Three Great Divine Revelations |
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Three Great Divine Revelations |
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Overview and Comparison.pdf 155 KB Download
1. General Remarks to Divine Revelations
2. Emanuel Swedenborg Revelations
Emanuel Swedenborg's Life (1688-1772)
Writings and Publications
Jakob Lorber's Life(1800-1864)
The Revealed Writing-Works
The Precursor Roque Rojas (1812-1879)
The Second Coming of the Lord in the Spirit
Writings and Publications
5. Comparison of the Three Great Revelations
Historical Background
Language, Core-Statements, Meaning
6. Explanatory notes to the Website
Acknowledgements and Dedication
Website-Versions
At all times God has made himself known to men in his limitless love in order to show them the way for their mental development: in the biblical times, the First Time, through his prophets and patriarchs; in the Second Time through Jesus Christ and his apostles; and today's, the Third Time, through his ambassadors, prophets or vocal bearers — simple, God-believing people.
Unfortunately, the Christian churches and sects generally reject divine revelations to humanity for the reason that God has already told us with the Bible everything necessary for our salvation.
The goal and the purpose of the divine revelations are the following:
1. To confirm the true teachings of the Holy Scriptures and to re-emphasize and recall the core message;
2. to correct the misinterpretations, dogmas and misconceptions of the churches;
3. to give mankind further teachings about God, his creation, and especially about the nature and task of man — this time in clear text and not in the form of parables, because the comprehension of men today generally encompasses a broader horizon than 2000 years ago, when Jesus said to his disciples:"I would have much more to say to you, but you cannot yet grasp it today".
As we can see from the Holy Scriptures, there have been divine revelations since time immemorial. Whenever men had departed from the path of the divine order, when their religion had degenerated into outer ceremonies, rites, deadlocked traditions and idolatry, God sent them a prophet through whom He again proclaimed His will to the people. Most of the time there were only a few who listened to God's word.
The same thing happened 2000 years ago, when Jesus proclaimed the divine word to mankind, often in the form of similarity and parables, and gave them a living example through his life. Even then, the representatives of the official churches — the Pharisees and scribes — rejected the divine teachings of God's love, goodness and mercy and even led to the execution of Jesus on the cross.
Before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples that He would come back and send them the Holy Spirit as a comforter who would guide them into all truth. To this day, countless speculations and predictions have been made about the Second Coming of the Lord, which have not been fulfilled, so that many people are in doubt and insecurity. The divine revelations, especially the Mexican ones, give a clear answer to the Second Coming of the Lord, in accordance with Jesus' announcements.
If one takes a closer look at the divine revelations, one or the other, at first glance, may find apparent contradictions, the possible reasons for which may be the following:
1. God always speaks to men according to the general spiritual understanding of the respective epoch. The form is also different (similarity, parable, direct statement).
2. Men understand one and the same word as something different, e. g. rebirth, spirit, soul. Sometimes the meaning can therefore only be determined from the context.
3. Despite the utmost care, translation from one language into another inaccuracies can still creep in. Even by typing the manuscript into the computer, a spelling error cannot be completely ruled out, even if the text is carefully test-read.
4. The spiritual and religious background of the prophet, preacher, mediator or vocal bearer — whatever the instruments of transmission that God uses for his revelations are called — can bring with it a certain coloration of the message.
But to reject or refuse everything rigorously would mean "throwing out the baby with the bathwater".
Although the divine revelations often refer to passages of the Old and New Testaments, the Lord emphasizes that these teachings were not given for a particular denomination or group of people, but represent a lasting legacy for all of humanity, regardless of religion, race, skin colour or nationality. Age, gender, social or professional status are also irrelevant.
God prefers no one, for we are all his much-loved children.
On the 29th of January 1688, Emanuel Swedenborg was born as the third child in Stockholm.
As a child, Emanuel Swedenborg enjoyed a careful education in which the religion played a important role. Already during his childhood and youth he had visions and dreams which some people found strange.
After the years at school, Emanuel Swedenborg studied languages, mathematics, mineralogy, and natural sciences on the University in Upsala.
