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[Home]>[The Man-Made Church]>[28. The Urge to Organize]

This is the 28. Chapter of "The Man-Made Church."

28. The Urge to Organize

by Frank L. Preuss

That what now follows is an excellent description of people who have the need for an organisation and for someone who leads such an organisation. I already have used this description once before and bring it here again. Repetitions are excellent means to make teaching material more accessible. When you are just now going to read this description then think of that the one who here asks the question still likes to have organisations and therefore also someone who leads them and who at the same time also well thinks to hold such a position of leadership himself. This description comes from Chapter 134, of Volume 10, of Das Große Evangelium Johannes (The Great Gospel of John) by Jakob Lorber:

When the disciples heard this, Simon Juda said to me: "Lord and master, as we now divide ourselves into two groups, shouldn’t each group then have a chief?"

I said: "When was there a need for a chief for the purest love and the fullest and clearest truth from the heavens?

Love, like the truth in its highest purity and perfection, is in itself very much the highest in itself so that nothing could be thought or recognized that would be above it!

But if such love and truth from me exists in each of you which I now send out in my name - then who of you wants to make a chief for his brother? How do you want to take a chieftainship upon yourself when you say and vividly believe that only I am the Lord – and all the others but say and believe the same? Who of you wants to be the first with such an assumption and with such a belief?

When a man who is good at figures says and proves that three totally identical things and again three also such totally identical things come to six such totally identical things and a second man and a third, fourth and hundredth man who are also good at figures say and prove exactly the same, - question: who of them should possibly be the more excellent of them and who of them should the hundred equally good calculators elect as a vain chief above themselves and why?

See, I alone am the Lord! But all you among yourselves are totally equal brothers and nobody should be more important nor less important; because every chieftainship, no matter how small it is, awakens in the mind of the chief the satanic lust for power and will then also soon become the corrupter of the pure love and of the truth that comes out of it, as it was very much the case right at the beginning of the monarchy and is now so even clearer in the temple at Jerusalem.

But who of you absolutely insists to be the first of my disciples should be a last one and a least one of them and should be a slave and servant of them all! Because that is the order in my heavens among my angels!

Truly I say to you: All of them who will let themselves be appointed on this earth to chiefs in a different spirit will be in a difficult position on the other side! Because the most difficult purpose in life for an arrogant person – what almost every chief will finally become – is the humiliation of the mind.

Therefore you all should remain completely equal brothers and nobody should want to have the slightest priority before the others; and all men will see and recognize, because you will love and respect each other as true brothers who have complete equal rights, that you are truly my disciples, and so now move and do my will!"

And here we have come to the end of the quotation.

Timewise we now want to go to mediaeval times and have a look at a situation at the time of the reformation in Europe. The situation here refers to a person with the name of Michael Sattler. I am now quoting a report about Michael Sattler:

Micheal Sattler
(* about 1490 Staufen/Breisgau, † 20.5.1527 Rottenburg)
Michael Sattler was an educated man, who had a good command of Latin, Greek and Hebrew and as a Benedictine monk of St. Peter in the Black Forest he probably went to the Freiburg University. In the Benedictine abbey he held the priorship in the end. The Protestant preaching spreading in the surroundings of Freiburg perhaps caused him to concern himself with the letters of Paul, which finally lead to reject the dogmatics of the Old Church and to leave the monastery.
After his marriage with a Begine he moved to Zurich 1525 because under Ferdinand I. heresy was to be wiped out in the Breisgau. In Zurich he joint Baptist circles and preached and baptized; during the last Baptist Disputations (6th November 1525) the authorities became aware of him and expelled him from the town on the 18th November. He travelled via Staufen to Strasbourg where Capito took him into his house. Here Sattler met Hans Denck before whom he defended his scriptural theology, which was orientated towards the Swiss Brethren. He then presented his faith and church understanding in an earnest and peaceful conversation with Brucer and Capito.
The essential difference lay in that for Sattler only a church of the “chosen” existed, which should not be allowed to have dealings with the orders of the earthly world; the reign in the world belongs to the devil and the unbelievers. As there could not an agreement be reached in this dispute, Sattler left the town at the end of 1526 and settled in Horb in Württemberg. Here he gathered a great Baptist community around himself and gained such reputation that he was chosen as chairman at the first Baptist Synod in Schleitheim near Schaffhausen (24th February 1527). This synod drew up the Schleitheim Confession, which became the basis of the upper German and Swiss Baptists. On Sattler’s suggestion the in principle pacifistic separation from the world was described in detail in it and also organizational measures in the structure of the community were agreed, so that no community would be without a leader or preacher in the time of persecution.
On the journey home the leading Baptists of Horb and Rottenburg were arrested at the end of February; documents and notes of the synod were found by Sattler. The Austrian authorities, who administered the country after the fall of Ulrich of Württemberg, wanted to arrange an exemplary trial, which was causing a stir. But they had great trouble to bring about a court of justice, to which also independent judges belonged; the beginning of the trial in Rottenburg moved from 12th of April to the 17th of May 1527.
Against all accused it was argued that they had broken imperial law through the turning away from the old church teachings and that they refused to take an oath to the worldly authorities; beyond that Sattler was accused of violating his vow as a monk and of the school of thought one was not allowed to resist the Turks. In his speech for the defence Sattler pointed out that the emperor demands, against Luther’s teaching in the Edict of Worms (Imperial Diet of Worms), to alone trust the Gospel and the word of Jesus Christ – exactly this the Baptists had done. For the rest of the accusations he called the described facts correct, but refuted the charges by pointing to their conformity with the Bible. In conclusion he offered a disputation on account of the Biblical original texts. That request to dispute with the judges lead to a tumult in the courtroom. After one and a half hour of consultation the judgement over Sattler was announced and three days later executed: A piece of Sattler’s tongue was cut off on the market place (after that he could still speak), and two pieces of flesh were torn out of his body with red-hot pliers. This torture was repeated five times on the way to the place of execution, in which Sattler prayed loudly for his tormentors and judges. Then he was tied to a ladder and thrown into the fire. When the hand ropes were burned he is supposed to have given a sign with the fingers, which was agreed with fellow believers, that he also in the throes of death stands by his confession. One chronicle reports of signs of miracles on the day of execution and on the following night. Sattler’s wife was drowned in the Neckar eight days after his execution.
Capito and Brucer, who had personally known him, have expressed in letters their respect before Michael Sattler, not without rebuking his departure from the teaching of the Reformation.

