CHAPTER 81 What is fornication? [1] One could say here, in the Sixth Commandment, that only "Thou shalt not do unchastity," and that fornication cannot be regarded as forbidden, since in the sixth commandment there is nowhere: "Thou shalt not commit fornication." But I say: What is whoring, of whatever kind, spiritual or carnal? It is a certain accommodation of vice in the following way: One philosophizes about the sinful possibility, places all phenomena in the realm of 'natural needs'. If one expresses to his own being the demand to satisfy them, then, according to his reason and his inventiveness, man does only something praiseworthy and fruitful, so that, for all the needs of his nature which are being demanded, he can bring about means by which the same goal can be accomplished , The animal must satisfy its needs in the most crude instinctive way, because it has no mind, reason, or inventiveness. In this way, however, man rises above the common, natural animal, that he alone can satisfy the requirements of his species in a refined manner. Therefore, the mind of the cultural man says: [2] Who can account it a sin to a man if, with the help of his intellect, builds an imposing house for his habitation, and thus exchanges a former burrow or a hollow tree with it? Who can account it a sin to a man, if he refines the tree fruits, and produces from the sour apples and pears, something sweet and tasty? Who can account it a sin to a man if he builds a chariot, tames the horse, and then journeys much more comfortable than with his own weak, troubled feet? Who else can still account it a sin to a man, if he cooks and spices the natural fruits to his nourishment and makes them more tasty? Or create things in the world for another purpose than to be useful to man? [3] How much beautiful and useful things have man discovered for his comfort and amusement! Would this be reckoned to be a mistake if he would pay honor to his Creator with his intellect, without which the body of the world would appear as uncultivated as a barren desert on which everything grows together in a chaotic disorder, such as cabbage, beets and stinging nettles? [4] If, however, mankind's diverse cultivation of the earth cannot possibly be counted as a misstep, even though it contains no other purpose in itself than a more pleasurable and more comfortable enjoyment of things in the world; On the other hand, a refined pleasure in procreation cannot be attributed to man as an error, for otherwise even the most educated man would be, regarding this act, the least differentiated from an animal. Thus, even this instinct of man must be satisfied in a more refined and cultivated manner, for the same reason why one builds comfortable dwelling-houses, makes soft clothes, prepares tasty meals, and so on. That is, more amenities. [5] Just assume for instance that a man of the educated class, has to choose between two female persons for his satisfaction; one is a filthy, mean peasant maid, but the other, as the daughter of a respectable house, is a well-bred, very well-dressed girl, flawless in her whole body, and all together lush and charming. Question: Who will the educated man choose? The answer will not cause a headache here; certainly the second one, because the first one will disgust him. So here, too, refinement certainly a most convenient purpose, because man attests to it, proving that he is a higher being, who has everything in his power to purify and dispose of everything unpleasant and dirty and make things clean and pleasant. [6] But since the man and the woman in this regard often have a great need to satisfy themselves, and yet cannot always make the demand to produce a child, would it again be their duty to exercise the intellectual powers, setting up the means to satisfy this impulse, be it only by blind intercourse with a woman or by self-gratification or, in an emergency, through the so-called boy's desecration? For this is what makes a man different from an animal in that he can satisfy this most natural instinct in other ways than just that which he has been instructed by rude nature. And so, after all, well-conditioned brothel houses and such institutions are to be endorsed, and can by no means dishonor the intellect of man! [7] See, what objection can be raised against this from a natural perspective? For it is true that the animal cannot achieve such cultivations and all sorts of nuances to the satisfaction of its sexual instinct, and so, in a sense, the mastery of the human understanding is undeniably to be discovered. This is all right, the animal has its time in all of this, yet otherwise, it remains dull unto the satisfaction of this urge. [8] But what is all this sophistication? It is a quick question, but the answer is big and weighty. Surely this sophistication has nothing to do with basic motives, but with appallingly exasperating lust for pleasure. But pleasure-seeking, we know, is an unmistakable child of self-love, which is quite identical with the lust for power. [9] It is true that living in a stately home is easier than living in a lowly mud hut. But let's take a look at the inhabitants! How proud and lofty we see the inhabitants of a palace company, and how humble the simple hut-dweller bows before such a splendid palace lord! [10] Let's take a look at the inhabitants of a big city and those of a small farming village. The inhabitants of the big city do not know how to help each other out of sheer lust for pleasure, they all want to live comfortably, they all have to talk, they all shine and maybe they can reign a bit. If a poor country-dweller comes to the big city, he has to address at least every boot polisher: 'Your Grace', if he does not want to expose himself to any rudeness. [11] But if we go to the village, we will still find fathers, not infrequently peaceful neighbors, who do not call themselves 'Your Grace' and 'Lord of'. What is preferable: when one farmer says to the other: 'Brother'! or if in the city, a slightly more middle-class appeals to a slightly more privileged: your grace', and 'Lord of' and the like? [12] I think it will be barely necessary to go on pursuing such nonsensical offshoots of the sophistication of the human mind, but we can at once make the main proposition: All such pleasure-seeking refinements are, according to preceding considerations, nothing but idolatry; for they sacrifice the human spirit, to the outer dead nature. [13] But if they are idolatrous, they are also the hardest whores, and their tendency cannot be accepted into the sphere of chastity. [14] Why was Babel called a whore? Because every imaginable finery was at home there. This also includes, the whoring urge in the true sense: unchastity serves all their life force. Thus, a rich husband who, for the sole enjoyment of a sumptuous and randy wife, is nothing but a barbarous fornicator, and the wife, a hard whore. And so here too, unchastity is shown in its foundations, as it is a most base desire for self-service and self-pleasure. [15] It was necessary to shed more light on this commandment for you, because man does not pass over any command as easily as he does this one. - Therefore I think that you now also understand this lecture; and so we will immediately go to the seventh room. (The Spiritual Sun, vol. 2) BUT Judas asked, saying: ‘Lord, this is in order and the people on the land shall provide for us, but we shall surely have to also go to the cities and markets, where erstwhile hospitality has come to an end. How shall we get on there and how go about without money?’ [2] Say I: ‘When you go to a city or a market, find out (since you know what you are capable of) whether there is someone worthy of you there who needs what you are able to give. If you have found such, stay with them until you are off to somewhere else. [3] It speaks for itself that you first greet the house you enter, because true love always precedes into a stranger’s house with civilized steps. If a house, i.e. its occupants are worthy of you, then your peace shall come over it. If however the house is not worthy of you, then peace shall turn back upon you. [4] And where an occupant of a house will not receive you or hear you speak, leave such house at once, as also in the end such city, and shake off the dust clinging to your feet, as a once powerful witness against it. For truly I say unto you: on judgment day in the other world once, the land of the Sodomites and Gommorrheans shall fare better than such city. [5] See, I send you out as sheep among rapacious wolves. Therefore be clever as serpents, yet without guile, as doves, which are a picture of gentleness.’ (GGJ Book 2 chap 26) [6] Says Judas thereto: ‘Lord, under such dubious circumstances we shall not get very far. Of what use some future judgment day in the spirit kingdom, on which no man believes. If we cannot or must not with divine power You assigned to us, impose as severe a judgment day as possible upon the rapacious wolf-men, then we might as well stay home. Because if we witness of You with even moderate loudness before such wolves, with which particularly the cities are teeming, we shall be seized, bound and dragged before the city halls and severely judged. And there, if judgment is not over-severe, they shall flog us in front of the Jews in the schools and finally make us free as the birds by thrusting us out of the city. For such present truly I want to say thanks in advance. Of what use all cleverness, truth and fullest sincerity, where confronted by willful power in its blind rage? [7] Where full truth and proper righteousness have an existence, for which contemporary mankind has not the slightest taste, there the Roman adage has to apply also for us: ‘Let the world perish, but righteousness is to be practiced to the full. Let the true virtue always find its sure reward. Let the lie, envy, avarice, guile and all unrighteousness however always find its most relentless punishment.’ If we are to accomplish anything with the generally most wickedly depraved mankind, we have to proceed like the angels at Sodom and Gomorrah. He who hears and accepts us in Your name, let him be rewarded through Your grace, but let a plague come over him who shall not hear and accept us. But whoever wants to persecute us and haul us before a worldly court, let a consuming fire fall over him from Heaven and do to him what it once did to the Sodomites! [8] If You, o Lord, allowed us to act thus, we also shall work decidedly good results from our present mission. If however we are not allowed to proceed thus with the altogether depraved and ruined mankind, then all our efforts and work are for nothing. We shall in the end be stoned. And You Yourself, if it were possible, shall be killed and our countless enemies shall be walking over our bodies laughing and drunk with victory. And that shall be about all we shall achieve with all our untimely goodness, compliance and gentleness. In short, in order to achieve anything with Satan, one has to either be his complete master, or serve him as a slave. 37. THE APOSTLES COMFORTED I SAID: ‘Since you are a man of this Earth you speak also as one of this Earth. But He who is from above speaks differently, because He recognizes and knows well what man needs at different times for the liberation of his spirit from omnipotence and from God’s wrath, in order to achieve true independence for eternity. [2] Because the life of this Earth gives neither life nor liberation to the spirit, but death, but the death of this Earth is deliverance of the spirit to everlasting life and its true, everlasting liberty. [3] If I have to speak as just man however, I say unto you that all this and far more has already been undertaken with the human race. Yet ask yourself where in your opinion are the golden fruits thereof. [4] What did not take place in the days of Noah, yet how much did many improve temporally, above what they were in Noah’s time? And what occurred soon after at Sodom and Gomorrah? [5] And see, except from the black and the Chinese in the far East, all heathens are descendants of Lot, as also many Scythian who degenerated like animals, inhabiting the Earth’s western parts. How do you find them, in spite of the lesson their father Lot learnt? [6] Go to Egypt and check out the peoples, how much they improved through the 7 plagues. What did Moses not do and what not some prophets? [7] It was for 40 years that Jehovah let the degenerate Jews languish most miserably under the Babylonian captivity. They were treated like the most inferior beasts of burden, fed with the fare of swine and dogs, while the lovely daughters of Jews were being mortally defiled by the licentious Babylonians, day and night, with flogging and other tortures, as were the boys and youths, who had been circumcised. Go and ask the high haughty Jews how much they improved through such lessons. [8] Show Me the period, the year, month or week or a day that the Lord was not punishing degenerate mankind, both individually and collectively? [9] Therefore your advice is much belated. This has all been here already, having effected for the spiritual path also what it had to effect. Yet for man’s exterior earthly state there must and can emerge no evident effect basically, for it is not on account of this that anything ever was permitted from above. [10] But for proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God on Earth through repeated thunder and lightning I should not have need of you, because there would be in Heaven mighty angels in overabundance who should be more conversant than yourselves with such spreading of the Kingdom of God on Earth. [11] But that time has now come which Elijah was shown when he lay hidden in the mountain cave. It was not in the storm nor in the fire, but in the gentle breeze that Jehovah was moving about. And that time of Jehovah's gentle breeze before the world-cave is here now. Therefore we neither want to nor can, move out through storm, nor fire, but in accordance with God’s eternal order in all love, gentleness and patience! Yet you are not to disregard shrewdness. Because I am well aware of your moving out as lambs among rapacious wolves, yet if you nevertheless are clever, you shall accomplish much. [12] Beware of those certain men therefore and do not mix with them, because it are these who shall be handing you over to the courts and also scourge you in their synagogues – and this shortly, if you are foolish rather than sufficiently clever. So long as a lamb finds itself upon a balcony which the wolf cannot reach, the latter can with all his savagery, nevertheless do nothing to it. But if the lamb cheekily leaves the balcony to look at its enemy more closely, it has only itself to blame if torn up and devoured by the wolf. [13] But later, after I shall have ascended to the Heavens to prepare everlasting dwellings for you in the Father’s house, they indeed shall haul you before princes and kings for My name’s sake, for a testimony against them and the heathens, so that it may be fulfilled in accordance with what Isaiah, My prophet, prophesied for all time and about the foolish kings in relation to the establishment now of My Kingdom on Earth: A fool speaks of foolishness and his heart manipulates misfortune, to simulate hypocrisy and preach error about the Lord, to starve hungry souls yet more and to stop the thirsty ones drinking. The rule of the tight-fisted is harm, finding as he does dodges aplenty to ruin the wretched with false verbiage, when he should be upholding the rights of the poor. But the upright princes will have princely thoughts and dispense justice accordingly. Arise you haughty women and hear My voice. You daughters selfassured, hear My speech but for a year and a day and you self-assured shall tremble, for where there is no vine-crop, there shall be no picking. Take fright, you haughty women. For it is the time of the uncovering and the girding of the loins. There shall be wailing for the fields, for the lovely friends indeed and the prolific vines, because upon My people-field shall be growing thorns and hedges, as also over all the houses of pleasure in the merry cities. The palaces shall be deserted and the crowds of the cities lonesome, the cities and citadels becoming eternal caves, for the joy of the beasts of the fields and pasture of the herds. And this till the days of the outpouring of the Spirit from on