The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] The subject of our discussion today was, in fact, already touched upon last time. Today we would like to once again draw attention to that significant message contained in the words of the Sermon on the Mount, and then, based on this message, take a look at our present and the near future of humanity.

[ 2 ] The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew can only be understood if one grasps its full spirit and comprehends it from the perspective of the evolution of all humanity. If we briefly review once more what has already come to mind from our last discussion—that humanity’s ancient, twilight-like clairvoyance has gradually diminished, that human abilities and human knowledge have had to be increasingly confined to the physical plane, and that for this reason, humanity’s connection to the spiritual worlds had to be grounded in an event on the physical plane—if we hold all this together, we will understand that the divine-spiritual being whom we have characterized as the high solar being, as the Christ, had to incarnate in a physical body at a time when human perception was limited to the physical plane. This happened so that one could recount, so to speak, the very essence of the life of this divine-spiritual being using expressions and words that pertain to the physical plane. For what matters is not merely that those few—in relation to all of humanity—who were able to gain a physical perception and observation of Christ Jesus had this perception on the physical plane, but rather that what can be told about Christ Jesus consists of descriptions that reflect events of the physical plane.

[ 3 ] For of all that was previously told about other divine-spiritual beings, it could not be said that the account—which relies on the language of the physical plane—corresponds to the actual events. Everything that was told regarding the highest divine beings must be understood in such a way that the words could only serve as hints, but that what actually happened can only be understood by those who are able to apply the words to the events of the higher planes. The life of Christ Jesus, however, as it actually unfolded, can be understood by anyone who is even slightly capable of applying what is recounted to events on the physical plane. And in this regard, one can say: The Christ Being descended into a physical embodiment, fully taking on life in a physical body. This had to happen, therefore, because human capacities at that time were of this nature; because in those days the human “I” as such was to become—and had to become—aware of its own essence if the evolution of humanity was to proceed in the appropriate manner.

[ 4 ] We have already seen that the most significant mediator of the events in Palestine was Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, from among the older individualities. But in order for him to become what he had to become at that time, a body had to be created that contained within itself, like an extract, everything that had been given to an entire people—a people that was to provide humanity with those abilities that must be transmitted through physical heredity. We must regard this as the essence of the ancient Hebrew people from Abraham to Jesus: that from generation to generation those abilities had to develop—passed down from father to son, from son to grandson, and so on, ever increasing— so that they might then appear in their highest and most useful form in that very body that had been passed down from Abraham through Solomon to Jesus, who was the bearer of Zarathustra. It will take much, much more before we are able, through our reflections—which will continue to be cultivated here in the future—to understand the entire mission of the ancient Hebrew people in all its details. For this requires that we truly learn, step by step, how those qualities needed by the body of Jesus were increasingly refined from generation to generation. This body had to be made as capable as possible for its world-historical calling. This was possible only because everything that belonged to this body of the Solomonic Jesus was itself as perfect as possible in terms of those very abilities.

[ 5 ] We now know that, since time immemorial, the four aspects of human nature—the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I”—have been active in every human body, and that the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual human will be active in the future. But we must not view this as if, for example, the activity of the astral body were to suddenly cease, and as if what comes later were not at all being prepared within what came before. In a certain sense, everything that comes later must be prepared within what came before. It is true that human beings cannot, through their own efforts today, work on themselves in such a way that, for example, the life spirit within them would be particularly expressed; but other, divine-spiritual beings work within human beings with an activity that can be called the activity of the life spirit. This also applies to the spiritual human being. All seven members of the body of Jesus of Nazareth—or rather, of the human constitution of Jesus of Nazareth—had to be refined with regard to the qualities in question. This required a very special preparation. This preparation is intended to give us, for now, a glimpse of the mysteries that are actually hidden in the evolution of humanity and the Earth.

