GEJ 1.1

This verse has already given rise to a great many misinterpretations and explanations of every kind. Even the most outspoken deniers of God used this very text to deny My divinity all the more confidently, since they rejected divinity altogether. But we will not set out such devices again, for that would only increase the confusion instead of lessening it. Rather, we will immediately bring to light the shortest possible explanation. Being itself light within the light of light, it will of its own accord combat and overcome the errors.

One main reason why such texts are not understood lies, unfortunately, in the very deficient and incorrect translation of Scripture from its original language into the languages of the present day. Yet it is good that this is so. If the spirit of such texts were not as well hidden as it is, the holiest thing within them would long ago have been most deeply profaned, which would be a very great evil for the whole earth. As it is, people have only gnawed at the bark and have been unable to reach the living sanctuary.

But now the time has come to show the true inner meaning of such texts to all who are worthy to share in it. Those who are unworthy will pay dearly for it, for on such an occasion I will not allow anyone to make light of Me in any way, and I will never enter into any bargain.

After this necessary preliminary warning, the explanation now follows. I will only add that what is meant here is the inner meaning pertaining to the soul and spirit, and not also the innermost and purest heavenly meaning. The latter is too holy and can be imparted without harm to the world only to those who seek it by living according to the word of the Gospel. The merely inner meaning pertaining to the soul and spirit, however, can easily be found, sometimes through a correct and appropriate translation suited to the present time, as the explanation of the first verse will now show.

The expression ‘In the beginning’ is very incorrect and greatly conceals the inner meaning. It could even be used to deny and call into question the eternal existence of the Deity, as some earlier philosophers have done, from whose school the deniers of God of the present day have in fact emerged. But when we now render the text correctly, the veil will appear very thin, and it will not be difficult to discern the inner meaning through this light veil, clearly and sometimes with great precision.

The correct translation should therefore read: In the primordial ground, or also in the fundamental cause of all being, was the light, that is, the great holy thought of creation, the substantial idea. This light was not only in God but also with God. That is to say, the light came forth from God as something substantial and perceptible, and was thus not only in God but also with God; it surrounded the primordial divine Being, as it were. In this, the foundation for God’s later becoming human already appears to have been laid, as will become quite clear of itself in the text that immediately follows.

Who or what, then, was this light, this great thought, this most holy fundamental idea of all future substantial being in its fullest freedom? It could not possibly have been anything other than God Himself, because in God, through God and from God, nothing other than God Himself could present itself, solely in His eternally most perfect Being. Thus this text may also read as follows:

In God was the light, the light flowed through and around God, and God Himself was the light.

Now that the first verse has been sufficiently illuminated and can easily be understood by anyone with some light, the second verse explains itself. It merely bears witness that the Word or light described above, or the great thought of creation, did not arise subsequently to God’s primordial Being, but is coeternal with God, being itself God, and therefore never contains within itself any process by which it once came into existence. This is why it says, in explanation and as a kind of testimony: The same was in the beginning, or in the primordial ground of all being and all later becoming, itself the primordial ground with, in and from God, and thus itself God through and through.

In this verse, what the first verse already clearly presented as the Word or light, fully present in the primordial ground of all being and becoming but not yet brought forth into accomplished existence, is merely attested, as it were, in action and in tangible form.

Accordingly, this third verse, rendered in its pure meaning, should also read as follows: All being came forth from this primordial Being, which is in itself, through and through, the eternal primordial ground of Its own Being. The light, Word and will of this Being brought Its very own light, Its eternally primordial idea of creation, out of Itself into firm, perceptible existence. There is nothing in the whole of eternal infinity that has not entered into manifest and perceptible existence from that same primordial ground and by that same path.

For anyone who has fully grasped these very clearly explained verses, verse 4 is necessarily clear and self-evident.

