Travelling through the vast boundlessness of the time and space of eternity we have now arrived at one of life's landmarks. We have come to the winter solstice, to the signpost indicating the darkness and cold of winter, to the naked forests, the withered meadows and into the ice and snow covered countryside. Pale death seems to rule everywhere in nature. Following winter, however, spring and summer will come back again. Light and warmth will return, and gardens, fields, and forests will again be illuminated with nature's rich and glowing colours; the warm light of the summer sun will shimmer over the fields now snow covered.

At present, however, we are not only surrounded by the transient darkness of physical winter. The deadly and ice-cold gales of a mental winter are raging all over the world. Throughout untold centuries human beings have been murdered, mutilated and tortured to death by the millions, and this mental winter has now progressed yet further. It is true that mankind has outgrown the killing principle common to the animals, but in place of this it has adopted a mentality like that of a devil - human beings have invented infernal war machines and lethal chemical warfare with the capability of destroying all culture and civilization. And mankind proceeds furthermore with their mutual race in order to create possibilities of using even more infernal and refined products of this devil-consciousness of theirs. Today mankind would be able to wipe out itself together with all other living beings on this globe, and is only deterred by the prospect that action on this scale would be all-inclusive. The law of karma lays it down as a fact that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. This means that whatever a man does towards his neighbour, be it good or evil, will determine his own good or evil destiny during his present and future physical lives on this earth.

Is it true, however, that the living being will experience further physical lives on this earth? Yes! How otherwise should he ever put an end to killing and murdering? How could he possibly be delivered from his devil-consciousness? How could a human being possibly be transformed from a devil-being into man "in the likeness of God" in one single, physical earth-life? Do we ever encounter a terrestrial man who in one single physical life is transformed from a primitive stone-age-man with the mentality of a murderer into a perfect, all-loving and Christ-like being? No! Humans are still far from the perfect beings made "in the image of God and after His likeness".

God has not, however, caused terrestrial man to evolve through the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdom into what he is now: an expert in war and murder, in order that his evolution would stop here, or to allow him to burn in an everlasting hell-fire because he has not yet managed to become perfect man "in the image of God and in His likeness". But how could God possibly further develop his creation of the living being without letting this very being himself suffer the effects of his earlier infernal manifestations towards other living beings, if not by letting him experience a similar evil fate? As this development, however, also entails the mutual mutilation and destruction of each other's physical bodies - and many a murderer dies before he has experienced the retaliation of his deed - how then could God, possibly maintain the development of these beings if they were not reborn in new, physical organisms? Otherwise, how could they possibly experience their own bodies being killed, just as they have, themselves, previously killed the bodies of other beings? And if they did not themselves have this experience, how could they possibly gain an understanding of what it really means to have one's organism killed or murdered? If the beings were not reborn and so had new physical bodies, they could not arrive through personal experience at a cognition of how evil and diabolical their murderous acts towards other beings really are. And without having this experience the beings would have to go on living with this devil-mentality, or in this hell of evil fate, which by necessity is caused by the devil-mentality or evil.

However, a being possessing the mentality of a devil cannot possibly change into an angel or a perfect man "in the image and likeness of God" merely by the act of baptism or by participating in the service of Holy Communion. These two phenomena are but holy, soothing, psychic remedies for bitter repentance or depressing self-reproach, for consciousness of sin or fear of death. The same applies to the symbolic "remission of sins" mentioned only in the gospel of St. Matthew - but not by the three other evangelists - in connection with the Last Supper. This remission of sins can be nothing but symbolic because the remission of sins does not make man an all-wise, all-loving creature "in the image and likeness of God". Sin is definitely not "sin" in the absolute or cosmic sense of the word. What human beings refer to as "sins" are nothing but the mistakes or the erroneous manifestations of ignorant or immature man. However, how could human beings possibly be made aware of their own imperfect and erroneous manifestations, without the possibility of experiencing their consequences? How could they possibly come to this knowledge through the remission of sins, when this is said to exempt man from the consequences of his own erroneous manifestations? How could man, by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, possibly come to know the difference between good and evil, if, by means of the "remission of sins" he were released from the consequences of eating of this very tree? And if we today look around - what do we see but the indulgence in the poisonous fruits from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Do we not see a gigantic Armageddon or Hell? And the wholesale massacre, mutilation and destruction of war - what are they but erroneous manifestations and their consequences, and that is in reality only bad karma being sowed, and bad karma being reaped. Here, the "remission of sins" does not appear to have any special effect. And if it had - how then should humanity possibly be able to learn that their evil actions in releasing Armageddon or Hell upon their fellow-beings is based on their own still immature or unfinished human state?

