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For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants, the prophets, to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. (Jer.7:22-26)

“For I, the Lord, do not change …” (Mal. 3:6) 

“The life in God includes not only one’s neighbor, but also all other forms of life like animals, plants, minerals and stones; for all Being bears the life, God.” 
(This Is My Word, p. 788)

- Preface

- God’s Word the Day before Yesterday, Yesterday and Today –Truth or Not? God Rehabilitates Moses Through Further Prophets

- Church Teachings: A Dead End

- “You shall ...” – God Respects the Free Will of His Children

- Jesus of Nazareth Spoke Up for the Animals. Testimonies from “This Is My Word”

- The Spirit of the Books of Moses Blows in the Churches Today.
Parallels to the Bloody Rituals of Voodoo Witchcraft

- Jesus Was Opposed to All Forms of Bloodshed.

- “... shall be cut off.” The Deadening of the Conscience. Or:
How to Become Servile to the Priest’s Power

- Ceremonial Sacrifices “as the Lord commanded Moses.”
In the Old Testament the Causal Law Was Known.
Jesus Was Against Animal Sacrifice

- The New Testament “fulfills” the Old and “sheds light” on It. Both Are the “true word of God.” Millions of Victims of the Church

- Martin Luther – Life and Teaching in the Christian Spirit of Love for Neighbor?

- “What a Person Does to Another, He Does to Himself.”
What does the Animal Feel in Its Situation?
The Animal, a Basic Commodity and Consumer Good

- The God of the Times. “Fulfillment” of the Old Testament in Our Time: Sexual Child Abuse by Priests. In the Footsteps of the Nazarene or in Those of the Church Authorities?

- “Kill” or “Murder?” Jesus Fulfilled the Law and Deepened the Teaching

- Instructions on Violence and War in the Old Testament – Jesus: “Love your enemies.” Jesus Rebukes the Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees

- Pomp and Ceremony in Ordaining and Clothing Priests in the Books of Moses

- The Sacrifice of Redemption that Jesus Brought. The “Scapegoat”

- The First Early Christians Knew No Ceremonies

- Paul Overset the Living Original Christianity, Falsified the Teachings of Jesus and Laid the Foundation for a State Religion and Externalized Church of Rituals

- Constantine: Collaboration of Church and State. A Further Departure from the Teachings of Jesus – The State Church, an External Religion of Power.

- The Holy Scripture – Old Testament and New Testament – “Inspired by the Holy Spirit”

- “For I the Lord do not change ... ” Divine Words Against Animal Sacrifice Through the Prophet Moses

- In the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “God has given man dominion over the animals ...”

- Use of Animals – But “not divorced from respect
for moral imperatives.” “You should not love animals”

- The Status of Animals in the Protestant-Lutheran Faith “Lamb of God” – The Butcher, a Secularized Priest?

- Eating Meat – God’s Concession to Human Weakness? Did Jesus Eat Meat?

- Statements About Animals in the Protestant-Lutheran Catechism

- Jesus of Nazareth on the Subject of “Animals”
in the Christ-Revelation “This Is My Word”

- Animals Lament – The Prophet Denounces

- This Is Cruel Man

Anyone who reads the title of this new edition of “The Prophet” will probably ask: What does the question “Two gods or one changeable God?” have to do with what the animals must endure in our time? Are not both aspects of the subject on entirely different levels?
But anyone who goes after the causes of the suffering of animals – which are disdained, enslaved, reduced to a basic commodity and consumer good – will certainly come upon roots that lie in the religious practices of ancient times, of the Old Testament. The term “religious practices” already gives us pause, for religion is the sphere of communication with God and the divine. That this contact was aspired to or achieved by those responsible for the “practices” of ancient times must be put into question.

In what you will read on the following pages, not only the prophet speaks (although there is no dialogue with a contemporary this time), but many facts speak as well: many testimonies in word and image. They speak to us – and may the one who has ears to hear, listen! They will give us much to think about, and whoever uses his mind, for him a light may turn on. They will put questions to us, and whoever has a heart that still feels will sense the message. What lessons we draw from this and whether we reach a decision that is followed by action is up to each one of us.

2000 years have passed since Jesus of Nazareth. The Son of God came to us as a human being, as the Son of Man, to bring us the message of God, His Father, who is also our Father. The message that Jesus brought us from God, His and our Father, is love.
The path to love begins with the reconciliation among people and between people and animals and Earth. This is the only path for man to find unity with God and His entire creation, including the All, the cosmos.
God is the love. And so, His infinite being is love. Jesus spoke to the people that His Father and He, Jesus, the Christ, are one. Jesus wanted to tell the people that His words are the truth which comes from heaven, from God, His Father, who is also the Father of all people. Jesus did not distance Himself from the people, instead regarding them as equals, sons and daughters of God. He said: You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:48). And He gave us the prayer which begins with the address: Our Father, who art in heaven … or, Our Father in Heaven …

The question in the title of this edition of The Prophet, “Two Cosmic Gods, the God of Moses and the God of Jesus, or One Changeable God?” clearly states: For I, the Lord, do not change … (Mal. 3:6)
From what has been said it follows that the Church’s statement, that the Bible is in all its parts the direct, true word of God, must be wrong.
In the following extensive exposition the light of truth now shines – as if through the varying facets of a cut and polished crystal. It shines into the impenetrable mixture of truth and lies, which produces confusion in many heads, and, in countless hearts, triggers hopelessness, despair and a sense of being lost. This impenetrable mixture was also the decisive influence in a development that culminated in the mechanism of pressure and deceit that calls itself the “Christian Church.”
... the truth will make you free (Jn. 8:32), said Jesus of Nazareth. God’s word has always been the light of truth, which He gave to people through light-messengers of heaven, so that they could become free of their burdens, free from internal or external servitude, from bindings and coercion. Since always, the opponent of God has been the enemy of the truth and of the good. He was and is trying to darken the light. To this end he did and does use any means, and the abuse of the name of God and of Jesus, the Christ, proved to be one of the most cunning means – today, we would say the most psychologically effective means – to poison the hearts of believing, God-fearing people, to bind their souls and to render them vulnerable to lies and deceit, to the non-divine.

God, the truth and the light, is unchangeable. Jesus, the Christ, taught this time and again. In the Ten Commandments, which God gave to the people through the prophet Moses, we also experience the God that Jesus, the Christ, showed us, and who said nothing of all those things supposedly commanded by the “God” in the “Books of Moses.”

Jesus made no distinction between human beings and animals; for the commandment said and still says today: You shall not kill. It is a general statement which means: We should kill neither human beings nor animals.
In This Is My Word we read among other things what Christ said and made clear to the people during His time on Earth, also regarding the treatment of animals.
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disdain, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing on his soul and on his body. For, what a person does to his fellow men and to his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself. (p. 421)
The Bible reports that during the “feeding of the five thousand,” Jesus gave the assembled people bread and also fish. According to Mark we read: And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. (Mk. 6:41)
Some may ask, “Are fish not also animals?” In This Is My Word we read what really happened:
My disciples brought Me bread and grapes to be multiplied. On that day, dead fish were also offered to Me in order to be multiplied. As I took this dead substance into My hands, I explained to the people that the power-potential of the Father, the high power of life, was gone from it for the most part and that I would not create live fish so that they be killed again.
I explained to the people that life is in all life forms and that man should not kill them deliberately. The people, especially the children, looked at Me very sadly. They could not understand Me, because they lived from fish, bread and little else, for the most part. And then I spoke to them in the following sense: The energies of the earth are still maintaining the dead fish. And so I will not give you living fish from the Spirit of the Father; but from the energy of the earth, I will create for you fish that are dead, that is, poor in vibration. They will never bear life and cannot be killed. I will show you how living things taste – bread and fruits – and in comparison with them, the taste of dead food.
And from the energies of the earth, I created for them fish which bore little spirit substance. I gave them the dead fish and, at the same time, I offered them bread and fruits to eat, so that they could recognize the difference between living and dead nourishment, between high-vibrating and low-vibrating food. In this and similar ways, I taught the people. (pp. 371-372)
We can see how carefully, understandingly and sympathetically Jesus approached His fellow man and how He brought the laws of God to life for them in specific situations.
In This Is My Word Christ also gives us the following pointers:
The one who loves his neighbor selflessly will neither do violence to him, nor kill him. And the one who loves his neighbor selflessly will not deliberately kill animals either. The one who respects man and animal has no warlike designs, because he respects the laws of God to which belong the laws of nature, too. The one who strives to actualize the laws of God will refrain from eating meat more and more and will gratefully accept the gifts of the earth, that is, that food which comes from God for His human children. (p. 467)
As Jesus, Christ spoke up for the animals wherever He could. It is not surprising that little can be found about this in the Bible, since it was not in the interest of the clergy that came after Christ to teach the people in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, but to teach them only according to their spirit, to the church institution striving for earthly all-power. Therefore, the aspect “animals” was not included in the New Testament of the “Holy Scriptures,” nor was Jesus’ commandment to abstain from eating meat.
Let us read on in This Is My Word how Jesus reacted to the suffering of animals.
1. And it came to pass that the Lord departed from the city and went into the mountains with His disciples. And they came to a mountain with very steep paths. There they met a man with a beast of burden.
2. But the horse had collapsed, for it was overladen. The man struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him saying, “You son of cruelty, why do you strike your animal? Do you not see that it is much too weak for its burden and do you not know that it suffers?”
3. But the man retorted, “What have You to do therewith? I may strike my animal as much as it pleases me, for it belongs to me; and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask those who are with You, for they are from my neighborhood and know thereof.”
4. And some of the disciples answered, saying, “Yes, Lord, it is as he said, we were there when he bought the horse.” And the Lord rejoined, “Do you not see then how it is bleeding, and do you not hear how it wails and laments?” But they answered saying, “No, Lord, we do not hear that it wails or laments.”
5. And the Lord became sad and said, “Woe to you; because of the dullness of your hearts, you do not hear how it laments and cries to its heavenly Creator for pity; but thrice woe to the one against whom it cries and wails in its torment!”
6. And He went forward and touched the horse, and the animal stood up, and its wounds were healed. But He said to the man, “Go on your way now and henceforth strike it no more, if you, too, hope to find mercy.” (pp. 200-206)
Jesus not only carried people and animals in His great heart, but all of nature as well. He was linked to all the forms of creation, including the celestial bodies and elemental forces. It is told that He commanded the storm and that the water carried Him, so that He could walk upon it. As He taught His brothers and sisters then, He teaches us today, for example in This Is My Word:
Respect, cherish and honor the creative power in all Being! Behold: In the innermost part of his soul, every person bears all that is power and light. The spiritual body in the human being is the substance of all Being, because God, the eternal Father, has given every single one of His children everything as essence, as heritage. The eternal Spirit is in all forms of life, and it also streams from all life forms.
When the person has consciously become the child of God, the omnipotence of God serves him through all life forms, through stone, wood, fire and water, through flowers, grasses, plants and animals. All stars serve the one who lives in Me, the Spirit of truth. When the Creator-power is able to permeate the created one, because his soul is full of light and power, then he is again consciously the child, the son or daughter of infinity and has once again taken up his heritage, the All-power.
Each earthly day is a gift to man, so that he may recognize and find himself in it. The nature kingdoms offer themselves to man. Fire and water serve him, and the heavenly bodies, too, by day and by night. Realize how rich the day is for each individual! (pp. 177-178)

