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 62 -
The value of human free will. The prophets' experiences in the afterlife. On being blessed.
Said Nicodemus: "Yes, yes, You alone are forever right, and we people cannot be right, because in us no truth, wisdom and true life-force prevails! But it is for the people who are surrounded by the world quite difficult, to completely break loose from the world and become completely spiritual. The pure listening to even the wisest teachings brings the person who became blind very little or nothing, if he does not obtain the truth of spiritual matters through his own observations and experiences.
2
But if only one person obtains experiences and thousands around him do not, it is of no use to mankind, since it must believe the one experienced person, without ever in itself finding any confirmation for that, what it is obliged to believe. Ah, it would be totally different, if all people had observations and experiences; then the pure spiritual development of man would make progress!"
3
Said I: "As a blind man judges about colors, you judge about spiritual matters! But I think, that actually He, who created man, knows it quite best, how He has to guide and treat the people, so that they may sooner or later reach the goal, which He has set them. I have performed signs for you which have obliged you to believe, that I and eternally no other is the promised Messiah. But this coercion does not really serve the salvation of your soul, as you will only be blessed, if you live according to My word.
4
Believe Me: If I wanted to convert you people to machines, it would only take a thought of Mine enforced by My will, and the whole temple and the whole large country wherein the Jewish people live, would impossibly recognize Me as anything else than the Messiah - Jehovah Zebaoth! But would it help all Jews and all gentiles? I say to you: Truly, no more than this wooden food bowl, which - as you will see in a moment - will start to move in all directions according to My will!
5
See, the bowl already lives and floats in the air like a bird! Would you like to exchange your being with it? See, it is very much alive and can move in all directions; but it does not have a self-awareness, but My very own consciousness penetrates it and makes it alive. You can even ask the bowl questions, and it will without mouth and tongue answer you. But will you ever believe, that the bowl on its own lives, thinks wisely and can speak without mouth and tongue?!
6
But I tell you even more: With My omnipotence I can maintain this apparent life of the bowl forever. But will it therefore have an own, independent and free life as I do? Forever not; since as long as I keep it alive with My pure might, it is on its own as good as completely dead. Since its apparent life is only My willpower in it and therefore My very own life. If I withdraw this, the old death and the old, necessary judgment of all matter is there, and you will see no life in it, - no matter how gaily it now moves in all directions back and forth.
7
And see, man would have a similar life, if I were to force him with My omnipotence or with such signs, which leaves man no room for free thought. And thus a free unbelief is for man endless times better than a forced belief; because the fullest and most independent freedom of will in man is the great plan of God with man. Man can be taught completely harmlessly by God what he has to do to attain the completion of life in him; but he may never ever be forced with God's or by another spirit's might. If this occurs, man is judged, thus completely dead in himself and does not exist as a free and independent being anymore.
8
And see now, for this very reason the proposed observations and experiences in the kingdom of the pure spirits are allowed by Me as seldom as possible, and if from time to time it is allowed to happen to individual people, who are chosen for it like the prophets, those chosen people must be from above which have already completed a life trial in the body on a another world, because such observations and experiences about the beyond cannot harm them in any way, and also not their fellow-man, because he can believe the prophets only if he wants to. If he does not want to - which unfortunately is mostly the case -, he still stays completely free in his thinking and self-determination of his actions, and this is obviously far better for him than any outer or even inner coercion to believe.
9
A person can only become blessed by God and in God, but only to such an extend, as he adopted the will of God as his own will and in his self-awareness has in a certain manner become one with God. But if God were to take away man's own free will and by His omnipotence place His own will into the heart of man, then man would be, as already said, in himself as good as completely dead, since only the superimposed almighty will of God gives life to man, as My will has given life to this bowl. But God has created man and has given him life and arranged him in such a way, that he in time can and must develop himself, and this is so wise that man with all his reason and with all his intelligence cannot imagine anything wiser. - And now, I think that I have explained this matter sufficiently. If you have understood this now, we can rise from the tables, go once more outside and see what is happening there!"