Let yourself be instructed by Jesus Christ Himself

 

Very few people know that from 1851 to 1864 Jesus gave a much more complete story of the events that happened during His last 3 years before His crucifixion. A much more complete gospel than what we can find in the Bible. This was revealed by Jesus Christ Himself to a man He choose, namely the Austrian Jakob Lorber who dedicated the last 24 years of his life in the service of our Lord by writing down what He dictated to him through the inner word. He heard the words very clearly in the region of his heart and wrote them faithfully down.

 

 

The Great Gospel of John consists of 10 volumes with about 250 chapters each. An enormous valuable spiritual treasure. It is up to each individual to discover and proof the many teachings that Jesus revealed to His disciples.

 

Revelations that were not intended to reveal to the world at that time but which are now revealed in a very clear way to us.

 

 

 

This is God’s Word and God’s Word is free. It may be copied freely on condition that the text will not be changed. To protect the integrity of this translation a copyright is added:

©Copyright: Yedidiah Franky 2007

 

 

Original German book: “Das grosse Evangelium Johannes” (1851-1864).

The numbering of chapters in this edition is according to the German Volume 7 (229 chapters)

The numbering of chapters by the translator is kept in brackets, e.g. Book 17 chapter 40=(17/40)

 

 

 

 

F O R E W O R D

 

It was not the intention to make of this book an “intellectual” translation, but rather to translate it as close as possible to the original text given by Jesus Christ. The words, expressions and even the sentence structure were kept as close as possible to the original without losing its meaning.

 

This work was made for every simple humble person whose main purpose it is to know the truth.

 

The translator

 

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 121

 

The guidance of humanity. Knowledge, intellect and free will. (17/40)

 

I said: “If your memory would be better as it is right now you still would remember very well that this point was discussed already quite often and was also explained by Me in such a way that it was easy to understand. But your memory has already diminished in some way compared to what it was before and so you did not notice what I already have said a few times before concerning such subjects. But that does not matter, we still have the time and therefore I still can say something about it to you all. So listen:

[2] He who has not yet created a sun, a moon, a habitable Earth, plants, animals and men, knows certainly not how all these creatures have to be guided, sustained and brought to their ultimate goal. I, however, know all this and have established an eternal order, without which nobody could achieve anything.

[3] Man, as My complete image, must also have a perfect free will by which he has to – as far as his spiritual part is concerned – transform and strengthen himself, and make himself free from My omnipotence, so that one day he may stand next to Me and live and act as a strong, free, independent and arbitrary being.

[4] Look, all creatures are subject to laws, which are established by Me. Also man, where his body is concerned. Only the soul and the spirit of man are not. That is, as far as his will and the freedom of learning and the realization of everything are concerned. The form and the structure of the soul in all its parts is of course also subject to laws which are established by Me, but only in such a way, that, precisely because of the free will in man, he can become either very noble and strong or very ignoble and weak.

[5] But the free will of man would be of little or no use at all if he would not have the possibility to learn and to recognize freely, and from that, a reasoning that shows to the will what is good and true and what is wrong and bad.

[6] Only when man has gathered knowledge and has sharpened and awakened his intellect, the revelation of the divine will is added, which shows man the true way to eternal life and God. Then man can either accept this revelation or not, since also in relation to God he must have a completely free will, or else he would not be a human being but an animal that has no free will but only an instinct which it cannot resist.

[7] In the beginning, only one human pair was placed on Earth, and the man was called ‘Adam’ and the woman ‘Eve’. God provided this first human pair with all abilities. They had a deep understanding, a clear intellect and a very powerful free will by which all other creatures had to bow down.

[8] In addition to these abilities they also received a clear and easy to understand revelation from the mouth of God, which showed them freely and openly what they had to do to reach the goal that has been set by God on the shortest and easiest travelable way. But besides that, God let them also know that they were completely free and could also act contrary to the will which was revealed by God, by allowing them to be seduced by the flesh and the matter of the world. However, thereby they would bring a judgment over themselves and by that also their death.

[9] Well, this went very well for a certain period of time, but soon the sensual desire – represented symbolically by Moses in the form of a snake – became victorious over the realization gained from the divine revelation of what is good and true, and they transgressed the commandment in order to see what would be the result of that.

[10] And look, what the first human pair did is now done by almost all human beings.

[11] God has never failed to give great and small revelations, yet He has never forced any human being to heed them. However, blessed is the one who does heed them and directs his life accordingly.

[12] The first human pair had surely received the purest and best education from God and would have been able to pass this on, unadulterated, to all their descendants. But just look at the people 2,000 years later at the time of Noah. Then you will see that they are changed into malicious devils.

[13] Did the first human beings on Earth ever lack the best education? Oh no! Have they not given it also to their children? Yes, sure, and always in the purest way. However, men felt within also the impulse to go against the commandments of God, because that was pleasing to their body, and thereby their lives fell into total decay and complete ungodliness. And when God sent men to them and admonished them in a fatherly manner to return to Him, such men were soon excommunicated, expelled and some of them were even killed in a cruel manner.

[14] Finally, those people who had turned their back to God even began to destroy the Earth, and then their measure was full. They themselves opened up the gates of the subterranean great waters, which then gushed over the evil ones by which they were all drowned.

[15] This however, was not a judgment directly coming from God’s will, but a judgment that was allowed, that had to happen in this way because of the inner structure of the Earth. Because if you jump down from a high rock-face crashing and killing yourself, this is also a judgment that comes over you, but not by the will of God, but because the Earth is arranged in such a way that everything that is heavy certainly has to fall down, what man, by his intellect, is quite capable of knowing.

[16] Therefore, no human being on Earth is so helpless that he could not help himself if he really wants, but if already from his childhood he does not want that, he can only blame himself if he comes into distress. And what I am saying now of one person applies also to a whole nation.

[17] There is no nation on Earth that could not help itself quite well if it only wanted to. But where is the will? Yes there is more than enough will for doing what is evil and bad, but for the spiritual, which is purely good and true the good will is lacking because it is not according to the sensuality of the flesh. And the soul of someone who does not have such good will, as also the soul of an entire nation, goes over into the judgment and the death of matter, and then is unable and unwilling to listen, to absorb and to understand from what is of the spirit, of its light and its life. And if one wants to wake up such souls who are imprisoned in their flesh, they become mad and furious, fall upon those who are trying to wake them up, like wolves upon lambs, and strangle and tear them pitiless to pieces without any mercy.

[18] Is that then also God’s fault if such people for the above-mentioned reasons come into the greatest and most ungodly blindness of their soul, in which state they remain for thousands of years? If God allows a warning judgment to come over such people, this is surely fatherly good and wise, for only great misery of the flesh can turn away the soul from matter and turn him toward the spiritual. Do you understand this?”

[19] Agricola said: “Yes Lord, this is now very clear to me. I ask You for forgiveness that I have dared to ask You for a justification, because I still was very blind.”

[20] I said: “I like people with your character, who take the truth seriously. But now let us look again at the column of fire.”

[21] Then it was silent again. The 3 magicians went aside and started a discussion about Me.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 122

 

The magicians recognize the Lord (17/41)

 

The chief magician said to the others: “Let us be quiet because it seems to me that in this wise Man we have found the Spirit of God, because nobody has ever spoken like Him before.”

[2] And so they went on discussing about Me for some time. But we were resting and were looking at the ever-changing light.

[3] When I spoke again about certain things – about the structure of the Earth and about all kinds of phenomena on and in the Earth – they came back and listened to My words.

[4] When I had finished the explanation, which I already gave a few times before, the magician said to his companions: “Only He who created the Earth can know its inside and outside so precisely.”

[5] The magician wanted now to ask Me a few questions but he did not dare. However, I called him unto Me and allowed him to ask Me what he wanted, then I would answer him.

[6] He came to Me very respectfully and said: “Lord, Lord, what should and what can I still ask You now? The purpose of all my other questions was to find the only and true God, to recognize and to worship Him in my heart. And I believe now that I have found the One whom I searched in vain for a long time. Therefore, I have nothing more to ask except if You also would like to reveal Your will to us strangers. It will be our most holy life task to follow it as strictly as possible.

[7] What must we do to be worthy that You should have mercy on us and therefore to receive eternal life for our souls after physical death? O Lord, this is the only thing that we are asking You.”

[8] I said: “Are you really quite sure that in Me lives the One who you were searching for such a long time and still could not find?”

[9] The magician said: “My feeling told me that already before when in Your holy speech You told the man next to You openly who You are, and therefore there is no more doubt in my mind that You are also the One whom we are worshipping now in our heart.

[10] It was not in vain when Your young servant has indicated to us that we have come close to the great truth full of light. You Yourself are the great and brightest truth and the Mediator Himself between Your Spirit and men. He who has You, has everything: light, life, wisdom and strength.

[11] One can however only possess You by knowing Your will and acting according to it. For never can a created limited being have You because You in Yourself are God from eternity, but man can have Your holy revealed will and act accordingly with all his strength. If one will do that, he will posses You in himself, then he recognizes You, loves and worships You.

[12] Therefore, I am asking You once more urgently, to reveal to us Your holy will, so that we then can really say to ourselves: o Lord and Father of eternity, Your holy will be done also in us, through us and for us, in order that Your holy eyes may find pleasure in us, Your created beings and children of Your love.”

[13] I said: “Yes, yes, My dear friend, you have thought very truly and correctly and have also spoken correctly, but you can see Me – a human being like you – as the one true God. Do you not realize that I also was born and I am a human being like you with flesh and blood and a soul? Did God ever had a beginning and could He ever be born as a human being?”

[14] The magician said: “The eternal God lives in the fullness of His spiritual power visibly in You and has of course never had a beginning and could never have come into this world out of a woman, but this God has given You a body, send as a true Mediator into this world and has filled You with His spirit.

[15] Whoever then sees and recognizes You, will also see Him who is in You, and whoever does Your will shall also recognize You inside of him. You are truly completely the One whom the three of us have searched for in vain for such a long time, and this opinion of us will remain.

[16] Moreover, You just now have spoken to Your friend, who seems to be a Roman – we have seen such men who were also called Romans in other places. You talked as only a God can talk, and this confirms even more the truth of our opinion, and it is correct without any doubt. You surely will have Your wise reason why You choose not to make Yourself fully known to us. But this also we do not ask, because by far we do not consider ourselves worthy. And we also do not desire a sign from You, o Lord, by which we could eventually realize even more that You are the One who we have searched for such a long time and have now completely found.

[17] What Your young servant has said and done in our presence is as a sign enough, but for us the greatest and most valuable sign are the more than holy words that we have heard coming out of Your mouth. Because they told us clearly and distinctly: no man but only God can speak that way out of Himself.

[18] Since we have come to realize this now, we ask You, despite our great unworthiness, to reveal to us what we must do to obtain everlasting life for our souls and to participate in Your grace.”

[19] I said: “Now then, because you believe so strongly that I am the Lord, then do what My servant has told you before, then you shall live and be blessed. Love God above all and your fellowman as yourself, and teach the same to your children and your family. Do not consider yourself as human being to be above your fellowman because of your great worldly treasures. Do for them the same as you can reasonably expect that they also will do the same for you. Then you shall live and God’s grace will stay with you forever.

[20] You already know the law of Moses. Observe it in every way, because in this law, the best and purest life order has been made known to man. If he keeps it, he also will love God above all and his fellowman as himself. In this law, all wisdom of life is given, of which other and older wise men have given the people only something partially to taste.

[21] Since the word represents for you the greatest sign of My divine mission, you also should stay by the word and act accordingly, then you shall live. I do not mean a limited life but an eternal life for your souls. Do you all understand this?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 123

 

The acceptance of the Word of the Lord in India (17/42)

 

The magician said: “Since You, o Lord, said this to us, we now also believe it firmly and we will put it strictly into practice like maybe no other people in the world. But now another question comes up, namely: shall we go back to India again or do we have to avoid this old sinful country as our worst enemy of death, or do we have to go back home and bring to the blind the light which we have finally found after searching so long? It is true that we decided to forever avoid our country of which we know all too well how the situation is, and to spend the rest of our lives with foreign people. But because we now have found in You the One for whom we have left our country a long time ago, it changes our first decision and we also want to act in this matter completely according to Your will.”

[2] I said: “Consider the following: a prophet is nowhere less honored than in his homeland. You are known in your country as men with somewhat exaggerated ideas. That is why they let you make such long trips, because you often have influenced their conscience too much. Coming back home with a true light, you would find little acceptance with them, and with the very foolish people even much less. Therefore, for the salvation of your souls it is better for you to keep your first decision. Send your servants to your country in order to finish your tasks in your name and then let them come back here again. Do not trouble yourselves any further because your country is still almost 2,000 years too young for My light. That means: too blind and too foolish. You however will meet people in the west who will be more favorably inclined toward My light than your people back home. To them, you may tell what you have received here.

[3] In the future, the old land of the east to which once the greatest light was given, will have to wander around in continuous darkness for a long time, and the light of life will be poured out toward the west. Even this place where the light of life has risen now, will come into utter night and darkness. For also this people, except for a few, has no knowledge of this most important and most blessed visitation. Woe to the people from whom the light will be taken away and be given to the gentiles.

[4] You are strangers coming from the east, and you have found and recognized Me. And it were also strangers out of your country who, when I clothed Myself with the body of this world, were the first who have searched and found Me already as a newly born baby. However, out of this old chosen people only a very few have recognized Me. Until now they have persecuted Me even more. No matter how, and wherever they could. Therefore, the light will also be taken away from them and be given to the gentiles.

[5] But before the light will ever pierce through again in this region, it will come in your land at the great sea. Do you all understand all this?”

[6] The magician said: “I understand, o Lord, but I am surprised that the children of this land do not recognize You. You certainly must have performed great miracles before the children of this country, and still they do not recognize You? Oh, my most foolish fellow citizens certainly would not be so blind. With many of them – as with us – Your word alone would be sufficient. And if ever our high priest would see such a sign, like some were performed by Your servant, then also he would have accepted that light, even if he probably would not have given this light further on to his people, because the people know already since memorable times nothing else except its blind belief and is therefore perhaps incapable to accept such a light. However, that is not our fault, but of the time and because of some of our very greedy ancestors. In short, the blindness of the people can be explained because there never has been a light that shone among them. However, the blindness of the people here is incomprehensible because they have the sun at its highest point, but they prefer the darkness, as it can be found into the deepest caves in the mountains of the Earth.

[7] We did everything we could to search the light and we are now more than happy that we have finally found it, and they have it in their own country right before their eyes and they run away from it, despise it and persecute it. Oh, they must be very bad and totally blind, who are not even worthy to be called human. If this is how this people are, it is also very just that You, o Lord, take away all the light from them and give it to the gentiles who apparently are more worthy of it, because this shows Your eternal justice which is full of the greatest light, and this is for us again new proof that You are the One who we have searched for such a long time.”

[8] I said: “Yes, yes, this is unfortunately the situation with My people. Therefore, I will awaken other nations, already now and even more so in the future, yet it will always be so that among the many who are called only few will be chosen.”

[9] The magician said: “O Lord, what do You mean by this? Will there always be many who are called but only few who are chosen? This word out of Your divine mouth does not sound very stimulating for future salvation – if You mean it like it has been said. Because by the ‘few chosen’ I understand those people for whom the true light of life will shine continually and by the ‘many called’ all people who indeed have to come to the light but because of all kinds of circumstances and reasons are hindered and will thus never come to the light, just like our own fellow citizens.

[10] We, who are only few, can now also consider ourselves as being chosen, but all the people of our country who unfortunately are not so lucky, do not even belong to the ones who are called. What will be their fate after the falling away of their body?

[11] Apparently this nation belongs to the called ones and in their midst there are still some who are chosen to whom they can go for counseling if they want. But among us, there are no chosen ones and also no one who is called, and therefore the destiny of the great Indian people is very sorrowful, that means if Your last words have to be understood like that, if these are somehow spoken for all places and times.”

[12] I said: “You did not understand these words of Mine correctly and therefore I have to explain them further.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 124

 

Called and chosen (17/43)

 

Look, this statement has to be considered and understood this way: all men on this Earth are called and predestined to light and life, but not everyone can be chosen to be a teacher of men, because this would also not be good at all for men. Would it be good for men – whose main destiny it is to serve one another – if they possessed everything and were capable to make everything? Thereby men would not need each other anymore and neighborly love would be nothing but an idle and meaningless word, as I have explained to My disciples already many times. Then men would not even need a language anymore. What would be the use of it if nobody would need anything from the other?

[2] I tell you that with such a sameness in men’s talents and their abilities and appearance, their places to live, and their possessions, and having the same enlightenment, that they would still be on the level of animals, and actually even below of that.

[3] In order that human beings may be human beings and not animals, everything has been distributed among them in a great variety. One has this, the other one that, and therefore one has to come to the other to be for him a teacher or a helper in one thing or another.

[4] And so also in the sphere of recognition of the inner light of life there must be a few special elect ones to show the true light of life to the many called ones, and the called ones should then listen, believe and act in accordance with what they are taught by the chosen possessors of light.

[5] If however, the called ones faithfully accept what they are taught, they are in quite as good a position as the elect and often even better, for an elect who carries the living light within him but does not live in accordance with it, will later on be summoned to a stricter account of his badly used talents than the one who was only called and had only to listen, to believe and be willing to act.

[6] Look, the chosen ones are My helpers and the called ones are My servants and children.

[7] But to show you even more clearly that a chosen one is on this Earth in no way better than a called one, I will make it more clear by means of a parable. So listen to Me.

[8] There was once a king who for his household had 10 first helpers. At one time, this king had to make a long trip to take possession of a new kingdom that came under his care.

[9] But before he left, he called the 10 helpers to him, gave each of them 10 pounds and said: ‘Make good business with this until I come back.’

[10] When the citizens (called ones) heard about this, they got angry with the king because with his departure he also did not give them any pounds and talents to manage.

[11] They even send messengers after the king saying to him: ‘We do not want this king anymore to rule over us, because why should we be less than his helpers while we also have served him just like his helpers.’

[12] However, the time came when the king came back, after he had taken possession of the new kingdom. When he was back in his fortress, he soon called the same helpers to him, those to whom he entrusted money, to see how much each one of them had gained with it.

[13] The first one came to him and said: ‘Lord, look, your pound has gained 10 pounds.’

[14] Then the king said to him: ‘Well done, useful helper. Because you were loyal in everything, you will now rule over 10 cities.’

[15] After this, another helper came, who said: ‘Lord, your pound has gained 5 pounds.’

[16] And the king said to him: ‘For this you will rule over 5 cities.’

[17] Then came a third one, the least good one out of the 10 helpers and said: ‘Lord, see, the pound that you entrusted to me, I saved it in a sweat cloth until your return. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man, because you take what you did not put away and you reap what you did not sow.’

[18] Upon this, the king spoke: ‘Listen, I judge you according to your own words. You are a rascal. If you knew that I am a hard man and take what I did not put away and reap what I did not sow, why then did you not put my money at the bank, so that at my return my money would have earned interest?’

[19] Upon this, the king spoke further to those who were with him as helpers: ‘Take from this rascal the pound and give it to the first one who already has 10 pounds.’

[20] And the helpers said to the lord: ‘O king, this one already has 10 pounds. Why must he receive also this 1 pound?’

[21] I Myself reply upon this to you all: who has, to him shall be given even more, so that he will have abundantly. Him who however, has not, from him will be taken away even that which he had. Those however who did not want that the king should rule over them, have sinned, and therefore they shall be strangled with all the night and darkness of the judgment and the death of the soul.

[22] You see my friend, this is how matters are with Me, and that will not change. To the one who has, will be given much more until he has abundantly. From the one however who has not, from him will be taken away even the little that has been entrusted to him, and it will be given to the one who already has a lot.

[23] But the many called ones, who did not want to listen to the voice of the helpers and did not want that the Lord of light and life should rule over them and bring everything to life, those will be strangled by the darkness in their own heart. The lazy helper will however have to wait long until he will be entrusted again another pound.

[24] And do tell Me now how you like this parable. Do you agree with the king or not?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 125

 

Criticism of the magician concerning the parable of the entrusted pounds (17/44)

 

The magician said: “Lord, I have come to the point now where reason has left man and will make men’s hair stand on end of even the most patient of us. You surely are not the king who, like a tyrant takes where he did not deposit anything and wants to reap where he did not sow? Because it seems to me that it is exactly from You that everything is originating and that it is precisely You who sowed everything, and therefore, You also can take and reap everywhere because everything is Yours and also has to be Yours.

[2] The fact that the offenders are punished is totally correct to me because it is exactly the godly longsuffering that is intolerant, because in this way the wicked one wins more and more time and space to bring about his cruel acts, while the one who is behaving well comes into a still greater misfortune, he finally loses all faith and is forced to put the entrusted pound into the sweat cloth of his need and gives it honestly back to the severe, unmerciful lord. Yes, in that sense it is of course better to be a called one than a helper.

[3] It is completely true that the zealous helper will also receive his reward according to his works, but the fact that the somewhat slower and fearful helper receives totally nothing for the returning of his pound, this I find very hard of Your king.

[4] I love people and I do not like to see anyone suffering, especially when he did not really deserve it, because he is not an evil person. The helper who gave the 1 pound in the sweat cloth back to his lord exactly as he received it, did apparently not have the same perception and intelligence of the first helper, and also not even of the second one who with the 1 pound earned 5 pounds. Because if he had the same intelligence, then he also could have earned 10 or at least 5 pounds, but because he lacked perception, the right intelligence and therefore the necessary courage he did not dare to do anything else with the 1 pound than to leave it untouched and give it back to his lord. I really can still see nothing evil and I would like to ask You explicitly what happened further to this helper who was called a rascal by his lord.”

[5] I said: “Well, that person stayed the way he was before: a very simple and common helper, because he did not possess any ability out of himself for an important task. For also a chosen one receives exactly like any other person only the ability or the talent, which he then has to develop, so that his free will would not suffer any harm.

[6] The one who develops his received talent as zealous as possible, possesses then also a true treasure, and to him will be added more and more. The one however who did not develop it and did not want to pull himself away from his laziness can only blame himself, because by keeping the pound in the sweat cloth he finally becomes even more foolish than those who did not want that the king of light should rule over them.

[7] For this reason, such lazy helpers do not progress and such called servants persist in their darkness, and the worst that finally can happen to them is that the noise of the bright day wakes them up from their sweet sleep. Or does the sun first have to send messengers to those long sleepers to ask if it suits them that it would rise above the mountains? Look, the sun will not do that because of the universal order that sustains the worlds. Even less will the king of light and life do that.

[8] The one who receives the pound did surely also receive the command of the king. Whether the helper conforms to it, will depend on his free will, and the king is not guilty of the laziness of the helper, but only the helper himself, because the king of the light knows all too well which talents he gave to a helper. And therefore, it is always the king who is right and not the lazy and slow helper, and this is certainly not an imagined justice.

[9] Think about this carefully now, consider this image deeply and tell Me then if according to you the king is an unmerciful tyrant. Did you understand Me well now?”

[10] The magician said: “Yes, that o Lord, I did understand well now, and Your parable is therefore completely coming into the light while only as image it was difficult to understand. Thus, he who recognizes a special talent within him must develop it in all earnest, namely by and out of himself. If he has done this, then he surely will receive the other things of the king of light and so he will be able to become a true teacher of many people that You identify as the called ones. Because the one who was already a teacher for himself will also more easily be a teacher for others. The one however, who was already lazy for himself will all the more be lazy for others, and he also will have nothing from what he eventually could teach his fellowmen. And therefore, it is very true and just that to the one who has, will be given much more so that he will have in abundance. But from the one who has not, will also be taken away that which he had. This is now perfectly clear to me. But there is still something in it that still does not want to be clear to me, and therefore I take the freedom before You, o Lord, to speak out what is still not comprehensive to me.

[11] Look, true diligence and zeal in all that is good and true is a virtue that can never be praised enough, and laziness is a cause for all possible vices. But who is the one who gives to one person diligence and zeal, and to the other laziness? I believe that neither one nor the other can be received by man himself, but that it is given to him by a higher, divine willpower.

[12] I myself have some children with whom I have experienced that a few of them – namely my oldest son and a daughter – are, without my intervention, extremely zealous in developing their skills and knowledge, while the other children are lazy and slow and must always be severely urged to study. These are now children of the same parents, they are all healthy, receive also the same teaching, and nevertheless there is such a great difference in their talents and even more so in their zeal to study. What is the cause of this? It cannot be our fault because we treat all our children equally and we do not pamper either one or the other in whatever way. The cause can also not be found in the physical health of the children because we are completely healthy and strong – for this we do thank you, o Lord – and while we all are also receiving the same food, there are nevertheless these apparent differences within one and the same family. How can I make this clear?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 126

 

The right education of children according to their talents. The importance of the

 inner development for the awakening of the spirit. (17/45)

 

I said: “Nothing is easier than that: because – as I have shown you earlier – there must be all kinds of differences among men, so that one needs the other and one person can serve the other in various ways.

[2] If all people were equally diligent and had the same talents, then very soon they would have no need at all of each other. Therefore, already children of the same parents have different talents and abilities. The educator should however be able to evaluate these correctly and then instruct the children in accordance with their talents and abilities. Then they will all be guided to the right goal.

[3] But if, despite of the different talents and abilities of your children, you want all of them to become for example a tailor or a weaver, then of course you will find only true diligence and zeal with those who have a talent for that which they are learning. Later when they become independent people, such children will not be doing much for the benefit of their fellowmen since they, without the right talent, will never be able to be as efficient in what they have learnt with great difficulty as those who already from birth had the right talent for it.

[4] Thus, it is understandable that the cause for the fact that one child is more zealous than the other lies mainly with the parents and other teachers of the young. The grapevine brings forth the grape and the fig tree the fig, and both fruits taste sweet, but if you treat the fig tree in the same manner as the grapevine, it will bring forth only few fruits, and if you let the grapevine grow like the fig tree without pruning it, then the grapevine will soon wither and produce only few grapes. Do you understand this well?”

[5] Now the magician said: “O Lord, I thank You for this important and wonderful explanation. Yes, here man can realize how blind and ignorant he is with all his presumed wisdom. What are so many worldly wise men imagining? And at the end they do not see the forest anymore between the trees. If man would only be willing to open his eyes a little, it is so obvious. Every child has clearly a different stature. Often one is taller than the other, one is rougher, another very gentle and delicate, and so only outwardly there are already great differences between children of the same parents. Then how different will they be inwardly.

[6] Should the external different characteristics not be sufficient for thinking man to conclude from this that there must be also differences in a person’s talents and abilities, so that a wise teacher and master can point out to man his talents, helping him with advice and deed to develop the present talents in a noble and successful manner? Oh no, that is not sufficient at all to the blind wise man, such as I myself have been and still am. He wants all men to be the same. They all must think and act like him and be willing to carry loads for which they have no strength. And so, it is not seldom that people are made into fools instead of wise men, who are not useful to themselves nor to anybody else. I thank you again, o Lord, from the depth of my heart for this lesson, for these we will apply first to our own children in a fruitful manner.”

[7] Thereupon Agricola said: “Yes, this is indeed a golden lesson of which also we Romans will make use of, and I in particular, because first of all I have children myself and secondly the young people that I shall be taking from here to Rome will be educated as their talents will show me. Of course, a specific basic education will have to precede for all, like: reading of scriptures, writing and arithmetic, and also instruction in the languages which are spoken by people all over the Roman empire, for without this essential knowledge not much can be made of man. After that, every man must be educated according to his greatest talent. Lord, is this correct?”

[8] I said: “Sure, for all men must first be able to walk, grip with their hands, see with their eyes and hear with their ears, before they are capable of performing any practical work. And so, men need the basic education that you mentioned, with the help of which it is easier to come to the true wisdom of life. But at the same time, one should pay attention that men should not make this basic education and the learning thereof as the main issue, and that they will not spend all their life studying scriptures and languages, forgetting in this way the inner development that awakens the spirit in man. Because finally, only in this lies the whole value of life. For, what would be the gain for man if he could write and understand all the scriptures in the world and could speak all languages of men, but would harm his soul?

[9] Therefore, before everything, seek God’s Kingdom on Earth, seek it within you, and having God’s Kingdom within you, everything else will be given to you. But without God’s Kingdom man would have as good as nothing, even if he possessed all the treasures of the Earth and the knowledge of all the worldly wise.

[10] The one who possesses God’s Kingdom in his heart has everything. He has the highest and deepest knowledge within him, and eternal life and the power and might thereof, and this is surely more than everything that men on this world have ever considered great and most valuable.

[11] Tomorrow in Emmaus, you will all be witnessing what it means to be a perfect man. I tell you: a truly perfect man can do more than all the other imperfect men on the entire Earth.

[12] Therefore, strive to become perfect men. If you become that, then you are everything and you have everything.

[13] But I tell you also that attaining to the Kingdom of God needs violence. Those who want to possess it must literally pull it to themselves. Those who will not do that, will have it also difficult already here on Earth to fully make it as their living possession.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 127

 

The Kingdom of God (17/46)

 

Then the magician said: “O Lord, how is that possible, how can weak and insignificant man use force, as if seizing the Kingdom of God? Then there still remains the question where the true Kingdom of God is to be found if man can grab and seize it.”

[2] I said: “Within the short time of a few hours you have heard so many things and even recognized Me, and yet you still do not know what the Kingdom of God is and wherein it consists?

[3] The full knowledge and observance of the will of God is the true Kingdom of God within you. But knowing God’s will makes it still not so easy to observe it as you imagine, because the worldly people resist it and persecute those who truly want to attain to the Kingdom of God. Therefore, he who wants to possess fully the Kingdom of God should not fear those who can only kill the body of man but cannot harm the soul. Man should rather fear God who by His eternally unchangeable order can also cast the soul into Hell.

[4] He who fears God more than men, despite the persecution he might suffer from men, does the will of God. He is the one who seizes the Kingdom of God with force. And whoever will do that, will certainly attain to it.

[5] There is also something else that belongs to the seizing of the Kingdom of God with force, namely that man practices the deepest possible self-denial in all the things of the world, forgives with all his heart all those who offend him, bears no grudge or anger against anyone, prays for those who curse him, does good to those who harm him, does not exalt himself over others, bears with patience the temptations that come to him from time to time and refrains from gluttony, licentiousness, harlotry and adultery. He who practices all these things will also seize the Kingdom of God with force.

[6] However, he who recognizes God, respects and loves Him above all and his fellowmen as himself, but at the same time also respects and fears the world and does not dare to openly declare My name as this might bring him some worldly disadvantage, he does not seize the Kingdom of God with force and will also fail to win it completely in this world and will in the beyond have to endure many a struggle until he becomes perfected.

[7] Now, he who knows and believes that I am the promised Messiah should also do what I teach, have taught and will still teach further on. Otherwise he is not worthy of Me and I will not be particularly helpful to him in the development of his inner life. I am the life of the soul through My Spirit that is in it that is called the love for God. Thus, he who loves God above all and therefore also does His will, his soul is filled with My spirit and that is the perfection of the eternal life of the soul.

[8] However, if anyone knows Me but nevertheless still fears the world and says to himself: ‘Yes, I fully recognize the Messiah and secretly believe everything what He is teaching, and I also live according to it, but because the world is as it is and one should live by it, outwardly I will not show the world what I secretly confess inwardly so that no one can speak evil of me’, he does not really confess My being and My name, and he still does not have the true and full living love for God. And in this manner the fullness of God’s Kingdom can hardly become part of him since the fullness of God’s Kingdom consists in the highest love for God, and this has no fear or anguish for the world.

[9] The one who confesses Me before the world – when this is necessary – I will also confess him before the Father in Heaven. However, the one who does not confess Me before the world – when this is necessary – I will also not confess him before the Father in Heaven.”

[10] Then the magician asked at once: “Lord, then who is Your Father and where is Heaven? Can You as the Lord of eternity also have a Father?”

[11] I Said: “Eternal Love in God is the Father and His infinite Wisdom is Heaven.

[12] Whoever loves God above all is the one who confesses God and thus Me before the whole world, and I confess him also in My love, and therein consists the true eternal life of the soul of man. And since through such living love for God, man attains and should attain to the highest wisdom, then this is Heaven or the Kingdom of God. Man has thereby also won the Kingdom of God within him, which cannot ever again be taken away from him. This have I now explained to you all. Remember it, write it in your heart and live according to it, then you will have the eternal and true life in yourselves. But now allow Me some rest and think about what I have told you now.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 128

 

Where is the Kingdom of God? (17/47)

 

Now there was a complete but short silence. But with so many people, a longer pause is not so easy, especially not during a night where so many things could be seen, and soon the known Jewish Greeks started a discussion, and everyone thought they understood Me best.

[2] One of them said to those who were disputing: “Listen! The one who says that he has best understood the words and teachings of the Master, has understood Him least of all, for it was also evident from His words that no one should exalt himself above the other but should stay humble and modest in everything. The one however who says to his brother: ‘Look, this you do not understand’ or ‘that you have understood incorrectly’, is exalting himself above his brother, and this is against the teaching of the Lord and shows that especially he is the one who has not understood the teaching well or not at all.

[3] It is however totally different if someone says to his brother: ‘Listen, this and that word I did not understand so well. How do you see it?’ If that one then says to his brother in all love and humility how he has understood it, then this is certainly not an exaltation of one’s brilliant intellect above that of his brother but a work of true neighborly love. But with your discussions I cannot agree.”

[4] After this good exhortation the calmness was again restored and the Jewish Greeks saw that the speaker was absolutely right, and after that, they could agree more easily.

[5] Also another point in My teaching that the 3 magicians could not understand was the location of the Heavens, for they said: “The fact that the full knowledge of God, His will and His love and wisdom, and living according to the will of God represents God’s Kingdom, is according to the teaching of the Lord very clear now. And also, is it clear that when someone has accomplished all this within him, he finds himself – as far as his soul is concerned – in God’s Kingdom and has eternal life and therefore is a perfect human being. But where is the place where his soul will be when later he will lose his body?”

[6] Therefore, the first magician wanted to turn to Me with this question.

[7] However I anticipated this and said: “I know already what bothers you and what you would like to know. This you cannot understand now because your soul is not yet free enough from the matter of your flesh. If however he will become more unified with the Spirit of My love in you, then your own spirit will show you the place of that Kingdom where your soul can then live in his highest freedom, and will be able to act as lord and master. However, your flesh cannot understand this yet.

[8] Where am I Myself now? Look, in the world created out of Me. Once you will have attained to the true, inner perfection of life, and the body, as My judgment or as the necessary form wherein you had to develop your inner life, will be taken away from you, you will be able, just like I am, to create everything out of yourself and then you will just like Me be living and existing in the world and on the place you have created for yourself and out of yourself.

[9] Even from your dreams you can easily conclude that in your still very material soul there dwells a creative power. For in your vivid dreams, where is actually that world in which you live? It only exists in the intelligence and the will of your soul who also has a will in the dream, although during the daytime, in your flesh you consider this simply as a coincidence. Think about this, then also this will become somewhat clearer in you. But now, for this day My work is finished, and in order to take a good rest until tomorrow we will not go in the house but in the well equipped tents. Only tomorrow, greater revelations will follow.”

[10] Saying this, I stood up, and also My disciples. We looked for a place to sleep in a big tent and everybody went to rest.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 129

 

The field of activity of the apostles and the children of God in the beyond (17/48)

 

All of us had a good rest in the tents, and the new day started with a clear morning. I and Peter, John and James got up already a good half hour before sunrise and observed nature’s awakening from sleep. The birds were already very active and greeted the soon to rise sun with their diverse singing. In the east there was a display of little pink clouds with golden edges, the peaks of the high mountains were glowing, and out of the valley of the Jordan white mists were gradually lifting up. An orderly flight of crane birds came out of the direction of Galilee but soon changed their direction westward, because the smell from the still mightily steaming Dead Sea forced the clever creatures of the air to turn to the west toward the sea. So there were still a few other scenes and appearances accompanying a beautiful autumn morning of which the long sleepers did not see anything because those things can usually only be seen before sunrise.

[2] John, delighted with the beautiful morning, said: “Lord, once in Your Heavens, will there be also such beautiful mornings?”

[3] I Said: “Well, not exactly such, but there the mornings will even be indescribably more glorious and will last longer, because you cannot extend this morning, but the heavenly one can and will be eternal. For I am telling you what I have already told you often: no fleshly eye has ever seen and no heart experienced all the heavenly joy that God has prepared for those who love Him. In this earthly condition you would not be capable to bear even a little bit of it, but once that My Spirit will have penetrated you completely, then you also will be capable of bearing the morning of My Heavens with overabundant delight.”

[4] John said: “Lord, in Heaven, will we see also this Earth?”

[5] I said: “Not only this one, but endlessly many others as well, because you, as My children and by the flesh My brothers, will rule with Me the entire infinite creation and must of course see what you will rule.”

[6] John said further: “Lord, what kind of spirits are now under Your direction ruling the infinity of Your creations? It is clear that You are the chief and original ruler but You have by Your side countless legions of the mightiest angels, like our Raphael. Are they the ones who serve You, in accordance with Your will by taking care of Your infinite creations or are there still numerous others? Then what will they do when one day we shall receive the favor to take care of the endless creation at Your side?”

[7] I said: “O My dear John, you still know so little concerning the things of God’s Kingdom and you still are really childish in it. Is not the Spirit of My Father who dwells within Me the ruler of infinity from eternity to eternity? All the angels are filled with this Spirit that is and must be all in all everywhere. When you shall be perfected, could you possibly become perfected by any other spirit but by Mine?

[8] Look, there are indeed an endless number of created souls, but all perfected souls are filled by only one Spirit and through this Spirit they have everlasting life, wisdom, love, might and power by which they are just like Me active in the Heavens and also are co-rulers of the worlds and their created beings in the material and endless regions of space.

[9] But all this and endlessly more other things you will only be able to realize and understand once you are perfected, which will happen soon after I shall have ascended from this world in My perfect divinity and also in your divinity or to and in My God and to and in your God.

[10] For I Myself must first be completely in Me, in God, the Father of eternity in order to send and give you My Spirit. As soon as it will come, it will then lead you into all truths that are still incomprehensible to you all, and then you will do the same and even greater things than I Myself am doing now. However, how that will be possible My Spirit that will enlighten your souls will teach you.

[11] But now, also the others who are here are waking up and will soon be on their feet. Right now the sun is just appearing above the horizon. So let us be quiet now for a while and watch the phenomena that often appear at the time of sunrise, yet it bears the character of something new and rare, as hardly any other appearance in the nature of this Earth.

[12] There we have the 3 magicians coming up, who still tonight, when we took the necessary rest, went down to their men in town and spoke with them a few hours about everything that they have seen here, have experienced and heard. The three men will still render us today very good services with a few foolish Pharisees who will come as uninvited guests from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and they will become very good friends of the perfected men from the inland of Back-Egypt. But now a little silence.”

[13] We kept very quiet and the other guests woke up and everything became more lively.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 130

 

Departure for Emmaus (17/49)

 

Now also our Lazarus was coming out of the house together with Raphael. He came straight to us and wanted to say something, but Raphael gave him a sign and said that I still wanted to have some rest. Then Lazarus restrained himself and waited until it was suitable to Me. However, My rest lasted only a few moments more. I Myself called Lazarus to Me and asked him if he first could take care of a good and completely clean morning meal. This he did immediately and put all his men to work. Of course, it still lasted a few hours before the morning meal was ready.

[2] On this occasion, Raphael was a great help to him – but this time in a much more natural way than usual – and therefore Lazarus was moving on faster than usual when he prepared such a great meal in a natural way.

[3] This time it could not be done in a supernatural way because of the magicians who watched everything very carefully because they thought that I might intervene from the background.

[4] When the morning meal was well prepared and put on the tables, the innkeeper of Lazarus came to give him a sign indicating that the morning meal had already been served.

[5] Then Lazarus gave Me a sign, but I said to him: “Brother, this I also would have known without your sign but because of the foreigners your sign was good anyway. Let us stand up and go inside so that we can partake of the morning meal.”

[6] After I had said this, I then stood up, together with the three mentioned disciples and went into the big dining-hall, and all those who were present followed My example at the invitation of Lazarus.

[7] Some of My disciples were wondering what I had in mind today, because everything happened somewhat in a hurry. However, on these unnecessary questions they did not receive an answer from Me. In short, I sat at the table, ate and drunk and gave nobody an answer on any of their questions.

[8] When I was soon ready with the meal, Agricola was then asking Me: “But Lord and Master, I do not understand You at all today. At other times You are always so calm and patient but today everything goes so hastily that You hardly took the time to quietly partake of Your meal as I am used to see from You. What are You up to today?”

[9] I said: “You know, I have already told you yesterday that today I want to be with Nicodemus in Emmaus and I also have to be there, because of reasons only known to Me. However, the road thereto is for our great company somewhat troublesome. It will be wise to go on different ways, in groups of 10 persons at the most. If we all go together in one great caravan then soon the temple servants will betray us and then I would be hindered to do today what I have to do. Therefore, I will go ahead with My disciples – but only with those three – and this on a very unusual way, so that the temple servants will certainly not see us. Divide yourselves into groups just like I have told you and go to that place on different ways. After 2 hours we will all be in the house of Nicodemus.

[10] I repeat once more for all of you and say: be clever as serpents, but still in your heart be gentle as doves, because down there dwells a true brood of serpents and vipers, and that has to be restrained with the same means. Understand and perceive this very well all of you and pay attention to it, then today you will experience a day full of blessings that will be a great blessing for your souls. Now I will leave immediately. Peter, James and John will come with Me. My servant Raphael and Lazarus will accompany our slave children. If you three Indians also want to come with Me then you can also leave now.”

[11] When the three men heard this, they stood up from their seats very cheerfully and went directly with Me on the way.

[12] When Agricola saw this, he asked Me if there was any objection if also he could go together with Me to Emmaus. The other Romans however would go alone on another way.

[13] I said: “As you wish, but then our number is really big enough.”

[14] This made Agricola very happy.

[15] Now we left immediately, went down the Mount of Olives and soon we came on the big road that leads toward Emmaus, and there, because it was Friday, it was very quiet.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 131

 

On the way to Emmaus (17/50)

 

When we had left Jerusalem completely behind us and came close to the column that Raphael had placed there, we met two poor people going to Jerusalem to beg for alms. One of the two was completely blind, but the other could see and was guiding the blind man. Both of them however looked very pitiful and were asking us if we were not disposed to give them alms because they were very poor and in great misery.

[2] I said to them: “Tell Me, what do you prefer, health and strength, so that instead of begging you can go to work and earn your own bread, or we will give you suitable alms?”

[3] Both of them said: “Lord, we do not know You. If You are capable to give us the first, then this would be much more pleasing, but because this is surely impossible we still ask You for alms, whatever You wish to give us.”

[4] I said: “If you could believe, then the first could also be possible for you.”

[5] The blind man said: “That all things are possible with God we know and this we do believe both of us, but God does not perform any more miracles because men became too bad and wicked, starting with the high priest and unto us. Because the commandments of God were rejected and they have given us other ones which are bad and miserable. If however the laws are bad, then the people who have to keep the bad laws become also bad, because as the teaching is, so is also faith and the knowledge of the people. Thus the people have rejected God and are now worshiping again the golden calf, and so God has rejected them also and will soon bring an angry judgment over them because my guide who can see, described to me the signs in the night of the day before yesterday, and those are showing nothing that is good for the people who have become completely unfaithful. And so You see, kind Man – because according to Your voice this is what You are – that certainly in this evil time God may not, cannot and will not perform any more miracles.”

[6] I said: “Man, although you have lost the light of your eyes 10 years ago by the malice of your jealous neighbor, as well as your possessions by his evil intrigue, you have well preserved the light of your heart, and so also you will now receive the light of your eyes back. I will that you can see again and regain the full strength of your body.”

[7] At that moment, the blind man could see everything and he got also his full manly power back. He was so surprised that he could not utter a word.

[8] After a few moments he fell down on his knees before Me and said with a very emotional but nevertheless manly voice: “Lord, whoever You may be I do not know but that You have made me now seeing that I know. More is needed than being a doctor in our human manner. You did not use any ointment, You did not touch my eyes with any finger but only by Your will I could see again. Lord, then You must be filled with God’s Spirit like the old and greatest prophets. Yes Lord, You have now healed me in a wonderful way, but what do I as a poor man, have to do in return for that?”

[9] I said: “Nothing else except to keep God’s commandments. Go your way and work, stay in the country and nourish yourself moderately. And you, who were his former guide, do likewise and so become strong and healthy.”

[10] Also him, who was partially lame, suddenly felt completely healthy and strong, thanked Me also on his knees and then asked Me: “Lord, You wonderful great prophet, because You who are performing such miracles and really knew how my companion lost the light of his eyes, so You also must be able to tell us where we should go in order to receive a moderate salary for our work, because at this time it is difficult to quickly receive work somewhere.”

[11] I said: “Go to Bethany to Lazarus and tell both of his sisters who are now alone at home, what had happened to you and that I am sending you. Then you will be accepted immediately and will be taken into service. But stand up now and do what I have told you.”

[12] After that, both of them expressed their thanks once more, got up and continued their way.

[13] On the way to Bethany they were seriously discussing about Me and about those who were with Me. They were wondering who I should be, and what and who the others were. They took Me for a great prophet, maybe even Elijah who came back. But what and who My companions were they could not agree. They were hoping to come to know all this in Bethany.

[14] But I had much to deal with the 3 magicians because this was the first sign that they saw of Me.

[15] The chief magician said: “Lord, now I see that You are a God, because only God can do something like this.”

[16] But on the way to Emmaus I said: “Be calm, you are saying this because you do not know what is in man, but in Emmaus you will all know more about it.”

[17] Then the three did not ask anything more.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 132

 

The Lord and the beggar-woman (17/51)

 

When we were already close to Emmaus we met again another beggar who started to shout very pitifully, saying that she – as we noticed – was a very poor widow and mother of two children that she had to carry laboriously on her arms from place to place so that she could receive enough alms to buy the most urgent food for her and the two children, and pleaded that we should not let her go empty handed.

[2] I said to her: “But why are you shouting so wildly? We are not deaf and we can also do something for you if you bring forward your need in a more modest and quiet way.”

[3] The woman said: “Lord, I have done that but the heart of most people became hard as stone and deaf, and they never take notice of the modesty of poverty. Only with noisy emotion it is sometimes possible to receive meager alms from somebody, and this is the reason why I have asked You so loudly.”

[4] I said: “You really are poor and therefore I do not reject you, but what I do not like is that you prefer to beg instead of going to work. Because look, you are not yet 30 years old, you are strong and healthy and you still can work to earn your bread for yourself and your twins. But you prefer to beg instead of going to work, and so you have studied your profession quite well to lure out alms from the simple people of the world. But this kind of display of poverty is to Me of no value, only the clear truth counts. Besides that, I also have to tell you something else.”

[5] The woman said: “Well dear Friend, I really should not know what else You still have to tell me.”

[6] I said with a friendly serious voice: “Oh dear woman, still a lot and of many things. I want to help you indeed if you will correct yourself and sin no more. If you will not do that, then I surely will also not help you. And even if you would shout a 100 times louder than you have shouted this time, I still would never listen to you. Now understand Me well what I will say to you:

[7] Look, you are carrying a package at your back. What is hidden in there? Well, in it you are carrying your dress made of Persian silk that cost you 1 pound of pure silver at the time when you still were prosperous. When you come into an inn you put your twins to sleep. After that, you put on your nice dress, then you look like a very attractive and well-developed woman, and as a foreigner you try to sell yourself to somebody. As soon as the new day comes, you then look exactly as you look now, and you are shouting at people to receive alms. Now tell me whether according to you, this can be right for God and men. However, I still do not condemn you in this, but I am asking for your own opinion. Speak. What can you reply to Me on this?”

[8] At these words of Mine the insolent beggar became completely embarrassed and she did not know what she had to reply on this.

[9] After a short while in which she regained the calmness in her somewhat frivolous mind, the beggar said: “But Lord, I still have never seen nor spoken to You anywhere. How can You know that? Some of Your investigators must have reported that. Yes, yes, unfortunately this is how it is, but what can a poor lonely widow do, if now and then in her need she is dealing with some things that indeed cannot be agreeable to God? But because of that, the poor widow that I know is by far not bad. Look only at the women of the Pharisees, of the scribes and also even of the Levites, who still have to be always clean, then You will find a lot of other reasons to admonish them instead of me who by need am often tormented in such a way that You cannot easily imagine. Besides, I openly confess that You have said the whole truth about me, but please help me, then I will never more try to use such miserable ways to provide for my needs. Friend, to judge and to punish is easy, but nobody wants to help.”

[10] I said: “Really, I do not want to judge you and even less to punish you, even if I have the power to do so, but your mistake is, that you do not like so much the somewhat harder work, but instead you prefer an immoral and useless life. And that is the reason why you are now so poor and miserable. This I have shown you, so that you seriously would change your life, because God does not help such doubtful hearts. Have you never in all earnest turned trustingly to God for help?”

[11] The woman said: “Oh Friend, stop talking about this deaf and merciless God of the Jews, because people like us prefer to be heard by a stone instead of Your God. When I cry for alms, then people are at least noticing me – although they still are so merciless – and they give me some money for food, but Your God however, is even more deaf than a stone.”

[12] I said: “Oh surely not, God is not at all like that, but you never really knew God, you did not believe in Him and you even less loved Him, and therefore you have never seriously turned to Him with a good request to help you out of your need. However, for this reason God has afflicted you, so that in this affliction you would search God. And where you are expecting it the least, God comes to you to truly help you, and still you say that God would be more hard and deaf than a stone.

[13] Look, in this way you are committing a great injustice to God, and still He does not judge you for that, but He wants to help you, body and soul, so that also your soul would not perish forever.

[14] When you were still unmarried and your parents were still living, you were a very honest and also a very faithful God-fearing child, and God and your parents had a great pleasure in you. You became mature, and a very kind man asked you for marriage and he took you for his wife. But being a wife, you soon became very different from what you were as a child.

[15] You did not love your husband, you also turned hard towards your parents and you blamed them that they gave you to a man that you could not love. For this reason your parents, who were already old and sick, were so much consumed by sorrow that they died. Then you became even more unfriendly to your husband, so that he also became weak, went to drink, and so he also became poor, got sick and he died, and so you became a poor widow.

[16] God allowed this oppressive poverty to come over you because you first broke God’s commandment that commands the children to honor and to love their parents, so that they would live long and would be prosperous on Earth, and secondly because you did not love your kind husband who was granted to you by your parents. You gave him one bitter hour after another.

[17] Since then, 1 year went by and you still did not consider looking into your faults and feeling sorrow for it, and ask God for His forgiveness. And still, you say that God is more hard and deaf than a stone, that He feels no mercy for a human being, even if he prays to Him persistently. Well, what do you think now about God’s mercilessness?”

[18] Full of remorse the beggar said: “Lord, whoever You may be, truly God has brought You on my way. You have opened my eyes and now I know what to do: I will sell this miserable dress in my package and with that money I will buy a penance robe, because if I will not have done penance for my sins, God cannot answer any of my prayers.”

[19] I said: “The penance robe will not take away your sins, but your silk dress you can sell indeed and buy bread for it. Your beggar garment is already in many ways a penance robe. Be remorseful in it and do not commit any more sins in the future, then also your old sins, that you cannot undo anymore, will be forgiven by God.”

[20] The beggar said: “Friend, tell me now also who You are, because You know my way of life so well. Tell me also what I should do, so that God would forgive my sins. Are You perhaps a priest or a prophet or even an Essene, of whom they say that of each man who comes to them, they know precisely what he has done and achieved, and that they also are releasing all men’s sins, cure diseases and even can wake up the dead? This I really would like to know, in order to show You the honor that You deserve.”

[21] I said: “This I do not need from you. Just do what I have advised you, then you will honor Me in the best way, whoever I may be. Now go your way in peace.”

[22] Then she said thanks for the lesson. Furthermore Agricola and also the 3 Indians gave her alms and she continued her way to Jerusalem. We also moved further on and came close to the walls of Emmaus.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 133

 

The begging children from Emmaus (17/52)

 

When we came close to the entrance gate, 7 almost naked children, from 6 to 11 years old, came from that place to meet us and were asking us for bread because they were very hungry.

[2] And I said to them: “Yes, My dear children, from where, on this bare street do we have to obtain bread to give to you?”

[3] The oldest child, a boy said: “Oh dearest good Father, if only You would take care of us, then also here You would be able to give us a bread and a garment. In the city, there is bread in abundance, but if we go to someone to ask for bread, they chase us away with sticks and they do not give us bread. But You and these people who are with You, look so kind and therefore we ask You to give us bread.”

[4] Agricola said: “My dearest children, do you not have parents to give you bread?”

[5] The boy said: “We have parents, a father and also a mother, but they are both very sick and they can earn nothing, and therefore we must beg for us and for them so that we and they would not starve completely. Oh dearest fathers, it is surely very sad to be so poor. No house, no bread and no clothes.”

[6] Agricola said: “Then where are your sick parents, if you do not have a house?”

[7] The boy said: “Look, there on the other side of the city there is an old hut of a shepherd, that belongs to a citizen from here. He does not use it anymore because he build a new one and he allowed us to live in the old one. Just come with us and see for yourself our great need.”

[8] Again, Agricola said: “But there is still a certain Nicodemus here who must be a good father. Did you never go to him?”

[9] The boy said: “Yes, him we do know and we have heard already a lot of good things about him, but we dare not go to him because he is a much too important and great lord. There are still more of those great lords here who surely also must be good fathers, but it is no use to us because we dare not go to them.”

[10] Agricola said: “Yes, but we also could be important lords and still you dare to speak to us.”

[11] The boy said: “We were pressed by the great hunger and you look very kind and merciful. If only we could meet Nicodemus once on the street then we also would like to speak to him. However, most of the time he is in the city and there we do not know his house and in our nakedness we dare not go into the city because something might happen to us there.”

[12] I said to the children: “Be assured My children, you will be helped. Bring us now to your sick parents. I will help them and we will also provide for bread and good clothing.”

[13] All children said: “We have prayed well to God every day, that He would help us, and when we were praying again this morning, it seemed to us that we heard a voice that said: ‘Even today you will be helped’. This we said to our sick parents and they said: ‘With God everything is possible, but to us only death will be the final thing to help us.’ We encouraged our poor parents as well as we could and we went on our way to beg. And see, dear good fathers, we did not pray in vain because the great, holy and lovely Father in Heaven did send you to us. Oh, before we make one step further to our parents, we must thank the lovely Father in Heaven because He has taken so mercifully good care of us.”

[14] Then the children were kneeling down and prayed with their hands lifted up to the sky: “O great, loving, good and holy Father in Heaven, we thank You because You helped us out of our great need by sending these fathers to us. Kindly accept our gratitude, o You loving, good, holy Father.”

[15] Then they got up and asked us to follow them.

[16] Deeply moved by the short prayer of thanks of the children, we went behind them and soon we reached the previously mentioned hut that was located under a deep hanging rock. When we arrived there, we found both parents crouching against each other on the bare ground and were skinny, almost to the bones.

[17] When Agricola saw the great misery of the two people he was astonished and said: “No, you will not see anything like this with us gentiles, who have the name of being hard and merciless! Do the lazy Jews not have any time to look now and then around them to see if there are no people who are in misery and in need of help? Surely, there must be shepherds in the neighborhood. Could they not check once, to see how these people are doing? For, they often must have seen these children going in and out. Oh, I have never experienced such a lack of compassion!”

[18] I said: “You know, My friend, we will first help these people and only then we will discuss further.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 134

 

The Lord together with the poor family (17/53)

 

After that, I turned to the sick and said to them: “How did you come into such a miserable state? Tell Me, for the sake of those who came with Me.”

[2] The man, who was completely crippled because of gout, said: “Lord, we have always been poor people and we earned our bread with the work of our hands, and it went quite well with us. But 3 years ago we caught this gout. Me first, then later also my wife, because she had to work too hard. Until the feast of Easter of this year we had a place to live in the city, but our benefactor died, and another lord came into the house who did not want to keep us any longer as useless people in the house. We tried to beg other people to give us a place to stay, but nobody wanted us because of our sickness and the children. There was no other way except to stay in this spacious hut that was given to us, so that we did not have to stay completely outside, having no protection from the rain and other bad weather. The fact that in this hut it did not go better with us, but worse from day to day, you can see from our appearance. The fact that we almost have no clothing at all is because we had to sell the little that we still had, in order to buy some bread. But now, we have nothing anymore and we will starve when there will be no help. Let all this be sacrificed to the all-wise and almighty God. He will know why He has allowed this misery to come over us.

[3] According to the description, Job had to endure a lot, but we certainly even more. Because we had to suffer even from the time when we were still a child, and we knew only few happy days. And now that we are older and that it is naturally more difficult, we came to the highest point of all the misery of the Earth. If you, dear lords, can help us in anything, do show us mercy and help us. The Lord in Heaven will surely reward you for it.”

[4] I said: “That is the reason why we came here, to give you the help that you were longing for so much. But know also: those whom God loves and has appointed for great things in the Kingdom of the spirits, He gives them more and heavier trials than another person who He has appointed for only small things.

[5] But the time of your earthly trials are now completed, and now also on this Earth you will be happy. And your 7 children, who now are still pure as angels, educate them well, so that later as men they would not become defiled. Hereby I also say to you: get up and walk”.

[6] Immediately both parents stood up as completely healthy people and they also had a good natural look.

[7] They were extremely astonished, and the man said: “O wonderful Man! What did You do with us? Because never before we were so healthy and strong as now! Oh, who and what are You really, that You can do such things? You are either a great prophet send by God, or You are an embodiment of an angel, because until now this has not been heard in Israel. What kind of medicine did so many people use who are suffering from gout and it did not even help them, and You simply say to us: ‘get up and walk’, and we are healed immediately. Oh, all of you, praise the God of Israel, because He has given such a pure divine power to a Man.”

[8] The 7 children were also crying from happiness when they saw in front of them their parents who were now so completely healthy as never before. And the oldest boy said: “Oh look, dear parents, for I have heard it and have also told you so often: when the need is at its highest point, then also God’s help is near for those who were seeking His help. And exactly today our earthy need reached its highest point, and God’s help has also come. All thanks, praise and honor to Him, the loving, good, holy Father in Heaven. By this happiness, seeing our dear parents now again so healthy and strong, our hunger that was so great has now disappeared. Oh, if only we would now have the most necessary clothes, then we could again earn a good piece of bread.”

[9] I said to the boy: “Behind that deep hanging rock that looks like a cave and that until now was used as your home, you will find 3 packages. Bring them here inside, then you will be able to clothe yourselves very well.”

[10] When the boy heard that, he hurried outside, together with his little brothers and little sisters, and they brought 3 packages inside the hut. The parents quickly opened them up and they found clothes in it for themselves and for their children. After that, words of thanks and praise and tears of joy were not ceasing. So, there was continuous amazement.

[11] However, these people did also not eat anything for almost 2 days, and so they were hungry.

[12] And I said again to the children: “Children, go now once more to the place where you just found the packages with the clothing. There you will also find bread and wine. Bring everything here and strengthen and fill yourselves with it.”

[13] Then the children were running again outside and found in a basket several loaves of the best bread and several stone bottles with wine of the best kind. They brought their discovery also directly to the hut to fill and to strengthen them with it. The parents said, under many tears of joy and gratefulness, that they never tasted such good bread and never drunk such good wine, that this bread and wine surely must have come from the Heaven of God, brought by the angels. Because such good, pure heavenly food could not grow nor flourish on Earth, because people are too wicked and ungodly.

[14] But I said to them: “My dear children, eat and drink without worries and be of good cheer, because God has tested you heavily, and without grumbling and total dedication to God’s will you have suffered everything that has come over you. However, also now, when your need was at its highest point, God did help you quickly in a wonderful way, and this help will stay with you, not only during this time of your earthly existence, but also after the grave forever. Why you were so heavily tested by God on this Earth will be clear to you once you will be in the other life.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 135

 

Agricola and the shepherds (17/54)

 

After I said that to the poor people, a few shepherds came to the hut to see if the sick people had already died.

[2] However, when they saw us, they wanted to leave right away, but our Agricola went quickly outside, called the shepherds and said: “Did you come to bring these poor people some food and drink or did you want to help or comfort them in one way or another?”

[3] The shepherds said: “Lord, not the one nor the other, but we came as servants of our lord, who is a severe man. He ordered us to see if today this family is still living here or if they had already died. In any case he wants this old hut to be evacuated even today, because he ordered some construction workers for the first day after the Sabbath to rebuild the hut, and therefore this poor naked rabble must be put out.”

[4] Agricola said: “I cannot blame you for the fact that you are doing what your boss is ordaining you to do, but you surely knew how great the need of this family was. Why did you never do something good for this poor family?”

[5] The shepherds said: “Sir, we already have to take care of ourselves in order to survive. How must we then still take care of other poor people? Our boss is such a thrifty man that he does not give so much to us, his servants, to be able to give also something to other poor people. We hardly survive ourselves, how could we then help other people to survive?”

[6] Agricola said: “This is very sad for you. Look, spokesman, this family is now helped at once in a more than royal way, and their benefactors would also have been helped for always. But because you are equally unmerciful and heartless as your boss, you also do not have to expect any reward from us. Besides, tell your boss also that I as one of the most important, richest and most powerful Romans of Rome would have build a royal palace instead of a new hut, and even would have given him 10,000 mornings of land, if only he had taken better care of this poor family. Let him now, in exchange of his mercy, share with you the salary that you have now received. Shame on you Jews, who call yourselves ‘children of God’, that we gentiles are exceeding you sky-high in mercy. What is the name of this brilliant lord of yours anyway, and what is he?”

[7] Totally astonished, one of the shepherds said: “Our lord is a very rich citizen of Jerusalem and his name is Barabe, furthermore he is nothing.”

[8] Agricola said: “Very well. Tell him that this family, that was once so poor, will come with us right now. Then you and your brilliant boss can do with this hut whatever you want. However, this will not bring you any luck. That I can guarantee. And now, just wait a while until you can see the poor family leave, so that you can tell your brilliant boss that the hut has been totally evacuated.”

[9] Then Agricola went again into the hut and the shepherds were staring at each other in amazement, and one of them said: “You see now. You laughed at me when I told you about my dream concerning these poor people, and you were even criticizing me when I shared my small bread a few times with the naked children, and later, when they wanted to come to me again, you threatened them and chased them away. This is now the result. I have always said it: ‘one time, a miracle is going to happen to these people, and it would be good to do something nice for them’, but then you laughed at me, and now I am laughing because you have received such a good salary for your bright intellect.”

[10] In this same way, the shepherds continued their conversation for some time, until we came out of the hut, together with the now well-dressed family, and went on our way. When the shepherds saw the now rich looking family, they were astonished because they noticed that they were completely healed.

[11] The oldest boy however went to the only kindhearted shepherd and said: “Whatever you will find in the hut is yours”.

[12] Because in the hut remained a basket with a loaf of bread and a stone bottle full of wine, and several very expensive golden coins, wrapped in a cloth where the garments were put in.

[13] When we went a few steps further, the other shepherds also wanted to go into the hut, so that they could share with him what was left behind.

[14] Agricola noticed it, went back quickly and said to the insolent shepherds: “If you dare to take away only one crumb of bread of this kind-hearted man, I will crucify you even today! Remember that well! A Roman keeps his word!”

[15] When the shepherds heard this verdict they run away.

[16] However, to the one shepherd Agricola said: “Take what you will find and go to reside in the city, because from now on you will not have to be a servant anymore.”

[17] Then Agricola came back to us again and we went to the city. Many of those who followed us from the Mount of Olives were waiting at the gate and welcomed us.

[18] And Agricola said, pointing at this poor family: “The ways of the Lord are always full of wonders and good deeds!”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 136

 

The Lord speaks with Nicodemus about the poor people (17/55)

 

Now also Nicodemus and his friend Joseph of Arimathea saw us, and they were in a hurry to meet us.

[2] Coming to Me, they greeted Me very friendly, and Nicodemus said: “O Lord, what a blessing for this place that You are visiting it. I already had such a feeling that You would come to this place today, and look, my presumption came true. O Lord, may I invite You into my house to take lunch with me?”

[3] I said: “Friend, we are many, and in your house there would be hardly enough space. Besides, this afternoon you will again receive the visit of a couple of Pharisees who I prefer not to meet, and therefore I will stay in the large inn that also belongs to you. You can go there also with your friend Joseph of Arimathea, together with the old righteous rabbi, as well as your wife and children, so that they also can see the salvation of the world. The two Romans are already living in their own house close to the inn anyway, and they certainly will also come to Me because most of all I came to this place for their sake.”

[4] Nicodemus said: “O Lord, You are completely right, but I also would like to see when You will step into my house with Your holy feet, so that it would be blessed by Your footsteps.”

[5] I said: “Your house will not be more blessed like that. And if you would believe that, then it is a superstition of no value. Nevertheless, I also will come into your house, but only after the Pharisees have gone back this afternoon. But now we must wait for those who still will come, so that they will know where I will stay today.”

[6] Nicodemus asked whom those were that still had to come.

[7] I said: “Besides the tax collectors who also were present on the Mount of Olives the day before yesterday, all the others that you saw there. Lazarus and Raphael with all the slave children will also soon be here, but coming from another way. And so within 1 hour several hundred people will be here in Emmaus who could not so easily be put together in your house, but in this inn of yours that largely has enough space for a couple of 1,000 people, they can. Therefore, let it be so.”

