Thursday, October 1, 2009

Save Our Souls II

“The (Catholic) Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God. It is not “produced” by the parents and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection” (CCC 366)

When the body dies the soul leaves it. It cannot die; it can neither transform to an angel nor to a Devil. However, it can become a holy soul or an unclean soul, depending on how that person lived. A holy soul is known as a Saint. But to speak about a sinner soul no qualifying terms are used. In the Scripture we read about Saints. But in the letter to Corinthians St Paul speaks about a man who lives in sexual immorality. He says that this “man should be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1Cor. 5:1-5) in the belief that if he is handed over to the devil the latter will torture him and destroy the flesh and through his sufferings he may be able to attain sanctification.

What happens to the soul of a person who dies in sin? Jesus teaches that “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” Jn 8:34. By committing a sin a person becomes a slave of sin. Sin is a product of the devil. It is not human weakness; it comes from the devil. “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil” 1Jn 3:8. So when someone dies with sin he is already a slave of the devil. A slave is one under dominion. Therefore the soul of a sinner cannot either see God or enter Heaven. He will be taken to hell, the kingdom of the devil.

 

Evil Souls

Many scholars and pastors believe and teach that the souls are asleep and will be woken up at the sound of God’s trumpet on the Judgment Day. That is not the truth. Souls are not sleeping. The good souls, called the Saints, are in Paradise. But they don’t behold God the Father but only experience His presence and love. However, in the company of Jesus and Mary they experience the joy and happiness of the kingdom of heaven while praying and interceding for the whole world.

But the evil souls under the dominion of the devil suffer in the fires of Hell. The devil tortures and forces them to obey his orders. He gives them his image, character and power and uses them to attack men, other creations of God and the kingdom of God itself. These evil souls are the evil or unclean spirits which Jesus cast out from the many “possessed” persons. It was to cast them out and to cure every disease that Jesus gave authority and power to his disciples. Mathew 10:1

The world may deem it crazy when I say that the evil spirits are evil souls. But the numerous encounters that I faced in the last twenty years taught me that the evil spirits are the lost souls.Since1989 the Holy Spirit led me through the ‘spirit- world’ and revealed many secrets hidden in the word. From 1997 onwards I started to preach about this. The Holy Spirit taught me that the evil spirits are the lost souls and that they can be saved. From my encounters with the netherworld, I would say that about ninety per cent of souls are in the dark pit, the Hell. They have to be redeemed. But their salvation is not so easy. It is the resultant of the battle between Mother Mary and the ancient serpent. The power and authority are given to mary to deliver the souls from the dominion of the serpent. I shall come to this aspect later.

Purgatory

There is no direct reference to Purgatory in the Bible. Jesus and the apostles have not taught about it. However, it is a belief and teaching of the Catholic Church. “All who die in god’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”. CCC.1030. “The church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire.

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire.” CCC.1031.

It is true that one must be purified before entering Heaven. But what are the lesser faults from which one has to be purified? Is hatred a lesser fault? “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them” 1 Jn 3:15. Is saying a lie a lesser fault? “A lying mouth destroys the soul”. Wis 1:11.  Therefore, a liar cannot enter Heaven. Those who hate others are murderers. They cannot enter Heaven. Then where will all these souls go? To purgatory or to Hell? Purgatory is the place for purification from lesser faults. Murder is not a lesser fault. Therefore those souls should go to Hell. According to the teaching of the Church they have undergone Particular Judgment which cannot be changed in the Final Judgment. Prayers for them are therefore redundant. Is it true?

If hatred is a mortal sin what about other sins? Millions of people are living in sin and dying with sin. Sins like adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, drunkenness, murder and the like are mortal sins. The Word says: “now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”. Gal 5:19-21 

Those who have committed such sins are sinners and they cannot go to Heaven or Purgatory. Remember, Purgatory is the place for those who have done lesser faults. And St Paul says that those who have done such sins will not inherit the kingdom of God. If they cannot inherit the kingdom of God they will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven also. The kingdom of God is on this earth and kingdom of Heaven is paradise.