What a nice description of the western Christian culture. Christianity as it is to the life – in the world of the religionists.

That is the darkest Middle Ages and for us today it is now so long ago and therefore just no longer relevant. And when such things happen today – in other parts of the world - then one simply overlooks it and reports about it are simply not read and usually also not published at all. And so one is also then well prepared for the times of the end and when then the demand is raised to wipe out the believers then one will not resist such a request and eagerly participate in it.

The example of Michael Sattler is unfortunately only one example of many.

I have chosen it here because of two references to organizational forms, first for the organization of the community and secondly for the organization of several communities. In the report it says: “On Sattler’s suggestion the in principle pacifistic separation from the world was described in detail in it and also organizational measures in the structure of the community were agreed, so that no community would be without a leader or preacher in the time of persecution.”

Here the urge to organize comes out quite well: “organizational measures in the structure of the community were agreed, so that no community would be without a leader or preacher in the time of persecution.” The point of course is the complete lack of understanding for being led by the spirit, oneself as a person and through this also the community, and that the wish to want to organize a possible future event is completely unnecessary when one leaves these things to the spirit. When Christ is our Lord and leader then an additional leader, who stands between us and the Lord, is an absurdity, and then it would be completely unnecessary to want to prepare oneself for future situations. But the whole thing has also to do with jurisdictions and in the end with the wish to be first. “Why?” asks Jesus:

“Question: who of them should possibly be the more excellent of them and who of them should the hundred equally good calculators elect as a vain chief above themselves and why?”

To want to be first is the fundamental Antichristian motive. The Biblical example is Diotrephes, he wanted to be first.

3 John 9: I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

A modern translation reads as follows;

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.

This is the key aim of Antichrist: He likes to be first

The three letters of John have Antichrist as their subject. They are the only part of the Bible where the word Antichrist is contained. They are that part of the Bible that introduces us to a type of Antichrist, Diotrephes, and therefore that part, which gives us insight how we can recognize the last Antichrist of the end of times – when we want to. We will recognize him when we pay attention to the characteristic feature of the Antichrist which John mentions first. He wants to be first.

John then gives us in the next verse further qualities and the first of these is: “prating against us with malicious words.” That will be a strong feature of Antichrist that he is gossiping maliciously about us.

But when this peculiarity comes to light it could be already too late for many because they then have already sided with his camp since a long time.

This second attribute will only appear in a later stage when his true colours will come more to light. But he who wants to recognize the Antichrist earlier, he has to already go to the trouble of dealing with the first feature. And this first characteristic feature does not even look too bad for a normal person; on the contrary, in our present-day world striving for success, it seems quite natural to like to be first.

It is a complete natural behaviour, to want to be the first in the world, and it is also a complete natural behaviour to want to be first in the church – in the church to which also Antichrist belongs – the man-made one, the homespun one.

And that is the reason why Antichrist will virtually not be recognized by anyone, also not by the so-called Christians and also not by many seemingly genuine Christians. They are not really busy with how the real church of Christ has to look like. And this lack will have a bitter effect.

It will pay to have the ability in the end time to recognize the genuine church because then we will also recognize the genuine Christians – and especially also the counterfeit one – the Antichrists.

The leadership of the church will be a key issue. Is the church really led by the spirit, by the holy spirit, or by men?

The prophecy which comes first for the recognition of the Antichrist comes from Bertha Dudde, which she wrote down on 23rd and 24th of April 1947 and which reads as follows:

The expected antichrist is a personality that steps out of the limits of the natural; he is an extraordinarily talented man whose special strength is his urbaneness, as he comes across as very self-confident especially in face to face situations with men who are responsible for the welfare of the people. And that is why he will be successful and the supremacy that he is striving for will be granted to him; it will be assumed that drastic changes for the best of the general public are to be expected to come through him. And they all will acknowledge him; he will make use of this preferential position for measures of all kinds.

The key phrasing here is “the supremacy that he is striving for.” These are just other words for wanting to be first.

That what has been predicted here by Bertha Dudde has already happened; and in fact quite obviously. And it happened in November 2008.

What happened in November 2008 is only the first part of this striving for supremacy – but a very decisive part.

Decisive because it gives the observer already in the beginning of the appearance of this man the opportunity to recognize him and to know about what time has begun.

Read this prophecy. Its title is “Antichrist – bringer of salvation? Measures against everything spiritual.” And the number is B.D. NR. 4029. It can be found in the internet.

Here it turns out that this knowledge what the man-made church is all about is highly important to recognize the signs of the time.

The understanding for how a true leadership of the church looks like, and also how it should not be, how it is when it is run by a Diotrephes, a type of Antichrist, is decisive to survive – to survive spiritually. It is necessary to also take part in the rapture and to not have to stay behind.

