NEUOFFENBARUNGThe Great Man of Creation and His Return
25 March 1841, from four in the afternoon until a quarter past eight in the evening.
Scribes: K. G. L. – F. S. – Andr. and Ans. H.
[MEr.01_012,01] In the eleventh hour we followed the prodigal son from his rise to his decline and shed light on his course. We reckoned the time and came close to determining the hour that would bear witness to his fall. In this twelfth hour let us see where and how this prodigal son will return, humbled through and through, to the great Father's house.
[MEr.01_012,02] To understand this fully, it is not enough to have looked a little into that speck of dust in the universe called Earth. For this purpose I have added to the familiar camera obscura of the spirit the small device already mentioned. We must now take a rather wider look into this newly fitted chamber. I warn you beforehand to prepare yourselves, for this sight will bring before your eyes something that has never yet entered a human mind.
[MEr.01_012,03] With this new arrangement, the screen must naturally be enlarged somewhat to take so great an image, and must be placed upright instead of lying level as before. See, the arrangement is made. Turn your gaze towards the wide screen, and you will immediately see the great image on it. Only in this one way is it possible to set the endlessly extended creation before your eyes in a single image.
[MEr.01_012,04] Look closely at the screen. As soon as I speak the word ‘Ephphatha’, you will see the magnificent image upon it. Now that your eyes are turned towards it, I say: Ephphatha!
[MEr.01_012,05] What do you say to the picture? You see on this screen nothing more and nothing less than the clear figure of a man. His loins are scarcely covered by a few rags, and his shaggy hair hangs down past the middle of his body.
[MEr.01_012,06] You will think, ‘There is nothing especially remarkable in this picture except that it is shown on the screen on a colossal scale. Any draughtsman with some knowledge of the figure could have drawn such a picture with a whitish colour on a black board.’ I can only tell you that for the moment your conclusion is correct. If you think a little more deeply, you will soon see the figure of the prodigal son in this whitish form.
[MEr.01_012,07] But see, My dear children, the screen is set a little too far away for your eyes. Let us go right up to it. You have already seen the whole figure. Now let us examine a little more closely the colour with which it is put upon the screen.
[MEr.01_012,08] Now we are at the screen. This shimmering surface a fathom wide is part of the foot of the whole figure. Look very closely and tell Me what you discover on it. You find nothing but little gleaming spheres set close together. You know that this is no painting, but an image in light of an external object.
[MEr.01_012,09] What do you suppose these little spheres really are? I shall not leave you guessing long. But if you think they are images of distant suns, planets, moons and comets, listen. I should have to say to you, ‘Little children, do not judge too quickly, or you may be very greatly mistaken.’ Before I reveal what these curious little spheres are, try counting them on a spot the size of a lentil.
[MEr.01_012,10] Have you finished? Yes, yes, I see that you will not easily finish. There are on this lentil-sized patch a number of gleaming points you can scarcely put into words, perhaps more than a million million million. Now that you have become a little familiar with the colour, I shall tell you what such a point actually represents. As I said, it is no sun or celestial body of any other kind. Every one of these points, or little spheres as they appear to your spiritual eyes, is nothing more and nothing less than the image of a shell globe. I need not explain to you again what a shell globe is.
[MEr.01_012,11] Let us step back a little and look at the whole figure again. See what a perfect human form it is. Now that you have looked at it sufficiently, I tell you that out of and according to My eternal order this figure represents the universe. In reality no one but Me can see it in this way. No created spirit has ever seen the picture as you have now seen it.
[MEr.01_012,12] But I see again what is in you. You would like to see your Earth in this man. I cannot show it to you while the whole figure stands out on the screen. But wait a little. I am a very good optician, and I shall make a small optical change in our camera, after which nothing will remain of this whole figure but a single luminous point.
[MEr.01_012,13] See, the figure has disappeared and everything is now in order. Let us go nearer to the screen again and look for our little point. Have you found it yet? One alone does not give much light, to be sure, but strain your sight and you will find it.
[MEr.01_012,14] Do not look up at the high, wide screen. Look right down at the bottom, where you saw the left foot of the whole figure, at the outermost pad of its little toe. This little sphere is the shell globe within which your Earth is found. [6]
[MEr.01_012,15] To reach our Earth, I shall have to bring My Ephphatha to bear on this gleaming point once again. So I say, ‘Ephphatha!’ Now see how the little sphere has expanded and takes up nearly the whole great circle of the screen.
[MEr.01_012,16] See the countless luminous points all glimmering among one another again. Find your Earth among them now. You cannot find it in that immense multitude of shimmering points, can you? I tell you, your effort would be in vain, for these points you see are still no suns, but whole regions of sun-worlds.
[MEr.01_012,17] I shall therefore pick out one point again, the right one, and erase all the others from the great screen. There is the chosen point. To get to our goal more quickly, I say ‘Ephphatha!’ again at once.
