The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] The subject of our consideration today has already been touched upon last time. Today we must once again refer to that significant document contained in the sentences of the Sermon on the Mount, in order to then take a look at our present and the near future of humanity from the perspective of this document.

[ 2 ] The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew can only be understood if one grasps it in its entirety and comprehends it from the perspective of the development of the whole of humanity. If we briefly review what we considered last time, namely that the old, dim clairvoyance of human beings gradually receded, that human abilities and human knowledge had to become more and more limited to the physical plane, and that for this reason the connection between human beings and the spiritual worlds had to be established from an event on the physical plane, when we hold all this together, we will understand that the divine-spiritual being whom we have characterized as the high sun being, as Christ, had to incarnate in a physical body at a time when human beings were limited in their perception to the physical plane. This was done so that the most essential aspects of the life of this divine-spiritual being could be described in terms and words that relate to the physical plane. For it is not only important that those few in relation to the whole of humanity who were able to gain a physical view and observation of Christ Jesus had this view on the physical plane, but it is important that what can be told about Christ Jesus are representations that reflect events on the physical plane.

[ 3 ] For of everything that was said in earlier times about other divine-spiritual beings, it could not be said that the narrative, which uses the words of the physical plane, corresponds to actual events. Everything that was said about the highest divine beings must be understood in such a way that the words could only be taken as indications, but that what happened can only be understood by those who can apply the words to the processes of the higher planes. But the life of Christ Jesus, as it unfolded, can be understood by anyone who is even capable of applying what is told to events on the physical plane. And in this sense, we can say that the Christ being descended into a physical embodiment, completely to the point of living in a physical body. This had to happen because human abilities at that time were of this nature, because at that time the human ego as such had to become conscious of its own nature if the development of humanity was to proceed in the appropriate manner.

[ 4 ] We have already seen that the most important mediator of the event in Palestine was one of the older individualities of Zarathustra or Zoroaster. But in order for him to become what he had to become at that time, a body had to be created that contained within itself, like an extract, everything that was given to an entire people, a people that had to give humanity those abilities that must be transmitted through physical inheritance. We must regard this as the essence of the ancient Hebrew people from Abraham to Jesus, that from generation to generation those abilities had to develop which had to be passed on from father to son, from son to grandson, and so on, in ever-increasing measure, so that they could then appear in their highest and most useful form in that body which had been passed down from Abraham through Solomon to Jesus, who was the bearer of Zarathustra. Much, much more will be needed before we will be able to understand the entire mission of the ancient Hebrew people in all its details through our reflections, which will continue to be cultivated here in the future. For this requires that we gradually learn to understand how, from generation to generation, those qualities that the body of Jesus needed were increasingly refined. This body had to be made as capable as possible for its world-historical task. This was only possible because everything that belonged to the body of the Solomonic Jesus was as perfect as possible in relation to those abilities themselves.

[ 5 ] Now we know that since ancient times the four members of the human nature, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, have been active in every human body, and that in the future the spirit itself, the life spirit, and the spirit man will be active. But we must not view this as if, for example, the activity of the astral body suddenly ceased and the later did not prepare itself in the earlier. In a certain sense, everything that comes later must be prepared in what came before. Today, human beings cannot work on themselves through their own efforts in such a way that, for example, the life spirit would be particularly expressed in them; but other divine-spiritual beings work in human beings with an activity that can be called the activity of the life spirit. This also applies to the spiritual human being. All seven members of the body of Jesus of Nazareth, or rather of the human organization of Jesus of Nazareth, had to be refined in terms of the qualities that were relevant. This required very special preparation. This preparation should give us an initial idea of the secrets that are actually hidden in the development of humanity and the Earth.

