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 93 -
The evil and the judgment.
At these words of Mine the man became completely joyful and he ate and drank, and his companions followed his example with great diligence.
2
The woman, however, who was among them with her husband said deeply moved: "Oh, how good and just the Lord is. He who has truly recognized Him must really come to love Him above all. Oh, if only the temple servants down there would realize who He was, then they surely would also love Him above all and keep His wise commandments. But the devil in person will never allow this to them, for they are his most faithful servants and helpers, and therefore, are not worth anymore to receive any mercy from the Lord. Oh, once in Hell they surely will regret this eternally and say: 'Oh, why did we let ourselves be blinded by the devil?' But there, such repentance will surely not help them anymore. O Lord, we thank You that You have revealed to us poor, simple people the Kingdom of Your mercy, and withheld it from the wise of this world."
3
I said: "You have well spoken according to your own understanding, but consider also that in Hell there is no repentance for improvement of a hellish spirit and that is based on the fact that he really would feel repentance about the evil that he committed on Earth. For if a spirit in Hell could really come to such a repentance, then also improvement and salvation would be possible for him. But an evil spirit - thus a devil - cannot ever let a good repentance arise within him, but only repentance that is initially evil as he himself is, and he only regrets not having committed inexpressibly much more evil of the worst kind in the world.
4
It will be clear to every person with some sense that there is no improvement for such a soul and, therefore, also no salvation.
5
As for an angel of Heaven everything is thoroughly good, so also for a devil everything is thoroughly bad. The deeper an angel thinks and wills, the more he will be like God and the more free and mighty he will be, and the deeper a devil thinks and wills, the more he will be unequal to God, and will not be free and not be mighty, because that which is basically evil in him restrains all his power, and it is his judgment and his true death.
6
Yes, dear woman, if the devil would be able to truly repent from within, he would not be a devil and would not be in Hell. Therefore, a devil can never improve from within - thus, out of himself. But through influences from the outside it is still possible after an unimaginable long time. However, these influences must always correspond completely with the innermost of the devil, which is - as already said - thoroughly evil. In this way, the evil affecting the devil from the outside suppresses the inner evil, and only by that, it can become progressively clearer in his real evil spirit and thus become a little better.
7
Therefore, the torments of the hellish spirits always seem to come from the outside, which is also the case with very wicked people already on this Earth. If with a very wicked person, teachings, warnings and the wisest instructions have no longer any effect and he wants to resist more and more the laws of order, it is impossible to achieve any improvement from within him, out of himself. Then he comes into the hands of the severe and unmerciful judges who are inflicting very painful outer punishments to the criminal.
8
If the evildoer has to suffer a lot, he gradually comes to introspection and begins to think a bit more about the cause of his suffering, realizes his helplessness as well as the unmerciful judgments. Yes, finally he begins to realize that he alone is the cause of his torments, namely, through his wicked deeds, which he had voluntarily and with evil pleasure committed against the laws of general order. Since he can see now that his wicked deeds are his real tormentors, he finally begins to abhor them in himself and wishes he had never committed them. And look, this is then already a step towards a possible improvement.
9
But then, by far the outer punishments must still not be ended, because the evildoer began to abhor his wickedness only because it produces bad fruits. Through outer instruction, he must now first begin to recognize from within that his wicked deeds are wicked in itself, and also have to be abhorred only for that reason, and not because they have necessarily evil consequences for the evildoer.
10
If the evildoer can realize that and begins to abhor the evil because it is evil and decides to choose the good because it is good, he undergoes his punishment with more patience and bears everything, for he regards his suffering as completely just and as an aid by which his life will improve. Only when the evildoer has arrived at this point and his inner being is becoming truly better, then the time has come to reduce the outer punishments to the same extent as the former evildoer has truly changed within for the better.
11
If worldly judges would understand this, they still could transform many arch-criminals into good people. But in the case of great criminals they are immediately ready with the death sentence and precisely by this they are making the totally incorrigible criminals to complete devils in the spirit world. In the future this should not be so among you.
12
If you have to judge, then pass a just judgment like I have told you now, for the true and certainly possible improvement of the sinner, but not to make him more devilish."