[8] After that, Nicodemus took information about the family that was with us, and I said to Nicodemus: “Friend, this family would have the right to bitterly complain about the people of Emmaus, because you could not fail to see that for sure many times naked and of hunger crying children here and around the city were begging the people for bread. So you could have inquired to know from where these children came and what the reason was why these children were all alone, wandering around. But this you have not done, and this is truly not very honorable nor praiseworthy to Me. It is true that you are less guilty of it because most of the time you are staying in the city, as well as your friend Joseph of Arimathea. But there are enough citizens here who are not poor and who very easily could take care of a poor family. However, this they did not do and therefore I also will do nothing for them, although there are many here who very well could need My help.

[9] You surely know the old decaying sheep-hut out there, of a certain Barabe who lives in Jerusalem. Well, in this hut I found this family really in the greatest misery. Man and woman were sitting sick with gout on the humid ground and could of course not earn anything anymore. Only the 7 children, being naked were begging for bread to the unmerciful people of Emmaus. During the last 2 days they also did not receive any more bread, and moreover today the rich Barabe let them know that they had to leave the old hut. If I did not come here and help them, then I am asking you what this family had to do because of your hardheartedness? Now certainly they have been helped forever, but the unmerciful people in Emmaus will therefore not be helped. Now you know what is going on with this family.”

[10] Nicodemus became very sad and said: “O Lord, if I only had known this, I gladly would have taken care of this family immediately. But I am now willing to do everything for them in order to repair somehow the mistake.”

[11] I said: “You do not have to repair a mistake because in fact you did not commit one. And these people have already been taken care of and they never will bother someone from Emmaus anymore. But later if you want to give instructions to investigate, then you will find here in the vicinity and also from Jerusalem a lot of families who surely will welcome your help. But now there is something else:

[12] How are the two Romans who are living here? If you have the opportunity to let them know that the Roman Agricola is here and that also his companions will arrive very soon, then do it. Tell them also that the man from Upper-Egypt, with whom they were dealing at his dwelling-place, will also arrive within 1 hour. But do not tell them anything yet about Me and My identity, because I have My secret reason for that, which will later on become clear to you by itself. Now make it so that the two Romans will come to us immediately because I first want to discuss something with them very openly.

[13] Today will be for you a day of great unsuspected revelations. Go therefore now and make everything ready.”

[14] Now our Nicodemus went quickly to the Romans to inform them of everything that I had told him and the two Romans went with Nicodemus and came to us as fast as possible.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 137

 

The curiosity of the citizens of Emmaus (17/56)

 

The two Romans came to us, and when they saw Agricola who was well known to them, they were so joyful that they did not know what to do. For it was thanks to Agricola that they possessed all their earthly happiness, and they came to the land of the Jews to increase their knowledge of the true God and His will. Of course, they told him immediately about the many things that they came to know already, but Agricola said to them that all this meant as good as nothing compared to what they would hear, see and experience still today. That of course made the two Romans greatly wonder and now they asked him if he knew for sure that the Upper-Egyptians would come today.

[2] But Agricola said nothing further except: “My dear old friends, believe firmly what will be said to you today, because everything will be precisely fulfilled, and all too soon you will be able to witness this when later on the peculiar people of Upper-Egypt will arrive here.”

[3] The two Romans said: “No, today it was easier for us to imagine anything else than the fact that today something so excitingly surprising would happen to us!”

[4] Many things were still discussed here in the open, but then one group after the other came in and met each other, so that it became very lively in this open space. Finally, also our Lazarus with Raphael arrived, together with the many slave children whose charm and beauty was greatly admired by the two Romans. They even considered Raphael as a god.

[5] However, Agricola and now also the other already present Romans said: “It looks like it, but actually it is quite different. But do not ask anything now, for you will be enlightened about everything at the right time.”

[6] The two Romans were complying with that, but were still asking if it would not be more appropriate to withdraw to one or the other inn. Because so many people outside at this unusual time would make a sensation in a small place like this. It would therefore be more advisable to go to a large inn.

[7] This was a good idea and we went to the large inn of Nicodemus.

[8] However, there were still a few citizens who noticed that all of us went to that place and therefore they also followed one by one to see what was happening.

[9] But our Nicodemus said to them: “Friends, today this is not of your concern, because you can see that the highly ranked Romans want to keep a great and important conference here, which will be attended by me and a few prominent Jews. Therefore, withdraw from this place in a discreet way, otherwise you could get into trouble, because the Romans discovered something that made them not – as far as I have heard – very pleased with you. Therefore, withdraw as soon as possible and do not show up for the rest of the day.”

[10] After this warning from Nicodemus the curious people left as soon as possible, and we stayed the whole day free from the crowd, because as soon as the people of Emmaus heard something about the highly ranked Romans, they went away and even stayed the whole day outside of the city, and only late at night they came back home again.

[11] When Nicodemus chased the curious citizens of Emmaus away in such a manner, he came back and said: “Now we can move around more freely, because these curious people will stay away now for the whole day, and nobody will show up again, not even from a distance. However, if I have done it completely correctly by putting them away for the whole day with a clever trick instead of the whole truth, well, that is of course a completely different question. But I think by myself: if one can achieve something good in a manner that is surely not bad, then one must use it without questioning. Because how many times must sensible and wise parents lead their own children with all kinds of cleverness and tricks if they want to make real men out of them. With the pure naked truth we could not accomplish much with children.”

[12] I said: “Your method was good anyway and also true, and with this you also have achieved something good for the whole day. Whoever wants to come to the full life’s light of the truth must first cross through the field of the lie and deceptions, without which nobody can come to the full truth.

[13] Look, the whole world, yes even the body of man and all that is physical is for the soul and the spirit a deception and therefore also a lie. But without that world, not one soul could come to the full truth of life. However, looking deeper into it, also the physical world is not a deception and not a lie but also the full truth. But this lies not in the open, but is hidden within and can be found through corresponding images.

[14] Therefore, your presumed trick was then also not a lie but truth, because what is important here is to win the gentiles and not to win the Jews, who have already received the right light from Moses. If they do not want to use it, it is their own fault if they perish in their darkness that they have wanted themselves. And look, this is why you have spoken well when you said to the citizens that a conference of the Romans is being held here, and thus what you have done, you have done very well. But right now, also the 7 men from the inland of Upper-Egypt have arrived here. Tell the Romans that they should prepare for their reception.”

[15] Nicodemus went immediately to the Romans who were sitting at the table and he told them so. The two Romans stood up immediately and asked Nicodemus who it was who told him.

[16] And Nicodemus said: “Him who knows this and infinitely much more, and who you also will learn to know better today. Now do not ask further but go outside to meet those who are coming.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 138

 

Arrival of the 7 Upper-Egyptians. Words of the Egyptian to the Lord

that proves a deep insight. About the right kind of food. (17/57)

 

Upon this, the two Romans hurried outside and when they came at the door opening, the 7 men of Upper-Egypt were already standing at the threshold of the large inn. And the leader, who, as known, did not allow a few years ago the Roman expedition to continue their way, went to the Roman whom he knew well, and stretched out his dark brown hand and said: “I greet you as my friends, just as a few years ago in the inland of Upper-Egypt I let you go as friends. You still have thought many times about me, and based on what you have heard from me you traveled to this place in order to receive a greater insight into the nature of a true human being and a better understanding within yourselves, but you did not suspect that you could also meet me here in this country.

[2] However, I did not so much come here for the sake of you but more for the sake of someone whom you do not know yet, so that He also can baptize us with the fire of the eternal truth of His Spirit. Even yesterday, He announced it to His disciples that we would come to give a true testimony before Him. And today He came here also with His disciples, for He surely knew that we would come here because He called us to this place with His almighty will. Therefore, let us go into this inn and let us bow down before Him whose helpless children we still are.”

[3] The two Romans said: “Are you referring to the famous Savior from Galilee of whom we have heard strange things indeed, but whom we did not meet personally yet?”

[4] The Egyptian said: “Yes, yes, friends, that is the One we mean. Let us therefore hurry to Him.”

[5] Then the Romans opened the door of the large dining-hall and the 7 Egyptians entered the hall with great reverence, walked straight towards Me, bowed deep before Me, and the leader said: “In this manner, o Lord from eternity, it has pleased You to clothe Yourself in the human flesh. For this, be praised in eternity by all created beings for whom You have now opened the large gate to enter Your infinite great Kingdom of life.

[6] When You, in Your original Spirit were mightily filling all of infinity, creating countless beings out of Yourself, no creature was free from Your wisdom and might, but were bound by Your will. But now, You have bound Yourself with the flesh of men, Your created beings, in order to free all created beings and lead them into the Kingdom of Your eternal free God-life. O Lord from eternity, therefore, be once more praised and glorified above all.

[7] You have now made Your created beings so free and independent that they can hear Your words, and You, as their Creator, are even a teacher to them, to show them the ways on which they can become completely equal to You. Oh, let every atom of Your eternal infinity praise You for this forever, for it too is now called to enter one day into a free life.

[8] But now, allow us for a while, great, eternal God, Lord and Creator, to enjoy the contemplation of Your countenance. For listen, all you created beings, all you men: eternities upon eternities passed and countless beings came forth from Him, which He had contemplated as His thoughts, and again they flowed back into Him. But the eyes of a created being have never seen its infinite and eternal Creator. And now, since according to His eternal decision it has pleased Him to make Himself in His eternal nature visible and comprehensible to His created beings, He, the eternal, infinite – without changing His might and greatness – is in human form among you as a visible God. And you see Him and talk to Him, and yet do not understand and grasp whom you have in your midst. Oh, think about what I have told you now and then let all of you say: O Lord, out of me I am forever not worthy of staying with You under the same roof, but speak only one word to me, then my soul will receive eternal life through Your one word.”

[9] After this, the Egyptian put his hands crosswise over his breast and looked at Me from head to feet, filled with the greatest thoughts. And his companions did the same. During that moment, no one dared to say anything and all eyes were fixed at Me.

[10] But after a while I said to the Egyptians: “My friends, you who came from the faraway land, are heartily welcome. You should and will be of great service to Me today in the more profound teaching of your brothers here, and for the strengthening of their souls. But you have traveled almost 2 days without food and were only nourished by the spirit. Now your bodies should also receive a strengthening with the fruits of this Earth, and this will be given to you immediately with bread and wine.”

[11] The Egyptian apologized however and said that My countenance did strengthen them already more than enough.

[12] But I said: “I know very well that a soul who is filled with the spirit does not feel any physical hunger, but even then the body should receive its natural food because otherwise after some time it may not be a good working tool for the soul anymore. And so also you should first be well nourished in order to become stronger to be of good service to Me for the sake of your brothers.”

[13] After these words, they gladly agreed to eat first, and Nicodemus took care of it immediately, so that good wine and also good bread and salt would be served.

[14] When bread and wine and salt were put on a separate table, I said again: “So, children from the faraway land, do sit down, eat and drink.”

[15] Immediately the 7 Egyptians sat at the table and they ate and drunk very joyfully, because only now they started to feel that they were really hungry and thirsty. They could not stop praising the quality of the bread and the wine, and they called it food of life from Heaven.

[16] The leader said, while he was still eating and was also drinking now and then: “In my soul I have often tasted this bread and this drink, but such food for the body never came over my fleshly tongue. Truly, in this, all necessary life elements are present, and they do not only strengthen the body but also the soul.

[17] Oh, how far and how deep could men penetrate with this kind of food, into the sphere of inner life if they would know what they are eating and what this food is containing, but they do not know it and they also do not see the day because of the too bright light. But slowly they will see that in this food they are enjoying God’s living Word and His will. If they could resolve and understand this in themselves, only then they would become perfect men again, but because by far they still are not capable of that, so during that time they must be and stay disciples until they can understand it in themselves and bring it into their lives.”

[18] All those who were present were very surprised about these remarks of the Egyptian who brought all this forward in a very simple and humble way. Even My oldest disciples received some totally new and bright lights, but not one of them had the courage to start a discussion with the Egyptian.

[19] Our 3 magicians said to themselves: “Now only we can see how much is still lacking in us. Oh, what difference there is between us and these 7 men.”

[20] Lazarus came from behind Me and said: “O Lord, the wisdom of this one makes me totally fainthearted. We are now at the original Source, yet how enormously far is he already ahead of us.”

[21] I said: “Never mind about that, you all will also come to that point and even much further, but you should have patience and zeal, because a tree in the forest cannot fall down with one stroke. I did bring those true men here – although they are only a few – not to make you feel ashamed, but only for your true instruction. Then you will see what true men can do and what you will be able to do when you will be changed into true men by observing My teaching.

[22] But now let them first eat and drink, for truly, they have not eaten for 2 days and also did not drink much. But now Nicodemus can start preparing, so that we also can quickly receive something to eat and drink, as well as our young people in the next room, where Raphael and you have accommodated them.”

[23] When I said that to Lazarus, he went soon to Nicodemus and brought him the message, and immediately he put everybody in the large inn to great activity.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 139

 

The two Romans recognize the Lord. The Lord cautions them not to make

Him known too soon. (17/58)

 

Now also the two Romans – named Agrippa and Laius – escorted by Agricola came to Me and bowed deeply. And Agrippa, also a noble Roman of royal descent, said to Me: “Lord, it was very heartbroken to us when we heard the praise that the to us well known men from the faraway Upper-Egypt gave You. Really, if they were other men than those who we came to know a few years ago in their very meager land, then we would think that You met them somewhere before and brought them here to testify in Your favor in return of a good reward – what on Earth is very well possible in order to mislead people. But with these people such a deal would be impossible to conclude because they are rulers over nature that has to give them everything they need, and they despise every normal reward from the people.

[2] Yesterday, when those blind Pharisees were showing all too clearly by their wicked words and attitude that they wanted to persecute You, I myself described the Egyptians as an example of higher gifted and more perfected men. For I wanted to make them (that is the Pharisees) to understand by my experiences that You also could very well be such a perfected Man, against whom we as men with our weapons could accomplish nothing. Anyway, for this reason I and my brother Laius brought those blacks (that is those Pharisees) at least to some thinking, what was certainly good. But I could not imagine that we would see these people back here with us in Emmaus, and even less the fact that You Yourself – according to the information given by our dear friend Agricola – have told word for word our whole story about these perfected men to Your disciples on the Mount of Olives, at the same time that I have told it here in Emmaus to the Pharisees.

[3] From this, the two of us have concluded that, despite Your now complete human form and appearance, You must be in Your inner Spirit irrefutably the true God and Creator of all beings from eternity. Because if You in Your Spirit did not exist from eternity – that means completely without beginning – then there must have been another one out of whom You Yourself would have come forth, what would give us one primordial God and one who did exist through time. However, this does not seem possible to us because the primordial existence of the true God is also only the condition for a primordial power and might that is undeniable in You, what we already had come to know from a reliable source. And because of this wondrous fact, and also because these perfected men did recognize it with the sharpness of their spirit, we both hurried to You in order to greet You as the eternal Lord, God, Creator and Father of the solar and spirit worlds, and to profess truthfully before You and all who are present that we fully believe what we have said openly about You. Lord, forgive us if perhaps now we made any mistake.”

[4] I said in a friendly way: “O My dear friends, he who comes to Me as you now have come, does not ever make a mistake before Me, and therefore I also do not have to forgive him any. But what you as men know now, keep it to yourselves for the time being, because the world is not yet ripe to understand such deep truths. If you would relate such things, then they will be offended and by that they will even become more dark and wicked.

[5] However, when you will hear that I have once more ascended to My eternal Heavens, I will pour out My Spirit also over you, and then you may proclaim to all people what you have professed now openly before Me.

[6] But now we will speak to one another as very normal people, as if there would be no difference between us except that you are My disciples and I am your Master. No disciple – while he still has to learn – is as perfect as his master. But once the disciple has learned everything from the master, he also will be as perfect as his master. For this reason, I came into this world so that men would learn from Me to become as perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect.

[7] Because if the people of this Earth are destined and called to become children of God, they also must be completely equal to God, because whoever will not be equal to God in everything will also not become a child of God, and will not come to God as long as he will not be completely equal to God.

[8] Now therefore, My teaching is a true gospel because it proclaims to the people and shows them the way how they can become completely equal to God. Therefore, whoever hears My word, believes it, keeps it within him and lives according to it, he will be the one who will become equal to God, have eternal life in him and will be extremely happy forever.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 140

 

The destiny of man. The purpose of the Lord’s coming in the flesh. (17/59)

 

You should however not imagine that this is very difficult to achieve. It is just the opposite – very easy. Because My yoke, that I put on your shoulders by My commandments is soft, and its burden is easy to carry. But in the days of this dark time, God’s Kingdom must suffer violence, and those who want to possess it must therefore pull it to themselves with violence. Which means that it is now difficult to free oneself of all old and rusty habits that are rooted in men through the provocation and temptations of the world, thus putting off the old man completely as an old torn garment, and to put on a completely new man by My teaching.

[2] However, when in later times the children are already well educated in My teaching, then they will, as men full of good and strong will, have to carry only a light yoke by My teaching.

[3] My teaching as such is very short and easy to understand, because it desires of men only that he believes in one true God and to love Him above all as the good Father and Creator, and his fellowman as himself. That means, to do everything for him as he in a reasonable manner can wish that also his fellowman would do the same for him. Well, that much self-love every man will surely have, so that he will not wish that his fellowman would do something evil to him, and therefore he will also not do that to his fellowman.

[4] Do not ever repay evil with evil, but rather do good to your enemies, then you will make great progress in becoming equal to God, who also lets His sun go up and lets it shine in the same way for the good and bad people. Anger and revenge should disappear from your hearts. In its place should come compassion, goodness and humility. Where this is the case, becoming equal to God is then also not far away, and that is the only goal after which all of you should strive for.

[5] But, as already mentioned, right now in this time, all this is not so easy as one may think. It will cost a certain and inevitable effort from everyone. But the one who will fight courageously, for him, victory will also be sure and the reward of the conqueror will certainly not lack. However, the one who will prove to be a fainthearted coward will also receive the reward of a coward. Then there also it will sound like this: If you had fought, you would have been victorious, but because you were afraid of the fight you also cannot claim the reward of a conqueror and you only can blame yourself that you must leave the field of life like a coward without reward.

[6] I believe however that no one has to fear the fight, for the reward of the conqueror is such a high one.

[7] I am the One who tells you this, and I am of the opinion that for you, you need no greater prove if you believe in yourselves that I am the One. The One who you have recognized.”

[8] The two Romans said: “Lord, there may well be cowards, and we even know some of them, but we, who already so many times have seen death in the eye, have lost all fear for death. The one who goes to war and fears death is a bad soldier. The one however who despises death and its pain, is a true hero, will win most of the time and his reward will not leave him behind. O Lord and Master from eternity, in Your Spirit did we speak correctly or not?”

[9] I said: “Completely correct, but there are many in the world who fear the death of the body a lot and therefore prefer to stick to the lie and the deceit of the world, so that only their body would be saved. They are afraid of those who kill their body but after that can do nothing anymore to the soul. But they do not fear the One who can also throw their soul into Hell or into true eternal death.

[10] However, let us leave that alone now, because I did not come into this world to carry out judgment but to make everyone who believes in Me and lives according to My teaching, happy and alive. But one time there will still be many who will shout to Me: ‘Lord, Lord’. But I will say into their hearts: ‘Strangers, why are you shouting? I do not know you. If you knew that I am the Lord and knew My will, then why did you not act accordingly?’

[11] That is why I say to all of you: it is not sufficient that one knows Me and believes that I am the Lord, but one should also do what I am teaching you. Only by the deed will men be able to become completely equal to God.

[12] Acting according to My teaching will surely not be difficult for the one who has rightly recognized Me and who loves Me more than anything else in the world. Whoever loves Me in such a way, carries Me spiritually already in his heart and by that, also the accomplishment of life, thus the complete equality to God, and eternal life in all happiness.

[13] Look, now I have shown you briefly how things are with Me and with you people. Whoever will act accordingly will have eternal life in him. But now for the midday meal let us say nothing more about this.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 141

 

God’s humble love for men. Men’s position in relation to God. True humility.

The true worship of God. Forgiveness of sins. (17/60)

 

Agrippa said: “O Lord, You endless wise Master from eternity, how great must Your love be for us men, Your created beings. The fact that You wanted to humble down Yourself so deeply to come down from Your Heavens in our human form, to us worms on this dirty world, to teach us and to show us the ways that we should go if we want to reach eternal life.”

[2] I said: “Dear friend, your question expresses the overflow of your heart and is good, because also your heart is good, but in your mind it has only now just begun to dawn a little, and the love of God for you humans seems to be something indescribably wonderful to you because you imagine God as a very great and mighty emperor who shows himself only very rarely to the common people and talks even less to a simple man.

[3] If you look at God from that point of view, you are very mistaken, for God is the Creator of all things and beings, and not an endless proud emperor who, sitting on a golden throne considers his people to be disgusting and despising worms, and threatening everyone with death who would dare to approach the throne of the emperor without asking first and having been granted permission.

[4] However, if it is sure that all beings are God’s work, then they also are the work of His love – which is their existence – and they are works of the highest wisdom of God that gives them their corresponding form and also preserves them. So if without the love and wisdom of God no other creature would ever exist, then why does it seem so amazing to you when God loves you people so dearly?

[5] You yourselves are only pure love out of God and in God, and your existence is in itself by the will of God’s love only the embodied love of God. Yet, when this is irrefutable, then how can it be so amazing to you that God loves you so much that He Himself came to you in the form of a human being and is teaching you now the way to a free independent life that is equal to God and as if it were coming forth from yourselves. Are you then not the work of God? Yes, sure, that is what you are.

[6] But God is a complete Master from eternity in the greatest things as well as in the smallest. He has never been a bungler or a blunderer and so He does not have to be ashamed of His works. Man is the most perfect of all the numerous and endless different created beings, the pinnacle of divine love and wisdom, and destined to become himself a God. Why should God be ashamed of His most sublime work and consider them unworthy to approach it?

[7] Look My dear friend, such ideas about God, coming entirely from the outside world, you should let go. First of all they are false, and secondly they do not help you to come continuously closer to God, but such false ideas will only make you drift away from God, and in time, only out of false respect, you also would not even dare to love Him. Just like now there are so many people and nations on Earth who, although they are visible works of divine love and wisdom, have the completely wrong belief, as well as the completely false opinion that God is so endlessly exalted above His creatures that only a highest priest can approach Him on specific times with specific prayers during the most splendid and lustrous ceremonies. And after such an approach, the chief priest thinks of himself to be so endlessly exalted and sacred that not even a subordinate priest – let alone another unholy human – may dare to come near to him, since they are of the opinion that nothing unholy can approach the highest holiness of God, because the greatest holiness of God would be profaned by it, what they have considered to be a sin for the poor and blind people, which is so great that it had to be punished with death by fire. O what a voluntarily and more than stupid blindness of the people.

[8] Now look. I alone am the Lord from eternity. How am I now among you all? Look, I call you children, friends and brothers, and what you all are for Me, that is the destiny of all men, and no one is less or more. Because every man is My perfect work, who as such should recognize himself and know his value, and should not completely underestimate himself and consider himself less than no matter what kind of monster, because whoever despises a clearly recognizable work from Me, despises necessarily also Me, the Master. And what would that be good for?

[9] Friends, humility in the human heart is one of the most necessary virtues by which one can come first to the inner life of light. But that virtue exists actually only from true love for God and to fellowman. It is the gentle patience of the heart, by which man surely recognizes his excellence but who is never exalting himself as a ruler over his weaker brothers, but surrounds them with all the more love and tries to raise them to their own recognized higher perfection through teaching, counseling and action. Therein consists the real and only true humility, but it never exists in despising oneself.

[10] I Myself am humble and gentle of heart, and My patience goes beyond all limits, but you have never experienced that I have despised Myself before men. Whoever does not recognize him to be a work of God cannot truly respect his fellowman or even God, but only for a totally wrong reason.

[11] It is quite as wrong for someone to overestimate himself and soon become a persecutor and suppressor of his fellowmen and thereby losing the love as the divine life element, as it is to underestimate himself. The reason for this I have already shown you and thus let us stay equal and be of good cheer, because if you now, in respect of Me, because you have recognized Me, would behave too respectful and fearful, then you would no more be able to bear one more teaching from Me.

[12] Consider Me therefore as a perfect Man, who is completely filled with God’s Spirit and therefore He is now your Master and Teacher. Then you will be able to get along with Me in the best way, and out of this you will profit the most. Did you all understand this well?”

[13] Agrippa said: “Lord and Master, this we all have understood very well because all this is the very simple and naked truth. But what do we have to think now about all these prayers and psalms that were so much in use with the Jews? Do You not, as the now recognized only true God, want to be worshipped?”

[14] I said: “It is true that Moses said: ‘The Sabbath is a day of the Lord, then you will not do any hard servile work, and with a pure heart you shall pray to God your Lord.’ But I say to you now, that from now on every day will surely be a day of the Lord on which the true man should do good according to My teaching. Whoever does good according to My teaching, celebrates the true feast of the Sabbath and prays truthfully without ceasing to God, and I shall be pleased with him.

[15] If anyone is aware that he has sinned, he should make up with the one against whom he has sinned, and should sin no more after that. Then his sins will also be forgiven. But by praying in a certain manner, chastising oneself and fasting, no one’s sins will be remitted as long as he does not give up his sins.

[16] However, as long as anyone continues to sin, he cannot be accepted into My Kingdom of truth, because sin always belongs to the domain of lie and deceit. Look, this is how it is. But now comes the midday meal, this we will take and only after that we will continue on the way of truth.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 142

 

The form and spirit of the created beings (17/61)

 

The well-prepared food was set on the tables. All sat down in good order at the tables and ate and drank. The 7 men from Upper-Egypt sat according to My wish at My table and ate also with us. Here again we received fish, and even one of the noblest kinds coming from the river Jordan. They were extremely good, were tastefully prepared and were very delicious to all guests. The 7 Egyptians could not praise enough the manner of how the fish was prepared, and they ate the fish with real pleasure, although they had already taken bread and wine before.

[2] After a while, when we were eating and drinking, also Lazarus with Raphael came to sit at My table and both of them were heartily eating and drinking with us, because they took care of the young people, and only after that they came to us.

[3] The first Upper-Egyptian took a great pleasure in Raphael. He observed him from head to foot and said then to Me: “Lord and Master from eternity. When this servant of Yours was still living here in a bodily form on Earth 4,000 earthly years ago, his appearance was not so incomprehensibly beautiful as now in his pure spiritual state. If ever I also will become worthy to come into Your Kingdom, will I then also receive a more noble appearance? I must admit that my appearance compared by that of this servant is inexpressibly ugly. For our climate it is very useful but it is not beautiful and noble. I know also that in this world the outer form is not important, but only the perfection of the soul. However, in Your Kingdom also the appearance and outer form must be very important. If this were not so, the pure spirits would not be shown in such noble and beautiful forms. In this world the color of the skin and the outer appearance of a human being are for his inner value of no importance, but in Your Kingdom of Heaven that will be very important. This also I would like to know now. I have somehow an idea of it but in this respect I still do not have any clearness.

[4] I surely can always see in my soul the whole Earth, its creatures and conditions. I know the useless acts and striving of men. I can see everything as far as the center of the Earth. The myriads of spirits in all the elements are not unknown to me, as well as the inflow of Your eternal Spirit in all beings. But the reason for all those different kinds of forms in Your material and most of all in Your purely spiritual sphere of creation I was not able to discover until now. If You, o Lord and Master, would like to tell us something about this, that would give great peace to our souls.”

[5] I said: “My dear friends, the searching and discovering of the truth did cost you a lot of effort and work, but fighting courageously, you have – despite all the difficulties against which you had to fight – fortunately reached for the greatest part the goal that you have searched, and that is in fact the most important in life.

[6] Concerning the other things – especially those that you have asked for just now – the salvation of the soul does not depend on it, and that will be clarified to the soul when he is completely reborn in his spirit out of Me, and become one with it. But nevertheless, I will say something about it. The rest will come clear to you by itself.

[7] Look, already since ancient times men have made certain instruments that are able to produce sounds, just like by us the harp, the flute (Schalmei), the trumpet and the cymbal, by the Greeks the lyre, the pipe and the eolus harp. If these, and still other of those sound instruments are well and purely tuned and are used, they also give a pure melody, and besides that a well sounding harmony. However, when these instruments are out of tune, that means when the tunes are not well proportioned in relation to each other, then it cannot produce a melody and even less a pure harmony.

[8] Now imagine the human soul. If he is in a good and true proportion to his body, then he also will be in the right harmony of life, and this harmony gives to the soul his beauty, which of course will be only completely visible in My Kingdom when the soul will be outside of the body. However, when someone already in the body in this world pays attention at good and also at bad people, he will soon feel that a good person will show a pleasant and friendly appearance, while a bad person will show already from afar to the one who meets him, something repulsive, unfriendly and so also something ugly, that he cannot easily hide. The reason for this lies in the inner harmony of the soul or, with evil people, disharmony.

[9] Such differences you can also find in the animal kingdom and even in the vegetable kingdom. Of course all these differences of appearance and form will only come to light into its clearest form in the spirit world, while in the physical world it is only vaguely present. When you have the opportunity and want to examine this well, then you will easily find all the rest by itself. You are wise and are very much familiar with the powers of the world of nature and its elements anyway, and also in this sphere of the inner intelligence of the soul you can easily find the reasons and consequences if you want to occupy yourselves with this. However, this and endlessly many other things will only become clear to every man when the Spirit out of Me in his soul will be fully reborn.

[10] And therefore we shall not say a word about this anymore. But now we will still eat and drink and finish our meal, and after the meal it will be clear what we shall do further.”

[11] After My teaching, the 7 were well pleased, and the leader said: “O Lord and Master, we do thank You for Your words. They satisfy us fully and now we know very well how it is with ourselves also in this sphere, and how we must examine and investigate this case.”

[12] After this, we continued to eat and drink the rest of our meal. We stood up from the table and I blessed all those who were present here.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 143

 

On the hill near Emmaus (17/62)

 

Lazarus asked Me what I would do next.

[2] I said: “We will all go outside now and will stay on the hill that is located in the direction of the morning. There, even today we will witness and experience things, which for us people of this Earth are extraordinary.”

[3] With this answer all were completely satisfied, except Nicodemus, because he knew that two Pharisees would visit him in the afternoon.

[4] That is why he turned to Me and said: “Lord and Master, You can see in my heart and know how intensely I would like to be part of it and would like to be a witness with my eyes and my ears. When You now will go on the hill, which is still my property – that means, as long as I live – then I gladly would like to go with You, but now I have to stay home because of the two announced Pharisees, and have to suffer a great loss for my soul. Lord, what can be done about this now? On the one hand I find it good that You withdraw Yourself from the sight of these black people, but the fact that my eyes can see You no more and my ears can hear You no more for the salvation of my soul, that is really not good for me at all.

[5] For this, I am asking again, what can be done about this in a good way? Maybe I should not wait at all for those two Pharisees and go with You on the hill, or must I stay here in order to know the reason for their coming? However, the latter seems not necessary to me because to You, o Lord, everything is known anyway, and thus You know also what is driving those two Pharisees to me this afternoon. If it would be something unimportant, then I surely would let those two Pharisees come and let them go home again. If however, it is something that is in relation to You, then again, it would be good to stay home. What do You say, o Lord and Master, about this?”

[6] I said: “You are coming with us. Those two Pharisees will surely discover where we went and will immediately come after us. On the site they will experience how it is concerning the things that are in relation to Me, because I want it exactly that way, so that they will see all the things that will be happening outside on the hill, and their lips will be sealed in a very special manner. I Myself will do there little or nothing, and I only will work on them through the to them well-known Romans, through Raphael and through the 7 men from Upper-Egypt, and the two will be silent like a wall. Me however, they will not recognize and they will also not inquire a lot about Me, because among a couple of hundred people one cannot be so easily recognized.

[7] You do not have to leave a note behind at home in your house to let them know where you went to. They will hear that soon enough in this village from the children, the helpers and the girls to tell them where you went to, and they will soon be on your heels. But be totally without any fear because of them. They will not betray you. Those who will speak and act in My place will be inspired what they have to say and what they have to do. And so, be now without any fear and worry, and go now with us with courage to the beautiful hill which I have indicated now.”

[8] When Nicodemus heard that from Me, he became cheerful and he ordered his men to bring, after about 3 hours, a proper quantity of bread and wine upon the hill.

[9] Lazarus asked what had to be done in the mean time with the young men.

[10] I said: “They also should go with us to the hill, because I want that those young men will now also experience higher things. So they should follow us in an orderly manner.”

[11] Now everything was prepared for our departure and we stood up and went outside, only being noticed by a few children, and went to the specific place that we reached quite soon because it was not far away from the village.

[12] The hill was in total only about 30 man-heights higher than the village Emmaus, but had on top a big open space which was richly grown with grass, and to the north it was somewhat forested. Close to the middle of the open space above the hill rose a group of rocks on the grassy plain, and those rocks were 1 to 2 man-lengths high and were easy to climb up on all sides. On this group of rocks Nicodemus build a big lodge that was, compared to the taste of that time and that place, very pretty and spacious. And just like on the Mount of Olives, one could enjoy a very beautiful panorama.

[13] Very soon, I went together with some of My disciples into the mentioned lodge that gave a free view in all directions. All the others stayed around the group of rocks and were closely watching everything, to see what could happen next, or what I eventually should do or say.

[14] After a short while, when all those present were more and more organizing themselves around the group of rocks, I called Nicodemus to Me and said to him: “Be attentive now because the two arch-Pharisees escorted by two Levites will now also be soon with us. What you, Lazarus, the Romans, Raphael and the 7 men from Upper-Egypt have to say and do, will be laid into your mouth and into the mind of your heart, but for the moment tell those blind men nothing about Me.”

[15] After that, Nicodemus went back again to his place that he was sharing with Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, the Romans, Raphael and the 7 men from Upper-Egypt, and waited for the announced people to come, who arrived in a grumpy mood on the flat part of the hill.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 144

 

The Pharisees are visiting Nicodemus (17/63)

 

When they saw Nicodemus, they went immediately to him and said to him: “Because you knew that we would visit you this afternoon for an important matter, you surely could have waited for us in your house, conforming honor and decency. But because we can of course see that you have a great number of foreign guests with you to whom apparently you want to give a pleasant afternoon, we certainly want to excuse you. But who are those foreigners? The others, those who are from here, from Jerusalem and here from the neighborhood, we well know, but who are all those foreigners and where do they come from? Is there today a feast going on in Emmaus of which nobody told us?”

[2] Nicodemus said: “Here are eminent Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and Indians, who arrived today in my inn and who I have escorted to my favorite hill, so that on this beautiful day they can enjoy the view and the nature. But if you want to know more, then you should speak with them yourselves, because they speak all languages.”

[3] Then Agricola stepped forward and said: “Since you came here as spies of the temple, you surely will be anxious to know as much as possible concerning new and extraordinary matters, and this you also will.

[4] Look, I, who am now talking to you, am Agricola. I come from Rome and I am one of the most important servants of the emperor and possess full authority. In the name of the emperor I can command about all things and can manage all things, and whatever I command in the name of the emperor, must happen. Those who are around us are my companions and are also prominent servants of the emperor. My two friends here, Agrippa and Laius, you already know. Behind those rocks you can see a few hundred young people of both sexes. They are part of my guard, and the other men serve also for my protection. There in front you can see 3 wise men from India, and those who follow them are lodged near the city. They also are now with me. Here is a young man who, with his will can do more than all powers of the Earth. And here close to us, you can now find the amazing mighty men from Upper-Egypt, of whose power the two Romans have told you very strange things yesterday afternoon. They came here to visit the two Romans.

[5] So, now you know in what kind of company you are, who we are and where we come from and what we can do. If you all want to know these remarkable and perfect men better, then direct yourself to them, because I cannot and may not order them, because they themselves are completely in authority and possess all power in their will. I have spoken, and now it is your turn again.”

[6] Then the two Pharisees were looking at the hut that was build on top of the rock formation, and were asking Nicodemus who might be staying in the hut.

[7] But Nicodemus said: “It is written that it is not good when someone knows everything, and this principle you can better apply now also to yourselves if you do not want to provoke these prominent Romans, because as far as I have understood their words, they do not favor the temple so much.”

[8] After this answer, the Pharisees did not ask anymore to know who was staying in the hut. But they addressed themselves to the leader of the 7 men from Upper-Egypt and asked him if he was indeed the same man of whom the two Romans were yesterday describing such amazing and unbelievable things.

[9] The man from Upper-Egypt said with a strong voice: “Yes! What do you want from me!? You who are weaned from every spark of the Spirit of God, and furthermore who are persecutors of all men who are filled with God’s Spirit and who were showing to other people the ways of the light and living truth! Tell me, what do you want me to do for you!”

[10] These serious words of the man from Upper-Egypt were to the two highly ranked Pharisees not so pleasant. They thought about it if it would be advisable to ask him to perform a sign.

[11] Only after a while they said to the man from Upper-Egypt: “Dear man, we only want to ask you to be so kind to perform here also a sign for us, of which the power of your faith and your will would testify. Because we already have heard from reliable witnesses such remarkable things about you and because you yourself are now here, we also would like to be convinced about your inner power. Therefore perform a sign for us!”

[12] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “Yes, yes, I will perform one, but first you must tell me for what important reasons – just like you yourself have told Nicodemus in the beginning – you have come here today with your servants, because tomorrow it is Sabbath and you should have stayed home in order to make all kinds of preparations, because you may not do anything on the Sabbath. Tell me very precisely and truthfully the important reasons of your present arrival, and then I will perform a sign for you. But do not lie. Because if you lie, I also will perform a sign for you, but not to your benefit but to your ruin.”

[13] Then one Pharisee said: “I already can see that we can only speak with you open-heartedly, and therefore I am also not afraid at all to speak here openly the full truth.

[14] Look, in Galilee, which belongs also to the Jews and stands under the jurisdiction of Jerusalem, a prophet has arisen who performs all kinds of signs, and preaches a new teaching against the temple and against us. He deceives the people and sets it up against us. We even know that He claims to be a Son of God, let Himself be praised as the promised Messiah, and is hostile to us who hold on to the law of Moses. We only know too well that He is the son of an old carpenter, who, like his wife, is a simple natural man. However, because the named prophet is persecuting us everywhere, it is hopefully also right that we are persecuting Him and are trying to trace Him up.

[15] Last night however, we came to know by some messengers whom we have sent out, that He is wandering around with His disciples in the neighborhood of Jerusalem and that He is setting up the people against us that cannot leave us indifferent. They certified us that Nicodemus, our colleague, knew well where He was. And that is the reason why we came here to discuss it with Nicodemus and to deliberate with him what this matter was all about and to see what we lawfully can do about it. Look, this is the important reason why we came here.”

[16] The man from Upper-Egypt said with a serious face: “Then what would you do with the prophet if He would allow you to catch Him?”

[17] The Pharisee said: “We would immediately deliver Him to court, would investigate severely and witness against Him, and prove to Him of which crime He is guilty to us. If He has offended too much against us and the temple and has broken the law – of which we mostly are already fully convinced – then He must be sentenced to death according to the law.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 145

 

The man from Upper-Egypt reveals the thoughts of the Pharisees (17/64)

 

The man from Upper-Egypt said: “Look, I still am in the highest measure a perfect man of nature and still possess the gifts that God gave us, by which man as the last and most perfect part of the whole creation, becomes the true lord of the whole nature, of its spirits and its elements, and I can do many things. I am everything that is human, animal, plant and mineral on the whole Earth, from its existence to the future total destruction. And I even know all your moral, religious and political conditions, and I understand also all languages, even those of the animals, without ever having to study it from any scripture, because it was my spirit that God gave me that has taught me all that, even since my 19th year.

[2] So I can tell you that you yourselves already since a long time have put away your Moses completely, and because you want so much to rule over your fellowmen, and having a strong tendency for laziness, luxury, harlotry and adultery, you have made laws for yourselves, with which you are tormenting and torturing your fellowmen. You are burdening them with unbearable loads that you yourselves, for all the gold in the world, are not touching with one finger, because inside yourselves you do not believe in a God anymore. For, if you still would believe in a God, like formerly your ancestor Abraham believed, then you certainly would not have destroyed and twisted the laws that God gave to Moses. Then you would not have killed with stones the prophets whom God had awakened among you to continually let you know how far you have turned away from His ways.

[3] Now truly, the greatest and for you also the last prophet has arisen in this time, who was prophesied by your prophets. He is teaching the truth and let you see that you, because of your great and shameless sins against the will of God, are no more children of God, but children of the devil. It is easy to understand how this is filling you with anger and rage against Him, and therefore you are trying to catch and kill Him.

[4] I, as a wise man who am not from here, am telling you, that because He allows it, you will also be able to accomplish it and will also accomplish it, because your will is completely evil. But you only will be able to destroy His body for 3 days. His eternal, almighty Spirit you cannot destroy together with the body, and that Spirit will resurrect Him within 3 days. Those who have believed in Him are to be envied, but a thousandfold are you to be pitied, you evil hypocrites, deceivers and oppressors of men. All the things that were shown in the sky yesterday night will happen to you. Did you understand me?”

[5] With an angry face the Pharisee said: “How dare you, a foreigner, tell us such things in our face? Do you know our power? Do you know nothing about our power, despite your all omniscience?”

[6] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “Precisely, I said this because I can see very clearly and know all too well the total nothingness of your power and the complete truth of mine that I would not tremble for a 1,000 times a 1,000 soldiers. I only told you the truth. Why do you not want to hear the things that were said for your salvation, for which there is still a possibility? Because you are no more children of God but children of your own highest devil. That is why the things that I have told you are now offending you, and therefore you also want to kill God’s most holy Man. Be sure that I really am not afraid of your angrily glowing face. The sign that I will perform will show you the reason for it very clearly. Do you see there, high in the sky, the giant eagles gliding around?”

[7] The Pharisees and also the Levites were looking up and saw 12 of those dreadful giant eagles, and one of the Pharisees said: “And what have those animals to do with it?”

[8] The Egyptian said: “I have called those animals to this place to show you that a perfected man is lord over the whole nature. I will call them now immediately downward, so that you can look at them closely.”

[9] Then the Egyptian was only moving with his right hand and the giant eagles were shooting down like arrows and settled around the temple servants. Those were terrified and asked the Egyptian to order those animals, which were behaving very wildly and savagely, not to hurt them.

[10] The Egyptian said: “Are you already so much afraid of those animals? Then how come that you are not afraid of the One who you are searching and who is infinitely more than I am?

[11] See how terribly blind, foolish and silly you are, and therefore also terribly evil and revengeful. A truly wise person is never like that. He will surely forbid severely the foolish their bad tricks and only chastise them through a judgment when they became so hardened, evil and malicious that there is no chance of improvement, just like it is completely the case with you, servants of the temple. What could happen to me if I would let you be devoured by those animals that are completely obedient to me? I am telling you: nothing in the least.

[12] Indeed, you think that I quickly could finish you four. But what would happen if there would be an armed army surrounding me and would shoot sharp arrows at me? Then I would do the same with that whole army as I will do to you now by my will, only for a few moments, and actually am doing it already now, in order to give you proof. Now try to move away from here, or to use your hands. Only your tongue I will give its full freedom, but further you look like the salt pillar, in which Lot’s wife was changed because of her disobedience.”

[13] Then the four men were trying to move their feet from the ground and to move their hands, which was however impossible. Therefore, they were begging the Egyptian to set them free from their critical condition, because they wanted to change their attitude.

[14] The Egyptian said: “That you surely will not do, but nevertheless I will set you free.”

[15] Now they were able to move their feet and hands again. And the one Pharisee said: “If you possess such an incomprehensible power, you certainly could have become already long ago one of the most powerful rulers over the whole world. Who could resist you?”

[16] The Egyptian said: “I am not a blind worldly fool like you. To me all that matters is the true recognition of the only true God, His living mercy and love, and to the right recognition of the holy will of the eternal Father, and I want to hold on to this very strictly. And see, that is infinitely much more than all the treasures on Earth.

[17] If you, as so-called priests, would do the same, then you would have more than your great quantity of gold and silver and all your precious stones.

[18] As long as your former king Solomon was not sitting on a golden throne and living in golden chambers, he was wise, and by his will he possessed a great power, but when he later was surrounded with the glamour of the gold, he lost his wisdom and power and God’s great mercy. Then what was the advantage for the weakling with his immense worldly treasures when he finally even started to doubt the existence of God?

[19] But Salomon was in his last time, with all his doubts still much better off than you are now. His desire for splendor and also his great lust for women have brought the discontentment of the Lord, because Salomon was ignoring Him, although He appeared twice to him, talked with him and had warned him never to turn away from His ways. The result of it was that his great kingdom was divided and only the smallest region around Jerusalem was given to his son. And even this grace was only given to him because of his father David. But for all of you, no grace will be given at all, you will perish in the pool of your countless sins and your total incorrigibility.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 146

 

The punishment of the rich Barabe (17/65)

 

The one Pharisee said: “How can you say this about us with such a great certainty? Why could we not – even if we are such great sinners – be able to improve our lives? Show us only the full truth and let us see that the prophet from Galilee is really the salvation of the Jews, then we will believe in Him.”

[2] Pointing to the 12 eagles the Egyptian said: “Look there. Those wild birds of prey will believe sooner in Him than you. Did He not teach you already many times in the temple, and did He not work the greatest signs in your presence? Then why did you not believe Him? The more He was teaching and the greater the signs that He performed, the more you became angry and revengeful. If this is then undoubtedly the case with you, then how can you say that you are only doing this in order to come to the full truth and to be sure that He is the Savior of Israel, in whom you would believe? But I am asking you: who in the world would be better qualified to make Him known than He Himself? If you do not believe Him, then who will you believe and for whom do you want to improve your life then?”

[3] The Pharisee said: “Many times it is easier to believe someone who testifies about a prophet than the prophet himself.”

[4] The Egyptian said: “You also did not lack any witnesses, because in the first place all the prophets since Moses testified for Him, and furthermore, during this time you had enough living witnesses. Then why did you not believe them? They were proclaiming Him to you and you killed them with stones, and the last one you cut off the head of his body. And you are saying: ‘We rather want to believe a witness than the prophet himself’. When the Master cannot achieve anything, then what can His weak witnesses do?

[5] Yes, yes, you are now frightened to death for me because I, as a total stranger, have shown you what a perfect man can do, but for the first and most important Man, who is a God, you do not fear because until now in His immense love, patience and mercy He treated you as His most important children. But I tell you, that I as a complete man, compared to Him, I am even less than the total nothing, because only He is the Lord of my and your life and salvation. That is and stays an eternal truth.

[6] Your rage and anger against Him will never cease. Look here at my animals. Every time that I am speaking about Him, they are bowing their heads completely unto the ground, and in your chest grows by that the ineradicable resentment. Those animals are putting your wisdom and dignity to shame, but you are sinking still deeper into the pool of your ruin. And still you are saying that you can improve your life if only you knew the truth. How can a blind man see the light and understand if there is no light in him – and there also cannot be any – because he is completely blind? So also, you cannot understand a truth because there has never been any truth in all of you.

[7] He who wants to grasp and understand the truth must first have come forth of the truth. But already since your ancestors, you were children of the lie. How do you think now to be able to understand at once the greatest and most holy of all truths? In short, you will stay in your old sins and you also will receive the reward for your works.”

[8] Then the giant eagles were making suspicious movements around the Pharisees, who therefore became very frightened and were once more asking the Egyptian to take care, so that the animals would not hurt them.

[9] The Egyptian said: “Really, your miserable flesh would be too bad for these animals. But look, there below, a flock of sheep is pasturing at the foot of this hill. They are the possession of a certain Barabe, an extremely rich citizen of Jerusalem, who there in the already decayed sheepfold had completely ruined a very poor family that previously was in his service. He surely gave them permission to live into that miserable hut for a short time, but because their sickness lasted too long, and because the last time things became so bad, that he hardly could accept that there ever would come an end to it. So the situation took too long and it became too troublesome for him. As an excuse that the hut had to be transformed and renovated because of his expanding flocks, he gave order to the poor people, who were more dead than alive, to move out, even the same day, of this already miserable hut. O what a noble and merciful son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

[10] But the all-knowing and by you so hated prophet from Galilee went to this named terribly poor and totally deserted family, of which the children were begging naked for bread and received nothing, although this place is the supplying center of practically the whole of Jerusalem. And by His almighty will He gave them back their health. After that, He gave them bread, wine and decent good clothing, and by means of those eminent Romans He delivered them from this miserable dwelling place.

[11] There, in the midst of the mentioned eminent Romans, are standing the parents and their poor children, and they are being well taken care of. And look, all that is the work of your hated prophet.

[12] But you, who are claiming to be priests of God, you have nothing better to do than to deliberate day and night in your temple that has become a robber’s den and a murderous pit, to know how you can kill and destroy the greatest benefactor of the poor people.

[13] Now, say for yourselves: with what kind of savage animals from the forest and the desert are you in fact to be likened? Really, citizen Barabe is miserable and bad, but you are even a 1,000 times worse. Because Barabe will even be grateful to the great prophet that this hut has been evacuated. But in you the secret anger is growing even more, because the great prophet is so endlessly superior to your insignificant power, might and mercy. And therefore, Barabe will also be punished more mildly for his great injustice.

[14] Look at these giant eagles. They must – because, as I have said that you are too miserable and bad to serve them as food – fill their stomach with the flock of that o so good-hearted Barabe. And in order to help them to accomplish this task, they will be helped by equally as much wolves and bears. I want it, and so it will be.”

[15] As soon as the Egyptian had said that, the giant eagles suddenly lift up and zoomed down to the pasturing sheep, and each bird lifted up one in his claws and flew up into the mountains. At the same time, down in the fields, one could also see a few wolves and bears, by which the whole big flock was completely killed and eagerly devoured, while in this situation the shepherds were of course fleeing away as fast as they could.

[16] The 4 temple servants were looking down into the valley, totally astounded, and not one of them dared to utter even one word about it.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 147

 

The promise of the Pharisees (17/66)

 

The Egyptian however asked them: “Well, how do you like for example the signs that I have performed now?”

[2] No one of them dared to answer this man of wonders anymore, because being aware of their wickedness, they had a too great fright and fear for him.

[3] And he said: “O, miserable hypocrites! For me you are now afraid because you have seen this from me and have experienced it, but you are trying to catch and to kill Him by whose almighty will that I know, I have done all this. O, you miserable blind fools! Who is then more important, the Lord or the helper, the Master or the weak disciple? If you are already trembling so much for me, then how will you stand seeing His face?”

[4] With a small voice the Pharisees said: “Yes, yes, extraordinary mighty man, you are completely right, but finally we cannot help it when the temple turns so hostile against the prophet from Galilee. The temple with its institutions is, seen from a worldly point of view, still always a mighty stream. We are in the middle of that stream and we can impossibly swim against it. But if the mighty prophet cannot or does not want to change the temple, then what shall we as powerless members do against it? Yes, if we would possess your incomprehensible power, then soon we would have brought the counsel of the high priest to other ideas. But with words only, that is impossible. The most we can do the next time is to abstain from voting against the great prophet. We can also leave the temple. That means we can withdraw with our means into a more private life. But we cannot change the temple, what you, with your really great wisdom must very well be able to understand. But you, and still more the great prophet, could change the temple and its servants with these signs. However, we alone cannot do that.”

[5] The Egyptian said: “What you have now brought forward as an excuse, I know all too well, but I also know that it was precisely you two who are and were strictly on the side of your high priest, and that was actually forming the center of the most fierce hostility against the greatest prophet that this Earth had ever carried, and that is evil and wicked of you.

[6] But I say to you, according to God’s eternal wisdom in me: the great Master, who is filled with God’s Spirit and of all His power and might, does not want to give the people only signs, but rather by His pure wise teaching He wants to bring them on the way of the light and of life. Because even if signs are forcing the people to believe His word, they give nobody an inner free, living conviction of the great truth. However, as long as man does not have this truth, which he can acquire by living strictly according to the teaching, he is still, as far as his soul is concerned, to be considered dead. Because the pure, blind and imposed faith does not give man an inner true life, but only the faith that is full of light, and which became alive by acting according to it. And that can never be attained by outer miracles, but only by the living word of the eternal truth out of God by the one who accepts it as truth and lives according to it.

[7] The great Master from Galilee knows and perceives best what can give His people true salvation. That is why, He Himself performs only few miracles outwardly, but He teaches men only fully in truth the will of God and awakens those in order to act according to it. He only performs signs when He is sure that it cannot harm anyone’s soul.

[8] For this reason He also does not want to use force against the temple, and leaves it free to act. But if the temple will continue like this, it will, together with all its followers be left to the judgment, and will perish. Do remember this well and bind it in your ears. Because God, who is, was and forever will be, will not be mocked, because He Himself has destined man for a true, eternal happiness.

[9] If with man it would only be something unimportant, God would first of all not have created him remarkably wise and ingenious, so that he – already what his body is concerned – is the greatest piece of art in the whole material creation. And secondly, He would not have given him a soul who can in everything even become equal to Him, the Creator, if only he would take it seriously. And thirdly, He Himself would not have spoken so often to man, teaching him about His will, what purpose He has with them and what they can achieve.

[10] If you think about this now properly, and you look at your totally wrong way of life, then you certainly must see how much you always have acted contrary to God’s will in word and deed. And then you also must see that you, precisely because you always went against the will of God, now also hate the great Master from Galilee and persecute Him. This shows you all too clearly that all your works are going against the will of God and thus are completely evil. Did you understand me well?”

[11] The Pharisees said: “O yes, we have understood you well and you have also spoken the complete truth, but unfortunately we also can see that we cannot make a great change in the temple, even by telling the counsel exactly everything what we have experienced here. Besides, we will not keep silent before the high counsel, and will openly tell them our objections. We ourselves will no more be the adversary of the great Man from Galilee, because thanks to you we can see now what man can achieve if he knows the ways and possesses a complete earnest will. If you as a human being can already achieve that much, then why should the Man from Galilee not have achieved even more? For ourselves, with the Scripture, we will compare and examine His teaching, of which we already know a lot, because He already has spoken many times in the temple. And then we will make it the guiding principle of our own lives. Is that good?”

[12] Then Raphael came forward and said: “Then you will have to make a lot of things good for all the evil you have caused to mankind. Or else, it is not possible to receive forgiveness for your sins. Because if men do not forgive you what you owe to them, then God can also not forgive you.”

[13] One Pharisee said: “What is then this very evil that we have caused mankind? We kept very strictly the laws of the temple, but further, we do not know what evil we have done to mankind.”

[14] Raphael said: “Just a moment, the men of Nicodemus are bringing something to eat. When we have finished with that, I will give you a few proofs, that will show you how you have treated poor mankind. But now, have patience.”

[15] The Pharisee said: “We will surely wait, but if we will eat something, this I doubt very much, because what you have told us, is not so comforting and encouraging. Everything that the Egyptian has told us and the things he has done, did not touch us so much as what you have told us.

[16] It is certainly true that many people were tormented, for which we had to give command, because we belong to the highest rulers of the temple, but the laws that we did uphold and that we had to carry out, existed already a long time before we were there. We really cannot help it when there are such laws with us. If we then have harmed the people through that which is lawful – what indeed did not happen that seldom – then it is very much the question if we also have to repair the damage.”

[17] Raphael said: “Be a little more patient until we have taken the bread, the wine and the fish, then I will answer you.”

[18] Then the baskets with bread, wine and fish were put down before the different groups of guests. All of them were grabbing for it.

[19] Only the 4 temple servants did not want to partake of it, despite of the fact that many were insisting. Because one of them said: “When a Jew is a sinner then he must fast, pray, do penance in sack and ashes and not eat and drink like the other honest men who are pure and righteous before God and all men. We shall not eat and drink until we know how and in what way we became sinners.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 148

 

Raphael reveals the sins of the Pharisees (17/67)

 

When Raphael had taken the bread, a few fishes and also a cup of wine before the people, he quickly went to the four men and said: “Look I am already finished and will help you now immediately out of your justice dream.

[2] Just now you were justifying yourselves with the strict laws of your temple, which you have not made nor established. But then, who gave you the law that prescribes that you have to send accomplices, dressed in all kinds of styles, to the people in order to seduce them with all kinds of tricks to make them sin against God, against yourselves and against the temple? When someone was seduced by them, then he was accused by the seducers to you, and then you immediately send the executioner and servants of the law. These brought the culprit to you and, whenever he had any wealth, you charged him with unpayable penalties. Sheep, calves, cows, oxen, bulls and donkeys, corn, chickens, wine and money he had to give to you as atonement for his sins. If ever he had any beautiful daughters, then he had to offer them to the temple or he had to pay big ransom money. Now say for yourselves if that was not a sin, which you have committed in an abominable way.

[3] But the last time, you have made for yourselves an even better arrangement. Now you do not need anymore the seducers who are wandering around to seduce the people to all kinds of sins, but now you are sending out immediately the executioners and servants of the law. These must at once hold the people, who have any possessions, to ransom – under the pretext that the temple is completely aware of the fact that they have sinned heavily and in a condemning way against God and the temple – and take away immediately all their possessions. And whoever offers resistance must be punished immediately.

[4] Maybe your way of acting against the poor people can also be found in one of the Mosaic laws, or is it not a sin against mankind and against God?

[5] If ever you knew any attractive woman, then you seduced her to commit adultery. And when you had made her an adulteress, then surely every one knows what you further have done with her.

[6] In short, I am telling you: it was not as bad in Sodom and Gomorrah as with you in the temple, and still you dare to say in my face that you have treated the people only according to the law, which was not made by you.

[7] Can you excuse your trade in blood with the barren women from the neighboring province in the north of the Jewish land? And do you know nothing about the street robbers who were hired by you, who already many times, dressed as Roman servants and officials took away the treasures of the richly loaded caravans and kept it for themselves? That means, for you and the temple.

[8] Your way of acting is also, as I know too well, not mentioned in any law. But it is written that one has to be righteous, also to foreigners and, if they are no enemies, to give them the freedom to travel along the roads. However, because you as Jews, you have committed such unlawfulness against local people as well as against foreigners, how can you and will you make up for these and still a lot more iniquities that you have done to the poor people with immense brutality?

[9] How will those, who you have killed in a horrible way – spiritually as well as physically – ever forgive you? And how will you give the robbed merchandise back to the many foreigners, and the unlawful extorted atonement to all the local people for the sins you attributed to them?

[10] I have spoken now. Now what can you answer to me when I still add that you and your predecessors have only tried in a very zealous way to persecute and to kill the prophets because they showed you your abominations and warned the people for your deceitful and lying teachings and prescriptions, and that you yourselves for precisely the same reason want to destroy the greatest prophet from Galilee, because He, just as I and this foreigner from Upper-Egypt are witnessing against you? Speak now and apologize before me, because also I am a messenger of God, the Lord of eternity.”

[11] A Pharisee said: “That, you can be indeed, but I only do not understand how you, merely a young man, came to this wisdom. Are you perhaps also a man from Galilee and did you learn all that from the great prophet, to be able to act before us in front of everybody? And still, as far as we know, we have never done any harm to you.

[12] You have now accused us, even in front of these eminent high Romans, of abominable injustices for which we can never make up, even with the best of good will. However, if you take the miserable worldly circumstances into account wherein we live, then you will also see with your wisdom that no human can swim against the stream and that everyone must live according to the circumstances.

[13] By the man of wonders from Upper-Egypt and now also by your hard words, honorable exalted young man, we have, for the first time, come to realize and are convinced that there truly must be a higher life in man. Now then, the man who is completely convinced about this can of course talk and act easily. However, we for the first time have experienced things today that have told us that Moses and also all other prophets are no illusions of a heated-up human fantasy, but are real truths of which we did not have any knowledge before. And therefore, we now also realize that, according to the pure law of Moses, we have sinned terribly against mankind. But it is impossible to repair that now again, and it is also a total impossibility to, now that we ourselves have come to insight, to inform the whole temple and all the Pharisees in the whole Jewish land about our insight as a living truth.

[14] The Lord in Heaven will surely know why He has punished us that long with the greatest blindness. But because of that, I am also of the opinion that in all justice He cannot condemn us, because we fell over the cliff as blind people. As far as our strength and means are reaching, we shall do everything that possibly can be done. But to make up for every evil and wicked thing that has been done in our blindness, is impossible, except in thoughts.

[15] Thus, we also will take care in the temple that in any way the great prophet will no more be persecuted by us, because we will no more take part in the assemblies of the high and now in fact evil counsel. But whether the high counsel will therefore give up persecuting the great and mighty prophet, we really do not know. But according to what you and the great mighty wonder man from Upper-Egypt have said about Him, He will even be less scared of the high counsel than the two of you. Because what can the high counsel with all its tricks and decisions accomplish against the power of a Man who is equipped with all the power of God’s Spirit? Now I have spoken and it is now your turn to tell us if I have spoken correctly.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 149

 

The convincing miracle of Raphael (17/68)

 

Raphael said: “You have spoken well and correctly and I cannot contradict you in any of your words, but we, perfect men, possess also what is for you, the fatal gift: to see also your most inner thoughts, and these were not in agreement with your words.”

[2] The Pharisee said: “How is that possible? How can one speak differently than what he thinks? After all, the word itself is nothing else than in a certain way a corporal thought.”

[3] Raphael said: “Yes, yes, this is the way it should be, but with you this has never been so, and also this time it was not like that. If your word is the loudly spoken out interpretation of your inner thoughts, then it is truth. But if you profess something with the mouth but think in your heart the total opposite of it, then your word is not the truth anymore, but a lie that you surely can press on to people of your kind but not to men like we are, because we also have the ability to see and to hear the thoughts of men, and then a lie will not help.

[4] You certainly have said something truthful, namely that you will not take part in the counsel when the persecution of the great prophet will be discussed. And also that you can never make up anymore for all the evil that you have committed, but still want to make up for the things that can be made up. However, all this you only want to do because you consider us, and also the prophet, as arch-magicians and not as real messengers of God. You are very afraid of us as arch-magicians and therefore you do not want to turn against us. However, I am telling you that we are not magicians but truly messengers from God. The great prophet from Galilee however, is actually not a prophet, but He is what the prophets have prophesied about Him.

[5] If you would believe in Him, then you could receive also forgiveness of your sins, but if you do not believe in Him and do not accept His teaching and are also not acting according to it, then your sin remains in you, and therefore, also eternal death. He alone is the Lord, just like all the prophets have spoken of Him, and therefore He also can forgive the sins of whoever comes to Him. But as a master-magician, for whom You are taking Him, He will not remit and forgive your many sins.

[6] I will show you at once that we are no magicians as you think. Look at me, whether I am wearing something else than only this very light folded robe. Now I do ask you: what do you want me to make appear, only by my will? But choose something good, real, and thus intelligent.”

[7] Then the Pharisees were thinking about it, what they could choose which for the so-called young magician would not be so easy.

[8] After a while they said: “Good, dear friend, make for us a fully grown fig tree, that is loaded with fruits, and make it so that it would stay and bear fruits for years. However, we also want to taste the fruits immediately.”

[9] Raphael said: “Although it is written: ‘You shall not tempt God’s omnipotence, but you shall serve God’, your wish will be fulfilled immediately because the only concern is to show you the difference between a magician and someone who works with God’s Spirit. Where do you want the tree to be?”

[10] The Pharisee said: “Look, there, where a brown stone is laying at the brim of the hill. Precisely there you can put it.”

[11] Raphael said: “Very well, I want that there will be immediately a fig tree, just like you have wanted it, on the indicated spot. So be it!”

[12] Now at that moment, a fig tree was standing on the indicated spot. The Pharisees and Levites were so frightened by it that out of fear and amazement they hardly dared to say anything.

[13] But Raphael said to them: “Well, the tree that was desired by you stands on its place, richly loaded with ripe fruits. Go to it and taste the figs, and found out if they are useless magic or full reality.”

[14] Then one Pharisee said: “O, almighty messenger of Jehovah, we already can see that this is eternally no magic, but the might and power of God’s Spirit in man. May God forgive what we have done against His omnipotence. We dare not to taste the fruit that God had created so wonderfully by His omnipotence, because that would be even more tempting God.”

[15] Raphael said: “Oh, oh, so devout you are not yet by far. You are only scared that eating this fruit would harm you, and therefore you dare not taste it. But the other people will go to it first and taste the fruits, then surely you will see if ever the fruits are harmful for you.”

[16] Then Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and still a few others went to the nice tree, picked a few figs from the branches, ate them with great satisfaction and were praising the good taste of it. Then also the Pharisees went to it and ate also the really delicious looking and very attractive figs, and they find no words to praise the lovely taste of it.

[17] When they had finished eating several figs, they went, full of amazement, back again to the angel, looked at him from head to toe and said after a while: “Young man, are you really only a man like we are, or are you perhaps one or the other higher being?”

[18] Raphael said: “Yes, I most surely am a human being, but indeed not like you, because you are until now in fact not real men, but only becoming half human beings, where still a lot is missing until they will become perfect human beings. Now, what more do you want me to show you?”

[19] The Pharisees, to whom it was finally dawning, said: “O, dear young man, for sure you are just like a Samuel and a David, a young man filled with the Spirit of Jehovah. This sign is enough for us. We repent that we have tempted God this one time, and asked for a sign from you. Now we fully believe that it is no magic, but a pure wonder of God. It would be insolent of us to, like you have said, ask for an extra sign. But you can, as young man who stands completely in the favor of God, do at own will whatever you wish.

[20] It even seems to us that you also are the miraculous builder of that big pillar in the field, which can still be seen very well from here. Because it is not in a natural way that it ended up there, because one cannot see the slightest trace of damage to the soil and to the grass, that undoubtedly had to be there by the setting up of such a heavy pillar. Thus, it must have originated in a miraculous way. And if it is possible by God’s grace and power in you to create such a tree full of ripe and very good tasting figs as fast as lightning, then why would it not be possible to make appear that pillar in precisely the same manner?