In the end time it will be important to really be led by the spirit. This especially applies to the individual, but also to the communion.

It is so important because our protection is at stake. God can only really protect us when we let him guide us. When we do not listen to him then our protection can stay away because we then do not do that what he tells us – because we do not listen.

We then can easily run into the trap, which we could have avoided when we had listened. We could be arrested, like Michael Sattler.

He was very educated, formally educated, but had also really dealt with the word of God himself and therefore should have known also about these items. For once about the personal guidance but also about the leadership of the assembly, and otherwise he also should have known that also the leadership of the sum of assemblies is led by the spirit, and not by a synod.

And here we have arrived at the second case of the urge to organize.

The report reads: “Here he gathered a great Baptist community around himself and gained such reputation that he was chosen as chairman at the first Baptist Synod in Schleitheim near Schaffhausen (24th February 1527).”

On the journey home – from the synod – the leading Baptists were arrested.

I have read about a second case where Christians came together to form a supra-regional organization of their assemblies, and where this journey led to their arrest. This case was not half a millennium ago but only a few years. I will probably still come back to this.

The word synod is a word that does not exist in the Bible. This alone should already be enough to keep one’s distance to it.

The individual assembly is led by the holy spirit and not by men and especially not by one man – the pastor – and this simply implies that, when all assemblies are led by the spirit, also the sum of assemblies is led by the spirit.

But the decisive thing will always be whether the individual is led by this spirit. When this is not the case, and when this is especially not the case with one or with all elders – who are supposed to protect the assembly against the wolves – and when they then themselves become wolves through this – then just automatically this results that then also the assembly is not led by this spirit but exactly by the other one – the one of Antichrist.

To want to recognize Antichrist will exactly depend on the knowledge of these circumstances: How is the individual believer and how is the totality of the believers – may it be the assembly or may it be all assemblies – led?

Or expressed differently it will depend on whether men act in the individual daily circumstances so that they really believe that everything is guided by God and that there are no coincidences and that the whole life is a testing situation where everything serves to the best when one only knows this and reacts to everything in such a way as the word of God recommends to us. Very simply, because we know that all things work together for good to them that love God – that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

To believe this, and to then grow in this faith because the daily experience again and again confirms this principle, is the central issue.

Faith then becomes more and more knowledge.

And with this faith – and with this knowledge – it will be relatively easy for one to await the end with calmness and composure. And also with more than just calmness and composure because the real final result will be the rapture and then the following life on the new earth - a paradise.

Life cannot go past us without fights and sufferings otherwise we would not progress spiritually, the reason why we live on earth.

So there is actually no disaster for us because whether it also may appear earthly like it, so it is spiritually but a possibility of the maturing for our soul, and it is only up to us whether such a disaster becomes a salvation to us, whether it has a blessed effect on our soul.

We want to come back to the urge to want to organize everything. We had a look at the organisation of the assembly and also the organization of several assemblies in the form of a synod. A further form of organization is the need to formulate a formal creed: “This synod drew up the Schleitheim Confession.” Instead of accepting the whole word of God as the basis of faith, people like to take preferred parts out of it and then emphasize them and then formally summarize them and as such creeds then are always only part of the whole there immediately exist differences to other denominations, which do not have such a Schleitheim Confession, but another one.

And then the next step comes. Instead of then taking something like this to heart and to have as an approach, as something about which one can think and may be even learn by heart to then let it become easier to meditate about it, such a creed then has to be fixed in writing and so be available as a document to then also, as an example, be able to reproach someone with it.

Something like this then also has of course disadvantages. And the great disadvantage is that something which is put down in writing then also can easily fall into the hands of the enemy and he then has something that he can use as evidence and which then can lead to a sentence.

In the report it is stated: “documents and notes of the synod were found by Sattler.”

Another thing with denominations is to keep membership lists. And something like this is then of course something highly interesting for authorities; there they then can find all those concerned named.

This urge to organize then also often goes hand in hand with the need to work in favourite ideas into the formulation of a creed, as it was done here in this example with the idea of pacifism. Jesus says, render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s. Police power, or in a greater setting the defence installations of a country, are nothing bad as such, on the contrary, they are there to limit evil. The sword as such is nothing evil, exactly as also a knife is not evil. Evil is when something like this is used wrongly.

I am here thinking of a situation where Cyrenius, who was in charge of the whole eastern part of the Roman empire, and above whom only the emperor in Rome was, wanted to throw away his sword in the presence of Jesus after he had experienced God’s power. Jesus gave him the following advice: “Cyrenius! Do not do what you want to do! Because indeed, who carries the sword the way you do, he carries it justly! Who uses the sword as a weapon, he should throw it away; but who uses it as a shepherd’s crook, he should keep it! Because that is the will of him whom heaven and earth have to obey! But you are a shepherd to those who are written in the book of your sword; therefore just strap yourself again with the just honour so that your people recognize you that you are a shepherd for them! When your flock would consist of pure lambs then you would not need a rod! But there are many goats among them, that is why I would rather add a rod than to take the one! True is: apart in God there is no power; but when God grants you the power, then you are not to throw it away from you to that, what God’s curse has judged!”

This is from Chapter 75 of Jakob Lorber’s “Childhood and Youth of Jesus.”

At the top of an organisation there has to be of course a president, or a chairman or a director or whatever. Here with the synod it is the chairman. He then is the first. And to justify something like this, the Bible is used. And then one immediately kills two birds with one stone. One not only justifies a chairman, but also immediately the synod itself and refers to the book of Acts and there to that what happened in Jerusalem and about what the 15th Chapter of Acts reports.