In 1709, Emanuel Swedenborg left the university with a certificate of a doctor in philosophy and embarked on his first major journey to London and Oxford — the first stations — to further develop his knowledge in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics.
In 1711 he traveled to Holland, Brussels, Paris, Versailles, Hamburg. He spent a long time in Greifswald.
In 1715 Emanuel Swedenborg returned to Sweden with a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge.
His great scientific talent, especially in the field of mathematics, drew the attention of King Charles XII to him, who offered him the position of Assessor at the College of Mines in 1716.
In the years that followed, Emanuel Swedenborg developed into one of the leading authorities in metallurgy and published numerous major works in the fields of mathematics, geology, crystallography and mineralogy.
In 1729, Emanuel Swedenborg became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
One year after the earthly death of his father, Emanuel Swedenborg received a three- to four-year holiday. On this trip he visits Denmark, Holland, France and Italy.
In 1740 Emanuel Swedenborg published his famous work "Oeconomia Regni animalis" (The Establishment of the Animal Kingdom). It is a work especially about the human body.
When Emanuel Swedenborg concentrated more and more on the problem of the body and soul in the years from 1740 to 1743 and he recognized dualism, namely that spirit and matter were opposites, as a danger to faith, he fell into a life crisis, which, however, also caused a spiritual transformation in him. During this time, Emanuel Swedenborg experienced strange dreams and had visions like in his youth. He documented these events in his "Dream Diary", which was published only 83 years after his death on earth.
Around Easter of 1744 and 1745, Emanuel Swedenborg had decisive experiences where Jesus appeared to him and at the age of 56 he was commissioned to dedicate himself exclusively to the spreading of divine truth.
After this experience of calling, Emanuel Swedenborg detaches himself from all earthly offices and duties, except the office as a member of the Parliament, which he carries out conscientiously and with wisdom in full possession of his powers for the benefit of his country.
Emanuel Swedenborg is now preparing himself carefully for the task of serving the Lord. He learns Hebrew to read the Old Testament in its original text, studied the Bible in depth and began publishing his major work "Heavenly Secrets in the Word of God" in 1747. Until 1770, numerous other works on all important questions of faith and life followed.
On Sunday, 29 March 1772, while Emanuel Swedenborg was in London, he left his earthly body gently with a smiling on his face.
Emanuel Swedenborg's main work "Heavenly Secrets", which he published in London from 1747 to 1753, comprises eight large volumes in the original Latin language. and has the subtitle "The Miraculous Things, that have seen in the Spirit World and in Heaven of Angels".
In this, Swedenborg, revealed by divine revelation, explains that the Holy Scripture has three levels of meaning: heavenly, spiritual and natural (the doctrine of correspondences).
The spiritual meaning of the first two books of Moses is also explained in detail. But it also contains text passages in which Swedenborg describes what he saw and heard in the worlds beyond.
The probably most famous writing of Emanuel Swedenborg is "Heaven and Hell", published 1758 in London. It has appeared in hundreds of editions and in many languages over time.
Shortly after the publication of his gigantic work "Heavenly Secrets" Emanuel Swedenborg published his manageable work "About the New Jerusalem" in 1758.
In the Revelation of John is talk of a "New Heaven", a "New Earth", and the "New Jerusalem".
In 1763, Emanuel Swedenborg published the work "The Divine Love and Wisdom".
In 1764, his book "The Divine Providence"appeared as a kind of supplementary volume.
In 1763, Emanuel Swedenborg published four smaller writings with the titles "The Teachings of the Lord of the New Jerusalem", "The Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures", "The Doctrine of Life", "The Doctrine of the Faith".
After the publishing of the "Heavenly Secrets", Emanuel Swedenborg devoted himself to the interpretation of the Revelation of John (Apocalypse). This very extensive work was published after his death. Swedenborg decided to publish a shortened form in 1766 under the title "Revealed Revelation".
In 1768, Emanuel Swedenborg published his important work "The Marital Love".
In 1769, at the age of 81, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote his summary work "The True Christian Religion".
As in the other works, we learn here again:
God's nature is love and wisdom.
God is the good and true, because the good belongs to the love
and the true belongs to the wisdom.
Love and wisdom in God are one.
