The Rudolf Steiner Archive

62. Apocalypse III

[ 1 ] Today I would like to continue my reflections on the Book of Revelation. Anyone who wishes to understand the full meaning and spirit of a work such as the Book of Revelation must, above all, grasp how religions operate—and how Christianity operated in its early days—that is, what forces made it possible for Christianity, like other religious systems, to pour out this powerful and magnificent life of the spirit upon humanity.

[ 2 ] Today, the belief is all too widespread that simple, plain language—understandable to everyone—must necessarily contain the truth, and there is a certain “tendency” today against elevating the spirit to the heights of thought, to the heights of supersensory perception—in other words, an “aversion.” We often hear even theologians say: Anything that cannot be expressed in the simplest words, which every person can understand without fail, can be of little service to the truth. Anyone who thinks this way will be unable to understand the full meaning and spirit of a written work such as the Apocalypse—or, for that matter, the mystical Gospel of John. Admittedly, nothing is to be said against the truth of the statement that the truth must be proclaimed in simple words, for whoever wishes to proclaim the truth must find ways to speak to the simplest of hearts. He must find the words to speak both to those who stand at the heights of science, culture, and education, and to those whom one describes as the “simple man of the people.” But the power—the inner power—cannot find expression in simple, plain words. This power originates from the highest realms of spiritual life. Christianity, too, had mystery initiation centers in the first centuries, where not only simple words or generally understandable teachings were proclaimed, but where the revelation of the highest spiritual vision was proclaimed—a vision that, in the Gospel of John, reaches up to regions where space and time have no meaning. Not every outsider could then speak of these revelations from the highest regions. The Church Fathers and Doctors of the early centuries then found the very popular, simple language through which they gained access to the uneducated. They themselves possessed the power, the force of the spiritual proclamation from the highest realms of spiritual life. And something like this is also implied, as it were, in the Book of Revelation. You need only read the most important passages in the Book of Revelation with understanding, and you will find that what has been brought down from the heights of the spirit is encapsulated in a worldview—that a worldview has been drawn from it.

I, John, who am also your brother and partner in the tribulation, in the kingdom, and in the power of Jesus Christ, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. [Rev 1:9–10]

[ 3 ] By this he was saying that he was on the “Island of Patmos”—by which he meant a place of mystery—and had received this revelation. And he had received it in the Spirit. Elsewhere, he speaks of it differently. At the beginning of the fourth chapter, he says:

After that I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven; and the first voice I had heard, which sounded like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this,” [Rev 4:1]

[ 4 ] The first three chapters contain what I already attempted to outline in the last lecture. But then the fate of the root race that will succeed ours is described. Therefore, the Apocalypse makes a clear distinction between the two kinds of perception: inspiration and intuition. This is necessary if one wishes to proclaim one or the other. A lower form of intuition suffices to proclaim the destinies of a root race, but a higher form of intuition is necessary to see what happens after our own root race—for example, when the sixth and seventh root races have emerged. This cannot be seen in the manner of vision that underlies the first three chapters; it can only be seen by ascending into Devachan. The destiny of a root race can never unfold to us in the realm of highly developed astral vision. That is why John says that he heard the voice in the Spirit. Up to the end of the third chapter of the Apocalypse, we are dealing with higher astral vision; from the fourth chapter onward, we are dealing with Devachanic vision. Just as the Apocalyptic writer speaks, so do the initiates of all ages.

[ 5 ] There is only one thing that sets the Apocalypse apart from the other profound initiatory writings. In the Apocalypse, the perspective is different. In the Apocalypse, John the Theologian speaks as a Christian, from a Christian perspective. So anyone who wishes to read the Apocalypse with the right sensibility, with the right feeling, must fully immerse themselves in the creed, and above all into the entirely human creed—not merely the theologian’s creed—one must immerse oneself in the feeling of a highly initiated Christian, in the feeling a Christian has when the full power of Christian revelation has taken hold within him. This is what one must know.

[ 6 ] An important word can be found in the First Epistle of John:

There are three that bear witness on earth: blood, water, and the Spirit.

And there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. [1 John 5:7-8]

[ 7 ] To the Theosophist, these three principles that give birth in heaven are known as Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. Christians refer to the principles underlying the world as the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. A Christian of the first centuries would have refused to speak of the Father, because

No one comes to the Father except through me. [John 14:6]

[ 8 ] And the one who spoke these words is the great Christian Master himself, the one through whom Christianity itself came into the world. I am now speaking entirely in the spirit of an initiated Christian of the early days. He believed in the Father, and he believed that he could not come to know Him in any other way than through the Word.