Ironically many people, however, believe that all souls are in Purgatory. But in reality only a few are in Purgatory and the rest, millions of souls are in Hell. The deceptive interpretation of Hell and Purgatory leads to the damnation of millions of souls. A thorough study of the teachings of the Church is needed to bring out the truth. May the word of God enlighten our hearts; and may the Holy Spirit and Wisdom remove every wrong conviction from our conscience.

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Save Our Souls - I

2898930708_68be004a47_oThe Dead are not Dead Our knowledge about the dead is very limited. Despite many attempts in the past the truth about the dead is not fully revealed yet. Jesus said "you will know the truth and the truth will make you free."(Jn8:32).The Word of God is the truth and we shall find out the truth from the Word.

In the light of the Word here I try to explain about the dead from my experience. Though I was born in a catholic family I personally experienced Jesus when I was thirty three years old in the year 1988.From 1989 onwards I started to preach the Word. The Holy Spirit  who led me through the past 21 years taught me about the ' world of spirits.' In the prayer sessions I led, people possessed by evil spirits becoming violent were very common. In certain sessions I have had to pray for hours at length to make them free. During the period 1989 and 1996 God used me to cast out evil spirits from many people, believers and non-believers.

In the year 1997 in one of such prayer sessions done in the presence of the Holy Eucharist in a convent chapel in Kerala, the Lord told me to command the evil spirit to “surrender" in the name of Jesus Christ. At the end of three and a half hours of prayer the evil spirit surrendered before the name of Jesus and proclaimed the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. This was in the fulfilment of the Word in Philippians 2:10-11 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth, under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Since that wonderful experience we have never allowed evil spirits to wander about; instead we made them surrender. After several such encounters the Lord asked me to preach the Word of God to the spirits of the dead. Accordingly in the year 1997 we conducted a retreat for the living and the dead. Till date I have completed 20 years in preaching the Word of God -eight years to the living and twelve years to the living and the dead. It is on the strength of this experience that I share below what the Lord has taught me about the world of spirits.

What is a Soul ?

A soul is the spirit or life of God given to human beings. When God created Adam He formed him from the dust of the ground in his own image and likeness. God breathed into the nostril of the image the breath of life and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7).

"God is spirit" (Jn 4:24).He has no body. A spirit cannot breathe like the body. The breath of life is the spirit of God. God gave His spirit to him when He created Adam. Jesus said: "it is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is useless"(Jn6:63).The spirit of God given to Adam became his soul. It is the soul that gives life to the body. When the soul departs the body, the body dies and becomes dust. But the soul does not die. It lives. If the soul is allowed to re-enter the body it gets back its life. All the activities of the body are related to the soul.

Creation of Eve

On the creation of Eve the Word of God says that God caused a deep  sleep to fall upon the man and he slept. Then He took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man (Gen 2:21-22).It is plausible that God created Eve from the dust of the ground and gave her life by putting the bone taken from the man. Can bone give life? Jesus said: "it is the spirit that gives life". So it is the spirit and not bone that gave life to Eve. However, in the Bible bone represents spirit or soul. In the Book of Psalms we read: "Like rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol".(Ps.141:7)"Sheol "is the Hebrew word for hell (ccc.no.633).Bone is solid matter and therefore, cannot enter the spiritual realm of hell. Souls are seen at the mouth of Sheol because it is the place meant for the souls. So bone represents the spirit or soul. When God created Eve He took a portion of the spirit from Adam and formed Eve.

A similar thing we see in the Book of Numbers where God takes a small portion of the Holy Spirit in Moses and gives it to seventy Elders. "Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied"(Num 11:25).In the case of Eve, God took a portion of the Breath of Life from Adam and gave to Eve.

Generation to Generation

God gave Adam his own image, likeness and breath of life. When Cain came as the first born of Adam he received the same image and likeness of Adam. He also got a small portion of the breath of life from Adam-the soul of Cain. When Abel was born he received it from Adam. All the descendants of Adam received the same from him. When sperm and egg join in the womb of a woman a child is born. Genes which come from sperm and egg give the image, likeness and breath of life. The breath of life ie., the spirit of God ,consists of the character and power of God. The image and soul that we receive from our parents are not theirs, but gifts from God.