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8th Commandment… You shall not bear false Testimony – You shall not lie

The Spiritual Sun, Vol. 2
Messages of Jesus Christ on the spiritual life in the Beyond
Given thru the inner word to Jakob Lorber (1842-43)

Millions and Millions of souls from children are mentored, taught and provided for in the ‘Kingdom of the Children’ (Spiritual Sun Volume 2, 67-101).
The Guidance through the ‘Children’s Kingdom’ takes place by the Apostle of Love, John.

Explanation of the 8th Commandment

Chapter 85 – The material shell as a means to lie

1. We are in the eighth hall, and there we see on the round tablet, well known to us from all the earlier halls, clearly written: “Thou shalt not bear false testimony”, saying as much as: Thou shalt not lie.

2. This commandment sounds strange in the realm of pure spirits, for a spirit in its pure state is incapable of any lie. A spirit cannot speak anything but what he thinks, since the thought is already his word. A spirit in the pure state can therefore bring no untruth on his lips, because it is a simple being and can have no reserve in itself.

3. The lie is therefore only possible for an unclean spirit when it covers itself with matter. But if a spirit, even of unclean quality, is free from its coarser envelopment, it cannot speak any untruth.

4. For this reason, even the evil spirits envelop themselves with all sorts of coarse figures of guile in order to be able to lie in this wrapping.

5. Thus the well-known “Satan” in Paradise had to envelop himself in the material form of a snake before the first pair of men, so that they could thereby become ambushed and then afterwards think differently and speak differently.

6. For this sole reason, men on earth are able to lie as often as they will, because they have a hideaway in their bodies, and from there they can move the machine of the body in the opposite direction of what they think.

7. Such, however, as noted, is not possible to the pure spirits. Although they can express themselves in correspondences when they communicate with earthly people, they not infrequently say something quite different from what the inner meaning of their speech represents. But that does not mean lying, but placing the spiritual truth in earthly images that correspond exactly to this truth.

8. But we see that this commandment is of no use for the spirits, because they completely lack the ability to lie.

9. But to whom in the afterlife does this commandment then apply? I know that you will soon be able find the answer and say: It applies to the spirits enveloped in matter, and requires of them to use their covering no differently than how their thinking is conceived in them, and act in correspondence to their purely spiritual state.

10. But we know that this commandment, as well as all earlier ones, proceeds from God, as the Primordial Source of all spiritual things. As such, however, it cannot possibly have only material, and no spiritual validity.

11. But in order to get to the basis of it, we have to discuss what is meant by “lying” or “giving false witness.” What is the lie or a false testimony in itself? You will say: any untruth. But I ask: what is an untruth? And then somebody will soon be able to deal with the answer and say: Every sentence that a human being pronounces in order to deceive someone is an untruth, a lie, “a false testimony.” It’s all good on the outside, but not inside. We want to set up a small sample for it.

12. Question: Can the will think? Every human being must deny such a thing by clearly having to say that the will behaves like the cattle in relation to the wagon. They indeed pull it vigorously; but where will it take the wagon without the thinking driver?

13. Next question: Can the thought will? Let’s go back to the wagon. In the best sense of the word, can the wagoner drive the heavy wagon without the power of the beasts of burden? Anyone here will say: Thousands of the most clever wagoners can set up all sorts of philosophical principles next to the heavily loaded wagon, and yet they will not, with all these splendid ideas, put the wagon in motion until they agree in their thoughts that an appropriate power should be put in front of the wagon.

14. From this example we have seen that the will does not think, and that the thought can not will. But if thought and will are united, the will can only do what the thought leads it to do.

15. But now I ask: If it is how it is, what is it in man who can lie? The will certainly not, because this is a something that always depends on the light of thought. Can the thought be a lie? Certainly not, it is simple and cannot share. Will the body be able to lie in man? How the body can lie, being a machine that is dead in itself, and only stimulated to activity by the thought and will of the spirit through the soul, would be very strange to know.

16. I have just discovered a psychologist, and indeed from the class of spiritual dualists, who says: The soul of man is also a self-conscious thinking being and thinks partly natural and partly spiritual images. Thus, two kinds of thought may indeed be formed in it, namely natural and spiritual. It may therefore cover the spiritual in itself, but since the will of the spirit is also at its disposal, it can, instead of pronouncing the truth or the spiritual thought, express the natural, completely opposite thought than that of the spiritual truth. And if he does that, he lies or gives false testimony. What do you think, is this conclusion correct?

17. This appears to be correct, taken from the external man’s perspective; but he is nevertheless fundamentally wrong; for what kind of activity would result if, for the purpose of forward movement, one would harness the same number of horses of equal strength in front and to the back of it, and have drivers to steer both teams?

18. As the car would never be moved from the spot, the same it would seem to be with one’s life, if it would stand on two opposite life-principles. That would be just as much as plus 1 and minus 1, which adds up to zero.

19. So there just has to be one single living principle; but how can this lie and give false testimony?

20. Either this principle, as proven, cannot lie and give false testimony at all, or the concepts of “lying” and “giving false testimony” have to be something fundamentally different, than what has hitherto been understood.

21. Somebody would of course say: If the matter is to be taken this way, any falsehood known to us, every false oath, as well as every fraudulent word, is not to be regarded as sinful, but should be freely used. Well, I say: the objection would not be so bad, but according to your proverb: “Whoever laughs last laughs best,” we shall reserve a similar pleasure for the conclusion.

