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"Render unto Caesar the Things That Are Caesar's and unto God the Things That Are God's"
Our Lord's Christmas Day Address 1993
The Messenger's Pre-dictation Invocation:
O Light of the Central Sun, beloved Mighty I AM Presence, Holy Christ Self of each one, Holy Christ Flame within our hearts, expand and consume now all darkness within and without! Let the brightness of our Lord and Saviour be upon us. Lord Jesus, place your Electronic Presence over us for the purging within us of all that is unlike thee.
Our Father-Mother God, we thank thee for sending unto the earth the only begotten Son of God, our Lord and Saviour, who came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might have eternal life.
We seek that eternal life and we seek daily, O God, to replace the nets of mortality that are upon us with the eternality of our being. Through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we ask this.
And now we call to the Seven Archangels and hosts of the Lord to defend our Lord's right to deliver his message to our hearts this day, our Lord's right to deliver this message to the heart that is upraised as the chalice of Divine Love in all Lightbearers of this world. May they receive from his Communion cup in this hour his Body and his Blood and know the glory of the Lord in their own true being.
Oh, let the Lightbearers be one! This is our prayer. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Divine Mother, Amen.
The Messenger's Pre-dictation Scriptural Readings:
Jesus has asked me to read to you from the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as a foundation for his teaching today. Those of you who love the scriptures, who study the New Testament, know that Jesus continually affirmed that he came not to destroy but to fulfill the law and the prophets. He came to build on the foundation of the law of Moses.
And so we begin with the Old Testament and Moses' words from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 11:
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which ye have not known. Deuteronomy 11:26-28
From the New Testament, Matthew 5, we read Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Here Jesus clearly sets apart his disciples, those who bear his Light in their hearts, from those who are the scribes and Pharisees and the rulers of this world. Because he has called us out from among them, our Lord expects us to do better.
We read in Mark 12 Jesus' confounding of the Pharisees and the Herodians:
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words.
And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I may see it.
And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.
This is Paul's teaching to the Christians in Rome, which he himself received directly from Jesus:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
These are the teachings of the apostle Peter to Jew and Gentile believers alike:
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
Our Lord's Christmas Day Address 1993
My beloved, this Christmas season is an hour of burden unto many. In fact, beloved, though some may be insensate, surfeited in their merrymaking, all are burdened this day with the weight of world karma and their own karma.
Pity unto the nations! Pity unto the rulers of the nations and the peoples of the earth! For surely the wrath has come and the karma does descend and you in your own souls agonize at what you have seen and what you have experienced directly, close at hand and personally in your lives, one by one.
Yes, worthy is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.1 So understand, beloved, that through all that has transpired in the Dark Night of the Spirit that has characterized the dark ages since my crucifixion, my resurrection and the fulfillment of my reason for being, supreme, there has always been an individual upon earth in whom the Lamb has dwelt and therefore in whom I have dwelt. And thus, that one has suffered the condemnation of the world as I suffered it when I was on earth. For the slaying of the Lamb or the attempt to slay the Lamb, the Christ, has been the cause of Antichrist from the beginning of sin on earth.
I, then, have placed my Electronic Presence over this Messenger that you may do what you will with her. But I tell you, beloved, it is in the very imperfection, in the very humanness of the saints that the Lamb does appear. And those who look for perfection do not understand that perfection is not the key to the manifestation of the Lamb.
For there is no such thing as a perfect human being, but there is every such thing as the pure in heart who shall see God.2 There is every such thing as forgiveness, as mercy, as the conversion of souls who have been the enemy of Christ but are now ready to repent and to receive the Holy Ghost.
Thus understand, beloved, that if you will see faults and pick at faults and enumerate the faults of the Messenger, you only fault yourselves and default yourselves of the greatest privilege of all - simplicity - the simplicity of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The mantle of the Lamb is not given except it be accepted by the one called. Therefore understand that persecution is real, crucifixion is real. Yet, for that purpose the Lamb has come into the world: to be slain that the Christ might shed the Light, i.e., the Blood, of the universal and cosmic conception of the Christhood of every man, woman and child.