[21] For by God, who created this whole Earth out of nothing, together with all that it is carrying and feeding, everything must be possible. However, in you, also God’s grace and power are active, and so also for you everything must be possible. You only have to will it firmly and everything what you want is already there. We are now fully convinced about that and we do not need another sign from you. You have wisdom and power and therefore, you yourself can still do whatever you want.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 150

 

The inner nature of man (17/69)

 

Raphael said: “Alright then, then I also will do it that way. Since you have accepted that I am the builder of that column in the field along the way to Jerusalem, I also tell you that this is so. If these are the facts, it also has been proven by this that the inner spirit in man is also – and also must be – lord over all the powers of nature, which are ruling in all the elements. Because without the Spirit – which is out of God and which works everywhere – they would not exist at all. And if this is undeniably so, everything must be possible for him, according to the eternal standards of divine order.

[2] However, before someone attains or can attain to this power, he must, by a most precise following of God’s will that is revealed to him by Moses and the prophets, make it so very much his own that he can act freely out of himself in no other way than as the will of God is showing in his heart, which is certainly not difficult for someone who has recognized God and loves Him above all, because the love for God constantly supplies him with intensified strength in the same measure as the love for God grows in his heart, and in this love, also the love for fellowman.

[3] If man has been united with God in this way, he is already filled with the Spirit of God. Because, love for God and the fulfillment of His holy will is already this fully active Spirit of God in man, because his new will is no longer the weak and helpless will of the human flesh, but the almighty, pure will of God.

[4] Whoever has such a will completely within himself, to him everything he wants must obviously be possible. Because what he then wills, God also wills in him. And certainly, for God all things are possible.

[5] Therefore, you must not be so surprised that the old prophets often did great signs. For, as mere men, out of themselves, they did just as few true signs as you have ever done. But because they were often filled with the Spirit of God by their pure walk in life already since their young years, this almighty Spirit performed the great marvelous signs. And this Spirit also filled their hearts with the light of all wisdom out of God, and what they then spoke to the people through this wisdom, was not the word of men anymore, but the word of God.

[6] However, because I, just like some of these people here present, am also filled with the Spirit and the will of God, everything must happen what the will of God wills in me, and nothing can resist me. If I would like to destroy this whole Earth and would like to devastate it completely, then, if I seriously would want it, it would succeed as certainly as I will now succeed to destroy immediately that sticking-out big rock at the somewhat distant mountain range over there.

[7] Look, there between midnight and morning is the mentioned sticking-out rock, of which the destruction will not hurt anyone, since it has caused the owners of that mountain and its forests more harm than advantage anyhow. I will it. And look, the rock does not exist anymore. Its entire mass is already at about a 1,000 days of traveling away from here in the deep of a great sea.”

[8] Being amazed, the Pharisees said: “But we did not see it lift up and fly through the air.”

[9] Raphael said: “Neither did you see the tree growing slowly out of the ground. Whatever the Spirit of God wills, happens just like He wills it. Because time and space do not count for Him. If however, He wills that everything takes place one after the other in time, just like you can see in the nature of things of this Earth, then it will also happen just like He wills it. Because time and space are also things that are always and eternally proceeding out of His will and out of His order.

[10] The cedar grows many hundreds of years according to His will, until it reaches its greatest height and strength. A clover plant is fully-grown in a few days. However, if you see the lightning shooting out from a cloud, then it needs very little time to reach the Earth. And so you see that for the Spirit of God all things are possible. Do you slightly understand now?”

[11] The still very amazed Pharisees said: “Yes, yes, we understand it now, as far as it is possible for men with our old blindness, but the immense speed of execution of the divine will in man, like in yourself, we hardly will ever be able to understand. About being here and there at the same time, no human intelligence can ever understand that, no matter the degree of its enlightenment.”

[12] Raphael said: “Then why not? Can you for example not transfer yourselves instantly in your thoughts into your homes?”

[13] One Pharisee said: “Oh, yes, that can be done, but of course without the least of effect!”

[14] Raphael said: “That for sure, because you are not one with the all-filling, all-penetrating and all-working Spirit out of God. This spirit is resting indeed in the innermost center of your soul, but it is still totally isolated from the universal Spirit, because of your too little love for God it also receives a much too little nourishment. For this reason, the spirit cannot expand itself in the soul and penetrate him and thus expand itself throughout your whole being. This does not mean spatially, but in the sphere of the will, which is just as present in it as in God Himself, by whom it has been laid in the heart of the soul as an indestructible life-spark.

[15] To expand in the sphere of the will means however, that the soul submits his own will completely to the recognized will of God and voluntarily allows to be ruled by it.

[16] If this is the case, that the soul – as if from outside – allows himself to be penetrated in his innermost by the recognized and precisely followed will of God, then he awakens the Spirit out of God that is resting and slumbering in the innermost of the soul. It unites itself immediately with his equal will-spirit that has penetrated the whole soul and which is actually the Spirit of God. And then he is completely one with it, just as God is and remains one with it, although on an infinitely higher level, as one eye is one with the other, although with man also one eye sees sharper and easier than the other.

[17] Once man has accomplished this, his thought, with which he has transferred himself even to the most distant region, is no longer an empty thought without effect. But spiritually it transfers to that place the whole being of such a perfected man who is able to perform everything. He sees, hears and perceives everything, because with the endless will-spirit it penetrates and controls everything, without losing even for a moment its individual independence. Since it penetrates and controls everything, it can also, like a thought, filled with the true Spirit of God, perform everything in one moment whatever the perfect man wills.

[18] But as long as man has not attained this most blessed and only true condition of life, he can only materialize his thoughts and ideas imperfectly in one way or another through the members of his body, and this only according to the laws of nature that is under judgment. However, the thought in itself is nothing else but your image in a mirror – without existence, without power and without any might. But it tells you anyway that, with it, you can instantly be in the most distant place, although – according to the previous explanation – without any effect.

[19] Now you surely will understand how it was possible for me to remove the rock from that rather distant mountain and to let it sink into the depth of a very distant sea.

[20] However, I have not done this sign to make you afraid of us or to compel you to accept a new teaching, which is actually the oldest on Earth. But I only have done these signs to show you the right way to receive the true and perfect life-power out of God. Without it, one is to be considered as almost completely dead in his soul, until he has not completely become one with the will of God, according to the way I have shown you.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 151

 

Divine guidance of humanity (17/70)

 

But you, with your totally wrong and from God completely deviated temple-conduct, are still very far away from it, and you still will withdraw yourselves further away from it. You are hoping for a Messiah for this world who will once more make of you a great, feared nation and will free you from the by you more than ever hated submission to the Romans. But such a Messiah will not ever come.

[2] The promised true Messiah has however, in the person of the by you so hated Man from Galilee, come to you and wants to establish among you a spiritual Kingdom on Earth and give you back the lost paradise that consists of your totally lost knowledge of the only true God and His will, which stands infinitely much higher than all the kingdoms and treasures on Earth. But this, you do not want, and you persecute the most holy One of all holiness in God and even want to capture and kill Him.

[3] Now judge for yourselves if in this way of thinking and acting you ever can attain to the condition of the true perfect life of man. Speak now and give me a good answer.”

[4] One Pharisee says: “Yes, yes, you have surely spoken very rightly, and now we see the great truth, that, because of our own fault we have strayed so infinitely far away from the true goal of human life. But we also see now that in this way we are as good as helplessly lost, because the temple will in its enormous great blindness not change its way of thinking, and thus we are lost, and the meaning of the signs in the sky last night has only now become to us as clear as the sun.

[5] Regarding the four of us here, we will exert all our strength to walk in the ways you have shown us, but of our kind there are still a few more thousands who are still much worse and more evil than we have ever been, and for whom this light will never be lightened. What will become of them if they will persevere stubbornly in their wickedness?”

[6] Raphael said: “You have the opportunity, and this will still remain this way for a short time. Whoever will come voluntarily will be accepted, but whoever will not come, but stubbornly will persevere in his blindness, will perish. Because nobody will be forced to accept this teaching of the inner life, because that would be of no value to his soul. The natural life on this Earth is given to man, yet the inner life he must obtain with his own strength.

[7] I tell you: the secret and the need of the inner perfect life lies in every man so close and clear at hand that the sun at midday hour could not shine brighter. But finally this does not help so much for the necessary freedom of the human soul to decide for himself, since man is from nature lazy and thus passive, which is also necessary, for otherwise man would not have the opportunity to awaken himself to life in order to become an independent master of his true life.

[8] But most people on this Earth do not allow that they should be wakened up from their sweet, lazy sleep. Not even to the point that they could at least experience once how wonderful and pleasant the dawning of the coming day is. They prefer to sleep till midday, and when they then finally wake up, they just start to get irritated that it already has become full daylight and that they were not able to sleep just a little while longer.

[9] Then I ask in the name of the Lord: with whom can this kind of people be compared? The animals have their time for rest and sleep. When they are awake, they are active in their way, just like the ants and the bees, and they are meticulously caring for their future because this lies in their instinct. Man however, who of necessity has a completely free will, despite all revelations finds pleasure in his laziness, and does not want the light, but only the night and the complete darkness, so that he can continue his comfortable, death-bringing sleep.

[10] What else can God do, who with His omnipotence can and may not influence the life of man as in the case of plants and animals, because of the fact that the human life must be utterly free and completely independent, in order not to make of them a judged animal or plant life? Only that which caring parents would do for their children when their hearts are concerned for the happiness and welfare of their sleepy children.

[11] They try to wake up the small ones by means of all kind of noise, and if the children still do not want to wake up, then they must – namely the parents – take a stick and give the children who are too sleepy some unpleasant advices, in order to show to them in an effective way that it is already time to wake up and to start the work of the bright day.

[12] And look, the Lord is doing just that with men, just like He did at all times. Time after time He calls them through His enlightened messengers to wake them up on the already completely bright day. But the children do not care about the calling of the messengers. They even mock them, chase them out of the house and even harm them. Then the Father Himself comes and says loudly: ‘But children it is already full daylight, get up and start your easy daily work!’

[13] Then the children are doing what the Israelites did at the time of Moses, acting as if they are awake, wanting to get up immediately to start their light daily work. But as soon as the Father leaves the sleeping room for a while, then the children do not think anymore of His call, but immediately go back to sleep again and sleep even deeper than before.

[14] Again the Father sends messengers to check if the children are already out of bed, but they come back and say: ‘Father, Your children are now even deeper asleep then ever before’. Then the Father says: ‘Oh, this cannot be! We have to help them out or else they will all perish. Now we have to use the stick’.

[15] Then the Father comes again with the stick. And look, a few children are jumping up for fear of the stick out of the bed of death, clothe themselves, and still sleepy they go to their daily work. And they grumble because the Father woke them up with the stick and has put them to work, but most of the children let the stick come upon them, get into a blind rage, get quickly up, throw themselves upon the Father and strangle Him. Then what do such children deserve?”

[16] The Pharisees said: “Oh, woe to such children! The deeply insulted Father will be furious with them and will cast them out of His house and will nevermore recognize them as His children. They will have to wander around in foreign regions and in the wilderness of the Earth like dogs among the unmerciful gentiles, and everywhere they will have to perform the most miserable services of slaves. Who will then have mercy upon them?”

[17] Raphael said: “Only the Father, if they will repent and return to Him again. But those who do not want to come back, the Father will not give instruction to search for them and exhort them to come back, but they will be left in misery until this will compel them to come back.

[18] But you are now belonging to those children who still – although with much effort – allow, under a lot of grumbling from their part, to be chased out of their bed in the bright daylight. Because now you are out of bed, do not go into it again, but remain in the day of the Father in the open field. Then the Father will have love for you and help you with the work for the perfecting of your lives. However, if you will return to your old bed, then you will be delivered to the hard-hearted taskmasters, which are named: poverty, distress, misery, blindness, desertion, pain and despair.

[19] For man carries the 7 Spirits of God in him, which are preparing the happiest eternal life. Likewise, he has the 7 spirits of Hell in him, which I have named before. Those are causing in him under their terms, eternal death and its torments.

[20] What I have just told you is the eternal truth out of God. If you direct yourselves accordingly, your sins will be forgiven and you will attain to the perfection of the life of your souls.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 152

 

Diversity of the gifts of the spirit (17/71)

 

Then the second Pharisee asked: “Oh, you who are a boy who is entirely filled with God’s Spirit, you very much seem to be a second Samuel. If it is still possible for us to attain to the perfection of our inner life, will we then also receive the inner strength that we have seen with you and before with the perfected man from Upper-Egypt?”

[2] Raphael said: “There is no perfection of the inner life with which also the inner strength does not closely go together, because the perfect life is also the perfect strength itself. Yet, the gift of the Spirit out of God to men is by necessity also different – everyone according to his inner nature – and this difference exists in order that in all eternity the blessed spirits will be able to serve one another according to the measure of their love for God, and out of this love, mutually to each other.

[3] That is why, in the perfection of his inner life, one receives the gift to be able to see into the future, the other the gift of wisdom to express himself in word and language, another the gift of discovering and creating, again another the gift of willpower, another the power of love, and again another the gift in the power of earnest, another that of patience, and again another especially the gift of the power for mercy, and again another that of the power of humility. And in this way into infinity, by one this is more prominent, and by the other one that, so that – as already mentioned – one spirit can help another one. But in case of need also all other gifts are united in every spirit, and he can use every thinkable and even so remarkable gift of the spirit out of God.

[4] If you, by the possible perfection of your inner life, will not exactly acquire completely my gift on this Earth, you still will acquire another grace and gift, and you will be able to serve your fellowman like I now have served you with my gifts. However, the one who has partaken of a particular grace and gift in a special measure out of God, will not be treated scantily with the other gifts.

[5] The fact that this is so, you can conclude from the infinite different talents, gifts and qualities of men on this Earth. One is specially a good orator, the other a painter, the other a singer, again another a remarkable counter, another a mechanic, still another an architect, one is a sail maker, a weaver, another a pharmacist, another a miner. And so, everyone has already received from nature a special talent. But despite his own special talent, he also has all the other human gifts, although in smaller measure, and each of them he can, by means of effort and zeal, develop unto perfection.

[6] Now, since you can already here notice such diversity, you surely will also perceive that the diversity of the gifts of God’s Spirit still are and must be much more diverse for those who have perfected their lives, because without such a diversity no real and perfect living happiness would be possible.

[7] Yes, the way to life’s perfection is for everyone the same. It looks completely like the flowing out of the light from the sun and the falling down of the rain from a cloud. But then, look at the endless different reactions of the same sunlight and the same rain on the kingdom of the minerals as well as on that of the plants and animals. If you already now can notice such an endless variety with the beings in matter, then in the perfect Kingdom of the most blessed angels you will find an even greater variety. And this has been established by God’s highest wisdom and love, so that the happiness of the spirits would be greater.

[8] So do not ask if you will probably also, in your possible life’s perfection receive my qualities, but go in all humility and love continually forward on the ways of the light that have been made known to you. Then you certainly will notice very clearly and lively which gifts of the Spirit out of God you have acquired.

[9] For, the human body has also very different parts and limbs, working all together in an active way for the preservation of the whole man. Did you ever hear any complaint inside yourself of the parts and limbs of your body that for example the left hand would prefer to be the right one, or the foot preferring to be the head, or the eye preferring to be the ear or reversed?

[10] When the body is totally healthy, then also each of its parts and limbs are completely satisfied with their place, function, purpose and property, and do not ever want to exchange.

[11] And look, in the same manner it is the case in a community of men and spirits that as a whole is also like a human being. One part represents the eyes, those are the seers, one part the ears, those are the hearers, one part the hands, those are the doers, one part the feet, those are the ones who always walk forward to the higher light, one part the heart, those are the mighty in love, one part the stomach, those are the receivers of what is good and true out of God, who in this way are feeding the whole community, one part corresponds to the brains, those are the wise, who continually are setting the community into order. And so it continues from the smallest to the biggest into infinity, and each ever so small part and each separate fiber of the community is in its kind completely mighty and blessed and takes part of the gifts and qualities of the entire community, just like also your feet takes completely part of the light of your eyes, and your eyes take part of the quality of your feet. Your eye rejoices over the fact that the whole body is carried by the feet, from where it can see new wonders and things and rejoices in its heart and mind. But this rejoicing is also communicated to the feet, just as if the feet were completely the eye, the ear, the mind and the heart itself.

[12] When you think deeply about this now, then you surely will be completely satisfied with every gift of God’s Spirit that you will ever receive. Did you understand me well now?”

[13] The Pharisees, being extremely astonished about Raphael’s wisdom, said: “O true, heavenly Samuel. How extremely wise you are. Only now we have completely understood you. And all this you have received from the great and wise Man from Galilee?”

[14] Raphael said: “Eternally everything only from Him”.

[15] The Pharisees said: “Only now we gladly would like to see and talk to Him. We are now no more enemies of Him, but very trustworthy friends. Do tell us where He is, so that we can go to Him to thank Him out of the deepest of our heart. We will leave the temple completely and follow Him.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 153

 

The reconciliation of the Pharisees (17/72)

 

But instead of giving the two Pharisees a direct answer to their question concerning Me, Raphael was first calling Lazarus and Nicodemus at his side, and only then he said to the two Pharisees: “Do you know this man, who was mostly persecuted by you, because he finally could not and did not want to pay anymore all what you were demanding of him?”

[2] The two Pharisees said: “Oh, the very rich Lazarus we know very well, and we also know what we have done wrong to him. Whatever we can repay him, we also will repay him as soon as possible from our personal possessions. But we have called out a curse over his inn on the Mount of Olives that was set firmly in the temple. This we can only wipe out from the black book with substantial ransom money. But we will give dear Lazarus the money from our own possessions, with which he surely will be able to blot out that heavy curse.”

[3] Raphael said to Lazarus: “Are you satisfied with this proposal?”

[4] Lazarus said: “With this I am completely satisfied, although, I even want to accept the sincere will for the deed. And thus I want to be and will be also for you a good friend. Besides, my dear friends, I have to confess honestly that your curse has brought me more advantage than disadvantage, because all foreigners were particularly flowing to my inn as soon as they heard by the tax collectors that it was forbidden by the temple. Because the foreigners were reasoning like this: ‘Probably the innkeepers from the city have accomplished that, for who the best and cheapest known inn on the mountain has been already since a long time ago like a thorn in their side, and they were, with all kinds of offerings on one side and all kinds of lying insinuations on the other side, looking for the support of the temple that is very greedy for offerings. Now for sure, we will only go to the inn on the mountain and we will give our money there for certainly the cheapest and best service.’

[5] And so you see, dear friends, that by the curse you not only have not harmed me but have particularly helped me, and thus I really do not have any reason to be mad at you. It is thus totally not necessary to blot out the curse from the book, because it is to my inn clearly a great advantage.

[6] Besides, you also have to realize that the same thing can happen to me what has already happened to many: they paid off the curse, but after 1 year, and often even sooner, the temple finds again a reason to call out a curse over their inn, and those who have been disadvantaged by it had to pay a double ransom money if they wanted to have it taken away from their business. Because it is written in your precepts: ‘If the first curse has been paid off, but the temple has called out again for certain reasons a curse for the same case, then the new curse makes the old one valid again, and so now two curses have to be paid off. And in this manner it can go up unto the tenth curse.’

[7] In order to avoid these very unnecessary expenses, we will leave the first curse. Especially when it gives more benefit to someone than disadvantage and one can become a permanent citizen of Rome. And the temple can then look into the black book from time to time and count and look at the amount, and think how good it would be for the offering box if someone would pay it.

[8] You, who are now my dear friends, must, instead of giving the ransom money to me from your own possessions, do good to the shy poor people, because I really can use the temple curse very well. This you also can do with the money that you want to give me for the damage that you added to me, because I have – the Lord be praised – already long ago received compensation for more than a 1,000 times. And so, if you want to do earnestly what you have promised to this young friend, we always will stay best friends.”

[9] One Pharisee said: “That we will do, because we have experienced things here that we have found extraordinary amazing, and which are in all aspects thoroughly the purest truth, while on the other hand the behavior of our temple is already completely only satanic. Therefore, as soon as possible we will turn completely our backs to the temple, as already so many have done that, and we will then live completely according to our inner conviction.

[10] You can say to this young friend, who looks like God, for whom also our most inner thoughts are not safe, that we firmly as a rock have decided for that. But before we will exchange the temporary for the eternal, we only would like to see and speak to the famous Man from Galilee, and receive out of His mouth some instructions about what we still must do in order to attain to one of the least degrees of the inner life perfection.”

[11] Lazarus said: “But the young friend, who is a true servant of the Lord, has already shown you everything and told you what you must do to attain to the inner life perfection. More than that the Lord Himself will also not tell you.”

[12] The Pharisee said: “Friend, you are right, because there can only be one truth. But even seeing this great Man of God must, for the one who is starting to believe in Him, stir up a still greater trust, compared to when he only speaks to His servants and disciples. With us it is not just an idle curiosity to see Him and to speak to Him, but because we have heard all this about Him and now also what we have seen of Him, a great mighty love has been stirred up in us for Him. And that is the reason why we would like to see Him somewhere and speak to Him. The young friend, who is filled with God will surely know where He, the sanctified of God, is at this moment. If He should be somewhere in Galilee, then we will follow after Him immediately, search for Him and ask for instruction and advice.”

[13] Lazarus said: “He has taught the people already many times in the temple. Did you not see Him there or maybe even speak to Him?”

[14] The Pharisees said: “You surely know that the so-called High Counsel almost never comes into the part of the temple that is meant for the people, because it has nothing to do there, and so we certainly have heard that He was in the temple and also that He has performed great signs, but having seen Him or spoken to Him, that we did not. And therefore, we now would like to search for Him, see Him, and if possible, speak to Him.”

[15] Lazarus said: “But I know that many Pharisees, scribes and elders in the temple have seen Him and have spoken to Him, and were also so hostile against Him because He showed them their injustices and deceit where the people were present. Then it is ever so remarkable that you in the High Counsel were only concerned about how you could capture the Lord in one way or another, in order to kill Him right away. And you, who are the most important rulers after the high priest, did until now really not see Him nor speak to Him? Really, this sounds a little strange after all.”

[16] The Pharisees said: “Indeed, and still, it is so. I even tell you now that the great Man of salvation could even be among you and that we surely would not recognize Him if He would not make Himself known to us Himself. Secretly we were already thinking that this true second Samuel would be the one. Only we find him a little too young, because we have heard that the great Man of salvation is already something like 30 years old, of what however, we also are not sure. But we only desire now very much to see Him personally and speak to Him. Do tell us therefore where we can see Him and speak to Him.”

[17] On this, Lazarus gave no answer, because he noticed that I Myself stepped out of the hut and came down to them.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 154

 

The Lord and the Pharisees (17/73)

 

Since Lazarus did not give them an answer, the Pharisees turned again to Raphael and said: “Do tell us why we may not know where the great Man of salvation from Galilee is now.”

[2] Then I went and stood before the Pharisees and said: “Here I am, a good Shepherd amidst My lambs. I do not flee when wolves are approaching My flock, because these lambs are My property. I am no mercenary who runs away when he sees a wolf approaching his flock. A mercenary flees because the sheep are not his. What will he care about the property of his lord?

[3] But I am the Lord Himself. I love My sheep because they are Mine. They know Me and always hear My voice when I call them.

[4] It is true that you also are shepherds, but the sheep are not your property. As long as you can receive wool from them you do not care much if the sheep that are already shaved are torn up by wolves or bears, because the flesh of the sheep is obviously not yours.

[5] At first you came as savage animals among My flock, but I as their good Shepherd did not run away and did not leave My flock. Rather I would give My life for them than to leave the flock. Would you also do that for your flock?”

[6] One Pharisee said: “Lord and Master, truly, up to this moment we would not have done that, but now, because we have been partakers of the great grace to know You personally, we would put our lives into the balance for Your sheep, although we are Your lowest helping shepherds. Yes, we ourselves were for the people until now only savage wolves in sheep’s clothing. But here, a great light has come upon us. We have completely changed our viewpoint and want from now on to be Your disciples. Because in the teaching of our temple there is now only death and judgment and the greatest night and the darkness of life. But in Your teaching there is light, life and invincible power, of which we have seen proof in a more than convincing way.

[7] Therefore, we have also taken the firm decision to leave the temple forever and to conform ourselves completely to Your teaching, so that maybe we still can attain to the lowest degree of the true inner life perfection, for which reason your young servant, as well as before that, this man from Upper-Egypt, have very clearly shown us the way. But still we wanted to know You also better, so that eventually we can receive from You some more prescriptions about what we all have to do in order to be partakers of Your grace, even in a very little measure.

[8] Do forgive us our many big sins, especially those that are impossible to make up again in one way or another. However, for those that we can make up, in love for You we will exert all our effort to make up for them in a way that hopefully You kindly will show us. But moreover, we ask You, o Lord and Master, to forgive us, because we have troubled You here.”

[9] I said: “Yes, yes, all this is certainly well meant, if it would not be for the fact that you have sinned so dreadfully and so completely unscrupulously. Such an uninterrupted sinning for years against God and all fellowmen and even against the whole nature has weakened and totally crippled your souls to such a degree that it will cost you considerable effort before your souls will look human again.

[10] It is true that in your puffed-up worldly blindness you did not know what you did, and therefore you are somehow to be excused. But also, out of Me you did not lack any warnings in your heart which clearly told you: ‘Fear God and do not do wrong to a person’. But you did not pay any attention to these warnings, and each one was criticizing the other for his bad human prescriptions and said: ‘It is more intelligent to act according to the prescriptions which are established anyway than to give way to our own inopportune feelings of mercy and then to become the target of the mockery of the eminent and mighty of the country.’ Finally that has made you totally inhuman, and you became in your soul the most fierce and savage animals. And look, that is now the difficulty with you all. How will you now change your bloodthirsty true tiger souls into human souls again?”

[11] The two Pharisees said in a small voice: “Yes Lord and Master, You are seeing us also inwardly, and everything will therefore be precisely as You have so mercifully revealed to us. But precisely for that reason we would like to receive advice from You, how we can be helped. From Your servants we have heard that for You all things are possible, and we trust therefore also firmly that You can still help us, if You want it. Really, Lord and Master, we are firmly decided to do everything whatever You will advise us for the improvement of our soul.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 155

 

The 3 degrees of inner life perfection (17/74)

 

I said. “To promise is much easier than to do what has been promised. You are still too much attached to the world and to your great treasures, on which is sticking a lot of blood of widows and orphans, and this creates for worldly men always an almost unbridgeable gap.

[2] However, as with God all things are possible, so it is also possible for the most hardened worldly man and sinner to change himself quickly and efficiently if he sincerely, in full faith and trust in God, does what the divine wisdom is advising him. He must then perform a true miracle on himself by a strict reversing of his will. This by a total self-denial of all his former weaknesses, habits, lusts and bad tendencies that arise from the unfermented and very impure nature spirits of his body in his soul, and polluting and disfiguring him.

[3] Do count how many different passions you have. Take a serious decision to overcome them all and then follow Me. If you can do that, then you also can attain quickly to the inner life perfection, but if you cannot do that, it will be very difficult.”

[4] The Pharisees said: “As far as the firm will is concerned, we are not lacking it. For if we had the earnest will to sin, then why could we not have the same to do what is good?”

[5] I said: “Yes, yes, that is not a bad reasoning. But the will to sin finds in man always a lot of support, and more precisely in the pricks and tendencies of his body. But for the will to do what is good, his body does not find any support. This he finds only in the faith in a true God, and most of all in the love for Him, and also in the hope that the promises that God has given him will be completely fulfilled.

[6] Therefore, whoever can battle against all the bad passions of his body, and in this way has become master over himself by the firm and living faith, by the love for God and fellowman and by the unwavering hope, will then also soon become lord over the whole visible nature. And then he already finds himself in the first degree of the true inner life perfection, because he has become fully a lord over himself, although he still will oftentimes not lack all kinds of temptation that will prick him to make one or the other light sin.

[7] If he then also succeeds in making a firm pact with all his sense-organs to turn away from all earthly pricks and to turn only towards the pure spiritual, then this is already a sure sign full of the light of life that the inner Spirit out of God has totally filled the soul, and then man is already in the second degree of the inner true life perfection.

[8] In this degree, man has already received such great strength and life freedom that he, because in his soul he is completely filled with God’s will and can act according to it, can nevermore commit any sin, for when he himself has become pure, everything is also pure to him.

[9] But although man is then already a perfect lord over the whole nature and has within him the complete conviction that he can sin no more, because all his actions are guided by the true wisdom out of God, yet he still remains thereby in the second degree of the inner life perfection.

[10] But there is still a third and most high degree of inner life perfection.

[11] Of what does it consist, and how can man attain to it?

[12] It consists in the fact that the perfect man, who knows very well now that he is a powerful lord of the whole nature, and without sinning can do whatever he wants, still, in a humble and meek way, controls his willpower and might, and in all his actions, out of pure love for God, only waits until he receives for this reason from God an assignment, which is for the perfect lord of nature still a very difficult task, because he, in his full wisdom always realizes that according to the will out of God that lives in him, can only do the right thing.

[13] But an even more profound spirit will also realize that between the special will of God in him and the most free and endless universal will in God there is still a big difference, by which he makes his special will completely subordinate to the universal divine will, and will only do something of his own power when he directly receives an assignment for it by the only self-will in God. He who does that, has attained within him to the innermost and highest life perfection, and this is the life perfection in the third degree.

[14] Whoever has attained to it is also completely one with God and possesses just like God the highest might and power over everything in Heaven and on Earth, and nobody can ever take it away from him because he is completely one with God.

[15] But nobody can reach this highest life perfection wherein the archangels are, before first having attained to the first and second degree of life perfection.

[16] Every archangel has the power to achieve at once everything that God can achieve unlimitedly Himself. But still, no archangel does anything out of himself, but only when he receives the assignment from God. Therefore, even the highest archangels are asking God to assign them to do this or that, especially when they can see that the people of this Earth are lacking one thing or the other.

[17] See this young man. He is completely in the third degree of inner life perfection, and what he wills is already as good as an accomplished deed, but still he does not do anything out of himself or for himself, but only what I will. However, if I tell him: ‘Act now only out of yourself, and as you think is right’, then he also will show what is within him and will act accordingly.”

[18] The Pharisees said: “Thus this young man is already equal to an archangel, because Your inner being is the full pure Spirit of God?”

[19] I said: “Yes, yes, happy the one who believes that in his heart.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 156

 

About life in a monastery and hermits. The purpose of temptations. (17/75)

 

The Pharisees: “Lord and Master. We have heard now from Your divine mouth of the difficulties in obtaining the inner life perfection, but also of the endless advantages of it. The difficulties did not discourage us to do whatever You may prescribe us to do. Even if we physically have to mutilate ourselves under the greatest pain, then in full earnest we are prepared for it.”

[2] I said: “Oh that would be the greatest foolishness, because whoever wants truly to conquer an enemy must line up himself in the open field in front of him, and should not hide behind all kinds of defensive works. Because when the enemy will see the entrenchment, he will indeed desist for a certain time from an open attack because he realizes that with his power he is not a match for the well-defended opponent. But he surrounds the well-defended opponent, and then he will call for fortifications from all sides. After that, when the enemy feels strong enough, he attacks the still well-defended opponent and overpowers him without difficulty.

[3] I consider the case when the enemy was not able to do anything against the well-defended opponent as long as he stayed behind his entrenchment. But the opponent can out of fear for the stronger enemy not stay forever behind his strong entrenchment. He will have to leave it once and will have to come in the open field. How will he then fare when the enemy, who secretly is lying in wait somewhere, will attack him? I tell you: this second open battle will then be much more difficult for him than if he had attacked the enemy immediately in the open the first time.

[4] Man can indeed withdraw himself completely from the world like the hermits of the Carmel and Zion, who do not look at a woman and whose scanty food consists of roots and all kinds of berries, wild honey and carob beans. Also they castrate themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God, because in this way they cannot fall into temptation to transgress against a law of Moses. Therefore, they do not have any possessions, no parents, no wives and no children, even no manhood. They life in wild canyons, so that they would not be tempted by the beauty of the luxuriant fields of the Earth. They do not talk with one another to prevent that someone would say something that would offend him or his neighbors.

[5] Under such foolish life conditions, by which they are disconnecting themselves from the reality and protect themselves against the possibility to sin, they surely are keeping the laws of Moses, but for whose benefit? I am telling you: that does not help them in the least, nor other people. Because God did not give man different powers, abilities and talents to let them slumber as a hermit in a little hut or cave, but to, according to God’s revealed will, be active, and thereby be of benefit for himself as well as for his fellowman.

[6] That is why God has never said to man: ‘Mutilate and castrate yourself, so that your body will not be tempted by the body of a woman and will abstain from harlotry and adultery’. But when God gave the woman to Adam He only said: ‘Go, multiply and replenish the Earth’. And with Moses it is stated: ‘You shall not commit fornication and harlotry, you shall not covet the woman of your fellowman and not commit adultery.’

[7] So man should be active in the world and voluntarily resist the temptations of the world. In this way, his soul will become strong and the power of God’s Spirit will penetrate him. But by going through life as a sluggard no one will ever come to the true eternal life, because this requires the greatest possible full activity on the countless levels and spheres of life.

[8] It is true that such people are sinning as little as a stone, but is that perhaps a merit for the stone? One day the soul will however have to leave his mutilated body, then what will he do in the beyond in his complete weakness and total inactivity?

[9] There, all kinds of trials will be coming upon him that must urge him to true activity. And these trials will for the soul – with his talents that he already possessed here on Earth – be precisely the same as here. However, they will be for the soul surely much stronger than here, because whatever a soul thinks and wills on the other side, will also be as a reality.

[10] Here he is only confronted with his invisible thoughts and ideas that he can easily fight and of which he also can easily get rid of, but there, where thoughts and ideas are becoming a visible reality, do tell Me, how will the weak soul fight against his self-created world? If for instance already here someone is filled with burning passion by the thought of the beautiful young woman of the neighbor, how will he then fare when his thought will, according to his wish and will, stand completely as a – although apparent – reality before him?

[11] Therefore, the temptations on the other side are much stronger than here. And what will the soul be able to do to free himself from the hard imprisonment of his own evil passions? There he will have to work much more on his own to free himself from the confusion of his own thoughts, ideas and imaginations. Because if he will not start to work himself, he will not be helped immediately by the mercy of God or any other spirit, just like that is already for the greater part the case here on Earth.

[12] Because, whoever does not seek God seriously, but only pursues the lusts of the world, is losing God, and God will give him no sign from which he could perceive how deep and how far he already went astray from God. Only when he will start again to seek God out of his own effort and necessity, will God then again draw nearer to him and will let Himself be found by the seeker in the same measure as it has become truly serious for the seeker to find God and to know Him.

[13] Therefore, the pious laziness is good for nothing, because it has no value of life for Me.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 157

 

True repentance and penance (17/76)

 

Whoever says to Me: ‘Lord, Lord’, is still far away from the true Kingdom of God. However, the one who believes in Me and does what I have taught him to do, will achieve what has been promised and shown to him. And only by the action he will perceive within himself that the words I have spoken are not words of a man but truly divine words, because My words are in itself love, light, power and life. My words are telling you clearly what My will is. Whoever accepts My will within him and acts according to it, will have eternal life within him and will continue to live, even if he has – if that would be possible – died physically many hundreds of times.

[2] If you are then so serious about reaching at least to the first degree of inner life perfection, then go home, distribute your superfluous great treasures among the many poor, and then come here and follow Me. Then you will shorten your still very long way to God’s Kingdom a great deal. If you will follow Me, you should however be dressed as simple as you can see with Me and My true disciples. You do not need a stick and no pockets in your skirt and cloak. But all you need is a willing and open heart. For all the rest the Father in Heaven will take care.”

[3] Upon this advice the two Pharisees and also the two Levites began to look noticeably sour, and the one Pharisee said: “Lord and Master, I can clearly see that You have spoken correctly and truly, but bear in mind that we have a wife and children for whom we first have to make some arrangement and have to give the highest necessities. As soon as we have done that as fast as possible, we will distribute our abundance among the poor and then we will follow You with a joyful heart.”

[4] I said: “Are your wives and children then better than all the widows and orphans from who you have taken away all their belongings and thrown them into the greatest need and misery? Now, if these have to work hard every day to earn their meager bread while your wives and children are bathing into the unrighteous received wealth, and moreover out of pride not knowing what to do, and are spitting in a despising way in the direction of a poor widow who with her half-naked and by hunger starving children has to work for a scanty salary and whose possessions were taken into property by you in the most unrighteous and loveless way, then it surely will not be unrighteous if your proud, arrogant wives and children would some time also suffer hunger, and in this way come to realize – what would be very beneficial for their souls – how pleasant it really was for the poor widows and orphans, but at whom they have so often spat, and who they have called ragged rabble for who it was hardly worth to let the sun shine on them.

[5] But I do not want that you in one way or the other would feel obliged to do that, because your will is as free as Mine, but because you have asked Me for advice to know what you should do in order to reach your inner life perfection more speedily, I have given you also a completely correct and true advice.

[6] I already told you beforehand that it is much easier to give a promise than keeping it. And moreover I add to this: ‘whoever is not able to leave house, field, wife and child for the sake of My name, is by far still not worthy of Me. And whoever will put his hands to the plow of God’s Kingdom but thereby still looks back to the things of the world, is by far still not fit for the Kingdom of God.’ This you do know now, do whatever you want.”

[7] The Pharisee said: “But Lord and Master, look now at Lazarus who is a real friend of You and also Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, they surely are still much richer people than we. Why do You not ask from them what You are demanding from us?”

[8] I said: “Between their and your possessions is a great and sky-high difference. Their goods are a complete righteous possession. They are the righteous possessions of their family. And the truly, royal great treasures that they are containing are the result of true and still very unselfish diligence and blessing from Heaven. Likewise, the three named men are now as good as the only supporters of the many thousands who have become poor and miserable by your ungodly actions and attitudes. So they are still the real executives of God on Earth over the entrusted earthly goods, and they also consider their goods not differently than what they really are, a gift from above that they have to manage and arrange for the care of the many poor.

[9] Is this perhaps also the case with your robbed goods? Such men should possess even much more, and that would also be possible for God in a most just and pleasing way, if you would not have taken away more than half of it with all kinds of tricks and deceit and also with force. You have fattened yourselves with it and because of this, they had to distribute less to many poor people. Was that perhaps also an action from you that was pleasing to God, and could God ever bless your possessions? Yes, the blessing of Hell is resting upon it, but certainly not God’s blessing, because if God’s blessing would be resting upon it, then I surely could tell you this.

[10] Then do not compare yourselves with these three and also not with these highly ranked Romans there, who are also very rich, but their riches are justified. And also they are benefactors to the many thousands, and they have an abundance of blessing from above, although they are gentiles, but they are immensely closer to God than you as Jews.

[11] Concerning such worldly rich men like you are, I say in My full divine power and might the same as I have said to a rich man who very much was like you: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for such a rich man to enter God’s Kingdom’. Did you hear this now?”

[12] Then the Pharisees said: “O Lord and Master, we realize now all too well the truth of Your words, and out of ourselves we have already decided to follow Your advice precisely, but we are asking You to give us the necessary strength and the true courage. Because only now we are beginning to fully realize how difficult it is for a soul who once has been caught by the power of Hell to free itself out of its might. If You, o almighty Lord and Master, do not help a prisoner, then he will stay imprisoned forever.”

[13] I said: “Yes, sure, that you have well said, that is why you should refund every penny to the one you have cheated. Because if you do not do that, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, and just like you, also no one else can.

[14] But because you impossibly can no more refund the inflicted damage to a lot of them whom you have cheated, you can distribute all that you are possessing, with a good will and a good heart, among the poor. And by that, be not afraid of the world. Then many of your sins will be forgiven, and then you may come and follow Me. Where I will be, you easily will be able to know, if ever you are serious to follow Me. Of course, it will take you a lot of fighting, but whoever is fighting justly and cleverly, will also surely overcome, and a sure victory is still always worth the fight.

[15] Now I have told you all you have to do and you can never excuse yourselves by saying that you did not know it. From now on it will depend on your will and your wisdom.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 158

 

About the right wisdom and carefulness (17/77)

 

A Pharisee said: “Lord and Master, so according to what You said, by the distribution of our treasures among the poor we may use the right wisdom and carefulness?”

[2] I said: “Once I have said something, it has been said for eternity, because this whole visible sky and this Earth will pass away, but My words will not in all eternity.

[3] Even if somebody would do something extraordinary good, but in a foolish way, then this deed has no value because thereby the good has not been achieved. If someone wants to do something good for his fellowman he must not make it known and must not let him be glorified and be praised but he must keep it secret in such a way that practically his right hand does not know what his left is doing. Then God, who also sees the most secret things, will reward that work with His blessing.

[4] Would it be wise if you would give your treasures to the temple to be distributed among the poor? The temple would indeed praise you openly before everyone but that would not help the poor.

[5] But find a righteous middleman. That is for you the best way. Your names will remain unknown, you will avoid the praise and honor of the world, and the poor are helped in the best way. For it is better to arrange with a righteous middleman a provision for many poor people, for the right purpose, in the right measure and for the right necessity, than to give in the hands of a poor person in one time a lot of money. Because that would make the poor person, who already became very humble, very easily proud and would spoil his patient and to God consecrated soul.

[6] You can find such a middleman very easily. I can even name here five of them. Take for instance Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea, or friend Lazarus, or the innkeeper from the valley of Lower-Bethany, or standing next to him, the innkeeper of the large inn at the highway near Bethlehem.

[7] And so, I also have shown you this way. If your family should be in need, then it is also best to find with them a necessary and a to Me pleasing shelter for body and soul.”

[8] The Pharisees said: “Lord and Master, we thank You that You have also given us this advice. Partly already today, but for sure on the first day after the Sabbath it will be done. Oh, by this advice from You, a heavy stone has been taken away from our chest. Yes, now it is not difficult for us to carry out everything.

[9] What do You think, Lord and Master, if we give to each of the named friends a part of our treasures, so that one person would not be too heavily loaded with the work for the poor?”

[10] I said: “This depends now on you. One is as good as the other.”

[11] With this, both of the now completely converted Pharisees, were very satisfied, they went to the five named men and were discussing with them.

[12] Then also the two Levites came to Me and said: “Lord and Master, what shall we do? Our wealth is still small, and what we are possessing we have inherited, and in this way it is our rightful property. But if we may follow You, then we also wish to do what the two chiefs are doing.”

[13] I said: “You are free to do so. But look at these first disciples of Mine. They also have a rightful possession at home and they have wife and children. For the sake of God’s Kingdom, they have left everything and followed Me. This you also can do.

[14] But I tell you also: the birds have their nests, and the foxes have their holes, but I, who am also on this Earth bodily a Son of Man, do not have so much in my possession that I could lay My head on it.”

[15] The two Levites said: “And still, Heaven is Your throne and this Earth is the footstool under Your feet.”

[16] I said: “This was not inspired by your flesh, but by your inner spirit. Remain in this knowledge and be patient. Then you will easily reach the inner life perfection. Thus you also can go and discuss with Lazarus.”

[17] The two Levites followed this advice at once and they went to Lazarus.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 159

 

The spiritual eye of the men from Upper-Egypt (17/78)

 

Nicodemus came to Me and said: “Lord, I thank You. By the complete conversion of these two chiefs I have been released of a great fear, because actually it was them whom I feared the most.”

[2] I said: “Let us not talk about that anymore. I will rest now, after which I also will give them a sign. Only after that they will firmly believe in Me. Deliberate now among yourselves.”

[3] Then I went into the hut and rested for a while.

[4] I stayed for a little half hour resting in the hut, but gave Peter, James and John, who were with Me in the hut, instruction to go to the 7 Egyptians and tell them about the foundations of the gospel and to prepare them for a sign that I would perform.

[5] The 3 disciples did just that and were well received by the 7 Egyptians. However, Peter was astonished when he discovered that especially the leader knew much more about all My teachings and deeds and even about My childhood than he himself. James and John, who knew most about My childhood, because they grew up with Me, were very surprised and had to do justice to the Egyptian.

[6] Peter secretly thought by himself: “Here again, the Lord let us run into it. We have to teach the gospel to them, and they simply know more about it than the three of us together. Why did the Lord do this to us?”

[7] The man from Upper-Egypt noticed within himself what Peter was thinking, and for this reason he said: “Why do you ask yourself why the Lord has sent you to us while we already knew and understood His teaching better than you all? O look, dear brothers, the Lord knew, and even very clearly, that you were already starting to forget this and that, and precisely for that reason He sent you for a talk of half an hour to us to receive back again the little that you have lost.

[8] This is also stated in your book. Even in this way: ‘Those who are with the Lord have lost a lot. But then the foreigners come from the distant countries and give the lost priceless pearls and precious stones back to the children. And the Lord is for this reason also very kind to the foreigners and receives them into the dwellings of His children.’

[9] Look, dear brothers, the Lord has also foreseen this apparently insignificant incident already a long time ago, and because everything that the prophets have said about Him must be fulfilled, from the smallest to the greatest, also this small prophecy could not stay unfulfilled.”

[10] Then Peter said: “O dear friend, do tell me how you could know all that so precisely.”

[11] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “When your spirit and your soul will be one – what you all as His chosen ones can expect soon – then you will see very clearly, but the soul who is still connected to the body, cannot see nor understand that.

[12] However, I do not only know what is written in your books but I also know the old scriptures of the Egyptians, the Persians, the Berians, the Indians, Chinese and the scriptures of the old Meduhed by the Ihyponese Footnote . In short, whatever there is to be found from the North Pole to the South Pole, is as well known to me as your fishing hut at home in the neighborhood of the city Capernaum, where the Lord has performed already so many signs, and where still so few are believing in Him, because they are blind salesmen, brokers and money-usurers. Whatever this Earth carries and contains, is very well known to me. But beyond this Earth I still can see little.

[13] I can distinguish the fixed stars and the wandering stars, and I can calculate the course and the position of the latter, because already since my early childhood I was skilled in the art of survey of ancient Egypt. I also suspect in myself that the wandering stars are worlds that look like this Earth, but until now I still could not reach them in my spirit. But the Lord will give me here also that gift that will make me extremely happy.

[14] You have received about this already the highest and truly perfect explanation and teachings from the Lord by His word. Also this is known to me, and therefore nothing is lacking to my knowledge of the starry sky in this new time. But I also would like to see this in my spirit, as clear as I can see the whole Earth with my own eyes. That will happen to me and also to my 6 companions here. Then, then, friend, I will be completely perfect, because only then I will be able to understand the eternal greatness of the Lord more and more.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 160

 

Believing and inner vision. The spritual development of the man

from Upper-Egypt. (17/79)

 

Peter said: “Yes, friend, if you know what we know, what more do you want? Is perhaps ‘firm and doubtlessly believing’ not the same as ‘vision in spirit’?

[2] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “With this you are partly right, but still not completely. For sure, a firm and doubtless believing of the soul is stirring up in man a complete striving and a hopeful trust that once he will also really vision what he believes. When faith is increasing in power and firmness, eagerness will also increase and the desire to once vision in its fullness what has been believed, and by this, to fully take part in it. And look, friend, in this way spiritual vision stands indescribably much higher than pure faith, because the spiritual vision is the eternal crown of faith.”

[3] Peter said: “Yes, in this you are totally right, but you know, the Lord is not so generous with the gift of the inner vision. Now and then He permitted us for a few moments to see spiritually, but until now, there was no question of a permanent blissful ability of the soul.”

[4] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “Well, this is also what I mean. However, He promised it already a few times to you. You will receive that ability only when you are fully reborn out of Him. And then we must, as men who are still in the flesh, not think that we have nothing else to do except to look at the wonders of His infinite creations, because we have here on this Earth, out of love for Him and out of love for fellowman still a lot of duties to perform, and that does not mean only to vision. But man must give himself now and then a Sabbath’s rest, and then he can and must vision, or at least train himself in the inner spiritual vision. Man will only receive the full permanent vision after he will lay off his body. Don’t you think so?”

[5] Peter said: “Well sure. However, I am really wondering how you in your wilderness came to this inner true wisdom of life. Who was your teacher?”

[6] The man from Upper-Egypt said: “Most of the time I myself, by my restless searching and exploring. But my father was surveyor in Memphis, Thebe and Diathira, and I have learned this art from him. When I had this art completely under control, he started to initiate me into the hidden secrets of the temple in Ja bu sim bil. However, he died before I was completely initiated in everything.

[7] His death meant to me the loss of a 1,000 lives. That is why I went as far as possible upward the Nile with my companions. There we found caves, which gave us sufficient protection against the glowing rays of the sun. The caves were close to the Nile that is twisting around a 1,000 waterfalls between the mighty rock-faces. It was not possible to go any further than that along the river, unless we would have turned off much further to the right into the great desert and had followed then the road to the Nubians. But without water we soon would dry out, together with the goats that we took with us. In short, we still found a last piece of land at the caves where there was some grass growing and our animals found sufficient food. And so, we decided to stay there, together with our small families.

[8] When during the first night I slept in the cave, commending myself in the protection of the great God, my deceased father appeared to me in a dream and taught me what I had to do, and how I had to behave in order to continue to live there. He told me also that nearby the place many beasts of prey, lions, panthers and even gigantic eagles could be found. And he taught me how I, being unarmed, only through firm faith in the great God and through a firm, full fearless will, could become lord over all those animals.

[9] When I woke up in the morning and stepped out of the cave, there was a very big lion coming peacefully to the cave, which apparently was his dwelling place. When he saw me, he stood still and began to shake his tail mightily. I came to him with my fearless firm will and commanded him, while I was firmly looking at him, to leave this place forever. And look, the lion turned around and disappeared somewhere in the desert. The same thing happened soon after that with two panthers and on the same day with a giant eagle who had an eye on our grazing goats.

[10] So already from the first day I convinced myself what man, who, with a real trust in the only true great God and through his fearless firm will, can really do. In the evening I stood before the cave, trusted in the protection of the almighty great God for all things and commanded the whole nature to leave us in peace. That is also what happened.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 161

 

The inner revelation of the man from Upper-Egypt (17/80)

 

At night my father came to me again and said that my reaction was good, but at the same time he made the will of God known to me and advised me urgently to follow it strictly and to make it as my own will. In this way, I should have all dominion over nature and its elements, just like the first human beings had when the Earth was still a lot more dangerous.

[2] When we woke up again in the morning, I told everybody about my dream and I urgently advised them all to thank the great God seriously for His protection, and to fervently ask Him also never to take it away from us. This we did, and later I made the will of God known to everybody, which was revealed by the spirit of my father. And I urged them all to follow it very precisely with the greatest love, reverence and thankfulness to God.

[3] They all promised this to me. And look, then it suddenly became very bright in our cave, which even during daylight was very dark, and we saw even more passages in it that we were courageously exploring, and in this way we still found more caves further upstream that had more or less easy exits. And so, we found a few good dwelling places, which later on were inhabited by my companions. In these caves we also found a few pure naphtha wells. We were scooping the oil in the lamps that we had brought with us, by which we then were able to illuminate our natural habitations. We all were aware of the fact that this discovery was a very special favor from above, and so we very earnestly thanked the great God for this.

[4] When we expressed our gratitude we heard a clear voice that said in very understandable words the following thing to us: ‘Live all of you in accordance to My will that has been revealed to you, then all the animals of this wilderness will serve you according to your will. But you only may ask from them what you need for your body. Therefore, you must not store up any provision for yourselves.

[5] In the middle cave you will find a big amount of salt. Use this to salt the fish that the eagles will catch for you out of the Nile. Lay them on stone plates that are strongly heated up by the sun, and eat them. At the exit of the first cave, there is a well of fresh water under a gray-white stone. Smash the tender stone to pieces, then immediately you will find a large quantity of good drinking water. Do not chase lions and panthers or other animals from this region, then they will serve you when you need their service.’

[6] Then the voice became silent. We thanked God once more for the revelation, and we realized by this that it was really God’s will that we choose this region as our dwelling place.

[7] All this had a tremendous influence on my heart and mind because everything that was revealed to me was indeed confirmed. After this, I continued to search, received an inward word and acted according to what I heard within myself. Most of the things succeeded. However, only now and then when some doubts came up in me concerning its success, it did not work. I had to get rid of the smallest doubt, after which all things succeeded in such a way that I could not think about any doubt furthermore. And after a few years I noticed within myself what the spirit of Enoch said to the Pharisees before. Because, no matter where I directed myself in thoughts on the whole Earth, I was already present there with my eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands and feet.

[8] However, my companions – except one – did not reach that far yet, but they all are very much on the right way to it. And then also I have taken them all to this place, so that they will hear what is most high, and so that they can see and hear the great God in the appearance of a person who is like us, to whom I have lead them in spirit. That is also why now they are, just like me, full of the greatest joy and the greatest happiness. And so, now you know by my short description, how I and also my companions came to our inner life perfection.

[9] However, for you here as children of the Lord it is easier. But we are strangers, and we must do more in order to be accepted by the Lord as a child. Are you satisfied with my description?”

[10] Peter said: “More than satisfied, and I am glad that the Lord reveals Himself also in faraway countries to those people who are earnestly seeking Him, love Him and are totally relying on Him.

[11] But He is already coming out of the hut to perform a sign for the two converted Pharisees. Let us therefore now give Him again our total attention with heart, eye and ear.”

[12] Then I went to Peter and said: “Well, Simon Juda, how did you carry out My instruction with these strangers?”

[13] Peter said: “Lord, You surely knew that those strangers and not us would preach Your gospel, and You have sent us to them so that they would tell us what we are unfortunately still lacking, because we already forgot this and that of Your lessons and deeds. Also for this, o Lord, we do thank You because we really have learned a lot from these friends.”

[14] I said: “Then it is also good in this way. And therefore, we still will perform now a sign for the strengthening of the faith of those 4 temple servants. Go and tell them to come here.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 162

 

Abraham appears to the temple servants (17/81)

 

Peter brought My instruction to the temple servants who came quickly to Me and said: “Lord, You already have given the greatest proofs to us, so that we do not have the slightest doubt anymore about what and who You are, and therefore we do not desire anymore a sign from You, but if ever You want to perform one, then we certainly will be grateful to You from the deepest of our heart.”

[2] I said: “You surely can see now more or less that I am the promised Messiah and that after Me there will be no other, but you still do not see that the Messiah is nobody else than the same Jehovah who on the mountain Sinai gave the laws to Moses, and for this reason He justly could say on the last feast day in the temple about Himself: ‘Before Abraham was, I am’, for which you wanted to stone Me. In order that you may perceive this, experience and later also firmly believe it, I will perform for you a special sign. So, be very attentive to what will happen now.

[3] Since I am also the Lord of the spirit world, I want now that My Abraham will appear, and to you he will testify of Me. When he will be here then you also can speak to him.”

[4] Hereupon, a light cloud came down on the hill, and out of the cloud stepped Abraham, bowed deeply before Me and said: “How much and how long have I been looking forward to the day of Your appearance and my joy surpasses now all limits because I have seen Your day on Earth. But no matter how much I am joyful over You, o Lord Jehovah Zebaoth, I have little reason to rejoice about my descendants. Truly, the descendants of Hagar are in their actions much better than the descendants of Sarah.

[5] O Lord, Your love for this wicked generation and Your patience with it surpasses all limits of Your infinite creations.

[6] When I formerly asked You to still spare the 10 cities with Sodom and Gomorrah because of the few righteous ones, Your answer sounded bitter. You were willing to spare them if there could be found only 10, and finally only 2 or 3 completely righteous persons. Since also those were not there, except Lot, You did not spare the 10 cities, saved only Lot, and everything else was destroyed by fire.

[7] When I now look at these descendants of mine, then even with the threefold number of the former citizens of the 10 cities, there is hardly one righteous, and You, o Lord, are sparing even this generation of harlots and adulterers. For Your limitless love and great patience those miserable people are persecuting You, and are even animated by the evil imaginary thought to kill You.

[8] O Lord, give up Your too great patience. O Lord, I waited a long time for Isaac. Only Your power begot him in the body of Sarah. When he already became a fine boy, You desired – in order to test my faith and obedience – that I should sacrifice him to You. I submitted to Your will, but You Yourself stopped me from completely carrying out the instructed work, provided me with a he-goat that I had to offer instead of Isaac and You gave Isaac back to me. Oh, that was really good for my heart.

[9] But it were better if I had sacrificed Isaac instead of the goat, so that no generation would have come out of him that already at the foot of the Sinai in Your holy presence started to worship a golden calf, and now has become worse than the darkest gentiles and other children of the world who were begotten by the serpent by the great harlotry of Babel. O Lord, do stretch out Your right hand once and destroy Your enemies.”

[10] These words were spoken by the spirit of Abraham with a very serious and emphasizing voice.

[11] But I said to him: “You know that from now on I do not judge the people anymore by My zeal but only by themselves, for the sake of the few righteous who have not yet bent their knees before the mammon of this world. That is why we are letting the world that is dumb and blind by its own will, go now its own way and execute the judgment that it has caused itself, leading to its own destruction.

[12] But I want to lead My true children Myself on the ways of the light and on the paths of life. What can be saved will now also be saved. However, the one who will not allow himself to be saved and does not want to be free from judgment and death that he has caused himself, will also reap whatever he desires.

[13] If someone wants freedom and thereby eternal life, then he will also find it. However, if someone wants judgment and death, then also this will be his share. Because from now on no Jew will be able to say: ‘I also would have walked the ways of the light if only I would have known something about it.’ I Myself have taught and worked everywhere, and even today I will send out 70 disciples who will carry out and preach My teaching to all the ends of the entire old Jewish kingdom, to gentiles and Jews, and within a year My oldest and first disciples will carry out this gospel in My name into the whole world. Salvation to everyone who will accept it and will direct his life conforming to it.”

[14] Upon this, the spirit of Abraham bowed again deep before Me, thanked Me and disappeared.

[15] Then the two Pharisees said: “Lord, Lord and Master of eternity, this was a great sign. We think that if also the other Pharisees had seen that, they certainly would also become as believing as we are. Why do You not perform a sign for them?”

[16] I said: “Because precisely I, know best what they would say about such a sign. You four are now really the last of the temple that could be saved. With all the others, nothing can be achieved. Despite that, I still will teach many times in the temple and also perform signs. You will be able to see for yourselves what impression that will make on the temple servants. Yes, there still will be many people who will believe in Me, but these high lords of the temple will never do that in this world.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 163

 

Moses and Elijah admonish the newly repented Pharisees (17/82)

 

Be further attentive now. In order to reassure you completely, there will be more witnesses coming from the other side, and will tell you that I in the first place am the promised Messiah for the Jews, and through them, also for all men of this Earth. Choose now for yourselves whoever you wish to see and to speak.”

[2] The two said: “Lord, now that You want it that way, let us then see Moses and Elijah because those two were certainly Your greatest prophets.”

[3] I said: “Sure. Since you have chosen them, I also will that they come.”

[4] When I had said that, it seemed as if a lightning fell down from the clear sky, and the two witnesses stood with serious faces before the Pharisees, bowed deeply before Me and Moses pointed with his right hand and with fiery eyes to Elijah and said with a thundering voice: “Do you know him?”

[5] Then the two Pharisees were tremendously frightened and being afraid they could not give an answer to Moses, because soon enough they recognized in Elijah John the Baptist to whom they themselves had contributed the most in his imprisonment and his beheading.

[6] But Elijah said: “Now that the sharp axe is laid at your root, you can only see now that judgment is at the door. It was the highest time for you to be converted, and because the Lord, the almighty, has been Himself so merciful to you, I too forgive you the crime against me. But a thousandfold woe to those who also will lay their evil hands on the Lord’s body. The judgment and the curse are already written on their foreheads.”

[7] Then the one Pharisee took a little more courage and said in a trembling voice: “O great prophet, who could ever have suspected that in you was hidden the spirit of Elijah?”

[8] Elijah said: “Is it not written that Elijah would come to prepare the way of the Lord? Did you not read: ‘Look, a voice of someone crying in the desert – prepare the way for the Lord. Look, I send My angel before You to straighten Your footsteps’?

[9] If you knew that, then why did you not believe it? Why did you persecute me, and why did you until now persecute the Lord?”

[10] The Pharisee said full of fright: “O, great prophet, have patience with our great blindness, because only that is the main culprit of all the evil that has been done by and through us.”

[11] Elijah said: “What the Lord has forgiven you, will also be forgiven by us. But beware of being blinded again by a new temptation, because out of a new abyss you would hardly ever come again to the light.”

[12] Upon that, the two prophets disappeared, and the Pharisees turned to Me and begged Me not to perform such a sign again, because this had driven them already in a too great fright and fear.

[13] I said: “If this is already driving you to such a great fright and fear, then how would you like it if I would introduce you to all those whom, by your great craving for vengeance and persecution, you have helped out of this world in the most miserable way?”

[14] The Pharisees said: “O Lord and Master, please do not do this to us, because that would be our death.”

[15] I said: “That surely not, as long as I am among you for the sake of your faith. However, bear in mind that once more you still will have to come together with all those souls in the great beyond. What will you answer them if before God’s throne, with unlimited power, they will demand an account from you?”

[16] The Pharisees said: “O Lord and Master of eternity, we still in this world want to do everything whatever You will instruct us to do. But let us then not in this way be called to account on the other side, because then we would not have a single reply. However, in Your goodness and mercy give us advice as to what we still have to do in order to be spared from this anguish and this terrible painful torment in the beyond.”

[17] I said: “What you should do, this I have already told you, and thereby you will come to the light and to life. But I tell you also that it would be good for you to examine your conscience accurately and so to perceive the magnitude of all your sins and vices that you have committed.

[18] When you have done that, you will have confessed your sins in the first place, and you will then also rightly abhor them, and in your heart you will truly feel sorrow about them. Then it will not be difficult for you to effectively take the firm decision not to commit a sin anymore, and in yourselves, you will feel an increasing desire to repair with all your might every damage that you have ever inflicted to anyone. Yet, you will be unable to carry out this completely, especially to those who are already in the beyond, but then I will accept your firm will for the deed, and will make for you everything good again for the evil you have caused.

[19] However, you should take that very seriously to heart, otherwise it can happen to you what the prophet Elijah has told you, because you still will have many temptations to endure. An old body does not so easily put off its habits as one imagines when he makes his first good resolution. You will go with Me indeed. But at My side, as long as I still will wander about this Earth, you still will, like My other disciples, come into many temptations. And then it also will be obvious how weak your flesh still is, even if the spirit in you has become reasonably strong. That is why it is now so necessary to do everything possible to free your soul out of the old imprisonment of your body, and this is only possible when you will do what I have advised you. Because sin will leave the soul in the same measure as the soul recognizes sin as being a sin, regrets it, abhors it and further on does not commit it again. Did you all understand this well?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 164

 

A speed miracle of Raphael (17/83)

 

The Pharisees said: “We thank You, o Lord, for this special, pure, true lesson. This is dearer to us then the terrible signs that are filling our mind with fear. We will follow Your holy advice as far as our strength will reach. But since the day will from now on only last a few hours, we will go to the city and make arrangements even today for what our treasures and our families are concerned, so that tomorrow, still on the Sabbath, we can be with You.”

[2] I said: “If you are completely serious in this, then you can stay here. Then it will be arranged in a much different way. I will give My young looking servant the assignment to arrange everything for you and send your families to Bethany to the house of Lazarus and all your treasures to this place here. He will perform this in a very fast and excellent way. Do you agree with this?”

[3] The Pharisees said: “Yes Lord, if this is possible, then this will certainly suit us very well.”

[4] I said: “With God all things are possible. And of what My servant is capable of, he already has shown you previously. But go and speak with him yourselves.”

[5] The Pharisees said: “O Lord and Master, rather speak You with him. Then everything will be arranged much better than if we would possibly give him a clumsy and unwise advice.”

[6] I said: “All right then, because you perceive this in your heart and want it that way, I will also do it.”

[7] I called Raphael and gave him inwardly an assignment to execute everything.

[8] Raphael asked the Pharisees in what time they wanted it to be done.

[9] And the Pharisees said: “O dear servant of Jehovah, that, we will leave completely up to you. However, if it could be done for this evening, this would of course be very good for us, because tomorrow it is Sabbath, when nothing may be arranged.”

[10] Raphael said: “What would you say if already now I have scrupulously arranged your problem?”

[11] The Pharisees said: “How could that be? Because you were not absent for one moment. And how could our families be already now in Bethany? They need more than 1 hour to walk through the big city, and from the city, according to Roman time, the way takes well over 2 hours for people without strong legs. Such a thing can therefore be considered as strictly impossible.”

[12] Raphael said: “Yet I knew already a few hours ago that this would happen, and I already have directed your families with the right instructions, and they are now since about half an hour ago sound and well in Bethany. Your treasures are already in the hands of those whom you yourselves have pointed out on advice of the Lord. And so, everything is arranged.

[13] In order to partly convince yourselves of this, you can go with me to the hut and you can see the part of which Nicodemus will take care of.”

[14] On this, the two Pharisees and the two Levites went with Raphael to the hut and found their well-known treasures in good order on a table that was present.

[15] When they saw that, they clapped their hands together out of amazement and said: “Yes, yes, here God’s power prevails. These are things that no human being can do. But, lovely servant of the only true, almighty God, do tell us how this was possible for you?”

[16] Raphael said: “In exactly the same way as I have already before shown you very clearly. Because my thought, united with my will – which is again completely God’s will – is the same as myself. Therefore, I can be present and work everywhere. Whoever can do that, is in his inner life perfectly equal to God.

[17] In this way, God is also, as a personal Being, in person only one, at this moment completely present here in the person of the Lord, and further, He is nowhere else in the whole of infinity. Yet, by His will and by His crystal clear thoughts He is still present and completely active in the whole of infinity. If that were not the case, there would be no Earth, no moon, no sun and no stars and, thus also no other created beings on it and in it. Because all celestial bodies and their creatures are from the alpha to the omega His firmly and unchangeable thoughts and ideas, kept together by His will, transforming them into independent beings, in such a way, that they will become equal to Him in everything, which is of course a work of His love and His eternal wisdom. Now I have told you how things are, and we shall go away from here.”

