NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 3 · Contents
Attitude towards the church
12th July 1847
Oh Lord, most loving Father and Creator of the spirit- and natural world! Behold, if from no external church anything for the spirit can be expected, except the mysteries that obscure everything – what then are people to do, from where do they receive the first instruction in the gospel? Surely one cannot suppose that angels will descend from the heavens to instruct the children in the first basic teachings of the catechism or to preach Your Gospel to the wild peoples? And so it seems to me, after all, that at least initially, an external church is just as necessary as the subsequent inner church is for the Spirit for the infallible gain of eternal life. What is the actual truth here? Oh Lord and Father, do not leave us in darkness in this either – but only according to Your most holy will! Amen.
[1] This request is good and in some ways, especially at this time, important. But the answer has already been given, and so has what everyone has to hold and take from the external church. In these rules of conduct there is the best and the most necessary. What is more or less than that, is not in My order.
[2] But whoever, regardless of this, does not yet know what he should actually do, read the gospel; there he will find what he needs to know for his salvation's sake!
[3] Behold, therefore the apostles and many disciples also once asked Me when I warned them all of the chief priests, Pharisees and scribes. They spoke: "Lord, what shall we do then?" Behold, Moses, whom God had decreed among great miracles, literally introduced such an order by the will of God, as it is still being literally fulfilled today, although certainly in a most external manner. But if this is unswervingly true, why do you now want to throw away what you have in a certain sense built up yourself?
[4] But since I noticed the disciples' need, I spoke to them: Verily on the throne of Moses sit the chief priests, the scribes, the Levites, and also the strict Pharisees, if they are of the tribe of Levi. Whatever they teach you from the Scriptures, keep and obey it. But do not follow their deeds and neither comply to their own statutes! For these are not from God, but are vain works of man against the will of God, because they – these followers of Moses – want to achieve thereby only their own earthly advantages and not in the least the fulfillment of the Divine will.
[5] But now you also see and realize: Just what I once said to the apostles and disciples in relation to the chief priests and scribes, I now also say to you in relation to every outer church and their servants:
[6] Follow their teaching where they proclaim My word and humility and love. But do not follow their works and statutes if they are directed against My word and the priest has only earthly and worldly advantages in mind; and do not let yourselves be distracted and scattered by them at all.
[7] It is indeed quite true that the bark on a tree is dead, and the more external, the more dead. And no-one can draw a food for life from such dead bark. But if this dead bark were to be taken from a tree, especially in winter, the tree would either suffer great damage or perish altogether. Just so however also the external church stands to the internal, like the external bark of the tree to the internal, in it's way, living tree!
[8] Of course, the Kingdom of God – which is the actual inner, eternal spiritual life – will certainly never come from the external church. But this outer church is, according to My care and concern, a protection for the inner church, which everyone can easily find, if he only wants to seek and find it.
[9] And it does not matter in which external church he is – as long as it proclaims My name and My word! For it is not necessary that someone must have the whole Bible in his head in order to find Me and My kingdom. But for this purpose also few texts and a precise observance and living according to them are sufficient.
[10] So whoever does, to him the kingdom of God will soon be turned and let him hear what the gospel says and reads: "If you are a faithful servant, because you have been faithful in the little things, you shall now be set above many things and above great things!”
[11] But the one who is in any external church and hears My word proclaimed there and thinks that the word is false and dead, because otherwise so much lying and deceit would occur in the church, therefore does not pay attention to it and thereby throws out "the child together with the bathwater" and curses the whole tree, because it's outer bark is dead – he is like the one who buried his talent and will one day also be judged for this.
[12] But if someone in the inner church is already in fullness, it will never be counted as sin for him if he visits the prayer houses of the external church. For it is better for him to visit a house of prayer than to often unnecessarily visit an inn. Only he is not to take offence in it because of the idolatrous outfits, but he is to ask Me that I would illuminate this dark chamber with My light – so he will be in his heart a dear brother to the poor in spirit, who will reap the eternal, great reward for it. Amen.
[13] This says the Lord of the external and the true inner church! Amen. Amen. Amen.