"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Luke 10:20

"When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Mark 2:17

"…ye believe in God, believe also in Me." John 14:1

"…Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." John 18:37

Greetings, friends! This day may you bubble over with the irrepressible joy of Jesus Christ! Do you not know that He said to His followers, "These words have I spoken to you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (Jn. 15:11)? What do you suppose the Lord was talking about? Was He concerned over the joy or the happiness of their "souls" in some future life? No, beloved, Jesus was a Realist Who lived in this world and wrought for the moment, even for the ever-present moment. He was talking to them about their objective consciousness and that happiness with which He wanted to fill their bosoms to the extent that they could scarcely contain it.

And just a few moments later He elaborated on that statement by saying to them, "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (Jn. 16:24). Do you suppose He was implying to them that they should ask that their "souls" might be saved in some future time? No, indeed, He did not talk to them about their souls. Clearly had He told them long previously that they should rejoice because their names were written in heaven (Lk. 10:20). They were not moping around in any fear with regard to the future of their souls; they were but humble, ignorant folk who hadn't even heard about their souls. We must bear in mind that there was nothing in the teachings of the priesthood of His day about the "soul" of man: they believed in the resurrection of the earthly body at some future time; that was also the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

My dearly beloved, hear The Voice of Tomorrow: you have a "soul," but don't be worried about it; God wants you to get concerned over your body and your present life – not over the future. Had Christ our Lord been concerned over the soul of man, it is very certain that He would have delivered not less than one discourse on that very important subject. But search the Scripture and you shall search in vain for His giving any such a discourse.

Recently I drew your attention to Mark 8:35-36, where Christ said, "...[For] whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it." Then the Authorized Version goes on in verse 36 to say, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" This I showed you was a mistranslation. For, the word in the original Greek which in verse 36 has been rendered "soul," is precisely the same word as found in both places in verse 35 where it has been rendered "life." Just try to substitute the word "soul" for "life" in verse 35 and see what happens. We start out, "For whosoever will save his soul shall lose it." Surely you can see that makes no sense at all. Yet precisely the same word is found in the original Greek verse 36, which its translators rendered "soul." Substitute the word "life" for "soul" in verse 36 and you will find it makes good sense, for it will then read, "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own life?"

Mistranslations like this have given our churches the foundation for the unending blabber about the human soul, when Christ our Lord and Savior spent three years or more in teaching and scarcely ever used the word "soul." I charge you to search the Scripture carefully, and you will find that Christ our Lord lived in this world as a human being, and spoke to men about their present lives, and their physical bodies. Those were His ever-present concern.

What would you think of a parent who perpetually harped to the youngsters about being thoughtful of their underwear? Would it not be more sensible for the parent to talk about the outer garments, that the child should give consideration so as to not get them torn or too dirty needlessly? Does it not make good sense that if the outer garment is kept reasonably clean and whole, that the underthings will also remain in good condition? Emphatically do I here state that the comparison used is a correct one; the human body is the outer garment, while the soul is an inner sheath: a finer and more attenuated body which the spirit has to dwell in after the physical body has been laid aside in death. What! Do you not know that it is written, man is body, soul and spirit (I Thess. 5:23)? But our churches have the words soul and spirit confused, treating them as synonymous terms, as if soul and spirit are one and the same. This is gross error.

The spirit is begotten by God, and is deathless, even as is its Father-God. At or by birth of a human infant, the spirit from God enters that physical body in order to gain lessons, which the Godparent has seen fit for that spirit. And incidental to the life processes of the physical body, a finer vehicle or sheath is generated within and permeates the body of flesh: just then it comes into being; that is the human soul.

Jesus the Son of God knew this and, therefore, was not speaking to the people about their souls; He knew that the physical body and the earth-life lived by man was far more important. For, true to the comparison which I just gave you, if we look after our outer garments, then our underthings will also remain all right. It is this physical body which is the absolute masterpiece of God Almighty: it is the glory of His handiwork; it is the long-sought perfection of achievement which God planned for, and labored to bring into being, in order that the spirits which He had begotten might enter into these perfection tabernacles, and live as the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. (Yet this is a vast subject which I will make no effort to cover in this talk, but hope to deal with further in future discourses.)

Now if you have your Bible convenient, I wish you would turn to Mark 2:16-17:

"And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto His disciples, How is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it He saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Dearly beloved, I repeat my previous charge to you: search the Scripture as to the words of the Nazarene, and you will fail utterly to find His ever delivering any discourses about the human soul. You will find the word mentioned, but that, in most instances, only as a mistranslation. Now then, in this particular instance as you find in verse 17, He stated boldly, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Don't you ever dare to tell yourself that there were no righteous people. The word as He used it referred to those who consciously endeavored to live according to the Mosaic Law. And concerning these He said that He had not come to call them, but only come to call sinners to repentance. Now then, if the teachings common to our churches of this day were to be true, then Jesus, as the true Physician, would have considered it His duty to lecture those righteous ones very severely, to impress upon them that they must get their "souls saved" for some future life and unknown world. But no, not so much as a hint thereof. In the clearest of language He said that such had no need of the Physician. Observe that He didn't say "a physician," which could have referred to any doctor, but He stated specifically "the Physician," which referred to Himself.