[ 6 ] The seeds of the perfection of the body of Jesus of Nazareth had to be prepared long in advance. We have seen how, in the period from Abraham to Solomon or David, the first period worked on the generations in the same way as the physical is worked on in the individual human being in the period from birth to the change of teeth. The work was carried out by the forces behind evolution in such a way that, at a certain point in time, there was an ancestor of Jesus who already possessed the potential for the most perfect abilities, which then emerged in the body that became the vehicle for Zarathustra. Thus, in an ancestor of Jesus, the potential for the proper development of all seven members of the human nature was present, so to speak. In other words: If we go back in the ancestral line of Jesus of Nazareth, we must find such an ancestor who contained the seeds of the sevenfold human nature, even if not as perfectly developed as in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, but at least in the potential for this perfection. Although this is not expressed in the outer tradition, the ancient Hebrew secret teaching knew this fact. It knew that there once lived a human being in whom the seven human members worked in such a way that they must be described as particularly remarkable. The initiates of the ancient Hebrew secret teaching also point to an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth in whom they were aware of this: We must view the seven human members in this ancestor in a very special way.

[ 7 ] And so they called the I in this ancestor “Itiel,” to indicate that in this ancestor the I must have had that power — for the word “kiel” means approximately “power holder.” — that power, that boldness which, when inherited through the generations, could become the true bearer of the I for that high being who was then to reappear in Jesus of Nazareth. So they called the astral body of that ancestor “Lamuel”; that would roughly describe an astral body that is so developed that it feels the law, the lawfulness, not only outside itself, but as something it carries within itself. They called the etheric body of this ancestor “Ben Jake,” which means an etheric body that has been worked through as thoroughly as possible and is able to absorb habits in a certain perfection. And they called the physical body of this ancestor “Agur,” because the physical activity, the ability of this ancestor on the physical plane, consisted in collecting what was available in ancient traditions; for “Agur” would mean “the collector.” Just as all the ancient teachings of the world were gathered through what took place in the body of Jesus, so this had already developed as a predisposition in this ancestor through the gathering of ancient documents. And what worked in this ancestor as Atma or spiritual man, they called, because the love of the divine-spiritual beings worked with special care, so to speak, on this predisposition to become a spiritual man, with a word that would mean approximately “the beloved of God,” “Jedidiah.” And what worked in this ancestor as Buddhi or life spirit, of which they said: In this ancestor there must be such a life spirit working that he can act as a teacher of the whole people, so that what this life spirit contains can be expressed to the whole people—they called this “Kohelet.” And finally, they called this ancestor Manas or spirit self — because they said that such a spirit self must contain within itself the capacity to be inwardly complete, to be in balance within itself — with a word that means “inner balance,” “Solomon.”

[ 8 ] Thus, this ancestor, who is usually known only by the name “Schelomo,” “Schlomo,” or “Solomon,” has three main names: Jedidiah, Kohelet, Solomon; and he has four secondary names, Agur, Ben Jake, Lamuel, and Itiel, because these names signify the four shells, while the first three names designate the divine inner being. This personality has seven names in the ancient Hebrew secret teachings.

[ 9 ] And if later, so to speak, people, including certain sects among the Jews themselves, were not satisfied with Solomon — whether rightly or wrongly, that is not to be examined here — this can be explained by the fact that Solomon had high, very great, significant predispositions which were then to be transplanted to the stated goal, and that the individual human being at a certain stage of development in his outer life does not always have to represent what he is to bequeath to his descendants as a predisposition, that perhaps precisely because he has high powers within him, he is more exposed to the possibility of failing to follow the direction of such powers than another who does not have such powers within himself. What one would perceive as moral errors in Solomon would not contradict what the ancient Hebrew secret doctrine sees in Solomon; on the contrary, it would explain precisely what was wrong with Solomon.

[ 10 ] Thus, the ancient Hebrew secret doctrine looked to an ancestor of Jesus, whose significance in relation to the entire mission of the ancient Hebrew people it was fully aware of. Everything that was inherent in this personality was then transplanted further down and appeared in essence when it was needed in the course of world history. This is something that should give us an idea of the lawful mysteries hidden behind the development of humanity.

