”Through the Law of Retribution each evil thought and every evil or criminal act reverts to the person who conceived the thought or committed the act; in this way the originator must endure the same spiritual or physical sufferings as those intended for or brought upon others. Balance is then restored through the sufferings endured by the originator.” (Toward the Light, Concluding Summary, p. 306)
”Be you the master of your thoughts! For every thought, however fleeting, is recorded by the high vibrations of Darkness or of the Light, and you must all bear full responsibility for the sin and the evil that your thoughts create. This I say unto you all. For you shall know that by your thought you influence one another to commit evil deeds or to do good; and you shall know that each thought, after a shorter or after a longer time will return unto its source; the good thoughts draw the Light toward you, bringing you peace and joy; the evil thoughts draw Darkness toward you, causing you many sufferings, much sorrow; for all the evil that you have wished upon others will turn without fail against yourself…you shall all give full account of your deeds, and each of you in your lives to come upon the Earth must yourself endure those sufferings, sorrows and miseries that you have brought upon others. For each evil and sinful act you have committed must surely turn against you”. (Toward the Light, Speech of Christ, p. 112-113)
A somewhat neglected aspect of the Law of Retribution, i.e. the law that has been expressed most succinctly and clearly by the words, ‘as you sow, so you shall reap’, is that its purpose is not to punish but rather to educate us humans. God does not punish.
The educating element of the Law is that it is often very difficult to convey to people who kill, for example, a proper understanding of how wrong and evil it is to kill another human being.
We know from Toward the Light that, according to the Law of Retribution, the evil thoughts and actions for which we do not want to ask forgiveness and repent will have the consequence that we ourselves will be exposed to the exact same suffering as our evil thoughts or deeds have inflicted on others (see the opening quotations of the work).
In this way, we gain, very specifically and painfully, the necessary understanding of the suffering we have caused by feeling the same pain and suffering that we have caused others, and this significantly reduces the risk that we will commit a similar crime again, straying into the same darkness.
This is in addition to teaching us righteousness.
But it should be noted straight away that it is not for any man to enforce and punish according to the Law of Retribution’s idea of fair is fair, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Retribution is exacted by the darkness we ourselves activate by our wrongdoing, and which will invariably sooner or later turn against us. Exacting retribution is thus neither for God nor man.
And it should once again be emphasised that the purpose of the law is not to punish us, to cause us unnecessary suffering, but rather to make us realise how evil and wrong violence and killing, for example, are in all circumstances.
We thereby gain a proper understanding of exactly what we have done by being exposed to the same suffering as that which we have inflicted on others; a truth that we may attempt to conceal or gloss over as we seek to justify what cannot be justified.
Because of the suffering always accompanying the Darkness, the spirit will gradually seek away from evil and towards the peace and happiness of the Light, and thus we learn, on our own body and soul, the difference between good and evil.
In addition to providing direct learning, the law also secures, through atonement, that we regain the innocence we lost when we committed the crime; just as we go to the doctor when we are physically ill and will potentially undergo painful treatment to regain health, so the sick soul is subject to the Law of Retribution, justice, to regain a healthy and pure soul through a painful purification by means of atonement (related thoughts are expressed in Plato’s dialogue Gorgias).
Another matter which must be emphasised is that the love and mercy of God and man are above the Law of Retribution in the sense that if we repent and seek forgiveness based on a sincere understanding of what we have done wrong, and receive forgiveness, we will, in such case, not become liable to undergo the same suffering as we have inflicted on others under the Law of Retribution.
When we grieve and repent our sins and crimes, the Darkness we activated (polarised) by our actions is eliminated (depolarised), meaning that, in this case, no Darkness exists which may turn against us (Toward the Light, pp. 173-174 (the printed edition)).
This circumstance is yet another reason to assert the educational purpose of the Law rather than God’s desire to punish us, as man, by realising what he has done wrong, has learnt what needs to be learnt about the specific mistake or crime.
What is important, then, is acknowledging the evil we have done, and such acknowledgement may be achieved in, at least, two ways:
1) by acknowledging, of one’s own accord, and perhaps supported by the conscience (the guardian spirit), the mistake; regretting it and asking for forgiveness
2) by enduring the same suffering that we have inflicted on others pursuant to the Law of Retribution
Thus, the Law of Retribution provides us with a proper understanding of our task and destiny, which are not to hate, persecute and kill each other, but rather to love, be of use to and enrich each other; not in name, but in actual fact.
