The Third Testament
III. The Era of the Christian Church
Chapter 14 - Christianity, Churches and Worship
The Development of Christianity
1 After my parting in the "Second Age" my apostles continued
my work, and those who followed my apostles continued their work. They were the
new workers, the farmers of that farmland prepared by the Lord, made fruitful
by his blood, his tears, and his word, prepared by the work of the twelve first
and also by those who followed them. But in the course of time and from
generation to generation, people mystified or distorted my work and teaching
more and more.
2 Who said to man that he may make an image of me? Who told him that he
should portray Me hanging on the cross? Who told him that he could make the
image of Mary, the figure of the angels or the face of the Father? Oh you of
little faith, you who had to make the spiritual materially visible to feel my
presence!
3 The image of the Father was Jesus, the image of the Master, his
disciples. I said in the "Second Time": "He who knows the Son
knows the Father". This was to say that Christ, who spoke in Jesus, is the
Father Himself. The Father alone could create his own image.
4 After my death as a man, I revealed myself to my apostles as a living
person, so that they might recognize that I am life and eternity, and that I -
whether in the body or outside of it - am present among you. Not all men
understood this, and therefore they fell into idolatry and fanaticism. (113, 13
- 17)
5 I told the woman from Samaria, "Whoever drinks of this water that
I give will never thirst again. And today I tell you: If mankind had drunk of
that living water, there would not have been so much misery in them.
6 People did not follow my teaching unswervingly and preferred to use my
name to found churches according to their interpretation and convenience. I
rejected traditions and taught them the teaching of love, but today you come to
me, to offer Me meaningless rites and ceremonies that are of no use to your
Spirit. If there is no spirituality in your works, there can be no truth in
them, and what does not carry truth in itself does not reach your Father.
7 When that Samaritan woman felt that the light of My Eyes penetrated to
the bottom of her heart, she said to Me: "Lord, you Jews say that
Jerusalem is the place where our God must be worshiped". Then I told her,
"Woman, verily I say to you, the time will come when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, as you do at present. The
time is drawing near when you will worship the Father "in Spirit and in
truth"; for God is Spirit."
8 This is my teaching of all times. Behold, the truth was before your
eyes, and you would not see it. How will you live it if you do not know it?
(151, 2 - 5)
Cults
9 If you love, you will have no need of any meaningful rites or rituals,
because you will have the light that will illuminate your inner temple, where
the waves of all storms will break that could whip you, and that will dissolve
the dark mists of humanity.
10 No longer profane the divine, for verily, I tell you, great is the
ingratitude with which you show yourselves before God when you perform these
outward rites, which you have inherited from your ancestors and in which you
have become fanatical (21, 13 - 14)
11 Look at misguided humanity - misguided because the great churches,
which are Christian
I attach more importance to the ritual and external than to my teaching
itself. That word of life, which I sealed with works of love and with the blood
on the cross, no longer lives in the heart of men, it is locked up and mute in
the old and dusty books. And so there is
a "Christian" humanity that neither understands nor knows how to
follow Christ.
12 That is why I have only a few disciples in this time - those who love
their suffering brothers, who soothe the pain - those who live in virtue and
preach it by their example: these are the disciples of Christ.
13 He that knows my teaching, and hideth it, or maketh it known only
with his lips, and not with his heart, is not my disciple.
14 I have not come in this time to visit temples of stone, and to make
myself known in them. I seek your Spirit, your heart, not material splendor.
(72, 47 - 50)
15 As long as the religious communities continue to be immersed in deep
sleep and do not leave their accustomed paths, there will be no spiritual
awakening, nor knowledge of spiritual ideals; and therefore there will be no
peace among men, nor room for active charity. The light that resolves the
serious human conflicts will not be able to shine (100, 38).
The Spirituality
16 Since you do not know what true peace is, you are content to long for
it, and try by all possible means and in all possible ways to find a little
rest, to obtain comforts and satisfactions, but never that which is truly peace
of Spirit. I tell you that only the obedience of the child to the will of the
Lord wins him.
