Resonances to the Grail Message 1

19. Christ said..!

You can hear these words repeated unctuously in a thousand ways today. Christ said! With this introduction every contrary opinion is supposed to be quashed from the very beginning. Every person using these words, however, also desires to absolve himself of all personal liability. But instead of this he burdens himself with an enormous responsibility... before God!

But this does not occur to him until it descends upon him with such a force that he will be compelled to remain silent for ever after! The hour is approaching, already the first stones of retribution are rolling! But the biggest stone of retribution for many human spirits was formed through using the introductory words: Christ said! — —

These words are then followed by some quotation from the “Holy Scriptures” which is meant to soothe and comfort, to encourage, also to warn and even to threaten, or in defense and argument. They are used both as a balm and as a sword, as a shield and also as a soft cushion!

All this would be beautiful and great, and would even be the right thing, if the words quoted still existed in the same sense as Christ actually spoke them!

But this is not so! Many of these words were fashioned out of themselves by men who had a very deficient memory, and therefore they could not reproduce the same sense as was intended by the words of Christ.

You only need to observe how it is today. Anyone wishing to explain in his own words, or to write down from memory alone, a passage from the Grail Message, which is available in printed form and written by myself, even today does not reproduce it according to the original sense; going through a second mouth, a second pen always introduces alterations. New words change the original meaning, sometimes even distort it, although the writer may be absolutely willing to answer for it. It is never that word which I have spoken.

And how much worse it was at the time of the Son of God when He Himself had not written down any of His words, and when everything could only be transmitted to posterity at second or third hand. Indeed, not until a long time after Christ had left the World of Gross Matter! Everything, evolved only out of the imperfect human memory, the writings and narratives, and all the words which today are customarily prefaced with a definite: Christ said!

Even at that time Lucifer’s efforts to elevate the human intellect to the status of an idol had progressed so ominously as to prevent Christ’s words from finding that soil which provides the possibility of a right understanding. This was an exceptionally clever move out of the Darkness. For the ability to grasp aright all those words which tell of other things than the gross material can only arise through the unimpaired co-operation of the intuitive brain, which however, even during the time of Christ on earth was already sadly neglected by all men, and had consequently become degenerate and incapable of playing its full part.

Thus Lucifer also had mankind on earth in his power! And that was his weapon against the Light! —

It is the human intuitive brain only, i.e., the back brain, which possesses the capacity of keeping memories undistorted, which is impossible for the intellect of the frontal brain!

Thus their hereditary sin was sharply and decisively brought home to mankind, who light-heartedly allowed their back brain to become so terribly degenerate, the back brain which alone is capable of retaining in pictures and intuitive impressions all happenings and experiences as such, and in such a manner that they can be exactly reproduced at any time as they really were, unchanged and even undimmed.

The frontal brain cannot do this because it is more closely bound to the gross material conceptions of time and space, and was not created for reception, but for transmission into the earthly world.

Thus it was that the descriptions of what was experienced and heard during Christ’s days on earth were transmitted from memory, intermingled with earthly human opinions and quite unconsciously formed in an earthly way, but not with that purity with which a powerful intuitive brain would have seen and recorded them. The claws of Lucifer’s minions had already embedded themselves too deeply, preventing their slaves of the intellect from escape, so that they could no longer grasp aright or hold fast to the greatest treasure, the Message of God, which was their only possibility of salvation, but had to let it pass by unused.

Just try to realize this situation, it does not require much trouble to understand it. Many people approached Christ with questions, asking His advice about this or that, advice which He gladly provided them out of His great love, which never failed, because He was and also today still is Living Love!

Thus He gave to the person who asked and begged for it as he needed it. Let us take an example.

That rich young man who was eager to know the way which could lead him to the Kingdom of Heaven! The Son of God advised him to distribute all that he possessed among the poor and then to follow Him.

To follow Christ means nothing else than to live strictly in accordance with His words.

The bystanders quickly seized upon this happening as they had seized upon so many others, passing it on in that manner in which each as an individual had humanly perceived it. And that very seldom or never coincided with the actual meaning of Christ’s original words. For a few words arranged in a different form can change the entire sense.

The first persons to pass it on, however, contented themselves with relating, giving a simple account of the happening. But later on such pieces of individual advice were turned into basic laws for the whole of mankind! It was mankind who did this, however, and not Christ Himself, the Son of God!

