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Spiritual Sun Jacob Lorber Jakob Lorber Gnashing of Teeth Wailing and gnashing of Teeth outer darkness bible The outer darkness Where is the outer darkness Jesus Christ Charity eternal life spiritual rebirth

The Outer Darkness… Where there is wailing and gnashing of Teeth

Spiritual Sun Volume 1 – Chapter 31 & 32

31,1. Look there, rather far away from us, where the soft reddish grey light can be seen, is a company of about thirty people of both genders. Let us go there with renewed courage, then we will soon catch up with them. Well, can you discern something? You say: O yes, it looks like a motley riff-raff; it seems as if the company is engaged in physical strife. I tell you: you have not seen wrongly, but this is just an apparent reality. A spiritual dispute will look, at any distance, as if it is a physical fight. Let us go a bit closer still, then the situation will take on quite a different look. See, the closer we get to the company, the quieter their hands become; but instead, we begin to hear from all sides a kind of gnashing, like with a grain mill on earth. Now and then you also hear a voice, not unlike weeping.

31,2. You say: It seems as if what the Master had told the children of the light is being fulfilled here, regarding those who would be pushed out into utter darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! Yes, yes, best friends, that is also meant by this and has the same meaning. What is meant spiritually with the weeping and gnashing of teeth and with being pushed out into the outer darkness, you will experience with your own ears and eyes. Only a few more steps, and look, we are where we want to be.

31,3. What do you see here? You say: This scene does not look that bad; despite the very much emaciated faces, to which we are already accustomed, the company seemed to be quite tolerable. They stand around a speaker, who is just getting ready to give a speech.

31,4. Dear friends, you are right. Exactly for this speech have I brought you here. Yet, you say: Since this whole kingdom of the night seems to be an endless plain of sand and there is nowhere a stage to be found, we would like to know how it will be possible for this speaker to elevate himself a bit above his audience. It is good of you to ask this, for the most insignificant things here have the most important meaning. This speaker has made a little heap from sand and compressed it a bit, but just like the composition of his podium, so will be his speech. As long as the speaker stays calm on top of his sand podium, it will carry him. If he should search for more support, the sand heap will collapse, and he will come off his height to the same level as his audience. He has now indicated that he is going to speak; we will listen to him in secret.

31,5. Look, he begins; listen then. “Esteemed friends and ladies, I have heard from each of you personally how you, everyone on his own terrain, have lived and acted as completely righteous and honest citizens on earth. (Agreement from all sides). As ‘good Christians’ you all were, to the correct measure, benefactors for the suffering mankind. At all disasters, your names were listed among the greatest donors with big letters in all newspapers. It also was nothing more than right, for even the blind and the deaf should understand that regarding support, nothing exists that is more laudable and praiseworthy than the acknowledgment of those people who always practiced charity. Firstly, poor mankind knows by such public notice to whom they should turn themselves at times of distress, and secondly are others clearly being encouraged to join the pleasant, humanitarian circles of the known big benefactors of mankind (Loud approval from all sides).

31,6. Yes, you were always present at the foundation of charity institutions and I can say with deep emotion in my heart that you were, in the true sense of the word, true, noble and honorable citizens of the world (Exceptional approval from all sides and one can hear the audience say with emotion: Glorious, Godly speaker, Godly man!).

31,7. You have always supported the arts and the sciences, you faithfully served the state as exemplary citizens; yes, man can say that you have lived completely according to the character of the gospel, for you have, as all would know, always given unto God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Honor and lust for praise were never the motivation for your noble deeds, but the absolute necessity was always the incentive for all the great and beautiful things you brought about. (Again, the special approval mixed with tears, sighing and weeping!) As such were your lives inscrutable, like the sun in the clearest heaven, esteemed listeners, as it were on the earth upon which we lived; for here is nothing to be seen of a sun. But, esteemed listeners, allow me to pose a very important question:

31,8. What is now your reward for such excellent and honorable deeds? Where is the highly-praised heaven which was promised to those who made themselves true and exemplary Christians? (Great concurrence from all sides and many voices add plaintively: Yes, where is the deceptive heaven for which we offered so many sacrifices to gain it!)

31,9. Esteemed listeners, this sandy ground here, this more than ‘Egyptian darkness’ and our meager ‘mossy food’ is the reward and the heaven which was so extremely magnificently painted to us by the priests! (Again, great concurrence)

31,10. Where is the righteous God for whom you have done so many noble deeds? For it is indeed written in the gospel: what you have done unto the poor, you have done unto Me and you will be richly rewarded in heaven for it. Furthermore is written: with the measure you measure, you will be measured with in abundance as well. Now, honored listeners, you have done it all; you have supported thousands of the poor and were always particularly righteous regarding measure and weight.