17 There is a lack in the world of good expounders of my word, good
interpreters of my teachings. Therefore, humanity, even as far as it calls
itself Christian, lives in a spiritual backward way, because there is no one
there who can shake it with my true teaching, there is no one who can change
hearts with love with which I taught the people.
18 Day by day - in congregation halls, churches, and cathedrals - my
name is pronounced and my words are repeated, but no one is inwardly moved, no
one trembles by its light, and this because men have misunderstood the meaning
of it. Most people believe that the power of the Word of Christ is based on
repeating it again and again mechanically, without realizing that it is not
necessary to recite it, but to study it, to think about, practice and live it.
19 If men would seek the meaning in the word of Christ, it would be for
them always new, fresh, alive, and true to life. But they know it only
superficially, and so they cannot, nor will they ever be able to, feed on it in
this way.
20 Poor mankind - wandering about in the dark, although the light is so
near to them, anxiously lamenting, although peace is within reach! But men
cannot see that Divine Light, because there have been those who have
blindfolded them without pity. I, who truly love you, come to your aid by
freeing you from darkness and proving to you that all that I told you at that
time was meant for all times and that you must not regard that Divine Word as an
old teaching of a past epoch. For love, which was the essence of all my
teaching, is eternal, and in it lies the secret of your salvation in this time
of aberrations, immeasurable suffering, and unbridled passions. (307, 4 - 8)
21 I rebuke those who preach a blind faith, a faith without knowledge, a
faith acquired by fears and superstitions.
22 Listen not to the words of those who attribute to God all the evils
that torment mankind, all plagues, famines, and epidemics, calling them
punishments or wrath of God. These are the false prophets.
23 Turn away from them, because they do not know me and yet want to
teach men what God is like.
24 This is the fruit of the bad interpretation given to the writings of
past times, whose divine language has not yet been discovered in the core of
human language, by which revelations and prophecies were written down. Many
speak of the end of the world, the Last Judgement, death and hell without the
slightest knowledge of the truth. (290, 16 - 19)
25 You are already living in the "third time", and mankind is
still spiritually closed to the "third time".
left behind. Her pastors, her theologians and spiritual shepherds reveal
very little to her and sometimes nothing at all about eternal life. I reveal to
them, too, the secrets of the book of my wisdom, and so I ask you: Why do they
keep silent? Why are they afraid of waking up the sleepy spirit of man? (245,
5)
26 My teaching instructs you in a perfect, spiritual and pure worship of
the Father, for the Spirit of mankind has reached - without realizing it - the
threshold of the temple of the Lord, where he will enter to feel My presence,
to hear My voice above his conscience and to see Me in the light falling upon
his mind.
27 The emptiness that people feel at this time within their various
religious communities is due to the Spirit's hunger and thirst for
spiritualization. The rites and traditions are no longer enough for her, she
longs to know my truth. (138, 43 - 44)
Communion and Mass
28 Never have I come to men shrouded in mystery. If I have spoken to you
in a figurative sense to reveal the divine to you or to reveal the eternal in
any material form, so it happened that you might understand me. But if men
persist in worshipping forms, objects, or symbols instead of seeking the
meaning of those teachings, it is only natural that they should suffer a
standstill for centuries and see secrets in everything.
29 Since the times of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, when my blood was
embodied by that of a lamb, there have been people who live only by traditions
and rites, without realizing that that sacrifice was an image of the blood that
Christ was to shed to give you the spiritual life. Others, who think they feed
on my body, eat material bread, without wanting to understand that - when I
gave bread to my disciples at the Lord's Supper - it was done to make them
understand that he who takes the meaning of my word as food, feeds on me.
30 How few are those who are able in truth to comprehend my Divine
Teachings, and these few are those who interpret them with the Spirit!
Remember, however, that I have not given you Divine Revelation all at once, but
that I am explaining it to you little by little in each of my teachings. (36, 7
- 9)
31 Delight is in the hearts of these multitudes of listeners, because
they know that before their Spirit there is the heavenly banquet at which the
Master awaits them to give them the bread and wine of true life to eat and
drink.