Chapter 86 – What is false testimony?

1. But if we are able to disentangle this Gordian knot in a certain sense with one blow, let us immediately go into the discussion of the main concept of this eighth commandment.

2. We know that the Lord gave every spirit a free will, and also a free thought was given to illuminate free will. This thought in spirit is in fact the vision and the light of the spirit, through which he can see things in the natural sphere.

3. Besides this light, which every spirit has received particularly from God, he also has a second ability to receive an innermost, most holy light from God; but not through his eye, but through the ear, which is actually an eye. Certainly no eye for the reception of external appearances, which are produced by the almighty will of the Lord, but it is an eye for the reception of the purely spiritual light from God, namely the Word of God.

4. You can see that from your still natural condition, if you pay only a little attention to how different this is, what you see with your eyes and hear with your ears. Through your eyes you can only see natural images, but with your ears you can absorb rays from the innermost Divine depth.

5. You can hear the language of the spirit in the harmony of sounds, or rather, you can already externally hear the secret forms of the innermost spiritual creation through your fleshly ears. How deeply backwards does the eye stand in comparison to the ear!

6. See, it’s the same with the spirit. By virtue of such a device he is capable of accommodating two things, namely the external pictorial and the intrinsically essential reality.

7. In this double vision lies the secret of the free will.

8. Every human being, be it purely spiritual or still enveloped in matter, naturally hangs between the external and the internal through this ability. He can therefore always see a countless number of external forms, but he can simultaneously absorb just as much of the inner, purely Divine truth.

9. With the light from the outside, he grasps nothing of all that is seen, but merely the external form, and thus can be the creator of his thoughts in himself through the reception of these forms.

10. With these thoughts, he can also set his freely disposable will in motion, as and when he wants.

11. If he does not use the other eye of the inner Divine light, but is merely content with and deals only with forms, then he is a man who evidently deceives himself; for the forms are empty appearances for him as long as he cannot grasp them in their depths.

12. But if a man who simultaneously also possesses the inner light he received from the Lord and beholds it, perceives the interior of the forms, but disguises it and testifies only to the outer forms differently than he does about its great importance which he perceives with the inner spiritual eye, which is the ear; see, this is when he gives a false testimony to the externally perceived forms.

13. Here we have already fundimentally discussed what it basically means to give a false testimony. In the main point however it is once again important that man should not speak of Divine truth in any other way than how he perceives it in himself.

14. But with regard to the most inner things, the situation is as follows: love is equal to the inwardly perceived light of truth directly from God, and wisdom is equal to the radiating light from God through all infinite and eternal spaces.

15. When someone would possess the love, but would not practise it, but would, with his outer light and his divided will, continuously reach out more and more to the infinitely radiating rays, he becomes increasingly weaker, but because of his spirit fraying at all sides, he becomes increasingly bloated and increasingly less receptive for the inner, loving light of truth out of God.

16. If this is the case, then such a person becomes ever more dissimilar to God, and thereby gives with every atom of his being, a fundamentally false testimony of the Divine essence, whose perfect symmetry he ought to have been.

17. Therefore, he who hears the Divine word but does not follow it, but follows only that which captivates his outward eyes, and thus excites his sensual will, he gives with every step that he makes, with every word he speaks every movement of the hand he makes, a false testimony. Even if he wants to speak the purest Divine truth, the pure word of the Gospel, he lies and gives a false testimony to the Lord because he does not act according to the Word and the Truth.

18. Such a person who prays and performs his devotion to God, but does not live according to the word of the Lord, is a liar, as long as he is warm and alive. His prayer is there but an external formula whose intrinsic value is lost altogether, because the inner Divine light is not used to illuminate and enliven the interior of this external form.

19. It’s just the same as if someone would look completely enraptured at a star. What good does all this delight and contemplation benefit him if he cannot regard the star in close proximity as a wonderful world? He resembles a starving person in front of a locked cupboard. He may still look at this bread-cupboard so yearningly and so adoringly, but will he be saturated with it? Certainly not. For as long as he cannot bite into the inside of the bread and absorb it into his stomach, all contemplation, worship, and delight from the bread-cupboard, will do him no good.

20. But how can one open the bread-cupboard of true God-likeness and satisfy oneself? Certainly no other way than by using the innermost means in oneself and directing oneself to the truth received from God. Also, to use the external forms only for their intended practical purposes as far as one has found it to be identical with the innermost light and therefore as a Divine truth. As soon as that is not the case, everything that man does and endeavours, is a false testimony to the inner Divine truth and thus a gross lie to every fellow human.

21. Therefore the Lord says, “He who prays, should pray in the Spirit and in truth,” and, “If ye pray, go into your closet,” and also: “Do not think what you will speak, for in the same hour it will be put into your mouth.”

22. Here, evidently, outer thoughts are indicated, which are therefore in themselves no truth, because they are thoughts; for the truth is inward, it motivates for action according to the Word of God, and is always manifested rather than being a subsequent flood of thoughts.

23. Therefore should everyone also be guided by this inner truth and act accordingly. He will always more and more actively connect his thoughts with this inner light and thus come to inner unity and thus to the Divine likeness in which it then becomes forever impossible for him to be a liar.

24. But that everyone who speaks differently than he thinks, and acts differently than he speaks and thinks, is a liar, is self-evident; for such a one is already buried in the very outermost, grossest matter, and has removed the whole Divine form from his spirit. As such will this commandment also be explained to the students in its innermost content.

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