The six volumes of
The Great
Gospel of (St.) John are a day by day record of Jesus Christ's last
three years on Earth. These six volumes, however, are an abbreviated
version of the original ten German volumes about the life and
teachings of Jesus Christ on Earth, recorded by Austrian mystic Jakob
Lorber. These volumes are the core
foundation of Christian Mysticism. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL 10-VOLUME GERMAN
VERSION.
1. The Foundation of the World. According to
Jakob Lorber there is no substance — no matter — in the sense of materialism. Everything is energy, namely God's Power and Mental Power, divided into the smallest of original particles (the spark for the origin of life). Even the material atom, which up to now was considered to be the smallest unit, is a living universe on the smallest scale, containing countless basic particles (consider the newest developments in nuclear physics!). Out of the original particles (called electrons and quantum) — which are nothing but thought-energies from God that have become independent — the whole universe is built in accordance to a planned development.
2. The Nature of God. God is eternal. God is infinite Spirit. God is the source of all energy and the origin of all foundations of all existence. His highest attributes are Love, Wisdom and Willpower. His Holy Ghost fills the entire All (the "world-soul" of the religions of antiquity). This infinite All-Spirit alone has as His innermost a center of power from where thoughts and willpower emanate into creation like a sun, only to return after the great circle of life has been brought to its completion. In this center the source of all power God is intrinsically in existence, namely in the highest of all life-forms as a totally perfect Spirit — Original Man ("God created man in His own image!"). From this center, the source of all power, God's Spirit, is actively creating without interruption. The whole of creation is a mighty development and perfection process of divine thoughts and ideas. This is accomplished in immense periods and is only separated by periods of rest ("days of creation," "from eternity to eternity").
3. The Original Spiritual Creation. Before there existed a visible physical creation, a creation visible to us human beings, there were creations that preceded these physical creations and they were the original spiritual creations. Into these creations,
recorded Lorber, God created at the same time out of the original spark of life (which originated from Him), great spirit-beings in accordance to His original image (the original archangels). These archangels were permitted and were given the ability to call out of themselves into existence spirit-beings like themselves. That is how the legions of great spirit-beings (angels) came into being, who, through the law and order of God's love and brotherly love, were to allow themselves to be educated to attain a godlike life-perfection. A number of these original beings who were under the jurisdiction of the main spirit Satana (Lucifer), fell due to the power of Satana's free will into boundless self-love and self-admiration. However, in accordance with the eternal order, a God-apostate no longer receives the nourishing life-currents from God. As a result of that all of them solidified and condensed at the same time into a helpless mass. That is how in the realm of creation due to the condensation of these spiritual-ethereal original beings (materialization) the primordial fog of the materia or the substance of matter or the world came into being.
4. The Physical-Material Creation. Should these fallen original beings remain forever in the bondage of their judgment, or should they be led back for their completion into God's holy order of life? However, Divine Love showed mercy towards the fallen spirit-world: With the help of those angel-spirits who remained faithful, the Creator developed the Lost Son in its entirety out of the primordial fog of the worldly substance through organization and revival, representing the building or construction of the material (physical) universe (Kant/Laplace cosmogony spiritually substantiated!). In this manner,
Lorber states, God began the salvation of those original beings who are in bondage in matter on all the countless world systems (such as solar systems) and worldly planetary bodies.
5. The Purpose of Natural Life. On all constellations the solidified worldly physical substances are more and more loosened through divine activities. The Luciferian sparks of life that segregate in accordance with God's wise and loving plan of salvation in the kingdoms of the world of nature are brought by the
angels (servants of the Creator) into the ever-new spiritual purification schools. This is accomplished by unifying them into larger formations or souls, and they ascend to ever higher life forms step by step through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms (Darwin's Theory of Evolution from an all-embracing spiritual point of view). On this spiritual-physical path of development all souls of Nature receive instructions as to the structure and use of their respective life-shells (the structure of the three kingdoms of nature). They begin with, that little by little, they overcome their ungodly selfishness and convert each other with mutual love to the heavenly order of service (built up of common associations, organism). That is also what the Gospel preaches: "the salvation of all creation" through the power of love.
