The Episcopal Letter - The Ideas of the Eldest Couched in the Terminology of Toward the Light - Part 1

The author: Sverre Avnskog - a teacher, writer and healer, born 1956 – married with two children. Copyright: Sverre Avnskog

Dedicated to my father, Jan Petter Avnskog, 1929 – 2000. He awakened my interest in the mysteries of life and was my best dialogue partner!

I have previously written quite extensively about the so called Episcopal Letter, or – as it is called in its original form: “An open and collective letter to all bishops in the country”. The letter was sent by the “Society for the Dissemination of Toward the Light” to all Danish bishops, many clergymen and other individuals, as well as to all members of the society in February 1938. It has been quite a while since I wrote about the Episcopal letter, and since then many new elements in my understanding of this letter have appeared which I would like to explain. Among other things I want to show how a number of dogmas have been established in some circles of Toward the Light – dogmas that bear a striking likeness with the Christian dogmas, for instance the dogma about Jesus as the man without sin and about salvation by faith alone – in TtL-terminology the dogmas are: the belief in Johanne Agerskov as an infallible medium; and the victory of the light as a consequence of orthodoxy. I also pose the question whether it is at all possible for God – energywise -  to go against himself and his entire essence by letting down his creations, human beings whom he has promised his unconditional love. Because I am absolutely convinced that the very moment God would go against the essence of the light – love – (something that in reality obviously never will happen), this would be tantamount to a gigantic short circuit that would instantaneously extinguish all life in the universe!

In 1938 the Board of the Society for the Dissemination of Toward the Light consisted of these three persons: Sigurd Folmer-Hansen,
born 1902, this photo from 1931.
Photo: Private

The daughter of Johanne Agerskov,
Inger Agerskov, 1900-1968, who
in 1938 wrote some of the letters to Christian Jørgensen concerning
the Episcopal Letter. Photo:
Private

Knud Harald Brønnum,1878-1953, was a mighty champion for TtL, writing books, giving lectures and leading divine services for followers of TtL. (Photo: The Danish Emigration Archives)

In the preface to the Episcopal Letter Johanne Agerskov wrote that she had once more been contacted from the transcendental side in order to receive, as a medium, a message from the spirits of the light intending to wake up the Danish church and, if possible, to help carry out the reformation that many of the Danish clergymen and bishops had promised to contribute to before their life on earth. This task was very urgent and important seen in the light of the threatening situation facing Denmark as well as the rest of the world.

From the very start the Episcopal letter was disputed, and already on the day he received it – February 23, 1938 – (the Episcopal Letter was sent on February 22) the teacher and writer Christian Jørgensen reacted to some assertions in the letter that he found difficult to combine with what was previously known through Toward the Light! Jørgensen initially didn’t refuse the thought that the Episcopal Letter could be a genuine mediumistic message from the spirits of the light, but he sent an inquiry to Johanne Agerskov whether it would be possible to have Mrs Agerskov’s spiritual leader, Leo – who allegedly had dictated the letter to her – explain the context to him. This was not at all presented as a demand from Jørgensen’s side, only as a friendly request from a man who found a few of the statements of the Episcopal Letter so controversial that he wished to have them clarified further – in particular the assertion that God possibly would become forced to sever all kinds of relations with mankind, possibly for several million years, and let them sink as deeply down into darkness, sin and misdeeds as they might, in order for God and the Youngest to start all over again.

Besides, the spirits of the light had previously – for instance in “The Doctrine of the Atonement and the Shorter Road” from 1920 – promised that they would maintain communication to the medium Johanne Agerskov until her dying day, if necessary, and that they would always be prepared to help her defend TtL against attacks that might appear. True enough, Johanne Agerskov considered her work to have been done and finalised with the publication of “Supplement II” in 1930, however in a letter to Dr Marner from 1933 we can clearly see that she changes her attitude, wishing to resume her work with responses to requests, and Leo fulfils her wish, dictating responses in 1933 as well as in 1934. However in 1938 for the very first time, as it would seem, Johanne Agerskov experiences a letdown. No response, explanations or clarifications were given to her from Leo or from anyone else, and this is in very stark contrast to what the spirits of the light had promised her and also contrary to previous similar situations. For the very first time Johanne Agerskov experienced silence from those who had previously always helped her and had promised to maintain the connection with her until her death. In a letter to Christian Jørgensen of March 26, 1938, she writes:

“Furthermore, I wish to emphasize – although my daughter has stated the very same in her letter – that Leo has discontinued his comments all together. His work with “TtL” is finished!”

Now, why could Leo not help Johanne Agerskov to explain the controversial points of the Episcopal Letter, when he had previously always supported her whenever she needed help or requested his assistance?  I have, as yet, not seen any good explanation why Johanne Agerskov was apparently let down by Leo as well as by all the other spirits of the light with whom she had been cooperating, at a point in time when even one of the foremost defenders were questioning the message of “the light”. Shouldn’t the very fact, that one of Johanne Agerskov’s very best friends and supporters throughout almost 20 years found it difficult to accommodate a “new” message with the “old” one, make the spirits of the light come to their assistance in order to avoid a possible and menacing split-up? To my mind there is only one completely good reason for Leo’s silence: In actual fact it cannot be he who dictated the Episcopal Letter, rather it was someone pretending to be him, and once he had succeeded in having Johanne Agerskov publish the letter there was no reason for the fraudster to risk being exposed by trying to respond to further questions!

There is also something peculiar in the fact that the author of the Episcopal Letter in its very message refers to something that Johanne Agerskov wrote in her preface to the letter – in other words, the Episcopal Letter must have been dictated after Mrs Agerskov having written the preface! Admittedly, it had happened earlier that Johanne Agerskov had been prepared for the content of what she was later on going to receive. However, that took place over an extended period of time during the year as from the prayer for Ardor in 1912 and until he returned a full year later. During that period the mediumistic circle consisted of six people being led into religious questions and having those responded transcendentally. This was in order for the medium to have time to turn her thoughts to what was to happen, such that there would be no resistance in her, in case controversial ideas were being hinted at. Such a spontaneous resistance might lead to problems for her to receive Leo’s thoughts in case they were very contrary to her own beliefs. I find it somewhat difficult to accept that this procedure, with many previous séances before the letter itself was being dictated, would have been chosen in 1938 considering that Johanne Agerskov at that time, except for her daughter, was completely alone and in addition very much weakened and plagued by illness. She herself said in the letters to Christian Jørgensen that she only by the greatest efforts managed to write the two letters to him. One can only imagine how immensely tiring it would be with a long series of séances in order to firstly prepare her for the content, and after that more séances in order to dictate the letter itself. It must have been a very strenuous task for Johanne Agerskov at this stage of her life. According to TtL it was very tiresome for her to have to shut down her own thoughts during the séances. Moreover, it was, according to the Episcopal Letter, her father and spiritual leader who previously had dictated to her a great many responses and also now dictated her the Episcopal Letter, in spite of a different author being behind the letter, and we know that her confidence in him was very great! For instance, when way back in time Christ was to dictate his speech to her, it was found totally unnecessary and only a waste of time to hold any preparatory séances, since the cooperation between Christ and the medium was already very good. It is well worth noting that it took almost two months of weekly séances to finalise the speech of Christ; - how long time it took to finalise the Episcopal Letter we don’t know, but probably not less than that, and Mrs Agerskov at around the same time did receive also “An Open Collective Letter to some Literary Men of the Danish People”, though this was much less voluminous than the Episcopal Letter. However, what happened in 1938 we cannot know.  There may be an entirely logical explanation why Johanne Agerskov wrote the preface before the message was dictated.

However, we know with some considerable degree of certainty, from a letter read at the annual meeting in the Society for the Dissemination of TtL in 1936, that Johanne Agerskov was exposed to criticism from members of the society for, among other things, being too passive in relation to the work involved in disseminating TtL. It was felt that she did very little to make the book known, and many also questioned and had little understanding for her being so sick, since she was one of the Youngest. Johanne Agerskov defended herself very solidly against all of these accusations in the letter read in 1936, but perchance such accusations, in spite of it all, did sow the seeds of self-doubt in the mind of Mrs Agerskov and made her unconsciously begin to wish to be able to publish more communications from the transcendental world? It would be a very human and natural reaction, since she had something to contribute in her capacity as a medium! When one has such an underlying wish to receive a new communication, one is more easily and inadvertently a victim of fraud. Evidently, the Eldest can, as well as the Youngest, evoke thoughts in the mind of humans. And just like the Youngest were able to contribute to certain questions that they wished to be put by human beings in connection with the work for TtL and being evoked in their minds, the Eldest were also able to see to that certain ideas, questions and discontent were called forward in the minds of certain of the members of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL, and hence influencing the purely human aspects of Johanne Agerskov in a negative way. Previously she had, of course, also experienced much lack of understanding, ridicule and unjustified criticism from the press as well as the church, and even from a few family members! However, what happened in connection with the contact in 1938 and further on during the dictation so far we know very little. Perhaps there are still unknown letters, in which she may tell us more about the events? The future will show.

Whatever the facts, it is clear beyond doubt that the publication of the Episcopal Letter led to a split in the small Danish community of Toward the Light. Christian Jørgensen maintained a correspondence with Inger and Johanne Agerskov for some months during the spring of 1938 without any understanding being reached. On the contrary, the Agerskov family ended by declaring that all his future letters would be returned unopened. Hence they severed all contacts with him, and one cannot but wonder how their reaction towards one of their previously very best supporters, and very dear friend, is striking similar to the course of action allegedly chosen by God according to the Episcopal Letter: “God” would perhaps sever all contacts with human beings for a period of millions of years – Inger and Johanne Agerskov chose to cut all connections with Christian Jørgensen in perpetuity. Indeed, they went as far as refusing to read the letters he might send in future and hence cut themselves off from each and every opportunity to reach an understanding with him. A possible future wish from Jørgensen e.g. to reach an understanding with them would find mother and daughter blocked from getting to know about it. How does this tally with what TtL says about how to treat one’s “enemies”? Very badly!

However, the Episcopal Letter had further consequences than ending lifelong friendships in a bitter way – it also led to a full split-up and eventually to the total breakdown of “The Society for the Dissemination of TtL”. The society, at the time led by Inger Agerskov together with Knud Brønnum and Sigurd Folmer-Hansen, followed up the breakdown between the Agerskovs and Jørgensen by repaying the amount with which Christian Jørgensen had supported the publication of the supplements – this was done without previous warning and without doing the same in relation to the other people who had donated funds for the publication of TtL-works. A quiet ostracism of Jørgensen from the “top brass” was underway, and Jørgensen was – with very good reasons – very much offended by this shady act. It sent a very clear signal to him that he had become persona non grata. Obviously darkness had entered the Society for the Dissemination of TtL.