32 The table around which Jesus and his apostles gathered at that time
was a symbol of the kingdom of heaven. There the Father was surrounded by his
children, there were the foods that represented life and love; the Divine Voice
resounded, and its essence was universal harmony, and the peace that reigned
there was the peace that exists in the Kingdom of God.
33 You have tried to purify yourselves in these morning hours, thinking
that the Master would bring you a new testament in his words, and so it is:
Today I permit that you remember the bread and the wine with which I
represented my body and my blood But likewise I tell you that in this new time
you will find that food only in the divine sense of my word. If you seek my
body and my blood, you must seek them in the divine of creation, for I am only
Spirit. Eat of that bread and drink of that wine, but also fill my cup, I want
to drink with you: I have a thirst for your Love.
34 Carry this message to your brothers and learn that the blood, since
it is life, is only a symbol of eternal life, which is true love - Through you
(the first listeners in Mexico) I begin to enlighten humanity with my new
revelations (48, 22-25).
35 I bring you peace and a new teaching If my sacrifice of the
"Second Age" abolished the sacrifice of innocent animals that you
sacrificed on the altar of Jehovah, today the nourishment of my Divine Word has
caused that you no longer symbolize my body and blood through the bread and
wine of this world.
36 Every Spirit who wants to live must be nourished by the Divine
Spirit. He who hears my word and feels it in his heart has nourished himself in
truth. He has not only eaten my body and drunk my blood, but has taken of my
Spirit to nourish himself.
37 Who - after he has tasted this heavenly food - will seek Me again in
forms and shapes made by man?
38 From time to time I come and abolish traditions, rites and customs,
leaving in your spirit only the Law and the spiritual core of my teachings.
(68,27)
The Baptism
39 People, in his day John, who is also called the Baptist, baptized
with water those who believed in his prophecy This act was a symbol for the
purification from the original sin. He told the multitudes who came to the
Jordan to hear the words of the forerunner: "Behold, I baptize you with
water, but he who will baptize you with the fire of the HolySpirit is already
on his way.
40 All Spirits were born of this Divine Fire; they went forth pure and
pure. But if they have stained themselves in their way with sin, which
disobedience the fire of my Spirit pours out upon them anew to blot out their
sin, erase their stains and return them to their original purity.
41 If you, instead of understanding this spiritual baptism as a
purification, which man obtains through an act of sincere repentance towards
his Creator, turn it into a rite and be content with the symbolic content of an
act - verily, I tell you, your Spirit will obtain nothing
42 Whoever acts in this way still lives in the times of the Baptist, and
it is as if he did not believe in his prophecies and words, which spoke of
spiritual baptism, of divine fire, by which God purifies his children and makes
them immortal in the light.
43 John called men to him as adults to pour that water on them as a
symbol of purification. They came to him when they were already aware of their
actions and could already have the firm will to go by the way of the good, the righteousness
and justice. See how humanity has preferred to perform the symbolic act of
purification through water, rather than true renewal through repentance and the
firm resolution to reform, which are born of love for God. The ritual action
does not mean effort; but to purify the heart and struggle to remain pure is
effort, renunciation, and even sacrifice for man. This is why men have
preferred to cover their sins externally, by the observance of ceremonies,
certain actions and rites, which do not improve their moral or spiritual
condition in the least, if their conscience does not have a say in them.
44 Disciples, this is the reason why I do not want ritual acts to take
place among you, so that by performing them you do not forget that which
actually affects the Spirit (99,56 - 61)
45 It is I who send the spirit beings to incarnation in accordance with
the law of evolution, and verily, I tell you, the influences of this world will
not change my Divine Plans For beyond all ambitious striving for power, my will
will be done.
46 Every human being brings a mission to earth, his destiny is laid down
by the Father, and his Spirit is anointed by my Father's love. In vain men hold
ceremonies and bless the little ones. Verily, I say to you, in no material age
of life will water cleanse the Spirit from his transgressions against my law.
