The Seven Words of Jesus Christ on the Cross, explained by Himself
and their special significance for our time.
Received through A. G. G. in the name and by commission of the Lord JESUS JEHOVAH ZEBAOTH
in the year 1863
Thus write: You shall write a book as testimony that it is all the same to Me which instrument I choose or whom I select to carry My word; for it is not the great and learned who will come to know what it means to be “an instrument of the Lord.”
When I doubted whether what I was writing was truly dictated to me by the Lord Himself and not perhaps unconsciously my own product, I immediately received the following answer:
I will prove to you, you unbelieving soul, that it is I, the Lord of heaven and Earth, who writes through your earthly hand. I will that you should have love and trust from within yourself—and now believe and trust!
Write!
I, your God and Father from eternity, command you: from today onward you shall set aside one hour for Me every evening, during which I will dictate to you what I want proclaimed to the world.
Do not be afraid; I Myself am with you, at the eighth hour in the evening. Write above it the words:
The Lord’s Revelations to Human Beings, His Children
1.
Then write: You, My children, who are bound by sin and dream away in the sleep of your worldliness, hear My words, which I, as the sole Lord of all infinity, make known to you through the mouth of a maidservant chosen by Me for this purpose.
The time of the prophecies of the prophets of the old covenant was fulfilled with My descent to Earth at that time, as was everything the seers foretold of Me. And now once again the time has come which I foretold during My earthly bodily life, when I said: There will be a time on Earth when, if I permitted it, even My chosen ones would fall away from Me. But you others, to whom everything lies closer to heart than investigating your eternal destiny and making the means of reaching it your own, I, as your Father and future Judge, lay this upon your hearts: Leave the world and its passing pleasures and turn to Me in word and deed while there is still time. For it will not be much longer before My patience is exhausted and you fall under the judgment of My wrath. You know from Scripture that it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. I also tell you: Truly, truly, heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not.
2.
I, the Lord, say to you: When I walked on Earth among you children of men in My earthly body, I gathered around Me sinners and tax collectors, who at that time were regarded as the most despised people. Therefore I was despised and hated among the great and distinguished, so that everywhere I was decried as a cunning deceiver of the people and a secret sinner. Yet I did not descend to Earth for the sake of the righteous, but for the sick in spirit and for sinners, for whom I gave My life and blood.
At the time of My crucifixion, however, the friends who had still remained faithful to Me stood around Me, as did a great multitude of maliciously gleeful people who cried out with mocking laughter: “Earlier He helped others; now He cannot help Himself!” This strengthened the enemies all the more in their belief that I was not God but rather a great criminal abandoned by God. In My anguish on the cross, in My earthly flesh, I also spoke seven words to those standing around in the ancient Hebrew tongue, of which to this day no true interpretation exists; therefore in My grace I have been moved to repeat them once more, together with an exact explanation of what they are to mean for the future—that is, the present—times, and to reveal them to people of good will.
3.
When, after long suffering and torment which I had to endure through the wickedness of the executioners, I had reached the point where the chief priests saw that My end might come before they had sated their vengeance and malice upon Me, they sought to obtain the death sentence from the highest Roman court so that they might at least have the pleasure of seeing Me die in the greatest agony. When the message of death arrived that I was to be crucified, My enemies exulted loudly and sought to carry it out at once.
4.
When My execution finally took place, My friends, who had secretly kept themselves hidden among the people, came to the cross to comfort and strengthen Me; but the evil mob wanted to drive them back, and only through Pilate’s mediation was it possible for My mother, for John, My beloved disciple, and for a few other women to reach the foot of the cross and thus be present at My bodily death.
5.
Now, when the insolent mob stripped Me of My clothes and, naked, bound My hands and feet to the wood and, to crown it all, pierced them with blunt nails, I sighed in My tormented flesh and said: “Lord, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” This was the first deeply meaningful word that I spoke in My pain and in foresight of future humanity and its sins.
6.
When I was raised upon the cross, My body, covered with blood and dust, looked so pitiable that even the hearts of the enemies standing around were moved with compassion. But I saw that this was only temporary and that their pity was not for Me but only for their sense of beauty. Therefore I said: “I thirst!” Yet the executioners did not understand what I meant by these words—that I thirsted for the salvation of so many souls whom I saw perishing in their delusion. So, in order to torment Me still more, they gave Me gall mixed with vinegar to drink, which I refused.
7.