Librarian, teacher and author
Christian Jørgensen (1887-1968)
photo from 1936. He was one of
Agerskovs’ best friends and supporters until 1938, when they broke off all contact with him on the ground that they could not agree concerning the Episcopal Letter. Photo: Private

Teacher of German language Inger Agerskov (1900-1968) in a photo from 1931. When she and her mother corresponded with Christian Jørgensen about the Episcopal Letter in 1938, they took turns as “secretary”.
Photo: Private

Johanne Agerskov (1873-1946)
in a photo from 1920. Her talent as a medium was undisputable, but was she immune to being attacked and deceived by the Eldest? Photo: Private

1939: A Failed Reminder to the Bishops!

In 1939 the board of the society decided to send a follow-up letter to the Danish Bishops in order to remind them about the two year deadline that they had received in the Episcopal Letter in relation to a decision to bring about the requested reformation of the Danish church. They sent the letter to the members in order to gather as many signatures as possible before sending it to the bishops. The letter contained a wording concerning the Christians’ and their church’s lacking contact with God, which a great deal of the members found to be provocative and untrue, such that many of them didn’t want to sign the letter. The wording was as follows:

“It is useless that clergymen pray to the God of the Bible to preserve peace for Denmark – he cannot do so, for he is not the God of truth but of lies!”

Following this, the board decided to send a note of explanation to the members. They were not inclined to change anything of the wording that the members had reacted to and wrote as follows:

“We have therefore decided to send to all members the following proof of the truth of the sentence quoted, a result that anyone who knows both the Bible and “Toward the Light” should have arrived at by themselves.”

They discuss the quoted sentence, referring to TtL, and finish by maintaining once more:

“Hence, when priests in the churches turn to the Biblical God in prayer it is either Jahve, the God of Lies, or Trinity, an absurdity, a phantom built upon a lie to which they are praying ex officio, and they will not be heard by their Spiritual Father and consequently will achieve nothing!”

This position is in spite of showing otherwise in the letter that they realise there are clergymen of the church who pray with a sincere heart and that a prayer said in genuine faith will always be heard by God irrespective of the creed or denomination of the person praying – even when he is praying to a false god. Indeed, even the mere feeling of sorrow in a human being will be understood by God as a prayer for help – and will be heard by Him! In addition, the Danish clergymen of course did not pray to God merely “ex oficio” as it is put in the note of the board – they prayed to God as humans , and all human beings who pray to God from a sincere heart will, of course, be heard by God – even when he is a Christian priest of the Danish church.

In this connection it is worth noting what Michael Agerskov wrote to the professor of theology F.L.Østrup in 1923:

“I do know that the belief in Jesus as a saviour and redeemer in the course of time has called forth many true, beautiful and genuine feelings within large parts of mankind, and I do not doubt that for these people the teaching represented the full and complete truth while they lived on earth.”

And in 1929, after Østrup having maintained: “That many priests, taking their departure in the New Testament, preach about God as the God of Love just as well as “Toward the Light”, Michael Agerskov responds:

“This is absolutely true, and I know that this is true about your gospel – but it is not the gospel of the church”.

Hence, here Michael Agerskovs demonstrates clearly that he has a different perception than that of the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL: He is fully aware that the Christian belief has evoked many genuine and true feelings within a considerable part of humanity and that many of the priests of the church preaches God as the God of love equally well as TtL! This is in sharp contrast to what Inger and Johanne Agerskov maintain in their letter to Christian Jørgensen, in which they argue that there are hardly any Christians able to pray to God from a genuine and childish heart. Of course, this is not the case, something that Michael Agerskov had obviously acknowledged, and it will seem as if both the board of the society and the Agerskovs in 1938/39 had totally forgotten what is said in TtL about the various religious persuasions in the world. Because it states that God does not at all ask what kind of faith the individual believer adheres to; rather He is only interested in this: whether the person in his or her faith has sought to find the eternal and true values and tried to live in harmony with what for him- or herself appears as truth and justice. But if this is valid for the established world religions, then it is obviously valid equally much for Toward the Light!, - however this aspect seems not to be equally evident to everybody. Strangely enough some people seem to believe that since they – according to their own view – harbour the correct belief, they also have the right to set themselves up as judges over their fellow beings in the name of God. When the Society for the Dissemination of TtL asserts that a prayer to God, proffered by a Christian, is not heard by God, this must be characterised as an excessively arrogant effrontery which ultimately will overtake the person that judges and estrange him from God. However, the board seems to have totally forgotten that our thoughts about other people in the very end will revert and hit back on ourselves. Such a judgement over other people, judging their relationship with God as worthless, will eventually lead to a destruction of the divine relationship of the judgmental person.

Why wouldn’t a Christian in his boundless love be as close to God as one who believes in Toward the Light, even if the TtL-supporter has adopted the “correct teachings” wholeheartedly? It all matters none, if the person doesn’t harbour love in his heart. And on this point, in reality the Episcopal letter is founded on a religious understanding very far away from the one represented by TtL.

The Episcopal Letter asserts that God is not able to help humanity before TtL is adopted and accepted as the truth, whereas TtL asserts that God doesn’t ask at all what belief the person adheres to, but only how he lives and behaves in accordance with his faith.
It is also important to remember from the transcendental side there was a very clear understanding that it would be a long time before mankind would really ha able to appreciate the rich and abundant gifts that Toward the Light with adjacent works represented. E.g. Supplement I states as follows:

“After that, mankind has received “Toward the Light” and “The Doctrine of Atonement and the Shorter Road” as visible results of the work of the Youngest. – But obviously it will take a long time before mankind is able to fully understand and appreciate these boons and gifts, even if many people are already at this point in time realise their unique value. However, the time will come when mankind will appreciate, with gratitude and clear understanding, the work carried out to facilitate their transmigration towards the distant home of their father.-“

And it also states:

“Slowly the Christian faith in its main denominations as well as its numerous older and newer  confessions will be undermined and eventually collapse completely.”

Concerning the probability that a work such as TtL would succeed in arousing the interest of prelates and professors the text comments as follows:

“Because only when prelates and professors confront a “fait accompli” there would be a possibility – and only a slight one – that a work constructed in a clear and logical way and, to boot, bearing the hallmark of truth would awaken their interest and understanding”.

In other words: in 1929 God and the Youngst know that there is but a small possibility that a work such as TtL would be able to arouse the interest of prelates and professors, and they know that it will take a long time before mankind will truly appreciate TtL and that the Christian faith will only slowly be undermined – yet, 9 years later, suddenly it is a gigantic disaster that the reformation of the Danish church has not yet been carried out!

In Supplement I it is even stated quite clearly what would happen in case the Danish church had been reformed at the time TtL was published in 1920: It would be a wonderful event that would have resounded all over the world – but it doesn’t say anything about this reformation being able to save the world from an impending disaster!

Borough medical officer Aage Marner (1889-1966) was keenly interested in the universe and corresponded for a long period of time with Johanne Agerskov about this subject. In one of the letters to Marner we can read that Mrs Agerskov, after having decided in 1930 to discontinue the work
related to responding to approaches for help from Leo, reconsidered and requested that the connection be re-established.
Photo: The Royal Library, Copenhagen.

Johanne Agerskov’s sister, Emma Mathiesen (1870 – 1954) was very close to Johanne and was very much absorbed by TtL. Among other things she wrote an open letter to Martensen
Larsen who had attacked TtL. In 1938 Emma wrote that she was almost surprised that her sister was still alive, considering the enormous sufferings and strains to which she had been
exposed. Emma was also among those that put questions to the supplements.
Photo: Private.

What Might Have Saved Denmark from Being Drawn into the War?

So, what could have been done by the TtL-followers in 1938 to really result in the Light being able to prevent the evil ether images by Ardor from becoming a reality? In Toward the Light!, page 311 it is stated:

“If it were conceivable for an entire people to be united in complete confidence in God and in full assurance that nothing evil was able to hit it from the side of a despotic, jealous or rapacious neighbour, then even the most evil-minded machinations would fall to the ground, glancing off against the shared absolute faith.”

If the Society for the Dissemination of TtL had really had full faith in what is stated in TtL, they should have understood that only an initiative which included all of the churches and denominations of Denmark, irrespective of confession or religion, joining hands in a united prayer in which each and everyone could participate on equal terms and in which everyone united and prayed in a spirit of childlike faith that God could help, could have had the desired effect. In this way we could have prevented Darkness gaining ground – not by doing what the Episcopal Letter is urging: Condemn the Christian faith and the Christians, claiming - with the gift of effrontery – that God doesn’t listen to their prayers! I am tempted to say: What an ungodly claim! Of course God will hear prayers from Christians as well as Muslims, Jews, Hindus and everybody else in the same way and degree, as long the prayer comes from a sincere heart. In any case – what would the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL know about the ability of Christians to turn to God out of the sincerity of their hearts? Nothing what so ever!

So TtL is stating that if the entire population of a country is united in full confidence in the protection of God, then no evil can touch this country. But does it also say that all inhabitants of this country must necessarily believe in TtL? No, of course not, on the contrary it is stated rather clearly in TtL, page 307:

“No more than God would ever want to enforce a particular religion on anybody, no more would He demand to be honoured and worshiped in this or that prescribed manner”.

Consequently, when the Society for the Dissemination of TtL believed they had the right to try to force a reformation on the Christian church, they are on a collision course with what God wants. For a country to have the full protection of God it is not at all a precondition for everyone to have the same faith – the only thing they do need to have in common is a profound confidence in the protection of God - and this is not something the TtL followers can monopolise. However, apparently the board of TtL believed that as long as you believe in TtL God provides you with a special protection and you also have a special right to judge the value of other people’s religious believes. What kind of connection the individual Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or any other kind of human being has to God in his or her heart, evidently only the person himself/herself and God will know. For as it is written in TtL:

“...because onto God, the Creator of the human spirit and our Father, it is not important what kind of earthly belief the individual confesses to with his hand and mouth, but only this: that  humans in their mind and heart, in their thoughts and acts, really live in accordance with the creed to which they profess without paying attention to the superficial etiquette of their belief or to the enforced aspects that have no spiritual value for the eternal life whatsoever; only what calls upon, evokes and maintains the very best, noblest and most beautiful things in humans’ thoughts and feelings – only that has lasting and indelible value for the individual.” TtL, page 317.

Honour bright! Is anybody ready to claim that what can be read in the Episcopal Letter evokes the very best, the noblest and most beautiful in their thinking and emotions? Hardly!

