Posted by Roberta Grimes • October 07, 2023 • 34 Comments
Afterlife Research, Jesus, Understanding Reality
Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! This I know, as He loved so long ago,
Taking children on His knee, saying, “Let them come to Me.”
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me still today, walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give light and love to all who live.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
– William B. Bradbury (1816-1868), from “Jesus Loves Me” (1862)
The most difficult process for any of us is attempting to cultivate genuine trust. We live in a world where it seems that there is no one that we really can trust. We begin with our parents’ little loving lies, and we move on to the lies that schoolteachers tell us. The first few times that we realize that an adult has told us some untruth – and maybe those tales about Santa are the first real lies that we discover – being lied to by grownups feels devastating. But then, if we are wise, we learn to adopt a healthy skepticism that is self-protective, true, but it also makes us sad. Think of all the lies that you and I now hear every day! From politicians, and from governments at all levels. From commercials for all sorts of goods and services. From friends and relatives. From bosses. From employees. In big and little ways, and even if some lies might be acts of kindness, is there anyone in our lives who does not at least occasionally tell us some untruths?
And perhaps even worse than all the lies put together are life’s awful, unexpected betrayals. The job we have trusted for the past ten years has unexpectedly let us go. The perfect health that has been our comfortable status for our whole life long is all at once and forever gone, just with that look on our doctor’s face. The spouse that we love, and with whom we are rearing children who are only halfway grown, breaks the news that he or she is parting ways now, and there will be a divorce. Especially this last betrayal feels so unthinkable to me that I hesitate to type the words! And yet statistically, some version of that particular betrayal happens in close to half of American families.
And then we have the worst destroyer of trust imaginable, which underlies the lives of many people who are now or who ever have been Christians. What about God’s betrayal? We were taught as little children that we could love and trust God! We likely sang our frame-song in Sunday school. And then, as we grew older, in many traditional Christian denominations we were taught that God might condemn us to burn in hell forevermore, even for what seemed to be trivial infractions. Stop and think about that. Christian doctrines have softened quite a bit over the last century or so. But for most of Christian history, and well into the twentieth century, even children were taught as they grew older that actually, you know, there is a fiery hell. And God will not hesitate to send you there. The Roman Emperor Constantine’s Christianity as he conceived it was ruthlessly fear-based. It used the constant threat of a fiery hell to keep Christians in line, and to such an extent that the fire-and-brimstone stench of sulfur lingers over 
many Christian denominations to this day. To give you some examples:
Instilling in people a fear of God is Roman Christianity’s worst sin by far. Fear is the opposite of love. In fact, you absolutely cannot love what you fear! Having spent fifty years doing afterlife research, and having networked with others who have also done considerable afterlife research, I can tell you for an absolute certainty these two central facts: there is no fiery hell, and nor is there ever any judgment by God. What you always get from the genuine God is nothing but infinite love! But none of us feels worthy of God’s love, and so we pull back, we turn away, we feel unbearably shy. In that painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as God and Adam reach to touch one another, God’s finger is straight. It is Adam’s finger that is bent. Still, and believe it or not, you in particular are God’s best-beloved child.
All right. It is time to fix this now!
There are slightly fewer than eight billion people currently living on earth. And of all of those eight billion people, perhaps only a few thousand of them – maybe ten thousand? – are educated as Gospels scholars without being traditionally religious. Not many. And of those eight billion people, there also is a different, and a very much tinier group who have been sufficiently fascinated by the afterlife evidence and the evidence for a greater reality to become truly expert in those areas. These serious afterlife scholars cannot be more than a few hundred people worldwide. In fact, this second group is so small that I think I know who most of them are. Of course, what would be good would be if someone with a lot of Gospels knowledge and also a lot of afterlife knowledge could find ways in which those two bodies of knowledge might be used to validate one another, right?
