Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1569

1569. But the fact that world redemption has nonetheless seen to it that "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" – this being the "fulfilment of all the laws" – has been preached from thousands of pulpits for thousands of years all over the world, and the fact that this commandment recurs in all creation of humaneness and culture, indicates that the old Mosaic law of marriage, which states that a man should cleave unto his wife, and that a wife should be subservient to her husband, as well as the injunctions prescribing capital punishment for anyone who loves his or her "own sex", is not intended to be eternal. And what does modern daily life tell us? Is not daily life overflowing with an ocean of infringements of these laws of Moses? Is not the number of men who do not cleave entirely unto their wives continuously increasing? And how many wives does one think find the highest happiness in being their husband's slave, disregarding the period of being in love or the so-called "honeymoon"? Do you not think that there is a longing in the heart of everyone who is not in an intoxicated state of being in love with a particular being to admire and love beauty and nobleness in beings other than the one allotted by the rationing of the laws of Moses, and in other forms and other relationships than the one primordial form that is prescribed by these laws? If this longing did not exist, what would then be the purpose of the entire mission of Christ? What would be the purpose of world redemption? What should human beings be "redeemed" from? Is it not from the traditions of the "animal kingdom" manifested in the precepts of the laws of Moses? The modern intellectual human being begins to understand that the laws of Moses were indeed divine for their time and were an absolutely indispensable foundation for the creation of the culture of that time, just as they are still indispensable for many people of today and must therefore be observed by them, but to demand on these grounds that these laws be respected and observed by absolutely all human beings is the same as damming up their desire for life and thereby evolution; it is to dam up the mission and influence of Christ; it is to keep mankind down in stuntedness, primitivity and degradation. Above all it stimulates the desire to possess one's neighbour, and thereby works against unselfishness and the humaneness or neighbourly love that ensue from it. It is not so surprising that a "new testament" had to be added to The Old Testament established by Moses and the prophets.

Symbol no. 12

Life and Death