What is asserted in the Episcopal letter - that only a reformation of the Danish church into becoming a church founded on TtL values was the only thing that could prevent the future grim events - is very close to the Christian dogma about “salvation by faith alone”, being the conviction that people who cannot accept the belief that it is the death of Jesus on the cross that has made their salvation possible, cannot partake in the eternal life by means of their good deeds – whatever good deeds they carry out, they are still lost. In this respect the Episcopal Letter adheres closely by maintaining that it was only by everyone believing in TtL that Denmark could be kept outside the war and that world peace could be saved.
In other words that faith alone could save the world. How far the Episcopal Letter is from TtL on this particular and very fundamental point is seen clearly in the summons to the bishops towards the very end of the letter:

“Pray choose the right way, but choose without coercion: For God does not force anyone to do the right thing!! I f you think, based on the best and most truthful in yourselves, that Christianity as it is now, - from start to finish – is in harmony with the eternal truths, in harmony with God’s laws and in harmony with God’s infinite love to all spiritual creatures, then our Father has no more to say to you; but then you must carry the full responsibility for the times ahead!”

In this summons lies an irreconcilable double message. Initially the bishops are encouraged to choose without coercion, for God coerces no one, rather wishes everyone to follow their own conscience – and so far this is in line with what is said in TtL: God demands and wishes nothing else from us than for us to follow our own conscience and our free will. However, in the second part of the summons it appears quite clearly that the bishops are not doing the right thing in following their conscience in case they do not attain the result demanded from them by the Episcopal Letter. And in spite of the bishops possibly doing precisely what God asks us to do, they would still remain answerable to the evil that would follow. Consequently the Episcopal Letter is in conflict with itself on this particular point as well as totally incompatible with TtL!
But according to the Episcopal Letter it was only the belief in TtL that could possibly save world peace in 1938. And the Board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL indeed perceived the Episcopal Letter as a carte blanche to tell the Danish bishops that their “God” could not answer their prayers, because they did not believe in the right “God”.

In comparison, TtL is not concerned with what kind of faith the individual person adheres to, rather it encourages all believers not to stand on the superficial and the routine and instead seek the most truthful and the noblest in his or her faith. Equally important is it for us supporters of TtL not to begin to think that there is only one single and particularly “correct” way to be a TtL-supporter! In other words, we must seek the eternal values in TtL itself and avoid becoming “slaves” to man-made dogmas and myths. Because I have no doubt that among the believers in TtL a number of dogmas have already been established. And the most central of these is the belief in Johanne Agerskov as an infallible medium. Of course, TtL mentions nothing about Johanne Agerskov being an infallible medium! This is a myth sprung up amongst the people who believe in TtL!

Allow me also in this connection to say that to me it is an immense and completely incomprehensible enigma why the followers of the Episcopal Letter cannot see the great similarity between the old concept of an avenging God who condemns mankind to eternal torments in hell if they don’t believe in Him on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the assertion of the Episcopal Letter that God could consider to let His creatures sink as deeply down into sin, darkness and misdeeds as they possibly might because TtL was not acknowledged as “the right faith”. A life on earth without contact with God must become more or less identical with a stay in Hell: In dark sin and misdeeds, and in the case of Episcopal Letter for all mankind. Even those that in fact do believe in TtL must suffer these hellish torments for millions of years, if God interrupts all contact. Would this God, according to the Episcopal Letter, be so much more loving and benevolent than the Jewish war god Jahve or the Christian Trinity?  He even appears to be worse since he punishes people in a completely arbitrary way, leaving no possibility for the individual to take any action in order to avoid this cruel fate! The Christian “God” at least allows those that believe in Him to partake of the eternal life in salvation, while the “God of the Episcopal Letter” hits out blindly – good as well as evil people, believers as well as non-believers – they must all live for millions of years in something that is hardly distinguishable from Hell, if this prophecy comes true! How can anyone believe that the loving, patient and benevolent God of TtL can let it happen that His creatures who He loves with the deepest love imaginable are to be condemned to years of suffering in an existence similar to that in Hell??

Johanne Agerskov’s sister Emma Mathiesen’s open letter to Dean Martensen-Larsen from 1922. Emma was very familiar with the content of TtL and was kept informed by her sister about what happened during the séances. Her letter to Chr. Jørgensen is a very important source of information about the history of Toward the Light. Copyright: Private.

The first page of Johanne Agerskov’s open letter to the members of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL. The letter was read out at the annual meeting in 1936 and was a reply to the criticism
directed against Mrs Agerskov for being too passive in relation
to the task of dissemination of TtL. Copyright: The Royal Library.

Love and Tolerance or the “right faith”?

In my view, what was so amazing and unique about what happened when Ardor turned - and which enabled God to promise the Youngest that a time of more light and purity would dawn for everyone - was really not so much that TtL was born, rather it was that the light emerged victorious in a total and final triumph over darkness in the spiritual world. TtL was a consequence of Ardor having turned, and, as such, is more a result of the victory rather than the goal itself. After the final victory of the light over darkness in the spiritual world, nothing will be able to remain the same, and hence the joy over the victory being so infinitely great among God and the Youngest. The light has no haste what so ever in relation to the dissemination of Toward the Light, and it is also clear that on the side of the light there was complete understanding that there was only a small chance that TtL would make a breakthrough already by the publication in 1920. But once published, TtL can never disappear, and sooner or later this work will be the joint foundation for the belief of all mankind – this is what we are being promised in TtL, and what is promised by God will always become a reality sooner or later!

But how come those who joined TtL in 1938 could be so strongly convinced that if only they would be able to persuade the Danish bishops to adhere to the teachings of TtL and to convert the Danish people, then in one stroke world peace could be saved? It is rather interesting to try and find the background to this view.

In the discussion forum on the website of the Swedish publishing company Amelius, which publishes TtL in Swedish, the translator of TtL into Swedish, Robert Keleman, writes:

“If God and the Youngest could find one bishop or priest – just one – who would understand and embrace the work Toward the Light, the World War II ether-image would have been dissolved, or at least large parts of it.” http://www.amelius-books.com/discus_eng/

Here Robert Keleman, who appears to be a very ardent follower of the Episcopal Letter, posits an interesting postulate. And I believe this postulate is very important in order to understand why so many TtL followers think it is so crucial to disseminate TtL as speedily as possible and also why the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL meant that it was of such enormous importance that the Danish church was reformed in 1938.

Robert Keleman asserts that if God and the Youngest could find just one bishop or priest willing to adhere to TtL, then the ether-image that lead to the 2^nd world war would be dissolved by one single stroke – or at least large portions of it.

At any rate, this theory makes it easier to understand why the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL behaved as they did in 1938/39. But does this provide reason enough to believe that things are as Robert Keleman is claiming? Are ethereal images dissolved in the way he describes? Was it really as simple as that – that if only one clergyman or bishop embraced TtL, then the ether image that led to the 2^nd world war would vanish at one fell swoop?

No, definitely not – at least not according to TtL. I have read TtL from cover to cover at least 7-8 times and I have nowhere found anything to support such a theory. On the contrary, we are told that there is but one way to weaken the ether images and that is by avoiding to follow their evil thought impulses. The ether images  - being evil plans contrived by the Eldest and designed so as to befall humans in various cruel ways, influencing them by means of evil flows of thought emanating from them – will be weakened or strengthened dependent upon the thoughts and behaviour of men. When humans follow the evil flows of thought and carry out the evil deeds to which the flow of thought encourages them, the power of the ether image is strengthened – and when humans refuse to follow the flow of thought, the ether image is weakened. To be sure, it is stated that God and the Youngest can lead the evil flows of thought of the ether images away to receiving stations on distant planets, but they can only do that if the ether images have become sufficiently weakened from the outset as a result of humans having resisted their evil instigations.

Hence, there is no other conclusion: What Robert Keleman is asserting doesn’t find any support in TtL. It doesn’t happen like that. Even when Ardor returned to the light, thanks to Johanne and Michael Agerskov’s  loving prayer for him, this didn’t lead to the disappearance of the ether images such as one might expect. The ether images remained unchanged – once emitted the only way they can be stopped is if those that the images are designed to befall manage to resist their mental power. But in addition TtL tells us that the Youngest are able to anticipate all the ether images and are constantly working in every possible way to prevent them from becoming reality on earth.

This belief that all of the evil plans of the Eldest would be wiped out – as if by magic – just because one single clergyman embraced TtL therefore cannot be perceived as anything else than a form of superstition or wishful thinking, very far from reality. Unfortunately things are not so simple. Human beings have to manage by themselves to resist evil – however with the very good help they always get from their guardian spirit and from the Youngest who are working incessantly in order to prevent – if at all possible - the ether images from becoming reality.

Obviously this does not imply that I refuse the idea that a possible reformation of the Danish church in accordance with TtL could have resulted in a powerful de-polarisation and a cleansing of the dark energies hovering over Denmark. Such a de-polarisation of darkness obviously would not have been brought about as a consequence of somebody having changed his beliefs in itself, but possibly it could be a result of the Danish bishops and  church congregations going through a deeply felt “reformation” in their inner emotional life  -  assimilating the message of Toward the Light in the bottom of their hearts and truly understanding how important it is to pray from a trustful heart in order to be heard.
Unless a possible reformation had such a depth, I cannot see the effect being very great, for as TtL is telling us very clearly, the decisive thing is not what kind of faith one confesses to, because it is not the faith in itself that “saves”, rather it is the individual’s ability to love and his trust in God’s guidance.

Apart from this, it is of course rather difficult to imagine that a reformation of the Danish church would be able to eliminate those ether images that had nothing to do with Denmark, and ethereal images that had already been active for many years, to boot! The ether images aiming at inducing Germany to launch military attacks on the rest of Europe must presumably have been directed towards the German leaders and the German people, and for their military attacks to have been stopped it would, in all reason, have required the reformation of the German church, not the Danish – Denmark of course did not take part in any attacks – on the contrary! I can definitely not find any support in TtL for the claim that the adherence of one single person of a group of persons to TtL would have been able to influence ether images that concerned not themselves but somebody else! The person or those that are being hit by ether images must by their own resist the evil flows of thought from these ether images – however always with the assistance and support from the Youngest, never faltering! I find that we may conclude, well founded in the messages of TtL, that it is quite unimaginable that a reformation of the Danish church, even if the consequence were a very deeply felt “awakening” of the Danish people, would result in a situation whereby ether images - active for many years and were directed towards entirely different countries – would be eliminated. Unfortunately it amounts to wishful thinking. The effects of people adhering to TtL are important, but they are not so enormous that Evil is being wiped out as if by magic!

Johanne Agerskov spared no efforts to persuade her friend Christian Jørgensen about the authenticity of the Episcopal Letter; however she did not succeed in this endeavour, and this left her very sad. Perhaps it would have been better if she herself had been more receptive to his viewpoints? This is page 9 of the last but one letter she wrote to him. Copyright: The Royal Library.

The last letter of the correspondence between Jørgensen and the Agerskovs, written by the daughter Inger Agerskov. This is the last page of her last letter, in which she states that she and her mother will now sever each and every future connection with Jørgensen. Copyright: The Royal Library.

If God Turned Against his Power of Love He Would Destroy Himself!