It is true, that for nearly two thousand years Christianity and the advent of the millennium have been preached from thousands of pulpits throughout the world at the same time as the ceremonies of baptism and the Holy Communion have been performed in thousands of churches together with other ceremonies of the light in order to comfort and inspire millions of human beings in their struggle against darkness, human beings who were endowed with a religious responsiveness still untroubled by intellectuality. Concurrently with the incipient growth of Christianity, however, the devil-mentality as time went on grew until it became the giant, godless, material super power of to-day. But this is only what Christ saw would come. He knew that mankind of necessity had to experience and learn many lessons of darkness in order to become receptive to the eternal light of Christianity or of the universe. Because of this knowledge He prophesied the coming of the Holy Ghost by virtue of which His teaching in the shape of Christianity should become the highest wisdom or the science of life, i.e. the very solution of life's mystery. He knew that it was inevitable for the human beings fully to experience the culmination of the devil-mentality or the evil in their own organisms, in their own flesh and blood. It was absolutely the only possible way for man to become perfectly conversant with the evil or their own devil-consciousness and learn to understand their own consequent satiation and loathing with this kind of mentality. A loathing which is strong enough to make them drive out that kind of mentality from their mind and conduct. When this has been learned to perfection the living beings will be able to do nothing but to "love the Lord their God with all their heart, and with all their souls and with all their minds". When the human beings are capable of fulfilling this divine law of all-love, which is synonymous with the law of Wisdom, then God's creation of "man in His image and after His likeness" will be complete.

There is only one way leading from the physical winter towards early summer: the bright and warming summer sun, caressing the life of nature into full flowering. Similarly there is also only one way to end the mental winter. Frost and cold cannot bring an end to winter. And why should it be different as to mankind's great, mental winter-darkness which today is prevalent throughout the world? The mental winter, no more than physical winter, can disappear without a sunny, mental climate becoming more and more warming and caressing. It was this climate of mental sunshine which was revealed by Christ on the Cross of Golgotha. Did He not then reveal all-love in its highest expression? When He was able to express love and forgiveness towards His tormentors and worst enemies, whom, then, would He not be capable of loving and forgiving? And did He not love God as His father?

In the foregoing we have now got an insight into life's great mental wintertime. We have become acquainted with the fact that the darkness or the evil of this world is not based on a devil or an enemy of God trying to wreck His transformation of humans into beings who are god-like as to their culminating all-love and supreme wisdom. This divine transformation, however, could not possibly be accomplished had the dark manifestations been excluded from this creative process. Had darkness been excluded there would have been no contrasts to the light. And without contrasts no possibility of sense-perception could exist, and without sense-perception no consciousness and consequently no life-experience could possibly exist. In order to be on a wavelength with the highest light one must necessarily experience a corresponding degree of contrast, i.e. a contrast which has to be the experience of an equivalent degree of the deepest possible darkness. When God's creative process is intended to transform you from darkness into the highest light, you must go through the experience of the deepest darkness during this process. When this creative process intends to develop culminating all-love, the profoundest effects of hate must be experienced, too. You have to experience the consciousness of a devil in order to understand the consciousness of God. How, otherwise, could you possibly learn to understand that all-love is the fullness of life?