The essence of love is to love others beside oneself,
to be one with them and want to make them happy on their own.
These qualities of divine love led to creation of the
universe and are the reason of its preservation.
Jakob Lorber, the "Writer of God", as he called himself, was born on 22 July 1800 in Kanischa, a village near Marburg (now Slovenia) in southern Styria, as the eldest son of a poor wine-growing family.
At the age of nine, Jakob Lorber came to the parish school in Jaring, where he received music lessons in violin, piano and organ playing from his teacher.
In 1817 he was enabled to attend a better school in Marburg by some of his parents' savings. After five years he continued his education in Graz. He successfully completed his secondary schooling to the upper class.
For financial reasons, Jakob Lorber was unable to begin his studies, but instead took up the position of a tutor in a respectable family. After five years, he began to train for a teaching post at higher schools with his savings. He successfully completed his studies when he was thirty years old.
In 1830 Jakob Lorber applied for a position as a teacher, but was refused. He then gave up the teaching profession and concentrated more and more on music.
Jakob Lorber got to know Schubert, Beethoven and the world-famous violin virtuoso Paganini on one of his travels through Vienna.
During this time, i. e. between 1830 and 1840, Jakob Lorber liked to read literature with transcendental content by authors such as Jakob Böhme, Emanuel Swedenborg, Jung-Stilling, Justinus Kerner. However, he paid special attention to the Bible.
In 1840 Jakob Lorber was offered a permanent position as second conductor of the theatre in Trieste, a pleasant and well paid job.
Full of hope and good fortune, Jacob Lorber prepared himself for his departure to Trieste, when on the morning of March 15, 1840 he was surprised by a completely unexpected event, which was to give his life a completely different direction: Shortly after his morning prayer he heard in his heart a voice, very clear and recognizable, which seemed to come from the region of his heart and told him:"Stand up, take your style and write!"
Jakob Lorber obeyed the inner voice, took his pen and wrote down the words that he heard like a stream of thoughts:
"Thus speaks the Lord for everyone, and that is true and certain: whoever wants to talk with Me, come to Me, I will put the answer in his heart. But the pure only whose hearts are full of humility shall hear the tone of my voice."
Jakob Lorber let the tempting employment in Trieste go of and put his life into the faithful service of the Lord for 24 years until his earthly death. He lived modestly in a small chamber in Graz and wrote down what his inner voice revealed to him.
Jakob Lorber did not receive any fee for his writings. During his lifetime, his friends had his writings printed anonymously under great sacrifice of money.
In the winter of 1863/64 Jakob Lorber began to ail, recovered somewhat in the spring of 1864 and left his earthly body on 23 August 1864.
In the course of the 24 years, from 1840 to 1864, twenty volumes of writings were written in which the deepest questions of life as well as the phenomena and secrets of the universe were enlightened and explained by divine revelation.
The "Household of God, History of Prehumanity" is Jakob Lorber's first major work of writing, which describes the prehistory of mankind in three extensive volumes from the beginnings to the time of Noah and Abraham.
The "Great Gospel of John", which is also called "St. John's work", is the main work with its ten volumes. It can be seen as a complement to the biblical Gospel of John, because it describes so vividly and in such detail all that Jesus taught and did in the three years of his earthly teaching ministry.
Other important works by Jakob Lorber are the following:
"The Youth of Jesus" (The Gospel of James), "Three Days in the Temple", "Scriptural Explanations", "Earth and Moon", "The Spiritual Sun" (two volumes), "Bishop Martin", "Robert Blum" (two volumes) new title "From Hell to Heaven", "Letter of the Apostle Paul to the congregation of Laodicea", "Correspondence of Jesus with Abgarus".
The manuscripts of the writings of Jakob Lorber were for a long time stored in a theatre chamber and were only printed and published decades after Lorber's earthly death at the instigation of the doctor and poet Justinus Kerner.
The Third Time, also known as the Era of the Holy Spirit, was heralded in the 19th century by Roque Rojas, shortly after Jakob Lorber had finished his task here on earth.
Roque Rojas was born on August 16, 1812 in Mexico City into an ordinary family. Already during his childhood he had astonishing visions and surprised his fellowmen with true predictions.
