The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 72 -
John urges Zorel to adopt a better way of life.
After a short while Johannes says to Zorel: "I cannot quite deny, that you have touched on some issues with your mind, which are not without foundation; but they fit your life very badly or not at all, since your soul in herself was always to such an extend educated, to be able to distinguish between false and true. If a soul is able to distinguish good from evil with such sharpness as it is the case with you, and she does this, then she sins against her own recognition and conscience; but who sins against his recognition and his conscience, can only be cleaned from the old feculence of his sins by true remorse and repentance and then accepted by God.
2
You want and should become a better person! If you want this, you also must recognise, that you yourself are guilty of all your evil deeds; if so, it is now up to you to recognize, that it is not right to shift the guilt to someone else, but you yourself should recognize it as completely your own and therefore feel true remorse, since in many aspects you have recognised true and good quite well, but with your actions you have decided to do the opposite.
3
Yes, if you would not have the slightest recognition about the pure truth and by that what is good in you, but remained only in the darkest superstition, as confirmed in the sphere of your life, your actions - no matter how evil in front of the judge's chair of the most purest reason - could not be added to your guiltiness, and you would be just as sin-free as you tiger and rock becoming a human being, and nobody would have the right to say to you: 'Better yourself, regret your misdeeds and do proper repentance, so that you can become appealing to the true God!'
4
You then had to be educated in all truth, shown the right way and leading you for some time on that road! If somebody, as perfectly educated in this truth, still throws himself into the old wrong and acting equally evil as before, he would sin alright, because he would act against his firm believe and place his conscience into a blustering restlessness. Hence your presented pictures are only good for people, who, like the animals, have never recognised any truth; but regarding the right truth you are not a layman, but recognises as nearly as good as I recognises it, and recognised this already long ago. And your conscience has also always accused you about all of your evil deeds; but you paid little attention to it, and always tried to drown it with all kinds of false reasons. You also always felt remorse each time you did something evil against your recognition and against your conscience; but until now you did not got so far to repent and truly better yourself.
5
It is therefore that God the Lord let you get into great misery. Now you have nothing; also your former slave trader companion deserted you and is already in Europe where he is using up his considerable profits. Now you are standing naked here and are searching for help. It will be given to you; but first you have to make yourself worthy of it, thereby, that you voluntary out of yourself transfers the only truth and good into your active life. Only then you have been truly helped for now and forever.
6
But if you remain with your actions by that, what you as good as I am recognises as false and evil, you remain wretched for the rest of your life, and how it will look like in the beyond, since there is a pure life after the loss of the body, your own pure reason can give you quite a good answer about it, if you take into account, that this temporary life is the seed and the life in the beyond the eternal fruit.
7
If you plant in this your life garden a noble, good seed into the ground of this very your life garden, you also will harvest noble fruits; but if you put thistle and thorn seeds into the soil of your life garden, you will one day harvest the seed you have sowed! Because this you will know, that on thistle shrubs on figs and on thorns no grapes can grow!
8
See, I have not judged you, but only showed to you what you should do in future, and my word was not hard against you, and the tone of my voice was soft! Take these my words to heart, and I assure you as a friend with my life, that you will forever not regret it!"