The mentality of theologians is very well expressed when one looks at the headings in their Bible translations. One translation for example gives the following headings: "Utterance of Peter at the Council in Jerusalem" for Acts 15:4-12 and "A Synod Letter to the Believing Heathen" for Acts 15:22-29. They like expressions like council and synod and even more so of course not just the word but the actual thing.

As James speaks the closing words and formulates the decision, the religionists make him a chairman of the synod or something like that. A Bible dictionary calls him a president of the first council. In reality James was very advanced in spiritual things and therefore acknowledged as elder in the community. When one reads the already mentioned book “Childhood and Youth of Jesus” then one gets a lot of details about this brother of Jesus. He was a son of Joseph – the youngest – from a previous marriage, and his job in the family was to look after the much younger brother Jesus and so he spend much time with Jesus and therefore was that person who had the closest relationship with him and especially also spend by far the most time with Jesus and that is why he assimilated exceptionally much from him. Already at the time when Jesus was still a child James had a good understanding of being led by the spirit, specially also in comparison with other members of the family. And it was also him who wrote down the events from the childhood and youth of Jesus.

And to now make James a president of the council and the gathering there a synod council is for men who can only think in form of organizations, and understand nothing of the leading of the spirit, just a matter of course.

How much Michael Sattler believed that only the word of God could be valid as guiding principle follows from the following two sentences:

“In his speech for the defence Sattler pointed out that the emperor demands, against Luther’s teaching in the Edict of Worms (Imperial Diet of Worms), to alone trust the Gospel and the word of Jesus Christ – exactly this the Baptists had done. For the rest of the accusations he called the described facts correct, but refuted the charges by pointing to their conformity with the Bible.”

Expressions like “to alone trust the Gospel and the word of Jesus Christ – exactly this the Baptists had done” and “by pointing to their conformity with the Bible. In conclusion he offered a disputation on account of the Biblical original texts” show clearly that these Christians had very well recognized the necessity to make the word of God the guiding principle, but the one and a half millennium of orthodox influencing just did not remain without effect and could not just be eradicated from the thinking. And this has especially an effect in areas like the life of the assembly and the area of responsibility of elders.

We now want to have a look at the urge to organize with another, also very active Christian, and go away from Europe in the 16th century and go to America and consider some details in the life of Edgar Cayce in the 19th and 20th century.

As a child Edgar Cayce had set himself a goal to want to help other people, and especially to also help children. His main activity was reading the Bible, and as he grew up God guided him through a sickness to his assignment in life: He had the gift to look into the spiritual situation of a person and to recognize spiritual and bodily problems, to point them out, and to also show solutions to these existing spiritual and bodily illnesses. A person who wanted to make use of his help needed to only give Edgar Cayce his name and address and that was enough to transport Edgar Cayce’s spirit to that place and person and to take a close look at it all, without the need of the respective person to be near Edgar Cayce. Many people turned to Edgar Cayce and received help from him or through him, and got healed. The healing happened through directions how they had to act, which medication or food they had to use, which treatment they had to undergo. This information Edgar Cayce received through spiritual means and he then handed it to the respective person, often in written form by post, as the person was far away. Also for Edgar Cayce this information often was completely new and not available by natural means. For example the spirit gave a person seeking help the name and address of a physician in New York, to whom he was to go and get treatment. Edgar Cayce had also never heard of this physician and did not know him. The person seeking help followed the instructions and really found this physician and successfully got treated by him. This physician was a physiotherapist and he noticed that an Edgar Cayce sent him people several times and he got into contact with him and got to know him and a good working relationship developed.

The name of this physician was Harold J. Reilly and he later wrote the book The Edgar-Cayce-Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy.

And so there were other contacts which could help the people seeking healing and to which they then could be referred to. So there were for example pharmacies which had certain medicaments in their range, which were especially recommended by Edgar Cayce.

All these contacts arouse with time and so a group of people grew who specialized in Edgar Cayce’ methods of healing or were already specialized. For some this cooperation expanded to such a degree that they moved to Edgar Cayce’ location in order to be within easy reach for his patients.

And now we come to the urge to organize. Edgar Cayce did not see this natural development the right way and he wanted to give the people seeking help a more direct help with his often very special therapies and medicines and therefore had the idea to have a hospital, which was aimed at his specialized methods. This idea started to play quite an important role in his life and many of his activities dealt with this aim. One side of his idea was to take financial measures for this, to find finances for his aim. Again and again he hoped to find people who would find money for his matter.

Many Christians have similar ambitions. They are thinking of an aim and now they try to materialize it and for this they need money und this they now try to find in one way or another. “Fund Raising” it is called; to get money or capital is big business. One can for example read adverts in the papers where charity organisations seek experienced fund raisers.

Fund raising is scriptural and therefore such people could think they are on good ground. But for what was money collected in the Bible? It was about helping sisters and brothers financially. Imagine living in a society in which you are considered to be an outcast; where the official attitude of the authorities classifies you as opponent of the system as the Christians in Jerusalem had to experience it. And that specially included also the financial aspect of life. A contractor for example did no longer get contracts because it was found out that he was a follower of this new Jesus sect. Suddenly his income was lost and he became poor. And another lost his job for the same reason and now had no longer any income and the employment office was also not there.

So money was collected for such a situation and the collection of the money was not so much the main thing, it was actually more about something else, to undermine the inclination to matter, to learn to change the self-love and to develop out of it love for the neighbour.

