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 95 -
Roklus' objections.
Roklus says, "How can an intelligent being harm someone without wanting to?! A demon must indeed have at least as much pride and self-confidence that he will know what he wants; but because he knows that, he is punishable for the evil will! And the permission of such secret whisperings by the terrible demons into an innocent human soul I do not quite find in the best order; but if they are allowed out of some secret reason of wisdom, then the poor soul can have no guilt if it is spoilt by the master devils!
2
But if the devils have neither intelligence nor thus even less any free will, they cannot harm the soul "and if they harm it then neither the soul that was harmed, nor a devil who is void of intelligence and will has any guilt; that would fall alone to him who allowed such a thing! I judge things thus quite freely as I see them and am not at all ashamed to say such a thing here openly!
3
But if the devils, as one says, have even a very sharp intelligence "which in fact can be assumed, because they immediately get wind of a poor soul where it is weak in the material sphere "then they also have a will to harm it; in this case the soul remains once again guilt-free, and only the devil and he who allowed it bear the guilt alone once again!
4
Let me have weapons and show me the enemy, and I will then quite certainly prevent such a chap from coming close to my body! But if I do not know the enemy, who can inflict a most significant damage to me by enticing me secretly and invisibly to the most hideous vices, and therefore must also carry the guilt along with its most evil consequences "well, then thank you for such a life!
5
Then that means to place a weak person naked among a pack of hungry wolves, hyenas, lions, tigers and panthers. If he lets himself be torn apart and eaten up by them, then he also bears the guilt and must therefore be damned by the judge because he as a fully defenseless, weak being firstly had to let himself be carried away by armed, strong-nerved myrmidons out into the wilderness, and secondly because he then has been torn apart and eaten by the wild beasts!
6
How does your heavenly wisdom like for example such a justice?! Friend, if things with the demons or devils are so, and the poor, suffering human soul remains alone the bearer of guilt and the consequences with or without the intelligence and will of the devils spoiling it "then, then there is no wise and loving God, but instead perhaps only such a magically blind all-powerful being; that is, a type of fate which always has its greatest joy in all sorts of animal fights and furious bullfights, just like the high Romans, and against whom a person can only sin if he himself has assiduous wisdom through the appropriate means!
7
I say to you truly: If your words unmistakably have reality, then the Pharisees are right! But I have heard the Lord Himself speaking about such things and can say, basing myself on that, that you, beautiful messenger of God's heaven, have fallen by the wayside a little this time; and I remain standing by the fact that I alone will beat the previously mentioned number of Pharisaic devils totally out of the field alone with my present love for the Lord!"