What does one understand by "God's image"? "God's image" is an expression for the very highest, total perfection in wisdom and love which can in fact be manifested, and its ensuing divine way of behaving. Through the high cosmically initiated beings of the past it has come to people's knowledge that "God's image", that is, the totally divine way of behaving in wisdom and love, is God's plan for terrestrial Man.

Is there anything to suggest that the divine plan is an actual reality, or is it only a beautiful dream which has arisen in the brain of a fanatic? It is absolutely neither wishful thinking nor fanaticism. There is no greater reality than precisely this divine plan. That it cannot be seen or observed by the ordinary person who has not learned to see it is a matter of course. The divine plan is not a 24-hour project. It takes millions of years to create the totally perfect human being who is "one with God". And unfinished terrestrial Man's memory or recollection and ensuing knowledge about his own identity are so small in relation to this creative process, which takes millions of years, that it may be seen as only a speck of dust in relation to a mountain.

It is therefore not surprising that the present time is so rich in atheists or people who believe that the whole of this divine, logical creation which goes on around them, and of which their own organism and maintenance of life is a result, is something which occurs accidentally by itself. It is a matter of course that such a perception of life must be the basis for war, sufferings, death and destruction or an epoch of life which cannot be expressed as a manifestation of "humane consciousness" but on the contrary as a manifestation of the opposite of the really humane consciousness, that is "devil-consciousness". One cannot say that such a sabotaging, lethal consciousness is animal, for animals can neither murder, kill nor mutilate and obliterate whole cities and their people and cultural values by means of hellish bombs and devilish rockets in the way that people have become experts in. Nor can one say that the above-mentioned consciousness is "humane", because the absolutely humane way of behaving can only mean absolute love, put into practice through the very highest wisdom and intellect. It is simply an expression for this temporary terrestrial human mentality, viz. "devil-consciousness" or what is mildly expressed in the Bible as "Antichrist".

It is true that more or less strong repercussions from the world religions extend forward to this present epoch of Armageddon, but they are dressed in all the withering and dying colours of autumn. Their fading power over people, their previously strong traditions and their very life are now sinking like the red glow of sunset into the darkness of night. In this darkness people are blindly groping their way forward. Such previously radiant and instructive moral writings in the sky as "put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take with the sword shall perish with the sword"; "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"; "do unto others what you would have them do unto you"; "judge not, that ye be not judged"; "thou must forgive, not until seven times a day but until seventy times seven a day"; "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self" - and many other radiant instructions or commandments written in the sky of life, and thereby also God - have been lost in the total darkness of the mental night. This is the present world situation in a nutshell.

When people cannot see any light but have only darkness at their disposal, they think that they can defend themselves with darkness. But the only thing ...which can lighten the darkness is of course not darkness but its opposite - light. Doesn't everyone know that one can only see because of light? Why not then try to create light instead of darkness? Is it not darkness to kill your neighbour? Is it not darkness to obliterate the populations and cultural values of whole cities? Is hating and revenging not darkness? Is slandering and the spreading of evil rumours and lies about one's neighbour not darkness? Who can really regard this way of behaving as a worthy humane culture for the people who are otherwise so gifted that they can weigh planets, the sun and the moon and control such a vast amount of nature's horsepower? Is it not obvious that people have developed themselves to be geniuses in technical creation, a creation which stands sky-high above the creation of Stone Age Man, Neanderthal Man and the Viking? What is a flint tool beside modern Man's computers? What are the means of transport of the past beside modern Man's aircraft? Is it not a great lacking, a terrible handicap, that such, from a technical point of view, highly ingenious beings, i.e. mankind of technical geniuses, are so morally unfinished that they are still tied and bound in the same primitivity as Stone Age Man or the Vikings of the past when it comes to moral knowledge and behaviour? Does one believe that the ultimate goal of terrestrial people is that they should be technical geniuses but moral babies? It is not so surprising that mankind's present epoch has been prophesised by the great men of the past as an Armageddon or Hell. How shall the mankind of an entire globe be able to create a culture, a way of behaving which is not an expression of a baby morality, which means the unfolding of a wild man's animal, jungle morality with the aid of the most ingenious technical refinements for sabotaging and killing his fellow beings? The unfolding of a baby or dwarf morality through a gigantic, excessive knowledge of how to kill must of necessity create war, darkness and suffering. Isn't it easy to see that there is something here which is unfinished in the creation of Man in God's image?