This is actually the main reason why there are poor people, why there are differences in the life situations of men. Our job here is to be examined, whether we are suitable to be received into the spiritual world, into that part of the spiritual world which is the world of light.

God can any time make a rich man out of a poor man. There are no problems. The problem lies quite somewhere else: in the heart of men. And the same applies for his work in the vineyard. There are never financial problems when work for the kingdom of God has to be carried out. When there is a problem then it is the fact that such a work is not at all wanted by God or that men have the wrong attitude. In my life I have never been prevented to carry out a work for God because the finances were not there for it. I rather observed the opposite, that the giving and helping was lessened because the needy person was too critically observed and a reason was sought why he was not worthy to receive a donation. When for example such a person spends the money he receives to buy sweetened and dark brown coloured brand-named water and I myself spend practically no money on drink because I drink tap water, which is much healthier, and because this quite healthy tap water is also plentifully available to the person seeking help. And why should I now give a person a donation so that he then spends it on artificial water and consumes it, which certainly does not do much good to the body? Why should this person in this connection treat himself to a luxury with my money, which I do not treat myself to and which in addition is also harmful for him? But that is exactly the reason why this person finds himself in such a “poor” situation: he lacks the light, the insight, the enlightenment, and not really the money.

So it is most of the time not the money that is lacking. It is our lack of will to love.

So in the New Testament money is collected to help poor people – sisters and brothers – to show them solidarity. There are no examples there where money is collected to make the work for God possible – to finance it. God does not need that.

Also when people let Paul have some money, then this was more an act which arose out of love for him than an act without he would not have been able to carry out his work.

When now people collect money to make a work for God possible then there is something wrong. When you for example find a website where financial help is requested, donations, a contribution to the financing of the website, or where books or other things are offered for sale, then such should already tell you something about the spiritual standing of the people behind it. The main problem is always unbelief.

Edgar Cayce went in his efforts to raise money so far that he moved to Texas to there make the big money in the oil business with his supernatural talents. The information he got there was that when the people who together with him were drilling for oil would really use their wealth and their lives for God and when they would already now adopt this attitude, then they would also hit oil. And as these prerequisites were not made available, they also did not find oil and Edgar Cayce had to, after quite a long time and much effort, abandon his Texas project.

And when then in the end a sponsor was found and the hospital was built and it was running quite well, the meltdown of the stock exchange came with the following economic problems and the sponsor then did no longer have the real means and other organizational problems arouse and the hospital was closed down.

The whole matter had been humanly organized and was not lasting. The whole matter was on the whole not necessary as the natural development, that people got together and took part in the work around Edgar Cayce’s talent, was completely enough. The whole matter was actually only necessary because the striving of the ego was not recognized and this again was based on the lack of teaching about such things, and this again was based on the clinging to connections to humanly made churches.

But there is also another point of view in this matter and that is that when one has a hospital and one is the manager of such an institution, then one is also somebody and has reached something in life – in a worldly sense. Just imagine one has the opportunity in a conversation to mention that one has a quite big private hospital and is at the moment busy appointing a new senior consultant. Now – something like this would surely do the ego much good.

And when you then could give a talk about it, and this may be in the scope of a lecture which you give before a quite great audience, and one then draws a comparison, who then could possibly be the first?

And when the children go to school, must they then give as occupation of the father something like clairvoyant or healer or medium or psychic or could they rather talk about a director of a hospital? And what when they are going to university and they are asked for the occupation of the father? How does something like this sound: My father prays for people?

When I look back in my life and search for where the difference exists between people who were able to spiritually give me something and people who spiritually were hardly able to give me anything, then I come to the conclusion that those people who could give me nothing spiritually, were always people who had been seized somehow in some way by this urge to organize. I remember a young woman who addressed me as child in Sunday school. What she told us became alive in me. I still think about it today sometimes. But she was not embedded in the organization of this denomination. She probably had no title and most likely received no salary and suddenly she no longer was there and it was said that she had criticized the lack of spirituality of the leadership of the assembly and so she had to go. There were people who seemed to, despite them being embedded in the organization, having titles and being paid for their work, be spiritually alive, but when one had a closer look then one found it to be more or less natural talents and gifts which were used quite well and were expressed. I can remember one case where the teacher explained passages from the Bible so well that I began to study the Bible myself. He led an assembly which had just started in a place which itself also was new and had just started to give people a place to live. He himself was a businessman and did this work on the side. I liked to go to these evenings of Bible study and took notes. But in time a change took place. The man decided to change his work for God into a full time job and to earn a living from it. He gave up his business and carried out his worldly occupation in the beginning only on the side, to complement his income as pastor as the assembly was still growing. His spiritual situation was the change of a spiritual alive Christian into a carnal Christian who started to be get wrapped up in darkness. Whenever I took part in assembly life of denominations then those persons, at these meetings, who were not organizationally integrated in these denominations, were the ones who could give something to me spiritually in a conversation. I remember an evening where people from other assemblies were invited, perhaps even from other denominations, and I listened to two young women from Africa, who told me that when they would be in need of a new dress then they would asked the Lord for one and they then would also get a new dress from him. Something like this was completely new to me. I had never ever heard of something like this. It was the first time that I met people who quite deliberately spoke of their belief, who spoke of very real matters of faith and who awakened in me the wish to investigate these matters of faith in more detail. But this experience arose because this meeting was intended to come into contact with other “believers.” At nearly all other get-togethers such encounters were rather phenomena which arose before or after the so-called actual event and only happened because one was already there before the beginning of the event or one stayed behind afterwards. During the actual event itself there was most of the time no opportunity for such encounters. I went to many events and soon realized the spiritual emptiness of the leading people there and asked myself, what actually drew me to these events when the spiritual content of the stuff that was announced there was so pitiful. I came to the conclusion that it was the presence of all the other faith seekers what attracted me. And that is how it probably is most of the time in the life of a community in a denomination, that there, despite all the unbelief of the leading people, people still come together, because they seek and appreciate being together with other seekers and, probably mostly unaware, profit from it. When I really won spiritual goods from a speaker of an event then they were virtually without exception people who did not carry out this activity of preaching as their main job, but earned their living through a normal occupation or they were businessmen who did not expect to be paid for their preaching or who demanded pay for it. They were not employees of the organisation; they did not have any position there and had no titles. Their problem only began when they started to consider such an employment, when they began to think about the possibility to occupy themselves full-time with the preaching of the word of God. The word full-time can be very deceptive because it seems to indicate that one dedicates all of one’s time to the Lord, and not just a part of it. But in reality this word full-time means in this connection that one begins to make money out of the knowledge one has about the Lord. It is always a betraying of the Lord. Someone who begins to make money by making use of the knowledge about the Lord Jesus Christ to gain financial profit is always a traitor. And all the cases which I know he also remains a traitor. The only exception known to me is a man with the name of Judas. He also was a traitor, but he turned back. And he not only turned back, he even went that far and gave the money back which he had received for his betrayal. I know no case of someone who became a traitor and then turned back – except this Judas. And never reached anything my ears that remotely indicated that someone even gave back the money he had received.

