Messages from the Shroud of Turin E-Book

Gisela Heinz

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 341

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Jesus Christ is truly risen, and with his Shroud, He has left us an emblem that provides us with messages for our day and time. The Shroud of Turin reveals to our astonished eyes the Jesus-Father who loves us above all things. This book is intended to guide readers to a better understanding the nature of the Christian God. It provides answers to questions about the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. From the moment this sacred relic was first created, it has had the innate power to guide and, when needed, to ease our human life journey to God. The details described in the book are drawn from the words of the German-language mystics who received the texts for the New Revelation. Prior to modern research on the Shroud, these details had never been confirmed. Traces of blood from the crucified Jesus form symbols on the Shroud, allowing us to comprehend Jesus Resurrection not only in allegorical terms, but also tangibly, materially. The Shroud of Christ is a visual and symbolic Gospel, which requires no words in order to be intuitively understood. To provide a clearer understanding of the Shroud messages, some thoughts and philosophies prominent figures from the worlds of science and the arts have also been included in this book. The overlap between the worldviews of these individuals and the texts from the German mystics makes clear that even for such noted individuals as Goethe, Planck, Einstein, and Heisenberg, nothing that exists on earth, in the microcosm, or in the universe would be conceivable in the absence of a Creator Spirit. Life itself is dim and only the power to create symbols and to understand them turns us from living beings into human beings. (Werner Heisenberg)

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Author’s Foreword

Co-Author’s Foreword

Introduction

Encounters with Christ

The Apostle Paul

Emanuel Swedenborg

Sadhu Sundar Singh

Prophets, Mystics, and the New Revelation

Emanuel Swedenborg

Jacob Lorber – A True Prophet?.

Lorber’s Scientific Prophecies

Gottfried Mayerhofer

Leopold Engel

The Shroud of Christ

The Historical Account of the Shroud of Christ

The Influence of the Shroud on Christian Art to the Present Day

Scientific Research Since 1898

The Death of the Man in the Shroud

Determining the Date of Origin

Supplemental Historical Information from the Sudarium of Oviedo

Facts About the Shroud

The Shroud and Mysticism in the German-Speaking World

My Own Shroud Story – Discovering the Symbols on the Face of Christ

Examples of Conscious Contact with Christ Through the Shroud

Professor Giulio Fanti

General Thoughts

My Personal Experience

From the New Testament to the New Revelation

From the New Revelation to the Shroud Messages

Lorber’s Abgarus Letter

The Shroud of Christ and the New Revelation: Mutual Affirmation

Connections Between the Shroud, the New Revelation and the Gospels

The Markings on the Shroud as Allegories

The Symbolism

The Three.

The Question of the “Trinity”

The Symbol of the Cross and its Portrayal in Ravenna

The Portrayal of Christ’s Peaceable Kingdom in Ravenna

Symbols Communicate Complex Concepts

Descriptions of the Symbols on the Shroud

The Number 137

Other Possible Interpretations of the Symbols

DNA Findings from the Shroud and Mary’s “Virginity”

Photogrammetric Representation of the Shroud

Another “Not-Made-By-Human Hands” Image

Summary

A Message from the Co-Author

My Evolution

Matter Does Not Exist

Basilica di Sant Apollinare in Classe

The Shroud’s Message

Awakening Awareness

Scientific Affirmations of the New Revelation

The Commandment of Love

Max Planck

Where Relativity, Quantum Theory and Christian Mysticism Intersect

Hans Peter Duerr

Albert Einstein

Werner Heisenberg’s Perspective on the Creation

Physics and Beyond

Reality and Its Order

Heisenberg and Goethe

Goethe’s Faust and Emanuel Swedenborg

Testimonials to Emanuel Swedenborg

Goethe’s Faust

Artistic Talent and Science

“Objective” and “Subjective” – the Parts of a Polarity’s Whole

Emotion and Reason

Determinacy and Coincidence – vs. – Human Free Will

Organic Life

Access to Creative Forces

Consciousness

Symbols and Shapes

The Symbols of the Human Communities

Religion

Spiritual Enlightenment

The Great Parable

Reflections of the Co-Author

Tangible, because Obvious

Afterword by the Author

Closing Thoughts – In Goethe’s Words.

