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 57 -
Jacob's ladder. On the nature of dreams. The soul in the afterlife.
Said Nicodemus: "Lord and Master from eternity, only now do I fully recognize in all truth that You alone are the true Christ, the Anointed of God, whose fullness resides in You! Because never has a prophet on this earth taught in this way. But since You have given us such a great revelation, You might, if it be Your holiest will, give us a light concerning Jacob's ladder, on which angels between heaven and earth ascend and descend. From this vision I could never understand what Jehovah, seen on top of the ladder, wanted to show Jacob. Jacob understood this dream vision much better than I, as we never received a closer explanation about this vision from him. - Lord, by my great love for You, I beg You for an explanation!"
2
Said I: "What Jacob has seen in his dream, was fully that, which I have very clearly and in greatest detail explained to you. The ladder is the band between the heart and the enlightened head of man. The heart is here also the visible earth, which during the time of Jacob when he was in great need and difficulty, was also too desolate and barren and too little enlightened. But under these circumstances he began to think deeply about God, and wondered what it was he had done that God let him come into such great difficulty. He then fell asleep in the open field and saw in himself the connection between his heart's earth and the heaven of light in his head. He saw how his thoughts, ideas and concepts as on a ladder descended down to his heart, enlightening and comforting it, and then, through the increased love of the heart, themselves more revived and strengthened, ascended back to God, to be more and deeply illuminated. And look now at the whole course of Jacob's life, and you will see how he from then on thought more and more about God and also lived more strictly according to the will of God.
3
At the same time it is also shown by this noteworthy dream, how out of him a generational ladder will rise as a true bond between his descendants and God, on which the children of God will then ascend and then again descend in the recognition of God, and that at the highest point of the generation ladder as seen by him, Jehovah will reveal Himself in My personality to renew the old bond and to elevate it through and trough to the liveliest truth.
4
And as such Jacob's ladder has been explain to you all twofold and threefold and you know now, what you truly spiritually have to understand under the concept "angels of God". But for your sake, I still ask you, if you have understood everything."
5
Said Nicodemus: "With that a great light has risen in me, and it is so and can never be otherwise; but regarding this visible angel, the question arises, if he is already a true, independent reality - or is he only a captured thought, arising out of Your love, wisdom and omnipotence?"
6
Said I: "This is truly a very childish question from you! I say to you, the angel is - just as you and all mankind and the total infinite creation - both at the same time, because in the whole of infinity does not exist any other reality except Me as My thoughts, ideas, and concepts. These are made alive by My love and held and maintained for ever by My will. What I as God can do and have done from eternities ago and forever will do, the same will you one day be able to accomplish in My kingdom.
7
That these abilities are present in man, you can very easily and correctly derive from your brighter visions in your dreams; since in them your inner thoughts, ideas and concepts become reality and become alive and properly well formed, and you can talk to them like true objects. Now, you of course do not know how this happens inside you, that you in your dreams can be among people of a well-arranged world, who sometimes can even speak wisely and can do this and that; for the time being this does not matter. Once you, in the manner as I have explained it to you, will be reborn in the spirit, then all secrets of your life and the reason for it will become clear to you; for the time being you can accept this as a fully illuminated truth, that every appearance in life of a person has a highly wise and most true reason, otherwise it could never emerge in a person.
8
When a person dies according to the body, the soul lives as a being still in space, but does not have any other world as a base and residence, as the world it has created for itself, and no longer has any material connection with this outer world, because it very clearly realizes by itself, that the total material world is nothing else than a necessary and hard to bear judgement, and that a most free and unbound life is endlessly more preferable than a life which is bound on all sides."
9
Said Nicodemus: "Lord, once I have died, my living soul will forever see nothing from this earth any longer, but will continue to live in a world created by itself, - however, there are many things on this earth which a soul thirsty for higher knowledge wants to investigate more closely! In the same way we look with great longing to the starry sky and would like to know more about the moon, the sun, the planets and what all the other stars are, and would also like to fathom the depths of the seas, but if the soul after death only continues to live and to act in a sort of illuminated dream world originating from its own imagination, and only interacts with apparent people, who are also only a product of its very own imagination, it will, according to my poor opinion, be for the forever living soul under the assumption, that it will have a full memory of its past, not too much of a joy. Of course, if the soul without its body, is left only with a memory as in a illuminated dream, where you normally recognizes your own I, but do not have a real recollection of the earthly things anymore, then such a soul can continue to keep on living very happily; since what is taken away from it together with its body, it will also not have any longing for. I speak here, as I understand this matter, but would like You to give me also in this regard a deeper lesson."
10
Said I: "I can see only too well, that you are still very weak; but your perceptions about the life of the soul after leaving its flesh are even more desolate, dark and weak than your feelings and inner observations. Only tell Me this: Where and when does a person see more with his physical eyes: In a dark dungeon at night-time or on a high mountain free in all directions on a clear, bright day? And a person, in his fullest freedom, with everything provided, standing with his best friends on a mountain, will he still have a longing for the old, dark dungeon to investigate and research its gloomy corners and holes? Think about this, My question - ask your open feelings - and give Me an answer, and only then I will give you a brighter light about your doubts!"