In the discussion on his webside, Robert Keleman also mentions something else of great interest (February 2002):

“ –The year 1938. Did God and the Youngest see dangers in the horizon in 1938?
- Hitler planned to start the War in March-April 1940, but he was – like the rest of the Eldest – impatient and began to wage war in September 1939. (1940 minus 1938 = 2 years.) How much time was given to the Danish Bishops?
- Ether-images
- Nazism, communism, fascism
- Nuclear weapons
- Hundreds of incarnated Eldest (among others Hitler, Stalin), many with no conscience
- Incomprehensible sufferings
- Could God in 1938 have foreseen how the “coming” war would go?
- How would the Youngest have been able to carry out their work during an atomic winter?
- How would the Youngest have been able to carry out their work in Europe and the rest of the world with Hitler in power?
- And finally, what is the easiest way to remove or eliminate Ether-images?[1]

There seems to be a widespread view among many of the supporters of the Episcopal Letter that the more they manage to characterize the situation in 1938 as gloomy and negative, the more credibility is gained by the Episcopal Letter. And behind this compulsion to paint the most cruel effects of Ardor’s threatening ether images, is apparently the notion that because the prospects were so barbarous, God had to resort to quite extraordinary efforts. Keleman is also of the opinion that the significance of the Episcopal Letter today is totally irrelevant, because it was a document that can only be understood in the historical context of its contemporary time and only targeted the Danish bishops. On this point I disagree totally. God’s tactics are, and have always been, the same: He follows the path of light and love  - and his mill grinds slowly – but He knows that the light will eventually conquer – even if it may take a very long time. However much one makes the most pessimistic and grim prophecies it doesn’t change anything: Nothing of that can justify that God in a letter to the Danish bishops would support statements against the laws of the light – God and the Youngest will never ever choose any other tactics than that of maintaining the laws of the light. And as long as ether images planned by the Eldest continue to exist, the Youngest will continue to work against them, such as they have always done.

If we were to apply Keleman’s theory on a worldly example, we could for instance imagine a father who has always raised his children with love and never abused them; imagine such a father confronted with a situation where he is seeing his children exposed to an extraordinary danger and then going totally against everything he himself stands for, threatening the children that if they do not follow his command in this particular case, he will beat them out of their senses. This is the Episcopal Letter in a nutshell. Apparently “God” completely changes his tactics compared to what he otherwise has always represented!  A human being on earth might well do such a thing – but not God! And the Episcopal Letter is definitely inconsistent with TtL in many important aspects!!

However, going back to 1939 – how did the members react to the board’s “explaining” letter in which they, in spite of protests from many members, maintained that God does not listen to the prayers of a Christian? As far as I know the letter did not make anybody change his or her mind, and this was received very negatively by the board. They distributed yet another letter to the members, this time in order to announce that the board had decided that because of so many members not having signed the letter, they would not, after all, send the letter to the bishops. At the same time they viciously attacked those that had not signed the letter, accusing them of having let down TtL at such a decisive point in time. And they added that they could not fathom how such people could have any interest in being members of the society when they ended up by letting it down at the decisive moments. This is probably the most straightforward way to tell someone that they are not wanted. But not very long time after this, the society was gone, split up and destroyed by internal strife.

In his ardor to make the authenticity of the Episcopal Letter plausible, Robert Keleman paints the most gruesome scenarios:

“We know today that if the Nazis and the Japanese armed forces had won World War II, the civilization as we know it had ceased to exist. We also know, through interviews with those who worked with Hitler and his henchmen, that the Nazis had large plans to “rebuild” parts of Czechoslovakia and Poland into enormous concentration camps with “murder factories” where 100,000 – 5000,000 human beings could be massacred per week. This would have been ethnic cleansing in its darkest form – absolutely jet-black. They would have performed medical experiments on millions of children, men and women. The Nazis would have destroyed every painting by great artists that, according to their sick minds, was “decadent”. There would have been no trace, no trace what so ever, of the work that Johanne and the Youngest had done during so many years under extremely hard conditions. The work “Toward the Light” would have vanished into smoke here on Earth. Entire cultures on Earth would have been annihilated. And what if the Nazis and the Japanese armed forces had “discovered” nuclear weapons before the USA and Russia? They would have destroyed the United States, Russia, Great Britain, China and large areas of Asia without batting an eyelid. The result would have been hundreds of millions (maybe a billion) dead people, atomic winter over large parts of the world, hunger, unbelievable sufferings. We would have been transferred over 200 million years back in time. God had foreseen that all this could happen in the 1940s, at worst. In the light of this, it is stated that He (God) “perhaps for long periods would have to ‘break off’ all connection with mankind”. This is not the same as abandoning the human beings. It is only a matter of changing tactics from God’s and the Youngest side. Please try to imagine how meaningless the work of the Youngest would have been on Earth after for instance an atomic winter. What would the Youngests’ situation have become under such conditions? It would of course have been impossible for the Youngest to carry out their work, to guide and help mankind forward under such circumstances. That is why God “wrote” the much-discussed section in the “Open Letter to all the Bishops”. And, once again, this has nothing to do with abandoning human beings”.

Once again I have to say that this ferocious depiction of the barbarous times which the Episcopal Letter was meant to prevent can in no way contribute to justifying that God in the Episcopal Letter goes against his own promises and his own laws. Besides, I think that Robert is guilty of “forgetting” that the Youngest had just then won the definitive victory over darkness in the spiritual world, and evidently the Youngest worked throughout the entire 20th century very vigilantly to prevent the ether images from turning into reality. It appears very clearly from TtL that God and the Youngest were fully aware that Ardor had designed some of the worst ether images ever, and undoubtedly Ardor had wished to see mankind annihilated in an atomic Ragnarok.  Would then the response of God and the Youngest to this situation be merely to send out the Episcopal Letter and then otherwise remain passive in a watch-and-see attitude? Hardly! And in response to Keleman’s claim that Toward the Light would be obliterated and that there would not be even a trace left of the work carried out by the Youngest and Johanne Agerskov, I would like to remind about the following, found on page 32 in Supplement I:

“T.t.L.has gained access to them human world, its thoughts and messages can never be wiped out and disappear”.

If that which is stated in Supplement I is true and correct, nothing of what Robert Keleman writes about the terrible conditions that could emerge on earth can be true. What is stated in the quotation above, dictated to Johanne Agerskov by Leo with the blessing of God, provides us with a secure conviction: TtL, its thoughts and messages will never disappear from the earth!

However, supposing for a moment that Keleman is right and that it really was this total breakdown of all civilization and these gruesome sufferings that waited human beings in case the Danish bishops did not fulfill their promise to God. In that case I am of the view that there must be every reason to ask: How could God let the responsibility for all mankind avoiding all these horrendous torments rest on such a fragile foundation, being the ability of 9 Danish bishops to reform the Danish church? All the more since several of the bishops had not even promised to contribute to such a reformation! Does God gamble with the sufferings of human beings, or is He a completely inferior strategist? And, if it had occurred that the bishops had agreed to support the reformation of the church, is there any guarantee that they would have succeeded? Another possible scenario could be that they would not succeed in rallying the clergymen for their cause, or that they could have been dismissed from their positions each and every one of them – and, in that case, who would then take over the task of reforming the church?

No, this cannot be true. It seems entirely unthinkable that God would be willing to let the self-sacrificing efforts of the Youngest throughout millions of years in the service of the light be wasted, after which He Himself would surrender totally, leave the misery to itself, wash His hands and leave mankind to cater for itself. If the Episcopal Letter is correct, then God is not only very poorly gifted – He is an irresponsible gambler, putting his creations’ suffering at stake. He is then a disgraceful coward and totally unworthy to assume any responsibility for living creatures. Fortunately this is not the case!

God of course always possesses complete overview over absolutely all contingencies and possibilities, and the fact that God has limited His prescience about the choices of each individual of course does not mean than He per se has limited his capabilities or made Himself less gifted. Evidently God has retained His capacity to imagine what is awaiting in the future, in case those that He entrusted the responsibility for thwarting Ardor’s plans should fail. For instance, when Christ and the Youngest were to find human beings on earth who trusted them so much that they were willing to pray for Ardor, of course God had reincarnated not only Johanne Agerskov and Michael Agerskov in order to carry out this plan! He had incarnated a number of people in many different countries, who could all be ready to resolve the task, and we know from TtL that in case the Agerskovs had failed Christ and his helpers would have continued to search and would have found someone else who could handle it. Obviously God is never short of solutions, because He is able to predict everything that might go wrong and has always a plan B, plan C, plan  D, plan E and so on  in perpetuity – as a backup.

Does anyone really believe it possible that God one day will be in a situation where He gives up because He has run out of ideas? Would it be feasible to experience that God one day will say: - No, I really hadn’t thought about this. No, I cannot take this anymore…. So long, all my creatures, from now on you are on your own; perhaps we will meet in three or four million years, while I will rest and make myself comfortable in Heaven! Luckily I have everything that I need to enjoy life up here….. If it were feasible that God could do this – something that He evidently never never never could possibly do, and also cannot do, then I am personally convinced that this would destroy Him, and that all kind of life would immediately cease to exist! In the case of God we are talking about such gigantic forces that if He should chose to go against His own power of love, His consciousness would immediately be shattered in an explosion so gigantic that the strongest atomic bomb in this world would, in comparison, be like a barely audible whistling sound – and the universe and all His creations, all the Youngest, the Eldest and all human spirits would in that same moment perish! That would be the result if the Episcopal Letter is true, if it were feasible that God could leave his creations for a period of several millions of years. The energy flow of divine strength that continuously flows from Him to all of His creations would be met by a destructive counter flow and the universe would simply short-circuit! On a much smaller scale the same thing has happened on earth many times before: Human beings with unusually strong love energy who have chosen to go against their conscience and have let other conditions guide them into the wrong direction have had their personalities short-circuited and have become insane.

But those who think that God knowingly and willingly could possibly break off every connection with His creations and let them sink so deeply into darkness, sin and misdeeds as they possibly can, ought to sit down as soon as possible and study TtL again in peace and quiet – again, again and again, until he or she is able to fathom just a fraction of God’s true nature……..

Johanne Agerskov was a very shy and modest person who didn’t like any focus on herself. As the years went by she preferred to stay at home and only seldom ventured out with her daughter and her husband. Therefore very few photos of her exist – only 11 are known. The above picture, probably taken around 1896, was handed over to the photo collection of the Royal Library by an unknown person, and hence it is a public photo that anyone can copy. It is known that Børge Brønnum has signed a statement according to which he agreed to destroy Mrs Agerskov’s pictures before she died, but even in the early 20th century people were photographed so frequently that it was totally impossible to destroy all pictures of oneself. In this photo all the Malling-Hansen sisters are seen together with their stepmother Anna, the son-in-law Fritz August Bech and his and Zarah’s daughter, also named Zarah, later married as Odder. Johanne is number two from left. Photo: The Royal Library.