high. Thereupon the desert shall turn into field and the field counted among forests. And justice shall prevail in the desert and righteousness reign in the field. And the fruit of righteousness shall be peace and the benefit of righteousness shall be eternal calmness and security. Then shall My people dwell in the houses of peace and therefore in the secure dwellings and lofty silence. But the hail nevertheless shall remain along the forest and the city here below shall be a lowly one. Blessed are ye that sow keenly beside the waters, sending forth there the feet of the ass and ox indeed. [14] If you are therefore brought before and handed over to the foolish kings by the wicked fools of this world, as indicated by Isaiah, then do not trouble yourselves about what to say and how to justify yourselves, for it shall be given you in that hour what to say and how to justify yourselves, for it is not you who speak, but My Spirit – the Father’s Spirit that speaks through you. [15] This however applies only to the aforementioned, second sending out, which you shall have to accomplish after My ascension, but for now, your burden is not to be an unduly heavy one. [16] Because just as the prophet says at the end, so I also say unto you now: blessed are ye that are to sow at the seashores, because you may indeed, for this soil, send your asses and oxen back and forth, i.e. your diligence for goodness and truth, for which I have called you. There you shall not come upon a foolish king, nor upon haughty women, but upon the poor, the sick, the possessed, the lame, deaf and blind. Naturally and even more so, in spirit. To these go forth, preaching to them the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, healing everyone who believes, not keeping My name secret to them.’ (GGJ Book 2, chap. 36-37) WITH these threats, My disciples stepped over to me and said: ‘Lord. How can You listen to this? Do You not have power in abundance to destroy such vermin? The Sycharites were chased away several times when they tried to confront You, yet You had not worked as much at Sychar as at Capernaum.’ [2] I said: ‘I naturally would have power for it to excess. But the Lord of life does not need to hold judgment here, because after this life there comes another which, whether good or bad, shall have no end, the duration being the same. And for that eternal time I of a truth now pronounce a just judgment and condemn all the cities in which I had worked so much, yet receive now such reward, as you have just heard. [3] They have with all My preaching not improved and have remained dumb in their hearts for all My deeds. Therefore beware, Chorazim, beware, Bethsaida! Had such deeds been done at Tyre and Sidon, they should in their days have repented in sack-cloth and ashes! [4] Yet I say unto you: on judgment day in the other world, they shall fare better than these. [5] As for you, proud Capernaum, who have been upraised to Heaven, you shall be cast down to Hell! For had such deeds been done at Sodom as have been done here, that city would still stand today! [6] And yet again I say to you: on the day of judgment in the world to come, it shall be more tolerable for the Sodomites than for you, proud, hard and immeasurably ungrateful city! For this have I healed thousands of your sick and resurrected your dead, so you would now curse Me?! Woe betide you on judgment day in the beyond! There you shall find out who was He whom you cursed!’ [7] Following this My condemnation, many received a vision and saw how such cities as condemned now by Myself would fare on judgment day, seeing My figure in the clouds and seeing a curse leaving My mouth and strike the condemned cities. [8] When this vision had passed from most of the unaffected, simple persons of both sexes surrounding Me lovingly, these fell down before Me, lauding and praising Me. [9] But I raised My hands above them, blessed them and said: ‘I too, as Man, now praise You, Father and Lord of Heaven and Earth, for having hidden it from the worldly wise and clever and for revealing it unto babes. Of a truth, holy Father, it is thus well pleasing to You and Me. For, that which You work, I also work, as we have been One from eternity. I never was any other but You, holy Father and that which is Yours, has also been Mine from eternity.’ [10] These last words caused all of them to be gripped by great fear. For there had by now been many disciples following Me who had no further doubts about My deity, yet it was over these that the fear came most of all. (GGJ Book 2, chp. 48) 60. ABOUT THE NATURE OF GOD, AND WORSHIPPING HIM THE LORD: “After a man dies, the soul is taken from the body and prevailing as an isolated spirit man, comes to a location corresponding to its complete living being; and here nothing will help it other than its free will and love. If the will and the love are good, then the location also will be good, which the soul itself shall prepare for itself in accordance with its God-implanted strength and authority. If the will and predilection are bad, then its effort also shall be bad – just as on earth a bad tree bears no good fruit and a good tree no bad fruit. Go and adorn a thorn bush with gold and precious stones and see whether it shall bear you grapes as a result! A vine however shall nevertheless bear sweet grapes full of flavour, whether you adorn it with gold or not. [2] If that is so and, impossibly otherwise, ask yourselves what the whitewashing of graves, within which reside only decaying skeletons and obnoxious filth, should or could benefit the souls of the dead! [3] Do you earnestly believe that God is so feeble minded and vainly foolish that He should let Himself be served with the most vain and trivial parade of matter through matter?! [4] I say unto you: God is a Spirit, and those who would serve Him must do so in spirit and fullest, living truth of their heart, but not in matter through matter, which is nothing but the transitorily shackled will of the almighty Father! [5] What would you say to someone who came to you asking to be paid even for devastating your crop, whilst asserting that he has given you good service? Behold, that which you would say to such a fool is what the Father shall once say to you in the beyond, and you shall have to depart from Him even whilst being thrust out into uttermost darkness, where wailing and gnashing of teeth shall be your wages! [6] As to how you look after widow’s affairs, My mother Mar first of all is testimony, from whom you have taken everything, and thereafter a thousand others with whom you did not proceed any better and still don’t. [7] Does it not cry to heaven that Jewesses have to seek justice from the heathens and also receive it? Must it not seem really funny to Satan that his children now exceed God’s children sky high on justice and righteousness? Yes, the children of the world shall indeed become children of God in future; yet you shall become children of him whom you have faithfully served at all times! [8] Since you are reading Isaiah, did you never come across the passage where he says: [9] “I delight in mercy and not burnt offering” or “This people honours Me with its lips, but its heart is far from Me”! [10] Since you say: “such has God spoken through the prophets”. What respect must you have for Him if you prefer your despicable statutes to His Commandments at all times, keeping only your own for your worldly advantage but treading the divine ones with your feet? Oh you evil ones, you perpetual servants of the devil! How shall you fare once before God’s judgment-seat? Verily, the Sodomites shall fare better than you. For had such signs been given there as have been given you, they would have repented in sack-cloth and ashes, and God would not have judged them with fire and brimstone from above! Beware, the time is at hand when you shall fare as I foretold you!” (GGJ Book 3, chp. 60) 97. THE CAUSE OF THE FLOOD [1] (The Lord) “They even accuse God and say: How could God let a flood come over the Earth to drown all life and how could He destroy the Sodomites and the Gomorrites!?” Oh, nothing easier than that! For why let bustling and prim lumps of flesh crawl around the earth any longer, whose