Why did Paul preach obediance to authorities, when there are and always were many tyrants as rulers? From Hell to Heaven (Robert Blum) chap. 16 - chap. 25 Chapter 16 The Lord promises realisation of just desires, with certain reservations. Robert’s fiery denunciation of tyrants. 1. Say I: “Your answer to My most portentous life query was quite good, and is the more commendable as it comes straight from your heart. I can but say unto you that I can respond to all your aspirations to the extent it is in My power. 2. “There is only one thing that I cannot reconcile with your otherwise philanthropic thinking and dealing. And that is the certain pleasure you afforded yourself on Earth when one or the other bigoted aristocrat was made a head shorter by the so-called Proletariat! 3. “Thus I recall that a meeting in Vienna, you yourself, amid much applause, exclaimed: ‘Things shall not improve in Austria or some other countries until at least a few hundred notables are decapitated!’ Tell me honestly, whether this proceeded fully from your will? Or was this thrown in only to give greater emphasis to your oration?” 4. Says Robert: “When I was still on Earth I strove to sacrifice my life for the betterment of poor mankind, oppressed on many sides. But thereby I had to learn through many of my own experiences as well as those of others of how the aristocratic, wealthy human beasts fed on the sweat and blood of poor mankind! And when I discerned only too clearly in Austria that the old, steel-hard fundamentalism was to be reintroduced on the part of the high dynasty, in order to weigh poor mankind down with threefold chains of slavery, it became too much for the humanitarian I deemed myself to be! Verily, if I had a hundred thousand lives, I would give them all, if I could help mankind therewith. For this high society will not allow themselves to grow one grey hair over the butchering of hundreds of thousands, if this raises their stature and splendour!
5. “Ah, tell me friend, can you blame a heart filled with brotherly and neighbourly love, if out of empathy, watching such abominations upon poor brethren, it is driven to scream with rage, something it would not do under normal conditions? 6. “This could indeed be part of God’s mysterious ways, and hence happen from necessity. But how is an earth-dweller to conceptualise it? Or, of what concern is to him some most secret arcana, about which some divine Being within infinity’s portals takes counsel with Itself? 7. “We earth-dwellers know only Your most exalted commandments of love, which we are obliged to keep even at the expense of our lives! What is above or below that truly concerns us but little. There could indeed be other commandments applicable in some solar system, which could be wiser or easily more foolish than those that You, most beloved humanitarian, have given us but it would be decidedly foolish if we were to arrange our lives in accordance with such potential, distant solar rules. We recognise only one commandment as divine, true and orthodox, which our commonsense tells us makes the best human existence possible. But whatever some fate may mix into it is only bad tares among the top wheat that You, most noble humanist, have cast upon ungrateful Earth. And these weeds deserve nothing less than burning in the furnace of a fully just judgement! 8. “I say without fear of contradiction: as long as man lives by Your commandments, he is worthy of the deepest respect. Once he exalts himself above Your commandment however, and out of self-interest subjugates and dominates his brethren, then he thereby declares Your commandment null and void. He is then not a brother but a lord over his brethren, with whose lives he deems himself capable of wheeling and dealing. On this point I shall remain Robert Blum forever, never to sing the praises of the powers that be! And that because they have long since ceased to be what they should be, namely wise and loving guides of their poor brethren. 9. “I am well aware that among the poor there also are many that are more beast than man, capable of being maintained within order only through the scourge. But I ask: whose fault is this? Those very ones that subjugated such people, multiplying their former darkness and increasing their hold on them through such people’s very lack of intelligence! Friend, whoever drinks to the health of such despots can’t be a Robert Blum, and even less a Jesus of Nazareth! 10. “There are indeed statesmen still who take their office seriously, and these are true angelic friends to their subjects. A thousand cheers to such leaders! But to tyrants and murderers of the spirit, words fail me! If there be devils, then it is these! 11. “I believe to have now answered Your question in the proper German manner, and beg You for Your opinion! Although I am quite firm in things I recognise as just, I am not stubborn and unbending, particularly if You can persuade me of something better!” Chapter 17 The Lord argues: submit yourselves to the authorities. Robert questions this commandment, seeking clarification on the nature of Jesus’ human divinity. 1. Say I: “Hearken, My dear friend and brother, I cannot reproach your thinking or acting at all. Wherever there are, between the regents and subjects, such relations as you described, there of course you are completely right in speech and action. But if things were different to how you conceptualise them, how would you then go about judging diverse relationships between rulers and their subordinate subjects? 2. “You indeed said to Me sincerely that you assess relations between ruler and ruled only by My commandment of love, and that celestial laws don’t concern you. But behold, here I cannot agree with you, for many reasons. 3. “One reason already would be My own one commandment, in accordance with which I Myself showed Myself as subject to worldly authority – notwithstanding that I would have had sufficient power to strictly defy them all. And furthermore, where in the temple when the tax coin was required, I commanded, to give to Caesar what is due to him, and to God what is God’s! Likewise, through Paul, I taught to obey all authorities, whether strict or moderate, as none had authority save from above! – What will you say to these, likewise My commandments?” 