Before turning to the texts from the Books of Moses, one more occurrence from the life of Jesus of Nazareth, reported in This Is My Word:
1. And as Jesus was going to Jericho, He met a man with young doves and a cage full of birds which he had caught. And He saw their misery, as they had lost their freedom and, furthermore, were suffering hunger and thirst.
2. And He said to the man, “What are you doing with these?” And the man answered, “I earn my living by selling the birds which I have caught.”
3. And Jesus said to him, “What would you think, if someone stronger or more clever than you would capture and shackle you, or would throw your wife or your children and you into prison, in order to sell you for his own profit and to earn his living from this?
4. Are these not your fellow creatures, only weaker than you? And does not the same God, Father and Mother, care for them as for you? Let these, your little brothers and sisters, go forth into freedom and see to it that you never do such a thing again, but that you earn your bread honestly.”
5. And the man was astounded at these words and His authority, and he let the birds go free. As the birds came out, they flew to Jesus, sat upon His shoulders and sang to Him. And the man asked more about His teachings and he went his way and learned basket weaving. He earned his bread from this work and broke his cages and traps and became a disciple of Jesus. (pp. 485-486)

Jesus came, as He said, to fulfill God’s law. He did this through His life and work. And He taught how the law of the heavens is to be fulfilled in the individual steps of our everyday lives; the most important testimony of this that has been handed down is His Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus would never have shed blood or condoned bloodshed. The sentence All who take the sword will perish by the sword (Mt. 26:52) also refers to transgressions against the animal world and all of nature, and is not confined to killing with a sword. There are many gradations to the lack of love. Animals have very fine sensations, while the emotions of humans are often crude and dull.

Nothing and no one can “absolve us of a transgression” except our Redeemer, Christ, whose power and light of redemption dwells in each of us. The prerequisite for Him to redeem our soul from a guilt is the following: With all our heart, we must feel remorseful for our unloving feeling, sensing, thinking, speaking and acting. In our inner being, we must ask our neighbor and second neighbor, against whom we have sinned, for forgiveness and, for our part, forgive what he might have done to us. To the best of our ability, we must make amends for the wrong we have done, if still possible. And what we have recognized as not good in us we must not do again. Only then will God forgive us, as we have been praying for the last 2000 years in the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors …
Not only an animal sacrifice, but everything that emanates from us, visibly or invisibly – be it malice, disdain or disrespect, be it cruelty or even lack of understanding, inconsiderateness or callousness – adds more to our existing debt. This applies to humanity and to each individual.
Christ is opposed to all forms of bloodshed. When Christ, who again reveals Himself to humanity through the prophetic word, speaks about animal sacrifice, but also about animal experiments and other transgressions of science against God’s all-wise creation, He often uses the word “abomination.”

We human beings should regard the animals, our second neighbors, as our little animal brothers and sisters. Although, unlike Fall-beings, they did not become guilty before God, the law, they went along into the depths so that we human beings could rejoice in the life of nature and be linked with it in love. Nature wants to serve man. It does not want to be tormented, tortured and murdered and then served up for cannibalistic meals.
The human being, in his inner being, a being from God, often proves to be a creature of cruelty.

In the following passage as well, the “God” of the “Books of Moses” speaks against the teachings of Jesus and His own commandments. For instance, it is written in Leviticus:
And if any one touches an unclean thing, whether the uncleanness of man or an unclean beast or any unclean abomination, and then eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord’s peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people. (Lev. 7:21)

Back to the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Anyone wishing to read more about magic of the voodoo sort can continue to read in Leviticus:
Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it, and threw the blood upon the altar round about. And when the ram was cut into pieces, Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. And when the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses burned the whole ram on the altar, as a burnt offering, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it, and took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot. And Aaron’s sons were brought, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet; and Moses threw the blood upon the altar round about.
Then he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right thigh. And out of the basket of unleavened bread which was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh. And he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then Moses took them from their hands, and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering, as an ordination offering, a pleasing odor, and offering by fire to the Lord. (Lev. 8:18-28)
If this macabre scene is not enough, read on in Leviticus:
So Aaron drew near to the altar, and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar. But the fat and the kidneys and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he burned upon the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses. The flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp. And he killed the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons delivered to him the blood, and he threw it on the altar round about. And they delivered the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head; and he burned them upon the altar. And he washed the entrails and the legs, and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. (Lev. 9:8-14)
Further on it says:
And the fat of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers the entrails, and the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver; and they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burned the fat upon the altar, but the breast and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded. (Lev. 9:19-21)
“As the Lord commanded Moses …” And today? Infants are baptized, supposedly at Christ’s behest. Priests are set above the simple believers, supposedly under power of authority granted by Jesus, the Christ. One speaks of absolving sin, supposedly as charged by Christ; one ordains a “Holy Father,” and claims that Jesus Himself had appointed him, and so on …
Jesus dissociated Himself from the tradition of sacrifice. Twice He quoted the prophet Hosea to the Pharisees: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice …(Mt. 9:13 and Mt. 12:7). Through Hosea, God had spoken in the Old Testament: For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. (Hos. 6:6)

In This Is My Word we read:
8. …“I have come to put an end to the sacrifices and feasts of blood. If you do not cease to offer and consume the flesh and blood of animals, the wrath of God will not cease to come upon you, just as it came upon your ancestors in the wilderness, who indulged in the consumption of flesh and were filled with rottenness and consumed by pestilence. (p. 209)
On page 73 of that great divine revelation it says:
For the one who places his life in the sonship and daughtership of God will not kill – neither men nor animals.

Jesus spoke with a clarity that was more than clear against the instructions in the “Books of Moses.” God spoke similarly through the prophet Jeremiah, as we have already seen.
In the statements of Jesus, the Christ of God, we perceive that the name of the prophet Moses was used for a cruel pagan cult. In the book This Is My Word, Christ Himself reveals:
“I have come to put an end to the sacrifices and feasts of blood” means that I have come to teach you the Gospel, the law of love, and to live it as an example for you, so that you may recognize that only the one who keeps the laws of God is rich in spiritual power in his inner being. People who possess the inner values will not lack in anything. For the one who is rich in his heart is with his neighbor, not against him, thus being for God, the life, which is the fullness. People who have inner values are also with the world of animals and plants and are not against God’s creations. The one who is against his neighbor will fight against him and kill him. And the one who is against his neighbor will not be for other forms of life – neither for the life of animals nor of plants or stones.
The one who is against the life in Me, the Christ, hungers and thirsts for success, wealth, power and prestige. He kills animals and consumes their flesh for his feasts and for the lusts of his palate. Thus, he demonstrates that he is far from God.
Animal sacrifices, too, are an abomination before God, the Eternal. He does not want animals to be sacrificed or consecrated to Him. God has given life to all forms of Being and thus to animals as well. Why should they be sacrificed to Him, since He Himself, the life, dwells in them?
However, if man were to sacrifice his human ego, his passions and cravings to Me, the Christ, and were to strive for and lead a life that is pleasing to God, that is, devoted to Him, this would contribute to the unity of all forms of life. God is the Spirit of love and freedom. Therefore, every human being should voluntarily sacrifice his ego. Only then will he become meek and humble of heart and will find his way to the great unity: God. This development of man towards Him is what God loves in His children.
And the one who devotes himself to the eternal Father-Mother-God, by transforming his humanness into the divine, will not slaughter animals or consume their flesh, nor will he kill any animal deliberately. Such people will also treat the plant world with selfless love, as this, too, is a gift of creation from God to His human children. The plants and the fruits of the field and forest give themselves willingly to man and want to serve him as nourishment and as remedy for his sick body.
The “wrath of God” comes from the pagan world of conceptions which was still very much alive in the Old Covenant. It was believed that the “gods” would take revenge on people. It would be good if the sinful person recognizes that it is he himself who has created the so-called “wrath of God.” The “wrathful God” is the human ego, which takes revenge for what it itself has caused, for man will reap what he sows.
The words “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” also were and are wrongly interpreted. Man should not take revenge on his neighbor and give tit for tat. He is called upon to forgive his neighbor, to ask him for forgiveness and not to do the same or similar thing any longer. The one who does not follow this commandment subjects himself to the law of expiation. It reads, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Then he will reap – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” – what he has sown. (pp. 209-211)

Already through the old prophets, God taught us the law of sowing and reaping, which lets us recognize the causes of our own fate. In Isaiah, for instance, we read: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes. (Is. 5:18) In the Old Testament book of Wisdom it says: That they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. (Wis. 11:16) God does not punish and he does not give instructions that are sins. Our sin is the punishment that we have created for ourselves, our personal judgment.

Jesus wanted to do away with cruelty to people and animals. Today’s representatives of the church institutions, however, permit that cruelty to people and animals continue. Only the methods are different, however, even more cruel. In this way, they affirm what is happening. The efforts of few in the interests of animals are the exception that proves the rule.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church,* No. 140,the Roman clergy has put down the following: … The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are the true Word of God.
The cruelty to animals continues; the slaughterhouses remain open. Today animals are being sacrificed, the carcasses hacked to pieces and cut up for the benefit of the human “gods” to satisfy their lust for culinary pleasures.
People as well were tortured and killed in cruel and bestial ways. And yesterday may become today.
What this “fulfillment” that has been prepared in the Old Testament looks like may be clearly seen by the fruits that the so-called Christian Churches have brought forth over the centuries.
A few days ago I came across a brochure, documentation by an initiative called “A Memorial to the Millions of Victims of the Church.” The following is written there:
The Millions of Victims of the  Church:
Inquisition: 13th-18th century, between 1 and 10 million dead and countless tortured, maltreated or terrorized people. (Der Spiegel, 6.1.1998 [The Mirror])
Crusades: 11th-13th century, up to 22 million dead, among them thousands of German Jews. (Hans Wollschläger, “Die bewaffneten Wallfahrten nach Jerusalem” [The Armed Pilgrimages to Jerusalem])
“Heathens”: 9th-12th century. During the Middle Ages tens of thousands of Germanic or Slavic “heathens” are forcefully converted to “Christianity” or cruelly slaughtered. The Church gives its blessing or calls for “crusades” against the Slavs. (Karlheinz Deschner, Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, vol. 4–6 [Criminal History of Christendom]).
Jews: During the Middle Ages, between the 11th and 14th century there were numerous bloody pogroms with several thousands dead, the result of centuries of Church propaganda. The prominent Nazi Julius Streicher justified the holocaust during the Nuremberg trials by explicitly citing Martin Luther’s speeches of incitement against the Jews. (Friedrich Heer, “Gottes erste Liebe” [God’s First Love])
The conquest of America: During the first 150 years after the Spanish conquest, 100 million people died “in the name of God” – the “greatest genocide of all time.” (Theologe Boff, Publik-Forum, 5.31.1991)
Cathari, Waldensians, Hussites, Baptists: Thousands with different beliefs die at the behest of the Church (including the Protestant-Lutheran Church).
“Witches:” 16th-18th centuries, between 400,000 and 1 million people, mostly women, die cruel deaths, roughly half of them in Germany. Luther has witches burned as well. The instructions, the “Witch-Hammer,” are written by two German Dominican monks (cf. Hubertus Mynarek, “Die Neue Inquisition” [The New Inquisition]).

