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Peter’s successors.... Ecclesiastical-secular power....

Read the Bible and you will see that the spirit of truth has been pushed aside in a most obvious way. God’s Word has been withheld from you so that those of you who are looking for truth shall not recognise it. The records are carefully maintained but to what extent these records comply with Christ’s teaching is not scrutinised. And how often has the divine Word been changed, how often has God’s Word been wrongly interpreted and how rarely was the wrong interpretation objected to. This deception of humanity cannot be emphasized often enough; after all, it has been the cause of all divisions and religious conflicts. When Jesus lived on earth He spoke about the kingdom of God, about a kingdom which is not of this world.... He did not speak about a worldly power, nor did He speak about an ecclesiastical power, about an organisation, He did not speak about men who were meant to rule His Own on behalf of God either.... He merely said to His disciples ‘Go and teach all nations....’ He gave them the task to instruct people in His teaching of love and He promised His assistance if they remained in His spirit.... For as soon as they taught love they had to live within love themselves, thus the Lord Himself, Who is love, was with them. But where love rules all dominating control is unnecessary.... where love rules one person serves the other and where love rules commandments are superfluous unless the commandment of love given by God Himself is preached to people. Anything that teaches love complies with divine will, but the addition of further commandments is not in accordance with God’s will because the basis of any command is a dominant force.... But people should live together like brothers, they should merely submit to God’s will if they want to acquire the kingdom of God. By no means should they rebel against the worldly power which God has indeed appointed for the sake of keeping order where it is violated, however, His kingdom is not of this world....

He alone is Lord and Master in His kingdom, and He certainly needs no one on earth to represent Him and exercise their power over other people. But which Word of the Lord during His life on earth specifies such power?

(26.01.1942) He has lived a life of love, He gave love and taught love.... True love, however, excludes the need to rule.... The stronger should not rule the weaker even where the fulfilment of divine commandments had been taught. Because an enforced action is not to be very highly valued, regardless of how noble and good it is. Not until a person uses his free will are these actions done before God. And thus God only demands the human being’s free will. But at no time are people on earth entitled to add their own commandments to the divine commandments. And even less may people be obliged to obey these commandments by threat of temporal or eternal punishment. For then a commandment would be observed to avoid punishment, which otherwise would have been ignored. Thus the fulfilment of such commandments cannot possibly have great value before God and for eternity. When Christ’s disciples complied with His instructions and spread the Gospel throughout the world God’s activity was clearly visible because in the name of Jesus they healed the sick, they expelled evil spirits and performed miracles in order to reaffirm what they were teaching. God’s spirit was with and within them; everything they achieved was the divine working of the spirit. They proclaimed the teaching of Christ, the divine teaching of love, and simultaneously exemplified love to their fellow human beings. Thus, they eliminated the desire to rule, for they were like brothers among themselves and served each other with love. This was the office Jesus Christ gave to his disciples for their future work.... He did not appoint one of the apostles as a person in charge, as a leader to whom all should succumb. However, what developed at a later time completely differed from what the Lord Himself stood for. An ecclesiastical-secular power came into being that also structured every commandment of love, which no longer corresponded to what Jesus Christ Himself had taught the people. Although servitude in love was demanded, it was no longer practiced by them. And this was of most decisive significance because what Jesus had condemned during His life on earth surfaced again.... people were commanded to do what they should have done voluntarily. And reputable men of distinction called themselves successors of the apostles who had met the duties of their office in greatest poverty.... and a structural establishment displaying enormous splendour called itself the only beatifying church, which Jesus Christ had supposedly installed with the words ‘You are Peter, the rock....’