God Promised the Youngest that the World Would Head Towards Periods of More Light and More Purity!

Toward the Light! recounts the history of the struggle between darkness and light, for many thousands of years raging between good and evil – with the earth as arena. During the Renaissance the Youngest were sent to earth in their thousands in the shape of brilliant artists and scientists in order to contribute to elevating the cultural and scientific level of mankind. The consequence was that the light grew sufficiently strong for preparing a new incarnation for Christ in order to once more try remind Ardor about the prayer, win him back to the light and break the power of darkness.

But instead of exposing Christ to the risk of new immense strains and possibly deep wounds and disappointments, this time God chose a different strategy for light to definitely conquer darkness, calling this strategy the shorter road or the shortcut (in Danish: ‘genveien’). The implication of the shorter road was that the Youngest -  in discarnated state, without human form – contacted terrestrial assistants through so called mediumistic circles and made them pray for all the fallen spirits, who because of their sinful lives had not been able to return to their homes in the spheres and were wandering about on earth or in the sphere of Hell.

And God did not hide the fact onto Christ that if they were willing to follow this shorter road, then the victory of the light over darkness would occur at a much earlier stage than what they would otherwise be able to hope for.

“My Son, I say unto you: will you follow this shorter road, with human beings as intermediaries and helpers, then within a century you can together draw all spirits of the dead away from the Earth and back unto life and the Light – and then purer and brighter times soon come unto all of you.”
 (Ardor’s account).

In my view, this statement cannot be understood in any other meaning than this: God through his omniscience was already at this point in time aware that if Christ and the Youngest were to follow the shorter road, they would manage to win back all the “dead”, and “purer and brighter times (would) soon come unto all of you”!  Christ could hardly understand this as anything else than a promise from God that the Light would be victorious, if the Youngest were to chose the shorter road , and that this victory in the spiritual world would bring about an era of more light and purity for all of God’s creatures.

Is this consistent with a situation barely a hundred years later, Christ and his assistants having carried out God’s plan to the letter and won all of the earth-bound spirits, including Ardor, back into the light, where God – according to the Episcopal Letter – is at the point of abandoning his entire plan and may perhaps sever every connection with mankind, perhaps for a period of millions of years?  If the Episcopal Letter is correct on this issue and  if God, after having initially persuaded the Youngest to carry out a plan than He calls the shorter road and promised that the plan will bring lighter and purer times for everybody, at a later stage He Himself drops all further help to humans for several hundred millions of years on account of some Danish bishops not supporting TtL at the appropriate point in time, then God is nothing but a simple liar who has double-crossed the Youngest. If fulfillment of God’s plan hinged entirely upon the choices of a few Danish bishops and would otherwise founder completely, then it was dishonest as well as mendacious by God not to inform the Youngest about it when he requested their participation in the plan. Of course God would never do such a thing. When God promises purer and brighter times for everybody, he evidently states this in full awareness and knowledge that He is right – otherwise He would not be omniscient and omnipotent! God doesn’t play God, so to say. If God says something will happen – then it is because He knows it and not because He hopes that what He promises shall occur!

When Christ informed all the other Youngest about God’s plan they were hesitant to go along with the shorter road, because they immediately understood that carrying out the plan would expose them to enormous exertions and afflictions. However when Christ, safe in his conviction that by the grace of God they would be victorious, told them that God had promised to be at their side along the entire road, then this also broke the resistance among the other Youngest:

“Brother, Brother, we shall go along with you and help you to carry these new burdens. Indeed, you shall not walk alone. And when our Father is with us, we shall surely be victorious!”

It is quite evident from this that all of the Youngest realized that if they carried out their part of the plan, God would make sure that the mission succeeded.

What is related here is in reality the beginning of the history of Toward the Light, because TtL was created as a direct result of the decision of the Youngest to execute God’s plan and as a direct consequence of God having promised them that they would be victorious! Thanks to TtL we know in detail how the Youngest came to Earth, found their assistants, and how the circle of people around Johanne and Michael Agerskov throughout a number of years prayed for the earth-bound spirits and won all of them, including Satan, back into the Light. They also received Ardor a year later in order for him to tell his story, and several of the Youngest related what finally became the three promised fruits: “Greeting to Denmark”, “Toward the Light!” with supplements and “The Doctrine Atonement and the Shorter Road”.

In other words, God’s shorter road was successful: The Youngest redeemed all of the earth-bound spirits and the light gained the last and final victory over darkness in the spiritual world! And there was much happiness when all of the Youngest had reconvened in Heaven after the shorter road having been brought to its final victory.

“And God spoke to Christ and the Youngest who had accompanied their Brother, thanked them all for their deeds and for the great patience and love shown by them.
     And there was much elation and they all rejoiced; for they knew that from this moment on lighter and better times would dawn for all of them, although they understood that still many eras would pass before mankind would become purer and less sinful; although they understood that eons would come and go, before the Light would have fully absorbed Darkness and completely removed it from the Earth.”

Here it is confirmed what God promised the Youngest before they started on the shorter road: “for they knew that from this moment on brighter and better times would dawn for all of them…”If the Episcopal Letter, published a mere 25 years after the scene described above, is correct in stating that God, only 25 years later, will perhaps have to break off every contact with mankind, maybe for millions of years, on account of the Danish bishops not having managed to reform den Danish church in accordance with TtL, and that God therefore cannot endure being a passive witness to the sufferings of mankind, well then the rejoicing by God and the Youngest is based upon a total misunderstanding of the entire situation. They think that they have triumphed such as God had promised them that they would, and they are confident that better times will dawn for all of them even if it may take some time before all darkness has been wiped out from the earth, but it appears then that God knows very well that this success is only temporary, and that everything hinges on a few Danish bishops? He is fully aware that He has misled the Youngest: By hiding part of the truth He has persuaded them to participate in a gigantic task under promises that they will prevail, and then the end result is possibly millions of years of suffering for the entire mankind? It is of course totally unthinkable that this be the case. God promised victory to the Youngest, and He promised them that brighter times would dawn for all of them, and evidently He would never have done that if there were just the slightest possibility that the entire plan would result in total disaster for mankind!

Moreover, there is no information in TtL to the effect that God’s promise of brighter and purer times to dawn for everyone was linked to specific conditions after Ardor having been won back. The victory in the spiritual world had been won, brighter times were to dawn, and there is nothing said about these brighter times hinging upon some Danish bishops fulfilling a promise that some of them gave before their worldly existence.

Besides publishing TtL, Michael Agerskov had his own authorship which included novels as well as poems. He also published a textbook for the teaching of Danish literature covering texts for primary and secondary school levels. In 1919 the Association of Danish Writers issued a 25 year jubilee publication, and the illustration above shows the presentation of Michael Agerskov in that publication.

The Episcopal Letter – The Old Teachings of Ardor, now in a New Terminology

It was by no means the first time Christian Jørgensen approached Johanne Agerskov, when he sent her a letter after having received and read the Episcopal Letter in February 1938. He had, for a number of years, been a close friend of both Mr and Mrs Agerskov, and he was the very first person Johanne Agerskov wrote to in order to convey the news of her husband’s demise in 1933, because Michael Agerskov had requested her to do so. And in Jørgensen’s case it is very interesting to recall what is said in Supplement I about why from the spiritual world there was a wish to publish two supplements to TtL. In spite of the Youngest having guided the thoughts of the original six séance participants onto those questions they wanted them to put in connection with TtL, there were still many questions the Youngest wished to include in TtL but which they had not succeeded to engender in the thoughts of the participants. Following the publication of TtL, and after having been read and aroused the interest of various people, the Youngest agreed to lead some of these people’s thoughts unto the requested issues, such that they would be able to pose these questions through Johanne Agerskov. Apparently Christian Jørgensen must have been one of those who in this way became a “tool” for the Youngest, because when he learned that there was a need for more questions for the publishing of Supplement II, he sent no less than 21 questions at one go, and as far as I know all of his questions were answered by Leo, even if one of the responses was not included in Supplement II. This implies that his questions must have been high quality, because Johanne Agerskov as well as the Youngest complained that they received some questions which the person posing the question could very easily have found the answers to by reading in TtL, and such questions were mostly rejected. However, there is every reason to suppose that Christian Jørgensen was one of the assistants of the Youngest in 1929! Han also gave financial support for the publication of Supplement II!

If we imagine the possibility that Johanne Agerskov really was deceived by one of the Eldest when the Episcopal Letter was dictated to her, what would the Youngest possibly have done to draw her attention to this? Well, of course – if they didn’t succeed in establishing contact with Johanne Agerskov herself, following the publication of the letter, they could obviously have done the same as in the case of the Supplements; they could have attempted to approach one of those people that they had previously established contact with through thought inspiration! Personally, I am convinced that Christian Jørgensen, and probably several others, were mentally influenced by the Youngest, and by them were inspired to contact Mrs Agerskov in order to stop the distribution of the Episcopal Letter, if possible! What else could the Youngest do about it? What did we do in the old days when people had only one telephone at home and in case we could not contact them in order to deliver a message of life and death? Well, we called the neighbors instead and asked them to convey the message. In my view, this is exactly what the Youngest did in 1938! And Jørgensen was, as we know, not just anybody: He was an ardent advocate for TtL, he was a very close and good friend as well as highly trusted, and he had been used also at previous occasions by the Youngest. But, unfortunately, instead of listening to the arguments and contestations of their friend, both Inger and Johanne were tremendously provoked by the fact that he did not automatically accept everything they wrote in their efforts to persuade him about the authenticity of the Episcopal Letter, and so they ended up by severing all contact with him – apparently deeply inspired by the “God” of the Episcopal Letter.

Johanne Agerskov’s sister, Emma Mathiesen, also an ardent follower of TtL who also contributed questions to the Supplements and, as such, was used by the Youngest, likewise corresponded with Jørgensen, and these letters constitute an important source for our knowledge of some of the things that took place in 1938. At that time Emma Mathiesen wrote to Jørgensen and told him that her family members were surprised that the sister was still alive, given that her illness had fatigued and tormented her for so many years, and she was also worn down by having to nurse her husband during his illness that lasted for several years and gradually paralyzed him. Does it seem realistic to believe that a woman, who was worn out and debilitated by disease to such a degree that her own family finds it a marvel that she was still alive, could be an infallible psychic instrument?

In one of the letters to Jørgensen, Emma Mathiesen writes that it was a great pity that her sister had not been willing to listen to perhaps the only person who could have helped her expose the fraud in 1938! Sometimes there are good reasons to listen to those that have the courage to voice their opinions in a direct way and not only listen to those who echo and humor us)! However, in 1938 Mrs Agerskov had managed to establish such a position among the supporters of TtL that the myth of her infallibility was well established. History is full of catastrophic events that could have been avoided if people had had the courage to express their honest opinion in front of highly respected people, and if those in high places (e.g. the captain of Titanic!) had chosen to listen to those that dared speak out and disagree. There are plenty of good examples.

