B. DYBWAD BROCHMANN

THE ART OF READING THE BIBLE

Chapter 10

The Savior Gives Us A Look Ahead at the Future

In connection with what we have just discussed, we need to look at Christ’s view of Himself. How does the Savior Himself look at His return and how does He look at the purely psychological relationship between Himself, as the great center, and his disciples?

The Savior speaks to His disciples about leaving them. He says in John 16:6 – 7: “But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”. (Copied from the Bible.com Website).

Why is this helpful? As long as they can hold The Savior’s hand and stay close to Him, as the “Leader”, it is comfortable and secure for them. This is quite different from “when they have to walk alone”, and when The Savior shall return inside of them in spirit and truth.

When Buddha was dying, He said the exact opposite to His disciples. Ask me now, while you have Me, He says. Everything begins and ends with Me – the person of Buddha. But Jesus says clearly that when He leaves, so will things begin to dawn for them little by little. Your own spiritual life will begin to awaken and make use of you.

Then the disciples will begin to look inward and listen to the hen that is clucking and calls to them from inside. They will become hens themselves that can give other chicks food and warmth at the right time, just as the father and mother do with their chicks.

Many boys and girls here on earth have become nothing, because father and mother want to keep them at home and haven’t taught them to stand on their on two legs. And it is the same thing in the world of the spirit. This is the way it went for the believers in Buddha, for example. “The state” Church hasn’t any belief about God in you either – or about God in your neighbor. That is why “the state” needs to rule over you, and your children can be happy as “the state’s” committeemen. “This is a secure way to live”, said a woman in Hamar, Norway. Time will tell how “secure” it is to live as a heathen in the 20th century.

The temptation on the temple mount must have been quite awful for the Savior. He had the choice of being the conqueror of the world on one hand, and to suffer the most disgraceful destiny on the other hand. The difference was greater for Him than it was for we commoners. But when Christ chose the most disgraceful way, there was a special reason, which we will later see. It wasn’t possible yet to accomplish what was correct – to be the “conqueror of the world”. The world was going to soon fall back into its former state. It was necessary to go much, much deeper into our mental interior, in order to eliminate the root of evil and deception.

No one could have opposed evil with instruments of power any better than the Savior, because He knew everything and didn’t need to vacillate. However, that would only bring a temporary victory, and not a positive permanent salvation. In order to do that, He would have had to go all the way into the houses of the strong ones, bind them, and after that steal their goods. I don’t know if any of my readers already begin to suspect something about what that would mean?

We’re trying to do the same thing by publishing this book. Since the Savior has worked on us and our development for 2000 years, it is much, much easier for us. More about this later.

If we think that “the Adventists”, and others of similar philosophies, were right in waiting for the Savior to return descending from the clouds, so that the whole world could see Him, how would that then happen? The world would be jubilant about their new leader and make Him the great center of things. They would worship the person of Christ, and He would have to escape over to the other side of the sea to avoid all the curious glances and everyone would lapse into worshiping the individual. But this is much worse than falling for the bottle (becoming dependent on alcohol), “as people say”.

Therefore I believe that the return of Christ will be in spirit and truth, and probably only in spirit and truth. It wouldn’t be like Jesus to come out of the clouds, but out of the spiritual “religious sky”, that has hidden Him for all of us.

No one would rather meet Jesus Christ and shake His hand than myself, but I don’t believe that the Kingdom of God will come to us in that way.

Christ brilliantly describes how “the return of the Son of Man” will be in Matthew 24: 23 - 36. We quote: “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. ²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. ²⁵ Behold, I have told you before. ²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. ²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ²⁸ For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. ²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ³² Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: ³³ So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. ³⁴ Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. ³⁵ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”. (Copied from the Bible.com Website).

What does this really say, if we are reading The Bible correctly? Let’s look further at Matthew 24: 23 – 26: Someone points out a person, like the time Annie Bessant pointed out Krishnamurti as the new Messiah. People traveled to Ommen, Holland to see him. Luckily Krishnamurti was smart enough to inform people that he was not worthy of this. People want, shall, and must have “people” they can worship. But the Savior tells us not to believe this, because the Kingdom of God will come in another way. He has told us this ahead of time, so that we will not be deceived.