31,11. But where is now the treasure in heaven and where the richly returned measure of all charitable deeds, which you have done as true Christians? (Another: Yes, where is it all? Sounds)

31,12. Here we have it: The heavenly treasure is this darkness and the highly-lauded reward which would have been showered upon us in the heavens consists of the scarce moss which is eaten on earth by the Eland in stooping fashion, yet we must satisfy ourselves with it as the highly lauded heavenly reward.

31,13. How often have we upon earth, at various occasions, stroke up the ‘Te Deum laudamus’ [composition by Antoine Charpenter (1690)] and the priests have loudly called out: There, in the radiating kingdom of the heavens, you will, once again, strike up the great and eternal ‘Te Deum laudamus’. Honored listeners, allow me to ask a question at this point, it goes as follows:

31,14. How is it now with you in this beautiful heavenly realm and with this so highly lauded ‘Te Deum laudamus’? You pull up your shoulders; truly, I would not only want to protest with my shoulders alone but with my whole body, if I did not have to fear that my tottering podium would let me fall from my high position. I think, without wanting to violate anyone’s possibly good opinion, that our voices would barely be able to produce a bearable sound to sing this exalted song, due to this exceptionally fatty food; now, another weighty question is presenting itself in this brightly shining heaven, namely:

31,15. Does some or the other God truly exist? And the ‘sit together with Abraham and Isaac at a heavenly table, laden with heavenly foods’, does not seem to be the norm here! If I had been on earth right now, I would be able to praise myself that I would be able to present one of the most watertight exegeses about such promising scriptural texts. I would present ‘Abraham and Isaac’ to be darkness and sand and the well-provided table as Icelandic moss, a truly worthy food for reindeer and land! To anyone wanting to tell us that we are doing better than these miserable animals in the ice-covered north, I would immediately surrender my tottering podium. I do think though that we, to understand this, only must feel our stomachs to find out how this difficult-to-digest food is still fermenting like dry straw. If we would also just have a look at this brightly shining sand, then the proof has been given for our Eland and reindeer status.

31,16. The good savior of the world, Christ, probably did not quite know what the heavenly kingdom, about which He preached, looked like, for if He knew, He would not have let Himself be nailed to the cross for it. If His praised Father God would have let Him see, just like us, after the crucifixion, what we see, then this truly honorable Man would stand truly surprised when He saw the holy communion, which was introduced by Him, represented by this pretty, mossy plain. To see this, we should probably not exert less effort than the pearl harvesters, to see the pearls on the bottom of the sea. That this is so, we do not need any more proof. But now, dear listeners, I am presenting you yet another important question, and it goes as follows:

31,17. We are here, this is how it is, like a stick standing in water; but for how long do we have to stay in this sober kingdom? Will it be well with our existence? Or shall we have the most blissful privilege to wander about here, forever, in these blessing-flooded fields? Look, this is an exceptionally important question, but exactly this important question calls out for someone to answer it. Honored listeners, concerning this, you can be assured that you would rather get an answer from a stone than from me. Yet, I do think that, at this exceptional illumination of our great scene, someone can barely bring something into ‘daylight’, for to bring something into bright light, light is needed, and for light a sun is needed.

31,18. To bring something properly into the light here means nothing other than to declare himself a fool before the others. It is also true that the great learned ones of the earth will find much time to think here. Happy are they if they would bring along much material, for with these three elements: darkness, sand, and moss, they will soon be done. They can leave microscopes and other instruments of investigation on earth, for they would be able to see, with the bare eye, a scanty and mossy field on this sandy surface. Also, for the astronomers is very poor provision made. The learned and well-read librarians will be utterly bored, for they will find nothing here . Also, the virtuoso and artists will do bad business here, for they will literally not bite in the grass, but in the moss! Here I understand the idiom: ‘to bite in the grass’ for the first time fully and see that it had a much older origin than many authors and historians ever could have imagined. This idiom must have its origin from the primordial Egyptian sages, who would have known of the glorious fate waiting upon the mortals here.