[ 11 ] If, then, the mission of the ancient Hebrew people consisted primarily in implanting into the blood, into the physical inheritance, what this people was to give to humanity from the spiritual worlds in the way of abilities, then at the time of the appearance of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, humanity was ready that through these ennobled qualities it should take up the impulse to ascend again into the spiritual world, in other words, take up the Christ impulse. This was said to indicate all that was necessary in order to create, within the physical evolution of humanity, a shell that could enclose the Christ being.

[ 12 ] Now we may also feel and sense the radical nature of the progress for the mission of humanity through this divine mission of the Jewish people, which was carried down into the physical realm, feel how the divine was carried down into the deepest physical matter so that, from this turning point, humanity could ascend all the more from the refined physical to the spiritual. The ascent into the spiritual had to begin at that time. But to do this, humanity had to be given an impulse that would place everything that humanity should want and expect from world development into the deepest center of the human being, which can be described as the I. The impulse through Christ had to enter into the deepest inner being of the human being. Such an impulse spoke from the body of Christ, appealing to the deepest essence of human nature. So what was to become different under this impulse?

[ 13 ] Before this impulse came, it was the case that human beings received or expected what made them happiest, most blissful, or most filled with God, in a certain sense from outside themselves. If we look at world history not merely from the perspective of external documents, but from the perspective of what spiritual documents can reveal, we must say to ourselves: We look back to ancient times when human beings ascended into the realm of spiritual beings through the awakening, more or less normal, of clairvoyance within them. But this clairvoyant gift awakened in a dreamlike state, while divine-spiritual forces were at work within him and the ego was suppressed. Man was more or less outside the ego. If, even in his normal state, he was not as conscious of this ego as in later times, then in the times when the spirit was working within him and carrying him up into the spiritual world, he was completely outside himself, completely outside his ego. He was completely devoted either to the external divine-spiritual or to the divine-spiritual in his soul. But in these moments of ecstasy, of enthusiasm, he was not at all conscious of his state. This was precisely what was supposed to happen, that man should find a connection to the spiritual out of his ego and from there penetrate the deepest core of his being with the consciousness: I belong to a divine-spiritual realm. — This could only happen because Christ lived on earth, infused his being into earthly beings, and the ego was able to permeate itself with what emerged as the model of Christ. This enabled human beings to say: I am now with my ego in the spiritual realm, in the realms of heaven, just as human beings used to be outside the ego in the realms of heaven. “The realms of heaven have come near!” That was the new teaching. To this end, the soul state, the meaning of human beings, had to be changed so that they no longer believed that one could be carried up into the spiritual world outside of the ego, only in a state of ecstasy, but that one could find one's connection with the realms of heaven in a state of full ego consciousness.

[ 14 ] That this had to happen can be understood from the fact that the state of ancient clairvoyance deteriorated more and more over the course of millennia. While in ancient times, in their ecstatic states, people ascended to the good divine spiritual powers and entered their divine spiritual home, what remained of ecstatic states for people at the time of the founding of Christianity was such that when they were outside themselves, they no longer ascended to the good spiritual powers, but to the evil, evil spiritual powers. This is the great difference between these two stages of development: in ancient times, when human beings rose up in a dreamlike state to the spiritual worlds through the suppression of the ego, which we would today call mediumship, they were in communion with good spiritual beings. But that changed at the time when human beings were to find the link to the realms of heaven through the ego; and when they now sought or developed ecstatic states, these were described as states of “possession,” which brought human beings into contact with evil spiritual powers that were hostile to them. Thus, at the time when Christ Jesus appeared, it had to be proclaimed as a salutary teaching: It is not right for you to try, by excluding your ego, to enter into states where you perceive the spiritual worlds; rather, it is now right for you to seek the connection to the divine-spiritual realms in the deepest core of your being!

