If a law that bans alcoholic beverages—the so-called “Prohibition”, for example—is compared with a “temperance” movement, would “Prohibition” rightly be seen as rooted in Darkness and temperance in the Light?

Under God’s laws no government has the right to shackle the free will of its people with something as rigorous as “Prohibition”. A law that constrains and binds the initiative of the will is of the evil and can only serve to create an indefensible situation, since all who will not be constrained will certainly find ways of obtaining what the law attempts to deny them. On the other hand, an effective campaign of enlightenment regarding the misfortunes, sufferings and crimes that can result from intemperate alcoholic consumption will always be appropriate, for it then becomes the concern of the individual to stay within the proper limits. The penalties for causing accidents and committing crimes while intoxicated should likewise be much more stringent. It is no excuse for those involved that at the time of the accident or while committing a crime, they had not full control of their mental faculties⁵⁴ or of their will.

How view the political principles of Liberalism versus those of Socialism?

Humans themselves must resolve political strife. However, in this as in all other matters the individual will always be able to obtain the necessary guidance through the guardian spirit, the conscience. But it can be said with certainty from the transcendental world that all political disputes are of the evil. The governing and legislative authorities of the nations and the various communities have (Speech of Christ, Toward the Light, pages 124-26: 2) received a guideline that clearly indicates the direction of God’s wishes. If Christ’s discourse was in its entirety to become, in spirit and in truth, the guide for all life on Earth, it would soon transpire that all political factions and the incessant tugs-of-war among the various party leaders were quite needless and caused nothing but harm. They are harmful because they can in no way create calm and peaceful working conditions for those with whom the responsibility lays.

Toward the Light is a message to all humanity, and therefore would include the human spirits who inhabit the various spheres. Thus, much apparently “useless” information can be found in this work, useless to humans on Earth, but of importance to these spirits in the spheres. One example is the information that the measure for the thickness of the insulation layer is one-eighth of a millimeter. That this information is correct can never be verified by the earthly world, but from the transcendental world it is easily seen that it corresponds to fact. This information may be of great value to a doubting human spirit, since the leaders of the various institutes of higher learning in the spheres can bring their students to the plane of the Earth to observe a dying human being. After the body’s death it is easy to examine the separated casing—the insulation layer—and verify the accuracy of the given measurement. Similarly, for some years to come it will also be possible to demonstrate to human spirits that the thickness of the insulation layer of Darkness employed by the Eldest for their own incarnations also conforms to the given thickness of about one-half millimeter.⁵⁵

Both human beings and human spirits alike who have doubts can thus find proof for the information given in Toward the Light.

Was there any special reason—for example, the Earth’s location—why God chose this globe⁵⁶ as the habitat for His intended beings of Light?

Yes, many special reasons, but a more detailed explanation⁵⁷ will not be given here. Only this can be said: the Earth’s location in the universe was one of the main reasons.

Even though God’s first children were created as equals⁵⁸, they developed differently. Were they also able, each within their own field of spiritual endeavor, to be of benefit and enjoyment to each other—for example as scientists, poets and artists? And could they attain fame among their brothers and sisters as happens on Earth?

What was in fact the first sinful thought that made the Eldest vulnerable to the onslaughts of Darkness? And what exactly is the nature of sin?

No exact explanation can be given of the nature of sin; only this much can be said: that wherever Darkness—and with it, sin—gains hold, there will arise the danger that all that is noble, good and beautiful in the thought may be distorted and destroyed, and that the power of the will may be turned in the direction of evil. Darkness thus has a distorting, dividing, disintegrating and debasing influence upon thought and will. But the core of thought and will, both springing from God’s own Being, can never be destroyed by the powers of Darkness. There will thus always be a possibility that a personality destroyed by Darkness can, with the help of God and of the Light, rebuild and restore what has been debased and broken down.