And this same mankind also have the effrontery simply to assert: Christ said! They attribute to Him what men themselves out of their memory and a wrong interpretation alone had clothed in forms and words which, as the Word of God, are today supposed to remain authoritative and irrefutable for Christians.

Therein lies a thousand fold the murder of the true Word of the Son of God!

Everybody knows quite well that after weeks or months have elapsed he is unable to describe without error what he once experienced and heard! He can never repeat it literally word for word. And if there are two, three, four or even ten persons who simultaneously heard or saw the same thing, they will give just as many different versions of it. Nobody today still doubts this fact.

On recognizing this it is therefore natural that you should come to some conclusions as to what happened in the past. Conclusions that are convincing and irrefutable!

For it was also no different when the Son of God was on earth! You can observe it clearly enough with the evangelists! Their reports plainly bear the stamp of it in many instances. As for example when Peter, the first among the disciples to declare his recognition, said to the Son of God: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”

The evangelists recorded these portentous words and also Christ’s answer, but not at all uniformly. Matthew reports that the Son of God thereupon figuratively endowed Peter with a key to the Kingdom of Heaven and made him the rock upon which a future community was to be built, while the other evangelists give Christ’s answer in a more general form, which is more correct.

Peter spoke only as the first to put this conviction into words. And such happenings remain not only as words, but immediately become a deed in Creation! Quickly taking on form in the Ethereal World, directly! The honest conviction which Peter thus anchored in the World of Matter through his words, his profession of belief, became at the same moment a rock in the Ethereal Sphere which represented the foundation stone for the building of a later community for all those who can become able to believe in the Son of God with the same simple and honest conviction!

And with this Peter also held the key to Paradise in his hand. For the conviction that Jesus is the Son of God quite naturally brings in its train the urge to live in accordance with His Word! That, however, is at the same time the key to the Kingdom of Heaven for every man! This confession is the key, provided such a believer absorbs the Word of God in undistorted form, understands It aright and lives accordingly. Christ knew about this happening which, when Peter uttered his words of conviction, took place ethereally according to the Laws of Creation, and He spoke about it in order to explain it to the disciples. The lawfulness of ethereal happenings is also known to every reader of my Grail Message.

Thus merely through being the first to confess in words what he intuitively perceived, Peter consequently became the first to receive the key to Paradise. And to whomsoever on earth he could later on mediate this same conviction he would also open the Kingdom of Heaven. For those, however, who did not wish to share his conviction it was bound to remain shut. All this is a quite natural and automatic happening, clear and simple, and it is neither bound up with Peter nor dependent upon him.

Christ wished to and could only lay the foundations for a community upon such a conviction, but not upon any person! Peter merely happened to be the first who really expressed this conviction in words. The conviction developed, formed and became the rock, but not Peter as a person!

But Matthew, in accordance with his own interpretation, gives to Christ’s answer a meaning which is purely personal, concerning Peter only, and this he passes on.

Matthew in particular shows that he misunderstood many things which he then thoughtlessly passes on after interpreting them in his own ways he did already at the beginning of his writings: Matthew 1, 21 (the announcement of the angel to Joseph):

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.” And then Matthew follows in verses 22 and 23 with:

“Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Imanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us!”

In explaining this Matthew wants to form a close link between the prophecy of Isaiah and the birth of the Son of God, but the way in which he does it shows only too plainly that in his writings he expresses only his personal interpretations and does not remain objective.

This should have served as a warning to everybody that these writings must not be considered as the Word of God, but only as the personal opinion of their author!

Matthew, for example, does not even see the difference between the announcement made by Isaiah, which he himself quotes, and that of the Angel, but mixes them together with a childlike innocence because he “imagines” it to be so, and is quite unconcerned as to whether it is also correct. He does not even notice that the names mentioned in them are different.

But it was not without purpose that they were so precisely named!

Isaiah prophesied “Imanuel”. The Angel, however, “Jesus”! Therefore it was not Imanuel to whom Mary gave birth, nor was her child the one of whom Isaiah prophesied!

Isaiah announced “Imanuel,” the Son of Man; the Angel, however, “Jesus,” the Son of God! It is clear that these are two different announcements requiring two different fulfillments which, again, must be carried out by two different Persons. A mixing of these two happenings is impossible and can only be maintained by a human volition which deliberately ignores all basic facts.

