Sermon on the Mount 23

September 779 in the year of the Romans-23

Excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount in authorial form

The Words of God Shortly After His Resurrection – A Continuation:

And oft have I said unto you: Open your ears and hearken, how they condemn Me! Open your eyes and see, how My word doth affright them!

And say unto Me: Have I once said or bid you to forsake the earthly, and to reject the good that the earth and life thereon offereth unto men, and not to enjoy it? Nay! But solely because I have ever said unto them, they should also grant unto all others that which they themselves desire, and let the good that the earth offereth come unto all, for there is enough for all, and all men – without exception – are children of the true light and of the true eternal life, therefore they hate Me. For they feel themselves chosen alone by the Satan’s law given unto them, and will, because the good that each might have is no longer good enough for them, have better than any fellow man, who is unto them no fellow man, no neighbor, but a stranger.

They must steal together, by deceit, usury, guile, and violence, rob their fellow men, that by the power of possessions they may establish a reputation and exercise violence. For their spirit is the spirit of that „god“ whom they thus serve, that by their own malice and lies they stir up the envy and vengefulness of the robbed, and drive the desperate, who resort to violence, to the same spirit of the abyss of hell.

But because I can give naught unto the robbed save the eternal truth of My being and spirit, and can say only that which I speak unto the robbers, they will not have My spirit nor Me, for their desire is not to grant and give the good unto all, but to have it themselves. And if one of these poorest hath once come so far as to have, he will oft be worse than that robber who is already wont to having.

Many have come to ask Me how they might become truly blessed, and I have ever said unto the rich: „Give unto the poor that which thou hast, and follow Me!“ Hath even one of these men followed Me? Nay!

Unto the poor in possessions I ever said: „Thou seest a cross in thy poverty. Take it and follow Me, to see how I bear it! Seest thou the cross in thy poverty, behold Me, Who hath not so much property on earth where I may lay My head!“

Hath even one of these men followed Me? Nay! They asked not how they might become blessed, but that I might provide them with earthly goods and possessions, and because I did not this for their own eternal salvation, they went to seek not blessedness, but possessions.

You alone have gone with Me, without asking how ye might become truly blessed. Ye are well-nigh all poor in earthly possessions; but with Me have ye tasted greater poverty in possessions, and this poverty is no cross unto you! Whoso is truly willing to receive My spirit, no cross will be too heavy for him, and should he overestimate his strength and fall under the burden, I will be with him, raise him up, and take from him the cross which the malice of the spirit of lies itself or through evil men hath laid upon him.

Even as these perverse men today reject Me, My spirit, the spirit of God, the spirit of truth, mocking and deriding, in their and their god’s bloodthirst and vengefulness – and even now, when I have already died the death of the cross, pursue Me more greedily than before, because they know full well that I am risen, as I told you and promised you, so will they also pursue you and more so My word written by you, and seek to destroy My gospel. Much of it they will destroy, much will they mix with the spirit of their „scripture“ from their own lies and malice, to enclose the true light in darkness and stifle it therein.

But when the time cometh, the light of My being, spirit, life, and word will once again break through the darkness, and My spirit will bear witness through you to many spirits of Me in truth! And many will open their hearts, that the light of My being, spirit, and word may pierce the darkness of their souls, through true knowledge and through the good will of their spirit. But many will close their hearts even more to the light of eternal truth, because their soul loveth darkness and their spirit hath found such great pleasure in the spirit of lies and malice that it will not part from it.

The great majority of those who teach the circumcised people today know that the spirit they pass off as a god, to whom they oblige everyone to bring blood and burnt offerings and to worship, is no god, cannot be a god, but they continue to teach it, because thereby their power, their reputation, and the further exercise of treacherous violence seem best assured. Like their „god,“ they have nothing left for the people but threats of vengeance, destruction, and damnation, as the evil spirit hath revealed through his servants in the law.

On Moses’ seat now sit scribes and Pharisees of like spirit, and since I had spoken to the people in the forecourt of their temple, they came and hypocritically demanded that I go in with them and thus speak with them also, since some were hard of hearing, and also far too respected and far too old to be jostled among the others.