And if I send a Spirit pure from every sin, from what defilement do the clergy
of the denominations purify him with baptism?
47 It is time that you understood that the origin of man is not sin, but
that his birth is the result of the fulfillment of a natural law, a law which
not only man fulfills, but all creatures that make up nature. Notice that I
have said "man" and not "his Spirit. Man has my authority to
create beings similar to him; but the spirit beings come forth only from me.
48 Growth and multiplication is universal law. The stars came forth from
other, greater stars, as the seed multiplied, and never have I said that they
have sinned by this fact or hurt the Creator. Then why should you be considered
sinners in fulfillment of this Divine Commandment? Understand that the
fulfillment of the law can never defile man.
49 What defiles man and removes the Spirit from the path of development
are the lower passions: licentiousness, vice, fornication, for all these are
against the law.
50. Study and search until ye find the truth. Then you will no longer
call the commandments of the Creator of life sin, and you will sanctify the
existence of your children by the example of your good works. (37, 18 -23)
Remembrance of the Dead
51 The people hold on to their traditions and customs. It is
understandable that they have an indelible memory of the people whose bodies
they have lowered into the grave, and they are attracted by the place where
they buried their remains. But if they were to delve into the real meaning of
material life, they would realize that that body, when it is dissolved atom by
atom it returns to those nature kingdoms, from which it was formed, and life
develops further.
52 But man has at all times
created a chain of fanatical cults for the body as a result of the lack of
study of the spiritual. He tries to make material life imperishable and forgets
the Spirit, who is that which truly possesses eternal life. How far are they
still from understanding the spiritual life!
53 Now you understand that it is unnecessary to bring gifts to those
places where a tombstone that expresses "death" should express
"dissolution and life"; for there nature is in full bloom, there is
earth, which is the fertile and inexhaustible womb of creatures and forms of
life.
54 When these teachings are understood, mankind will know how to give
the material its place and the divine its own. Then the idolatrous cult for the
antecedents will disappear.
55 Man shall know and love his Creator from Spirit to Spirit.
56 The altars are funeral florins and the tombs are a proof of ignorance
and idolatry. I forgive all your transgressions, but I must really shake you
awake. My teaching will be understood and the time will come when men will
replace material gifts with high thoughts. (245, 16 - 21)
Material symbols, crosses and relics.
57 In the "first time" you knew the symbols: the tabernacle or
sanctuary that guarded the ark of the covenant, where the tablets of the law
were kept. When those symbols had fulfilled their task, My Will removed them
from the earth, and took them from the eyes of men, so that the world would not
fall into idolatry; but the meaning or essence of those instructive symbols I
kept written in the Spirit of My servants.
58 In the "Second Age", after the sacrifice of Christ had been
accomplished, I made the highest symbol of Christianity disappear, the Cross,
together with the crown of thorns, the chalice and all that could have become
the object of rapturous veneration on the part of mankind. (138, 36)
59 Mankind saw Jesus suffer, and his teaching and his testimony are
believed of you. Why continue crucifying Him in your sculptures? Aren't the
centuries you have spent exhibiting Him as a victim of your wickedness enough
for you?
60 Instead of remembering me in the tortures and death throes of Jesus,
why don't you remember my resurrection full of light and glory?
61. There are some who, on seeing your images of Me in the likeness of
Jesus on the cross, have sometimes believed that it was a weak, cowardly or
fearful man, without thinking that I am Spirit and have suffered as an example
for all mankind what you call sacrifice and what I call duty of love
62 when you think about the fact that I was one with the Father,
remember that there were no weapons, nor powers, nor tortures that could have
bent me; but when I suffered, bled and died as a man, it was to give you my
sublime example of humility
63 People have not understood the greatness of that lesson, and
everywhere they erected the image of the Crucified One, which is a disgrace to
this humanity, which - without love and respect for Him whom it claims to love
- crucifies Him again and again and wounds Him daily, hurting the hearts of
their fellow men for whom the Master gave His life. (21, l5 - 19)
64 I would not condemn you if you let the last cross disappear from
earth itself, with which you symbolize your Christian faith, and as
compensation would replace that symbol by true love among yourselves; for then
your faith and your outward worship of God would become a worship and a faith
of the Spirit, which corresponds to what I expect from you.
