NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 2 · Contents
Dr. David Friedrich Strauss
18th January 1843, in the evening
[1] See, for now it is necessary to know what the man is, since it is a matter of examining those text of My book more closely, in which just this man takes the contradictory offense and strives to prove the ungodliness of My word.
[2] There are truly a great number more such texts in My book, which the man uses as a weapon against Me. But we will have enough of the texts, which are already prepared, in order to see the nature of our opponent completely and thus also his great error.
[3] But you ask: Who is Strauss, and why does he do this? So take note, I will make it known to you!
[4] Strauss is a prophet of the time and a prophet of the world; he is a master builder, who built a large building from gemstones on the shifting sand of the world – yes, wants to erect such a building, which is to defy eternity. But what a contradiction, what folly this is, will be clearly shown in the following texts. The man will obstruct himself, he will realize his folly; when rain and wind will come, his magnificent building will perish! But many seekers will find the precious stones on the sand, will carry them on the rocks and will, under My direction, build such a magnificent building from these very same found gems, which will then defy all eternal storms of time!
[5] Behold, therefore also a Strauss had to come, one of the greatest opponents of My Word, therefore My sanctuary will be fought until the last dot, that now all the learned world may see how great the horizon of their knowledge is, and tell them thoroughly and literally: Up to here and now not a hair further! So Strauss is also a necessary prophet!
[6] But there are already a lot of collectors of the gems on the drifting sand of this prophet, and there stands already nearly completed another building on a strong rock! Therefore we leave this man in his sphere; he is necessary to us, for he first scatters the seed of the night. These weeds will be gathered and shall be burned in our field, that it may be fertilized by it’s ashes in the most advantageous way.
[7] Now you will hopefully know who the Strauss is and why he does this! But since you now know such things, do not be angry because of him, because he too is a worker for Me and must be, because he must be it. Therefore understand such things well, Amen.
20th January 1843. morning. Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
4th book of Moses, 22nd chapter, verses 28-30 ff
[8] Who might probably misjudge this picture? Who is the prophet Balaam? And who is the donkey that willingly carried him before?
[9] Oh how clearly such a thing lies before everyone's eyes, and yet no-one recognizes it properly! Behold, Balaam designates all the natural learnedness of the world, and the donkey designates the nature on which all these scholars ride.
[10] As long as the scholars ride this donkey, for the sake of their worldly and actually natural purpose, this beast of burden is always patient. But if they want to venture into the inner spiritual sanctuary on this beast of burden, this donkey becomes stubborn. And if they want to enforce such a thing by force, the donkey also immediately becomes talking and speaks: What have I done to you, that you maltreat me and want to enforce on me what is impossible? You may destroy me and crush
me into atoms, so you will not get any further with me by a hair; for not I, but the power of God places itself here against you and do not let you go further, because you do what is against His divine eternal order! Is it not so?
[11] What does Strauss or the very actual prophet Balaam of this time do? He rides just on this donkey to make Me suspect before My people everywhere. He wants to force the beast of burden, the natural earth, that it is to serve him thereto, so that he may destroy Me and all My revelation! But this otherwise patient beast of burden speaks to him: So far and not a hair's breadth further! But if you want to proclaim the glory of God, your eyes will be opened, and your beast of burden shall carry you when you shall speak from your beast of burden the word of God, and will proclaim His glory!
[12] Balaam understood his beast of burden, but Strauss, the great scholar, does not yet understand it! But he will also not understand it, as long as he will remain a natural rider of the natural letter. But if he would consider that nature also contains in itself quite different powers, which cannot be revealed by any external form, so it might become well clear to him also, that there is indeed something else hidden behind the letter form of the word of God, than only the dead form which is apparent to him!
[13] But I think the time will once also come for him, where he will understand his stubborn beast of burden like Balaam! Do you now understand such things?
21st January 1843. morning. Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
The book of Joshua, Chapter 10, verses 12-14.
[14] If many a scholar would understand how to cope better with Balaam's donkey, so this patient beast of burden would give them also here the proper information, talking most understandably – but this beast has now even become mouth-stubborn under the even coarse bludgeoning of the new, most stubborn prophet and prefers to be bludgeoned to death than to open it’s mouth!