[18] Upon this, all five came down again, and a Pharisee went to Nicodemus and told him what can be found in the hut.

[19] But Nicodemus answered him: “Friend, I have already heard it, and according to the advice of the Lord everything will surely happen in the best way. But let us now all be calm again, because the Lord will perform something again, which today within His order seems to be important to Him.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 165

 

The Lord sends the slave-traders back to their own country (17/84)

 

Wen Nicodemus had said that, it became quiet and I called the slave-trader Hibram and his companions to Me and said to them: “In these few days you have heard and seen a lot, and have experienced many things. You know now, just like My disciples, what each man must do to reach the eternal life for his soul. If you will act and live in such a way, you also will certainly reach what I have promised everybody who will act and live according to My teaching.

[2] But also, at home you have to correct many things that you have done wrong as dark gentiles. Therefore, whenever this is possible, make up for all the injustice that you have done to your fellowmen. Then already for this, you can expect from Me a true blessing for life. Try also to pass on My teaching to other people, and see to it that in course of time it also will be put into practice. Turn away your ear and your heart from fortune-tellers, and try also to bring the people in your country to the point that they would conform to you, and be true priests to your fellowmen. Then before long you shall receive a great treasure of spiritual gifts from Me.

[3] Tell no one about Me on the way to your homeland, because where it was necessary and where I knew that mature people were living for My teaching, I Myself have been there already with words and signs, and they do not need more now. However, when the time has come I will pour out My Spirit over them. That will guide them into all truth. In short, on your way, make under no condition any mention of Me or unnecessary sensation about Me. But at home you can well teach your people. But also there, do not talk too much about the signs, but most of all remember only My teaching. Because the salvation for the people lies not in the signs that I have performed but in My teaching, and most of all by practicing it in life.

[4] However, if you will teach in My name, then do not be afraid, thinking too long about what you will say. If you will speak to people in My name, then My Spirit will certainly put the right words into your heart. This is also the case for all those who after you will proclaim My teaching in My name.

[5] But do not erect any temple for Me, and do not make – like the gentiles – certain days of the year as special days, but appoint a day in the week that seems to be the most suitable to teach, and let people come into your houses to teach them. Share also your bread with the poor and do not accept special honor for it. And do not demand wages or an offering from anybody, because free of charge you have received it and also free of charge you shall distribute it to your fellowmen. You can expect the reward for all this from Me.

[6] If ever somebody will come with great wealth and wants to give you a free offering out of gratitude, then accept it and give it to the poor. However, you will not consider the one who gave you an offering in My name as being more important than your poor brothers, so that he would not become proud and exalt himself above his poor brothers, but would only grow in love for them. Then his offering will be accepted by Me, and My grace will be his reward for this, and My blessing will reward his offering abundantly. Because, those who will give you such an offering for My laborers who I have accepted into service, will offer it to Me, and his reward will not be left behind.

 

[7] When you have taught the people like this in My name I will send you an apostle, who will then in My name put his hands on those who believe and will baptize them in this way in My Love, My Wisdom and My Power. They will receive thereby the Holy Spirit out of God and will reach thereby the complete rebirth of their spirit in their soul, and thereby and with that also eternal life and the power thereof.

[8] Now you know very briefly what you should do in the future, and certainly will do also. Therefore, receive My blessing and leave to your country even today, because tomorrow you would hardly be able to move forward because it is a Jewish Sabbath.

[9] Travel on the broad road that leads to Galilee, then at about the third hour of the night you will reach a small place. Stay there until the morning. They will receive you very well there. From there on I will put into your heart and into your thoughts which way further you have to follow in order to arrive in your country without any trouble. And so, now you can go right away, under My blessing that will protect and guide you.”

[10] On this, Hibram was grateful for everything, recommended himself in My grace and left us.

[11] Then Lazarus expressed that he was surprised that these slave-traders did not say goodbye to the young people who were brought here by them.

[12] I said: “This I did not want, and I had My wise reasons for it. The young people are enjoying themselves very well there on that northerly slope of this hill, and it would be unwise to disturb them. Then I also have sent these men out in My name, and that was good, because they will spread a light in the place where they live.

[13] But now, let there again be brought some bread and wine here. Then I still will choose others, strengthen them and send them out into the world. Therefore, do what I desire.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 166

 

The sending out of the 70 laborers as messengers of the Savior (17/85)

 

Nicodemus called immediately his servants who were present and sent them down to bring sufficient bread and wine. They went down as fast as possible and brought sufficient bread and wine, just like it was instructed to them.

[2] When it was taken care of in this way, I called the still present 70 laborers to Me and said to them: “Here are bread and wine. Take, eat and drink and strengthen yourselves, because after this I will send you out before Me to cities, markets and villages to prepare the people for My coming. But first you should eat and drink. Later we shall talk further about this important matter.”

[3] Those who were called took bread and wine and strengthened themselves.

[4] When they were finished with that, they gave thanks and one of them said: “Now, Lord and Master, we are ready to receive Your instructions that in Your grace You want to tell us. Your will be done. Only this will from now on be our only strength out of which we will act.”

[5] I said: “Well, all right then. Look, the harvest is great, the field with ripe fruits is stretching out over the whole Earth, but there are still few laborers. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out many laborers into His harvest.”

[6] The speaker said: “Yes, Lord, for this reason we are also asking You, because You alone are the Lord of the harvest.”

[7] I said: “Then go 2 by 2 to all the places of the Jewish land, and also to the land of the Samaritans.

[8] I am sending you as lambs among the wolves, which however you do not have to fear because My strength will give you courage against them. Therefore, do not carry a purse, no bags, no sticks, no shoes on your feet, and also you will not wear 2 skirts. Be serious, and yet, also meek. Do not greet anyone on the street. However, do also not demand from anyone to greet you, because all of you are truly the same children of one and the same Father in Heaven. Only One is your Lord and Master, but all of you are brothers. Let your greeting be the true mutual brotherly and neighborly love. Whatever is less or more than that is evil. They will be able to see that you truly are My disciples from the fact that you love one another, just as I love you.

[9] When you will enter a house in a city or village, then say: ‘Peace to this house’. If there is a child of peace, then your peace will also rest upon him. If this is not the case, then your peace will return to you. Where you will find peace, you should stay in that house, and eat and drink without fear or conscientious objection whatever will be set before you, for if you are in a house as laborers for God’s Kingdom, then you are also, like any other zealous worker, worthy of your wages.

[10] When somewhere 2 of you have been taken up into a house, then stay there in that same house and do not go from one house to another in order to be served, for this is not proper. Because you are not coming into a house as some beggar who is afraid to work, but as a richly gifted messenger of My Word and thereby as someone who brings the true Kingdom of God and His eternal blessing.

[11] Even if you come into a city with mostly gentiles, and they would take you hospitably into a gentile house, then you should also stay there and eat whatever they put upon the table. Because what goes into the mouth does not make man unclean, but it is what goes out of the mouth that makes man unclean, just like I have already clearly shown to you on the Mount of Olives, of what it consists, what it is that goes out of the mouth and makes man unclean.

[12] However, if you come into a city or in another place where no house will give you accommodation, then go outside in the free alleys and streets and say: ‘Also the dust of your city that is clinging to our feet, we shake off back to you, but know well that through us the Kingdom of God was near to you.’

[13] I tell you however, that on the day, which I have shown to you on the Mount of Olives, it will be more tolerable for the city of Sodom than for such a city that does not want to accept you. Woe Chorazin, woe Bethsaida! If what happened among you would have happened in Tyre and Sidon, then they would have repented in sack and ashes! Therefore, it will be more tolerable for Tyre on the day of judgment than for you! And you, Capernaum, exalted unto Heaven, will be cast into Hell!”

[14] Then some of My first disciples said among one another: “Listen how He is again so zealous against those cities which already in Kis near Kisjonah He once threatened with so much fire. It is certainly true that there, as far as the whole place is concerned, He has found the least of faith, but some of them still accepted Him and recognized Him as the true Son of God and Mediator of the Jews. We also belong to Capernaum. It is curious what on certain days He has to do with Capernaum.”

[15] I said to the disciples who were so much surprised: “What are you sulking among one another? What is Chorazin, what Bethsaida, and what Capernaum? Those are the ones who do not want to accept My teaching, and who despite all signs do not believe that I am the promised Messiah who has now come into the world. I already have sent you also once to these cities and other places ahead of Me, and how were you accepted in those places? You called down fire from heaven over them. Can you now be surprised that, when by this opportunity I am now also sending out disciples ahead of Me in the world of abominations, I am using this expression again, so that they also would know how they have to behave before such people who I am now indicating with the names of those cities, where you did not have a good experience at all.

[16] Therefore, I say now to all of you, and not only to these 70: whoever will hear you, will also hear Me, whoever will despise you, will also despise Me. However, the one who despises Me, will certainly also despise Him who has sent Me into this world, because I and He are one.”

[17] Hereupon I stretched out My hands over the 70 and said: “Accept the power of My will. When you will come to all kind of sick and crippled people, then lay the hands upon them in My name, then it will go better with them. When you come to people who are possessed by devils (unclean spirits in the flesh), then command them also in My name. Then they will leave the body of those who are tormented and will go to those places you want them to go.

[18] I give you also power over the evil spirits in the air, over those in the water and over the evil spirits in the caves of the Earth. Further I also give you power to tread on scorpions and to walk over snakes, and also to chase away every enemy of yours, and nothing will be able to harm you.

[19] Be also not afraid to be on the road in the dark, and do not fear for storms, for lightning and thunder, because also over those things you can command. And the malicious animals of the forests and the deserts will flee before your eyes. And equipped like this you can go now from here, dressed like you are now.

[20] But also remember the following thing: freely I have given you now all this, in like manner you should distribute it again to those people who are worthy of it. But you should not throw the pearls to human swine. And now stand up from here and go wherever the Spirit will lead you.”

[21] Then the 70 thanked Me for those great gifts of grace and left 2 by 2 in all directions.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 167

 

The task of the 70 who are sent out (17/86)

 

When the Pharisees and also the well-known Jewish Greeks saw that, they came to Me and said: “Lord, we do believe as firmly in You as those who You have sent out now, and we fully know Your teaching now also. Do You then not also want to send us out like that, ahead of You into the world?”

[2] I said: “Once it will be your turn also, but for this moment these 70 are sufficient. When I will be lifted up and have ascended, you also and still many others will be sent out to proclaim the gospel of God’s Kingdom to all men. However, stay with Me now as faithful witnesses of My words and deeds, because here you are also needed, just like those who are sent out now to other places.

[3] The night-signs of the last but one night were seen by a lot of people in the far surroundings and they are still in great fear because they do not know the meaning of the mighty appearances. When those who are sent out will come to them, they will bring true comfort to those who are sorrowful and anxious. And look, that is an important reason why I have send out the 70 already today. Do you now understand the great, wise plans of the Father in Heaven?”

[4] When they heard that, they were satisfied and did not ask anymore on the hill.

[5] Then Lazarus came to Me and asked Me: “O great, most loving Friend, Master and Lord of all men, look, the sun will go down pretty soon. Do You want to stay here this night or will You still go back to my Mount of Olives? If ever – what is the wish of my heart – the latter would be the case, then I will send someone immediately to that place to tell the people that they must take the necessary measures for us.”

[6] I said: “We all will only be back on your Mount of Olives during the night, because now at daylight our arrival would all too soon and easily be discovered by the temple servants. As far as our bodily care is concerned we still will be very well taken care of, because our friend Nicodemus still has a large inn and a large residence. Therefore, we will only go to your Mount of Olives close to midnight in all quietness, so that nobody would be offended at us.”

[7] With this answer, Lazarus was satisfied.

[8] I gave Raphael however the instruction to take care now of the young people because they were already slightly hungry.

[9] Then Nicodemus was suggesting if it would not be easier to give them a fairly sized meal in the inn.

[10] I said: “Do not bother, My servant surely knows what he has to do. Everything will be very fine, and so it will also be.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 168

 

Advices of the Lord for Agricola’s return trip. To strengthen faith and trust by practice.

To be mature for the reception of the gifts of grace. (17/87)

T

hen came the Roman Agricola to Me and said: “Lord and Master, since everybody is going away from here, also we Romans are beginning to think about how and when we should set out on our return trip. However, because especially in Your presence I do not want to undertake and execute anything without Your advice, I ask You also in this matter for Your godly wise advice.”

[2] I said: “For you, friend, the time is not yet urgent, because you have received the instruction from the emperor that if necessary you can stay more than half year away from Rome. But now, here in the Jewish land, and also in the whole of Asia, which belongs to you Romans, there is nothing happening that is of any importance for the government. And because you can set out on your return trip whenever you like, I think that, if you should go for example only on the day after tomorrow, you will lose nothing by staying longer with Me. Only after 1 year there will be a mission to Britain that will be assigned to you by the emperor, at which occasion your oldest son, who carries your name, will accompany you, and there you will hold an important office for a longer time. Even if you go back to Rome a full month later, it will make no difference, because you will always be home soon enough.

[3] But I also want to give you another advice about the manner by which you can come home with your big boats in the safest way. Look, very soon the storms of the equinox will start to appear, which, because they are coming from the west, will make it very difficult for the ships that are sailing from the east to the west. Therefore, at this time you will not so easily move forward across the great Mediterranean Sea. For this reason, go back home by land via Asia Minor and let your ships sail unto the first strait narrows. Until there, Cyrenius will surely arrange for a good and safe opportunity for the trip. You can easily cross the strait narrows by ship without any danger, and from there further along the shore of Greece to reach Dalmatia. From there you can easily cross the most narrow part of the Adriatic Sea by ship. Further on, you simply know the safe way to Rome. Only a couple of months later you will be able to order to bring the ships to a harbor south of Rome, which also will still happen soon enough. I have told you this only so that also physically you will not suffer any harm.”

[4] Agricola said: “I thank You for this good advice for my physical well-being, which I also will follow very precisely. But this time I cannot resist to make the remark that, despite the adverse wind, with the firm trust and faith in Your almighty help, for sure I also can reach the harbors of Rome across the Mediterranean Sea, because to You, o Lord, all things are possible anyway. Of this I am completely convinced. Why would this not be possible to You, or at least would not be to Your liking? However, I still will follow very strictly Your first advice and this question I have only asked out of pure curiosity.”

[5] I said: “You were completely right to ask Me this, because look, I only have given you the first advice to give you the opportunity to test yourself, how strong your faith and your trust in My love, wisdom, power and might are.

[6] If your faith and your trust in Me are so strong that you, no matter in what kind of threatening danger you come into, would not doubt for one moment if I perhaps for some secret reason would not want to help you, then you can take the risk on the sea to sail also against the greatest storms. Because if you would command them in My name to lay down, then they also would stop at the moment on which you were giving them command. But friend, for this, your faith and your trust, despite your good will, is still a little too weak.

[7] Of course, you do not doubt in the least that I am capable to do all this, but you would doubt if I will do every time what you are asking Me. And see, also this, in a certain sense, little doubt would always seize you with great fear and fright, although I would help you if you would ask Me. And therefore, for this time it is better if you follow My first advice.

[8] Faith and trust must first also be practiced until they are completely capable of uniting the personal will with Mine in such a way that what is desired must happen without the least failure. Because only through the full living faith and thus also through a complete trust, can man move everywhere, entirely active in the spirit and in My name, and must happen what he wills.

[9] Only in course of time you will receive the firmness of faith and trust, which will give your will its full power. Then you will be able to command the elements in My name with success. You will however come in some danger even on the way of your return trip, which I have advised you. But that will not harm you because I will protect you everywhere. However, within a year when you will travel to Spain, Gaul and Britain, you will already posses such a great measure of faith and willpower that no enemy will be able to resist. But now you do not possess it yet.”

[10] Then Agricola said again: “Lord and Master, the 70 laborers who you have sent into the world, surely have also not been so firm in their faith and trust, just like me and my companions, and still You have given them gifts, which give them really no room to desire anything more. It is true that the gifts that they have received are more necessary for their office than for us. Yet, the necessity thereof cannot be only the condition for receiving such wonderful gifts. In fact, I thought, according to what You have said, that one must be able to do this by his faith and trust. However, whether the 70 men did already reach that state is now of course a totally different question, which can only be answered completely truthfully and reliably by You.”

[11] I said: “These 70 were already very capable for this, because they are very simple people and are already since their youth firmly believing and trusting. By the different signs which were done in their presence, they did not ask how this and that was possible, but they believed that with Me nothing was impossible, and that everything that they wanted in My name must ultimately also be possible. And see, because of that faith and trust, solid as a rock, I also could easily and actually give them the gifts of which you have heard.

[12] With them, faith came before knowing, but with you, knowledge came before faith, and that is for the reception of the true inner gifts a big difference. But this does not matter, because also you will – if in the course of time you will not become weak in faith – receive the same gifts. Agricola, did you understand Me?”

[13] Agricola said: “Yes, I did understand You completely and I thank You out of the deepest of my heart for Your important lesson. I will try with great zeal in myself to accomplish it.

[14] But Lord, I can see there on the way, which leads to the morning, a whole caravan coming this way. They probably will stay here for the night, and therefore, there will not be much space left for us in the inn. Are they Jews, Greeks or possibly even Persians?”

[15] I said: “I’m not very much interested in these business people. But if you absolutely want to know what kind of caravan that is and where it comes from, I surely can tell you that. It is a caravan that comes from Damascus and the day after tomorrow they will continue further on from here to Sidon. They are transporting all kind of metallic equipment for the market. These people are Jews and Greeks. If ever you still want to buy something from them today, then you can do that, because tomorrow they are not allowed to open a market.”

[16] Agricola said: “That I will not do because my ships and my household at home are already richly provided with such things. But what will we do now? The sun stands already above the horizon.”

[17] I said: “Just let it stand there. Now, at the beginning of the evening we will rest for a while, because we have done enough today. After that, it will become apparent what the evening still has in store for us.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 169

 

Admonishing words of the Lord to the youth of the north. About the angels.

Heaven and Earth. The nature of the inner spiritual eye. (17/88)

 

After this, I went a bit further towards the fig tree, plucked a few figs and ate them. Then I visited the young people, who were just busy in eating bread and delicious fruit. When they saw Me, they all stood up and expressed their thanks in a hearty manner for all the good gifts that they had received.

[2] Some of them wanted to tell Me very precisely all the things they had understood of My lessons and deeds. And the 7 who were with Me on the Mount of Olives for some time and who I had given to understand the Hebrew language and also to speak it, began to testify loudly that I was the Lord of Heaven and Earth and that they also had already made this clear to their companions.

[3] I commended them, and advised them to keep this faith faithfully into their heart, and that above all they would not let them be seduced by the great worldly splendor, the pride, the idols and the temptations of the great worldly city of Rome, where they soon should be, but to follow precisely the lessons and warnings of the Roman who would, like a true father, take his children to Rome already within a few days. If they would behave in everything chastely and orderly, I Myself would be extremely pleased with them and endow them with all kinds of gifts.

[4] But they also had to always remember that I am all seeing and all knowing and that I even know every thought that man may ever so secretly think in himself. This had to restrain them always from doing something against the law of the true life-order. For, as I like to endow all kinds of possible gifts from the Heavens on everyone who is pure of heart, so also must every transgressor of the wise laws of the true life-order, have to fear My rod of chastisement.

[5] “Until now you were”, I said further to the young ones, “as pure as My angels in Heaven, and that was also the reason why I Myself freed you from the hard bonds of slavery. But stay now also in the future equally pure, then My angels will accompany you and will protect you against all adversity, and they will go before you and lead you on the ways of life that are leading to My Heaven. My dear children, did you understand this well?”

[6] Then all of them, particularly the 7 first ones, said: “O dear Father and Lord, that we have understood very well and we also will observe it scrupulously. But what do Your angels look like and where are Your actual Heavens?”

[7] I said: “Look, the apparent young man who has been taking care of you in My name until now, is one of My most important angels. He indeed has, for the sake of men, a body, but that he can dissolve whenever he likes. If he does that, he will not die because of that, but will continue to live eternally as a pure spirit just like Me, creating and working. Like this powerful and mighty angel of whom I was talking and who is now the only one here, are still countless many in My Heavens.

[8] But since you also asked where My Heavens may be found, I tell you: My Heavens are wherever there are godly, pure and good men and spirits. This whole visible space, that ends nowhere, is Heaven without neither end nor beginning. But only for good men and spirits. However, where evil men and spirits are dwelling, there this space is not a Heaven, but a Hell, which is judgment and eternal death, showing itself in this world as matter, which in itself is also a judgment and thus death.

[9] So whoever is only chasing after the treasures of the world, which is entirely matter, judgment, Hell and death, goes thereby also with his soul into death. Thus, all evil spirits are mostly dwelling in the matter of this Earth. The good and pure spirits are always living in the pure light spaces of the free ether space.

[10] In order that you, My dear pure children, can make also a lasting idea of this, I will now open your inner spiritual eye for a few moments, since you already have a special talent for this anyway, and then you will as it were be able to look from this Earth into My Heaven.”

[11] Then one of the children was still asking: “O dear Father and Lord, what is then the inner spiritual eye?”

[12] I said: “Look, children, when you sleep, your physical eye is closed, and yet, in your clear dreams you can see all kinds of wonderful regions, people, animals and trees, flowers, bushes and stars, and still all kinds of other things, more clearly and more purely than when you can see the things of this world with your physical eyes. Look, all the things you can see in your dreams are spiritual, and you can see them with your inner spiritual eye. However, when you are awake, your inner spiritual eye is and stays closed, and no ordinary man can, as with the physical eye, open it at will. That I have arranged for a very wise reason.

[13] But with every person I also can, if I will, open the inner eye at any time, and then he is able to see the spiritual and the natural at the same time, and this I shall now also do with you as an experience that shall forever be printed in your soul. And so, I will that you will see My Heavens.”

[14] When I had said this, they all saw already a countless number of angels around them, who were very friendly, were talking to them and encouraging them to do what is good. At the same time they also saw as if they were looking through the matter of the Earth, a few ugly, unhappy beings, whose only striving it was to hide and to bury themselves ever deeper into matter. They also saw in the ether spaces beautiful landscapes and here and there brilliant and wondrously beautiful buildings, over which they were very amazed. In those regions they were, also in spirit, guided around by the angels who showed and also explained them many things.

[15] After a while I called them all back again into their earthly awake state and asked them how they liked what they had seen.

[16] But they could find no words to describe all the wondrously beautiful things, which they had seen there, and especially the female part asked Me if I still for a while could show them the heavenly beauties.

[17] But I said to them: “As long as you still have to live in this world for the sake of the freedom of will, so that one day you can become free and independent spirits, it is completely sufficient what you have seen now, because that will stir up in you a great enthusiasm to live and to act according to My teaching and My commandments.

[18] When you will be totally perfect in the fulfillment of My will, you will still in this life receive the quality to completely control your inner spiritual eye and also your inner spiritual ear.

[19] Out of what My teaching and My will for the people of this Earth consist, that you already have partly heard, and only in Rome you will learn all the rest from the Romans. When you will be instructed in all things, then you also can teach the people who will ask you what kind of faith you have and according to what kind of teaching you are living, and why.

[20] Now you can leave soon and let yourselves be brought to the village by My angel, more precisely to the inn. There you can discuss among yourselves about all the things you have heard and seen now, and My angel will explain to you many things of which you were not yet able to grasp with your intellect.”

[21] Upon this, all were thanking Me again, and I went back to the previous group that was in front of the hill.

[22] Arriving there, Lazarus asked Me what the young people were still doing on the other side of the hill, and if they perhaps could be brought immediately from there to the Mount of Olives.

[23] I said: “My dear friend, I took care of everything and gave them My instructions, to free you from your worry. For, even as good people are taking good care of their fellowman, I am taking care a long time ahead of it. And if I would not take any precaution, very soon the whole world would fall apart. But let us not talk about this anymore, for something else will happen soon.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 170

 

The business caravan from Damascus (17/89)

 

Immediately after I had said this, Helias, who also was still with us, came quickly to Me and said full of fright and fear: “But Lord, Lord, for Heaven’s sake, what is that now? I was looking at the caravan that is coming from the morning, how it is moving towards us with its camels and packhorses. But now there is another very horrible looking caravan, coming behind it. Instead of camels and packhorses one can see dreadful looking fiery dragons, and instead of people one can see real figures of devils who are wrapped up with glowing snakes and decorated with a skull on their chest. O Lord, Lord, what does this suddenly mean now?”

[2] When Helias had told his story in one breath they all went to the edge of the hill that lies at the morning side and saw an appearance that was rather not so pretty to look at, and they asked their somewhat fearful question what the meaning of this was.

[3] I said: “See and understand. The fact that the first caravan consists of only worldly merchants who are lusting for profit, that you hopefully will have known for a long time already, because a merchant from Damascus is not one hair better than a thief and a street robber. These merchants are very courteous and polite to the buyer, in order that this one will buy from him as much as possible for a lot of money. Once that the goods are sold, then they would rather – if they would not be afraid of the worldly laws – kill the buyer, take away the sold goods and besides that, rob him from all the rest of his money and possessions. But despite such inner thoughts and striving, they are for the world respected and highly appreciated people, and their fellowmen can never bow down deep enough to them.

[4] But in order that all of you, who are now My disciples and friends, may learn to know this evil kind in its true inner nature a little better than has been the case so far, I opened up your inner eye and you saw with your physical eyes the worldly caravan in front, as it can be seen by every healthy human eye, but behind it you saw the corresponding inner spiritual caravan.

[5] The glowing dragons are showing the burning lust to possess all the treasures of this Earth. The devils riding on dragons are the merchants in their worldly tendency. The snakes around their body represent their business tricks, slyness and cunning. The skulls are pointing out the great lust for murder of such true worldly devils. For, if it would be possible to them, then they would kill immediately all the rich people in order to appropriate in the easiest way the complete possession of all goods and treasures of this Earth. Since this is the case with these merchants and because I know that often you still have a high esteem for such people, I had to reveal them to the eyes of your soul.

[6] Now that you have seen this according to the inner truth, your inner eye will now be shut again, and you see now again only the external caravan passing by at the foot of this hill. How did you like this image?”

[7] Then Nicodemus said: “Lord, I have already sent a few servants to the inn with the strict order that this caravan would not find nor receive accommodation in my inn for no matter how much money. That would be too bad to give such kind of people accommodation. As mayor, I will take immediately all measures so that they will have to find accommodation far away from our home. Apart from that, such kind of beings would contaminate our otherwise most friendly place to such extend that after that no one would be able to live there. Yes, very sharp counter measures have to be taken and set to work to turn away such a disaster from our place. Lord, is that not right?”

[8] I said: “You have done well not to receive them in your inn, but to refuse the caravan admittance for the whole region would be unwise. Because firstly the caravan stands under the protection of the Roman laws which are valid for all merchants and which gives them free passage, and secondly there are many people also in this place who, because of their inner nature, are no hair better than these merchants and thus are not in danger of becoming worse than what they already were for a long time, and finally as a third point, even with these Damascenes some attempts can be made if ever their inclination could and will perhaps at least be partly changed. Because with many people, no matter how evil they may be, it is still easier on this world to make possible improvement, than later on the other side for the naked soul.

[9] So you better give up your second intention. However, concerning the first one, with this – as I have already said in the beginning – I completely agree, for we and they would really not be able to put up with one another under one roof, because Heaven and Hell must be well separated from each other. Are you satisfied with My advice?”

[10] Nicodemus said: “O Lord, this for sure, but I feel now somewhat bitter and upset that also my favorite place here is inhabited with people who in their nature are similar to the merchants from Damascus.”

[11] I said: “Look there, a little at the back are still the 7 men who I have saved from starvation in the old hut of the rich Barabe. They sent their naked children to the citizens of this place so that at least one would take care of them, but there the children could found only stony hearts. If this is now so, how can you then be surprised that I could not give the citizens of this village a better testimony. If ever I would show you with your inner eye the prominent people of Jerusalem, what would you say then?

[12] Therefore, I tell you: this world looks like Hell in everything. Only it is concealed from the eyes of men, just like Heaven is concealed in word and deed. So, Heaven can bring salvation to Hell already here, but where both are revealed, the influence is difficult or even in the highest degree not possible at all.

[13] When the two Pharisees came here, also the complete Hell came here concealed in them, but without suspecting it they came here also into the full Heaven.

[14] Yet, Heaven has also 3 degrees, just like Hell has 3 degrees or stages.

[15] The 7 men from Upper-Egypt were representing the lowest degree of the pure Heaven of Wisdom, and only in there the hellish spirits from Jerusalem were allowed to come first. Then a light began to dawn within them and they became aware that they were completely in the evil of Hell. When they began to be aware of it more and more, the light of the second degree of Heaven came down to them in the person of Raphael and they felt the need to rid themselves of their evil and to turn to the light. Only when they looked at themselves completely for the first time in the bright light of the truth and love of the second Heaven, true repentance started to penetrate into them and there was a longing for Me, the highest degree of the Heavens. And when I Myself came to them, they were then at once completely converted, and so they are now candidates for the first degree of Heaven.

[16] If we however, when they came to us as pure devils, would have immediately driven them away with our power, they now would certainly not be standing in the happy attitude wherein they are standing now. And look, so it is also the case with the merchants from Damascus who are presently in this place, but have no idea of how close they have come to God’s Kingdom. We will however, when we are with them, soon find an opportunity to let them notice something of it, and then it will appear what can be done further.

[17] But now we will, because the merchants have already for the greatest part found accommodation, leave this hill and first go for 1 little hour to your residence, and after that to your inn to take an evening meal. Then it will appear of itself what we can do.”

[18] Agricola still said: “Lord, I nowhere can see our young people. Did they perhaps already go down?”

[19] I said: “But dear friend, have you just now not heard what I have said to Lazarus? How can you still ask after this again? The young people are already well taken care of and are already in the inn. And moreover, under the loyal care of Raphael. That they will not lack anything there, of this you can be completely sure. But now we shall break up and go down to the village. Now on the hill nobody may ask Me anything anymore. So be it.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 171

 

The Lord explains the second chapter of Isaiah (17/90)

 

After this instruction of Mine everybody stood up and we quickly went down to the village, more precisely to the house of Nicodemus, in order to bless it according to My secret wish. When we were into his house, we soon heard a big noise on the market place, and our Agricola immediately asked Me on a dictatorial quick-tempered tone what was happening outside on the market.

[2] I said: “Friend, as long as I am with you, there is hardly any reason for you to ask something like that. Do you still not know what kind of power is always at My service? Besides, I know everything anyway what is happening in the whole of infinity. Therefore, do not be excited about such things anymore. Certainly not in My presence.”

[3] Agricola said: “O Lord, I thank You for this correction. In the future I will be very careful, because this hot-tempered attitude in such situations is and remains still my most important mistake. I think, o Lord, very often now of the by You recommended patience, and I also want to acquire this completely. But when I suddenly am coming into temptation, immediately my old sin is coming up again. But from now on there must come a definite end to it.”

[4] I said: “That is very good. The intention is good, although you still will fall a few times into your old sin.

[5] But now, bring the book of the prophet Isaiah here. From that I have to make an important part clear to you.”

[6] Then Nicodemus brought the book to Me and I immediately turned to the second chapter of Isaiah and read it as follows aloud to all those who were present:

[7] “This is what Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw over Judah and Jerusalem: ‘In the last time the Mountain on which the House of the Lord stands will certainly be higher than all mountains and it will be exalted above all heights, and all the gentiles will go to it.” (Isaiah 2:2).

[8] Then Nicodemus and the two Pharisees asked: “Lord and Master, where is then the mountain of the Lord on which His house is standing?”

[9] I said: “O see how worldly your attitude is, based on your sense-organs, and how you are still full of matter. Am I not the Mountain of all mountains on which the true House of God stands? But what is the very comfortable House? That is My Word that I have already spoken by all the prophets to you, Jews, during a few centuries, and now I Myself am speaking through the mouth of a Son of Man. So I am the Mountain, and My Word is the comfortable House on the Mountain, and there around us are standing the gentiles from all parts of the Earth, who came to this place to see the Mountain and to live in His very spacious House.

[10] But for the Jews as they are now, it is really the last time, because they are avoiding the Mountain and His House, and are even threatening the leaders to destroy it. Do you understand this verse now?”

[11] All of them said: “Yes Lord, it is now completely clear to us, but this chapter has still more verses, which are for us still not clear at all. Lord, do explain these further to us.”

[12] I said: “Just be patient, because a tree does not fall with the first blow.

[13] But Isaiah continues to speak as follows: ‘Many nations will (that means in the future) go on their way and say: Come, let us go up on the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, so that He will teach us His ways, after which we can then walk on His mountain paths, because from Zion will go forth the law and from Jerusalem His Word.’ (Isaiah 2:3).

[14] By Zion (Z’e on = He wills) is also to be understood the Mountain, thus the Lord or I, and by Jerusalem the House of God on the Mountain, thus My Word and My teaching for now and forever. Certainly there will be no more doubt about that.

[15] But now, who are the nations who say: ‘Come, let us go up on the Mountain of the Lord’ – that means to go to the Son of Man or divine Man – ‘and to the House of the God of Jacob, so that He will teach us His ways and we can then walk on His mountain paths?’

[16] Look, these nations are those people who in the future will be converted to Me, will make My Word their own and will do My will. Because My Word shows the ways to life, and the mountain paths are My will announced to the people by the Word, of which the strict observance is definitely more difficult than only the pure listening to My Word, just like it is also definitely much easier to go on a broad and smooth way than on narrow and often very steep mountain paths.

[17] But whoever wants to come within him upon the highest of all mountains and there in My living Word, which is God’s House on the Mountain, must not only follow the smooth way which leads to the top and stay upon it, but must also go on the narrow, often very steep mountain paths, because only along these, will he come completely on the Mountain and there in God’s living House.

[18] What this means, I have already explained to you, as well as what the prophet in fact wanted to make clear by Z’e on and by Jerusalem. For this reason he also says that from Z’e on will go forth the law, so My will, and from Jerusalem – or seen in a natural way, out of My mouth – My Word.

[19] So whoever hears My Word that I have spoken to the people at all times by the prophets, accepts it and lives according to it, he will thereby come to Me and thus also to the living Word and its power. Because I Myself am the living Word and the power thereof, and everything that contains the infinite space, is also only My living Word and the eternal power and might thereof. Did you also understand this well now?”

[20] Then someone from the group of the Pharisees, who came to Me on the Mount of Olives, and who was a scribe said: “Lord and Master, Your explanation of these two verses was so clear like the sun at noon time, and everything became clear and understandable to me. But now comes the fourth verse and that sounds like this:

[21] ‘And the Lord will administer justice among the gentiles and punish the nations. Then they will make of their swords plowshares and of their spears sickles, because no nation will lift up a sword against another, and the people will from now on learn war no more.’ (Isaiah 2:4).

[22] Who are those gentiles and who the nations who, once they have been punished, will no more war against one another? Those nations must surely be born in a very far future, because the present-day generations with their proud, greedy kings, lusting for power, will make war until the end of the world.”

[23] I said: “It is true that you are a scribe, so that you still have the laws and all the prophets very well in your memory, but to understand them in the true spirit, of that there has never been any sign with you. You were walking on the broad and smooth way, but on the narrow mountain path that leads to the top of the mountain of the true knowledge, you have never set one foot.

[24] Whoever, by acting according to the law, will not come on the top of the Mountain of the Lord and in God’s House or to the inner living Word from God, and will come to the living Word of God within him, will also not recognize the true, inner, living spirit of the law and the prophets.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 172

 

The Lord explains Isaiah’s images of the future (Isaiah 2:1-5) (17/91)

 

The scribe said: “But why did the prophets then talk and write in such a concealed way? I suppose that the most important for them was that their words could be understood by the people?”

[2] I said: “These kind of objections were already made a few days ago on the Mount of Olives, and I have demonstrated to you how unfounded it is. So I do not have to repeat here what has already been said.

[3] What kind of Word of God would that be, which has no inner meaning? Or can you imagine a human being without any bowels, or one who is so transparent as a drop of water so that his whole internal body could be seen? Something that we would – despite the artfulness of it – dislike very much.

[4] Oh, do try, all of you, to think wisely. Nevertheless, I will now explain to you the obvious true meaning of the fourth verse of Isaiah. So be very attentive.

[5] ‘The Lord’, who am I in the Word, ‘will judge the gentiles and punish many people.’

[6] Who are the gentiles and who the people? The gentiles are all those who do not know the true God and instead of Him are worshiping and mostly honoring, dead idols and the mammon of this world. The Jews are surrounded by such people from all sides, and wherever you now also want to go in the world – to the morning, the noon or the evening – you will find nothing but all kind of different gentiles. However, you know that now from all sides of the world the gentiles of high and low rank and from close by and from far away have come to Me. They heard My Word and saw My signs, were filled with faith and accepted My teaching, and My Word is now judging them and putting them on trial, by which they cease from being gentiles and they pass over to the number of the blessed ones of God and to the number of the true people of God.

[7] But they also will not remain like they are now instructed and educated, because soon false anointed men will arise among them who will also perform signs, will mislead kings and princes, will soon seize a great worldly power and will persecute with fire and sword those who do not want to follow them, and will finally split into many sects and parties. And these are then the many people who I as Lord will punish because of their lack of love, their falsehood, their selfishness, their pride, their obstinacy, their lust of power and their evil quarreling and mutual persecutions and wars. However, before that time will come, it still will take a while, as it lasted from Noah Footnote until now.

[8] But as it was during the time of Noah when men were marrying and were giving into marriage, held big parties and feasts, let themselves be highly honored and wage destructive wars against those who did not want to bow down before their idols, so that soon the great flood came that drowned all those who committed evil, so also it will be in that future time. But then the Lord will come with the fire of His zeal and His wrath, and sweep away all the evildoers from the Earth.

[9] Then it will happen that the pure and good men and the real friends of the truth and the light out of God who were spared, will make from their swords plowshares and from their spears sickles, and will give up the art of war completely. Then after that, no truly anointed people will lift up the sword against another anymore, except still some remaining gentiles somewhere in the deserts of the Earth. But also these will be admonished and after that be swept off the Earth.

[10] Then the Earth will be blessed again. Its soil will bear a hundredfold fruit of everything, and the elders will be given the power over all the elements.

[11] Look, this is how, spiritually seen, the fourth verse for this Earth has to be understood, which was for you as scribe so very incomprehensible.

[12] But behind this natural, true, spiritual meaning lies a still hidden, deeper pure spiritual and heavenly meaning, but that you, with your still pure worldly intellect cannot understand, and that also cannot be expressed into words. However, if you will be on the Mountain of the Lord and will have entered into the House of God, and then will come out of the house of Jacob – like the prophet is speaking about it in the short fifth verse – only then will you walk in the true light of the Spirit out of God. (Isaiah 2:5). Do tell Me now if you have understood this better now than at first.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 173

 

About the apparent unjust guidance of the people (17/92)

 

The scribe said: “Yes, Lord and Master, in this way the prophet is easy to understand, and the meaning is now clear to me, although one could ask the following question: why do You, Lord, allow that 2,000 years in the future, men will become again so evil as they were at the time of Noah? And why must especially the poor people suffer the most, and even when they lead a life that is in everything as much as possible pleasing to God?

[2] So also, I myself know about a situation of a poor family who lived strictly according to the commandments of God and who possessed a small piece of land. Not far from there, a rich and for the world prominent family, possessed a large landed property. That family was hard-hearted and never gave alms to a poor man, while the poor family was always willing to share its small amount of bread with the other poor. On a hot and humid day came a heavy storm, and the lightning hit the hut of the good, poor family, who was at that moment on the field and was gathering their barley. The hut burned down of course, with everything that was inside, like clothing, food reserve and the necessary house and farming equipment. However, the same storm was passing by the big house of the rich, unmerciful family, but no destructive lightning stroke down from the clouds in the house of the rich owner. Why then was the rich hard-hearted man spared here, and why rather not the poor man?

[3] Such things are happening very often, and because of that, the people are easily coming to the belief that there is no God at all or that God does not care about the people at all. And according to me, this is one of the most important reasons for the decline of faith. Because every man has a natural sense of justice that is closely connected to faith in a good and very righteous God. When this feeling is too often offended in mostly a to Heaven crying way, then gradually, also faith is offended and affected, and then humanity is sinking slowly but surely still deeper into the night of unbelief and superstition. And in its need, it is starting to search for help and comfort at any place where help is offered, and in this way it turns to idolatry or indifference.

[4] Once humanity, within a few centuries, has in this way become for the greatest part evil, then comes of course one punishment after another. But I think that those would not be necessary if the faith of the people had not been so often severely tested by certain incidents.

[5] I am only thinking about it here as a natural man, but as I am thinking about it now, a lot of people are thinking the same way, and thereby and by that they are only becoming worse. Lord and Master, what do You say on this now?”

[6] I said: “Did your poor family remain unhappy also after the accident. And after that, did it have to wither away in great need and great misery?”

[7] The scribe said: “No, this not at all, because the accident made the hearts of the neighbors soft, and they gave the poor family so much that it possessed more after the accident than before.

[8] But there are also cases where a family, when they once have an accident without their fault is also remaining unhappy afterwards. And also these cases that happen oftentimes are actually the reason why, according to my opinion, humanity is mostly becoming worse. Or am I also about this, thinking incorrectly?”

[9] I said: “Firstly, such cases are happening very seldom, and then secondly, if they happen they certainly have a good reason. With the first poor family that you gave as example, the reason for their accident was the following: their hut was already in a very ruinous condition and it would have collapsed with a small earthquake, and easily would have killed its righteous inhabitants. For this reason the family asked already a few times to their rich neighbors to help them, so that they could build a new hut. But the neighbors did not go for it. Then one day it was allowed that a lightning would make an end to the old, ruinous hut. Then this made the heart of the neighbor’s softer. They quickly brought a small amount of money together, build a new stone dwelling hut for the poor family and still supplied them so abundantly with all kinds of provisions, so that the condition of the poor family was much better after the accident than before, and moreover, they were also able to do something in a much easier way for someone who was still poorer. And therefore, your presumed accident was for the righteous poor family only a true bliss, that was foreseen and allowed by Me.

[10] Concerning the other afflictions that happen to man as adversity, which are then also not leaving him, of this I say that such a family always comes into poverty by their own fault. If then, in their poverty they are again easily hit by a still harder blow, in order to wake them up from their daily laziness, it is again their own fault if they are still further persisting in their laziness, and thus also remain in their unhappy state. This kind of people are then indeed of the opinion that God does not hear their questions, or that He is not concerned at all about the people. But these people are only too lazy. They are not serious with their worldly work, and also not in the keeping of God’s commandments and their lukewarm and without trust uttered questions to God. And therefore, they are also left in their adversity until they – by the still more pressing need – are finally awakened to activity and by that will then also become happier.

[11] Listen, there was once in the morning land a king of a great people. The people became lazy, because they were living in a fertile land and became poorer from year to year, more and more. Then the king thought by himself how he could correct this evil.

[12] He got a good idea, and he said by himself: ‘I will charge to the people greater and heavier taxes and collect them by my army with an uncompromising strictness, and that as long as the people in general will become more active.’

[13] So he said, so he did. And see, in the beginning the people were grumbling and complaining terribly, and if only it would be easier to get rid of their laziness they would have stood up against the king of whom they were supposing that he was too hard. The bitter need brought the people however to greater activity. By that, they soon became wealthier and they paid the king more easily the demanded heavy taxes than before the light taxes.

[14] When after a few years the king noticed that his people became zealous and active, he sent messengers to all the parts of his kingdom and announced a substantial tax reduction.

[15] But then the elders of the people said: ‘We thank the wise king for this favor, but nevertheless, we are asking him also to leave the current taxes as they are for the true welfare of the people, because as soon as the people will be charged less taxes, then they also soon will become lazier and inactive, and finally they will have it more difficult to raise the light taxes than the heavy taxes.’

[16] When the king heard this remark from the elders of his people, he praised them for their wisdom, and saw how his people became more and more active, and by that became also more and more wealthy and happier. And when the people of the elders heard that the wise king only charged them such high taxes to make them more active and happier, they praised the wisdom of the king and paid him voluntarily even more than it had to pay him.

[17] And see, that I also am doing with the lazy and inactive people. Therefore, am I doing someone injustice?”

[18] The scribe said: “Lord, now it is again completely clear to me and I thank You out of the deepest of my heart because You have lightened my understanding.

[19] However, I am asking You to continue the explanation of Isaiah. The sixth verse is even more incomprehensible than the preceding five. Therefore, we ask you urgently to give us more explanation.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 174

 

Explanation of Isaiah 2:6-22. Mercy. Revelations of the new Light. (17/93)

 

I said: “Good then, so listen further to the Word. The words of the prophet are as follows:

[2] ‘You, Lord, have nevertheless permitted that Your people have abandoned the house of Jacob, because Your nations are now worse than the foreigners from the east. They also are now committing sorcery just like the Philistines, and from the children of the foreigners they are accepting many as their own. Their country is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures, and their country is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Also, their country is full of idols, and they, the people, are worshipping the work of their hands, which their fingers have made. For that, the people are bowing down and for that, the nobleman is humbling down. That, You, o Lord, will not forgive. You faithless people, go then to the rocks of the mountains and hide yourselves in the earth, for fear of the Lord and for His lovely majesty.’ (Isaiah 2:6-10).

[3] These 5 verses belong together because they show the miserable state of the church or God’s house on Earth. And this applies as well to the Jews who were here before this time, as to those who will come after us.

[4] The laziness in the execution of God’s commandments is however the reason why I permit that My people leave the house of Jacob on the Mountain of the Lord and is precisely doing what the most rude and laziest nations are doing, who are dwelling in the eastern countries as wild animals.

[5] And what the Pharisees are doing, as well as the Jews, the descendants will do also. They will set up many days to which they will attribute special power and influence, and whoever will go against it, will be persecuted by them with fire and sword. They will also practice divination. For money they will predict happiness and misfortune to the people, and by that, they will let themselves be extremely honored and be paid, because such a useless work is finally more profitable than with the plowshare and the sickle.

[6] To increase their income that they are earning with their useless work, they will, just like the Pharisees now, send out their messengers throughout the whole world, and will make the foreigners as their own children. Those were already as dark gentiles good for nothing. But when then they will adopt the real worldly doctrine of the Philistines, they will become even a 100 times worse than what they already were. For this reason, their dark country will be filled with silver and gold, and their hunger for the treasures of this world will know no end, and have no purpose, nor their lust of power and war – what the prophet is expressing in the image of the horses and the countless chariots. Also, their territory over which they are ruling will be full of idol statues and temples, like with Solomon the wise one, who also started this way. Despite the personal warning of God he let idol temples be constructed around Jerusalem for his foreign women. Before the idol statues, those blind fools will bow down, and the work of their own hands and fingers they will worship in the foolish belief that God will be pleased with it. And whoever will not do that, will be persecuted unto life and death. Because many kings, in order to give their throne more luster, will support the nonsense of the worldly Philistines, and will persecute with fire and sword the friends of Light and the living Truth of which there are always only a few.

[7] And see, then the Lord will come and punish those nations who have seduced so many people in His name.

[8] Then the true, living Light will suddenly appear from all sides, and the friends of the night will be defeated forever. They will flee to the rocks indeed (to the great and mighty of the Earth) and will bury themselves under their infertile soil, out of fear for the Truth and the majesty of the Lord. But this will be of little help to them.

[9] Because now speaks the prophet further again and says loudly: ‘For, all high eyes (pride to rule) will be humiliated and all high lords will have to bow down, because in that time only the Lord will be high and continue eternally forever and ever! (Isaiah 2:11). Because the day (light) of the Lord Zebaoth will walk over all that is proud and high and most of all over all that has been exalted in the world in order to humiliate it. (Isaiah 2:12). So, also over all the proud cedars of the Lebanon (priests) and over all oaks in Basan (most important pillars of the priesthood of idolatry during all times). (Isaiah 2:13). Over all high mountains (rulers) and over all exalted hills (all courtiers). (Isaiah 2:14). Over all high towers (generals) and over all strong walls (armies). (Isaiah 2:15). Also over all the ships on sea (those who are controlling the rudder of the state) and over all the – according to worldly standards – important work (the big national industry). (Isaiah 2:16). And that will happen in order to let everything bow down what is high for the people, and to humiliate all high-ranked people, so that in that time only the Lord will be high. (Isaiah 2:17). In that time the idols will be completely finished. (Isaiah 2:18). Yes, then also, one will go into the rocky caverns and in the canyons of the Earth (hidden places of the mammon), and this out of fear for the Lord and for His lovely majesty (the light of the eternal truth), when He will prepare Himself to frighten the Earth (punishments). (Isaiah 2:19). Yes, in that time everyone will throw away his silver and golden idol statues in the holes of the moles and the bats (Isaiah 2:20) – which idol statues he made for himself to worship – to crawl away easier into the clefts of the rock and canyons out of fear for the Lord and for His lovely majesty, when He will prepare Himself to frighten the Earth. (Isaiah 2:21). But that will be of no use to anyone. Therefore, leave such man alone who has breath in his nose (breath in the nose refers to worldly pride), because you do not know how high – worldly speaking – he can be.’ (Isaiah 2:22).

[10] Well, here you have now the easy to understand whole explanation of the second chapter of the prophet Isaiah. The last verses you easily can explain yourselves, once you have well understood the meaning of the first ones.

[11] But I tell you that it really will happen within a short time and then again entirely after about 1.900 years, because when man will have been given a complete freedom of will then in My decree there is no other way to successfully counteract from time to time the human laziness than only this one, because that laziness is the root of all sins and vices. Did you all understand this very well?

[12] Now this will produce less joy in you, and even less for the future nations when this message will be given to them again in their great misery and during the time when one nation will rise against the other to destroy it. But the following chapter will give us more light.

[13] But tell Me now how you have understood this very important matter. I say ‘very important’ because as My future followers I want to especially emphasize that you and your disciples should guard yourselves against laziness. Now speak about the spirit that you have met in Isaiah. After that we will pass over without difficulty to the third chapter.”

[14] The disciples and also the others who were present said unanimously: “Lord, whatever You order, will and permit is certainly good, wise and just, because You as Creator and Master of men and all things in the world know best of all what is best for men anyway. If silver, gold, precious stones and beautiful pearls were completely harmful for Your people then You would not have created such evil things.

[15] Who, besides You, knows if without those exciting matters, men would not have become much lazier than they are already now with all those countless excitements, and in course of time will even become worse. However, if a lot of people, out of a too great love for these excitements, will become true devils among men because they let themselves be blinded by the false glitter of the gold, then You still have an infinite number of ways to chastise them by those that are in Your service. And so, we are of the opinion that at the end of the times of the world everything will still have a good ending according to Your secret, eternal decree.

[16] We, as Your chosen disciples, will certainly do our utmost best, according to Your decree, to encourage the people to be active in the right way, and to inspire and to stir them up for it. If in the course of time they will also be equally careful with their descendants, is of course a very important different question. But then, You Yourself will surely let everything happen in such a way that it will be for the best of the people, be it wars, epidemics, high cost of living, famine or peace, good health and blessed fruitful years and times. And with this we now have openly expressed our opinion to You, o Lord, and we ask You to continue with the explanation of the prophet.”

[17] I said: “This time I am completely satisfied with what you have all said, and because you have well understood the explanation of the second chapter of the prophet we simply can now also continue to the third chapter. So listen to Me.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 175

 

Explanation of the third chapter of Isaiah. The situation of an organized community. (17/94)

 

Also in this following chapter the prophecy is for now and for the coming times of which I have spoken.

[2] The first verse of the prophet has a deep meaning and goes like this: ‘Look, the Lord, Lord Zebaoth will take away out of Jerusalem all kinds of provisions, and also out of the whole of Judah the total provision of bread and the whole provision of water’. (Isaiah 3:1).

[3] Here, by Jerusalem must be understood the present-day Jewry, just as it is now and already has been for a long time. By Judah must be understood the future generations that then, by accepting My teaching, will be counted to the tribe of Judah. Because of their laziness they will undergo the same fate in a much greater measure as now the Jews in a smaller measure.

 

[4] By the taking away of the provision of bread you must understand the taking away of love and mercy, and by the taking away of the provision of water, the taking away of the true wisdom out of God. And the result thereof will be that all of them will come on a wrong track, and their soul will be in darkness, and nobody will be able to give counsel to another. And even if somebody would give counsel to another, then the one who needed counsel and light will still not trust him and say: ‘What are you talking to me about the light while you yourself are in the same darkness as I am.’ The fact that the people will then by their own fault – because of their laziness – become totally without help, is accurately described by the prophet with the following words:

[5] ‘Thus will be taken away the strong ones and warriors, judges, prophets, fortunetellers and elders (Isaiah 3:2), counselors and wise workers, and eloquent orators, and headmen over 50, and also honest people (3:3).’

[6] I am mentioning here on purpose the headmen and the honest people as last instead of in the beginning of the third verse, and I have My reason for this. Listen now to the explanation.

[7] Who are the strong ones and the warriors? These are such people like once David was, full of faith and trust in Me, and the warriors are those people who consent to be totally inspired by faith and trust in the One, to always conquer all the enemies of what is good and true from God – even if they are so many.

[8] When there will be a complete lack of living water out of the Heavens, and all flesh, together with its soul, are in the thickest of darkness, who will then deal with the people as a true and righteous judge? Who will have the gift of prophecy? And even if someone still possesses it for himself, who will then, without inner understanding believe that it is true? Who will be able to prophesy for the blind and deaf? And who will be chosen by dark mankind as a true elder because of his outstanding wisdom in order to make him their shepherd? Now, understand this well.

[9] The one from whom – spiritually speaking – has been taken away bread and water, has lost by that everything, because the one who has been punished and chastised by God with spiritual blindness, has been punished and chastised the most severely. Because by that he has lost everything, and he is completely in despair and helpless. This is then also the ultimate means by which the laziness of the people that took a too great dominion, and all their vices can be fought against in the best way.

[10] The fact that the people will be in the greatest misery by the taking away of the spiritual bread and water, and by that, the things that still will be taken away from them, the prophet explains further in the third verse, where he explicitly says: ‘By that, the people will have to miss the counselors’ or those who give counsel, ‘and wise workers’ in all branches of human necessities, thus also intelligent speakers, who otherwise would have accomplished a lot of good with their wisdom.

[11] However, the worst of all that, is the taking away of the, say, 50 headmen which is taking place at the same time. Who are the 50 and what has the figure 50 to do with it? This we will perceive right away.

[12] If we imagine a big and completely organized community of people, then since ancient times it has – if it wants to be well taken care of in everything – in total 50 main regions where it has to provide in their necessities of life. Whatever is above that, stands already for pride, and everything that is less stands for weakness, need and poverty. However, in order to provide efficiently and to take care of each separate branch of these life necessities there must also be a clever captain as foreman and leader in charge, who from A to Z must be well acquainted with everything that is necessary in the whole system. If such a one is not present and someone incompetent stands in his place, then the whole branch of life necessities will soon carry bad or even no more fruits at all for the community.

[13] How then will a big community be able to stand if by its laziness and negligence finally has lost all of the 50 headmen? I tell you: in the same manner as the community of Jews nowadays, where only certain thieves and robbers are still possessing something and who fatten and enrich themselves at the expense of the poor, but where thousands are helplessly pining away in the deepest of poverty. Because where is the wise captain who would take care of them and who would give them in one way or another a certain job and bread? Look, in a lot of areas a head is missing, and so also all the other things are not present. There are still certain headmen to direct different areas, but this they are not doing for the people but for oneself, and therefore they are only thieves and robbers and no real headmen like at the time of My judges.

[14] Now you have seen how the outer and inner well being of the people of a big community depends on the head leaders in the different areas of life necessities. But on who then depends in the first place the right organization of the named head leaders in a big community of people, in a country that is governed by a prince or king? Look, it only depends on a wise king.

[15] But then, what does our prophet say? What will the Lord do further on with the lazy, god-forsaken communities?

[16] Listen, his words are as follows: ‘I, says the Lord, will give them young men to be their princes, and silly men will rule over them. (Isaiah 3:4). And among the people one will suck out the other. Everyone, even his neighbor, and the young one will exalt himself above the elder and a worthless, dishonest man above an honest one.’ (Isaiah 3:5).

[17] The words of the prophet are here of itself so clear and plain that they do not need another explanation. I can only show you the great and clear visible very bad results, although these also can easily be discovered by itself. Once all life-conditions will come into the greatest disorder by such confusion, and when, because of the need, all the people of the community will become very discontented, then also will arise one merciless rebellion after another. The people will awaken and stand up, and are chasing away the princes and selfish headmen, or even strangle them. And this is what is meant when one says: ‘One nation wars against another’.

[18] Thanks to his lazy nature, man permits any pressure as long as he, in his blindness, can still fill his stomach, no matter with what kind of meager food, but once also this is ceasing and he is facing only starvation, then he wakes up and turns into a starved enraged hyena. And it must come to that point, so that mankind will wake up.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 176

 

The downfall of the false religious systems explained from Isaiah 3:6-27 (17/95)

 

But then everything is destroyed and thrown down. Whosoever can be falsely accused that he also – by his own merciless selfishness – has contributed to the general misfortune of the nations, will unfortunately fall victim to the revenge of the common people. But then what? Then the people have no leader at all, not a good one nor a bad one. They are in total anarchy, where ultimately everybody can do what he wants. However, another one, who is stronger, can also punish him at his heart’s desire.

[2] Then the wise men come together and say: ‘This cannot be, it cannot continue like that. We, who are wiser and mightier men will work together and bring the people to vote for a wise chief. And it will be an exalted house that will accommodate two brothers with much recognition and experience.’ What will happen next? The prophet will tell us precisely. And what does the prophet say?

[3] Listen. He says: ‘Then one brother will grab the other out of his brothers’ house and will say: ‘You have clothes (knowledge and experience), be you our ruler and help us during this downfall.’ (Isaiah 3:6). But then he will say and swear: ‘Listen, I am no doctor, and there is no bread (the goodness of faith) or clothing (true faith) in my house. Therefore, do not make me a ruler of the people.’ (Verse 7). Because Jerusalem is ripe and falls down, and Judah (the later time) is also fallen. Because their language and their deeds are against the Lord, because they oppose the eyes of His majesty (the light of His wisdom). (Verse 8). That is visible and known to everybody. Their nature is not hidden because they are boasting about their sin, just like in Sodom and Gomorrah, and they are brutal and they do not even hide. Woe unto their souls! Because with that, they have thrown themselves completely into their ruin.’ (Verse 9).

[4] But the chosen Prince – who could also possibly be I Myself – says further: ‘Go and preach first to the righteous, so that they may become good, then they will eat the fruit of their works. (Verse 10). However, woe unto the lazy and ungodly, because they are wicked at all times, and unto them will be rewarded according to their works and as they have deserved it! (Verse 11). Listen, for this reason, children are the princes of My people, and even women are ruling over them. My people, your (wrong) comforters are misleading you (think about Rome) and are destroying the way that you have to go. (Verse 12).

[5] But the Lord stands there to pronounce justice and has now come up to judge the people. (Verse 13). And the Lord comes to administer justice with the elders of His people (the Scriptures) and with His princes (those who, in the last time, have been awakened for life). For you (Pharisees and Romans) have destroyed the vineyard, and what has been robbed from the poor is in your house. (Verse 14).

[6] Why do you trample down My people, and why do you mistreat all those who are miserable? Thus speaks the Lord now with great seriousness. (Verse 15).

[7] And the Lord continues to speak: Because the daughters of Zion are proud (the false teaching of the whore of Babel) and walk with a stretched-out neck and a face with make-up, walking proudly (haughty), wag the tail (like a hungry dog), wearing at their feet expensive shoes (verse 16), the Lord will shave the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion to baldness (take away the reasoning), and with that, He will take away their only and best jewel. (Verse 17).

[8] In that time the Lord will take away the jewelry of their expensive shoes (those who believe blindly), and the ribbons (faithful followers), and the buckles (the different assemblies) (verse 18), the chains, the bracelets and the caps (the superstitious craft-guilds) (verse 19), the tinsels, the ornamental borders, all golden strings, musk, earrings (verse 20), rings and hair ribbons (verse 21), feast clothes, coats, veils and the (big) purses (verse 22), mirrors, capes, laces and the blouses (all of the glittering ceremony of the whore of Babel). (Verse 23). Then the sweet smell will become a stench, the good girdle a loose string, curled hair (serpent-like cunning of the whore of Babel) a baldhead, and her wide coat will become a narrow sack. And all this will come instead of the presumed beauty.

[9] Your mob will fall by the sword, and your warriors will fall in battle. (Verse 25). And her gates will weep and lament (because nobody wants to go inside anymore), and she will sit pitifully upon the ground. (Verse 26). Then, in that time, men will be so few that 7 women will take hold of 1 man (or out of the 7 sacraments there will be only 1) and they will say: We will feed and clothe ourselves, but let us carry your name, so that our dishonor will be taken away from us.’ (Verse 27).

[10] And look, My friends. What the prophet has said, will certainly be fulfilled, as sure and true as I have told you now Myself. Because the people cannot bear the truth for a longer time, become tired and always sink back again into their old judgment and death-bringing laziness. And then there is truly nothing else that can be done but, through the most extreme ways, awaken the people again and of old, bring them once more upon the ways and mountain paths of light and life.

[11] Therefore, I am saying to you once more: above all, warn the people against spiritual laziness, for with this will start all evil things of which the prophet has spoken, and I must unfortunately permit them. Think about it, then we will talk about it again in the inn. And now we soon will also go to that place, because we still will have a lot of things to do this night.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 177

 

The craving for honor. Pride and humility. (17/96)

 

Now we entered the large inn of Nicodemus where a well-prepared evening meal was already waiting for us. But because now among My disciples there were quite a number of temple servants who secretly were still attaching a great importance to their rank of the old order of the temple, there was a disagreement among them about who would take place at the head of the table or more at the foot of the big table. As a result of that, our scribes and the two Pharisees who were converted this midday, took out of habit at once the most important seats, and by that they did not notice that I Myself had not yet taken a seat, nor the Romans, the 3 magicians from India and the men from Upper-Egypt, what to Nicodemus and also to Lazarus was clearly not very pleasing.

[2] I went up to them and said: “Listen, in My Kingdom there is no rank at all. There is only: the one who exalts himself will be humiliated, the one however who behaves modestly will be exalted.

[3] If you are invited as guest and you go to table for the feast, then do not sit right away at the most important place, which the host might have reserved for somebody who is still more important. Then, if that person would come, and the host would say to you: ‘Friend, go and sit further to the end of the table because I have reserved this seat for more important people’, would you then not find this very unpleasant if the host had to make you ashamed in front of the whole party?

[4] However, if you are invited as guest and humbly would sit at the lower end, and the host comes and says to you: ‘Friend, go and sit at the head, at the most important place, because the seats there below are reserved for the more common guests’, then this will certainly be very pleasant to you. And one of your most important lessons and foundations of life must then remain: the one who exalts himself will be humiliated, and the one who humbles himself down will be exalted.

[5] So it will also once be in My Kingdom. The one who will be there the smallest and the least will also be the greatest. For in Heaven everything is contrary to the worldly rank here. What is important and brilliant in the eyes of the world is in Heaven very small and insignificant and without any splendor and pomp.

[6] This lesson has to be written down. And where My gospel will be preached, this also should be faithfully preached to all men.

[7] I am the Lord Myself and yet, look now, I am meek and humble with all My heart. Be you all like that, then from this it will appear that you are truly My disciples.”

[8] Then the Pharisees stood up from their places, visibly painfully hurt, and wanted to sit immediately completely at the end.

[9] But I said: “Remain seated where you are sitting now. Because with us it makes no difference where somebody is sitting, because the honor of the place depends on the person who occupies it. If I am Lord, then I am the same on any place that I occupy, and another will not become Lord by occupying such a place.

[10] What advantage would it be to you if for instance you would go to Rome and sit on the throne of the emperor, and he would submit to this joke and sit next to you on a simple wooden bench? By this, you will never be an emperor anyway, and he also will remain the mighty emperor on the wooden bench. Therefore, the honor of a place does not depend on the place itself but always only on the one who occupies it. So, you can remain on your seat.”

[11] Then I went with My disciples and with Raphael, Lazarus and Nicodemus to sit completely at the end. And Agricola said: “O Lord and Master, now I see all too clearly where for every man the true first place is. With every true man is the first rank hidden in the depth of his true humility. Also we Romans have for this an old and good proverb. It says: ‘Laus propria sordet’ (own praise stinks), and I discovered now by Your words that this is so. And I feel good to know that we Romans, without revelation, by thinking and experience have discovered a truth that now in the light of Your wisdom looks much better than all those new institutions in your (Pharisees) temple that was built by the most wise of all kings on the Earth.”

[12] I said: “Look, therefore, the light, also of the Jews will be taken away and be transferred to you gentiles, just like it is written with the prophets.”

[13] The one Pharisee said: “Then what will happen with the Jews?”

[14] I said: “This I have already told you and described sufficiently, and in the night-signs you were able to read it. Because you have now become a 1,000 times more gentile than people who are somewhere existing on Earth. Therefore, you Jews will be scattered as chaff before the storm among all people of the Earth and they will never again possess a land and a king.”

[15] The scribe said: “But the Lord has promised an eternal throne to David.”

[16] I said: “O yes, this for sure, and so it will also be, but not materially as you may think, but spiritually.

[17] According to My Word, everybody will become a David within himself forever in My Kingdom. However, I tell you, from now on, be obedient in this world to every worldly authority, be it bad or good, because the power that it has, is given from above.