(27.01.1942) These words were interpreted thus by people who desired power; but these words do not by any means allow for the interpretation that Peter is the founder of an ecclesiastical power and that the heads of this church are the successors of the apostles.... those very apostles who, without status and distinction, only proclaimed the Gospel, the divine teaching of love, to the world. Peter was the most devout of them and Jesus emphasized his strong belief with the words ‘You are Peter, the rock, on this rock I will build My church.’ He calls the community of believers His church, because those who want to acquire God’s kingdom have to join together with innermost faith and thus constitute His church. Such is His will, and He expressed this will with those words. However, it is not His will that eminent and exalted dignitaries should believe themselves to be the head of such a community and thus also exercise their power.... that untold customs and ceremonies let the truly essential part become unimportant; i.e. that due to the countless formalities, which are given too much merit, the divine teaching of love remains unnoticed, and that therefore the apostles’ real task of spreading the Gospel throughout the world is no longer recognised. There can indeed also be men after God’s heart amongst those rulers, and God will truly not deny His spirit and His mercy to them, but then their wisdom is not the result of their position or the exalted office they fill but due to their right way before God.... These then are Peter’s true successors because they are strong in faith, and from the strength of faith they draw wisdom, for then they are like a rock from whence the living water comes forth.... Then they are true representatives of the church of Christ, which is the community of believers....

Amen

NASLEDNIKI PETRA.... CERKVENO – POSVETNA OBLAST...

Berite Sveto pismo in videli boste, da je bil duh resnice zatrt na najbolj očiten način. Zato tudi vi, ki iščete resnico, niste mogli spregledati, saj vam je bila Božja beseda prikrita. Izročilo se zvesto ohranja, vendar se ne preverja, v kolikšni meri to izročilo ustreza Kristusovemu nauku. Kako pogosto je bil pomen Božje besede spremenjen, kako pogosto je bila Božja beseda napačno razlagana in kako redko je bilo napačna razlaga kritizirana.

To zavajanje človeštva je potrebno izpostaviti, saj je bilo vzrok za vse delitve in verske boje. Ko je Jezus hodil po zemlji, je govoril o Božjem kraljestvu, o kraljestvu, ki ni od tega sveta....

Ni govoril o posvetni oblasti, niti o cerkveni oblasti, ali o kakšni ustanovi. Prav tako ni govoril o ljudeh, ki bi morali vladali njegovi cerkvi namesto Boga;.... Svojim  učencem je le rekel: "Pojdite in učite vsa ljudstva....".

Pooblastil jih je, da ljudi poučujejo o Njegovem nauku ljubezni in jim obljubil svoje sodelovanje, če bodo ostali v Njegovem duhu.... Če so namreč učili o ljubezni, so morali tudi sami živeti v ljubezni in tako je bil z njimi sam Gospod, ki je ljubezen. Kjer pa vlada ljubezen, je vsaka vladajoča oblast nepotrebna.... tam, kjer vlada ljubezen, eden služi drugemu in kjer vlada ljubezen, so zapovedi nepotrebne, razen, če se ljudem oznanjajo zapovedi ljubezni, ki jih je dal Bog sam.

Kar uči ljubezen, je v skladu z Božjo voljo, kar pa je dodano v drugih zapovedih, ni v skladu z Božjo voljo, saj ukazovanje določa vladajoča moč..... Ljudje bi morali živeti med seboj kot bratje, podvrženi le Božji volji, čim si želijo pridobiti božje kraljestvo. Nikakor naj se ne dvigajo proti posvetni oblasti, ki jo je Bog res določil za disciplino in red, kadar se ta krši. Vendar njegovo kraljestvo ni od tega sveta....

V svojem kraljestvu je On sam Gospod in vladar in resnično ne potrebuje ljudi na zemlji, da bi ga zastopali in izvajali svojo oblast nad sočlovekom. Toda kje Gospodova beseda v njegovem zemeljskem življenju kaže na takšno moč?....

(26.1.1942)

Svoje življenje je živel v ljubezni, dajal je ljubezen in učil ljubezen.... Prava ljubezen pa odpravlja željo po vladanju.... Močnejši ne bi smel določati šibkejšega, tudi kadar se uči izpolnjevanje Božjih zapovedi. Kajti prisilno dejanje, pa naj bo  še tako plemenito in dobro, ni visoko cenjeno. Šele, ko človek začne delovati po svoji svobodni volji, so ta dejanja spoštovana pred Bogom. In tako Bog od človeka zahteva le svobodno voljo.