And how is it today? The roots of the Old Testament, mainly the “Books of Moses,” according to the Catholic Catechism, “shed light” on the New Testament, that is, on our times. In the quoted brochure we read further:
Genocide in Croatia: In the middle of the 20th century, between 1941 and 1943, roughly 750,000 orthodox Serbs were murdered with the aid of Catholic clergymen and with the Vatican’s approval … The Vatican is informed about everything, but treats the bloody regime with considerable benevolence. The Catholic hierarchy, foremost the military vicar and archbishop Stepinac (beatified by the pope in 1998), gives the regime moral support to the very end. (Compare Deschner, “Ein Jahrhundert Heilsgeschichte,” vol. 2, 1983 pp. 210 ff., [A Century of the History of Salvation?] and Vladimir Dedijer, “Jasenovac – das Jugoslavische Auschwitz und der Vatikan,” 1988 [Jasenocvac – the Yugoslavian Auschwitz and the Vatican])
Child abuse by priests and ministers: The victims of child abuse often suffer for years and decades from the humiliation. Experts estimate that in the USA 2,000 of the 51,000 Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse over the last twenty years (Hanauer Anzeiger, 7. 13.1998 [Hanau Gazette]). That is approximately four percent, even without unreported cases. In Germany, Prof. Hubertus Mynarek also estimated a share of 3-5 percent of pedophile priests. (Akte [File] 97, 9/14/1999)

Most of the murders and other crimes “in the name of God” mentioned above were committed by the Catholic Church. Does that mean that the Protestant-Lutheran Church should be regarded more positively?

Let us take another look at the testimony of the Old Testament. In Leviticus (supposedly the true word of God), where instructions are given also to the church officials of our day about which animals they may eat and which animals they should avoid, it says:
Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. (Lev. 11:3)
And three verses down, there is an appeal to hunters:
And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. (Lev. 11:6-8)
In addition to that last quote, it says in Leviticus 11:26–27:
Every animal which parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed or does not chew the cud is unclean to you; every one who touches them shall be unclean. And all that go on their paws, among the animals that go on all fours, are unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until evening …
Those who are obedient to the Churches should keep the instructions of the Old Testament, because, according to church teaching, it is the word of God. If the believers obeyed, the hares and swine at least would stand a chance of escaping without buckshot or bullets in their bodies.

To justify hunting it is often said that hunting is necessary to “decimate” the numbers of certain animals to prevent over-proliferation. But the Spirit of God has taught us: God has so arranged His creation, nature on the Earth, that it will take care of compensating and maintaining its balance. God has not given this task to the hunters!
To the fishermen and all those who tear from the sea what belongs to the sea, “God’s” instructions through “Moses” were the following:
But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is an abomination to you. (Lev. 11:10)
Anyone who eats creatures of the sea, such as lobster and the like, becomes unclean. Readers may ask themselves whether they have become “unclean” already today.
Where will all those clergymen be after this life on Earth, all those who want to fulfill the Old Testament in the New Testament and who sit at beautifully laid tables, and eat of the carcasses of the hare, of wild pig and the like, or consume shellfish without fins and scales, and who then, in this state of uncleanness, perhaps perform sacred rites? Today they will no longer be stoned for sinning against the “holy” and the Holy One, God; but is the passed-down “word of God” still taken to be the truth, according to the statements of the clergy?
If there really were unclean animals that were an “abomination,” then a justifiable question would be: Why did God create such animals, if He is absolute purity?
Jesus did not speak of any of this. Jesus loved all animals. Not only did He never hurt an animal, on the contrary: He was the great friend of all creatures. He spoke and acted for the animals.

Many people, on the other hand, do not think twice when animals are being treated cruelly or are killed. In This Is My Word on page 421, Christ explained that animals have feelings and sensations, similar to human beings:
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disregard, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing in his soul and on his body. For, what a man does to his fellow men and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself.
Many people recognized their callousness and began to actualize My teachings. They repented and accepted the animals as their friends. And so, many a one understood My words and followed Me. (p. 421)

I repeat the words of Jesus, the Christ: “What a man does to his fellow human beings and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself.” Let us follow His words and apply what happens to the innocent animals to ourselves. In our thoughts, let us take their place and share their fate in feelings, images and thoughts.
For example, you could ask yourself in the place of an animal: Would you rather be killed or murdered? Anyone who seriously considers this question or situation with his feelings, where he is asked whether he would rather be killed or murdered, would surely not make a choice, because being killed or being murdered means to give up life, regardless of any difference.
And how would we react, if someone were to catch us, lock us in a cage and decide when we could get out from time to time?
Just imagine you were in the skin of a hamster, which by nature needs a lot of movement. See yourself locked up for some weeks in a tiny room. For movement you have only a wheel that turns quickly under your feet so that you remain in place, running and running and running, without moving forward. How long would you enjoy it? In this way you will quickly comprehend how the hamster must feel who must numbly run day after day in his cramped wheel.

Or feel yourself into the situation of a cow in a feeding pen. There you are, locked in, rubbing against your fellow sufferers, doped up with fattening feed full of chemicals, knowing that any second the butcher may come to slaughter you and cut your body up in pieces as a sacrificial meal, for example, for the corpulent clergy. You hear your brothers and sisters, the other cattle, mooing dully from time to time and you feel that they are moved by the same fear. But your impending fate is inevitable. You are in the hands of butchering man, at the mercy of his egomania, callousness and greed, including greed for profit.
Many people will walk over the dead bodies of people and animals, if they are not affected personally. For this reason, people presume it is permissible to kill people in certain cases, and of course much more so with animals. Who has the right to deliberately take the life of his neighbor, or of the animal? Who has created the human soul, which is immortal? Who gave it breath? And who has given the animals breath and thus life? Not man, but God, the Eternal, the Creator-Spirit of infinity. God does not take the life of man or of animals, for God is the giver. And God does not coerce. He never uses violence. He never influences anyone against their will. He is the freedom and He grants freedom. Only man, who gave life neither to the human soul nor to the animals, kills the house of the soul, the body, and kills the animal. Who gave man permission? Jesus did not speak of this!
Anyone who distinguishes between “killing” and “murder” is in my opinion a paranoiac who does not value the life of others according to the All-law, which is life, and who therefore forfeits his own life. For, what a person does to another, he does to himself.
The same applies when animals are kept in cages. God gave animals nature as their habitat, in which they may move freely according to their kind, just as the spiritual forms of animals do in the eternal Being. He did not create cages for His creatures. Only man presumes to cage animals and to have them pass their days in the most cramped spaces.
Jesus, the Christ, spoke in the following sense: So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them! (Mt. 7:12) We can also understand Jesus’ statement in the following way: Do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you. Does this apply only to other humans, or does it apply also to animals, given Jesus’ love for animals?
God gave to people and animals the whole Earth and thus He gave them freedom. But people divide this world into lots. Everyone seeks – legally or illegally – to gain the largest piece. That land then is “his property.” It is what “belongs to him,” with everything that lives on and in the land. But everything that we acquire on Earth is illusion, a deception, for death will take from us what we have taken from the Earth.
For many human beings, animals are only objects that may be bought or sold, used or also consumed – like items from the store. They cram the animals into the world of their conceptions, into cramped pens, where they also waste away their existence.
Anyone who has learned to feel into people senses that animals, too, have feelings and sensations, similar to us human beings. They feel joy, sorrow and pain. An old Native American saying may help us learn to understand the animals. It says: Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. With regard to animals, we may say: Before you capture animals and abuse them for your purposes and torment them, forcing upon them confining and unnatural living conditions, try it on yourself first. Let yourself be forced into the hamster’s wheel as mentioned above, and you will feel what your little second neighbor must be going through. The one who wants to gain a living insight into the plight of animals could put himself in the role of a fattened calf, or of a chicken on a chicken farm, or of a baby seal that is lying comfortably in the sun when the men come with clubs in their hands, wanting to skin it for its fur. Perhaps you will also imagine what the mother seal must feel when she returns from fishing and finds instead of her baby a raw lump of meat …

Jesus, the Christ, is the truth. He said: I and the Father are one. (Jn. 10:30) Let us consider again the following words of Jesus: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Mt. 5:17) In many cases Jesus did not fulfill what the “God” of the Old Testament had commanded through the prophet Moses. Jesus rarely and only indirectly referred to the “God” of the “Books of Moses.” Rather He said: You have heard that it is written … but I tell you … Or: You have heard that it was said to the ancients … but I tell you … He who has ears to hear, listen: Jesus rarely mentions the “God” of the “Books of Moses.”

Even though the adversary of God managed to fundamentally falsify the words of the prophet Moses, the words of the Ten Commandments – which are an excerpt of the eternal and absolute law of the heavens – have remained mostly untouched down to our time.

The fifth commandment reads and has always read: You shall not kill.
But, in a new 1985 unity translation of the German New Jerusalem Bible it says: You shall not murder. This version should be attributed to the God of the spirit-of-the-times. It represents an attenuation of the encompassing statement “You shall not kill.” In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus even said: You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. (Mt. 5:21-22)
Jesus did not qualify the absolute statement “You shall not kill.” He did not restrict its meaning to specific cases: on the contrary, Jesus deepened it. He taught that against-the-neighbor not only lies in the accomplished act of killing, but is already contained in hurtful or pejorative words, and the feelings and sensations that lie in them. He called our attention to the fact that every fine stirring of rejection of neighbor, perhaps of our animal brothers and sisters, our second neighbors, as well, is a sin before God. In this way, Jesus called on us to sensitize our conscience.
And Jesus explicitly spoke of “killing,” not “murder.”
Jeremiah had already told the people about the falsification of “the scriptures.” In Jeremiah 8:8 he spoke of “the false pen of the scribes” who have made the law of the Lord “into a lie.”
Whose “false pen” has now again falsified the word of God through Moses? Whom do those serve who would do such a thing? What should be justified by the statement “You shall not murder?” Is this statement again meant to appease the conscience of people, so that they will not react when injustice is being done?
The un-spirit of the Old Testament prepared the way and demonstrated the method; and in the New Testament the falsifications were successfully carried through until today, using a clear method, plan and purpose. Under the eyes of many millions of people gifted with a thinking mind – abracadabra! – white turns into black. Are these the miracles of today?
Anyone indifferent to the radical divergence between these two statements, killing and murder, sits on two chairs and tries to serve two masters: the spirit of the cruel “God” of the “Books of Moses,” and thus the institutional churches, and on the other hand a little bit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught the God of merciful love.

