The Christian Easter, it will be remembered, stems from or originates from the biblical account of the Passion of Jesus. The Easter festival itself is of course merely a ceremony, a special service in memory of the world redeemer with sacraments, hymns, the organ pealing, candles burning, beautiful colours and so on, all of which contribute to making this service an uplifting religious festival that promotes joy and zest for life in the sincere believers who participate. This solemn ceremony based on the Easter gospel was not responsible for turning this gospel into an everlasting message, not only for religious believers but also for very materialistic disbelievers.

When the Easter gospel, as well as other accounts from the Bible, has resulted in the Bible becoming a thousand-year-old reality that with supreme force to this very day can still enrapture millions of people with spiritual ecstasy and a wealth of inspiration, then it is due exclusively to the fact that these accounts express eternal, absolute truths. And an absolute truth can never become an absolute untruth, because an absolute truth states an eternal law, which in turn means, one of the eternal principles on which the eternal existence of the universe is based. Infringing one or several of the eternal principles makes the living being a so-called sinner. Infringing these principles thus creates the antithesis of eternal perfection, which is determined or brought about by compliance with these principles. This antithesis constitutes in turn "an imperfect life". According to cosmic clear-sightedness, this imperfect life can be triggered only by a limited consciousness, which means, a state of consciousness in which the living being's higher spiritual faculties and senses are more or less reduced to the least possible capacity and have thereby placed the eternal being in a kind of "cosmic state of rest". Compliance with the principles, on the contrary, will always be promoted only by the cosmic senses' more or less outstanding, supreme ability to manifest. This compliance can thus exist only as a product of the capacity of the being's most sublime sensory abilities and the most supreme knowledge arising from this. Compliance with the principles and the form of existence arising from this compliance can thus be said to be nothing other than the absolute foundation of existence or life. Perceiving the form of existence engendered by a mental state in which the being is at the lowest mental point of its manifestation and is least knowledgeable as "the most perfect" or the most fundamental, and thereby perceiving the form of existence that is a result of the state in which the being is at the mental peak of its manifestation and is at the utmost height of its knowledge as the most imperfect and the most primitive, can of course reveal its originator's faculty of knowledge to be nothing but abnormal. Moreover the two forms of life or results of mental manifestation confirm or affirm their own position or capacity in an absolutely infallible way, because the result of the being's minimal manifestation of spiritual mentality or knowledge and its ensuing infringement of the laws of life culminate in the feeling that we call pain, while the result of the being's highest knowledge and its compliance with the laws of life arising from this gives rise exclusively to the culmination of the feeling that we call well-being, joy, happiness or perfect bliss. Perceiving perfection or bliss as imperfection, and imperfection, primitivity and pain as perfection can thus constitute nothing but a revelation of untruth. Every living being that bases its life on this untruth will thus inevitably end up in the culmination of pain or the antithesis of happiness or bliss.

It is true that there is a zone in existence or on the ladder of evolution where people believe they will find the greatest happiness by infringing the laws of life, and by consciously creating suffering and pain for all their fellow beings that they regard as enemies; indeed, they perceive this way of acting as nothing less than the worship of God, as a prerequisite for entering "heaven" and attaining salvation. Is this not the case in Nordic mythology with "Valhalla", its kingdom of heaven for all the greatest and strongest killers or murderers? But is it not also a fact that the beings in question believe that their behaviour complies with the most supreme laws? They know nothing of clear-sightedness; they know nothing at all about the real laws behind life; they are asleep cosmically. The only thing they know anything about is the material life that stirs in their day-conscious surroundings. And this life is of course made to instil in them the belief in superior material strength and power as the only means of salvation. Without these means they could not stand up for themselves in the zone that had become their temporary domicile on the ladder of evolution. But since this zone constitutes merely a little locality in their real eternal life and is, indeed, so small that within this zone they were completely unable to see the ultimate effects of their animal or deadly way of life, which in many cases affected them only in subsequent lives, they could know nothing about the fact that these subsequent, ultimate effects of their life spent inflicting pain on those around them and killing them would one day affect themselves. They were therefore compelled to act on the basis of the situation that at that moment apparently justified their way of acting or made it logical. So they had to remove their troublesome enemies in order to have the opportunity to better themselves, and thereby, albeit unconsciously, inflicting misfortune upon themselves. But since this misfortune was not immediate, turning up as it did only in a later life, it was of course impossible for them to perceive their way of acting as anything other than logical.

The gory nature of the morality of the former gods is today certainly influenced by Christianity, but it is, however, to an enormous extent still authorised in the form of civil and military penal codes, institutions of war, military affairs, prisons and penitentiaries, electric chairs, guillotines, gallows and firearms. As long as these phenomena are necessary within a culture it would be best not to declare too loudly this culture to be exemplary Christianity. Culminating Christianity rests of course exclusively on one hundred percent neighbourly love or the following: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; turn the right cheek when thou art smitten on the left; and he that takes the sword shall perish with the sword. Nothing has been written adding authorised murder and killing by means of electric chairs, guillotines, gallows and firearms as an exception to these highest ideals.

The Bible is thus a book whose content consists mainly of such immortal ideals that gradually have been collected and handed down from the uppermost and most gifted representatives of mankind. The Bible, having been written as a series of accounts of beings that lived and participated in events said to have taken place thousands of years ago, is thus, in its purely superficial, physical aspect, merely a collection of stories. And for many scientifically-minded people of today the great problem is therefore the question of whether these biblical stories and characters really are historic or merely fictitious figments of the imagination, because they believe that the entire value of the Bible depends on this.

For the superficial, materially-minded reader the Bible is thus merely a collection of postulates about people and events from a dim and distant past. Since it does not aim at producing evidence of the existence of the events and people of this past, it will not be of particular significance for such a reader. In his view it is largely an expression of mere superstition and naivety, his opinion of this book thereby lacking any basis for expertise or authority. Beings with this completely materialistic attitude live entirely without the Bible, and mock all those who are still interested in its content, despite the fact that the majority of them are both baptised and confirmed, are members of the state church and bear the name of Christians. That we sometimes come across Christians who are totally unscrupulous, egoistic capitalists, moneylenders, impostors, robbers, murderers and the like is not so remarkable. The son of God has here left his Father. The prodigal son hastens towards his destiny. The Bible or Holy Writ is thus for the moment of no significance for these people. Here life itself must speak.