[15] But I ask: Who then has made the sun and the moon and the earth? And who has given them the movement? Who has put all these laws into the world-bodies? But I state the case that such a learned prophet would come into the workshop of a mechanic who, in a manner as yet unknown to the scholar, would bring the pendulum of an astronomical clock to a halt for a while, because I think there couldn't be anything more silly, as the scholar said to the mechanic: Friend, how can you do such and do not want to stop the actual moving pendulum, where it mostly moves, but instead grasp only quite mysteriously into the by far calmer work and thus bring in a – to me inexplicable way – the actually self-moving pendulum to a standstill?
[16] What answer would the mechanic give to such a scholar who wants to be omniscient? Especially when the latter want to dispute all his mechanical knowledge, since the mechanic accomplished an art completely unknown to the scholar to stop the pendulum. He would either pity the scholar or show him the door! I think however that I certainly know My work as well as the mechanic knows his work and can therefore well reach into the sun and still bring the earth- pendulum, which moves around the sun, to a standstill for a while, without the rest of creation being in the least disturbed.
[17] But it says in the 14th verse: "And it had never been such a long day before and after, when the Lord obeyed the voice of a man; for the Lord fought there for the Israelite people."
[18] But does that not mean that the Lord satisfied – with the order of the world-bodies in His creation – the ignorance of a man and apparently fulfilled the wish of a person who did not know what he was talking about!
[19] But I think if the new Balaam can measure everything so badly from My words for Me, so he could also measure, as I have shown it now?! Yes, he could sure do it, but his pack animal has become stubborn; that is why he is also blind in My sphere!
[20] But 'sun' also denotes wisdom and 'moon' denotes love!
[21] But Strauss does not accept anything spiritual; therefore we want to spare him also with the inner sense of these texts! Understand this well, therefore, you too, even in the sense of the letter, Amen.
23rd January 1843, morning, Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
2nd book of Moses, Chapter 11, verse 2, and Chapter 12, verse 36.
[22] Here one asks the learned man, where then do kings and princes get the right to demand taxes from their subjects and where the priests the tithe? Why then should the good citizen give to the emperor what is his, and to God what is His? Why does it say then: be subject to the worldly power; for there is nowhere a power except in God. But if power is given to one, it is given to him out of God, may it be so or so! How, therefore, may such things then mislead the man?!
[23] But I think that what the Lord does and has done shall be done correctly, while the Lord is surely a perfect Lord, and thus completely, only the most perfect epitome of all justice over all things and over all His creatures? Should perhaps this man also have something to oppose against it? One neighbor said to another: Friend! I demand from you one third of your harvest every year! What will the neighbor certainly say? I say he will encounter the thus demanding one very badly, and will even seriously ask him: By what right do you demand such things from me? Go away with such a demand, if you do not want to be ruined by me!
[24] But if the monarch has a commandment published that says there: Each of my subjects must henceforth cede half of his harvest to me; who will resist it, he should be treated as a mutineer, and who has not reaped anything, and yet has house and ground, from him all things shall be taken away, so that I will get my half! – why will the subject here not speak the same as he had once spoken with his neighbor? You answer: Because the powerful sovereign commands such things.
[25] Good – but if the sovereign has a right by his power to tax his people excessively, and no-one dares to dispute it with him, since it is obviously unjust in brotherly humanly way after all, to want to harvest where one had eternally never scattered a seed, there I think that the Creator of all things should rather have the right to tell the Israelites to take the gold and silver of the cocky Egyptians, while they formerly have had to labor for them for a long time, than a commander has the right to plunder a conquered city?! Therefore may the man rather let himself be better informed about My eternal exclusive rights and only then judge whether My guidance is divine or not divine!
[26] But, by the way, the golden and silver vessels also still say something else entirely – but, that is not for our man, therefore but only the sword of the letter. Amen!
25th January 1843, Morning, Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
2nd letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verses 13-15.
[27] This is also good for Dr. Strauss.
[28] See, said in short, is also well said! Strausses, all profit-seeking priests, the higher the world- rank, the worse, and that of whatever denomination, then all selfish and therefore similar domineering legislators and rulers are all such back-end apostles and even very deceitful workers in My vineyard. If they also appear from the outside as if they were My apostles, they are
nevertheless nothing else than ravening wolves in sheep's clothing – or even more interpreted: they are satans, who, for the sake of a more certain catch, make themselves into outer angels of the infallible light. And it is then also nothing special for the servants in the sphere of their judicial execution, to be equal to their masters! But I say: Their reward will be according to their works!
