The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 108 -
The significance of the teaching of the Lord.
They all thanked Me and said that they had well understood it, and our Marcus, and with him also the other Romans, still said more in particular: "Lord and Master, me and my companions are now beginning to realize more and more clearly that for a correct understanding of God and a steadfast and living faith in Him, a proper knowledge of the Earth and all that which is on and in it and which assumes a visible form, is absolutely necessary, for only by that can one understand that this Earth and all that which is on it, there had to be a very wise and almighty and consequently also very good Founder and Creator, because a blind power, which is not even aware of itself and which we gentiles call 'fatum' , could impossibly have arranged everything so wisely and efficiently on Earth and in every single creature.
2
Thus, in view of the right knowledge of the nature and its extremely wisely ordered powers, there is already an irrefutable proof of the existence of an eternal and supremely wise, almighty and extremely good God and Creator of all things and all beings. And once this proof exists and is irrefutably established, the complete true belief in a God is certainly a self-evident and settled case.
3
When besides that, Your teaching about the continuation of the life of the soul after the dead of the body and about the true, inner and living Kingdom of God is added, and man receives knowledge about what he is and why he exists and how he should live and act in order to become a child of God, then he will certainly do that also, and this all the more because by Your teaching he comes to know what lot he can expect after the death of the body if he stays in his errors and malice.
4
Lord and Master, I do not speak here as a Jew but as a very experienced gentile, and say: Your teaching about the Kingdom of God and about the only true and eternal destination of man is unmistakably the highest, purest and truest, and at the same time also the most convincing understandable thing which the people have ever heard as teaching about God and about their destination. And for us, this is now much better understood and believed, because we have the unspeakable happiness to hear it from Your godly mouth, for we can see You, hear You and can and may speak to You, the only true God and Lord of eternity, about the most different things and circumstances.
5
Concerning ourselves, we really do not need another proof for the true existence of a God except only Yourself, but there are only 10 of us to whom the indescribable happiness and the eternal undeserved mercy was given to find in You the eternal Lord of all Heavens, all worlds and all life.
6
You will not go with us personally to Europe and to Rome to reveal Yourself there by words and deeds as You do here, so that all gentiles would recognize You and would believe in You, but we alone will proclaim You to them, and we are also convinced in advance that our work and our efforts will not be fruitless. But our tribesmen at home are very critical men and believe only in something when they have received from as many sides as possible clear and very sound proof that it really exists, which is now all the more necessary because with our philosophers and scientists, atheism is generally followed, and not one highly educated person is thinking anymore about one or the other god, and they certainly do not believe in it.
7
And look, o Lord and Master, that is why I am of the opinion that for the proclaiming of Your holy name and Your teaching, the proofs of the indisputable existence of an only true God has to be firstly clearly formulated from the nature and order of this Earth and its beings. Once those have taken root, it will further on be easy to proclaim Your teaching in such a way that everyone will believe in You and will consider You to be the only true God and they will worship and love You in words and deeds.
8
Children can of course be quickly and easily made to believe something, but men, as we have extremely many of those in Rome and many other cities, should be treated much differently if one wants to win them. And for this reason I have also done my best to receive much clarification about the different things and phenomena in the sphere of this material world, and so I thank You already in advance in the name of all those who perhaps through me will be converted to You, for You have not withheld such clarifications from us Romans."
9
I said: "I knew very well why you have asked Me one or the other thing, and I commend your zeal and good will. And your work and effort for the sake of My name will always be confirmed with My blessing.
10
Nevertheless, I say to you that you should not point out too much to the nature of the material things of the world to make them think that they have to find God in it. With this, you will bring the people to suspect and feel the existence of a God, but never to the full knowledge of Him and to the true and living faith in Him.
11
But if you give My teaching to your brothers as clearly and purely as you have received it from Me, they will listen to you and also accept the teaching. And because My words carry power, might and life in itself, they also will produce something much different in the heart and the mind of your brothers than all possible proofs based on the material world and its order.
12
But when the people will then believe in Me and will also live and act according to My teaching and thus also according to My will, they will find in themselves also the true teacher and further guide which will lead them into all other truths.
13
He who wants to find God and His eternal Kingdom of Life should begin to seek in the quiet chamber of his heart in the love for God and fellowman. And he who seriously begun to seek and continues to seek, will also find what he has sought. But he who will weaken in his seeking will hardly or not at all find neither in this world nor on the other side what he indeed wanted to find if it would not cost him too much trouble.
14
Therefore, begin with My living word, and only after that, explain to those who have accepted My gospel the cause and the phenomena of the things and their order in this world. Then this way you will reap the best results of your work and effort.
15
But now we will leave this hill again and will go to the morning meal that is already prepared. After that we will see what we still will undertake on this day."
16
The Romans and also all the others thanked Me for the given advice, and we went directly to the village and the house where in the big dining-hall the well-prepared fish, bread and new wine stood on the table in great quantity. So we went immediately to sit at the table. As always, I first blessed the food and drink, and after that we ate and drunk. Raphael took care of the youth.