[ 9 ] And what was the Word? The uninitiated can only form a faint idea of what the early initiated Christians called the Word, and this can be done, at first, through a comparison. The highest level to which a human being can rise is thought, the mental realm. Through thought, human beings always rise to the level of life in Devachan. They live in Devachan; they are simply not aware of it. This is the defining characteristic of earthly human beings: that they live simultaneously in three worlds—the physical world, the astral world, and the Devachanic world. However, he is conscious only in the physical world. For all religions, including the earliest Christian religion, the highest expression that exists in the world was the world-creating Will. And if the Christian says anything at all about the Father, it is solely that the Father is the world-creating universal Will. When a human being wishes to express the highest that lives within him—the Devachanic, the thought—through the Will, that is, through the world-creating principle, this is initially accomplished through language. For human beings, the word is the herald of the Spirit through the Will. And so the first Christian said: Everything that constitutes our world is, in the highest sense, embodied in the Word—but now in the Word that came into being through the highest world-creating Will. Just as human beings express their highest self through the power of the will as the Word, so the Christian says: The Father expressed His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Word. That is why it is also written in the Gospel: “All things were made through the Word, and there is nothing that was not made through the Word.”

[ 10 ] The third person is the Holy Spirit. He is to the universe what the spirit of an individual human being is to that person. This Spirit descends in the Word of the world. If a Christian were to try to form a mental image of this, he would say to himself: Just as a person speaks, just as his words resound into the air, setting the air in motion in waves, and just as his thoughts live on in the waves of the air—and the word is the embodiment of the human spirit—so the world is the embodiment of the Word of God.

All things were made through the Word, and without the Word nothing was made that has been made. [John 1:3]

[ 11 ] This also means that the true fundamental principle is the highest thing that human beings can see embodied in the world, namely, the Word. And this Word is designated as the second divine Person or as the Son of God, as the highest being—not as an abstract image of a world soul conceived in the pantheistic sense, but as a being far more personal and individual than human personality or human individuality. It must be firmly held that we are dealing with a supreme being and that the Word is an expression of the supreme being, through whom the entire universe, like human beings, can see with eyes, hear with ears, and comprehend with the mind. For the early Christians, this became flesh in the one whom they recognized as the proclaimer of the Gospel.

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[ 13 ] He was a unique personality. The Gospel also expresses this in a magnificent, grand, and powerful way. The fact that Christ ascended to the devachanic vision is clearly expressed in the Gospel for those who can read these things.

[ 14 ] However, in order to gain a full understanding of Christianity, I ask you to consider one thing. There is a great similarity between what we call the narrative of Jesus’ life and what we call the narrative of the Buddha’s life. This similarity in the proclamation of the teachings, this similarity in the years of teaching, and so on, has already been highlighted in many ways. The mystic knows where this similarity comes from, because he knows that such a life initially repeats itself in certain epochs of human history. But the life of Christ has something else, something essentially different from the life of the Buddha, and the first Christian initiates understood this. If you follow the life of Jesus, you will come to a point described as the Transfiguration. Jesus went up the mountain with his disciples Peter, John, and James and was transfigured; he began to shine from within, and Moses and Elijah appeared on either side of him. The disciples received significant revelations at that time. This points to a moment of the utmost importance. Moses and Elijah appear at the side of Christ Jesus. Time is suspended; the past is present. Such is the case in Devachan. Here in the physical world, we have space and time. In the astral world, we have only time. The Devachanic world, however, is timeless and spaceless. Moses and Elijah, who have long since passed away, are immediately present. This means, then, that during the Transfiguration, the three disciples—Peter, James, and John—were elevated to Devachanic vision.

[ 15 ] It is only in light of this transfiguration that we see what is truly significant: it is the actual sacrificial death—the suffering, dying, and sacrificial death—that is, what is absent from the life of the Buddha. The Buddha went out with his disciple Ananda and became radiant. When you see this scene depicted in the life of the Buddha, you see it in a different form; this depends on popular conception. But in the final moment, we have the Transfiguration. The Buddha’s life concludes with the Transfiguration. The life of Jesus, however, does not begin its truly significant epoch until this event occurs. This points to what the Christ intended to convey in relation to all the ancient religious systems of the preceding sub-races of the fifth root race. The Christian meant to say: We do indeed understand the foreshadowing of what came through the Gospels in the preceding religious systems; we do indeed recognize that the word of truth was taught and bestowed in the ancient mysteries. But one thing came into being only through Christianity, and this is expressed by the motto: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”—This is the great, world-historical significance of Christianity in its Gospel.