The reason that God would give His first children the task of leading immature beings in the process of their development was first and foremost to provide an occasion for confronting them directly with the influence of Darkness. He therefore said nothing about who He would select for the task. Whether this task would be of any importance for them individually, from the viewpoint of their thoughts and feelings, God could not know on account of His self-imposed limitation. He had to leave it to His children to form their own thoughts and ideas about the task He would give them. And He would then have to choose those whose desire lay in the direction of undertaking that work. But there are various ways in which the desire to lead others can manifest itself, just as the eagerness to undertake such a task can be expressed in very different ways. Had the scientifically inclined of God’s children thought thus: that they would much like to be worthy of their Father’s trust, that they greatly wished to undertake that work, that they longed to share their knowledge and their joy with immature beings, to open these beings’ eyes to the good and the beautiful and to awaken their intellectual and emotional life, then they would have acted rightly, then their thoughts and their wishes would have been pure and unsullied by Darkness. But they thought not in this way. They failed to be on guard against the Darkness that was upon them, and the first thought of the Eldest upon the matter put to them was thus self-admiration—the first step on the road to arrogance and to lust for power. Why it should have happened so cannot be explained. The roots of this are in the individual’s thought and will, whose innermost nature is inexplicable and therefore incomprehensible to human beings.

With deep grief God saw that Darkness had overcome some of His children—and He warned them. Thus began the great schism between the Eldest and the Youngest, thus began the power that Darkness wielded over the Eldest. And despite all of God’s warnings, they allowed Darkness to draw them further and further away from Him—and deeper and deeper they fell. More and more did Darkness distort and debase these once so radiantly bright, beautiful and harmonious personalities.

All of God’s first children had been taught by God and His Servants about the nature and powers of Darkness, and had been given knowledge of the possibilities for evil contained within it. But this knowledge was not accompanied by experiment. God wished not to confront them directly with the actual influence of Darkness until such time that there was in all probability a justified hope that they would all be capable—by the power of their thought and will—to recoil from the radiations of Darkness, and thereby gain the first victory over it. And had they all managed to emerge unscathed from this first encounter with Darkness and its possibilities for evil, God would then have exposed them gradually to the various radiations of this primal force and allowed them—under His guidance—to experiment with its many forms of powers and radiations so that they could learn to know all its manifestations.

Although God had informed them that at some point—unknown to them—He would confront them directly with a separated accumulation of Darkness, the scientifically inclined among His children nevertheless still allowed themselves to be influenced by its radiations; they failed to resist the evil which met them. And despite God’s warnings not to concern themselves with evil, and not to be overcome by that which it would be unworthy for the self to heed, they sought not to free themselves from the influence of Darkness. God’s warnings had been in vain.

And so it is in life on Earth. Time after time human beings are warned by their conscience; but again and again they follow their own ways, succumbing repeatedly to the influence of Darkness and falling prey to its temptations. Time after time humans lose themselves in self-admiration, in pride and in lust for power. These downfalls, these victories of Darkness, draw humans ever deeper into its power, leading them ever further away from the ways of God. Only deep grief and remorse can free the fallen from the oppressive bonds and lead them onto the right path back to God.

How could the Eldest be so enchanted by the newly-created world around the Earth as to absent themselves for extended periods from God’s Kingdom and from their brothers and sisters?  Was God’s Kingdom not a perfect habitat compared to this new world? Or had it become so familiar as to cause them boredom?

None of God’s first children have ever known boredom in the world of the Paternal Home. The concept is unknown there.

Even though the newly-created world around the Earth was as a pearl of exquisite beauty, it could in no way compare with the splendor of God’s Kingdom. For that Kingdom is—in its form, in the variety of scenery, and in its richness of color—of sublime perfection. The true reason the Eldest took such great pleasure in these sojourns was first and foremost that when they stayed in the Home of their Father they felt His grief stream toward them, they felt that their love for Him and for their artistically inclined brothers and sisters had lessened. They no longer felt at ease in the surroundings of their Home, and it was for this reason that they were drawn toward the small, exquisite world around the Earth. It became a refuge for them. For by staying there they avoided their Father’s sorrowful countenance, they avoided the sorrowful reproaches of their brothers and sisters. And their sojourns in this new world lengthened and lengthened, even though it was slowly being transformed by the Darkness⁶² that they had been harboring within themselves since their fall. Time and again, their Father’s voice called, bidding them return lest they succumb wholly to the power of Darkness. But their willfulness bound them. and thus for a time God had to accept the loss of some of His beloved children.

When God made known to Ardor that if he created beings from Darkness, it would bind him and his helpers until their children had come to conceive pity for them, was this an arbitrary condition imposed by God for the redemption of the Eldest, or was it imposed by the nature of Darkness itself for the release of the Eldest from its bondage?