[ 15 ] This teaching is essentially contained in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. In ancient times, one might say, there was a dreamlike clairvoyance. Man was transported through ecstasy into spiritual worlds. At that time, he was rich in spiritual life; he was not a beggar for spirit, as he had become in the time when Christianity was founded. When, in ancient times, they were imbued with spirit, with what is called “pneuma” in Greek, they were lifted up into divine-spiritual worlds. Now Christ could not say: Those who become rich in spirit through ecstatic states are filled with God! — for they had to be healed as the possessed. That is why the healing of the possessed is mentioned beforehand. Now he had to proclaim: The time has come when those who have become beggars for spirit are filled with God! — that is, those who can no longer rise to ecstatic, dreamlike clairvoyant states, but who are instructed to seek the kingdom of heaven within themselves, from their own ego.

[ 16 ] When people were previously immersed in earthly suffering and pain, they needed only to bring this state forth within themselves, because there was a state in their nature through which they could be transported to the divine-spiritual worlds. They did not need to endure suffering, but when suffering befell them, they could seek out that state in which they were filled with spirit or God, and in this state, in a state of rapture from their ego, they could find healing from the sufferings and pains of the earth. But even this time had to be designated by Christ Jesus as a time that is now past. Now those who are no longer able to experience assistance from outside in their suffering, but who seek strength within themselves by strengthening their own ego, who find the Paraclete within themselves, are to become filled with God. God-filled are those who do not chase away suffering through ecstatic elevation to God, but who bear it and develop the strength of the ego, whereby they find within themselves the Paraclete, who was later called the “Holy Spirit,” who reveals himself through the ego.

[ 17 ] Even Buddha did not recommend bearing suffering, but rather casting it off, casting off all earthly thirst. Six hundred years before Christ Jesus, Buddha described what is suffering on earth as the terrible consequence of the thirst for existence. Six hundred years later, Christ said in the second sentence of the Sermon on the Mount that suffering should not be cast off in this way, but should be borne so that it may be a test, enabling the ego to develop the power it can find within itself: the inner help, the “Paraclete.” This is literally contained in the second sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, except for the expression “Paraclete.” One only has to read things in the right way. That is precisely the task of our time: to learn to read the great spiritual scientific documents from what spiritual science gives us.

[ 18 ] A third point is this: in ancient times, when people were able to permeate themselves with what comes from ecstasy, what is called “pneuma,” spirit, in Greek, they were instinctively guided along their path. All impulses, actions, passions, drives, and desires—in short, everything in the astral body of the human being—were guided instinctively; they were guided toward the good if the human being was able to rise to good spiritual beings. But the inner power to tame, purify, and balance passions, drives, and so on had not yet emanated from the I. Now, however, the time had come—as Christ again had to proclaim—when human beings, by taming and purifying the passions, instincts, and desires of their astral body, would achieve through themselves what is the goal of present-day humanity and what is expressed by pointing to the great progress of evolution. This progress of development has often been presented to us in the following way. Man began his existence on ancient Saturn, continued it through the Sun and Moon, and received his I on Earth. But only when they become conscious of their ego, when they tame and make equanimous what was given to them in their astral body while still on the moon, can they truly attain the goal of their earthly mission. Those who tame and make equanimous their impulses and desires in their astral body can be filled with God through the Christ impulse. In this way they will find the earth through themselves. — Thus, in the third sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, what is actually always translated with a nonsensical word is said: Those who make their instincts, desires, and passions equanimous — not meek — will be assigned a lot, or one could also say, inherit the earth.

[ 19 ] Here we have the first three sentences of the Sermon on the Mount in their entire world-historical significance: What was possible in the physical realm through a special training of the physical body in ancient times, namely that people saw the spiritual in clairvoyant, dreamlike states, is expressed in the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount for the physical body, which is now impoverished in its inner spiritual fullness. For the etheric body, through which suffering becomes conscious, even if it first becomes conscious in the astral body, it is indicated that human beings must develop a power within themselves to find support against the suffering they bear as a test. Then we pointed out for the astral body that through the taming and purification of their instincts, passions, and so on, human beings find within themselves that strong power through which they become a real I and receive the mission of the earth as their lot.