Next we have the reader who, by virtue of his still intact strong religious instinct, believes with all his heart in the stories and characters of the Bible as historic reality. For these beings the outer literal form of the Bible has really great value. Indeed, it is such an unshakeable document that nothing whatsoever in the world can surpass the authority of its literal form, regardless of how meaningless it may be or how inconsistent it may be with their intelligence or reason. That such and such a sentence has gained a place in Holy Writ is for them quite sufficient grounds for accepting it as unshakeable or absolute truth. Their ability to believe is here so strong that it entirely overshadows their understanding of the possibility that the truth expressed by the Bible, just like all other truths, can be expressed in very different ways and absolutely does not need to be connected to merely one particular literal form. Imagine if the Godhead's written forms of expression or vocabulary were so limited or poor. Indeed, He would in such cases not even be able to come up to the standard of an ordinary human being. Even the most simple-minded human being has, however, an ability to talk to a little child in quite another way than that which he uses when he speaks to an adult. He cannot, however, relate a complicated truth to a little three- or four-year-old child with the same sentences that he would use when relating the same truth to an adult. If he is to make the little child understand at all, he must compare the details of this truth to something that the child knows, and in this way adapt his story to the child's knowledge and limited understanding. It is precisely the use of this principle that creates the difference between ordinary books and so-called children's books. In children's books we see great truths told as fairytales and stories, whose details are fashioned so as to lie within the scope of experience pertaining particularly to the child's step. If the fairy tales that were told referred to experiences that the children could not possibly have had and therefore could not possibly relate to, they would regard them as completely meaningless and incomprehensible. But imagine if the Godhead, the greatest father, educator, teacher and pedagogue in the universe, could frame His thoughts in only one particular word form or sentence form. Imagine if He could tell life's greatest truth or the analysis of existence by means of experiences that could be understood by beings of only one single particular step in evolution, a step situated above all other steps. What about all the millions upon millions of beings that find themselves on lower steps? How could any religious thought at all, how could any concept of a godhead, of the creation of the world, of the emergence of the human beings, the immortality of the living being, its knowledge of morality, humaneness and love have been revealed in the part of the universe now known and experienced by the terrestrial human being? Can one not divide all the living beings within this part of the universe into a scale of steps? Do these steps not occur on the basis of the fact that some beings are more developed than others, which thus in reality means that they are mentally or spiritually more mature. They understand a more developed, a more comprehensive, scientific, clear language, which here means, cosmic analyses of the structure of life itself or the eternal truth behind the apparent mystery of life. Since the beings thus find themselves on very different mental steps and, as a consequence of this, do not have anywhere near the same experiences or the same developed sensory abilities or understanding, they would be completely cut off from being able to understand or grasp a truth or an analysis that was not clothed in words or symbols bordering on their own experiences or the normal understanding of their step.

Since such a primitive human being's religious instinct is of course still so strong that it can perceive all the movement or manifestation of force, the physical source or the physical cause of which it cannot directly see, only as something "supernatural", as something that only gods or spirits can be the source of, an analysis of these cultural phenomena cannot possibly meet with enthusiasm in such a being's brain except through a symbolism that can refer to these "supernatural" sources and the "magic" or "witchcraft" manifested by these. It was of course in accordance with the above that such primitive human beings saw something supernatural in the first aircraft that they witnessed, and perceived the pilots of these machines as "supernatural beings", as gods. But in proportion as the primitive human being identifies with the talents and technology of civilised human beings, these beings lose their mystery for them in favour of more sober and concrete knowledge, which ultimately becomes a real, concrete scientific analysis of the actual circumstances. And this is how everything goes. Everything begins at first as a mystery. One forms concepts about a thing; one seeks to compare it to things that one knows already in order to form a fixed mental standpoint in relation to the thing on the basis of this knowledge. Gradually, as one gets into closer realistic contact with this thing, one can form an increasingly concrete concept of it, until this concept ultimately constitutes a real, concrete or scientific analysis. The truth that the thing constitutes is thereby totally uncovered. And the being's concept of the thing can then no longer be changed. The being's experience of the thing is thereby at its highest or at its peak. And with this kind of experience of the truth of the thing, every form of mystery about the thing has been removed.

As regards the truth, which means the principle of life itself, there is of course only one. This principle is the same whether it occurs in an animal or a human being, in a robber or a world redeemer, in "devils" or gods, in the microcosmos or in the macrocosmos. The truth of life is not that life is "evil" or "good", long or short, large or small, limited or unlimited, temporal or eternal, for each of these analyses or similar phenomena can of course each constitute only local details in the manifestation of life itself or the absolute truth. It is this manifestation or expression that comes into direct contact with the beings' sensory abilities. And all according as these sensory abilities are as yet undeveloped or unfinished, the details or expression of the truth will seem more or less mysterious, as something incomprehensible (from here we have the saying "the ways of the Lord are past understanding"). But since the beings nonetheless are, and must be, still in contact with the details or characteristics of life, which means, daily life, there is implanted in them an eternal desire to get into contact with the things or the details of daily life, that is a desire to be able to understand these. But when the beings on the unintellectual steps do not have sufficient intelligence or intuition to be able to comprehend things by this process, they have only their religious instinct (the ability to believe) to guide them. This instinct or this ability to believe is in turn the final degenerating residue of the cosmic consciousness that the beings possessed in their previous cosmic spiral cycle. That this instinct is the final, decreasing stage of such a previous cosmic consciousness becomes evident in that all the beings governed by this instinct regard it as an absolute matter of course that there is a providence, a living, governing being or beings, spirits or gods behind all forms of movement, behind the forces of Nature as well as behind the manifestations of people and animals. It is thus quite inconceivable for primitive people that this should not be the case. It is not so surprising that such a being is in reality closer to "the kingdom of heaven" than the modern, materialistic scientist who believes in dead forces or simply perceives it to be totally impossible that there could be life behind inorganic or mineral substances and forces. For him life constitutes merely animal life forms and to some degree vegetable life forms, but the rest of the entire universe with its suns and galaxies is "dead", lifeless phenomena.

