It is extremely hard work to change people’s traditional faith, the conventional faith, into a living faith, because they do not yet understand the word ‘faith’. They have adopted the word traditionally without being aware of its actual deep meaning and rather adhere to external practices and customs than to the core which constitutes the teaching of Christ.
They may have indeed listened with their ears to everything in relation to Jesus Christ as the divine Redeemer and describe this knowledge with the word ‘faith’. They only mean by this that they do not object to this knowledge or reject it as improbable. But they have neither explored the details of the Christian teaching nor are they at all aware of the significance of the act of Salvation. Hence they refrain from forming an opinion of what they are being taught which, however, is necessary in order to gain a living faith, i.e. to gain an inner conviction for every religious doctrine.
But only living faith can lead to eternal life, because all kinds of conventional faith are unsuitable to transform the soul.
And everything is a conventional faith as long as the person is not overcome by a deep desire for pure truth. Because only this desire prompts him to think about the imparted spiritual knowledge which is then followed by inner conviction or by conscious rejection if he cannot find inner conviction, or living faith.
And this elimination of wrong from right has to take place. Error has to be separated from truth otherwise people cannot find a correct concept of God, Whose essence is of such perfection that everything which testifies of Him also has to be perfect. However, false teachings will never reveal God’s essence but forever mirror a distorted image of God. But as long as the people wanting to instruct other people.... (08.08.1949) do not know the difference between conventional and living faith themselves, as long as these people have not gained the knowledge of truth themselves, precisely by forming an opinion with divine help thus having achieved a living faith, they will not convey the right faith to the learners either. This explains why countless people may well call themselves religious yet are far removed from it.... why error is therefore widespread and truth is only of little interest, why human beings accept much as truth which, with sincere will, they certainly could recognise as error. But they keep to tradition, for generations they thoughtlessly and unreservedly continue to adopt the same distorted teachings which initially were given by Jesus Christ in their purest form to the people and which only became clouded and distorted due to a lack of own thinking and thus deviations were ignored. Moreover, people became duty bound to accept religious dogma unconditionally, so that they did not feel responsible and thus their faith became increasingly inflexible and a dead faith cannot result in spiritual progress.
People’s attention should be drawn to their lifeless state, and thus living faith has to be preached all the time. They have to be advised that they may not call themselves believers as long as they only accept traditionally adopted spiritual knowledge without having made it their own, thus being able to uphold it with innermost conviction and not just with their mouth, and that this also necessitates intellectual contemplation. Then the veil will fall from their eyes, then heart and intellect will occasionally refuse to accept something, and only then will the truth be made known, which will then make the person joyful and turn him into a diligent supporter. And then the human being will be able to believe actively and have freed himself from formality, only then can his soul mature and only then can he be a member of the church which Jesus Christ founded on earth....
Amen
TranslatorIzjemno težko delo ječloveško tradicionalno vero, formalno vero spremeniti v živo vero, ker oni besede »vera« še ne razumejo. Oni so to besedo sprejeli tradicionalno, brez zavedanja o njenem resnično globokem pomenu in se raje držijozunanjih ceremonij ter običajev kot pa bistva, kateregasestavlja Kristusovo učenje. Oni so mogoče dejansko poslušali s svojimi ušesi vse, kar se tiče Jezusoa Kristusoa, Božanskega Odrešenika, in so to znanje opisali z besedo »vera«. Vendar pa oni s tem mislijo samo to, da glede tega znanja nimajo očitkovoz. da ga ne zavračajo, kotda bi lahko bilo neresnično;čeprav pa podrobnosti krščanskega učenja niso preučevali, kakor se tudi sploh ne zavedajo pomena dela Odrešenja. Zaradi tega so sevzdržali formiranja mišljenja o tem, o čemer so bili podučeni, kar pa je torej nujno, da bi dosegli živo vero; se pravi, da bi glede vsake religijske doktrine dosegli notranje prepričanje.
Čeprav pa edino živa vera lahko vodi do večnega življenja, ker vsakovrstne formalne vere za preobrazbo duše niso ustrezne. Formalna vera pa je vse dotlej, dokler osebo ne premaga globoko hrepenenje po Čisti Resnici.Namrečedino to hrepenenje mu daje spodbudo, da razmišlja o danem duhovnem znanju;potem pa ga obenem tudi spremlja notranje prepričanjeali pa zavestno zavračanje, če tega notranjega prepričanja oz. žive vere ne more najti. In to razločevanjezmotnega od pravilnega se mora zgoditi. Zmota se mora ločiti od Resnice, ker drugače ljudje ne morejo najti pravilnega dojemanja Boga, Čigar bistvo je tako popolno, da mora biti popolno tudi vse, karpričuje o Njem. Namreč lažna učenja ne bodonikoli razodela Božjega bistva, temveč bodo za vedno ohranjala izkrivljeno Božjo sliko.
Toda vse dokler ljudje, ki želijo poučevati(druge) ljudi.... (8. avgust 1949) sami ne poznajo razlike med formalno in živo vero; vse dokler oni sami niso dosegli znanja o Resnici ravno na način, da so z Božansko pomočjo formirali mišljenje in tako uresničili živo vero, oni ravno tako ne bodo prenesli žive vere začetnikom. To pa pojasnjuje razlog, zakaj veliko ljudi lahko še kakozase rečejo, daso religiozni, vendar paso daleč oddaljeni od tega.... To je razlog, zakaj je zmota široko razprostrta in da za Resnico obstaja leneznaten interes, in zakaj ljudje veliko tega sprejemajo kot Resnico, kar pa bi z iskreno voljo zagotovo prepoznali kot zmoto (zablodo). Vendar pa se oni držijo tradicije; oni že več generacij ne razmišljajo in brez zadržkov nadaljujejo sprejemati enaka izkrivljena učenja, katera so bila sicer na začetku s strani Jezusa Kristusadana ljudem v najčistejši formi, katera pa so zaradi pomanjkanja lastnega razmišljanja ljudi postala zamračena ter izkrivljena, da so bile tako te razlike (glede resnične Kristusove doktrine)zanemarjene. Za ljudi je bilo torej obvezno, da so brezpogojno sprejeli religijsko doktrino,(Knjižica št. 18)da se tako niso počutili odgovorne; na ta način pa je njihova vera postajala rastoče vse bolj nefleksibilna.Vendar pa mrtva vera ne more rezultirati v duhovnem napredku.
Pozornost ljudi mora biti usmerjena na njihovo brez življenjsko stanje, zaradi česar ježivo vero potrebno neprestano potrebnooznanjati. Oni morajo biti obveščeni, da zase tako ne morejo reči, da so verniki, vse dokler sprejemajo le tradicionalno osvojeno duhovno znanje, brez da so si ga prisvojili in da so ga na ta način z najglobljim prepričanjem sposobni podpreti; toda ne samo s svojimi usti, ampak da to zahteva tudi umsko preučevanje. Potem bo pajčolan padel iz njihovih oči; potem bosta srce in razum občasno zavrnila sprejeti nekaj drugega. In samo takrat bo oznanjena Resnica, kar pa bo človeka razveselilo in ga spremenilo v zvestega privrženca. Potem pa bo človeško bitje sposobno aktivno verovati in sebo osvobodilo formalnosti. Namreč le tedaj lahko njegova duša dozori in le tedaj je on lahko pripadnik Cerkve, katero je Jezus Kristus utemeljil na Zemlji.
AMEN
Translator