Two days ago, mankind celebrated the anniversary of the coming and the unveiling of the Light made manifest in a human being in our midst. I am referring to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of the Most High God, A Part of Him, which explains His Sonship. “The Father is in Me and I am in the Father; the Father and I are One,” He did say.
The other Part is the Justice Arm, the Holy Spirit Whose true Identity is veiled to billions of human beings till this day, or so they believe. He is also a Son, the Third Arm, both swinging in Holy Trinity with the Father. Thus, Christ is on the right Hand of God the Father as His Love and the Holy Spirit on the left Hand of the Godhead. God is, therefore, both Love and Justice, and Purity.
Jesus was born in Palestine, among the Jews. Ironically, the Palestinians and the Jews have been at each and one another’s throat for centuries, indeed for more than three thousand years. As of now a most devastating, most ruthless war with the most mindless destruction in humans and property as harvest has been raging between the two peoples going to two years.
Hardly is it ever remembered that not until the death of Solomon the proverbial wise king and the mounting of the throne by David was Palestine divided into two Kingdoms. Jeroboam founded the Kingdom of Israel with 10 tribes and his brother, Rehoboam established the Kingdom of Judea with two, with Jerusalem as its capital. Bethlehem is in Judea, on the Judean Mountains, six miles (10 kilometres) south of Jerusalem and 45 miles (73 kilometres) northeast of today’s beleaguered Gaza City and the Mediterranean Sea.
Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem for census and could not find a more befitting accommodation than the stable. Joseph was able to prove that he was descended from David, and therefore had a share in the ancestral possession of what was called the Davidic family. The property situations in Israel and the Roman census necessitated Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem. It thus came to pass that the Lord Jesus would be born in the City of David.
“But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.” The prophecy of Micah (5:2).
Ernest Schmitt writing on the Historical, Political and Religious Aspect of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ states: “Their forefather Abraham was already so far developed spiritually as to be able to receive and hand down to his descendants the revelation of the Supreme and Only God, Jehovah. Through this they were prepared and made ready to receive the Will of God in the form of the Ten Commandments.
Those so blest had thus been shown the Light-Way, and had been offered a Covenant, the upholding of which guaranteed them support of all the Laws of Creation that had arisen in the Living Will of God.”
Schmitt goes on: “A chain of spiritual guides strove to preserve among the people the memory of their unique destiny, and the high responsibility arising from it before God and men. Prophets exhorted and warned in fearless dedication. They branded the transgression of the commandments. They roused the people, and untiringly showed them the ruinous consequences of becoming lukewarm and turning away from God.
“The human spirits in whose midst the promised Messiah was to incarnate were carefully led and prepared. According to Eternal Light-Laws this could only happen in the spiritually most highly developed people, who at least to some extent showed certain homogeneity, thus offering a suitable soil to the Light-Anchorage.”
And so Jesus the Lord was born in Bethlehem in Judea. Angels jubilantly accompanied Him and stayed for 40 days. There was rejoicing in the firmament, in all spheres of Creation that help was come, anchored for the redemption and salvation of sinking mankind. The Lord Jesus brought the Truth about life and existence as only He and the Holy Spirit as Parts of the Father could.
The picture of what happened on the Holy Night that Christ was born in Bethlehem was captured most glaringly in the unique Work, “In the Light of Truth,” The Grail Message. Because of the uniqueness of that Night’s happening, I wish to copiously extract quotes from The Grail Message of Abd-ru-shin in the hope this will trigger deep reflections. Hitherto, Christmas has been marked more in revelry than beneficial thinking and reflecting even in the face of accelerating spread of devastating mess our world is plunged daily. Why did Christ come? What about his gruesome death on the Cross?
Was it a licence for mankind to go on sinning? Questions, questions and questions! It is he who has reservations about life and existence and begins to ask questions that is at the point of seeking the Truth of life!
The Grail Message says of the Night the Lord was born in Bethlehem: “Holy Night! Exultant singing in jubilant gratitude once streamed through all the spheres of Creation when the Son of God Jesus was born in the stable in Bethlehem!