Jesus said in the following sense: My Father and I are one. Where two are one, they speak the same language. May the one who has ears to hear, listen!
What did Jesus teach in His Sermon on the Mount? Anyone who simply gets angry with his neighbor will be liable to the court. And whoever insults another will be liable to the council. (Mt. 5-22) May the one who has ears to hear, listen! And the one who has a conscience will follow Jesus, the Christ, and will do what is written in the Revelation of John: Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues … (Rev. 18:4)

Jesus did not soothe our conscience. Nor did he call on us to lull our conscience with tricks and ruses and hair-splitting formulations, and silence it. Only those who are against God do this, those who work against Him, and who have already turned the word of Moses into its opposite. Of this, there is another example:
In the second Book of Moses, Exodus, we read: Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:12) Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man, whether he sells him or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:15-17)
In Exodus 21:24 we continue: ... eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Many times this was taken literally and was used to justify all sorts of acts of vengeance.
Jesus did not speak such in His Sermon on the Mount. There it says: You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. (Mt. 5:38-42)
The words of Jesus are thus very different from those of the “God” of the “Books of Moses.” Whoever wants to be an upright Christian, ought to make the decision: Either for God through Jesus, the Christ, or for the god of the institutional churches, because one cannot serve two masters. At some point the false god will cause us to fall. Our indifferent, callous society is the best proof of this.

In the fifth Book of Moses, Deuteronomy, we can read among other things about retribution:
Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Dt.19:21)
War and the warriors. When you go forth to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your heart be faint! Do not fear, or tremble, or be in dread of them; for the Lord your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (Dt. 20:1-4)
Today it is the same, as if Jesus, the Christ, had not been on Earth in the meantime. Today’s priests bless war and its weapons in the belief that those who receive the blessing will have God on their side against the “enemies.”

In the same book of Moses, we continue to read:
Conquering the cities: When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes not peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.

Jesus, the simple man among the people of Israel, a Jew in a simple linen garment, the Son of Man, as He is called, son of a carpenter, was a stark contrast to the caste of priests back then and today.
The priests back then wore robes befitting their position and their claim, and today, cardinals, bishops, priests and ministers also display themselves in splendid robes. But God let his Son, the Co-Regent of heaven, walk the Earth in simple garments, without property, as a carpenter. Why did God not dress Jesus, His Son, in the robes of a priest and why did He not let Him serve in the Temple of Jerusalem? Does God make exceptions? Let us read what “God through Moses” said and how “He” gave Aaron and his sons the priesthood and clothed them as priests. In Exodus it says:

The robe of the ephod. And you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have in it an opening for the head, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, that it may not be torn. On its skirts you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet stuff, around its skirts, with bells of gold between them, a golden bell and a pomegranate, round about on the skirts of the robe. And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, lest he die. (Ex. 28:31-35)

And it continues:
The crown. And you shall make a plate of pure gold, and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ And you shall fasten it on the turban by a lace of blue; it shall be on the front of the turban. It shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take upon himself any guilt incurred in the holy offering which the people of Israel hallow as their holy gifts; it shall always be upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. (Ex. 28:36-38)
The instructions of “God through Moses” that are in stark contrast to the statements, the teaching and way of life of the Son of God among the people should be passed on in detail according to the following, so that the one who reads it with his heart can more easily reach a decision: for the church officials or for the following of Jesus, the Christ.
On the clothing of the priests it says:
And you shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a girdle embroidered with needlework. And for Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and girdles and caps; you shall make them for glory and beauty. And you shall put them upon Aaron your brother, and upon his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. And you shall make for them linen breeches to cover their naked flesh; from the loins to the thighs they shall reach; and they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place; lest they bring guilt upon themselves and die. This shall be a perpetual statute for him and for his descendants after him. (Ex. 28:39-43)

Today’s church authorities speak of the “sacrifice of redemption” that Jesus brought. Supposedly Jesus took upon Himself past, present and future sins, and suffered on the cross for them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reads at No. 605: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer” (Synod of Quiercy, 853: Densinger 624). Who saw to it that He suffer? Did Jesus take up the cross voluntarily or was He driven to the cross by the people whom the priests had incited?
Both “Christian” churches offer misinformation about redemption through the Christ of God when Jesus spoke the “It Is Finished” on the cross. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who “makes himself an offering for sin,” when “he bore the sin of many,” and who “shall make many to be accounted righteous,” for “he shall bear their iniquities.” (Is. 53:10-12) Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father. (No. 615)

In the Creed of the Protestant-Lutheran Church, Martin Luther even writes that He alone “is the lamb of God which bears the sins of the world,” Jn. 1:29 and “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Is. 53:6, item: “since all have sinned … they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood” etc., Rom. 3:23-25.
And since such must be believed and cannot be attained by any work, law, nor merit, nor be grasped by us, therefore it is clear and certain that it is such belief alone that will make us righteous … (Martin Luther, at Schmallkaldener, II, art. 1)
The Church Father Ambrosius writes: For because all the world became guilty, therefore he has taken sin from all the world. (Apologie IV)
People today rely on logic, so let us think logically here. God cannot have anything mysterious, because He is, in everything, the revelation; His law is the logos and therefore logical.
If Jesus, the Christ, had “taken the sin from all the world,” and had thus cancelled sin, the soul burden of human beings – then why is the world, humanity, so different from this, often showing in itself the most iniquitous of sins? Why then is Earth and nature not the paradise, the Being of heaven, that the Christians seek to pray down to the Earth in the Lord’s Prayer?
And what really happened? Jesus, the Christ, tells us in His divine revelations at this time. With the words on the cross “It Is Finished” a part of His spiritual heritage, the part power of the divine primordial power, called the Redeemer-light (also called the Redeemer-spark), flowed into all burdened souls.
In This Is My Word we read for example:
Although the light of salvation, the redemption, shines in all souls, nevertheless only the one who purifies his soul and also keeps it pure becomes perfect. My Redeemer-deed did not wipe out the sins of this world, the sins of all souls and men. It is the power and the source of power for all those who repent and no longer sin. Redemption is the support of the soul and the protection from the dissolution of the soul. It is also the light on the path to the heart of God. … Merely believing in Me, the Redeemer of all souls and men, does not bring about the purity of soul and person. (p. 889)
No one comes to the Father in the heavens but through Me, the Son of God and Co-Regent of the heavens, who became the Redeemer of all souls and men. (p. 852)
But the Church, elevating itself to the “bringer of salvation,” taught and teaches: Only those who are reborn in Christ through the sacrament of baptism receive the benefit of His sacrifice. The Church in this manner seeks to act like a sieve that will let only their sheep pass through.
Although he died for all (II Cor. 5:15), not everybody receives the benefit of his death, but only those who are given share in what his suffering brought. (Neuner-Ross, Der Glaube der Kirche, 12th ed. 1986, No. 793 [The Belief of the Church])
This share human beings gain through baptism:
…for through this rebirth they are given, by virtue of the benefit of his suffering, the mercy by which they become virtuous. (No. 793)
Instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, that is the sacrament of faith, without which no one becomes righteous. (No. 799)
Instead of leading the believers to Christ, the Church has bound and continues to bind the believers to itself through sacraments such as baptism and others, dispensed by priests who were supposedly appointed by Jesus. But Jesus was opposed to priesthood. He said: But you are not to be called Rabbi. (Mt. 23:8) He never elevated Himself to the priesthood.
Reading of the “sacrifice of redemption” and of Jesus taking all the sins of humanity upon himself, I am reminded of the sin offering in the third Book of Moses, Leviticus:
The Lord spoke to Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died; and the Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron your brother not to come at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
But thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and shall have the linen breeches on his body, be girded with the linen girdle, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
And Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats, and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting; and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Aza´zel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Aza´zel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Aza´zel. Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house; he shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself …’ (Lev. 16:1-11)

Before His death on the cross, Jesus had taken several preparatory steps to spread His teachings to many people in all the world. For instance, He sent men and women out to announce the tidings of the coming Kingdom of God. He taught and instructed some apostles who founded the Christian communities after His passing. In these communities, later original communities, the prophetic Spirit spoke and guided the first Christians. Christ thus led His communities via the prophetic word. At the Last Supper (of which we also have only a partial account), when Jesus broke the bread as He had done many times when they sat together, He said: Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19). This means that those in His following should share the bread.
What does it mean, to share the bread?
In a community of inner life, in which all are equal, in which all are free because they are not tied down by envy, by the desire to have or to be, and so forth, but in which all gladly do as God has called on them to do, there is brotherliness – one is the other’s brother, sister and friend; and there is unity, a link coming from a common goal. The one who has gives; everyone works and contributes for the benefit of the whole according to his or her abilities. This creates a balance that favors no one. This is the impersonal life, the life in the spirit of God, an Original Christian community life.

The Church has turned the occasion of the breaking of bread in Jesus’ life into a ceremony. A sin offering really, to bind the believers to the Church and the sacraments that are “necessary for salvation.” This binding at the same time prevents a person from turning to God in his inner being and receiving liberation from his sins through the redeeming power of the Spirit of the Christ of God – on the basis of recognition, remorse and actively clearing things up.
Only an active, lawful life will bring us inner gain, will fill our heart and strengthen us, make us free, joyful, healthy and dynamic. This gives meaning to our life, substance – but never gestures, rites or ceremonies. This does not change, no matter how often we repeat gestures, rites and ceremonies.

The first Christians, and a little later the Early Christians, who felt spiritually at home in the first original community in Jerusalem under the guidance of some apostles who, in turn, were guided by the prophetic Spirit, knew neither ceremonies nor rites, and no cult. They killed no animals to sacrifice them to a god; they also killed no animals for consumption – they ate no meat. They strove to live according to the commandments of God and the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus: to cleanse the inner church, the temple of the soul and body, so that the Spirit of the Christ of God might be effective in soul and body. Their early Christian meal consisted of the breaking of bread and prayer. They shared the bread among themselves.