God knew that if the Eldest succeeded in creating viable beings from Darkness, they would be bound to these children by a life-giving connection. And God saw—shortly before His warning to the fallen children against creating from Darkness—that some of the Eldest had begun to yearn for the distant home of the Father. And He foresaw that if beings were created from Darkness, these Eldest would turn to Him for help when they saw how imperfect their creatures were. And in the knowledge that He would at some time grant this help by giving these creatures thought and will—that is, spiritual life—He warned Ardor that Darkness would bind him and his fallen brothers and sisters until his creatures had learned to take pity on them.

Thus it was no arbitrary condition imposed by God. Darkness by its very nature would form a bond between creator and created—a bond that only grief and remorse could loosen, arising either through the “creator’s” awakening acknowledgment of the sinfulness of the act, or through feelings of compassion by the created for the creator who had been overcome by Darkness. And when God saw that Ardor’s nature at that time was so permeated by Darkness that he would in all probability be unable to comprehend the enormity of the wrongful action he contemplated, He pointed with His words to a shorter road to grief and repentance for Ardor and his fallen brothers and sisters, a shorter road opened to them through the compassion of his own progeny for him, for his life in the deepest Darkness, in sin and in suffering. For every thought of compassion draws the Light to whomever is the subject of the thought, and the Light that embraces that individual may then make it possible to break defiance, and in this way awaken grief and remorse.

Regarding the prayer of intercession for the Eldest that Christ and others of the Youngest were to attempt whilst in human form: Is this prayer’s significance due to the condition for Ardor’s redemption as explained in answer to question 44? Are the Youngest regarded as Ardor’s children while in human form, and would prayer by them thus have greater impact than if uttered while not so embodied?

When God called upon the Youngest to serve, in human embodiment, as leaders for the creatures of the Eldest—once He had inspirited the “shadows”, had given them thought and will—He did this for three reasons: 1) He knew the help the Youngest could offer mankind as pioneers in every respect could shorten the journey of the human spirits to His Kingdom by millions of years; 2) The Youngest would, through their lives on Earth, come to know Darkness in its many and varied forms and manifestations, would learn fully to counter its incursions and fully to overcome it; 3) Once the Youngest were bound to the beings created by Ardor, they would be equal to the human spirits in knowing pity, that is to say, in feeling compassion for the creator and creators of the human body. And since all the Youngest without exception felt only love for their fallen brothers and sisters and yearned to win them back, the possibility arose, when they accepted the task God gave them, that one or more of them during an earthly life would take pity on the fallen, and through a prayer of intercession call forth the necessary grief and remorse. Intercession would come about, in this way, much sooner than in the time conceivably needed for a human spirit to reach the necessary degree of compassion for the fallen Eldest, and then pray God to forgive the creator and creators of the human body. God thus strove in every way to shorten as much as possible the road for all the fallen Eldest—the road leading back to their Father’s Home.

Can we learn more about the life and work of our Father’s Helpers—the twelve Servants—than already given in Toward the Light? And what import does their mighty intellect, their great spiritual knowledge and their love, have for the work of the Youngest in the development of the human spirits?

All twelve Servants, or Helpers, of God are mighty personalities. In appearance they are youthful and graceful, bright and radiant. By nature they are pure, loving, understanding and helpful. Always they were, and always they will be the helpers of the Youngest in the latter’s so difficult task of serving as the pioneers of mankind. Time and again these radiant personalities have been the leaders and guardian spirits of the Youngest during their earthly incarnations, especially when anything new of science, art or invention should be imparted to humanity.

When the great schism had come about and the twelve beheld the profound grief of their beloved Lord and Master, they all went forth to the kingdom around the Earth to attempt through their influence to call back the fallen children to the Father. But in vain. Their words went unheeded. The power of Darkness was too great! Time and again both before and after the creation of humanity they came to the fallen to speak with them, to re-awaken their memory of the splendor, the joy and the life in their Father’s Kingdom. When their words fell on barren ground, then they too grieved as their beloved Lord grieved. But now and again, when their sorrowful words sounded to the Eldest, when their bright and radiant figures cast a blinding light over the ugly scenery of the “ruined” kingdom, they succeeded in calling forth the memory of the glorious Kingdom of God in the darkened minds and thoughts of some of the Eldest. Then was their joy profound, and they brought these remorseful, grief-stricken children back to their Father’s embrace.