souls have strayed so far from the old order of God that even the last trace of self-awareness in them is gone out of pure concern for the flesh? [2] Can there be an even thicker incarnation of the human soul than that in which the soul has not only come into being from the divine spirit in its every representation but which also in the end loses itself so much that it begins to deny its own being quite seriously and can no longer be convinced that it exists? [3] Yes, when that situation occurs with the people of the world then man has completely stopped being human; he is then only an instinctively reasoning animal and above all incapable of any further education of the soul and the spirit. Thus such a body must be killed and decay along with the too intensively incarnated soul, so that maybe after many millennia a soul which has become free of all incarnation can enter the path to its self-education and independence, either on this Earth or on another. [4] That there are here, however, often people who no longer know anything about their own soul for pure concern about the world and their flesh, you can recognize partly in yourself, partly in the Sadducees and to a great part in all people; for no-one knows any longer who and what the soul is! One talks about it and says, “With heart and soul” and “he is my soul mate”; but if you ask someone “Friend, who and what is the soul?” the person questioned stands there like an ox on a mountainside not knowing what to say! [5] But once a soul does not recognize itself any longer and in the end even quite forgets what and how it is, then everything ends! And there is nothing left for God to do except the old maneuver of destroying the human body anew on the face of the Earth, sometimes to a large degree, sometimes to a lesser degree, depending on the situation of the people whether they still know something about their soul and spirit or nothing at all. [6] Such pure worldly and fleshly people may look very beautiful and sumptuous, particularly the female sex; the easily understandable reason lies in the constant greater conjunction of the soul with the body. But such people also become weak through this and are very susceptive to all serious physical effects. Their bodies become sick easily and the slightest wind of a plague brings inevitable death, while people who have a free soul and a free spirit in it can let all the poisons of the Earth come over them and it will not harm them in the least; for a free soul and the freest spirit in it have power and means in abundance to face every enemy in the most effective way, while a soul gagged everywhere by its cursed flesh resembles a small tied-up giant who in the end cannot even defend himself against a fly and has to allow an insensible dwarf with a knife to slowly but painfully remove his head from his body.” (GGJ Book 5 , chp. 97) 52. SEX BETWEEN MAN AND WOMEN [1] (The Lord) “You see, the conception of a person is a peculiar thing! In order to produce a correct and healthy fruit, two mature people, namely a man and a woman, must have a correct kinship of souls between one another, without which they will achieve with difficulty or often even not at all a fruit through the familiar act of reproduction. [2] Now if a man and a woman are of a similar nature in their hearts and in their souls, they should then take part in this act of reproduction, wedded and according to the order that is easy to find in nature, in order to achieve a living fruit in their image; more than is necessary for this goes against the order of God and of nature and therefore is an evil and a sin, which is not much better than those of Sodom and Gomorrah! [3] If a man has a lot of semen, well, he should put them in another field, according to the decent way of the old fathers and patriarchs, and he will not sin. But if he goes out secretly in order to satisfy his desire with maids who sell themselves and in this way to enjoy himself without the creation of a fruit, he commits quite certainly a crudely sodomite sin against the divine order and against the order of nature! [4] Only a young, fertile man, if he is seized too much by the sex appeal of a girl so that he is hardly master over his own senses, can sleep with a virgin, with or without conception; but after the act he must then do what Moses decreed for this case. And if a fruit is conceived from such a conception of need, he must provide the virgin ten to one hundredfold of what he would owe according to Moses if no fruit had been conceived; for a virgin brings such a person a great sacrifice of life and death! If a man can marry such a virgin, he should not fail to do so; for as I said, she has brought him a great sacrifice and freed him of a numbing burden. [5] But as a consequence such a fertile man should take a proper wife immediately and if need be also a concubine, with the permission of the legal wife, so that no discord or discontentment arises; but if such a man can abstain, he will be partake in a higher spiritual mercy in his inner life sooner than another person. [6] But how one should take a legal wife, this has already been decreed by Moses according to the order from Heaven, and must remain in the future until the end of the world. [7] But you will easily see from what has already been said what fornication means and why it has been forbidden by Moses as a great sin; for everything has been decreed by God according to the divine order. Whoever remains in such an order will also reap the fruits of the blessings from above; but whoever acts against such an order will reap the fruit of the curse. [8] If any fiery passionate man can, feeling an urgent need, not succeed in any natural quenching of the tormenting fire, I advise him to bath diligently in cold water and to pray wholeheartedly for the lessening of this torment, and this torment will be soon taken away from him; but any other way to quench it comes from evil and creates evil, but the evil is a sin and creates more sins. [9] At the same time all parents should be very concerned with not presenting their adult children with the dangers of attraction! For a flammable material can easily catch fire; but once the flames attack from all sides, the fire can often no longer be stopped, and there is no flame that does not claim a victim! When it is put out the damage that it has caused is soon seen. [10] Therefore particularly the virgins should be well dressed but never dressed to attract, and the young men should not give in to idleness; for idleness is always the producer of all vices and sins. [11] But whoever has taken a proper wife is bound to her until death, and Moses’ letter of separation does not cancel out adultery before the order of God, if such a man then married another wife; but if the divorced wife marries, she also commits adultery. In brief, whoever marries again after a divorce is an adulterer, but whoever does not marry is not an adulterer. [12] But if the marriage is spiritually broken by him who sees a woman who is already married and harbors in his heart the plan to lead her to adultery through all sorts of tricks, even if the act is not actually carried out. [13] But if you see the attraction of your neighbor’s wife and let yourself be affected, you have committed adultery; for in this way you have made your neighbor’s wife into a whore and have whored yourself. And it is a great and crude sin before God and before mankind, even if you have produced fruit with the other wife. But naturally the evil is much greater if you have casually whored with your neighbor’s wife for the sake of blind and mute lust. Such sinners will only with difficulty partake in Heaven.” 