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Chapter 72 The Earth

The forgiveness of sins and idolatry (24 April 1847)

1. Some of the so-called modern philosophers, who admittedly do not consider Me to be more than a philosopher, claim that every man has the right to remit sins according to the Christian sense, because I, as the founder of this doctrine, have also remitted sins, and nota bene to such people who had certainly never offended Me before.

2. But I say to this, and say to such philosophers about what I said to those Jews who set the adulteress before Me:

3. He that is without sin among you may well do likewise, and his act shall be approved in all the heavens.

4. As a man, I was able to forgive everyone's sins, because I was completely without sin; but whoever is not without sin, and if not otherwise has the fleshly procreative sin dwelling in him as hereditary, he cannot do the same.

5. For to be without sin is to be in the highest degree of humility and love. The law of God must be the very nature of such a man, and his flesh from childhood must be denied in all it's desires to the deepest degree, so that God's power may fully dwell in him; then such a man might well say to this or that one: 'Your sins are forgiven you.' And they will be forgiven; But it is not man who forgives sins, but only divine power, which alone is able to reconcile and equalize the hearts of those who have sinned against each other and have become enemies, i.e. to illuminate and enlighten the hearts with it's divine fire, and thereby to quench all anger, all arrogance and all envy. But it is self-evident that only God's power can do this, and no man's; therefore a man can say only to God:

6. Lord, forgive me for the sin I have committed against many of my brothers, whom I can no longer ask for forgiveness for the sins I have committed against them; but to Your power, oh Lord, it is reserved for all time, as it is for eternity, to accomplish in all reality that which I would like to accomplish myself, if I now could!

7. Behold, in this way only the power of God can remit sins which people can never forgive one another, either because of such local distances, by virtue of which two people who have once offended one another can hardly come together again in this world, except by way of dead letters; or else because one or the other has died, and thus bodily death has drawn an impenetrable wall between two people who have sinned against one another. In such cases, therefore, only God can forgive sin in the true sense, although a so-called bad steward can gain merit in My name from such sinners; you already know what a bad or unjust steward is. He has no right to forgive the debt, because he himself is a great debtor; but since he thereby performs a work of mercy, he offers a drink of refreshing, strengthening water, which will not go unrewarded.

8. I do not want to say too much against such a use, if a man discloses his faults and infirmities to a so-called soul-friend in private, in order to get a consolation from him, and a mediate assurance that his sins will be forgiven, if he turns to Me with the serious intention of no longer committing such sins and, if possible, to make amends for those committed against his brother by sincere repentance and possibly by a kindly amends for the offense.

9. Such a confessor will always be quite dear, valuable and delightful to Me; of course, a clergyman is not needed for this; but since a clergyman already wants to be the minister of the Lord's Supper, he can certainly also take over the unjust steward's office in the above-mentioned way, without, however, disapproving of a similar office when it is performed by another brother against a brother, provided that it has been done in the above-mentioned order; But if such an unjust housekeeper thinks that a confessor has the exclusive power and authority to remit sins, or even to withhold them from a sinner who entrusts himself to him, and to judge him, he is a perpetrator of evil and a killer of souls and spirits, since he arbitrarily places himself before the gates of heaven, does not want to enter himself, and does not want to let anyone else in either.

10. Such a one is like those Pharisees, scribes and priests of the Jews, who burdened the people with the greatest and heaviest burdens, by the impossible carrying of which the poor people alone could gain heaven; but they themselves did not touch such burdens with a finger. These are the ones who block the gates of the kingdom of God, drive away anyone who wants to enter with hellish wrath fire, and do not want to enter themselves. But for this, as it is written, they will receive all the more damnation one day.

11. To this class also belong those false prophets who preach to the poor simple-minded people with great earnestness and zeal: Go there or thereabouts, and make a so-called pilgrimage to this or that image of grace, and do not forget an abundant sacrifice at home to the best of your ability, and you will obtain forgiveness of your sins at that image (usually most often representing Mary), and other indescribable graces for your household in the great multitude.

12. If then the poor blind people, as experience teaches, really follow such donkey-talk of a false prophet in droves, and at the place where the graces are distributed, they usually hear even more donkey-talk of miracles and countless dispensations of graces, and in this way are not infrequently made completely dead in their spirit, then I say: Such false prophets shall one day find their due reward, for they know nothing and want to know nothing of how to worship God in spirit and in truth. They are nothing but servants of Mammon, privileged by the world; their image of grace, usually badly and unaesthetically made by human hands, is by far more important to them than God; for the image carries money for them, but not God, because He is the same everywhere anyway.

13. All those who teach such things and turn the people to the images, are the most perfect antichrists and false prophets, from whom everyone should beware as for the plague, because they know the art of enchanting the people with all kinds of ostentation and killing them in spirit with false miracles.

14. Therefore, you should not visit such places, for they are full of contagious spiritual plague.

15. Do not believe that anyone can find help, because I alone can help, who am an eternal enemy of all idolatry. How would I like to give miraculous power to a wooden image made by human hands? If I would give it to someone, then it would be a real human; but not to a carving, which is much lower than the smallest animal, which has life and movement. Yes, it is much less than a blade of grass, and less than a stone. This is what it is, thus in it's order; but an image is not what it represents, for the image is wood, but represents a man, and is therefore venerated and worshipped because the one it represents was a virtuous hero.

16. Thus, the worship of images is an even more abominable idolatry than that of the ancient pagans; they made gods of metal, stone and wood, because they did not know the true God. Thus, an inner need for a true God compelled them to do this work, but contemporary mankind has and knows God, and knows that He is the only Lord, but still worships carvings; what should one say to such people? Nothing but: They are like the archenemy of God, who also knows God very well, but instead of loving Him and worshipping Him alone, he despises Him, and everywhere he is hostile to Him.

17. The stupid, however, should not be credited with stupidity; but all the more those who see and have light, but still do not want to see, and extinguish the light wherever it is.

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