EXCURSUS — Lecture VI
WHEN,
AIDED
BY
SPIRITUAL
SCIENCE
we give ourselves
up to the study of the Gospels, we are at once aware of powerful
experiences coming to us from them. And we venture to say that people
will first gain some idea of all that has been poured into the
Gospels by those who wrote them, when spiritual science has been
popularised somewhat as is the fashion to-day. Many things will then
be recognised as belonging to the Gospels that are not found directly
in these documents, but are only discovered when the four Gospels are
studied side by side.
I should like, in the
first place, to say that in the Gospel of Matthew the true history of
the Christ Impulse is put before us in the story of a child.
Beginning with an account of the ancient Hebrew people — or
rather of their first ancestor — the account of the
Christ-Impulse in this Gospel only goes back to the origin of the
Hebrew people. In this Gospel we learn to know the bearer of the
Christ Being as he developed out of the Hebrew people. When we pass
on to the Gospel of Mark we meet with the Christ-Impulse directly.
Here all mention of the life of the child is at first disregarded.
After being told that John the Baptist is the great prophet who
foretold the coming of the Christ-Impulse, it describes the baptism
by John in Jordan.
Then from the Gospel
of Luke we receive a new history of the childhood of the bearer of
the Christ-Impulse, but this time it goes much further back as
regards the origin of Jesus of Nazareth — it goes back to the
beginning of mankind upon the earth. The descent of Jesus of Nazareth
is traced back to Adam, and then to one who it states “was
God.” Therefore, this story of his childhood clearly indicates
that the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth can be traced back to a
point of time when man first came forth from Divine Beings. The
Gospel of Luke takes us back to a time when man can no longer be
regarded as a Being incarnated in the flesh, but as a Spiritual
Being, a Being that had come forth from the womb of divine
spirituality.
In the Gospel of John
the great facts are put before us so, that again without giving any
account of the childhood or the destiny of Jesus of Nazareth, we are
introduced directly, and in a very profound sense, to the very Being
of Christ. In the course of the spiritual development we have
ourselves passed through in recent years we sketched out a certain
path as regards the study of the Gospels; our design was to begin
first with the Gospel that gives us the most exalted outlook into the
abstract spirituality of Christ — the Gospel according to
John.
This was to be
followed by the study of the Gospel of Luke, in order to show how the
highest degree of spirituality possible in man becomes apparent when
the life of this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is traced back to the point
of time when as earthly man he came forth from the Godhead.
The study of the
Gospel of Matthew was to follow, so that we might understand the
Christ-Impulse as this passed through the ancient Hebrew people.
The Gospel of Mark we
reserved to the last. Why this was done will be rightly understood
when much that has been touched on recently as general spiritual
science is connected with things you have known for long, and also
with others that are comparatively new. This is why I have spoken
recently of many things in human life, and in the composition of the
members of man's being, and shall speak of similar things
to-day, which may serve as an introduction to certain facts of human
evolution. For it becomes ever more necessary that the conditions of
human evolution should be recognised, not recognised only, but kept
constantly before us.
As we advance towards
the future, mankind will become ever more self dependent, ever more
individual. Belief in external authority will be replaced more and
more by the authority of the individual soul. This is the necessary
course of evolution, but in order that it may bring well-being and
blessedness, man has to know his own nature. We cannot say that as a
whole we are far advanced in the estimation and understanding of
human nature. For what, among much else, is taking place in the
history of man to-day? All kinds of programmes, all kinds of
so-called ideals for mankind are certainly not wanting at the present
time. One can almost say that not only a man here and there, but
every man might come forward to-day as a little Messiah with a
special ideal for our humanity; might construct out of his head and
heart an ideal by which well-being and blessedness might be attained.
Nor are societies and associations wanting that suggest one thing or
another which they think necessary to introduce into our culture.
These we have in great measure, and faith in them is not wanting. The
strength of conviction in those who put forward such programmes is so
great that it will shortly be necessary to form councils to establish
the infallibility of each. In speaking of such things we mention what
is deeply characteristic of our age.
Spiritual science
does not keep us from thinking of our future, but points to certain
fundamental tendencies and laws which cannot be disregarded if
anything is to be gained from its impulse.