But the odds are long against there being any one person with sufficient interest in two such different areas to spend enough time in both to become a useful expert in both of them. In fact, insofar as I am able to tell, out of the almost eight billion people living on earth, the only person who is sufficiently eccentric to have built her hobby-life around studying Jesus and also studying the afterlife simultaneously has been me. And it is only now that I realize what a handy thing this peculiar combined body of knowledge really is! Because, sure enough, all you deluded Gospels scholars, I can personally testify to you that Jesus knows all about the afterlife! Since, as it turns out, so do I.
Here is a typical passage in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus talks about condemning people to the Outer Darkness: “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a Roman Centurion came to Him, begging Him, 6 and saying, ‘Sir, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, terribly tormented.’ 7 Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ 8 But the Centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes, and to another, “Come!” and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this!” and he does it.’ 10 Now when Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 13 And Jesus said to the Centurion, ‘Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that very moment” (MT 8:5-13).
What actually is going on here? I submit to you that this is not about judgment or punishment, and it certainly is not about hell! Once again, and emphatically, there is no hell. Let’s look at what is actually happening in this Gospel excerpt:
Jesus even tells us in the Gospels that neither He nor God ever judges us! He says, “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (JN 5:22-23). And then when we understand that God doesn’t judge us, Jesus adds that He Himself doesn’t judge us, either. He says, “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (JN 12:47). I guess that all those theologians who keep saying that Jesus talked a lot about hell must never have bothered to actually read the Gospels, right? The only Bible bits that might give any support to their theory that Jesus talked about hell are a few spots at the back of some of the Gospels that were added at the First Council of Nicaea in the year 325 CE at Constantine’s direction. Those later Roman additions have a wholly different flavor from the actual Gospeel words of Jesus, in that they show Him talking about judgment, sheep-and-goats, and such hard things that we know that Jesus never would have said. Or spots in the Book of Revelation that Constantine also added. We simply snip off those obvious later additions, and we have back just what Jesus actually said.
Sometimes, while Thomas and I are writing a blog post, Jesus will read it over our shoulders, and then He might offer us His suggestions. In the case of this blog post, His suggestions were emphatic! As I was waking up on Wednesday morning, I heard Jesus’s distinctive voice strongly in my mind. He suggested the frame-verse, and the tale of the Roman Centurion (which I realized at once was a perfect choice), and He asked me to give you this message from Him: “Beloveds, you cannot fully trust anything that happens to you on the earth. What happens here is meant for your spiritual growth, and it will be painful, and you will often feel betrayed. So you can fully trust no one here. This is why I came to you! To teach you that you can always trust God. And you can always trust Me. And ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms’ (Deut 33:27).” Yet again, our dear Jesus has blown my mind.
Jesus loves me! He who died, heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin, let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! He will stay close beside me all the way.
Thou hast bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for Thee.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
– William B. Bradbury (1816-1868), from “Jesus Loves Me” (1862)
What a interesting topic! I am not surprised, though, with all the times Jesus was let down and betrayed by us humans.
I try to constantly remind myself that I can’t trust myself. If I forget, there is always that chance I will lose this battle I am waging against my ego. Jack’s post about two consciousness inhabiting one body was the “aha” moment for me.
How can I expect better from my brothers and sisters if it is a constant struggle within myself? Makes me wonder if the battle within us is the main reason we are here. To experience it and conquer it.
We should look to God and Jesus as our north star to show us the the way home.
OMG, my dear wonderful Thomas, of course! You are precisely right, and I feel stupid that it never even occurred to me.
I didn’t like this topic at all. I thought it was depressing, but my Thomas chose it, and in fact he insisted on it, and he then proceeded to write the first part of it, and then Jesus jumped in on Wednesday. Of course! Jesus must have suggested it to Thomas in the first place. If there ever has been anyone for whom trust has been an issue, it has been Jesus, who has been betrayed by almost everyone on earth that He ever has trusted. This really is His message!
I have the sense that Jesus is opening to us on earth more now, come to think of it. And perhaps this is a part of that. He wants us to get past Roman Christianity enough to truly understand that the genuine God – the Holy Spirit – and He will indeed be our constants. They will truly never fail us.
Roberta, what a great message you have posted today.
Thank you!!!!
Chris B.