Do we meet such a discrepancy, such imperfection in the Godhead's other creations, that is, in the final result of nature's creative processes? Certainly not. One will not find in even one single case that nature, in its final result, shows such a terrible disharmony as that which exists between Man's baby morality and his technical genius. We only need to look at Man's organism. Is it not precisely a product of nature's creative processes? Is not every single normal organ an expression of the highest perfection in the way it is built up to cooperate with the other organs in the organism to guarantee its utmost efficiency and the ensuing well-being in the experience of life of its originator? Are there not hundreds of organs in the organism which are each built to serve the maintenance of the organism as an instrument for the experience of physical life for its originator? Is it not the same with all other living beings' organisms? Is not nature ingenious in its creative processes? Who can outdo the creative processes of nature?

That people live in such an Armageddon or Hell shows that the creation of Man and his existence is absolutely not one of the Godhead's final results. Just as the human being has grown or developed into a genius in technical knowledge and ability, so will he also inevitably grow to be a genius in morality and behaviour, which means to constitute "God's image". The terrestrial human being will not go on being equipped with a baby morality and a gigantic technical consciousness. Is there then something which shows that this condition is not the finished goal for the terrestrial human being? It is a fact that Man's tiny morality in relation to his technical creative capacity or ability is the cause of people's doomsday-existence with its wars and all other unhappy circumstances. If the human being had neighbourly love to the same degree as he has intelligence, mankind's existence on earth would be quite perfect. In order that people can become perfect and be free of their revolutions and wars, their religious and political fights, their struggle for the earth's natural riches, their tendency to want to oppress other peoples and states, their racial hatred and craving for power, their egoism and self-worship and the ensuing state of doomsday or war, then their moral capacity must be just as developed as their technical creative ability.

But why should people not go through this development? That they must have their intelligence developed to a stage of genius in order to be an expression of God's image in this field is a matter of course. " God's image" does not mean a consciousness which is, on the one hand, nearly illiterate in morality and cosmic knowledge but is, on the other hand, a giant in technical creation. That a person's intelligence, which can be used as easily in the service of a very high morality or humaneness as it can be in the service of a very animal and warlike being, should exist only in order to promote a life-sabotaging condition, can only be an abnormal opinion.

Observation of people will show it to be a fact that they are all in a process of transformation from the primitive form of experiencing life we call "animal" to a more and more "human" form of life. We see that intelligence temporarily elevates them up to be overdeveloped animals as regards consciousness. But a world of overdeveloped or intelligent animals cannot possibly become a true "human kingdom". The present human organism has been called human but it is in reality still not a true human body. There is just as great a difference between terrestrial Man's present organism and the true totally perfect human body as there is between a gorilla's organism and the above-mentioned terrestrial Man's present organism. The truly human organism, which is not in any way designed to be an instrument for animal consciousness and animal thoughts, is not mammalian organism. It is not born of woman. It is materialised on the physical plane by its originator. But I cannot go further into this here.

Terrestrial people are thus in reality more or less overdeveloped animals. Therefore their epoch of life today consists more or less of killing, all according to the strength of the animal tendencies in the beings concerned. For example, their frontiers are decided by the strongest powers through war and oppression. But there are many proofs that this is not the ultimate goal of mankind's physical existence. These proofs are to be sought in the forces which create a very palpable change in people's psyches. This change is reflected in the fact that people's capacity to have the heart to do the so-called "evil" is changed so that in the end they do not have the heart to do such evil. It is the transformation of people which lies at the root of all humaneness. If the culmination of war and suffering were the goal and final result of mankind's physical existence here on earth, why then does this humane capacity grow in people? That it grows is one of the great facts of life. It is thus a fact that there are people who do not have the heart to kill or murder. Does one believe that all the many soldiers in the state's wars would kill if they were not compelled to? Are there not already today many people who have absolutely no wish to take part in military operations regardless of whether they have to go to prison or be punished in other ways? The fact that there are more and more people with such an attitude shows which way people's psyches are going. Why are peace leagues and other great peace-making organisations created? Why are there such strong powers in motion to prevent war?