In his correspondence with Miss and Mrs Agerskov Christian Jørgensen was very careful to point out that his difficulty in accepting that the Episcopal Letter was in harmony with the God that he knew from TtL obviously did not imply that he in any way meant to discredit Johanne Agerskov or question her honesty. In response to this, Inger Agerskov presented a long chain of thought aiming at proving by logic that believing  Johanne Agerskov to be able to be mislead by one of the Eldest was tantamount to accusing her of dishonesty. This was because it was not possible for any of the Eldest to deceive Johanne Agerskov – she was untouchable from the side of the Darkness. Here Inger Agerskov for the first time launched the dogma or myth of Johanne Agerskov as the infallible medium, a dogma that still has a large following in Denmark! In my view the veracity of this dogma is as unlikely as that of Jesus having been begot by a virgin, or that Jesus was a man without sin! We know from TtL that Jesus was born as a result of perfectly normal intercourse between a man and a woman, and was also not flawless – and evidently the same goes for Johanne Agerskov. Generally speaking, there are many striking similarities between the dogmas of Christianity and the myths that gradually developed around Johanne Agerskov and TtL. The belief in salvation by faith alone and Jesus as the man without sin, and the eternal torments in hell for those that are not saved – these beliefs are dangerously close to the myth that only the belief in TtL can save the world from darkness, Johanne Agerskov as the infallible medium, and God who may possibly sever all connections with mankind, possibly for millions of years. And the reason why these dogmas are so close to each other is of course that they stem from the same source – namely the ideas of Ardor! The fact that they managed to expose one of the Eldest, such as Michael Agerskov relates in “Nogle psykiske oplevelser” (“Some Psychic Experiences”) that Johanne did on one occasion, obviously doesn’t imply that they ever after be immune to being deceived. To believe such a thing is pure concoction and has no foundation in TtL! Darkness attacked Jesus constantly and why shouldn’t Johanne Agerskov experience the same?  Admittedly, Ardor had turned, but the ether images were still active and many of the Elders remained servants of Darkness. Besides, why is it so important for some people to stick to the myth about Johanne Agerskov being infallible? Evidently because she, in their view, was the guarantor that everything in the Episcopal Letter is the Truth.

Michael Agerskov was employed at the Marie Kruse School in 1896 and worked there until 1931 when he had to take permanent leave because of illness. In the above picture he is sitting adjacent to the head teacher in the front row as number four from right, and this is a jubilee photo, alleged to have been shot in 1927. Compared to other pictures I would argue that it is more likely the picture is from the beginning of the 1930s, because Agerskov appears to be very sick. But at least we may conclude that he had nothing against appearing in a public photo.

What Contributes Towards Personal Cults?

I this context I would also like to comment on the widespread view according to which it would lead to a personal cult around Johanne Agerskov if there are portraits of her and that one should not at all take an interest in her as a person. I am fully aware that there is a testimony from Børge Brønnum according to which he took part in destroying all of Johanne Agerskov’s pictures before her death. But also here we are dealing in myths, for the story about the destruction of these pictures is unknown for most people, and the few that know what really took place haven’t been willing to tell us about it. But, anyway, the myth says that it was from the spiritual side that Mrs Agerskov was requested to destroy all pictures of herself and of her husband in order to avoid that she become the center of a personal cult in future. Now, in the first place we can state that Michael Agerskov cannot have taken part in the destruction of pictures, because he allowed himself to be photographed on a public photo in connection with a jubilee celebration at the Marie Cruse School not long before his death in 1933. The picture is shown in a school jubilee publication, and it is alleged to have been taken in 1927, but judging from the appearance of Michael Agerskov it must have been taken much later, perhaps around the time of his resignation in 1931. So we do have a public photo of Michael Agerskov from 1931. Likewise, there is a public photo in the silver jubilee publication of the Association of Danish Writers from 1919. In addition, there are public photos of the Agerskovs in the picture collection of the Danish Royal Library as well as in the Heiberg-museum in Sogndal, Norway. Even at that time, the beginning of the 20th century, people were photographed so frequently that it was completely impossible for Johanne Agerskov to try and destroy all pictures of herself – indeed, even her own daughter had pictures of the mother in the album that she left behind when she passed away. And the person who handed in an engagement picture of Michael and Johanne from around 1898 as well as a group picture from circa 1895 of Johanne with all her sisters, the stepmother, the son-in-law Fritz August Bech and his daughter and a daughter of one of the sisters has surely handed in the picture in good faith, perhaps unaware that this act made the pictures public property. But these are public and have been so for probably more than 100 years! The picture in the Heiberg-museum in Oslo was probably delivered to the genealogist Gert Heiberg in connection with his work on a book about the Heiberg family, published in 1907. (Johanne Agerskov’s mother was of the Heiberg family – her maiden name was Cathrine Georgia Heiberg).

However, I feel that it is also a very relevant question to ask exactly what is it that contributes to a personality cult?  Does it lead to personality cult to show general historic interest in persons who participated in an epochal work? Does it for instance lead to a personality cult if we write biographies about world famous historical figures? Of course not. It is not that kind of interest that leads to the formation of myths and the worshipping of human beings as saints. However, what does lead to personality cults is, on the contrary, all kinds of attempts to exalt people to be something more than an ordinary human being – and this is in fact what happens, when one adheres to the belief that Johanne Agerskov was an infallible medium – then we exalt her to something saint like, and this, together with clamming up about quite common biographical information, the destruction of pictures etc contributes to creating the image of a mythical, exalted figure, above ordinary people.
While, on the contrary, commonplace historical research aiming at generating a credible historical depiction of the events contributes to the opposite of personality cults – namely to show the person exactly as she or he was – and this includes also to show what she or he looked like! When people wish to start worshipping saints, there are many ways in which to do that, and the process is in no way dependent upon photographs! Just think about the worshipping of Jesus, with the bits and pieces of the cross, blood, pieces of the cerement etc! Indeed, throughout history there has probably been more worshipping in the shape of collecting relics left by “holy” people than collecting photos? Towards the end of Supplement II we are asked to remember that we are not to give the person Johanne Agerskov any other place than that which she deserves, and if thanks is due to anyone for TtL to be able to be created on earth, then we are to thank God and not her. Yes, of course we must do that, for God planned the shorter road, making it possible for the light to prevail over darkness and that the true story about God and about the relationship of humans to Him could become reality here on earth! But it is nowhere written that we must try and erase everything that has to do with the people involved, is it? As long as we realize clearly that the purpose of our research is to be able to document the purely historical events, I cannot see anything wrong in producing biographies of Johanne and Michael Agerskov and the other pioneers from the history of TtL. Indeed, I would even claim that this may contribute to counteract them being worshipped as saints, because people reading about them will see that they, in spite of their extraordinary gifts in a few areas, were only people like the rest of us, for good or worse! Jesus himself made mistakes from time to time, in fact!

Incidentally, concerning those opposed to the existence of portraits of Johanne Agerskov: Isn’t it striking how close they are to the position of the Muslims in their support for a ban of making portraits of the Profet? This should be a cause for reflection, I believe! But the Episcopal Letter shows very clearly that the exalting and glorification of Johanne Agerskov to the level of infallibility blocks the way to fully comprehending the loving nature of God, because the notion of seeing Johanne Agerskov as infallible forces us to acknowledge the Episcopal Letter as authentic and hence also obliged to accept “the God of the Episcopal Letter” – the “God” that resorts to blackmailing and threats in order to have his way and who does not help human beings before they accept TtL and, worst of all: Who might abandon humans for a period of millions of years and let them sink so deeply into darkness, sin and misdeeds as they possibly can! Personally I am convinced that it was one of the Eldest who whispered to Johanne Agerskov that she should burn all of her pictures! Destruction is not in the nature of the Light – it is a feature of the darkness, and the Eldest who inspired Johanne Agerskov to burn the pictures was probably fully aware that this might contribute further to mystifying Johanne Agerskov and prevent that the true human picture of her remained on earth after her death. Consequently I am of the strong opinion that it is an act of the light to publish Johanne Agerskov’s portrait together with her historical biography. For people to have faith in the message, it has proven enormously important to be able to link the message to a face. I once watched a science programme about a group of researchers investigating to what extent a message broadcast with only a symbol as brand name was able to match a message broadcast by a person and with the face of this person as brand name. They had two different campaigns with exactly the same content running for an identical period of time, but with one campaign using the symbol as brand name and the other one using a face. It turned out that the interest for the message where one could identify with a human face resulted in an overwhelmingly stronger following than the message represented merely by a symbol. Therefore, to those who are sceptical against now seeing Michael and Johanne Agerskov and Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s faces publicly on the internet I would like to say:  Can you imagine that it might hurt the message of TtL when we link these people to the opus? No, I don’t think many people could hold that opinion, rather on the contrary.

In addition to counteracting a possible personality cult of Johanne Agerskov – or for that matter of Michael Agerskov or Rasmus Malling-Hansen – I am personally convinced that historical research aiming at producing historical biographies over the “mid-wives” of TtL, where we don’t do anything else than presenting them as the persons they actually were, will certainly be able to make some very positive contributions in relation to TtL. One aspect is that biographical presentations of fascinating people who have had extraordinary experiences will often lead to an increased interest in the life and work of such people. Another thing is that we, sometimes in future when TtL has become known among a wide audience, must be prepared that journalists and researchers will become keenly interested in investigating what kind of personalities these persons had, who claimed to be working on assignment from God and that each and every word they had published was approved by God! I understand very well that it may be difficult to adapt their position for people wishing to be loyal to Johanne Agerskov’s wish not to be commented upon as a person, but unfortunately the point is that we cannot own our posthumous reputation! When journalists sometimes in future wish to focus on the “mid-wives” of TtL, it will probably be to no avail to assume the position that ‘she does not wish to be spoken of’, and hence you cannot, unfortunately, write about her. A journalist that let himself be dismissed with such an answer would, of course, be a dreadful journalist – obviously he has a right and an obligation to investigate the background story of TtL when the day comes that TtL becomes collective property and has become widely spread. Johanne Agerskov was a very shy person, who did not like to venture out among other people and avoided sunlight as much as possible, because she felt that it destroyed her mediumistic capacity. The family recounts that she preferred to stay indoors with all the curtains drawn – and this is also an important reason why there are so few photos of her – so far we know of only 11, while there are around 30 of Michael Agerskov. However, also she must probably put up with being exposed to the searchlights of history, whether she had wished it or not. It is like that for everyone.