[ 16 ] That which was once attained in the mystery temples—separated from the rest of the world—by a select few through initiation, through the beholding of the great truths of the universe within the mystery crypts—so spiritually, so inwardly free and exalted—should also be attainable for, and will indeed become, those who do not reach the point of beholding but who are merely able to believe. That is why in Christianity, what once took place in the secrecy of the mysteries—the highest mystery, in which the human being passes through the gate of death to rise again in a higher life, this deepest mystery, which an uninitiated person cannot understand in its true meaning— has been brought out into the vast horizon of worldly existence. What took place in Palestine occurred as a historical, real event, unfolding in every detail just as the mystery rituals had previously taken place within the mystery temples. In the mysteries, sacrifice and sacrificial death were repeatedly enacted. The ancient mystery teachings had to be presented to the world in a popular form. But with this, Christianity took a further step—a step in the understanding of an initiate of early Christianity, a step that leads humanity beyond the level that the ancient religions could ever have provided.

[ 17 ] Who were the ancient religious teachers? They were teachers of humanity. What they taught—that was what mattered. The teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Hermes, Pythagoras, Laozi, [Socrates, Plato]—it was the words themselves that mattered. They stood, as it were, on a high mountain, and from there they proclaimed the highest, the sacred word. But something else was also possible. It was possible for this Word itself to descend and take on human form, and for it to be a matter—for once—not of what is proclaimed, but of what is lived, lived in the deepest sense of the word. The goal was there. In ancient times, the path was laid out for our fifth root race. Added to this were the teachings and commandments of the ancient religious founders—Laozi, Confucius, Moses, and the Buddha—and their truths. But then the Word itself came down in human form and lived among us. And the threefold Word became a reality

I am the way, the truth, and the life. [John 14:6]

[ 18 ] And so the Christian believer and the initiate saw in their founder of the religion the “Way,” the “Truth,” and the “Life.” In a profound statement, the Christian initiate alluded to what I have said. All the ancient founders of religions have been regarded as incarnate angels who were messengers of the Deity. “Angel” means nothing other than messenger of the Deity. But now there came one before whom the angels veiled their faces in reverence and prostrated themselves at the feet of the mystical Lamb, the feet of God incarnate. This is the mystery: that in the incarnate Lamb, a deeper descent among humanity—a life lived with humanity—can be seen. The ancients proclaimed the Word from the mountain. Christ, however, descended into the valley and lived as a human being among human beings. He did not command what was to be done; he did not say what was true; rather, through the way he lived his life, he demonstrated the Word made flesh. In this, the Christian saw his religion distinguished from other religions. Through this, he also became the focal point of what the Christian initiate is called to proclaim as the Apocalypse or secret revelation. Why the Word made flesh is also called the “Lamb”—we will discuss that next time.

[ 19 ] It must have become clear to us that we must place this Lamb at the center of the Apocalypse, and that it is through this Lamb alone that the future of humanity can be revealed. In the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, where the human being is led upward, where heaven stands open, the truths of the hereafter are revealed to him. This is the mystical Lamb that breaks the seals of the world. There the transfigured flesh is encountered. Hence the question: What revealed itself to you when you stepped beyond the mere heights of Christian vision? There the mystical Lamb revealed itself to him. The Devachanic world opened up to him, along with the possibility of unveiling the true mystery—which must be revealed when the time is fulfilled, when the seventh subrace of our fifth root race has passed, and a new race of humanity advances to a new stage of development.

[ 20 ] Thus, in the Apocalypse, we have described the fate of the fifth subrace and the beginnings of a new world order, which is characterized by three guiding principles: “Pneumatology,” “Community Life” built on love, and “Ethics.” This world is foreshadowed in the mystery of the worlds, which is revealed through the seven seals that are opened by the One who, by coming among humanity, first made this mystery possible, and who will fulfill it when the time comes that our root race has matured enough to pass over into that world and reach that stage of evolution designated by these three words. It is from such depths that the essence of the Apocalypse must be drawn. This is not to say that true Christianity can be derived only from these heights. But it must be permeated by fire, and human beings can only attain this fire if they draw their strength from higher vision; and the result of higher vision in the Christian realm is precisely the Apocalypse.