The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 1 -
The suggestion of the Roman to spread the Lord's teaching as fast as possible.
Then we went outside again, to the shore where we were in the morning.
2
After staying there for a while without exchanging words, the Roman came to Me and said: "One and only true Lord and Master, full of the purest love and wisdom and godly power, a special thought came into my mind now. There is no greater bliss, happiness, and thus also desire for the people on this Earth than to spread Your teaching with its living, wonderful power among them, and this in the shortest possible time. And according to me, this would be not too difficult.
3
Look, You are almighty. One thought from You, filled with the almightiness of Your will, and there will be no more temple of idols and no more images of idols. If these most important pillars of the old, dark and evil superstition are done away with, and as fast as lightning on all places of the Earth at once, that will certainly frighten the people and they will soon begin to think about how and why that happened and about its meaning.
4
Then the many who are well and truly knowledgeable about You and Your Kingdom should go to the people who are on the one hand frightened and on the other hand surprised and who ask for the reason of the phenomenon, and teach them in Your name. And wherever they meet sick people, they should heal them in the same manner as the already send out disciples have healed the sick men in Joppe who are present here now. And I think that, in this exceptional manner, Your teaching will be spread the fastest and surest way to all men. Men cannot accomplish that because they do not have the means for it, but You have the means with which a very great work can be quickly accomplished. Would that not be possible, or would it be contrary to Your wisdom and order?"
5
I said: "Yes friend, if I only would be a man and would think and reason your way, that would seem a good idea, but as the eternal Master of all existence and life, I see and reason quite differently than you. Therefore, I cannot accept your advice.
6
If I would destroy at once all the temples that are built by men, I firstly will have to completely wipe away their priests from the face of the Earth. But priests are also human beings, endowed with a free will and destined to develop themselves and to establish the spiritual life in them. Among the pagan priests there are also a great number who personally search in secret already for a long time for the truth of the life of the soul in the beyond. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to destroy them just because they are pagan priests.
7
Now if all pagan temples would be destroyed at once, together with their idols, and the priests would remain, then they would explain such phenomenon to the people as the wrath of the gods, and they very soon would force them to pay unaffordable and cruel offerings. In many places the priests are doing this already now anyway when the people do not offer as much as before, by destroying one or the other temple at night, and loudly proclaiming the wrath and vengeance of an insulted god to the people, after which the people become even more dark, superstitious, and more difficult to convert.
8
Besides, miracles and all kinds of signs are not the right, true means to convert, especially for a people who are still too little awakened in the spirit. They easily take away the freedom of man and force them with irresistible force to believe without doubt what is presented to them to believe. However, in this time there are, especially among the priests, all kinds of magicians - like they existed in former times and also will exist in the future - who perform all kinds of false wonders and signs. But from where will the people have the insight and the clear ability of reason to distinguish between the false wonders and signs from the real and true ones?
9
If I would give you the capability to perform real, true signs among the gentiles, but the pagan priests would perform, just like the former Essenes, false signs before you that look just alike, then how will you then prove to the blind people that only your signs are the real ones?"
10
The Roman said: "Yes, yes, Lord and Master, You are completely right. Only by the light truth can the people in time come to the true, inner freedom of life.
11
In order to prove Your divinity it is from Your side certainly necessary to perform signs and wonders for us blind gentiles, which cannot be done by any human being, at least if we can recognize the old skills of the magicians. And so You are entitled to perform, besides Your teaching - which is already a great wonder in itself - also other signs and wonders so that we more clearly can see that Your words are not human, but divine. But when Your teaching will by proclaimed and taught by Your disciples to the other people, just as You taught Your disciples, it will also be accepted as the purest, living truth from the Heavens, and it will be understood and actively observed. And the greatest wonder will be performed by the teaching itself because the people who will faithfully act accordingly will reach in them what is promised by it. But it will of course take a long time before this holy teaching will genuinely reach all people on Earth. But You are the Lord and knows best where, how and when a people is ripe for Your teaching."
12
I said: "Yes, friend, this is how it is. And now I have given you a more correct idea than before with your immediate destruction of all idols and their temples."