The primitive human being and the civilised believers are thus beings in whom the cosmic consciousness from a previous spiral is still in evidence, even though it is of course unable to give these beings in the present cycle a pure, awake, day-conscious detailed picture of this Providence or this life behind the substances or the movements. This residue of the former cosmic consciousness thus occurs in the beings as an unshakeable sense of there being life behind every form or movement. It is this vague cosmic sense that triggers the unshakeable ability to believe that characterises the beings in question. These believers are thus able to feel that there is life behind every form of movement, and that movement therefore cannot possibly exist without it flowing out from some life form, even though this is not visible. Where this is not directly visible mysticism arises. The mysticism cannot be lifted before some other intellectual bridge has been created between the individual's religious feeling about life behind the movement and the movement itself. The being feels that there is life behind the movement, but it cannot see how this life has a connection with the movement or how it can be the source of the movement. It will therefore feel a need to experience an intelligible explanation of the problem. Since it does not have the high-intellectual ability without which a pure, cerebral or intellectual explanation cannot possibly be understood, a bridge can be built only between such a being's feeling about life and its understanding of this life with symbols and parables. The latter in turn constitute the unknown details of the truth clothed in the form and guise of known details. And on the creation of this technique of symbolisation or comparison the Bible, as well as all religious holy scriptures and accounts, is based. In the religions of the past we see many different perceptions of God. These perceptions of God are in reality merely symbolic expressions for real details in the analysis of the eternal, absolute truth itself. In this way these have become easier for the unintellectual masses to grasp. Through these perceptions of God, bridges could be formed between the understanding of these masses and real life. That the source of these symbols or the so-called initiated beings knew the real, absolute truth behind the symbols, the imagery or the perceptions of God is naturally a matter of course. Just as these former perceptions of God formed bridges between real life and the beings' understanding, based, as it was, on belief or feeling, so the Bible also forms a bridge between the beings' religious feeling and their material experience of life. Its task, as previously mentioned, is thus not to constitute an argumentation for sceptics. It constitutes merely a collection of mental images or parables through which the individuals can bring their as yet intact religious cosmic feeling into contact with their material, physical experiences.

If, for example, we look at the Bible's story of creation , we see here lavish imagery. When it says that creation lasted seven days, then this, of course, is not intended to express scientifically or absolutely literally that creation lasted precisely seven days or so and so many hours, minutes or seconds. It was not created as material for the research geologist or astronomer. It is not a definite period of time measured with a stop watch. It is not a really precise point in time or period of time that is measured or specified here as a concrete result for the scientist. On the contrary, what is expressed here is an answer that can be - not a proof for a sceptic or for a being who wants to know how many days, hours or minutes that creation lasted - but a parable or an expression that can be a bridge between the unintellectual beings' temporary view of the creative faculty of providence and the way in which this creative faculty really worked. In the view of the unintellectual religious beings, God's creative faculty manifests itself as an ability to perform miracles, which in turn means, an instantaneous creation from "nothing". This is also the reason why this story of creation in reality says that "God spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast".

The Bible is thus intended to be understood literally by unintellectual believers, and symbolically by high-intellectual beings. Those who are neither believers nor high-intellectual beings, that is the purely materialistic, atheistic beings, have no need of the Bible in their temporary mental state in the spiral cycle. We are thoroughly familiar with the fact that the believers understand the Bible's literal form absolutely literally. In daily life we see that they understand this literal form so literally that it becomes increasingly difficult for them to win converts. The established church and other religious communities experience a large annual decrease in believers, just as there are increasing numbers of empty pews during their services. This decrease is due mainly to the widespread compulsory school attendance and thorough education that takes place in civilised countries. The scientific insight into the laws of Nature itself and its principal phenomena, which the civilised human being is indoctrinated with or brought up with ever since childhood, makes it increasingly impossible for such a being during his scripture lesson to be able to accept, for example, the view that the creation of the Earth was a process that lasted merely seven days, and that this creation took place merely about six thousand years ago, when he at the same time in his geology lesson has to accept the scientific view that the creation of the Earth has proceeded gradually through a vast space of time, and that the age of the Earth thus cannot possibly be expressed by a space of time shorter than millions of years. Is it not the same that holds true when one is encouraged in one's scripture lesson to believe that God made Adam from clay, and made Eve from Adam's rib, in order then in the zoology lesson to be presented with a long series of pictures of skeletons that, for example, show the evolution of a horse from being a little dawn horse (eohippus) with toes to the present galloping magnificent hoofed mammal, or shows the evolution of the birds from reptiles to the present feathered beings? And is it not so with all the other species and races of the Earth's living beings? Is the human being an exception? Does not the same school teach us, using pictures of skeletal finds, how the present human being stems from some species of pre-historic man? And do not these skeletons point in the direction of ape-beings? Is it not so that prehistoric man resembles more ape-beings than the present intellectual civilised human being? Where does one find Adam and Eve in this picture gallery of skeletal finds or landmarks in evolution?