The Kingdom of God is similar to a woman who keeps putting leaven in the flour until all of the flour is permeated. This is exactly how the Kingdom of God was naturally and automatically created. There is nothing here in this comparison to leaven, or in the comparison to the mustard seed, that indicates that there will be a body descending from the rain clouds. I find this difficult to believe, because the mustard seed doesn’t have any fantasy.

I have a friend, let’s call her Anna. She traveled to Omman, Holland to see Krishnamurti. After that, she went to all my meetings to see and listen to me. Then there was the Oxford movement, and she was immediately there.

(The Oxford Movement was a loose affiliation of High Church Anglicans, most of them members of the University of Oxford, who sought to demonstrate that the Church of England was a direct descendant of the Christian church established by the Apostles….In 1938, the Oxford Group was re-named the Moral Re-Armament. The origin of the term lies in the political climate of the 1930's, in which the remilitarization of post WWI Germany was a contentious issue. (Copied from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia).

Then there was Hitler, and she was visiting there too. This is exactly how Christ looks at us. We want to have Christ down from the rain clouds, so He can be the great leader to see, touch, listen to, and sense. We also need to have great signs and miracles. Yes, now we have talked about it before it happens so that you can look around everywhere when it does start happening.

In Matthew 24:27 the following is mentioned - Just as lightening lights up the whole landscape, that is how the new orientation to life will light up the whole world, completely spontaneous with eruptions, when the time is right. Notice the expression: “the coming of the Son of man” is similar to the Son of Man has now come for all of us. His greatness and glory illuminate our hearts and our thoughts. We see His glory born of spirit from eternity. The religious disbelievers in the world and the spirit of the Devil’s slandering of the Son of Man have lost the game. Just as a flash of lightening, this will become clear for the world.

In Matthew 24: 28, the following is discussed - And where all the corpses are gathered – all the spiritually dead and drunken – that is where all the power-hungry predators will gather to devour them. The world will experience this. This is what we are already experiencing now. The predators gather around the carcasses and fight over them.

In Matthew 24: 29 we learn about - “The sun” is The Bible’s picture of “the Church” or enlightenment of the people. It is getting darker. The moon, like “the state” is losing respectability and doesn’t shine anymore. “The state” gets its light from the Church, just as the moon gets its light from the sun. This is an old analogy.

Film stars, public stars, Church stars, and sports stars fell down from where they had been highly regarded. Earlier, gullible people “saw up” to them; they were worshipped as shining stars in heaven. The power of the peoples’ heaven has been changed. What that means, is that all the dynamic spiritual power that had been used to create the artificial “cultural heaven”, everything that was “lifted up to the stars”, these creative powers have changed because people have received a new light. Their former conception of “heaven” has changed.

Matthew 24: 30 talks about the following: The sign of the Son of Man is surely the sign of the cross, which will be shown in heaven. Martyrdom, or the need or desire to be and become martyrs, is raised up to the peoples’ heaven as a great, and the greatest, thing. The families on earth shall lament because this was not how they had wished or thought the return of Christ would be. But then you have to begin to see and experience the greatness of being born of the spirit, to come closer to “the Son of Man in all His glory”. Therefore the beautiful words in the symbolic language of baptism:

“Receive the sign of the holy cross both on your forehead and your breast”. We shall experience pain in our understanding and our feelings as we try to find God.

I am not sure how the sign of the cross will be shown in heaven. But I think possibly that we will experience martyrdom all the way up to the peoples’ heaven. Even our “leaders” will finally go that way.

“Statesmen” and earls have nothing against religious people standing up and looking up in the clouds for Christ. Heathens think that is quite unlikely that God will come down from the clouds, but if it does happen, we have to submit and accept Him as a king, so that we can at least become civil servants for God. It’s clear that God will need many civil servants – probably over 1000.

But earls and “statesmen” don’t like our understanding of the return of Jesus. If it is correct, all those stars of the people will fall down from heaven. Should the coming of the Son of Man be such that people received their human rights here on earth, then everyone who disagrees with this right, will fall down. Our power is based on people holding tightly to the teachings about egoism, how our will is evil, etc.

In Matthew 24: 31, the four cornerstones of the world, probably religion (the Church), science, “the state” (politics), and art, are discussed. God has His faithful and chosen ones within the system of the four cornerstones of the world. Maybe “the voice of the trombone” could be “the voice of the loudspeaker”, where everyone who sees the glory of the Son of Man could testify about Him?