The theologian now sketches the further development of Christianity up to Constantine: During the first three centuries there still was much persecution of Christians, but by depending on Paul, many Christians responded by fitting in and subordinating themselves to the state, in order to show that injustice was being done to them. Responsible for the leadership of the communities were at first elders, prophets, and an “angel” who, through a life in the footsteps of Jesus without compromise, maintained the connection to God (cf. Rev. 2 and 3: letter to the “angels” in the communities). But angels and prophets could only hold out a few years. Paul did mention “apparitions and revelations of the Lord,” but increasingly turned attention to his person and took a threatening stance against possible revelations that might question his teachings: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:8)
Paul (or a student using his name) finally empowered the followers of Paul, Timothy and Titus, to name a bishop, in addition to the elders, as leader of the community. In the first letter to Timothy, it says: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. (I Tim. 3:1)

Already at the beginning of the second century, these measures developed into a fixed hierarchical institution, headed by a bishop, below him the elders, below the elders the deacons. The bishops soon ruled the communities like kings – one speaks of “monarchical episcopacy.” The bishops were soon followed by metropolitan bishops, or “patriarchs,” responsible for larger regions, and the bishop of the capital turned into the “pope.”
More and more the holders of these offices tried to achieve recognition and social acceptance for their communities, probably to prevent possible persecutions, as well. Original Christian principles receded into the background or were given up. It was even Paul, for example, who condoned slavery, and in the communities there were slaveholders. The result of this authoritarian mindset was that increasing numbers among the members of the communities supported military service for Christians.
The following development is summed up by a reader of Karlheinz Deschner’s books:
This development was welcomed by Emperor Constantine, born in 285. He soon allied himself with the Church. This symbiosis of church and state, a classic case of chumminess – according to the principle, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, or birds of a feather stick together – proved to be an extraordinarily effective and long-lived association of intent for the domination and manipulation of subordinates. The might, the “authority,” of the state combined with the authority of “God” to form an unbeatable tool of pressure and discipline, for enforcing one’s will upon the people.
Karlheinz Deschner writes an extensive chapter about this development in his Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums [Criminal History of Christianity] (vol. 1, pp. 213 ff.): Constantine was born in 285 in what is today Bulgaria. His father was a military tribune and, after 305, emperor in the western part of the Roman Empire, which had been divided into four parts by Diocletian to make it easier to rule.

Constantine like his father delighted in warfare and was also very cruel. He was always waging war against several Germanic tribes. He had great numbers of defeated enemies thrown to the lions in the circus, and had two defeated princes torn apart by bears.
Then Constantine, in a ten-year civil war, subdued his three co-emperors. For some time he sided with Licinius, one of the other emperors, until Licinus had done away with co-emperor Maximin, at which point, Constantine turned on Licinius. Before this, Constantine had first eliminated his competitor Maxentius, in the famous battle of Milvic bridge (312) where, supposedly, Constantine had a vision: “In this sign you will be victorious.”
The followers and families of his defeated opponents in battle were mercilessly exterminated. Constantine swore that he would spare Licinus, the last to be defeated, but only a year later, Constantine had Licinus strangled.
Constantine’s cruelty did not stop at his own family. The British historian Shelly writes: “This cold-blooded and hypocritical brute cut his son’s throat, strangled his wife, murdered his father-in-law and his own brother-in-law …”; but this does not mean that Constantine did so by his own hand. He had his wife killed, because she was accused of adultery (but not proven) – he himself however was a notorious adulterer.
Constantine had a splendid palace built; he dressed in the highest luxury and pomp, had himself addressed as “representative of God,” or as “our deity” (nustrum numen), and had himself celebrated by the clergy as “Messiah” and “Redeemer.”
With this, we come to this mutual usefulness: Constantine granted privileges to the Church and the Church, in turn, justified his excessive power.
During his whole life, until right before his death (337), Constantine was not officially a Christian. He only accepted baptism at the very end, and then not Catholic, but “heretical,” namely, Aryan. In the early years of his reign, while he still ruled Gaul, Constantine promoted paganism. Later he did not commit himself to Christianity, and had coins minted, for instance, that bore the image of the sun god.
It therefore cannot have been inner conviction that caused Constantine to seek an alliance with the Church.
The decisive point was that in Gaul there were few Christians. But then Constantine started conquering Italy, where there were many Christians. In some regions of Asia Minor, which he conquered last, half the population was Christian. Therefore, the aid of the Church was welcome.
Deschner writes: Constantine, who had traveled from his early years on, was well informed, including in matters of religious policy – especially when it came to the strict, almost military ranks of the Catholics, spanning the entire empire, as the most disciplined and most self-contained organization of late antiquity. And in this church he perceived a model of his own empire, a prefiguration of it. (p. 242)
The collaboration between Constantine and the Church stamped by Paul was a success from the very beginning. The Church unleashed a defamatory campaign against Constantine’s first opponent, Maxentius. To this day, Maxentius is considered a bloodthirsty persecutor of Christianity and the epitome of wickedness and tyranny. In reality, Maxentius was a competent and moderate ruler; he was not prone to war and he tolerated the Christians. But he sent two Roman Christian bishops into exile, because there had been a great argument among the “Christians” after the bishops’ election. Maxentius levied taxes equally, also among the rich, and the Church even then was not on the side of the poor, or the less war-mongering, and therefore less powerful, politicians.
As soon as Constantine had established himself in Rome after defeating Maxentius, he showed his gratitude: The Church received large gifts of property and was given back church property. The Church of Rome alone received “in excess of one ton of gold and almost ten tons of silver” (p. 236). From the state coffers, which he filled by exploiting his subjects, Constantine financed huge and magnificent church buildings everywhere in the empire. But not only that: He dispensed the clergy from taxes and gave them the right to be named heirs (which before, only pagan cults had enjoyed and only in exceptional cases). He even gave the Church legal jurisdiction: Against the judgement of a bishop there was no appeal.
Deschner: Not a few bishops could already imitate the character and ceremony of the imperial court. They had claim to special titles, to incense, were greeted with genuflection, and sat on a throne that was the likeness of God’s throne. To others they preached humility! (p. 238)
In a very short time, the Church became so rich and privileged that Constantine had to take measures. For instance, he limited the possibilities of the rich to become clerics – because in this way they wanted to evade taxation! Under Constantine’s subsequent successors, the right of the Church to inherit was again limited, but not permanently.
You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Already in 314 the Church decided that Christians who refused military service had to be banned from the Church – a complete turnabout, as it had been those who took up arms who were banned before.
The distribution of roles was clearly defined: The emperor had the say-so, even in religious matters. For instance, he called the Council of Nicaea in 325 and dictated the creed which has been valid ever since. The emperor was the highest god-like ruler. The church dignitaries followed right behind, often living in the same splendor. And they showed their gratitude by justifying the emperor’s power and his wars, by covering up his cruel deeds, and by constantly flattering him.
Constantine – the original image of the symbiosis between church and state. Deschner writes: Constantine’s predecessors had feared Christianity and had at times fought it. He turned it to his ends by granting a plethora of favors and privileges … In fact he used the clergy and forced his will upon it … The church became powerful but it lost all freedom …He and they[Constantine and the bishops] turned the church into the state church … (p. 242 f.)
Constantine, even though he was not a believing Catholic, gave the Church free rein in the early persecution of dissidents, when, for example, pagan temples were destroyed by the “Christian” mob. Apparently under the influence of the clergy, Constantine passed anti-Jewish laws, among them the death penalty for converts from Christianity to Judaism. At times, for political expediency and tellingly not consistent, Constantine persecuted the heretical movements of the Donatists in North Africa and the Marcionites. The Donatists were opposed to a union of throne and altar and combined with rebellious farm workers against the large landowners. Of course, this was not what church and state had in mind!
Under Constantine’s rule, the term “Catholic” appears for the first time – certainly no coincidence – to separate the Church from so-called “heretics.”
This will do as a historical flash-black.

The true Christian religion, the religion of inward striving to develop the kingdom of the inner being, that is, to open the heart to all people and all animals, to the world of plants and minerals, was sacrificed by the priests, by Saul, and by Constantine, the pagan. And all this and further horrible deeds throughout the Middle Ages and into our times, God supposedly commanded. This is confirmed by the Vatican in the Second Vatican Council:
God is the author of the Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of the Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical (meaning: belonging to the revealed word of God) the books of the Old and New Testaments, whole and entire with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.” (2nd Vatican Council: “Dei Verbum” 11, quoted from Catholic Catechism, No. 105).
God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.” (No. 106).

Let us call to mind again what God spoke through Malachi: For I, the Lord, do not change … He is eternally the same; His nature was brought closer to us by Jesus. God revealed Himself as the one that He is, through all true prophets of God. Following, we read some words of God from the Old Testament:
Through Isaiah He speaks:
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats. (Is. 1:11)
And further: Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. (Is. 1:13)
Or would Jesus, were He among us as a human being today, quote Isaiah? When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil. (Is. 1:15-16)

A person searching for a heart for animals in the so-called “Christian” churches will search in vain, just as when searching for a heart for people. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1993, a book from Rome that has about 800 pages, we find animals mentioned only on pages 640 and 650: The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man’s domination over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation. (No. 2415)
Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals. (No. 2416)
God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals, if it remains within reasonable limits, is a morally acceptable practice since it contributes to caring for or saving human lives. (No. 2417)
It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals, one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons. (No. 2418)
The domination granted by the Creator over the mineral, vegetable, and animals resources of the universe cannot be separated from respect for moral obligations, including those toward generations to come. (No. 2456)
Animals are entrusted to man’s stewardship; he must show them kindness. They may be used to serve the just satisfaction of man’s needs. (No. 2457)
It seems paranoid to read, for example: Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present and future humanity. God, who is life, has never created anything lifeless. In all of creation, there is no “inanimate being” and no “inanimate nature.” This is, like so many things, the interpretation of human beings who do not grasp the life, who themselves presume to play the role of creator and who play their games with simple-minded believers – with those who do not use their brains to get to the bottom of the whole paranoid hypocrisy. If God had created lifeless beings or inanimate aspects of nature, then there would be no all-encompassing life that is God, but a part that is “lifeless matter.” But there is no form, no substance, no mass without life. The life maintains the form. If the form, that is, the mass, decays, the life changes to a different aggregate state.

God is limitless, eternal life. God is love. He expressed His love in the following or similar words: Subdue the earth. – Nature is God’s creation. It serves us for our joy. It should be a concern of ours to see ourselves as one with nature and to live accordingly. But the so-called common good, mentioned by the Churches, means exploitation at the cost of animals, plants and minerals for the enjoyment of human beings.

The Catholic Catechism continues on page 640: Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives.
What might the Church mean by “moral imperatives?” Perhaps the slaughterhouses of today, which are charnel houses of the tortured and killed animals, serving the “highly moral” society, as carcasses.
Perhaps with “moral imperatives” is meant that the animals are not killed right before the eyes of the consumer, thus avoiding his having to listen to the death cries, instead hiding these murderous procedures behind the thick walls of slaughterhouses?
Imagine that a hotel guest who orders “beef Stroganoff” would first have to look into the eyes of a young bull, wide with fear, and witness how the animal is slaughtered, butchered, cut open while still twitching, skinned, sawed and hacked apart, while the penetrating odor of blood wafts about the fine guest, until finally the appropriate pieces of carcass, well-aged, are handed to the chef for the preparation of a tasty meal.
Perhaps then the hotel guest would prefer not to have the meal, after all? This is truly respect for a justified “moral imperative!” Perhaps the guest’s aesthetic sensibility would be troubled, or he could consider such exposure contrary to all rules of decency? Perhaps not only the guest’s stomach would turn over, but “moral sensibility” might also be stirred? For this reason the “respect for moral imperatives” should rightly not be disregarded in the “use of animals” or their carcass parts.
A moral imperative might also be that the use of animals for laboratory experiments, for mass husbandry or to supply fur, or other common forms of use, exploitation and consumption should take place with as little intrusion on the weak nerves and sentimental inclinations of people as possible?
Perhaps respect for moral imperatives would also be that the vocal chords of animals, such as dogs, monkeys or pigs, be cut when they are used in laboratories and scientific experimentation rooms? Their cries, weeping, lamentations, sighs and other sounds might offend the passers-by in the street. Or the cries of the “used” animals might even irritate the keepers, laboratory assistants, doctors and other employees working for scientific progress – who surely have strong nerves and iron guts, little touched by any stirrings of conscience – if they just happen to be having a nerve-wracking day. That might happen to anybody from time to time, right?