[ 20 ] When we now come to the I, we know that this I works in the sentient soul, in the intellectual soul, and in the conscious soul. The I works in the sentient soul, that is, it spiritualizes the sentient soul. This makes what Christianity is supposed to spread important for people in the outer world: human brotherly love that pours out universal justice. What the sentient soul otherwise feels only in the physical realm, thirst and hunger, it must learn to feel in relation to the spiritual realm through Christianity: thirst and hunger for universal justice. Those who thus find the center of the human being in the I will, by working on themselves, be satisfied in their desire in the sentient soul for all-pervading earthly justice. Those who learn through the Christ impulse to thirst and hunger for justice as one thirsts and hungers for physical nourishment will be filled with God, for through the strong power within them, by working for justice in the world, they will find within themselves the satisfaction for this quality!

[ 21 ] Now we come to the soul of the mind. We have often emphasized that while the I still broods dimly in the soul of feeling, it first shines forth as the actual human I in the soul of the mind, in order then to become fully conscious in the soul of consciousness and only there to become a pure I. So there is something very peculiar here: the human I, that which makes us all equal, which each of us carries within ourselves, shines forth in the intellectual soul. Wherever we find a human being in the world, he is a human being and our equal because an I shines forth in his intellectual soul. This enables us to enter into a proper relationship with our fellow human beings, because it is precisely in the intellectual soul that something opens up to us which we can carry out into the external world as we are able to receive it. In the intellectual soul we are to develop something that we can carry out into the outer world as we receive it. In the intellectual soul we are to develop something that we allow to flow out into our surroundings, so that it may flow back to us again. That is why it is the only time in the Sermon on the Mount that the subject of the sentence is the same as the predicate: Blessed are those who develop love, for through the radiance of love, love returns to them. — Herein you see the infinite depth of such a spiritual document, that even its sentence structure can be understood in such detail if one has gathered together, little by little over many years, what spiritual science can offer in order to understand human beings and the world. The fifth sentence of the Sermon on the Mount cannot be understood in its difference from the other sentences, which all have a different predicate as their subject, unless one knows the reference of this sentence precisely to the intellectual or emotional soul.

[ 22 ] Now we go up to the work of the I on the consciousness soul. There the I becomes, so to speak, pure, and can become fully conscious of itself. This is beautifully expressed in the Sermon on the Mount when it says: Only in the I can the divine substance dawn upon man. Those who are pure in their blood or heart — which is the expression of the I — who let nothing enter except pure I-ness, are filled with God, for they will recognize God within themselves, they will see God!

[ 23 ] Now we come to that part of the Sermon on the Mount which is already directed toward the spirit self, the life spirit, and the spirit man. There, human beings can no longer work merely through themselves; at the present stage of development, they must appeal to the divine-spiritual worlds that have just been brought into connection with the earth through Christ; they must look up with their I to the renewed divine-spiritual worlds. Whereas in the past, strife and disharmony entered into humanity through egoism, and still do today, peace is to pour forth over the earth through the Christ impulse. And those who accept the Christ impulse will become peacemakers in that part of human nature which will only gradually develop in the future as the spirit self; and they will thereby become “sons of God” in a new sense, by bringing the spirit down from the spiritual realms. Those who bring peace or harmony into the world are filled with God; through this they are sons of God! — For this is what must be called those who are truly filled inwardly with a spiritual self that is to bring peace and harmony to the earth.