My dear Chris, Welcome! And I’m glad that it has struck you this way. I think that, in fact, this is a complicated message – indeed, especially in the modern world, cultivating deep trust is for most of us so difficult.
l declare I have finally dropped my belief in ‘outer darkness ‘ for me.If I have found you, Roberta,l
am sure my vibes preclude “outer darkness ”
When Jesus said there are an abundance of lies,rejection, and unforgiving, not to mention
momentary “death” on Earth and I
am so glad for the beauty of God’s Nature he gave us. We can always get real love from Him;I knew it was true.
I am very excited about the real Jesus you have given us. It is the most precious gift I have received. I understand today. I know the immensity of Jesus’s Love and want everyone to receive it.
E.arth is unreliable, but when I see a tiger cub, I truly love and want hold him♥️
Next week, I want to discuss ‘The Lord’s Prayer’
as an invocation. A protective umbrella that sanctifies our words.
Ah, my sweet Erica, Thomas has already suggested our topic for next week, and it is a deep one! But he agrees with you that we might look to a deeper dive into the Lord’s Prayer at some point, too, perhaps. I think that he and Jesus are discussing it.
My sweet Erica, I am very excited about the genuine Jesus as well! Oh my goodness, yes, my dear, I feel now as if He is always among us, and as close to us as our dearest Friend. Our next blog post had already been well underway when you all started talking about the Lord’s Prayer, but I think that soon after that we may be able to accommodate you….
Hi Roberta,
I did not find your blog depressing at all! Betrayal/lies told to us via politicians, bosses/jobs, and religion need to be exposed in a big way!
Thanks to You, Thomas, and Jesus (I love the message at the end of your blog from him) I have learned to trust God and Jesus!
We our living in the world of Cesar for our spiritual growth and what better way then to make the best of it by following the GREATEST message ever told!
We need Jesus more than ever and I hope he gives you more messages to tell us.
I really love teachingsbyjesus.com and have learned a lot! For the first time in my life, I am now beginning to understand the Gospels and all thanks to You, Thomas, and Jesus. I sure wish RELIGION would start incorporating the truth of the Gospels as well, but I am not holding my breath.
I remember just before the holy sacraments. our priest would say “With the Fear and Love, Draw Near”. I used to ask myself how I love God and FEAR him at the same time?
I have one question I would like to understand. Why Jesus talked about being born again to Nicodemus? Was that added by the church? Maybe it can be discussed after Erica’s request to discuss “The Lord’s Prayer”.
I always look forward to your Sunday’s Blog and loved this one!
My sweet Litsa, thank you for saying that Jesus’s website is useful to you! We are looking at a second stage for it now, to try to make it more interactive, but that is up to Him – we are waiting to hear what He wants.
And yes, we might talk about the Gospel passage about being born again, perhaps – it’s in Matthew, I think – and much misunderstood.
Oh boy, I hope You, Thomas, and Jesus can set the story straight on what it means by “born again:….
Litsa,
Loved all you are learning! So interesting. Pieces of the mystery!
When you said after Erica ‘s Lord’s Prayer, I later thought–you forgot Thomas picks the topics, Erica.! I told myself the cooler weather really had
me assertive!
Anyway, loved your studies♥️Erica
Hi Erica,
Maybe, Roberta can ask Thomas and Jesus to do a topic on The Lord’s Prayer and having to being “Born Again”. Would that be Great! But, I will take whatever topics they both feel to teach us.
Thank you for the comment that you made regarding my learning. For years I was in the dark with not understanding the bible. I am so happy with Teachingbyjesus.com
I sure wish I could get my some of my family members who are still steep in “fear based” religion to view it and read the material.
I love them all and will never force anything on anyone…
Litsa
Oh yes, my sweet Erica, Thomas does choose our topics, but he cares about what you all want us to discuss. He thought we had already covered the Lord’s Prayer, for example, but then we looked back and I think he feels that we have more to say. So I think now that we have it in the queue!