For what does the man
of to-day believe? He takes counsel with himself; an ideal rises in
his soul and he believes he is capable of making his ideal actual. He
does not pause to think that perhaps the time is not ripe for its
introduction, that the picture he has formed may perhaps be a
caricature, and that it may possibly only reach fruition in a more or
less distant future. In short it is very difficult for people to-day
to understand that every event must be prepared for, that owing to
the general macrocosmic relationships of the world these are ordained
to take place at fixed times. It is exceedingly difficult for present
day humanity to grasp this. All the same it is a universal law, and
holds for each individual as well as for the whole human race.
We can recognise the
working of this law as regards individuals, when we observe their
lives by means of spiritual science. Here we have to consider the
smallest, most intimate things that rise within the soul.
I am not now dealing
with general ideas, but will keep rather to what has been observed in
particular cases. In the first place let us suppose that we have
someone before us who has been able to grasp some idea in his soul
most intensely; that he has been so fired by it that it assumed a
distinct form in his soul and he desires earnestly to make this idea
actual. Let us suppose then that this idea first arose in his head,
and was then filled with impulses of feeling from his heart. Such a
man would not be able to-day to wait, he would set about at once
giving reality to his idea.
Suppose that at first
this was quite a small idea concerned with some scientific or
artistic fact. Will an occultist who knows the laws put such an
entirely strange idea at once before the world? We are assuming that
the idea is quite a small one. The occultist knows that it appears
first in the life of the astral body. This can be observed even
outwardly through the fact that enthusiasm dwells in the soul. It is
pre-eminently a force of the astral body.
It is as a rule
harmful when people do not allow the idea at this stage to rest
quietly and not set it at once before the world; for the idea has
first to follow a clearly defined course. For instance, it must enter
ever deeper and deeper into the astral body and then impress itself,
as a seal does, on the etheric body. If the idea is a small one this
process may take seven days. But this time is necessary. And if the
man goes ahead hurriedly with his idea, he is apt to overlook one
important fact, namely, that after seven days a quite clearly defined
experience of a very subtle kind takes place. If these things are
noticed he may have this experience, but if he goes madly ahead
saying: — “Out with it into the world!” The result
is that his soul is not disposed to listen for what may happen on the
seventh day. With a small idea it always happens on the seventh day
that the person does not rightly know how to carry it out, that it
vanishes again within the soul. The man is restless, perhaps even
frightened, oppressed with doubts, yet all the time in spite of
feeling perturbed he is attached to his idea.
Enthusiasm now
changes to an intimate feeling of love. The idea is now within the
etheric body. If it is to prosper and thrive it must lay hold of the
outer astral substances with which we are always surrounded; thus
from our astral body it must first pass into our etheric body and
thence into the external astrality. To accomplish this another seven
days is necessary. And if the man is not such a tyro that when the
idea begins to trouble him, he says: — “Away with
you!” But if he pays heed to the way life progresses he can see
that after this period something comes to meet his idea from outside
which can be expressed somewhat as follows: — “It is well
to have waited fourteen days, for now I am no longer alone with my
idea. It is as if I had been inspired from the macrocosm, as if
something had entered my ideas from the outer world.”
A man then feels for
the first time that he is in harmony with the whole spiritual world,
that it brings something to meet him, when he has something to give
to it. A certain soul-satisfying feeling arises after a period of
about twice seven days.
This idea has then to
follow the path backwards, it has to enter the etheric body again by
way of the external astrality. We are then aware of it quite
objectively, and the temptation is very great to give it to the
world. This must again be resisted with all our power; for there is a
danger, while the idea is still in the etheric body, of its entering
the world in a cold way, of being communicated to the world in a cold
and icy way. But if you wait for a further period of seven days the
coldness leaves it and it is filled again with the warmth of the
individual astral body; it takes on the character of the personality.
Thus what we gave birth to in the first place, and then allowed to be
baptised by the Gods, we are now able to hand over to the world as
our own. Every impulse we feel in our souls must pass through these
three stages before it becomes ripe within us. This holds as regards
small ideas.
For more important
ideas longer periods of time are necessary, but these always pass in
a rhythm of seven and seven. In this way not weeks but months are
built up, and then again years in the same rhythm. We can have a
rhythm of seven to seven weeks, and of seven to seven years.
From this you can see
that the important thing is not so much what the man of to-day
thinks, or what impulses are in his soul, but that he has the power
to bear these impulses with patience to allow them to be baptised by
World-Spirits, and then emerge when they are ripe. Other laws of a
similar kind might be added to this, for what is called the
“development of the soul” is full of such ordered
arrangements.