And when I was in the vestibule among them, they spoke:

We see that the people follow thee and many have found great favor in thee. We will henceforth forget that thou dost so blaspheme our god as no man or heathen hath yet done. If thou wouldst be circumcised, we offer thee a seat in our midst, goods and gold as much as thou needest. For thou dost stir up the people against god, against his law, and against us out of anger at thy poverty. Speak to the people: „Your scribes and Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses, and as your fathers once had to follow this chosen servant of the vengeance-wreaking Jahweh in all disobedience, so shall and must ye also do and keep all that they say unto you; for god speaketh unto you not only through the law, but also through them whom he hath called and appointed to be guardians of the law.“

And they spoke likewise and pressed Me. Thereupon the time passed, and many of the people could not be restrained; they pressed in with some of you, and ye all heard what answer I gave unto the hypocrites in truth:

Neither after their teachings, nor after their works shall the people do! For their works are evil and their teachings even worse, for they are full of vengeance and drip with blood! They bind heavy and unbearable burdens and lay them upon the souls and shoulders of men, but themselves touch not the burdens with a finger, and do only works to be seen of men, to have the chief seats in the synagogue, to be greeted in the market, to be called Rabbi, and to sit at the head of feasts.

And I said unto them: „Woe unto you, wicked, blinded, and lying guides! Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!“ And I recounted unto them all their evil works and all their treacherous lies; some of you have heard it and kept it in your souls. I had to say it unto them before the people, that they are the sons of those who murdered the true prophets; and I said unto them that they are they who make the measure of their fathers overflow, because they will not see and will not hear Me, the eternal truth, God, Who by the power of the will of His spirit became man, CHRIST, Whom they – Me – see, and My word, which is the true word of God, and are worse than a brood of vipers and a generation of serpents.

I told them that they seek to destroy Me and My word, because they wish to serve the dark spirit of hell devotedly, and will not escape hell, so that all the righteous blood may come upon them, from the blood of the true prophet Sebael to the blood of righteous Zachariah. Him they murdered in their synagogue, because he would not circumcise the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, whom I gave him and whom they likewise murdered, and would no longer remain a priest of the evil spirit of hellish darkness.

And further I said unto them:

„How often would I have gathered you together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings! But ye would not, and have stoned and slain the prophets whom I sent unto you, and I say unto you now:

I Myself have come, that ye may be instructed in the truth, which I alone am, and that ye may gather yourselves in it in My name, that ye may no longer live in the darkness of the spiritual abyss, but in the light of truth, and work in My spirit, which alone is the spirit of truth, in kindness, love, mercy, forgiveness, righteousness, and self-sacrifice for one another. But this ye will not, because ye have found lust and pleasure in gathering yourselves under a spirit and serving him who is overflowing with lies, malice, vengeance, hatred, mercilessness, unrighteousness, and the desire for destruction. This spirit alone is your ‘god’!

I have come and tell you the truth, for I am the truth! But ye claim that I am a cursed, uncircumcised Samaritan who hath a devil, who blasphemeth this your god, and in such a spirit ye rage against Me! I Myself have come, but full of the spirit of this your god, ye hear Me not, and ye will leave the house which sheltereth the soul of each one as desolate and dark as before; yea, ye will see to it that My word is also laid waste and darkened in the spirit of your god.“

But I say unto you: All this may come to the final testimony and the final knowledge of the truth, until the time shall be fulfilled again. Ye shall see Me no more, but many others will be there who will hear My word anew, not through Me, but from spirit to spirit through the spirit, and the spirit will bear witness of Me, because he taketh of My spirit, and will reveal Me, the eternal truth – and many will say:

Blessed be the spirit that cometh in the name of CHRIST!

I told them the truth, for I am the eternal truth! But instead of accepting Me and My word, they pressed Me, and with what hatred, with what vengefulness they pursue Me to this day, ye see, who yourselves suffer grievously thereby. Many will thus suffer for My being, spirit, and word, because they will feel that I am other than he who is taught unto them, and whose spirit and being they will thus interpret; for they will recognize the impossibility of the complete identity of My spirit and being with the spirit and being of him who is taught unto them, and will stand up for the knowledge of the eternal truth.

The spirit of the time and the powerful of this people of circumcision sought to destroy the truth by murdering the bearer and announcer in torment; and the evil spirit will rage thus for a time. Lies and malice will mock and deride every announcer of the truth, hang many in torments or stone them to the ground, thinking that with his death the eternal truth is also slain.

But the time will come when the evil spirit will know full well that he must content himself with mockery, derision, and the invention of new, even more refined guile, treachery, sophistry, and lies; and he will rejoice and exult for a time, because he will perceive that these means surpass the killing of individual seekers and announcers of the eternal truth hitherto practiced. For thereby he will be able to tread down and render powerless a great number of those seeking the eternal truth or those who have already found it and continue to proclaim it, more than by the agonizing murder of individuals.

