.
I have to say that I really did not agree with what it was saying. It's like everyone is walking around with their fists up saying, "Love God or else!" This doesn't seem very heavenly to me.
I also wanted to ask You about some parts in the Bible that I read last night and what they mean. In the book of John, 12:27, it said, "As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered him." And then at 15:22 it says that Jesus said, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin." And that he later said (17:15) "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."
I'm confused. What's this all about? I don't think there can be evil if there is nothing but You. Whoever said "I am That, thou are That, all this is That, there is nothing but That," I think was on to something. I love the way Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed it in his beautiful poem, "Brahma". I am baffled about this "evil one". What's up with that?
I also wanted to say, that there were some absolutely beautiful verses I read in the Bible as well, about Your love for all of us. It is indeed a great place to take off from.
God to Abby:
Dear Blessed Abby, hell is a concept. It is depicted as a physical place, very bad, no one would want to stay there. Heaven is also a concept, depicted as a physical place that is so beautiful and full of love that everyone wants to go there. One a place of ugliness. The other a place of beauty.
The physical is illusion, as you know. All the concrete physical around you is actually light. The physical, you see and touch. The actuality of the light is not so obvious although you seek to see it also.
Hell is not a physical place. Nor is Heaven.
In truth, the suffering and joy that they represent are not real either.
Being is real. Our being is real. Beingness is real. Pure love, pure being are reality.
Now, in order for the concept of hell to exist, the concept of sin must also exist, for hell is the result of sin as Heaven is the result of virtue, so say the proponents.
I once defined sin as not asking for enough. I stand by that. When My children are offered everything, and they walk off with just a strand of it and turn and twist it into appearing as something else, is that not a sin? And is not the acceptance of My blessings a virtue?
I believe there is an expression: Virtue is its own reward. Sin is also. Having everything I give is having everything I give. Having less is having less.
Consider Heaven and hell as states of consciousness that you experience on earth. There is not anyone who does not understand those two concepts. From experience, they understand.
Be with Me, and you will know the peace that Heaven brings. Stay with Me, and you will know it forever, for Heaven is a name for the truth of life.
My son Christ has brought many hearts to Me.
It is the heart that has to come to Me. Words do not of themselves bring a heart to Me. A heart must come of its own accord. Signing up to come to Me isn't the same as coming to Me. No one on earth on the basis of some world rules can proclaim in truth that anyone will not come to Me, for you all are with Me. You are all My children. You may choose to recognize that or you may not. But it is on the level of heart that you choose to know it or not to know it.
As for the "evil one", that is a personification of the wielder of sin, as if there were a wielder of it, as if a wielder of sin existed somewhere in the universe and could claim you. That is a personification just as I sometimes personify ego in words in Heavenletters, as I may call him that snaky surreptitious rascal who whispers untruth into your ear.
All the names for doubt are just to dramatize it. Satan, evil one, are made-up names for doubt. In the passages you refer to, substitute the word doubt for sin, for evil one, for Satan, and see if what Jesus said does not make more sense.
I am all Light and Love and Truth. Can I have an enemy? I cannot. Nothing can reach My Light. Nothing can affect it. But ego and so forth can think they are My opponents. But they can only fizzle out for they are nothing. They exist only in My light; they have none of their own.
The more someone rails against those imaginary opponents, the more energy is given to them. The more attention on them, the bigger they — who are nothing — seem.
Put your attention on Me. What else is there to do?