According to a scholar of Protestant-Lutheran theology, animals do not play a significant role in the Protestant faith. In the Creed of the Protestant-Lutheran Church of 1530 which is still binding today, animals are not even mentioned.
Martin Luther himself is accused of gluttony by his opponents. Only the upper class could afford meat in those days, for the poor it was the exception, not the rule. It is likely that Luther ate a lot of meat. His corpulence and his illnesses would indicate it. With each meal four pints of Southern wine were served and he drank plenty of beer.

When his fellow reformer, Philipp Melanchton came to Nuremberg, he was fed the following: Pig’s head and tenderloin roast in sour sauce, trout, partridges with capon, roasted wild boar with pepper sauce … This is how it went when Master Philipp came … everyday fare was more modest. (Veranstaltungen in Luthers Landen, Kulturmagazin für Sachsen und Thüringen, [Events in Luther’s Regions of Influence, Culture Magazine for Saxony and Thuringia] 1997, p. 12)
 What did the “Little Prince” say again? You see well only with the heart. Perhaps today he would say to us: You read well only with the heart, for instance an article in the German weekly, die ZEIT [Time] of April 2, 1998, under the heading The Lamb of God. The article discusses the connection between butchers and priests. It concludes with the following sentence: Christian theology, in its tradition of forgotten creatures that excludes the non-human creation from the Good News, has not done its part.
Here are some excerpts from the text: The Brotherhood of Butcher-Journeymen is celebrating its 100-year anniversary in the Friedenskirche in Federwardergroden, a section of Wilhelmshaven. The highpoint of the ecumenical worship service is the blessing of the brotherhood’s new flag, which depicts the Christian Easter lamb and the flag of resurrection. The congregation had sung “Christ, you Lamb of God, you bear the sins of the world, have mercy on us” moments before.
But the butchers’ guilds anniversary service caused some offence. The animal rights movement of the neighboring town of Schortens confronts the minister and priest with an unexpected question: How can the churches tolerate the fact that the symbol of the Christ-Lamb adorns the flag of animal murderers? At their wits end, the clerics pass the question on to the butchers, who defend themselves by pointing to the old age of their guild symbol.
Only an episode. But it raises the tough question: What does a butcher have in common with a man of God?
Interestingly, the butcher’s guild cites the ritual slaughter committed by the priests. The words of an old butcher-guild song, reprinted in the anniversary brochure of the Heilbronn butchers’ guild go: “If there is a guild deserving of fame and praise, then it is the butchers’ guild, which is highly-praised even in its origins; because it has been shown that it stems from the order of Leviticus who in the Old Covenant butchered the animals for sacrifice, offering them to the Lord at the altar.”
The author of the article then poses the question: Are butchers secularized priests? …
The oldest preserved guild flag, that of the 15th-century Bern butchers shows both symbols: The Christ-lamb with the resurrection flag and a bull with two hatchets hovering threateningly above.
The following description of an “individual public slaughter” will tell a lot to those who read with the heart: A shot rings out. A metal bullet pierces the pig’s brain. The light goes out of the eyes. The animal collapses on the floor. Two butchers roll the body to the side, one holds the jerking hind legs, the other, the master, holds the front legs and the head. Quick as lightning he punctures the animal’s throat. The butcher’s wife comes with a metal basin to catch the animal’s gushing blood. The body, while being drained of blood is still violently jerking and kicking.
The butcher caresses the pig’s head and explains to the group of watching vegetarians and TV-reporters: “The animal cannot resist. It is completely in my power. I feel in my hand how the life is flowing from it. Meanwhile, his wife, with an expression of tension and compassion, dips her hand in the dark red liquid of life that is still restlessly foaming in the butcher’s basin. After half an hour, the animal is already hanging upside down from a butcher rack, shaved and dressed. The tension among the surviving participants is broken with a round of clear liquor. “Now it is no longer an animal, now it is meat! Cheers!” The butcher, “master of life and death:” … He “caresses the pig’s head.” “I feel in my hand how the life is flowing from it.”

Let your feelings speak to you.
In meat factories, where 700 pigs are slaughtered in an hour, the conditions for this comparatively “humane” approach to a process that is unavoidable for the “use” of animals for food are, of course, not there. The article continues: It is enlightening to consider the connection between butcher and church in the Fifth Regulation of the Wurttemberg Butchers’ Code of 1651 (printed 1701 in Stuttgart). On pain of a one-guilder fine it is prohibited to “lead animals to the slaughterhouse or to the butcher during a sermon, or especially during the night.” This is not an ethical question, but concerns the resulting noise. The death cries of the butchered animal shall disrupt neither the sermon nor the night’s rest.
The Easter lamb with the flag of resurrection is the official seal of the butcher’s guild.

The article The Lamb of God contains the following significant sentence: Eating meat is God’s concession to human weakness. That is close to the truth. We know, from the Christ of God in This Is My Word and from other revelations, that the Prophet Moses, who had to contend with a headstrong people, some of whom longed to return to the “meat pots of Egypt,” clearly taught “You shall not kill,” but that he finally silently accepted the fact that meat was nevertheless being eaten among the people. It is therefore true: a concession to human weakness – but not God’s concession.
Many who like to eat meat use the argument in their defense that Jesus ate the Easter lamb, as is told in the Bible. But let us hear what He has to say on this Himself:
Neither the apostles nor the disciples gave the order to slaughter a lamb. But as a gift of love, parts of a prepared lamb were offered to Me as well as to the apostles and disciples. With this, our neighbors wanted to make a gift for us, for they did not know better. I blessed the gift and began to partake of the meat. My apostles and disciples did the same. Afterwards, they asked Me in the following sense: We should refrain from consuming meat. This is what You have commanded of us. Now You, Yourself, have consumed meat.
I instructed My own that man should not willfully kill an animal nor should he consume the meat of animals which were killed for the consumption of their meat. However, when people who are still unknowing have prepared meat as nourishment and make of it a gift to the guest, offering it with the meal, then the guest should not reject the gift. For there is a difference whether a person consumes meat because he craves for meat or as a token of gratitude to the host for his effort.
However, when it is possible for him and outer circumstances and time permit, the knowing person should give general indications to the host, but should not want to set him right. When the time is ripe, the host, too, will understand these general indications.
In this world, understanding and tolerance, too, are aspects of selfless love. Leave to each person his free will whether or not he wants to understand and accept your general indications. If you always think, speak and act selflessly, you abide in love and love will bless you. What is then offered to you, as a gift of love, is blessed. (This Is My Word, pp. 786-787)
 
And so, Jesus did not eat meat, for He lived the law of God.

In the Protestant-Lutheran Catechism little is said about animals. For the institutional churches, animals are little more than an object and thus not worthy of in-depth consideration. This is apparent from the article “The Lamb of God” in ZEIT. Here I quote the few remarks about animals from the German Protestant Catechism for Adults (translated from the German Evangelischer Erwachsenenkatechismus, 5th ed. 1989, [Lutheran Catechism for Adults] to which the page numbers also refer):

Man is charged with “working and keeping” the garden. And so, work is a part of mankind from the beginning. Through work man should develop and at the same time preserve the environment that has been entrusted to him (animals, plants, water, air). In this context also belongs the story of the creation of animals. God brings man the animals and entrusts them to his care … Love and honor for the Creator should also be visible in the way that creation is cared for. Man remains responsible to the Creator for his entire conduct. (p. 40) These statements in the Protestant Catechism are probably meant to ridicule God, if they are contrasted with the article in ZEIT.

The Protestant Catechism continues: ... The animal in particular makes profanity of conception, birth and death in the lack of inhibitions or taboos concerning these, which appear as most inhuman and alien to our nature. It is only the sense of shame and the burial rites of people that mark the beginning of the history of mankind. No animals conceal their genitals, none honors and buries their dead (p. 508).

It is ironic that the Lutheran Catechism would choose to speak of profanity, of the lack of inhibitions or taboos concerning conception – while the revered founder of this religion used incredibly vulgar language, for example: Why do you not belch and fart, did you not like the food? [table talk]. Or from his slander of the Jews: The devil has shit in his pants and emptied the belly once again. That is a right holy shrine that the Jews and those who would be Jews should kiss, eat, drink and sanctify, and in turn the devil should also eat and drink what such disciples will vomit, throwing out from above or below … The devil now eats with his English snout and devours with lust what the upper and lower mouth of the Jews retches and spews out. (Luther Writings XXXII, p. 282, Erlang Edition) Or: Here in Wittenberg, a sow is hewn in stone at our parish church; there lie young piglets and Jews below it who suckle; behind the sow there stands a rabbi, who lifts the sow’s right leg, and with his left hand he draws the tail over himself, stooping forward and looking with great industry below the tail into the sow’s Talmud, as if he would read and spy upon something sharp and peculiar … For this is how one speaks among the Germans of one who claims great wisdom without basis: Where did he read it? Bluntly put, in the sow’s ass. (ibid. at p. 298)

Reading about the lack of inhibitions or taboos concerning these (conception, birth and death), which appear as most inhuman and alien to our nature, we are reminded of the sexuality without taboos or inhibitions of people who advertise their promiscuity on television and in the internet, or publish it in newspapers. Animals mate at certain times, human beings revel in their physical drives with whom and where they please.

There is nothing more alien to our nature, namely, to our original, spiritual being, than the human being. He has become what he is through his godlessness. The main responsibility for this is borne by church dignitaries who are as God does not want them to be. The birth of an animal in my opinion is one of the most noble things. The animal gives birth according to the laws of nature. Rarely, it cries or complains at giving birth, as, for example, human beings do. And what about death? The animal lags behind the herd, finds a quiet place, and dies. It dies in dignity, according to the laws of nature, compared to some people who go through a death-struggle because during their entire lives they struggled against the love for God and for neighbor.

Where is there still a sense of shame? Certainly not in man! The animal does not need a sense of shame because it lives according to the laws of nature. And the animal does not need funeral rites. Nature does not dictate these, only the Church does. And the animals do not need to conceal their genitals because they do not sin with them, unlike man. Or should animals wear drawers in order not to tempt the “devil” even more, who takes his off without shame anyway?