If the Godhead's skeletal method in the literal sense is this - to make the being from clay and after that breath life into it and bring it to life, to what end then this evolution from primitive and imperfect forms to higher and more beautiful appearances? And if Adam and Eve had originally been beautiful and perfect and lived in a garden of paradise, that is in a high-intellectual and perfect culture, but at the Fall were doomed to hasten towards a lower and more primitive form of existence, how can it come about that their bodies, as the skeletal finds show, gradually through the ages have become more perfect and more beautiful? The Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man cannot then possibly be a match for modern man, neither in bodily perfection and sensitivity nor with regard to intellect or brains. If the literal form of the Bible's account is truth in the literal sense, why does the scale of evolution not appear to go in the same direction? If God literally created Adam and Eve from clay and thus gave them the highest perfection from the beginning, a perfection they could lose by "sinning", then the skeletal finds would have established this as fact. We would thus have seen today that prehistoric man had to have been more perfect that man of today, having the most perfect skeleton and the largest skull, while all his successors would then have gradually shown a decrease in both physical and mental perfection. All terrestrial human beings of today must thus be closer to the gorilla and orangutang stage than prehistoric man was. And if we still had so much ability to think or reason that we could understand our situation (total "death" or annihilation and "punishment for our sins"), all our behaviour would of course have become so despondent, hopeless and apathetic that life today would be totally without initiative. But that is exactly the opposite of the case. It is true that people today manifest a violent campaign of destruction; they murder, mutilate and destroy, but this does not refute the speech of the skeletal finds or the evolutionary story of the species, just as this bloody drama cannot either be a result of hopelessness or apathy. On the contrary is it not conceivable that the raging steadfastness with which the combatants seek one another's capitulation is the culmination of hope and expectations? If this were not the case, how could one then carry into effect the tremendous and greatest productive ability in the world so far, which now promotes the creation of war equipment? And is it not so that things that one previously spent years on producing are now produced in months or weeks? This does not indicate the degeneration of ability or lack of initiative. And what does one think about modern man's control of the elements? Has he not conquered the air, fire and water? Has he not gained the ability to bind the elements so that, by merely pressing lightly on the switches or buttons, he can get these to carry out the work of thousands upon thousands of horsepower for him? The modern Adam presses a button and his living room is bathed in light. He presses a button and the same room is pervaded by tropical heat. He presses a button and his food his refrigerated and fresh. He presses a button, and cold or hot crystal-clear, filtered water pours out into his drinking glass or bathtub at the command of his wishes. In the same way by pressing buttons he can similarly soar up into the stratosphere or above the clouds, above continents and seas, cities and forests, lakes and rivers, mountains and valleys as well as over motorways at a speed of hundreds of kilometres per hour at the command of his wishes. He presses buttons, and great ships transport thousands of tons of materials, goods and food thousands of kilometres backwards and forwards over the seas. He speaks into a microphone, and the entire world can hear him by pressing buttons too. His voice resounds over the frozen polar seas and resounds through the jungles and palm forests, at the same time as it vibrates over the pampas of South America, and quivers through the vast plains of Russia and Siberia. The sound of his voice echoes between the pyramids of Egypt and gets lost in the lapping of the waves between the rushes of the Amazon River, at the same time as it thunders in the concert halls of the West and can be heard in lonely huts in the mountain slopes of the Himalayas. He speaks, and an entire world, all peoples, all races can at the same moment hear his voice. And this voice can sometimes throw an entire planet into breathless suspense and fascination.

In truth, the modern "Adam" does not seem to be on his way away from "God's image after his likeness". Is he not further and further on his way to fulfilling the divine command about subduing the Earth? Adam does not seem to have become less perfect after the "Fall". What could the "Adam and Eve" made from "clay" or "created directly by the hand of God" do compared with the twentieth-century son of God? Indeed, do we not have here two stories about this son of God's past? Do not zoology and geology provide one basic account of this past while the Bible provides another? But when they constitute two accounts of the same thing, they must both contain the same truth, if they are not to be denounced as a lie or a figment of the imagination. And there is surely no one who dares to denounce these two kinds of accounts in this way except those "who rush in where angels fear to tread". On the other hand it is not so surprising that one of these two accounts or the other must lose popularity and the interest of those beings who cannot understand them both. The Bible's account is apparently directly contrary to that of geology and zoology, which means, that of science. If one therefore believes in the one account, one is of course compelled to doubt the other to the same extent. One cannot have an unshakeable belief that a thing is clean and at the same time believe that it is dirty. In one and the same lesson one cannot force a pupil to believe that a thing is "evil" when in another lesson one proves that it is "good". A thing cannot be totally white and totally black at the same time. A thing cannot constitute its own opposite. When the accounts of the Bible and of science constitute two such accounts, the one stating that Adam and Eve are sinners who are on their way towards "death" and imperfection, and the other stating that Adam is in the process of being created and is on his way towards perfection, the Bible's account is evidently mysticism. Science's account, however, is not mysticism. It is not an account handed down from the past but on the contrary an accumulation of facts, including many skeletal finds and the evolution of the living beings ascertained from these. Here there is nothing to be mistaken about. It is based on obvious, present, day-conscious experiences.

The Bible's account, however, does not stem from anything that is an obvious fact today. It is merely a tradition. And since its literal form is not consistent with science's account or the facts, it is obvious that it will gradually lose its popularity with the modern human being. While his physical senses enable him to see meaning in science's account, they do not enable him to see any meaning in the Bible's account. He then of course rejects the latter as superstition and completely commits himself to science's account. But now something strange happens; in so doing he loses something that science's account cannot give him, namely a fundamental overview of what he is seeing. Science's account certainly provides realistic local details, but no fundamental overview. What then does the Bible do? Does it not also provide local details with an overview? No, it provides a fundamental overview, but no realistic local details. It is true that it expresses itself through local details of a kind, but these are not scientific analyses of real phenomena but merely symbols of local principles on which a comprehensive picture or overview of Adam's and Eve's highest nature and relationship to Providence can be understood, thereby satisfying the person who is still a believer and who wants, not these local details (these being entirely of minor importance to this being), but on the contrary the overview or the overall answer. Since the Bible's account is thus based not on concrete analyses of local details of the main answer or the cosmic whole, but, on the contrary, consists merely of poetic symbols for a whole that cannot as yet be sensed by these beings, it is a matter of course that these symbolic phenomena do not match the accounts of science or the concrete details of the whole in the literal sense, this never in any case whatsoever having been their intention. Perceiving the literal form of such accounts as an absolutely scientific analysis of local details of the whole can create nothing but conflict in the consciousness of the intelligent or scientifically trained reader. For him the concrete local details play such an overwhelming role that he does not even give the overall answer a thought, indeed, sometimes he even thinks that this answer is quite inaccessible to any human being - if any really logical answer exists and everything is not a matter of chance. It is obvious here that the Bible is not intended for such a mentality. The situation of the religious believer is quite different. For this being, whose religious instinct, which has been inherited from the cosmic consciousness of a previous spiral cycle, is still intact to such an extent that it has a vague sense that there must be a cohesive, logical answer and that there must be a supreme Godhead behind life or existence, the overall answer to the universe and some of the other greatest cosmic answers mean so overwhelmingly much that they entirely overshadow the purely local details of the whole. These therefore become quite insignificant.

The structure of the Bible is thus intended merely to be a mental or spiritual support for a particular psyche. This psyche must be such that it still contains so much of the concerned beings' cosmic consciousness from a previous spiral that this consciousness, in the form of a religious instinct, today overshadows the individual with a strong, irrefutable sense of the existence of a living being that governs the universe. This sense must be so unshakable that nothing can make the individual falter in doubt of any kind. We call the unshakable stability of this "sensing" belief. But since such a sense or belief is merely the final degenerating remainder of a previous cosmic consciousness, a kind of mental ruin of a previous absolute knowledge of an almighty or supreme being governing the universe and of its own relationship to this being, it cannot see in this ruin or the remainder of this knowledge that it represents how the local details really were. Through the remains of the foundations of the ruins it can still see the contours of the actual main structure of the cosmic world picture that it possessed in the previous spiral, but not the local details within these contours. These details have long since crumbled away during the individual's passage out of the kingdom of bliss, down through the plant kingdom and in through the first spheres of the animal kingdom. At its entry into the terrestrial human state all that still remains of this past cosmic vision, the structure or construction of this so perfect world picture, is fragments of the construction's most coarse contours without any local details what-soever.