I was very pleased to read in Jakob Lorber’s works that Judas the apostle, also in the kingdom on the other side, again occupies a position of the apostle and belongs to those who are closest to the Lord. In the Gospel of Jakob Lorber one can find many details about this disciple and it is revealing to study such a live, and especially to also learn how Jesus Christ sees it and what he thinks about this man, so to hear his side of the betrayal.

The lesson one can learn from the life of Judas is that when one already once has used the knowledge about Jesus to make money out of it, then one should, after one has read this here, immediately stop this, turn back – regret it – und if possible return the money. When you do something like this – stopping earning money from spiritual work and doing penance – then you probably do something completely unique, you do something what is unusual, but it will “pay” in eternity.

And one immediate result of your turning back will be that your carnal status will change and you will become spiritual and your words of preaching will reach hearts and let the fire flare up.

Judas turned back – he did penance – and that is why he is no longer a traitor. But men who carry on earning money from their knowledge about the Lord are and remain traitors.

Judas naturally also expected a worldlier rule of Jesus and he also was not aware of the complete meaning of the plan of salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross. He also had a weakness, wanting to become rich quickly. But the main motive for his act was his faith in Jesus and especially a belief that Jesus was unrestricted in his absolute power, and that he therefore could free himself from every limiting situation, that he therefore could escape an arrest or an execution any time, and this faith of Judas caused Judas to challenge Jesus with his betrayal, to demonstrate his power to the whole of Israel and also to the Roman empire, and to prove his superiority with it. So Judas’ main motive was to cause Jesus to demonstrate his power completely in public and arise through this as leader and liberator. Judas had very well observed Jesus and his actions and his abilities and was through this completely convinced that nothing was impossible for him. So in this respect Judas was probably the greatest believer. Judas was a political orientated person and therefore that person around Jesus who best understood the absolute power that came with this God man.

But the big tragedy which is caused by all these traitors is that all these seekers come to them and have to leave again unfed. Several decades I went to these traitors and all this time remained unused and I received no spiritual nourishment, on the contrary, often the little faith that was there was discouraged because unbelief was announced from the pulpit, not to mention all the false doctrines which were announced and practised.

Millions of people everywhere on earth go daily to church and hear how spiritless ministers talk to them and remain without spiritual food and return home without being enriched. What a tragedy.

God says: “And never can on the part of one man this duty be transferred to another; never can one man feel qualified to elevate a fellow man to be a representative of God on earth, because I alone am entitled to this duty.”

God is the only one who organizes men and no one else. He does the organizing and there are no such things as organisations. Whenever men start an organization then there is also always an office connected with it, which starts from this organization, and both, the organization and the office, are wrong and adverse to God.

It is adverse to God and therefore direct influencing of the opponent of God. All organizing belongs to the area of Antichrist. Men who have the urge to organize are under the influence of the adversary.

We now let God speak on this subject himself; B.D. means Bertha Dudde:

Right Representatives of God on Earth.