And shepherds in the fields, from whose eyes the bandage was removed during the joyous upheaval of the universe, so that they could bear witness to this immense happening and thus call people’s attention to it, fell upon their knees apprehensively because they were overwhelmed by what was so new and incomprehensive to them.
“It was fear on the part of the shepherds, who for this purpose were temporarily made clairvoyant and clairaudient. Fear of the greatness of the happening, of the Omnipotence of God thus made manifest! For this reason the herald from the Luminous Heights first spoke to them reassuringly: “Be not afraid!”
“Whenever a herald from the Luminous Heights speaks to human beings you will ever again find these words, for it is fear that earthmen always perceive first when seeing and hearing heralds from on high. This is called forth by the pressure of the power, to which they are also opened a little in such moments. But only to the smallest part, for anything more would surely smother them.
“And yet it should be joy, not fear, as soon as the spirit of man strives for the Luminous Heights!
“In those days people believed the shepherds, at least for a short period! Today, such people are only derided, considered eccentric, or even as impostors wishing to obtain earthly benefits thereby! For mankind has sunk far too deeply to be still able to accept calls from the Luminous Heights as genuine, especially when they themselves cannot hear or see anything…
“Do you really believe, men, that on account of your great downfall God will now set aside the perfect Laws in Creation just to serve you, to bridge over your faults Himself, and to balance your spiritual indolence? The Perfection of His Laws in Creation is and will always remain inviolable, immutable; for they bear the Holy Will of God!”
In the spirit of questioning, my colleague and friend, Femi Kusa with whom a great many would take oath that I share the same world view, was to forward his contemplation about this season to me to reinforce the imperative of deep reflection, which I find thought-provoking for wider reflection. In what he captions Christmas: Some thoughtful questions, he writes:
Every Christmas season, as in every Easter season, I retreat from bread and butter life, including revelry, to retreat as well in spirit as a Christian, ask myself certain questions and deepen my recognitions of faith. Over the years, I have found that the same questions or similar ones have not left many Christians in peace in whose souls and spirit kernels the longing for the Truth still burns bright. I feel inwardly urged to share some of these questions today.
The Star of Bethlehem
Question: Where did this Star come from? If it was one of the stars in the firmament, with a divined orbit, why has it not returned since Jesus ascended to Heaven?
Answer: The Star of Bethlehem did not come from our Universe, Ephesus, which is one of the seven universes in the world. In Creation “geography”, the world is not our earth. It comprises those regions and spheres of existence which lie between the lowest realm of Paradise and our earth. It is a training ground for human spirit seed germs sent out of Paradise to gather experience which will make them mature enough during their wandering for re-admission to Paradise as useful Human Spirit Beings. The world comprises seven universes of which our own is one. It is to them that John the Baptist address in the Book of Revelation is directed when he says…”To the seven churches of Asia”. He did not mean a Christian organisation and a continent on earth. Here churches refer to the seven universes of the world, and Asia is the spiritual name for the world.
The Star of Bethlehem came from the highest of the 14 spiritual realms known as Paradise. If we perfect ourselves on earth to become Human Spirit Beings, we would be admitted to the lowest of these 14 spiritual realms. The Spiritual Beings in the seven highest realms never had to come to the world or to the earth to mature. They are the Primordial Beings created by God in His Image. We human beings on earth are to develop after their likeness. We are not the direct Creation of God Who being Perfection can never create imperfection.
The Star of Bethlehem is not part of our universe, Ephesus or from any other. Rather, it came from the highest Spiritual Realm of Paradise to usher in on earth the Age of the Son or Age of the Love of God, Jesus.
It brought greetings from the Almighty Father to His Son on earth. The Age before that one was the Age of the Father, dated from the time of Abraham when humanity on earth had become mature enough to come to the recognition of the One Supreme God.
This was after a step by step recognition of Nature Beings, elemental beings, Lords of the Elementals and Spiritual (Created or Developed) Beings. Each Age is subject to the Law of the Cycle. Every event in our personal lives is a cycle, the time it opens and the time it ends, like day and night or birth and death. Time is allotted to everything. The coming into being of the earth is also an event which has a terminal period in the Law of the Cycle.