[ 6 ] The seeds for that perfection of the body of Jesus of Nazareth had to be prepared well in advance. We have seen how, from the time of Abraham to that of Solomon or David, the first period worked upon the lineages in exactly the same way that, in the period from birth to the loss of baby teeth, work is otherwise done on the physical body of an individual. The work was carried out by the forces active behind evolution in such a way that, after a certain period of time, there was indeed an ancestor of Jesus who already possessed the potential for the most perfect abilities possible—abilities that would later manifest in the body that became the vessel of Zarathustra. Thus, in an ancestor of Jesus, the potential existed, so to speak, for the proper development of all seven members of human nature. In other words: If we trace the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth back through his ancestors, we must find such an ancestor who contained the seeds of the sevenfold human nature—even if not as perfectly developed as in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, yet possessing the potential for that perfection. Even if this is not expressed in the external tradition, the ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching was aware of this fact. It knew that there once lived a human being of whom one must say that the seven human members were at work within him in such a way that they must be described as particularly remarkable. Indeed, the initiates of the ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching also point to an ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth, regarding whom they were aware: “We must regard the seven human members in this ancestor in a very special way.”

[ 7 ] And so they named the “I” in this ancestor “Itiel,” to indicate that in this ancestor the “I” must have possessed that power—for the word “kiel” would roughly mean “possessor of power” —that power, that boldness which, if passed down through the generations, could become the true bearer of the “I” for that high being who was then to reappear in Jesus of Nazareth. So they named the astral body of that ancestor “Lamuel”; which would roughly denote an astral body so developed that it feels the law, the regularity, not only outside itself but as something it carries within itself. Thus they called the etheric body of this ancestor “Ben Jake”; this would mean: an etheric body that has been refined as much as possible and can assimilate habits within itself with a certain degree of perfection. And they called the physical body of this ancestor “Agur,” for the reason that the physical activity—the capacity of this ancestor on the physical plane—consisted in gathering what existed in ancient traditions; for “Agur” would mean “the gatherer.” Just as all the ancient teachings of the world were gathered through what took place in the body of Jesus, so too had this already developed as a predisposition in this ancestor through the gathering of ancient documents. And what worked within this ancestor as Atma or the spiritual man—because the love of the divine-spiritual beings worked with special care, so to speak, on this predisposition toward the spiritual man—they called, in a word, “Jedidjah,” which roughly means “the beloved of God.” And what acted within this ancestor as Buddhi or life spirit—of which they said: “Such a life spirit must be at work in this ancestor that he may act as a teacher to the entire people, so that what this life spirit contains may be imparted to the entire people”—they designated as “Kohelet.” And finally, they called the Manas, or spiritual self, of this ancestor—because they said that such a spiritual self must possess the inherent capacity to be internally complete and to be in balance within itself—by a word that means “inner balance”: “Solomon.”

[ 8 ] Thus, this ancestor, who is usually known only by the names “Schelomo,” “Schlomo,” or “Salomo,” has three main names: Jedidiah, Kohelet, Solomon; and he has the four secondary names Agur, Ben Jake, Lamuel, and Itiel, because these names signify the four outer shells, while the first three names denote the divine inner essence. This figure has seven names in the ancient Hebrew esoteric teachings.

[ 9 ] And if later on, so to speak, people—including certain sects among the Jews themselves—were dissatisfied with Solomon—whether rightly or wrongly is not to be examined here—this can be explained by the fact that Solomon possessed lofty, truly great, and significant potential, which was then to be further channeled toward the stated goal, and that an individual at a certain stage of development does not always need to manifest in his outer life what he is meant to bequeath as a predisposition to his descendants; that perhaps precisely because he possesses high powers within him, he is more prone to err against the direction of such powers than another who does not possess such powers. What one might perceive as moral failings in Solomon would not contradict what the ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching sees in him; on the contrary, it is precisely this fact that would explain the flaws in Solomon.

[ 10 ] Thus, the ancient Hebrew esoteric teaching looked to an ancestor of Jesus, fully aware of his significance in relation to the entire mission of the ancient Hebrew people. Everything inherent in this figure was then passed down through the generations and manifested in its essence when it became necessary in the course of world history. This is meant to give us a glimpse of the lawful mysteries hidden behind the development of humanity.

[ 11 ] If, then, the mission of the ancient Hebrew people consisted primarily in having what this people was to bestow upon humanity from the spiritual worlds—in the form of abilities—as it were, grafted into the blood, into the physical inheritance, then at the time of the appearance of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, humanity had reached the point where, through these ennobled qualities, it was to receive the impulse to ascend once more into the spiritual world—in other words, to receive the Christ impulse. That is why this was said—to indicate all the events that were necessary to create, within the physical development of humanity, a vessel capable of containing the Christ Being.

