INTRODUCTION
Although the struggle between good and evil is described
throughout the Bible, perhaps the most dramatic and esoteric images
of this battle are contained in the Apocalypse. John the Evangelist, to
whom these visions were entrusted at age ninety-seven, had been preparing
for them all his life. Known to the high priests as Lazarus, a brilliant
young nobleman in Jerusalem, he was educated in the wisdom of the Jewish
traditions. He was then the first to be initiated by Christ when, at
age thirty-three, he was raised from the dead at Bethany. Later known as
the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” he was the only one of the
twelve disciples strong enough to be present at Christ's crucifixion.
His work and suffering on behalf of the nascent Christian church through
the next sixty years eventually led him to imprisonment on the island
of Patmos during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian
(A.D. 81–96).
The visions recorded in
the Apocalypse were given to him during this imprisonment with instructions
that he write them down for others. They are intended to encourage,
admonish, instruct, strengthen, and inspire us in the great battle against
evil that will continue into the distant future. As in any protracted
battle, knowledge of the adversary's plans, indeed, knowledge
of one's own leaders' strategic intentions, is essential. In the
past the Apocalypse has sometimes been used to inspire fear and to motivate
human souls to strive to be better Christians. But such use constitutes
misuse. Fear is a tool of the adversary powers, not of Christ and his
followers. The Apocalypse received by John is nothing if not a Christian
book, and when properly understood, expands our conception of Christianity
to cosmic proportions again.
It reveals in images,
that is, a kind of picture language, the deepest secrets of earthly
and human evolution. John was instructed to pass these images on to
humanity so that, through knowledge, we can be better equipped to evolve
spiritually and meet the unfolding power of the adversaries. The images
themselves contain the power of the Word, the Logos himself, the power
of all becoming and evolving. Taken into the soul they transform; over
time they can initiate. This is the connection between the Apocalypse
and the work of Rudolf Steiner, who said that simply hearing and reading
the results of anthroposophical research can gradually transform the
human soul and awaken in us the ability to perceive the spirit.
Rudolf Steiner's
writings and lectures on the Bible in general and the Apocalypse in
particular involve a dimension of our humanity that is underappreciated
in traditional religious streams: the dimension of human knowledge.
In the ancient past it was known that knowledge of spiritual realities
was attainable, although only by initiates. Today, only knowledge of the
physical world is considered valid, while people interested in spiritual
things must be satisfied with faith. However, faith alone cannot make
sense of the Apocalypse, and traditional Christian theologians are not
sure what to do with the book. Its source is non-earthly. It is prophecy,
but unlike Old Testament prophecy, we cannot look for its fulfillment
in the New Testament. The thinking behind it derives from a source either
beyond or preceding the modern, scientific mind.
But when modern methods
of science, exact thinking and observation, are applied to spiritual
questions, then knowledge of the spirit is possible. In his basic books
Rudolf Steiner describes the spiritual scientific method with its three
steps of Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition. The results of this
method are found throughout Steiner's work. They include, among other
things, descriptions of the evolution of the earth including its future.
This description of future events provides the basis for Steiner's
lectures on the Apocalypse. For this reason, a general knowledge
of anthroposophy and Steiner's terminology is required to understand
these lectures.
This requirement is
especially pressing since these lectures are not transcriptions of
complete stenographic reports. They have been reconstructed from
notes hand written by individuals
who attended the lectures. Hilde Stockmeyer took notes during the first
Munich lecture while Mathilde Scholl was responsible for the other three.
The notes by an unknown auditor that form the basis for the German edition
of the lectures held in Kristiania (Oslo) are the most fragmentary.
They are stylistically uneven, with frequent omissions and gaps in the
manuscript. The lecture of June 14, 1907, held in Paris comes to us
through notes taken by Edouard Schuré. Because of their brevity
these lectures are, in a sense, incomplete. The reader would do
well first to read Steiner's most comprehensive lectures on the
Apocalypse, held in Nürnberg
[See Note 1]
and refer to them again while reading the present lectures. Although
there is little contained in these present lectures not already mentioned
in Nürnberg, this new volume is quite useful just because of its
brevity.
