- 78 - His influence on life in the Christian congregations was naturally very great, but it was an influence that rested upon the worth of his character and his exemplary conduct. For this reason, his opinion was sought on all matters of importance. • In all questions affecting the whole of the Christian community, the spirit world referred the presbyters to the bishop of their district, who was instructed by God’s spirit as to what he should do. However, you mortals are prone to abuse any influence you may acquire over your fellowmen, and the Christian congregations were later no exception to this rule. In the course of time, God’s spirits were banished from the Christian church, and presbyters and bishops were no longer appointed by the spirit world, but by persons of influence. Lust for power and other human vices made their appearance. • For where God’s spirits are absent, other spirits, concerned not with man’s Salvation but with his perdition, are at work. Goodness governs through freedom, evil through compulsion. • The original church, in which God’s spirits wielded the sceptre, was a church of freedom for God’s children. The later church, which banished God’s spirits, became, under the influence of the Powers of Evil, a church of spiritual slavery in which the leaders assumed an authority that clashed with the will of God and by virtue of this authority blocked the direct path to God for the faithful. This situation has remained in the Catholic Church until today. The Catholics are bound to the robes of the priesthood, for without calling upon that priesthood there can be, according to the doctrine of that church, no forgiveness of sins, no presence of the Spirit of God, no Lord’s Supper, no anointing of the sick, and no legitimate marriage. Marriage has also been classified as a sacrament by your Church, but I need not speak further on the subject of marriage after what I have already told you. If Christ were to come back to earth today, he would again be forced to exclaim: ‘I pity the people!’ If the Christian churches of today are to become once more the bearers of the true teachings of Christ, they must return to the Divine service observed by the early Christian church. • There is, of course, no hope that a return to the Christianity of Christ will be initiated by the leaders of today’s Christian churches. It must be started by the people. The people, who have been burdened with so many manmade rules in the name of religion, must learn anew to seek God and to do His will in the same manner as the early Christians, under the guidance of God’s spirits – for the sentence that the original Christian church took as a guiding principle holds true to the present day: ‘ Wh e r e v e r G o d ’s s p i r i t s a r e , t h e r e i s t h e t r u t h ! ’
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