4. Says Robert: “Noblest humanitarian, I would say that, purely clever human considerations of yore extracted these commandments from You, for better guarantee of Your doctrine, together with Your own Person. For had You, as in the Old Jewish Testament, railed against the kings, as did Jehovah through the mouth of Samuel, then Your lofty morals would hardly have withstood the nearly two thousand-year reign of a most arrogant Rome, except by supernatural means, about which the darkest Romans have much to say. How much truth there nonetheless is to this, You will Yourself be better able to judge than I, who was not able to witness the abominations of this new Babylon! 5. “Behold, I look at it this way: had You been serious about Your commandment to submit ourselves to all authorities, whether good or evil, then You would have had to let go of Your most liberal doctrine in advance. You should have had to admit, that one would have to remain a dark heathen for all time to come,– once a nation was told by a heathen authority to worship the old deities and not listen to Your fledgling teaching! 6. “Of course You said: ‘Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God.’ Yet You failed to specify the actual limits of what in the order of things, is due to Caesar and to God. Hence it was easy for Caesar to unscrupulously arrogate to himself the right of a Deity, and not attend to the duties of his office. 7. “Notwithstanding this, Your temple statement is more explicit than Paul’s counsel, which smells of fear of the authorities. Taken literally, one would have to cease being a Christian as soon as such prince of the world regards Your doctrine as a threat to his dictatorship, – as distinctly shown by the profane Roman doctrine over many centuries, right up to the present. 8. “Otherwise the normally exceedingly wise Paul would have had to impose such mandate for a different reason, for to a healthy commonsense, the thing is nonsense, strictly speaking. Because, on the one hand, it is written: ‘Ye are all brethren, and only One is Lord!’ Yet on the other hand, one is to submit to authorities who regard brotherhood with derision. 9. “This, Friend, is mutually exclusive. Either one or the other! If one is forced to obey both however, then this basically means serving two masters, which You Yourself reproved as impossible! Or one should have to assume a dual nature, according to which hypocrisy, one would do the prince’s will only outwardly, having to curse it inwardly, doing only what the liberal part of Your doctrine demands. And this would be very difficult of course and at times impossible, or at least most dangerous. 10. “Believe me, noble Friend, I have examined this aspect of Your doctrine like few others. I believe to have discerned between what you freely taught as Your main theme, and that which You and Your disciples were forced to interpolate, on account of yonder threatening times. But I nevertheless am Your most fervent worshiper and know how to regard Your most pure doctrine! You said of course that You submitted Yourself to the worldly authorities, in spite of You all-conquering might. This I cannot question, since You had to permit Yourself to be hung upon the cross by worldly laws. 11. “Whether You could have resisted the authorities’ arrest on account of Your supernatural power goes way beyond my capacity to judge! If Your deeds were not attributed to You through demi-godly idolatry, then it is certain that, as a wise man deeply initiated into the control of the innermost and extraordinary powers of nature, these stood at Your disposal. But Your apprehension and execution has shed a strange light upon Your miraculous powers with many enlightened thinkers, offending them. But I and many others merely accepted Your most pure doctrine, discarding everything that appeared like subsequent heathen tail-spinning. 12. “Whether we were right or wrong I hope to now find out from You, in the fullness of truth. As well as what, if anything, there is to Your supposedly, mathematically proven Deity, through a certain Swedenborg, in the eighteenth century? Which for a clear thinker could of course be hard to accept, as this goes somewhat into the burlesque. 13. “Just think – an unlimited divine Being, whose intelligence, wisdom and power must of necessity be of the most extended nature! Hence it would logically be also impossible that such endless and most all-embracing Being could confine Itself to the person of one human! And ask Yourself whether, after some reflection, one can assume that You and the all-embracing Deity could really be identical? As the Son of God indeed, – I have nothing against this, because every decent person can rightly say so about himself. But God and man at one and the same time, obviously goes too far! 14. “Neither do I have anything against this, if it can be proven to me. For if there are things between sun and moon of which no human wisdom could ever dream, then why could You not be the highest divine Being in actuality? Perhaps, according to Hegel, within Yourself, the formerly dormant Deity for the first time awakened and gained full self-consciousness? 15. “Or perhaps It felt the need to manifest Itself to Its created beings as a Human, in order to be understood and beheld by men, without in any way foregoing anything of its all-embracing, loftiest willpower? As said, this all is possible, especially here, where existence itself assumes such most puzzling nature. 16. “But why in that case the Deity, first manifesting Itself as Divine Man, then permitted Itself to be executed upon the most shameful stake by a bunch of utterly foolish Jews – such would hardly take place between sun and moon, my friend! Such a miracle one would have to start seeking between nebulas. 