The lecture of May 21, 1909,
contains what is probably the earliest mention of Christ's reappearance
in Steiner's work. While describing the sixth post-Atlantean cultural
epoch from the point of view of the development of manas, the transformed
astral body, Steiner says that those who have made themselves capable
of recognizing Christ will see him in his etheric body, “for he
will come again.” A few months later, on January 25, 1910, the
second coming of Christ was predicted for the twentieth century. Eight
days hence, on February 2, 1910, it was narrowed down to the decade
between 1930 and 1940. We can see from this sequence an example of the
way in which Steiner apprehended facts from the spiritual world. After
first perceiving some spiritual reality he could narrow his focus and
inquire even more closely with his clairvoyant consciousness.
Eventually Steiner pointed
to the year 1933 for the appearance of Christ in the etheric, an event
made possible only through the expiration of Kali Yuga and through the
evolution of certain faculties of the human soul. Human beings will
become increasingly able to perceive the surrounding world of formative
forces. At first this perception is a “delicate seed that can
be trampled to death by brutal materialism.”
But the year 1933 appears
to have brought something quite other to humanity. Emil Bock in his
book the Apocalypse
[See Note 2]
describes how Rudolf
Steiner speaks in 1924 of the work of Christ's opponent, the demon
of the sun, called “the beast” in the Apocalypse. In order
to grasp the etheric event of Christ's reappearance, it is necessary
to encounter the beast, the adversary of humankind who “rises
up” in 1933. Steiner considered the simultaneous appearance of
Christ and the Antichrist to be a first in world history. The double
aspect of the year became apparent: the renewal on a wide scale of Paul's
experience of Christ on the way to Damascus, and the opening of the
abyss of evil. Human beings have been driven by the struggle against
evil in all its forms to the very brink of existence, where they have
perceived Christ. Although Steiner almost always stressed the positive,
he could certainly also describe the negative, dark aspects of any subject
under investigation. The “war of all against all,” for example,
is given a full description in the Nürnberg cycle, and is also
mentioned here. This great culmination of egotism known as the war of
all against all, is to take place at the end of the seventh post-Atlantean
epoch, which would place it three to four thousand years from the present.
Because of misunderstandings concerning Steiner's statements on
the dates for this war, it is important to point out that he did not
say this war would occur at the end of the twentieth century. He spoke
only of conditions at the end of our century that would be similar to
a war of all against all.
He did say, however, that
the working of Sorat, the two-horned beast described in chapter 13 of
the Apocalypse, was connected to the number 666 and therefore, we could
expect an intensification of his influence around the year 1998. Sorat's
influence is not to be confused with the war of all against all, or
with the incarnation of Ahriman, an event projected to take place in
the early part of the third millennium. For a complete discussion of
the nature and timing of these events, as well as a clear distinction
between the three adversaries of human evolution — Lucifer, Ahriman,
and the Asuras — the reader should refer to three outstanding
articles by Hans-Werner Schroeder which appeared in the Newsletter of
the Anthroposophical Society in America, Summer 1979, Spring 1980, and
Summer 1980. Many questions that might arise in reading these lectures
will find their answer there.
A note concerning the
translation: The terms for intervals of time — period, epoch,
age, culture, time, times, and so on — are not used in a consistent,
technical manner. Steiner himself did not employ the German terms in
this way. The seven post-Atlantean cultural epochs, for example, are
designated by a variety of German words:
Kulturperiode, Kultur, Zeitraum, Kulturepoche, Zeitepoche, Zeit,
and so on. In any given
context, readers must discern for themselves which particular time-cycle
is meant. It did not seem right to impose a rigid terminology upon Steiner
when he himself avoided one.
In the New Testament it
says that the second coming of Christ will occur in the realm of the
clouds. What Steiner's lectures make clear is that some of these clouds
will be very dark, bringing thunder and lightning.
James H. Hindes
Notes:
Note 1.
Rudolf Steiner,
The Apocalypse of St. John,
4th rev. ed (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1977).
Note 2.
Emil Bock,
The Apocalypse of St. John
(Edinburgh: Floris Books, 1951).
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