When, for instance,
on a certain day, and such days are very rare in men's lives,
you have the feeling: — “To-day I feel as if blessed by
the World-Spirit, ideas arise in me!” It is well to receive
these quietly, to know that after nineteen days a process of
fructification such as I have described will take place in the soul.
The evolution of the human soul is full of such ordered arrangements.
Now man has an instinctive feeling not to overvalue these things, and
for this we should be very thankful, not to allow himself to be too
much uplifted by them. He takes note of them, especially those men
whose aim it is to develop and ripen their higher natures, take note
of them without really knowing the law. Thus it is often noticed that
artistic natures reveal certain periods in their creative activities,
that there is a rhythm in them according to days, weeks, and years.
This is easily seen in artists of the first rank, in Goethe, for
instance. We note how something rises in Goethe's soul, and
that only after four times seven years is it really ripe, and then it
emerges in another form from that in which it first appeared.
People might easily
remark here in accordance with the inclination of to-day: —
“Yes, my dear spiritual investigator, such laws there may be,
but why should people trouble so much about them? They note them
instinctively!”
Such a remark has
reference to a time that is past. Because people are becoming more
self-reliant, because they harken more and more to their own
individuality, they must try to develop within them an inner
calendar. Just as an outer calendar is of importance in external
affairs, so in the future, when the intensity of man's soul has
increased, he will feel “inner weeks” he will feel an
inward ebb and flow in his life of feeling and experience, inner
Sundays. Men will progress in accordance with this inwardness. Many
things felt by man formerly in the partitioning of his life according
to number will be experienced at a later day inwardly; this will be
the dawn of what is macrocosmic in the souls of men. It will then be
for him a self-understood duty not to bring tumult or disorder into
human evolution by overstepping the sacred laws of the soul's
development. He will come to understand that it is but a refined form
of egoism to desire to communicate immediately what is taking place
in the soul.
Men will come of
themselves to experience the spirit within them, and this not
abstractly as is done to-day, but they will perceive how this spirit
works regularly and according to law in their souls. When something
happens to them, and they wish to communicate this to others, they
will not let this loose headlong on humanity like a mad bull, but
will listen to what the spirit-filled nature within them has to
say.
What importance will
it have for men when they learn to value more and more and to harken
more and more to what emerges in this way as law out of the inner
spirituality of the world, and when they allow themselves to be
inspired by it? Men in general have little feeling for such things.
They do not believe that Spiritual Beings enter into our inner being
and work there according to law. They will for long regard it as
foolishness, even where culture is well advanced, when the ordered
activity of the Spirit is spoken of. And those who from spiritual
scientific knowledge believe in the Spirit, will experience through
the deep antipathy of the times that are approaching what is said
concerning our day in the Gospel of Mark:
“And when
they shall lead you (away) and deliver you up, take no thought
beforehand what ye shall speak, neither premeditate, but
whatsoever shall be given you in that hour that speak ye; for it
is not ye that speak but the Holy Ghost.” —
Mark XIII, 11.
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
We must endeavour to
understand a sentence like this which has such special reference to
our day, because of the value it acquires through its connection with
this Gospel — not with the other Gospels.
As regards the Gospel
of Mark you see that in a general way it contains what is also to be
found in the other Gospels. But one passage found in this Gospel is
remarkable just because it is not found in the other Gospels. This
passage is especially remarkable because commentators have said some
really very silly things about it. It is where Christ Jesus came out
from preaching to the people, and where, after he had chosen his
disciples, we are told: —
“And they
went into an house. And the multitude cometh together again so
that they had not roam so much as to eat bread. And when His
friends heard of it they went out to lay hold of Him, for they
said: He is out of His senses, He is beside Himself.” —
Mark III, 19-21.
This passage is not
found in the same way in the other Gospels. When we realise that the
future course of human evolution will be such, that the saying of St.
Paul: — “Not I, but Christ in me!” will become ever
more and more true, that that human ego alone is fruitful which
receives into it the Impulse of Christ, we ought to feel that this
passage refers in a most outstanding way to our own day. The fate
experienced through the events of Palestine by Jesus Christ, as a
representative, will be lived through by the whole of humanity in the
course of time. In the near future men will divine more and more that
wherever Christ is taught from an inward understanding of Spiritual
Science, great antipathy will be manifested by those who turn from
this teaching instinctively. It will not be at all difficult to see
that those things will come to pass in the future which are described
in prophetic images as the Events of Christ in the Gospel according
to Mark.