17. “But I don’t believe that You asserted such about Yourself even in a dream. For I know only too well what You replied when they asked You whether You were in all earnest the Son of God? Your answer was that of a wise man: ‘Ye said so’, (not I). Whoever speaks thus at the decisive moment knows what he says and why. - I believe to have also understood this answer – for far as it is within man’s power; taking it that You, as most pure human, in all aspects are a true angelic spirit, but no heathen demi-god. 18. “But that in Your time, when they still believed in an oracle of Delphi, where the Thumin and Urim prophesied, and Aaron’s almost thousand-year-old rod in the Ark of the Covenant still sprouted, there I find it believable that they could attribute a deification to a man like Yourself, whose wisdom has not been surpassed in nearly two thousand Years! - For if the wise Romans already regarded every great man as touched by the breath of God, then how much more Your miracle-addicted compatriots, since You worked things before their eyes, whose probably natural basis they had not the least notion since Abraham! 19. “I now deem myself to have adequately answered Your question. It should now be Your turn. I shall hearken most keenly unto every one of Your words.” Chapter 18 Jesus’ talk about the necessity of worldly powers No human society without order and obedience 1. Say I: “My beloved brother! If one has regarded this thing with just worldly eyes and equally worldly intellect, like yourself, being content with a persuasion lacking all free and proper sense about the deficient translation of the four Gospellers, and Paul’s Epistles, after also imbibing with deep draughts the worldly philosophy of several German atheists, then it cannot be other than it is with you right now. 2. “I say unto you that, had you ever troubled yourself with the Old and New Testament Scriptures with proper attention, and that with good translations, such as that of Martin Luther or the so-called Vulgate, and the original Greek Bible, then you would have come to conclusions other than your radicalism. Your roots are as good as none, since the dogmas of your worldly-wise occur upon the tree of knowledge only as parasites. As an earthly tree-grower, you surely would know what to make of parasitic roots? And so you will gather how much your spiritual leaders would feature in My eyes! 3. “If firstly, one translates the Bible to accord with one’s views, and then quotes only those passages that admit of a dual interpretation in certain arbitrary translations, then it is no great feat to argue as you have done before Me. 4. “But behold, things are not so, because firstly, the quoted texts read as follows – My well-known temple saying regarding the tax coin, and especially that of Paul’s epistles to the Roman and to Titus, are not as quoted by you. And there can furthermore be no talk of fearing the authorities either on My part or on the part of Paul, since I proved more than adequately before Pilate and Herod, as well as earlier before Caiphas, how little I feared these worldly rulers! For He who fears no death and is Master over it, eternally has that much less reason to fear the vain arbiters of mere physical death. 5. “Just as little ground to fear earthly rulers had Paul. Nero, among the worldly rulers of Rome, surely was the admittedly cruelest. Yet behold, Paul sought his protection from the persecuting, spiritually evil Jews, and also found it, for the duration of his earthly need. Did he perhaps fear the Jews? Indeed not! Notwithstanding his knowledge of their hostility he went to Jerusalem, in spite of his most intimate friends’ advice. 6. “From this, you will gather that neither I nor Paul gave commandments, or rather advice, from fear of the authorities, but only for the peoples’ sake: to conform to the necessary minimum worldly conventions. For this you ought to realise – that no human society can persist without leaders. Which necessitates instructing mankind to obey its leaders! 7. “Or do you think that on Earth, great societies can persist without leaders? This would be most impossible, and even against natural order, not only for men but for all earthly things. 8. “To enable you to grasp this more deeply, I shall take you through the diverse kingdoms of natural things, and so hearken!” Chapter 19 About obedience. Examples from the natural world. 1. “Take the case that all cosmic bodies are imbued with essential intelligence and insight, in relation to their destiny. Behold, these great bodies, imponderably for you, float within freest etheric space. Why have they stubbornly, for thousands of years moved within the same orbits around a particular sun which they, as it were, are not prepared to abandon at any price? 2. “Their orbits indeed are of diverse benefit, as indicated by a planet’s good and bad years, especially at times of increased solar wind activity. A body like a planet can of course bear up to an occasional short thump from the sun, but such painful orbits often occur several times in a row for a planet, affecting only localities, naturally. 3. “If such a big wanderer through space, after ten or more such orbits, were to grow tired of such motherly solar treatment and earnestly intend to leave his ruling sun – to become a solitary wanderer throughout infinite space, what should be the unavoidable consequence of such idea of absolute planetary freedom, to reel about in isolation? 4. “Behold, an early initial, complete freezing due to lack of light and warmth, followed by a necessary interior kindling on account of the too mighty pressure from without, followed finally by complete dissolving of all planetary constituents, and therewith full mortality! 5. “The planets in their deepest interior have feelings however. Their existence is their most profound, perceptible need. And so they constantly remain within their sun’s regimen, keeping to their movement with unalterable regularity and not being concerned about whether they are dealt with more harshly, at one time or another, by their dominating sun. 6. “Some friend of planets like yourself, in sympathy to them could indeed say: ‘I salute such independent-minded planets. But if I were the Creator, I would severely punish such capricious ruler over the poor planets.’ 