This fragmentary remainder of the contours of the world picture is still the principal foundation for the being all the way through the first terrestrial human states, indeed, right into the domain of the socalled civilised human being. Here the last traces of the so radiant cosmic knowledge or mental structure of a previous spiral disintegrate and are wiped out in the individual's consciousness. And from this point onwards the being is a materialist, unable to believe in anything whatsoever of a spiritual or superphysical nature. It has now a psyche that is totally transformed. From this point onwards the previously so religious believer has completely lost his ability to believe. His sense of Providence and spiritual existence is now so weak that it can be felt only at moments when all forces are mobilised in a spiritual direction, for example, at the moment of death or at the loss of much loved friends. In such situations the individual's most profound religious sense can sometimes produce a very feeble or weak dawning of a life after physical life. But as long as such an individual is otherwise doing well and is not strained to any particular extent by a hard fate or misfortune, then physical details and materials dominate his consciousness. And only through these material details and materials will the religious instinct once again be able to develop. But then its objects can consist only of purely local details. The being's psyche is then attuned so that he can feel satisfied only through absolutely concrete or scientific analyses, the correctness or absolute truth of which he can check. Since he no longer has an effective religious sense, he, as mentioned previously, can no longer have any religious ability to believe whatsoever. But since the goal of evolution is to lead all these people forward to the religious stage again, this can be done only through concrete details. And it is thus quite natural that such beings disregard all religiosity that is based only on belief, and leave the churches and other religious communities that are based exclusively on belief. In their material period these beings cannot thus receive any support or inspiration from the Bible or from other religious works that are not based on concrete scientific analyses. Giving these people the dogmas of the Bible is giving them stones instead of bread. Mocking these people and threatening them with hell or eternal perdition is futile and reveals only a prevailing cosmic unconsciousness and lack of neighbourly love in those that threaten; indeed, such behaviour is of course diametrically opposed to the very highest or holiest commandment of religiosity: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself". To these "doubters" life itself must speak, partly through their particular fate and partly through their scientific psyche. For this reason the Bible is not written for these beings. Not until they have been developed so much by the severity, sorrow and sufferings of their materialistic fate that materialistic answers in terms of weights and measures do not meet their mental needs any longer, do they begin once again to desire religious answers, which here means, answers within which their concrete physical experiences and facts can form a synthesis, thereby showing that an absolute logic and perfect harmony in the world plan as a whole exists behind all the apparent chance occurrences, thereby confirming that "everything is very good".

But the Bible meets such a need only indirectly since its terminology or literal form is not intended at all to be evidence. It is, as mentioned above, only for those beings who already believe. It is thus not for sceptical researchers who seek purely scientific analyses. Only when the researcher has experienced the perfect structure of the universe and its details through cosmic research and experience, can he see through the terminology or literal form of the Bible, and then see that this literal form in reality constitutes unalterable symbols or parables that express what he himself has experienced as facts or science. He then sees how wonderfully and perfectly the literal form of the Bible is adapted to the psyche of the believer. He sees how analyses that are actually scientific are wrapped in simple parables, symbols or stories that meet entirely the strongly degenerated and therefore unscientific religious need of the believer. As an example of the inalterability of this characteristic innermost essence of the Bible, I will here cite the Bible's Easter story. On the surface it is indeed told as an account of an event that is said to have taken place centuries ago. So it is related as a piece of history. But by means of cosmic clear-sightedness it will be easy to see that its innermost essence is mainly not to cite an event that has taken place as a piece of scientifically justified history. That which is important in the account of this drama and its inclusion in the Bible is not its historical data. These are in reality entirely irrelevant for mankind. Nor does the nature of the traditional, literal form of the account satisfy the modern, scientific researcher or confirm the Easter drama as a real historic truth in such a way that he, solely on the basis of this, dares regard it as such. Indeed, there are even writers who, on the basis of this, have written books intended to prove that the main character in the drama, Jesus of Nazareth, in reality did not exist at all. As a consequence of this the Easter drama is thus reduced to constituting merely, not a scientifically justified account of a historical event, but on the contrary mere fiction, a figment of the imagination.

So it is actually fortunate that the main task of the Bible is not to provide scientific, historical data, for its mission would then have failed completely long ago, and its name would be unknown to all existing people. The modern scientifically minded human being demands objective facts. He must have concrete analyses rooted in absolute reality. And the Bible is thus not intended for the person who is interested solely in historical data, which here means the research historian. But on the contrary the Easter account has a great message to those who are hungry for knowledge of the sphere of the soul, which means, the sphere of thought and exercise of the will. The fact is that this account constitutes an irrefutable piece of psychology. Through the conduct of its characters it reveals the various states of mind that govern terrestrial humanity in general. It shows the mental attitude, way of thinking, exercise of the will and conduct that lead to victory over the primitive animal instincts or urges of the terrestrial human sphere, the highest feeling of happiness and joy in life and the highest perfection, that is, the human being in God's image after his likeness, just as it also reveals the mental attitude and exercise of the will that lead to the culmination of debasement, sorrow, unhappiness and depression. The account of Easter has thus as its task to be more a mental or psychological guide for the ordinary terrestrial human being than to be a story about some people who lived in the past. Whether Jesus of Nazareth, Pilate, Caiaphas and the other named characters in the drama have existed or not, indeed, whether the entire Easter gospel is merely fiction or not, this cannot detract a single jot from the purely psychological value of the account, even though it would of course be entirely without historical value if this were the case. If the Easter gospel were merely a work of fiction, its writer or source would of course have to represent the height of psychological or mental knowledge represented or expressed by the Easter gospel. How could it otherwise have come into existence? No being can of course manifest higher knowledge or a higher step in evolution that that which it has attained. But when the source mentioned above represents such a height of mental evolution that it has been able to create the revelation of psychological knowledge that the Easter gospel actually constitutes, it absolutely must have experienced the particular temperaments or mental states with which it has equipped the characters of the Easter drama. The names that it has given these characters are of minor importance. Whether they are called Jesus, Judas, Caiaphas and so on, or they have been given quite other names is thus totally unimportant. Since the Easter gospel is thus a revelation of real psychological knowledge formed as a drama whose characters each express real, existing, mental states, one cannot remove these characters from the drama without having to replace them with other characters with exactly the same mental states or temperaments. If the opposite were the case the gospel of Easter would thereby have to cease being a revelation of the real psychological knowledge or science that its Biblical form constitutes. It will therefore be apparent that whatever objections we may make to the Easter gospel, then its stability as psychological truth cannot possibly be shaken. If we say that Jesus has never existed, we are compelled to acknowledge that another man with the mental state that constitutes Jesus' mentality must then have existed. If we say that Caiaphas has likewise never existed, we must, in order to be in harmony with real psychological science, acknowledge another man with the character of Caiaphas. And thus in order to be really in harmony with the unshakeable facts or realities, without which psychological knowledge or a psychological science could never become a reality, we must acknowledge the characters of the Easter gospel as symbolic expressions for unshakeable psychological facts.

