NEUOFFENBARUNG[MEr.01_002,001] Look here at this screen. See, the land spread out before you is Asia. Look at its peoples, every one of them wrapped in the thickest spiritual veil, running to and fro and sending forth nothing but lament upon lament from their hollow breasts.
[MEr.01_002,002] Here there is nothing to be found but the grossest heathenism, though here and there a band of Christians still prays to Me, as you can see in the picture from those little groups of naked, bleeding people.
Look closely at the centre of Asia and see a vast fortress in the highlands. It is the fortress of the god Brama. See how well he manages his affairs, for he knows the art of cheating even kings and feeding them filth.
[MEr.01_002,003] No one is allowed within an hour's walk of his fortress. Woe to the trespasser! The ‘angels’ of this god stand guard on every side, as masters over life and death.
[MEr.01_002,004] If anyone comes near bringing gold, precious stones, fat oxen, cows, calves and sheep, the angels do them no harm. They accept the offering and dismiss the giver with a mere fifty to a hundred strokes of bamboo.
[MEr.01_002,005] You will think that a hard thing. Oh no, I say. Whoever comes back and shows the back the angels have bruised is accorded divine honours. With this receipt the person can easily obtain the highest offices of state.
[MEr.01_002,006] But this is only one of the things that befall these givers. If someone comes without a substantial load of gifts, the gift is still accepted. The giver is spared the beating, but the angels impose all sorts of other dreadful penances, of such a kind that if I told you of them here they would sound almost unbelievable, or at least utterly ridiculous.
[MEr.01_002,007] Having to stand for years on one foot beneath a tree, for instance, is a mere trifle. These angels are so inventive in such acts of penance that, if I told you of them all, you would scarcely believe even Me.
[MEr.01_002,008] In this respect their cruelty knows no bounds. Yet their rule is proclaimed everywhere, so that according to their teaching no one can attain eternal blessedness without having made a substantial offering to this Brama at least once in their life.
[MEr.01_002,009] Yet these offerings are only part of what this Brama demands from his followers. He also demands human sacrifices. First, every wife must be sacrificed to him on the death of her husband. Second, girls and boys must be sacrificed to him every year. The girls must be between twelve and fourteen years old, and the boys must be sacrificed in their sixth year.
[MEr.01_002,010] It goes without saying that the girls must be of exceptional beauty and the boys in the very best of health. Parents who make such a sacrifice and give another substantial gift with it may then ask for one of two things. They may obtain a so-called indulgence from all their children and be released from all penances. Or, as an exceptional favour, they may have the angels release them from their bodies at once, and thus attain blessedness with the utmost certainty.
[MEr.01_002,011] There is yet another means of obtaining favour. A man who has taken a pretty young wife is forbidden to touch her beforehand. If he wants to obtain this favour, he must take her to the boundary where the angels stand guard. There she must undress completely before the angels, enter a bath prepared for the purpose and wash herself. On coming out of the bath she must adorn herself in festive dress and submit to the angel on guard sleeping with her for three nights.
[MEr.01_002,012] When she returns, she has been sufficiently blessed. The effect of this blessing may be such that, if her husband dies first, she need not be burned. She may have another person burned in her place or make a substantial offering to protect herself from being burned altogether.
[MEr.01_002,013] Indeed, the follies often go further. One favour is granted only after the corresponding offering has been made. An angel sews together the labia of a girl between one and three years old, leaving a small opening, supposedly to preserve her chastity. When the girl reaches puberty she is brought back, and an angel releases her from this restraint. There are countless other follies commonly practised there.
[MEr.01_002,014] See, I have had to look on at such nonsense for almost three thousand years, as these wicked people, in possession of the old religion from before the Flood of which you now know something, carry on in this unspeakable way. Look at the end of the illuminated screen. See, there is an hourglass, and only a few grains remain to fall.
[MEr.01_002,015] I will spare you all the hideous pictures of Persia, Arabia, Turkey, the Chinese Empire and Siberia, to say nothing of the smaller states. Everywhere you would discover the most hideous oppression of peoples, and the god preached everywhere is truly Satan himself in the most varied forms of his wickedness.
[MEr.01_002,016] Do not trouble yourselves over My forbearance. Those who are poor in spirit will be enriched. But woe to the servants of wickedness! Oh, how great their reward will be!
[MEr.01_002,017] I say, however inventive Satan is, truly I too have devised something in secret at which he will soon marvel from eternity to eternity. I have endured for a long time and waited everywhere for amendment, but the Earth has become full of a loathsome stench. So I have already lit My torch to burn it before long, lest its stench rise even into My heavens and foul the dwellings of My faithful ones.
[MEr.01_002,018] Take care, then, that the world does not lead you astray. Every word of it is a bubble of foam filled with deadly pestilence. Hear My word and follow My counsel, and the fire of the Earth will not burn you when I set it alight. For this fire will bring life to the living and death to the dead.