Bibliography

List of Illustrations

Author’s Foreword

“Tell me to whom you pray when things are going well and

I will tell you how devout you are.”

Kurt Tucholski

Dear Reader,

Thank you very much for your interest in this book. Please allow me to briefly introduce myself to you and to explain a little about my intentions in writing this book.

My parents saw to it that I was baptized and raised in the Christian faith. Even as a child, I loved the image of Jesus set in the stained-glass window in the chancel of our church. In my youth, however, I became an atheist and, later on, in the prevailing atmosphere that dominated Germany during the 1968 student movement, I became an esotericist. In the late 1970s, I studied Dentistry, going on to become a licensed dentist with my own practice in the German city of Hamburg. But, my belief in Christ never completely disappeared.

It happened during a period in my life when I had the feeling I was in my personal prime – all of the plans I had made in my youth had come to fruition. I had attained the majority of my goals and had the means to lead the kind of life I chose. One day, as I was sitting in my car on the way home from work, I heard a compelling inner voice say to me emphatically: „There is a God!“ This happened at a time during which I was searching for the meaning of life. I came across a book titled “The Lord Speaks.” In it, I read for the first time about mysticism: it was a compilation of the writings of Jakob Lorber. The topics included Jesus, God, creation, and the universe. These writings helped me rediscover my inner spiritual connection to Jesus Christ. The texts have been given the generic name “The New Revelation.” They provide an explanation of Christianity and the connection between our earthly reality and the Eternal. The mysteries into which Christ initiated his mystics are convincing to me. For some who are seeking God, the language in which the texts have been written may seem outdated and distracting, but the prophets could only describe the events and principles revealed by them in the language of their times. The texts of the New Revelation allow the reader to experience the orderly Christian perspective of life and to have the sense of being an eyewitness to the life of Jesus. The messages it conveys are all imbued with expressions of Christ’s overwhelming love for us.

In many cases, people only discover God when they are confronted with a personal emergency. I was lucky, in that, in many ways, I was doing quite well during this time. One of the things I enjoyed doing in my free time was reading interesting non-fiction books. My greatest interest at that time was in learning about Jesus Christ. One day, while out shopping in Hamburg, I happened upon the booklet “Das Tuch” (“The Shroud”) by Oswald Scheuermann. Even just reading the preface of the book, I found myself fascinated, as I learned about the most recent results of his research on the Shroud of Turin.

Soon afterwards, I discovered a clear reference to the Shroud of Turin in the Abgarus Letter written by the mystic, Jakob Lorber. I subsequently discovered that some of the texts in the New Revelation confirmed the authenticity of the Shroud. In the meantime, motivated by my love for my husband, who has since passed away, I left Hamburg to move to Germany’s southernmost federal state, Bavaria.

For many years now, it has been my wish to provide as many people as possible with an undistorted view of the historical Jesus. I wish to share with others the joy and gratitude I feel for His1 love and the confidence I have in a future grounded in Him. With this book, I would like to share with you, dear reader, and all those who seek God, my insights, which were gained over the course of many years, into Christ’s Shroud of Turin.

Initially, I was not planning to write a book. The notes I took during a period of more than thirty years were originally only intended as a reinforcement my faith. The unfortunate disadvantage to this is that I did not always document my references. The transference of my notes into this book therefore sometimes reflects an approximate reconstruction of the information I collected over the years.

What I found particularly interesting were comparisons between the New Revelation and current scientific findings on the macro- and microcosm. Generally speaking, our modern understanding of the nature of the universe, made possible through the use of telescopes, and in particular, the Hubble Space Telescope, does not at all contradict the insights I have gained from mysticism.