But as the truth can never be slain by the killing of the earthly body of one of its announcers, because it is God’s, the property of the being and spirit of the eternal truth, the eternal property of My being and spirit, and as the soul and spirit of no being can be slain, so also can the eternal truth never be destroyed by lies and their malice, which consist of treachery, guile, and sophistries.

For the soul and spirit of man there is only the choice of two paths: Either the path through truth and goodness to true eternal life, eternal true light, and eternal blessedness, in the activity of the soul and its spirit in the doing and ruling of God, in My doing in My kingdom – or the path through lies and malice to eternal life in spiritual darkness, eternal torment of discord, and insatiable greed for the doing and ruling of the evil spirit, Satan, in the abyss which he has created and continues to create for himself and his own.

The evil spirit thinks that it is the glory of all glories to be able to rule over all other spirits and to know none above himself; he will not recognize that he is the slave of the lowest feelings of his being and the victim of his own lies; he increases the greed, baseness, arrogance, self-love, and presumption that spring from his malice without limit, insatiably, aimlessly, in the delusion of unlimited self-rule, even if it be only that of darkness and the bottomless spiritual abyss.

Consider the men whose souls and spirits strive toward the ruler of the abyss of hellish darkness, and ye see the same spirit in small! Speak to them, present facts to them, perform miracles, and sacrifice yourselves to the last drop of blood; if their spirit will continue to walk the path of lies and malice, and the feelings of their soul rise up in such a spirit, all your efforts for such men are in vain!

And I say unto you: Not for these human souls and not for this their spirit alone have I come, not for this spirit and these human souls alone do I send you now! I will send you again later unto men who will come at that time when My spirit itself will speak unto them through yours, through you and through the spirit of man, thus from spirit to spirit – and even then will bear witness again of Me and of you in the eternal truth of My spirit!

Truly, I have also come for the sake of the evil spirit of hellish darkness, yet for this spirit My coming is in vain. But for the sake of those men have I come, for the sake of those men do I send you now, and for the sake of those men will I send you also in the far future, who will come when the time is fulfilled again: all for the sake of those men who are My children, children of God, who, blinded, misled, and spiritually poisoned by the Satan’s spirit, cling to him out of ignorance, because they have already mistaken God, the eternal truth, Me, through his lies and malice in eternity, and know Me not even now – like the men to come.

These My children will follow you, when they have heard, even if their spirit has come ever so nigh unto the evil spirit and has hitherto been active in this spirit. They will soon testify that they wish to be God’s children. For they will recognize that the life of My spirit is in them, and the spark of the light of the eternal truth of My spirit lives in them, which they have not willfully and maliciously suppressed, like many others, to share the hellish darkness with the evil spirit, which covers all malice and falsely calls itself „a light.“

Therefore I have said unto you at the beginning:

Cast not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you 1 in pieces! I have said it unto you; but the biting dogs with the unclean swine will find and present themselves, they will defile that which is pure, trample that which is holy, and trample you with many others!  

They will not all come gnashing their teeth and tusks, grunting evilly and barking, but also with friendly countenances; and they will receive you hypocritically, hearken to your words, enter into fellowship with you, demand the written word from you again and again, that they themselves may teach further on the basis of that which you have written, which they will treacherously rob and disfigure in their malice, and send forth their own false apostles from their ranks; – and then that which is pure will be defiled and that which is holy will be trampled beyond recognition!

But I say unto you:

The being and the spirit of that which is pure and holy, the true light of My eternal truth, will be disfigured therein; but no one will be able to slay the being of the holy spirit of eternal truth therein, for I am the being, CHRIST, God in being and in the same spirit, Who am unchangeable and immutable in eternity.

My incarnation confirms My eternal being; My word, My works, and My doing confirm My spirit, but the spirit and the being confirm Me and will testify eternally that I alone am the eternal truth, God. Whose name and whose word the lie could indeed maliciously defile and disfigure, persecute, oppress, torment, and even slay Him Himself in His temporally assumed earthly human body, that is, separate His true eternal being from the assumed earthly body for a time; but the eternal truth, the holiness of His spirit, and the purity of His being it can never disfigure and defile.

But by the fact that the lie seeks maliciously to defile My name and seeks to disfigure My word, and will seek to disfigure it even more, many will be misled. They will hear of Me, believe in Me, but to truly recognize Me will not be possible for them, or not easily possible; and this will bring many into doubt, which the evil spirit of the abyss and the evil human will will seek to exploit to their advantage, to increase the hosts of those who hate the light of truth, since in their darkness they think that the number of the wicked and the multitude of lies must be able to displace Me and My spirit. For they know not the power of God, because the true light and the eternal truth are an abomination unto them.