[29] But who is the better of this threesome? Behold, Strausses are better in themselves than the priests and lawgivers; because Strausses demand nothing for their light and for the damage done, but the others still demand a mighty tribute for it!
[30] He that does bad things there without seeing the bad, is only a blind guide of the blind, and his judgment will be moderate. But who wants to be a seeing man and leads the blind man to destruction, kills him and robs him in addition even of his few possessions – that will surely be a bad Satan after all?
[31] I think this little may be enough for you, because it is easy to understand how I mean it – oh priesthood, oh judiciaries! You great tribulation of the world until the near end! Your reward will be great, Amen.
26th January 1843. morning. Dr. David Friedrich Strauß, continuation
Gospel of John, chapter 7, verses 3-5.
[32] This is good for the prophethood of Dr. Strauss.
[33] Behold, if the Lord does not do according to the sense, or rather nonsense of the people, no-one would believe in Him. Do not the brothers also say now, more than in My time, to Me: “Go to Judea that the disciples also may see the works which You do! Who then does something in secret, if He wants to be revealed? You however do such works, so do them before the world, so that your disciples also believe in you!”
[34] Who are the brothers then? Everyone who believes in Me and hears My word, that is My brother; for I too have accepted humanity because of it, and wanted to be born from where and out of what every other man is born.
[35] But do these brothers completely believe in Me? No, they do not believe! But why don't they believe? Because I as God and Creator wanted to be a true brother to them, and because I as such do not do according to their nonsense, therefore I am the highest wisdom from eternity!
[36] But what do the brothers still demand of Me? They demand that I should manifest Myself as God before all pigs of the world! And if I don't do that, then they do not want to believe Me and say: What is the point of such a God, who does not dare to see the light of day and constantly retreats like a fox into his cage? Are not all people His creatures? Why does He only do His business with individuals and does not respect the totality? Why then does He not go to the powerful, to the chief priests, whom He has nevertheless tolerated until now in prosperity, but creeps around like a fearful man in the hidden hiding places, making fishermen and all sorts of other meaningless sinners His friends and brothers, and wants to work with them? But those whom He made His servants under Moses, under thunder and lightning and earthquakes, He now leaves sitting, despises them, hints about them, and avoids them as much as He can.
[37] Behold, this is the old reproach, and Strauss together with the whole unbelieving world always throw the same reproach at Me! And yet I do not want to change – don't you find that strange? I talk to one of you – even to a sinner – constantly, and I don't like to talk to the others – isn't that strange again? I prefer poor rags to the dignified rich, who have true worldly honor and shining decoration! Isn't that strange? I prefer the Magdalene to the most modest monastery vestal virgin! Isn't that strange?
[38] Yes, there will still be a lot of such peculiarities, but what use is it to argue about it, if a child is dearer to Me than the most learned Strauss! This is how I am and not different. Whom I thus do not please, he shall change Me if he can. But I will certainly remain like this forever. Why? Because I like it best so for now.
[39] Every Strauss should understand this, Amen.
27th January 1843, morning, Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
Daniel, last days, the Antichrist, chapter 11, going over to chapter 12, verses 37 and 38.
[40] Also here we want to keep it short and show with a few words, how the matter stands. Who is the king and who is the god of fortresses (strongholds)? The king is the world, and the god of fortresses is the so-called spirit of the time! Why then, you say. So then look and judge for yourself whether it is not so!
[41] Does the present human world respect a god? I tell you, not even the better priest without money, that is, without gold and silver! How does it look like with the love of women then? Tell Me, whichever so god-fearing and chaste and at the same time most feminine and charming virgin has then value without money before the men of the world? Who takes a poor lass to wife? If she wants to be a whore, then she will be paid for the exposure, and if she does not want this out of love for Me, then she will be regarded as an insane woman and is despicable before the eyes of the world.
[42] Do you now see that the king is correctly designated? And his god, the spirit of this time, teaches the king to seek gold, silver, precious stones and other gems (objects worth money) and to honor him with the same!
[43] But what is the essence of this god? Such a thing already says with it’s name 'Fortress', namely: Perjury, self-love, selfishness, fame, splendor, imperiousness, pride, contempt of all that is contrary to selfishness! Now do you know this god?! Behold, therefore he is now literally there before your eyes!
