Support for Christianity
[8] I said: “Friend, according to human standards you have spoken very well, and in the very first beginning of men on this Earth, the godly teaching was also given as pure as I give it to you now, but men who discovered all too soon preceding ceremonies with everything that happens and exists in the nature of things and the phenomena on and above this Earth, fell back with all their actions to a preceding ceremony and so they also applied it in worshipping God. [9] So they claimed that one should only worship and honor God on certain clean places. Whoever would not do that, showed by that not to have any true esteem and respect for God. In order to make such places all the more respectable for men, they performed there a kind of sacrificing service, although in the beginning with really pure and well-considered good intentions, since men had to offer a part of the produce of their work and their efforts to the teachers who were awakened by God, so that the instructing teachers could provide for themselves. [10] When men slowly multiplied themselves more and more on the Earth and had spread ever further, there were also more and more teachers and religious places, prayer houses and offering places that were declared to be clean and worthy for God by the teachers. Now when men became richer and wealthier by their zeal, they were then no more satisfied with the places that were declared only to be clean and worthy for God, like certain hills, little forests, pure wells and here and there also gardens that were constructed with nice smelling flowers, but they built more distinguished huts, later houses and temples where the teachers could instruct the people, accept the offerings that were brought to them and they prayed there with the people to God with words, gestures and also with songs. And with the things, which they considered to be especially nice, beautiful and exalted they also honored God as Creator of such beautiful things and they consecrated these to Him. [11] And look, this is how men, and more specifically their more and more richer but also more and more greedy and imperious teachers and predecessors, have slowly invented and introduced the ceremonial religion (which is actually only a religion in name), and from this all too soon true idolatry has resulted. [12] Actually Moses did not introduce the ceremony but has only explained it and brought it back to the old, pure initial beginning. He destroyed the statues and temples, and only one hut was assigned for that in which the ark was. Therein were kept the laws and books of Moses, and later also the scriptures of the other prophets, besides still other objects, which reminded God’s actions. [13] But Moses had always assigned a dual purpose to everything that looked like a ceremony, according to the instructions of God. The one thing was that the ceremony, as a sign-scripture, represented symbolically everything that is happening now during My time in full reality and which will still continue to happen, and secondly, he assigned political purposes to it, and also other things that were very beneficial for the maintenance of bodily health and for these regions of the Earth. He prescribed to them what they could eat and drink. And how, when and how often they had to wash and clean themselves, how their homes had to be constructed and arranged and which clothing the Jews had to wear. [14] So also circumcision served a dual purpose, for firstly, to every newly born Jew a name was given and the year and the day and even the time of his birth was written in the big book of circumcision – which was all necessary – and to the newly born Jew, the obligation was imposed to develop himself to become a perfect human being, to acknowledge God, to believe in Him, to respect and to love Him and to keep His commandments. Look, that was the spiritual-moral purpose of circumcision. The other purpose was however again of a political nature and had also an influence on the health and cleanness of the body. [15] Now it is easy for you to clearly perceive that the old ceremony of the Jews was in fact not a religious one, but was simply and solely for the benefit of men. The fact that in time the ceremony changed into complete idolatry, that, every somehow clearer seeing and thinking gentile can see, not to mention a pure Jew who is enlightened by God. [16] Besides, everything in this world happens over a certain ceremony, as I have already said before. Although a ceremony is in itself worthless, but will still always precede every event of importance and goes with and follows it as its worthless shadow. [17] Just look carefully at a dawning day. The first forerunner is a light shimmering in the east and certain known stars that will rise up prior to the sun above the horizon. That first light shimmering is soon followed by a clearer morning shimmering, after that a morning red and still a lot more. All these events that precede the morning are in a certain way also ceremonies, which in itself have truly no value, and even less so once the sun has fully risen. [18] So also, the spiritual sun has now risen in Me for all Jews and also for all gentiles, and consequently all statues, things and ceremonies, which indicated and proclaimed Me beforehand – no matter how richly in meaning they may be in themselves – have no more value for the true life of men, for in bright daylight no sensible human being will have in his mind to lighten a night lamp in order to give to the day a still stronger light. [19] And as I have now shown you the ceremony of the dawning of the day, without especially pointing out to you a same ceremony for the falling night, so you can consider the events of the coming summer or autumn, winter and also spring as a ceremony, and also the events during the development of for instance a fruit tree and still other vegetations and creatures on this Earth. Although they are absolutely necessary for the produce of a ripe and tasty fruit, what finally really matters