For instance, in the New Revelation, Jakob Lorber explains that, in reality, throughout the universe and on Earth, no matter actually exists, but only “aligned spirit” or “frozen light.” Decades after Lorber, this scientific manifestation was confirmed by modern research conducted by renowned particle physicists. One of Nobel Prize laureate Max Planck’s scientific discoveries demonstrates that matter truly does not exist. What we humans recognize as matter consists, as it were, of energy fields that have no mass. The scientific discoveries that have been honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics have increased my enthusiasm for the New Revelation. I have confidence in the future, because in Lorber’s writings, Jesus prophesies to his disciples concerning the time to come2:

Only in the end will all superstition be swept off the ground of earth with the weapons of the sciences and arts, without in any way interfering with man’s free will. Through this in time there will well be a complete void of faith among men; but such a state will only last a very short time. (GGJ 9, 89, 9–11)

But this will not remain so; in the right moment I will awaken men for the pure sciences and technologies, and these will proclaim it from the rooftops to men, how the servants of Balaam3 have performed their miracles. Through this, pure science in all things and also the pure arts will become an invincible forerunner and champion for Me against the old superstitions; and when the Augean stables will be purified by that, then I will have an easy and most effective return to this earth. Because My purest teaching of life will unite easily with the pure science of men and give men a complete light of life, because one purity can never pollute the other, as one sunlit truth cannot pollute the other. (GGJ 9, 90, 11)

My faith was further reinforced in 2017, when we traveled to Ra venna, Italy and viewed the early Christian mosaic art found in that city. Here, golden shimmering images portray a peacefully mystical world – one in which evil has found no quarter. The monumental depictions of the cross in the starry sky express the symbolic content of the cross in a uniquely beautiful way (see Figure 22, p. 97).

The challenge of defining the Trinity, which I discuss in the third chapter, is also clearly recognizable In Ravenna’s history, including the religious disputes associated with it. As I was writing the book, it was important to me that my readers, in their search for truth and God, would, in confidence and with a heart free of fear, be able to discover the Word of God and His face. If we are to understand our religion in a loving way, one crucial element is to properly and fully understand the crucifixion of Christ.

This Crucifixion, carried out by humans, was a monstrous cruelty, which God indeed allowed, but which was never demanded of Him. It was the cruel testing of Jesus’ divinity by human beings. To my mind, it is time to allow the inhumane crime of Jesus’ crucifixion, including all depictions of it, fade into history. Instead, let us turn to the risen, living, and omnipresent Christ and His universal symbol: the cross (also see GGJ 8, 149, 5 ff.).

The message revealed by Christ’s shroud is that, with the Crucifixion, God was willing to make the most extreme sacrifice imaginable for the sake of our immortal souls. He endured this martyrdom so that we would be able to evolve freely, because human beings can only become true children of God if their free will and love for God are allowed to develop independently of any external pressure.

Following His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead with a spiritual body, and with His shroud, left us material evidence of the existence of the spiritual world. For His followers, His resurrection and the manifestations of His spiritual body were an indispensable confirmation of His teachings. With these, he also affirmed to them the truth of His statement: „My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36)4

The Shroud carries a message of its own for our science-driven times. It provides us with numerous clues about and helpful approaches to the message of Jesus. We have been given this as a material sign of God’s power to spiritually and physically resurrect the dead. Jesus transformed the physical matter of His body into radiation and energy.5 This allowed the Shroud to ultimately be accepted as evidence, with no quibbling from the scientific community. Once readers have finished this book, they will be able to answer for themselves the controversial question surrounding the authenticity of Christ’s shroud. The Shroud is a visual and symbolic gospel, which, needing no words in any earthly language, can be intuitively understood. Even those who are unable to read can understand its message.

The interpretation of the Shroud symbols has been taken from the previously mentioned mysticism sources, and I have summarized their meanings. The detailed descriptions I provide of the Crucifixion underscore the fact that the content of the New Revelation is mutually affirmed by the messages of the Shroud. On the more than ten thousand pages of these writings, through His innermost entreaty to a multitude people, Jesus explains His all-encompassing love, His essence, His teaching, and His creation.