All this will come, because God is alien to all use of force, and in the eternal truth of His being and spirit He leaves a completely free choice to every being of a soul of cognitive free spirit.

The unchangeable and immutable being of God and of His spirit of truth harbors omnipotence within itself; but omnipotence completely excludes any use of force against the free will of any other cognitive free spirit, because then there would be only slaves of force, but no free soul of cognitive free spirit, who could freely choose, act, and decide about his own spiritual living being according to his own knowledge and according to his own free will.

The cognitive spirit had its own free will in eternity from the beginning, at which it received life from Me and from Me; it has its free will in the earthly, and will keep it undiminished for eternity.

When all the spirit in eternity, permeated by the power of My life, had awakened to life and come to the consciousness of being, it saw My kingdom through its own inseparable soulful being, and unfolded in and with the being in My world that which its and its soulful being’s nature previously harbored within itself only as basic values. This nature is so diverse that ye now see only a small part of it in the manifold spiritual living beings of this world.

But from all the beings, groups of spirits soon stood out, who infinitely surpassed the other countless beings of differently constituted spirit by the fact that they could create from their own in that which was present and influence one another and also the other, smaller spirit, incapable of higher creation, through that which was created. To this I gave manifold examples and manifold instructions to those who could see Me and grasp Me as the highest perfection; and many beings from the group of that spirit soon unfolded so that they became My image in spirit, and this attainment filled them with infinite blessedness!

They saw Me, spoke with Me, My doing and ruling was their doing and ruling, they were of the same endeavor and the same will with Me. Their creation was unclouded, because My kingdom is the world of true light, of true blessedness, and the spiritual living cannot be oppressed in any way. They beheld Me, the truth, the light, and the eternal life of My spirit and being; they knew no beginning, because they saw no becoming and no passing of the being of life, because all the spirit was awakened to life at the same time, and they sought no truth, no light, because they had Me, My being and My spirit, and there was no opposite to Me. They resembled Me and were the image of My being and spirit, although their being was different, is different, and will remain different in eternity.

But he who once stood closest to Me of all beings of cognitive spirit – in the sense of knowledge and ability – began to want to penetrate even My being, and I Myself gave him full enlightenment. I withheld nothing from him, that he might recognize that every being of the spirit can only attain that which its and its spirit’s eternal nature harbors within itself. I told him that an exceeding of this limit, which is already founded in the values of the eternal nature of the being and its spirit, could not remain without terrible disadvantages. I told him that I alone know this terrible, although I could neither have seen it nor have created it Myself, since it would be the very opposite of My being, My spirit, and My will.

And I say unto you:

I knew from eternity that it would come to this, and – speaking after the manner of men – I was faced with the choice either to create a world for all beings of spirit and give life to all, or to live alone amidst all the spiritually lifeless being, in the face of the inactivity of an infinite spiritual wasteland.

I knew that some of the beings would create against Me through their spirit. But if I wished to remain in the righteousness of My eternal truth and its power, I could not pass over these beings. It could not have remained hidden from all the other beings of cognitive free spirit in the long run. I could not have passed them over, because such a creation of My will would be an act of violence and would result in that which is not present through Me, through My being and My spirit, death!

That I was faced with such a choice, I tell you only to give your spirit an image and an understandable example through words and after the manner of men, that ye may have a comparison for yourselves. But a choice after your judgment and manner is alien to the eternal truth of My being and spirit. I speak thus to be understood by you.

That spirit, once so near to Me, would not be satisfied with the truth of My explanations, and his desire went so far that I should equate his being and his spirit with My being and spirit! In vain I gave him explanations about the impossibility of fulfilling such a desire; in vain I pointed out that the eternal nature of My being, spirit, and life must remain in unchangeable truth and cannot possibly exceed the limits it has set itself, because in this law is contained that power of omnipotence which preserves Me unchangeably in unchanging perfection by the power of My will; it excludes the creation of a second equal being and spirit from the outset, because the being of every being of the soul and its spirit is eternal and therefore not created.

In vain I pointed out that such a desire, even if it were fulfillable, would be the greatest injustice to all the other beings of cognitive spirit, since I would have to create the same for all, and that then, where there would be an infinite number of gods of the same spirit, the same ability, the same knowledge, and the same will, that which he does not know, death, would necessarily have to occur, because all spiritual intercourse, all unfolding of will and creation, would be impossible. Such a desire would result in a standstill, which would necessarily end in a dissolution, the horror of which not even I can picture, because it is impossible from the outset.