[ 24 ] Now we must be clear that of everything that develops on earth, remnants from earlier times remain into later times. These remnants are in a certain sense hostile to what always enters as a seed into later times. Thus, what the Christ impulse brings is placed into the whole of human evolution, but not all at once, but in such a way that remnants remain of what earlier human evolution has brought. It is therefore necessary that those who first understand this Christ impulse stand firmly on its ground, are completely imbued with its power. And when they are imbued with the power that emanates from the seed that came through Christ, and when they stand firmly on this ground, then precisely because they develop the power of steadfastness, they will be filled with God in a new sense. Those who suffer persecution under the new order, which stands under Christ, from what still protrudes from the old order, are filled with God! — And the last sentence of the Sermon on the Mount points directly to the Christ impulse itself when it says to the apostles: And you, who are specially called to carry the name of Christ into the world, shall be filled with God! Thus we see how Christianity is directly derived from the great cosmological and human teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and that everywhere reference is made to that inner power which must find its center in the I itself. This must be thoroughly understood. This must be understood today, and it must be understood in such a way that those who seek Christianity in some dogmatic secondary meaning do not believe themselves to be Christian in the true sense, but that those who understand the meaning of the sentence, “Change your soul or your mind, for the kingdom of heaven has come upon you,” are Christian in the true sense. Those who see the essence in this and also understand that what is truly Christian had to be expressed differently at the beginning of our era and must be expressed differently today are to be called Christian in the true sense.

[ 25 ] It is a serious misunderstanding of Christianity to believe that what was called Christian in the words of two millennia ago has not developed further to this day. One would have to describe Christianity as a dead cultural movement if one had to speak today in the same way as two thousand years ago. Christianity is alive! It is developing and will continue to develop. And as true as it is that Christianity had to take its starting point from the time when human beings descended to the physical plane, had to take its starting point from the humanization of a divine being in a physical human body, it is equally true that people in our time must learn to rise up in order to understand Christianity and the Christ being itself again from a higher spiritual standpoint. What does that mean?

[ 26 ] Just as the ancient dreamlike clairvoyant powers have been lost, so that at the time of Christ those who were filled with the spirit in the old sense could no longer be described as filled with God, but rather those who found the realms of heaven within themselves, so it is true that with this full consciousness of the I, human beings will ascend again into the spiritual world and develop new powers and abilities. And just as at the time of John the Baptist the time had come when people had brought those abilities that lead down to the physical plane to a crisis, so it is true that we are now standing at a most important time. What is called the dark age, which began in the year 3101 BC and reached its peak when Christ incarnated, came to an end at the end of the 19th century. The Kali Yuga came to an end in 1899, and we are moving toward a time when new powers and abilities will develop naturally among human beings, which will become clearly evident in the first half of our present century. These new powers and abilities will have to be understood. In particular, those members of humanity who have understood the task of spiritual science will have to understand that such an ascent to the spiritual is possible again. For in the important times that will follow the year 1930, individual human beings will become capable, as if by their very nature, of developing higher forces, through which what we call the etheric body will become visible. Etheric clairvoyant powers will develop in a number of people.

[ 27 ] Two things will then be possible. Either the materialism of our age will continue: then, when such powers appear, people will not understand that they lead up to the spiritual worlds; they will misunderstand them, and as a result they will be suppressed. If that happened, it would not justify people saying at the end of 1940, out of a materialistic sense: Now look what fantastic prophets they were at the beginning of the 20th century! Nothing has come to pass! — For if the new abilities are not there, this will not be a refutation of what can and must be said now, but only proof that the uncomprehending humanity has nipped these abilities in the bud and thereby deprived itself of something that humanity will need if it does not want to wither and die in its development. This is the great responsibility of anthroposophy. Anthroposophy arose from the recognition of the necessity of preparing the way for something that is to come and that could also be overlooked and suppressed. Anthroposophy has the task of preparing the way for the understanding of the spiritually developing forces of humanity. If these forces are suppressed, humanity will sink further into the mire of materialism.

[ 28 ] The other thing is that anthroposophy is fortunate in its teachings for spreading an understanding of the elevation of human beings into the spiritual world, that it is fortunate in lifting human beings out of a materialistic mindset. But now something must come out of the anthroposophical spiritual movement that has been preparing itself in previous centuries but must now, at a particularly important turning point in our time, develop to its full extent.