24. April 1960. B.D. NR. 7585.

Living representatives of God on earth must be filled with my spirit otherwise they cannot serve me the right way. Because they are to speak in my stead when they want to be my right representatives and they therefore must speak as my spirit tells them – they must allow it that I speak through them myself and therefore men are directly addressed. They must fulfil the conditions, which allow the spirit to work in them: They themselves have to live in love and livingly believe that I reveal myself to those who prepare themselves, and they have to permanently seek close union with me to be able to hear me myself in them. My real representatives on earth speak driven by my spirit, because as they are most livingly united with me, is my will theirs, and they cannot help it than to express that what I want to say to men. My real representatives must be filled by my spirit – the they will also be able to give to their listeners what touches their heart because I then address these myself and my word will certainly penetrate to the heart when man longs for God’s word. Therefore my word can be heart everywhere under the condition that the announcer himself gets first in touch with me so closely that I now talk through him myself. And also love belongs to such a close union otherwise the preacher does not have the desire, to establish union with me, but he speaks out of his intellect to his listeners and these words do not meet with a response – unless the longing for my word is so strong in a man that I want to address this man myself and he then also draws the power out of the word of God. However the knowledge about the work of the spirit has got lost to men and even the announcers of the divine word lack the understanding for it. It is implausible to them that I speak to men myself, that I only help myself to a suitable tool to address men directly. They do not believe it that God reveals himself always and in every way, that he talks directly to a person who fulfils the condition which I attach to a direct reception of the word. And because they do not believe themselves in it, they also do not get ready themselves for becoming a vessel to receive my spirit. And then they are also not suitable to have an effect as my representatives on earth because a real representative must serve me as mouthpiece, he must let me myself speak through him, so that men receive God’s word in truth because the announcers are to speak in my stead, they are not to submit their own intellectual work to men, they are to always only hear what I myself speak to them – they are to let my spirit work in them. But where the belief in my spirit activity is lacking there a man cannot pass himself off as my representative on earth because only alone the activity of my spirit in him stamps him to it. And never can on the part of one man this duty be transferred to another; never can one man feel qualified to elevate a fellow man to be a representative of God on earth, because I alone am entitled to this duty. I choose my servants; I send the disciples into the world; I speak myself through those who have got ready as a receptive vessel of my spirit. I choose the right representatives on earth for me because I know it who is suitable for such a duty; I know it who serves me as mouthpiece, who completely enters into my will, who so closely unites with me that I can speak to men through him. And men will also recognize it themselves whether and when they feel addressed through a sermon because the right representative will find the right words, which stir their hearts. But there are only few of them and still I will insist on my conditions that the activity of the spirit is necessary when a real work in the vineyard is to be done. Who wants to be active for me and in my stead his spirit must be awakened otherwise he cannot pass on the truth to fellow men, which goes out from me myself. But without truth the way to me is blocked because on the way of error will no man be able to reach me. But the spirit out of me imparts the truth to you men, which is why only he can be a real representative of me on earth in whom my spirit can have an effect. Amen. B.D. NR. 7585.

Admonition to Humility.

20. August 1960. B.D. NR. 7678.

Recognize your weaknesses and seek to fight against them by you submitting yourselves humbly to me and request my favour, help in spiritual trouble. Because I will be close to the least when he – as one of the least – serves fellow man and helps him to his soul’s welfare. The great will not always be the chosen ones but only true humility secures man the calling and that is why also only few are chosen although many are called to it – i.e. many men would only have to finally make up their mind to true humility to then also be chosen by me. But all men still have too much craving for recognition; they want to stand out of the line of their fellow men; they want to be noticed and so also be recognized, and this already lessens true humility, which results in the receipt of favours without measure. But I leave to every man his will; you only are to learn to recognize what is to your advantage and what is of evil. As long as man thinks to be small and unworthy, he speaks with me in spirit and in truth, when he seeks the prayer union with me. And then also my spirit can flow into him, then I can bestow favours on him without reservation. But when on the part of fellow men note is taken of man on account of his ability to hear my voice in him, then his humility can easily change and give way to complacency, which is always a danger for man. And that is why you should always check yourselves what moves you to communicate with fellow men; you are to know that every complacent thought can grant my adversary access and that you then hinder me myself to stay in you and to address you. And you are to be critical of yourselves – when you want to serve me in truth. Because wherever you stay you always have to pray to me in the quiet closet und ask me for my spirit. And can you withdraw into your closet when you stand in the middle of the world? When you are surrounded by men who are not all like-minded and often just expect sensations? No moment you are to forget that I hear the voice of a little child, which turns in thought to me and also answer it – but that I remain silent when a dubious feeling reveals the complacency of a person who well also prays to me but not in spirit and in truth. Clean yourselves first of this feeling, and you will appear before me small und humble and not try to want to draw the attention of the society in which you live upon yourselves. And so you can believe that I am well among you when two or three are gathered in my name – but that you have no guarantee for my presence where complacency, pride or spiritual arrogance bar my presence and now door and gate are opened for the opponent who will actually also introduce himself in the light garment of an angel but does not give you words of truth and life. The humility of the heart is the best test sign because I give my favour to the humble. And you all have to check yourselves whether you have formed you to real humility when you ask me for my word. Then you will also be able to be sure of my activity, then you will be addressed by me and receive power and light according to your request. Amen. B.D. NR. 7678.

We had a look at the life of a Christian in the Middle Ages in Europe as an example and then at that of Christian in America in the previous century and we now want to get an insight into the work of a Christian in Asia, which reaches into this century.

I had read in a book about this Christian who had been very active in China and had been persecuted because of that and then escaped and lived in Germany later. His life story was very eventful and moving and provided many details from his life and that of Christians and of Christian assemblies in China.

I am dealing here with this book as it gives insights into organizational things, which can be found there and which are described by the authors of the book in such a way as if they belong to a normal Christian life, and of which the authors therefore seem to assume that they are simply part of true Christianity.

The preface in the book was written by a Christian who is described there as the chairman of a fellowship of house church leaders in China and therefore it is shown to us already at the beginning of the book that all events, which are described in this book, have taken place in the framework of a denomination or that they at least in the end, at least with the authors, led to the forming of organisations.

Also the foreword, which was again written by another Christian, indicates this fact, that the report in the book give us impressions from the life of Christians who belong to a denomination because he describes himself as someone who belongs to a house church in China, which has a certain name.

In the introduction to the book, which was written by one of the authors, this author declares that short contributions from Chinese house church leaders are interspersed throughout the book. This information indicates that the main view, from which there everything is viewed, is the view of men, who are, or want to be, leaders, and that therefore the real leadership, which alone should exist, and which is the leadership of the Lord, is misjudged.