7. “But to that, the sun speaks up, saying: ‘what are you short-sighted cosmopolitan driveling? Do you not see that I also have other, large and small planets to look after? Don’t you know that their orbits differ, that the larger as well as smaller planets are more distantly positioned? That sometimes the majority are found on one side, putting great strain on me, so that some individual planet on the opposite side will have to necessarily be dealt with more sparingly! Should such orbiting planet nevertheless have to do with less, it shall nonetheless receive enough to get by. I can testify that during trillions of my own orbits around a still bigger sun-regent, no planet falling in with my order has starved or perished. If however some comets that prefer roaming free to my meticulous order, perish within infinite space, then I can’t be blamed. For no injustice can befall a being that is bent on self-determination, not wanting to depend on a mightier leadership; for it has thus ruled itself! – If you liberal cosmopolitan would have me, the planetary ruler, punished on account of my necessarily changeable behaviour towards the planets subordinated to me, then take my light and my shine, my greatness and power! But then see how the planets, held in slave-chains by me, according to you, shall persist.’ 8. “Behold, friend, this is how natural order speaks already through the primary, most powerful and free cosmic bodies, without whom no planetary subsistence is thinkable! If however these big freewheelers need a leader, how much more those small beings, restricted in their movement through all sorts of conditions, such as the animals and especially the fully spiritually free humans! 9. “Animal of the same species usually have one among them who is, as it were, a leader who, when moving, stirs the others to similar movement, as if electrically activated. Look at a herd of cattle, there is a leader among them! The shepherd, who knows from experience which one is being followed by the others, hangs a bell on its neck. When turning them in at evening, he just listens for the bell, moving there to find the entire herd assembled around it. To take them home, he just has to lead the bell-hung one, and all the others follow. The same is the case with pigs, especially those living in the open, as also it is with goats, sheep, horses, donkeys and a hundred other animal species. You can detect it even with the various insects and birds, and no less with the mindless, dull fish and other marine animals. 10. “But I will take you further and point our the seemingly much more dumb nature. 11. “Let us look at the exceedingly loose water, divisible into countless droplets without perceptible resistance. This exceedingly important natural element, which harbours all the embryonic life of the animal and the plant, – harbouring also forces incalculable to you, in its free state also obeys its inherent natural law of heaviness. In line with same and to its capacity to perceived the most feeble gradient of a railing, it immediately moves to a lower level and will not stop until reaching sea level. – This element also has the peculiar attribute of not completely clearing up until reaching sea level. It therewith indicates, so to say, that man too becomes conscious of his true eternal destiny if not striving for the greatest worldly honours, but only towards lowly station, that is the true humility which I so often counseled, attainable not through commanding but obeying!” Chapter 20 Further example: the need for high mountains 1. I continue: “Hence it has now been proven to you that this element too is imbued with its peculiar intelligence, with which to the last drop it obeys the divine law of order, notwithstanding that every drop contains trillions of lives within it! 2. “But we shall furthermore turn to the water’s birthplace and hence the mountains, and see whether their own peculiar intelligence is noticeable, and therewith their own inherent divine laws. 3. “Behold, friend, on Earth you find all kinds of mountains. Among these are lofty or primeval ones, followed by those of medium height or of secondary formation, followed by the very low ones, – hills rather than mountains, summed up in worldly teaching as those of tertiary formation. – You are smiling happily now, discovering also the geologist in Me! Oh, be at ease, for I am as well-versed in geology as in advanced cosmology. 4. “To continue: we have three kinds of mountains, of which we shall first examine the highest ones. 5. “Why indeed are there mountains upon Earth, with particular reference to the first variety? Behold, their purposes are diverse, firstly they are regulators of electro-magnetic waves, for their even distribution over the entire Earth. Secondly, they preclude the standing still of the air around the Earth through the latter’s fast rotation, whilst its surface is moving, which would cause counter-draft movement exceeding any hurricane, which no being would be able to resist. Thirdly, they attract the too dense air moisture arising from the combination of oxygen and hydrogen, for which reason also their highest peaks appear shrouded in mist, being rarely visible. Here they combine with the copious, ever-present electricity, afterwards falling upon the steep slopes as snow and ice, from where, after sizeable amassing, they crash down to the gorges and alpine valleys, to there massively accumulate as glaciers. These in turn have the special attribute of attracting the frigid air particles, thereby protecting the lower-lying fertile altitudes from the numbing frosts. Whilst the glaciers diminish the sometimes too intense electric overcharge, also regulating the atmospheric moisture, without which action the Earth’s plains would be exposed to the heftiest and perpetual cloud-bursts. 6. “From these few comments you will see the need for alps, saying to yourself: indeed, this is plain and incontrovertible! Because whenever people dared to make reckless changes to the primeval mountain systems, they were only too soon chastised most severely through unprecedented environmental damage. – Behold, friend, so it is! – But this brings us to the main point, and so pay especial heed! 7. “Behold, in order for the alps to fulfill the important purpose of maintaining an entire cosmic body upon its wide surface, their location is not arbitrary. Furthermore, they must, through their indwelling spirits – natural forms by your parlance, possess such intelligence as will enable them to effect what they are destined to do.