No doubt Jesus had numerous opportunities and good occasion to start talking to the people about their souls, and to get their souls saved, but I repeat, you just can't find it in the Bible. Don't misunderstand me; I have already stated clearly that man has a soul, because that is also in the Scripture; but what I'm trying to point out is that our churches have put the cart before the horse – they spend the time talking of that which is the least important, and completely ignore that which is of the utmost importance.

Can you not see that if the true teachings of Jesus Christ, which dealt with the human body and the earth-life we now live, had been brought out and taught by our churches in their proper perspective, preaching and teaching the Kingdom of Jesus Christ for our here and for our now, showing the people how to become citizens of Christ's spiritual Kingdom while on earth, to the end that we might live like the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, filled with righteousness, overflowing with irrepressible joy, and manifesting the wholeness and the beauty of the children of God, then it would have been utterly impossible for Christendom to have gone to pot as we see the situation obtaining in the world today? It is the unrealism, the utter impracticableness of the Christian faith as it is commonly taught, which is the explanation for modern Christendom's having gone to the Devil, and tottering now on the brink of destruction.

We have heard the incessant droning about the soul of man – which man knows absolutely nothing about – and a future world and life – which is only something he can hope for – while the ever-present reality of the human body and our earth-lives get completely ignored. That is what Christ referred to when He said that when He would leave this world and go back to the Father, night would set in when no one could see to work (Jn. 9:4); and during that long night of darkness the enemy would steal in to sow the tares (Matt. 13:25), concerning which we know that if eaten, they produce sickness, convulsions, and eventual death.

I repeat that undoubtedly the Lord had numerous occasions when He could have talked to the people about their souls, yet on this particular occasion as I have just quoted from Mark 2:16-17, when He had a most outstanding opportunity, He said not a word about it. In fact, He stated diametrically the opposite! Clearly and boldly did He state, and I challenge you to find anything to the contrary, that those who were whole needed not the Physician, and that He, the Son of God, had not come to call together those who lived righteously, but only to call the sinners to repentance, and that He did. And when He called the sinners to repentance, we find no occasion when He started talking to them about their souls – no, not once! What He did stress to them was the believing in the Son of God. And what did the Son of God do? He healed their broken bodies. The sick He made well. The dead He raised to life, while for those that were hungry for material food when there was none on hand, He provided their food in abundance; everything He did was for the physical body here and now. That was the Kingdom of God come near unto them: those were His very words. Though ten thousand eternities come and pass, neither we – nor God – can ever get away from the present moment. All that lives and exists does so in the eternal present.

Christ is a great King, in fact the Great King. He answered Pilate that for the purpose of being a King had He been born into the world (Jn. 18:37). Since He did not establish an earthly kingdom, that means that He superimposed upon this world a spiritual Kingdom of which He was and is the King. When we become citizens in that spiritual kingdom of Christ, and commence to live as law-abiding citizens of that Kingdom, even as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, then do we partake in the goodness, and the riches, and the joys of that super-wonderful, superabundant Kingdom of our Lord and Savior. That is the Kingdom of God which He brought unto the world, and which He manifested during the three-and-a-half years of His ministry.

That is why our Lord is soon returning to this earth (or rather to our atmospheric heaven), in order to call out from this world a people for His Name. In some places they are called His Bride or even His Church. Because our churches have failed, and Christendom gone to pot during this long, dark night, Christ must come back to our earth to take things in hand. Because man has been so carnal as to pervert all of His teachings, our Lord is going to take out of this world a special group which He has found faithful. He is going to transform their earthly bodies to become constituted like His Own resurrection-body, so that they can be here, there, or anywhere at their will, visible or invisible. When He has taken out of this world that special group, then will He be in a position to teach all peoples the truth. Even His Prophet of old spoke of these days, saying that people should see their teachers, and they should hear a voice saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21).

In the meanwhile, you and I have an important work to do. This age of stark materialism, and the grimness of the "rat race," combine to make people spiritually careless, even turning many against faith in God.

YOU should have the PROOF of God's existence and the PROOF of Christ. Send to this publisher for my book on Lazarus: it proves both God and His Christ.

Receive the benediction of your friend and servant, Mikkel Dahl:

"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee PEACE." Numbers 6:24-26