The Easter gospel is thus an account of the absolute principles of real life related in symbols. The fact that one can evolve to see by cosmic means (cosmic clear-sightedness) that the characters named in the gospel really have existed and thus in the absolute sense are purely physical, historical characters just like our previous kings and deceased famous men and women, can of course envelop the analyses of the account of Easter presented here in nothing but a radiance of an even higher and more beautiful form of human admiration and joy. But as has already been said, the existence of the Easter gospel today is not dependent on whether the drama and the characters involved in this drama are historical in the real, physical sense. The fact is that the drama is still running. In living flesh and blood it is playing around us as realistic reality today more than ever, just as the cast of the drama wander alive among us. Indeed we, you and I - along with all our fellow beings - are those who eternally lend life to the drama. Today we wander around in "the holy land". Some of us are on our way to Jerusalem and are making our entry there. Others are eating a "paschal supper" with their "disciples" (their wife, their children, their friends and acquaintances, their subordinate employees). Yet others are on their way to "the high priests" and "the scribes" in order to earn "the thirty pieces of silver". They made a living out of betraying fellow beings and consigning them to crucifixion, torture and mutilation, to misfortune and death merely in order to satisfy their own egoistic desires. Yet others are committing suicide in desperation over having manifested such behaviour. Indeed, "Judas" is no less active today than nineteen hundred years ago. The denying "Petrus" also turns up intermittently. Are there not people today who at the one moment deny their "master", their "discipleship", deny their religious tendencies at the same time as they at the next moment can cut "an ear off the servant of the high priest" in order to defend their master and the tendencies mentioned above? And does the good disciple John, whom Jesus loved, not live today too? Do faithful, loving and understanding beings not exist today, beings in whom one can confide the secret of one's heart, even though the high priests, Pharisees and the scribes have multiplied and are even numerous on our highways and byways, seeking with evil criticism to suppress the opinions, views and knowledge of others and, with thundering selfpraise or loud proclamations of their own great merits, believing that they are able to make themselves dazzlingly admirable?

Then there is still the drama's main character, the "master" or Christ himself. Where is he today? Well, his physical role was of course to die on the cross. That part of his role was the most accessible to physical senses. Today we will therefore also find the "dying Christ on the cross". And he is even much more widespread and conspicuous than you perhaps imagine. The fact is that the terrestrial human being is "the cross". His physical body with its outstretched arms forms "the living cross", a cross for which all other crosses can be but symbols. This "cross" is intended to carry "the body of the master"; from being a common means of execution, it is thereby elevated or glorified to being a symbol of light for all time. But the terrestrial human beings in general are not conscious of this "cross". Their animal ancestry allows them in the first instance to be so busy elbowing their way forwards that they thereby "crucify" others. They are so wrapped up in themselves that they pay no attention to what they are doing to their neighbour. It is here that "the master" or the initiated being says of them that "they know not what they do".

Is it not so that the Easter story expresses the world redeemer's or the greatest human being's view of his executioners, his view of thieves and murderers, his view of so-called sinners? And is it not by virtue of their elbowing their way forwards at the expense of their neighbour that they came to play the roles of thieves and murderers or the other roles that are at variance with the neighbourly love in the Easter gospel? The Easter gospel in itself thus constitutes a psychological expression for how neighbourly love leads upwards towards perfection, towards absolute happiness, while its opposite, unkindness or hate, definitely leads downwards towards unhappiness or the culmination of suffering. This gospel is thus a divine document, an unmistakable guidance or survey of the terrestrial human being's path to the light. And it is thus here on this path that we find the terrestrial human being again. The various roles in the Easter drama are the various mental stages that the terrestrial human being must pass through and experience on this path. And here we thus find this being either betraying or defending the master more or less. He accuses and judges him at the same time as he sometimes defends him. And this "master", this "Messiah" or "Christ" is his own innermost and most profound self or I, the "something" in his innermost being that constitutes a spark of God. But he knows not what he does. He does not know that the more he torments other beings or is unloving and inconsiderate towards his "neighbour", the more he crucifies his own spiritual or cosmic consciousness, the future individual Christ-being budding within him. And the more dreadfully he crucifies himself, albeit unconsciously, and thereby enters the melting pot of suffering, the quicker he will thereby be lead towards the stage in the crucifixion where he can cry out, "It is finished". And he has of course to reach this point. This stage alone is his temporary goal.