Thus, beloved, if you are tempted to deny the word or the ordinances of the Messenger - because "the Messenger is a simpleton," "the Messenger could not, of course, be worthy, for the Messenger is a sinner," "the Messenger is not too bright, you know," and all such things that may be said - well, you will miss the greatest encounter of your life. You will miss having recognized the chalice of the Lamb, the chalice worthy that is yet imperfect.
How shall you, then, become the fullness of that Lamb and be worthy to be the Lamb if you say, "I shall first become humanly perfect"?
Those who strut about in the affirmation of their human perfectness are missing the glory of God. They have missed my very humanness as I walked the earth unto the age of eighty-one and then took my ascension.3 I was not perfect in many incarnations, beloved, but I will tell you this: The Lamb within me is and was perfect, and the Holy Christ Flame within you that burns brightly this Christmas day is perfect. That is the key, that is the key to your Christhood.
Therefore walk humbly with your God and know that there is nothing wrong with this Messenger that would in and of itself bring down upon this house persecution and condemnation and lawsuits, and so on. All things must be fulfilled. And the Father (Mother) God does not withdraw the trials and testings but does, of course, chasten whom he loves4 and does bring into the fold of the divine consciousness whom he loves. Yes, the Father and the Mother, the Father-Mother God as one, do this.
And so, beloved, either you will deal with Moses as the children of Israel dealt with Moses, who was the living Guru, and therefore in breaking the law and the commandments of God receive your karma, or you will enter in to the understanding that I myself insisted upon: the understanding of the hierarchy of governments, of institutional systems and of the relationship of teacher and student. For I did insist that there be an orderly structure in the lives of all who were my followers, from the least unto the greatest.
Why did I say, then, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"?5 It is for this, beloved ones: I did not come to be crowned a human king over Jerusalem and the Roman Empire.6 And many were disappointed that I came into Jerusalem riding the foal7 of an ass.8 They expected me to rise up in the full omnipotence of God and challenge the entire empire.
They had lost sight of the mission. Judas and many followers lost sight of the mission because I would not come in the pomp and power of the human condition but rather in the stillness of the Presence of God that is the only real power there is.
I forbade all to challenge the laws of Caesar and the governors and the rulers in the land. Why, beloved? Because this was not our cause. Our cause was not to reform human governments, human hierarchies and potentates. Nay, we came for the conversion of the human spirit, for the rescue of the soul, to show the way back to God through my own Sacred Heart.
We came to reveal the path of mysticism. We came to make of our disciples mystics who would be capable of discovering the Inner Christ through our example and who would therefore mirror that Christ and live with the goal of becoming my twin. This was the goal Lord Maitreya set before me, beloved, and as my Father Maitreya worked with me, so I worked to accomplish that foundation of the Piscean age.
Therefore while ye are in the world, yet not of the world, I admonish you to obey the laws of the nations even if these laws be unrighteous. If ye would seek redress and move to have unrighteous laws overturned, then do so lawfully, within the framework provided for citizens such as it may be in your nation. Judge not the rulers of this world under whose powers ye serve but measure your necessary submission to their authority as a mark of your own karma.
For I tell you, it is incumbent upon you to submit yourselves to human hierarchs inasmuch as long ago you rejected your spiritual hierarchs. And therefore the LORD God did remove from you the direct contact you had with your spiritual hierarchs and you have been long time now in the drudgery of being under human hierarchs.
Yet I say, what drudgery can it be, compared to the slavery of Africa, the slavery of Rome and the enslavement of the Hebrews four hundred years under the Egyptian pharaohs?
They had no recourse. You do not have the perspective of your ancient state of servitude in previous lifetimes. But I tell you, by comparison to that ancient servitude, you enjoy great freedom this day in America and in other countries of the world. You are free and able to be "kings and priests unto God,"9 and yet what do you do?