Over the course of nearly thirty years of reading the writings of the mystics, I became increasingly aware of the immense importance of the Shroud, because these texts were written long before any scientific research had been conducted on the Shroud of Turin. The first photograph of the Shroud was taken in 1898, and subsequent research was undertaken in 1931. It is obvious that the mystics could not have possessed knowledge that would only be discovered much later as experts conducted research on the Shroud.

From my point of view, what Jesus is trying to do through the writings of the mystics as well as in the Shroud is to correct an error that is widespread in Christianity. In a symbol created out of His blood, He corrects the image of God that has been interpreted and handed down to us through the concept of the “Trinity,” using a biblical context appropriate to our day and age. He had already foreseen this misconception during His teachings. Because of His belief in free will, Jesus lovingly accepted this interpretative latitude, just as He did His crucifixion. For Jesus, the most important prerequisite for a vibrant, trusting, and fearless Christianity is the proper understanding of His divine nature. This is why Jesus left these messages of His infinite love and His readily understandable teachings for each of us on his Shroud, so that they would reach us in our day.

God respects our free will. Because He loves us, He helps us when we call upon Him. This is why we urgently need a new vision for Christianity. If we are to have a positive influence on our collective destiny, we human beings need a renewed closer connection with His Holy Spirit,6 the personal Comforter and Helper promised by Christ.

This is all I wish to say in advance regarding my central theses, for which this book is intended to be a detailed justification, but which, nevertheless, ultimately merely provides an outline of them. The scope of the topic is so great that it does not allow more than a general overview. Despite this, or perhaps precisely because of this, I would like to acquaint you, dear reader, with a personal insight that I consider important: To me, the “Shroud of Christ in Turin” and the “Great Gospel of John” by Jakob Lorber are the two most valuable treasures we humans possess!

Finally, a brief note about this book. As a rule, boldface or other emphasis has been used in the quotations as a stylistic device. Texts in square brackets represent additions that we, the authors, have made to the quotes. Any emphasis that was present in the original text will be noted as such.

I hope that you will enjoy this book and the illustrations in it. It would please me greatly to hear from you. Perhaps one day we will have the opportunity to discuss any unanswered questions together.

Yours in Christ,

Gisela Elisabeth Heinz

1 The capitalized pronouns (I, Mine, Me His, Him, He, etc.) in the quotations from the New Revelation always refer to the Lord.

2 Lorber, Jakob: The Great Gospel of John. Volumes 1–10. Received through the Inner Word by Jakob Lorber. The Detailed Account of Jesus’ Time of Teaching, Volume 9, Chapter 89, Paragraphs 9–11. For all additional quotations, I will cite the title abbreviation, the chapter, and the paragraph(s), e. g., GGJ 9, 89, 9–11. The quotations and excerpts have been taken from the books of the New Revelation and the translations were adapted for this book by Dr. Dyre.

3 Servants of hedonism and idolatry

4 Most of the Bible passages were taken from the King James Version.

5 Engel, Leopold: The Great Gospel of John, Vol. 11, Chapter 76, Paragraph 1; hereafter, GEJ 11.

6 In John’s gospel, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Paraclete,” sent by God, whom He, Jesus Christ, will send to His disciples to encourage them in adversity, to speak for them, to help them attain their purpose. Likewise, it is the Holy Spirit who will guide them to the knowledge of God and the redeeming ministry of Jesus Christ, to repentant self-awareness and to hope (see John 14:16, 26; John 15:27; John 16:7).

In John’s first letter, Jesus Himself is described as an advocate (intercessor, helper, comforter) for us (1 John 2:1). “Paraclete” is an ancient Greek word meaning to summon, invite, comfort; the Paraclete is thus the “summoned” and the “comforter.”

Foreword by the Co-Author

Dear Reader,

After more than three decades, Gisela Elisabeth Heinz has been inspired to publish her fascinating insights into the Shroud of Christ. One of the most effective guiding principles in the book also contributes to an important goal: the intention to help as many people as possible to establish a personal relationship with God by building a stable, navigable path to His Holy Spirit. For some, this will also facilitate the renewal of an earlier connection to God. The sense of peace that flows from Gisela’s words shows how meaningful this intention is and how much this goal means to her. The helpful information she provides makes the Shroud messages invaluable – even groundbreaking – for those who are seeking a personal relationship with God. Gisela Heinz is a loving and exceptionally sincere person and it is a pleasure for me to be able to help her attain one of her most important life goals. Details about who I am are actually not very important. But, it was Gisela’s wish to name me as co-author of her book.

