In the Light of Truth
Grail Message by Abdrushin
1stBOOK ◄ ► 2ndBOOK
32. Wrong courses
With few exceptions, mankind labor under a boundless delusion which is fatal for them!
God has no need to run after them and beg them to believe in His existence. Nor are His servants sent out to forever admonish people never to turn away from Him. This would be absurd. To think and expect such things is a dishonoring and debasing of the sublime Godhead. This erroneous conception causes great harm. It is fostered by the behavior of many truly earnest pastors who, out of a real love for God and men, try again and again to convert people who are oriented only toward earthly things, to convince them and win them over to the church. All this only tends to immeasurably increase man’s conceit in regard to his importance, of which he has more than enough already and in the end to really place many under the delusion that they must be begged to strive for what is good. This is also the cause of the strange attitude of the majority of all “believers” whose example is more often a deterrent than an inspiration. Thousands upon thousands feel a certain inner satisfaction, exaltation, in the consciousness that they believe in God, that they utter their prayers with the requisite earnestness, and that they do not intentionally harm their neighbors.
In this inner “exaltation” they feel a certain reward for goodness, gratitude from God for their obedience, and they sense a connection with God, of Whom they even think at times with a certain thrill which produces, or leaves behind, a state of bliss, in which they revel.
But these legions of believers are on the wrong course. Living happily in a self-created delusion, they are unaware that it numbers them with those Pharisees who, with the genuine but mistaken feeling of gratitude, make their small sacrifices: “Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are.” This is not expressed in words, nor really in thought, but the inner “uplifting feeling” is nothing but this unconscious prayer of thanks, which Christ too has already shown to be false.
In these cases, the inner “exaltation” is nothing more than self-satisfaction produced by prayer or deliberate good thoughts. Those who call themselves humble are mostly very far from really being humble! It often requires great effort to speak with such believers. In such a frame of mind they will never attain to the bliss which they are confident of possessing already! They must take care not to be lost altogether in their spiritual arrogance, which they consider to be humility. It will be easier for many who now are still absolute non-believers to enter the Kingdom of God than for all the legions with their arrogant humility, who do not really stand before God in simple supplication, but are indirectly demanding that He reward them for their prayers and pious words. Their petitions are demands, their nature is hypocritical. They will be swept away like empty chaff before His Countenance. They will reap their reward, certainly, but it will be different from what they imagine. They have already satisfied themselves enough on earth in the consciousness of their own value.
The feeling of well-being will rapidly disappear on passing into the Ethereal World, where the inner intuitive perception, which is scarcely sensed here, will come to the fore, while the feeling hitherto mainly produced only by thoughts will be scattered to the winds.
This inner, silent, so-called humble expectation of something better is really nothing but a demand, even though expressed differently in ever such beautiful words. But every demand is a presumption. Only God demands! Christ too did not bring His message to mankind pleading with them but warning and demanding. Though He gave explanations about the Truth He did not woo his hearers by holding rewards before their eyes in order to entice them to become better. Calmly and sternly He commanded serious seekers: Go thou and do likewise!
God stands before humanity demanding, not enticing and pleading, not lamenting and grieving. He will calmly abandon to the Darkness all the wicked, even all the wavering ones, so that those who are striving upwards shall no longer be exposed to their attacks and that the others be enabled to thoroughly experience everything they consider to be right, and thus come to the recognition of their error!