Immediately all nature began to tremble and the elements to depart from their order; the sun, as the image of the eternal light, lost its radiance, as a sign that human beings in their spiritual blindness did not see that the Godhead was withdrawing beneath the mortal covering of My body and surrendering the body to material death. Therefore I spoke the words: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!”
It was not another God outside Me to whom I cried, but the Godhead within Me, the Spirit of God and primordial power in its fullness. Yet the bodily covering had been taken from earthly substance—just as with the children of men—and this too had to be subject to Me; therefore matter in its abandonment sought help, as an example that every earthly human being should seek help from God alone.
8.
The time drew near when, feeling Myself growing ever weaker and commending the soul to My heavenly Father, I looked toward heaven and said: “Eli! Eli!” Then beneath the cross I saw My dear and faithful mother Mary together with My disciple John, standing there grieved unto death, and I spoke to the two of them the deeply meaningful words: “Mary, behold your son,” and to John, “behold your mother.” With these words I indicated, as it were, that I had entrusted the children of the world to the Spirit of God, thus making My spiritual testament, and Mary became the mother of weak and sick souls in the flesh.
9.
When, according to Jewish reckoning of time, it became three o’clock, the hour of My bodily death had come and My bones trembled in the shudder of death. At that moment I looked in grace upon the criminal Dismas, who was bound to the cross beside Me and turned his eyes toward Me in longing, and promised him that he would be with Me in paradise that very day, which after My ascension and down to the present day has given occasion for many interpretations.
But the sole true interpretation is this: Every human soul after bodily death reaches a lower or higher degree according to its perfection, and even souls that have already atoned for everything earthly on this side can at first attain only paradise or the lower degree of blessedness; for no soul can enter the heaven of love or higher blessedness before it has been completely purified and cleansed. Thus Dismas too attained the first degree through love and trust in Me, so that it was possible to promise him paradise.
10.
I was already in the throes of death when I spoke the words: “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit!” This too is a very significant word for human beings; for why should I, God Himself, commend My spirit into the hands of a God outside Me? Then two gods would appear—or, as later, three! Yet this is not so, and therefore no one should allow himself to be led astray by this saying. Let everyone understand by it that only the outermost covering of My inner Spirit of God spoke these words, and that they are to be understood in the same sense as when during My bodily life I said of Myself: “I, the Son of Man, tell you this or that parable.” In the same way the life force or soul-potency of My earthly body spoke the words: “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.”
11.
As soon as the soul pressed to leave the body, I became ever weaker, and the people standing around rejoiced and mocked Me. Yet I had to drain the cup to the dregs, and therefore I foresaw that the raging crowd would remain unmoved by My pain and death struggle. And so, when the final moment of My earthly life had come, I spoke the last word on Earth: “It is finished!”
O human beings! If you were able to understand this one word truly from the depths—what it means that the Son of God completed the great work of redemption of the whole human race—then no soul would perish. Yet sin came into the world through Adam, and therefore, as long as consolidated matter must travel the path of the flesh through earthly life, sin and material death will be the portion of the children of men; and so through God’s Son and His mediating office only the power of evil and Satan in matter was broken.
12.
Upon this My final word I died—or rather: My soul or life-potency departed from matter, united with My primordial Spirit, which was the Spirit of God, and I descended to the place where the souls of the patriarchs awaited the hour of redemption; for no creature could enter the peace of heaven before God’s justice had been reconciled through the great work of love of redemption. Thus I opened again the path that had originally been freely given to all beings and had once already been broken by the fall of the angels.
Adam was to restore this path and return to its origin the matter that had entered into rigidity and envelops all spiritual life; for this purpose free will was given to him. But he lost freedom again through the sin of disobedience toward God and, together with all his descendants, fell ever more deeply under the judgment of death, from which no redemption could be hoped for eternally. Then the infinite mercy and love of the Primordial Eternal intervened, and He separated it as the “Son of God” for a time so that, clothed in earthly substance—as the Son of Man—He might free His creatures and lead them back to their first and original destiny.
13.
When I had hung upon the cross for the time prescribed by Jewish law, the time came for the bodies of the three criminals, among whom I was counted, to be taken down, for it was the time of preparation, during which no one was allowed to remain at the place of execution. Then came My friends, who were mostly Romans and Greeks, though there were also some Jews among them as secret followers of My teaching, and they wished to render Me the final service of love on Earth.