It is already quite self-evident that the primordial foundational Being of all being, the light of all light, the primordial thought of all thoughts and ideas, the primordial form as the eternal primordial ground of all forms, could, first, not be formless and, second, not be dead, since death, in the ground of the ground, denotes the complete opposite of being of any kind whatsoever. In this Word or light, or in this great thought of God within God, which in the ground of the ground was God Himself, there was therefore the most perfect life. God was thus, through and through, the eternally primordial, most perfect fundamental life in and from Himself. This light or life called beings forth from Itself, and this light or this life was the light, and therefore also the life, within these beings, within the human beings who had come forth from Him. These beings and humans were therefore a complete likeness of the primordial light, which established within them being, light and thus also a life wholly similar to the eternal primordial Being.

But God’s primordial life is, and must be, entirely and perfectly free, since otherwise it would be as good as no life at all. This same life in created beings must be one and the same life; otherwise it too would be no life and, as nonlife, would also be no being. It is therefore only too plainly clear that created beings, human beings, could be given only a life that was perfectly and utterly free. This life had to feel itself to be complete, yet from that very feeling also recognize that it had not arisen from itself, but had come forth from God as a complete likeness, according to His eternally almighty will.

This awareness had to be present in all created beings, just as did the awareness that their life and being must be wholly in God’s likeness; otherwise they would, again, have neither life nor any being at all.

If we consider this circumstance more closely, it becomes clear that two feelings must necessarily meet within created beings: first and foremost, the feeling of their likeness to God, or of God’s primordial light within them; and second, arising necessarily from this very light, the feeling of having come into being in time through the Creator’s primordial will.

The first feeling places the creature unconditionally on an equal footing with the Creator and makes it appear to have arisen from itself, wholly independent of the eternal primordial ground, as though it comprehended and held that primordial ground within itself. The second feeling of life, however, which necessarily arises from the first, must nevertheless regard itself as something called forth by the actual primordial ground, out of itself, which has only manifested itself as free within itself in the course of time and is thus very dependent on the chief primordial ground.

But this humbling feeling also turns the first feeling of greatness into a feeling of humility. For the feeling of greatness, this is indeed something supremely and indispensably necessary, as will be shown quite clearly later on.

The feeling of greatness resists such a humiliation fiercely and seeks to crush the second feeling.

Such a struggle then gives rise to resentment and finally hatred toward the primordial ground of all being, and from that, toward the lower feeling of humility or dependence. This causes the feeling of greatness to lose its strength and grow dark; the primordial light within the created being becomes night and darkness. This night and this darkness scarcely recognize the primordial light within themselves anymore; blind and yet independent, they draw away from the primordial ground of their being and becoming and do not recognize it in their blindness.

This primordial light may therefore shine in such a night however it may; but since the night, though it too arose from the light, no longer has proper sight, it does not recognize the light that comes into such a night to transform it back into the true primordial light.

In this way I too came, as the eternal primordial Being of all being and as the primordial light of all light and life, into the world of darkness, to those who were from Me. But in the night of their enfeebled feeling of greatness, they did not recognize Me!

For this fifth verse points precisely to how, according to and within the original measures and relationships, I, entirely the Same as I have been from eternity, come into this world created by Me and from Me, and it does not recognize Me as the fundamental Being most truly its own.

But as the primordial ground of all being, did I not have to see from My eternally primordial universal light how the feeling of greatness, as the primordial light within human beings, grew ever fainter and weaker through the continual struggle, and consequently, as the light of life, also grew darker and finally became wholly dark? Did I not have to see that, if I came to them in the likeness given from Me, people would not recognize Me—or at least not many would recognize Me—especially if I came to them like a pure Deus ex machina, entirely unexpectedly, without any preparation and in a limited human form? And would I not then have only Myself to blame for their being unable to recognize Me, unprepared as they were for such a coming of Mine?

Yes, I certainly understood this from eternity. Therefore, from the time human beings first came into existence apart from Me until My actual arrival, I had many thousands of seers who had not lost the light in the struggle foretell this very coming of Mine to them, faithfully describing its manner and even its place and time. I also caused great signs to occur when My coming actually took place, and awakened a man in whom a high primordial spirit took up his dwelling, so that he might proclaim to the blind My coming and My full presence on earth.