You miss the opportunity presented by your spiritual hierarchs come again and you go out to fight battles, to beat the air, as though these paltry human gains should in any way award you the consciousness of God! Far from it!
Instead of having the consciousness of God, you are entangled in your own human pride. You think you will rally the forces to defeat the injustices of the governments of this nation and other nations. And in so thinking, you miss the Cause entirely. You render neither to Caesar that which is Caesar's nor to God that which is God's.
Thus you miss the spiritual path and you miss Saint Germain's great sponsorship of a nation so imperfect (because its people are yet imperfect) and yet whose laws afford its people the greatest spiritual freedom, the greatest economic freedom, the greatest personal freedom and privacy in their homes and in their right to practice the religion of their choice - and especially this religion!
Think of it: this religion that you openly profess today would not have survived even a century ago! Nor would any of you have survived had you practiced it openly: you would have been burned at the stake!
Yes, beloved, have you forgot why your ancestors came here? They came first and foremost for freedom of religion - the freedom to worship God as they saw fit. And that should be your rallying cry, your battle cry: to defend your right to practice your religion free from persecution and to spread abroad the Teachings of the Ascended Masters.
Or is it true that you intend to spend the next aeon on earth and therefore you prefer to fight your earthly battles and forsake your spiritual cause? You cannot effectively engage in both, beloved. For either one will take all of your focus and all of your energy. And if you attempt to engage in both, it is the spiritual path that will suffer.
Therefore I speak as the spokesman of Gautama Buddha and I speak for myself. For this is the Church Universal and Triumphant of Gautama Buddha and of Jesus Christ. And I say to you, beloved, the order and the rules of our Church do not depart from the basic foundations of the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and the texts of the Buddha when those scriptures are properly understood.
Thus I speak to those of you who, first of all, have decided that you do not have to be obedient to the mantle of the Guru Moses, which mantle has been and still is upon the Messenger. To defy the laws of the Community and to defy the laws of the Church is to be in a state of insubordination before your spiritual hierarchs.
Those of you who do this, beloved, are not centered in your own Christhood. And there are many of you who are not centered in your own Christhood because you have gone the way of the gainsaying of Core, who challenged Moses and challenged his mantle.10
I would point out to you the long-suffering of the Messenger. The Messenger has not spoken out to you who have violated the laws of this Community and even the laws of the land, for the Messenger does not speak out unless I speak through her.
Thus, we have been long-suffering and this is the day that I draw the line in the sand. For there is a connection between those who have allowed a spirit of fanaticism to enter their temples and recent tragic events in Glastonbury. There are some who have poisoned the minds of others in this Community by misleading them into a cause célèbre, that cause being the challenging of the Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution,11 the income tax amendment.
Blessed hearts, this is precisely why the teachings the Messenger read to you prior to my speaking are written in the scriptures and why I gave to my disciples both the law and the prophets and the new covenant.12 For if you read all of my words of the New Testament, you shall see from two thousand years ago unto the present my vision of what should come to pass when Saint Germain, my father, should sponsor this nation. Thus, the law of Moses and the word of Christ remain the doctrine of this Church, steadfast in the hearts of its communicants.
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. That is, pay your tribute13 as it is due. Get out of Caesar's way and pursue your spiritual path. For ere decades have passed, many of you engaged in the unlawful causes of this world will find yourselves on the astral plane, not having woven your wedding garment, having no sheath of that bridal veil whereby your soul might enter the etheric octave.
For when you disobey this law that I have set forth - "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's" - as well as the law of Moses, you separate yourselves from the community of devotees and you cut yourselves off from this altar. And then behold! you become empowered by your own dweller-on-the-threshold. You become empowered by demons of fanaticism. You are no longer of our path. You are no longer of our Church. You are no longer of this Community.
And therefore, you will choose this day whom you will serve.14 And if it be not the living Christ within you, if it be not the mantle of Moses, if it be not the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (whom you have seen before you day after day and week after week being slain from this corner and that corner), if it be none of these, beloved, then I say give answer.
