THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 157 -
The earth, a training school for children of God.
Cyrenius however says to Me once again, "Lord, indeed I know now from Your own divine mouth why everything in the world is and happens the way it does, and I now know Your divinely wisest plans concerning the education of mankind in all times and all zones of the Earth; but at the same time I must nonetheless admit quite openly that, seen from a worldly viewpoint, this Pharisee basically has a lot going for him. There is truly from alpha to omega no world of love and truth, but instead a very terrible world full of hate and full of lies and falsehoods and injustice! But it could indeed be quite different! But things are so and will never be otherwise, and the Earth is damned to remain a house of misery, and its human children will constantly have to swelter on its surface! But it could surely be different!"
2
I say, "Yes, yes, it could indeed be different, as it is different on countless many other planets; but then exactly this Earth would not be chosen for the cultivation of those people who are designated and called to become My children!
3
Can true, powerful love ever become fully aware of itself among human beings who themselves are pure love? What object on which to practice patience, humility and meekness could be given to people filled with love from birth?
4
If I had endowed every man's nature with the highest degree of perfection from birth, not requiring his own effort, what practice in life and self development would be thinkable for him?
5
For what activity could such spirits finally be used? I tell you: The trees of the wood and the rocks of the mountains in the very most indispensable self-activity would be many times more preferred than a person quite perfected in every respect right from birth on!
6
Picture a man, fully developed physically and always enjoying a table richly laid with the most delicious foods and drinks so that he would never suffer from hunger or thirst. Moreover, he had a most magnificent living-room and besides the mental capacity to see, perceive, enjoy and communicate with everything and everyone in the minutest detail, both nearby and at a great distance, never encountering any difficulties whatsoever. Surely such a man would never leave his comfortable abode even for a moment.
7
I tell you: Such a man would be as little touched by My greatest miracles as by the snow that at Adam's time clothed the mountains with the mantle of eternal innocence. Or do you think that My boundless, everlasting perfection of life would benefit Me and give Me bliss? Verily not!
8
My own greatest bliss is felt when I take part in the inner growth of My innumerable imperfect children and lies in their growing cognition and perfection and resulting activity. I always share their joy over a painfully achieved progress, and it is only when My boundless perfection is more and more imitated and becomes partly visible in them that it has its immense value. You know what I hereby wish to tell you?
9
Do you think I had ever created a world and on it a living being if it were not so? From eternity all this has been a deep inner need within Me, and without it no earth would ever have been created and populated with all sorts of beings.
10
Therefore, things must remain as they are. I did not come to bring the earth peace and a dead quiet, but I came to give it the sword, the battle and with them increased activity. For only when confronted with hate does love turn into true and living energy before which silent death must flee. Mankind becomes active and gradually patient, meek and resigned to My will through the difficulties besetting it. If falsehood with its bitter consequences did not exist, what value could truth have as such? Who puts a light on during the day and who appreciates a burning oil-lamp while the sun is shining?"