Chapters 8 to 9 - Christ’s Teachings and Today’s Christianity

- 71 - The reason for allowing no mercy in this case lies in the nature of this sin, for if the most convincing evidence of the truth that God’s spirits can bring fails to induce a person to accept it, even though in his innermost being he recognizes and feels the truth as the truth, what other means are there to lead him to accept the truth? One thing only remains: he must be worn down inwardly through complete atonement for this sin; he must suffer hunger and misery, like the prodigal son. Only then will he be ready for God to offer him the truth again. The Jewish priesthood, the Pharisees and the scribes committed this sin against the spirit [world]. They had listened to the gospel preached by Christ and had daily seen with their own eyes its confirmation through the power of God’s spirits, through which he healed the sick and raised the dead, and performed other miracles. More convincing proofs of the truth could not have been offered, but in spite of them, his opponents would not accept the truth. On the contrary, they blasphemed against God’s spirits who were working in Christ by declaring them to be ‘devils’. (6 Corrections made on the basis of Johannes Greber's subsequent translation of the New Testament (1937) • In the same way you would sin against the spirit if, in the face of the overwhelming evidence you have received from the good spirit world, you were to reject the truths that have been given to you out of fear of your fellowmen or for any other reason. In the case of all other sins God shows far greater mercy than people deserve, provided only that they show their good intentions and strive to turn to the good. All mankind and sinful spirits have need of His mercy. • For no one is without sin and steps spotless from this life into the Beyond. There are therefore also no human ‘Saints’ in the sense taught by the Catholic Church. By ‘Saint’ the Catholic Church understands something far different from the meaning attached to the term by the early Christians. The Apostles make frequent use of the word ‘Saints’ in their epistles, applying it to all who accept Christ’s gospel as God’s truth and endeavour to live accordingly. Hence they address the members of the Christian congregations as ‘Saints’.. In so doing they are not implying that the early Christians were free from sin. On the contrary, they censure them in almost every epistle for their daily sins and their human infirmities. They knew that no human is without sin. ‘If we claim that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,’ writes the Apostle John. Your (Catholic) church takes a different view of this point. It maintaining that those whom it reveres as ‘Saints’ were either entirely free from sin throughout their lives, like the mother of Jesus, or that they committed no further sins after the day of their conversion. It teaches that these ‘Saints’ go directly into the presence of God after their earthly death, and that God has confirmed their standing as Saints by means of miracles. It furthermore presumes the power to pronounce infallibly whether or not a person is to be revered as a ‘Saint’. Saintliness lies in a person’s will and disposition. • Since no man, not even a Pope, can infallibly read and judge another’s disposition, no further proof is needed that canonization by humans can never lay claim to the truth. God alone is the judge of Sainthood; there is no other. Only God knows the human heart.

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