is the ripe and good fruit. [20] And this is now the case here in the sphere of the spiritual life. Many ceremonies preceded this time of light, which now however have become worthless and senseless, because the sun of live has now risen and everyone can now pluck the completely ripe fruit of the tree of life and can saturate and strengthen himself for the benefit of the eternal life of the soul. And if he can do that, then how can all these preceding ceremonies have any value of life for him? [21] And so you can be a real and in My eyes legal Jew without circumcision and without paying for it. For he who walks during the day has no need to greet a morning shimmering as if it should be necessary for his life, and he who has plucked a completely ripe fruit and has it before him, should really not worry how the tree has set the buds and has then blossomed, or if it had carried many or few leaves, because the fruit is the main thing. Once it is there, then all the previous things have no more value. [22] I believe now that you and all the others who are present here have surely understood how the ceremonies came into existence among the people, and what value they had in their purity. And likewise you will now also understand how the ceremonies have slowly degenerated and have now no, and cannot have any, other value than the shadow that follows the walker if he directs his way of life to the direction and the position of the sun. Did you all well understand this now?” (GGJ Book 20, chap. 23) To demonstrate My might, I had to prove their spiritual ideas false through My words, and I had to eliminate physical diseases by acts. And so you see how I and My disciples often acted contrary to the prescribed religious ceremonies in order to draw people's attention to the fact that the literal observance of the laws of the temple was not yet religion in the sense that Moses, the Prophets and I meant it to be. In this way, I endeavoured to reduce all the misinterpreted ceremonies to their true value so as to make room for My pure spiritual teaching. That is why I said: "They that be whole need not a physician, only they that are sick!" - "I will have mercy and not sacrifices!" - "I am not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance!" - and to the objections regarding fasting: "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast." - "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment!" - "Neither do men put new wine in old bottles!" – and so on. From all this you may see how I fought against the old prejudices in various ways, through words and parables, so that My teaching might be recognized as spiritual and people might understand that it cannot be replaced by ceremonies and the running into the temple, and that these words might come true: "Who ever worships Me, must worship Me in spirit and in truth!" (The Lord’s Sermons, chap. 74) [15] I said: “If I am as what I have come into this world, then I do this with the very same right, as the right with which the Father, who is in Me, gave once to Moses in the desert the laws for you Jews. But I do not at all abolish any laws of Moses. However I Myself fulfill the law in all its aspects. But I only show to you your disability to understand and to assess the laws of the prophet. You ride the letter, which kills, and do not know the spirit which makes alive. I however reveal to you now the all alive making spirit; how can you then say that I abolish the laws of Moses? [16] You letter riders wet-nurse perhaps with your letters mosquitoes and swallow camels instead; because if you then cling so steadfast to the letters of the laws of Moses, how can you then for a lot of money and other sacrifices provide for the rich Jews dispensations (pay ransom to be free from the law)?! (GGJ Book 15, chap. 93) [9] The captain said: “Lord and Master, the basic principles of Your teaching are known to me. Namely that firstly one should believe in You and also recognize the one, only true God in You. Then to also love that recognized God as the best and most perfect eternal Being above all and one’s fellowman as oneself, and that one should also observe and keep the commandments of Moses. [10] Well now, what concerns Your demands, these should be easy to keep, but Moses has prescribed a great number of laws, precepts and regulations which are firstly difficult to remember and to understand, and then also difficult to observe and to keep. [11] Must all those laws, precepts and regulations also be kept and faithfully observed by every person who wants to bring Your Spirit in himself to full rulership, and thus wants to receive Your Kingdom and its full justice?” [12] I said: “If you recognize in Me the one, only true God, believe in Him and actively love Him above all and your fellowman as yourself, then you have fulfilled by that also everything that Moses and all the prophets have taught. For concerning the duties of men in relation to God and each other they said with their many words nothing else than what I have told you in those few words. [13] But then it means that you as a Roman captain should not, on your own authority, immediately demand from someone like Ebal who blamelessly offended against your regulations that came from your blind zeal, such great fine in gold and silver that – with exception of Jerusalem and the temple – almost the whole of Palestine, Samaria and Galilee could not bring together. Because in such demand there is not one spark of neighborly love or justice of the Kingdom of God in man, for from such demand appears not even a spark of your Roman justice, and that demand gave evidence that you hardly know its basic principles. [14] If you want to live and act according to My teaching, you must in the future strictly change your sharp regulations which you made on your own authority, because with such regulations you still are very far away from true neighborly love, and thus from the Kingdom of God. (GGJ Book 22, chap. 98)
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