In the book an event is reported where such house church leaders had planned a meeting, but that the authorities had heard about it, and that this meeting therefore did not take place, but that all leaders who came to this place of the planned meeting were already expected by officers and were arrested or were supposed to be arrested.

And here exists a parallel to Michael Sattler who was also arrested as he came from a meeting, which dealt with the union of assemblies.

The desire of the house church leaders as it is described in the book about China was to reach a union of several such house church groups. They wanted to create a unity movement and that is of course already a proof that the unity which is already there, which exists in the fact that all those individual persons or individual assemblies are already in unity the moment when they are in unity with the Lord, and that therefore the creation of an organisation only proves that this unity is not understood. And then of course we have to add, that consciously or unconsciously, the leadership of the Lord is not recognized, and with that also does not get practised, or is also not desired in many cases, and is now to be done through the leadership of these, self-proclaimed, leaders.

So-called house church networks or house church groups had formed and one for example called itself the Born Again house church network. They had formed organizations and they had given themselves a name, all signs of man-made churches, of imitation churches.

And to this of course it belongs that there were leaders in the house churches. The Lord therefore was not the leader, and in the community were no elders, whose job it is exactly to avoid the emerging of such leaders, to avoid that one of the elders develops into a wolf and wants to be first, like Diotrephes. And these self-proclaimed leaders then of course called themselves “Pastor” and as then no longer a real community life existed, where disciples through the participation in such community life developed to active Christians, the necessity for Bible schools then of course emerged, or, as it is called in the book, discipleship training school. All these details are quite nicely to be found in the book. The word house church leader has a priority position there and sets the whole tone of the book even when it is often not used directly.

In such organizations like house church networks there is of course often the feeling of disunity and inner conflict, just the feeling that this unity, the unity with Jesus Christ, with God, is just not there, and as this real reason of disunity is not recognized, one tries to redress the inadequacy by uniting the individual networks to one network – to organize them. And that happens on national level, here therefore in China. And on international level there is no difference, there one tries the same, to build a union, which brings all denominations or religious communions together – to organize them. The spiritual background is always the same. It is always the luciferian will to deviate from that, which is God’s will, therefore to work against God, to reach a deviation from God’s will and with it to undermine his will.

But the sad thing about this is also that exactly in China, where through the work of Watchman Nee many things were revealed, which are wrong in the imitation churches, and how the real church should function, it had to come to this development. When one reads the above mentioned book, one gets the impression that this aspect of the Chinese church is consciously left aside and is not mentioned. The name Watchman Nee is at least not mentioned, it seems to be an unpleasant name for them.

At the beginning we had read: “See, I alone am the Lord! But all you among yourselves are totally equal brothers and nobody should be more important nor less important; because every chieftainship, no matter how small it is, awakens in the mind of the chief the satanic lust for power and will then also soon become the corrupter of the pure love and of the truth that comes out of it, as it was very much the case right at the beginning of the monarchy and is now so even clearer in the temple at Jerusalem.”

“Every chieftainship, no matter how small it is, awakens in the mind of the chief the satanic lust for power and will then also soon become the corrupter of the pure love and of the truth.”

The satanic lust for power will be awakened and this will become the corrupter of the truth. Here we therefore have the whole picture: Lust for power causes the greedy to form an organization. In the organization he then can rule, be the first. And this situation then corrupts pure love and the truth that comes out of it. The corruption of the truth – the spreading of false teachings – has its beginning here – in the lust for power. With other words we here have a nice description of orthodoxy. They want to organize, to then be able to rule, and the whole then results in false teaching. All this is described above as being satanic. It is luciferian. It is the system of Antichrist.

Such people are part of the regiment of Antichrist.

When you think that you live in the times of end, or just before it, then you will only be able to really see through the whole system of Antichrist with all its auxiliary enterprises when you have the ability to recognize the effects of this satanic lust for power.

Let me give you some advice. When you are really on fire for the Lord you might one day be invited to preach and as you are a spiritual Christian your words will catch fire and hearts will be touched and the Lord will confirm his word with signs and miracles following and you will then look back on this occasion and be glad that God has used you and will look forward to again being used by the Lord.

And then you will also think that you like this work and would like to do more of this highly satisfying activity. And when this then is also made possible and you have more often the opportunity to bring God’s word to people and set them free and alive, then you might want to increase this kind of work even more and are quite happy to even reduce the time you spend doing your worldly work.

You then might even begin to think about giving up your worldly job completely and doing the work for God on a full-time basis.

Now to work for God full-time is excellent, but there is one quite dangerous aspect to it, and nearly all Christians who have gone this way and are going this way, have fallen into this trap and are falling into this trap, this trap of the deceiver, and that is to think that doing full-time work means to make a living out of it, to now make this new work in such a way that it becomes the source of earning an income, of making money out of it.

When you do it the right way, God’s way, then you will also make a living out of this full-time job, but it will be God’s way of providing all the needs for you to make a living, and this is a way, with which most of the people have problems or it takes them quite a while to get used to it and learn how it works. It is described very nicely in the Bible and examples are given there, and the scriptural negative way to describe it is that you should never peddle the word of God for profit (2 Corinthians 2:17) or think that godliness is a means to financial gain (1 Timothy 6:5).

So never start to make money out of your knowledge of Jesus Christ. Avoid this at all cost. Never fall into this trap of the deceiver.

Move carefully and wise towards this situation, to this time where you reduce your time to earn money in order to have more time for spiritual things. Remember that Paul still worked with his hands when he had already reached such a high stage that the Bible calls him an apostle.

This is the end of "The Urge to Organize"

Next chapter: [29]

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