They had purchased My corpse from the highest governor so that they could place it in a tomb. Thus I was taken down from the cross by the few friends who had still remained faithful to Me, amid the mockery and derision of the Jewish people; and My mother Mary, grieved unto death, sank to the ground beside Me and took My head into her lap amid deep lamentation and countless tears as she saw her child disfigured, bleeding, and dead in her lap.
14.
You ask Me what about the wound in the side, which I must have forgotten since I made no mention of it. But do not worry about that, for this wound was inflicted upon Me only after I had died in the earthly sense, and it was merely the voluntary act of a compassionate soldier who thought that perhaps I was only in a deathlike faint and might thereby be released sooner from My cruel suffering. Therefore the grace was also granted him that in the same instant in which his spear pierced My heart, his own heart was pierced by nameless pain and he recognized whose heart he had pierced.
15.
Now I—that is, My covering—was carried to a tomb situated a considerable distance outside the city of Jerusalem and belonging to the high priest Nicodemus. When My body, well provided with spices according to oriental custom and wrapped in white linen, was laid in the tomb, My friends stood around Me weeping and lamenting. What pain passed through those faithful souls when, as they thought, they were seeing Me for the last time on this Earth and took the saddest leave of Me—this has already been mentioned in the history of My passion. In this little work, however, only My death and the prophecies soon to be fulfilled, which were indicated in a meaningful and prophetic way through the seven words I spoke incomprehensibly for the blind multitude, are to be discussed.
For human beings will fill up the measure of their sins and thereby draw punishment upon themselves through lack of faith and love, rushing without delay toward their ruin.
16.
After I had lain in the tomb for almost two days, the time of My transfiguration or resurrection had come in fulfillment of Scripture. Thus the morning of the third day had dawned when, free and unhindered from the bonds of death and uniting the soul with the spiritualized body, I rose to My heavenly Father or primordial Spirit and thus rose gloriously as conqueror of death and Satan in matter.
It was in the first hours of morning when I appeared in the garden to Mary of Magdala, who in deep grief wanted to visit Me in the tomb; and when she saw Me, beside herself with joy and dissolved in tears of love, she fell at My feet and could scarcely be calmed. O how blessing-filled is such love!
On that day I also appeared to some of My disciples and likewise to My mother Mary. At last the time had come when, after fulfilling the sacrificial death imposed upon Me by My heavenly Father—My innermost love, ed.—I still had time and leisure to associate with My friends and explain to them the value and meaning of My so painful suffering and death; and to this hour no record has ever been found anywhere in the world of all that I spoke with My disciples during the time until My ascension, since only something in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians appears that is almost equivalent to My teachings during My still-earthly stay.
At the beginning of this writing I indicated that through the seven words I prophetically foreshadowed the time of visitation, or rather the time of chastisement of sinful human beings, and that I now wish to explain them for the benefit of those who have not yet fallen completely into the sleep of sin, in order to show the world that God does not desire the death of the sinner but that he should turn and live.
17.
As soon as I saw that My disciples recognized Me and once again clung to Me as before, I gathered them in an inn away from the city and spoke with them about My death, My resurrection, and also My soon transition or ascension to the Father, which greatly saddened My friends when they heard that I would leave them forever. But I comforted them and promised to send them a Comforter who would strengthen them and lead them into all truth.
With this comfort My friends finally became content.
Yet through later wars and conquests of peoples all these writings were lost. So hear and write once more what I see fit to make known to you about this:
18.
It is true that God has given every human being free will to do good or evil and to acquire blessedness or condemnation; yet God is omniscient and surveys the courses of eons of years as the span of a second. Therefore the Godhead saw already at the beginning, at the fall of the first human pair, what calamity sin would bring in its train and what wars, illnesses, and countless other evil consequences would arise through the ages for their distant descendants. And so, in order at least to redeem the children of men from eternal death, nothing else remained for the merciful love of the Godhead than through the incarnation of the eternal Word to break the bonds of eternal death.
Yet temporal evils were not thereby abolished, for sin inevitably draws punishment after it; and O, into what a sea of sins and vices human beings have sunk! At the time when I, the Redeemer, hung bleeding and dying on the cross for the human race, I saw the full magnitude of their guilt and its consequences, and therefore I spoke the seven deeply meaningful words whose meaning was not understood, which I therefore explained to John after My death and will now explain once more to human beings for their salvation.
19.