31,19. My honored listeners, that the same fate is awaiting the people still living upon earth, I do not doubt; I am also of the opinion that the honest Moses and very honest Christ have, in this respect of their law-giving, tread upon a very wavering and senseless road. Should they, and especially Moses with his wondrous staff, instead have hit the earth and said: Sun, become dark, and we have, for our foolishness, enough starlight, and you, earth, should become a sandy desert and nothing but scarce Icelandic moss will grow, then would all the strict law of thunder and lightning be left behind. But under these circumstances, sins should automatically become something rarer than diamonds in Greenland, Spitsbergen or Nova Zembla [Novya Zemlya]. I would first like to see who would be able to rob or steal here and who would still be able to have lust with this fatty food and our charming, skeleton-like looks. I would also pay a liar here with gold, if I would have any; and would anyone be able to commit murder here? It would be far more difficult for us, with all our treasures and wealth, to get behind this than would the discovery of planets and other suns be for the astronomers, with their optical instruments. In short, we can do and talk as much as we want, I am convinced that our fate will not improve one bit! I have already undertaken journeys here, farther than that of Christopher Columbus, and have crossed this sea of sand and darkness in all directions, but the fortune has not yet befallen me to call out: Land, land! but only: Night, moss and sand! Therefore, I will close my speech with the following opinion:

31,20. Among all people who have ever trodden upon the earth, I hold Christ for the most glorious. He abolished the extensive laws of Moses, which had a strong, tyrannical character in a certain sense and taught, in the place of it, the only law which preaches neighborly love. Because under this law, man can look at it as you will, intelligent beings, in no matter what circumstance, can live the happiest lives, I am for the notion that we too, for the sake of the good, stay true to this law here, keep in mind Christ as the true, honorable Man and then, under these circumstances, be as content as possible with our truly dire fate. I think that we will be able to make our fate as tolerable as possible for as long as it would take.

31,21. Yet, I do ask you, esteemed listeners, to not regard my wish as a set law without consideration, for as I have said, my closing words should only be taken as a well-meant wish. If we should act increasingly more socially, I think that we would, exactly through this, with combined power, endure our fate much more easily than when everyone would do only for himself. I will, from my side, always be willing, as far as it is within my abilities, to support you intensively with my words. With this wish and assurance, I close my speech.” (General loud approval from all sides)

31,22. As you can see, the speaker descends his tottering podium with great caution and is entertained very amiably by the whole company. Many are shaking his hand, saying: It is always good to stay in the company of a man whose heart sits in the right place. Therefore we are very happy to have found you, dear and loving friend, and we want to follow you in everything, whatever happens.

31,23. Look now, how it becomes lighter above the company and how the speaker and the whole company is surprised about it and how the speaker is making himself heard for one more time, saying: Yes, yes, as I am of the opinion: if the very true Christ, with His humane teaching, would not bring us any light, then we would forever stay guests of the night!

31,24. Look, it again becomes considerably lighter; and look around, how two messengers sent by the Master from the morning-side are rushing closer to bring much more light to the company. We will, therefore, stay a while longer to see what will happen next.

Chapter 32
Birth out of the darkness to a first degree of light of life

32,1. Look, the company now also see the two messengers. Our main speaker goes to meet them in a friendly manner to receive them into the company. As you can hear for yourselves, he says to them:

32,2. Be welcome here with me as well as with us a thousand-fold! I indeed do not know you, but I do see that you, people like us, have just come here from the earth, or have found better pastures than us, for you look incomparably better than all of us together. If you have just arrived from earth, I will immediately direct your attention to it, that the so-called Robinsons have it much better there than us. For this assumption, you only have to look at us from top to toe. Our superhuman good looks will show you even in this still very considerable darkness very clearly how it is with the good life here. In addition, I can assure you that there are no illnesses here, for what can still become sick here with us? We can only barely contract the illnesses rocks can, for I think that when man is devoid of all its life juices, you also are free of all illnesses. The only evil plaguing someone mostly, in the beginning, is hunger, thus a stomach complaint. But, as hunger is usually the best cook, he will soon find a food which would challenge his cookery excessively. Look, at our feet on the sand is such a morsel for our stomachs to be seen. This is moss; one could say, true Icelandic and Siberian moss. The scarce dewdrops caught between these little leaves are also the only way to quench our thirst that can be found in this enormous sandy desert. Do not trouble yourselves if this situation would last forever, for patience and habit finally makes everything bearable. We shall all be very happy if you would want to stay with us, with your phosphoric garments, for I can assure you that one can have victory over everything but this darkness. You can, therefore, imagine yourselves that your phosphoric shine looks to us like a sun! But now, dear friends, would you be so friendly to tell us the reason why you came here from the earth, or if you came from a better pasture, tell me what has made you leave there to come here?

32,3. One says: Poor friend, you are gravely mistaken with us, for we came neither from the earth, nor from some other, better pasture in this region; but we come from the Master, called Christ, whom you see as merely a fully honest man, while He indeed is the only Master of heaven and earth. He sent us to you to show you the reason why you have been wandering around for so long and so helplessly in this region.