I am Peter Kutzki, a friend and confidant of the author, and for some time now, the man of her heart. I would simply like to take this opportunity to explain that the thoughts and ideas I have introduced in this book are intended to contribute to an understanding of a sometimes difficult spiritual quest. From my very first reading of a draft of this book, I felt that the topics listed in the Contents were presented within a harmoniously coherent manuscript. I believe my positive feelings were also inspired by the way in which the well-balanced level-headedness of the Shroud resonated within me. Gisela shared important details of her Shroud findings with me, and, with this in mind, I was able to help refine individual sections of her manuscript. We worked together on most of the chapters, aiming to make them as clear as possible. However, there was no way for me, in the space of just a few months, to attain Gisela’s level of knowledge, gained from more than thirty years of studying the Shroud, along with the more than ten thousand pages of the New Revelation she had read. During the course of our work together, however, I was soon able to understand the meaning and the sequence of thoughts that would provide structure for our shared work. For instance, to be able to understand these writings and to also grasp them in context, knowledge of the relationship between the Shroud of Christ and the New Revelation is essential. This is one of the elements that helps to illustrate and illuminate why, over the centuries, some very tragic misunderstandings have been caused by misrepresentation of and carelessly confusing references to the Trinity of God. I carefully studied the texts of the mystical prophecies of Jakob Lorber and Gottfried Mayerhofer. Many of the utterances, received from God, proclaim that He, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are to be understood as being united in a single entity as God, the Father. The alternating comparison between the Shroud of Christ and the New Revelation serves to illustrate and reinforce the divine messages involved. At their core and in combination, the symbols of the Shroud are easily recognizable, and the messages of The New Revelation are unambiguous.

In a later chapter, I will share my personal insights on this topic with you. I came to my conclusions by relating my own thoughts and memories to the very interesting information contained in this book. One of the things that fascinated me most during the course of our work together was the ongoing growth I experienced and the impact it has had and continues to have on me, still to this day. I am convinced of the truth of the New Revelation and the resulting significance of the messages of Christ’s shroud for our times.

And so, dear reader, I wish you much joy and success in your search for the Miraculous! Perhaps you will allow one or another of the illustrations of the Shroud of Turin to guide you? In any event, I wish you much pleasure in reading this book and hope that it will provide you with many valuable insights.

Yours in Christ,

Peter Kutzki

“Faith and knowledge are as the two scales of a balance;

as one rises, the other falls.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

Introduction

The purpose of this book can be illustrated with a line from a German children’s prayer, the English translation of which is:

“The grace of God and Jesus’ blood make all that would harm us into good.”

The authors’ objective is to explain the messages that Jesus Christ left for us on His shroud, which, with the help of more recent mysticism, each of us can personally recognize and understand. Examples of occurrences over the centuries when Jesus Christ has appeared directly, along with immersion into the world of images from early Christian art found in Ravenna, Italy, will help readers to deepen and strengthen a trusting relationship with our Creator and to use it to attain their own personal salvation.

In Jesus, God was manifested visibly and tangibly for all of His creatures and for all eternity as the “Son of Man.” Following His resurrection and ascension to heaven, Jesus became the FATHER-GOD, who can be perceived by all of His creatures. His essence is love, infused with wisdom and power. There are not three different forms of God! The Trinity, as it is taught and portrayed, is a reinterpretation of the old term “persona.” This term comes from the Latin personare (literally, a “sounding-through”) and denotes the blending of different characteristics, but not of individual persons.