Dearest Roberta
Could you or Thomas write a little about the relationship between trust and vibration? If I say I trust Jesus with all my heart, does this cause a rise in my vibration? Or will it cause increased vibration in both Jesus’s and my vibration? Similarly, if Jesus trusts me in a restricted sense, say He trusts me in matters of law even though I am totally unaware of this trust, does that affect my vibration level positively? If I trust you to render Jesus’s teachings more intelligible for me, Is that also love and therefore it causes a corresponding increase in both our vibration levels.
I just thought of this. If my vibration level had been increased due to a book I recently acquired, but some time later, I acquired a later, more authoritative book that countermanded the understanding I got from the first book, how would that affect my vibration level? By causing a drop to the level I had before I read the first book?
Yours,
Cookie
My dear Cookie, it isn’t as direct and automatic as that, but it would be your own love and trust that might well increase your own vibration.
Hi Cookie,
I just came across this quote I really liked:’As water reflects the face,
so one’s life reflects the heart I think Jesus lives in our heart so if we are grateful, forgive ,and love then we don’t need to walk around with heart-vibe odometer to measure our vibes. I think you just begin to feel better because you are getting closer to Jesus♥️
Dear Erica,
I love your reply to Cookie, and it makes a lot of sense! I have been struggling with grief this past year and have been worried about my vibrational state being lowered because of my grief. But if I keep focusing on gratitude, forgiveness, and love I imagine that keeps me in as good a state as I can possibly be in, at any rate.
Love and blessings to you and everyone here,
JenniferK
Oh my dear Jennifer, I am sorry for what you have been going through. Life can be hard while we are at it! I’m sending you my biggest hug.
Thank you, that means a lot to me!
Dear Erica,
Thank you for your response to my post. I love the device whose existence you postulated, a heart-vibe odometer, but sadly, they don’t exist, or at least not yet. Perhaps we could ask Nicola Tesla to do the developmental work.
Yours,
Cookie
Oh my dear Erica, so beautifully said!
Good morning, Roberta,
Rudolph Steiner wrote a short book on The Lord’s Prayer
as an invocation: purifying or sanctifying the air. He goes line by line revealing breath of its meaning and practical application in our lives. I have 10 more pages;I’ll make an outline of it.
What surprised me was the simplicity of the Prayer and the power!
It reminded me of your gfl-gratitude, forgiveness, and love.
I expected some hard, intense ritual, but no, the
secret to growing closer to Jesus is very simple!
Of course, I have to practice the simple plan.
I had read Steiner’s book years ago, but was drawn to it again.I say it morning and evening.
When I was in Al-Anon, we opened and closed with the Lord’s Prayer. I felt an umbrella of comfort and protection
saying it. We held hands. Sometimes the leader would forget to begin with it. I felt our words rang empty.and I
felt unprotected, unguided. I asked that we stop and recite
it. Aah, all’s well!
Wow Erica,
Very interesting find, with Rudolph Steiner regarding the Lord’s Prayer.. I will check the book out.
I stopped reciting it for a while because I thought it was a ritual respective prayer! Recently, I have been reciting it just before meditation.
I try to say it slow instead of rushing through it, I would LOVE to know it’s meaning.
Litsa
My dear Erica, I agree that the prayer is as close to perfect as it can be, and it is astonishingly simple. A child can understand it.
So, as I posting this, and I hope Roberta doesn’t mind. I am on Jonathan Roumie’s Instagram. For those of you that don’t know who he is, he plays Jesus on The Chosen.
Right now he is praying the rosary in Italy for what is happening in Israel and Gaza.
As much as I did follow him making the prayers, the creed of saying Jesus died on the cross for our sins bothers me
Also, praying and saying the Catholic Creed, I believe in on God, etc. doesn’t sent well with me either.
If Jesus really wants us to get out fear based religion then how does he allow this? At time I am confused.
I understand that Jesus was responsible for The Chosen, and I love the way Jonathan Roumie plays Jesus, but isn’t what he does still fear based?
So, we are back to square one and why does Jesus this allow this?
I hope this doesn’t sound bad, I am really trying to understand?