But it was not until 23 June 1861, when he was 49 years old, that Roque Rojas had a significant experience: During the night he suddenly woke up and saw an angel speaking to him:
"Roque, you are chosen to be the 'Strong Rock of Israel'. I come to tell you, get up and walk to Calvario. There the one who sent me to bring you this message will speak to you."
Roque Rojas obeyed the invitation and set off immediately. When he reached the place, he got on a boat and started rowing. Soon he saw a triangle of matt-gold appearing on the sky, with a human face shining in the middle of it, bright as the sun. On the triangle he saw a white dove flapping its wings, and the beak of which was beaded with crystalline light droplets falling on its head and wetting its body. Then he heard a trumpet sound from far away in three shocks of fanfare and a strong voice that said to him: "You are the Elias promised for this time" (the spiritual return of Elijah).
After further confirmation of this kind, Roque Rojas dedicated himself fully to the service of God and mankind. He spared no effort or sacrifice. With great zeal he defended the "spiritual capacity", i. e. the ability to connect with the spiritual, which appeared to many completely new. He also received the divine gift of healing.
Roque Rojas also founded the first meeting place where the first vocal bearers were consecrated, twelve men and twelve women. On 1 September 1866, seven persons were appointed to head the seven assembly places and to represent the seven seals.
Roque Rojas had spent months preparing for the Easter Week meeting in 1869 with the desire to solemnly commemorate the memorial of Jesus. But when he found insufficient preparation, lack of spirituality and irreverence among the people present, he destroyed, embittered by the incomprehension of his people, the contents of the chest in which he had kept the divine revelations written down by him, and declared the place closed. In this way he saw his mission as finished, spiritually surrendering its fulfillment to the Father and foretold that this sanctuary would be reopened in the future by divine instruction.
Damiana Oviedo, who had been ordained vocal bearer a few years ago and was Roque Roja's secretary at the same time, collected the remains from the chest and tried to restore them.
On 18 May 1879, ten years after he had considered his mission as ambassador and forerunner to be fulfilled, Roque Rojas discarded his mortal cover.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says in the farewell speech to his disciples:"But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. (Jn 14:26)
Today the Lord teaches us through his teachings, which began in 1884 at a simple assembly place in Mexico City, where a handful of ordinary people from the people gathered and the Spirit of Christ manifested himself through the faithful vocal bearerDamiana Oviedo. Since then, people have met Sunday by Sunday to listen to the divine word. In the middle of the week, healing services were also held.
In the course of time, the number of listeners grew and further groups formed at other places of assembly, where the Lord revealed his teachings to the people on Sundays at the same time through selected, prepared vocal bearers. In general, such a service lasted two to three hours, during which the divine word poured out clearly and pure, without any delay or interruption, like a steady stream on the listeners.
This kind of divine revelation and instruction came to an end after 66 years of revelation on December 31, 1950, as the Lord had announced many times before. At the end of this long period, more than a hundred municipalities had formed in different parts of Mexico.
In the last ten to fifteen years before 1950, the teachings were co-stenographed and recorded in protocols.
Some of the vocal bearers now collected all available protocols from the period before 1950 and selected 366 teachings from the huge number of them, which were published in twelve volumes at the beginning of the 1960s under the title "Libro de la Vida Verdadera" ("The Book of True Life"). These twelve volumes are still the main work of the Mexican Revelations, from which numerous extract-volumes (compendiums) and translations into other languages have been made in the years and decades since then.
Victor P. Martens, a native German living in Paraguay, has been actively involved in the dissemination of the Mexican Revelations by publishing the main work in six hardcover volumes and numerous compendia and other writings on his own spiritual experiences. He is also a very good expert of the Lorber revelations.
As early as 1962, Reichl Verlag published a compendium of the main work in German under the title "Die Dritte Zeit" ("The Third Era"), translated and compiled by Ernesto Enkerlin.