Matthew had no evil intentions in this, he merely wrote down his own simple opinion in a most thoughtless manner. It could easily happen that he linked up these two events because at that time, more so than today, people were waiting and longing for the fulfillment of the promises of the old prophets. He did not foresee the evil of still greater misunderstanding that would grow out of it.

I do not need to speak further here about the fulfillment of the prophecy of “Imanuel” as I have already dealt with this in detail several times in the Grail Message. —

Thus the misunderstanding was as great at Jesus’ time on earth as it is today! Indeed He Himself often lamented that His disciples did not understand Him! Could not understand Him! Do you think it was any different when He was no longer with them?

“Later on the spirit came upon them,” many will say here, those who give little or no thought to the matter at all! The spirit, however, did not at the same time correct the deficiencies of the brain. Weaklings consider it sinful to think in such a way, but this is really nothing but an excuse for their spiritual indolence, which they imagine they can gloss over thereby.

You will soon be awakened from the half-heartedness of such thoughts however! “But when the Son of Man will come...” declared Christ, as a warning and a threat. Think of it when now the hour of announcement comes in which the Lord Himself reveals that He sent the Son of Man to this earth! Remember that with those words Christ threatened all the spiritually indolent among mankind! — —

When at that time He told the rich young man to give away all his earthly possessions, this was necessary only for him, since he had asked: “What shall I do..?” And Christ gave him the answer, which in this sense was not meant to apply to all mankind!

Only the rich youth could profit quite personally from this advice. Amid all the comforts provided by his wealth he was too weak to exert himself to rise inwardly. Therefore his riches formed a hindrance to his spiritual ascent! The best advice which Christ could therefore give him was naturally to remove every obstacle. Which in his case was the wealth inducing him to live a life of comfort.

But only for that reason! Not because a man should never possess wealth!

A man who does not pile up riches needlessly just for self-gratification, but who uses them aright by revaluing them and applying them for the benefit of many, is much greater and worthier than one who gives all his wealth away! He stands much higher in Creation because he furthers it!

Through his wealth such a man is able to provide employment for thousands during the whole earth-life, thereby giving them the satisfaction of having earned their own living, which strengthens and supports them both spiritually and physically! It is quite natural, of course, that a correct attitude must be preserved as regards work and rest, as also in giving the right remuneration for all work done, so that a strict and just equilibrium is upheld!

That assures movement in Creation, which is indispensable to healthy development and harmony. A one-sided giving away without asking for an equivalent value, however, is contrary to the Laws of Creation, and only brings stagnation and disorders as can be seen in everything, including our physical bodies, where lack of movement causes a thickening and stagnation of the blood, because only movement causes increased metabolism of oxygen and permits the blood to flow more freely and purely through the veins.

Man finds this law of essential movement everywhere, in a thousand different forms, but always the same in basic principle. It arises with every individual happening, and yet in its reciprocal action it works harmoniously throughout Creation, through all the spheres; and even the spirit needs to obey this law without interruption if it wishes to continue in existence, remain strong and soar upwards.

There is nothing without this law! Movement everywhere, in an absolute balance of give and take.

It was not a universal precept which the Son of God proclaimed in the advice He gave to the rich young man, but it was meant exclusively and entirely for the young man himself, or perhaps for those who are like him, those who are also too weak to control their riches. He who allows himself to be dominated by his wealth shall not have it either, for it does not serve him, but serves only that person who controls it, for in the latter’s hand it will also bring benefits. He shall possess it, because he knows how to help himself and many others with it, thereby maintaining and furthering movement in Creation.

This is never or very seldom the case when things are given away! Many people are only brought to an awakening and to activity through suffering. If others help them too soon they slacken, depend upon this help and succumb spiritually, because without some stimulus they cannot remain active. Then they live on aimlessly, often spending their time only in observing what is to be criticized in others instead of looking within themselves, and yet wishing to possess what others possess. A corrupt generation is created by such one-sided giving, worthless for a robust and cheerful life, and therefore harmful to the entire Creation!

That was not the meaning of the advice given by Christ! — — —

Nor did the Son of God ever speak against wealth as such, but always and only against those rich men who through their riches allowed all feelings of compassion at the suffering of others to dry up, who thereby sacrificed their spirit to their wealth, who had no interest beside their earthly possessions, in short who let themselves be entirely dominated by their riches.

That Christ Himself neither despised nor disapproved of wealth was proved by his frequent visits to the houses of the rich, where He was a welcome guest.

