Rainer Bruno Zimmer

… hear ye him

Questions to Christians and Others

So, hear ye!

I am saying:

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

So, I ask you:

You are billions. Do you see that you are the many, and not the few?

I am saying:

Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

So, I ask you

about today's theologians and preachers: aren't they – even quite eager – scholars of the scriptures, too? Aren't they working to extract truths from the scriptures and to disseminate these truths?

Do they, besides all their knowledge, also have a connection to God?

I am saying

in my speeches and parables, what can be said about God and the Kingdom of Heaven, what the meaning and purpose of our being is, how beatitude can be achieved in this life, what it is all about guilt and absolution, temptation and redemption.

So, I ask you:

Do you believe there is anything more important than my teachings?
Why is your credo saying " He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried."? –
Between birth and death, nothing worth mentioning?

I am saying

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth… But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…

No man can serve two masters: … Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

So, I ask you:

Do you see that mammon is just an example, or do you let money pass for the opposite of God? Aren't all inner-wordly treasures "upon earth" in opposition to the extra-wordly treasures "in heaven"? Isn't it obvious anyway that one cannot, at the same time, focus on both, God and the contents of the world? Aren't intellectual and spiritual riches, for example, capabilities, knowledge, doctrines of faith, religious systems contents of the world? Why should they be exempt from this irreconcilability? How could one, with these "treasures upon earth", possibly find God?

I am saying

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Except ye be converted, and become as little children,
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So, I ask you:

Are you blessed? Do you know blessedness from your own experience? Who, and how many of you, have ever made a turn towards heaven and beatitude?
Most of the time, you are completely absorbed in the world.
Couldn't you, at least occasionally, detach from it and focus on your being?
And then even see God? And show him to the others?

You are concerned about membership numbers.
How many people have you led into the Kingdom of Heaven?
Where is your track record?

I am saying

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

So, I ask you:

Don't you understand this as an advice to those having already passed the strait gate? Whom do you see as the dogs and the swine?

I am saying:

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

So, I ask you:

Why are you praying the Our Father as a set of petitions and not givens from God?
Have you fallen behind the psalms?

Why are you praying that God's will be done, as it is being done anyway? Why are you praying that Gods Kingdom come, while it is here? Can't you see it? Why are you praying for your daily bread, while you are living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that is, God is throughout your lifetime creating for you, and letting occur to you, all that constitutes your life – your whole film of Dasein? Why are you praying that God forgive your trespasses, while you are forgiven anyway? Can't you forgive yourselves, because you can't forgive others? Why are you praying that God may not lead you into temptation, while it is the world that is "tempting" and challenging you, and only focussing on God will redeem you?

And how hallowed is the name of God to you? Do you agree that God is not of this world, not conceptually graspable, absolute? Why then do you all the time make propositions about Him, and suggest that they can prove something? Why do you permanently pin on Him inner-worldly attributes and relations to inner-wordly objects, and thus try to relativize Him? Don't you know that all this is void?
Why, do you think, do I speak about God and the Kingdom of Heaven in parables? Don't you understand the Second Commandment?

I am saying

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

So, I ask you:

The clergymen and theologians are working on exegeses, that is, interpretations. In which other area of expertise is it common practice that an expert does not simply read and understand a professional text? In which other area of expertise is it accepted that the experts are controversially struggling with 2000 years old writings, instead of having and progressing a common, current state-of-the-art knowledge,
in this case about the divine aspects of human existence?

Where is the key?

I said: God knows our needs before we ask? Isn't that the key to the Our Father
– not even hidden under the doormat but openly lying in front of the gate?
Does actually anybody want to make it through the strait gate?

I am saying

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

They seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

So, I ask you:

How do you see this? The Kingdom of Heaven has been farther away but has now come near, not quite here though, but to definitely come at some point?
At hand is at hand. Are you in it? Or are you missing it because you are not looking?

I am saying in a parable:

He [the father] said to him [his elder son]:
Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

So, I ask you:

Isn't that near enough? What is it, for each of you, that is from God and "thine"?
Is that invisible? Can anybody ignore it? Refuse it?

I am saying

to my disciples, that they should tell no man that I was Jesus the Christ.

So, I ask you:

Don't you agree that the people are aghast at my teachings, which are to show them the narrow way through the strait gate and lead them before God,
and that the people want God's Anointed instead. Aren't you of the same kind?
And that the "wise and prudent" are giving them Christ in reponse.

Where are my followers today who understand and follow my direction?

I am saying in a parable:

If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

So, I ask you:

What sense does it make that you position me as resurrected from death?
Because my teachings don't matter to you in the first place?

I am saying

Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

So, I ask you:

Don't you confess "Jesus Christ, … our Lord", too. Don't you understand that we all, yes all, can live like patronized children of God, and can view God like a good father raising us? Does it defeat you that all humans are God's sons and daughters, me among others?

Do you consider it honest and ethical to deny every single human this divinity
and instead to project it as virtually unattainable exclusively on one figure?
Do you still fear to be in the likeness of God and before God,
even though nothing better can happen to a human?

Don't you see that Christ is figuratively representing the being of man: put into the world by God, with the mission to advance life, with a divine, that is, timeless Self not affected by death? And isn't this image, as a key to the strait gate, infinitely more precious than a lord-figure for the broad way?

I am saying:

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

So, I ask you:

Did I say: let him hear somebody else? Did I say: let him obey me?
Did I say: Let him look onto my life, my deeds, my body?
Did I say: Let him impute something to me?
How do you want to follow me, if you do not hear me?

I say unto you:

I do see the divine in your being. And you are forgiven, anyway.

But to go into death for you again, that I wouldn't.

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