I myself have been, and continue to be, highly interested in historical research into the genesis of TtL and the people involved, and it is with great satisfaction that I am able to state that all our research so far shows convincingly that Johanne and Michael Agerskov, as well as Rasmus Malling-Hansen, were very solid, honest and completely reliable and trustworthy people. Indeed, not only were they normal honest and good people, they were outstanding in most areas of life. Malling-Hansen was a very highly beloved clergyman and principal, who dedicated his life to helping the very weakest, the deaf-mute children, while simultaneously working himself all the way up from a humble background to becoming one of the most famous inventors and scientists of Europe. Michael Agerskov hailed from a very solid family who for many years had worked as founders and supporters of society, and several of his closest forefathers held very highly trusted offices with the Customs Office, where honesty and reliability constituted the very foundation for the trust in them. Because of his education and work Michael Agerskov himself was a highly trusted man in his capacity as a lecturer and as a censor at examinations of teacher training colleges in Denmark. He also had his own literary production and produced a textbook in Danish language and literature spanning from primary to the tertiary level of education and which was also adapted to be used in Sweden. Johanne Agerskov was a very conscientious person who never compromised with her conscience. According to herself, basically she had remarkable gifts only in one single respect, namely as a medium, but on the other hand her divine mediumistic gifts were refined to the level of the absolute sublime. Apart from this, she could be a rather strong-willed person with very strong opinions about this and that, and within the family she was not known for her diplomatic talents, rather the opposite. However much I admire and love Johanne Agerskov for her gigantic contribution in the service of the Light, I actually cannot see one single reason why we should feel obliged to follow the earthly human being Johanne Agerskov in each and everything detail of her opinions and views. And so in 1938 she experienced the deep disappointment that some of what she published was questioned, viz after the distribution of “An Open Collective Letter to all Bishops in the Country”, which from the first moment on gave rise to strife and division. But at any rate it is completely indisputable that she herself was convinced that also this had been authored by the spirits of the light, and her loyalty and confidence to them was admirable – until the very end of her life.

It is definitely not the historical research that contributes to a possible personality cult around Johanne Agerskov! But I am convinced that the Eldest did whatever they could, through thought waves, to contribute to Johanne Agerskov becoming a new exalted saint-like figure, in line with Jesus and saints of the Middle Ages, such that the belief in her infallibility would block humans’ direct contact to God, as well as to their conscience and their own free will. Just like Jesus had come into a position of blocking the road to God, the Eldest wanted to recreate “the new doctrine” in TtL! such that Johanne Agerskov could acquire the same role as Jesus has among Christians  - exalted to the status of “free from sin”. At the same time, they also wanted to keep up the false image of God that they had managed to create in the different religions – however, now specifically designed for future followers of TtL! This is why they invented and created “The God of the Episcopal Letter”.

“Malling-Hansen was a very highly beloved clergyman and principal who dedicated his life to helping the very weakest, the deaf-mute children, while simultaneously working himself up from a humble background to becoming one of the most famous inventors and well recognised scientists of Europe.” Copyright: The Heiberg Museum, Sogndal, Norway

“Michael Agerskov hailed from a very solid family, who for many years had worked as founders and supporters of society, and several of his closest forefathers held very highly trusted offices with the Customs Office, where honesty and reliability constituted the very foundation for the trust in them. Because of his education and work Michael Agerskov himself was a highly trusted man as a lecturer and as a censor at examinations of teacher training colleges in Denmark”. Copyright: The Royal Library, Copenhagen.

“Johanne Agerskov herself was a very conscientious person, who never compromised with her conscience. According to herself, basically she had remarkable gifts only in one single respect, namely as a medium, but on the other hand her divine mediumistic gifts were refined to the level of the absolute sublime.” Copyright: Private.

The Myth About the Infallible Johanne Agerskov Hampers the True God

In 1938 the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL were certain that God did not hear the prayers of the Christians, because they did not believe in the true God but in a fictitious figure – the war-god Jahve or the Holy Trinity of Christianity, both invented by Ardor. As far as I see it, the board of the society did exactly the same. They adhered to the “God” of the Episcopal Letter, who in reality is nothing else than the “God” of Christianity in new guise – this time taylor-made to the followers of Toward the Light! There is a straight line from the war-god Jahve, via the Holy Trinity “God” of Christianity and to the arrogant but powerless, resigned and yielding “God”, who is abandoning the very dearest he owns and letting down everything he promised in Toward the Light! What a paradox that the board of the Society for the Dissemination of TtL felt themselves to be high above the Christian church! There is no reason what so ever to believe that there were better chances that God would hear their prayers rather than those of the church – one is almost tempted to say: rather on the contrary!

It is also Inger Agerskov who launches the point of view that Christian Jørgensen could not understand their interpretations of the Episcopal Letter, because he did not want to understand them. Again – what arrogance! The idea that Christian Jørgensen could not understand their interpretations because they were illogical, false or self-contradictory was unimaginable to Inger Agerskov – because they had been presented by the infallible Johanne Agerskov.

Inger and Johanne Agerskov also show in their correspondence that they don’t understand what it is to doubt. Because they claim that it is mankind’s worst enemy, doubt, which has afflicted Christian Jørgensen. But, on the contrary, it is not doubt that makes Jørgensen
startle and waver over some wordings of the Episcopal Letter! What is being said in TtL that we must not let doubt prevent us from speak freely from our conscience is exactly what Christian Jørgensen does when he questions whether some statements of the Episcopal Letter can be compatible with TtL! Jørgensen’s letter was not at all characterized by doubt when he contected Johanne Agerskov in 1938 – his approach was characterized by a very honest worry because his conviction told him that something was not right! That has nothing to do with doubt! The kind of doubt referred to in TtL is when your conscience is constantly whispering what is truth and what one ought to do, but one doesn’t have the courage to follow one’s conscience because of nagging doubts, such as TtL tells us that Arimatea experienced it in his relationship to Jesus. The doubt whether it really could be the case that Jesus was the promised Messiah, prevented him from fully trusting Jesus in spite of his conscience telling him that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah. This has nothing in common with Christian Jørgensen’s reaction to the Episcopal Letter!

Jørgen Degn, member of Toward The Light Fund and Publishing Company and also administrator of his own Toward the Light Forum on the internet is, in his article “The Episcopal Letter – a Historical Document”, preoccupied with how doubt in the authenticity of the Episcopal Letter threatens the entire Toward the Light:

“Doubt – the worst enemy: There must not be a single second of doubt – only confidence. By external signs doubt will never cease but only grow, and then hope and faith will never turn into certainty. If man starts to doubt that the leadership has God’s thoughts and will as their foundation, doubt will quite mechanically draw darkness to that person, since doubt has its foundation in the confusing and downward pulling force of darkness. For instance, nothing harmful (neighboring country) will be able to hit a united people with confidence in God (Toward the Light! P.311). If we doubt JA’s unsurpassed mediumistic capacity, then doubt will slowly extend to also include the other pieces of work. Harboring a complete confidence in that the spirits of the light were behind the messages received is precisely a precondition for us to be able to trust the content of TtL. The faintest doubt, the smallest degree of wavering will always weaken the strength of the light wave that flows from God to each and every human being (Toward the Light! P 210).”

In other words, Jørgen Degn is claiming that doubting Johanne Agerskov’s infallibility will inexorably spread into doubt in the entire authenticity of TtL. But here Jørgen Degn goes against what Michael Agerskov says in the preface to TtL concerning how God wants us humans to relate to TtL. Because here Michael Agerskov says that we must not assess Toward the Light before we have read the entire work, and then we must put it to the court of our conscience. Whereas Jørgen Degn is of the opinion that we must do the opposite in relation to what has been presented through the medium Johanne Agerskov – the point of departure when reading must be that everything she received was true, and the smallest doubt about her infallibility may lead us to starting to doubt everything she received. So, the belief in Johanne Agerskov’s infallibility leads Jørgen Degn to indirectly advising us to surrender that which is our absolute right - and not just our right but also our obligation – to assess each and every publication from the point of view of our conscience and our free reasoning. If we, without first investigating the inherent truth, accept that everything Johanne Agerskov published must automatically be true, then in reality we go against the divine in ourselves, for it is God who gave us our conscience to use for our judgment.

The position asserted here by Jørgen Degn regarding our relationship to Johanne Agerskov in my view shows that the belief in her infallibility is, in reality, a threat against mankind’s possibilities to find the truth about God, because the belief in her infallibility is put above our own conscience. Incidentally, the doubt described here by Jørgen Degn is something that I personally do not recognize – I refute the Episcopal Letter from the standpoint of a firm conviction that the letter goes against TtL and therefore cannot have come from the same source. It is my conscience that tells me that the letter is not authentic! Likewise I adhere to TtL from a firm conviction that this work is the truth from God! There is no doubt in my mind what so ever!

He who does not dare put the Episcopal Letter in front on the court of his conscience, because he fears that he may find something that might make him doubt and thus threaten the belief in the rest of TtL has, in reality, surrendered his god-given right to determine, by himself, what is right and what is wrong. Spiritually, such a person will always remain an obedient child without possibilities to grow in terms of spiritual maturity! This is definitely not what God wants from us! If our point of departure is that everything Johanne Agerskov published was God’s truth, not because we have analyzed all of it and found it in harmony with the truth, but because it was published by the infallible Johanne Agerskov, then Johanne Agerskov could in reality have published anything, and her followers would accept every word as if it was dictated by God – because they have renounced their right to follow their own conscience, fearing that they would begin to doubt. However, Christian Jørgensen chose to listen to his conscience and put his foot down in 1938. But unfortunately, the only person who had the courage to approach Johanne Agerskov in order to make her help him understand that which he found not to be in harmony with the truth, Christian Jørgensen, was ostracized and isolated from the “inner circle”, because he could not accept her infallibility!

Christian Jørgensen in his old age, photographed with his sister in her home. Despite the disagreement with Johanne Agerskov about the Episcopal Letter, Jørgensen remained a very faithful follower of TtL throughout his life. As late as in his autobiography from 1963, “Dagene der gik” (The Days that Passed), he contributed with valuable material to the research into TtL! And the amazing thing was that Jørgensen, as late as in the 1950s in a letter to reverend Wemmelund, both of whom had asked questions that had been included in TtL and had supported all the publications financially, wasn’t 100 percent certain whether the Episcopal Letter was false or real. However, in his autobiography he is rather clear that he finds the contentious sentences in the Episcopal Letter to be in conflict with TtL.

Can ‘All Connection’ Mean Something Else Than ‘All Connection’ ?