[18] Let no one of you strive to be a ruler on Earth, for the one who should rule over the people in one way or another, will be called for that from above, and it will be given in his heart how he has to rule his peoples. Proud and haughty men must be ruled by a proud and haughty king, and good and humble ones will also be given similar rulers, and under their scepter they will live happily and well. Thus, in the future it all will depend completely on the people how their rulers will be. Remember this very well.

[19] But, because the food has already been served, we will eat and drink now and strengthen ourselves.”

[20] After that, everything became quiet and everybody ate and drank whatever was set before him.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 178

 

The Lord settles the argument between the Damascenes

 and the innkeepers of Emmaus (17/97)

 

The meal lasted for about half an hour and when we all had eaten enough and felt strengthened, there was again an uproar and a great noise outside on the street, upon which soon several men came to us in the large dining-hall and wanted to speak with Nicodemus.

[2] He stood up and asked with a serious look what was going on and what they wanted so late at night.

[3] A Damascene came forward and said: “Lord, we have come to know now that you are the leader of this place and therefore we came to you to introduce a complaint because we as traveling merchants were received very badly here. We would not mind to pay reasonably everything that we consume, but we will not allow to be taken advantage of by those terribly greedy people from Emmaus. We desire a judicial sentence, and otherwise we will appeal to the emperor whose loyal citizens we are.”

[4] Nicodemus continued: “And what does the injustice consist of exactly that was committed to you in this place?”

[5] The spokesman said: “Strict and just lord, we have stabled our pack animals outside on a big open space and then, divided into groups, we went to different inns of this place because we could not receive accommodation in this inn. Then we have strengthened ourselves with a very meager food and we wanted to pay everything in a reasonable way. But now those innkeepers have charged us so much that we, even in Damascus could not ask such an amount to a guest who ate and drank for a whole year in our place, although also in our place no one receives anything for nothing. We have never experienced this anywhere!”

[6] Nicodemus said: “What did you then eat and drink and how much did they charge you?”

[7] The spokesman said: “Strict and just lord. Each one of us has consumed a not too big fish, a piece of leavened bread and a cup of very average wine. Nothing more and also nothing less. And for this these usurers demanded a 100 pieces of silver from each one of us. With this kind of money you can go to the far Indies and come back there from. No, I have never heard anything like it before. What do you say, severe and just lord?”

[8] Nicodemus said: “Did you also pay the money that the innkeepers wanted to get from you?”

[9] The spokesman said: “Strict and just lord. Then we would have been great fools. This uproar in the middle of the street did precisely happen because we wisely did not give them the demanded money. Like street robbers they now want to take away our merchandise, and for this reason we seek now the protection of the law with you against this wild violence. If we do not receive it, then these people from Emmaus will get to know the Damascenes!”

[10] Nicodemus said: “Well, you have now brought up the matter, and law and justice will be done to you when everything is precisely as you have told me. However, before I can do you justice, I also must hear your opponents in order to know what they will eventually bring forward against your complaint. That of course, you must allow.”

[11] The spokesman said: “This of course is all right with us. Just let them come.”

[12] Nicodemus said: “If there is anyone here from the most unreasonable innkeepers, then let him come forward and speak.”

[13] There were 3 innkeepers among the strange accusers. They came forward and said: “We do not deny that we really have asked the mentioned amount for the evening meal, what is indeed far too much, but we also have been a few times in Damascus where we have presented our merchandise on the market. We always stayed only for 3 days and we also had to pay there such a terribly high price in the inns. If we now ask from them 10 times as much as from other travelers, we only take from them what they already have taken too much from us a long time ago. And when we are doing that, we think that we are not being unjust according to the law of Moses that says ‘eye for eye, tooth for tooth’.”

[14] Nicodemus now said: “Yes, then it becomes difficult to satisfy one party as well as the other. Because you, Damascenes, have acted without love regarding to these people from Emmaus, and they are now doing an injustice to you. So you can understand that it is difficult to make a right judgment. Therefore, make an arrangement and settle with each other whatever each one has demanded too much. Then your struggle will be ended in the eyes of God and the righteous thinking and willing men.”

[15] The spokesman from Damascus said: “Strict and just lord, we know only one justice and that we call reasonability. It is true that in our big city on the public market days something more is asked of those who buy their goods, but what is also true, is that these people from Emmaus are now charging us the same amount as they had paid too much in 10 years time. But this we cannot help at all, because we are no possessors of inns but only very simple merchants who are trading everywhere with what their skilled hands have made. If these usurers from Emmaus want to receive compensation with us Damascenes, then they must do that in Damascus with the innkeepers, but not with us, because we have never cheated them with the goods that they have bought from us.”

[16] Then the innkeepers from Emmaus said: “That we surely will not do because we have sworn never to visit that high-priced Damascus again. They must now pay to us what we are demanding and they have to indemnify themselves with their expensive innkeepers.”

[17] Now Nicodemus came to Me and asked Me what he had to do.

[18] I said: “The Damascenes are right and the innkeepers from Emmaus are very unreasonable usurers. They should ask what is righteous and that means, that each one of the merchants should pay them only 2 pieces of silver per person and not 1 cent more. If the merchants from Emmaus were cheated in Damascus then this is their own fault. They wanted to behave as rich people and were often excessively reveling and gluttonous, and the Damascenes were right when they let themselves be properly paid for it. If according to them, the bill was too high in Damascus then they had to introduce a complaint with the judges there. If they agreed at that time with the bill because of their boasting, then they also have to agree now. And if they arbitrarily want to do violence to these Damascenes, then also to them will be done violence. They can now choose one thing or another and do what they want, but then we also will do what we want.”

[19] Those words of Mine were well heard by the Damascenes, but also by the three men from Emmaus.

[20] The Damascenes came to Me, and the spokesman said: “Listen, Friend who are totally unknown to us. You have spoken the most pure truth. This is how it also happened. Those people have shown – because they are living in the neighborhood of the big city of Jerusalem – a great disregard to us Damascenes, and were showing us by their extravagant revelries how rich they were and what kind of spending-power they had, compared to us. Then they also received from our innkeepers what they were asking and then nothing was too expensive for them. But only now they must have had remorse about their gluttonous behavior and wanted to indemnify themselves with us, who are totally innocent, what the facts are proving now only too clearly. But You, noble and true Friend, have now spoken out a complete correct judgment and we are now also adding the request that this should also really be executed.”

[21] Now the 3 innkeepers came very boldly forward and said: “Against the execution of this judgment we will know how to defend ourselves. Who are You anyway that You dare to act against us, taking these untrustworthy Damascenes into protection?”

[22] I said: “Here at My right hand are sitting the Roman rulers who came here, even from Rome, because of Me. They will tell you who I actually am if you do not want to conform to My verdict. But if ever it comes that far, woe unto you, souls of extortion! What I have said, so it will remain. Now do whatever you want.”

[23] After these words the 3 innkeepers left quickly and were planning with their servants, friends and accomplices to attack the caravan that was standing outside in order to get their indemnity. This I also made known to Nicodemus and Agricola.

[24] Agricola, who could now no more stand the three from Emmaus at all, asked Nicodemus immediately if there were any Roman soldiers located in this place.

[25] And Nicodemus answered: “Mighty friend, about a 100 Roman soldiers are permanently encamped here.”

[26] Agricola said: “Tell the commander to come here.”

[27] I said: “Friend, if there is any danger that is absolutely threatening, your well meant command comes much too late. Therefore, I have already taken care of it by My Raphael, and the Roman soldiers are already executing what has been commanded to them. They soon will bring the obstinate innkeepers here, because when those, together with their accomplices, were approaching the wagons and pack animals, they were surrounded and arrested by the soldiers who were positioned there. They will now soon be brought here before the inn and the commander will come in to ask Nicodemus for his sentence.”

[28] Agricola did of course agree on that and Nicodemus asked Me what kind of sentence he should pronounce.

[29] I said: “You surely have heard just now what I have said to the Damascenes who are present here. But if the innkeepers do not agree at all on this, then you can receive the amount that I had determined, from the Damascenes and divide it at a good opportunity among the poor. The wicked innkeepers should stay instead of that 3 full days in prison and then be seriously admonished and threatened. That will be sufficient to make them in future times more sober and reasonable.”

[30] When I had given this advice to Nicodemus, the Roman commander came to us in the dining-hall and informed Nicodemus what was going on and asked for his sentence.

[31] And Nicodemus told the commander what I had told him before.

[32] He reported this immediately to the innkeepers, who did not want to accept the sentence through all kind of excuses. But the commander made a short work and threw them into a prison. When they heard that, the Damascenes gave immediately the amount that I had determined for the evening meal of the whole caravan to Nicodemus and thanked Me a lot for the sentence that I had pronounced.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 179

 

A small gospel for the Damascenes (17/98)

 

The spokesman still asked Me specially how he could reward Me, since I had spoken out such an effective verdict in favor of them, because they took Me now for a true judge of this place.

[2] But I said to the spokesman: “I never take a reward from anybody for My teaching and for My verdict. But I am telling you now that – apart from the fact that justice had been administered to you here – in future you also will be reasonable and righteous with everybody with whom you will have dealings, because being unreasonable and unjust among the people on Earth is the greatest evil in the world that reaps discord among the brothers and sisters and is causing enmity. And once these are present, there is no more welfare among the people, but only envy, hate, robbery, manslaughter, murder and war.

[3] Soon My disciples will come to you. Receive them and accept what they will teach you. Act accordingly. Whatever you will do for them, I will consider it as if you have done it for Me. That is the reward that I desire for My righteous verdict. Did you understand Me well?”

[4] The spokesman said: “Yes sure, sure, righteous Judge, we have understood You, because as businessmen and merchants since former times we are dealing with our good products with almost all people of the known Earth and therefore we also understand all languages of the Earth, although we mean now especially the meaning of Your words. And if Your disciples will visit us in Damascus, we ask You here now only for the distinctive feature, so that eventually we would not receive false ones instead of the real ones.”

[5] I said, while I was pointing to My disciples of that moment: “There they are, look at them. One of them will come to you and announce to you the teaching of the salvation for your souls. And a few years later I will call an apostle for the gentiles in your city to show you the full truth. Yet, before that time, he will be an enemy of My light, but after that calling he will have the greatest zeal for it. However, before him, still a few others will come to you whom he will persecute. Receive them well, then your reward will not be considered little.

[6] For whoever will faithfully receive a prophet in My name will also reap the reward of a prophet. My disciples and apostles will be true prophets and thus servants of God the Lord by whom I also have been sent to this world for the salvation of all people who believe in Me and live and act according to My teaching. Did you also understand this?”

[7] The spokesman said: “Yes sure, sure, wise and extremely righteous Judge. But as we have casually understood extremely well from Your words, You are not only an extremely wise righteous Judge but also a true Prophet of the Jews. And for this we feel sorry for You with all our heart because the Jews, as they are now, became by their insatiable greed the greatest enemies of the old and even more of the new prophets. The shepherds (Pharisees), elders (priests) and scribes must, according to the prescriptions of Moses, possess nothing, but they only must live of the tithes and the offerings. But these Pharisees, elders and scribes now simply want to call the whole country as their own, and as such they also want to maintain and use it. And all the people must work for them alone, and besides, for the still greater honor for God they may possess nothing and be hungry and thirsty until they become desperate.

[8] Well, we Damascenes were, and partly still are, very good and true Jews. But no apostle may come from Jerusalem to make us vote for this bad and deceitful city. Whoever wants to do that, must better not come to us, for if ever such a one comes to us, then he will be put out of the city at once, from where he can then run away. But when prophets and judges, like You are one, will come to us, we will receive them always gladly, even if most of us are Greeks, old Syrians and Babylonians. Because from the true prophets anyone can learn something that is true, and thus also something that is good. And so also, everyone who will be sent by You to us as Your true disciples will be well received by us.”

[9] I said: “Since you still have the time, you still can stay here. Then you will hear and see many things. Here is still bread, fish and wine. Take a seat and eat and drink, because in this inn they certainly will not ask you a 100 pieces of silver for it.”

[10] Then the merchants, a few of them, took a seat and started to eat and drink cheerfully. And they were full of praise because of the quality of the wine, the bread and the well-prepared fish.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 180

 

The Lord raises a widow from the dead (17/99)

 

While they were still eating and drinking, a crowd of women and children came into the hall, lamenting and weeping. They asked Nicodemus to deliver their husbands and helpers, who just now were put behind lock and bolt by the Roman soldiers.

[2] But Nicodemus said: “Your husbands and helpers will be released in 3 days time, but also not one moment sooner. They were given the advice to be indulgent, but because they did not want that, they now also must atone for their obstinacy.”

[3] Now also a daughter came forward, who said: “Lord, my mother lies at home and is sick unto death. She is a widow and has only one helper who is generally very loyal and took good care of our house. It was only by coincidence that this helper came with them at the time when the uproar arose on the street, to exchange – as citizen of Emmaus – a few words in favor of our innkeepers. And because he did that, the soldiers took him also, was bound and taken to prison. I am asking you now, dear Judge and lords, for the sake of my mother who is sick unto death, to release our helper again who came into prison totally innocent.”

[4] Upon that, Nicodemus said: “The fact that your helper is indeed less guilty to the uproar than the innkeepers and their own helpers, I do not doubt, yet he was still an accomplice and so it did not happen unjustly that he came into prison together with the others. But if your mother, whom I know well, is feeling so bad and if she is sick unto death, I will ask here our supreme Judge if He agrees to release your helper. Therefore, be patient now.

[5] Now of course, Nicodemus was turning to Me and asked Me what had to happen concerning the helper.

[6] I said: “The mentioned helper cannot be released at all from prison because he is not there, for when he noticed that the stubbornness of the innkeepers and their helpers would bring them into prison, he left immediately, and right on time, to hide himself in the same hut where this morning we have met this poor and sick family. I will send Raphael to the place to bring him here quickly. Only after that, we will discuss the rest.”

[7] I gave a sign to Raphael, upon which he quickly left the hall and within a few moments he came back again into the hall and brought the helper to us. When the helper was in the hall he began to ask for forgiveness to everyone for the fact that he also, only out of curiosity, had somehow taken part in the uproar.

[8] I said: “Therefore, be more intelligent next time and do not take part in any uproar, otherwise it once could have a bad ending for you. But now, go home with this daughter of that sick mother by whom you are in service, and bring the sick one here. Then I will see if ever she still can be helped.”

[9] The two left quickly. But very soon they came back crying, and the helper said: “O, dear Judge, and certainly also equally good Doctor, the mother of this daughter, by whom I am in service, has died. When we came at home she laid in her bed totally without soul. Therefore, she certainly cannot be helped anymore.”

[10] I said: “If you could believe, then you also could see the great glory of God’s power in man.”

[11] The two said: “O Lord, God’s power is certainly great and glorious, yet it has not created any cure against death. Certainly, there are wondrous methods by which the most severe illnesses can be cured, but is there a cure by which a dead person can live again? We do believe that the souls of the people continue to live after the death of the body. But that a body, once it is dead, can also be brought back to life, is indeed difficult to believe. Of course, they say about the youngest day that all who have been decayed in their graves since long will rise again. However, this seems to us only an empty teaching of consolation to prevent people from having a too great fright for death. But we think that everyone who has died will eternally not ever rise again.

[12] However, what happens or will happen with the soul after the death of the body, for sure only God will know. Because, as far as we know, there has never been a soul who came back to tell us what it is like on the other side in that world. We thank You, dear Judge and Savior, for Your good will to make our mother better, but because she has already died she also cannot be helped anymore, and it would be very inappropriate if we would have brought the deceased one over here.”

[13] I said: “It also could be that the deceased one is only apparently dead, and in that case she could be brought back to life again.”

[14] The daughter said: “O dear Savior, my mother died from total exhaustion, of which she has suffered incurably for 5 full years. And whoever dies of such a sickness is not apparently dead, but truly dead. Therefore, we will leave her now alone, because only a God would be able to bring her back to life, but never the expertise and the power of a human being.”

[15] I said: “Based on your knowledge you are right on one hand, and also because you do not know Me. However, you should have noticed something before when I knew precisely to point out where your helper was hiding, although I also, during the uproar did not leave My place for one moment. And when I am capable of this, I also could be capable to perform a lot of other things, if you would believe that and would make the effort to bring the deceased one to this place.”

[16] The two said: “O dear Savior, if it would not be so unpleasant for You and all other important guests we surely would bring the deceased one here, but you are here joyfully having a meal, and a dead body will certainly not fit well.”

[17] I said: “Whether this will fit well or not, experience will show. So just go and bring the deceased one.”

[18] Now the two went, and brought, together with a few assistants, the deceased woman into the large hall with the bed on which she laid.

[19] When the deceased one was lying there, all those who were present were somehow shocked and were looking alternately to Me and to the dead body.

[20] However, I stood up and said: “Whoever of you is an expert, let him go to the dead body and examine to see if she is completely dead.”

[21] Most of them said: “O Lord and Master, nobody has to examine her anymore, because from a distance one can see that she is entirely dead.”

[22] I said: “Well all right then. But then I want that she will live, stand up and be completely healthy, and that she will remain that way unto an old age.”

[23] When I had said these words, the woman, who had been dead, stood immediately up from her bed, looked at the guests and asked her partly frightened and partly very surprised daughter: “But where am I and what happened to me?”

[24] The daughter said: “Dear mother, you were sick unto death and an hour ago you were deceased, at my great regret. And look, this wonderful Savior has raised you up from the dead and promised you complete health, which He certainly has also given. And besides that, also a long life.”

[25] The woman who was raised from the dead said: “Yes, yes, I live and feel really completely good and healthy. But how can we reward this wonderful Savior now properly, since actually I am only a poor widow woman?”

[26] I said: “If you give something of what you possess to a poor person, then this is the same as if you gave it to Me. For you were that merciful woman who, from the little that she had was sharing the most, and mostly to those who were still poorer than her. And because you were merciful for your poor fellowman, you also have found mercy with Me. But now go and sit at a table to eat and to drink, so that your limbs and bowels will be strengthened.”

[27] The woman with her daughter and those who were helping her took a seat at the table. And freshly prepared fish, bread and wine were given to them. And they all ate and drank joyfully and thanked Me oftentimes for the benefit that was given to them.

[28] After they had strengthened themselves in such a way, they all stood up from the table, while they were glorifying and thanking Me. The helpers took the bed and carried it home. The woman and her daughter were still staying and were glorifying and thanking Me even more.

[29] And I said to the daughter: “And what do you say now, you of little faith? Can one raise a dead person or not?”

[30] The deeply moved daughter said: “O Lord and Master, such a thing is surely only possible to You. That is why You probably will be more than only a Savior of the people. All generations will glorify and praise You unto the end of the world, because such deeds cannot remain hidden from the people.”

[31] I said: “This you surely have well perceived, but for the moment you should not talk about this too much in your community. And now you can go home.”

[32] The two thanked Me once more and they left, escorted to their home by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, by which opportunity they both promised them their rich support. They also kept their promise faithfully.

[33] After their return Nicodemus said to Me: “Lord, we have promised our full support to the widow who had been raised from the dead by You, and I think that we did nothing wrong with that.”

[34] I said: “How can anyone ever sin because he performed a good deed of mercy? However, what you are doing, do it in silence and do not allow the world to praise you for it. Because it is more than enough when God – for whom nothing is unknown or hidden – sees and knows what kind of unseen good deed someone is performing. However, the one who will let himself be praised by the world for the good deed that he has performed, receives by that already his reward for his good works and can expect later in My Kingdom an extremely little reward. Therefore, even your right hand must not know what your left hand has done. Accept this also into your heart and act accordingly, then you will find life and reward in the Heavens.”

[35] On this, none of the two said anything more, because they noticed that it was not to My liking when they would tell Me aloud in front of all those who were present what kind of good works they were planning to do.

[36] The merchants from Damascus were overwhelmed out of pure amazement of what was happening here and their spokesman said in deep respect for Me: “Lord and Master, You are truly more than only a man. Therefore, send Your disciples to us as soon as possible. Then we will listen to them and honor them and will do what they will teach us in Your name. And we thank You now also for everything that we have received and seen here. Now we will go to our inn to tell our still blind colleagues all the things that we have now experienced here in 1 hour. For this reason we are recommending ourselves in Your mercy.”

[37] Then also these merchants left us.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 181

 

Return to the Mount of Olives (17/100)

 

Now I said to Nicodemus: “Yesterday on the Mount of Olives I have promised you to give you a clear light about the flood of Noah, and this will also happen. My Raphael will explain it to you while I will rest a little.”

[2] Then Raphael came forward and explained the flood in the same manner as I (nota bene) have explained it to you in My ‘Household of God’. All of them were very surprised about it.

[3] When after 1 hour Raphael was finished in describing the flood of Noah, over which all those present – as already mentioned – were very surprised, I said: “Listen, it is now almost midnight and time to break up. Let us therefore be on our way to the Mount of Olives, because now the eyes of our enemies are resting, so that we can go unseen to town. But let us not go all at the same time, but rather somewhat divided. And also, no one should say anything along the way, for when it became dark the temple sent out spies because of Me, but also because two Pharisees and two Levites did not yet return. The spies are afraid now that something bad may happen to them tonight. For this reason they will not talk to anyone, also if someone would come near to them. But of course, only if he keeps silent. If two are speaking with each other, they will notice immediately if someone is a Jew from Jerusalem or a Greek, someone from Galilee or a Roman. Then they would go to them to ask where he comes from in the middle of the night. Let us therefore also not forget this small caution.”

[4] The Upper Egyptian said: “Lord and Master. If we also may go together with You, will You then please allow us to walk in front? Then the evil spies will run away from us like a hare that is chased by hunting dogs. We will become aware of them and will run to them with great speed, so that they will run away. For they will take us for devils because of our dark brown faces, which seem to be totally black now in the light of the moon. Or, if ever they want to harm us, then we will do to them the same as what happened to the two prominent Romans Agrippa and Laius in our country according to their saying. We nail them down to the ground where they are standing on, 7 days long, or as long as Your holy will shall order us.”

[5] I said: “My dear friends, what you want to do now for Me, I also could do, if that would be good and necessary, just like I have done that and still so many other things when that was good and necessary. But in this case it would be neither good nor necessary and that is why we will omit it and will leave this place the way I have decided. But because the two Romans who live here in Emmaus, are accompanying Me to the Mount of Olives, you also can stay with us tonight and tomorrow. As you surely know, tomorrow is a high feast day for the Jews and I Myself will teach again in the temple tomorrow. The day after you can return home again together with the Romans.”

[6] The Upper Egyptians thanked Me for this hint and withdrew.

[7] I raised My voice and said: “Whoever wants to go with Me must stand up and come!”

[8] All of them stood up, except the woman and the children of Nicodemus. They also wanted to come, but they were told that they had to stay here. I went in front and all of them followed Me.

[9] On the square, Agricola was still asking Me about the young people.

[10] And I said: “Be quiet now. Those are on the instruction of My servant already there. You will meet them all on the Mount of Olives.”

[11] From that moment on we walked quickly but very quietly to the Mount of Olives.

[12] After a little half-hour we already were in the neighborhood of Jerusalem where we met a couple of guards. But they let us quietly walk through because we were too large a group and they took us for Romans and Greeks, with whom on no account they wanted to come into conflict. They drew to this conclusion because we came in a group and did not exchange a word with one another, what was also the custom among the Roman patrolling guards. Soon we reached the gate of the garden wall and a while later also the inn on the Mount of Olives. We went immediately to the large dining-hall that was waiting for us in a full light.

[13] The innkeeper of Lazarus’ inn asked Me if he had to serve the food and drinks.

[14] I said: “It is not good for a human being if he takes any food at this time, because also the inward parts of a human being need their rest. But tomorrow you can take care of a meal.”

[15] With this the innkeeper was satisfied and went to Lazarus to give him a large sum of money that he had received that day. He said that the greatest part of it was paid by the slave traders who left in the mean time.

[16] Then Lazarus said: “But you did not have to accept anything from them.”

[17] The innkeeper said: “Dear friend, this I also did not want since I knew that they were your guests as friends, but they said: ‘Here we have received the greatest treasures of life that cannot be paid with the gold of the world. How then can we moreover allow that we and our servants be excluded of any charges? Here, just take this small thing for your lord and for yourself’.

[18] Then they laid these 7 sacks full of pure heavy gold on the table and left quickly. Then of course I could do nothing else than to keep them for you. And these couple of 100 pieces of silver I have received from other guests, because soon there were a lot of guests – most of them foreigners – who consumed a lot and paid well. Some of them wanted to stay here for the night but I have excused myself by telling them truthfully that I was expecting a couple of hundred guests who during the day went for an outing to Emmaus but would be back in the evening. Only an old tired pilgrim I kept here, and in my room I prepared for him a place to sleep.

[19] At noon there was for instance also that woman who at first had brought the high ranked Romans here. She ate and drank here and then she inquired with great interest about the Lord and Master. She paid 10 pieces of silver for that. But I did not trust that person because she very well could have been a spy from the temple. Because it is very well known that for money such people are willing to let themselves be used for everything, and therefore I also did not tell her where the Lord and Master had gone.

[20] This was visibly so disappointing for that person that she cried, because she could not know where her Savior had gone, and I myself came into an inward conflict, wondering if I should tell her anyway where He could be found. But then suddenly a good thought came into my mind: ‘You are either a corruptible person or you are an extreme annoying fanatic – already on the first night she made that impression on me – and the Lord and Master cannot use you in one case or the other’. And therefore, I told her also nothing. But I said to her: ‘If you really have such a great longing for the Lord and Master who healed you, then live according to His Word, then He – to whom also our most secret thoughts are not unknown to Him – will allow you at the right moment to meet Him.’ With this advice she completely agreed and then she went away. And that is all that happened here that was of any importance during your absence. Tell me now if I have acted correctly in all these matters.”

[21] Lazarus said: “Friend, like always, you have also now acted correctly, and I also think that our mutual Friend, Lord and Master will be equally satisfied about you as I am. And these couple of 100 coins of silver you may keep for yourself for the trouble.”

[22] The innkeeper said: “Friend, I am already receiving too much wages from you to accept something above that. But because I know that every of your sayings are as a real oath, I have to accept the money. But for myself I will certainly not take it, because I surely will find a few poor customers for it.”

[23] Here I Myself went to both of them and said, after I had put My hands on their shoulders: “So it has to be, My dear friends. Also here you have completely acted in My Spirit today. Truly, I tell you: you My Jordan, are for Me together with our brother Lazarus worth more than a 100 countries full of injustice and self-love.

[24] Truly, if I would not have found here a few men like you, and you two above all, I would not be staying at this place. Do continue to walk on My paths, then I will not be like now your Lord and Master, but your true Brother in person, and what belongs to Me since eternity will also be yours forever.

[25] Oh if all men would be like you, then it would look quite different on the Earth. But the laziness of the people is Satan’s old trap in which they willingly let themselves be trapped for their eternal ruin. And still, men could not have been created more perfect than what they are now. They have reason, intellect, a complete free will and a conscience that warns them constantly. And everywhere and at all times there are men and teachers called by Me who are very active and have an equal great wisdom as the angels. But their lust and laziness draws them constantly away from all that is right, true and good. And so they fall victim to the kingdom of ruin, and nothing else can help them except one judgment after another and one punishment after another. And even that is only helping but a small minority.

[26] Truly, the whole Earth would never have a bad harvest and would never fail if men would somehow be like you. But now in the whole country of the Jews there are not 1,000 who are fully as they need to be. But also because of those 1,000 I will not afflict the country with a total disaster. The good ones will always be spared from any disaster as far as they themselves are truly good. But as far as they will take part in one way or another with the world, they also will have their share of the disasters of the world.

[27] Believe Me, it truly does not give Me pleasure when I allow that the lazy people on Earth are regularly afflicted with a thousand and one disasters. But it cannot be otherwise because if a lord would not wake up almost daily his always sleepy and lazy helpers for the necessary work, it would look bad and very meager for his harvest and his produce. Only the efforts of the lord – which consist in waking up his many helpers and workers on time – will be beneficial for himself and also for them. But those who are hiding, so that they can continue to sleep and not have to work, can only blame themselves if they will come to ruin.

[28] Therefore, let all who are in your service be always awake and active in everything that is right, true and good, then you will have sown a good seed for Me that will give us a produce of a hundredfold fruit, and a great part of the harvest will be eternally your share.

[29] However, because it has become now already late at night, we should give our body the necessary rest until tomorrow. For, although the day of tomorrow is a Sabbath, it will take much of our strength again.”

[30] All those who were present agreed totally on that. They went to their sleeping places. I however, was still resting during the rest of the night sitting in My armchair.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 182

 

A remarkable sunrise (18/1)

 

The next morning on the Sabbath, about a quarter of an hour before sunrise, I stood up from My chair and went directly outside. Peter, James and John noticed it immediately and came also outside before the sun came up.

[2] We went to the top of the hill, but we were not alone for a long time because the 7 Upper-Egyptians came soon behind us and the first Upper-Egyptian said: “Lord, forgive us that we have immediately followed You. On this Earth we surely will never be able to follow You in the flesh, and this Earth will certainly never more experience the endless rare happiness that its Creator will still set His bodily foot upon it. But we have the indescribable happiness to be eye and ear witnesses of this wonder, which is the greatest of Your endless eternal wondrous acts. And therefore it would be a gross sin to loose You out of sight even for one moment and not to hear each word that comes from Your mouth.”

[3] I said: “Whoever follows Me will never walk the wrong way, and salvation to all those who think just like you. But, as you easily can see, there are still many who are still very deep asleep, although the sun is at the point of rising. However, let us leave them in their sleep. They also will wake up at a right hour of the day. But many will only wake up in their evening-life and this awakening in the night of their live will give them little comfort.

[4] Those who will still wake up during a clear starry night will still be well off. But not so good will it be for those who will wake up during an evening which is densely clouded, because they will have to endure a wakeful, long, dark and very comfortless night. Even if they will want to sleep during such a dark night, no sleep will come over them. That will be a bad time on this Earth. But whoever is watching even during the most dark night until the end of his earthly days will be blessed.”

[5] Here Peter asked Me: “Lord, then it will look bad for all those who like to sleep long while the day has already begun. Or those, like some, who by their desire for sleeping want to sleep even the whole day. Can those people still not be helped on time?”

[6] I said to him: “But Simon Juda, how long will I have to suffer you in your foolishness? Did I talk about the natural sleep of the body? Now look to these 7 gentiles. How often will they put you, an arch-Jew, to shame? They have well understood Me. Then why not you, while you are still already so long with Me?”

[7] Peter said: “Lord, please be patient with my still great lack of understanding in so many things.”

[8] I said: “This I surely have, but you will still stay Peter. But My Spirit – and never your flesh – will bring you to a higher understanding when I have ascended.

[9] But now, look all of you carefully to this sunrise that will be very special today for this region on Earth. Let everyone of you ask himself if he has understood it also in a spiritual sense. Because everything that happens on this natural world cannot happen in a different way than by what is flowing down from God’s Heavens. And what is flowing inside the natural worlds by the Heavens of all angels comes initially from Me. Therefore, be very careful, because also the nature must in your presence witness of Me.”

[10] When I said these words, the sun rose above the horizon and when it stood about a half degree above the horizon, another sun arose above the horizon, but 1 degree more to the north, completely like the first and real sun. This was namely a complete developed secondary sun, which really belongs to the rare phenomena.

[11] The Upper-Egyptians knew immediately what was happening and the first Upper-Egyptian said: “Lord, such phenomena are rarely so bright in our region. I myself have only seen one after the rainy season and that is 40 years ago. Out of my inner view I also could explain the spiritual meaning of this phenomenon.”

[12] I said: “This I do know, because you are still in the old church of Noah in which men until Abraham’s time were still in connection with the angels, with the exception of the descendants of Nimrod who in the first place kept themselves busy with the world, and for this reason had fallen. Therefore, you have also a real revelation in yourselves and you understand the inner meaning of this phenomenon. But with My disciples this is by far still not the case. They are full of faith and good will but they can only receive the full light when the 7 Spirits out of God are in full order present in them.

[13] Therefore, for the salvation of all nations I have to lead them outwardly, so that they can perform their actions completely out of their own will according to My eternal order, and that is why I also want to hear from them what they have to say about this phenomenon. And therefore, Simon Juda, you can speak now.”

[14] Peter said: “O Lord, if I have to explain this now out of myself, it truly will not come easy to me. I see now 2 perfect suns and do not even know which one is the real one. And down there on the street there are also a lot of people looking at this phenomenon. They probably know still less about it than me. I, who am supposed to be considered already as a wise man, do not understand anything of it. Then how must this phenomenon appear to those people down there?”

[15] With this, Peter tried to avoid My question, but I said: “Those people down there do not concern us now. I am only occupied with you now and I see that you do not understand this phenomenon. Therefore I must ask it to My James.”

[16] Also James said: “My Lord and Master. I also cannot do it one hair better than my brother Simon Juda. I also do not know which of the 2 suns is in fact the real one, because the first one is equally big as the other, and both of them are giving equally as much light. Also the birds in the sky seem to find it strange because they keep quiet and do not make any sound, and it seems as if they want to say by that: ‘Which one is the real one? Because a fake one we do not want to greet with our singing.”

[17] I said: “What you said was good, although you did not understand it yourself. But if you do not understand these phenomena, then what will you say when there, further to the south, still another third sun will come up? Now look, as a beginning it is already present in the sky in the form of vapor. And soon, by surprise, there will be a third sun that will look exactly the same as these 2 suns. Look it is already shining.”

[18] Now another third completely developed sun was visible. The people in the street began to be afraid and many of them were running away and ran into the nearest houses. Those who were not so much afraid continued to watch this rare natural phenomenon. The birds in the sky became very restless and soon we could see also a lot of eagles and vultures flying around. They were chasing one another. And when the pigeons and other small birds noticed the many mighty enemies above them, they also flew away and hid themselves as good as possible.

[19] Here the Upper-Egyptian was making the remark: “It is truly remarkable. When I watched this same phenomenon 40 years ago in my dwelling place – but then only with one secondary sun – also then a lot of similar birds of prey came immediately in the sky, fighting with one another, which otherwise is very rarely the case. Today the lions and the panthers will also war with one another. But what the meaning of that third sun is, I also do not understand it completely, yet I can perceive a certain idea in myself.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 183

 

The cause of the secondary suns (18/2)

 

Now the other disciples, except Judas Iscariot, came also, and together with them, Lazarus, Nicodemus and the innkeeper Jordan. When they saw Me, they asked immediately what was happening and what was the meaning of it.

[2] And our Lazarus made the remark: “Lord, it is really very curious. Now 3 suns are shining very brightly and yet I sense a certain threatening gloominess in the air, and even stronger above the ground. The tops of the high mountains look very obscure and moreover, it is nasty cold, although 3 suns should give more light and more warmth than only 1 sun. How can that be?”

[3] The Upper-Egyptian said: “Friend Lazarus, what you are saying about your natural observation is completely true, and I have experienced exactly the same 40 years ago with such a phenomenon in Upper-Egypt, of which I can give you the natural explanation, but not the deeper lying spiritual cause, and certainly not now that there are 2 secondary suns.”

[4] Lazarus said: “Then give me the natural explanation anyway.”

[5] The Upper-Egyptian said: “Look, friend, at certain times and in certain years a fine vapor is forming in the highest layer of the sky, which is reaching out at a height of average about 10 times the Lebanon above the surface of the Earth. And because this vapor has a high degree of stability, the sea of air above the Earth is set completely at rest, although not everywhere, as can be seen at certain times on the great ocean, on which then on a certain part of the surface of the sea a complete quiet mirror is forming, while oftentimes there will be waves around it. If then on the big surface of the sea of air there is also a partial rest, the image of the sun is reflected completely identical just like on a very quiet sea mirror, and for this reason we can see a secondary sun, entirely formed by natural causes. If now, on several places of the surface of the sea of air there is a complete rest as described above, then equally as many secondary suns will be seen as there are places of rest that have been formed on the surface of the sea of air, on condition that those are in such a position that the image received by it, falls in a straight line on a corresponding region where there is an identical rest. If the position of this place of rest is changing, then also the secondary sun will completely disappear for this region, or still a particular glow will be seen. And if the rest on such a place changes into a waving movement, then also, the secondary sun will be gone.

[6] After such phenomena, which are formed as a result of the just now described fine vapor in the highest layer of air of the Earth and which are also the cause that there is less light and warmth, denser clouds will come soon, and after that, heavier ones, so that finally it also starts to rain.

[7] And with this you have received in a few words the natural explanation of this phenomenon. Of course the real, pure spiritual cause, only the Lord knows and then the one to whom He wants to reveal it. I also have a suspicion of it, but it is still by far not clear to me, especially not that part which the future keeps firmly hidden. Did you understand that?”

[8] Lazarus said: “Yes, my very respectable friend, this I have understood really good and clearly, and I cannot refrain from making here the not exactly unimportant remark that until now the Jews never did anything with regard to a pure discernment of the phenomena in the great nature and a fundamental understanding thereof. Maybe some people have discovered something here and there on their own, and did also discover the cause of many phenomena, but they kept it wisely for themselves and did not tell anybody. Because in the first place it made good money – namely among the more enlightened gentiles – and secondly they had to hide such knowledge and science for fear of the Pharisees, so that they would not be persecuted everywhere by them.

[9] But I think the following thing: a good knowledge and evaluation of the thousands of different phenomena in nature would be the best way to keep the people from all kind of superstition with its destructive consequences. Therefore, it would be also very desirable when the people from now on would also in this respect receive a thorough education. Do You also agree on this, o Lord and Master?”

[10] I said: “Nobody more than I, for man can never understand and completely perceive the deeper supernatural truths if he does not know the ground on which he himself as a natural man is standing and walking. And precisely for this reason I Myself have already explained to you so many things concerning the special phenomena in this natural world here. I have shown you in a practical way the form of the Earth and what is causing the day and the night there. I have shown you the cause of a solar eclipse and an eclipse of the moon and of the falling stars, and I have shown you the moon and the sun and all planets and the whole endless starry sky.

[11] And I have also told you that man can only love God completely when he also comes to know Him continually better and purer in His numberless many works. And if I Myself have given you this advice, then it is obvious that I completely agree with your good opinion. And if Moses would not have considered it as highly necessary for the true and pure education of all Jews he would not have written a sixth and seventh book about the things and phenomena in nature and moreover still a prophetic supplement dealing with the science of correspondences between the natural and the spiritual world.

[12] But already during the time of the kings this important branch of transfer of knowledge was neglected more and more. On the one hand by a section of the priests who became more and more greedy and darker in the knowledge of what is true, and on the other hand also by the kings themselves. And when the kingdom was divided already among the first descendents of Salomon, this branch of knowledge got lost in such a way that now you hardly know that, from Moses until the time of Samuel, such a science was intensely practiced by the Jews.

[13] Therefore, I have explained already many things to you, and you understand now already quite a lot. But the most important is and remains the continual striving for the full rebirth of the spirit in the soul, for only thereby will man be initiated in all truth and wisdom, and will he have a complete and coherent discernment in everything from the earthly unto the purely spiritual heavenly. By this light, he will have eternal life, which means endlessly more than the science of all things in nature.

[14] But to what advantage will it be for man if he would know very precisely all things and phenomena in the natural world from the greatest to the smallest and would be capable to evaluate these very sharply, but thereby will be so far away from the rebirth of his spirit in the soul as this Earth is from Heaven. Could these many sciences give him eternal life? Form an opinion about this and then tell Me what you think about it.”

[15] Lazarus said: “O Lord and Master, then it would be better if man had never been born on this world. Because a self-conscious living creature who can think, reason and can understand so much and accomplish, and who has often such a great pleasure for Your works which are making him happy, would be, without having a certain expectation of an eternal and perfect existence, to me many thousands of times more miserable than the most miserable naked worm in the very dirtiest and most stinking pool of the whole Earth.

[16] And whoever would educate man from the cradle, to a clearer view, will commit the greatest crime to humanity. Because that will kill man double and still more, in the most miserable way, because by this he will make man the most miserable creature.

[17] It is true that an animal lives also, but it certainly is only very vaguely aware of itself. It cannot think, does not know death, does not know to evaluate the worth of life and can therefore not possess any fear of death and is therefore happy.

[18] But then, look at man who knows all too well the inestimable worth of life. If he would realize that with the death of the body everything is totally finished, he will be immediately confused, will curse and damn his existence a 1.000 times, and the greatest benefactor of humanity will be the one who will possess the might and the power to kill mankind on the whole Earth and also himself, and consequently to exterminate them. Or he should know the art to stun all men at once in such a way that they will not be aware anymore of themselves, what in fact will be the same as when he will kill them all.

[19] If man has no further expectation or not even a founded hope for an eternal life, he firstly will curse God – if he would believe in Him – his life long, instead of glorifying and praising Him. He will curse Moses and all prophets as being the greatest enemies of man, and the one who will observe even only 1 jot of the law will be the greatest fool.

[20] From all this it surely is clear that the striving of man for the rebirth of his spirit in his soul – once he knows the ways to it – is the first and uppermost necessity. Because without this rebirth he will cease completely to be a human being, despite his ever so clear science. Then he will be nothing more than an intelligent, knowledgeable and therefore all the more miserable animal in the form of a human being. Lord and Master, am I right in this or not?”

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 184

 

The Lord explains the phenomenon of the secondary suns (18/3)

 

I said: “Yes sure. But look, there are still many people on Earth who firstly do not believe in any God and Creator and thus also not at all in an eternal life of the soul. But they live very well and with pleasure, shouting for joy and jubilate, and besides that, they are full of pride and greed, let others work for them and the one who would remind them of an eternal life of the soul after the death of the body, will be laughed at and mocked, and they will say to him: ‘Fool, once you have died you must then come and teach us, then we will believe you. But as long as you are still alive and are waiting for death just like us, we do not believe your fantasy.’ Then what would you answer to this?”

[2] Lazarus said: “Lord, there is indeed little that can be said about it. I certainly can say nothing about it. Because once people are too deep asleep in the death of matter, they hardly can be completely converted to the true faith and even less to the life in the spirit. Therefore I would prefer if You would explain us a little the spiritual meaning of these 3 still visible suns.”

[3] I said: “This I will do also, but first I still had to show you that men without the slightest expectation for an eternal life are also very satisfied with only the temporal life. And of people who have a certain expectation of an eternal life – as you, together with My disciples are one of them – there are only a very few in this time, and there will never be too many on this Earth. But the fact that this is so, and also will be so in the distant future, is now precisely shown by this phenomenon of the 3 suns.

[4] You and all the others know that there is only one sun shining in the sky, while you are seeing now three. You also know that there exists only one true God and Creator. And yet, from this time on the foolish people will make, by all kinds of false delusions, of the one true God three Gods.

[5] Then the light of life will become weak among the people on Earth and the love for God and fellowman will turn cold. Then the few who still will have a pure faith will be seized by great fear, like those little birds, and the kings of the Earth will become like violent beasts of prey and will continuously wage murderous wars against one another, and the one who will pray to the three gods will not be heard.

[6] The first secondary sun which rose more to the north almost at the same time as the real sun – which in this likeness represents Myself – represents the counter-prophet or the counter-anointed who will arise and say: ‘Look, I am the true anointed of God. Listen to me if you want to be blessed’. But I am telling you that no one of you must let himself be seduced. Because he will be a messenger of Hell and by his deceitful arts he will perform all kinds of wondrous signs, and will show a very pious face and pray and make sacrifices, but his heart will be full of bitter hatred against all truth which he will persecute by fire and sword, and all who will not keep his teaching he will curse. This one will also invent the three gods and will let them be worshipped. I also will be counted to that as the Savior of the world but divided into three persons. They will still confess one God with their mouth, yet worship three persons, of whom each one will also be a complete god and will have to be worshipped separately.

[7] But not long after that, there will arise a second secondary sun or a second secondary anointed, who will obscure the first one in every way. That one will still be 10 times worse than the first one. Because the first one will at least not forbid My word completely, but the southern one will totally forbid My word and My teaching and will only take from it what by coincidence suits his bad purpose. He will indeed have My sign erected on all corners of the streets to worship, but apart from that, thousands of others will be displayed, and mostly those in which he takes pleasure.

[8] In that time pride, discord and mutual hatred will reach its highest degree. Then one people will war against the other, one war after another will take place, there will be great earthquakes, years of bad harvest, high cost of living, famine and epidemics. However, then I will destroy the roots of the counter-anointed, so that he will wither away like a tree of which the roots have been cut off. There will be much cursing, lamenting, crying and complaining, and then the evil and worthless secondary suns – although they take their false luster from Me – will perish, just like the secondary suns are now perishing before your eyes. Look, they become more and more vague. The shape of the sun is passing over into a weak-shining haze and instead of that, the only true sun comes forward, more beautiful, more shiny and more warming. Now you also see the little birds coming out of their hiding places and are greeting the only true sun with their singing, and the big birds of prey are scattering and are hurrying to their dark forests.

[9] And so it will happen in those times. Everything that is high will be lowered. The mountain peaks must turn into a flat and fertile land. Then one will not ask: ‘Who is king over this land?’ but: ‘Who is the first and greatest benefactor of this happy people? Let us go to him, so that we can learn his wisdom according to the order of God.’

[10] When this happy time will come, wolves, bears, lambs and hares will drink peacefully together from the same spring. Did you all understand this well?”

[11] Nicodemus said: “We have understood it quite well, but these predictions did not sound particularly pleasant and one could ask here: Lord, must all this take place until finally Your light of truth will be able to shine totally free and unhindered over the whole Earth? We have now received Your purest word and light and we will spread it also in the same way. The happy results of it will show the people that the word that is preached by us is the only true and real one. And I do not understand who would still dare to act against it with a false teaching.”

[12] I said: “To speak well is easier than to act well, and in the action lies the seed of the weed that is also sown unexpectedly together with the pure wheat in the soul of the heart of man. That will take root and continue to grow among the pure wheat and will often suffocate it and ruin it. Therefore, you should not only be listeners of My word, but also act according to that word. But also you will be reluctant in your acting because of the great and mighty world. Yes, you will confess Me by yourself secretly, but out of fear for the world you hardly will dare to speak in My name and still less will dare to act in My name. Because the world could notice it and call you to account if it will notice that you have directed yourselves to Me, because it is showing from your actions. And see, the question is not why everything that I have predicted to you must happen until in the last times the truth will be made completely free and the nations will be blessed, but it will depend on you only if you will fear the world more than Me or less.

[13] Because of your fear for the world, the evil seed together with the wheat will be sown, and out of that, the 2 secondary suns will come forth. And the reason why I have caused this now to happen and have predicted it, is that when it will happen like this, you will remember – here or in the beyond – that I have shown you already this in advance.

[14] Therefore, I am telling you once more what I have already said before: do not be afraid for those who can indeed kill your body, but further on cannot harm your soul. If you want to fear somebody then fear the One in whose power lies also the live or the dead of your soul.

[15] Indeed, many of you will have the right courage, but not all, and some of you will even be offended at Me.

[16] The Shepherd will be bound and beaten, and the sheep will scatter themselves. Great fear will come over them, sadness and fright. But I will visit them again, bring them together and will give them courage and strength against the enemies of the light out of the Heavens. But now, nothing more of this, because I have only told you this so that you can remember it at the right time and will act correctly, and that the old proverb will not be applied to you also: ‘Out of the eye, out of the heart’. And now it is already time for the morning meal. Let us therefore go home.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 185

 

Instructions of the Lord for the visit to the temple (18/4)

 

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, as well as the old rabbi became a bit embarrassed for taking part of the morning meal on the Sabbath after sunrise.

[2] However, I said to them: “If already here you allow objections to arise into your mind because of the Sabbath, while you still should know that I am also Lord of the Sabbath of Moses, then how will you fare when you will sit again in the council of the Pharisees and the elders?”

[3] After these words, the three took courage and went home with us, ate and drunk with us and were very cheerful.

[4] And the old rabbi said: “Yes, yes, the Lord and Master is right in everything. An old habit is like a shirt with rusty stains. No matter what effort you make, you never can make it completely clean again.”

[5] I said: “This is a true word. Therefore, remove the old man completely and put on a new one, because the old man is from now on no more appropriate. But now eat and drink still some more, then we will go to the temple.”

[6] Upon which Nicodemus said: “Do You really dare to go amongst those brutes again?”

[7] I said: “I do not go to the temple for them, but for the people who have come here today for My sake, and therefore I do not fear these brutes. But let us now do our best to go to the temple quickly.”

[8] Nobody dared to make any objections against My remark, because everybody thought by himself: ‘He has power over Heaven and Hell and does not have to shrink for these brutes of the temple nor does He have to even be afraid of them.’

[9] However, even before I left for the temple, the Romans and My disciples asked Me if they also had to go to the temple and what had to be done with the young people in the mean time.

[10] I said: “Nobody of you will be refused the entrance to the temple, but the young people will stay here. My servant knows for sure what he has to do. However, if you will go to the temple, then go ahead in order to choose good places. I will come later. But My elder disciples will stay here and will go together with Me, because it is important for them that they will be witnesses of all My words and deeds.”

[11] The Roman Agricola said: “That I also would like to be. But also in this, only Your holy will be done, like everywhere and always.”

[12] I said: “If you also want to be with Me as a witness, you can join My elder disciples. Because I still will perform one sign before I will open My mouth before the Jews. We will meet someone who is blind already since his birth, not far away from the temple. He will see again, precisely today on a Sabbath. Now you go ahead, but it will be better for you four, who have chosen My side only yesterday, if you stay here, because in the temple you would quickly be recognized and persecuted.”

[13] The four men could perceive that and they stayed on the Mount of Olives.

[14] Nicodemus came also to Me and asked how he could go down unobserved with his 2 friends.

[15] I said: “Join with the Upper-Egyptians. They will guide you down in such a way that no one will notice you.”

[16] With this, they also were satisfied and they left immediately with the Upper-Egyptians. All the others followed them quickly. Only the 3 magicians, who were still with Me, remained and prepared themselves to follow Me.

[17] Then Simon Juda, named Peter said: “Lord, do You want that also these three will come with us?”

[18] I said: “Why are you worried about that? When I said to all the others that they had to go ahead, I did not make an exception for these three. However, by that I did not put their will and their heart under compulsion, and so they may do what they want and for which their heart urges them. If I think that something is good, then you should not worry that something may be wrong, because the one who follows us, will certainly not walk on a wrong track.”

[19] With this, also our Peter was satisfied and we made ourselves ready to go on our way.

[20] Finally the innkeeper Jordan came, asking Me what should be done about the midday meal.

[21] But I said to him: “My friend Jordan, now we have to give food and drink to people who are spiritually hungry and thirsty, which is worth a lot more than the food for the body and drink for a dry throat. Therefore, do not worry yet about a midday meal. When I come back, everything will still be settled on time.”

[22] With this short explanation also our innkeeper was satisfied, who immediately after that, called all the servants of the house together and gave them all kinds of good lessons, so that after that, they all – close to 30 people – should believe in Me. Because before that time they did not exactly know what they had to think about Me, although they had seen a lot of signs. With that, also Jordan, according to My advice, gave food and drink in My name to those who were spiritually hungry and thirsty.

[23] However, after that I gave Jordan this advice, I went immediately with My disciples to the city, where the streets and alleys were crowded with people.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 186

 

THE LORD IN THE TEMPLE

 

Healing before the temple of the man who was born blind (18/5)

 

When we came outside at the large, spacious square in front of the temple, immediately we saw the still young beggar sitting on a stone. He was a little older than 20 years and was blind already since birth.

[2] When My disciples saw him, they knew that this was the blind-born man of whom I referred to on the mountain. Therefore, they asked Me: “Lord and Master. Now who has sinned, himself or his parents, because he came on this world blind-born?”

[3] I said: “How can you still ask such absurd questions? How could he have sinned in the womb and therefore as punishment come blind into this world? However, I am telling you: neither this blind man nor his parents have sinned, but this was allowed so that God’s works would be revealed to him for the people. Because now I have to perform the works of Him who has sent Me, as long as the day is lasting (on Earth, namely by the personal presence of the Lord) Footnote . Also, that certain night of which I have already spoken to you, will come, but then nobody will be able to accomplish anything. Since I am in this world, I am clearly the Light of the world. After Me comes the night.”

[4] My disciples looked at each other and said: “For what use is the present spiritual day for the people if after His return it will be night again, worse than it is now?”

[5] I said: “Is it then My wish that the night will follow? Oh no, but the laziness of the people will want that, and the will of man must remain free. Even if by that he would become a tenfold devil. Because without the total free will, a human being ceases to be a human being, and he is nothing else but a machine, which I have shown you clearly many times.”

[6] Here, nobody said anything against it, because they felt My seriousness.

[7] When I said this to My disciples, I bend down to the ground, took a little clay, spat a little spittle on it and made mud of it, which I then rubbed on the eyes of the blind man.

[8] Then I said to the blind man: “Go now to the pool of Siloam (that means, I send him to that place and his guide guided him) and wash yourself.”

[9] He went to the place, washed himself and came back again seeing.

[10] His neighbors and those who saw him before knew that he was a blind beggar and said: “Is this not the blind man who was begging on that stone before?”

[11] Some of them said: “Yes, yes, that is him.”

[12] Others said: “He was born blind and it never happened before that such a person has ever been made seeing. But he looks exactly the same as the blind person.”

[13] Finally, the person who was blind before said himself: “What are you talking about me? I am the one who had been blind before and am now seeing.”

[14] The bystanders asked: “How did it happen that your eyes were opened and you could see? Who did that?”

[15] And he answered them: “The Man who said silently to me that His name is Jesus (Mediator, Savior), made mud, rubbed it on my eyes and then said that I had to go to the pool of Siloam to wash my eyes. I did that, went to it, washed my eyes and became seeing.”

[16] Further, they said to him: “Then where is this Jesus now?”

[17] He said: “But this is a remarkable question of you. You were seeing when He rubbed the mud on my eyes and you did not notice Him? Then how could I have noticed Him while I was blind? Since that was impossible, I can also not know now where He is, although I myself would gladly like to know where and who He is, in order to give Him my sincere thanks.”

[18] When this man gave such an answer to those who asked questions, the bystanders said: “Oh, this is a real miracle and the Man who made you seeing must be a great prophet. That must be heard by our arch-Jews and the Pharisees, who are claiming that in our time, because of the gentiles, no more prophet will arise until the Jews have driven all the gentiles out of the country. They must hear that even now, just like before, there are great prophets, despite that the gentiles are in our country. Let yourself therefore be guided by us to the Pharisees. We all will testify for you.”

[19] The boy who had been blind before, thought this to be a good idea and he agreed to be taken to the Pharisees in the temple.

[20] (Here must be added the special remark that this was not an ordinary Sabbath on which I healed the blind man. It was the Sabbath after the feast, which had to be celebrated even much more strictly than no matter what other ordinary Sabbath. [P.S.: It was equally unfit for the Jews as it would be now for you during the so-called octaves after the great Sunday and feast days]. On such a Sabbath it was for the Pharisees an even greater offence to do one work or another).

[21] When the healed boy stood before the Pharisees, those who brought him there related all the wondrous things that had happened.

[22] After hearing this, the Pharisees turned to the healed boy and asked him once more – although they already heard everything from the witnesses – how he became seeing again. And in order to confirm it one more time, they also asked it once more to the witnesses.

[23] And he said: “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed myself on His advice with the water of the pool of Siloam and I became seeing, just like I am now standing seeing before you.”

[24] Upon that, a few Pharisees said: “The Man who healed this blind man cannot be called by God (to be a prophet), because He does not keep such an exalted Sabbath and does not hollow it.”

[25] But the witnesses, and also some more intelligent Jews and Pharisees asked: “But how is it possible that a sinful man can perform such signs?”

[26] Because of that, there was discord and conflict among them.

[27] When they continued for awhile disputing with one another and could not agree, those who declared that I was a sinful man, turned again to the boy who was healed and asked him again (the Pharisees): “What do you say yourself about the One who has opened your eyes?”

[28] And he said: “I am saying what those who brought me here said of Him: He is a prophet.”

[29] Then those who declared that I was a sinful man said (the Pharisees): “But we do not believe at all that he has ever been blind, but you have arranged this among yourselves in order to provoke a disagreement between us.”

[30] Upon that, the witnesses said, and this very emphatically: “This man still has his parents. He will know where they live. Let them come and ask them. They will know best if this man was ever able to see.”

[31] Then they let his parents come, who still did not know anything about the fact that their son had become seeing.

[32] They came quickly and the Pharisees asked them immediately a few subtle questions (the Pharisees): “Is this your son of whom you say that he was born blind? And if this is so, then how come that he can see now?”

[33] The parents answered very simply: “We know that this boy is truly our son and that he was born blind, but how he now has become seeing and who has opened his eyes, that we do not know. Yet, he is old enough. Therefore, let him speak for himself.”

[34] The parents, who already knew Me and suspected that I made their son seeing, gave this answer in the presence of the Pharisees and the Jews because they were afraid of them. For they knew that the chiefs and the arch-Jews had already agreed since long that everyone who is confessing that I am the Anointed of God must be most severely excommunicated. And therefore, it was more intelligent of the parents to say to the Pharisees and arch-Jews: ‘He is old enough. Ask him.’

[35] Then again, they called the boy who had been blind, and said to him (the Pharisees): “Give all honor to God, because we know that the Man who made you seeing is a sinner.”

[36] But the man who was healed answered them: “If that Man is a sinner or not, I really do not know, but what I do know very well is that I was completely blind since my birth and was never able to distinguish the day from the night and that I now, just like you, can see entirely everything.”

[37] Then they said to him again (the Pharisees): “Then tell us straightforward: what did this Man do with you and how did He open your eyes?”

[38] The one who was healed said, visibly impatiently: “I have just told you. Did you then not listen to me? Why do you want to hear the same thing once more now? Do you wish to become disciples of Him. That would surely not harm you.”

[39] Now the Pharisees and arch-Jews of the temple became angry, cursed the man immediately because of this question and then said full of rage: “Maybe you are a disciple of Him, but we are disciples of Moses! We know that God has spoken to Moses, but of this Man who made you seeing, we do not know where He comes from!”

[40] The one who was healed however, looked at all of them with an inquiring look, and then said: “But this is remarkable, the fact that you still do not know from where this Wonderworker comes from. And still, you can see undeniably that He gave me, who have been born blind, the light in the eyes. This Man has probably done more of those signs and still you say that you do not know where He comes from?”

[41] On this, the Pharisees and arch-Jews of the temple said with a violent voice: “We know that God does not hear sinners. God hears only a pious man who is without sin and who does God’s will in everything!”

[42] Upon this, the one who was healed said: “Hmm, strange. Nowhere in the world it has been heard that someone has – let’s say – opened the eyes of someone who is born blind. If this Man would not be filled with such a might and power from God, truly, then He would not be able to accomplish such a thing, just like you also are not able to open the eyes of someone who has been born blind, although you say that you are disciples of Moses. If ever you would be able to do such thing then the whole world would have known this for a long time, and then your houses would be completely filled with gold from the bottom upwards.”

[43] At this answer of the healed boy the Pharisees and the arch-Jews of the temple became even more furious and they shouted literally out of rage: “What, do you want to teach us while you came in this world afflicted with all sins!?”

[44] They grabbed him and pushed him with his parents and witnesses outside.

[45] When all of these were outside, the one who was healed still cried loudly back at them: “May God repay you, you presumptuous ones, and may He bring light in the blindness of your soul.”

[46] However, they slammed the door and did not busy themselves anymore with the healed man who told them the truth right in their face.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 187

 

The Lord talks to the one who was healed and to the Pharisees (18/6)

 

Now of course, this man came with all those who went together with him, immediately into the large temple hall where all the people were gathering. And everyone asked him what had happened to him in the counsel hall of the Pharisees and arch-Jews.

[2] He told them completely freely and openly, and all who heard it became embittered because of the hardened hearts of the Pharisees and the Jews of the temple.

[3] So it also came to the ears of My disciples and also to Me that the Jews of the temple had thrown the healed man out of the temple, as well as the men who went with him.

[4] And I said to My disciples: “Let us look for him, so that this poor man can come to know Him who gave him back the light in the eyes.”

[5] We went, and we soon found him among the people.

[6] But also some of the Pharisees, who were not so much against him, went after him to the large people’s hall, to listen to what he would say there to the people and how the people would react on it.

[7] But I went immediately to stand before the one who was healed, and said to him: “Listen to Me, you who were pushed out by the Pharisees and the Jews of the temple. Do you believe in the Son of God?”

[8] Then the one who was healed answered: “Lord, who is it? Is He here in the temple? And is He the One who gave me the light in the eyes? Show Him to me, so that I can believe in Him.”

[9] I said: “You have already seen Him, although not yet recognized. But He is the One who is now speaking to you.”

[10] Now the one who was healed said: “Yes Lord, I do believe that. You are the One. When I came back from the pool I surely must have seen You, yet did not recognize You. If You were not the Son of God, Christ, the promised One, You could never make me, who was born blind, seeing again. Therefore I believe that You are truly the Son of God.”

[11] Then he fell down on his knees before Me and was worshipping Me. But I said to him that he should stand up again.

[12] When the Pharisees and several Jews of the temple who were standing around and who belonged to the more temperate group, heard from Me as well as from the one who was healed that I was the promised Anointed of God, they looked sulky, and inwardly they became angry and embittered.

[13] But because I noticed it immediately I said aloud: “I came on this world to determine that those who do not see become seeing, and those who can see become blind!”

[14] When the Pharisees and the Jews of the temple, who stood around Me, heard this, they could not restrain themselves anymore, opened their mouth and said to Me: “Are we then also already blind, or will we – based on what You said – become blind, because now we still can see?”

[15] Then I said: “If you were blind, as far as your soul is concerned, there would not be any sin that clings on to you, but because you yourselves are giving testimony that you can see, your sin remains and clings on to you, and with that, judgment and eternal death. Because I came into this world, sent by God as the Truth, the Light and the Life. Whoever believes in Me and acts according to My word, will have eternal life in him and will not see nor feel death.”

[16] (P.S.: What has been discussed in the temple from now on has been partly written down by the other evangelist writers, but not in the right order, for which reason their recordings were considered not to be agreeable with one another. And John did not write down the further developments because these things came back oftentimes in my speeches and were also written down, as far as the most important points are concerned.

[17] The next chapter, the tenth, took place only 3 months later, again in the temple in Jerusalem, in the winter, during the time of the so-called Feast of the Sanctification of the Temple.

[18] This remark was necessary to let you know in which order My Word was spoken to the Jews and the Pharisees.

[19] Because this has been made clear, I will now let follow the further developments of the conversation with the Jews and the Pharisees in the temple).

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 188

 

The Lord draws light upon the counter-argument of the Pharisees (18/7)

 

Thereupon the Pharisees said: “We can see indeed that You have a special power at Your disposal which is unknown until now, especially concerning the healing of different human diseases which probably no doctor was able to heal. It is also not unknown to us that it seems even to be possible for You to call young people who had recently died back to life or to waken them up. And further on, we also have heard that You are a very sober, decent Man, and so very much charitable, that for Your extraordinary healings You never have asked anything from anyone. Well, these are undeniably good and excellent characteristics.

[2] But besides that, You claim of Yourself to be the Son of God and say that You are the promised Anointed of God, and moreover are disregarding the laws of Moses, and associate with gentiles, tax collectors and all kinds of sinners. Look, these are Your bad and very evil characteristics that can never be approved by the temple, because it keeps the laws of Moses very strictly.

[3] Why do You exalt Yourself so much before men because of Your special qualities, while clearly You also are only a man? Who can have any respect for You when You also want us to believe that You are the Son of God and the promised Anointed of God, and are condemning the one who for different reasons cannot believe that? You said that You are the Truth, the Light and the Life, but how can You prove to us that all this is indeed so? Give us a convincing proof, then we will believe in You.”

[4] I said: “Now look at these stones which are lying all over the ground. I more easily can convince these stones that I am the One of who Moses and the prophets have prophesied, than you.

[5] If I am performing signs which no one has ever done before Me, not even the greatest prophet, then this should surely open up your eyes, so that you would recognize the signs of this time for your salvation. But you are blind, deaf and heart-hardened, and therefore you see, hear and feel nothing. And that is why judgment over you lies in you, and together with that, the certain death of your souls.

[6] Every year you are whitewashing the graves of the forefathers and the prophets, but what the whitewashed graves are, that you are also. Concerning the outside, you are indeed clothed with the law of Moses and Aaron on whose chairs you are seated, but inside, you are full of decay and disgusting stench.

[7] You said that it is a bad and very evil characteristic of Mine to associate with gentiles, tax collectors and sinners, and that I am a violator of the Sabbath and do not keep the laws of Moses. But how do you keep his laws? I tell you that you do not keep the laws of Moses, not even in appearance. But you yourselves have established a great number of senseless and useless laws that you keep because it gives you material benefit, and with which you are oppressing and exploiting the poor people. Did Moses prescribe that also to you? But if, according to the law of Moses, it is allowed and even prescribed to feed the ass, the ox and the sheep also on the Sabbath, and give them to drink, and if a donkey has fallen into a ditch or a pit, to get him out, would it then not be better and more reasonable to help a person in need, even on a Sabbath? Oh you blind, deaf and fools of heart and mind! Is for God perhaps man of less value than an animal?!

[8] Did Moses not give the following commandment: ‘Honor your father and your mother, that you may life long and that it may go well with you on Earth’? Then why are you saying to the children: ‘Come here and bring an offering to the temple, which will be more beneficial to you.’ If this is your teaching, are you then acting according to the law of Moses?!

[9] Did Moses not give to everyone solemnly the commandment not to oppress the widows and orphans? But what are you doing? You are promising help to the widows and orphans through long prayers, which are supposedly answered, but in the mean time, you are seizing their possessions. And when the widows and orphans are crying and they come to you, complaining that your prayers are not working at all, you send them away saying that they are sinners for who God will not even hear the strongest prayers. Do tell Me, did Moses ever prescribe such a way of doing? In everything, you are acting against the laws of Moses, and you say to Me that I am acting contrary to the laws of Moses.

