Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1325

1325. While clubs, bows and swords were the weapons employed directly during previous cultural periods in mankind's history, the "bank account" later became the most refined murder weapon in modern culture or the domain of the "false principle of business". With this weapon the owner can reduce not merely his neighbour but whole states, world kingdoms, peoples and races to ruin, poverty, hunger, tears, depression and suicide, at the same time that, with the same weapon, he has the possibility of creating sunlight, joy, freedom, independence and happiness for his neighbour, for states and for peoples. But it can also act as an undermining, insidious and slow-acting lethal poison in the owner's own existence, transforming his psyche, consciousness or life into a path towards hospitals, infirmaries, psychiatric hospitals or lunatic asylums. Understanding this weapon and thereby carrying it with dignity, which means "owning" this weapon and thus not being owned by it, not being its plaything or slave, demands a psyche that is to be found only in "the kingdom that is not yet entirely of this world". The prophets and prescribed laws of "The Old Testament" have thus transformed the "sword", the direct instrument of the drive for self-preservation, so that it today constitutes the distinguished, indirect and innocent-looking "magic charm" called the "bank account", which is admired and desired by all. While the sword was forged from pure metal to the accompaniment of singing and jollity keeping time with the blows of the hammer and the cascades of fiery sparks of glowing iron, the "bank account", to the extent that it is based on the "false principle of business", has come into existence most often through the ruin, tears, drudgery, downfall and death of others. Indeed, the lethal power of this weapon is so refined and hidden that, while the use of a sword on one's neighbour often leads to "prison" and "capital punishment", the use of a "bank account" as a "murder weapon" leads largely to honours and decorations, titles and the greatest respect and admiration, not to say worship on the part of society. In truth, this new weapon has enabled the killing principle to become so intellectually camouflaged that it forms the foundation of the entire "civilisation" of the world today. The fate of the states, nations and single individuals of the entire "civilised" world today rests upon the stability of their "bank accounts". Should these be ample and capacious, they will provide access or open all doors for their owners and ruthlessly push aside all other fellow beings that do not have stable "bank accounts", casting them out into destitution, hunger, debasement, suffering and death, and entirely without their originator being punished, since the use of a "bank account" is authorised and protected by law. A "bank account" is of course legal "private property" for both states and individuals. It is no wonder that the culture of the "bank account", which our present civilisation constitutes, creaks and groans, creating mental earthquakes and explosions. Here emerges the concealed, slow-acting lethally poisonous effect of the use of "bank accounts" as a hidden or camouflaged murder weapon. Here we see the indispensable "sowing and reaping" of the law of karma. Here we see the most extreme consequences of the Law of Moses: "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth". Here we see the culmination of the effects of "taking rather than receiving". Here we see the flowering of loving oneself more than one's neighbour. It is no wonder that a "Jesus of Nazareth" was needed in order to create new ways along which mankind could be led away from this nightmarishly selfish, camouflaged murder weapon, this last attempt of the principle of death or darkness to retain terrestrial mankind in its lethal spider's web.