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Home > Miscellaneous > Themes > Theme 67. Heathen
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I consequently established the genuine church, when I walked on earth, and received in it all – Jews, heathens, tax collectors and sinners – and who believed in me, who accepted my teaching and lived accordingly, to them I also sent my spirit after my death – the symbol of my church, which cannot be overcome by the gates of hell.
None of them makes the meaning clear for himself; none of them makes an effort, to be a real Christian, and many Christians look contemptuously down on those men, who are in their eyes heathen or unbelievers, because they do not belong to an official church or community. And for all these will be a terrible awakening in future, when they have departed earth unredeemed and are to account for their way of life; when the degree of love is so low that no little light accompanies it at its entry in the opposite kingdom. Only then they will have to seek for the redeemer of mankind and hardly find him, because they had no real faith in him, but they can never be happy without it.
But how many men on earth believe, being "Christians" through the mere confessing of Jesus Christ with the mouth, therefore being entitled to redemption through him. They believe, having escaped the supposed fate of those, who are heathen in their eyes. They believe, that their "faith" in Jesus Christ and his work of redemption is enough, but which is only a form faith after all, so long the inner transformation to a living Christian has not yet happened in them. But for that reason these form Christians will also not be able to resist, when they are forced to the last decision; they will then give up faith with an easier heart, because it has not yet been alive in them, and they will testify to this, that they are and were true heathen, who had just gotten themselves a false name.
^ B.D. NR. 6699
And his light lighted the way for all, for Jews and also for heathen.
^ B.D. NR. 6834
Only the life according to his teaching gives man the right, to call himself a Christian, otherwise men remain dark heathen, whether they belong to a church organization or not.
^ B.D. NR. 7718
And when men now speak of me, who are without love, then they just speak words without spirit and life; I am just an idol for them; they disparage me, and they live in deepest heathenism, without cognition of the one true God, who is in himself love, wisdom, and power. They have no God, even so they do not deny him, for I am love, and they lack love - therefore they live without God. And when these now want to testify to me, then you are not allowed to listen to them, because they are able to bring no truth to you, because they only accept a God for the sake of an earthly purpose or wages, to whom they now want to testify.
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