{mospagebreak} 8. “For them, the sphere of action assigned to them by their indisputable intelligence is a positive law, which they discern with their intelligence; something you shall believe Me the more for having yourself asserted earlier that, through the Egyptian school, I had been initiated into the inner powers of nature more deeply than any contemporary scholar. 9. “Realise therefore that an entire cosmic body can be maintained only through the strictest intelligent observance of laws, with which these great terrestrial outgrowths are imbued. Were these alps to pit themselves against these laws however, saying, as it were: ‘we don’t want to lower ourselves to fertile, lower hills’ – what nameless ultimate woe should accrue to the Earth through such alpine disobedience? 10. “Although these lofty mountains bear no fruits, notwithstanding their making up many hundreds of square miles of infertile land and therewith appearing to human commonsense as ‘useless’, would it be desirable to dethrone these alpine princes and convert them to supposed fertile plains? You say: ‘Heaven forbid!’ 11. “Well, in that case say also ‘heaven forbid’ that the alps of human society be ravaged! Otherwise the political Earth should have the appearance of the devastated natural alps! 12. “Behold, if the kings of the Earth are to accord with their destination, they have to be like the lofty mountains! Do you comprehend that? You say: ‘I do indeed, fully, and that your are a true arch-sage!’ 13. “Very well! But this is not the end of it. We still have two classes of mountains before us. These must also tell us something. Hearken therefore, for the purpose of what these are good for!” Chapter 21 Medium and small mountains - their origin and overall purpose for the Earth planet 1. I continue: “When the Earth was still a desolate cosmic body, having to maintain neither plants nor animals other than the primordial archetypes of all future forms within the waters, the primordial mountains sufficed to serve the, as-it-were, ‘unbaked’ Earth-ball, as related above. But after the planet gradually became firmer in the course of a number of millennia, and substantial numbers of island groups began to rise above sea level, and the primordial seeds laid into the waters began to spread over them as all kinds of grasses and plants, it became necessary to also provide the ripening seeds with more land for their development. New landmasses were created through subterranean fire-power by which, with time, the new products would obtain more space, food and protection. Whereupon it began to mightily rage and storm over the entire terrestrial surface. Seabeds were ruptured and raised above water-level by the millions, through the mighty powers. 2. “It took many millennia indeed before this great work could cease, but with God, – with whom a million Earth years is like a day, this makes no great difference! In short, this was the reason for the creation of the mountains of secondary order. 3. “These mountains however were also in the beginning much higher and more rugged than they are now. But time and the natural storms have much lowered their heads, gradually filling the great deeps, forming ever broader valleys. Since these valleys ended up with varying levels, preventing regular passage of water, the latter remained in the greater depressions, naturally forming diverse seas. 4. “Since furthermore, through the constant water cycle, through the Earth pores as from the air (rain, snow, hail and dew) these lakes steadily grew, they had of necessity to overflow and burst their banks. Therewith through streaming they gradually eroded their natural banks and or dykes, partly filling the uneven valley depressions and, especially during great flooding, also forming veritable hills and hilly country - which takes place even today - as does also the raising of mountains of secondary order, through fire. 5. “The above-mentioned hill-formatting by way of alluvial watering, is the so-called tertiary formation which of course is occasioned by the secondary order. 6. “Therewith we have the creation of the last two mountain orders, showing also the cause of the second order. Why the third variety came into being and still does so occasionally, is easy to grasp, if the purpose is not lost sight of - that for the advent and maintenance of new beings as well as propagation of existing ones, spacious ground is above all necessary. 7. “The Earth's soil is so constituted as to enable all sorts of beings to arise, dwell, live and propagate; and this system was and is effected through the three varieties of mountains. 8. “The two latter mountain formations appear, of course, not to have a destiny similar to the first. Because the method of their formation as well as their destiny is completely different. But since they joined up with the primordial mountain system, they must without resistance fall into line with those laws which are, as-it-were, prescribed to them by the primordial mountain princes, so-to-say, as if one of themselves. For them this means: ‘it is not enough that you lower and younger mountains fill the valleys and ditches with your excess, to there produce fertile land, laying down little hills and recreational forests; you must also from the start of your existence carry a large part of our burdens and support us in everything, otherwise you do not fulfil your destiny. Nor can you fulfil it, as through your creation our powers would overtaxed if we had to again, as before your existence, order and guide everything!’ And behold, these new mountains, on account of their inherent intelligence do exactly as laid upon them by the mountain princes. 9. “But there are in truth among them some who will not obey, so-to-say. But such mountains are harassed by powerful storms, until they either bear up to the order of the loftier ones or are destroyed in the alternative. To the ancient sages, these mountains are the ‘unruly’ or sometimes the cursed ones. In more recent times such ‘rebels’ are referred to as ‘loose’ ,’'insubstantial’ or ‘weathered’. - There are plenty of examples of such punished (crashed and completely annihilated) mountains in ancient as well as recent times.”