During the new world-epoch people will thus leave their superstitious belief in the devil and all this works and realize that even the darkness is of God and is a good thing. True! It is unpleasant, and therefore we may call it "the unpleasant good". And as the light is entirely pleasant we may call it "the pleasant good". However, by allowing living beings to experience darkness, God as a final result gives him the capability of living in culminating all-love and all-wisdom, i.e. in the perfect world empire, which has been named the Kingdom of Heaven. But without an initiation or an experience of darkness the latter would not be possible.

However, even though the darkness is in reality from a cosmic viewpoint part of the all-loving-process through which the living beings are raised from a life of darkness to a life of light, the plane of darkness all the same is, very largely a hell, i.e. the place where all kinds of suffering reach culminating. This plane constitutes the material, physical world. This is the place where the living beings must experience the effects of their erroneous manifestations as realistic, mental or physical experiences. At its worst, living beings will be groaning because of all kinds of pain and suffering, and they will be plunged into extreme grief and anxiety. All that will result from their own previous and erroneous manifestations and lack of all-love for their fellow-beings in both their and earlier present lives. Amidst such sorrows and anxieties the unhappy being may feel very lonely and forlorn, even to the verge of committing suicide. No being is, however, abandoned by God. Even when shrouded in the utmost darkness, God is with every human being. Nobody can ever be excluded from God. In the same way, however, as the small infant in its cradle is not clearly aware of the presence of its parents, so, being still at a stages of imperfect development, human beings are also aware of God's presence. In the same way, however, as the little baby normally has his protecting parents around him so also humans have always protecting beings around them who, as they are spiritual by nature, remain unseen on the physical plane. These spiritual beings constitute God's auditory organs for hearing men's prayer to Him. Together all these beings form a kind of auditory organ in the psyche of the earth. Through this organ every prayer, every cry of terror from living beings in the organism of the earth are heard. This does not necessarily mean, however, that all prayers are granted. If you pray for absolution, which means that an erroneous manifestation, you have committed against another being, should be forgiven, then this prayer cannot be granted, if you have not so bitterly repented this manifestation that you in all future never will be able to do it again. If the latter is the case you have already been forgiven. "Sins", or erroneous manifestations, committed by a person who, even before having received his karma for this, has repented his doings to such a degree as mentioned in the before going will cause no karma for him. This is so because the purpose of karma only is to break the beings of the habit of performing evil deeds. In a situation as mentioned, when before having received the karma due, the living being in question has no more the heart to commit evil or erroneous manifestation of the same nature, then the karmic effect is no longer necessary and consequently cannot be released. It thus becomes evident that a principle of absolution is found in real life which ensures that no being will experience all the dark effects he has released against his fellow-beings. And so the living beings are exempted from the effects of their evil, dark or erroneous manifestations towards their fellow beings according to the development of their faculty for being all-loving creatures who are no longer capable of releasing the cause of such dark manifestations.

With these thoughts we have made a little incursion into the regions of eternal life's great cosmic winter solstice. We have encountered enormous vistas of snow and ice, but they were not made up of frozen water. The cold is the same as the base mind and immature mentality of mankind, and this cold became lethal rays which made human beings freeze to death by the millions. The consequences of these rays were millions and millions of fetid corpses of both men and animals, and they brought about that factories and hospitals were smashed, and that railways were ruined together with an immense amount of other cultural "blessings". Everywhere are to be found war cripples, disabled persons and sorrow-stricken faces, marked by depression and hopelessness. Deafening roars from crashing bombs and ear-splitting noises from screams, lamentations and death - rattles can be heard everywhere. This darkness however, is not a punishment ordained by an angry God, neither is it an invention of some devil, but it is the imperfect human beings' own mental death-rays which they of their own free will directed towards each other - man fighting man against man. All the same, amidst this winter darkness, this Armageddon, the growing all-love already begins to radiate light and warmth. Summer is drawing near. During the great new world-epoch which has now begun, mankind will walk together with God towards a sunlit, cosmic summer which will bring peace on earth and a culminating good-will toward all men.