[MEr.01_012,18] See, our screen is full of new luminous points once more. Yet these luminous points are still no suns either. They are all universes of sun-worlds, so there will be no finding the Earth here.
[MEr.01_012,19] I shall choose the right point out of these again and erase all the rest from the screen. There is the point. See it glimmer faintly and alone on the great surface. Now let My Ephphatha give the point greater extent at once. Ephphatha!
[MEr.01_012,20] See, the screen is full of glittering points once more. Would you like to pick out the Earth from all these millions of millions of millions upon millions of millions of millions of points? Again I must tell you to spare yourselves the effort. These points are not yet suns either, but individual regions of suns, what you understand by a so-called stellar nebula.
[MEr.01_012,21] To reach our goal more quickly, I shall choose the right point for you, erase all the others from the screen and add the Ephphatha at the same time.
[MEr.01_012,22] Look at the screen now. You see a cloud of gleaming grains spreading horizontally across the whole screen, seven times as long as it is wide. Look well towards the middle, where we shall choose one such little cloud of shining grains again and erase all the others from the screen. As you see, it is already done, and My Ephphatha shall give this point its proper shape again.
[MEr.01_012,23] Look very carefully now and you will know where you are. In the middle is a luminous little disc the size of a lentil, the image of your Sun. Look more closely. The third gleaming point from the Sun, to the left and a little lower down, is your Earth.
[MEr.01_012,24] I need enlarge this image only a little for you to recognise your Earth at once. So open up, you point that is the Earth, that those to whom I show you may recognise you. See how it gradually expands and has now reached a diameter sufficient for you to recognise your natural, filthy dwelling.
[MEr.01_012,25] Now that we have seen all this, let us return to our prodigal son. Look at the screen. Our first figure already stands out on it again. But see how it grows smaller and smaller until it is scarcely the size of a child. Look again, and the child too has dwindled to a point. Now another great human figure begins to appear on the right side of the screen and moves into the centre. Under its left foot you can still make out the little point that had shrunk, in the right proportion to the size of this new image.
[MEr.01_012,26] What do you think this new picture represents? Those of you who have learned something of the Great Man in Swedenborg's writings may think this is that greatest man. I tell you, you are far wide of the mark. The man you see is nothing more and nothing less than the prodigal son who has found himself again. It is the prodigal son who has found himself in every individual person who has been reborn, rather than the prodigal son in his entirety. To put it in words easier for you to understand, this is one of the very least in My new kingdom. In this image you are shown the true proportion and the full measure of a human being, infinitely more exalted than the whole seemingly endless universe shown you earlier in its parts, in the form of the prodigal son.
[MEr.01_012,27] If you take this picture to heart a little, you may begin to understand something of what the return of the prodigal son means. [7]
[MEr.01_012,28] You must not think that the fallen Lucifer made known to you in the eleventh hour will return as a whole. If that had been possible, truly no material creation would ever have taken place. Rather,
[MEr.01_012,29] in every individual who lives according to My words and is born again through the Word and redemption, this lost one is found again and will return to the great Father's house.
[MEr.01_012,30] I do not say ‘the great Father's house’ without reason. For people who have become so great there must be a very great house prepared, where they may take up their dwelling with their Father once more.
[MEr.01_012,31] You can gather clearly and distinctly from all that went before that this is so. In the common tribulations, does not each person suffer within themselves, and is not each struck in their own person? Yet all these blows are dealt to one and the same prodigal son.
[MEr.01_012,32] When someone is struck, is it not they alone who feel the pain, while those who are not struck watch often enough without feeling any? If an entire people is maltreated on another continent, tell Me whether you have ever felt a lash on your own skin. When someone dies, do they die for themselves or for others? Can you claim that anyone was ever born into the world for another? Do My redemption and My Word not hold just as much for every person individually as for whole peoples? Can each person not receive Me fully for themselves through their love and the living faith that springs from it, so that I dwell in them and they in Me?
[MEr.01_012,33] When you consider all this, can you maintain, even in the slightest degree, that I am less in one person than in all of them together?
[MEr.01_012,34] If I have become one with a person and that person with Me, tell Me what is still lacking in the finding again of the prodigal son in one individual.
[MEr.01_012,35] Has not the one who received Me received and taken everything into themselves? Truly, every individual who has become one with Me is more, infinitely more, I say, than the great Lucifer ever was in his greatness, which you cannot comprehend by natural means.
[MEr.01_012,36] See, by this prodigal son called Lucifer, every single person is therefore understood individually. When a whole people has become one with Me, that whole people likewise becomes one human being with Me. All people who have ever lived on the Earth or will yet live there, when they have become one with Me, will likewise be one human being in Me. One and the same Holy Spirit of all love and all truth and all might and all power will give soul and life to them all. The many will not be more than the one, nor the one less than the many. All will be perfectly one in Me. The many will have no more might and power than one, and one no less than the many. All will live as one out of the same power and might of the Holy Spirit of all love and all truth from Me.