Give answer this day, O hearts who were once hearts of Light, for the light in you has gone out: it has been replaced by fanaticism. Though you yourselves have no longer place or position in this movement, you stay and stay, creating a fragmentation and a division in the Body of God. And there is no reason why hearts of Light, who are joyously obedient to the Word of God that they hear echoing in the chamber of their own hearts, should carry the burden of your darkness that you have allowed into this Community, into this Church and into Glastonbury.
You have spread your message around the world. You have communicated it to other Keepers of the Flame. And by the very momentum of the consciousness of Death and Hell that has spawned this entire tax protest movement, you have drawn into your circles those who were well on the path to their spiritual victory.
I, Jesus, say to you, I will draw this line, I have drawn the line and I will not stand for this blight on our members any longer! Fanaticism will be exorcised from this movement! And those of you who would go your way and continue on the path of your choosing, to you I say: Go in peace! Go in peace! And do not attempt to do battle with the Messenger or with those who are of the hierarchy of this Church.
Hear me now, if you have never heard me before. Sense - if you can still sense the vibration of Light and divide it from Darkness - that I am here, that I have stepped into the very human level of the Messenger that you might see my aura around her and you might respect that presence in yourselves and you might get on with your original purposes for which you came out from the world to sit at the feet of the Ascended Masters, to sit at the feet of your Mighty I AM Presence.
And now you have failed to challenge the unreality within yourselves and the momentum of unreality in your dweller-on-the-threshold. And therefore, without even realizing it you have exchanged Christ for Antichrist. I cannot save you unless you renounce your disobedience to the laws of God and man, humble yourselves and settle down to a life of worthfulness, of purpose, of spirituality, of one-pointedness to the cause of Saint Germain and your own victory.
This is the community of Bethany. This is the community who went with me to Kashmir. Ye are come again. Ye are bringing into this Community high souls of Light. And the Community is vulnerable for this schism in the midst, caused by those who have decided to challenge whether the intelligence or the integrity of the Messenger.
Well, it is not the intelligence or the integrity of the Messenger that is in question, beloved ones, but the Mind of God that ye are without and the mind that you have displaced it with! And therefore ye see all things awry and askew.
Therefore know that some of those who have rationalized their breaking the laws of the land have done so in the name of patriotism, to the shame of Saint Germain. To those who think they have in some way hidden from me or the Messenger or perhaps thought that the Messenger should catch on one of these days to the government's "betrayal" of the people, I say: the Messenger caught on long ago to the human dilemma. And she recognized the footsteps that souls on the Path take who reach the place where they must wrestle with the pride of Lucifer and the satanic vibrations of Antichrist and who refuse to do so but rationalize their behavior as being of the Light. And thus they change like chameleons, sometimes overnight, and are no longer my students or my disciples.
Therefore, as I have said, let those who want their own way and their own path in exception to the sponsorship of this hierarchy go their way in peace. I send you in peace. May it be so.
Thus, I have spoken this day on a matter that is entirely relevant to the death of Mitchell Mandell. This you must understand: Weak minds, noncomprehending minds can easily be taken over by others who, when it comes to these issues, are possessed of demons.
I do not say that Mitchell Mandell was weak or strong of mind, but I say that every Lightbearer who comes to this Community has a right to believe and to know that the path which is embraced by the members is the path taught by the Ascended Masters, that the teachings which are embodied by the devotees are the teachings taught by the ministers and teachers, and that the lives and actions of those in the Community attest to the truth and the practicality of the Path.
Yes, they have a right to believe that the Community is of one heart and service to the purposes of the Great White Brotherhood and that in all matters the members follow the lead of the founder and sponsor, El Morya.
We shall not have many gods in this Community! We shall have one God. And we shall remember and put into perspective what is our service, what is our calling and what is the outline of the purposes of this Community.
Let those who wish to live another way of life do so, for this is a nation of freedom - yes, freedom of religion. Go elsewhere, then, if your religion has become the fanaticism of challenging the laws of the land and those who do administer those laws, though sometimes imperfectly and unjustly.
