The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr im Jordantal
- Chapter 237 -
The innkeeper asks for the reason of the destruction of Babylon and Nineveh.
Now the innkeeper thought about it for a while and finally said: "My dear, wonderful Friend, who are filled with all the power and might of the one, true deity, since You can create everything You want by Your will, please give me a little explanation why the God of the Jews, whom you consider as the one and only true one, allowed that cities like Babylon and Nineveh were destroyed in such a way that it cannot be known anymore where they were located.
2
Why did the deity allow that these works of human zeal were destroyed? It is true that also those men who lived in these cities did not sin less than the Sodomites, but what is actually sin?
3
It is nothing else but a way of acting that is contrary to the existing laws of which every person in a country did not know about or only little, and it is also very right that a people must have laws because of the necessary civil order.
4
But there must also be a corresponding education belonging to the laws. But who does the education? Who are the main educators of the children? They are the parents who - with the exception of the language and some experiences - are mostly as dumb as their newly born children. And the children grow up without any knowledge, science or experience.
5
There are laws of the state that are not known by such grown up children, and this is the case in the cities as well as in the countryside, and often more in the cities than in the countryside.
6
Such people with many passions have little insight and little intelligence. So these passions have great power over them and such people give in to their passions and sin against the existing laws which they do not know.
7
The longer such people exist the dumber they become and the more sins are committed. And the rulers of such people, like the priests, live happier when the people become dumber, and no one is concerned about the education of humanity, not even the almighty deity. But once such humanity is doomed to die because of their sins, the deity brings judgments from above and from below.
8
Would it actually not be wiser if the deity, already from the time that such people existed, would provide a good education for man so that the people would know what to do and then make sure to continue in the same direction?
9
But now there are only the eternal punishments on Earth, and the teachers who are talented with God's Spirit appear only when people are already so wicked that they cannot be made better anymore.
10
That such people will degenerate, in the country side as well as in the cities, is obvious and does not need further explanation and the prophet and teacher who is inspired by God cannot perform anymore miracles for such people who became dumb. Very few good people will listen to him and accept his teaching, but the greatest part of the people will grab and kill him.
11
Look, my dear, wonderful friend, I may think whatever I want but such neglect in the education of the people, allowed by a very wise and powerful deity is not completely right. The laws of that deity may be very wise but what is the use if humanity in general never receives intensive knowledge of this.
12
Why is there more order in the Roman state than anywhere else? Because the Roman government sees to it that its very wise laws are made known to every Roman, and this till he has to pass exams to proof that he has sufficient knowledge of the laws of the state. For you only can receive the Roman citizenship when you can proof at the exams - in the cities as well as in the countryside - that you possess the necessary knowledge of the law.
13
In my opinion, this should also be introduced to all other nations, but in this way the deity as well as the state often let the nations go wilder than the animal kingdom. Then they can only act according to their passions and instead of becoming better they only become more wicked and darker and then they sin excessively and commit crimes. And once they have reached their peak in this way of living, the punishments come from above and from below, and then cities and nations are exterminated and ceased to exist. I can absolutely not agree with this manner of education of the people.
14
This is why I asked why the deity had allowed that cities like Babylon and Nineveh vanished and ceased to exist. The people must have died without knowing what caused their death, but the cities and the land that was cultivated by the people cannot be blamed, nevertheless they disappeared with sinful humanity from the surface of the Earth.
15
When another nation comes into the world they have to start again from the beginning, building houses and cultivating the land. And during that work, such people have again no peace but are permanently threatened by all kinds of enemies from above and from below, and these make sure that they will never come to a complete development of a true, pure morality and virtue.
16
We Romans here in this village, who are mostly old soldiers, have developed ourselves, as far as this is generally possibly for man, and we also gave our children such education that following our way they can live longer, maybe for centuries if someone can guarantee us that our little village in the countryside will not be threatened or destroyed by no matter what enemy, which the almighty deity can prevent if He wanted but which He will certainly not do.
17
And so, dear, wonderful friend, You who have a much deeper wisdom than me will certainly perceive that it is extremely difficult on this meager Earth to be a good person. But this would not be so difficult if a true, almighty God would take care that all people would be good people. But in this manner, the deity leaves the people to fully degenerate themselves already a long time beforehand. Only then He awakens several wise teachers and prophets among such people and they must then bring the people back to the old moral purity and virtue, as this can also be seen in the ancient history of the Jewish people.
18
Only when the people of Israel became almost completely immoral under the rule of the pharaoh's, the deity awakened someone like Moses who had to free them from all their sins and bad habits. But I ask: why did the deity not awaken a wise Moses earlier among the people of Israel when they were still better and more willing?
19
Look, my dear, wonderful friend, I and also my neighbors often thought about this and discussed among each other, but not one of us could give a suitable and true answer to this. That is why I presented this question with all my objections to You, and I trustfully am of the opinion that You will be able to give me the right information on this."