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in Him. However, to transfer the sins of others, and to take them away by
punishments admitted into Himself is contrary to the nature of the annulling
of sins. Sins can be annulled only by repentance of life by him who has sinned.”
(p. 141)
Silverman: This is one of the most interesting, curious and captivating
aspects of Mr. Kaage’s style. The selection just quoted is a combination of exact
quotations from the Doctrine of the Lord 15, and Apocalypse Explained 805.
And yet, they are brought together so seamlessly that they mutually reinforce
each other.
Thesis 75: One does not enter heaven by Divine permission.
Kaage: “Many Christian sects confidently profess a doctrine rejecting good
works, supposing perhaps that no one can do them without feeling a sense of
self-merit. What these philosophies have failed to realize is that those who are
led by the Lord desire nothing more than to do good works, and that they also
think of no merit by them. This is the new life and new intention that enters
a person following a grueling process of temptations. This new intention is
given by the Lord to those who are being regenerated, and this intention to
do good is actually the Divine within us. . . . Love is a Divine active force so
overwhelming that it must escape into action. It cannot be present within us
without immediately seeking expression.” (p. 150)
Silverman: Mr. Kaage is taking on the fallacious teaching that all our
efforts to do good amount to nothing more than “rags of righteousness.” Not
only does he succinctly refute this destructive and debilitating doctrine, but he
adds that the sincere desire to do good, without any sense of self-merit, is “the
Divine within us.”
He goes on to describe this “Divine within us” as a force so great “that it
must escape into action.” What a beautiful way of describing the spontaneous
love that a mother feels for a child, a true teacher for students, a benevolent
doctor for patients! These God-given moments of genuine love are truly “the
Divine within us.”
Thesis 81: We too must undergo temptations as He did, for the rebirth
of each person is patterned after the Lord’s glorification.
Kaage: “When we turn away from the life of evil, and are raised up into
the life of heaven by the Lord, we are no longer in what is our own. We are
then in the Lord, and we think and intend goods He has inspired within us.
Thus, we must take great care to avoid evil, but we need not be anxious a