The Protestant Catechism gives us the chance to look even “deeper”: A comparison of the social behavior of human beings and animals shows that no animal goes through such a comparatively long childhood – a period of development and of differentiated processes of learning and socialization – before it becomes sexually mature, as human beings do. (p. 509)

What label and what “dignity” does a human being bear, despite such a lengthy childhood? What is triggered in human beings with the onset of sexual maturity would fill volumes. The sexual show-off should in no way be compared to the animal. The animal would not act this way, anyway. If the values and perversions of man and animals were compared, in whose favor would the scales tip?

The Protestant Catechism further enlightens us: Considering the great success of space travel one will ask: How is it possible that man alone is capable of such accomplishments? Man is by nature endowed with the predispositions to grow beyond himself (p. 640).

Human beings have in fact grown beyond themselves. They do everything to destroy their environment, which is also that of the animals.

Technological and scientific progress so far has not brought mankind unity, peace, prosperity for everyone, health, or true happiness. If we take mankind’s growing beyond itself to refer to the hubris and sheer madness that utterly holds human beings and creation in contempt, then we may well agree that man has gone way beyond his limits in more ways and more excessively than ever before.

That man should be so inherently inclined toward this by nature is the view of the Churches but not the will of God, who spoke through Jesus of Nazareth, for instance: If you do not become like little children …(Mt. 18:3) and: You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt 5:48) With these words He wanted to tell us that we should come into our divine heritage by overcoming the base human aspects in us, the non-divine. He did not speak of the conquest of space through mankind, nor of the creation of new human beings in test tubes and the creation of a new nature and a new Earth through genetic engineering and other assaults on God’s wise order of creation.

Those who read all this and more should automatically ask themselves whether they still want to belong to the Lutheran Church.

The Church is silent but Jesus, the Christ, speaks and is revealing Himself again today. In the book This Is My Word, He reveals among many other things the eternal law of love in relation to the animals. From the many remarks, teachings and instructions about animals, I choose only a few to pass on here.
Therefore be considerate, kind, sympathetic and friendly not only to your own kind, but also to every creature which is within your care, for you are as gods to them, whom they look up to in their need. Beware of anger, for many sin in anger and repent of it when their anger is past. (p. 180)
Never slaughter an animal for your personal use. Behold, nature, the life of creation, provides for you. The fruits of the fields, of the gardens and the forests should be sufficient for you. And never trample on life intentionally, neither that of the animals nor that of the plants. The one who intentionally tramples on life creates causes. It is as if he tramples on his own life, and he will suffer from it. (p. 181)
Blessed are you in the inner circle, who hear My word and to whom the mysteries are revealed, who do not imprison or kill any innocent creature, but seek the good in all, for to such belongs eternal life. (p. 195)
Only the soul and the person who are filled with My Spirit keep what I have commanded them. People of the Spirit will not take or hold captive innocent creatures, much less kill them. The one who lives in the truth knows that infinite love operates and is active in every creature. People in the Spirit of truth live with nature and all its creatures. (p. 197)

The egocentric person, the domineering man, expects his fellow man to serve him. He also demands that an animal serve him beyond its capacity and strength. He gives orders – and does not serve. For this reason, he inflicts unspeakable torment on people and animals. If a person makes his fellow men dependent on him – as if they were slaves – he will also enslave the animals. The one who no longer listens to his conscience becomes hard-hearted towards man and animal. … Nor does he sense anymore what his neighbor and the animal need. When a person’s senses have become brutal, the whole person is poor in feeling. (p. 202)
Jesus went to Jerusalem and came upon a camel with a heavy burden of wood. The camel could not haul its load up the hill and the driver beat it and treated it cruelly, but could not get the animal to move. And as Jesus saw it, He said to him, “Why do you beat your brother?” And the man retorted, “I did not know that it is my brother. Is it not a beast of burden, made to serve me?”
And Jesus said, “Has not the same God created this animal and your children who serve you from the same material and have you not both received the same breath from God?” (p. 420)
Is it not written in the prophets: Take your blood sacrifices and your burnt offerings, and away with them. Stop eating meat; for I did not speak of this to your forefathers, nor have I commanded them to do so when I led them out of Egypt … (p. 431)
In the law of God, nothing is written about blood sacrifice nor about burnt offering, nor about the deliberate killing of animals, nor even about the consumption of the flesh of animals …
It is a law that man should practice justice and mercy and walk humbly to the Kingdom of God of the inner being, where the true and eternal home of the soul is … From the beginning, God gave man the fruits, the seeds and the plants for nourishment … (p. 433)
The one who sheds innocent blood, who consumes flesh is merciless and will have to suffer his own lack of mercy on himself. (p. 434)
Jesus came into a village and saw there a stray kitten, and it suffered from hunger and cried out to Him. And He picked it up, wrapped it in His robe and let it rest at His breast.
And when He went through the village, He gave the cat to eat and to drink. And it ate and drank and showed Him its thanks. And He gave it to one of His disciples, a widow called Lorenza, and she took care of it. (pp. 337-438)
And some of His disciples came to Him and spoke to Him about an Egyptian, a son of Belial, who taught that it is not against the law to torment animals if their suffering brings profit to people … (p. 461)
The one who hunts animals will himself be hunted one day. The one who torments animals will himself be tormented one day ...
The hands of the one who torments or kills animals are stained with blood. The one who consumes the flesh of animals, who pollutes and violates nature is impure. Such people can neither deal with holy matters nor experience the so-called “mysteries” of the heavens, nor even teach or explain the law of the heavens. (p. 462)
The so-called clergy, which speaks against nature, against love for animals, which consumes meat and fish, cannot treat holy matters nor fathom the “mysteries” of the heavens nor teach the law of heaven and interpret it. They are the blind guides, who in turn lead other blind people into the pit. They are the spiritually dead, who in turn only deal with other spiritually dead who then surround them.
And again I say to you: Anyone who seeks to possess the body of any creature for food, for pleasure or for profit thereby defiles himself. (p. 543)
For the one who does violence to man or animal and disregards life sins against the life of the person or of the animal. The same holds true for plants, stones and minerals. All forms of life bear in themselves the life from God. They sense what their neighbors intend to do with them and feel it as joy or pain. What man does to his neighbor or to a form of life falls back on him. (pp. 543-544)
“Do you not know what is written? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. I, the Lord, am weary of your burnt sacrifices and your vain offerings, for your hands are full of blood. And is it not written: What is the true sacrifice? Wash and cleanse yourselves and remove the evil from before My eyes; stop doing evil and learn to do good. Do justice for the fatherless and the widows and to all those who are oppressed. And in this way, you will fulfill the law. The day will come when everything that is in the outer court and is part of the blood sacrifices will be taken away, and the pure worshippers will worship the Eternal in purity and in truth.” (p. 561)

Dear reader, what you will now read will oblige you to make a decision – depending on whether you have a heart for the animals: for God or for the church institutions; one cannot serve two masters.
In the name of God or in the name of the church institutions.

To the degree that people have exaggerated notions of themselves, they fail to appreciate the animals.
Many people believe that they are free people. The so-called freedom of a person, however, corresponds to his state of consciousness which is often like a wall beyond which he cannot see.
According to the cosmic laws, man is the microcosm within the macrocosm.
In our innermost being we are beings of the light, fully mature spirit beings that we people should once again become, for Jesus of Nazareth said: You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:48) The animals also bear the life of God, but in their spiritual body the forces of life, of the law, God, are not yet fully developed and active. Animals are on a lower evolutionary step in the process of growth toward the filiation of God.
On our way to becoming man, we have shadowed ourselves through unlawful sensing, feeling, thinking, speaking and acting, enveloping ourselves with a cloak of transformed-down energies and our own self-created burdens. But the connection to the eternal Being, the pure spiritual macrocosm, remains despite its weakened state. The life, God, to which we once belonged, is unity, freedom, cosmic boundlessness.
The animals, our second neighbors, cannot burden themselves. Unlike human beings, they live according to their spiritual degree of development.

Those who become aware of the cosmic realities will realize that the microcosm, man, not only lives in limitation, but whiles away his days in a dungeon that is nothing but his narrow world of desires and needs. According to the individual’s capacity to comprehend, he looks only to his limitation, which he calls “the world.”
A person speaks of “freedom” by referring to his greater or smaller possessions, which he calls his property. His “property” is his little world – and ultimately his “personality” with its opinions and notions, prejudices, envy, conceit, self-righteousness and the belittlement of others – which he desperately defends. Metaphorically, man erects thick walls of defensiveness and rejection around himself, and through the narrow embrasures he distrustfully shoots thought-energies and emotions at anyone who might contest the one thing or the other. His “free space,” his so-called “property” is restricted by him with corresponding stop signs like field markers, fences and hedges. His “property” gives him a “sense of freedom”; but this “freedom” has nothing to do with the cosmic freedom.

Animals, on the other hand, are free. The Creator left to them the entire Earth, nature, which knows no demarcations. The objection might be made that animals, especially the more highly developed living beings, mark their territory and limit themselves to a particular area. But consider the following: On the one hand, the markings of animals are messages to others of their kind. An animal’s territory is at the same time the habitat of many other species of animals. On the other hand, not all potential aptitudes from creation have developed in the spiritual animal form, that is, not all aspects of the spiritual consciousness of life, we could also say, of the divine law. The degree of unfoldment of consciousness we might call the state of consciousness. The territories and habitats of animals, including the animals in their physical bodies, correspond to their current state of consciousness, which carries within itself further evolutionary steps.

Each evolutionary step of an animal therefore corresponds to its state of consciousness, which the macrocosm, the All-Law, slowly builds up and expands in the animal. This means that each animal continues to develop according to its life cycles, which are active in the macrocosm and accompany the animal’s evolutionary steps.
God, the All-Spirit is life, and life is constant evolution. Because God is infinity, there can be no standstill, but continuous evolution. This means that infinity is constantly in motion, in never-abating evolution.
If the behavior of animals is the subject matter here, then it is a description of the fundamental, natural conditions. What is meant is the animal which is still unspoiled and not yet wrongly programmed by people. No further mention need be made in this context of the fact that in terms of energy and from the very beginning man has affected the animals, imposing upon them his own negative programs – not only directly through training, and breeding and cross-breeding, but also indirectly through his “example,” through his whole behavior, his sensing, feeling, thinking, speaking and acting.

We human beings call the animals’ state of consciousness which imposes certain limits on them “instinct.” But the state of consciousness of animals has not developed through wrong behavior, as it did in human beings. Instead, it is the natural present state of evolution, the evolutionary step, of this life form.
The negative behavior of people, on the contrary, is directed against our true consciousness and reduces this consciousness more and more. We limit ourselves though wanting to have that which we call our property, but which is only an illusion. This illusion is removed by death, because as souls we can take nothing earthly with us, neither goods, nor money nor other possessions.
Our ego, which is our little world, is our “property”; it has many variants.
Our so-called “property” might, for example, be our obsession for power, our avarice, brutality, tyranny, or delight in tormenting people and animals. Every person reacts according to what lies in the scale of his human predispositions, in his ego, which became his state of consciousness through his thinking and acting. Animals on the other hand live according to their evolutionary state, according to what is presently active in their consciousness. It is the animals’ present state of evolution or consciousness.