I do pray for the suffering, but, I can no longer pray in reciting to rosary or the Creed which by the way always sounded like The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag…
Hi Litsa,
Obviously, I can’t speak for Jesus, but from past blogs it seems to me that he doesn’t want to take anything away from our ability to grow while here. Instead, he gave us a path that we can/should follow for our best chance at spiritual growth.
It would be easy for him to change many things. The question to ask is if he should and what ramifications would that cause? Would that remove valuable learning experiences that could have helped us increase our vibrations?
Compared to increasing our vibrations by learning and moving towards Jesus and his teachings on our own. I imagine the vibrational changes would be more significant this way.
Thomas Quote: Obviously, I can’t speak for Jesus, but from past blogs it seems to me that he doesn’t want to take anything away from our ability to grow
Hi Thomas, thank you for your reply. I don’t understand how believing in praying to the rosary helps ones ability to spiritually grow. I guess my point is this all fear based. Especially the “born again” stuff…
It doesn’t make sense to me that Jesus doesn’t care for what religion has created in his name, but, still allows for all the wrong messages or should I confused messages that the church teaches.
He awaits the poor souls that have been hurt by religion in the astral realms, but, still we now have a prominent actor who plays Jesus and I LOVE the way he portrays him, but this actor is heavily steeped in Catholicism and Catholic rituals. He does many praying to the rosary LIVE on his Instagram. Of course he has tons of followers too, but, my point are people really leaving “fear based” religion when Jesus allows a show like the Chosen which is still STEEPED heavily in he died for our sins and now an actor who is ingraining it more to the masses.
I am not dissing Jonathan and I am a big fan, but, none of this make sense to me why all this continues.
Its hard to increase vibrational growth when I still see all this going on.
Hi Litsa,
I never said Jesus didn’t care. In fact, he cares a lot which is one of the things that makes Jesus special.
Do you want Jesus to wave his hands and change the way we think and feel? That would be interfering in our journey here.
I am not close to the same person I was when younger. I don’t believe the same things. I like to think I have grown quite a bit. I had to live through some rough times (still am in some instances) in order to grow. If Jesus or God had changed anything, I don’t know I would be at the same place as I am right now. That was my main point.
Why would this person choosing to believe in a religion affect your growth? I don’t see why it would to be honest. If it does, then I would suggest avoiding the show and this person’s Instagram posts.
I imagine the people who are watching this actor’s prayer videos are probably already involved in the religion. I don’t see him converting new recruits. Maybe I am wrong, I just don’t see a huge amount of people starting to believe in a religion because of an actor’s rosary prayer video.
I wouldn’t put any energy into it and concentrate on things you can control. Which is something I tend to have to remind myself of over and over again. haha
Hi Thomas,
Wow, what you wrote made sense too me! I feel that I have gowned, but, every once in a while, when I see the majority of the people still be involved with the religious Jesus and the Church Jesus it often makes me feel like religion still wins in the end and I am still a minority!
But like you stated its all about personnel growth and I want to follow the Jesus who has taught us to LOVE and FORGIVE!
Again, thank you for your reply and I am maybe your “reply post” others!
If I can chime in, on earth we have free will so I generally take that to mean that God will not typically intervene, that all kinds of things are “allowed” to happen even if they are not desirable. I could be wrong. But that’s generally what I see, that explains to me unfortunately why so many terrible things happen here on earth as a result of people’s actions. So, how could God really “disallow” something without trampling on a person’s free will? Sorry, very awkwardly worded. How could God actually stop production of a TV show? Or how could God actually stop someone from promoting one religion, or another? See what I mean?
Dear Thomas, of course you are right. Jesus won’t interfere with whatever is going on in our own lives and our own minds; He is very respectful of wherever we are spiritually.
My dear Litsa, Jesus meets each of us where we are. So, yes, if Jonathan Roumie is only there, then Jesus will meet him there, even though what he is doing is still fear-based.
You say there is no hell? That is most unfortunate because I want those Hamas savages who mutilated and chopped off the heads of babies to go straight there! I don’t want to live in a world with that evil. I cannot comprehend it. Can we manifest a HELL for them? I think God would want us to do that.
Oh mt dear Tim, Jesus did say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”