Through life's or Nature's own narrative one can work out the essential or basic principles of the universe. It can be interesting to see how Christ perceived the world picture. Here we must disregard all the heathen ideas which have in recent times accumulated round Jesus' personal utterances and all the misunderstanding of his attitude to and perception of life which have gradually become essential to Christianity, so that it has become something different from what Christ's teaching and message for mankind really were.

Through cosmic analyses we have understood that the world picture constitutes such a principle of father and son. By virtue of the fact that the universe is a great, living, functioning organism for an eternal I, and that this organism consists of all existing living beings which are micro-beings within it, this I, this experiencing "something", becomes a father for the universe's living beings in the same way as our I is a father and protector for the micro-world and the beings in our organism. Between our I and our micro-beings, our cells, atoms and electrons, there is a very intimate, mutually dependent relationship which compels us to take good care of these micro-beings if we wish to live in healthy physical well-being. For their part the micro-beings are also compelled to lead a life which is in contact with the forces of Nature and the natural laws which the functions of our organism represent in their micro-world. If the opposite is the case they become sick and create sickness around themselves.

Now, one will perhaps maintain that the micro-beings have no reason and cannot by themselves decide anything whatsoever about the extent to which they will or will not be in contact with those conditions that hold true for their presence in the organism. But to this it can be said that the facts show that the micro-beings in an organism can suddenly begin to work in quite a different way from that which is otherwise normal, even in an organism belonging to someone who lives healthily, seen from a purely physical point of view. It is therefore not impossible that people who eat and drink quite healthily and are very hygienic nevertheless experience ill health. But how does this come about? Here the most profound cause must be traced back to the fact that the micro-beings are able to deviate from their normal way of living in spite of the organism's macro-I. Are these micro-individuals then conscious in this deviation from the norm, this breach of the laws of their world? Yes, why should our micro-beings not be able to be conscious in their daily life just as well as we are conscious in our daily unfolding of life? We are, after all, also micro-beings in a larger organism, and the I of this organism would have just as great a right to say that we, its cells, are not conscious in our daily life. But this would of course not be the truth. Why should our micro-beings not be able just as consciously to deviate from their normal unfoldment of life and functions as we do? Is it not, however, a fact that in those functions that the beings do not have under the control of their day-conscious will, and which are therefore promoted by instinct, no excesses as a rule occur? Here the normal function is absolutely predominant. Is it not precisely there where the being can use its will that abnormalities arise and are promoted? This holds true for people who are micro-beings in the macro-organisms of the earth, the solar system and the galaxy system, and it also holds true for those micro-individuals who live their daily lives with our organism as their universe. It is in the very highest degree illogical and unscientific to deny that the micro-beings have an awake day-consciousness and use of the will and take part in the decisions in their daily functions and can indulge in excess or live normally at their own discretion. But how can one safeguard one's health when a person who already lives healthily and hygienically from a physical point of view can all the same be hit by ill health? Here we have come to a field where the law of karma is no longer merely a problem of physical health, but a question of morality.

The reason why micro-beings are able to create disharmony in an organism whose owner or macro-I lives a physically healthy life is to be found only in one place: in the human being's own behaviour as the micro-being in its macro-organism or the universe. If the human being creates harmony and well-being for his fellow-beings in this macro-organism, if he loves his neighbour as himself and at the same time lives a healthy life from a physical point of view, then those micro-individuals who are not on the same wavelength as the cosmic laws will gradually disappear from his organism, and higher, more developed and more harmoniously-minded individuals or cells and atoms will incarnate instead. But if the same human being persecutes his neighbour and makes his life unbearable, dark and dismal with anger, sourness and bitterness, then he himself is like a cell which spreads poison in his macro-organism's flesh and blood and not a life-giving micro-organism, and the same comes to hold true for those micro-beings who incarnate in his own organism. They are poisonous, unhealthy and dangerous for the other micro-beings and so for the health and well-being of the whole. It is evident that as the micro-being in an organism one should not murder or make life difficult for the other micro-beings in the same macro-organism, thereby creating not only disharmony in relation to these fellow-beings but also in relation to the whole, that is, the macro-being of which one is a part, and thereby also to those micro-beings which live in one's own organism. The law of cause and effect, or "as you sow, so shall you reap", holds true for micro-, meso- and macrocosmos, and to our relationship to all these three worlds.

