© Kurt Eggenstein: 'The Prophet J. Lorber Predicts Coming Catastrophies and the True Christianity'


Bible Criticism in the Light of New Revelation:

The Influence of Secular and Materialistic Thought on Scientific Research


   Modern Christendom is mostly Christian only by name. Lack of faith and lack of interest in religious issues are widespread. The reasons for this are many.
   lt seems necessary and important to make an analysis of the reason for the lack of faith and indifference towards the fundamental issues in life.
   One of the causes is Rationalism a and Intellectualism b, both of which have found reflection in Bible criticism. The many publications from liberal theologians on Jesus and the origins of Christianity, led to increasing loss of faith in earlier days, first of all among the educated. As time went on, the destructive theories also reached other levels of society, through the mass media. Doubts were sown particularly among the younger generation, or the concept made more and more acceptable that the Christian faith was merely based on a myth.
   Anyone asking themselves how Christian thought and attitudes could break down at such an incredible pace in the present age, will be unable to answer unless he knows that there has been a long period of development in the history of thought that has been little observed, yet has made man receptive to current trends. The change in fundamental attitudes has its roots deep down in the history of European thought.
   The process evolved over a period of three hundred years. We need to probe a little deeper, to understand certain currents that developed distinct from those cccupying church people. Readers who have not so far come up against the type of discussion presented here, are nevertheless asked not to fight shy of taking a little trouble in following the short outline of what has become rather a vast subject. Most of all this section is for those who have been made unsure by the literature in question and are seeking the truth, to present the facts to them that will help them think.
   During the period of Secularization, the aim was to draw people away from all religious, supernatural attachments and all connection with what is metaphysical or divine. This did not start with science, as is generally assumed, but with philosophy.
   The philosopher Descartes (d. 1650), a man living in total isolation, established the basis on which Rationalism was to develop. Questions concerning the theory of knowledge now took the center stage in philosophy. Rationalism put everything under the magnifying glass of reason.
   Auguste Comte (d. 1857), the founder of Positivism c had a major influence. This is a school of philosophy (Empiricism d ) that is the opposite of Metaphysics e, stating that only experience counted. It provided the basis for the materialistic approach that has now spread all over the world.
   Materialism f leaves no room for God in its doctrine. This became clear even at the beginning of the 19th century, when the astronomer and mathematician Laplace (d. 1827), asked by Napoleon where God fitted into his theory, replied: "Sire, that is a hypothesis I do not require. Nature is alone within herself." 31
   It has since been shown, in atomic physics, that the theory known as Determinism ,g on which the materialistic approach is bued, is not generally applicable.
   It takes a long time for new ideas to reach the mass of the population. When Descartes, Comte, Hegel and Feuerbach were putting down their thoughts, the world around them was quite unaware, for a long time to come, of the disruptive potential of their ideas, and of the fact that they were to change the world, though not for the better.
   Ideas may leap, like sparks, often igniting flames in another place. The philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach found little response and soon went into oblivion, but Marx and Engels took up his ideas, with the result that in the end Feuerbach did after all "bring about a decisive change towards secularization." 32 Karl Marx also took up the ideas of the philosopher G.W.E Hegel, though he made them fit his own purposes and gave them different contents.
   In the course of development, the biased nature of science became the special property of dialectical materialism. In the West, belief in the supremacy of science was to play a major role in getting materialism widely accepted.
   The philosophical concepts referred to above held unitreamt-of explosive potential. The active stages in loss of faith, first among intellectuals and finally also in the population at large, can be historically traced. Today, people are afraid of the chaotic tendencies that are more and more in evidence. Only few of them have an inkling that the thoughts that are the foundatian of these arose with secularization in previous centuries. These doctrines deny God the right to exist, and according to them, there is no life after death. In the final instance this left only nihilism as the meaning of life, i.e., heroic despair. This has been shown by the philosopher Martin Heidegger. The world is increasingly subject to structural breakdown, and talking of humanism has proved no solid foundation at a time when brute force is on the increase everywhere. The result is that existential fear is growing all round. Man feels a shiver of fear when he has to look into the abyss of nothingness.
   Man is free to acknowledge God or to deny Him and put himself in His place. The latter he has attempted to do again and again in the course of human history. lt is not difficult to know where to look for the source and origin of Atheism. lt is the old Luciferic hatred and desire of the creature to take the place of the creator. One can read about it in Karl Marx's work, where it tells us what marxism and materialism are based on. Marx wrote: "Philosophy makes no secret of it. Prometheus' admission, 'l have, in a word, enough hate for all the gods', is its own admission, its own utterance against all the gods of heaven and earth who do not recognize man's self-awareness, the highest godhead. 33


a ln theology, Rationalism is the term used, particularly since the Aufklaerung, for critique of traditional doctrine on the basis of reasoning. Descartes maintained that true knowledge was entirely based on reasoning.

b Intellectualism = the philosophical tenet that only reason is able to determine the truth. Reason is given onesided emphasis, neglecting the irrational and intuition.

c Positivism = a form of empirieism that is the opposite of metaphysics. According to it, only knowledge based on observable phenomena is meaningful, whilst all metaphysiml tenets are meaningless. Positivism is the foundation of the materialistic view.

d Empiricism is the doctrine that all knowledge derives from experience.

e Metaphysics is the science of the total reality, i.e., including what lies beyond the phusical, sense-perceptible world, e.g., God, who transcends all that may be experienced.

f Materialism sees in matter the basis and substance of all that is real; the realities of i soul and spirit are considered merely functions of phusical matter. "Practical materiali8m" is the lifestyle that prefers power, possessions and pleasure to spiritual values.

g Determinism is a philosophical doctrine stating that everything that happens in the world (including the human will) is determined b the principle of cause and effect.

c Positivism = a form of empirieism that is the opposite of metaphysics. According to it, only knowledge based on observable phenomena is meaningful, whilst all metaphysiml tenets are meaningless. Positivism is the foundation of the materialistic view.

d Empiricism is the doctrine that all knowledge derives from experience.

e Metaphysics is the science of the total reality, i.e., including what lies beyond the phusical, sense-perceptible world, e.g., God, who transcends all that may be experienced.

f Materialism sees in matter the basis and substance of all that is real; the realities of i soul and spirit are considered merely functions of phusical matter. "Practical materiali8m" is the lifestyle that prefers power, possessions and pleasure to spiritual values.

g Determinism is a philosophical doctrine stating that everything that happens in the world (including the human will) is determined b the principle of cause and effect.

h Atheism is the denial of a divine world order, and of the existence of God altogether. i Atheist = one who denies God.


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© Text: Kurt Eggenstein; © EDV-Bearbtg.by Gerd Gutemann