Perhaps it will be a little easier for our human comprehension to grasp this if, for the sake of comparison, we think about the three-dimensional quality of everything that is part of our daily experience. A house, a tree, or a mountain – all have three dimensions: length, width, and height. And no one would say that this means that there are really three houses, three trees, or three mountains. God wants us to understand his “folded-into-three” being as a single entity, not as three separate Gods. God is a being with three special and indivisible qualities. An analogous image would be that of a flame, which radiates light and heat. God is absolute Love (the Father). This Love radiates Wisdom (the Son) and Power (the Holy Spirit).

The humans of this world are the “children of God” and the “crown of creation.” As the “crown of creation,” we are the ultimate result and endpoint of the evolution of physical creatures. Death is the beginning of spiritual life. Jesus wants to reveal Himself personally to each of His children who long for Him. Teachers (clergy) can be very helpful in this, but they are not absolutely necessary for establishing contact between the FATHER and the child.

Many converts have experienced a first-hand encounter with Jesus Christ. Examples of this include the apostle Paul, the seer Emanuel Swedenborg, and the wandering monk from India, Sadhu Sundar Singh, all of whom I will discuss in more detail later in this book.

Those who have been directly converted by Jesus consistently reject the customary psychological explanations for this event and strongly assert the supernatural presence of grace that they have experienced. Their testimonies reveal that these transformations are nothing like traditional conversions. Virtually all of these believers affirm that they have experienced the direct intervention of pure divine power, and thus Christ. Everyone who has been personally touched by Jesus will tell you that this was not a human experience or some inner spiritual event, but a revelation of the divine reality. All those who have experienced this inner transformation, but cannot describe it and yet still wish to testify to the overwhelming sensation, describe a wonderfully peaceful feeling.

Encounters with Christ

The Apostle Paul

The New Testament (NT) tells the story of the transformation of Saul of Tarsus, who later renamed himself Paul, as he traveled the road to Damascus. On his journey to persecute the Christians of Damascus, he encounters the resurrected Jesus. Paul himself recounts this in Acts 22:6-16:

Repentance: Called by Christ

6And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 7And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” 8And I answered, “Who art thou, Lord?” And he said unto me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutes.” 9And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 10And I said, “What shall I do, Lord?” And the Lord said unto me, “Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.” 11And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.

12And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 13came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, “Brother Saul, receive thy sight.” And the same hour I looked up upon him. 14And he said, “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 15For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 16And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

Following this decisive event, Jesus commissions Paul to becomes an apostle to the nations.

Emanuel Swedenborg

A remorseful Swedenborg encountered Jesus Christ as he was undergoing a crisis of meaning in his life. But, let us allow Swedenborg to speak for himself about the vision that led to his calling:

I observed that the following words were placed in my mouth: “O most almighty Jesus Christ, who in Your great mercy deigns to come to such a sinner, make me worthy of Your grace!” I lifted up my hands and was praying when a hand came and forcefully pressed my hands. I then continued the prayer: “O You who promised to accept all sinners by Your grace, You can do no other than to keep Your word!” Then I lay upon His breast and beheld Him face to face. It was a face so full of holiness that I cannot describe it. He smiled, and I truly believe that His face had been so during His life on earth. He turned to me and asked if I had a “testament of health.”

Swedenborg made his first trip to England as a young man, entering the country illegally, yet without incident, even though he was traveling from a country where the plague was raging. He snuck into the “promised land” of scientific knowledge and nearly paid for this on the gallows. He thereafter viewed himself as having left the land of selfishness, scholarly vanity, and natural knowledge, and, after crossing the sea of doubt, temptations, and purification, having landed on the shores of essence and truth.

I replied, “O Lord, You know this better than I,” to which He said, “Do this, therefore!” This means, as I understood it in my heart: “truly love me” or “do what you have promised!” O God, grant me mercy for this! I understood that I could not do this through my own strength. I sensed an inner joy that filled my entire being.1

Jesus’ question was a test for Swedenborg, to determine whether he was worthy to enter into the sacred realm. This experience shook Swedenborg profoundly and marked a decisive turning point in his life.