The outward behaviour
of many people, as well as much that is produced as art, and
especially what is widely circulated to-day under the guise of
science, will clearly show that those who speak of the Spirit in the
sense in which Christ spoke of it will say in the near future:
— “There are many among them who appear to be out of
their senses, ‘beside themselves’!
It has to be stated
again and again that the most important facts of spiritual life, as
put forward by Spiritual Science, will be regarded in the future as
fanciful tales by the greater part of humanity.
From the Gospel of
Mark we should be able to evolve the necessary strength to stand firm
against all the opposition that will be stirred up against the truths
to be discovered in the domain of the Spirit.
If one has a feeling
for the finer differences of style found in this Gospel from those
found in the other Gospels, one notices spiritual scientific
differences here also; we find in it things not found in the other
Gospels. One notices in the construction of its sentences, in the
exclusion of many sentences found in the other Gospels, that many
things which might be accepted quite abstractly take on a special
shade of meaning. When one has a feeling for this, one notices also
that in the Gospel of Mark we are given an incisive, a most pregnant
teaching concerning the ego. One sentence only need be noted for this
to be made clear, one sentence, the special feature of which consists
in certain things being omitted that are found in the other Gospels.
If one has such perception, one realises the deep significance of the
following passage: —
And Jesus went
out, and His disciples into the towns of Cesarea, Philippi, and
by the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them, “Who
do men say the ‘I’ Is? What do people recognise as
the?” And those who were round about Jesus answered and
said: “The people say that in the true ‘I’ must
live John the Baptist.” But others say this ‘I’
must be filled with Elias, that Elias must live in the
‘I’; others again say, another of the Prophets must
be so worked on that the “I” says: “Not I
— but the Prophet works in me.” But He said to those
who were with Him, “What do you say that the
‘I’ is?” Then Peter answered: “We
understand the ‘I’ so that we grasp it in its
spirituality as Thee, that is as the Christ.” And He
charged them that they should not tell ordinary men of this! For
this mystery they could not understand.
But to those who
had been moved by His words He began to give the following
teaching: “That which is the outward physical expression of
the ego-nature in man must suffer many things if it is to attain
full development; and so it came to pass that the most ancient
masters of mankind and those who knew the content of the holiest
wisdom could say: The form in which the ego dwells at present
serves it no longer; in this form it shall be slain, and after
three days, in accordance with the ordered rhythm of universal
connections, it will rise again in a higher form.”
And they were
all amazed that He should speak these words openly before all
men.
Here I must remark
that up to that time such words could only have been spoken in the
Mysteries. It was a secret that until then was only mentioned in the
temple of the Mysteries — the secret that men had to undergo
“death and birth” (Stirb und Werde) in the course of
initiation and after three days had to rise again. Hence we are told:
—
Peter was
amazed, took the Christ aside and pointed out that such things
should not be spoken of openly. Then the Christ turned Himself
about and said: “In speaking thus Peter, thou givest
thyself over to Satan; for stating this truth as thou dost is
not for our time, but belongs to the past.” These things
were in those days confined within the temple. In the future, in
view of the superlative Mystery of Golgotha they will gradually
become the possession of all men. Thus it is ordained in the
divine guidance of earthly evolution. Those who say otherwise do
not speak in accordance with the divine wisdom men had in the
past, but gave a temporal form to the wisdom of the gods.
It is somewhat in
this way we have to understand this passage that meets us in all the
grandeur of its clear-cut phrases in the Gospel of St. Mark. We have
to realise that the Impulse of Christ according to the Gospel of Mark
consists in our receiving the Christ into our ego, so that the saying
of Paul: — “Not I, but Christ in me,” may become
ever more actual; and not the abstract Christ only, but He who sent
the Holy Spirit, the concrete Spirit, who in an ordered and regular
manner (as we have described to-day) works inspiringly with his
inward calendar in the souls of men.
In pre-Christian
times people only attained knowledge through being initiated into the
Mysteries, when for three and a half days they remained in a
death-like state after having endured the tragic suffering of one
who, while living on the physical plane, tries to raise himself to
spiritual heights. There they learnt that this earthly man must be
slain, that a higher man must rise again in him — that is, he
must experience “death and birth.” What formerly had only
been experienced in the Mysteries now became an historical fact
through the Mystery of Golgotha. If they felt united with this
Mystery it provided the possibility by which all men could become
pupils of this greater wisdom.
