NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 3 · Contents
Kaiser’s and God’s
23rd May 1847
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Matth. 22, 21)
[1] There are now many in the world who can find no boundaries between what is God's and what is the emperor's. Some are even republicans in every respect, i.e. against God and against the emperor. We are not talking about them here. For whoever does not want to acknowledge anything higher above himself, and is sufficient for himself, has already reached in himself that highest stage of delusion, at which he will hardly ever be able to achieve a higher and real rising.
[2] Selfishness, self-love, arbitrary conceited self-importance and self-abundance of wisdom – in other words, genuine stoicism in the driest meaning of the word and sense, are a true hydrocyanic acid for the mind. Whose spirit is poisoned by this, he will hardly ever be able to distinguish what difference there is between the duties of a true man towards God and towards the emperor!
[3] Therefore the things said here are also only addressed to those who seek there, but still cannot find what is right, because many a worldly will-o'-the-wisp in their heart still prevents them from doing so.
[4] But, in order to extinguish such erroneous sparks in the heart, let the difference of duty be shown here in all brevity, which there prevails between God and emperor, and what man owes to the one and what to the other. And so then listen and note well what the Lord says about it!
[5] Man consists of spirit, soul and temporarily of a material body. The soul is the actual man between spirit and body, and with it's understanding and reason, must care for it just as for the eternal spirit, as also for the temporary body.
[6] But what does the spirit need, and what does the body need? Now this has certainly been announced to each one of you more than beyond measure, and it would be like an empty straw threshing, if all the many things given over here were to be chewed up again literally in all length and breadth. Therefore only the most necessary in all brevity!
[7] Give therefore to the spirit that which is purely of the spirit, and to the body that which is of the body – but therefore according to the order that no disadvantage may come to the spirit! So to the spirit what is his, and to the body what is his!
[8] Who here does not see at first glance that everything that comes from the Spirit, as the word of God – faith, love and firm trust in Me, the Lord, is purely spiritual and belongs to the spirit.
[9] But earthly food and drink, clothing, housing and arts and crafts, insofar as they are necessary for the acquisition of food, belongs to the body and are therefore also to be administered to the body in the manner in which it is able to accept them to a just degree and with just aims – the food and the drink in it's kind, the clothing in it's useful kind, the dwelling likewise, and the necessary skill and dexterity for the natural exercise of arts and crafts evenly also in the proper way.
[10] Behold, God and the emperor are placed side by side, and each of you can easily see from this what he, as a pure soul-man, owes to the one and what to the other.
[11] But as the two kinds of duties behave with and in one and the same man, so they also behave in the broader sense between Me, God the Lord, and a worldly leader who is earthly empowered only from Me and has no other power than that which is given to him by Me, the Lord of all eternal and infinite power and strength, so or so, sweet or bitter, according to the needs of the people who are there, either good or evil.
[12] Such a worldly head is and always rens a punishing rod in My hand. And every man therefore owes him what he duly owes to his own body.
[13] But what he owes to his spirit is not the head of state's business. And if the latter makes demands on the people beyond his limits, he will also find in it his inevitable judgment.
[14] But if any monarch, by bodily coercion, also wants to drag the spirit of the people into fetters and prescribe to him out of matter what fee he owes to Me, the Lord, the one called upon shall also pay such fees for the sake of the emperor, so that he does not annoy him. But he does not turn to it in the heart, but gives Me in spirit and in truth what is Mine, so I will then already find a sure means to judge the emperor therefore, as he has earned it because of his abused power over mankind.
[15] But no-one from among those subject to imperial authority should undertake to judge the emperor in anything, whether he acts good or evil! For I have reserved such things for Myself alone.
[16] But if someone does everything one can do for the emperor from a good heart and if he prays frequently for his brother who has been put to a high and hard test, he will give to the emperor in full measure what he owes to him, and in such general charity he will certainly give to God what is God's.
[17] What is below or above – is sin. Anyone who, out of self-satisfying, selfish intentions under a patriotic cloak, formally worships the emperor and practices true idolatry with him, sins by giving the emperor what is due to only God the Lord. But he who denies the emperor due reverence, serves him unfaithfully, and withholds other duties which the emperor demands of him by all sorts of surreptitious means, sins likewise – and is like a man who continually treats his body with quite serious suicidal ideas – like the former, he who gives too much to the emperor, is like one who finds in and of his body the only object to which he must turn in everything. One is then in this just as great a sinner as the other, and these are equal in every way.
[18] From this very clear message, each of you will surely see what he actually owes to God and what he owes to the emperor – and what an easily understandable difference there is between these two n duties of every man, which in the end are nevertheless perfectly reflected in the two n commandments of love.
[19] But since you understand such things, do them also physically according to the spirit of the gospel, which is shown here – and so you will truly live blissfully, temporally and eternally. Amen.