I drew the ever more presumptuous spirit’s attention to the fact that he should examine and behold himself closely and take note of how much such a desire and striving had also changed and disfigured his being, which is eternally his own, to his disadvantage! But he found great pleasure in this very thing, in having achieved a change in his being even in his outward appearance, and soon several beings of similar and equal spirit also found pleasure in it and joined him, supported his desire, and closed themselves off from all admonition, all explanation, and all reference to the impossibility of fulfilling this their desire.

And soon they spoke:

If this is not possible for Thee, Thou art no god! But if it is possible for Thee and Thou wilt not do it, then righteousness is not Thine, because Thou alone wilt remain a lord, to whom we must give up our service!

And when I told them that I never enslave anyone, nor ever will, because I cannot do it by the power of the eternal truth of My being and spirit, since the freedom of his will must be preserved for all free spirits through My spirit of truth, then the leader went so far as to say to Me that I withhold the truth from them, hinder their free will, and oppress them, because I fear they could create better than I have done.

Around the time of this course it was that the cognitive free spirit began to recognize and feel that which is truth and goodness and that which is lie and malice.

A tremendous excitement seized great hosts of beings of cognitive spirit, and many found more or less great pleasure in the doing of the instigator and his followers; for they saw the change that this had brought about and promised themselves and therefrom advantages that only the lie in its malice can devise. The now already setting in torment of doubt, uncertainty, ignorance, and indefinitely new willing was new to the spirit looking for evil, and many also found pleasure in this.

The change in the being and spirit of the wicked grew ever greater, and when they perceived that they could no longer endure the light of My being and spirit, that the world of My kingdom no longer bore them, and when they had reached the boundary to have to leave it, they tried to enforce their staying by violent destruction, which only accelerated their complete fall even more. Thus they fell into a realm which they themselves had created, into the spiritual abyss, and since their free will remains eternally free, it depends solely on their will and not on Mine whether they wish to remain eternally in the darkness and in the torment of their insatiable willing and striving.

But having acted in the face of God, in the face of His being and spirit, thus in the knowledge that they all owe their lives to Him, how will they ever bring themselves to return to the truth, since they maliciously consider themselves to be a truth? Since they have rejected God and His holy spirit and in the lie of their evil will deem themselves to be gods, how shall they ever come to Me, since they consider Me to be the adversary of their desire and their greed?

The true image of the being and spirit of God has vanished from them so that they have been unable to form a clear idea of Me until this time, and only when I appeared as a human being on this earth did they recognize the old God of truth in My being, in My spirit, in My words, My ruling, and My works.

I wished that they too might see and recognize Me once more. For I tell you that I have come not only for the souls of men, but also for these lost evil liars, that they all might see Me and recognize Me once more before the time of the Last Day and with it the separation of the two worlds of such infinitely different spirit is accomplished. I have also come for the sake of these self-condemning beings, they have recognized Me, and they have judged themselves even more deeply by a rage that possibly surpasses that which they once brought against Me in My world.

Their leader, Satan, summoned his own from all corners and ends of the worlds. But he soon had to learn that neither he nor his own can cross the boundaries of My kingdom, which I have taken to earth by the power of My will for the people, for the souls of the hereafter, but also for him and his own as a testimony and for knowledge, through the malice of violence. He further had to learn that they cannot harm My being, My spirit, My will, My doing, and My acting, because they cannot even bear My proximity and flee from the light which, by the power of My word, penetrates into the people possessed by equally dark beings.

And because they see and feel their impotence against the being and spirit of eternal truth, they stir up evil men against Me, that these at least destroy My assumed earthly body, because they nourish the delusion that thereby the light of My being, spirit, name, and word could also be extinguished.

The evil men have done their part, have caused Me to die on the cross, but can destroy neither My being, nor My spirit, nor even the body which I have assumed temporally to suffer as a man; it shall, like the shed blood, live on eternally, as a testimony and for the true knowledge of all who are of good will to recognize Me and follow Me to true eternal life.

How the evil spirit has endeavored to bring all the disciples of John and also all of you to doubt the eternal truth of My being, spirit, and word, and to turn away from Me!