Thus, beloved ones, you who would sincerely bear the burden of the Lord, which is my body of Light, as well as the burden of your karma, will leave off from these things and return to your original estate of holiness, your innocence and wonder at the glory of God. You cannot be one with Belial and also be of Christ.
Why have you allowed Belial to enter in and turn you from your first love and the firstfruits that blossomed from your tree of life and that you saw in yourself when you followed that path as a little child?
Now you have another agenda. And if you would be free from it and if you would understand what I have said this day, then you must make your way back to my heart through fervent decrees to Astrea and the resolve to leave off those causes that are not the causes of Light but the causes of Darkness.
Such causes are swallowing up souls across America and they take from you your lawful service in the defense of children, of families, of a nation that is karmically burdened - burdened to such a great extent that one wonders how much more it can take before the most basic of institutions are toppled.
Yes, hordes of anger and demons roam the land and you in your pride trifle with these causes. I am ashamed of those who have so engaged themselves and I say, make your peace with the Messenger. The Messenger has offered in writing to receive letters from you concerning unresolved issues. A few have come forward to accept her invitation. Yet in many hearts there does lurk criticism, a continual analysis and faultfinding with actions or nonactions of the Messenger or those who serve with her.
These are burdens, then, that all must bear and they interfere with our principal cause of sending these teachings of Light to hearts of Light who can hardly wait to find their own Mighty I AM Presence because they know that somewhere, somewhere this Community exists. Well, I should be ashamed to lead them to our Community, where they should find those who are fanatics not only in the tax protest movement but in the field of health.
Beloved hearts, these matters we shall take up one by one. But this week, ere this year has passed and come to a close, I desire that those individuals who are not right with me shall make their decision one way or the other and shall do so out of the profound sincerity of their hearts. Therefore, I send forth mighty light rays into the core of the anger of those individuals who for some time now have been taken over by the demons of anger.
You did not come here this day to hear a Christmas message on this subject. But I tell you, unless this darkness be exposed, there shall only be a wider and wider schism until you shall revisit the events in the life of Moses where those who went against him saw the earth open up and swallow them.15 Know, beloved, that it is not by the Messenger or me that you may be swallowed up in darkness but by your own karma.
Thus, I choose not to speak further on the events of nations, on the events of this Community but to alert all that this is the primary problem that faces the Darjeeling Council this day. And if you do not wish to see a repetition of recent events, if you do not wish to see tragedy recur, then I say, let this cancer of fanaticism and disobedience to the laws of the land be excised by every man, woman and child and let us move forward as one Body of Christ.
Truly, worthy is the Lamb who is slain from the foundation of the world.
I AM Jesus, the Lord of those who receive me according to the law and the love of God. You cannot receive me and entertain me at the same table at which you are entertaining Belial or the seed of Satan or the seed of Lucifer. So then, beloved, wake up! Wake up! Wake up in the name of God.
I seal you in my Sacred Heart. And let those who cannot enter there, for they have violated their own hearts, turn quickly and seek the conversion of the Holy Ghost. Thus I authorize this Messenger to dismiss from this Church those who will not accept this message and move onward in courage.
I am with Gautama Buddha, Lord of the World, one in the heart of the Dhyani Buddhas. We desire this matter to be settled for their coming, for it is a great privilege that an entire conference should be dedicated by them to the upliftment of the Lightbearers of the earth.
In the name of God, I AM your Lord, your Master, your Servant, your Friend. [33-second standing ovation]
This dictation by Jesus Christ was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Christmas Day, December 25, 1993, at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana. The dictation is available on video-and audiocassette. Videocassette (includes the Christmas Eve dictations by Mother Mary and Lanello): total 1 hr. 53 min., HP94002. Audiocassette (includes the Christmas Day service): total 1 hr. 20 min., B94004. [N.B. This dictation was edited for print by the Messenger under Jesus' direction.] Throughout these notes PoW is the abbreviation for Pearls of Wisdom.