32,4. If you would ask yourselves: How did we live upon earth, you will say with clear and sound memory: all of us always lived honestly and reasonably. But would you ask yourselves some more: Why did we live and act like this? Then you could say nothing else but: We have predominantly lived for our own well-being. Worldly honor, worldly praise and the consequent prestige before other people, were the most predominant motivation for all our noble deeds. We were faithful members of state and church. Why then? Maybe out of love for God? How would it be possible, since we do not know God at all and thus also would not know His holy will. Our faithful church membership was firstly based on the privileges that could easily be obtained, more so than others who did not have such good report with state and church as we did. In addition, has this blind spiritual faithfulness to the state and church the following idea as its foundation: If there would be some or the other kind of life after death, according to the priests and other preachers of immortality, we would not perish by acting like we do. If there is not such a life, then will our prestige gained through deeds, at least still live upon earth through our children and grandchildren, and people might, even hundreds of years later, still talk about us, saying: Those were men and those were times when such men lived!

32,5. Look, as was said, you also had to say in yourselves. As such, you have obviously, without any inner understandin,g passed from the earthly life into the spiritual life and you do not know at all what is needed for the spiritual life. What would be more self-evident than that you could find nothing in this spiritual life, but what you have brought along of your material life, namely a highly pitiable and poor form of your actual character and a complete darkness about the concepts of the spiritual life. In other words: You came here almost like an embryo at natural conception of man in the motherly womb, where complete darkness prevails. The embryo feeds himself in a certain sense with the waste from the blood of the mother, until he reaches, despite this very poor and unsavory food, the right level of power with which it frees itself from the dark resort of origin. Likewise, do you find yourselves here in a ‘mother’s body’ and do you also have to feed yourselves with its comparable waste.

32,6. But because there is still a living spark of eternal life in you, namely your little love and high esteem of Christ, this spark has taken hold of your spiritual embryos out of your dark sphere, unto birth. It will go with you, like you said at the end of your speech, to your company: If there will be no light rising for us with Christ, we can be assured that darkness shall be our eternal possession.

32,7. You have therefore found the light in Christ. And you will indeed experience what the Master had said to one of His disciples, namely that no one can have part in the eternal life and thus also the kingdom of God, who hasn’t been reborn. This the Master has said in the night to His disciple, to show him that every non-rebirthed spirit finds himself in a night, like an embryo in the mother’s body and that the Master also comes in the night to the not yet reborn spirit, to lift him out of this night into the light of eternal life, to rebirth.

32,8. Because your time of rebirth has arrived through your awakening, yet still with only a little love towards the Master, we have been sent here to take you out of the place of your spiritual rebirth and take you to a place where you would be taken care of as children. There you will be able to gather new life power, in the measure by which you will be more or less developed, to come into a sphere, which will be particularly adapted to your powers.

32,9. But never think of heaven to be a resort of reward for the good works one has done upon earth, but think about it that heaven consists of nothing else but your own love for the Master!

32,10. The more you will take hold of the Master with love and the humbler you would be towards Him and all your brothers, the more you will carry the true heaven inside of yourselves. Therefore, join us and follow us!

32,11. Look how the whole company rejoices and follows these two messengers.

32,12. You ask where they are going to take the company to. Turn around and look, there, already far behind us is the already known and opened, high wall; do you not see it yet? Does it not look like the opening of the mother’s womb at the birth of a child?

32,13. You say: Indeed, like with a stroke of lightning, we now recognize the wondrous correspondence. But when the company has passed through this cleft, where would it rightfully go? What happens to a child shortly after birth? You say: It is wrapped in soft cloth and laid into a crib; it still finds itself in very much restricted life circumstances. You indeed saw, when we approached this wall from the other side from the morning, many valleys to the left and to the right? Look, these are the cloths and the crib. These people are settled in these valleys. It then fares with them just like you have come to know in the beginning in some of these valleys to the left or to the right.

32,14. Just like a newborn child cannot become a man from today to tomorrow, a newborn spirit also, especially in the kingdom of the spirits, grows only gradually. Now you know in what region you find yourselves. Therefore, it will also not surprise you that you will find among the many ones moving around here not many higher teachers, for it would be for them just as useless as when someone on earth would want to educate a child still finding itself in the mother’s womb.

32,15. You do know when the time has arrived to educate a child. Therefore, do these messengers also not come here as teachers, but can be considered truly spiritual ‘midwives’! Now that we know this, we can move on a bit, where a very different and new scene will present itself to us. With this, enough for today!

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