[10] Look, since you have gone astray so much from Moses, you are struck with blindness, and now you cannot see anymore the clearest day that is visible before your eyes. And this is your judgment, your death and your damnation. With your empty prayers, sold at high price, you were sucking out the mosquitoes, and for that you are devouring whole camels, and still you are saying that you are disciples of Moses. But how can you be disciples of Moses if you – as already said – are acting contrary to all the laws of Moses, worse than all the gentiles? Therefore, the light will also be taken away from you and given to the gentiles.

[11] I have come into this world to lead you in the most kind and loving way on the right paths of life by teaching and deeds. But you are persecuting Me wherever I go or stand, and you try to catch and kill Me, while you are claiming that I am a deceiver of the people and an agitator. But I also have witnesses, and God Himself who is in Me, just as I am in Him, is My witness that you all are evil liars before God and all the people.

[12] If the Romans, who are now the earthly rulers in the country of those who in fact should be the children of God, would have noticed in the least that I am an agitator, they would have brought Me to court a long time ago, because with their sharp eyes they can see and perceive all things that might somehow become a danger to their sovereignty. But because they have not discovered the least of all the things of which you are accusing Me of, they come to meet Me everywhere very friendly, and they seem to be men full of faith, love and respect regarding Me, My teaching and My deeds. And therefore they also will be accepted in My light and My life, but you will be cast into outer darkness, just like it is written, and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

[13] When I had said this, also the more or less temperate Jews and Pharisees became angry and said: “Now look how absurd You are talking! Who is persecuting You and who tries to kill You!? If You are teaching something good and are doing good to the people, nobody will persecute You and also no one wants to kill You. But if You as a man, just as we also are only men, You portray Yourself as a Son of God, thus as the promised One, the Anointed of God – what according to the prophets means as much as Jehovah Himself – You Yourself must surely perceive that we have to regard this as the worst blasphemy until You have given us sufficient proof that You are truthfully the promised Anointed One of God, and that we can believe in You, or else You must, before us and the people withdraw the testimony about Yourself. But as long as You will do neither one nor the other, You will have to put up with being persecuted by the temple as a blasphemer. Are we not right when we are exposing this now in the presence of all the people?”

[14] I said: “So, you have spoken now, and surely as someone who is completely blind, speaking about the colors of the light, and because you are judging and speaking in this way, you are therefore also proclaiming your own judgment. I will not judge you, but the word, which I have spoken already so often in vain to you, that will judge you.

[15] If you have read the prophet Isaiah and have understood only a little of it, then you must know what it means: ‘A virgin will bear us a Son and His name will be ‘Emanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. Is this now, as well as all the other things, not precisely being fulfilled by Me? And when this is so, and also eternally will never be otherwise, would I then not be just like you a liar if I now because of your dark opinion would confess that I am not the One who I am, for God, for all Heavens and for all created beings here on Earth?

[16] On the other hand, you want from Me such a proof that would convince you irrevocably and clear as sunlight that I am the promised Anointed One of God. Then do tell Me, how do I have to accomplish this with your total blindness?

[17] If I am performing before your eyes works and deeds which before Me were never performed by anyone. If I am healing the paralyzed and lame, and they are then jumping around fully healed and strong like deer. And if further, I am healing people suffering from gout and leprosy, give to the deaf and dumb the full hearing and speech, am making the blind to see, am setting the possessed free of their terrible tormentors, even raising the dead by the might of My word, and by occasion am performing still many other deeds which are possible by no one else except by God, and moreover am preaching to the poor of spirit the gospel of the lively coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and when no one can accuse Me that I ever have committed a sin, and then you say that I am performing all this with the help of Beelzebub, the greatest of all devils, then I am asking you what other signs I still can perform before your eyes to make you believe that I am truthfully the Anointed One of God?

[18] Even if I would perform a 1.000 and another 1.000 of other signs before you, then you would say again that I am doing all this with the help of the greatest of all devils. What use would it be of performing more signs with such a great blindness of yours? I am telling you: as one cannot give any idea of color to a blind person, so also one cannot give you any proof that I truthfully am the Anointed One of God.

[19] And look, this evil night in your souls is then your ruin, your own judgment and your true death. For I alone am the Way, the Light, the Truth and eternal Life. Whoever believes in Me and lives and acts according to My word, receives from Me the spirit of eternal life, and I alone will call him to life on his youngest day in My Kingdom. However, he who runs away from Me, despises and persecutes Me, he runs away, despises and persecutes also his own life and cannot receive it anywhere else but simply and only from Me.

[20] Consequently, he who does not want to accept from Me the eternal life of his soul, and resists against all that which comes from Me, will also stay dead eternally.

[21] But whoever wants to have life must take it from Him who is Life Himself, thus the One who has life and who can give it to whomever He wills. However, he gives life only to those who strongly desire it.

[22] My word and My teaching now are life, which at present is offered to all people. Thus, whoever – as already said – truthfully accepts My word and My teaching, accepts from Me also the life of the soul.

[23] Now, if this is the case with eternal life like I have explained to you now and to all others, and it is not otherwise, from where then do you want to get the eternal life of your soul, on which you have set your hope so much?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 189

 

A Pharisee explains his philosophy of life (18/8)

 

A Pharisee, who thought to be a very wise man, said: “Well, by these words of Yours I can now really see that You are talking like a madman who does not have, and also cannot have, any idea of the true nature of God, of His endless wisdom, power and greatness and of the way upon which He arranged the circumstances of this world and its created beings. Because look, You claim that the eternal life of the soul of a human being depends only of the full faith in You, in Your word and in Your teaching, and that every soul who does not do that can expect eternal death – which is mostly the case because without his fault he knows and also cannot know anything about You. Now, then You are, and also the God who sent You into this world, the most unwise and unjust almighty being that a reasonable man can imagine.

[2] Can those people, who have lived hundreds and thousands of years before us, help it if they impossibly could have heard anything of Your teaching, which is only life-making for all souls?

Those people are thus, according to Your word, without exception, in eternal death?

[3] And further, can these numerous nations that exist and survive somewhere on this big Earth, help it if maybe over a 1.000 years they still will not have heard 1 syllable of Your teaching? Of those poor people we then must also conclude that they are dead forever.

[4] Then finally Your God with all His inscrutable deep wisdom and goodness and with all the things that He has created will have the greatest joy and find His greatest pleasure in the fact that after a short existence He kills all His created beings again and destroys completely those who He has equipped in such an extremely wise way.

[5] Then why did a Moses come and all the other prophets? What were these laws of Moses then good for, which were at all times difficult to keep? And what was the use of those many plagues that God has brought each time down on the Jews and other people when they did not act and live according to His revealed will?

[6] I mean: for the receiving of the eternal life of the soul after the departure from the body almost every dog’s life would be good enough. Why would you educate people and train them up spiritually? For the receiving of a certain eternal death of the soul of man after the death of the body, man needs nothing else than – just like the animals – to have his daily food. Then why would you teach him to think, evaluate and reason? That would undeniably embitter his miserable existence. All the now spiritually called people would unfortunately even have to strangle their children immediately after their birth, so that later when they are grown up and able to think, being conscious of themselves, would not be plagued with all kinds of things and also would never have to fear that they will have to lose forever the often sweet tasting life.

[7] I confess here openly that I, according to Your teaching, owe in no way any gratitude to the God that is preached by You, because He has not placed me on this world for one or the other continual happiness, but only for the greatest unhappiness that felt bitterly during my whole life. The sooner that He will destroy me again, the greater is the benefit that He will show me.

[8] And frankly, an eternal life of the soul that I would have received by way of exception by believing Your word and Your teaching, I do not want at all, because I as an eternally living soul would have to think that multitudes of people are destroyed by Your God forever. Then I still would prefer endlessly more an eternal non-existence than a miserable eternal existence.

[9] If ever You are capable of even one sound thought, by my words You will see, together with Your blind disciples, that Your teaching is even less suitable for the true happiness of people than the teaching of the Sadducees, who have set their teaching in accordance with that of the Greek worldly philosopher Diogenes. That teaching is more comforting for all people than Your teaching, according to which only by believing in You can one attain to the eternal life of the soul. Truly, never will any true friend of the people be grateful to You for that teaching of Yours. And now all the people in the temple and also outside of the temple must evaluate if ever I have spoken even 1 incorrect word to You. Answer me, if You can!”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 190

 

The eternal life of the souls (18/9)

 

With a serious expression on My face I said: “You dare to say many unjust and untrue things right in My face in front of the people! If I would be equally inclined to anger as you Jews and Pharisees, I would repay these brutal, untrue, meaningless and proud words in such a manner that the people would be astonished, because in this way it would fast come to discernment that all might and authority in Heaven and on Earth is given to Me. However, I am meek with all My heart and full of humility, and in front of the people I will only punish you with My word.

[2] You have accused Me of madness because I am teaching that the one who believes in Me and lives according to My teaching will have eternal life in him, and whoever does not believe in Me and does not live according to My word will have judgment within himself and with it, eternal death.

[3] Dumb and blind Pharisee. What is then according to your highest material imagination the eternal life of the soul in My Kingdom – which is not of this world – and what is then judgment, and with it, eternal death?

[4] If you understood this mystery you would speak and judge differently, but because your soul is blind and your heart full of darkness, you are judging about spiritual things as someone who is blind since his birth, judging about the luster of colors.

[5] Is then the eternal death of the soul and his, let us say, impossible total eternal destruction, for you one and the same? Look, you and all your colleagues are what your souls are concerned already for a long time totally and completely dead. But are you therefore also destroyed? You will never be destroyed, but as long as you are now, so you will stay, in your sins which are the death of the soul, because in such a state he can never ascend to a higher and purer awareness, but must stay in his darkness and in his old worldly doubts, of which your souls are full of.

[6] In this world it does not oppress you so much because you know very well how to comfort yourselves with all things of the world, but when your soul will find himself in his own sphere without earthly body in the spiritual world which comes out of himself and who is without love and without light within him, how will he then fare?

[7] I know this very well and know also all too well how you all have entirely deviated from God’s word. And for this reason, as promised, I Myself have come into this world, in the flesh of a man. I, who am in spirit the same who gave Moses the laws on the Sinai, as well as once to Adam and later after the deluge to Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and after Moses also to the many prophets. By My teaching, I have come to save you all from your judgment and death. Because despite all fathers, despite Moses and all prophets you are ending up in the hard imprisonment of sin and death.

[8] When I am teaching you now Myself – because all My messengers that I have sent to your people, were not able to accomplish anything – am I therefore a madman? O, you serpents and brood of vipers, how long will I still have to suffer you in your judgment and your death!?

[9] You think that the people who have lived before Me could not hear the word which I am now directing to you, and therefore could not believe in Me and consequently could also not receive eternal life, as well as those who are now living in the faraway countries and are mostly gentiles. O you blind Pharisee. Now look here. These 7 men from the far Upper-Egypt know Me, are living according to My will, and their souls have already since long eternal life and its inexhaustible power and might. They will give you a sign.”

[10] Now the first Upper-Egyptian came forward and said: “Listen, miserable fornicator and adulterer! Ten forefathers out of whom you have come forth will appear to tell you that they are in a most miserable condition on the other side, but are not destroyed.”

[11] Then those who were called, stood suddenly in a dreadful appearance around the Pharisee, and his father, who he recognized very well, said: “Because I have been like you are now, I am now in such a miserable condition as you can see me now, and you will be in the same miserable condition as I am and as all forefathers are now, and also will surely stay that way, because faith nor hope are shining upon us.”

[12] The Pharisee, being very surprised, asked: “Can you then never more be helped?”

[13] The spirit said: “O yes, if we want that, but we do not have the will for it, just like you also do not have it in this world and are persecuting Him who could help you. And we are doing the same.”

[14] Now the spirits disappeared and I said: “What do you think about this?”

[15] Then the Pharisee said: “You are all sorcerers and magicians, and you have performed this appearance with witchcraft. Therefore I do not want to involve myself with You anymore and I will withdraw.”

[16] The people said however: “His wisdom is unmasked. That is why he is now withdrawing full of shame.”

[17] The Jews of the temple are now rebuking the noisy crowd, but they became still noisier and started to hiss and to whistle. Then the Pharisees withdrew hastily.

[18] However, the people asked Me if I wanted to teach them.

[19] I summoned the people to be quiet and soon they became quiet. Then I started to teach the people about the love for God and for fellowman and warned them against the false doctrine of the Pharisees.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 191

 

A new plan of the temple servants to catch the Lord (18/10)

 

Through a few spies who hid themselves among the people, it came to the ears of the Pharisees that I was teaching the people this way. These were deliberating among themselves to know what they could undertake in order to catch Me and to bring Me to ruin.

[2] However, the more temperate ones said: “Of course, you can do what you want, but we can assure you in advance that you can do nothing against Him. Because first of all He has many followers among the people, and secondly He possesses an indescribable magic power by which all the powers of nature and the spirit world seem to obey Him. And thirdly He is so well versed in the Scriptures, that we, compared to Him, are all bunglers. Fourthly, the highly ranked Romans are on His side, because they surely take Him for a half-god. Also, He has those wondrous Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, Indians and still other men from the east around Him, and therefore it will be very difficult to undertake anything successful against Him. And in case you do not want to believe me, then you should go outside to be informed about everything and to convince yourself of it.

[3] Did those two very reliable Pharisees not go to Emmaus, together with two of our smartest Levites? Where are they now? We do not know. The day before yesterday we have sent our most reliable spies and haunters after them and have insisted that they should inform us before evening to know what they had come to know, but until this hour nobody has come back. Where are they? How terribly embarrassing were those appearances to us during the night of the day before yesterday. Who is responsible for that, except Him and His accomplices?

[4] Today 3 rising suns have put us and the whole people in great confusion. Also this seems to be caused by Him. Everything that we have come to know elsewhere about Him and His deeds seem to be confirmed by Him, and therefore it is useless to make plans to do violence to Him. If ever He were the least afraid of us, He surely would not think about it to appear openly in the temple with His teaching, for He knows as well as we do how severe we are against such people. So this is our sober opinion, but because of the majority of your votes you still can do what you want. In no way we will hinder you.

[5] However, if we think – as always – soberly, we do believe the following: if ever His mission would perhaps secretly be ordained by God, we will not be able to stop Him. But if it is only the work of men, then it will disappear of itself in the dust of forgetfulness. If our word can do nothing against Him, even less will our deeds.”

[6] Now an arch-Pharisee of the group of Caiphas said: “If all this is true, as you have well-meant brought forward, then, according to you, what can we do for the best? Because these things, which will cause our downfall, we cannot allow to happen.”

[7] Upon this, the more temperate one said: “If we cannot unmask Him in front of the people and the Romans with intelligent and well worked out questions and words, and make Him suspect, then we are as good as finished. By deeds, we absolutely will not be able to harm Him. This is our firm and well founded opinion.”

[8] Upon this, the arch-Pharisee said: “This advice sounds good and we can indeed try it out, because we still have enough of those clever, intelligent and good orators, although lately we already have lost quite a few very competent orators, which is probably thanks to that notorious Nazarene. Then who of us thinks that he is able to take this task upon him for a big reward?”

[9] Now a scribe and a Pharisee, who also knew the Roman laws very well, began to speak, and both said: “Let us carry out this task, then we can catch Him fast and easily, because nobody was yet too smart for us.”

[10] The whole counsel agreed on that, and Caiphas said with great seriousness: “Good. Then disguise yourselves, so that the people will not recognize you. Enter the temple through the big gate of the people, and do your job well, then me and God will be well-pleased with you.”

[11] Now, as Caiphas told them, they both disguised themselves and went into the temple where I still was teaching the people about the love for God and fellowman. But the high priests (chiefs), Pharisees and still a few scribes did not totally trust the two, and they also disguised themselves and went after them into the temple in order to witness how those two would work on Me. They were joining them in the temple.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 192

The Pharisees try to catch the Lord (18/11)

 

When I was resting for awhile, the two came immediately and stood before Me and asked Me in a brutal way: “Lord, we know that You are performing extraordinary things which prior to You a human being has never performed. Now tell us from which power You are able to do this, because You as Master will surely know the best by which powers and means it is possible to perform all these wondrous works.”

[2] I said: “O yes, this I know very well, and I also want to tell you. But first I want to ask you something. If you are able to give Me a correct answer to the question which I will ask you, I will also tell you from which power I am performing My works.”

[3] The two said: “You can certainly ask us. We will not hold back any answer.”

[4] I said: “Very well then. Do tell Me then freely and openly in front of all the people: from where came the baptism of John, the son of Zacharias, who in this temple was strangled by you between the altar and the most holy? Was that baptism of this John from Heaven or only from men? Because it is up to you to make a final statement in front of the people. You have put on other clothes and came through the big people’s gate together with other pilgrims, but still you were quickly recognized. Do your work well, because otherwise you will lose your reward that was promised to you and that you can receive when you can catch Me on what I will answer.”

[5] This gave them something to think about, and quietly they said among themselves (the Pharisees): “This is a nasty fine question. For if, because of the people, we say: John’s baptism was from Heaven, then He and the people will ask us: ‘If this is so, then why did you not believe him and why did you persecute him and did you see to it that first Herod threw him into jail and then let him later on be beheaded?’ But if we say that the baptism was from man, then all the people will rise against us, because the people is still considering John as a true prophet, and it would attack us for saying something like this about John. Therefore, it is difficult to give this Man a good answer.”

[6] Further, another said secretly: “A good idea came into my mind now. Whether we say one thing or the other, in both cases we will be trapped. We must it make appear as if we never were busy about such outgrowth of the corrupt Jewry, because this was far below our dignity. And to make a long story short, we very simply will say: this we do not know, because such an unimportant event regarding the temple never kept us busy.”

[7] When they had decided that, the two turned to Me again and said: “Master, at Your question we cannot give an answer at all, because we do not know from who was the baptism of John. Because frankly, we did not keep ourselves too much busy with that.”

[8] I said to them: “Well, if you do not want to tell Me this, I also will not tell you from which power I am performing My works.

[9] But what do you think of this: look, a man had 2 sons. He went to the first and said: ‘My son, go today to my vineyard to work.’ But the son said: ‘Father, this I do not want, because the hard work is too much for me.’ When his father was gone, the son regretted it. He stood up, went to the vineyard and worked during the whole day with all his strength.

[10] Now the father went to his second son and also said to him what he told to the first one. And this one answered: ‘Lord and father. Yes, I will go to it immediately to work.’ But when the father went away, his son stayed at home and did not go to the vineyard to work. Who of the 2 sons has fulfilled here the will of the father?”

[11] The two said: “This is truly a childish question. Of course, it is clear that the first son has fulfilled the will of his father. Because by answering that he did not want to, he surely only wanted to pleasantly surprise his father. Because what one says is unmistakably less important than what one does. But for what purpose is this likeness, what did You want to tell us and to show us with this?”

[12] I said: “Sure, I will explain it to you, if you are so blind that you cannot see that for yourself. The Father is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And of both sons the first one means: the true prophets called by God who in the beginning however were not happy with their calling – as Moses showed all too clearly by refusing this high office because he had such a difficulty in speaking, and for this reason he asked God to give him his brother Aaron as interpreter. But then, it was still Moses who did the work. The second called one was the spokesman indeed, but only Moses did the work. And so it went downhill until these times.

[13] Because the second category, who made the promise to work in God’s vineyard and were only promising to work but finally did do nothing, God had to turn to those who were not so willing with their tongue. Although these did not give Him any promise, yet they were working. And when they were working, the second group attacked and persecuted them out of jalousie, and they wanted to prevent them from doing the good work, so that the true workers would not be accepted as such by the Father of the vineyard.

[14] And so, during this time, Zacharias and his son John were good workers in the vineyard of the Lord, although in the beginning of their inner calling each one of them refused to take this function upon them because surely they knew the great laziness and burning envy of those who indeed promised God to work in the vineyard, but were then putting their hand into their lazy lab. And not only did they not work themselves, but with fire and sword they also forbade the zealous workers to work.

[15] Therefore, I say to you: Truly, truly, tax collectors and whores will surely come sooner in Heaven than you. John came to teach you the good way and you did not believe him, just like your forefathers did not believe the old prophets. But the tax collectors and whores did believe John, did penance and changed their lives. You have certainly seen this and understood also that you were wrong, but still, you did not do what the tax collectors did, because above all you did not want it to be known that you believed on him. Therefore, also the tax collectors and whores will enter God’s Kingdom sooner than you who attach great importance to your calling and are proud in front of everybody as if you have helped God with the creation of Heaven and Earth.

[16] But I say to you: precisely for this reason you are the last for God. Because everything that is great and shiny in the eyes of the world, is for God an abomination. You do not want to be in Heaven and moreover you are blocking the way for those who want to go to it. Therefore, later also, all the more damnation will come over you.

[17] I am saying to you that I have the right and the power for this and I do not fear the people of this world like you. Because I know God and the power of His will which is now in Me and wills and acts. But you do not know God, and His will is not in you. And therefore, you fear the world and act according to what it is prescribing in your hearts. And because you are doing this, you are therefore also preparing your own judgment, your damnation and with it the true, eternal death. And this consists of the fact that you stay continuously the slaves of your increasing laziness and sensuality and will pluck the wicked and terrible fruits thereof.”

[18] One of the two said: “You are talking freely and openly with us, who are men just like You. If it pleased God to create us people only for Hell, He surely could have spared Himself the trouble, because not one soul will praise Him for that. But we are of the opinion that God has still created men for something better, and therefore we are hoping that He, as the most wise and perfect Being, will not want to torture us forever with all the sufferings of Hell, because we were forced to act that way by insurmountable difficulties.

[19] The fact that we cannot believe the many that are pretending to be a prophet, has a very understandable reason. Because if the temple would do that, it would be no more a meeting-place of the Jews who still believe in Moses. Why does a prophet, who is filled with all the power of God, allow himself to be taken by the Jews and even let himself be killed? If this happens, then almost each time his disciples turn away from him – as we know out of experience – and then they become again Jews, just like they were before the arrival of the prophet. Then why does God allow such a thing?

[20] If the prophets are pre-eminently His awakened and called workers and we represent the same lazy son who had promised his father to work in the vineyard but who did not hold on to his word, then how come that the by God so highly esteemed workers still let themselves be defeated by us lazy loafers. How could Your God allow this to happen?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 193

 

The parable of the workers in the vineyard (18/12)

 

I said: “God has given every human being a complete free will, together with an intellect and a conscience that always warns and admonishes him. Without these 3 things man would not be more than an animal.

[2] But in order to test man’s free will, also the laziness and self-love are inborn in his flesh wherein he feels most comfortable in this world.

[3] With his own power, man should learn to perceive that this is evil for his soul, and with the means that were given by God he should fight against it until he becomes a perfect master over all his bodily passions and tendencies. But to the sensual and lazy man this is too uneasy and unpleasant. He prefers as much as possible to let himself be ensnared into the nets of his growing sensual passions, and by that, he draws thousands of individuals with him, because it also pleases them to bath their flesh in all laziness and sensual pleasure.

[4] But what is the evil consequence of this? Instead of freeing himself from the shackles of matter by acting as God has advised him, and finally even to spiritualize that which is material and to make himself truly alive, the soul is going deeper and deeper into the death of his matter.

[5] When this happens in general too often with people, God has mercy on them, and at the right moment He always sends them people to wake them up. But when they start their task, the many lazy people become enraged with them, fall upon them and even mistreat and strangle them in their blind rage, so that they can continue to sleep in their laziness, which pleases their flesh so much.

[6] But since God has created man only for eternal life and not for eternal death, He continues to send different messengers in order to wake up the lazy and sensual people, so that these should get up and start the heavy work which will make their soul alive.

[7] If they do not listen to the warning prophets but are rather continuously persecuted, then God will send quickly other and sharper circumstances to wake them up, like bad harvest, high cost of living, wars, famine and epidemics, and still many other plagues.

[8] If the people repent and become active again according to the godly advice, then soon God will remove the plagues again. But when they do not bother, then God has still bigger awakening methods in store, and these are then like the deluge of Noah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[9] So if you persist in your sins until the measure is full, then you too can expect the last big and terrible awakening method. Now, I have told you this, so that you very well will remember My words when it will come over you.”

[10] The two said: “Then what evil are we doing, that such things have to come over us?”

[11] I said: “The things that you are doing, and also that which you have always done, I will show you immediately in a parable. Therefore, listen to Me.

[12] Once there was a wise father of the house who laid out a vineyard and put a strong fence around it. Moreover he dug out a place where the grapes had to be pressed, and build a strong tower above it where many people were able to live. When all this was done and when they had promised him loyalty, sincerity, diligence and zeal, he handed everything over to the vine growers, and they were promised a very good reward with which the vine growers were very pleased. And because the father of the house had still many other things to do, he could easily travel through the country, because he let everything behind in an excellent condition.

[13] Now when the time of the harvest was at hand, he sent his servants (prophets and teachers) to the vineyard to receive the its fruits. But when the vine growers, who promised the father of the house complete loyalty, sincerity, diligence and zeal, saw the servants, they were deliberating with one another in this way: ‘Well, we are many and it will not be difficult to settle with them, then we can easily divide the harvest among ourselves.’ All the evil vine growers agreed upon that and seized the servants who were sent by their lord to receive the fruits. They beat one of them, the other they killed and they threw stones at the third one.

[14] When the father of the house heard that, he became really sad and considered if he should bring a hard judgment upon them or if, because of his great goodness and patience, he should try once more to urge the vine growers to freely hand over his fruits. He said by himself: ‘I know what I shall do. I will send my only son to them. Him they will respect, and they will do according to his justified request.

[16] But when the vine growers saw the son, they were deliberating among themselves: ‘That is the heir. Come, let us kill him also. Then we will have his inheritance.’ And they caught him, put him outside of the vineyard and killed him on the spot.

[17] And what do you think, what shall the lord of the vineyard do with these evil vine growers if later he comes himself to them, accompanied with a great power?”

[18] The two said: “He will kill all the evil-doers in a cruel way, and he surely will entrust his vineyard to other vine growers who will hand over the fruits on time.”

[19] I said: “This time your opinion is good and true. But do you also know that by the vineyard the church has to be understood, which God as the named father of the house has established by Moses? And that you priests, are the evil vine growers who were mentioned right now, and that the servants are the many prophets who God has sent to you, and that I am now the Heir of the Father, about who you are now deliberating day after day how you can catch Him, put Him out of His inheritance and also how you can kill Him, so that then you can rule undisturbed on His throne and divide the fruits of His vineyard among yourselves?”

[20] Then the two said: “Then where are those who want to kill You, if You are truly the heir? We did not come here to catch You and to kill You, but we came to examine seriously if according to the full truth You are really the One who was promised. We have to keep watch on the threshold of the old door of the church, so that in this wonder-craving time where the Essenes and also other magicians bring in their good harvest, there would not be a false Christ, enchanting and deceiving the blind and credulous people with his false teaching. And he who cannot resist our trial of fire is an intruder and a deceiver, and we have the right to catch him and to throw him out.

[21] If You are the true Christ, then why does it offend You if we in front of the people are testing You? If we are discovering that no deceit is clinging on to You, of no matter what kind, then we will introduce You before the whole people as the One who You are introducing to us. But if we discover with our discernment that it is only Yourself who claims to be something special, for instance because of Your secret magic, then it is our duty, given by God, to reject You as an imposter and blasphemer, and to punish You according to the law. But how can You treat us like this by comparing us with the evil vine growers and to make us in this way suspicious in front of the whole people?”

[22] I said: “Because I have all reasons for that and am not afraid of you. But I will explain this reason for you even further. As you are now, and as you are behaving now, this was also the case a long time ago. Also those, who lived during that time (your ancestors), considered themselves to be the entire lawful watchers and workers of God’s vineyard. But no matter how and where they worked, they always kept the fruits for themselves and distorted the law of God, and even changed it for a worldly law to their own worldly advantage.

[23] Then God sent prophets to them, and they were persecuted with fire and sword as they always proclaimed before the people that they were false prophets. And everyone who accepted the teaching of the prophets and lived according to it, they proclaimed that they were breakers of the law and blasphemers.

[24] Only a 100 years later, the prophets who were persecuted by them were considered to be true prophets by the priests of that day. Monuments were erected for them, which even today you are, only out of apparent respect, whitewashing every year. However, now you believe as little in the word of the prophets as the former priests during that time. And as they have persecuted the old prophets, so you also are persecuting the prophets who are send to you. You proclaim that they are false prophets, reject and kill them.

[25] And when you do that – which you cannot deny – am I then not correct if I put you on the same level as these evil vine growers, whose lives will indeed be taken by the lord of the vineyard according to your own judgment? Indeed, you are watchers, but then of a kind that are watching before a robbers’ den.

[26] What do you care about pleasing God in who you have never believed? The only important thing for you is your honor before the world, because it produces a lot of gold, silver and precious stones, and moreover the first and the best produce of the land. For if you would believe in God, you also would keep His laws, wherein it is stated: ‘You will not covet what belongs to your fellowman’, and: ‘You shall not kill’. But you covet and take immediately what belongs to your fellowman and what he has earned in the sweat of his face. And whoever does not want to give what you want, you are persecuting, even worse than hungry wolves after a lamb. And the one who warns you that you are acting incorrectly – because he has been awakened by God for that reason – is seized by you and killed.

[27] The fact that you are acting like this and not otherwise, I do not only know Myself, but this is known now by every man, and one weeps and mourns because of your unmerciful hardness. You are putting unbearable burdens on the shoulders of the poor people, but you yourself are not touching them with one finger.

[28] Say to the people here, if Moses or another prophet has ever given you a law by which you are allowed to behave yourself in such a brutal and unscrupulous way. Where is it written that you can appropriate the possessions of the widows and orphans in exchange for long prayers that you are promising to them? And where has Moses commanded to proclaim that true prophets are false ones, to persecute and to kill them?

[29] And if you are doing all these things, which you can never deny, it is then clear to everybody that you are the evil vine growers, of who I have spoken.”

[30] Now the two Pharisees and also the others became enraged because I have pointed this out to them, and all the people said: “Yes, yes, He speaks the full truth! This is exactly how it is and not differently!”

[31] When the people said this aloud, the two said in a threatening manner: “Tell us, who are You, that You dare to tell us this in front of the people right in our face. Do you not know our rights and our power? How long will You test our patience?”

[32] I said: “I am the One who is talking now to you. I really do not fear your power because your imagined right for God and for all honest people is the highest injustice. But concerning patience, you rather should ask how long I will have the patience that you think to have with Me. Because all authority and power in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. My will can throw you into ruin and in the fire of My wrath, but you cannot do anything to Me because I can throw you into ruin much sooner than you are capable of hurting Me even with one finger. Yes, when I, because of your great evilness, will allow that you will put your wicked hands on Me, then also the day of your judgment and ruin will have come.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 194

 

The Pharisees ask for God’s Kingdom (18/13)

 

One of the two said: “What kind of blasphemous nonsense are You uttering. Are we then not the builders who were appointed by Moses and Aaron in order to build God’s house on Earth, just like it is written?”

[2] I said: “Yes, yes, this is indeed written, but there is however also written something else, and because you have started about the builders, I will tell you what that is. What is written and what is surely also known to you – because you also have read it in the Scriptures – sounds as follows: ‘The stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone. To the Lord this is accomplished and is now wonderfully visible before your eyes.’ Therefore, I say to you: God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to the gentiles, and they will bear its fruits.”

[3] Then the two said: “Then what will further on happen with the cornerstone for who You seem to take Yourself?”

[4] I said: “With the by you rejected stone – that nevertheless has now become a cornerstone – it will happen like this: whoever will fall upon the cornerstone, like you now, will crash. However, on who the cornerstone will fall – what you can expect – will be crushed. Did you understand this now?”

[5] After I had given this explanation, also the other high priests and Pharisees who were present came to understand that they were the ones who would be crushed by the cornerstone which should fall upon them. They were then very upset and deliberated among themselves how maybe they still could trick Me and bring Me to ruin.

[6] But the more temperate ones advised them against it and pointed out that all people were taking Me for a great prophet, and that for this reason I already had sufficiently made it clear what the high priests and the Pharisees had always done with the prophets. Therefore, they found it more advisable to trick Me first in My own words, to declare Me thereby before the people to be a liar and imposter and only then to catch Me and deliver Me to court, since the people could then have no more objections. But as long I could not be tricked with words it would be extremely risky to take Me into captivity, especially now when the people was still too excited by the nocturnal signs.

[7] The high priest and Pharisees were realizing that, stifled their anger and decided to catch Me with cunning words.

[8] After they had taken this decision, they turned again to Me, in a kind of kind-heartedness, because they were very afraid of the people, and were asking Me (the Pharisees): “From a Master who is so well versed in the Scripture, we also would like to hear wherein the Kingdom of God will consist, which will be taken away from us and given to the gentiles, with whom it will bear the desired fruit. What is in fact the Kingdom of God? What do You mean by that? Is it Heaven, where all believers hope to come after the death of their body, or does it already exist somewhere on this Earth, what according to Your words seems to be the case, because otherwise it could not be given to the gentiles. It can certainly not be a true spiritual Heaven, because nowhere it is written that also the dark gentiles would ever be received into God’s Heaven. These words coming out of Your prophetic mouth were a bit puzzling to us, for which reason we are also inviting You to explain this further to us.”

[9] Here they were already rejoicing, because they thought that with these words I already had entrapped Myself and that on such a clever question I could have no answer. Also here and there the people were looking seriously and were anxiously waiting how I would save Myself from this trap.

[10] But I stood up as a hero and no embarrassment could be seen on My face, and I started once again to speak with them in parables: “Because you are full of laziness, full of sensuality and selfish pride, it is therefore also impossible to understand the secret and the truth of the Kingdom of God. You are imagining Heaven to be one or the other exquisite space above the stars, where the pious souls are accepted or – according to a still more foolish and absurd idea which some of you have – only after many thousands of years on the by you never understood youngest day, after which they then will revel forever in the most pleasurable life. And from such a heaven that exists nowhere except in your more than foolish fantasy and highest selfish belief, the gentiles are to be excluded. Yes, I say to you, from such a heaven as you are imagining yourselves, they also will be excluded forever, since it is impossible to be accepted into a heaven that in reality exists nowhere.

[11] But, so that no one can ever find an excuse by claiming that he did not know wherein true Heaven consist, I will now, for the sake of the people, show in images wherein the true Heaven consist, everywhere in the whole of infinity and here on this Earth, in and above all stars, everywhere in the same manner. So listen to Me.

 

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 195

 

The parable of the king and his wedding feast (18/14)

 

The Kingdom of Heaven or God’s Kingdom is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. He sent out his helpers and servants to invite many important guests for the royal wedding feast. But those who were invited said to themselves: ‘Why should we go to a royal wedding feast? We feel better at home and then we owe no one any gratitude.’ And for this reason no one of those who were invited wanted to come to the royal wedding feast.

[2] When the king received the message that the guests who were invited first did not want to come, he sent out again other helpers, telling them beforehand: ‘Tell the guests: Look, I have prepared my wedding feast. My oxen and fat cattle are slaughtered and everything is ready. Come therefore, all of you to the wedding feast.’

[3] The helpers departed and told it faithfully to the guests they had to invite. But again the invited ignored the invitation and were despising it. One went to his land, the other started another work, and again others seized the helpers, scorned them, and even killed some of them.

[4] When the king heard that, in his justified wrath he sent immediately his armies out and had all these murderers slain, burned their city and had it leveled with the ground.

[5] After that, the king spoke again to his helpers: ‘It is true that the wedding feast is well prepared but the invited guests were not worthy of it. Therefore, go now to all common streets and alleys, and whomever you will meet, invite them to the wedding.

[6] The helpers went and brought all those they could find, the bad as well as the good. And look, the tables were completely occupied.

[7] Now when the tables were occupied in this manner, the king came into the large dining-hall to see the guests. There he saw someone who was not dressed well at all for a wedding, while the others, when they were invited, went quickly home to make them in the shortest time look as nice as possible for the wedding.

[8] Then the king asked the helpers: ‘Why did this man there not dress himself nicely for the wedding, to refresh my eyes and not to give any offence to the many other guests?’

[9] And the helpers said: ‘O mighty king, he is one of those who was invited first and who did not want to come. Now when we went to invite people for the third time, we also met him in the street, invited him once more and advised him to dress himself also nicely for the wedding. But he said: ‘Ah why? I am not going to make all possible effort because of the wedding. I will go to it as I am.’ And as we have met him in the street, he also went together with the other guests to the wedding, and we did not stop him since we have no right to do this.’

[10] When the king heard this from the helpers, he went to the one who did not have a wedding garment and he said to him: ‘How could you come here without putting on a wedding garment? Look, the tables are now fully occupied with poor people, of whom a part is bad and only a small part is good, but all of them have dressed themselves so nicely that my eyes can find true pleasure in them. You have been invited already the first time and you did not want to listen to the invitation, and now on the third general invitation you have decided to come in, but without dressing yourself nicely for the wedding, while you still are wealthy enough to possess a wedding garment. Why then did you put me to shame?’

[11] After these questions, the man became very irritated with the king. He also did not even want to apologize and ask the king for forgiveness but he kept silent and gave no answer at all, although the king at first addressed him as a friend.

[12] This evil stubbornness irritated the king so much, that he said to his servants: ‘Since this man is so hardened, and rewards my great affability and friendliness only with evil, anger and contempt, you must bind his hands and feet (loving will and wisdom) and throw him out (into matter) into extreme darkness (mere worldly reason)! There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (worldly quarrellings over justice, truth and life).’

[13] However, with this I am telling you that by His awakened helpers God has also invited and called many of you for the true Kingdom of God, but only few are chosen, because the first time they did not want to listen to the invitation at all. After that, they resisted against it – just like it is the case now – and when for the third time all the gentiles were invited for the wedding, arrayed themselves and came to the wedding, there was only one of those who were invited first in a dress that was not fit for the wedding feast, and this one is the image of your rigidity of spirit which will throw you into the deepest darkness and distress of the world. And therefore, among those who are called since the beginning, there will be only few who will be chosen, and so the true Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to the gentiles. But you, you will search in your deepest worldly darkness, quarrel and fight, and will not find the Kingdom of God anymore which you have lost and has left you until the end of the world.

[14] The true and living Kingdom of God however, does not come in outward appearance and also does not consist of that, but it is to be found in the inner part of man, because when man does not have it in himself, it also does not exist eternally and also nowhere else in the whole of infinity.

[15] And therein consists the Kingdom of God within man: that he keeps the commandments of God, and from now on believes in Him who has been sent to you in Me.

[16] In truth, I say to you: He who believes in Me and acts according to My word, has eternal life in him and with that also the Kingdom of God. For I Myself am the Truth, the Light, the Way and eternal Life.

[17] He who hears this from My mouth or from the mouth of those whom I am already now sending out – and in the future will be sending out even more – as My real and true witnesses, and then does not believe that this is so and cannot ever be otherwise, will not enter the Kingdom of God, but will remain in the night of his own worldly judgment. I have now said this to you. Blessed is the one who will take it to heart.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 196

 

Asking for the tax coin (18/15)

 

When the high priests, scribes and Pharisees heard this from Me, they did not know what they should undertake further against Me to catch Me in My words. Because with the question about the Kingdom of God they did not succeed because they could not say anything against it and because all the people from the crowd were loudly pointing out that I had spoken and taught the full truth.

[2] Also the more moderate ones who were present said: “We told you before that with questions from the Scriptures you are no match for Him, because He might be more familiar with it than we ourselves. You only should ask His advice and opinion about Roman laws, which He as so-called prophet in view of the laws of Moses cannot approve. With this, we could more easily catch Him. However, then, the questions should be asked by those who are very qualified.”

[3] All agreed on this and they secretly deliberated to know how they should handle it to catch Me in My own words in the manner that was advised.

[4] Some went outside to the scholars of the Roman law and also to the juridical advisers of Herod, and they promised a great reward if they could catch Me in My words.

[5] Soon they came with a feigned friendly look and said (the servants of Herod): “Master, we know that You are truthful and You make the way of God known in the right manner, without asking if perhaps someone did not agree with Your teaching. For only the truth counts for You and not the respect of a person, so that You always can speak out a free judgment. Look, we are lawyers and found it always very strange that we as Jews – who according to the law of Moses should always be free – still have to pay taxes to the emperor of Rome. What is Your opinion about this matter? Is it right that we Jews, have to pay taxes, while we have a charter which says that we, despite the Roman domination may move freely according to the law of Moses. What do You say about this?”

[6] However, because I noticed very clearly their cunning already at the time when they entered, I looked at them very seriously and said aloud: “Hypocrites, why do you want to tempt Me!? Show Me such a tax coin!”

[7] At once they showed Me such a coin.

[8] Further on I said: “Whose image is on it and whose inscription!?”

[9] They said: “As You can see, the one from the emperor.”

[10] I said: “Well, then give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and to God what belongs to God!”

[11] When they heard this, they were surprised about My wisdom and said to the priests: “You can test this wise Man yourself, because we are no match for His wisdom.”

[12] Then they went away.

[13] And again I spoke freely with the people about the immortality of the human soul, which attracted a few Sadducees who were present. After a short while I was confronted with them, which will soon follow.

[14] After these negotiations it was of course already midday. For this reason a few of My disciples asked Me if it would not be advisable to leave the temple and to look for a midday meal, because I had conquered the Pharisees almost completely and all the people was in our favor and it believed in Me.

[15] I said: “This can still wait for awhile, because man does not live from bread alone, but also from every word that comes out of the mouth of God. I have to work as long as it is day. When the night comes it is not easy to deal with and to work with this people. For sure, the Pharisees have gone away now to deliberate again if perhaps I still cannot be caught in one way or another. Therefore, they soon will come back to make it difficult for Me. And there is a big group of Sadducees who also have something against Me and will soon start a conversation with Me. With this opportunity the necessary Pharisees and scribes will not be absent also. Therefore, we will stay in the temple, because also the people will stay here. But if someone of you wants to go away to take care of his body he also can do that. But I prefer that you stay here.”

[16] When the disciples heard that from Me they stayed and nobody of them left the temple.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 197

 

Jesus and the Sadducees. Marriage in Heaven. (18/16)

 

Immediately after that, the Sadducees, who have a pure cynical opinion and do not believe in a resurrection or in a life of the soul after physical death, came to Me. They asked Me: “Master, Moses said – although he did not command it explicitly: ‘If a man of a woman dies without child, let then his brother marry his wife in order to procreate a descendant’. Now in our case there were 7 brothers. The first married a woman, died however some time later without having procreated a descendant with the woman. So the widow came – according to Moses’ advice – to the second brother. However, the same happened to him as his deceased brother. This continued unto the seventh brother, and finally the woman died without any fruit. If it is true that there is a resurrection after the death of the body, then we ask ourselves, whose wife will she be in the other life? Because here all the 7 brothers were her husband.”

[2] I said: “Oh, then you are greatly mistaken and you do not know the Scriptures and even less the power of God. In the resurrection, which you did not understand, men will be completely equal to the angels of God and will not marry or be taken into marriage. Because marriage in Heaven is different from yours on this Earth.

[3] In the same way as here on Earth when a righteous man and a righteous woman are united with each other, so in Heaven love and wisdom are united with each other.

[4] But if you are so well versed in the Scriptures, then you surely must also have read that it is written that God has spoken understandably and as follows: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’. And God is not a God of the dead but a God of the living. Now if God is truly a God of the living and not of the dead, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – who according to you are entirely destroyed – must still be living and must have been resurrected already a long time ago for true eternal life. For if this were not so, then God would have spoken an untruth to Moses when He said: ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’, because God can only be a God of those who live and not a God of those who do not live, who do not exist anywhere. For to claim and believe such thing would be the greatest foolishness of the world.

[5] However, when Abraham was still walking on Earth in the flesh, and the prophecy came to him that once I Myself would come in the flesh in this world as a Son of men – which is now being fulfilled before your eyes – and when it was also promised to him that he would see My day and My time in this world, he was filled with great joy.

[6] And I can truthfully assure you that he also saw My day and My time on this Earth and is still continuously seeing it and he is fully rejoicing over it. Would he also be able to do that if he would not have been resurrected a long time ago or if he would be entirely dead and, as you believe, would be destroyed forever.”

[7] The totally defeated Sadducees said: “If you show us the resurrected father Abraham we will believe what you have told us here.”

[8] I said: “If you do not believe My words, you will also not believe the appearance of Abraham, which is easy to accomplish. You would say: ‘Now look what a magician this Man is and how he wants to throw sand into our eyes’. But I say to you: I Myself am the live and the resurrection, whoever believes in Me has life and the resurrection already in himself.

[9] Look, here are many who are still walking in the flesh and they are already resurrected in the spirit. Therefore, they will not feel nor taste death but will live from now on eternally. Those have already seen and spoken to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and know what they can expect. But you by far do not know what to expect, although you live and also think and will. Did you understand Me?”

[10] When the Sadducees received this lesson from Me they did not say anything anymore and they withdrew.

[11] The people however was simply amazed because of My great wisdom and they said to themselves: “This One is truly more than a simple prophet because He speaks as an arbitrary Lord. If He would only be a prophet He would not speak like a Lord full of the highest power from God. For the one who says: ‘I Myself am life and the resurrection, whoever believes in Me will not see death, feel nor taste it, for he already has life in himself’ – no one can say this about himself, except God. We know however, that a Messiah is promised to all the Jews and whose name will be great. Because He will be named Immanuel, that is: ‘God with us’. This Man must surely be the One. Otherwise, from where could He have such power and wisdom?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 198

 

The Lord asks the Pharisees what they think about Christ. The nature of man.

About the triune being of God. (18/17)

 

The people spoke in this way among themselves. The Pharisees and scribes who were present again did not hear how the people spoke about Me. But they heard that I had silenced the Sadducees. Secretly they were glad about that because they disliked the Sadducees very much. But now they took courage again to continue to try if perhaps they could catch Me in My words in one way or another.

[2] A scribe came to Me and said: “Master, I am convinced that You truly are in all seriousness a rare wise Man and are an expert concerning the Scriptures. Therefore tell me: what is actually the most important commandment of the whole law?”

[3] I said: “The most important and all encompassing commandment is: ‘You shall love God the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with your whole mind’. Look, this is the most important and greatest commandment. The other is equal to it: ‘You shall also love your fellowman as yourself’. That means: always do with pleasure for the one of whom you would like that he would do it for you if you would need it and it would be within his means. The whole law and all the prophets rest on these 2 commandments. Or do you perhaps know a commandment that is more important?”

[4] The scribe said: “A more important commandment is not known to me. Therefore You have answered correctly.”

[5] There was now already a whole crowd of Pharisees and scribes around Me and they deliberated what they should ask further to catch Me, so that they could capture Me.

[6] However, I said to them: “Listen, the fact that you want to ask me continuously questions of which you suspect that I will be trapped, is clear to everyone here. I already have answered a great deal of questions and have shown you that you cannot catch Me. Therefore I want to ask you a question again. If you can answer Me, you may ask Me again a few things.”

[7] The Pharisees said: “Good, just ask, also we will not withhold You any answer.”

[8] I said: “Well then, do tell me: what do you think about Christ? Whose Son will He be?”

[9] The Pharisees said: “As it is written: He is a Son of David.”

[10] I said: “Hmm, strange, if this is so, then why does David in the spirit call Him a Lord, when he says: ‘The Lord said to My Lord: sit down at My right hand until I have put Your enemies at Your feet?’ If David calls Him Lord, how can He then be his Son?”

[11] On this, a Pharisee said: “We know that David has spoken in the spirit like this about Christ, but who can understand what he meant with the ‘Lord’, who spoke to his Lord, and who is the Lord who David called ‘his Lord’? Because according to the teaching of Moses we cannot accept that at the time of David they already thought and believed in two Lords of which each one would be completely God. The Lord who spoke to the Lord of David must clearly be another person than the Lord who David calls ‘his Lord’. Otherwise how could David say: ‘The Lord spoke to my Lord’? But who can understand this? If You understand it, then explain it to us. Then we will believe that You speak out of God’s Spirit.”

[12] I said: “If you as so-called scribes cannot understand the way of speaking of the old Hebrews, how then do you want to understand their spirit?

[13] The Lord, thus Jehovah, has certainly also been a Lord of David, thus also his Lord. And therefore, David did not express himself wrongly when he said: ‘My Lord spoke to my Lord.’ And when he spoke like that it is also clear that both Lords, who by way of expression are only apparently two Lords, are in fact one and the same Lord. You yourselves do also say: ‘My spirit spoke to the mind of my soul.’ Does the spirit of man not live in his soul and is consequently one with his soul, although it is as real life power in the soul more noble and more complete than the substantial soul itself?

[14] In God there are also two distinct essential qualities and these are forming His initial substance and consequently are forming His undivided One initial Being.

[15] The one distinct essential quality is love, as the eternal flame of life in God, and the other distinct essential quality is as a result of the brightest flame of life, the light of the wisdom in God.

[16] If this is now so, and undeniable not different, is then the love in God not totally the same glory in God as His wisdom?

[17] But when David said: ‘The Lord spoke to my Lord’, he only said that the endless merciful love in God penetrated its wisdom totally and said to it: ‘Go and sit at My right hand, become Word and Being, become one with all My life’s power, then everybody who is an enemy of the light must bow before the love life’s power in the light thereof.’

[18] However, what David said at that time in the spirit, stands now in a wonderful way embodied before you. Why do you close your eyes and do not want to realize that the great promise is being fulfilled and stands and speaks now before you, and is showing you the ways of the true life out and in God?”

[19] When the Pharisees heard this from My mouth, a kind of fear for My wisdom came upon them, so that no one of them dared to ask Me anything further to try Me.

[20] And the more moderate temple servants said secretly to the furious Pharisees: ‘We already told you before with good intentions that nothing can be achieved with this Man. Because firstly in His will there is such an incomprehensible wonderful power that He can move and destroy mountains with it, secondly all the people and all the Romans are on His side, and thirdly He is so incomprehensibly wise that with all our wisdom and all our questions, no matter how smart, we can in no way catch Him to make Him suspicious in front of the people. The more questions we ask Him the more we make ourselves suspicious in front of the people who are starting to laugh at us. What benefit is it to us? It would be better if we never had anything to do with Him. But now the harm has almost been done to us. What shall we do now? We are of the opinion that it would be most wise to turn our back to this whole matter and not to involve ourselves openly any longer.

[21] If ever this should possibly be a decree from God, we are resisting in vain. And if this is not the case, then it will pass of itself, so that after some time no one will remember anything about it, just like it already had been often the case. This is our opinion about this, but you can still do what you think is best, although you must be convinced that we were right.”

[22] A chief priest said quietly, so that the people could not hear it: “Yes, yes, you surely are right, but must we tolerate that He is humiliating us so much in the eyes of the people who are our good milking cow?”

[23] A moderate man said: “This is all correct, but then think about a way to turn around our lost case, then we gladly will sustain you with everything. But we are only of the opinion that a suitable way will not easily be found, and a bad method will only make this matter more serious and make our situation worse.”

[24] A chief priest said: “What would you think if we ask Him if He Himself would present us before the people as what we in fact are according to Moses?”

[25] A moderate man said: “This could be better than all the traps that we have thought of for Him. Let someone try that, but sincerely and in all seriousness. Maybe it is useful. As far as we can see He is in fact not a bad and revengeful person, because we have heard from everywhere that He helps poor people a lot, or else He certainly would not be in such a high esteem among the poor people.”

[26] Then they deliberated who would be the one to take the task upon him to talk to Me about this matter. One of the more moderate was quickly willing to do it, and one after the other agreed on it. He came to Me and wanted to present his request.

[27] But I did not give him the chance to speak and said immediately in his face: “I know all too well what you want to tell Me now. Therefore, you can save the trouble to lose even one word before Me about your request. But what I have to say about you to the people and also to My disciples for and against you, this I also know. Thus you can either go or stay here to hear what I will say.”

[28] When the Pharisee heard this of Me, he turned around and went back to his colleagues. All of them were all ears to listen to all the things I would say to the people for and against them.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 199

 

The Lord talks about the scribes (18/18)

 

Immediately I opened My mouth and said: “The Pharisees and scribes are sitting on Moses’ chair. Abide by everything they say you have to do because Moses and the prophets have said so, and do it also. But you should not conform to their works and should not do as they are doing.

[2] What they tell you to do is mostly correct and true, but they themselves are not doing what they are teaching you. They compel you to carry heavy and often unbearable loads and they put these on the shoulders of the people, but they themselves do not want to touch it with one finger.

[3] All works that appear to be good, they only are doing to be considered by men as the servants of God. Therefore they attach a great deal of importance to their memoranda (these were the notes of those who paid dearly for great and long prayers and offerings for their well being). That is why the hems on their robes are so big (the big hems on their robes indicated severe and unceasing offerings and prayer service, which however only consisted of wearing bigger hems).

[4] During meals they like to sit at the head of the table – also in the schools – and they attach great importance to be greeted on the market place (a big place where many people were gathering), and to be called ‘rabbi’ by men.

[5] But you, even if you would be and want to become My disciples, should not allow to be called like that. Because only One is your true Master and that am I (Christ). You are only equal brothers among one another.

[6] From now on you should not call anyone on Earth in the full sense of the truth ‘father’, because only One is your true Father, namely the eternal One in Heaven.

[7] And again I say to you that at no time you should allow to be called ‘master’ in My teaching and to be greeted that way, because now you know who your Master is.

[8] Also there should not be any difference in rank among you as it is existing now in the temple and the world of men, but let the greatest and highest among you, be the servant and helper of the other brothers. Because he who exalts himself will be humbled down. However, he who out of love for his brothers humbles himself down will be exalted.”

[9] When the Pharisees heard this teaching of Me and looked at Me angrily, the whole people cried out at Me: “O Master, You alone are truthful. This is how it should be among all men, then this Earth would already be a true Heaven. But as it goes now among the people, when everyone often for a small thing wants to be more and higher than his fellowman, this Earth is a true Hell, because in the imaginative delusion of grandeur one person persecutes the other and oppresses the weak with his unsatisfied pride. O poor and weak humanity of this Earth, for many it would be better if they were never born.

[10] O Master, we can see that Your word is a true word of God, but those who hear it, are with their skin and hair in Hell. Therefore, Your godly word will also not serve them as salvation, because the ones for whom it is most concerned are the ones who do not bother at all. For already now they show their teeth out of anger and watch like hungry wolves and hyenas, anxiously waiting for a lamb on the pasture.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 200

 

The Lord critisizes the Pharisees (18/19)

 

Such statements from the people were like a stench in the nose of the Pharisees. For this reason, a few orators stood up to speak some soothing words to the excited people by which they did not fail to make Me and My teaching suspicious and to misrepresent it. They accused Me of great improper presumptions and said that I had abolished the law of Moses when I wanted that from now on a child could no longer honor its parents by greeting them with the word father or mother since Moses explicitly gave the commandment that one should honor his father and mother.

[2] By that, the people became uncertain and expressed their doubts among each other and some among them said: “Well, in fact you cannot disagree with the Pharisees and scribes. It seems that in His enthusiasm He went too far.”

[3] Then the more moderate Pharisee came to Me and said: “Do You hear now what the people is saying? You made us very suspicious in front of the people, so that they raised their voice against us. But they noticed that You went too far by going against Moses. That is why it was the highest time to make the people change their mind. Now they see their mistake, and my question is: what do You want to do now?”

[4] I said: “I surely do not have to ask you what I further have to do or to say. When John was teaching the people and exhorted them to do penance, you also behaved like this in order to uphold your worldly justice, but you did no penance and you also withheld the people from it by your hypocritical words, what you also have done just now. But by this you also will bring even more damnation upon yourselves. The One who has the power to save you or to bring you to ruin is saying this to you, depending on what you want to achieve with your way of doing.

[5] You fools of heart and mind. When you yourselves call God your Father and you say that one should not defame the name of God, how can you then put God equal to man? What is the difference when you call God your Father but also the one who procreated you in the womb of a woman?

[6] You want to be scribes and you do not even know anymore the difference between the original Hebrew words ‘jeoua’ and ‘jeoutza’. The first mentioned means ‘Father’ and the second ‘procreator’. And when this is so and not otherwise, then who else except you have brought the people into the greatest confusion?

[7] Therefore, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, foolish hypocrites! By your great laziness, stupidity and wickedness you always lock up the true Kingdom of Heaven for those who want to come into it. Truly, you also will not come into it and no one else who will behave like you now!

[8] You yourselves will not come into God’s Kingdom of truth and life, and those who still want to come into it one way or another, you do not allow to go in, but you persecute and curse them and are blocking in this way all ways to the light and eternal life. Therefore also, even more damnation will be your share!

[9] Still for another reason I say: woe, you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour the possessions of the widows and orphans and pretend that you will pronounce long and strong prayers for it. Also for this, even more damnation will rest upon you!

[10] Still more reasons to say woe, you scribes and Pharisees, terrible hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to change somewhere a gentile into a Jew. When he has become one, you soon make of him a child of Hell, twice as worse as you yourselves. Also for this you will reap your reward in Hell!

[11] Again woe, you blind leaders who say: when one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but the one who takes a false oath by the gold of the temple, is guilty and punishable. O fools and blind ones! Which is greater and more: the temple by which the gold is sanctified or the useless gold in itself?

[12] Also, this is how you speak and teach: if someone swears by the altar, it is not important, but if someone takes falsely an oath by the offering that is laying on the altar, he is guilty and punishable. O fools and blind ones! Which is greater here, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering!?

[13] Is it then not true and right that everyone who swears by the altar, also swears by everything that is laying on the altar? And the one who swears by the temple, also swears by everything that is in the temple. And finally, the one who swears by Heaven swears certainly also by God’s throne and consequently also by the One who sits upon it – or more precisely: rests and rules upon it!

[14] Again woe, you scribes and Pharisees, great hypocrites, who impose according to the old law the tithes of mint, the dill and cumin, because this is to your advantage, but you do not care about the most difficult and the most important, namely a just and true jurisdiction, faith and mercy, in order that everyone would receive complete justice before you. With this I do not say that one should not do the first mentioned, but what I say is that one should not – like you are doing now – refrain from doing the second and which is much more important!

[15] O total blind leaders, you are sifting out mosquitoes but you swallow camels! Woe, you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites in all aspects, who keep the sacred cups and plates clean from the outside but who do not care a bit when these vessels are full of robbery and excessive gluttony from the inside. O, you blind Pharisee, clean first the inside of the cup and the plate, so that subsequently also the outside will truthfully become clean!

[16] And much more woe over you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, all of you! You are like whitewashed graves. These are also shining clean from the outside, but inside there are full of dead man’s bones and repulsive dirt. Such graves are precisely showing who you are. You also make a pious impression outwardly on the people, but from the inside you are full of hypocrisy and all kinds of vices!

[17] And manifold woe to you scribes and Pharisees, complete hypocrites! You are building now mortuary monuments for the old prophets and decorate the graves of those righteous ones and you lament as follows: ‘Oh, if we would have been in the world at the time of our fathers we would not be guilty of their innocent blood that was shed.’ But by this you give evidence that you are true children of those who have killed the prophets. Well then, make full with Me also, the evil measure of your fathers, just like you have already made the measure full with Zacharias and with John. Serpents, brood of vipers, how will you escape the damnation of Hell when you behave like this!?”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 201

 

The Lord calms down the people (18/20)

 

After My relentless speech, the people shouted for joy again: “If this Man were in reality not Christ and did not possess the fullest godly power, He never would have had the courage to throw these great truths in the face of these tyrants! Anyone else they would grab and tear up in anger, but for Him they stand as guilty big criminals before a merciless judge! Yes, yes, so it is! He did nothing else but throwing the full plain truth before their feet, and as their Lord He also has shown them the well-deserved reward. So this temple rabble deserves nothing better than to be mercilessly grabbed, be driven to the Jordan and to be drowned as the worst scapegoats of the whole big country of the Jews!”

[2] I said to the people: “Do not judge, as if it were given to you to judge and to punish, but be patient with the sinners. Because it is written, according to the word out of the mouth of God: ‘Wrath and vengeance are Mine.’ You people should remember that God the Lord is the only true Judge, who knows at the right time to reward what is good and to punish evil. It is up to you to be patient with the sinners. Because when someone is bodily very ill, it would be very strange to punish him immediately, because usually it is his own fault that he became so miserable and sick. When an experienced doctor comes by and says to the sick person that there is still a good chance to help him if he will let himself be treated by a good doctor and will do what he says and the sick person discards the advice of the doctor, it is of course his own fault when he goes to ruin in a miserable way because he holds on to his hardness.

[3] And look, it is precisely so with these blind scribes and Pharisees. As a true doctor I have shown them the two great shortcomings of their soul and thereby also have prescribed the medicines, but if they discard them and do not want to apply it, judgment will not come by Me but it will come by the result of their stubbornness by which they will be thrown into misery and ruin.

[4] Therefore, God has given commandments to man for the salvation of his soul. If he will keep them, he will be eternally happy, but if he does not want to keep them at all, he will be the one who will punish himself. Because once God has established a permanent and unchangeable order without which the existence of any creature would be conceivable. He faithfully has revealed this order through many revelations to free man, and according to his complete free will man should conform himself to it and allow himself to be guided and be developed by it. If man will do that he will come to perfection according to the will of God, and will become a being who is equal to God, being equipped with all godly love, wisdom, power and might. And by that he will inherit the true sonship of God. This he impossibly can achieve in another way except through the ways that were very faithfully proclaimed to him at all times for the benefit of this supreme goal.

[5] Now what matters to man are entirely a true faith and then his complete free will. If he believes and acts according to it, then he becomes the most happy being in God’s entire infinity, but if he does not believe and will not act according to it, then he only can blame himself when his soul becomes more and more miserable and blind, and will have less and less life in him.

[6] And that is why I have come Myself as Man to show you the right ways, because you have never believed completely the messengers that I had sent, and therefore you also did not act according to their words.

[7] But now, if you also do not believe Me and do not want to live according to My teaching, then I am asking you, who must still come after Me, so that you would believe him and act according to his teaching? If you do not believe Me, the Master of all that lives, who then do you want to believe after Me, act accordingly and be blessed?

[8] The fact that they do not believe Me and also do not want to life according to My teaching, of that, the servants of the temple are surely giving you the most clear proof.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 202

 

The free will of man. Man’s impatience and God’s tolerance. (18/21)

 

Someone from the crowd, who also knew the Scriptures very well, said: “Lord and Master, among us there are many who have heard Your teaching and have seen Your many signs and have admired them, so that they said: ‘If this Man with all His unknown wisdom and clear visible power and might which is completely equal to God’s, for which even the rigid death must bow, is still not the promised Messiah, then we ask ourselves if the true Messiah – if ever he would come – would be able to perform greater signs. We do not believe that and we also will not believe that. Because a Man, who without any help but only by His word heals the worst sicknesses, even replaces totally lost limbs – as we have seen near Bethlehem – brings death people back to life, who rules over the winds and storms and who makes His will known to the sun, the moon and all the stars, is a God and no more a man.’

[2] You see, Lord and Master, this is how we speak regularly among ourselves, and therefore we also believe that You are not only one of the greatest of all prophets, but are truly the Lord Himself.

[3] Although You have a body, just like we, but in Your body is hidden the fullness of the deity and Your words and deeds are witnesses of its wonderful existence in You. This we firmly do believe and we will no more let ourselves be deceived by those terrible tyrants of the temple.

[4] We have to make You a request, o Lord. Shorten Your holy patience and lay Your incorrigible enemies completely and totally under Your footstool and chastise them with the rod which they have deserved for so long already.”

[5] I said: “If you truly believe in Me, you also must not try to anticipate My wisdom, which guides and settles all things in the world, but you must unite your patience with Mine and think: in this world, where the freedom of life is being tested, order is once and for all times such that every man may do what he wants. Because only by the complete freedom of will he can fight for the eternal life of his soul. And as he has a free will, he also has a right thinking-faculty and a free intellect with which he can distinguish and evaluate all that which is good and true and he can also act accordingly, because the powers have been richly given to him.

[6] When man distinguishes that which is good and true, but still voluntarily is acting contrary to it, he is building his own judgment and his own Hell and is therefore already here on Earth a complete devil. And look, that is the punishment which man is giving to himself, without My willing it.

[7] Therefore, do not busy yourself with My great patience and love for men, if they be good or bad. I only warn them when they are on the wrong path. But despite My omnipotence I cannot grab them and bring them back on the right path of life, because that would mean that I would take away their free will, which would mean the same as if I would take away the life of the soul and that of the spirit within.

[8] Therefore, everyone has to walk as it pleases him. It is for man more than enough that he knows the ways and the fixed consequences that he can expect, if they are good or bad. Because every man who came to use his reason and his intellect knows the things which are right and good according to the revelations from the Heavens, and also that which is wrong and bad. The choice to act accordingly is completely up to his free will.

[9] If you understand this well, you cannot complain about My patience and tolerance, because on this Earth, which is a house of education for the future true children of God, it must be so and can impossibly be otherwise.

[10] Where people are called to become complete spirits and beings equal to God, also the opposite direction must be possible for their freedom of will to have free allowance to become a complete devil, who however by his own fault will have to bear in a miserable way that which he has caused by his own will.

[11] Therefore, I will judge and punish no one by My omnipotence for his bad deeds, but this does the one himself and also the unchangeable law of My eternal order, which has been made known to everyone by he way of the light of the many revelations, already since the first beginning of the existence of man on this Earth.