Ljudje na zemlji nikoli nimajo pravice, da bi Božjim zapovedim samovoljno dodajali svoje lastne zapovedi. Še manj pa je mogoče spoštovanje teh zapovedi za ljudi narediti obvezno, tj. zahtevano izpolnjevanje pod grožnjo kazni za določen čas ali za večno. Da bi se izognili tej kazni, je zdaj izpolnjena zapoved, ki bi sicer ostala neupoštevana.

Zato izpolnjevanje takšnih zapovedi ne more imeti globoke vrednosti pred Bogom in za večnost. Ko so učenci izpolnjevali Kristusovo naročilo in ponesli evangelij vsemu svetu, je bilo Božje delovanje jasno vidno, saj so v Jezusovem imenu ozdravljali bolne, izganjali zle duhove in delali čudeže. S tem so potrdili, kar so učili. Božji Duh je bil namreč z njimi in v njih; vse, kar so dosegli, je bilo delovanje Božjega Duha.

Oznanjali so Kristusov nauk, Božji nauk ljubezni in prav tako dajali zgled ljubezni soljudem. S tem je bila želja po vladanju popolnoma odpravljena, saj so bili drug drugemu kot bratje in so drug drugemu služili v ljubezni. To je bila služba, ki jo je Jezus Kristus dal svojim učencem za njihovo nadaljnje delo.... ni pa enega od apostolov postavil za poglavarja in voditelja, kateremu bi se morali vsi podrediti. Tisto, kar se je pojavilo pozneje, se je popolnoma razlikovalo od tega, kar je predstavljal Gospod sam. Nastala je cerkveno posvetna oblast, ki je vsako zapoved ljubezni spravila v obliko, ki ni več ustrezala temu, kar je ljudi učil sam Jezus Kristus.

Služenje v ljubezni je bilo še vedno zahtevano, vendar se ni več izvajalo.... To je bilo največjega pomena, saj se je ponovno pojavilo tisto, kar je Jezus Kristus obsodil v času svojega življenja na Zemlji.... ljudem je bilo zapovedano, kar naj bi delali po svoji svobodni volji. In možje uglednega imena, ranga in dostojanstva so se imenovali nasledniki apostolov, ki so svojo službo opravljali v največji revščini.... in stavba neizmernega sijaja se je imenovala edina blagoslovljena Cerkev, ki jo je Jezus Kristus ustanovil z besedami: "Ti si Peter, skala.... "

(27.1.1942)

Te besede so ljudje, ki so si prizadevali za oblast razlagali, tako kot so jo potrebovali; nikakor pa besede ne dopuščajo te razlage, da je Peter ustanovitelj cerkvene oblasti in da so vladarji te cerkve, nasledniki apostolov.... tistih apostolov, ki so brez položaja in dostojanstva svetu le oznanjali evangelij, Božanski nauk o ljubezni.

Peter je bil med njimi najbolj veren in Jezus je poudaril njegovo močno vero z besedami: "Ti si Peter, skala; na tej skali bom zgradil svojo Cerkev." Njegova Cerkev se tako imenuje skupnost vernikov, saj morajo biti tisti, ki želijo pridobiti Božje kraljestvo in oblikovat njegovo Cerkev združeni v najgloblji veri.

To je Njegova volja, ki jo je izrazil s svojimi besedami. Ni pa Njegova volja, da se visoki in najvišji dostojanstveniki počutijo kot poglavarji takšne skupnosti in svojo moč tudi tako uporabljajo.... da zaradi neštetih običajev in ceremonij dejansko bistvo postane nepomembno, tj. da Božanski nauk ljubezni ostane neopažen pred neštetimi zunanjostmi, ki se jim daje prevelik pomen in posledično dejansko poslanstvo apostolov v svetu, da oznanjajo evangelij, ni več prepoznano. Seveda so med tistimi na oblasti lahko tudi ljudje po Božjem srcu in Bog jim resnično ne bo odrekel svojega duha in milosti, vendar njihova modrost ni posledica njihovega položaja ali visoke funkcije, ki jo zasedajo, temveč njihovega pravilnega ravnanja pred Bogom. Ti so torej pravi Petrovi nasledniki, saj so močni v veri in iz moči vere črpajo modrost, saj so potem kot skala, iz katere teče živa voda.... so torej pravi predstavniki Kristusove Cerkve, ki je skupnost vernikov....

Amen