[44] You say: Yes, oh Lord, so it is right except for a hair before our eyes; but what does Strauss have to do with the Fortress? I tell you: Very much; for in him this god certainly personifies himself from the one side precisely so, as he personifies himself with the other in the present high priesthood, and that without exception in the whole world.
[45] Strauss denies Christ by his writings, but the high priesthood by his deeds! Strauss sells his writing or the non-Christ for money; but the high priesthood does everything for Christ for money. Without money and fame, however, it would do just as little for Christ as how little Strauss would ever have written a Non-Christ if he had not received a great deal of money for it! So Christ or non-Christ, that is the same, if he only brings in money either way, there you can do everything with him!
[46] And behold, this Christ or Non-Christ is the actual personified Fotress (stronghold) or the most genuine Antichrist! But now think I that you will finally understand this matter; but also understand why here the 11th chapter merges so strongly into the 12th, like night into day, so you will see the whole high mystery revealed. Let it be your sense to observe and understand this well. Amen.
28th January 1843 Dr. David Friedrich Strauss, continuation
Therefore write also short afterword to Dr. Strauss.
[47] You are still not quite at peace with the love of women described in Daniel and say: What does this one then have to do with the Dr. Strauss? I tell you: Very much! How? This will be discussed immediately.
[48] Behold, Strauss, thus – or Non-Christ, is all the same. Well, you have the true Christ. But what does this one say? You say: The true Christ says: “Seek above all the kingdom of God and His righteousness (which is love); all else will be added to you.” "Do not worry for the coming day and do not ask: What will we eat, and with what will we clothe ourselves? For only the heathen seek after all this! But see the birds in the air: they neither sow nor reap into the barns, and yet the heavenly Father feeds them. And the lilies of the field, look at them, they do not spin or weave, and yet Solomon in all his royal splendor was not more splendidly clothed than they!”
[49] You have answered well. But now tell Me then: How, then, does your true Christ and the present general national industry behave? You say: Oh Lord, this behaves certainly just like heaven and hell! Well judged, I tell you – but now pay attention!
[50] Behold, you now know and have the true old Christ with you and in you through your faith in Him and through your love for Him. But go now as an unmarried, even marriageable man into a still in addition quite – so-called – Christian house, which has a marriageable daughter, and, since you have Me completely, so with this eternal treasure of life, ask the parents for the daughter's hand. What do you indeed think what will the answer to such a question be? Behold, I will tell it to you literally.
[51] The parents will say to you: Dear friend, it is very commendable and nice of you that you, who by the way is well known to us as an honorable and estimable man, have turned your respectable eyes towards our daughter. Yet you, as a well experienced man, will surely also know that in the present time, one must either be or have something to get a wife. But you are nothing, and to our knowledge you have nothing but only your otherwise estimable qualities, of which, however, nothing can be bitten down at the present time. So you, as a reasonable man, will certainly also understand that we cannot give away our child under such prospects. She, the daughter, will probably have a nice fortune today or tomorrow and can therefore only choose someone again who can return it to her in one way or another. By the way, we are very much obliged to you and will always feel flattered if you want to visit us as a friend, but only in the present intention not; because then we would have to ask you in all seriousness to avoid our house!
[52] Here you have it literally, and you can still ask what Strauss has to do with the love of women? Do you not see then: Where Christ is, there is no money; but where there is money, there is no Christ! But Strauss denies Christ, thus he is for gold. Therefore, if you have Strauss or gold, you will also have love of women; but without Strauss you will always get the same answer!
[53] Love of women is therefore to be taken doubly: first, that the man of fortune with the now rarest exception does not look at a woman, if she is not equal to him, i.e., either according to the advantageous, highly held status or fortune; and secondly, the woman has no love in herself, except that of Dr. Strauss, or in German [English] – gold. But that such a Christianity, which should actually be a most intimate brotherhood, is an equally good Christianity as that which Strauss described, you can easily see out of it, if you compare the true old Christ with the present Money Christ, and that just this Money Christ together with the Non-Christ of Strauss is the most real, essentially personified Antichrist.
[54] I think I hardly need to explain such things to you more closely; and so be satisfied with that, Amen.