The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 257 -
The omniscience of God.
Say Mathael and a few others: "O Lord, good, we are now fully in the clear and nearly would not know what still to ask You! Lord, ask us now a few things; since You will know best, where we are still lacking something!"
2
Says I: "This would be somewhat clumsy, if I had to ask you something, as if I had to learn such from you, since I know and see everything what is going on inside you! Yes, even your most secret thoughts, which you nearly don't even know yourself, are clearly visible to me like the sun in the sky, and I should ask you something, as if I would not know about it already?! Would this not be clumsy or at least a useless, time wasting mouth- and tongue exercise?!"
3
Says here the black standing close-by: "Lord, this appears to me as inconsistent; since according to my knowledge a short while ago You Yourself have asked Your white disciples if they have comprehended this or that properly! This is, nevertheless, also a question by which one wants to know from somebody, from whom you have not received the right clarity before! Why do You ask the disciples? Wouldn't You know whether they have understood Your great and most wise revelations or not?"
4
Says I: "O you my valued black friend! With regard to asking one does not only ask to obtain information which you previously did know yourself, but one quite often asks, and this with a good reason, namely to examine and to guide ones fellowmen to think about something.
5
A teacher asks his pupils about things which he anyhow knows and must know quite well even without the answer of the little disciples. And the judge asks the sinner against the law, what he is to blame for, not to find out what he did against the law - which the judge is well aware of -, but he only wants a confession from the sinner and punishes the mischievous transgressor, if he stubbornly lies about everything, which the judge knows quite well from the concurring evidence of various witnesses!
6
And therefore also I as a most rightful teacher and as a most righteous judge, can ask you people always questions, not for the purpose to learn something from you which I did not know before, but to urge you to think for yourself and examine yourself! In this way I can ask anyone; however, if I wanted to ask anyone of you, as if I wanted to convince Myself if he or she of My disciples has understood My teaching or not, it would be a futile and clumsy questioning by Me, since as God I could have known this from eternity anyhow who and how well anyone will understand Me in this particular time on this earth! Are you now in the clear about this!"
7
Says the black: "Yes Lord, and I beg You for forgiveness, that I have bothered You, o Lord, with my most clumsy question! Subsequently I will not do this again, if I will have the privilege, to be allowed to be present in Your holy nearness for some time with my colleagues!"
8
Says I: "You can stay with Me as long as you like and also ask questions! If there is anything what is not clear enough to you, you have, just like anybody else, the free and full right to ask! Since at this place I give Myself completely openly; later there will come a time when I for some time will not listen to any question from nobody. There is still something like gap in you; question yourself and ask, and also in this regard you should receive the light!"
9
Says the black: "O Lord, it is not necessary to question myself for very long; since my gaps I know just too well for a long time! And see, it is a main gap, that I cannot in the least explain the omniscience of God to myself! How can You know about everything in the whole of infinity?"
10
Says I: "Yes, if you still do not understand this, then you have not sufficiently understood My revelation about the outer-life-sphere of the spirit in depth! You will have understood that the eternal space of creation is everlasting and infinite, and how it is filled in all directions forever forth and forth with My spirit, which is pure love, therefore life, light, wisdom, clearest self-conscience, a most certain feeling, noticing, seeing, listening, thinking, will and effectuating.
11
In Me is the focal point of this very one and everlasting same spirit, and this focal point, however, is one with its endless large and all infinity filling outer-life-sphere, which in Me with the main-life-focal-point with everything its contains, is always in the closest connection. But this My outer-life-sphere penetrates everything in the whole, everlasting infinity and sees, hear, feels, thinks, want and effectuate everywhere in absolutely the same manner.
12
To a certain distance your soul can do the same, and it would be difficult for anyone to create an evil thought in your presence, without you recognizing this immediately. And just as you can do this by means of your powerful outer-life-sphere of your soul, which is continuously very closely connected to it and thereby your clear I expands far beyond yourself, it is the same case with My outer-life-ether, with the only difference, that your soul's outer-life-sphere is limited to only a certain space, because as substance, and the different foreign elements she encounters, she cannot expand any further.
13
However, the outer-life-ether of the spirit can forever not encounter any foreign elements, since basically everything is he himself; and therefore he can most freely and unhindered endlessly above all see, feel, hear and understand everything. And see, based on this the for you so difficult comprehensible omniscience of God is absolutely clear and easily understandable! Say, are you now in the clear about this?"