Then the Lord reminded His own of the report of Licius and spoke:

Remember the day when I preached My word, My gospel, the true word of God, to the many who had followed Me there at Tarichaea on the Sea of Galilee until the eleventh hour – and when we had boarded the ship, ye wished to put off, that I might find rest. But I said unto you then: Let us remain, that the man who seeketh Me and will arrive at the twelfth hour may find us. Not so much I, Who know what he bringeth, but that ye may hear him and then tell Me how ye have received that which ye have heard and how ye interpret it. And when the man came, I asked him: Seekest thou Me, Licius? And he spoke:

Lord, I see that it is Thou Whom I seek; for Thou knowest me without ever having seen me. Yea, I seek CHRIST, the Lord. John sendeth thee greetings in Thy name and saith:

„Hail and praise be to Jesus Christ, our Lord and God in eternity!“ And he asketh Thee that Thou wouldst tell him the place where he may speak with Thee again, before he goeth to Acre to preach and baptize there also in Thy name! Therefore he sendeth me, that I may tell Thee a vision which I saw without a dream and which I told the Baptist, who was greatly distressed thereat – and sendeth me instead of Dulus, whom he would otherwise have sent, that I may tell it unto Thee.

Then I bade him tell it not only to Me, but to all of you, that ye might hear it – and Licius spoke:

In Aera much was spoken of John, of his teaching, and of his baptism, who is a prophet of God, preacheth repentance, and baptizeth at the Jordan, to make men worthy that they may receive, hear, and understand God, Who hath become man in the Lord CHRIST and dwelleth among us, when He baptizeth them with the light of His holy spirit.

I took my sister with me, left her with a second sister in Neve, and went towards Bethsaida to the Jordan, where I found John, heard his word, and was baptized by him. I stayed with him to hear his word further. But he speaketh ever only of Thee, Lord, and not all can be understood. Then came an acquaintance from Neve to tell me that my sister was very ill, and I asked the Baptist that he would let me go to her and come back.

And John spoke: Take some of the water of the Jordan with thee. Before thou comest home, thy sister will be well, and thou shalt baptize her according to the doctrine given unto thee in the name of God, Who is Jesus Christ, in the holy spirit of eternal truth! When I arrived in Neve, I found my sister well, instructed and baptized her, and spoke before many others what I had heard from John – and they marveled.

The next day at the eleventh hour I took the road back to John, as the journey had to be made in about twelve hours if one went quickly. But as I was in the wilderness, I suddenly could not go further; could not go back, could not go forward, could not go right, could not go left, and knew not what was happening to me – and soon it became half dark all around and within me, and as in a dream, which was not a dream, I saw only sand and stones around me, could not move – and it seemed to me that many days had passed, so that hunger and thirst tormented me greatly.

In this distress it occurred to me to call for help, and as John ever speaketh of Thy power and goodness, I called upon Thy name, Lord – and saw Thee from afar, but knew not that it was Thou, because I had not seen Thee until now; but now I recognize Thee. But suddenly one stood by me who spoke:

„Thy John and thy CHRIST are men who blaspheme God as no man has ever done. John testifieth that CHRIST is God, and some men call CHRIST ‘God’s Son.’ But I will show thee that he has no power, that he feareth for his own life, and blasphemeth God because he calleth me, who am alone the God of the Jews, Satan. Thou shalt see all this and testify to the people; beckon and call him hither!“

I called and beckoned Thee, and Thou, Lord, camest nearer. Then he spoke through me:

„Behold, this man has lain in the wilderness for many days, is nigh to starvation, and if thou dost not help, he will die. If thou art God’s Son, or God Himself, speak that these stones may become bread, that he may eat.“

But Thou saidst: „Man shall not live by bread alone. He truly liveth if he heareth the word which proceedeth out of My mouth – and heedeth it.“

And the other, who called himself „God of the Jews,“ said to me: „Thou seest that he lacketh the power to make bread out of stones!“ And to Thee, Lord, he spoke through me: „If thou art God’s Son or God Himself, climb with me to the pinnacle of my temple and let thyself down from there; nothing could happen to thee. For if thou art God, thou canst do it alone, without the angels having to bear thee.“

But Thou, Lord, gavest answer: „God, Who leadeth no one of the slightest spirit into temptation, will not tempt Himself for things which can bring no one to Him, Who is the eternal truth, and He will never do the like.“

And the other said to me: „Thou seest that he feareth for his life, and thou shalt testify it before men“; but to Thee, Lord, he spoke again through me: „I am the god to whom alone worship is due. I give goods and power, wealth, violence, and reputation to everyone who worships me and sacrifices to me. But those who refuse to do so fall under my wrath, and my vengeance is terrible. Climb the highest mountain, and all the kingdoms that thou canst overlook from there I will give thee if thou sayest ‘god’ to me!“

And Thou, Lord, saidst: „Satan! Thou art worse than before! Behold, even for thee and thy like have I come, and thus far goeth now thy knowledge? Murderer of souls and men! Dost thou thus prepare eternal life for thyself in thy being and spirit? Satan doth the eternal truth call thee, Satan, that is: he who casteth himself away! What a being and a spirit wast thou, and what hast thou become, Satan!“

And the other laughed evilly and said to me: „Thou shalt testify before men how this one blasphemeth me, me who am the god of my people, – calleth me Satan, as I told thee.“

But Thou, Lord, lifted up Thy hand and saidst: „Get thee hence from Me!“

And I heard a gnashing of teeth, but saw no one more, and it became light around me, light within me – and I went on, towards the Jordan, full of thoughts, because he could speak to Thee only through me. When I arrived and learned the time, I saw therefrom that the vision had not detained me for an hour; and I reported to John that which I had experienced truly and faithfully.