[ 1 ]
Understanding of the
Mystery of Golgotha was therefore the most important understanding.
It was only possible for earthly man to acquire an understanding of
what was to enter more and more into the human ego after the coming
of the Christ-Impulse.
We can now receive
inspiration in a certain way from the Gospels. For the time in which
the Christ Event took place, the Gospel of Matthew was a good
“book of initiation”; for our day this holds good more
especially with regard to the Gospel according to Mark.
You all know that
this is the age in which the consciousness-soul is to be especially
developed, in which it is to be separated in isolation from its
milieu. You know that we are now summoned to direct our attention not
so much to the fact that we belong to any special race, but to what
is to be born in us, and is described in the words of St. Paul:
— “Not I but Christ in me!”
Our fifth
post-Atlantean period is that specially inspired by the Gospel
according to Mark. The task of the sixth post-Atlantean period on the
other hand, will be gradually to fill the whole of humanity with the
spirit of Christ. Thus while in the fifth period of civilisation the
Being of Christ will be an object of study, of deep inward
penetration, in the sixth men will receive His nature into their
whole being. Added to this, what we have learnt to recognise as the
inner nature of the Gospel of Luke is of great value, for it is the
one which reveals fully the origin of Jesus of Nazareth, as does also
the Gospel of Matthew, which leads us back to Zarathustra, just as
the Jesus of the Gospel of Luke leads us back to Buddha and Buddhism.
For in our studies of the Gospel of Luke we realise that Jesus of
Nazareth is presented to us throughout the course of his long
evolution in such a way that we are led back to the divine spiritual
origin of mankind. Through this man will be able to realise more and
more his own divine nature, and because of this must fill himself
with the Christ-Impulses. This stands before us as a wondrous ideal,
but it will only become concrete when, through the Gospel of Luke, we
rise to a true understanding of the physical man of the sense world
as a divine Being with a spiritual origin.
And for the seventh
post-Atlantean period of civilisation, and on until the next great
catastrophe, the Gospel of John will be the book of inspiration, as
for the man of to-day it is a guide for his spiritual life. In that
period many things will be of service to man which he has learnt in
the course of the sixth epoch. But much of what is believed to-day
will have to be unlearnt — fundamentally unlearnt.
This will not be difficult, for scientific facts indicate that we
will have to overcome many things. Thus many things are so regarded
to-day that they are called “of the senses,” things which
inform us concerning such self-understood wisdom, as that the terms
“motor” and “sensory nerves” are pure
nonsense. There are no “motor nerves.” There are only
nerves of perception. Nerves that control movements are also nerves
of perception, only their purpose is to bring to our perception the
corresponding movement of the muscles. It will not be so very long
before people realise that movement is not conveyed to the muscle by
means of the nerves, but by the Astral body, and indeed by
that within our astral body which in the immediate future will not be
directly perceived to be what it is. For there is a law which lays
down that what is active (operative) is not recognised immediately
for what it is. What calls forth movement in the muscles is connected
with the astral body, and indeed in such a way that in the astral
body itself, by the movement of the muscles, a kind of resonance or
tone is developed.
Something of the
nature of music permeates our astral body; and finds expression
through the movement of the muscles. It is really the same as in the
case of the well-known Chladnic tone-forms, when a fine powder
scattered on a metal plate can be set in motion if this is stroked by
a violin bow; certain figures then appear in the powder. Our astral
body is filled with nothing but such forms which are at the same time
tone-forms, and their united activity is what causes our astral body
to assume its special aspect (Lage). All this is imprinted in the
astral body. People can convince themselves of this in a quite
trivial way. If the biceps or the muscles of the forearm are tightly
braced and then laid against the ear this tone can be heard; but the
exercises must be done in the right way, the muscles must be
stretched and the thumb laid on them. This is no real
“proof,” but only a means by which what is here mentioned
can be illustrated in a trivial manner. We are permeated by music and
reveal it in the movement of our muscles, and we are endowed with
“motor-nerves” as they are wrongly called, so that we may
know something concerning the movements of our muscles.