Walter Maier, born in Pforzheim (Germany) in 1910, has been living in Mexico since 1934 for professional reasons. Since 1942 he was a contemporary witness of the Mexican Revelations. After returning to Germany in 1974, he worked eagerly for its dissemination in the German-speaking world and translated the first five volumes of the book "Libro de la Vida Verdadera" together with Traugott Göltenboth. After his earthly death in 2001, Traugott Göltenboth continued this work. Volumes I to VI of this major work were published by the Reichl Verlag from 1979 to 2003 under the title "Buch des Wahre Leben" (The Book of True Life) and volumes VII to XII were published by the Buchdienst zum Leben (Book Service for Life), Manfred Bäse, in 2014 and 2015.
In 2001 Traugott Göltenboth published an extensive, essentially well structured compendium under title "Das Dritte Testament" ("The Third Testament") with the cooperation of Victor P. Martens. The second improved edition was released in 2012. with 65 chapters and its many subheadings giving the reader a quick insight into the vast work of the Mexican Revelations.
In 2014 the Buchdienst zum Leben (Book Service for Life), Manfred Bäse, published a little compendium with the title: "Die göttliche Liebe, Ursprung, Essenz und Ziel unseres Lebens und allen Seins" ("The Divine Love, Origin, Essence and Goal of our Life and all Being"), which is also available in Spanish.
In the middle of the! 8th century, Emanuel Swedenborg began to publish his great work of revelation. It falls into the heyday of the Enlightenment era, which had begun its triumphal march through Europe since the end of the 17th century from England and France. It is based on the idea that outer reason is the essence of man and the measure of all things; it is therefore the only authority that decides on truth and error and recognizes the whole world.
Humanity has achieved great success in all areas of life — natural sciences, architecture, music and literature. However, the spiritual and divine progress does not keep pace with the attained outward progress. In his great love and wisdom, God believes it is right to give a true spiritual enlightenment in the form of an extensive doctrine of revelation, quasi as a counterbalance to the "Enlightenment", which is based solely on the outer mind, to humanity. He was served as a tool by Emanuel Swedenborg, who was very successful in the scientific field and whom He himself called to this task and gave him the gift of looking into the world beyond with full consciousness. His religious works represent a correction of the church religion, but also an enormous extension of the previous divine teachings.
Jakob Lorber is a child of the 19th century, also a time of great contrasts and transformations in all areas of human life — art, literature, politics, economics. The foundation stone for the gigantic, global industrialization is laid. People hope to gain more freedom through revolutions. Materialistic ideologies with their promises hold the masses under their spell. The slogan of the French Revolution of 1889,"Freedom, Equality, Fraternity", has had its repercussions. Despite many external advances and achievements, this century is also marked by human insanity, fanaticism, separatism and oppression with the consequences of war and violence.
In order to counteract this hustle and bustle, God once again announces his teachings to humanity in a great work of revelation, transmitted by his "writing-servant" Jakob Lorber, this time in German, so that translation errors are ruled out.
From a divine point of view, the revelations of Jacob Lorber mark the end of the Second Era that began with the birth of Jesus. Two years after the earthly death of Lorber, the Lord heralds the Third Era in Mexico under the guidance of Roque Rojas, who is working in the Spirit of Elijah, as we have already experienced from the Mexican revelations. It is the Era of the Holy Spirit, the Second Coming of the Lord in the Spirit.
Far from the upheavals and turmoil in Europe, the Mexican people live mostly in modest conditions. It cultivates a church Christian faith, mixed with elements from the handed down traditions of the indigenous people of Central America. Among the ordinary people, the Lord proclaims his revelations on Sundays from 1884 to 1950 at many places of assembly, this time not by a single transmitter, but through many vocal bearers, synchronized in time. This is based on the wisdom of the Lord, because people's attention should be focused more on the meaning of the "Word" of God than on the transmitter.
Both language and style are quite different in the three great divine revelations:
Emanuel Swedenborg wrote his religious works all in Latin, the language of scholarship at that time, because he himself was a great scholar of his time. The style and style also clearly reflect this.
The revelations by Jakob Lorber are written in German throughout. The language style is sometimes somewhat "flowery". It should be noted that Jakob Lorber was a man who loved music and cared for it himself. The period of Romanticism in the 19th century may also have had a certain influence on the style of expression.