[12] If you have understood this now, then train yourself also in patience, and have therefore also in yourself true compassion, not only with the sick bodies, but even more with the sick and blind souls of the people. Then you will come in the least difficult and fastest way to the true and complete equality with God and become like the angels in Heaven.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 203

 

The future of Jerusalem (18/22)

 

One of the moderate Pharisees said again: “Master, I and more people among us, can surely see that You are a mighty Teacher and You are speaking freely and openly, irrespective of persons. And it is also entirely true that the prophets have revealed the true way to life to every man. Well, these revelations should be more than sufficient for man. Why then is it allowed that there are still kings and rulers of the world with their own bad worldly laws, and by that, they are harming poor, weak mankind the most? According to me, this would really not be necessary. Because, how man has to live and act according to the will and the unchangeable order of God has been completely explained in the revelations. Then for what reason are all those imperious and greedy monarchs, kings and now even emperors allowed?”

[2] I said: “In the beginning God did not ordain or prescribe this, because He gave to man true and righteous leaders and judges who were enlightened in the spirit. But in the course of time, when the people was doing well and when they were rich in everything that was good and valuable that the Earth was containing, they were no more satisfied with the simple and modest leaders and judges. They began to grumble and wanted during the time of the faithful Samuel a king who also had to radiate such magnificence just like the kings of the other heathenish people who committed idolatry with their kings.

[3] When Samuel related to God what the people was requiring from him at any cost, God spoke in His wrath to Samuel: ‘This people has regarding to Me committed already more sins of the worst kind than there is grass on the whole Earth and sand in the sea. And now they want to add to their many sins the greatest of all, being no more satisfied with My reign, they want to have a king like the ungodly heathens. Yes, to this ungrateful people will be given a king as a sharp rod and scourge, under which they will howl and mourn.’

[4] Look, this and still more has God said to the people as a warning in order to dissuade them from this foolish wish.

[5] But when all this did not help and the people were stubbornly holding fast to their demand, God gave instruction to His helper Samuel to anoint Saul as king of the Jews.

[6] Look, everywhere where the nations were not satisfied with the meek reign of God there was a king, and they absolutely wanted to have a man among them as their king.

[7] Was this also not because of the evil will of the people whom Satan often had thrown into unbearable misery? God has warned the people often and long enough in the most diverse regions of the world not to chose a man as king and to provide him with all earthly power. He showed them all the bad results that would come from it, but the people closed their heart and their ears for the voice of God and they themselves have caused their misery. And what they have caused themselves, they also have to take upon themselves.

[8] Yes, if an entire people would unanimously beg God to lead them, and rule and reign over them again, just like it was the case in the beginning, truly, then God would not leave the serious pleading of a people unanswered. But because those same kings have always too much favorites at their side, and are not granting any freedom to the people who want it differently, and most of the time because they are forming and educating them already from the cradle in favor of the king, the people feel the pressure of the king, but they do not know where to ask for help. For the rulers realized since the beginning of their sovereignty that a people who are enlightened would soon separate themselves from them.

[9] Therefore they tried with the help of false prophets – of who you are a sad remnant – to mislead the people and to make them blind for the one and true God. And because of that, they cannot find anymore the right way to God on their own without the men who for this reason were called by God. And they continue to live in their usual common idolatry, trying by all means – no matter how bad they are – to get only earthly advantages. If then a true prophet, called by God, will come, then he is not only not recognized as such, but he is also persecuted as a blasphemer and oftentimes he is killed, just like it has been very often the case with you.

[10] And when this is so, how can God help such a people that fell so deep, when despite their great misery they stubbornly refuse all help that God offers them? And if such is the case with you, it has no sense to ask the question why, apart from the revelations, God has also allowed worldly governors who harm the people with their worldly laws.

[11] Do the people want something else or do you? If you would want it, you would faithfully listen to Me and act according to My teaching. For I, the Lord Himself, have come to you because I want to save you. But what do you do? You are doing nothing else except to deliberate to see how you can catch and kill Me. And if you and many thousands with you will do that, then ask yourselves, who except Me, can still save and help you?”

[12] The Pharisee said: “Master, You are always accusing us as if we have defiled our hands with the blood of the prophets. Yet, we are not responsible for what our fathers have done in their blindness. If we had lived with our present knowledge and insight at the time of the prophets, then we certainly would not have stoned them. Also at the time of Samuel we did not call for a king. But if we as a punishment must have a king, we prefer him to be a Jew than a gentile. In fact, I only want to hear from You why do we now as Jews have to be dominated by gentile laws?”

[13] I said: “The reason for this is that you already since a long time have rejected the laws of Moses and the prophets, and instead of that you have introduced your own evil and absurd prescriptions. You preferred these worldly prescriptions instead of God’s wise commandments, and for this reason God has allowed everything to happen to you what you have always wanted and still want. Because if you would prefer God’s commandments and the teaching of the prophets instead of the laws of the world, then you would listen to Me, would convert yourselves and act according to My teaching. I preach nothing else than the old Word of God from which you have deviated so much that you are no more capable to recognize that this is the word which is coming from My mouth. However, you hate and persecute Me as if I were a sinner and a criminal, and thus you will stay under the power of the rod and the sword of the gentiles.

[14] However, it is also written: ‘Behold, I will send prophets, wise men and true scribes. Some of them you will kill and even crucify like the gentiles are doing, and again others you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from one city to another, so that the blood of all the righteous ones will come over you, from the pious Abel who was struck down by Cain, until the blood of Zacharias who was a son of the pious Berechiah and who you have killed between the veil of the temple and the altar of offerings. Truly, I say to you: because you have acted that way and still are acting that way, all this has come over you, and still worse things will come over you, because you yourselves want it that way and are also bringing it about.

[15] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets and stones those who are send to you. How often did I want to gather your children as a hen keeps her chicks under her wings. And you, children, did not want to be brought under the protection of My wings. Therefore, this house of yours will become lonely and deserted, so that even no screech owls and crows will come within its walls!

[16] Do remember that, so that when it soon will come over you and your children, you will remember, that I have told you beforehand and how it was also shown to you in an image during the night by a phenomenon in the sky.”

[17] Now the Pharisee was asking Me from where I had that knowledge to predict such evil things over the city. And when I would come back again if I would leave Jerusalem, because he would speak good words about Me before the high priest.

[18] I said: “With all those who are with Me I will soon leave the temple and you will not see Me coming earlier than when you will shout: ‘Hail to Him who comes in the name of the Lord.”

[19] Upon this, the Pharisee went back again to the others and said: “Friends, fighting with Him is useless. This I have noticed already since the beginning. Now, already for 5 hours we have been working on Him and have accomplished nothing, except that, because of our obstinacy, we have the people against us. The question is now: who will be able to bring them on our side again?”

[20] Nobody reacted on this remark of the Pharisee and all of them left the temple.

[21] I warned the people once more and comforted them. After that, also I left the temple together with all those who belonged to Me. We went again to the Mount of Olives where a delicious meal was already waiting for us.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 204

 

The Lord on the Mount of Olives with those that belong to Him (18/23)

 

When we went back to the Mount of Olives, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and the old rabbi were following us, and Nicodemus said directly to Me: “O Lord, my love of all love, today You have said the plain truth to those tyrants. Yes, it was really a wonder of wonders that today they did not grab stones like last time. At each of Your holy and complete true words I have really felt such a great pleasure as does not happen often. For me, the most wonderful was first that almost all the people who were present in the temple accepted Your teaching of life, and secondly, the Pharisees and scribes with each catch question that they were asking You, they were the ones who caught themselves and were losing the last spark of belief and trust that they still had with the people.

[2] Oh, that was good for those arrogant and imperious, hypocritical pretenders and selfish fanatics who were already considering themselves to be in a higher position than God and Moses himself. How they also tried to convince the people that God is only dealing with the people through them and is only hearing and exalting their prayers. But today in front of the people it has been clearly unveiled how God is looking upon them, and this was so marvelous. This can no more be exceeded by anything else. Now they surely will hold one meeting after another, of which one will be more wicked and stupid than the other.

[3] The best of all this is that they have different opinions among themselves. The least wicked ones are at least realizing that they can do nothing against You, but those real hardened fanatics of the temple are also not realizing that, although exactly today they should have felt that they are completely powerless. In short, I am so happy about Your total victory over those terrible dark people that I would like to shout now: ‘Hail to Him who has come in You to us in the name of the Lord!’

[4] I said: “Yes indeed, your feeling is right and you have spoken correctly, but I preferred that also the Pharisees and all the scribes could have seen the truth and had changed their mind. But now they are as hardened as they were before.

[5] By their spies they have discovered that I have walked upon this mountain with My disciples and all the other friends, and only 2 hours will pass by before we will see here new helpers and persecutors. But My time, about which I have already spoken to you, has not come yet. That is why I will seriously chastise them by My Raphael, but first by the 7 still present Upper-Egyptians. Then they will leave us alone again for a certain time. But now we will go at table to strengthen our limbs. Those who are down there can do whatever they want.”

[6] Raphael came here with the crowd that was entrusted to him and told Agricola that according to My will he taught the young people to speak the Roman and Greek languages and also the language of the Jews, and that they would be very useful in Rome, because they not only could not speak these languages very well but they also could not write or read them.

[7] Agricola was extremely happy about this because now a great burden and much work was taken away from him. Now the young people greeted Me in the Jewish language and then, upon My instruction they went to their tents where also for them the tables were well provided.

[8] After that, we went immediately to our dining-hall, sat on the same seats as before and served ourselves with the well-prepared food and the extremely good wine.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 205

 

THE YEARS OF ADOLESCENCE OF THE LORD

Joseph refuses to help a Greek (18/24)

 

After about 1 hour the tongues were coming loose and soon it became very lively in the hall.

[2] I related to the guests a few events that took place during My youth, which was greatly enjoyed by all those who were present. The converted Pharisees and scribes who were present, confirmed everything. One of them even related briefly the event when I as a twelve-year-old greatly amazed all the high priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees in the temple with My wisdom. And he added the remark that at that time for a few years already they certainly were of the opinion in the temple that I might be the promised Messiah. But after that, they did not hear anything from Me and they thought that I might have died as a too early awakened boy, or that the Essenes had come to know Me and had taken Me up into their schools, of course with the permission of My earthly parents. And so this matter was slowly slumbering, and only now during the last time has woken up again.

[3] When the Pharisees had finished this story, also John, James and also the other disciples related a few things from My youth. James told the story about the wonderful manner in which Mary became pregnant, about My birth and escape to Egypt, when I stayed there for 3 years, and also many things that happened there, of which all were greatly amazed. Many were envying James of being so fortunate to be with Me all the time.

[4] Then Lazarus said: “Lord and Master, although it rejoices me now indescribably that I, with all my heart I may call myself a friend of Yours, but I still would be more happy if I would have been like James, who simply saw You coming from the opened Heavens to this Earth and who was at Your side all the time. If only I had been James.”

[5] I said: “Indeed, James is entirely a happy man, and is also often envied by the angels of Heaven, but only in the most noble sense. But for that, he has no advantage over another person. His worth lies merely in the fact that he hears My word, believes it, and out of love for Me, he is acting accordingly. And whoever is doing that, has completely the same privilege as My dear brother James.

[6] But listen now to a rare event from the time after My 12th year, when they had heard nothing exceptional of Me.

[7] As a carpenter I always have helped My foster-father Joseph very zealously in his work, and wherever I co-operated, the work was always very good and even excellent.

[8] However, at one time, a Greek, who was a gentile came to Joseph in order to have a good deal with him concerning the construction of a totally new house and a big pig stall.

[9] But Joseph was a pure and strict Jew and said to the rich Greek: ‘Look, we have a law which forbids us to have relations with gentiles and to do them favors whatsoever. If you would be a Jew I easily could do business with you, but because you are a dark gentile, I cannot grant your request. And a pig stall I certainly cannot accept at any time, even if you were a Jew.’

[10] Then, being very excited the gentile said to Joseph: ‘Well, you certainly are a strange man. Indeed, I am a Greek, but I myself and my whole family have already for a long time thrown our many gods overboard into the lake, and we do believe now, just like you, in the same God, and have already received many undeniable favors from Him. But the fact that we do not want to accept the circumcision is because we do not want to submit to your insatiable temple, but only to God the Lord, who is now nowhere else being more profaned and dishonored except in your temple, of which we gentiles know the wicked institution better than you Jews who are becoming completely dull by your temple. And if your only true God lets His sun also shine over us gentiles, then why do you despise us?’

[11] Then Joseph said: ‘You are mistaken if you think that we Jews are despising you, however we have a commandment of Moses which forbids us to have relations with gentiles, and also forbids us to do business with them. If a pure Jew would do that, he will lose his purity for a long time. And look, I am still a Jew who, since childhood strictly has kept this whole law and who will now in his old days not start to sin against it.’

[12] The Greek said: ‘Good my friend. I also will not tempt you in it, because me too I am as old as you are and I know you already longer than you can imagine. But if you observe this law concerning us so strictly nowadays, then how come that you were not so particular when you, because of the persecution of your co-religionists were escaping to us gentiles in Egypt with your young wife and your children?

[13] Look friend, your laws are all good and true, but they also have to be understood in the spirit of the inner truth, and only then they have to be applied in life. The one who only binds himself to the letter of the law is still far away from the way of truth. When you were in Egypt you were working for us gentiles, and despite that, you remained a very pure Jew. Then why would you now become impure?

[14] During that time you had a most wonderful little son who we as gentiles, because of His wonderful qualities, have honored Him almost like a God. What has become of that child? If He has not died in the mean time He must now be a grown up young Man.’

[15] As Joseph recognized the Greek now, he said somewhat embarrassed: ‘Yes, listen my friend. Indeed, you have proven a great friendship to me in Ostracine, and it would now be unreasonable for me not to give in to your desire. But because I am a strict Jew I still will talk first to the elder of this town and then act according to his advice.’

[16] Then the Greek said: ‘But as far as I know, in Ostracine you always deliberated with your little son when you planned to undertake something. If that son still lives, He surely will be wiser than He was at that time. Do you now no more ask His advice, if ever – as said – He is still living?’

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 206

 

The attitude of the Lord as a young Man towards the priests (18/25)

 

Then Joseph pointed his hand to Me. I stood a few steps from him in the workshop and was sawing a panel, and he said: ‘There in the workshop you can see Him at work. It is curious. Since He was a child until His twelfth year, I and His mother – who is now working in the kitchen – were really totally convinced that He would become the Messiah who was promised to us. But after His twelfth year everything that seemed formerly so godly to Him disappeared in such a way that there is now no trace left of it. However, He is very devout, willing and zealous, and everything that we are giving Him to do according to His ability He is doing without grumbling. But as said, of all that which was wonderful to Him, nothing can be noticed anymore. If you want, you can speak to Him yourself and convince yourself of everything what I have told you.’

[2] Then the Greek came to Me and said: ‘Listen, young Man, 18 years ago I already knew You and admired at that time Your pure godly qualities that, as well as Your words were the most important reason why I had adopted your faith, although I still did not accept the circumcision. But still, because of your faith I have left Egypt in order to understand better Your teaching that contains a great wisdom. And for this, You were the most important reason. And now I heard from Your father – who I did not see nor have spoken to him for a long time – that You have lost all that which was godly and wonderful to You as a child. How did it happen?’

[3] I looked straight at the Greek and said: ‘If you are well initiated in our doctrine, then the wise proverbs of Salomon will also not be unknown to you. And look, according to one of those proverbs everything in this world has its own time. When I was a child, I certainly was then not yet a strong young Man, and because I now am a strong young Man, I am no more a little boy and I am working as well as every other young man with all diligence and zeal because My Father in Heaven wills it that way. I know Him and know also always what His will is, and I am doing only that what He wills. And look, this is pleasing to My Father in Heaven.

[4] As a little boy I truly performed great signs to make the people known that I have descended from the Heavens to this world as the Lord. But in the course of time the people did not attach much importance to it and they even were offended when I performed a sign before their eyes. Yet, I remained the same who I am and I will again perform signs before the people to make them known that God’s Kingdom has come near. However, when I will do that, will be decided by Me at the right time. Blessed is the one who will believe in Me and will not be offended.

[5] You would like My foster-father to build a new house and a big pig stall for you. This he has to do. Because that which is good in My eyes, is also no sin for God. It has never been forbidden for the Jews to do business in a good manner with honest gentiles, but it was and is forbidden for the Jews to – if they have dealings with the gentiles – adopt their idolatry and their bad teaching, morals and habits, and acts. But if a gentile has accepted the faith of the Jews and consequently by his faith is truly circumcised in his heart and his soul to the one true God, then they may have dealings with him.’

[6] Then Joseph said: “Well, well, this is a lot. You have spoken so much and so wise at one time, and I also see that You are totally right. But still, You also must not offend the priests and must deliberate with them before to prevent that they would call You an heretic. If we deliberate before about a work that according to the letter of the law is still not correct and we give a small offering, then a wise priest will always gladly give permission for a work that is not clearly permitted according to the law. I will go immediately to our elder and present this matter to him.’

[7] I said: ‘But what will you do if, despite the presented offering, he will not permit to accept this work?’

[8] Joseph said: ‘Yes, then it is clear that we cannot accept it.’

[9] I said: ‘Listen, if after some time I will begin My great work I will not ask the priests if I may yes or not undertake this great work, which will be much opposed to their insignificant temple prescriptions. But I will take this big and heavy work on Me, out of My own highest might and power. Because whatever is good in God’s eyes, should also be considered as good by men, if they want that which is good or not.’

[10] Then again Joseph said: ‘My dear son, if You act that way, You will have few friends in the world.’

[11] I said: ‘Truly, the one who will fearfully pursue the friendship of the world, will easily lose by that the friendship of God. But I am giving here the following advice: we will give this Greek friendship and we will ask absolutely nothing to our imperious and greedy priests, and we will do what has to be done, because this man has proven great friendship to us. Would we now, because of our priests refuse the friendship he is asking from us? No, this we will not do. And if you do not dare, then I alone will build that house and that stall for him.’

[12] Joseph said: ‘Well, what do you know? What is suddenly happening to You today? I have not seen You that obstinate and unmanageable in years, and also not seen You talking like that. When prominent Jews and elders are visiting me and gladly would like to talk to You, You are so economical with Your words, and You also were almost never so commanding. And now, a gentile is coming and at once You want to do everything for him whatever he wants. How is this suddenly possible? I almost will believe now that You will perform wonders for this Greek, which You have not done for a long time for any Jew.’

[13] I said: ‘Do not be angry, My old and honest upright friend. If I withdraw Myself for the Jews, then I certainly have My wise reasons for it. Is there only one Jew except you, with a true and complete faith? When I, as a young boy performed now and then a sign, they said that I was possessed and had accomplished those things – which no other man was able to do – with the help of the devil.

[14] When at one time you yourself asked the elder if there possibly could be hidden the spirit of a great prophet in Me, since at My birth there were such great signs, the blind offended Pharisee said: ‘It is written that out of Galilee no prophet will arise. Therefore, already such a question is evil.’ And if this is the case with the priests and also with the other Jews, for who would I then perform a sign and why?

[15] But this Greek is full of good faith and a friend of the inner true light of life, who also is not offended when I perform a sign for him. Therefore, it is also very understandable why I behave completely different towards him than regarding those dark Jews.

[16] But I say to you: since the Jews are like that now, the light of live will be taken away from them and be given to the gentiles. It is true that salvation of all the nations comes from the Jews, and this salvation am I, but because the Jews do not want to accept and recognize Me, salvation will be taken away from them and be entrusted to the gentiles.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 207

 

The Lord gives a few examples of His omnipotence (18/26)

 

Then the Greek said to Joseph: ‘Now I entirely recognize your wonderful son again, and it is a great joy for me that He does not rank us gentiles as the other Jews who consider themselves to be the purest children of God, but as human beings they simply stink of sheer pride and are persecuting one another even worse than dogs and cats. Already as a small child this son of yours has often complained about the Jewry like they are now. But now as a grown-up young Man He has made His thought more clear and showed how things are with the Jews. His opinion is really giving me all the more joy because He has said it precisely as it is living in the deepest of my soul.

[2] After all, it is not good when the first people of God immediately condemn every gentile, who is also a human being. And this even when we have given them the greatest benefits. Why do they not condemn our gold and silver? This for sure is good enough for them. But when one of us has set one foot in their house, they consider their house and also themselves unclean for the whole day. Oh, what fools. I have no words to express how bad and foolish such faith of delusion is. And look, this confirms now also your godly wonderful son. And this has given me such a big joy as I never felt before.

[3] Now that we have discussed this matter clearly, and know what to think about the worldly prescriptions of the Jews – but on the other hand we also know very well that you, out of those many Jews, are the most honest and sincere person, and you do not feel bound to meaningless forms – perhaps we can now already agree upon how and on which conditions you want to build the house and the big pig stall for me. Your wonderful son will surely take care of the fact that you will not have to expect any criticism from any side. Say now, friend, what do you think about it.’

[4] Joseph said: ‘My wonderful son and you are totally right, but if ever there still will be trouble, then only me will be called to account. Concerning the cost, it will take no time to agree on that.’

[5] I said: ‘Listen, My earthly foster-father Joseph, it will only depend on My will if someone will betray you with this good work. For even if I did not perform here any signs for the reasons that were explained, I am still the One who I was in the beginning, and all things are possible to Me. Sun, moon, stars and this whole Earth, as well as all Heavens and the whole Hell must obey Me and conform themselves to My will. Would I then be afraid for the dark and blind priests of our synagogue?

[6] Just conclude a construction contract with this honorable man and leave the rest up to Me. Then we will have no trouble with the construction, because He who is capable to build Heaven and Earth will also certainly easily be capable to build a good house and a pig stall for an honest Greek who is a complete Jew in his heart. I am telling you that a pig stall does not actually belong to the building-works which honors the spirit of man, but the dirtiest pig stall is more dear to Me now than the temple in Jerusalem and many synagogues in the great land of the Jews.’

[7] Joseph said: ‘Now listen, my son, You certainly are making bold statements today. If someone from the city would hear that and would accuse us, then what would happen to us? We would be charged with the most terrible blasphemy and would be stoned without mercy.’

[8] I said: ‘You should worry about other things. Who can hear us if I do not want it, and who will stone us while I am Lord over all the stones? Just look to this stone here, which I now have lifted up. Now I want that before the eyes of the world it will perish completely. And look, it already has happened. If a foolish Jew would throw now stones at us, could they harm us in any way? Now look at the sun. See how it shines with its bright light. And because I am also Lord over the sun, I want now that it will not shine for a few moments. And look, now it is as dark as during the night.’

[9] Now Joseph and also the Greek were frightened, and those who were in the house were afraid and came outside and asked full of fright what this was and what it meant.

[10] I said: ‘I already am with you for such a long time and still you do not know Me. That is My will. But now I want that there will be light again. And look, the sun is shining again as perfect as before. This means nothing else than that all of you will know and realize that I am with you.’

[11] All of them said: ‘The Lord be praised, our Jesus has received His power again from God.’

[12] I said: ‘I have received nothing, because all power and all might are Mine. I and the One who lives in Me are One and not two. And now, Joseph, do tell me if you still feel fear for the Jews and the elders of the synagogue.’

[13] Joseph said: ‘Yes, my dearest son and also my Lord, if this is the case, of course I do not have any fright and no more fear, because only now I entirely have seen my salvation. Now without objection we will start the construction in question and will go even today to the place where our old friend wants his house and his stall to be build.’

[14] The Greek said: ‘I thank you in advance. The reward will follow abundantly. The place is not so far from here, and before sunset we will easily reach the place where I live with my household, because I have good pack animals standing outside of the inn.’

[15] Then Joseph called My other brothers and told them what had to be done. But Joses was of the opinion that it would be good when one of them would stay home, because also in the small city something could happen every day. At the same time it also would attract less attention, and the supervisors of the synagogue, whose eyes and ears are always directed to this house because of Me, would not so much notice Joseph’s departure and would not inform where and by whom he had accepted work.

[16] Then I said: ‘Also you, must be right one time, but not totally. Because I notice that except James no one has to come with us, and therefore we have to bring the most necessary tools only for 3 men. And this only for the reason that they should know that we are leaving the house as carpenters. James, prepare therefore for the trip.’

[17] James prepared himself and brought the tools.

[18] When the three of us and the Greek were ready to leave, Mary, the mother of My body, came and asked for how long we would stay away.

[19] Joseph said: ‘For such a big job it is not easy to say in advance.’

[20] Then I said: ‘Indeed, men cannot do that, but with Me, also this is possible.’

[21] Mary said: ‘Well, then You tell me how long will you stay away.’

[22] I said: ‘3 full days. That means today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. On the Sabbath, before sunrise, we will be back again.’

[23] Then all of them said: ‘How can you three build a big house and a big pig stall in 2 days?’

[24] I said: ‘This is our concern, you will take care that at home your work will be done.’

[25] Then Mary said to Me: ‘But my dearest son, I find that again You are so remarkable today. You speak with such a commanding voice. How come?’

[26] I said: ‘Because I have to do this for the sake of your salvation. But do not delay us now any longer, because this talk is to no one’s advantage. Time is very precious for man.’

[27] Mary said: ‘Yes, yes, You cannot be contradicted in anything. You are always right. Therefore, I wish you a successful trip and a safe return home.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 208

 

Arrival at the property of the Greek (18/27)

 

Now we went immediately on our way to the inn where the pack animals of the Greek were waiting for us.

[2] From the moment we arrived, a lot of nosy people were disturbing us with questions, and the owner of the inn, a good acquaintance of Joseph, said to him: ‘Friend, I would not travel today because there has been a solar eclipse and such a day was already considered by the elders as an unlucky day.’

[3] I said: ‘What kind of wise people you are. You are attaching importance to such senseless fables which do not contain any truth. But to all that is pure and true you consider as dirt and you do not want to hear. Therefore, do not delay us any longer with such senseless things.’

[4] The innkeeper said: ‘But dear fellow, the old people were also wise people. Therefore, young people should keep in mind their experiences, otherwise they will have to endure a lot of troubles.’

[5] I said: ‘You better keep that which Moses and the prophets have taught. This will be more profitable than when you consider a new moon and lucky and unlucky days. Whoever will keep God’s commandments and will love God above all and his fellowman as himself, does not have to be afraid of unlucky days. However, the one who does not do that, for him every day is an unlucky day.’

[6] The innkeeper said: ‘Yes, this I also know, but you still can keep in mind the stories of the old people.’

[7] Then he greeted Joseph once more and wished him a lot of success on his trip and his work. We mounted the pack animals and our trip was progressing well, over mountains and valleys to the west on our way to Tyre.

[8] When we were half way and came to an inn that also belonged to a Greek, our Greek said: ‘Friends, here we will take something that will strengthen us and we will let the pack animals be fed.’

[9] Joseph agreed entirely on this proposition, although he asked immediately if it was possible to receive food that was also allowed for the Jews.

[10] The innkeeper said: ‘Yes, friend, that will be a little difficult. I have sufficient smoked pig’s meat, and also leavened bread, salt and wine, but anything else will not be in store now.’

[11] Joseph said: ‘This does not look so good for us, because we Jews may not eat pig’s meat. And in this time also no leavened bread, because with us the time of the unleavened loaves of bread has begun. But do you not have fish, chickens and eggs?’

[12] The innkeeper said: ‘Look, this inn is located on a high mountain. From where can you obtain fish? And it is also difficult here to keep chickens because firstly they almost do not grow here because of the lack of the necessary food, and secondly, there are too many birds of prey of all kind here, which not only make the maintaining of chickens almost impossible but also hinder the sheep-breeding because the lambs are not safe for one moment with these animals from the sky. Therefore, I only have a few cattle like bulls, oxen and cows and of course also a few calves and also pigs that are growing very well here. But the wine I have to buy in Tyre myself. This is how it is. But whatever there is I want to give you generously and cheap.’

[13] I said: ‘Just give what you have. This we will eat.’

[14] Joseph said: ‘But son, then what will the law of Moses say about it?’

[15] I said: ‘Have you still forgotten who I am? Him who is in Me has given the laws to Moses, and this One says now to you: if there is no other way, eat whatever will be set on the table for you, because for the one who is pure, everything is pure.

[16] Moses has only forbidden the Jews to eat the flesh of these impure animals to prevent that they themselves would become even more impure than what they were since their birth. But in case of need, also the Jews were allowed to eat the meat of those animals that were indicated as impure. But we ourselves have never been impure and will also never become impure, and so no kind of food when it is well prepared can soil us.’

[17] With this explanation Joseph and also James were satisfied and the innkeeper brought us immediately well smoked and well prepared pig’s meat, bread, salt and a good wine, which all of us were eating with a clear conscience. Of course our Greek wanted to pay the bill, and he was really happy that we were entirely satisfied with his meal.

[18] After the meal I said to the owner of the inn: ‘A great benefit has come to this inn. From today on, you can keep chickens and sheep as much as you want, because I want that this region will not be disturbed by any beast of prey. Not on the ground or in the sky, as long as you and your descendants will possess this inn. But if ever later on, other and worse innkeepers will possess this inn and this region, they also will be burdened by the old plague.’

[19] The innkeeper said: ‘Young friend, how can You convince me that it also will happen just as You have promised so seriously to me, as if You are not in the least doubting about it.’

[20] I said: ‘That will happen as sure as the fact that it is sure that you are possessing a treasure in your house, which neither you nor your family members and also not your ancestors have known. Take a spade and dig with it, precisely on the spot where you are standing now, a hole of only 3 hand’s breaths deep into the ground that is made of loam, and you will hit a treasure with which you then can do what you want.’

[21] The innkeeper brought immediately a spade and dug with the help of his helpers at once a hole in the ground as deep as indicated, and was greatly amazed to find a few heavy golden plates that together weighed more than 200 pounds. Now of course, at the same time he asked how and when these valuable things came there.

[22] I said: ‘You are now already the seventh owner of this old inn since the time that these things – which at that time were taken from an eastern caravan – were buried here in this ground out of fear that they would be discovered. You do not have to know more. But those who buried the treasure here were no people of your tribe and you are not a descendant of them, because you are coming from Athens, but those possessors came from Cyprus and they were thieves, but still no murderers for robbery.’

[23] Again, the innkeeper said: ‘But how can You know all this so precisely? Who made it known to You?’

[24] I said: ‘As well as your most secret thoughts are known to Me, in and out of Myself, so is also this known to me, in and out of Myself. And to show you that also your thoughts are precisely known to Me, I will tell you what you have very consciously thought by yourself this morning. You were thinking the following thing: ‘Even though my inn is very busy and profitable, but if I could find a buyer who would buy it for a price with which I could establish a better inn in Tyre, then this is what I would like most of all.’

[25] Look, this is mainly what you have thought. And after that, you were considering to tell this to your wife. But soon you realized that it was still too soon for that because your wife could become impatient and then she would insist by all means to carry out this idea immediately. Tell me, if I know precisely what you think or not.’

[26] Out of amazement the innkeeper was beside himself and said: ‘Really, I have seen, heard and experienced many things, but this I have never experienced before. Yes, now I do believe without any doubt that this region will be completely purified of beasts of prey. Now You have given me extremely and many good things. How will I be able to reward You properly? What do You want me to do for You for this?’

[27] I said: ‘Listen, although you are also a gentile, however you do not believe in your many gods and therefore you have made yourself familiar with our teaching. That was very good of you. But I tell you: believe firmly in the only true God of the Jews, love Him above all and also your fellowmen as yourself. Do for them that of which you reasonably could want that they also would do that for you, then you will do sufficiently for Me in exchange for everything that I now have done for you. But a material reward I truly do not need.’

[28] Again the innkeeper was surprised about My total disinterestedness and he did not want to accept any payment for what we had consumed.

[29] But our Greek did not want that and paid everything, with the words: ‘Divide among the poor what you do not need, then you will please the only true God of the Jews, and in fact of all men.’

[30] The innkeeper promised solemnly to do all this and to convert his household to the faith of the Jews.

[31] Then we stood up, mounted our pack animals again and continued our way. The way that we still had to go was very beautiful and so 1 hour before sunset we reached the place of our destiny.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 209

 

Teaching on the top of the mountain (18/28)

 

I was an old village located on a fairly high mountain. From the highest point and on a clear day the big sea was visible. The houses and stalls of our Greek were located a little above that little place. They were very ruinous and of course all of it had to be demolished and instead of it, other constructions had to be built.

[2] When Joseph had taken a good look at it, he said to Me: ‘My son, if we have to demolish this in a natural way and then construct it again, then we need much more than a year for this job.’

[3] I said: ‘Do not worry about that. What I have said will also happen. But not today and tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow everything will be entirely orderly finished.’

[4] Now the Greek was asking: ‘Tonight I would like to be your host but in this respect I also have a few difficulties. Regarding the fish as favorite dish of the Jews it is with us no better than with the innkeeper by whom we had taken our midday meal, because there is no brook of any importance here, no lake, and going to the sea is really a bit too far. But I do have chickens, eggs and lambs and calves, as well as leavened bread, salt and a good wine that I am cultivating myself in my many and big vineyards. It depends now on you what you will choose, then everything will be prepared at the right time.’

[5] Joseph said: ‘Then let a lamb be prepared, the rest will certainly be simply fine.’

[6] The Greek said: ‘Very well, the best and fattest of my many lambs will be slaughtered and prepared. But now I am still wondering what we will do until it will be fully evening, so that the time would not seem too long for us.’

[7] I said: ‘Then let us all go to the top of your mountain and from there look at this environment that is very beautiful. Then a few things could happen there that can give us a lot of topics to think about and come to conversation.’

[8] When I expressed that wish, everybody agreed. We went on our way and we quickly arrived on the mountain, more precisely on the highest top.

[9] From there, we could soon see the big sea completely because it was a clear summer day. And we all were very pleased about this tremendous lovely sight.

[10] And Joseph himself said very emotionally: ‘Oh, if this Earth as a place of education for the children of God is already so beautiful that nothing more beautiful and lovely could be wished for, then how beautiful must be Heaven that is waiting for us after the death of this body and after the resurrection on the youngest day. Between this weary life in the body and that lovely resurrection there certainly must be a very long, lifeless dark night. But this is what I think: if someone has to stay a whole night awake, living in his body, this must seem very long to him. But if man continues to sleep the whole night long, in the morning it often will seem too short to him. And so I think that the long night will not seem too long for us at the day of the resurrection. Obviously the good God has arranged everything for the best, so that it will be for men’s happiness and greatest well being when they are keeping His commandments and have the fullest faith in Him.’

[11] Also our Greek agreed with the opinion of the old Joseph, but he still asked Me what I had to say on that.

[12] And I said: ‘Yes, yes, these are really nice and wise sounding words. It was a very good image, but the only thing that is wrong with it, is that it is not as true as it sounds and as it is so nicely and solemnly expressed. But now that I am with you, why are you not asking Me how it will be with the life of the soul after the death of the body? I surely will know it better than you. However I know nothing about an almost centuries-old night of death of the soul after the falling away of the body. The moment that the heavy body will fall off from you, you will be immediately in the resurrection and will continue to live and work eternally, that means, if in the eyes of God you will leave this world as a righteous person.

[13] However, if in the eyes of God you die as an unrighteous person, then surely a very long night between the death of your body and your true resurrection will follow. But it is not as if you will not be aware of it. The soul is indeed aware of it, and that will be a real and long lasting death of the soul. Because a death where the soul has no knowledge of, would not be a real death for him. However, the death of which he will be aware in the kingdom of the impure spirits, will be a great pain and torment for him. Look, this is how it will be. And now that you know that, next time you should think and speak more clearly and more according to the truth. And if you know nothing about it, you should ask Me, so that by your words you should not fall into all kinds of wrong ideas. Remember this well, all of you.’

[14] Then the Greek said: ‘Yes, this is how it is and so it also must be, and at no time can it be different. But now that we are enjoying such a lovely view – and apparently this is only seen by our living and feeling soul through the eyes of the body as if through a pair of windows of his temporary living walking house, which we call body – and the soul himself thinks about it and is fully enjoying this loveliness, the question arises if the soul will also be able to see and evaluate this world and its beauty after the falling away of the body, that means if he would be somewhere on the face of this Earth. What can You, godly young Man, give as clarification?’

[15] I said: ‘The soul of a complete and righteous person will not only be able to see this whole Earth thoroughly and entirely and be able to evaluate about everything very clearly and completely, but about endlessly much more, because this Earth is not alone in the endless space of creation. There are infinitely much more, and which are also much bigger, and there are also as many corresponding ones in the kingdom of the pure spirits.

[16] But man can only have a clear notion of it when he receives understanding from God’s Spirit in the heart of his soul and has proceeded to a wider view.

[17] In short, the complete soul can do everything, but the incomplete soul, who is spiritually blind, will not be able to see anything else than the empty and absurd products of his proud fantasy. But if another soul, also in the other life, without body, will examine himself and possibly will become better, by that he will turn to a clearer view into greater truth, but by a way that lasts longer and is much more difficult than here. And now you also know that which is most necessary. Believe that it is so and not otherwise and keep the commandments, then you will become complete in your soul.’

[18] Then the Greek said: ‘This I am now also believing, without any doubt, and I am convinced that it is so, but we Greeks are still lacking a correct and true picture of the shape and form of a soul. Could you perhaps also still tell us something about that?’

[19] I said: ‘Yes, of course. Whatever is good for you, I always like to do. Look, the soul has the same shape and form as his body, but much more complete. However, I am only talking here about a complete soul. He has everything what his body had, but of course and obviously for much different purposes. However, his spiritual body is not matter but pure substance.

[20] And the substance is like the light that comes from the sun, which with respect to matter seems to be completely nothing, and still it is the raw material of matter, without being one and the same, because all primitive matter is free and unbound. And so, now you also know this.

[21] And in order that you would be able to have a much clearer idea of it, I am pointing out to you that you remember apparitions of deceased people, who at certain times you have often seen and even spoken to. Did they look different than during their life?’

[22] The Greek said: ‘Yes, yes, only now I realize completely that in everything You have spoken the full truth. Very often I have had such apparitions, even talked to different deceased ones and was even instructed by them in many things, and I have never seen them differently than in a perfect human shape. Therefore, I thank you for this explanation.’

[23] Also Joseph and James gave the same witness, which the same James who is here as My disciple can confirm now.

[24] While the sun had gone down during My teaching, we all left happy and cheerful the beautiful height and went to the house of the Greek where already a well prepared evening meal was waiting for us, which we also then consumed with a good appetite. After that, we went immediately to rest, of which especially Joseph had great need.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 210

 

The trip to Tyre (18/29)

 

In the morning, already 1 hour before sunrise we went outside, more precisely, again to the already known height from where we could very well see the beautiful surroundings in the morning light, since the sea area behind Tyre could be observed much better in the morning light than in the evening light. Besides, there was also the scenery of plants and even more of the animal world that in a certain way came to life again. And we were enjoying the free nature for more than 1 hour.

[2] After that, Joseph talked to the Greek about the necessary construction material, and he asked if he possessed the necessary quantity of wood and if it was well dried.

[3] Then the Greek said: ‘Master Joseph, there is certainly something, but if it will be enough, that, your discernment will have to determine. If ever there is lacking something, well, then I have here this beautiful forest of cedars, which certainly can provide us with what we are lacking. After the morning meal you can have a look at the construction material which I have gathered. As far as I can evaluate it, I really think that there will be sufficient construction material.’

[4] Joseph said: ‘That is good, that we will do right after the morning meal and after that we will make a construction plan.’

[5] I said: ‘We can save ourselves this work and trouble for today, because tomorrow we will not need any construction material and still less a construction plan. I thought of going to Tyre today and take a look around that place to see if there is anybody who will need our help.’

[6] Also with this, the Greek agreed and said: ‘But then we must try to go quickly on our way with my pack animals, because it will take well 7 hours from here to reach Tyre.’

[7] We agreed on his proposal and thus we went immediately to have our morning meal, which was already prepared, and a little less than 1 hour later we cheerfully were on our way to Tyre. Our little group continued without delay and so we reached the city after only 5 hours, of which the Greek was very surprised. And he readily admitted that he never covered this way in such a short time, because for a normal caravan it would have taken a full day to travel through this very vast region. Consequently, this trip was for our Greek also a little miracle.

[8] When we arrived in Tyre, we chose our accommodation in a good inn, and the Greek ordered immediately a midday meal according to Jewish tradition, because there was much fish in store and also the wine did not lack, especially the Greek wine. We relaxed a little because the trip had tired us somehow. During this pause our midday meal was ready and we consumed it immediately. The Greek paid at once everything and then he went with us to a place from where the sea and the many ships could be viewed.

[9] When we had sufficiently watched the sea, the waves and all kinds of ships, Joseph said: ‘Now that we have seen the most typical of this city, and the way to the place from where we came is equally as long as the way to this place, it will be time now to be on our way home again.’

[10] I said: ‘O Joseph, this can still wait. And they soon will need our presence here. Just look over there, how a big ship that is still far away has difficulties to fight against the storm that is growing stronger. Cyrenius is on that ship. We may not let him sink. He was in Asia Minor and is now coming home again, but because of that storm he cannot come to land. He truly has showed us great friendship before and now it is our turn to help him, and this is actually the reason why I wanted to be in Tyre today.’

[11] Joseph said: How can we go completely over those raging waves to help the governor there?’

[12] I said: ‘Did you not see yesterday how My will also reached to the sun? If I was able to command the sun, then I also will be able now to command the sea. I could have done that from afar, but it is now better that we are all here. Later on you will understand more clearly why. But now, most of all, help is needed, and later on we can talk.’

[13] Then I stretched out My hands over the raging waves and said aloud: ‘Calm down, raging monster! I want it, and so be it!’

[14] When I had said those words, the sea was suddenly completely calm, and the ship of Cyrenius was quickly pulled by an invisible power to the save shore, and in this way he was saved from a sure sinking, together with all the others.

[15] On the place where I had accomplished that, many other people were present, who were very surprised and were wondering what kind of Man I was, since the elements were obeying Me. Some of them thought that I must be a famous magician, others thought that I was a pious Man and was therefore under the grace of the gods who answered My requests. Again others noticed that I was a Jew, and Jews often had powerful prophets, and that maybe I was a seer of the Jews or maybe even of the Essenes. Consequently they had lively conversations, but still nobody dared to approach Me and ask Me who I was.

[16] The ship came to the shore and everybody was hurrying to it in order to greet the governor. But we stayed where we were.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 211

 

Meeting Cyrenius again (18/30)

 

When Cyrenius came to the shore, he said to the highly ranked persons who were congratulating him: ‘I thank you for your sincere sympathy with the accident that I certainly would have experienced, but it is extremely amazing how the terrible raging storm calmed down so suddenly. This made me completely think of a similar incident in Ostracine in Egypt. During that time there was a wonderful Child of a Jewish family who escaped to that place. He also was able to calm down the storm so suddenly while reversed He also could call up a storm. That must be about 20 years ago. I tried everything to find out where that family is staying, but until now all this was useless. I also have not thought about that family now for a long time, but the sudden stopping of this storm has brought this similar phenomenon – which I, as I just said, had experienced before – again into my memory.

[2] It is really highly remarkable. When such a storm begins to rage here, it takes several days before the great sea will calm down, so that no one dares to go out with a ship on sea, and look now how calm the whole sea has become, without any beat of a wave. What was also surprisingly strange to me is how my ship was quickly coming near to the shore as if it was pulled by a secret power. I tell you: this did not happen in a natural way.’

[3] A highly ranked person said to Cyrenius: ‘Just look at that spot that is protruding freely into the sea. There you still can see those 4 people. A Man of about 20 years old stretched out His arms to calm down the sea, and the storm kept quiet. We do not know who He is, but in the first place we think that He is a prophet of the Jews, because He is a Jew according to His clothes. If He really calmed down the storm by His word of power we dare not say for sure, but it remains remarkable that the storm was lying down precisely at the moment when He loudly spoke out His command. It would be worthwhile to search out what and who this Man is.’

[4] Cyrenius said: ‘Wait a minute, it is dawning on me now. It is quite possible that this Man would now be precisely that wonderful son of that family of whom I was talking about just now. I have to speak with Him myself.’

[5] Then Cyrenius was hurrying to the place where the four of us were still standing and from where we were watching the calm sea with its manifold phenomena, as well as the most different kinds of sea fish and all other animals that, compelled by My will, had to show themselves.

[6] When Cyrenius came to us, he asked Joseph, whom he still remembered very well: ‘Friend, are you not the same Jew who about 20 years ago, because of the persecution of the old Herod, had to escape with my help to Egypt, more precisely to Ostracine? And if it is you, then tell me also what has become of that little wonderful boy whom I considered to be a God.’

[7] Joseph bowed down deeply and said: ‘Honorable one, it is a too great honor for us, poor carpenters from Nazareth, to come to us yourself, while you only could command that we should come to you. But now that you are already here, I say to you with my heart full of gratitude for all the goodness that – indeed about 20 years ago – you have given to me and my family already here and later on also in Egypt, that I am really the same carpenter Joseph, and also that this grown-up Man is exactly that carpenter whom then as a wonderful Boy, you had come to know.’

[8] When Cyrenius heard that, his face was really shining from joy.

[9] He hugged Joseph and kissed him many times and turned then to Me and said: ‘O Lord, am I, great sinner, really worthy in Your eyes to kiss You also?’

[10] I said: ‘Hail to you and to all gentiles, that you in your sins are recognizing Me much sooner than the Jews in their light. Therefore, the light of life will be taken away from the Jews and be given to you gentiles. Just come and kiss Me. Because whoever comes to Me with a love like yours – even if there were clinging as many sins to his soul as there is grass on the whole Earth and sand in the great sea – I will not reject him but take him up like a father would take up his son, who was indeed lost but who has been found again.’

[11] When Cyrenius heard such words out of My mouth he was moved to tears and came to Me, hugged Me and kissed Me without ceasing. Only after that, he thanked Me for the wonderful salvation from the great danger of life. At the same time he invited us to go to his residence where he wanted to be our host and where we had to tell him everything what had happened to us during all that time.

[12] I said however: ‘Dear Cyrenius, tonight we surely will respond to your wish, but tomorrow early we have to be at the place of this Greek who lives more than 7 hours away from here, because there we have to build a new house and a new pigs stall.’

[13] Cyrenius said: ‘Good, my godly Friend. I myself will escort you to that place, and because I do not have to work now for some time, I will stay a few days with you. Because, now that I fully have found you back, I do not want to lose you so easily out of my sight.’

[14] I said: ‘All this is very good, best and nice from you, and we also will respond to your invitation, but now we still would like to stay here for awhile, because I want to show my brother James and also this honest Greek Anastocles the different animals of the sea, and we surely will need a couple of hours for that.’

[15] Cyrenius said: ‘O Lord, that I also would like to see, and for sure also the others over there who are waiting for me in that little harbor.’

[16] I said: ‘Very well, let them all come here because this is the best place for it.’

[17] Then Cyrenius let all the others come to him. There were almost 70 people. They stood along the edge of the raised protruding spot, and soon they were extremely amazed when on the surface that was as smooth as a mirror they saw animals swimming by, which they had never seen before.

[18] Full of amazement Cyrenius said: ‘O endless great fantasy of the only true God. What an endless great fullness of embodied thoughts of God. What an endless diversity. What enormously great see monsters are coming to this place, attracted by an invisible creating power. This procession is already lasting for 1 hour and by far we still cannot see the end. We do not even know 1.000 part of it by name, and You, o Lord, You certainly call them in Your will to Your wisdom by their name, and all animals are following Your almighty call. Oh, all who are here must watch carefully, because now you can see that which the eye of any mortal man has never seen before.’

[19] A highly ranked person asked Cyrenius if I was the One who made all this to happen.

[20] Cyrenius said: ‘Who else? We certainly not.’

[21] The highly ranked person said: ‘If this Man is capable of such things, then without question He must be a God, and then we surely must show Him godly honor by our priests.’

[22] Cyrenius said: ‘Do not do that, because I know Him already for a long time and know best what He wants and what is pleasing to Him. With a priest we only would drive Him away from us.’

[23] When our Cyrenius had said that to the highly ranked person, he did not pronounce the word priest anymore.

[24] Now the most seldom shellfishes and crustaceans were swimming by and Cyrenius spoke out the wish that he gladly would like to possess as souvenir of this wonderful day some of those beautiful shells and horns.

[25] I said to him: ‘Then you can tell one of your servants to come here with a vessel on the water. Then I will show him from there which specimens that are already grown-up and he should take out of the water.’

[26] This happened immediately. Within a few moments 3 considerable vessels were rowing under the protruding pointy rock, and the skilful fishermen picked out of the water all the beautiful specimen that I was pointing out and they filled their boats with it.

[27] Then I said to Cyrenius: ‘Let them be placed tonight in lime water. Take every specimen carefully out tomorrow and cleanse the beautiful shell by removing the fleshly content, dry it well and rub the inside with a little nard oil. Then you can preserve them in your treasure room as souvenir.’

[28] Also this was carefully executed and so Cyrenius came into possession of a treasure that was worth a few thousands of pounds of gold.

[29] After 2 hours the procession that passed over, came to an end, and we prepared ourselves to leave our place.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 212

 

At the palace of Cyrenius (18/31)

 

Anastocles the Greek apologized for perhaps not being able to go with us to Cyrenius because he still had to arrange a few things in the inn.

[2] But I said to him: ‘Just let the inn be the inn. Surely it will know by itself what has to be done. However, what you can share with us will be much more profitable to you than your inn. And tomorrow your house – for you already know now with whom you are dealing with in Me – will be ready sooner than when we will go back from here to your house.

[3] During the night it will happen in your house in such a way that no one of your people will notice it. But in the morning, out of amazement they will have their eyes wide open when they will see that they are in a whole new house, which however will be exactly the same as the old one, except that it will be bigger and more comfortable, just like it will be the case with the stall. If you know this now from My mouth, you can be completely at ease and go with us to Cyrenius where it will be good to stay for all of us.’

[4] Then Anastocles said: ‘Yes, if this is the case, of course I will let the inn be the inn and I will go with you to Cyrenius. Maybe he also will remember me from Ostracine.’

[5] I said: ‘You can easily leave this up to Me. I will take care of it, for I can do all things whatever I want.’

[6] With this, our Anastocles was completely satisfied and he went with us to the beautiful palace of Cyrenius and his highly ranked counselors, ministers and generals, who were all staying in the big palace.

[7] When we arrived in the quarters of Cyrenius, the Greek was beside himself with pure amazement, because such a splendor and such a wealth his eyes had never seen before.

[8] Quietly he (Anastocles) said to Me: ‘But Master, full of godly power, this is simply inhuman. All these treasures and unspeakable wealth that are here. How one person can possess a lot and on the other hand how many hundreds of thousands possess so extremely little.’

[9] I said: ‘But it is better so, because if all men would possess these and so many treasures, first of all they would not have any value and secondly men would soon lose their impulse for activity, and finally would continue to live as the animals in total laziness. Only hunger and thirst would set them to the necessary activity. Nothing else would be for them a prickle and stimulant. However, if such splendid treasures and riches are only in the hands of a few intelligent men, then they have for all other men – because of their great rarity – a hardly calculable value. And by that, men are becoming active and like to work for such rich men in order to earn also a small part of the valuable treasures. And look, this is good.

[10] Sure, you can see here a big quantity of gold and silver and a countless quantity of extremely valuable gems and pearls. If Cyrenius would give you only one of those pearls in order that you should do a certain work for him, then you surely would use all your strength to earn just one of such pearls. But if you would possess yourself already a lot of such pearls, then you certainly would not use all your strength, but would say to yourself: ‘Oh, whoever wants, can work for that one pearl. I already have enough of them and I can relax.’ From this example you can see that it is very good for the people in the world when such great treasures and riches will always be in the hands of only a few. Can you see that?’

[11] The Greek said: ‘Who could not see that when You are explaining it to him? It is true that Cyrenius is a severe man, but besides that also a righteous and good governor. He always thinks about those who are truly poor, although he always is checking everyone very well beforehand if he is really poor or if he is – what is often the case – lazy and does not want to work. And because he is such a man, it is also good and reasonable that he possesses such great treasures and riches.’

[12] And so our Greek became more pacified and was able to bear the splendor of the palace more easily and calmly.

[13] While I was busy with the Greek, Cyrenius spoke with great interest with Joseph about Me and what I had done during all that time, which Joseph and James told him briefly and truthfully, which gave him great pleasure. This asking and relating lasted for more than 2 hours. Also the highly ranked counselors and ministers took part in it and there was no end to their amazement.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 213

 

True worship of God. Jesus as an example for men. (18/32)

 

A the end of Joseph’s story a highly ranked counselor said to Cyrenius: ‘If all this appears to be true what is being said about this Man, He simply must be a God, because nobody has ever heard that a natural man, only by the power of his will can accomplish such wonderful deeds. We also have seen a lot of magicians who accomplished all kinds of wonderful deeds, but most of the time the people quickly discovered how and with what kind of means they did it. Also, apparently in the far back country of Egypt there are men who by their will and their look are capable of taming animals, but all this is nothing compared to the power of this Man.

[2] He wills it, and the elements are submitting to His will. He commands the animals of the sea, just like a general his troops, and they obey His command. As far as I am concerned I do not need any further sign as proof that His whole Being must be of a complete godly nature. Because whoever is capable of doing what this Man can do and of what He is capable of, must also be able to accomplish all other things. I dare to say about this Man that He also could create a world if He wanted that. Therefore, we should give Him honor.’

[3] Now I said to that counselor: ‘Then how would you go about it to give Me godly honor?’

[4] The counselor said: ‘Well, just like we are worshipping the supreme god Jupiter or like Your priests are worshipping their invisible Jehovah.’

[5] I said: ‘Friend, I truly feel nothing for both worships, because neither one nor the other is a correct and true worship of God.

[6] The true and for God valid worship consists of the following: firstly that one firmly and without doubt believes in only one true God who created Heaven and Earth and all that is in it. Secondly that one loves this only and by faith recognized God above all and lives and acts according to His will, and thirdly that one loves also his fellowman as himself.

[7] Look, out of these 3 things consists the true worshipping of God. All other things are idle and have for God not the slightest value.

[8] Only that which is done in love means truly something for God, but whatever one does out of a certain fear for God’s might, in order to put God in a soft and a more gentle mood, is for God an abomination. Because for the accomplishment of the so-called religious acts, which are taking place with all possible ceremonial, there are always certain priests who are chosen. Therefore, these are considering themselves as much more dignified than the other people, and they look down on them. They let themselves be greatly honored and are full of pride. Finally they think they are gods and speak out of their own arbitrariness justice over their poor fellowmen who are often a 1.000 times better than the conceited and imperious priests. Do you really think that God will feel any joy and pleasure at such puffed-up vulgar worships, which are being carried out by the priests who have now been described and who are dearly paid by the people?

[9] I say to you: when such a worship is being carried out in honor of God, and God, in His supreme wisdom would feel any joy at it, He would not be a God but would be like the priests on duty, a blind dumb man full of pride and full of lust of power. How can one think that the true God would be capable of this, who by His eternal love, wisdom and might has created everything out of Himself, and by His eternal goodness and mercy lets it also exist eternally? Where in God’s entire infinity is there a being that with success could resist God and would be able to stand up against Him? Everything that the endless space of creation contains is God’s thought and will anyway. If God would not want this Earth to exist anymore if it would want to fight against Him, He only has to will that it would not exist anymore, and it will not be there anymore. And therefore, God does not need any other worship of men – those who He wants to make and educate to become His true children – except that they would love Him as a true, holy Father above all and would always like to do that which He is showing them to be His will.

[10] Therefore, I say to all of you here: whatever is great in the eyes of the world, is for God an abomination. But truly great for God is a humble person who loves Him above all and his fellowman as himself, and who does not exalt himself as a lord above them but is only like a friend who wants to do them good.

[11] Take an example on Me. As I am, there is no second one in the world. Heaven and Earth are under My might and My authority, and still, I am meek and humble with all My heart, and I am here to serve you, high and low. Do likewise, then you will honor Me in the best way.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 214

 

The free will of man (18/33)

 

When all heard these words from My mouth they were surprised about My wisdom, and Cyrenius himself said: Yes, yes, these are not words as they are spoken by men, but those words are truly from God, because out of each word comes the shining truth as the light comes from the sun so that the most discerning human intellect cannot have any objections.

[2] Just look at our gods and our priests, what a nonsense do we see and what an evil foolishness. And here shines the truth like a sun. Therefore, I do not say anything else except: Lord, deliver us soon from our great need.

[3] There are many men among us who are physically poor, and we who are, according to earthly standards, rich and powerful people, are always able to help if we want to, but all of us are poor according to spiritual standards, and this poverty is much worse than physical poverty because no one of us can help the other. Because what we do not possess ourselves we cannot give to another. But You are infinitely rich in Your Spirit and You can give us as much from Your endless great abundance as is needed to help us.

[4] Most of all, let the full truth penetrate in the heart of the people and show us how we can get rid of the worst plague for our souls on this world.

[5] However, this worst plague is our idolatry and our priests. These are for a 1.000 times 1.000 privileged cheaters of men and they have knowledge of magic and sorcery, or to say it better: they commit all kinds of fraud. By that, they impress the crowd and are – because they most of all are dealing with the people – in full possession of the power over the people, which makes it endlessly difficult for us to instruct the people. For if finally even the emperor would erect better schools for the people, those terrible priests would all too soon turn the whole people against the emperor and the whole army would be lost.

[6] Therefore we Romans and Greeks who have a better and clearer mind, are suffering a great need of which we cannot liberate ourselves with all the treasures of the world. Show us a way to go against it, then there also will be a light amongst us, and then many 1.000 times 1.000 men will be helped.’

[7] I said: ‘This is a good thought of you and what you wish will also happen. However spiritual help cannot be given as quickly as when I have calmed down the storm at sea, for there I only had to deal with spirits and powers who by far still do not have a free will, and consequently they have to obey Me unconditionally.

[8] But every person has a completely free will according to which he can freely do what he wants, and therefore it is logical that his obedience depends on it. God Himself can and may never ever force him with His omnipotence, but He only can put man into such situations that by means of experiences he comes – as if he achieved it himself – to a more pure understanding and this way He can guide his will by his own intellect.

[9] But if God would, by His omnipotence and out of His wisdom guide the will of man, then man would not be more than an animal. He even would be a little below it, for even to an animal a little freedom of will has been given – as experience can show you – and also an intellect and a memory. It can feel hunger, thirst and pain and therefore it is also able – although still vaguely – to think, judge, and by its sound, facial expression and movements it can make known what it needs and wants.

[10] However, if man is – as far as his will is concerned – purely dependant on God’s omnipotence, he would be almost like a tree that has to grow and exist the way it was put down by God’s will.

[11] From this you can already see that things are quite different with the right development of a human being than with the sudden calming down of a storm at sea. If men had to be treated in this manner, it surely would be foolish of Me to speak with you out of My wisdom and to teach you according to the truth. For in that case, at once I also could put the thoughts full of light into your soul and then force you by My might to will and to act in no different way than precisely as I want. But would that be an advantage to anyone if I made of him a pure machine of My almighty will?

[12] But no matter how malicious and selfish your priests may be, they also are completely human beings with a complete free will and therefore they can do what they want, and this all the more since your worldly laws are not binding them, and on the other hand because, the way they are, you can use them well for the people.

[13] But whoever wants to free himself from their yoke must search for the truth and hold on to it. For it is only by the truth that every human being has found in himself that he can become completely free of the yoke of darkness, which is a product of the 1.000 headed superstition or delusion.

[14] Once you have understood this, you also should act according to it, then firstly the priests will not be able to harm you and secondly they themselves will stop when they cannot find any response for their foolishness in your field of truth which is full of light.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 215

 

The education of humanity (18/34)

 

Now the highly ranked counselor said again: ‘But why would it be, namely for the high priests, harmful to – at least for a few years – compel them by the omnipotence and the wisdom of Your God to end idolatry and teach the people the truth? If God’s omnipotence would liberate them again and they would want to go back to the old idolatry, then the enlightened people would certainly correct them in such a way that they would never more want to deal with this old idolatry again. Am I right or not?’

[2] I said: ‘If this would be advisable and good for the salvation of the people, then God would not need the priests, but He could also let the trees and the stones speak, which would even have a greater impact with the people. But in both cases it is not only of no benefit for the free will of men but it would merely harm the free development of the inner independent life of the soul. Because if suddenly all your priests would start to preach loudly against their old gods and idols to the people who are now still for the greatest part superstitious and whose convictions are for the greater part based on untruths, the people would consider them as enemies of their old gods, would grab and strangle them. And when trees and stones would teach the people, an enormous compulsion would be exerted on their consciousness and their will and then also the people would soon assault their idols and priests and destroy them.

[3] Say for yourself, who would be helped by that? Not the people. By that they would not have a free but an entirely imposed belief, consciousness and will, by which their souls could not become free as was the case with their old superstition, which now already by many among you has become very transparent as a result of personal searching and thinking.

[4] A belief that has been imposed by miracles would have – as just mentioned – no sense, because it would be just like the old one, a superstition, and for the priests it will also not be beneficial. And neither for you. Or do you have proof that you are really a wise man when you are only answering the questions which you are asking yourself?

[5] If now for instance I would let the pillars speak in this palace and would ask them all kinds of extremely profound and wise questions at which the pillars would give Me such wise and true answers as would not be possible for any man in this world and also not for no angel spirit in Heaven, what would you say on this?’

[6] The highly ranked counselor said: ‘On the one hand it would be very wonderful, but finally the pillars would only be able to give those wise answers in agreement with Your will and in accordance to Your understanding, and this would actually be the same as if You would ask questions Yourself and then would answer them.’

[7] I said: ‘This you have perceived very well and well answered. And look, it would be precisely the same if God by His almighty will would impress in man the order of life, which once He has determined for eternity. Then God Himself would will and act in man. But if this were the case, then what will become of the complete free independent life of man?

[8] However, God did not create human beings as so-called playing dolls for Himself, but as completely equal images of Him, which He has brought to life out of Himself, not as creatures of His almighty arbitrariness, but as true children of His eternal fatherly love. And He has given them a creative quality, which is completely equal to Him, in order to develop themselves completely freely out of their own power of life according to their own totally free will until they are completely equal to God. And look, for this reason, the development of men’s free will may not be slowed down by any godly force. And even under the most severe circumstances they must be allowed to keep their completely free will, even when it would cost Me My earthly life on the cross.

[9] Look, this is how much love the godly Wisdom has for men, who once placed His children in this world for the test of the complete free will that was given to them. Understand this well and do not ask Me any further foolish questions, because God has set out of Himself an eternal order and this is how it will remain eternally. And now, let us talk about something else if you want.’

[10] Here said Cyrenius: ‘But, My Lord and Master in all things, You surely are not angry because of this? We are as we are: still very much earthly men who are slow in understanding and therefore we ask You to be patient.’

[11] Now Joseph said: ‘It never took so long for Him. It is more reasonable now to leave Him alone, because He truly has talked and spoken a lot now. And when He is like that, it is better to let Him go and to do what He had advised. Me also, I, as if I am His father, cannot help it. Suddenly He becomes quiet and He lets us talk about whatever we want. Therefore, honorable friends and benefactors, leave Him alone for awhile, then He Himself will come up with something.’

[12] Cyrenius said to Joseph: ‘But do tell me if He has ever contradicted Himself?’

[13] Joseph said: ‘Not ever. Whatever He has said once, is as if it is spoken for the whole of eternity, and this happens often with the smallest and most insignificant things. This I can completely truthfully witness.’

[14] Then Cyrenius said: ‘Yes, then it is indeed more reasonable to act as He wants, because His inner Being is filled with God’s Spirit and whatever He wills, happens. We, weak men, better do not begin a fight with Him, of which I was already convinced 20 years ago. But now, the question is: about what other things will we discuss? Because He is the most memorable phenomenon of this time, as well as since all other times and will also be until the end of the world.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 216

 

Criticism of the Roman concerning the earthly conditions (18/35)

 

Then Joseph said: ‘Oh, then I can name immediately a subject that is surely attractive to Him. Listen, you all who are initiated in a lot of mysteries, what kind of idea do you have about the creation of the first human pair on this Earth?’

[2] The highly ranked counselor said on this: ‘Friend, precisely on this most doubtful point there are more question marks in the world than on any other subject. To say something definite and sure is and remains for us human beings impossible, and the more research one makes by all known nations of the Earth, the more he comes into a labyrinth of uncertainty. Whoever threw himself into the arms of a blind faith in one or the other people’s legend is almost always better of. If he cannot find the truth, he must try to find a lifelike fantasy. Then most of the time he is much happier in such a lifelike dream instead of searching eternally for a truth that is really nowhere to find.

[3] The Persians have another legend than the Indians and your Jews. The Scythes again another, we Romans and Greeks also another, and also the Upper-Egyptians, and the Germans who are known to me, again a totally different one. Oh, many things could be said about it, but finally it would not be beneficial to us.

[4] Therefore, I am of the opinion that we must forget this extremely unfruitful subject completely, because we never will receive complete clarity about it, just like the astronomers about the nature of the planets on the firmament.

[5] Thus, I mean to say: if after the falling away of this body there really exists a higher and more complete life, then we will also understand deeper truths in that life. And if ever after the death of the body it would be completely finished with the life of the soul, then nothing will be lost if we did not become overly wise. Look, friend, this is how we, very experienced and more developed Romans think.

[6] Also, it is difficult to prove that the soul of man will continue to live after death, but this is still easier than to demonstrate with certainty if, how and when one single human pair or maybe even several human pair have been set on this Earth at the same time or at very different times. Only a God can know that, but never a shortsighted human being whose life is much too short, because if he, thanks to his many experiences is able to come to the understanding of deeper truths, he already has to leave the world. Since I know this all too well, I really am not interested anymore in these things and research. In short, the way this whole life is established on Earth is and remains bad for reasoning man.

[7] Even if we are called to become a child of God, then this can certainly only be attained by a small number of people. Why not by all? Why must about one third of the people die as under aged children? What can they know about God and their future destiny, and how can they develop themselves by the correct use of their free will until they become equal to God?