{mospagebreak} Chapter 22 Graduated subordination necessary also among men. 1. I continue: “Dear friend and brother, with this presentation from nature, you will have noted the system of subordination even among seemingly lifeless and unintelligent things, as you saw previously with the animals, planets and waters. It will hardly be necessary to present you with more instances from, as it were, dead nature. I could indeed still do so, particularly if I took you to other planets, where the order appears much more strict and measured than upon the seemingly intentionally disorderly planet Earth. The reason lies in the rearing upon same that much more freely, for their freest spirits, as true children, nature spirits to become children of God. This you now perceive with your innermost agreement. And I say unto you that I am well pleased therewith! 2. “But now that you realise that, even within seemingly dumb nature, a certain graduated system of subordination is absolutely essential for the maintenance of nature – well then: think of man, who is endued with an absolutely free spirit, which finds itself fully unrestricted in thinking, deciding and motivational process! Note well what the ultimate result, if every man, from his absolutely free will, were allowed to create without any restraint, from his inner desire in any shape or form, from his never-failing, god-like life-chamber of unending ideas’-treasure! 3. “I say unto you, no man would be safe from another! Because there are firstly, spirits whose inner fantasy or creations, mind and lust it is to destroy everything that exists. Some are constantly minded to kill men in every possible way, whilst others are bent on constantly destroying all mountains. Still others would dig a hole right through the Earth, then fill it with gunpowder, to explode the entire Earth. Still others would eradicate all the Earth’s water, and still others drown the entire Earth, and still others burn it; whilst some would try to pull down the moon to the Earth with a rope. 4. “Secondly, there are a great many intensely sensual spirits whose fantasy is made up entirely of the joys of life. If these were not restricted by laws, no female would be safe from their lust, and ultimately no boy or beast! For I know many such friends of nature, in the style of Sodom and Gomorrah, who would make it their life’s business to copulate with the women of all races; and if this generating game failed to satisfy their imagination, the would also experiment with the most diverse animals. 5. “Now imagine a large society of such hedonists, totally unrestricted by moral or legal law! It shall abound with the most diverse creatures and barest monsters! After a few centuries, the Earth would be teeming with beings before whom no human life would be safe! Wherefore Moses brought out a most severe law, with the death penalty by fire for such daring hedonists. 6. “Thus there were and occasionally still are lustful spirits whose truly devilish lust cannot be gratified if they cannot also torment their maid most savagely during the act. Only her last and most painful life-manifestation satisfies their ultimate lust! I won’t need to cite a great many special deeds; it is enough for you to know what fruits a completely lawless society would bear. 7. “Thirdly, there are spirits of the most extraordinary conceit, finding everything besides themselves below their dignity. These are proud and endlessly domineering spirits, before whom everything has to crawl into the dust, and only do their bidding. Think of society made up of such individuals: how would they cohabit? I say unto you that a world full of tigers, lions and panthers would live in greater harmony than such people, if not restricted by moral as well as wise political laws! 8. “And thus there are among men countless other deviations of the most diverse spirits whose tendencies are so perverted against all positive order as you could not imagine! 9. “If however all these spirits were allowed to make even partly uninhibited use of their absolute inner freedom, then say: what would only too soon things look like upon a cosmic body? - You say: friend, this would be terrible – hell upon Earth! – Correctly thought and said, I tell you! 10. “I ask you further, what is most essential for keeping hell away from Earth, as far as possible? Behold, this brings us to where I wanted you. 11. “Do you understand now what I meant with Paul as well as all My followers submitting to rightful worldly authority? Do you see now why one must give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God? 12. “Tell Me how you see things now. Do they still seem to you as absurd as before? Do you still find proper obedience and proper humbleness as unworthy of the human spirit? Speak, it is your turn! I shall hear you.” Chapter 23 Robert agrees. His rejoinder about rulers’ misuse of power. 1. Says Robert: “What can I say, dear friend? I now realise that you exceed me sky high in wisdom and science, and are right in everything, because things really are so; none of it can be denied, since you must, as one well-versed in the deepest secrets of nature, know all about it! Everything you have now graciously clarified for me I have acknowledged as true and absolutely essential in every part. But something else arises: 2. “Your presentation of an absolutely free human spirit and a necessary law and official executor thereof come to the fore. Abut it must be asked: are God-ordained and chosen executors and usual originators of the law themselves released from following same on God’s part? Are completely arbitrary despots and tyrants, obeying for the sake of a miserable throne, allowed to slaughter poor mankind – who also are their brethren, by the thousands? Was my transgression for instance of a nature that allowed an Alfred (Windischgrätz) to have me and several others of my persuasion and action, shot in the name of his emperor!? 3. “If such ruler releases himself from his own law already, then it can be asked: who will release him from Your commandment of love, which is to be kept by the entire world, without distinction of rank or character? Why must hundreds of thousands languish in uttermost poverty if they become liable for some insignificant misappropriation, forced on them by sheerest want? Why carry the strictest burdens of the law, when the notables can smugly do, most unscrupulously, whatever they want, and no judge is permitted to call them to account. 