[ 12 ] Now, perhaps, we can also sense and feel the radical nature of progress for humanity’s mission through this divine mission of the Jewish people, which has been carried down into the physical realm; we can feel how the divine has been carried down to the very depths of physical matter, so that from this turning point humanity may ascend all the more from the refined physical realm into the spiritual. The ascent into the spiritual realm simply had to begin at that very time. But for this to happen, humanity now had to be given an impulse that, in a sense, truly placed everything that humanity is meant to desire and expect from world development into that deepest center of the human being, which is designated as the “I.” The impulse through Christ was to penetrate into the innermost being of the human being. From the body of Christ came such an impulse that appealed to the deepest essence of human nature. So what was to change under this impulse?

[ 13 ] Before this impulse arose, people tended to receive or expect from outside sources, in a certain sense, the things that brought them the greatest happiness, made them feel most blissful, or filled them with a sense of the divine. If one considers world history not merely on the basis of external records, but according to what spiritual records can reveal, one must conclude: We are looking back to ancient times when human beings ascended into the realm of spiritual beings through the awakening within them—whether to a greater or lesser degree—of the gift of clairvoyance. But this gift of clairvoyance awakened in a dreamlike state, while divine-spiritual forces were at work within him and the “I” was suppressed. The human being was, to a greater or lesser extent, outside of the “I.” Even in a normal state, he was not as conscious of this “I” as he would be in later times; but in those moments when the spirit worked within him and carried him up into the spiritual world, he was completely beside himself, entirely outside of his “I.” He was completely absorbed either in the outer divine-spiritual or in the divine-spiritual within his soul. But in these moments of ecstasy and rapture, he was not at all aware of his condition. It was precisely meant to happen that human beings would find a connection to the spiritual from within their “I” and, from there, be able to penetrate the deepest core of their being with the awareness: “I belong to a divine-spiritual realm.” —- This could only happen because Christ lived on earth, imbued earthly beings with his essence, and because the “I” could permeate itself with what emerged as the Christ-model. Through this, a person could say to himself: “I am now, with my ‘I,’ in the spiritual realm, in the realms of heaven, just as people used to be in the realms of heaven apart from their ‘I.’” “The realms of heaven have drawn near!”—that was the new teaching. To this end, the state of the soul and the mindset of human beings were to be transformed, so that they would no longer believe that one could be carried up into the spiritual world only outside the “I,” in a state of ecstasy, but rather that one could find connection with the realms of heaven in a state of full “I”-consciousness.

[ 14 ] That this had to happen can also be understood from the fact that the state of ancient clairvoyance has steadily deteriorated over the course of millennia. Whereas in ancient times, when a person was in a state of ecstasy, they ascended to the good divine-spiritual powers and entered their divine-spiritual homeland, what remained of such ecstatic states for people at the time of Christianity’s founding was such that, when they were outside of that state, they no longer ascended to the good spiritual powers but to the evil, evil spiritual powers. This is, in fact, the great difference between these two stages of development: In ancient times, when a person, through the suppression of the “I”—what we would today call a mediumistic state—rose in a dreamlike manner to the spiritual worlds, they were in communion with good spiritual beings. But this had changed by the time when human beings were to find the connection to the heavenly realms through the “I”; and when they now sought or developed ecstatic states, these were described as states of “possession,” which brought human beings into contact with evil spiritual powers hostile to them. Thus, at the time when Jesus the Christ appeared, it had to be proclaimed as a truly healing teaching: It is not right for you to try, by excluding your “I,” to enter states in which you perceive the spiritual worlds; rather, it is now right for you to seek, in the deepest core of your being, the connection to the divine-spiritual realms!