[8] Therefore, I affirm: the most blind fool is a 1.000 times happier than the greatest wise man, and it would be more reasonable to occupy ourselves with different things than with such unfruitful observations, because the more man knows and understands, the clearer it becomes to him that finally he knows nothing at all. And for such an extremely boring amusement of life I certainly will not be too thankful. I have said.’

[9] Then Cyrenius said: ‘Yes, yes, if you consider all this with our pure natural intellect you are completely right, but…’

[10] The counselor said: ‘No buts. We have nothing else than only our natural intellect. Have we? If this is not sufficient, then from where will we have a supernatural intellect? Man is closest to himself and he does not know himself. Then how could he know something that is further away from him? Just leave me out of it. The nature of man is without his will and knowing, either totally spoiled and of no use for anything, or man is doomed – more than any other animal – to feed his incompleteness and by this be as unhappy as can be. Because I have never seen a wise man who is truly happy. The wiser someone is, the more unhappy he also is at the end of his days. And his greatest friend is then always death. Really, a strange hobby of an almighty and highly wise God: to create continuously and after that, destroy it again immediately.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 217

God’s purpose with man (18/36)

 

Then I said: ‘Friend, you are a little excited because I just presented to you the truth about the destiny of men. But that is all right. I have seen the reefs of doubt in you and wanted that you showed them openly. Therefore, Joseph had to come up with a subject to loosen your tongue in the right spot. You also have spoken well and you have brought your doubts and criticism concerning the human nature well forward. But now it is My turn and I can tell you something quite different than what you think about this subject, which you have discussed now among you.

[2] Look, if God had only created man for this Earth it would be a strange hobby from His side to create continuously and then to destroy the created again. But because He created man for a higher and eternal life, and let them exist on this Earth only as long until they have gone through the strictly necessary test of their free will, or at least through the existence in the flesh, it is a true and living hobby of God regarding His human beings, that He only let them live in the flesh on this miserable world as long as it is strictly necessary for this or that person. When real man leaves this Earth he will be send to schools that are suitable to bring him to the higher and completely true life’s completion. There he also will receive a true instruction about the genesis of the first men of the Earth.

[3] However, many a man will – also because of his fellowmen – become like Me perfected on this Earth, but only through the only possible way of the true worshipping of God, which I have explained to you just now when you were considering of giving Me godly honor.

[4] But in order that you may doubt no more in a life of the soul after the death of the body I will open the eyes of your soul for awhile and then you can tell us about all the things you have seen. But I only want to do that if you want it.’

[5] The counselor said: ‘Yes, I would like that. Please, do it for me.’

[6] Now Joseph called Me to him and said softly to Me: ‘Listen, my dear son of the most high, do not go too far with those highly ranked Romans, because I have constantly the impression that they are already misunderstanding You for some time. The highly ranked counselor has more or less indicated this just now, although before he was in favor of giving You godly honor.’

[7] I said: ‘You do not have to worry. What I will show him now will make him change his mind completely.’

[8] Joseph said: ‘Then just do what You think is best.’

[9] Then, only for the counselor I opened the so-called second sight by My inner will, which was not spoken aloud, and immediately he was surrounded and encircled even by deceased family members, friends and acquaintances, and finally also Julius Caesar appeared, of which the counselor was extremely astonished, so that he asked me quickly: ‘Is all this the truth or illusion?’

[10] I said: ‘Talk with them, they will tell you, because an illusion cannot talk.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 218

 

The spirits explain about the world in the beyond (18/37)

 

After that, the counselor asked the spirits who appeared to him if they were real or maybe an illusion of his perhaps bewitched senses.

[2] The spirits said: ‘We are truth and if you cannot see that and do not want to understand, you are only fooling yourself.’

[3] The counselor said: ‘Then why can I only see you now and why not also during other times? Why did you not make yourselves visible to me when I desired even fervently so many times to see you?

[4] The spirits said: ‘You also could see and speak to us more often if your soul were not blinded by the love of pleasure of the material world.

[5] The simple first men of this Earth could do that, but when the following descendants sunk still further down into the materialism of the world, they also lost the ability to see the separated souls and to deal with them. Because of that, the darkness of doubt came over them, in which they also lost the belief in a continuance of life after the death of the body and were anxiously wondering among themselves if after the death of the body the soul would continue to live.

[6] And look, this condition full of doubt of the very sensual human beings is a true punishment for their moral perversion, and so it is good. Because without this bitter punishment men would still sink further down into the judgment of matter. And so, the fright of the death of the body are keeping them from it, because they do not know and realize what will happen with them after the death of the body.

[7] In the world during our life in the body we all have gone through this same punishment and we were full of doubt about all kinds of things. Only the real separation of our body has convinced us that after the falling away of the flesh, one continues to live. And during this continuance of life, only those are doing well who were righteous and performed good deeds, but slanderers and those who were not righteous, hard and completely loveless, are in a bad situation, even a 1.000 times worse than those who are languishing here in the dungeons.

[8] It is true that you are a righteous man, but you are still hard and relentless. When you will come to this world with those qualities, you also will find this strong and relentless justice. But no love and compassion, because not any soul will find anything else here than what he has brought with him in his mind, for one stands on his very own ground here. Do understand this and take it into account, so that you may pass over to us well prepared, because now you have a better opportunity than we ever had.

[9] Then the counselor said: ‘Now I believe that you are real and not an illusion. But just tell me who that young Jewish Man is who performs such wonderful works before our eyes.’

[10] The spirits said: ‘He is the One who He is, who He was and who He always will be. We may not say more about Him, because His will is commanding us. However, He is with you, you can ask Him yourself.’

[11] After this, the counselor turned especially to Julius Caesar and asked him: ‘On Earth you were a very intelligent and mighty hero. All and everybody had to comply with your commands. But how do you live now in the world of the spirits?’

[12] The spirit (Julius Caesar) said: ‘Already in the world I had to reap a terrible reward for the things I did for the sake of my glory. That is why I did not bring much good within me to this place and that is why my reward was great poverty and my worldly glory was here like a dark night in which I only was able to see here and there a couple of stars flickering through the thick black clouds.

[13] I was alone for a long time without any company, and I had nobody else except myself. No matter how I shouted, cried, walked around and searched, it was all of no use. I called upon all the gods, but there was no answer. After a long, sad, desperate time in my terrible situation, I came to the idea to turn to the God of the Jews. Then it became lighter around me, and those couple of stars became also lighter, and it seemed as if they were coming closer. When I noticed that, I put my full trust in the God of the Jews and asked Him fervently to help me out of my great need and misery.

[14] Then there was still more light around me, and a star came down, close to me. And soon I discovered that the star took a human form and this man was someone for who in the world I once performed a real good deed. He said to me: ‘Hail you, that during your night you have found the true God of the Jews. Banish your false gods and banish also your own greatest idol, your Caesar glory. Become entirely humble, then I will take you to my house.

[15] Then I turned to the God of the Jews again and asked Him to take away my glory and false idols. After that, also the other stars came as human beings towards me and said: ‘Also we have been on the Earth just like you, but we were poor Jews who were persecuted by your priests, but you have protected us, gave us presents and helped us to return to our country again. Now you are poor, and of all earthly treasures you have nothing except that which you have done for us, and therefore, because God allowed us, we came to you to reward you the good that you have done for us. If you want to come with us without any glory, then you will find shelter with us.’

[16] Then I went and came at once in a wonderful lovely environment. It seemed like a broad valley with a big beautiful lake. The valley was very extended and surrounded with high mountains, which were beautiful to see. Before me stood a couple of houses, just like so many of them that are well known on this world that are called fishermen’s huts. Farther away I still saw more of those huts. The fields were luxuriously green. There were only few trees but they were full of the most beautiful fruits.

[17] At my arrival I found in the hut – located at the right side – shelter with a friend who in my greatest need was the first to come to me, and there I also found immediately something to eat and to drink. Everything was extremely simple but still it gave me much more pleasure than my great treasures and palaces in the world had ever given me.

[18] When I felt so happy in the hut and had also strengthened myself sufficiently, my friend took me outside again where we discovered a boat on the clear surface of the water of the lake. There was someone in it and with his hand on the rudder he came in our direction. I asked my friend who that skipper might be. And he said: ‘He comes now and then to us over this lake of which we do not know how long it is, and he always makes known to us in a very friendly way what we have to do next. After that, we have to go to work again. We take up the work again that is advised to us. We work with full dedication and with pleasure and delight, and our effort is blessed every time by the God of the Jews. When we came to this environment, just like you now, it still looked barren and deserted. Only by our diligence and zeal it turned into such a flourishing state. Also you will from now on want to work with us and thereby also receive the blessing that we have received.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 219

 

The life of Julius Caesar in the beyond (18/38)

 

This was very pleasing to me and I went with my friend to the shore of the lake. The skipper landed soon and said: ‘Over there on the shore of the lake, on the right, into the land, is still a dreadful pool in which there are still all kinds of terrible vermin, which is now and then polluting the air of this environment. You must drain this pool. Throw good earth into it until the pool, which is not very deep, is filled up. Then you will improve your environment a lot and gain another fruitful piece of land.’ My friend and also I thanked him with gladness for this advice. He quickly sailed away again and we immediately started the real heavy work.

[2] The necessary tools for the work that was advised to us were in the house. We cheerfully and gladly took them, went to the place that was mentioned and started to work. But still, I became fearful and afraid when I saw how big the pool was, because there was such an enormous quantity of terribly looking vermin, and I said to my friend: ‘Listen, before we will have drained the pool, at least a full 100 years on Earth will have passed by.’

[3] Then my friend said: ‘What difference does it make to us how many years will have passed by on Earth. Such a time does not exist here, because there is only one and the same eternal day here, and our time lies in our will. And this pool is only a necessary image of the filth that is still within your heart, and here it is especially your duty to purify yourself of it by a firm will and by patience that was totally strange to you. But I will help you, then this dreadful pool will soon and without too much trouble be changed into a fruitful piece of land.’

[4] When I heard that, I strengthened my will and started to work with great patience. In the beginning it seemed as if the pool would never be filled up, but slowly it became visible that we did not work in vain, and so this terrible pool was soon completely filled up with good earth, the vermin died under the weight of the earth and was buried forever and we won a good and nice piece of land. And immediately we placed a new hut on it, which we put at the disposal of the arrived novices, because we usually are helping them, just like the friend, of whom I am talking, has helped me in my progress.

[5] Since that time the skipper came to us already several times and each time he has given us new work to do, so that our environment changed into a true Eden. I still live there and desire for myself nothing higher, more beautiful or better. Therefore, do not be concerned with anything in this world which is from a worldly viewpoint great and precious, because here, only the works and deeds that are truthfully good and noble have any value.’

[6] Totally astounded the severe highly ranked counselor said to the spirit of Julius Caesar: ‘In relation to the Earth, where is this region that you have described so faithfully now?

[7] Julius Caesar said: ‘The described region is surely not to be found on this Earth, but still it is so that it can be located anywhere, because where I am, is also the region. Slowly I have come to learn that the place, the region and everything that is surrounding me in our world as apparently lifeless matter, grew out of myself. Just like in a way a tree on Earth, or in other words: I myself am the creator of the world wherein I am living. I and my friends are living therefore in the same scenery because we have the same love, the same will and consequently also the same way of thinking. But also a lot of other spirits can live on the same spot, and each one of them in another region. This is the great difference between us, spirits, and you, still earthly human beings.’

[8] The counselor said: ‘This I do not understand. How can there be multiple regions and scenery on one and the same spot?’

[9] Julius Caesar said: ‘Oh, that can easily be, and finally even in a very natural way. Look, in one and the same room are sleeping for instance a 100 people and all of them are dreaming. One is in Rome, the other one in Athens, a third one in Jerusalem, a fourth one in Alexandria, and so on. Everyone is somewhere in a totally different place, and this is so lifelike that during the day he cannot stop talking about it. Well, how is this possible? All 100 of them are in one and the same sleeping room, and yet everyone in a totally different environment. Yes, how come, when thousands of people are on a field and each one of them sees something different in one and the same instant?

[10] Look, more or less, everything is in the other, or rather in our spirit world. The difference between our world and the one of yours here, is only the following: we spirits are actually living in our very own world, but you are living in the world of God. Because our world is the work of our thoughts, ideas, desires and our will, but this world is the work of God’s love, thoughts, ideas and will.

[11] That is why man is the image of God, has creation power in himself and in a purely spiritual state he can create his own world and consequently live in his very own property. This you surely have understood now?’

[12] The counselor said: ‘But then those men who are surrounding you and who are dealing with you are also your work and your property in the world which has come forth out of you?’

[13] Julius Caesar said: ‘Also that, partly, but I could not make them appear before my spirit – and even less deal, see, hear and speak with them – against their will. But this looks very much like the seeing, hearing and feeling of your fellowmen on this Earth. Because you also do not see the real human being, but only an image of him in yourself. You only can feel him by your own feeling and hear the sound of his words in your ear, which is arranged in such a way that it imitates the sound that is coming to it through the air. However, when you are blind, deaf and without feeling, the fellowman does not exist for you, even if he would be very close to you. But even if you hear, see and feel so many people and imagine them in your thoughts, then in reality you will still see, hear and feel nobody if there is nobody.

[14] And so also in the spirit world the spirit with whom you want to associate must be there, at least with his will, his love and his awareness. Without this, you are alone, or the human beings that you can see sometimes for awhile are nothing else but phantoms of your fantasy, does not have an existence in itself, no reality and consequently they also cannot associate with you, because everything what they seem to be, is yourself.

[15] And this is the same and infinite big difference between God and us men who are looking like Him: the fact that only God can call, out of His great thoughts complete free human beings to life, whereas we spirits can only call phantoms but no realities to life. So also, the world that is inhabited by a spirit is rather a phantom than reality, because spirits with a greater measure of perfection have shown to me their world on one and the same spot, and that world looked totally different than the world in which I am living. But this you will only understand and realize completely once you yourself will be a resident of your own inner spiritual world.

[16] And now I have shown you enough what life is like after the falling away of the body. Therefore, do not ask us any more questions.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 220

 

About believing and seeing (18/39)

 

At this moment I took away the ability of inner sight and he did not see any more spirit. Then, being full of fright he asked Me where the spirits had gone now since he could no longer see, hear and speak to them.

[2] I said: ‘They are still here, just like before, but you cannot see, hear or speak to them anymore because your soul is still too much one with your flesh and is still not completely united with God’s Spirit in him. But if you will strive to unite with the spirit in you, you will always be able to see, hear and speak to the spirits, which are around you. Did you well understand this?’

[3] The counselor said: ‘Indeed, but I am feeling now as if I am drunk. Like someone who sometimes is of a clear mind and soon after that very foolish and says: I will need years before all this will be totally clear to me.’

[4] I said: ‘He who searches diligently will also find what he is searching for. However, man can wear out himself during all his life – which is generally happening all too often – and in this way will spoil his body and even more so his soul. But reversed he can also make great effort unto the eternal benefit for his soul.

[5] When people are attaching so much importance to their body, which will die after a short time, then why not even more for the soul whose destiny it is to live eternally? Therefore, be you also more zealous for the well being of your soul than for the well being of your body. Then there will be more light and it will become clearer within you.’

[6] All of them were satisfied with this lesson and praised My wisdom.

[7] However, Cyrenius said to Me: ‘Lord, why were we also not allowed to see and speak to the spirits that my counselor saw and spoke to?’

[8] I said: ‘Nobody of you is as unbelieving as the counselor. For him an obvious proof was necessary. Now he believes because he realized the wrong reason for his doubt. But the fact that from now on he does not have to search with difficulty in himself for proof that the soul continues to live after the falling away of the body is no merit of him.

[9] However, he who has not seen what he has seen, believes what I tell him. And believing is more salutary for the soul than seeing, because the soul can move more freely in believing than in seeing. I know your faith and know that the works that you have seen Me perform serve as absolute proof for the total truth of what I say, and therefore it would have no sense to show you the deceased who would say to you that I am telling you the truth.

[10] And when by your efforts you will be full of faith, you also will come to the true and free vision out of yourself that will not compel your soul. Look, this is the good reason why you were not allowed to see what the counselor who was full of doubts had seen.’

[11] When Cyrenius and the many other guests heard this from Me they thanked Me a lot for this explanation and after that they were truly glad that they had not seen and spoken to the spirits that appeared.

[12] In the mean time the evening had come and because of that the lights were lighted, and they announced to us that the evening meal in the great dining-hall was served. Cyrenius stood up to invite all those who were present to partake of the evening meal. But some counselors excused themselves saying that they first had to inform their home because otherwise they would wait for them with the evening food.

[13] But I said to them: ‘Listen to the will of Cyrenius. Your families are already informed that you are now invited here as a guest.’

[14] The counselor asked: ‘Who was able to inform our families of this in such a short time?’

[15] I said: ‘Precisely the same One who is capable to calm down the storm at sea. Therefore stay and believe that it is so.’

[16] After these words all of them stayed and we went to the dining-hall. There was a special table for Me, Joseph and James and also for the Greek Anastocles with very well-prepared Jewish food and an excellent wine.

[17] When Joseph saw this special attention for us he said to Cyrenius: ‘But great friend and ruler, why this special attention for us who are so few? We also would be satisfied with the food that you Romans are taking.’

[18] Cyrenius said very friendly: ‘Friend, I still know you from Ostracine and know that you are strictly keeping to your Jewish laws, and therefore it was my duty to take care of you in such a way that your conscience would not be oppressed. But we, Romans are accustomed to our food, which in the evening mostly consists of the flesh of animals, which you do not eat. Thus, do not feel burdened for the fact that I let this special food be prepared for you.’

[19] This made Joseph to calm down, and we took place at our table. And the Romans took place at the big table, but in such a way that Cyrenius was sitting very near to us during the meal in order to discuss with us about different things.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 221

 

Adam and Eve, the first human beings of the Earth. The pre-Adamites. (18/40)

 

We ate and drunk cheerfully, and during the meal when the wine had loosened the tongues, the question was asked again by the counselor who had spoken with the spirits: Was there formerly only one human pair or several on different places of the Earth? Because the spirits did not clear this up to him, and still he also wanted to know this with understandable certainty, because this subject had already come up before.

[2] Then Cyrenius asked Me if I would like to give an explanation about this to the counselor.

[3] But I said to Cyrenius: ‘I could do that but that would be of no real benefit to anyone. And what man really has to know, has been made clear by Moses in his Genesis, and finally still in 2 more books, in which everything is explained, but which is no more approved in our time and is rejected as apocrypha. Thus, he who wants to know how the existence of the human beings on this Earth happened must read Moses’ scriptures and believe that it was so and not differently. Then by this, he will completely, truly and really come to know if in the beginning there was only one human pair or for instance several human pair who were set on the Earth at the same time.

[4] I only can add to this, that from the human beings who are destined to become children of God there has only been set one human pair on the Earth, namely Adam and his wife Eve. The spiritual education from Heaven started with them and continued until this hour.

[5] However, the fact that long before Adam there have been beings who look like human beings, is very sure and true. And these kinds of beings still exist on Earth, but between them and the real free human beings there is a very big difference.

[6] Because true man can develop himself to become completely like God and can recognize God and His works thoroughly, compare, evaluate and reach their goal, but this so-called animal-man will hardly be able to it.

[7] The fact that in the course of time, also the animals are accepting a kind of higher development after many efforts of the true human beings, you were able to experience with your domestic animals. Men could achieve even more with the animals if they would be like the simple first fathers of the Earth in a true and complete connection with their spirit of the beyond out of the heart of God.

[8] In the far Upper-Egypt there are still men living there who are like the first fathers. Those are still lords over nature that has to serve them according to their will. But in order to become a lord over nature, true man must not subject his soul to nature but put himself in the spirit above all the nature of matter and the flesh. For in the nature of all matter lies the judgment, the weakness and death. Only in spirit lies eternal freedom, the true life and all powers and sovereignty. And the proof that this is so, I have given you outside by the sea.

[9] Therefore, strife that your soul may become one with your spirit. Then this will lead you into all wisdom by itself. But without the spirit you always will waver between light and darkness and between life and death and between freedom and judgment.

[10] Man can only achieve the unification of the spirit out of God with the created soul by really and truly believing in the only true God, to love Him above all and his fellowman as himself. Whoever knows this and acts upon it will then also experience in himself that I have spoken the full truth now to you.’

[11] All of them were satisfied with My words and there were no more questions about the origin of the human race on this Earth.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 222

 

The apparent value of outer cultural development (18/41)

 

We continued to eat and drink, but of course with measure. At this occasion Cyrenius spoke to us about all kinds of practical things, and about things that were in relation with architecture, and the other guests listened to us and agreed with Me and Joseph in everything.

[2] Finally, a general who did not speak a word until then had the following opinion: ‘In relation to architecture it also should be considered if ever the sea ships could not be constructed in such a way that firstly we could resist better the storms than it was the case until now. And secondly it seems good to me that with the bigger ships the oars would not be necessary, because if the oars are attached too high above the board, then too long handles are needed that are difficult to manipulate. A great number of strong rowers are needed while the oars are exerting only little strength in the water and can easily break during a storm. And if the oars – as is the case with smaller ships – are attached lower, then the water will come in when the waves are only a little higher, and nothing else can be done except to continuously scoop the water to prevent sinking. And thirdly our bigger ships have the deficiency that because of the many rowers they have too little space to take a considerable number of passengers, while despite the many rowers we cannot move, even with a little adverse wind.

[3] Look, my best, young, extremely wise and wonderful mighty Man, You also could give to us Romans, a good and true advice concerning this. The old Phoenicians seemed to have had vessels with which they even could sail fast and safely quite far into the great ocean. We Romans must limit ourselves to sail along the shore and only dare to sail into the open sea during quiet days. What do You think about this?’

[4] I said: ‘Yes, My friend, it is not so easy to give you a real good advice on this. Because what use would it be to you when you finally could not carry it out?

[5] For a good and safe navigation you need above all an accurate knowledge of the stars in the sky. Moreover, knowledge of the Earth and especially of the situation of the sea, the greatness and depth. But you are still far away from having this knowledge, and you also cannot have it because your foolish priests would resist it with all force. Therefore, better-constructed ships would also be of no use to you because you would not be able to use them anyway.

[6] The ships of the Phoenicians were a little more usable but not much. When the wind was favorable they could handle their sails better than you can, but they also avoided the open sea and sailed also only along the shores.

[7] But if you want to improve your navigation you must learn it from the Indians who live by the sea, because they know how to handle their sails, even if this is by far still not perfect.

[8] However, do take care, all of you, that you will reach the unification of your soul with the godly Spirit, then the spirit will show you how you greatly can improve your navigation.

[9] Besides, your ships are for this time very good and very useful. Later your descendants will build even more wonderful ingenious ships on which they will be able to sail as fast as birds in all directions across the seas. However, this will not add to the happiness of men, not physically and certainly not spiritually, but on the contrary it will diminish it enormously. Therefore, remain for a long time by that what you have now, because a too great improvement in earthly matters is always a true and lasting worsening with regard to the spiritual, which is the only thing that man should cultivate with all his power of life.

[10] What is the use if man would be able to obtain all the treasures of the world for himself but by that, would suffer great harm to his soul? Do you still not know the short duration of life and the final destiny of the flesh? Whether you die as an emperor or as a beggar does not matter in the beyond. The one who has much here, will have to lack a lot in the beyond, but he who had here little or nothing, will lack little or nothing in the beyond and will all the more easily and sooner acquire the inner and only true living treasures of the spirit.

[11] That is why the first fathers of this Earth were such happy men, because they provided as simple as possible for their earthly needs of life. But when especially the people who lived in the lower valleys started to build cities, pride came also into them. They became effeminate, became lazy and soon they fell into all kinds of evil and by that in all kinds of misery. What good was that to them? They lost God from the sight of their soul, and all inner power of life of their spirit left them, so that, like many of you, could no more believe in a life after the death of the body.

[12] Was that not a terrible exchange to lose almost completely the spiritual for a greater comfort of material life?

[13] Consequently, whoever of you who is wise will try to exchange again the useless exaggerated good and comfortable material life for the pure, true, spiritual. This will be infinitely much better for him instead of inventing how one can safely and as fast as a bird sail across all the seas. Once he will have to die anyway. To what benefit will his great inventions be for his soul?

[14] Therefore, remain by what you have. Do not attach any importance to it, and look above all how you can walk more and more on the way of the spirit. Then, with that you will have made the greatest and best invention for the great navigation from this earthly to the other kingdom on the other side, the spiritual.

[15] Strive fully with all your strength and means to reach that which lasts forever, but take only care of your body as far as this is reasonably necessary for the earthly things. The fact that man has to eat and drink and must protect his body against the cold and great heat, is very natural, but he who cares more for the body than for the soul who is meant to live forever, and finally cares only for the body alone, is truly a blind and extremely stupid fool.

[16] Yes, when someone, against God’s will, is capable to procure for his body an eternal life – which is impossible – then he only must take care of the well being of his body. But otherwise, he only has to take care of that which will and must last forever, because God has determined it that way.

[17] If you all have well understood this now, then do not ask me anymore how much you can improve useless, earthly things, for I only have come into this world to show you the ways to eternal life and to prepare it well, so that you will be able to progress safely and easily on it.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 223

 

The way to spiritual perfection (18/42)

 

When all heard these words of Mine they said among themselves: ‘He is totally right and nothing can be said against it, but already since our birth we are too deeply immersed in the world and we will not so easily be able to completely detach ourselves from it. According to His speech, which had good arguments, everybody must – by working on it, out of one’s own free will – raise out from his material state to the free spiritual state. And moreover, we cannot cherish special hope for extraordinary help from the true God, because the will of man would already thereby experience a certain coercion while it has to stay free forever. In order to work on it only individually, men as we, have apparently too little strength, courage, will and real persistent patience, and therefore it will be for each one of us very difficult – without getting tired and falling down regularly – to make progress on the ways which He has shown to us.

[2] Indeed, it would be very good to reach the pure spiritual state, and it also would be endlessly more valuable than all the treasures of the whole Earth, but the way to it seems very long and bumpy. That is why, finally, it should maybe not be superfluous to ask Him how long it takes to reach the full, purely spiritual state when one walks according to his conscience, loyally and zealously the ways of life, which He has advised. Because it is certainly much easier to work if, before going to work, he knows – when he works diligently – how much time he must count before it is totally finished. Because it is and remains difficult to start a work if we cannot see beforehand how much work is necessary to finish it, and consequently we can also not know when the goal will be reached. Let us present the just now mentioned question to Him.’

[3] This question was asked to Me and I gave the following answer on that: ‘Spiritual works and spiritual ways are not meted in hours and meters but entirely according to the power of the will, the faith and the love for God and fellowman.

[4] He who could at once deny himself in such a way that he gives up everything that is of the world and – in the right measure – would give his treasures to the poor, only out of pure love for God, and would not yield to the flesh of women, would truly be perfected in a very short time. But he who obviously needs more time to purify himself of the earthly dross and appendages, must also wait longer until he reaches the complete happy making state of true spiritual perfection.

[5] You are highly ranked statesmen and you must exercise your profession, and this is according to God no obstacle that could keep you away from walking rightly on the ways I have shown you. However, this gives you precisely the means with which you can reach true spiritual perfection all the more easier and sooner.

[6] But do not think that you are the office and the honor and the respect of the office. Honor and respect of the office is the law, and you are only its laborers. However, if you are faithful, good and honest, then you yourselves are partakers of the honor and the respect of the law and the merit of the law regarding the people who are protected by the law and are peaceful and safe, and this will then also be to your advantage before the face of God.

[7] And you are also extremely rich men, but also your riches are no obstacles for the attainment of the pure spiritual state if you will handle it well, being not thrifty and stingy by the support of the poor, with true love for God and for fellowman, like good and wise fathers towards their children. Because in the same measure in which you are showing love to the poor, God will always reward you spiritually and if necessary also naturally.

[8] And if you think that God is not helping at all the one who with full dedication continuous to walk seriously on the way to God’s Kingdom and to the life of the spirit when now and then he becomes tired and weak, then you are greatly mistaken. I say to you: once he who has in all seriousness set foot on that way, will also without knowing it be helped by God in order to progress and finally also to certainly reach the goal.

[9] Of course, God will not compel with His omnipotence the unification of the soul with the Spirit out of Him, but He will enlighten the heart of man more and more and fill it with true wisdom from the Heavens, and by that, man will grow spiritually and become stronger and will be able to conquer easier and with more confidence all obstacles, which for his greater trial could still come on his path.

[10] The more love for God and his fellowman man will truly begin to feel in himself and the more merciful he becomes in his mind, the greater and stronger has then also become God’s Spirit in his soul. Because the love for God and from that to fellowman is now exactly God’s Spirit in the soul of man. To the same extend as this love will increase and grow, also God’s Spirit will grow in him. And when finally the whole man has become pure and charitable love, then the complete unification of the soul with God’s Spirit in him has taken place. Then man has reached forever the supreme goal in life that God had set for him.

[11] God Himself is within Himself supreme and purest love, and the same is also the spirit that is given by God to each human being.

[12] If the soul will, by his free will, become completely like the love of the Spirit out of God, then it is also clear that he will become one with the Spirit out of God that is in him. And when he will become like that, then he is also perfected. And of this, no certain time can be determined. However, the soul’s own feeling must say and indicate this.

[13] True, pure and living love is in itself completely unselfish. It is full of humility, active, full of patience and compassion. It will never unnecessary burden anyone and will gladly tolerate everything. It does not take pleasure in the need of its fellowman, but is always trying to help everyone who needs help.

[14] So also, pure love is chaste in the highest degree and does not feel pleasure in the lustfulness of the flesh. But the purity of the heart is all the more pleasing to him.

[15] If the soul of man will also become like that by the efforts of his free will, then the soul is as his spirit and is then also perfected in God.

[16] And now you know very precisely what you have to do in order to reach the pure spiritual perfection. He who will strive entirely for it will also be perfected the soonest.

[17] And he who will be zealous and will seriously do his best to walk on this way will always truly and surely be helped by God to reach the supreme goal of life. Of this, all of you can be sure. For if God came already to help you through Me while you hardly suspected that there existed such a way, how much more will He come to help you when you will walk on it by your own activity. Did you understand this?’

[18] All of them were full of amazement about My teaching words, and even Joseph said: ‘I almost never have heard Him talking so wisely and truly.’

[19] Then he turned to Me and said: ‘Why did you never teach our priests that way? If one of them had been present here he surely would start to think differently about You.’

[20] I said: ‘I feel more capable to convert the fish in the sea than our rabbis. I also advice you that neither James nor you would tell anything at home of what has happened here, because then you will have great trouble with the rabbis. For their heart is more hardened than the hardest stone and their soul is much more impure than a swine in a stinking pool, and I rather would build a 1.000 stalls for the swine of the Greek and other gentiles no matter from where they are than to waste one word to our extremely dumb, dark and malicious rabbis in Nazareth, Capernaum and Chorazin. However, there still will be a time when I also will open My mouth there too, but not to comfort them but as a judgment over them when their evil measure will be full.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 224

 

Arrival in Nazareth (18/43)

 

Also Joseph was satisfied with that, and then we went to rest, and the next morning we traveled to the house of our Greek, together with Cyrenius and a few of his servants who escorted us, because Cyrenius wanted to convince himself of the wonderful construction work at the Greek’s place.

[2] In a few hours we came to the place and already from afar we saw the totally new house and the also new and big pig stall. There was no end to the astonishment of the Greek and Cyrenius, and also the men from the house of the Greek were greatly amazed and they knew not how this could have happened during the night.

[3] However, I commanded all of them not to betray it before 10 years had passed by.

[4] All of them promised it firmly.

[5] Then Cyrenius gave 30 pounds of gold to Joseph, and the Greek gave him a 100 pounds of silver.

[6] Joseph accepted it for the support of the poor of whom there were always many who had found mercy with him.

[7] After that, we left and arrived quite early the next day, and were back at Nazareth again. Although we could have reached Nazareth the same day because the Greek gave us his pack animals to escort us home, but I did not want that because I had a good reason for it. We stayed again in the inn where we ate pork on our journey out.

[8] When we arrived the next day in the morning at Nazareth, all of them asked immediately how it had been, what we had done and if they received a good profit by a gentile.

[9] Mary thought that the wages could not be too high for the work of a day and a half.

[10] But Joseph said: ‘Be calm all of you and keep silent about it to all the people here and also elsewhere, because the people are full of envy about the happiness of their fellowman. Therefore, I will never shut my heart for the real poor, and the name that I already have since a long time must remain as it is: whoever cannot find anymore help will still always be helped by the old, poor Joseph with the little that he honestly is earning himself and by zealous work. But do not say anything about this to the people, and certainly not to the priests. Now all the more it will sound like this: the old Joseph helps the poor more and more now.’

[11] When all those who were present heard Joseph’s words they took it to heart, and Mary of whom My body was born said by that: ‘O Joseph, your words are good and true and will be followed by us as if they were a commandment from God. But you three can surely tell us what kind of wonderful work you have performed by that gentile who gave you so much gold and silver for it.’

[12] Joseph said: ‘Dear mother, I have already told you that God has been with us in a wonderful way. However, what precisely had happened there, you all will come to know at the right moment if it will come out. But take care now, so that we can have something to eat and to drink, because today we still have not consumed anything, whereas we were on our way since daybreak.’

[13] Now Mary went quickly with her helpers to the kitchen to start the preparation for a good morning meal. And in the mean time Joseph hid the great amount of money at a safe place.

[14] When the meal was prepared and we took place at the table to take part of it, an old rabbi from the city came to inform where we had been, what kind of work we had done and how much we had earned with it. The greedy rabbi wanted to know that because he had the right to receive an offering penny from our earnings – a stupid custom that was in force in the whole of Galilee.

[15] This offended Joseph in such a way that he said: ‘You know me enough to know that I always have done my duty faithfully, and I also will do that now, but it truly makes me angry that out of greediness you cannot wait at home until I, as always, would come to you. In fact, who told you that I have been away for an assignment with Jesus and James?’

[16] The rabbi said: ‘You just left when I came to pay you a friendly visit, as I am doing already for a long time. Then they told me that you went far away with your 2 sons for an assignment and that you would be back home after 3 days because the work was not too big. Well, so I have come now again to see you and to hear from you how things are and what kind of news and special things you can tell about it. Because if you only worked for a day and a half, you surely will not have earned that much to pay an offering penny for it that is worth while. And if ever you still want to give something to the synagogue you do not have to pay in cash because we still owe you money for your last work. Thus, old friend, you do not have to be angry with me because I am visiting you today earlier than usual.’

[17] Joseph said: ‘This is actually not the reason why I am angry with you or anybody else, but only because otherwise you do not visit me often, unless you came to know that I went away for an assignment or came back from it. But for the work that I have done for you, you still owe me quite some money, and in exchange of the offering penny that I have to pay you each time you gladly and as soon as possible would like to owe me nothing anymore. That is why all of you are informing so zealously what kind of work I did and how much I have earned. And if I now probably will have no more work to do outdoors for a whole month you surely will not come to visit me once.

[18] Oh believe me, I always know what I have to think about my friends. But this does not matter because for this reason I still will never be cunning towards my friends. And therefore, I say to you also this time that with this work I have earned exactly enough, so that the offering pennies that I have to pay to you from it are just as many as all of you owe me according to my always very fair calculation. And therefore you can strike out the debt at home.’

[19] When the rabbi heard that, he looked cheerful and said: ‘Oh that is good. As chief of the synagogue, a heavy stone fell off my heart now. There is now again a very big work coming and even today I will give further information about it. But now I do not want to disturb you any longer.’

[20] Then the rabbi stood up immediately and went quickly back to the city.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 225

 

The death of the rabbi (18/44)

 

After that, when we started to eat I said: ‘Oh, how terrible blind that man is. To what advantage will those few 100 pennies be to him? Because even today – and this within 1 hour – he will die. Then, somebody who is better will take his place. That one will pay us for the work, just like we will not keep the offering pennies from him.’

[2] Mary said: ‘My dear son, are You now clear-sighted again?’

[3] I said: ‘This I have always been. Only for Nazareth and its dark surroundings I am mute, because where there is no faith, there is also no true reason and no light. Therefore, do not betray Me. When in a couple of hours you will hear in the city the paid lamenting, then do not go immediately to the city out of curiosity like the other blind people, but stay home, because you already know now what will be the reason. And when the news will be announced here, then say: ‘Against God’s will, no mortal being can fight. God has determined it like that, and lamenting, howling and weeping has so sense at all’. However, until the news will come, we can work outside, and after the news we will leave the work and we will go to Capernaum. We will find work at the lake until the Sabbath.’

[4] Joseph said: ‘This is all fine, but what will the Nazarenes say about this with their big mouth?’

[5] I said: ‘These fools may say whatever they want, but we will do what I have advised just now, and then it also will be good.’

[6] After these words nobody said anything anymore, and after the morning meal we started at once to work on a small task, namely making a grain container for someone from the neighborhood.

[7] After 3 hours, a black messenger came from the city to inform us about the news: ‘The chief rabbi has died 1 hour ago in the synagogue by a stroke from Jehovah, and immediately he was completely dead. All efforts to bring him back to life again could not help. Consequently the chief rabbi is really dead. Therefore, from now on we may work no more in public for 3 days.’

[8] I said: ‘Only 2 days, because the third it is Sabbath anyway.’

[9] Then the messenger corrected himself: ‘Yes, yes, thus only 2 days.’ Then he continued his way.

[10] Soon after that, we were on our way to Capernaum and even the same day we found in the inn at the lake that you already know, a good work at which we were working until the Sabbath and by which we earned a 100 coins. During the Sabbath we stayed in Capernaum at the lake and we felt very good and cheerful. We only returned on Sunday and heard from our people at home how everything had happened. Many asked about Joseph and were surprised that the always so pious Joseph was not present at the funeral of the chief.

[11] I asked them if they had told them what I had advised to them and what the answer on that was of the others.

[12] Then the maidservant said: ‘When we comforted them this way they agreed with us and continued their way.’

[13] I said: ‘It is good like that. Truth never misses its good goal. And we have earned as much at the lake as the chief owed us for the work that we delivered. And so, also this has been settled. Now we calmly can finish the grain container for the neighbor.’

[14] At once we started the work, which was to the liking of Joseph, because he wished that the container had been finished already, because the neighbor needed it badly. However, there was something remarkable with that container. Each time that we wanted to work on it, something happened by which we were either held up with the work or it was interrupted for days. Joseph thought that this was caused by an evil spirit and was of the opinion that we should not let ourselves be disturbed by him and that we had to continue to work as long as the container was finally completely finished. Therefore, we did what we could, so that in the afternoon only a few laths had to be fixed. And look, the house of someone who lived a little further, took fire. We quickly had to leave our work because of the threatening fire and had to go immediately to the fire in order to extinguish it.

[15] Then Joseph said again: ‘Was I not right to say that with this grain container an evil spirit is involved? Before we were ready with these few laths, a house had to burn, so that there is no way to finish this container today. My dear Jesus, do tell me what You think about this.’

[16] I said: ‘Certainly not what you believe about it, although there is some truth in what you are thinking. Our neighbor, for whom the container is, has a wicked helper, who prefers to have the old container out of which he can, as it pleases him, take grain out of it in order to sell it secretly to grain dealers who are passing by and to keep the money for himself. Although we had been hindered by other incidents, this wicked helper was mostly the reason why the work at the container had to be stopped. Also now he is guilty of this fire, although he himself is the most zealous to extinguish the fire.

[17] Tonight he still wants to steal several hectoliters of grain from his master, because tomorrow the grain will be put into a new container, which can be locked up very well. However, he discovered that we would finish the container a couple of hours before the evening and his master would use it immediately. Thus, he went to the house of this neighbor who was working in the field with all his people and lighted the fire to it in order to prevent that we would finish the container even today.

[18] And look, Joseph, this is also most truly an evil spirit who stayed at the neighbor’s place and who hindered us by the work at the container. But a lot of other things that came between it were of a natural kind and allowed by God.

[19] However, the death of the chief rabbi was completely decided according to the will of the Lord, because the deceit that this rabbi committed secretly against the poor, widows and orphans was crying to Heaven. Now you know how things are. But keep everything for yourself and do not feel offended.

[20] Joseph said: ‘But still, we surely have to deliver this wicked helper to court?’

[21] I said: ‘This will not do, because you have nobody who caught him in the act. My testimony alone would be as good as of no value, and the helper would then bring us to trial accusing us of public slander. Therefore, let us not do that. But God, who sees and knows everything, will soon give him the reward that he deserves.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 226

 

The fire in the house of the neighbors (18/45)

 

While we were busy extinguishing the fire, Joseph said secretly to Me: ‘Do You not have the same power against this all devastating element, just like you have against the winds and the water?’

[2] I said: ‘I do know what you want now, but this is not the right time for it now. Let the wicked helper really work hard until he will not know anymore where he stands. Soon he will be seriously injured by a fall and will be carried away while being in great pain. Only then I will put a definite end to the fire by My will. However, I am taking care now that the flames cannot cause any serious damage to the house. Be attentive now to see what will happen.’

[3] Now, a lot of people were coming from the city, more out of curiosity and because of the sensation than for wanting to help to extinguish the fire. The zealous helper demanded from the onlookers that they should help to extinguish the fire and those who did not comply with his words he rudely called them names. These got very angry with that, grabbed the helper and pushed him with great force off the roof on a heap of burning beams.

[4] By that, the helper broke his arm and received some burns in his face, so that he had to be carried away from there. I said to Joseph: ‘Look, he has received his reward that will make of him a better person. But now I want that the fire will stop.’

[5] When I had pronounced these words – which only Joseph heard – the fire extinguished so rapidly that no more glowing spark could be found. Also, there was no other damage to the house except to the roof, which was of course burned for more than half. But because there was nothing under the roof that could be destroyed by the flames, the damage could not be called big. And we were offered a job again, which however we performed completely free of charge for the neighbor who could not be called responsible for the accident, and to whom we also gave the necessary materials.

[6] However, among the people there was great amazement about the fact that the fire had been completely and suddenly extinguished. No more sparks could be discovered and no more smoke rose up. And moreover, the carbonized beams felt cold. Many said that the reason was that they had extinguished it with dirty water. Others said that God had heard the prayer of a righteous one, and that could be no one else except the helper who had been pushed into the flames by a few offended idlers.

[7] However, the neighbor for whom we build the container said to Joseph: ‘The fact that the heavy fire extinguished so suddenly is thanks to you, and more precisely thanks to your youngest son. Because since His youth I have often seen wonderful things about Him, especially when He was completely alone. Then He played with the elements and the powers of nature. But for the eyes of the people He – already since more than 8 years – did not show anything of His inner power, and behaved and worked like any other person.

[8] Once I saw when He was all alone and cut down an oak tree. People like us would need a few days to cut down such a tree that was a good 500 to 600 years old, but from the moment that He set the axe to the root, the tree fell already. After that, with the same speed it was stripped of its thick branches. The branches pulled themselves to the side and at once they laid together chopped in the greatest possible order. Then the trunk was chopped in a rectangular way. And also this chopping happened equally as fast as the other work before, and finally also the little chopping and the gathering of the pieces of wood of the tree. In short, the whole work lasted only half an hour. When He was finished with the work, He took the axe, went home and let you know that the oak tree was totally ready to be used for the construction. You only were asked to see it, and during that time you were not allowed to mention it to the other brothers.

[9] Look, this and still more I have noticed with Him now and then, and therefore I am fully convinced now that He is the One who extinguished the fire so quickly. Well, brother, what do you say about this?’

[10] Joseph said: ‘Yes, yes, you are completely right and it probably will be so, but what you now believe and know you must keep for yourself, otherwise we soon will have all kind of trouble with the men of the synagogue, which would be very annoying to me. I remember the story with the oak tree very well, and also other things, especially during the last days. However, we must keep silent about it, because otherwise we will cause damage to His future plans and purposes. Do understand this well, dear friend, and act accordingly. You will do well by this.’

[11] We left the place of the fire, went home again and went immediately to sleep, for we had worked a lot during these days.

[12] The next day, a Monday, we quickly finished the container before sunrise, and after the morning meal we went immediately to the neighbor whose house had been damaged by the fire. He asked us to repair the damaged house.

[13] Then I said to him: ‘If you can keep silent and keep your servants, also your wife and children, away from your house for a whole hour, you will see God’s glory. Then your house will be quickly finished.’

[14] The neighbor said: ‘I will keep silent as a grave, and also I will send my men to the field where they all have to work. Then you can do whatever seems best to You.’

[15] I said: ‘Good, do it, then I will do My work.’

[16] Immediately the neighbor arranged to make his men leave. We were alone and without any witnesses.

[17] When we stood there, the neighbor asked Me what I would do now. I said: ‘Your house will now be repaired in a way that will look wonderful to you. From earlier years it is still known to you that it has been given to Me to perform many wonderful works by My will, but during the time after My twelfth year of life I did not perform anymore because of the great wickedness of the people and their total unbelief. But you belong to the small number of righteous people, and you believe what I say to you, and therefore, now you will again experience of what God’s power and glory in man is capable of. Look at your totally damaged house. I, Joseph and My brothers will not take an axe, and still your house will be well and properly repaired.’

[18] The neighbor said: ‘Very well, my young Friend, I firmly believe that You can do all that. But as you see, I still do not have any construction material. From where will we obtain it and from where the money and eventually other means to buy that material and to make it fit?’

[19] I said: ‘I already talked about it yesterday that we will help you for free, also with the material, and therefore you do not have to worry about anything anymore. Just look once more to your house, how things are with your half-burned roof. What a pitiful sight. But I will it to be completely repaired now. And look, where can you discover the smallest damage to your house now?’

[20] The neighbor was extremely astonished and said: ‘Yes, my young Friend, this is truly God’s power and glory. That is why: honor to God in Heaven, for He has given such power and glory to man.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 227

 

The charity of a few citizens (18/46)

 

 While the neighbor was still glorifying and praising God, a couple of some better citizens came from the city who wanted to render a little service to the neighbor.

[2] But when they saw that the house was totally repaired, they said (the citizens): ‘Oh, look, the old Joseph has been ahead of us. You must have worked with all might during the whole night in order to repair it completely, and better than what we have ever seen before. Yes, yes, there is not a second architect like Joseph in the whole of Galilee. But how much will our Joseph ask for such a fast and perfect work? Whatever he will ask, we will give you.’

[3] Joseph said: ‘I am asking nothing for it. Thus you do not have to give me anything. But give it to the poor, that will be better than to bring it back to the synagogue, as you are always doing according to an old custom.

[4] One of the two said: ‘But one should always give a well meant gift to the house of God, if the one for who it was meant does not want it or cannot accept it.’

[5] Joseph said: ‘Yes, yes, this is what a new temple regulation says, but Moses himself only emphasized that with our abundance we should especially take care of the poor, the widows and orphans. Moses has never talked about the maintenance of some house of prayer or house of teaching, except that he has established the tithe for the tribe of Levi. Is this not so?’

[6] The two said: ‘Yes, yes, you are right. From those new prescriptions it is obvious that there is too much greediness of the temple, which God has certainly never prescribed, because He said to all people: You must not covet the things that belong to your fellowman. But the priests are coveting immediately everything that they see that belongs to us and say that it is much more profitable to offer it to the temple instead of performing other good works. And this cannot be God’s word because God says only that one should love his fellowman as oneself. Thus, we will do what we thought to do for this friend and give it secretly to the poor.’

[7] I said: ‘This is a good thing that you can do. If you want to do that, then go to the neighborhood of Capernaum. At the lake you will find a poor fishing hut. The owner’s name is Simon Judah and had an accident during his work, so that he cannot help himself so easily, because a wicked man has stolen his fishing equipment and the fisher does not have the means to buy a new one, and therefore he, together with his family suffers great need. And because he is a person who has always lived a righteous life before the face of God and that of men – which is very well known to Me – you truly will do a very good work when you will bring this man an offering.’

[8] When the two heard about this, they said: ‘Oh yes, we know that man very well and we know also that he is a very righteous and reasonable man, but we did not know that he is in such great trouble. Come, then we go immediately to help him.’

[9] The two citizens said goodbye and went quickly to the fisher to give him enough money for a complete fishing equipment.

[10] And here among us is now sitting, as My disciple, the same fisher who 10 years ago has been helped by My advice.’

[11] Peter said: “Yes Lord, this has truly happened to me.”

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 228

 

In the forest of the neighbor (18/47)

 

I wanted to end the long story, but our Agricola asked Me if I still would like to tell more that was relating to the time of My youth.

[2] And I said: “Then listen to Me again for a short while.

[3] Thus, those two citizens left and we said to our neighbor: ‘Everything is completely in order now with you, but keep the miracle for yourself until there will come a time when it will be meaningful to tell it also to other people.’

[4] The neighbor said: ‘But what will I say to my men when they will come home this evening and surely will be astonished when they will see that the whole house has been totally repaired?’

[5] I said: ‘Your men, who are no heroes in faith and who rather believe anything else except in a miracle, will not ask you how the house has been repaired in such a short time because they will think that we have worked on it with all our might and consequently can be repaired in 1 day. Your wife has often expressed her opinion that the carpenters could easily build a house in a couple of days if they only worked harder. Well, this time we have worked hard, and thus, for once your wife was right.’

[6] The neighbor agreed completely with this advice. We left him and went home to rest there until midday. Then we took our midday meal and deliberated what we should do during the afternoon because no work was waiting for us.

[7] Joses, the oldest son of Joseph was of the opinion that we could try to find work.

[8] But I said: ‘There are still other carpenters in the neighborhood who also want to work and live. Therefore, we must not try to be ahead of them. The people know us and our work anyway and will come when they need us, but we will not force it upon them.

[9] If we want to do something, then let us go to the forest of our neighbor who lives the closest to us and which is only a little half-hour from here. There we surely will find work for this afternoon.’

[10] Joseph thought that this could well be the case, although he still did not yet receive an assignment from the neighbor.

[11] I said: ‘Leave this entirely to Me. The assignment is his secret wish already for a long time and we will meet him in the forest while he is considering how he can make those 10 old cedars suitable for the constructing of a new barn. He wanted to cut down those cedars this week by his 3 helpers, and only then discuss with you to make them ready for the construction. But because now – as he thinks – his best and first helper lies sick in bed, he is thinking all the time about how, when and by whom he can make his 10 cedars suitable for the construction.

[12] He already thought a few times about Me, since I made that oak tree in question ready for construction, but he did not have the courage to speak to Me or to you about it. Now, if we will offer our help today in this matter out of our own accord, it surely will be all the more welcome to him. Therefore, let us go immediately.’

[13] Joseph said: ‘What kind of equipment will we take along?’

[14] I said: ‘We only need an axe and a saw. Then we have more than enough.’

[15] Then we took the axe and the big saw and went on our way.

[16] Although Mary asked why we seldom stayed at home.

[17] And I said: ‘Because we have nothing to do at home. If we have something to do at home we also will stay home. But you always have many things to do at home and therefore it is also good that you stay more often at home than we.’

[18] On this, she said nothing anymore and we left. Soon we came on the spot where our neighbor was all alone staring at his cedars and considered how he could handle it in the best way.

[19] Suddenly he saw us, came to us in a very friendly way and said to Joseph (the neighbor): ‘Oh brother, you are coming as if you have been called a 1.000 times. You know that I urgently need a new barn, just like that new grain container. In the whole wide environment one cannot find better wood for it than this. However, it already took me much brain racking to know how I have to make this wood ready for the construction. Often I have been thinking about you, but cutting down these huge trees is actually not a work for an architect and his master sons. That is why I did not dare to discuss it with you until now, although we have talked about it a few times about the necessity of a new barn. But since you are here now anyway – probably taking this way because you have an assignment in the mountains – I gladly want to deliberate with you what will be the best thing for me to do.’

[20] Joseph said: ‘You are mistaken to think that we are now on our way to work somewhere in the mountains. We came to this place especially for you in order to do that about which you did not dare to discuss with me.’

[21] When the neighbor heard that, he was very glad and immediately he talked to Joseph about the wages.

[22] But Joseph said: ‘Only when the barn is ready we will talk about the wages. But let us now go to work at once because the day will still last for a few hours and we still can do a lot of work.’

[23] The neighbor said: ‘Do what is according to your ability and knowledge, because I know very well what you are often able to do in an extremely short time. Especially your youngest son. But I will not talk any further about that now.

[24] I said: ‘Do you believe in My inner power and omnipotence?’

[25] The neighbor said: ‘Master, how could I not believe in it while I still have so many proofs of it?’

[26] I said: ‘Very well then. But take care all of you not to speak about Me before the time. And when it will come, you will hear of Me. Now, give Me the axe, so that I will cut down these 10 trees at once.’

[27] I took the axe and cut with every blow one tree, of which other woodcutters would need at least a whole day.

[28] When the 10 trees were lying there, all the others had a strange feeling, and Joseph said to his other sons: ‘All of you have doubted Him, although I often have told you: once he who is chosen by God from the cradle will never be left by Him. And now, all of you were able to convince yourselves how God is still entirely with Him and works in a wonderful way. Therefore, from now on, you should not doubt Him, but also not betray Him to nobody, because He Himself knows why He still wants to stay hidden.’

[29] They all agreed with Joseph and also promised solemnly to keep silent about this and also about every other miracle as long as I Myself wanted it.

 

 

THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN - VOLUME 7

 

CHAPTER 229

 

The festive dinner at the neighbor’s house (18/48)

 

After that, I said: ‘Now the 4 of you, take the saw and divide every tree in the length precisely into 4 pieces.’

[2] Joses said: ‘Only with our human strength it will take a long time.’

[3] Upon this, I said: ‘Believe and do as I have told you.’

[4] Then the four of them took the saw, put it to the trunk, and they had barely pulled at it once when the trunk was completely sawed in two. And so it did not take long till the 10 big trees were sawed into 40 parts.

[5] When this work was finished, I said: ‘Now you do not have to do anything anymore except to take away with the axe the upper parts of the trunk, namely the crowns. Then I will work on the trunks in such a way that they will be fit for the construction.’

[6] The four of them went to the spot, one of them took an axe and the three others cleared the pieces of branches away, which partially could be used as firewood and partially as nails and pegs for the construction. Now, when this work was ready after 1 hour, I took the axe again in My hand and made the 40 trunks rectangular, as they say: with one blow, and this in such a way that out of the thick parts of the stem of the root, 2 to 3 good beams were made. And the pieces of bark were removed from the lower and upper planks in such a way that they easily could be used for the floor of the barn, and the lesser strong planks for the roof of the barn.

[7] When I had finished that – which all together did not take longer than 1 hour – we laid down the trunks and the bark in an orderly manner.

[8] When the whole work was finished in a few hours, I said to the extremely surprised neighbor: ‘What matters now is that you will take this wood home as soon as possible, because openly in the street I cannot help you in such a wonderful way. So also, the construction of your barn will – although speeded up – be done in a total natural way. For, as already said, in an open place, where we are watched by all the people who are passing by, I cannot and may not perform a miracle because of their unbelief and their hardness and wrongdoing. So take care that this wood will be as soon as possible on the right place that you surely will know, because you know indeed where you want the barn to be built. And because we are ready now with this work we also can go home now.’

[9] The neighbor said: ‘Yes, that we will do with the greatest joy in the heart, because a work has been finished about which I had the greatest worries. But this evening, all of you are my guests. A fat calf will be slaughtered and prepared immediately, and for that, every person in Joseph’s house who is called a human being will be invited. Also my best wine will fill the cups of my guests and in Jehovah’s name we will be joyful until the middle of the night.’

[10] I said: ‘That is a good idea of you, and it will happen according to an old custom for the workers. But your most loyal helper lies very sick in bed in your house and therefore it is somewhat improper to be joyful in the presence of a very sick person.

[11] The neighbor said: ‘This is true indeed. However, the bed of the sick person stands – surely this will not be unknown to You – not in the manor house but in the house that my father ordered to be built and which is very suitable for the personnel. And that is why we certainly can be very joyful in my big manor house. And so my words will remain. My will shall eternally never have the might which Yours has, but this time You must, my dear friend Jesus, also listen a little to my will.’

[12] While we were already going home, I said: ‘Yes, that I also will do, because nobody in the world has more respect for the free will of man as I do. And until now you did not experience that I ever was against the will of someone when it was for something good, but only against the foolishness of so many people. And therefore, I will, as already said, this time, just like always, listen to your good will. But in return you also should do something that I will ask you.

[13] Look, until now you thought that your first helper was also the most loyal one. However, I say that your first helper, to whom you have entrusted everything, was actually the most unfaithful helper. In favor of his own moneybag he has taken in 1 year more than 100 hectoliter of wheat out of your big container and has sold it at night to Greeks who were passing by. And also as much barley, millet, lentils and also stone fruit. You noticed the loss in weight but you could not discover the thief. You thought that other people did it, and that is why you let us make a new strong container that could be well locked up. But your first helper did not like that at all, and look, he was always the very cunning and subtle cause that we were often delayed for weeks with the construction of the container, because he oftentimes gave us work that was far away to prevent that we could continue with the construction of the container. For he saw that the new container would not be beneficial for his thefts and tried therefore to keep the old one as long as possible. Yesterday midday he noticed however that the new container would probably be finished. He went to the other neighbor and set fire to his house to prevent us from finishing the container yesterday because during the night he still – this in favor of his own moneybag – wanted to sell from the old container a great quantity of grain that was ordered by the Greeks.

[14] But by this, his evil measure became full and I said in Myself: evil man, until here and not further. And as someone who knew very well why he was so zealous in taking part to extinguish the fire, he received his merited reward. Now you know how things are with your most faithful helper. What are you going to do now?’

[15] The neighbor who was completely taken aback, said: ‘But friends, why did you keep silent to me about this for so long? If ever I could have suspected that, I would have delivered him to court and have indemnified myself with the money that he received for the grain.’

[16] I said: ‘That, you still can do now, and there will not be one penny that you will miss, because your helper is a miser and has safely kept all the received money on a pile in his closet. But now, the point is that you first will do My will if you want us to be your guests today. You will keep your helper. I will make him better but will also remind him his evil deeds and warn him vigorously. Then, with gladness he will give you your money back, up to the last cent, and only from then on you will have a faithful servant. Look, already for a long time I have foreseen that this would happen, and therefore I also have said nothing until I saw that the time had come when it would be meaningful for you and for him, and that will certainly be the case. Are you satisfied with this?’

[17] The neighbor said: ‘Who would not be satisfied with that? I thank You, my true Master, filled by God, and best, as well as righteous Judge. Therefore, a true festive dinner will take place at my place and everyone in my house will rejoice. I will remain silent like a grave about all this and never will anyone come to know what my helper has done to me.’

[18] I said: ‘Do that, then you will be happy here and eternally. For whoever can forgive his enemies with all his heart, God will also forgive all his sins, no matter how big they may be.

[19] When we will visit your very sick helper at your home, nobody may be present except those who are here now. However, to prevent that someone would notice the healing of the helper, I will only heal him after 8 days. Put your servants at work for the festive dinner as soon as we arrive, then in the mean time we will handle and solve the matter with the helper.’

[20] Now, when we arrived at the neighbor’s place, he gave all the instructions. And also our people at home were informed immediately, and My mother Mary came soon with a few maidservants in order to participate also in the preparation of the festive dinner which was ready in a couple of hours.

[21] During that time, we were dealing with the helper. He confessed everything, asked his lord and us to forgive him and gave him all the money from the closet, with the full assurance that he, when he would feel better again, would try to make everything well again by hard work. The neighbor forgave him everything and kept him in service as first helper.

[22] Then we went to the festive dinner that was already prepared, and there was joy until the middle of the night.

[23] Look, these were the deeds which I have performed in My twentieth year of life of which very few knew until now.

[24] But now the evening is already coming, and soon there will be several disguised Pharisees who will come up here on the Mountain of Olives. They will be well served.”

 

End of Volume 7

 

(©Copyright: Yedidiah Franky 2007)

 

 

GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN, VOLUME 7, CHAPTERS 121 - 229

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

121. The guidance of humanity. Knowledge, intellect and free will.

122. The magicians recognize the Lord. 124

123. The acceptance of the Word of the Lord in India. 127

124. Called and chosen. 130

125. Criticism of the magician concerning the parable of the entrusted pounds. 133

126. The right education of children according to their talents. The importance of the inner development for the awakening of the spirit.. 136

127. The Kingdom of God. 139

128. Where is the Kingdom of God?. 141

129. The field of activity of the apostles and the children of God in the beyond. 143

130. Departure for Emmaus. 145

131. On the way to Emmaus. 148

132. The Lord and the beggar-woman. 150

133. The begging children from Emmaus. 154

134. The Lord together with the poor family. 157

135. Agricola and the shepherds. 160

136. The Lord speaks with Nicodemus about the poor people. 162

137. The curiosity of the citizens of Emmaus. 165

138. Arrival of the 7 Upper-Egyptians. Words of the Egyptian to the Lord that proves a deep insight. About the right kind of food.. 168

139. The two Romans recognize the Lord. The Lord cautions them not to make Him known too soon.. 172

140. The destiny of man. The purpose of the Lord's coming in the flesh.. 174

141. God's humble love for men. Men's position in relation to God. True humility. The true worship of God. Forgiveness of sins.. 177

142. The form and spirit of the created beings. 180

143. On the hill near Emmaus. 183

144. The Pharisees are visiting Nicodemus. 186

145. The man from Upper-Egypt reveals the thoughts of the Pharisees. 189

146. The punishment of the rich Barabe. 193

147. The promise of the Pharisees. 197

148. Raphael reveals the sins of the Pharisees. 201

149. The convincing miracle of Raphael. 204

150. The inner nature of man. 207

151. Divine guidance of humanity. 211

152. Diversity of the gifts of the spirit. 215

153. The reconciliation of the Pharisees. 218

154. The Lord and the Pharisees. 222

155. The 3 degrees of inner life perfection. 224

156. About life in a monastery and hermits. The purpose of temptations.. 227

157. True repentance and penance. 230

158. About the right wisdom and carefulness. 234

159. The spiritual eye of the men from Upper-Egypt. 236

160. Believing and inner vision. The spiritual development of the man from Upper-Egypt.. 238

161. The inner revelation of the man from Upper-Egypt. 240

162. Abraham appears to the temple servants. 243

163. Moses and Elijah admonish the newly repented Pharisees. 246

164. A speed miracle of Raphael. 249

165. The Lord sends the slave-traders back to their own country. 251

166. The sending out of the 70 laborers as messengers of the Savior. 254

167. The task of the 70 that are sent out. 257

168. Advices of the Lord for Agricola's return trip. To strengthen faith and trust by practice. To be mature for the reception of the gifts of grace. 259

169. Admonishing words of the Lord to the youth of the north. About the angels. Heaven and Earth. The nature of the inner spiritual eye. 263

170. The business caravan from Damascus. 267

171. The Lord explains the second chapter of Isaiah. 271

172. The Lord explains Isaiah's images of the future. 274

173. About the apparent unjust guidance of the people. 277

174. Explanation of Isaiah 2:6-22. Mercy. Revelations of the new Light.. 281

175. Explanation of the third chapter of Isaiah. The situation of an organized community.. 285

176. The downfall of the false religious systems explained from Isaiah 3:6-27. 289

177. The craving for honor. Pride and humility.. 292

178. The Lord settles the argument between the Damascenes and the innkeepers of Emmaus. 295

179. A small gospel for the Damascenes. 300

180. The Lord raises a widow from the dead. 302

181. Return to the Mount of Olives. 308

182. A remarkable sunrise 3

183. The cause of the secondary suns 6

184. The Lord explains the phenomenon of the secondary suns 11

185. Instructions of the Lord for the visit to the temple 15

            THE LORD IN THE TEMPLE

186. Healing before the temple of the man who was born blind 18

187. The Lord talks to the one who was healed and to the Pharisees 23

188. The Lord draws light upon the counter-argument of the Pharisees 25

189. A Pharisee explains his Philosophy of life 31

190. The eternal life of the souls 33

191. A new plan of the temple servants to catch the Lord 36

192. The Pharisees try to catch the Lord 38

193. The parable of the workers in the vineyard 42

194. The Pharisees ask for God’s Kingdom 48

195. The parable of the king and his wedding feast 51

196. Asking for the tax coin 54

197. Jesus and the Sadducees. Marriage in Heaven 56

198. The Lord asks the Pharisees what they think about the triune being of God 58

199. The Lord talks about the scribes 62

200. The Lord criticizes the Pharisees 64

201. The Lord calms down the people 67

202. The free will of man. Man’s impatience and God’s tolerance 69

203. The future of Jerusalem 72

204. The Lord on the Mount of Olives with those that belong to Him 76

            THE YEARS OF ADOLESCENCE OF THE LORD

205. Joseph refuses to help a Greek 79

206. The attitude of the Lord as a young Man. towards the priests 82

207. The Lord gives a few examples of His omnipotence 85

208. Arrival at the property of the Greek 89

209. Teaching on the top of the mountain 93

210. The trip to Tyre 98

211. Meeting Cyrenius again 100

212. At the palace of Cyrenius 104

213. True worship of God. Jesus as an example for men 107

214. The free will of man 109

215. The education of humanity 112

216. Criticism of the Roman Concerning the earthly conditions 115

217. God’s purpose with man 117

218. The spirits explain about the world in the beyond 118

219. The life of Julius Caesar in the beyond 122

220. About believing and seeing 125

221. Adam and Eve, the first human beings of the Earth. The pre-Adamites 128

222. The apparent value of outer cultural development 130

223. The way to spiritual perfection 133

224. Arrival in Nazareth 137

225. The death of the rabbi 140

226. The fire in the house of the neighbors 143

227. The charity of a few citizens 147

228. In the forest of the neighbor 148

229. The festive dinner at the neighbor’s house 152

 

(©Copyright: Yedidiah Franky 2007)