Both the Bible and the Qur’an express the idea of retribution in a slightly different manner. The section ‘Laws for Living’, Exodus 21-23, verse 9 of the Bible, contains, for example, the famous words about ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.
Here, ‘God’ dictates to Moses a number of laws for society, and corresponding punishments if these laws are broken. It is thus the desire of God to punish, but the laws must be executed and enforced by people. The death penalty is stated numerous times as something God wants.
The Qur’an contains several similar statements, for example Surah 2:178-179 which reads, among other things: ‘O, believers! The law of retaliation is set for you in cases of murder: A free man for a free man …. etc.’ and ‘There is security of life for you in the law of retaliation!’
The idea seems to be common to the two scriptures, namely that God judges and punishes certain sins severely, sometimes by death, and the execution of the judgment is left to men.
This thought is fatal and has led to atrocities and enormities and crimes that are absolutely inconsistent with God’s Being and Will if we perceive God as the omnipotence of light and love! (This conception of God shines most brightly in Toward the Light. I have used and attempted to describe this view several times; for example in the post God and man).
First of all, because God, as stated above, does not punish, but educates us, and secondly, because no man has the right to take the life of another man, regardless of what this person may have done, and regardless of what the so-called ‘holy’ books say.
The death penalty is in any case and under all conditions a violation of the divine laws!
The main purpose of the Law of Retribution is to educate, not to punish, and no suffering lasts forever under the Law of Retribution.
Therefore, the idea of eternal punishment in hell, which both the Bible and the Qur’an in certain cases claim is an expression of God’s will (for example with respect to the ‘infidels’) is entirely inconsistent with God’s all-loving omnipotence!
A further implication of the Law of Retribution is that the real danger(s) to us is not what others may do to harm us, but rather what we may do to harm others.
That is because we destroy a part of ourselves when we commit a crime or sin and, as indicated, that such sin, if we do not repent and ask for forgiveness, sooner or later will turn against us as described above.
The evil that others do to us will, however, when it is done through no fault of our own, balance part of our karma, our past guilt of sin.
Therefore, the real danger is not outside of us (in other people, states, religious communities, cultures), but within us.
Once enough people understand and recognise this, all warfare will cease and all arms production will be halted never to be resumed, and then we can realise the ancient dream of peace in the world, peace among men, to the delight of God.
If we increase our perspective to the entire Law of Karma, by which I understand the consequences of both good and evil acts compared to the Law of Retribution’s focus and validity in terms of the specific evil we commit, then everything we do, good and bad, is reflected or mirrored in ourselves.
Thereby the Law of Karma becomes a mirror of life, or we could call it a mirror of the spirit.And when we enter the Kingdom of God as dignified, mature and productive beings who know good and evil, our experience of evil becomes the shadow in the picture emphasising the full beauty, happiness and peace of eternal life.
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The above is an attempt to depict essential aspects of one of the God-given laws under which we humans live our lives on Earth. What has been presented here should not be understood to mean that all human suffering is a result of guilt of sin from past incarnations with subsequent atonement under the Law of Retribution.
As so clearly stated in the Second Supplement, no 28, much of human suffering cannot be attributed to atonement under the Law of Retribution. This is often the case, for example, in the disruptive impact of natural disasters on earthly life, the rage of the blind forces of nature, but also in man’s lack of vigilance and care when dealing with other people, undeserved illness, etc., etc. If convenient, read the entire answer to question no. 28.
We know from Toward the Light that if a man suffers like that and it is not due to atonement under the Law of Retribution, or his own fault, God will deduct a big part of our actual guilt of sin from past incarnations, which again shows the mercy of the Almighty.
I perceive the Law of Retribution, and the Law of Karma in general, as one of God’s ways of bringing order to earthly chaos. After all, the Earth is, as stated in Toward the Light, a world of Darkness, and therefore, chance and chaos play no small part in our world.
Through the Laws of Retribution and Karma, the effects of Darkness are slowly, gradually brought under the control of the Light, and in this way, God utilises the effects of Darkness in the service of the Light; to educate us humans, His children.
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Note: Regarding the idea of the educational purpose of the Law of Retribution, and that the Law was not given by God to punish us, but to educate us, I have been made aware that the Norwegian researcher of Toward the Light, Sverre Avnskog, has expressed similar thoughts in an article from 2010 called ‘The Counterattack of Darkness – the Episcopal Letter!’ in connection with a discussion on the so-called Episcopal Letter.
My original article on the topic, published on Blogger, here available in an edited version, is from 2014, which means that Avnskog has expressed this idea before I have.
Find Avnskog’s article at toward-the-light.net.
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