What is it then that is finished? It is the fact that one now no longer elbows one's way forwards at the expense of others, or in some other way "crucifies" one's fellow beings, but "loves one's neighbour as oneself". Until one has reached this stage, one loves oneself more than one's "neighbour" and, because of this lack of neighbourly love, one cannot therefore avoid crucifying one's neighbour, the most profound analysis of this being that it is the same as crucifying oneself. And therefore the life of the terrestrial human being in reality becomes a path of suffering or crucifixion. "Via Dolorosa" is everywhere. Before one reaches the above-mentioned perfect stage on "the cross", one must go through the animal's stages of degeneration, which is the same as experiencing all the various leading roles in the Easter drama, from Caiaphas and Judas to John and the Virgin Mary. One must thus experience the intolerant, hateful and condemning disposition that the high priests and the scribes in the drama manifested. One must live through the blind, treacherous way of thinking that made Judas commit suicide, just as one also, like John, must experience being able to emanate the warm-hearted atmosphere that makes one "loved" by the master. Moreover, like the mother of Jesus one must experience the pain of seeing the most precious object of one's most heartfelt love, the being of one's own flesh and blood being debased, derided and crucified, at the same time as one at other times, like Petrus, must experience telling lies denying one's knowledge of the master for fear of the high priests, for fear of death, fleeing from Jerusalem to save one's life, away from the events, leaving the master to his own fate. Indeed, what leading roles in the Easter drama do not recur in the terrestrial human being's daily life? Is there any kind of terrestrial human fate at all that does not have its counterpart in principle in the kinds of thoughts of one or other of the characters in the Easter drama? Are these thoughts not an obvious demonstration of that which is fundamental to the daily life manifested by terrestrial human beings up to now? Is not this daily life, like the life of the Easter drama, an alternating experience of rain and sunshine, an experience of alternating joy and sorrow, an experience of rising and falling, an experience that at certain moments must culminate in mental ignorance about the real divine will? Indeed, the terrestrial human daily life is thus an experience that must lead its source to Gethsemane in desperation, betrayed by those he believed he could trust, or those nearest and dearest to him having fallen asleep, thereby leaving him to himself alone in the dark atmosphere of the comfortless night with the dreams, phantoms and nightmares of the fear of death. Time and time again the terrestrial human being must return to Gethsemane and there fight a battle of desperation with his own persecution of himself, there having the experience of asking to be free of the bitter cup of suffering until he ultimately understands and thereafter cries to God, "Let thy will, not mine, be done".

And behold, into the pitch-dark night, into the soul of the one who is praying blazes the light from the radiant glory of the angel of God. And with its celestial hand the heavenly messenger dries the fear of death's bloody drops of perspiration from the sufferer. A miracle has happened. The "animal" has become a "human being". And the path now goes towards glorification, towards ennoblement. Before the eyes of vengeful persecutors, false high priests, Pharisees and intolerant scribes, treacherous friends, robbers and murderers and other lost souls, "God's image" shall now be united with "the cross", and "the cross shall become the consciousness of the God-head" revealed in flesh and blood. And from this "living cross" the perfect human being now sends one great mental halo of light after the other out over the Earth. Over continents and seas, oases and deserts, nations and peoples the eternal voice vibrates: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". The resurrected son of God sees his eternal Father in mankind, and thereby feels himself as a "son of man". This son knows the eternal laws of retribution. He knows what a fate awaits his executioners, and, feeling the overriding fire of his neighbourly love, asks mankind (which is of course that part of his Father through which the retribution is carried out) to forgive these executioners, thereby asking for forgiveness for all "sinners" in the world. For when he wanted forgiveness for the greatest "sinners", it can only be a matter of course that he also wanted forgiveness for the lesser "sinners". The "prodigal son" who is returning to his Father has experienced that one reaps what one sows. He therefore knows that mankind can reap forgiveness only by sowing forgiveness. Since he knows that forgiveness of injustice is the most beautiful fruit of neighbourly love and wisdom, and that this fruit is in turn the kingdom of heaven, which means bliss or the very highest and most perfect form of experience of life, he also knows that if he could get mankind to forgive injustice, they would thereby be lifted up to a higher plane, away from the bloody and painful sphere of executioners, thieves and murderers. He knew that his kingdom then could be of this world. And for this reason mankind, generation after generation, indeed for thousands of years if necessary, will listen deeply moved to these words, the greatest argument for neighbourly love, from the lips of the son of God who is united with the cross. For where God's image appears on the "living cross" of flesh and blood, there the master is born, there Christ has come to life, there the God-head himself speaks. And only here are we finished with the Via Dolorosa. Only here has the path of pain been travelled to its end, and the fulfilment of the law of neighbourly love is completed, and our spirit and soul are surrendered entirely to the care of the Godhead. And thus united with the almighty Godhead or being one with the eternal Father, no guards, prisons, torture, death or graves can contain us. We are eternity, time and space; we are the Way, the Truth and the Life.

As we have seen here, the Easter gospel is thus not solely a mere story about some people who lived at one time, but on the contrary in reality constitutes the first fundamental revelation of spiritual science or God's plan for the unfinished terrestrial human being. Indeed, is it not the very birth of spiritual science? In its biblical literal form it does not of course appear to us as a specified or direct, concrete analysis. Yet we cannot possibly get away from the fact that, with its particular characters and the drama as a whole, consisting of the interplay of these characters, it is a complete symbol or absolutely correct expression of the fate that every single terrestrial human being lives with, and which inevitably must lead to the absolute, highest truth and the ensuing highest form of experience of life for every single individual too, a form of existence in which life is cleansed of all the sufferings, sorrows and troubles that people now sigh and moan under, and filled with not merely the perfections and fulfilments of ideals that the terrestrial human being today in his most advanced dreams can imagine and long for, but also in which life constitutes a revelation of divine creative power in the forms of existence for the experience of life, the structure of which will still take the terrestrial human brain and thought world centuries to contain.

As well as being a historical event, the Easter gospel is thus a symbol of God's plan for the terrestrial human being. It is a metaphor of the universal experiences of mistakes that together form the path of pain or crucifixion, which is the absolutely only path leading to wisdom, initiation and resurrection. The characters in the drama are the characters in daily life. Their individual good or bad characters are those that today govern all terrestrial human beings reciprocally and turn their life, with its wars, sufferings and sorrows, into a drama like that expressed by the Easter gospel. The "high priests", "scribes" and "Pharisees" who hate new ideals or more advanced, elevated, intellectual forms constitute even today types of people that are particularly detrimental to progress. As for traitors, informers or Judases, it has become apparent that they have not been rare or unusual types even within the so-called highly cultivated states.