[ 15 ] This teaching is essentially encapsulated in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. In ancient times, one might say, there was a dreamlike form of clairvoyance. There, through ecstasy, human beings were lifted up into spiritual worlds. Back then, they were rich in spiritual life; they were not beggars for the Spirit, as they had become by the time Christianity was founded. When, in ancient times, they were permeated by the Spirit—what the Greeks called “pneuma”—they were raptured into divine-spiritual worlds. Now Christ could not say: “Those who become rich in spirit through ecstatic states are filled with God!”—for it was precisely these people who had to be healed as the possessed. That is why the healing of the possessed is mentioned first. Now he had to proclaim: The time has come when those who have become beggars for the Spirit are filled with God! — that is, those who can no longer rise to ecstatic, dreamlike, clairvoyant states, but who are compelled to seek the Kingdom of Heaven within themselves, from their own “I.”

[ 16 ] When human beings were once immersed in earthly suffering and pain, they needed only to evoke within themselves that state—since, in their very nature, there existed a state through which they could be transported to the divine-spiritual worlds. They did not need to endure the suffering; rather, when suffering befell them, they could seek out that state in which they were filled with the spirit or with God, and in this state—in a state of being transported beyond their ego—they could find healing from the sufferings and pains of the earth. But even this time had to be designated by Christ Jesus as one that has passed. Now those who are no longer able to experience external support in suffering, but who seek inner strength by fortifying their own “I”—those who find the Paraclete within—are to be filled with God. Those are filled with God who do not drive away suffering through ecstatic elevation to God, but who bear it and develop the strength of the “I,” through which they find within themselves the Paraclete—later called the “Holy Spirit”—who reveals himself through the “I.”

[ 17 ] Even the Buddha had not recommended bearing suffering, but rather shedding it—shedding it along with all earthly thirst. Six hundred years before Jesus Christ, the Buddha had described precisely what constitutes suffering on earth as the dire consequence of the thirst for existence. Six hundred years later, Christ stated in the second sentence of the Sermon on the Mount that suffering should not be cast off in this way, but should be borne so that it might serve as a trial, enabling the “I” to develop the strength it can find within itself: the inner support, the “Paraklet.” This is literally contained in the second sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, with the exception of the term “Paraklet.” One need only read these things in the right way. This, indeed, is precisely the task of our time: to learn, from what spiritual science gives us, to read the great documents that are themselves products of spiritual science.

[ 18 ] A third point is this: In ancient times, when people were able to immerse themselves in what arises from ecstasy—what is called “pneuma,” or spirit, in Greek—they were instinctively guided along their path. All impulses, actions, passions, instincts, and desires—in short, everything within the human astral body—was instinctively guided; it was guided toward the good when the human being was able to elevate themselves to good spiritual beings. But the inner strength to tame, purify, and bring into balance passions, drives, and so on had not yet emanated from the “I.” Now, however, the time had come—and this, too, had to be proclaimed by the Christ—when human beings, by taming, purifying, and bringing into balance the passions, drives, and desires of their astral body, achieve through their own efforts what is the goal of present-day humanity and what is expressed by pointing to the great progress of evolution. This progress of evolution has often been presented to us in the following way. Human beings began their existence on ancient Saturn, continued it through solar and lunar existence, and were endowed with their “I” on Earth. But only when they become conscious of their “I,” when they tame and bring into equanimity what was given to them in their astral body while still on the Moon, can they truly attain the goal of the Earth mission. Those who tame and bring their instincts and desires in the astral body into equanimity can be filled with the divine through the Christ impulse. Through this, they will find the Earth through themselves. — Thus, in the third sentence of the Sermon on the Mount, what is actually always translated with a nonsensical word is stated as follows: Those who make their drives, desires, and passions serene—not “meek”—will be allotted the earth as their lot, or one might also say, will inherit the earth.

[ 19 ] Here we have the first three sentences of the Sermon on the Mount in all their significance for world history: What was possible in the physical realm in ancient times through a special training of the physical body—namely, that people could perceive the spiritual in clairvoyant, dreamlike states—is expressed in the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount for the physical body, which is now impoverished in terms of inner spiritual fullness. For the etheric body—through which suffering becomes conscious, even if it is first experienced in the astral body—it is indicated that human beings must develop a power within themselves to find support against the suffering they bear as a trial. We have also noted, with regard to the astral body, that by taming and purifying their instincts, passions, and so on, human beings find within themselves that strong power through which they become a true “I” and are assigned the mission of the Earth as their destiny.