4. “I am all for wise and good regents, certainly, but not for regents who hardly know what they are and even less, what they should be; regents who only sit upon the throne sucking the blood of their subjects like vampires, instead of guiding them through wise laws! Tell me, friend, should a poor oppressed society not have the right to chase away such sparkling good-for-nothings and unfeeling idlers, in order to put wise and suitable men in their stead, whose head and heart is in the right place. Does a regent’s dwelling have to be a magnificent palace, and his income amount to millions, which of course derived from the bloody sweat of the subjects! - A poor devil has nothing good to expect on Earth; from birth to death he remains a playball of the mighty, having to put in his property and blood for them. As thanks he is despised, and if he were not going to put up with every despicability of the mighty, and come to a parson in the confessional for somewhat lightening his heart, then he is on top of that comforted with everlasting damnation! Say, is this also grounded in nature? Friend, I, Robert, think: this is hell and its most active concern, to make still poorer and more miserable devils out of angels on Earth! 5. “It certainly is true that terrestrial life is purely a test-life for gaining the highest spiritual perfection, and that one rightly cannot expect too shiny an earthly happiness from it. For a student always remains more of less a slave of the masters in front of him. But if the tyrannous rulers tune the disciplinarian strings too tightly, so that people are made into purest devils in place of true humans – what does a primordial divine order say to that? 6. “Is the Deity then still the only Lord and Master, and its faithful followers and worshippers pure brethren? Is this also to ‘love God above all and your neighbour as yourself?!’ 7. “Or is it right on the part of a righteous Deity to allow nations to sink below dogs, physically and morally, through bad regents? After the people have, through shamefully bad regents, sunk to the lowest rung of misery, then there come from above all imaginable punishments and scourges, from the most righteous Deity: only over the poor people of course, forced to become evil mostly through ‘the grace of God’! - For even the most unscrupulous regents go by the designation ‘By the grace of God’. Thus there usually also come poverty, hunger, all sorts of incurable sickness and many a pestilence and war, - obviously by the ‘grace of God’! 8. “On top of these most beautiful presents, there finally comes sweet despair and finally pleasant eternal damnation to burning hell. And look, all this by the grace of God! Bravo! Oh, is not life beautiful! Whoever invented it the way it is must himself be insanely pleased therewith! 9. “I will not therewith blame a highest divine Being, for Earth-life taking such despicable course; for such divine Being is certain to have greater things to do than bother with the filthy worms on this Earth. But the miserable thing is that these terrestrial human worms surely also have feelings and reason; nor are they ultimately destructible. 10. “Should the people of this Earth perhaps, as ‘children of God’, have as a special favour the honour and fortune to be those most cursed by the most loving Deity – Your ‘holy Father’ – Who had You hanged on the cross (probably out of love)? 11. “Verily, the longer I think about it, the more dubious the thing becomes; You therefore better speak again! Perhaps You will be able to shed better light upon it?” Chapter 24 Comforting reply for Robert’s dark doubts. Free man’s wickedness is self-punishing The lesson of history 1. Say I: “Dear friend, this criticism, in line with the judgement of your short-sighted mind, on the surface has much going for it; and if it were really as you sharply judged before Me, then the outlook for mankind as a whole would be bad. But most fortunately, you are here upon the driest woody path with your comprehension, and hence your sharp judgements. 2. “Because firstly, the Deity cares especially for the people of this Earth as if It had hardly any other beings requiring Its nurture throughout infinity; guiding mankind under all the conditions of their test-lives in such a way that nearly all must, in spite of the difficulties reach yonder lofty destiny, on account of which alone the Deity called them into being! 3. “Of course there are quite a number who in spite of all the best methods applied, will not bow down their will before God’s best will! - It is understandable that with such spirits, the Deity has to apply more earnest and sharp means in order to still bring them unto the right path, without harm to their free will. I would say that such assessment of the Deity on; your part is rather shallow, attributing to It results which are to be sought and found exclusively in the perverted and haughty will of men! 4. “You certainly said plenty about the licensing of regents through grace, but you omitted to say that there are bad nations not made bad by the politics of bad regents, but who became worse than bad through themselves. This I could well demonstrate to you through countless examples and later shall also do. 5. “But behold, secondly, the point of your supposed eternal damnation after death, which is presumed to befall men who were made wicked by bad rulers, and therefore without their own fault! Here I Myself, Who surely know all the conditions in the spirit world, have to admit ignorance of such happenings. Eternity itself of a truth cannot attest a single case where even one spirit was condemned by God! But I can present you with numberless cases where spirits, on account of their fullest freedom, despised and cursed the Deity, not for any price wanting to depend on Its endless love, as they deem themselves lords even over the Deity! 