Man should be the image of God: love, kindness, unity, goodwill and freedom. In this consciousness, man would be one with animals and plants, with the entire nature kingdoms, including the elementary forces, the stars and planets, the cosmos, the All – and with himself. His egotistical attitude has made man discordant, perverse and unfree. Man seeks to tack onto the animals his own base behavior against nature. But the animal is free, because it is “normal” and lives according to the laws of nature, true to itself. Every animal consciously carries within itself the divine freedom, which continues to open up to it with each evolutionary step. The macrocosm guides the microcosm, the animal, in pre-determined cycles, no matter what the animal’s state of consciousness may be; this is why the animal feels free.
Man as well carries the cosmic freedom within himself. But it is covered up by the narrowness of the ego, by the world of the externalized senses, for example, and by the muddled labyrinth of thoughts that some call intelligence.
Love is the highest fount of Being. Love, which the Creator-Spirit also placed into the animals, can be recognized, for instance, in the maternal love of mammals. With how much care and consideration the cat cares for her young, or how much maternal instinct, how much tenderness and care a lioness has for her cubs, even though she might be hunting a gazelle! The cubs may climb all over her body, as much and as long as they like – the lioness remains still and is happy with the cubs’ liveliness. A blackbird as well shows her maternal feelings for a long, long time. She will feed the blackbird baby, without limitation, until it can find food itself. I am also thinking about the loyalty of animals, like horses which give themselves completely and may sacrifice their lives to carry people for miles and miles. Or the devotion of a dog which leads a blind person or tries to rescue someone buried in an avalanche.

You might object that we human beings have trained animals to perform these feats. But how come such training can succeed? Why can we train dogs as seeing-eye dogs? This is possible only because these animals and many others have an instinctive intelligence to do justice by man, to serve him. Anyone who is mindful of what the animals do for people, how they make many sacrifices in order to serve and help them, should be filled with gratitude. But all those who have fallen victim to the desires of their ego will merely use people and animals for their purposes. Whether they can be considered the image of God, must be placed in doubt.
In every animal, but in every plant as well, the mighty creator-force is present: God, the omnipresent universal eternal Spirit, the All-intelligence. Anyone who has a heart for nature may sense in the expression of an animal, or in the beauty of a plant, in the shape of a rock, or in liquid substances that Earth could be a paradise.

To justify the boundless exploitation of nature, the following words of the Creator are often quoted: Subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28). The word “subdue,” however does not mean that animals may be tormented, forests and plants annihilated, or that everything may be destroyed that is within mankind’s grasp. The word “subdue” means the commandment of preserving the nature kingdoms and the entire Earth. We are called upon to treat animals with love and to care for them. We are called upon to respect, cherish and love all life forms on Earth, even Earth as a whole, because everything in all things is the work of the Almighty – the love for mankind, animals, plants and rocks, for the entire Earth.

Anyone who has ever cared for an animal feels that he has grown internally richer and more conscious of nature. But anyone who builds meat factories and slaughterhouses, or who condones these by consuming the flesh of his second neighbors, such a person’s consciousness will grow more and more narrow because such a person is impoverished in his inner being.

Their eyes are broken by suffering, pain and fright. They sense why they are being held. Their gazes accuse human beings.
Why do you kill us? Why do you cook, fry and cut up our body? Did the Creator not give you the herbs and the fruits of the fields and forests? What have we done to you that you keep us in prisons and feed us your waste products?
Your hearts are poor in feeling and merciless. A stone contains life; but your hearts are made of stone by comparison. In your breasts there beats only a muscle for yourself and your welfare. Learn to be compassionate by putting yourself in our position. Even though we are animals, we live and feel, like you do, for life is feeling, sensing and perceiving. We perceive the purpose of your keeping animals.

The prophet denounces:
Man has become a brute, heartlessly butchering, tearing down and locking up everything that may serve his heartless avarice. He forgets that one day he, too, will live in the tightest and filthiest space or even in prison – for what a person sows, he will reap. The crimes against animals are the same as crimes against man, because man and animals have the same breath, which is the life, and it is God. The keeping of economically useful animals is like wanton killing. It is a sin against life, that is God.

The animal laments:
Why all this? Why do you torture me? Why do you want to train me for dogfights? I am the Creator’s creature, not an animal for the sake of your wantonness, for the sake of your games. My whole body aches, my muscles and bones are about to burst – pain, pain everywhere. Why all this, what have I done to you?

The prophet denounces:
Man, the murderous bull, has bred himself a “bull-terrier” to train for dogfights so that over-satiated, sensation-lusting people can be amused by dogfights. The many sad pictures, each and every one, all symbolize the execution of the person according to the law of sowing and reaping.
Jesus said: As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. (Mt. 25:40) Not only people are among His brethren, but also our fellow creatures, the animals, our animal brothers and sisters, because they also, like people, were given the life by God. What people do to fellow humans or animals, they do to Christ.
People intrude in the omnipotence of God and torment the animal world. This means that all those who torture animals, train them, or let them run on a treadmill like the dog-brother in the picture, will one day suffer the same or similar things on their own bodies.

Do not complain, you heartless, cruel tormentors of animals, when one day you will be chased for miles, as if hunted through the desert, when you will be attacked and torn apart by an animal that you have trained to tear apart its kind. Do not complain when your limbs ache and your body is covered with wounds and pustules. Do not complain when your fellow men have no compassion for you because they treat you as you have treated and treat the animals. Do not accuse God; you have caused it; you suffer as you have made people and animals to suffer.

The animal lamented,
before it was forced to run in the murderous military horserace. I do not have the strength to go through what you people are demanding of me. I do not have the bones or muscles in my body to sustain this!
Have mercy! The Creator of all beings has entrusted us animals to you so that you may give us the love which the Creator also breathed into you. Where has the compassionate love for your fellow creatures gone? Have you traded love and compassion for cruelty, brutality and murder?
I go to an early death because of your murderous behavior. How will you end one day and where will you be one day when life has passed from you, the human being?

The prophet denounces:
Where will all those be one day who have ridden an animal to death in such a manner? When and how will they meet death on the racetrack of their lives? According to the law of cause and effect, those who have produced such causes will have to feel the pain of the animals in their own body or on the body of their soul after their physical death. All our actions, preceded by our thoughts and desires, are recorded in our soul and in the cells of our body.
Do not be surprised, you fellow men, when your back is broken for no apparent reason. Do not be surprised, and do not accuse God, when you suffer a complicated fractured leg that will not heal. Do not be surprised when, as souls, you are hunted by the world of your desires just as you rode animals to death. Do not be surprised when, as human beings or as souls, you have to suffer and bear the pain of those whom you have tormented, chased and murdered, whether they were animals or humans. Do not be surprised and do not accuse God, or human beings, or animals – you yourself are the accused, for it is only the seed sprouting in your body and in your soul, which you have sown yourself.
And if you should call upon God’s mercy and compassion, then remember the Our Father, which you prayed from time to time. There it says: … and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. But if the person does not achieve forgiveness, because he does not feel remorse for his cruelty, what will be his lot? Only what he has sown. God’s mercy and compassion can be received only by those who are remorseful and ask for forgiveness and no longer do the same or similar things. Those who believe that they suffer innocently will remain in their suffering, even as a soul after death.

Why, why these cruel deeds? Has the spirit of nature, the Creator-Spirit, taught you people this? We suffer in unspeakable agony, for who wants to be butchered or even hung yet living by the legs? When will human beings understand that we feel and because of this, suffer? You only ascribe instinct to us. But instinct also is a part of perception. We perceive what you do to us and who or what approaches us. It is not without knowing why that we flee from people. We instinctively perceive who the person is and what many of them intend.

The prophet denounces:
These turkeys are alive when they are hung by the legs. Dear fellow humans, to test how these your fellow creatures may feel, hang from the beams of your attic. You can see how it is for you and what you feel before unconsciousness sets in. If you then still want to eat the meat of turkeys and other fowl, do not call yourself a human being anymore, but a perverse two-legged animal of prey.
Now some may object by saying that human beings are in the image of God and not perverse two-legged animals of prey. One possible answer might be: Many of these “images of God” have subscribed to evil which has no purpose but to torment and kill God’s creatures and to alter animals and plants through cross-breeding. The so-called image of God, the human being, permitted himself to be changed by evil, so that the image of God became the image of evil, in the face of whom animals flee and plants turn away.
In the long run, evil will not prevail because the core of good remains, even in the evil. Good will overcome evil – even if it is only after a person has tasted his evil seed, for many earth lives, after wading through it, so to speak, to realize that he should become the image of God that he is deep in his soul, in the very basis of his soul. The one who realizes that he is the image of God will begin to love animals, plants and minerals, too; and then the Earth will sigh in relief.

The animals lament:
I am not a dumb goose, whatever they say about me. The spirit of nature equipped me with intelligence. I sense instinctively what happens to me. Often my kind is only “kept” to be slaughtered for the feeding trough of human beings. We animals ask time and again: Why do you humans torment your fellow creatures? Has evil entered into all the hearts of human beings? We animals also want to live our lives just as every person wants to.
You people receive many gifts from nature, through the entire year. Why do you have to fatten up geese, to eat their liver as liver pâté?
The cruelty of mankind is our lot. We do not fear death when our life is fulfilled and draws toward another existence. It is our terror to be killed indifferently and coldly by our fellow creatures, the human beings, who should preserve the Earth and love all that the Earth bears. We animals, your fellow creatures, want to meet you as friends, like brothers and sisters, so to speak. And you? We have done nothing to you. Why do you do this to us?

The prophet denounces:
Animals have done no harm to people. Why do people cause animals such unspeakable suffering? Most people today no longer have guiding examples. The church dignitaries, who ought to be examples of ethics and morality, became heinous and slid down the slippery slide of the ego. On Christmas, for example, they bless their faithful with goose liver in their bellies. They speak of exercising moderation in keeping animals, in slaughtering animals, but any measure is already too much when an animal suffers; then one cannot speak of exercising moderation. Who wants to justify the “moderation,” the suffering animal, before his Creator? The dignitary or the “Books of Moses”?

This is the beastly man, this is what we are, and this will be the suffering of mankind until it has learned to truly love nature – and not just to “like them” for themselves, personally, as Catholicism instructs.
The word “to like” is in stark contrast to love for God, which is love for neighbor. “To like” means to make distinctions between one and the other. “To like” may also mean to regard the animals, our second neighbors, as inferior.
If human beings do not strive for the love for God and for neighbor, then the inferior, for instance, the animals that we should only “like,” will be beaten, tormented and killed … “I like pigs because I like to eat roast pork.” Or: “I like tearing a leg from a barbecued chicken because I like to eat it.”

The love for God, that wants nothing for itself but bears both neighbor and second neighbor in the heart as a part of itself, this love for God is the commandment of true life: without pain, without suffering, without spiritual death.

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