Sadhu Sundar Singh

THE REVELATION OF THE LIVING CHRIST

According to the views I had at that time, I thought that by burning the Gospel I had done a good deed. But the restlessness in my heart grew, and afterwards I felt very miserable for two days. On the third day, when I felt that I could not bear it any longer, I got up at three o’clock in the morning, took my bath and prayed: if there be any God at all, let Him reveal himself to me, show me the way of salvation, and put an end to this unrest in my soul. I was determined that if this prayer remained without an answer, I would go down to the railroad tracks before daybreak and lay my head on the rails in front of the incoming train. I remained in prayer until about half past three in the morning and expected to see Krishna or Buddha or some other Hindu divinity. None appeared, but a light suddenly shone in the room. I opened the door to see where it came from, but outside, it was dark. I went back inside and the light grew stronger and stronger until it took the shape of a cloud of light hovering over the floor. In this light appeared not the shape I was expecting, but – the Living Christ, whom I had thought to be dead. Until the end of time, I will never forget His glorious and loving face, nor the few words He said: “Why do you persecute Me? Behold, I died on the cross for you and for the whole world.” As if by a lightning strike, these words were burned into my heart, and I fell to the ground before Him. My heart was filled with unspeakable joy and peace, and my entire life would be completely transformed. At that moment, the old Sundar Singh died, and a new Sundar Singh was born, whose purpose was to serve the Living Christ.2

1 Gollwitzer, Gerhard: Die Durchsichtige Welt. Ein Swedenborg Brevier, p. 16. Translated by C. Dyre

2 Die Offenbarung, Sadhu Sundar Singh (1888–1929) penultimate section. Published at: www.jesus-der-christus.info/zgsingh.htm, [accessed on September 26, 2018]. Translation by C. Dyre.

Prophets, Mystics and the New Revelation

The writings contained in the Bible are an attempt to establish and preserve a personal relationship between God and man. Often, our traditions stray from the original intent of the divine messages. The divine source therefore has its “own plans.” So it is, that time and again, pronouncements have been made by some very wise individuals. Often, these proclamations of the divine will have been subjected to non-objective debate and criticism.

12I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. [John 16:12–15]

Here, Jesus describes the task that will be taken on by future prophets, who will speak to us in His name to teach us what, in our times and beyond the Gospels, is needed for our salvation. In the German-speaking countries, part of this pronouncement was fulfilled in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the New Revelation writings of the German mystics.

It was in these that Gottfried Mayerhofer, Jakob Lorber and others, inspired by the Holy Spirit, provided us with the information we need to more perfectly understand Christianity. This includes the “The Lord’s Sermons” for each Sunday of the year, with a spiritual interpretation of the nineteenth-century Catholic Gospel texts (Mayerhofer), a comprehensive explanation of Jesus’ teachings, a much more detailed description of the events of His life, and revelations about the earth and the universe. These texts were of great help to me in understanding the symbols on the Shroud of Christ.

To help make the messages of the mystics included in this book easier to understand, I would like to first address the following question: “What exactly is Christian mysticism?” The term “mysticism” comes from the ancient Greek word mystiko, meaning “mysterious,” and generally refers to spiritual experiences that cannot be otherwise explained.

In essence, Christian mysticism is a phenomenon that is nearly impossible to put into words. Mystics tell us that to be able to speak about mysticism and to fully comprehend it, it is necessary to have first experienced it yourself. For anyone who has not had this experience, however, mysticism can only be indirectly described through reference to its manifestations. True understanding, however, is only possible through personal experience.

It is easy for us to understand that anyone who has never been in love before will not be able to understand the phenomenon of being in love. We can only understand what people in love actually feel once we have experienced it for ourselves. One typical phenomenon in mysticism is “divine knowledge.” However, the predominant phenomenon experienced by mystics is the “love from and for God.” Love of God is the true driving force behind mysticism. Likewise, for all Christian believers, it is the unique love they experience from and for Jesus that flows into and out of the core of their souls. As mentioned in the foreword, there is no other way for human free will to develop in a way that is unconstrained and unconditional. In this light, we should not be blaming God so much for the state of today’s world, but rather consider it the effect of the free will of all people.

As will be discussed in the chapters written by my co-author, Peter, I, too, was encouraged by the opinions and world views expressed by renowned scientists who have made outstanding contributions to modern physics. First and foremost among these are the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Physics: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and Werner Heisenberg.