When the first multitude of human spirits had completed their earthly incarnations and fully released themselves from the power of earthly Darkness, they were brought by the twelve Helpers to one of the distant globes of the Light, chosen by God as their temporary habitat. The twelve Helpers then became by turns their tutors and educators. Since that time numerous human spirits—released from rebirth on Earth—have set out upon their journey from one world of Light to another, toward their Father’s Home, under the loving care and guidance of the twelve Helpers. Those Eldest who are interned on distant globes are also under the care and protection of the twelve Helpers. The task of the Helpers is now so great and so comprehensive that a number of the Youngest share—between their incarnations—in this work of education, upbringing and protection. The task of the twelve Helpers has indeed become so great that only one or two at a time can stay in the Home of the Father, so that the burden of loneliness does not weigh too heavily upon Him in His vast and mighty Kingdom.

Since all God’s children were created as equal beings, how did Ardor among the Eldest and Christ among the Youngest become so much greater than their brothers? Will this difference continue through eternity?

The difference that then prevailed, and still prevails, will presumably—it cannot be said with certainty—cease to be when God’s first children are gathered with the human spirits in His Kingdom. But individual differences will, of course, remain through eternity.

It is also likely that both the “Eldest” and the “Youngest”, as well as the human spirits, will preserve through eternity their great love for the eldest of the Youngest, out of their memory of his deep, pure and faithful love for them all, out of the memory of his great patience, which could not be conquered by Darkness, of his great unselfishness, his never-failing trust in God’s leadership, and his inner strength and ability to help and sustain wherever his help was needed and desired.

On the globes of the Light where they continue their development, all human spirits will at some time—millions of years ahead—be confronted with Ardor and his dual, so that through long acquaintance they may conceive a truly deep love for them both. And when they have fully learned to love these two, who were the first and direct cause of the creation of mankind, then will they be easily able to transfer this love to all the Eldest, even though they may not become acquainted with them until later, as these Eldest regain their lost personalities of Light. For long before the time arrives when all the Eldest will have restored their personalities, every human spirit will have fully understood that however difficult it was for them to live through the suffering, sorrow and struggle of their many lives in the earthly world of Darkness, nothing that they had to endure could compare with the misery, sin and suffering of the Eldest. And on the basis of this understanding will in their minds and thought arise—however slowly—a deep and lasting feeling for their older brothers and sisters.

This correction has, of course, now been incorporated in the English language edition of the First Supplement, thus rendering superfluous any translation of the Danish text originally included at this point. —Translators’ note

Why did millions of years pass before the Youngest started to miss the absent Eldest? Had both become alienated from each other?

And what has otherwise been stated in Ardor's Account and in the Commentary to Ardor’s Account—page 9: 14 to page 10: 6 and page 174: 3, 4—in no way indicates that there was any coolness between the Youngest and the Eldest. Never did the love of the Youngest for their fallen brothers and sisters lessen. Nor did even the suffering of the many earthly lives the Youngest had to endure lessen their love. Rather did their suffering and grief deepen and strengthen it, for through their own pain and sorrow they gained a true understanding of the misery and dismal existence of the fallen brothers and sisters in Darkness and in horror, far away from their common Father. Through their incarnations they gained an understanding of the life and actions of their brothers and sisters—an understanding they could otherwise never have reached.

But no human being can conceive of the depth of the grief felt by the Youngest in God’s Kingdom when the Youngest came to know the truth about the disappearance into Darkness of their beloved, their fallen brothers and sisters, for there will always be one or more elements of selfishness in human grief over deceased, departed relatives and friends. For the Youngest this was not so; their grief was completely unselfish, pure, sincere and profound. Had the opposite been so, they would never have had the courage—through their earthly incarnations—to engage the Darkness in order to vanquish it and to win their beloved, absent brothers and sisters back to the life that they had known in the Paternal Home.

Can the transcendental world clarify the different perceptions of the concept of time? When the Youngest (Question 49) felt the absence of the Eldest as but a brief time, did the Eldest in the new world of Light around the Earth then experi­ence this as millions of years? Or does the perception of time depend on the nature of the intelligences rather than on their location?

