NEUOFFENBARUNGCeremonial ecclesiasticism (13 April 1847)
1. What is the use of vain lamentations, of loose scolding and panting, and of thirsty acquittal of all that such an idolatrous church prescribes to keep and observe?
2. All this is of no use; once a river has flowed and become strong, it is too late to dam it up and stop it in its course, since this will only make it swell even more, and it will burst the dams and then devastate all the land that it floods. The most sensible thing to do is to let the river run it's course; by the time it reaches the sea, it's fury will have cooled down and diminished completely.
3. It would be just as foolish to try to swim upstream in such a current. No-one would get a hair's breadth further, for the more vigorously he tried to defy the waves that were flowing toward him, the more forcefully and violently they would beat against his forehead and soon whirl him down to the bottom. It is best to let the current flow where and how it flows, but to distance oneself from the current as far as possible in the heart, and to follow the dry, but safe path of pure truth.
4. To rebel against something that has once been more and more established in certain norms for centuries, would indeed be the greatest folly; it would be a war between one and a thousand soldiers. What will one do against a thousand? The same is just the case with such a one who wanted to rebel against a general order of whatever nature; his views may be correct, but what will he do if the great mass is blind and deaf? In this case, one must be wise and honestly turn the mantle to the wind and not against it, since it would be of little use to him.
5. But I never look at the outward appearance anyway, but always only at the innermost things in man; and so every honest Christian can quite well attend the so-called ceremonial service in a house of prayer, but be with Me in his heart, this will not bring him the slightest harm.
6. But if this service annoys anyone, let him stay outside; for no-one is dragged in by the ears – and if the latter were the case, it will do no harm to anyone if he goes in; for it is still better to be in a house of prayer, and to perform a certain devotion, than either to go on a hunt, or to go to a gambling house, or to do usurious business, to forge intrigues, to visit whores, and so on, on the generally commanded feast days and holidays and the like.
7. In addition to the ceremonies, sermons are also held, before which at least a few verses of the Gospel are read; and if someone does not like a sermon, he should stick to the verses read from the Gospel, and he will be able to take so much from such verses that he will have enough to attain eternal life, if he only follows the few verses correctly. According to this, someone cannot easily lose something if he also goes to such a house of prayer, where he can still find something that reminds him of Me; but if someone breaks away from such idolatry out of mere hatred for it, but does not take anything better for it, but usually only worse, ask: will this be of any use to him? I hardly think so.
8. The temple at Jerusalem was completely an idol temple during My lifetime on earth; for there was certainly no longer any question of a house of God. Jehovah was no longer in the temple, except He came into it now and then and taught in it.
9. But I, as the Jehovah – thus says the Lord – did not forbid anyone from visiting the temple and offering his gift, and I Myself went into it many times, and taught in it, and also indulged the adulteress in it; even My disciples had never received a prohibition to visit the temple, although it was a perfect idol temple. Why should anyone here be angry about going into a house of prayer? For if he goes in in My true name, I am with him and go with him; and if we are inside, no-one will throw us out, and as long as I
endure inside, he with whom I am inside, will also be able to endure.
10. In general, no-one should call lightning and sulfur fire from heaven before I will hurl it there by Myself anyway. But when this will be necessary, I know best.
11. I think, however, as long as a very large crowd still takes great pleasure in supporting this idolatry in every possible way, paying masses and offices, making donations, building prayer houses and other chapels, filling the sacrificial vaults, have organs built, purchase bells, have rich funeral ceremonies celebrated, as well as to produce very expensive so-called pariments, to make costly pilgrimages, and to get involved in money-grubbing brotherhoods, so long it goes quite well; and what should be destroyed like a foam bubble with a breath, in which mankind still has a great pleasure up to now? He who wants to be dumb and blind, and who takes great pleasure in these rank ceremonies of great gold and precious stone splendor, let him remain dumb, blind and a fool.
12. What do I care about a world full of fools? I tell you: Much less than a potter would care for a bad pot, which he can beat up whenever he wants, because he did not want to advise him. But as the potter will have no sorrow for such a stupid pot, when he has beaten it, so I will not bear any sorrow for a world full of fools in My heart, as if it were something difficult for Me to create another world full of the wisest angels for it.
13. But if someone seeks Me, he will also find Me, and I will accept him, and he will be dearer to Me than a world full of fools, and I will also do more for him alone than for a whole world full of fools.
14. If I therefore do not move too violently because of the general overstupid state of things, and let them go in a certain way, then this is a sign to you that I care very little about all these things as they are now in the world, and about all the fools who pay homage to them.
15. But if I find individuals here and there who are interested in Me alone, I am more interested in them than in the whole world. I will let the one revel in all the fullness of My grace, and to the world in i'ts foolishness I will give tears; for, as I said, I care more – indeed by far more – about a good person, indeed I care all about him, than about a world full of fools, in which I care just as much as about a rotten plant that grows along the road and is trampled by the wanderers into the dust. How many times has the grass been cut from a meadow; what is the reason for that? Another will grow again; this is the case with the people on earth, who are fools and want to be fools.
16. One can also say there: For hungry cattle, a food is soon good; the blowfly slurps the juice of the dung, the worm eats mud, the pigs are just also no gourmands and gourmets, and the donkey is content, as is known, with the worst food. But if such people are like such animals, well, they should be nourished with the same food, for they would not like any other. And if they are good for nothing else, they will one day be useful over there, so that better minds will find in them the most beautiful opportunity to catch up on the zoology that has been neglected here; for zoology is an extremely important science. And since, as sufficiently shown in this work, the perfect minds have to deal with the mineral-, plant- and animal-kingdoms, it goes without saying that they must not be laymen in zoology. But of course this is a different zoology than here in the world, where everyone is a good zoologist or at least wants to be, if he knows the animals only by their bellows; therefore, in the zoological educational institutions and the necessary museums, mostly only stuffed bellows are presented to the students.
17. I now think I have said more than enough about this point; therefore, next time, we want to move on to another quite secret memorable thing.