1068 Arrogance.... knowledge.... faith....

August 24, 1939: Book 20

An insurmountable obstacle to spiritual maturity is a person's arrogant opinion that he has knowledge and therefore no longer needs to be taught, for this person erects such a wall and, as it were, sets barriers to his spirit that cannot be removed until such a person's thinking is completely transformed and he humbly regocnizes his previous wrong thinking. A cup cannot hold clear, pure water as long as it contains any other liquid. And thus, if the human intellect is utilized for knowledge of any kind and one believes to be able to solve spiritual questions with such knowledge, one will hardly deal with spiritual things. And it is therefore very difficult to win over a person who is fully occupied with earthly matters to solve spiritual questions, for every minute seems precious to him for earthly purposes and so he resists what he considers to be useless thinking. He only sees the world and tries to get behind unsolved questions intellectually, and his results are always unimpeachable as long as he can prove them purely intellectually. He rejects research on a spiritual path, and so it is ultimately the work and activity of God that can be made comprehensible to him. And just as little will his spirit be able to make contact with the divine original spirit.... For it remains unawakened despite the greatest worldly knowledge, and thus a person who has the greatest successes to show before the world is small and poor in spiritual knowledge.... Judging soberly, he only sees everything on the outside, he only sees the shell, but not the core.... He sees what is around him, but not its purpose and meaning. He has no visible proof of spiritual assertions, and so he arrogantly stands in defence of everything that spiritual research has achieved. And it is therefore extremely regrettable that spiritual truths find no entry where the human being actually wants to be highly developed, and this solely because he has eliminated faith from his life.... How enormously far a person could go in his knowledge if he wanted to connect the spiritual gift given to him by God, his intellectual thinking, with the deepest faith.... All areas would be opened up to him and all knowledge imparted to him if he could truly believe that God can enlighten his spirit and introduce him to all truth. But spiritual arrogance sets a boundary between worldly and spiritual knowledge.... Spiritual arrogance creates an insurmountable barrier; it is an obstacle that cannot be overcome in any other way than by recognizing one's own inadequacy and, as a result, the deepest inner humility.... Only then can the right path.... the path to truth.... can be travelled....

Amen

This proclamation is not used in any themebook.

Downloads

Offered downloads for book _book
 ePub  
 Kindle  
  More downloads

This proclamation

 download as MP3  
Print view
 Handwritings