53. SOME EXCEPTIONS WITH SEX [1] (The Lord) “But if your neighbor’s wife, for example, cannot conceive any fruit from her lawful husband but she has a great longing for the awakening of a fruit within her and desires you, contact her husband! If he agrees, you can comply with such a desire without sin. If the woman becomes pregnant and after the pregnancy she again has a desire and her man agrees, you may once again show the woman your kindness, if you are single. But if you yourself are the husband of a fertile woman, you should not deprive your strength of your wife; for Moses allows you in this case to take one or more concubines as necessary besides a legal wife, particularly if the woman is infertile, but always with the permission of the legal wife. But if she becomes very sad about it, then it is time to get rid of the concubines, just as Abraham sent away Hagar, whom he had taken because of the long infertility of his wife, Sarah. [2] But if a woman has run away from her right husband into a foreign land to someone as a single woman concealing that she is already a man’s wife, then he who takes her to be his wife has no sin, even if he finds out afterwards that she is already a man’s wife, but secretly left him because of his harshness and infertility; for when he took the foreigner to be his wife he didn’t know that she was already a man’s wife, and when he discovered this she was already his wife, from whom he now cannot be separated, without committing adultery, by anything but death. [3] But in such situations there have happened often very cruel cases. The new husband, if he was under the Law of Moses, then tried to rid himself from the foreign wife if she became annoying by secretly going to her first husband and betraying the unfaithful and adulterous wife. The consequence was that such a wife was then stoned and both men could legally court again. That should no longer happen! [4] And I say to you: In this case a single man should not marry a foreigner before he has investigated all her previous circumstances! If he hasn’t found out anything and he feels very attracted to the foreign wife, he should then take her to be his wife; and if he discovers later only accidentally the previous circumstances, he should not be a traitor to his wife, but should keep her in the good faith that he took her. But the wife can atone for her previous sin through great faithfulness towards her new spouse; for God is no unjust judge and knows how to weigh up the weaknesses of the human flesh and to take account of them. But a man who beats his wife to death is worse than an adulterous wife! [5] But assume two neighbors, one of whom could not engender a fruit in his wife because in his youth he had weakened his fertility too much through poor care, while the other neighbor, judging by his many healthy children, possesses a very powerful fertility in that he has lived everywhere and always in the best order and in his youth was kept in good chastity. What would be if the infertile neighbor went to the fertile neighbor and asked him to conceive a fruit in his wife with his great fertility in his place, and if the fertile neighbor did this out of true love for his otherwise good and trusting neighbor without having even the slightest thought of committing lecherousness with his neighbor’s wife, which would be very sinful? You see, that would be neither a sin nor even less adultery, but such an act would be even a praiseworthy secret service of love under mutual silent agreement; secretly because apart from the mentioned people no one should learn anything about the marriage of the infertile neighbor, so that no one will be annoyed about it.” 54. SINFUL SEX [1] (The Lord) “But if a single or an already married man has sexual intercourse with a voluptuous wife of his neighbor without his knowledge, this is a shameful whoring. Such a wife is then a genuine whore, and these kinds of men are those who run after whores and who as such will never enter God’s Kingdom because such a shameful whoring consumes all the good senses in their soul and kills every spiritual element. [2] But such whoring is also no better than genuine adultery, yes, even often much worse than adultery. For in adultery such circumstances can hide in the background which alleviate the crime of this sin very much and deserve to be considered by a judge; but in whoring any alleviating circumstances can never be taken into consideration; for the stinking lecherousness is involved and deserves no usual natural consideration before the court. [3] A wife who lets herself be led to this without any provable need is bad and does not deserve the least consideration; for the weakness does not excuse her here, since each wife can achieve a sufficient strengthening through correct trust in God. But even worse is a wife who entices men herself into her wooing net in order to be lecherous with him in her husband’s absence! [4] But just as criminally shameful is a man of single status, and even worse if he is married, if he attracts women to him, has sex with them in secret and then pays them at the end of this whoring; for such a man firstly leads the women to shameful unfaithfulness and secondly makes them almost fully infertile, and thus destroys her like an evil storm destroys the fields, so that a seed can never more be planted and be of any use. [5] In quite a similar category a single man can also be placed alongside a married man, if he lets single maidens (girls) come to him so that he can commit sexual acts with them for some payment; and every girl who sells herself is as much a whore as any married woman who sells herself for money or other gifts. [6] The maidens should only be diligent and hard-working and then they will never need to say that need has prompted them to do it; for every honest man is fond of an industrious and hardworking maiden and will not let them suffer want. But if some employer is a mean and hard person, well, leave him and his service and seek another; it will not be difficult at all for an industrious and hard-working maiden to find a good service where she will certainly suffer no want! [7] At worst, however, will be those who make an active effort to induce to lewdness such hard working but immature maidens or even girls through all sorts of presents. Truly, such men, whether single or married, resemble rapacious wolves in sheep’s clothing and will reap their benefits! [8] But whoever drags a maiden or a young girl to him with violence should be judged here already! Violence may consist of whatever it likes, whether strength of hands or in enticement through very valuable presents, it makes no difference in the crime. Also the strength of speech or the use of magically numbing means, through which the female sex seemingly willingly gives herself to the randy will of the man, does not alleviate this sin at all, even if a fruit is conceived through this whoring; for such a conception is against the will of both parts and therefore does not contribute at all to the mitigation of the crime. [9] But the very most shameful whoring consists of the violation of boys and of the sullying of other limbs and parts of the female body, as are ordained by God (for that purpose of procreation), or even in the violation of animals; such violators are to be completely eradicated from all human societies forever. [10] But in the sentence upon such crimes it should always be taken into consideration to which level of education such a lewdman or woman belongs; likewise it should be seen whether the lewd person is not possessed by some evil spirit which drives him to do such things. In the first case the community should ensure that such a weak-minded person is brought to a place of correction in which he should be disciplined like a spoilt child until he has become another person; for once a person has conquered over the animal nature of his flesh and his understanding has become clear, he will begin to lead a purer life and will not lightly sink back into his old animal nature. In the second case, in obsession, such a lewd person should also be put behind lock and bar; for such people should be removed from free human society because of the great offences. [11] Once they are in good safe-keeping, they should be healed through fasting and prayers should be said over them in My name. Once they have been healed and it shows that they have become free of their impure obsession, they then can be fully set free again.” 