The concept of time is highly relative, is very different for the various beings and extremely different under the time rhythms of the two primal forces—Light and Darkness. From the transcendental world we may possibly clarify this to some extent but cannot give an exact explanation, for even the most gifted among human intellects will be unable to comprehend the core of the matter: the differing time-rhythms of Light and Darkness.

Relativity must therefore always be taken into account, whether in connection with fixed or non-fixed concepts and determinations of time.

When the Eldest departed in significant numbers to settle in the Kingdom around the Earth, while the Youngest lived on in the familiar surroundings and environment of God’s Kingdom, the rhythm of time slowed for the Youngest because of their grief for the beloved brothers and sisters who had disappeared. But they understood not the reason for this, for the millions of years that elapsed—in terms of earthly time—before they turned to God’s Servants to inquire about those absent, were experienced by them as but a brief span of time.

9) For the Eldest in the Kingdom around the Earth, the rhythm of time slowly changed as Darkness destroyed more and more of their Kingdom. But engrossed in attempting to restore the former splendor of their environment, the Eldest were not immediately aware of the full extent of the change. Not until they descended to the globe to investigate the destruction caused there by Darkness did they understand that the time-rhythm of Darkness was quite different from that of the Light. And when they had created mankind and become bound to their creatures through the Darkness, they became subject in every way to earthly conditions and concepts of time. And time became infinitely long for them all.

In answer to Question 32 (Supplement I) it is stated that humans must themselves solve the problem of the nebulae. However, current astronomical theories suggest that nebulae are very distant galactic systems, thus cannot belong to the Earth’s  “Milky Way”. But in Toward the Light we are informed the nebulae do belong to the Earth’s galactic system. Can further explanation be given?

Immense accumulations of Darkness exist at a number of places in the ether around the galactic (“Milky Way”) system of the Earth. They were separated by the fallen Eldest at the dawn of earthly time from encapsulation in the ether, and radiation-images of the stars within the region of the accumulations (or nebulae) are caught and reflected in these accumulations. Just as a raindrop in the earthly world can capture and reflect a “picture” of the sun, so can “pictures” of stars be caught and reflected by the accumulations of Darkness surrounding the respective globes, which are actually few compared to the enormous numbers the nebulae display in the telescope. The nebulae are therefore an optical illusion.

A) It is stated (Toward the Light, page 322 and First Supplement, page 23) that the Eldest yet living on Earth will be removed to astral habitats in one of the other three “Milky Way” systems. Will this occur at their physical death and do they go willingly or is it a “compulsory transfer”? They have previously been unwilling to leave the earthly scene. How can they now agree to be banished immediately after physical death?  Or is it compulsory in certain cases?

The removal immediately after physical death of those Eldest⁶³ as yet incarnated on Earth is definitely not a “compulsory transfer”. On the contrary, it is a help that God extends to both the Eldest and to humanity.

Upon Ardor’s return, God reinstated the laws he had given for the development of the human spirit—laws that Ardor had overturned in order to hinder this gradual progress. Among these was the so-called “Law of Sleep”.⁶⁶ The remaining Eldest—incarnated by Ardor—will therefore, like the human spirits, fall asleep at the moment of death when their earthly human bodies cease to function, whereupon they are brought to the dwellings awaiting them on the distant globes of the Light. And when they awaken from their “sleep of death”, they will feel only gratitude to find themselves in these pure and bright surroundings. All the Eldest incarnated by Ardor know of this provision⁶⁷ and none have raised any objections. And why should they object to living in bright and beautiful surroundings rather than in the deep Darkness, squalor and hideousness of the ruined kingdom? Forget not that the Eldest began their unlawful incarnations because their life in the “Hell-sphere” had become quite unendurable.

Since the Eldest have been, and still are brought to globes of the Light, and since their thought and their will have for millions upon millions of years been able to control only the powers of Darkness and not those of the Light, they are not now able by their thought and will—nor so inclined—to penetrate the Light-ether surrounding their habitats, even though long ago they did have the ability to move through the Light-ether. By this arrangement—transferring the Eldest to globes of the Light—God gives help to the Eldest and mankind alike. Since these Eldest cannot reach the Earth, mankind need never fear an unwelcome invasion from those interned in these worlds of Light.