The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 53 -
On the extent of good and evil.
Said Nicodemus: "Lord and Master, but why must there come such a terrible judgement over a nation only when a certain measure of all kinds of sins has been filled? And what is this measure and what does it consist of?"
2
Said I: "This is a little odd, that you as an elder of the temple and of the whole city, do not understand this, whereby you have often read the wise Proverbs of Solomon for yourself and for many others! If a child in a mother's womb has become mature, then its measure as a foetus is full, and it is born into the outside world. A fruit on a tree has reached its measure, if it has become ripe, after which it falls from the tree. A person, who knows the law quite well, follows it completely and does not transgress it out of love for God and his neighbour, has thereby filled the measure of light of his own perfection of life and is thereby already here a citizen of heaven, since he has completely defeated death I n himself and has become filled with the everlasting life out of God.
3
However, a person, who firstly does not go to the trouble to acquaint himself with God's laws of life more closely - because the amusements of the world are detracting him too much -, and who rushes from one sensory entertainment to the next, starts to forget about God, and his believe in God dwindles more and more. As soon as he loses faith in God, his parents also become tiresome to him. Not only does he not listens to them anymore, but he annoys them with all possible disobedience, in the end he may even hit them, steal from them and leave them. Just as he does not respect his parents, he respects his neighbours even less. He commits whoring of all kinds, and to obtain the necessary means to be able to indulge his senses and evil passions, he becomes a thief, a robber and a murderer. And in this way such a person has rid himself of all laws of life and acts then according to the laws of his evil nature and sins in this way against all laws. Thereby he has fulfilled the measure of evil, has become a devil and has in himself caused judgement to break loose over him, and must in his great torment ascribe it to himself, that nobody else except he himself is to blame for it.
4
But that a full measure of sins is definitely followed by judgement - which is the actual spiritual death - is prescribed by God since eternity and is irrevocably so for all future eternities; because if this were not the case, there would be no fire, no water, no earth, no sun and no moon and no creatures upon them.
5
Fire is an evil element, and if caught by it, it would give you death. Should there then be no fire, because it can easily have a deadly effect on people? See, the earth has a certain attraction, according to which every body becomes heavy and strives incessantly towards its centre! Based on this property of the earth you can fall from a height and kill yourself. Yes, does this mean the earth should not possess this property, because it can give death to people? Oh, this would soon turn out very badly for the earth; because it would break up and dissolve more completely than a piece of ice in the sun, and all creatures on it would come to an end! Since where could they exist, if they did not have a solid base? And see, this necessary property of the earth and all its matter is also a judgement of God for all matter, and without it no matter could exist!
6
And as such everything that you may see in this world is a judgement decreed by God, and whoever turns away from the spiritual and thereby also from God and turns in his soul to the matter of the world, can impossibly end up elsewhere than in the old judgement and its death; because freedom and the fullest none-judgement exists only in the pure spirit out of God, which can and will be obtained by everyone who lives according to My teachings, and believes that I have come into this world from God as Myself God, to give to all people the true light of life and eternal life. Since I Myself am the truth, the light, the way and the life. Do you understand this now?"