But he was distressed and sent me to Thee, Lord, to tell Thee the vision. I, Lord, am not from Judaism, know the God of the Jews only by hearsay. John said that he is the evil, vengeful, and bloodthirsty spirit of hellish darkness, to whom also the idols made belong, to whom also some other heathens sacrifice blood, since they are the work of the same evil spirit, and even if they are only of stone and brass, and even if they have no life, they still proclaim the spirit that brings them forth, to achieve through them that which he wills.

And John said to me: Go and tell the Lord: „Lord, how is it possible that Thine are thus tempted, since Thou art here and present?“

At that time I said unto you:

At this hour John knoweth not only how it is possible, he knoweth also now why it happeneth thus. When he heard thee, he had only heeded the speech of the other; but now he heedeth My speech, through which I answered – and he is no longer distressed. But thou, Licius, shalt indeed comply with the urging of the other; thou shalt testify this vision before men, that it may also serve as knowledge of the eternal truth and knowledge of the lie to many.

Then I asked you how ye received that which ye had heard and how ye interpret it? I never need to ask, ye know that. But all My questions serve for testimony, and therefore I asked, that your answer might also serve as testimony for many. Some among you could not or would not interpret that which they had heard at that time, but Andrew stood up and spoke:

Brethren, I will speak for you, and the Lord will then tell us whether my spirit is light in His spirit. As often as the Lord has spoken to us of the evil spirit, He told us that we should not fear those who kill the body, but can do nothing to the soul and its spirit. Rather, the evil spirit of hellish darkness and his own are to be feared, who can destroy the soul, the spirit, and the body of man, if the spirit and the soul of man find pleasure in him, receive him, and, thinking to serve themselves, become his slaves!

And as often as the Lord spoke to us of the evil spirit, He always added: „He hath nothing in Me!“ We know, Lord, that the evil spirit can do nothing to Thee. But since Thou art now among us as a man and walkest with us, he trieth to do something to Thee before men; because it is not possible for him directly, he seeketh „mediators“ among us and those who seek Thee, that he may blaspheme Thee and at the same time turn those and us away from Thee and destroy us by his lies and malice.

But our Lord hath also often told us that not even a sparrow falleth from the roof without God knowing it and being present; this also knoweth that adversary from whom all evil originates and cometh, because he is the author of all evil. He knew, therefore, that as soon as he approached this our brother, the Lord would also be there, and that he could blaspheme Him through Licius and thereby also seduce and destroy the brother, that he might continue to destroy many others!

When Andrew had spoken thus at that time, I said unto you:

Though not fully, Andrew speaketh in the light of My spirit, and that sufficeth. But today I tell you that the evil spirit of hellish darkness will find men who will come to know this same vision through you, but who will not come to Me, to you, like Licius, but because they, like Satan, hate Me and will treacherously persecute you, they will give Licius’s vision another vision, a completely different meaning, that the spirit of eternal truth may be darkened, and the evil spirit of hellish darkness, Satan, may remain unrecognized in his being. Thus will the same evil spirit do to My whole word written and carried on by you through men.

But despite all the malice, intrigues, treachery, and guile of his earthly servants, even the small remnants of My true word, wedged between the lies, retain their full light of eternal truth, and when the time cometh, My spirit will bring My word to men again through you, who are Mine, and give it that purity which is its true own, and it will be freed from the unclean embrace.

At that time, when evil men will disfigure My word, many men will then continue to ask:

God Himself is said to have been present? God Himself is said to have taught us and left His word, His holy spirit? And is this His word which we hear there? Are these the followers of His? They teach us before the word of CHRIST a word full of ignorance, full of manifest lies, malice, full of bloodthirst, curses, and vengeance, and say that this word is the true and holy word of God!