55. MEASURES AGAINST SEXUAL LOOSE LIFE [1] Cyrenius says: “Lord, would natural means not also be possibly useful for the second case where there is not yet any spiritually strong person, about whose power of words and will such terrible spirits which possess the body of a person must bow, at least in so far as such a person could then be freed through the power of words and will of a spiritually not yet very strong person from his evil?” [2] I say: “The first natural means from the field of nature is fasting. If one gives such a person every day just about half a pound of rye bread and with it only a jug of water, in between one can give him every other day a little aloe juice, mixed according to the creation of the nature of the obsessed person with one to two drops of Henbane juice (Hyoscyamus niger) such natural assistants will be of good effect; but such things alone will not help him fully without prayer and without the laying on of hands in My name. [3] Above all the judge in such cases must constantly consider in his heart that he has before him in the criminal only a strongly confused person and no full devil. [4] But if the person is stubborn in his debauchery, but is neither uneducated nor obsessed, one can proceed quite sharply with his castigation. [5] If such a person improves and begins to abhor his sins with a good insight, then he should be treated with more love; but if such a person does not improve at all and obviously hangs on to his dissipation with pleasure – which such a lecherous buck can never mask – then he can, if he is otherwise a man of some education, either be thrust out from the community into some distant, barren land, where the great want will bring him to his senses; and if he improves, things should go better for him – if not, the desert land will consume him. [6] But if there is a person of little education and neither punishment nor fasting have any success, he can be castrated by a knowledgeable doctor, and his soul can be saved in this way. But there are some people who have maimed themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God. So there can be some – but only in the mentioned case – who are maimed for this by the community, for in this case it is better to come into the Kingdom of God maimed than to go to hell whole! Now you will surely know how all of this which comes from the desires of the flesh should be treated in court! Only I add, that in the future it should only be judged according to how you have just heard from Me, for all time in similar court cases. [7] Moses ordered stoning and death by fire for such crimes; but the like should only be applied in extraordinary situations to the most obdurate sinners for the sake of dissuading others. I do not refute Moses, however, but I recommend to you only to proceed in all things in mildness until a too great turpitude demands extreme strictness. [8] As judges be gentle and just through true love for others, and you will one day find a tender and gentle court also; for with whichever means you measure, with the same means will you also be measured in return. [9] If you are merciful, you will also find mercy; but if you are strict and unforgiving in your courts and judgments, you will also find the strictest and most unmerciful judge one day. [10] Consider in such courts that the soul and the spirit of a person are very willing and obedient; but the flesh is and remains weak, and there is no one who can boast of the strength of his flesh. [11] For now those who are reborn in the spirit in the true sense cannot yet exist; for people will only achieve true and full rebirth of the spirit when the Son of Man has completed in him the change in all fullness. [12] Keep these and act accordingly!” (GGJ Book 6) 100. WHAT IS UNCHASTITY? [1] Says Jurah: “Well yes, here is light, love and the highest truth concentrated together in one spot! Yes, Lord and Master of eternity, I would truly like to have a little light shed on the whole of Moses’ Law that way, and then we could live and move quite unchangingly firmly in Your eternal order! Then afterwards Satan would certainly no longer find any hole through which he could sneak into Your brightly-lit kingdom like a wolf in sheep’s clothing and make human statutes out of Your holiest commandments!” [2] I say: “My friend, the hour has not yet arrived in which the dark prince of the world will be judged; but it is very close! But when he will be judged, there will nonetheless be only too soon people who will behave even worse with My purest laws than Satan himself. Light will always have to fight darkness on this Earth!” [3] Jurah says: “Lord, but why? If all people would only recognize the light as I do now, Satan and all his malice will be eternally put out of work on this Earth! It will have to be certain and unchangeable through all time that our children and children of our children will then be brought up in the same light with the best conscience and will remain in it until the end of the world, just as it can be accepted certainly and unchangeably that two units of the same type and another two units of the same type will always make four units of the same type for all time! No man doubts that on the whole Earth, because it is an irrevocable and tangible truth. Your illumination of the Ten Commandments of Moses makes the same into a mathematical principle. But if so, to whom would it then remotely occur to call into question such truth?! [4] But as no-one could doubt that any longer, he would have to also act as a consequence of such a clearly recognized truth, otherwise he would have to appear as the sheerest idiot or he would hear this said about him from every sensible person’s mouth! [5] But of course, if the holiest and most important truths for us people are constantly given in a certain puzzling cloak and man can often interpret what he likes, then there are certainly a huge number of liars, through whom Satan and his terrible entourage can keep his totally free movement in the company of people. [6] Therefore give us, most eminent Lord and Master, the truth clearly and openly, so that in future any approach by Satan towards man will be barred by the strong wall of the most unchangeable truth. [7] I want to mention as an example just that Law of Moses, through which he forbids unchastity as a sin. What actually is unchastity then? Does this only consist of sleeping with a woman with an unwashed body and then not washing again after the act? Or does it mean the desirous lasciviousness and sleeping with a woman, a virgin, a whore, a concubine or a young widow? [8] Does blind fornication belong in this category, or even the mute, sodomite sin, or even if one has something with the very desirous wife of another husband? Should one, in order to be fully chaste, totally suppress this most powerful of all natural impulses? But if that is so, then the marriage bed certainly nothing other than a workplace for unchastity which is accepted in society; for who can guarantee us that the man does not sleep with his lush wife more often than is necessary to create a fruit?! [9] I have seen and known people who one could call true people of gold as far as goodness, love, patience, kindness and compassion is concerned; but in the vexed question of chastity they were and remain weak. They did everything, it is true, to become stronger in this area, but it was not in their nature, not even when the natural, full impotence fell on them; a lush virgin still made the same lustful impression on them. [10] And on the other hand I have seen and known people who remained as cold as a stone at the greatest female beauty, true examples of chastity, but otherwise in their lives they were insensitive to everything! Nothing moved them! Affliction and misery of the poor were laughable things for them, tears of suffering were tricks to wake sympathy; a woman was contemptible to them and very easy to do without, something which had no other purpose in the world than a field for the sowing of any kind of grain. They found marriage to be one of the most laughable institutions in human society. In their opinion all healthy women should be locked up in a great building and let strong men well capable of producing heirs sleep with them so that only beautiful, healthy and strong people would be created; but the ugly and weak women should be weeded out or used for the lowest jobs like cattle and work until they perish! Those