| |
Testimony of James E. Padgett
Following is excerpted from True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus, Vol. I, pp. XII-XV.
Dr. Leslie Stone introduced Mr.
Padgett's words with these comments:
Mr. Padgett's letter, which I [Dr.
Leslie Stone] have had printed in excerpts, in [True Gospel Revealed Anew by
Jesus] Vol. II, and am now reprinting in toto. It explains how for quite a time he refused to believe the
contents or origin of the handwriting [automatic writing], for, with his
legalistic turn of mind, he would accept only the most concrete evidence as
proof, but that he was finally and thoroughly convinced of the truths of the
messages and the source from which they came. Here it is:
Dec. 28, 1915.
DR.
GEORGE H. GILBERT, Ph.D., D.D.,
Dorset, Vermont.
DEAR SIR:
I hope that you will pardon me
for writing you as I herein shall, for your evident voluntary interest in a
certain subject matter and my involuntary interest in the same, furnish the
only excuse. I have read your article, "Christianizing the Bible," in
the November issue of the Biblical World, and am much impressed with the same,
not only because of its inherent merits but because its demands and suggestions
are very similar to those which have been made through me in a way and manner
which I can scarcely expect you to give credence to; nevertheless, I shall
submit the matter to you recognizing your right to consider what it may say
unworthy of your serious attention.
First permit me to state that I am
a practical lawyer of 35 years experience and as such not inclined to accept
allegations of fact as true without evidencing proof. I was born and reared in
an orthodox Protestant church and until quite recently remained orthodox in my
beliefs; that a little more than a year ago, upon the suggestion being made to
me that I was a psychic, I commenced to receive by way of automatic writing
messages from what was said to be messages from the spirit world and since that
time I have received nearly 1500 such messages upon many subjects but mostly as
to things of a spiritual and religious nature, not orthodox, as to the errancy
of the Bible.
I have not space to name nor
would you probably be interested in the great number of the writers of these
messages, but among the writers is Jesus of Nazareth, from whom I have received
more than 100 messages. I will frankly say, that I refused for a long time to
believe that these messages came from Jesus, because God, while He had the
power as I believed, would not engage in doing such a thing. But the evidence
of the truth of the origin of these messages became so convincing not only from
the great number and positiveness of the witnesses, but from the inherent and
unusual merits of the contents of the messages that I was forced to believe,
and now say to you that I believe in the truth of these communications with as
little doubt as I ever believed in the truth of a fact established by the most
positive evidence in court. I wish further to say, that to my own consciousness
I did no thinking in writing the messages. I did not know what was to be
written nor what was written at the time except the word that the pencil was
writing.
The
great object of these messages from Jesus as he wrote is to make a revelation
of the truths of his Father. He asserts that the Bible does not contain his
real teachings as he disclosed them while on earth; that many things that he
said are not therein contained, and many things that are ascribed to him
therein he did not say at all. And he wants the truths made known to mankind.
And I must say that many of these truths which he has already written, I have never
before heard of, and I have studied the Bible to some extent. One thing in
particular impressed me and that is what the truth is of his bringing
"life and immortality to light". The Bible does not state it, and I
have not been able to find in any commentaries on the Bible an explanation of
it. But enough of this: I merely wrote this to assure you that I am serious in
submitting for your perusal the enclosed copy of a message; and I would not do
this were it not for the fact that the message comments upon your article and
also upon another article in the same issue of the Biblical World.
On the
night of December 24, 1915, I read your article and on the next night,
Christmas night, I received a writing of which the enclosed is a copy. You will
observe that a portion of the message is personal, but I thought it best to
send it as it came to me. And though you may not believe the origin of the
message, yet you may find some thoughts therein for your consideration.
Trusting
that you will pardon my intrusion, I will subscribe myself
Very
respectfully,
(s.) JAMES E. PADGETT
[Dr. Stone then added this explanation]:A few
nights later a message signed "Jesus" commented upon Padgett's having
sent a copy of the message, and referred to his letter, to Dr. Gilbert:
December 28, 1915
"I AM HERE, JESUS:
I came tonight to tell you that
you did the right thing by sending the message to the person who wrote the
article upon the subject of Christianizing the Bible, for I now believe that he
will appreciate it to a very great degree. He is not an orthodox churchman, but
is the preacher of a Unitarian Church in the little town in which he lives, and
is a very broad-minded man.
He may have some doubts as to the
source of the message and may not feel inclined to accept as true your
statements as to how you received it, but yet his doubts will not be altogether
of such a nature that he may not have some hesitation in saying that such a
thing as your receiving my message could not be true. At any rate, he will
become interested in the subject matter of the message and will find some
thoughts that he never before had.
I fully realize that when my
messages are published the great difficulty in their being accepted will be the
doubt of the people as to their source, but you will have to complete the book
in such a way that the testimony of the numerous witnesses will be so strong
that the doubt will not be able to withstand the overwhelming evidence of my
being the writer of the messages. And when men read the same, they will realize
that the truths which they contain could only come from a higher source than
mortal mind and that the hand of the Father is in them.
So I will continue to write and
you to receive the messages and when the time comes to publish them, I do not
fear that they will not be in time gladly received. Very soon I will write you
another which will be of importance to mankind. I will only say further that I
am with you trying to help you and to have you believe with all your heart in
the Divine Love of the Father, in my mission and in your work.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus."