The most controversial claim in the Episcopal Letter is that God may perhaps sever all connections with mankind, maybe even for several millions of years, and let them sink as deep down into darkness, sin and misdeeds as they might come, such that God and the Youngest may start all over again. But it is also said that God cannot help mankind before his message has been anchored as the truth. The exact wording is as follows:

“Now the time is ripe, now you must decide whether you wish to keep your promise to our Lord – or whether you wish scornfully to turn away from Him and His appeal. But remember that God cannot in the long run endure to follow what is happening in the earthly world. These sufferings and miseries of millions of people have caused an immense sorrow in his mind. He is longing fervently to be able to bring help and peace to the suffering humans. But he is unable to do so, until you have anchored His message in your hearts. And if you do not wish to do so, then he may, possibly for a very, very long time, sever all connection with mankind – maybe for millions of years – until mankind has sunk so deeply into darkness, sin and misdeeds that He with his messengers may start - all over again – a new attempt to lead them out of darkness, toward the light!”

What amazes me is that it doesn’t seem to be a particularly widespread view that that which we are warned against here has ever come to pass. To me it seems rather odd that God hasn’t by now severed all connection and that he hasn’t, since long time back, ceased to help human beings, because the very precondition in order to avoid that this would happen – that the Danish church be reformed in accordance with TtL – did not take place in 1938 and up until now also hasn’t occurred! So why has God not broken off the connection?

God says that he is not able to help human beings before TtL has been accepted, but still he has continued to help us? Well, it is up to those that defend the Episcopal Letter to explain this. I can only note that the terrible prophecies of the Episcopal Letter have not come true and that mankind is definitely forging ahead, in spite of there being a long way to go before all problems have been resolved – God’s mill grinds slowly but surely! Hence, there is all the reason to conclude that what God promised the Youngest before they started on the shorter road has come true, brighter and purer times are dawning for all of us, and the ominous prophecies, or threats, of the Episcopal Letter have proven themselves to be nothing but empty threats which of course cannot originate from God!

There has been – and still remains – a certain disagreement whether also the light flow that we all receive from God from the moment of our conception is included when God could possibly sever all connection with us. In his article, “Bispebrevet – et historisk document” (“The Episcopal Letter – a Historical Document”) Jørgen Degn tries to make it plausible that this light flow will be maintained in spite of each and every connection being severed. He writes:

“In the EL it is stated that God “possibly, for a long, long time has to sever all connection with mankind – perhaps for millions of years”. What is actually meant by ‘connection’? According to the Politiken Dictionary of Contemporary Danish the concept of ‘connection’ is used in cases where there is a bi-directional exchange between two different locations, in other words in case where something is transported between two locations, for instance by means of roads or cables.
In the text of the Episcopal Letter the concept is in fact clarified in the subsequent sentence of the same section, in which it is stated that the reference is specifically to the incarnation of God’s “Messengers” (a case which clearly fulfills the criteria for “bi-directional exchange”). The feasibility of pausing or ceasing with the incarnation of the Youngest has already been mentioned in the review of “Toward the Light!: ”If therefore in future the situation would arise that each and every one of the Youngest suddenly ceased to let themselves incarnate, general stagnation would therefore result”. However, from Toward the Light! We know that the designation is often also used about the intuitive thought connections, and these must be assumed to be included. Another example is the connection between the spirit and the earthly body which must also be classified as ‘bi-directional’.

It has been suggested that the divine flow enriching the human spirit at each new incarnation is also included in the concept of connection. However, according to the Dictionary of Contemporary Danish the concept of “flow/current/stream[1]”, is used about a mono-directional movement in one single direction, and hence the word is definitely not synonymous with the concept of “connection”. I am therefore not of the view that a possible severing of the “connection” would include also this divine flow, that probably flows quite automatically. In this connection one must keep in mind that neither the incarnations of the Youngest nor the creation of thought connections occur automatically.

In Toward the Light! p.161 is mentioned “the severed connection” and an adjacent footnote refers unequivocally to the incarnations of the Youngest. On p. 121 in ‘Questions and Answers –II’ are provided examples of the incarnated Youngest not being usable in their task and hence becoming superfluous. When the predominance of the humanized Eldest became too big, the Youngest had to withdraw (Toward the Light! p. 297), several of the Youngest were…. led astray by the Eldest….so they fought against the light (Toward the Light! p. 299), and hence did more damage than good. “

So, Jørgen Degn has found a definition in the Politiken Dictionary of Contemporary Danish, where the word connection is used about cases where something is transported in both directions between two points, while the word flow/stream/current means a movement in one single direction. From this he concludes that what is said in TtL about God severing all connection cannot also include a disconnection of the light flow that God continuously lets flow to each individual from the moment of conception, since it has only one direction, from God to us.

First of all, the two definitions indicated refer to very trivial, everyday things, and the authors of this dictionary have evidently not had a divine connection between God and human beings in mind when he formulated the definitions. It therefore appears somewhat farfetched to compare a definition referring to transport of goods, together with a definition referring to electric current, in order try to prove that the divine flow of light cannot be included in the concept of connection. However, Jørgen Degn alleges to be able to prove that the concept of light flow cannot be intended to be part of the concept of connection, since the concept of stream/flow/current designates movement only in one direction, while the concept of connection refers to movement in both directions. And that may seem alluring. In that case the implication of the disputed sentence is that God will sever all connection which is bi-directional, while maintaining the mono-directional connection. However, isn’t this somewhat self-contradictory? If God severs all connection going in both directions, wouldn’t He then disable all connection going in just one direction also? Since He has disconnected both directions?

And if we are to follow Jørgen Degn’s logical reasoning, would it not amount to saying that even if there is no connection between point A and point B, there could still be a current from point A to point B! But: If there is no connection, would then the current be able to pass? Could you have electrical connection in a house without having created a connection in the form of cables? No, of course not: In order to have current, there must be a connection!

‘All connection’ obviously cannot mean anything else than ‘all connection’ and ‘no connection’ cannot mean anything else than ‘no connection’. Can we imagine that one day the railway company informed us that “today there will be no connection on our railway lines – that is, the trains will only go in one direction and will not return”? Of course not, since that would go against all common sense!

In order to make it plausible that the Youngest could possibly discontinue their incarnations on earth, Jørgen Degn points out that TtL comments upon what would happen in case the Youngest ceased to incarnate among humans. However, on this issue it is important to state what is the actual purpose in relating what possibly would happen in case each and every one of the Youngest discontinued their incarnations: Well, the purpose is to clarify that in such a case mankind would, after just a few centuries, plummet to the level at which they were before the Youngest started their incarnations. However, in the context where this is mentioned, it is only referred to in order to clarify how much the incarnations of the Youngest mean for human society and how quickly we would founder in case the Youngest ceased their incarnations.

What is said in Supplement II about some of the Youngest during the 20th century having done a bad job as leaders of mankind, and that they would be substituted with some of the other Youngest, has of course also nothing to do with the aspect of the discontinuations of the incarnations, only that some of the Youngest are to be substituted with somebody else – in other words it does not refer to a discontinuation of the incarnations for all of the Youngest!

The last example referred to by Jørgen: That the Youngest on a few occasions have ceased to let themselves incarnate at certain locations, I must say is also misleading in this context. In the cases referred to by Jørgen Degn where the Youngest have withdrawn from certain areas, it is not the case that the Youngest have chosen to withdraw their incarnations entirely, only that they in some cases throughout history have chosen to withdraw from a certain area, because the Eldest had done such a great damage, that the prospects of success had deteriorated. Therefore the Youngest chose to continue their incarnations elsewhere!

That God or the Youngest would ever sever all connection with mankind – that is never mentioned as an option in TtL! On the contrary! Here the Episcopal Letter is on a completely false trail – fortunately!

During the years of my research into the history of TtL I have been in Denmark several times in order to visit descendents of the Malling-Hansen and Agerskov families. And I have many times been touched by the incredibly friendly attitude with which I have been met by the many descendents that I have had the pleasure of encountering. They have, without hesitation, opened their homes, their photo albums and collections of letters, and I have been able to verify that the myth about the Danish positive spirit and hospitality is absolutely true! In the left picture I am together with Jette Sckerl, whose grand uncle was Michael Agerskov, and on the right I am with Karen Forman Jensen, whose grandmother was one of Johanne Agerskov’s sisters, Marie Forman. Jette and her husband inherited, among other things, all books and photo albums left by Inger Agerskov, and it is not difficult to imagine my enormous gratitude when they gave me Michael Agerskov’s own bound copy of Toward the Light!,  from his own library, Agrisilvana – which is Agerskov in Latin.

Among those I visited in Denmark, perhaps it was with Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s great-grand child Lars Mathiesen, his sister Elsebeth Erlangsen and cousin/brother-in-law Jacob Erlangsen that I found the largest collection of historical material. Their grandmother was Emma Mathiesen, and much of what the family has gathered throughout the years has been handed over for his safe keeping. There were old letters, photos and large amounts of other documents, and in addition many books with dedications and even one of Malling-Hansen’s writing balls – presently valued at around one million Danish kroner. In 2006 we established the International Rasmus Malling-Hansen Society in order to draw the old inventor and principal into the limelight again – and we have members from all over the world – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Brasil, USA and Thailand. In spite of Malling-Hansen being one of the most important Danes ever, unfortunately he is sadly quite forgotten today. However, I hope we shall be able to do something about that – our website www.malling-hansen.org has more than 100 visitors every week. On this picture is seen from left: Lars Mathiesen, Elsebeth Erlangsen, Jacob Erlangsen, Christian Barnholdt – one of the pioneers within the Malling-Hansen research, and finally yours truly.

My Hope!

It is my hope that through this article I shall be able to reach as many as possible with my message, and the message is that we who love TtL and adjoining works should, as soon as possible and collectively, try to clean out what in our belief in Toward the Light! is not in harmony with the original works, which in my view are: “Greeting to Denmark”, “Toward the Light!” including supplements and “The Doctrine of Atonement and the Shorter Road”. These were the three works the spiritual world predicted that Johanne Agerskov was to receive when contact was established with her in 1908, and the spiritual world only assumes full responsibility for these three works. Furthermore, the Youngest promised that the contact to the medium Johanne Agerskov would be maintained, in necessary until her passing away, but this was only in order to provide assistance to defending the works against possible attacks – it is said nowhere that Mrs Agerskov was to receive a completely new work in 1938, and particularly not a work containing completely new ideas, previously not mentioned anymore in the “three fruits”, as the original three works were called symbolically. At the same time, it is my hope that we, collectively, may try to expurgate the myths and dogmas that have developed in the course of the short time these opuses have existed and which are obviously of human origin.

And for those that might have doubt about what God possibly may endure and whether or not He really can manage to help us human beings in any situation, it is worth noting the following in Supplement I:

“In summary: Through the divine thought and fight of the willpower to emerge from darkness God had, when He appeared as personality, gained such a knowledge about the variegated appearances of the darkness that He, apart from being the supreme ruler, also completely could and can be the loving, understanding and compassionate father, who out of his loving thought and by his strong willpower in all things is capable of helping his children to conquer in the bitter and extended struggle out of the temptations and snare of the darkness.”

And asking God to help us all, I finish this article.

Oslo, 26 April 2009
Sverre Avnskog

English translation by
Jørgen Malling Christensen