As the closing of the cycle of Earth approached, and with many of us still trapped in earthly enjoyments and lusts with the possibility of our being lost in the inevitable dissolution of the Earth under this Law, the Love of God became substantiate in the Person of the Lord Jesus to forewarn us of the impending doom and to teach us what we had to do to escape damnation.
There was jubilation in Paradise when this Divine Mission was announced to the inhabitants, the clarified, perfected Spirits. On their own, they had been of not much help in the various missions of the Prophets. In Paradise, many spiritual Beings volunteered to support the Divine Mission. They were specially chosen, anointed and prepared for their tasks in their duty posts.
The Grail Message says, for example: “the Star became physically visible, but nobody on earth saw this luminous herald and the luminous hosts surrounding him. None saw and heard this but the few shepherds chosen for the purpose, who through their simplicity and close connection with Nature could be most easily opened to receive it.
“And such great revelations on earth can never take place other than through a few chosen for the purpose! Remember this always!.”
The Mission was a sort of “war”, though peaceful, to salvage humanity from fallen Lucifer (the fallen Archangel) who was misleading them toward perdition. War because the political and priestly establishments or their agents lay in wait in nearly every place—those He said would not go in and would not allow others to do so, blocking ways with creeds!
Four Wise Men, each representing a Pillar of Creation were chosen. Remember the four Winged Animal Beings at the foot of God’s Throne! The Four Wise Men were prepared to recognise The Star of Bethlehem in the sky over Bethlehem as Greetings from the Father to His Son on Earth. They were also endowed with property and influence and were to always, protecting, be around Him.
Three of them made it to Bethlehem when the Star shone. The fourth was unable to immediately able to join them. By the time he arrived in Bethlehem, the three had been done with Baby Jesus, abandoned their duty post, gone to King Herod to announce what they were to have kept a secret from him, inadvertently setting up a chain of reactions in which several newborn male children were killed in King Herod’s lust for power ignited from the background by Lucifer.
Meanwhile, Joseph, advised by an Angel in a Vision, had taken Mary and Baby Jesus in hiding in Egypt. All these events teach us Christians and persons in other religions who stand in serious duty posts to never lower their guards.
Meanwhile, the Star of Bethlehem returned to its Home in Paradise. The cycle of events It opened on Earth about three thousand years ago will be closed by the Great Comet, another Spiritual Star from the same Origin, the same Height. The Great Comet will open the cycle of the Age of the Holy Spirit. The Great Comet is exactly of the same nature as the Star of Bethlehem.
While the Star of Bethlehem heralded love, this time the Great Comet is heralding the judgment as the Handmaiden of the Holy Spirit Who is the Justice of the Almighty God. “The Star takes its course in a straight line from the Eternal Realm” of Primordial Spirit. Its core is filled with high spiritual power. Its first direct effects have already begun such as the extra-ordinary events of these times.
We are told the Great Comet would suck up waters of the earth ‘’high up’’, create flooding even in unusual places, cause catastrophic climate changes, cause lands to sink and sunken lands to rise, overturn every wrong principles and more. Several predictions of this Age have been made.
The Lord Jesus forewarned us of the Task of the Holy Spirit when He said this Personality we little understand would not forgive sins against Him whereas the Father and the Love of God, Jesus, would forgive sins against them.
This should forewarn us that the Holy Spirit created the World and will judge it according to law, however we may have deluded ourselves with teachings that the Blood of Jesus had washed us clean of our sins. Did the parables of the Lord Jesus say such a thing?
Does the Revelation not say we have to wash dirty linen clean? “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the city by the gates. (Rev. 22: 14). Thou shall not get out of thence until thou hath paid the last farthing!
Questions, questions and questions and misconceptions, all of which we must be able to clear up convincingly if we must make progress in our quest and ascent to the Spiritual Realm, Paradise, the destination of our return journey back Home.