[ 29 ] The earlier centuries were suited to cultivating the materialistic sense of humanity more and more. Therefore, under the materialistic influence, it was possible to believe that the Christ impulse and the Christ being would enter into a relationship with the earth by incarnating once again, or perhaps even more often, in a physical body, in a material body. Instead of gaining clarity that human beings will grow upward with their abilities so that a greater number, and ultimately all, will experience the event of Damascus, that is, experience Christ in the Earth's atmosphere, see him in the etheric body, people have always believed that Christ will descend again into a physical body so that he can satisfy the materialistic sense of human beings who do not want to believe in the Spirit, in what Paul saw in the vision of Damascus: Christ is in the earth's atmosphere, he is always there! “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!” Those who develop themselves through the methods of clairvoyance to see into the spiritual world will find what could not be found in the spiritual worlds in pre-Christian times: Christ in his etheric body. This is the important advance in human evolution that, even before the first half of our century is over, many people will naturally develop the ability to make the event of Damascus a personal experience and see Christ in his etheric body. Christ will not descend into the flesh, but people will ascend when they have gained an understanding of the spirit.

[ 30 ] This is what the return of Christ in our age means, because in this 20th century, human beings must work their way out of the Kali Yuga into a clairvoyant age, the first seeds of which must be sown in this century. Through the abilities that will come, people will ascend to the Christ who is there and who can be seen by the vanguard of those who, through the anthroposophical proclamation, will be led to what more or less all human souls will experience in the course of the next 2,500 years.

[ 31 ] This is the great event that awaits humanity in the near future, that those who now raise themselves with full self-awareness to the etheric vision of Christ in his etheric body will once again be filled with God. To this end, however, the materialistic sense must be thoroughly overcome and humanity must gain an understanding of spiritual teachings and spiritual life.

[ 32 ] In past centuries, it was relatively harmless if people could be repeatedly misled by materialism regarding the so-called return of Christ. Especially in times when there was less of a transition period, when what is now at its peak as materialistic thinking was being prepared, it was proclaimed in wide circles in France, for example, that a Messiah would appear in 1137. A Messiah did appear at that time, but he misled people because belief in him had been born out of materialistic thinking, because people believed that the Messiah had to appear in the flesh. Thirty years earlier, another Messiah appeared in Spain; there, too, it had been prophesied that a Messiah would appear in the flesh. And around the same time, another new Messiah appeared in North Africa. There, too, it had been prophesied that he would come from the East and appear in the flesh. And throughout the entire period in which the materialistic sense was preparing itself by grasping the highest things, such prophetic predictions appeared, which are quite familiar to those who know the times, right up to the 17th century, when it was widely preached that a kind of Christ, a Messiah, would appear. This again found credence in the materialistic religious sense of the people. Therefore, based on this prophecy, a false Messiah could appear in Smyrna in 1667 with the name Shabbatai Zevi. At that time, he wrote epistles and letters from Smyrna that shook the world, even though they were nothing but deceptive things, because they were held in a materialistic sense as deceptive things, just as the letters of Paul once shook the world. In the 17th century, the news spread from Smyrna: A Messiah in the flesh lives there! — And Sabbatai Zevi, the “Righteous One of God,” was so highly regarded that it was said that the entire world calendar would now take on a completely different form: He will travel the world with his faithful followers, and all who want to see the truth, who want to see Christ in the flesh, shall believe in him! They were preached that his physical birthday must be celebrated as the greatest festival of mankind and of the earth! Whole crowds of people made pilgrimages there, not only from Asia and Africa, but also from Poland, Russia, Spain, France, and so on. Entire trains of pilgrims went to Smyrna to Shabbatai Zevi, who appeared as Christ in the flesh, until the matter took on too great proportions and Shabbatai Zevi was imprisoned by the Sultan. Then the people said: This is only the fulfillment of a prophecy, for it has been foretold that he would sit in captivity for nine months. Then the Sultan knew no other way out than to have Sabbatai Zevi stand naked before him and say: “I will test you to see whether you are really a Messiah, a Christ in the flesh. I will have you shot!” And then Sabbatai Zevi finally confessed that he was only an ordinary rabbi.

