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 Jesus of Nazareth
Spoke Up for the Animals.
Testimonies from "This Is My Word"
Jesus made no distinction between human beings and animals; for the commandment said and still says today: You shall not kill. It is a general statement which means: We should kill neither human beings nor animals.
In This Is My Word we read among other things what Christ said and made clear to the people during His time on Earth, also regarding the treatment of animals.
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disdain, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing on his soul and on his body. For, what a person does to his fellow men and to his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself. (p. 421)
The Bible reports that during the “feeding of the five thousand,” Jesus gave the assembled people bread and also fish. According to Mark we read: And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. (Mk. 6:41)
Some may ask, “Are fish not also animals?” In This Is My Word we read what really happened:
My disciples brought Me bread and grapes to be multiplied. On that day, dead fish were also offered to Me in order to be multiplied. As I took this dead substance into My hands, I explained to the people that the power-potential of the Father, the high power of life, was gone from it for the most part and that I would not create live fish so that they be killed again.
I explained to the people that life is in all life forms and that man should not kill them deliberately. The people, especially the children, looked at Me very sadly. They could not understand Me, because they lived from fish, bread and little else, for the most part. And then I spoke to them in the following sense: The energies of the earth are still maintaining the dead fish. And so I will not give you living fish from the Spirit of the Father; but from the energy of the earth, I will create for you fish that are dead, that is, poor in vibration. They will never bear life and cannot be killed. I will show you how living things taste – bread and fruits – and in comparison with them, the taste of dead food.
And from the energies of the earth, I created for them fish which bore little spirit substance. I gave them the dead fish and, at the same time, I offered them bread and fruits to eat, so that they could recognize the difference between living and dead nourishment, between high-vibrating and low-vibrating food. In this and similar ways, I taught the people. (pp. 371-372)
We can see how carefully, understandingly and sympathetically Jesus approached His fellow man and how He brought the laws of God to life for them in specific situations.
In This Is My Word Christ also gives us the following pointers:
The one who loves his neighbor selflessly will neither do violence to him, nor kill him. And the one who loves his neighbor selflessly will not deliberately kill animals either. The one who respects man and animal has no warlike designs, because he respects the laws of God to which belong the laws of nature, too. The one who strives to actualize the laws of God will refrain from eating meat more and more and will gratefully accept the gifts of the earth, that is, that food which comes from God for His human children. (p. 467)
As Jesus, Christ spoke up for the animals wherever He could. It is not surprising that little can be found about this in the Bible, since it was not in the interest of the clergy that came after Christ to teach the people in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, but to teach them only according to their spirit, to the church institution striving for earthly all-power. Therefore, the aspect “animals” was not included in the New Testament of the “Holy Scriptures,” nor was Jesus’ commandment to abstain from eating meat.
Let us read on in This Is My Word how Jesus reacted to the suffering of animals.
1. And it came to pass that the Lord departed from the city and went into the mountains with His disciples. And they came to a mountain with very steep paths. There they met a man with a beast of burden.
2. But the horse had collapsed, for it was overladen. The man struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him saying, “You son of cruelty, why do you strike your animal? Do you not see that it is much too weak for its burden and do you not know that it suffers?”
3. But the man retorted, “What have You to do therewith? I may strike my animal as much as it pleases me, for it belongs to me; and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask those who are with You, for they are from my neighborhood and know thereof.”
4. And some of the disciples answered, saying, “Yes, Lord, it is as he said, we were there when he bought the horse.” And the Lord rejoined, “Do you not see then how it is bleeding, and do you not hear how it wails and laments?” But they answered saying, “No, Lord, we do not hear that it wails or laments.”
5. And the Lord became sad and said, “Woe to you; because of the dullness of your hearts, you do not hear how it laments and cries to its heavenly Creator for pity; but thrice woe to the one against whom it cries and wails in its torment!”
6. And He went forward and touched the horse, and the animal stood up, and its wounds were healed. But He said to the man, “Go on your way now and henceforth strike it no more, if you, too, hope to find mercy.” (pp. 200-206)
Jesus not only carried people and animals in His great heart, but all of nature as well. He was linked to all the forms of creation, including the celestial bodies and elemental forces. It is told that He commanded the storm and that the water carried Him, so that He could walk upon it. As He taught His brothers and sisters then, He teaches us today, for example in This Is My Word:
Respect, cherish and honor the creative power in all Being! Behold: In the innermost part of his soul, every person bears all that is power and light. The spiritual body in the human being is the substance of all Being, because God, the eternal Father, has given every single one of His children everything as essence, as heritage. The eternal Spirit is in all forms of life, and it also streams from all life forms.
When the person has consciously become the child of God, the omnipotence of God serves him through all life forms, through stone, wood, fire and water, through flowers, grasses, plants and animals. All stars serve the one who lives in Me, the Spirit of truth. When the Creator-power is able to permeate the created one, because his soul is full of light and power, then he is again consciously the child, the son or daughter of infinity and has once again taken up his heritage, the All-power.
Each earthly day is a gift to man, so that he may recognize and find himself in it. The nature kingdoms offer themselves to man. Fire and water serve him, and the heavenly bodies, too, by day and by night. Realize how rich the day is for each individual! (pp. 177-178)
Before turning to the texts from the Books of Moses, one more occurrence from the life of Jesus of Nazareth, reported in This Is My Word:
1. And as Jesus was going to Jericho, He met a man with young doves and a cage full of birds which he had caught. And He saw their misery, as they had lost their freedom and, furthermore, were suffering hunger and thirst.
2. And He said to the man, “What are you doing with these?” And the man answered, “I earn my living by selling the birds which I have caught.”
3. And Jesus said to him, “What would you think, if someone stronger or more clever than you would capture and shackle you, or would throw your wife or your children and you into prison, in order to sell you for his own profit and to earn his living from this?
4. Are these not your fellow creatures, only weaker than you? And does not the same God, Father and Mother, care for them as for you? Let these, your little brothers and sisters, go forth into freedom and see to it that you never do such a thing again, but that you earn your bread honestly.”
5. And the man was astounded at these words and His authority, and he let the birds go free. As the birds came out, they flew to Jesus, sat upon His shoulders and sang to Him. And the man asked more about His teachings and he went his way and learned basket weaving. He earned his bread from this work and broke his cages and traps and became a disciple of Jesus. (pp. 485-486)
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