[ 20 ] When we now ascend to the “I,” we know that this “I” is at work in the soul of feeling, in the soul of understanding, and in the soul of consciousness. The “I” is at work in the soul of feeling; that is to say, it spiritualizes the soul of feeling. As a result, what Christianity is meant to spread—human brotherly love that pours forth universal justice—becomes a matter of great importance for human beings in the outer world. What the soul of feeling otherwise perceives only in the physical realm—thirst and hunger—it must learn, through Christianity, to perceive in relation to the spiritual: thirst and hunger for universal justice. Those who thus find the center of the human being in the “I” will, by working on themselves, find satisfaction for their longing in the feeling soul for all-pervading earthly justice. They will be filled with God—those who, through the Christ impulse, learn to thirst and hunger for justice as one thirsts and hungers for physical nourishment; for through the powerful force within them, by working for justice in the world, they will find within themselves the fulfillment of this quality!

[ 21 ] Now we come to the intellectual soul. We have often emphasized: While the “I” is still simmering dimly in the sensitive soul, it first shines forth as the true human “I” in the intellectual soul, only to become fully conscious in the conscious soul and only there to become a pure “I.” There is, therefore, something quite distinctive here: the human “I”—that which makes us all equal to one another, which everyone carries within themselves—shines forth in the intellectual soul. Wherever we find a human being in the world, that person is a human being and our equal precisely because an “I” shines forth in their intellectual soul. This is how we come into a proper relationship with our fellow human beings—because something dawns upon us in the intellectual soul that we are meant to carry out into the outer world, just as we are able to receive it. In the intellectual soul, we are to develop something that we allow to flow out into our surroundings just as it is meant to flow back to us. That is why the Sermon on the Mount is the only instance where the subject of the sentence is identical to the predicate: “Blessed are those who show love”; for through the radiant expression of love, love returns to them. —In this you see the infinite depth of such a spiritual document, that even its sentence structure can be understood down to such minute details when one has gradually gathered, over the course of years, what spiritual science has to offer for understanding humanity and the world. The fifth sentence of the Sermon on the Mount cannot be understood at all in its distinction from the other sentences—which all have a predicate different from the subject—unless one is aware of this sentence’s specific reference to the intellectual or emotional soul.

[ 22 ] Now let us turn to the work of the “I” on the soul of consciousness. It is there, so to speak, that the “I” first becomes pure and can become fully conscious of itself. This is beautifully expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, which states: “It is only in the ‘I’ that the divine substance can be revealed to the human being.” God-filled are those who are pure in their blood or heart—which is the expression of the “I”—those who let nothing enter except what is pure “I-ness,” for within it they will recognize God, they will behold God!

[ 23 ] Now we come to that part of the Sermon on the Mount which is already directed toward the Spirit Itself, the Spirit of Life, and spiritual human beings. Here, human beings can no longer work solely through themselves; at this stage of development, they must appeal to the divine-spiritual worlds that have been brought into connection with the Earth precisely through Christ; they must look up with their “I” toward the renewed divine-spiritual worlds. Whereas strife and disharmony caused by egoism have entered humanity in the past—and continue to do so today—peace is to be poured out over the Earth through the Christ impulse. And those who receive the Christ impulse will become peacemakers in that part of human nature which will develop only gradually in the future as the spiritual self; and through this they will become “sons of God” in a new sense, by bringing down the Spirit from the spiritual realms. Those who bring peace or harmony into the world are filled with God; thereby they are Sons of God! — For this is how those must be called who are truly filled within by a spiritual self that is to bring peace and harmony to the earth.

