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 3 -
The providence of God and man's free will.
Raphael says smiling, "You got a small part of it; but you are quite on the wrong track with your 'inevitable results' and our 'necessary providence' and 'lengthy preparations'. A few rough examples will convince you entirely of that! Look anywhere around you, assign a spot, and tell me on a whim what kind of fully developed and with ripe fruit laden tree or trees you would like to have! Or would you like different species? In short, just speak the word and they will come into enduring existence not destined and unprepared, and a millennium will not thoroughly erase the traces of their existence! So tell me what you want and you will at once see a miracle that has never been prepared and destined!"
2
Mark says, "Yes, yes, that would be fine, my friend, as long as you can fully convince me that my will and my desire are under my complete control! That might seem in the end a lot more difficult to accomplish than the different fruit trees on a random spot that I would ask for! You have seeded some strong doubt in me with regard to the fact that even you, almighty spirits, are capable of performing a pure miracle out of thin air, without any providence and preparation! I do not want to completely deny the matter, but judging by everything that ever was, is and will be on this earth, this is hard to accept, because godly omniscience raises its voice a little too loudly against it and one cannot oppose that with the possible empty claim that God deliberately exerted his universal knowledge for something unwillingly and unknowingly. But if God could not keep Himself completely ignorant for ages on the matter that at one time His angel Raphael will miraculously bring trees into existence according to a man's wishes, it will be difficult to prove that this miracle has not been destined and prepared ages ago! It most definitely was spiritually destined!"
3
Raphael says, "It does not matter, if it only has not been prepared up to materialization itself! In addition, man's will is free to such a degree that neither the Lord nor we would take any action to disturb it in the least through any providence and even less any preparation. Thus you can be completely assured that your free will is not predestined and even less prepared. Therefore, ask and you will see that the Lord, either Himself or through me, His servant, will without any preparation bring into lasting existence the fruit trees you freely requested!"
4
Mark contemplates this for a bit and says after a while, "My friend, do they necessarily have to be fruit trees? I could incidentally want something different! Could that also be miraculously brought into existence?
5
Raphael says, "Oh certainly, one or the other is all the same to us! Ask for what you want and it will be there!"
6
After this assurance Mark ponders a while longer whether something would occur to him with which he could drive the angel into a corner. But because nothing comes to his mind he says to Raphael, "Then make for me a better habitable and sturdier house that will be a prim inn for strangers and locals and a well fenced garden laden with all sorts of enjoyable fruit trees; the date tree should not be missing and a fresh wellspring should flow through the garden!"
7
The angel says, "But my friend, will that not be too much at once?"
8
Mark says, "Aha, my friend, were you caught of balance? Yes, yes, perhaps it cannot be done without any providence and preparation after all! But I do not want to force you to anything; whatever you can miraculously bring into existence do it, and ignore what I asked for!"
9
The angel says, "It will be done exactly as you asked for. In the name of the Lord, let everything that you asked of me, be here! Go and look at everything that is there and tell me afterwards if it is fine with you! If you have anything to object then do it, because things can still be changed! It will be too late tomorrow because we will certainly not be here any longer. Therefore, go and look at everything!"