65 If your worship and your symbols at least had the power to prevent
your wars, not to let you sink into vice, to keep you in peace But see how you
go over everything that is holy according to your words; see how you trample
underfoot what you thought to be divine.
66 I tell you again, it would be better for you if you had not a single
church, altar, symbol or image on the whole earth, but to pray with the Spirit
and to love your Father, to understand and to believe in Him without the need
after substitutes, and that you would love each other as I have taught you in
my teaching. Then you would be saved, would walk on the way marked by my traces
of blood - traces with which I came to seal the truth of my teachings. (280, 69
- 70)
Veneration of saints
67 I give you these teachings because you have declared the spiritual
beings of many righteous men to be saints, whom you ask and worship as if they
were gods. How much ignorance, mankind! How can men judge the holiness and perfection
of a spirit being, but because of their human works?
68 I am the first to tell you that you should take as your example the
good examples which your brethren have set by their works, by their life, by
their virtue and I also tell you that when you think of them, you may hope for
their spiritual support and influence. But why do you build altars for them,
which only serve to offend the humility of those spirit beings? Why do you
create cults around their memory as if they were the Deity and put them in the
place of the Father, whom you forget above the worship of your own brethren?
How painful for them has been the glory that you have bestowed upon them here!
69 What do men know of my judgment upon those whom they call saints?
What do they know about the spiritual life of those entities, or about the
place which everyone has won with the Lord?
70. No one thinks that with these revelations I want to erase from your
hearts the merits which my servants have rendered among men; on the contrary, I
want you to know that the grace they have found with Me is great, and that I
grant you many things through their prayers; but it is necessary that you
eliminate your ignorance from which religious fanaticism, idolatry and
superstition spring.
71 When you feel that the Spirit
of those entities is ruling over your life-world, trust them who are part of
the Spirit world so that you and they, united in the way of the Lord, may
accomplish the work of spiritual brotherhood - that work which I expect as a
result of all my teachings. (115, 52 - 56)
Church Festivals
72 On this day when crowds of people are hurrying with great clamour to
their churches to celebrate the moment when heaven opened to receive Me, I tell
you that all this is only a tradition to impress the hearts of men They are
only rituals that materialize today my Divine Passion.
73 You should not follow this tendency by setting up altars and symbols.
Do not make epresentations of holy events, and do not use special garments to
attract attention, for all this is idolatrous cult.
74 Call Me with the heart, recall my teaching and follow my examples
Offer Me the tribute of your improvement, and you will feel the gates of heaven
open to receive you.
75 Avoid the false and profane representations made of Me and My
Passion, for no one can embody Me Live my example and my teaching. Whoever
does, therefore, will have embodied his master on earth. (131, 11 - 13, 16)
76 Humanity: In these days in
which you commemorate the birth of Jesus, let peace enter into your hearts and
appear to you as a united and happy family.
77 I know that not all hearts feel a sincere joy when they remember my
coming to the world at that time. Very few are those who take time for
reflection and gathering and allow the joy to be an inward one and the feast of
remembrance to take place in the Spirit.
78 Today, as in all times, people have made of the days of remembrance
profane and meaningless feasts to seek pleasures for the senses, far from what
the pleasures of the Spirit should be.