6. “Since the Deity can let only those enjoy the endless fullness of its love who want it, it will hopefully be clear that those who hate and despise above everything the Deity and It’s love, making a mockery out of It, can for that reason not be partakers of that love, - precisely because they are most determined not to become so! 7. “Such beings love only themselves, hating everything that their ego does not find suitable and submissive to it. Love of God and neighbour to them is an abomination, and a curse in their heart! To them God is pure fantasy of a distorted mind, the stupidity of a supremely foolish reason, whilst the neighbour is a canary not worth spitting upon. 8. “If however freest spirits stubbornly stick to something that is not capable of healing through any free means, and hence not voluntarily through themselves either in their most destructive insanity, preferring to expose themselves to self-inflicted bitterness rather than submit to the gentlest commandment of God, - say, can the Deity be held responsible for such self-condemnation? 9. “If then the Deity, out of purest love isolates such rebels from their most blessed friends, not however depriving them of fullest freedom in their isolation, can It be chided as uncaring, hard and loveless? 10. “You say: ‘Peoples and nations cannot be blamed it they become evil, as it is the fault of bad schooling and upbringing; and that they are bad because of bad, selfish and domineering regents, and that these bad regents in turn are God’s fault! Oh, I don’t wish to deny that there are bad regents, and that no nation has ever been ruined by them! 11. “But neither shall you be able to say that the most righteous Deity has never punished a bad regent! Go through the history of the human race from the beginning, and it will show that thousands of regents were most severely punished for bad leadership of their entrusted subjects. 12. “Notwithstanding this, experience at all terrestrial times has shown that in general, the people were better and more manageable under tyrants than under good and gentle regents. Wherefore also the Deity usually puts bad regents over nations, so that the people, after becoming evil, should have a rod over them. They are to therewith don a true repentance sackcloth and reform, whereupon the Deity will without fail give them better regents, and always did so.” Chapter 25 Purpose of the terrestrial life school. Temporal or everlasting blessedness? 1. Say I furthermore: “But when, under a good regent, a nation during years blessed with peace, becomes too casual and sensual of nature, thinking only of how to prepare a heaven on Earth for its flesh, – behold: this a Deity, concerned for every man’s spiritual welfare, can no longer tolerate, and that because an earthly flesh heaven, in accordance with God’s primeval order, always brings with it the death of a spirit; as it is with a boy who from the cradle always has lived in comfort, having very little spiritual sense, so it is with a nation that is terrestrially too well off. 2. “Go to the palaces of the rich and examine their education, and you shall see that rarely will a divine heart orientation be at home there. Then go to a poor countryman’s cottage, and you will find him amidst his loved ones blessing the frugal bread. This man prays out of his spirit, hence bringing up his children spiritually, lifting them up to God. The rich man’s god however is his flesh, which he worships through all kinds of relishes, thus raising up his children only for the flesh. Such upbringing however cannot possibly please God, because the holy purpose for which god created man cannot be achieved therewith. 3. “And so it is also with an entire population. If same is well off on Earth, it increases in hedonism. Being too well off, it ultimately forgets the true God completely, making either itself or what most pleases its senses into a God. And this has at all times been the ground for idolatry! 4. “Of course you say to yourself: ‘what is the purpose of God’s supreme wisdom and omnipotence, if it cannot prevent this?’. But I say unto you: ‘if the Deity were to judge the absolutely free-to-be spirits with its omnipotence, then that would be the end of freedom eternally! For omnipotence would then, instead of the freest spirits, come up with only judged play-dolls and never self-determining spirits completely independent of God, becoming gods themselves in their perfection.’ 5. “Concerning the effect of divine wisdom, this puts in place such conditions for deviant mankind as will enable it to be put back on the right path to their destiny. This indeed also is a judgement and, as-it-were, a coercion, but only touching the outward man, to enable the inner to awaken that much sooner. Omnipotence however judges and kills the entire man! 6. “Think therefore whether you still have the right to blame the Deity, as if It did nothing for mankind, or if anything, then only something hard, loveless and evil! 7. “Do you still consider Earth-life so deplorable? Is in your opinion its inventor a Being who has no cause to be proud of? 8. “I think that you must admit this if you possess only a spark of your own, and Hegel’s light; and from many experiences you must realise, that there is no true happiness upon transitory Earth; and this because, by their nature, all things of the outer world must with time be changeable, and ultimately only transitory! 9. “He who gathers treasures which cannot be destroyed by rust or moths, in accordance with My doctrine however, such alone can speak of true blessedness. For that which lasts forever surely will be better than that which is subject to the sharp teeth of time! 10. “What have you yourself gained through your striving’s after purely worldly joys? Behold: lead and powder have put a complete end to all your efforts. We will put aside for the present as to whether you deserved it or not, for I had to suffer a similar fate, excepting the difference: I Myself for God and Spirit; you yourself for the world and its supposed material happiness; I Myself for the eternal and you for man’s temporal advantage. 11. “You too can now say as I did: forgive them Father, for they know not what the did in their blind assumption to be doing right! But what have you brought over with you for the assumed eternity? Behold, friend, that’s another question! Will the world that passed away from you be capable of giving you anything? Ponder it and tell Me what you are going to do over here!”
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