So we see that illness in an organism is not only caused by wrong food and lack of hygiene but is also a question of which thoughts, feelings and actions are sent out from the source or I of the organism towards the surroundings. We cannot get away from our relationship to our neighbour in the creation of that better fate or that happiness for which we are longing. When Christ again and again emphasized that one should love God above all things and one's neighbour as oneself, we see that he knew and spoke from his knowledge of the cosmic world picture. Loving God above all things is the same as loving the macro-I in the organism in which one is a micro-individual, that is, the universe. And how does one do that? By loving (that is, creating harmony and joy in relation to) one's neighbour, who is a cell, a micro-individual in the Godhead's great organism through which this Godhead experiences us. That Christ knew this relationship is seen in his words "What you do to the least of mine you do unto me".

With his life and his death Christ showed that he was concentrated on cooperation with the I of the universe, and he showed with his prayer "Father, thy will, not mine, be done" that he perceived this macro-I as his true cosmic father who was also the cosmic father of all other living things. But why did he not mention macro- and micro-beings and our relationship to the cells and the other micro-individuals in our organism? Because absolutely no one would have understood it. It was difficult enough for the people around him to understand what he meant, and we also see that nothing has been more misunderstood and misrepresented than Christ's message. But he spoke of the "holy spirit" who, when it comes, will "lead you to the whole truth", because "I have much more to say to you but you cannot bear it now". What is this holy spirit, this guide? Spirit is consciousness, it is knowledge, and that it is holy means that it is all-embracing or cosmic and creates love and harmony around itself. It is this cosmic, or spiritual, science which now, as a new impulse, will lead mankind further in its evolution towards that state Christ referred to as "the kingdom of heaven". Christ had known that there would come a time when it would no longer be necessary to talk in parables and when there would no longer be a personal authority people should believe in, but a science, "a spirit of truth which will preach about the things to come".

Spiritual science, in the light of the entire cosmic evolution of the earth and mankind, tells about these "things to come", about "the real human kingdom" which, with time, will be developed on this planet. Spiritual science is not something that will remove Christianity and create a new religion. On the contrary, it will "take of mine and preach to you", as Christ also said. People can begin to understand today everything that people at that time "could not have born" because they would not have understood it. In the approximately 2000 years which have passed since Christ lived, an enormous intellectual evolution has taken place here on the earth. A physical science has become the dominating influence over people's lives; they have begun to acquire the ability to think God's thoughts as they express themselves in the laws of nature in micro-, meso- and macro-cosmos. A bright child learns more in school today than a learned professor knew 100 years ago. People's intelligence is developed and sharpened, new technical inventions create great changes in people's daily habits, they subdue the earth by getting the powers of nature to work for them, and the distance between lands and peoples is reduced both because of new means of transport and because one can, through radio, telegraph and so on, instantaneously send messages from one side of the earth to the other. All this and much more that will be invented in coming years have created quite another situation for mankind than existed at the time of Christ. In one sense, however, conditions have not become so very different. People's personal unhappiness and suffering have not become less. The earth is still more a "hell" than a "kingdom of heaven" for people. Indeed, since people use their developed intelligence in the service of the killing principle both in war and in everyday life, or use it in order to enrich themselves at others' expense, the situation has rather become worse. In addition, the developed intelligence in the human being cannot accept the handed-down religious dogmas, so the general public stands without any fixed point in existence. One longs for peace, but one does not know how one can create peace.

The world-situation of our time is what is referred to as "the last days". Not because the earth will perish or be destroyed, but because an old culture is breathing its last. The kingdom which Christ referred as "his", but about which he said that it "was not of this world", is about to be created as the real human kingdom on this planet. It lives in the minds of many people as the humane capacity, as the fact that they, in certain situations, would rather themselves suffer than be the cause of others' sufferings. But also this moral capacity must be intellectualised, and this will happen through spiritual science. The capacity for neighbourly love which has become strongly developed in the minds of many people through the experiences of suffering of many lives should not only be a strong feeling which can lead one astray in sentimentality and fanaticism. It must, in order to be manifested in the way Christ could manifest it, be united with an intellectual understanding of the relationship between the universe and the human being, or, as Christ referred to it, between "the father" and "the son".

Christ was a truly perfect, healthy micro-individual in his father's body. It was not only the father he loved but also the other beings in this body. His great love showed itself in such a way that he, whose kingdom was not of this world, nevertheless allowed himself to incarnate in this, for healthy cells, dangerous zone consisting of debauched, murderous and hateful micro-beings, in order to show how the healthy cell in the macro-body behaves in all situations towards God and fellow-beings. The much-talked-about "second coming of Christ", does not mean that the person Jesus will show himself in the clouds, but that the unfoldment of the principle of father and son which he understood and put into practice in all situations in daily existence is put into practice by more and more people on earth. For this, spiritual science will be a helping factor, since it can teach the seeking human being to understand both his own situation and the situation of the entire world. But the human being must himself work on the development of that mentality which will turn him into a Christ-being who in all situations feels himself one with the father.