This is but one form
of those truths that will convince people more and more that man is
really a spiritual being; that he is really interwoven with the
harmony of the spheres — even to his muscles. And spiritual
science, whose task it is to prepare the sixth epoch in respect of
the spiritual understanding of the world, will concern itself in
every particular with such truths as deal with man as well as with
spiritual Beings. Exactly as tone in one connection rises to a higher
sphere when from musical sound it becomes the spoken human word, so
it is in cosmic relationships. The sphere harmonies become something
higher when they become the cosmic word or Logos; and this they are
when all that is active as sphere harmonies becomes Logos.
Now in the physical
organisation of man the next thing higher than the muscles is the
blood. In the same way as a muscle is attuned to the sphere
harmonies, the blood is attuned to the Logos, and can become ever
more and more an expression of the Logos as it has been,
unconsciously, since the beginning of man.
This means there is a
tendency on the physical plane for the blood of man which is the
expression of his ego to become the conscious expression of the
Logos. And when in the sixth period of civilisation men have learnt
to recognise themselves as spiritual beings, they will no longer hold
to the fantastic idea that muscles are moved through motory nerves,
but will know that they are moved by sphere harmonies which have
become personal.
Then in the seventh
period of civilisation men will feel that even to their blood they
are permeated by the Logos — they will then feel for the first
time the real content of the Gospel of John. The science of this
Gospel will be first understood in the seventh period, and people
will come to feel that every book of physiology should begin with the
opening words of the Gospel of John. What our attitude to it should
be is well expressed in the following words:
“Much of this
Gospel we can understand now, but for long there will be much
more that we cannot understand!” It stands before us as a high
ideal.
From all I have said
to-day you will gather that the Gospel of Matthew has to be regarded
as especially inspiring for the fourth period of post-Atlantean
civilisation, and for our own day the Gospel of Mark must be
considered especially inspiring. For the next period, the sixth, the
Gospel of Luke is important, and we must prepare ourselves for it,
because the seed of everything that is to come to pass in the future
must have existed already in the past. And everything that is to come
to pass in the further course of human evolution, everything that is
to develop in the seventh period up to the time of the next
catastrophe comes fully to light in the Gospel of John if we can but
understand it. It is therefore specially important that we should
understand the Gospel of Mark as a book that can give us guidance in
much that we have to practise, and much we have to guard against.
Especially those short sentences which in their pregnant style impart
to us the meaning of the Christ-Impulse for the human ego. It is very
important we should realise that our task is to grasp the
Spirit of Christ; and that we should realise how He will
reveal Himself in the different periods of the future.
We have attempted to
present this as regards our day in the words of the Rosicrucian
Mystery Play,
“The Portal of Initiation”
as put into the mouth of the seeress Theodora. In the scene referred to
we have something like a repetition of the Event of Paul on the way to
Damascus. It is but a sign of the materialism of our day when people
think that the Christ-Impulse could reveal itself again within a
physical human form. That we have to guard against such a belief we
learn from the Gospel of Mark, which holds a special warning for our
day. If much that is found in this Gospel has reference to what is
past, yet one sentence, in the higher moral sense just mentioned, has
meaning for the near future. When considering spiritual realms the
eye of the spirit can see that the influence proceeding from
Spiritual Science is a necessity. When the deep spiritual meaning of
the following passage is understood we shall connect it with our age
and with the one shortly to follow:
“For in
those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning
of the creation which God created until this time, neither shall
be.”
We have to direct
men's attention to these words. All kinds of afflictions await
those in the future who desire to give expression to spiritual truth
in its true form: — “And except that the Lord had
shortened those days nothing of spiritual nourishment would have been
left, but for the elect's sake He has shortened those
days!”
And then we are told:
“If in
that time anyone shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ, or
Lo, He is there, believe Him not.’ ”
The Gospel here
refers to an eventual materialistic acceptance of Christ.
“For false
Christs and false Prophets shall rise and shall show signs and
wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take
ye heed: behold I have foretold you all things!” —
Mark XIII, 19-23.
The attacks of
materialism will be so strong that it will be necessary for men to
acquire sufficient strength of soul really to endure what is
expressed by the words: — “False Christs and false
Prophets will appear.” And when they are told: —
“Lo, here is the Christ!” those who have come under the
influence of Spiritual Science will be able to accept the warning
given in the Gospel of Mark.
When men say to you
“Lo, here is the Christ,” believe it not!
Notes:
1.
See
“Christianity as Mystical Fact,”
by Rudolf Steiner.
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