6. The Human Being: The Final Objective of this Development.
The human soul which ascended in this manner out of the luciferian matter should now, under the influence of the breathed-in Spirit of God or Spark of Love, be able to prove itself in its earthly life. Through the voluntary fulfillment of God's Love Commandments,
reports Lorber, human beings should ascend higher and higher until this develops into a true filiation
with God, and eventually when the goal of completion has been reached,
to enter into the true freedom and blissfulness of the eternal life.
7. The Nature of Jesus Christ. When
Creation had matured to the point of understanding the highest
revelation of Divine Love, the Divinity as "Father," God chose our
externally inconspicuous earth for the greatest act of love of His
mercy, here, where Lucifer's innermost nucleus of the spirit is held
captive. God enveloped His spiritual human original center of power into
a raiment of matter ("and the word became flesh"). In Jesus Christ, God
Himself entered into the kingdom of humankind to instruct them and all
the spirits of infinity. As the highest testament of love, He dressed
Himself in the garment of matter in order to deliver the fallen ones
from their judgment and to lead the purified back to the house of the
Father (the parable of the prodigal son). Jesus' Spirit, God's holy
original center of power, is the "Father." Jesus' soul and body, i.e.,
His humanness, is the "Son" that the Father created. The powers of God
that emanate from eternity and which originate from the Father through
the Son, are the "Holy Ghost." That is how, united in Christ, are the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost (solution to the question of the Holy
Trinity). Jesus: "Whosoever sees Me, sees the Father," and "I and My
Father are One."
8. The Path of Salvation to Spiritual
Rebirth. Recorded in the Gospel Lorber states that Jesus taught that the path of salvation is the only path to
completion and to eternal life in God and it is the foundation of all of
God's laws and the whole of creation: "Love God above all and love
thy neighbor as thyself!" Participating in external religious rituals
such as receiving the sacraments or external faith-righteousness
(belonging to a religious denomination) are not sufficient. They are, at
best, aids for the path of salvation of the pure and active Love, the
original source of all existence. When in a human being, with the help
of the Spirit of God, the pure heavenly love has become the absolute
ruler, then a human being has escaped the judgment of the matter and has
attained spiritual rebirth. The purified soul totally united with its
implanted Spirit of God is then capable of becoming a true child of God,
and becoming "one" with its Creator and the heavenly Father and
participating eternally in the abundance of His divine life-force and
efficacy.
9. Further Development in the Beyond.
After their physical death most earthly human beings enter in an
incomplete state into the very subtle spheres of the beyond. There,
divine Love offers them new institutions of learning, which then
eventually leads all these human beings to their completion, but quite
often the path can be considerably more difficult and more painful.
Because the divine plan of a common salvation does not know of any
eternal damnation! In order to reach the ultimate goal, the souls that
are still immature depart from life and arrive in the "beyond." That is,
they enter into the earthly invisible spiritual world initially into a
kind of dream-life. Here, while guided by protective powers they receive
an inner spiritual showing and experience; and this will in accordance
with their own good or evil character either bring forth a paradisiacal
and blissful feeling or a hellish and agonizing feeling. Therefore, says
Lorber,
"heaven and hell" are not localities, but spiritual developmental stages
of the soul.
10. At the Destination of Completion.
Souls that are on Earth or in the world beyond, and who allowed
themselves to be purified for God's pure love and for the love of thy
neighbor, will always attain a new and blissful reality. Their spiritual
showing and efficacy expands into the three-tier heaven in accordance
with their purity and the strength of their love. The blissfulness of
those human beings who have reached perfection, which is capable of
infinite improvement, consists of the deeper recognition of God, a
greater love for Him and all His creatures, and in a continuously
greater collaboration with His high work of creation as well as the
revelation of all existence and life. These brief hints will allow you
to understand that in Jakob Lorber's writings a spiritual religion of the
greatest scope, uniformity and logical consistency are present. It
imparts sublime teachings of life of the purest of love and of the
highest initiative, in which the Divinity, the Father in Jesus, forms
the foundation. The versatility of the teachings reveal themselves only
through a thorough study of the writings of Jakob Lorber. These writings offer
the solution to the struggle into which the best minds of our generation
are presently engaged in, namely: to find a synthesis between the
teachings of Christ in the Bible and the thoughts of the scientists
about evolution. Out of this will develop a Christianity which is in
agreement, and not bound by a confessional faith, but one which has the
capabilities of uniting all human beings to a noble-minded spirit and
life companionship.