[ 24 ] Now we must be clear that, of everything that develops on Earth, remnants from earlier times carry over into later times. In a certain sense, these remnants are hostile to that which always plants itself as a seed within later times. Thus, what the Christ impulse brings is introduced into the entire course of human development—not all at once, but in such a way that remnants of what earlier human development has brought about remain present. It is therefore necessary that those who first understand this Christ impulse stand firmly on its ground and be completely imbued with its power from within. And when they are imbued from within with the power that emanates from the seed brought by the Christ, and when they stand firmly on this ground, then precisely by developing the power of steadfastness they will be filled with God in a new sense. Filled with God are those who, under the new order that stands under Christ, suffer persecution from what still protrudes from the old order! — And the last sentence of the Sermon on the Mount points directly to the Christ impulse itself, saying to the apostles: “And you who are specially called to carry the name of Christ into the world shall be filled with God!” Thus we see how, from the great cosmological and anthropological teachings, Christianity is directly derived in the Sermon on the Mount, and that reference is made throughout to that inner force which must find its center in the “I” itself. This must be thoroughly understood. This must still be understood today, and it must be understood today in such a way that those who seek Christianity in some dogmatic secondary meanings do not believe themselves to be Christian in the true sense; rather, those who understand the meaning of the statement, “Change the state of your soul or your mindset, for the kingdoms of heaven have descended into the ‘I’!” are precisely those who are Christian in the true sense. — Those who see the essential in this and who also understand that what is Christian in the true sense had to be expressed differently at the beginning of our era and must be expressed differently today are to be called Christian in the true sense!

[ 25 ] It is a grave misunderstanding of Christianity to believe that what was described as “Christian” in the language of two millennia ago has not evolved further to this day. One would have to describe Christianity as a dead cultural movement if one were to speak today in exactly the same way as two thousand years ago. Christianity is alive! It is evolving and will continue to evolve. And just as it is true that Christianity had to take its starting point from the time when human beings descended to the physical plane—from the incarnation of a divine being in a physical human body— it is equally true that people, especially in our time, must learn to rise up in order to understand Christianity—and the Christ-essence itself—once again from a higher spiritual standpoint. What does that mean?

[ 26 ] Just as the ancient, dreamlike clairvoyant powers have been lost—so that by the time of Christ, it was no longer those who were spirit-filled in the old sense who could be called God-filled, but rather those who found the realms of heaven within themselves—so it is true that with this full consciousness of the “I,” human beings will once again ascend into the spiritual world and develop new powers and abilities. And just as, in the time of John the Baptist, the time had come when human beings had driven those abilities to a crisis that led down to the physical plane, so it is true that we are currently standing at a most crucial juncture. What is called the Dark Age—which began in the year 3101 B.C. and reached its peak when Christ incarnated—came to an end at the close of the 19th century. The Kali Yuga came to an end in the year 1899, and we are moving toward a time in which new powers and abilities will develop naturally among human beings, powers that will manifest themselves clearly and distinctly even in the first half of our present century. These new powers and abilities will need to be understood. In particular, those members of humanity who have grasped the task of spiritual science will need to understand that such an ascent to the spiritual realm is once again possible. For in the significant times that will follow the year 1930, individual people will, as if by their very nature, become capable of developing higher powers, through which what we call the etheric body will become visible. Etheric clairvoyant powers will develop in a number of people.

[ 27 ] Two things will then be possible. Either the materialism of our age will continue: In that case, when such forces manifest themselves, people will not understand that they lead upward into the spiritual worlds; they will misunderstand them, and as a result, they will be suppressed. If that were to happen, it would not justify people, speaking from a materialistic perspective at the end of 1940, saying something like: “Now look what fantastic prophets they were at the beginning of the 20th century! Nothing has come true!” — For if these new abilities do not come to pass, this will not be a refutation of what can and must be said now; rather, it will merely be proof that an uncomprehending humanity has nipped these abilities in the bud and thereby deprived itself of something that humanity will need if it is not to wither and become barren in its development. This is the great responsibility of anthroposophy. Anthroposophy arose from the realization of the necessity to lay the groundwork for something that is to come—something that could otherwise be overlooked or suppressed. Anthroposophy must lay the groundwork for an understanding of humanity’s spiritually evolving forces. If these forces are suppressed, humanity will sink further into the quagmire of materialism.

[ 28 ] The other point is that anthroposophy is fortunate in that its teachings help spread an understanding of how to elevate human beings into the spiritual world, and that it is fortunate in lifting people out of a materialistic mindset. But now something must emerge from the anthroposophical spiritual movement—something that has been in the making for centuries but must now fully develop in our time at a particularly important turning point.

[ 29 ] The earlier centuries were conducive to increasingly fostering humanity’s materialistic outlook. Consequently, under the influence of materialism, people used to believe that the Christ impulse and the Christ being would enter into a relationship with the Earth by incarnating once more—or perhaps even more often—into a physical body, a material body. Instead of gaining clarity about the fact that human beings would grow in their abilities so that, in greater numbers—and ultimately all of them—might experience the Damascus event, that is, to experience the Christ in the Earth’s atmosphere, to behold him in his etheric body—instead, people have always believed that the Christ would descend once more into a physical body so that he might satisfy the materialistic sensibilities of those who refuse to believe in the spirit, in what Paul saw in the vision at Damascus: Christ is in the earthly atmosphere; he is always there! “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!” — Whoever develops through the methods of clairvoyance to the point of seeing into the spiritual world will find what could not be found in the spiritual worlds in pre-Christian times: Christ in his etheric body. This is the significant advance in human evolution: even before the first half of our century has come to an end, many people will naturally develop the ability through which they will make the event at Damascus a personal experience and behold Christ in his etheric body. Christ will not descend into the flesh; rather, human beings will ascend once they have acquired an understanding of the spirit.

[ 30 ] This signifies the return of Christ in our age, because in this 20th century, humanity must work its way out of the Kali Yuga and into an age of clairvoyance, for which the first seeds must be sown in this century. Through the abilities that are to come, human beings will ascend to the Christ who is already here and who can be seen by the vanguard of those who, through the anthroposophical message, are being led to what more or less all human souls will experience over the course of the next 2,500 years.

[ 31 ] This is the great event that lies ahead for humanity in the near future: that those who now, with full self-awareness, rise up to the etheric vision of Christ in his etheric body will once again be filled with God. To achieve this, however, the materialistic mindset must be thoroughly overcome, and humanity must gain an understanding of spiritual teachings and spiritual life.

[ 32 ] In past centuries, it was relatively harmless when people could repeatedly be misled by materialism regarding the so-called return of Christ. Especially in times when there was, to a lesser extent, a transitional period—a time when the groundwork was being laid for what has now reached its peak as materialistic thinking—it was proclaimed, for example, in wide circles of France that a Messiah would appear in the year 1137. A Messiah did indeed appear at that time, but he misled people because faith in him had sprung from materialistic thinking—because people believed the Messiah had to appear in the flesh. Thirty years earlier, another Messiah appeared in Spain; there, too, it had been prophetically foretold that a Messiah would appear in the flesh. And around the same time, another new Messiah appeared in North Africa. There, too, it had been prophesied that he would come from the East and appear in the flesh. And throughout the entire period in which the materialistic mindset prepared itself by appropriating the highest spiritual realities, such prophetic predictions—which are certainly familiar to anyone who understands the times—continued to appear right up into the 17th century, when it was widely preached that a kind of Christ, a Messiah, would appear. This, in turn, found credence among people’s materialistic religious mindset. Consequently, based on this prophecy, a false Messiah was able to appear in Smyrna in 1667, bearing the name Shabbatai Zevi. At that time, he wrote epistles and letters from Smyrna that shook the world, even though they were nothing but deceptive things—because they were conceived in a materialistic sense—just as the letters of Paul had once shaken the world. In the 17th century, the news spread from Smyrna: A Messiah in the flesh lives there! — And Shabbatai Zevi, the “Righteous One of God,” was held in such high regard that people said the entire chronology of the world would now take on a completely different form: He would travel through the world with his faithful followers, and all who wished to see the truth—all who wished to see the Christ in the flesh—were to believe in him! — It was preached to them that his physical birthday must be celebrated as the greatest festival of humanity and the earth! Whole multitudes of people made pilgrimages there, not only from Asia and Africa, but also from Poland, Russia, Spain, France, and so on. Entire trains of pilgrims traveled to Smyrna to see Shabbatai Zevi, who appeared as Christ in the flesh, until the matter took on too great a scale and Shabbatai Zevi was imprisoned by the sultan. Then the people said: “This is merely the fulfillment of a prophecy, for it has been foretold that he would spend nine months in captivity.” — Then the sultan saw no other recourse but to have Shabbatai Zevi stripped naked and stand before him, saying: “I will test you to see if you are truly a Messiah, a Christ in the flesh; I will have you shot!” — And then Shabbatai Zevi finally confessed that he was only an ordinary rabbi.