are facts that I have experienced! [11] Now I ask whether people who are weak in chastity do not have a very great advantage over the ice-cold heathens of chastity in the eyes of every man! As far as I am concerned, they do! Well, I do not know how things stand for You, most eminent Lord and Master, and nor can I know. In order to come into a sort of order in these points which are forbidden by Moses as a consequence, in order not to be in the constant fear of having sinned before God with such an act, and if the act is always a sin, then You, oh Lord and Master, will certainly know some medicine against it through which one can drive out the desire and the pressure like a cold! For there is nothing more miserable for an honest person than to be dragged by the hair to sin by a certain side; nature forces the flesh with an irresistible power, and if one falls through the free air as a normal body, then one has also committed a deadly sin! That is then a little too strict, particularly for a person who for the sake of God has carried his head and heart always in the right place as far as possible. Therefore, Lord and Master, I would like to have a clear explanation about this from You! For that seems to me to be at least one of the prickliest points!” (GGJ Book 7, chp. 100) 38. PHENOMENON NEAR THE DEAD SEA HE glowing that now and then took place near the Dead Sea became stronger and more violent and was repeated more frequently than in the beginning. It seemed to be a strong lightning from far away. Consequently, this was the start for all kinds of discussions. [2] Even Lazarus said that he never saw this kind of phenomenon with such great intensity. Also the Jewish Greeks affirmed that. The poor servants and workers, together with the still present adulteress and the good-looking Helias with her family said the same thing and all were surprised to see such phenomenon. [3] Only the Romans looked at it quite indifferently and Agricola said to Me: “Lord, this is not bad, but our burning mountains are really something else.” [4] I said: “Oh yes, they certainly are, but they are not more noteworthy than this lake, for in this lake a big, sad human history lies buried, just as in the to you Romans well-known Caspian Sea. And therefore, these phenomena are far more noteworthy than those of your burning mountains, which are known to Me. And I also know that only a few decades ago some cities were completely buried by a violent eruption of your Vesuvius. [5] But still, this phenomenon is far more noteworthy, because in this fight of nature thousands of human souls are involved which are drawn by the nature spirits into a futile fight against Me, whereas with your burning mountains nature spirits alone fight against the laws of My order. And look, that is a great difference. [6] In order to make this even clearer to you, I will open up your inner vision for a few moments and you will see very strange things.” [7] At this very moment Agricola already had the second sight and at once he exclaimed: “Lord, relieve me from this sight, for I see the most horrible things! Oh, what figures! Our imagined furies are nothing compared to them! The entire lake and the air far beyond the clouds are filled with countless of the most horrible ghosts! Oh, there is a devastating war of such unimaginable cruelty as has never occurred among men on Earth! What do these beings actually want to achieve? [8] However, I also see a great number of attractive serious looking white beings who are hurrying after them and the monsters are fleeing from them. Who are those white human forms who are rushing to this most horrible site?” [9] I said: “These horrible figures are the former Sodomites. By the fight that they want to pursue against Me they are becoming less hardened, and are also brought into a better order by the white spirits hurrying after them, whom we will describe as spirits of peace and order. [10] The cool wind you now feel blowing from the north is nothing else but those numerous white spirits before whom the angry and wicked fire spirits who come out of the lake are fleeing. If you have had enough of watching this, be once more in your natural state.” [11] At the same moment Agricola was back in his natural state and said to Me: “Lord, Lord, more than 1.500 years must have passed since Sodom and Gomorrah perished together with the other 10 cities. Did the souls who lived at that time still not reach a better state of cognition in the kingdom of spirits?” [12] I said: “Yes, My friend, you have now seen a little yourself how difficult it is to better a completely depraved soul in the beyond in such a way that he may come to some insight and realization of how wicked he is and that he can as such never be free and happy. [13] Once a soul understands this, he will turn away from his old wickedness, will begin to despise and abhor himself and will try to become better within. Even if now and then he still relapses into a former sin, he does not abide with it but regrets it and has no desire to commit it again. Thus, gradually, his evil passions will decrease and cool off, and then it becomes lighter in such a soul. [14] And because the white spirits of peace that you saw, are first helping to improve that wicked soul, such a spirit who has improved his life will first go over to these spirits to practice there patience, good order and peace. [15] If therein he has gained some stability, he can pass into an even better state which, however, he should not look upon it as a reward for his improvement, but only as a natural result of his inner order. For, if a soul who has – unnoticed – been bettered in this way, realizes that his better state has been given by Me as a reward for his efforts, which is truthfully the case, his former selfishness would soon again awaken within him. Therefore, he would strive even more to become better and lighter but only in order to receive soon a greater reward but not to become purer and better for the sake of what is good. [16] For these easy to understand reasons true improvement of a depraved soul progresses only very slowly in the beyond. For in order that a soul can continue to exist, My omnipotence must affect him only insofar as he is placed in conditions of life that must appear to him as a necessary consequence of his evil actions. And only in this way is it possible to truly and actively better such a soul in and from himself. Whether that happens earlier or later is ultimately the same to Me. And also regarding eternity wherein all past and future times are completely made equal. Just as it is the same to Me whether man has lived on this Earth many thousands of years earlier or later, for in eternity the first man of this Earth will have no advantage over the one who was born into this world as the last one. [17] Yet, it is for the soul himself inexpressible much better if his perfection of life is attained as soon as possible. In the first place because such a soul has obviously less to suffer and secondly a more zealous soul will necessarily have a considerable advantage over a lazy soul who lags behind. Just as here on Earth a walker who eagerly sets out on his journey many a day earlier than someone who is slow and lazy and takes a long time before he decides to start the walk. While the zealous one can already fully enjoy the great advantages of his diligence and zeal, the lazy one has only hardly made the first step on the long road ahead of him, and besides that, he continued to look back and was considering if ever he should make the second step or maybe still stay at home for some more time. Yes, if such a slow spirit who undertakes nothing, lives in poverty for a long time, being in want and languishing while his zealous fellowman hurried ahead of him and received important goods, then the lazy person will certainly have no enviable advantage compared to the zealous one. On the contrary, for once a person runs ahead, he will be ahead forever, 118 and those who are limping behind will not be able to catch him. [18] This makes for Myself of course no difference, for I am and remain the One I have been from eternity. However, for the spirits there will be endlessly great