Is not the U.N. the beginning of an institution which, as a police and judicial system for the nations and states will determine their rights and gradually forbid war, the misuse of power and the oppression of other nations and peoples? Without such an institution and without it having sovereignty over the world's great and small states, that anarchy will continue which until now has put the strong states in a position to oppress the smaller, weaker ones. Is it not obvious today that the great difficulty for the U.N. is such a case where a superpower will not surrender the power it has, because of its large population and its consequently far greater military strength, to lord it over other people and oppress them when it has the chance? This institution has certainly not arisen through and is not promoted by people's enthusiasm for war and blood-letting. So in people today a capacity is growing which, to an increasing degree, will not tolerate war, murder and killing. Is it not precisely this which has become a fact through the police and judicial systems which now exist within every nation or state in the world? And are there any states today which will or can dispense with this social organisation? Is there anything to suggest that anyone will abolish police and judicial systems? Has this social organisation not come into existence precisely in the same manner as that in which the U.N. is now coming into existence?

There is thus absolutely nothing whatsoever to indicate that the world plan is leading mankind in the opposite direction. And is not the main principle in the living being's existence precisely this, that it brings all beings to set about learning from their experiences? Is it not true that if a man does anything which is obviously foolish and destructive to his existence, he seeks more and more to avoid doing it again? People are beginning to understand that military operations are foolish and destructive not only for the loser but also for the victor. Oppression cannot exist without engendering counter-pressure, without engendering struggle for liberation, which again sooner or later will lead to the downfall of the victor. Is this not precisely why the U.N. has arisen? In a future, decisive world war all the peaceful forces - which today have together begun to be a not completely insignificant factor, even if it is still only a child and has not reached its adulthood - will triumph. But as the capacity to have no heart to kill or promote "evil" grows, the ideas and spirit of the U.N. will win more and more supporters even if can still be physically more or less hampered or halted by one superpower or another which still has the blood of anarchy in its veins and, like a "criminal", will not conform like other nations to a true police and judicial system for states and nations. But just as police and judicial systems prevailed and came into existence in every individual state, so will the U.N. or a world police and world judicial system inevitably prevail in the end.

And the more military operations arise, the more quickly there will arise a sovereignty, an authority or world government for all the peoples and states of the earth. It will make war impossible and remove all the many other sources of darkness and the curses on mankind's fate. By virtue of such an authority or world government, anarchy and the doomsday-existence which now torture mankind will disappear from the continents and seas of the earth. The cause of an immeasurable amount of suffering today is the monetary system. Money is still a necessary "means of exchange" but, as long as the human consciousness is not cleansed of its inherent animal tendencies, the monetary system will be misused. Money is something one can give in exchange for goods or advantages one wants which, in certain situations, do not need to be immoral. But with money one can buy oneself personal comforts which one is not at all entitled to since it means sabotaging others' fate. At one time one could even buy people and make them one's private property, make them slaves. Today the same principle exists but camouflaged under other forms. One can appropriate money for oneself through fraud and suggestion. As all objects, all goods, today have a monetary value, they are very convenient objects for theft and robbery, which in turn give rise to assault, murder and killing; indeed, they are even a contributing factor to many forms of war which they could not possibly be if money did not exist. Just everything which is imperfect and creates war, unhappiness and suffering on the basis of people's evolution through experiences, will eventually disappear in favour of healthy and natural phenomena which can only create peace, happiness and blessing, so will the monetary system also totally disappear. No human kingdom whatsoever can be totally perfect as long as it is based on the monetary system.

The future real human kingdom in "God's image" will therefore inevitably be based on quite another, one hundred percent perfect, social foundation. One will have long since realised that any child who is born into the world is, by virtue of its birth as a terrestrial human being, a joint heir to all the material riches of the earth; metals, oil, land; in short, all the existing facilities of good things of life. That these riches or facilities of life are today under requisition to private people, private companies and large concerns, indeed, even to nations and states, has only come about through their originators being superior to their fellow-beings in terms of intellectual talents and the burgeoning of power. And this burgeoning of power has in turn occurred because of the animal tendencies which still appear in the consciousnesses of the above-mentioned originators. One cannot therefore blame them for it. They have not been able to manifest a higher standard of evolution than that which they have reached. But this too is clearly a link in the divine world plan. The oppression by these superior powers of other weaker powers has, among other good things, led people forward to experiences which are now beginning to give light in the darkness and to point forward towards the abolition of war.