The first word I spoke there was, as is known: “Lord, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing!” This word concerned not so much the blind Jews as those descendants who accepted My teaching, bear My name, and in later times will build temples for Me. Despite My teaching that My kingdom is not of this world, these people have so immersed themselves in earthly matter that the saying I once gave to that rich son of the Pharisee who asked Me whether he too could gain the kingdom of heaven applies to them: “Truly, truly, I tell you, a camel will sooner go through the eye of a needle than such a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven.” My teaching speaks of humility, gentleness, and tolerance of one’s neighbor’s weaknesses, yet how little this teaching is followed! Precisely those who bear My name and should be My disciples are full of hatred toward their brothers who have fallen into human weaknesses. I prayed that all people, as brothers and sisters, should assist one another like good brothers, but how little is this obeyed! Murder, robbery, strife, and killing from failure to heed My teaching from the heavens becomes ever more manifest and, in civilization’s self-willed and domination-seeking inconsistency, is already more or less destructive even to the better people.
20.
The second word I spoke was: “I thirst!” O—indeed I thirsted there and still thirst—for the salvation of so many souls who perish in their delusion, who seek their salvation only in worldly pleasures and care neither for God nor for eternity. But woe, woe to such worldly people! A terrible judgment will break over them, for the measure of their sins is full and only a short time is granted them; but when that too has elapsed, they will be blotted out of the book of the living.
You ask Me in your thoughts how it is that I always threaten and yet set no fixed time for My chastisement. I tell you and all who have ears to hear: precisely because I, as your Father and eternal Judge, offer every soul sufficient time and opportunity to obtain its eternal salvation, so that no soul on the day of judgment can excuse itself or argue that it was deprived of its chance.
21.
Now onward! My third word was: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!” Even My friends took this for human weakness and began to doubt how it could be that earlier I had declared Myself to be God and now in My death anguish cried to God, imagining that He had forsaken Me. O you shortsighted mortals, do you not understand that God was the Spirit in Me and that the covering or flesh of weak matter, like your bodies, had likewise to be subject to pain and torment? For what merit would there have been if God in this covering had not taken away the great guilt of humanity? Therefore matter had to be obedient unto death on the cross.
Likewise all those on the great day of judgment will say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” who during their lives never or very little concerned themselves with Me and My word. Yet when the time of grace is past, no cry for grace and mercy, however loud, will help. Look around you and you will find how the world advances along the path of worldly sciences and also all kinds of arts and new discoveries. Human beings investigate the most secret forces of nature, and I permit all My works to be subject to them, since I created everything magnificently and for the benefit of My children. But for what purpose are all their sciences used? Only to enrich themselves with worldly treasures or indulge their vanity and pride, while completely forgetting their poor brothers who sink ever more deeply into every kind of need and misery and in their affliction cry to Me for help and mercy. Should I not have mercy on My poor children and deliver them from their heavy yoke of slavery, spiritually and bodily?
22.
The saying of My fourth word, “Mary, behold your son, and you, son, behold your mother,” I spoke not so much for My mother’s sake, since I knew My disciples would not abandon My bodily mother, but rather to indicate what love I bore for My children in My heart. Thus I wished to commend them to the merciful love of God, which is correspondingly represented by maternal love; and by the son were likewise understood all children of men who through exact observance of My teaching can make themselves worthy of this love.
Yet where among human beings now is exact observance of My teaching, so simple and so beneficial for the welfare of the soul? Few among My children still follow My will even halfway; the rest are either too entangled in self-conceit or surrounded by too many worldly cares to concern themselves much with My word. Therefore My divine teaching has almost become only a teaching of appearances or an inherited custom, and through this sin has gained the upper hand over human beings. It is therefore high time to lead My children back with all seriousness to the right path, which they have unfortunately long since abandoned.
But sadly this can no longer be done by mild means, but only with all the severity of judgment; for the proverb too says: “Whoever will not hear must feel!” And so, in order not to let the peoples sink completely in their boundless delusion into eternal death, a serious chastisement must break over them.
I warned and still warn every individual person as well as whole peoples in general by sending illnesses, failure of their worldly speculations, wars, rising food prices, and similar things. I permitted people through their stubbornness often to inflict the greatest harm upon one another themselves, and still all this is in vain! People will seek the cause of all these evils everywhere else except in themselves and in their sinfulness will blame Me, their good and long-suffering God.