The Mexican Revelations are proclaimed and written in Mexican Spanish. Since the audience were mostly people from the simple people, the language style is very simple, clear and understandable. Foreign words were completely avoided. Bible references and quotations are quite rare. Repetitions of content, described from a different perspective, are partly due to the fact that the Lord had to explain the connections of truth to the constantly new people who came in. In addition, the protocols were selected from various meeting places.
Although the three revelations differ greatly in their external circumstances, they are nevertheless very similar in content in their core statements, since they come from a single divine source:
Everywhere, the Lord teaches us that God is a God of infinite love, who knows no hate, who does not punish his children, but in his great patience, kindness and mercy wants to lead all men, indeed his entire creation, back to his perfection, without forcing man with his free choice of will conferred upon him. That is why it can sometimes be a very long development path with numerous levels of learning, both in this world and in the hereafter. An eternal damnation in hell by a punishing God is a dogma of the Church and a great deception of mankind.
The catastrophic consequences that a wrongly taught concept of God alone has for our entire life can be seen in the global turmoil and problems of our time.
Furthermore, all three revelations say unanimously: "There is no death; at earthly death we only put down our body shell and go directly into the spiritual world without falling into a so-called "soul sleep" to have to wait for the "Last Judgement". It is also a heresy that God is our judge and punishes us for our sins; rather, our own conscience makes us aware of our misconduct so that we can learn our lesson from it and make it better in the future. God helps us in his great love and grace.
One of the core statements of the three divine revelations is also the repeated confirmation of Jesus' words: "Love God over all things and your neighbor as yourself."
Despite the similarities of the three revelations in their core statements and meaning, we can nevertheless note some differences in certain focal points:
Emanuel Swedenborg's main focus is on the representation of the doctrine of correspondence, which also explains the spiritual meaning of the Bible: "Everything in the outer, natural world has its causal counterpart and its role model in the celestial and spiritual worlds. Another important focus of Emanuel Swedenborg's work is his very detailed description of the worlds beyond.
Jakob Lorber's emphasis is on the very detailed description of Jesus' three-year work 2000 years ago, which we cannot find anywhere else in more detail. In addition, we find scientific knowledge about the universe in its unimaginable size and diversity in the Lorber works, which our science has only been able to confirm in recent years by using state-of-the-art equipment.
Although the Mexican Revelations cover a very wide range of topics about God and his creation, some focal points are easily discernible:
The essence of God;
man and his task;
the repeated call: "Love one another!"
Reincarnation is also a central theme in Mexican Revelations. It is explained in detail and presented here as a grace of God and an important aspect for the spiritual development of man in both the world on this side and the other side.
Emanuel Swedenborg does not deal with reincarnation. In the Lorber scriptures we find places where reincarnation is permitted by God under certain circumstances, for example, when a divine messenger wants to take up or continue a ministry in God on earth, or when beings of other physical worlds want to complete their development on earth.
Precisely because of the different forms of expression, the different emphases and the complementary themes, the three great divine revelations represent a great spiritual enrichment and expansion of his consciousness for every serious seeker of truth.
It gives me great pleasure to share with you some of the three great divine revelations that have been selected. Presenting the entire extent of the writings is not the intention of this documentation website, which has been deliberately kept simple in its layout, so that full attention is paid to the text itself and its meaning.
I would like to thank God, our heavenly Father, and His Heavenly Beings of Light through whom He works, who gives me strength, guidance and perseverance for the work on the website.
Thanks also to all the people here on this earth who have written, translated, published and distributed the Revelations, especially to my dear wife Sonja, who entered the heavenly realms in October 2015.
Thanks also to a very kindly gentleman near Düsseldorf, who gives me very valuable technical support and general hints.
I would like to thank all readers in advance for their communication of bugs or suggestions for improvement as well as for passing on the domain name:
www.three-revelations.net
Now I dedicate this website to all truth-loving people, in particular also to the younger generation, combined with the wish that together we may create a better and more peaceful world.
The current version 04 of October, 2017 contains in German several important writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Jakob Lorber, and of the Mexican Revelations; and in Spanish the Mexican Revelations.
The links in parentheses indicate that this part of the website is still under development.
Dear reader,
I wish you much joy and many uplifting hours studying these divine revelations as well as God's blessing, protection and guidance.
Manfred Bäse