Neither was He Himself poor, as is strangely enough often assumed. There is no foundation for the assumption, now almost proverbial, that Christ was poverty stricken.

Christ never knew of worries caused by the struggle of life. He was born into circumstances similar to those now designated as the good middle class, because it was just this soil alone which had remained the most healthy. It was neither affected by the over-cultivation of all the rich and aristocratic circles, nor by the bitterness of the working classes. It was carefully selected. Joseph, the carpenter, could be described as well-to-do, but by no means poor.

That Christ was born in a stable at Bethlehem was merely a consequence of the overcrowding of Bethlehem due to the taking of the census, to which Joseph had also come. Joseph could simply find no lodging anywhere, something which can easily happen here and there to many a person attending some special gathering today. All this had nothing to do with poverty. In Joseph’s house there would have been bedrooms such as are customary among well-to-do citizens.

Nor did Christ have to live in poverty! This idea only arose because any earthly possessions which exceeded the necessities of earthly life had no meaning for the One coming out of God. The task He had come to fulfill was not an earthly one, but purely spiritual!

Christ’s allusion to people as being “brothers and sisters” is also being used in the wrong way today. How earthly unhealthy, akin to communistic ideas, how sickly sweet and repugnant in regard to religion. It plays directly into the hands of Darkness, for in its present interpretation it absolutely suppresses the free upward striving of the individual human spirit as willed by God. No ennoblement can ever develop out of this. Once more all these things are nothing but the unhealthy caricatures of what Christ intended.

When He spoke of all men being brothers and sisters He was far from thinking of the manifold eccentricities such as are in vogue today. He was giving enlightenment for that time, when the wicked custom of keeping slaves flourished greatly, when men were given away and sold, and thus considered as having no will of their own!

People, however, are brothers and sisters from out of the spirit, from out of their origin. They are human spirits which may not be considered as chattels without a will of their own, since every human spirit carries within itself the ability consciously to exercise its own will.

It was meant only in that way, and never intended to signify that equality of rights for which one looks in the words today! In fact no human spirit may enter Paradise just because it can call itself a human spirit. No such equality of rights exists in the general sense there. The conditions of maturity play a decisive role. The human spirit must first of all fulfill everything and do everything which it is able to do with its volition set on what is good. Only in this way will it so mature that it can gain access to Paradise.

Inflexible laws permeate Creation which can never be overthrown or deflected by the designation little brother and little sister because of our common origin! Nor here on earth either! How sharply the Son of God demanded the separation of the mundane from the spiritual, yet fulfillment towards both, lies clearly and distinctly in His statement: Render unto the Emperor that which is due to the Emperor, and unto God that which is due to God! —

And so it is with many sentences and reports in the Bible that men have based on their own views when transmitting them.

Yet all these writers did not intend at the time to make any law out of them for the whole of mankind, they only wanted to report.

It is also to be forgiven that the contemporary earthmen, and also Christ’s disciples, did not understand much of what the Son of God told them, which often made Him very sad. And that later on they transmitted everything in terms of their own lack of understanding, which they did with the best of intentions, just as it was retained in their memories, but which for the reasons already stated must not be considered as wholly authoritative.

But it is unpardonable that later on men simply and boldly assert as if it were a fact: Christ said! And thus they simply and assertively attribute these erroneous human views, these products of a faulty human capacity to remember, to the Son of God, only in order to establish and maintain by their selfish endeavors a dogma, the gaps in which from the very outset were bound to reveal to every powerful intuition that the entire structure was rotten and invalid, so that only the demand for blind faith offered the possibility of preventing these numerous shortcomings in the structure from being discovered immediately!

Such systems have been upheld, and are still today being upheld, only through the strict demand for blind faith and the decisive words: Christ said!

And this word, this scheming assertion, shall become a dreadful Judgment for them! For it is just as wrong as the presumptuous assertion that the Crucifixion of Christ was willed by God in order to wash away all the sins of humanity through this sacrifice! What lies within all this, how much impudent wantonness and unbelievable human conceit were necessary to distort the murder of the Son of God in this fashion, that the future will reveal and mankind will experience in themselves.

I, Imanuel, say onto you today:

Woe unto those men who once murdered the Son of God upon the cross! A hundredfold woe unto you, however, who since then have nailed Him to the cross a thousand fold in His Word! And still murder Him daily and hourly over and over again! A heavy Judgment will fall upon you! — —

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]