O blinded human race! How long shall I still watch your mad conduct? Do you imagine in your delusion that you can defy Me, your Lord and God? Yet woe to you: in the time of distress you will raise your hands to Me for help in vain! When the time of grace has passed, I will close My ear to your outcry and be deaf to your prayers; for you know that it is not enough to cry “Lord! Lord!” but that you must at all times walk rightly upon the paths I have marked out for you if you wish to partake of My grace.
23.
Now we come to the explanation of the fifth word I spoke on the cross: “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” I did indeed speak these words of comfort to Dismas, who hung on the cross at My right hand; but these words applied not to him alone, but to all people who have accepted My teaching and live according to it. Why I promised only paradise and not heaven I already indicated at the beginning of this little book.
The time will soon come when even only a few will gain paradise, because I permit human beings to undertake everything that lies within their free will, and even the evil spirits, before the great time of My judgment begins, are given time to turn or return to the primordial Light; yet My good angels are also given the commission to protect My children and preserve them from Satan’s snares. Therefore it is also written: “A time will come when, if it were permitted, even the devout would fall away.” What kind of time will that be? you will ask, and I tell you: it is the time of pride, arrogance, greed, unchastity, and fornication of every kind, which has seized all peoples and drags them ever deeper into their mire of vice, from which without My help no return can ever be hoped for.
24.
With My sixth word spoken on the cross, “Father! into Your hands I commend My spirit!” I wished to give all children of men the beautiful example that the soul is to return to its primordial source and that a person should order his life and actions so that at the end of his earthly course he may hand his soul over to his heavenly Father with joy and rejoicing.
25.
Now I spoke My last word: “It is finished!” Yes indeed, the great work of redemption was finished; but what did it profit thousands and thousands of souls who were likewise redeemed from original sin through My death and mediating office? Heaven was opened to them, yet through their sins and unrepentant manner of life they drew eternal condemnation upon themselves again.
But now, returning to the punishment I have threatened you children of men with because of your sins, I tell you one final word: Repent! Return to your Lord and God in word and deed! Cease from your usury! And remember your poor brothers who plead with you in vain for mercy; think of the widows and orphans and give justice to minors! For it is written:
“With the measure with which you measure, it will be measured back to you.”
Open your eyes, human beings, and see: From every side the signs of judgment are beginning to appear. Yet you are blind and do not see; you are deaf and do not hear! For the world, the devil, and the flesh have tightly entangled you, and your proud intellect deludes you into believing that you are clever and wise and will soon erect your throne upon the summit of all earthly wisdom. But woe to you! The pride of the world must come to a fall; take past generations as a warning. As long as they remained faithful to God, they were great and powerful; but when they began to build upon themselves alone, God let the peoples sink and entire stretches of land were wiped from the Earth.
Now the seven words have been spoken anew and their meaning has also been made known to you, so that the people who hear them may order their lives accordingly.
Amen.
* * *
Write. I, the Lord of infinity, say this into your pen Myself, and you need not fear that your writing will perhaps be doubted as to its authenticity; for I will put into the heart of whoever is of good heart the understanding for it.
Write only: I am the same Lord and Master and the same loving Father who knows how to find and make His children happy everywhere and by every path. Even if some tribulation arrives together with Me and wishes to make My children sad and discouraged, that is of no consequence; during the time of this so necessary trial they should only diligently turn their hearts to Me and I will strengthen and comfort them. For now is the time of sifting, in which the children of light are separated from the children of darkness, and that does not happen without struggle. So do not despair, do not lose courage in the days of judgment. I, your merciful Father, will not forget you and will keep and shelter you as a hen her chicks. Amen, your Father Jesus Jehovah Zebaoth.
* * *
All of you, My children, be comforted. Even if the trials of your lives are many and severe, do not worry that you are therefore forgotten by My grace. Yet I must admonish you to have more zeal in doing good and leaving evil, for the time is here when I, the Lord, need diligent workers in My vineyard. For the enemy of the freedom of the spirit raises his head with great power and seeks to turn even My children away from Me. Therefore be watchful, pray and work, be peaceable among yourselves, and love one another as brothers and sisters, so that the enemy may capture no soul.
Trust in all occurrences in your ever-kind Father, who chose you as His messengers; for the time of harvest draws near, the sheaves are gradually ripening, and My angels are commissioned to separate the chaff from the wheat. Let this be a call of warning to faithful endurance in your work, from your Lord and Father Jesus. Amen.
* * *