[ 33 ] Such temptations arise from the materialistic mindset of our time. And such things will come again, for people will make use of the materialistic mindset. It will be said often in the coming decades what has now been said, that human abilities will develop to the point of ethereal vision of Christ, in whose reality people will then believe as surely as Paul himself believed! This is the immediate future of humanity, for which spiritual science must prepare people today. But the materialistic mindset of people will also bring a time of great temptation, when false messiahs will reappear in the flesh. Then it will become clear whether theosophists have understood theosophy correctly! Those who have not understood it correctly will be so infected by the materialistic sense that they will succumb to temptation. Even though they believe in Christ, they will believe in a Christ in the flesh. But those who have gained an understanding of real spiritual life will understand that the “return of Christ” in our century, as the greatest event, means that Christ comes to people in the spirit because people, through their development toward the spiritual, have developed to the point of Christ! And through this, the Sermon on the Mount will undergo a complete modification in our century. Everything will be reshaped, so to speak. Those who, through their begging for spirit in past incarnations, will have progressed so far that they will have ascended to that region of the heavenly realms where Christ appears before their spiritual eyes will be filled with God or will be blessed.

[ 34 ] In this sense, every single sentence of the Sermon on the Mount could be reproduced in its new form. Christianity will only be able to regain its documents if it is grasped in a living way, if it is known that it is not dead but alive. In that time — and it is our time — when materialistic research, so to speak, takes the Gospel and the tradition of Christ away from people, spiritual research will, as has often been emphasized, give the Gospels back to people. This is a coincidence that is not accidental but necessary. In our time, because its materialistic sense has risen to the highest degree and has reached a crisis, certain poor people may appear who, out of a misguided philosophy, come to the strange view that there are effects without causes, that there was no historical Christ Jesus; this is something that anthroposophists should be able to understand. They should even be able to look with a certain compassion upon those poor people who, despite their philosophy, are so entangled in the materialistic sense that they have completely lost the ability to sense the spirit and therefore constantly contradict the statement they otherwise always admit: There is no effect without a cause. Christianity as an effect cannot exist without a cause! It will be anthroposophy that, through spiritual research, will teach people about Christ in the form in which he is alive, if these people are willing to show understanding for these teachings, understanding to such an extent that they clearly recognize: Christ will come again, but in a higher reality than the physical one, in a reality that can only be looked up to once one has acquired a sense and understanding of spiritual life.

[ 35 ] Write in your heart what anthroposophy should be: a preparation for the great epoch of humanity that lies ahead of us. Do not let it seem essential to you whether the souls that are embodied here today will still be embodied in physical bodies when Christ returns in the manner described, or whether they will already have passed through the gate of death and are now in the life that takes place between death and the new birth. For what happens in the 20th century has significance not only for the physical world, but for all worlds with which human beings are connected. And just as the people who will be incarnated between 1930 and 1950 will experience looking up to the etheric Christ, so will a tremendous upheaval take place in the world in which human beings live between death and birth. Just as Christ descended into the realms of the underworld after the Mystery of Golgotha, so the effects of the events taking place in our time ascend into the spiritual worlds for the inhabitants of the physical plane. And those who do not prepare themselves for the great event through spiritual science will miss the tremendous events that will also take place in the spiritual worlds in which human beings will then live. These people will then have to wait until a new incarnation to experience on earth what enables them to receive the new Christ impulse. For we must acquire the ability to receive all Christ impulses, however high they may carry us, on the physical plane. It is not for nothing that human beings have been placed in the physical world: here we must acquire what leads to an understanding of the Christ impulse! For all souls that live, spiritual research is the preparation for the Christ event that awaits us in the near future. This preparation is necessary. And other events will follow this Christ event in the course of human development. Therefore, it will be a significant omission for people who do not want to rise to the Christ event in our century, when they have the opportunity to do so.

[ 36 ] When we look at spiritual science in this way and write it into our souls, only then do we feel what it is for each individual human soul and what it should be for the whole of humanity.