863. In the above we have seen with what immeasurable love the principle of world redemption works through Jesus in meeting not only the deserters from the old Jewish culture who are therefore hungry for the new seed in which all the peoples of the world will eventually be blessed, but also the "orthodox believers" in that culture, or that way of worshipping God, whenever they in their suffering and despair sought him. Does this not show how world redemption takes the troubled being in its loving embrace and, just like a father or mother with their child, interprets life in a way that fits the being's age, bringing it out of its tears and depression into joy and cheerfulness by giving it the truth in formulas that suit its childlike mind? And it is the truth in the form of these appropriate formulas that world redemption today offers, through the sacraments of "baptism" and "holy communion", to those who are known as Christians and who are still "faithful believers" in the "wrathful" and "punishing" God of the Old Testament. Here the unhappy being that is weighed down with "sin" still to this day finds peace and vitality, to the extent that it "believes". But if it does not "believe", the sacraments will have no vitalising value. It will be impossible for it in this way to come into contact with the God, gaining peace of mind and joy in continuing to live life.
      As we have seen, world redemption has adapted itself in such an ingenious and loving way to the terrestrial human mentality that it bestows on the beings its liberating power already at a time when they in reality still fully "believe in" the God of "Abraham", "Isaac" and "Jacob". It has used the sacraments of "baptism" and "holy communion" to smooth the way from the "punishing" and "vengeful" God of the Old Testament to the "all-loving, eternal Father" of the New Testament. In the world redeemer's own consciousness or mentality we can see a kindly adapted meeting between two, in the religious sense, greatly differing epochs and their transition from one to the other. With his powerful authority, which was based on a higher, absolutely infallible knowledge and inspiration from the "holy spirit", he could use the formula: "Thy sins are forgiven thee", to implant peace in all those souls tortured by the illusory sin-complexes that arose from the old forms of worshipping God. And the authorised "Christianity" that today is known throughout the world is founded on this authority and this aspect of his consciousness. And as a result we can see that this "Christianity" constitutes merely a locally adapted phase in world redemption itself. It is world redemption's gift of an outstretched helping hand to all the beings whose thinking in the area of spirituality is still dependent on others, and whose spiritual life thus exists and develops solely on the strength of their "belief in authority". They have not yet become true seekers. They are not researchers. In the cosmic field, they are still childlike or embryonic souls. As mentioned previously, their consciousness is still very much rooted in the "Old Testament's" traditional picture of God, in which "wrath" and "punishment" are to the fore. They are still in some way "Israelites" in their worship of God and in their view of the image of God itself. They differ only in not believing quite so strongly in all the "prophets", and they no longer employ the Israelites' methods of appeasing God through the sacrifice of animals and crops. It is here that world redemption has intervened through the authority of Jesus and created a new phase. So powerful has it made this authority, so strongly has the truth in the words of Jesus: "Thy sins are forgiven thee" penetrated, that in the form of sacraments they have become an echo that has endlessly repeated itself and resonated from generation to generation down through the ages and given to those millions of guilt-ridden, sorrow-laden beings temporary peace and mental well-being.