We don’t know exactly what all this symbolism “means”, but we need to be awake so we can “see” and “hear” correctly.

It doesn’t seem like the return of Christ is like what the otherwise pious “Adventists” and other religious sects had thought?

Here’s another parable – about the fig tree. When you see that the tree of society is getting greener, because there is new spiritual power, new life, and “signs of spring”, so know that your “redemption” will be soon. The world is lying in confinement (before giving birth), and Christ compares mankind with a woman who is waiting for the delivery of her child. We are now experiencing some of the “contractions”. The whole world is lamenting, but it still doesn’t see the great falsification of The Bible and of life that this book is describing. It will come gradually. The development of the life of society, its growth and seasons, are similar to the life and growth of the cellular community of the fig tree.

In Matthew 24: 34 – 35 it mentions: I must tell you the truth – Our human family will certainly not come to an end before all of this has become reality. It is a misunderstanding to believe that we all have to pass over cemeteries and piles of corpses on the battlefield to experience “redemption”. It is enough if that old religious and political “Adam” dies inside of us.

If both the peoples’ heaven and the false picture of life and the earth tumble down, you must not be afraid. It must happen, as it says in Matthew 24: 6 – 7. The word of God does not fall down. The teachings of Jesus about human life will be fulfilled. Comfort yourself with that. “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets…”, Revelations 18:20.

I give warning against all sects (the spiritual “restaurants” and “graves” for all of the spiritually asleep). These usually misunderstand The Bible prophecies about the future (Revelations) in the same misunderstood way the pastors read about the “Kingdom of this world”. Sect people draw up “programmer and guidelines” for the Creator and say “this is how it will be” – according to our special formula. There are even people who draw up whole diagrams, and with the best of intentions, unknowingly prescribe to our Lord the best way they think God could “carry out His duties”.

People with this kind of mentality don’t think anything of drawing a body with or without wings up in the rain clouds, and they draw the sun, the moon, and the stars that fall around each other in chaos and fall down to earth. But if Jupiter and Venus would fall down to earth, they would have to fall up, because the earth is “up” in the sky, seen from all the other planets. That is why it is not very probable that God’s heaven for this earth will collapse, if the “heaven of “the state” or the heaven of “the Church” cave in. There are enough “Venuses” and other “stars” in the heaven of peoples’ thoughts; in fact I think these are the stars that will fall down.

When the English heir to the throne gave up the throne, I experienced this as a good sign on the peoples’ heaven. When the Norwegian king fled to England (during the World War II), I also understood this as a “sign in the sun and the moon/astrological signs”. And when the Russians burned churches and made museums out of churches, I also saw this as a “sign in the peoples’ sun”. There are enough cries of distress because of this from all those who have become rich men through favors from the Church. (Please look at Revelations 18, which also my old and learned father, a diocese pastor, inferred in a similar artistic way).

Therefore, beware of the sects. There are many false prophets that collect money and slave-like souls during pious and well-meaning ceremonies and Bible interpretations.

Learn from Christ and the fig tree, and then you will stand closer to reality than all of His competitors (scientists, etc.). There are many good people who are lead astray and who go “really crazy” in their creative fantasy.

Fantasy is a living and automatic reality. That we can deduce , as well as learning from all of the sects and parties. Also notice one thing: When Christ was crucified and rejected as The Messiah, this happened because He would not be the great center point on the temple mount, as far as His personal exterior was concerned. It was the kingdom inside of us that He wanted to thrive and grow.

This is why I say that it would not be like the Savior Christ that I see in spirit before me to change His mind and come “down again”, and take up the competition with Hared and Pilate. The kingdom of Christ, His order and system, His justice, moral and life picture are something, in fact the opposite. But I admit that I would like nothing more than to see Him come again in the flesh, and be able to take His hand, and look Him in the eye. The person who sees Him is blessed; and it is much more difficult to see Him in spirit and truth. It is much more difficult for our consciousness, imagination, and apprehension to experience His return in spirit and truth. It is certainly worse than what believe, and worse than we can “remember” when were born from a woman. To be born again in spirit and truth is much more difficult and painful. The road to the Kingdom of God has a narrow entrance. If that weren’t the case, then we would have received God’s Kingdom and will here on earth a long time ago.

I dedicate this little section from The Art of Reading The Bible to my distinguished friend, Engineer Albert Hiorth, from Asker, Norway.

Chapter 11