The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 275 -
THE ENSNARING EFFECT OF THE DRAGON'S SPEECH ON THE SEVEN MESSENGERS. ENOCH SHOWS THE FULL NOTHINGNESS OF THE DRAGON'S LIES BY HIS LIGHTFUL EXPLANATION. WHY MAN IS TEMPTED (18th March 1843)
At this speech by the dragon all the other seven messengers save Enoch became confused so that they no longer knew what to think.
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But Enoch, quickly aware of this, asked Kisehel which part of the dragon's speech was so confusing for him.
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And Kisehel answered Enoch in a loud voice: "You ask me although you are the Lord's sole enlightened high priest? Look, it will behoove me better if I ask you what you think of all this! And so I have asked you the question; answer it in certain points if you can.
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'The matter is of stupendous importance! On this occasion I shall make the proper objections, which you in turn have to refute; for here we all need the mightiest light lest we pass into annihilating death. And so do speak, brother Enoch, and let us know your worthy objections to this speech by the dragon and show me what we all have to think of it in earnest."
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And Enoch replied to Kisehel: "But listen, brother! He, who does not at once know what to think of this dragon-speech, must still be rather blind. How do you use the holy Father's grace, accosting me with such a question?
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"It looks with you as if you let yourself be ensnared in earnest by this most deceitful speech of the Lord's arch-enemy!
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"Did you not notice that he went from one extreme to the other, contradicting himself mightily?
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"Did he not ask me to destroy him? And in the end he pretended so mightily that God's continuance depended on his own.
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"Did he not say how to the most unbelievable degree he was always in the most unloving and unjust manner guided, urged and then mercilessly condemned and chastised by the Lord? And then finally he was overcome by his wrath and swore he would chastise the Lord like an old criminal.
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"Did he not pretend on the one hand to a might surpassing God's? And on the other hand he lets himself be captured by newly created ephemera, and that in the whole of infinity, and must be content with this his most miserable form.
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"Did he not claim that the Deity saw only now that he is the greatest danger to It in this his form? Therefore this form must surely be for him, as the greatest enemy of God, the most advantageous. How could he earlier call it a most miserable one?
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"Must he not in this case consider the form of God as the best when he in turn terms his as a most miserable and, again, his as incomparably more perfect, since he imagines himself in this one to be most dangerous to God, as his enemy?
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"Once he termed the entire glorious creation a loose, whimsical mental game of the Deity, which includes also us; but right after that he again admits that our life-force is an infinitesimal particle of the actual divine essence, which in its fashion may be able to protect itself from destruction without, however, gaining anything by it.
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"Behold, thus everything is full of the crassest contradictions! How is it then possible that you, surely a much-enlightened messenger of the Lord, could not see this instantly?
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"Why did the great liar conceal himself so quickly? Had he spoken the truth, truly he would not have had to act like this; however, since he got wind of what to expect from me, he hastily fled from our sight lest he have to defend himself from me.
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"Surely this is his old, easy-to-see-through deceitful manner in which he extricated himself from the father Adam and caused him to fall twice, once with the unblessed begetting and the other time with the desecration of the Lord's day. And you can still ask me as if you were inclined to believe the old arch-liar and deceiver?
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"Oh woe betides you, holy height of the Lord! If your children thus easily believe in the deceptive words of the dragon, you will one day have to be ashamed of yourself before the lowlands and like a vulture fall upon them destroying them to their innermost core!
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"Yes, the children of God will attract the judgment, whereas the children of the world as such would remain faithful to the end of the world.
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"But if we, the pillars of the world, begin to waver, what will become of the world?
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"I tell you, my dear brothers: Blessed and truly happy is he who suffers temptation; for only after he has proved himself will he reach the true goal of life, which the holy, most loving Father promised us all if we truly love Him with our whole heart.
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"Do not maintain that the Father had now tempted us; for the good Father certainly tempts no one in this manner, and He need not tempt anyone. But he still saw in you a sinister urge, and so He allowed it to emerge from you and you had to behold it and find out whether you still were inclined towards it.
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"However, you still showed such an inclination; so realize that whoever has shown an inclination towards falsehood has received the false with his inclination, and this is a seed of sin. When then the sin has matured and is born, it soon gives birth to death, which is in it.
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"So do not be mistaken, dear brothers; for every good gift and all true, perfect bounty flow only from the Father of all light and all life. In Him there is neither change nor variation forever; as He is, so He was from eternity.
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"He has begotten us as the firstborn of His created beings out of His love according to His will through His eternal word of truth, wherefore we are firstborn and not born among billions as the dragon lied. This the Father has revealed to us.
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"But I reckon the good, holy Father should deserve more belief than the deceitful dragon! - So let us proceed in peace. Amen."