79 If men would use this day to dedicate it to the Spirit by reflecting
on Divine Love, whose incontrovertible proof was the fact that I became man to
live with you - verily, I tell you, your faith would shine in the highest of
your being, and it would be the star that would show you the way, that leads to
me. Your Spirit would be so imbued with goodness that you would shower the
needy on your way of life with good deeds, comfort and tenderness. You would be
more than brothers and sisters would forgive your insulters from the heart. You
would feel filled with tenderness at the sight of the outcast, those children
without parents, without shelter and without love. You would think of the
peoples without peace, where war has destroyed all that is good, noble and holy
in human life. Then your prayer would come up to me purely and tell me:
"Lord, what right do we have to peace as long as there are so many
brothers and sisters of ours who suffer terribly?
80 My answer to that would be this: Since you felt the pain of your
fellow men and you prayed and had compassion, gather in your home, sit at the
table and rejoice in that blessed hour, because I will be present there. Have
no misgivings, to be joyful, though you know that there are many who are
suffering at that moment; for truly, I tell you, if your joy is sincere, it
will give a breath of peace and
will emanate hope that will touch those in need like a labour of love.
81 No one thinks that I want to blot out from your hearts the purest
feast that you celebrate during the year when you commemorate the birth of
Jesus. I only want to teach you to give the world what is due to it and to the Spirit what is
due to him; for if you celebrate so many feasts to celebrate human events - why
not leave this feast to the Spirit, so that, having become a child, he may come
to offer Me his gift of love, to obtain the simplicity of shepherds to worship
Me and the humility of the wise to bend
his neck and offer his knowledge before the Lord of true wisdom?
82 I don't want to dampen the joy that surrounds people's lives these
days. It is not just the power of a tradition - it is because my mercy touches
you, my light illuminates you, my love envelops you like a cloak. Then you feel
the heart full of hope, joy and tenderness, filled with the need to give,
experience and love. Only you do not always leave those feelings and
inspirations in their true generosity for you waste that joy in the pleasures
of the world without allowing the Spirit, for whose sake the Redeemer was born,
to express that moment lives through, enters into that light, is purified and
is saved. For that Divine Love which became man is eternally present in the
life journey of every man, so that he may find life in it. (299,43 - 48)
The presence of God despite false cult forms
83 Since man is materialized, he must seek me through the manifest cult,
and since the eyes of his Spirit are not open, he must create my image to see
me. Since he has not made himself sensitive spiritually, he always demands
material miracles and proofs to believe in my existence, and places conditions
on me to serve me, to follow me, to love me, and to give something back to me
for what I give him. Thus I see all churches, all religious communities, all
sects, which men have created all over the earth. They are permeated by
materialism, by fanaticism and idolatry, by secrecy, Fraud and desecration.
84 What do I assume? Only the intention. What comes to me from all
this?: The spiritual or physical need of my children, their little love, their
desire for light. This is what reaches Me, and I am with all. I do not look at
churches, nor at forms, nor at rites. I come to all my children equally. I
receive their Spirit in prayer. I draw him to my breast to embrace him so that
he may feel my warmth and this warmth is an incentive and stimulus on his way
of visitations and trials. But because I accept the good intention of mankind,
I do not have to allow it to remain eternally in darkness, wrapped up in its
idolatry and fanaticism.
85 I want man to awaken, that the Spirit may rise to Me and in his
exaltation may see the true glory of his Father and forget the false splendor
of liturgies and rites I want that when he reaches his true ascent, he renews
himself, that he separates himself from and liberates the human needs, and
overcomes the sensuality, the passions, the vices, and finds himself; so that
he never says to the Father that he is an earthworm; that he may know that the
Father created him in his image and likeness. (360, 14 - 16)
86 There are many religious communities on earth, and the majority of
them are based on faith in Christ. Yet they do not love one another, nor do
they recognize one another as disciples of the Divine Master.
87 Do you not think that if they had all understood my teaching, they would
have applied it by leading the denominations to reconciliation and peace? But
this was not so. They all kept their distance from each other, thus spiritually
separating and dividing people who then considered themselves enemies or
strangers. Each seeks means and arguments to prove to the others that he is the
owner of the truth, and that the others are wrong. But no one has the strength
and courage to fight for the union of all, nor someone has the good will to
discover that there is some truth in every belief and worship of God. (326, 19
-20)