[ 33 ] Such temptations arise from the materialistic mindset of our time. And such things will return, for people will continue to rely on that materialistic mindset. It will be said time and again in the coming decades—as has now been stated—that human faculties will evolve to the point of etheric vision of the Christ, in whose reality people will then be able to believe just as surely as Paul himself believed in it! This is the near future of humanity, for which spiritual science is meant to prepare people today. But because of people’s materialistic mindset, a time of great temptation will also come, when false messiahs will reappear in the flesh. Then it will become clear whether the theosophists have truly understood theosophy! Those who have not understood it correctly will be so corrupted by the materialistic mindset that they will succumb to temptation. Even though they believe in Christ, they will believe in a Christ in the flesh. But those who have gained an understanding of true spiritual life will realize that the “Second Coming of Christ” in our century, as the greatest event, means this: Christ comes to humanity in the Spirit, because humanity, through its development toward the spiritual, has evolved to the level of Christ! And through this, the Sermon on the Mount will undergo a complete transformation in our century. Everything will, so to speak, be reshaped. Those who, through their seeking of the Spirit in past incarnations, have progressed so far that they have ascended into that region of the heavenly realms where Christ appears before their spiritual eyes will be filled with God or blessed!

[ 34 ] In this sense, every single sentence of the Sermon on the Mount could be rendered in its new form. Christianity will only be able to reclaim its original texts if it is understood as something alive, if we recognize that it is not something dead but something living. In that time—and it is our time—when, so to speak, materialistic research is taking the Gospel and the tradition of Christ away from humanity, spiritual research, as has often been emphasized, will restore the Gospels to humanity. This is a convergence that is not accidental but necessary. Even if, in our time—because its materialistic mindset, having risen to the highest levels, has reached a crisis—certain poor souls may appear who, out of a misguided philosophy, arrive at the strange view that there are effects without causes, that there was no historical Jesus Christ; this is something the anthroposophist should be able to understand. He should even be able to look upon those poor people with a certain compassion—people who, despite their philosophy, are so entangled in materialistic thinking that they have completely lost the ability to sense the spirit and thus constantly contradict the very principle they otherwise always acknowledge: There is no effect without a cause. Christianity, as an effect, cannot exist without a cause! It will be anthroposophy that, through spiritual research, will teach people about the Christ in the form in which he lives—provided these people are willing to show understanding for these teachings, an understanding that goes so far as to clearly recognize: Christ will return, but in a reality higher than the physical one—a reality toward which one will be able to look up only after first having acquired the sense and understanding of spiritual life.

[ 35 ] Take to heart what anthroposophy is meant to be: a preparation for the great epoch of humanity that lies ahead of us. Do not regard it as essential whether the souls incarnated here today will still be incarnated in physical bodies when Christ returns in the manner described, or whether they will have already passed through the gate of death and be in that life that unfolds between death and the new birth. For what is happening in the 20th century has significance not only for the physical world, but for all the worlds with which human beings are connected. And just as the people who will be incarnated between the years 1930 and 1950 will experience the act of looking up to the etheric Christ, so too will a tremendous upheaval occur in the world in which human beings live between death and birth. Just as Christ descended into the realms of the underworld after the Mystery of Golgotha, so do the effects of the events taking place in our time—for the inhabitants of the physical plane—ascend into the spiritual worlds. And those who do not prepare themselves through spiritual science for the great event will, at that time, miss the tremendous transformation that will also take place in the spiritual worlds where humanity will then dwell. These people will then have to wait until a new incarnation to experience on Earth what will enable them to receive the new Christ impulse. For all Christ impulses—no matter how high they may carry us—we must earn the ability to receive them on the physical plane. It is not for nothing that human beings have been sent down into the physical world: here we must acquire what leads to an understanding of the Christ impulse! For all living souls, spiritual research is the preparation for the Christ Event that lies ahead of us in the near future. This preparation is necessary. And in the course of human development, other events will follow this Christ Event. Therefore, it will be a particularly grave omission on the part of those who do not wish to rise to the Christ Event in our century, when they have the opportunity to do so.

[ 36 ] When we look at spiritual science in this way and let it sink into our souls, only then do we feel what it means for each individual human soul and what it is meant to be for all of humanity.