The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Aphek
- Chapter 101 -
The objections of the captain concerning the beauties of nature.
Then the priest went to his colleagues who were already waiting with fervent desire for his return. When he came to his colleagues he told them about all the things he had seen and experienced, and they were completely amazed.
2
One of them, an old Greek, said: "What else do we need? That Man is a God. We will do what He has ordered, then we will live."
3
And so, that evening the gentile priests became My disciples in the city of Aphek, and the next day they declared their belief and gave their vow to Me.
4
But we went to rest after the departure of the priests and rested well until the morning.
5
As always, so also this time, I was outside already more than 1 hour before sunrise - this time with My disciples and the captain - and since it was a very clear morning, we enjoyed from a hill outside the mountain city an exceptional beautiful distant view and many surprising beautiful morning scenes of nature.
6
When the captain and also our innkeeper next to Me were really thrilled when they admired the beautiful nature, the captain said to Me after a while of blissful admiration: "Lord and Master, it hardly can be blamed on the people when they slowly began to love the world and finally became even godless, because what man can observe with all his senses in his initial clear natural condition will often capture him with an irresistible force, and even the most spiritual teachings and words cannot free him from today till tomorrow from the shackles that the numberless enticements of the world put on him. As today's morning is adorned with numberless charms, so it certainly must have been the case already many times before. And that people, at the view of such beautiful things, came to all kinds of strange fantasies is for me now very easy to understand, and that they came absorbed and rooted by it is also because of the too beautiful and ever changing scenes of nature.
7
In order to withdraw himself from all the enticements of the world, man must possess a very high degree of heroic self-denial.
8
I imagine that those people who do not inhabit and live in such charming regions of the Earth are probably more receptive for purely spiritual and therefore supernatural truths than people who are inhabitants of a too beautiful country.
9
I am only looking at the old, very sad looking land of Egypt. As long as the people did not zealously cultivate it, a large number of spiritually awakened people were living there, but as soon as the zeal of the people began to beautify too much the sterile nature of that big country, they more and more lost their spiritual attitude, and soon the natural tendency prevailed. All kinds of images, and from this, all kinds of gods originated, and the spirit of man, which is his greatest possession of life, went completely lost. And Moses himself had to keep the people of Israel, who became too sensual, for nearly 40 years in an unfriendly desert, which was in natural respect really not pretty, in order to make them receptive for the inner godly-spiritual.
10
Therefore, I am of the opinion that this Earth is largely too charming and too beautiful for the spiritual development of men.
11
Of course, personally I indescribably like this morning very much, but I also feel what kind of charming mighty impression it must make on a healthy young mind."
12
I said: "On the one hand you are right, but on the other hand not. For if I had not equipped men on this Earth in such a way that by their free will they had to develop their reason and their mind themselves and had to search My Spirit in themselves, I also could have let them rest as polyps in the dark abyss of the sea. But this is not how it can be done because man is a completely free being and has to develop himself.
13
Look, this completely big and beautiful nature of the Earth is therefore very necessary for man for the development of himself, for without that nature, his thinking, feeling and experiencing would look very meager and he would not be on a much higher level than the kingdom of animals. But since the Earth is equipped with such great variety of all kinds of creatures, man must view this, being surprised and delighted. And from that viewing and comparing of the different things of all the kingdoms in nature of this Earth, and so also of the always alternating days and seasons, and also of the stars in the sky, man comes by necessity to an ever deeper thinking and will begin by that also to search and to investigate the fundamental cause of the existence of those numberless many things. And when man has come that far, then I also will come to meet him and will reveal Myself more and more and ever more clearly to him.
14
Therefore, My friend, it is very good that the Earth, on which men are called to become children of God, is in every respect equipped with great beauty and variety.
15
But of course, man should not take up too much love for this beautiful world and not adhere to it with all his senses, for by that he will become materialistic in his soul and he will withdraw himself more and more from what he should achieve, and he will become blind, dark and evil in this short life for the test of his free will.
16
How difficult it will then be to bring such men on the right track of life shows the experience of all times, and you yourself experienced it already many times and will still experience it.
17
But now a few priests are coming to us with the one whom I taught yesterday, and they want to see and to know what kind of person I actually am, because the priest, whom I already taught, has illuminated a light with them and forced them to think deeply. Therefore, we will let those seekers come to us and let them find what they seek, namely the truth of life."