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 177 -
The true, living faith.
Here Aziona stared at the placid John and said, "Listen, you my otherwise highly treasured friend! What I have now heard from your mouth is more than my filled larder and much more than the wine produced from pure water; for what you have shown me is literally true from alpha to omega! You have never seen me before or spoken to me and you know the circumstances of my life and that of all my companions as exactly as if you had been through everything with us! That is a lot "and something which begins to make me very perplexed. The fact that your colleague, who was the speaker at first, knew my name did not strike me as strange at all, since all Caesarea knows where you could have got your information from; but my experiences in life have never been passed on to anyone by any of us, and therefore you cannot have heard them from anyone "and you know every detail, yes, even about the thoughts, decisions and inner intentions I had in those days, often never shared with anyone from our group! Friend that is something that cannot be explained in any natural way!
2
Truly there were supposed to be wise men in Egypt once who could foretell through the lines of the hand and the forehead of a person what he had done and what he had to expect; there were also certain temple sleepers who foretold in a type of sheep's cheese some things which had existed or which would someday happen and exist. But with what mystical images were all these oracle things demanded into the light of day! New wise men were again needed who explained such highly incomprehensible speeches of the oracles to the lay people mostly in a humorous and very smart way, after which often very pompous and elaborate explanations those inquiring knew what he either did not desire to know at all or what he had already known for a long time. But things for you went on quite straightforward without any temple sleep, without any viewing of my hands and without any mystical babble! Yes, I will put up with such a prophecy! But now the limping envoy comes and says: How, how is such a thing possible? Except for an all-seeing and all-feeling divine power that is completely unthinkable! Should such a thing seriously be achieved alone through full faith?"
3
Says John: "Yes, friend, but it does matter very much what one believes. If you firmly believed somebody who told you a lie, such a faith however undoubting would have no effect because a house can only be built on a truly firm ground."
4
Says Aziona: "This is quite correct; but by what criterion am I to determine whether something that has been claimed to be true is the full truth?"
5
Says John: "We have already been talking about this subject. However, to give you an extra hint I tell you that God, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, endowed the heart of every human being who strives for the truth with a feeling that recognizes and grasps the truth more readily than any intellect, however trained it may be.
6
This feeling encompasses also the love for truth, and this love recognizes the truth, soon permeates it with its vital warmth and thus quickens it. As soon as faith, as a truth permeated by love, becomes activated, it begins to stir, move and, finally, act spontaneously. Only such confident action is a guarantee for the complete success of that which is believed without doubt, however, not within the physical brain but within the heart.
7
In the brain there are only the soul's sight, hearing, smell and taste. From these no life emanates, since they are themselves merely effects produced by life.
8
For faith to be effective it must be at one with life itself and not, like the eyes and ears, nose and palate, be a single effect of life, without a deeper connection save that necessary on the surface. Once your faith in the truth has become one with your life, it has spontaneously rid itself of all doubt. It has then only to will, and whatever such a living faith wills, will come to pass.