Second Coming, Page 9

We may here recall from “The Nativity” how the Nathan Jesus child of Luke’s Gospel bore the unspoiled etheric body that had been withheld from Adam as the “tree of life” (Gen 3,22-24). In The Apocalypse of St. John (ASJ), Lect. 9, Steiner tells us:

And now let us consider what it is that man will contribute as the expression of his own Christ-capacity. It is the same that hovered before Paul in spirit, and that he calls “the last Adam,” while he calls the first man who entered into existence in a physically visible body “the first Adam.” At the end of the Lemurian epoch we already find various animals below, but man is not yet visible to external eyes; he is still etheric. He condenses, he absorbs mineral constituents and appears in his first form; the physical man gradually appears, just as water condenses into ice. Physical evolution then proceeds so far that what is earthly can dissolve and eventually disappears. Hence the man who has the etheric body appears as the “last Adam.” The “first Adam” has the capacity of seeing the earth in the physical body through the physical senses; the “last Adam,” who assumes a spiritual body, is an expression of the inner Christ-capacity. Hence Christ is also called by Paul the “last Adam” [1 Cor 15,45; Rom 5, 12-14].

In the same lecture, we see that Lazarus/John, when he speaks of “heads and horns” in the Apocalypse, is using esoteric language to describe the etheric and physical bodies, respectively (Rev 13,1). We shall explore that further in the Commentary on the Apocalypse.

In The Gospel of St. Mark (GSMk), Lect. 9, Steiner looks at a statement of Christ found in the “Little Apocalypse” passages, “And then if any one says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it” (Mk 13,21; also Mt 24,23 and Lk 17,20-21). The implication is that one cannot “look” and see the Christ in the manner humanity saw him before and now “sees,” but can see him upon his return only by understanding his nature at that time. Then he will descend only as low as the etheric world, where one shall “see” him only with spiritual vision—as was the case of those who witnessed his Resurrection. Steiner says much the same thing in The Gospel of St. Matthew (GSMt), Lect. 11, in discussing the meaning of “His body” and “His blood” at the last supper—that Christ was saying to his disciples that “they will recognize Christ more and more clearly as the Being who fills all spiritual space and was imaged in Jesus of Nazareth.” Because Christ’s etheric body inheres now in the entirety of our Earth, we do indeed “eat” his body and “drink” his blood when we partake of “bread and wine.” In recognizing the fact of his etheric existence we help to bring him into our being.

Christ’s etheric presence in all of earthly creation after his death also gives meaning to another series of his remarks as related in John’s Gospel, where he says, “I go to the Father” (Jn 16,10,17,28 and 20,17). In discussing the experience of the human being in ancient days (and still faintly at the time of Christ) upon passing through the gate of physical death, Steiner says that one knew, “My etheric body is going to the Father” (Karmic Relationships, Vol. 3 [KR-3], Lect. 5, p. 74). But we should probably not fully equate Christ’s “I go to the Father” with the ancient feeling “My etheric body goes to the Father,” for in the former we would seem to be dealing with the highest pinnacle of the heavenly world (especially in the case of Christ), while in the latter we are involved in the etheric world or that aspect of the Father that manifests in living Nature. We cannot here pursue in depth this distinction. It will be appropriate to do so in the Commentary and under the term “Death (Sin/Father).” That Christ remains etherically connected with the Earth while also with the highest heaven is in keeping with the fully expanded nature of the human soul at the “Midnight” hour in its journey from one incarnation to another; see I-33 and the discussion of this journey in the overview portion of “Karma and Reincarnation” above.

The greater the scope of one’s understanding of the etheric world, the more readily will one be able to comprehend how it is that the Second Coming will commence there. New insights into that world are strewn through all of Steiner’s teachings.⁴ In addition to what is said about the etheric body in Theosophy (THSY) and Occult Science (OS), many insights can be gained from the various Charts & Tabulations. In particular, note I-22, where the etheric world is seen to have a fourfold origin, namely, warmth (fire), light, chemical (or sound), and Life, in ascending order. Steiner tells us (The Gospel of St. Luke [GSL], Lect. 7) that the “tree of knowledge” of which the human being partook was composed of the two lower ethers (warmth and light), while the “tree of life,” which was withdrawn from the human being (Gen 3,22-24), was composed of the two higher (Sound and Life). That Christ represents the “Life” suggests that through him the human being may again attain to that etheric realm (Jn 14,6).

Steiner often spoke of the Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, and the various “ages” (e.g., 5,000-year, etc.; see I-46), which are generally thought of as coming to us from the Orient. We have seen the part the Buddha played in the Luke Nativity account (see “The Nativity”), and we know that the Bible’s roots are out of “the East” (Gen 11,2; Mt 2,1). Somehow or other, elements within Christendom today would like to forget that, or at least to view its spiritual significance as having been erased by the New Covenant in Christ. But one fails to understand the Christ if such element is removed, for it was the soil out of which the entire Incarnation developed, and its people are among those for whom the Christ came.What these elements of Christendom do not understand is that this ancient Oriental knowledge was not confined, even at that time, to the Orient, but was an experience of all humanity, the ancestry of the West included. Today, the myths are looked upon with folly, but in the light of anthroposophy they can be seen to reflect truths about the evolution of the human being. (See I-58, I-63 and I-85.)