All natural, progressive people who give their lives for the highest human ideals create an understanding and development of real neighbourly love, create an understanding of internationalism or the interdependence of absolutely all the peoples, states and races of the world, beings whose main or principal mental attitude is the combating of all egoism - collective as well as individual, national as well as personal - or beings who have dedicated their lives to the abolition of war, between nations or states as well as between individuals, all those who strive to be a joy and a blessing for their surroundings - especially with their own lives as examples - are in principle today's disciples of the Bible who are about to turn all the people of the world into disciples of Christ. In reality these beings, albeit unconsciously, are to a greater or lesser extent bearers of the holy spirit, which the world has been longing for for thousands of years and which today more than ever is of current interest under the concept of lasting peace. This holy spirit is thus not the same as a "conversion" of the being from a way of living natural to its step in evolution to a way of being highly unnatural or fanatical for this step, such as is so often misunderstood and practised. Being a disciple of Christ is not a question of being baptised in the established church or in a similar way being listed in the membership file of some religious sect or movement; it is not a question of belonging to the Home Mission (an evangelical branch of the Church of Denmark -ed.) or Grundtvigianism; it is not a question of being a member of The Salvation Army or being an Adventist, Baptist, Methodist or of belonging to any other form of "the Latter-Day Saints". Indeed, it is not even a question of being religious or irreligious in the widely-held literal form that is usually covered by these concepts. The holy spirit is not something that one can take out a mental patent on or can be owned with all rights reserved by a limited company in the form of some religious community, sect or society. The holy spirit is a divine force of nature, an element that, like the sky and the sunlight, is for all human beings. The holy spirit is something that every human being meets in the "Gethsemane" that arises where the being has ventured as far as he can into egoism and persecution of his neighbour, and where the returning effects of this destroy his own experience of life and joy in living, and where the being, out of fear of death, "sweats blood". Here where he has been abandoned by everyone, fatally persecuted by his enemies and where his most faithful friends have fallen "asleep", the meeting with the eternal Father comes alive. The "bloody beads of perspiration" become the raiment of a shining angel, and the returning son of God cries to heaven: "Father, thy will, not mine, be done". And the prodigal son of God has become one with the heavenly light. The physical body of the terrestrial human being, the animal cross on which this being for centuries, through thousands of incarnations, with his egoism and self-worship has crucified his own identity as a son of God, as a Christ-being, has now become a symbol of light from which gushes forth the all-understanding and all-forgiving halo of light of neighbourly love over the world, the surroundings, the fellow beings or all living things. The "resurrected Christ" wanders around alive on the physical plane. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear, and he who has eyes to see, let him see!"

As we have seen here, it is not the Bible's task to tell us about some people who once lived - their escapades are in themselves totally unimportant for posterity - but on the contrary through the known phenomena of real daily life to show us which of these phenomena bring happiness, and which bring unhappiness. The Bible is not fiction, but a retelling of life's own real speech. And this speech thus culminates solely in and around the sentence that says that "one should love one's neighbour as oneself", which is of course "the fulfilment of all the laws" and thereby the revelation of all absolute perfection or the very highest form of manifestation and experience of life.

The mission of the Bible is further confirmed through the fact that it appears for us today in the form of two fundamental sections: "The Old Testament" and "The New Testament". The Old Testament shows the existence people get when they manifest the culmination of egoism in the form of the worship of their nation and the belief that they themselves are a chosen people who have the right to live well at the expense of others without hindrance or punishment. We thus see that this people had to live in exile for thousands of years where other nations or the people that they otherwise looked down upon as heathens persecuted them and tried to kill them. We see in the fate of this people what happens when one lives in observance of the law: "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth". But we see too how, by virtue of the dark fate-traditions of this people, it became possible for a genius with a moral view totally opposite to that of the Jewish people to get people to listen to them so much that he could send from here a mental wave of light of ideals of neighbourly love out to all the people of the world, getting them to revere their neighbours and the eternal Godhead living in them. Even today we can see how the Jewish people together with the heathens, as they perceived them, gradually now increasingly unite to become one people with one God in the world - not through dictatorship and brute force - but solely through a reciprocal love between the nations and individuals all over the world. This is the true gospel of The New Testament and the culmination of what the Bible has to say to mankind as a whole. It is the fulfilment of the blessing that should be shared among all the generations of the Earth through the seed of Abraham. If this were not the case, why then The New Testament? If The Old Testament was one of the highest, eternally lasting ideals, why then was its opposite, in the form of The New Testament, manifested? That the essential ideal of The New Testament has become acknowledged and accepted by mankind becomes of course a reality through the fact that it now through thousands of years has already been the authorised, established religion. That the terminology in which the divine ideal of neighbourly love has been handed down under the concept of Christianity is now rapidly degenerating and losing followers does not change the fact that it is still the holy spirit that is the real, culminating object for the innermost longing of present generations and of the coming generations. This becomes an unshakable reality through the fact that peace has become the goal that all states, governments and people, as well as the single individuals, regardless of race, increasingly discover that they cannot live without. And peace is, as we of course have see, precisely the same as neighbourly love, which is in turn the same as the holy spirit or the feeling of the inter-dependence of all living beings, all life and all manifestation.

As we have learned here, it is not the Bible's value as history or as an account of people and occurrences in the past that has created its enormous success or immortality down through the centuries. It is not its historical side that has caused it to become a "book of books", which has been translated into almost all the languages of the world. It is not the fact that there has existed a David or Goliath, a Moses or Elijah, a Solomon or an Abraham, a Jesus of Nazareth, a Judas or Caiaphas and so on, that has created this book's position. On the contrary it is exclusively the fact that its historical account is at the same time an unshakable psychological account, an object lesson, that is more or less rooted in its interested readers' own material of experience or irrefutable facts from their own daily life. The Bible's identity as real psychology is quite independent of whether this book is history or imagination. It is a piece of unshakable reality regardless of whether it is historic truth or not. The Bible's appearance as an account of part of the past is thus in reality quite an unimportant aspect of this book. But since this aspect in the main covers the general view, this aspect is what we ordinarily refer to as the Bible.

But as we have seen here, the content of this book contains a far more profound and hidden aspect in the form of its identity as a piece of psychology. With this aspect of its structure it is elevated totally beyond time and space. Its psychological details are eternal laws and principles. Therefore could Christ truthfully say "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away." This eternal continued existence of Jesus' words was not determined by their being the words of Jesus but, on the contrary, by the fact that they were eternal principles in the divine world plan. And thus the Bible has a hidden core content through which it constitutes the eternal principles in the world plan. And it is this, its relatively hidden core content, that we have expressed here as the Bible within the Bible. This Bible within the Bible will thus continue existing eternally, even though the outer terminology or linguistic phenomena of the Bible are changed or perish. And with this continuation of or attitude to the Bible within the Bible, it will eternally constitute the words of God or Providence's revelation of the eternal truth for every mature, truth-seeking son of God.