Today the general public within the earth's mankind are so developed in "physical intellectuality", because of the many universities, schools and colleges, that the opportunities of life on earth can be created or built up without needing to be based on the stronger's exploitation or oppression of the weaker or less gifted. Opposition has therefore arisen towards the old traditional principle of "upper class" and "lower class". What are the trade union movements, indeed the union movements in general in many cases, other than an incipient damming up of the more or less prevailing upper class system? This opposition will not cease or find its balance until there no longer exists any upper class at all and so no lower class either. But this state of affairs cannot occur until the vast majority of the earth's people are agreed that all people - not some few - own the earth's riches.

Absolutely the only private property a person can have is his capacity to take part in transforming the earth's riches into something useful for people's normal experience of life. Therefore a person's capacity for work will be absolutely the only justified means of payment. By virtue of this capacity he will not earn money, but he will, however, secure admittance to a particular standard of living. As this standard of living is thus not a question of money but a question of a person's capacity to work, every human being has thus an inborn ability to pay in the form of his capacity to work. If this standard of living, which lies far beyond what people today describe as average prosperity, should cost the world state (that is, mankind) 8 hours twice a week per person, then every person must himself contribute these working hours to the world state. When a person has carried out the above-mentioned 8 hours, this output will be marked on his specially designed pass or work-card. By showing this card he will have admittance to all the necessities of life, whether they are house and home, car and travel, or literature and art to the extent which has been calculated for the concerned standard of living. If a man wants to have a higher standard of living it will cost perhaps one or two hours more. And in order to have admittance to this, his work output must be extended by two hours extra. His life and standard of living cannot thereby be achieved at the expense of any other being whatsoever. Absolutely everyone will each contribute the hours of work which are needed so that the standard of living he desires can be reached.

As the world state's only real value is Man's capacity for work (it has the materials totally free of charge; it will not have to buy anything from other states and exchange difficulties are thereby no longer part of the world), its greatest task will be this: to see to it that people's capacity for work becomes as perfect as possible. It will therefore see to it that every child who comes into the world gets the very best teaching or training in those fields where he has his special talents or gifts and inclination, whether it is music or another art-form, or whether it is technical creation or any other field whatsoever where he feels a zest for life. When he is then trained and must begin to give the state the working hours required for his standard of living, then this training and his board, food, clothing and shelter is accounted for in the 8 hours. Furthermore his child-benefit, old-age pension and sickness benefit will also be accounted for in the 8 hours or the hours he must contribute for his standard of living. We cannot go into this subject in more detail here but must refer you to the fourth chapter of "Livets Bog".

So absolutely no human-being can in the future world state live at the expense of others. One can obtain neither food nor clothing nor admittance to any standard of living with another's work-card or pass. Only one's own card is valid. Calculation of the standard of living will be carried out with the aid of computers and other ingenious means. One thus knows exactly every day how many people are born and die and how many work-hours this or that standard of living demands. By virtue of this, there are no goods whatsoever, no product whatsoever, costing money. Goods have no sales value whatsoever. Therefore no one is tempted to steal or swindle. Nothing can be bought or sold, but neither is there anyone who lacks anything. Everyone is well-off, if not to say rich. Everyone's work is his hobby. It cannot pay the state to have any person whatsoever employed in anything but his hobby. So, in the world state, the very greatest opportunity is given for the development and burgeoning of each person's abilities in science, art and knowledge. Neighbourly love will then make terrestrial mankind sparkle and radiate in a hitherto unknown measure of mental light which will begin to be penetrated by cosmic consciousness (the Holy Spirit) and show that love is the basic note of the universe. This basic note is God's primary way of behaving. And this behaviour is "God's image". The terrestrial human kingdom will then sparkle and radiate in "God's image after His likeness" over the whole world.