At that later time many men will see and recognize that My word is the infinite opposite of the word of their god, and they will ask those who will call themselves your followers for the true knowledge of such a terrible contradiction. But these, concerned not with the light of eternal truth, but, like these present-day Pharisees and scribes, with their power, their reputation, violence, and well-being, will reproach the questioners with heresy and spiritual poverty, and present thick scrolls full of the most evil sophistries and incomprehensible intrigues, that the eternal truth, but also the lie of their „god and father,“ may remain veiled!

And many others will mock, blaspheme, and maliciously ask:

God is said to have been present? And ye teach His word? What has become different since the time when your CHRIST is said to have been present than it was before? Are there not now greater robbers, thieves, deceivers, scoundrels, and mass murderers than before? Has there ever been greater need, greater misery, more suffering, and more tears than today? Could there ever have been greater human murder than at present? What is the word of this your god?

And the false followers will hasten, will insist on the „scripture“ which is not My word, and will sing and recite from the scripture the psalms of the destruction of their neighbor. And many others will turn away with disgust and abhorrence, so as not to have to hear the name of God, My name, anymore, and they will reject Me along with the terrifying image of a god taught to them, who in truth is Satan.

But many others, because men cannot and will not give them truth, true knowledge of God and themselves, will call upon the dead and ask the souls of those who have gone to the hereafter, and increase the error, for the knowledge of most of those called will be equal to that of those calling.

But those who will pass themselves off as your followers will insist on the scripture of darkness and cry out:

It is written: „If a man or woman be a wizard, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, or an inquirer of the dead, they shall surely be put to death, and be cut off from among their people. Their blood shall be upon them! Let no one live who is a sorcerer, a soothsayer, or an inquirer of the dead, nor he who seeks to inquire the truth from the dead, for that is an abomination to the Lord Jahweh, and therefore they must be destroyed!“

And further, Christ the Lord reminded them of the glutton Simrah:

Remember the day when the brothers of Simrah, this deceased rich glutton, came to Me to ask Me whether they should believe that this their brother „suffers so heavily beyond the grave,“ as the „spirit“ Lazarus had revealed to them through the prophetess Hemeba at Akkrabim. But they did not seek out the prophetess because they were concerned about their deceased brother – they had hated him during his lifetime – but rather the greed for his inheritance and the dispute over which of the two heirs should receive the greater and better inheritance, which the „dead“ was to decide.

But instead of Simrah, who was called through the prophetess, the soul of Lazarus appeared, who during his lifetime on earth had lain lame and full of sores before the door of the rich glutton, and who had even been denied the leftovers from the table of the profligate, and these had rather been destroyed than enjoyed by him; for malice rejoiced in the misery of the poor.

Lazarus made it known to the brothers that Simrah could not appear because he was seeking in the darkness for the splendor he had had and for the gluttony that could not be satisfied, all of which was a torment to him like that of fire. As much as Lazarus would like to help him, he could not, because the gulf between them was insurmountable – and even if Lazarus overcame this gulf, he could not help, because the wicked one could not overcome it as long as he was spiritually dark and soullessly blind, lame, deaf, and incapable of leaving the place of darkness, overcoming the gulf, and climbing the light heights at the hand of the helper.

But even if Lazarus wished to seize him and bring him to the light of the heights, the other would always remain in the same darkness; because he was blind and because he could not hear, he would continue to seek the splendor he had had even there – and the accustomed gluttony would remain unsatisfied. But even if his soulful eyes and ears were opened, he would still remain in the same darkness, because that which he sought and wished to have was not there, and he would close his senses to all else, rage, and lament. And Lazarus admonished the brothers that, since they themselves had enough to live on, they should distribute Simrah’s inheritance among the poor, that they might not also fall into such torment as their brother, the glutton.

Thus they came to Me and asked Me what I said to them, and I gave them the only good counsel: „Do that which Lazarus has commanded you to do through the prophetess!“ But they murmured against this My word and departed.

At that time I said unto you: Behold! These and such men ask the deceased what they should do or leave undone. But they only accept as true when the „dead“ tell them what they wish to hear; if they tell them what they do not wish to hear, the „dead“ lie or err. If men desire things ever so absurd, and the „dead“ confirm it, it is good, and the „dead“ also accept such things from men. They find each other, confirm to each other that which is willed and desired, and form a community which is good with the good and evil with the evil.

Today I say unto you: Thus it has been until now, and thus it will be until the time comes when many will recognize the spirit of eternal truth and through it Me in the truth of My spirit.

Many ask themselves today and many will ask themselves in the future whether all that is evil and terrible must be? And I say unto you: Nay, it should not, it must not be! But since it was maliciously created, it is there and must, through its effect, like everything else, reach the final goal which, as a result of the effect, is inevitable.

End of Part 23.