differences in the degree of their happiness. Do you understand this My friend?” (GGJ Book 17, chp. 37) [5] Then he returned home and we traveled on for more than half a day to the south over very bare and desolate ground. We only met a few shepherds with their meager flocks, and they walked towards us to either ask for alms or in the worst case to force us. [6] However, My disciples, who formed all together a big group of people, threatened them and told them to withdraw, or else something evil might happen to them. On these threats, the shepherds, who gathered together and who were about 30 men, were also not very pleased, and they began to scold and rage against them. A few disciples, who knew the Arab language, understood this and they said to Me – even My John and the apostle Peter: “Lord, do You have no more flashes of lightning or fire against this miserable rabble? Let flashes of lightning and fire rain over these evil robbers like over the Sodomites.” [7] I said to the disciples: “Altoran – this means: o children of thunder and wrath – should I punish these poor people even more than they already are? Do rather good to them instead of seriously threatening them, then they soon will give you a better testimony and better words!” (GGJ Book 24, chp. 44) 19. THE INNKEEPER ASKS FOR THE REASON OF THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON AND NINEVEH OW the innkeeper thought about it for a while and finally said: “My dear, wonderful Friend, who are filled with all the power and might of the one, true deity, since You can create everything You want by Your will, please give me a little explanation why the God of the Jews, whom you consider as the one and only true one, allowed that cities like Babylon and Nineveh were destroyed in such a way that it cannot be known anymore where they were located. [2] Why did the deity allow that these works of human zeal were destroyed? It is true that also those men who lived in these cities did not sin less than the Sodomites, but what is actually sin? [3] It is nothing else but a way of acting that is contrary to the existing laws of which every person in a country did not know about or only little, and it is also very right that a people must have laws because of the necessary civil order. [4] But there must also be a corresponding education belonging to the laws. But who does the education? Who are the main educators of the children? They are the parents who – with the exception of the language and some experiences – are mostly as dumb as their newly born children. And the children grow up without any knowledge, science or experience. There is or was on the whole Earth no great or wise man without a spark of divinity. [5] There are laws of the state that are not known by such grown up children, and this is the case in the cities as well as in the countryside, and often more in the cities than in the countryside. [6] Such people with many passions have little insight and little intelligence. So these passions have great power over them and such people give in to their passions and sin against the existing laws which they do not know. [7] The longer such people exist the dumber they become and the more sins are committed. And the rulers of such people, like the priests, live happier when the people become dumber, and no one is concerned about the education of humanity, not even the almighty deity. But once such humanity is doomed to die because of their sins, the deity brings judgments from above and from below. [8] Would it actually not be wiser if the deity, already from the time that such people existed, would provide a good education for man so that the people would know what to do and then make sure to continue in the same direction? [9] But now there are only the eternal punishments on Earth, and the teachers who are talented with God’s Spirit appear only when people are already so wicked that they cannot be made better anymore. [10] That such people will degenerate, in the country side as well as in the cities, is obvious and does not need further explanation and the prophet and teacher who is inspired by God cannot perform anymore miracles for such people who became dumb. Very few good people will listen to him and accept his teaching, but the greatest part of the people will grab and kill him. [11] Look, my dear, wonderful friend, I may think whatever I want but such neglect in the education of the people, allowed by a very wise and powerful deity is not completely right. The laws of that deity may be very wise but what is the use if humanity in general never receives intensive knowledge of this. [12] Why is there more order in the Roman state than anywhere else? Because the Roman government sees to it that its very wise laws are made known to every Roman, and this till he has to pass exams to proof that he has sufficient knowledge of the laws of the state. For you only can receive the Roman citizenship when you can proof at the exams – in the cities as well as in the countryside – that you possess the necessary knowledge of the law. [13] In my opinion, this should also be introduced to all other nations, but in this way the deity as well as the state often let the nations go wilder than the animal kingdom. Then they can only act according to their passions and instead of becoming better they only become more wicked and darker and then they sin excessively and commit crimes. And once they have reached their peak in this way of living, the punishments come from above and from below, and then cities and nations are exterminated and ceased to exist. I can absolutely not agree with this manner of education of the people. [14] This is why I asked why the deity had allowed that cities like Babylon and Nineveh vanished and ceased to exist. The people must have died without knowing what caused their death, but the cities and the land that was cultivated by the people cannot be blamed, nevertheless they disappeared with sinful humanity from the surface of the Earth. [15] When another nation comes into the world they have to start again from the beginning, building houses and cultivating the land. And during that work, such people have again no peace but are permanently threatened by all kinds of enemies from above and from below, and these make sure that they will never come to a complete development of a true, pure morality and virtue. [16] We Romans here in this village, who are mostly old soldiers, have developed ourselves, as far as this is generally possibly for man, and we also gave our children such education that following our way they can live longer, maybe for centuries if someone can guarantee us that our little village in the countryside will not be threatened or destroyed by no matter what enemy, which the almighty deity can prevent if He wanted but which He will certainly not do. [17] And so, dear, wonderful friend, You who have a much deeper wisdom than me will certainly perceive that it is extremely difficult on this meager Earth to be a good person. But this would not be so difficult if a true, almighty God would take care that all people would be good people. But in this manner, the deity leaves the people to fully degenerate themselves already a long time beforehand. Only then He awakens several wise teachers and prophets among such people and they must then bring the people back to the old moral purity and virtue, as this can also be seen in the ancient history of the Jewish people. [18] Only when the people of Israel became almost completely immoral under the rule of the pharaoh’s, the deity awakened someone like Moses who had to free them from all their sins and bad habits. But I ask: why did the deity not awaken a wise Moses earlier among the people of Israel when they were still better and more willing? [19] Look, my dear, wonderful friend, I and also my neighbors often thought about this and discussed among each other, but not one of us could give a suitable and true answer to this. That is why I presented this question with all my objections to You, and I trustfully am of the opinion that You will be able to give me the right information on this.” (GGJ Book, chp. 19)
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