In the following sections, I will present four Christian visionaries. The mystics Emanuel Swedenborg, Jakob Lorber, Gottfried Mayerhofer and Leopold Engel all vividly describe the divine inspiration that overcame them as they explain how and what they experienced and felt as the divine messages were given them. The language and expressions they use may seem a bit foreign and outdated to today’s reader, but they reflect the language commonly used in their lifetimes.

Emanuel Swedenborg

Figure 1: Emanuel Swedenborg2

Swedenborg was born on January 28, 1688, the son of a Swedish preacher who would later go on to become a Bi shop.1 After completing his studies, he traveled to England in 1710, where at that time, scientific researchers were making groundbreaking discoveries. At the height of his renown as a scientist, he fell into a deep religious crisis. This continued for eight years, until he was finally permitted to experience Jesus.

The year following Swedenborg’s experience of the appearance of Jesus was an eventful one. It concluded in London, with the vision that led to his calling. On an April night in 1745, the Lord appeared to Swedenborg and told him that he had chosen him to explain the true spiritual meaning of the Bible to the world. The Lord himself would dictate what he should write. From that day on, in accordance with the Lord’s instructions, Swedenborg renounced all secular study and, for the next 27 years of his life, devoted himself solely to spiritual matters.

At first, Swedenborg provided descriptions of the spiritual realm. Later, he progressed to a systematic description of “The Doctrine of the Lord for the New Church.” For all questions posed in the “The Doctrine of the Lord for the New Church,” he explicitly references the writings contained in the Holy Scriptures, which he pronounces anew to be supremely sacred and the “fullness” of divine revelation.

As spiritual persons, humans have the freedom to live out the life breathed into them by God in their own individual ways. They are therefore not slaves, but free partners with God, from whom God hopes for loving devotion. In this freedom lies the dignity of the relationship between God and man.

In creating human beings to whom he granted free will, God created a counterpart for Himself, one whom He loves and whose love He seeks. God and man are thereby mutually dependent upon each other, they need one another.

A major misconception that is found primarily in the churches of the western world is the erroneous doctrine of the triune nature of God. “This irrational doctrine is responsible for the emergence of naturalism and atheism.” In his work “True Christianity,” Swedenborg explains further what he means: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three manifestations of the one God, and their unity is to be understood such as the unity of soul, body, and actions, all three, in one man.”

Even in the earliest days of the Church, falsehoods were already permeating and corrupting the new truths of illumination. This is why God has been compelled to intervene over and over again, by granting new revelations. In a letter to the prelate Oettinger, Swedenborg prophesied the coming of a seer who would receive much more through inner divination than he himself had. This prophecy can be understood to point to Jakob Lorber.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also adopted much of Swedenborg’s thinking. By the age of twenty, he was already studying Swedenborg’s spiritual writings and his religious evolution was strongly influenced by Swedenborg. His Faust, the most well-known of all German dramas, is –notably, at the beginning and in the second part – heavily inspired by Swedenborg’s writings. However, because Goethe’s biographers were generally not well-acquainted with Swedenborg, there has not yet been any sufficiently in-depth examination of this relationship.

Jakob Lorber – A True Prophet?

Lorber was born on July 22, 1800 in Kanischa, Austria. In 1817, he began his education in Marburg, studying to become a primary school teacher, and from 1824 to 1829, he worked as a private tutor in Graz. Beginning in 1830, he earned his living by teaching singing, piano, and violin as well as through concert performances. Lorber also composed a number of his own works, which led to his acquaintance with the composer Anselm Huettenbrenner. On March 15, 1840, following his calling to be the “Scribe of God,” and through inner divination, he began to write his first work, “The Household of God.”

Figure: 2: Jakob Lorber3

From that time on, he chose to renounce the idea of any professional career and instead earned his living as a private music teacher. His first priority was to write down his revelations, which ultimately amounted to some 25 volumes. In a letter to a friend, Jakob Lorber wrote on February 16, 1858: