The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 140 -
About the purpose of creation.
The captain said: "O good, wonderful friend, it certainly will be a useless effort to measure us with you in wisdom, because you are always completely right, because you always can give the most irrefutable truth in an extremely clear manner based on your godly omniscience and all-encompassing knowledge. But how could men like us know this, since our science and knowledge of the things of the natural world are very limited?
2
But this can also be known and felt by weak and limited man when something hurts him, and then he sighs and complains often for a long time in vain, and God's highest love and wisdom can never hold it against him as sin. And so I have complained about the wind because I have all too painfully experienced what kind of destructions it caused here and there, for I knew indeed not why it was raging like that.
3
But now you have made it clear to me and I can see the good in it, and I give you the full assurance that I will never more rebel against it with my complaining, and on the main land least of all. Only on sea, I would like that the Lord would preserve me of such winds as long as I have to live in a body, because it is very terrible to be on a deficient ship in the midst of a raging battle of the sea against the wind. I have already experienced it several times and therefore I became an enemy of mighty winds, and because then I was still a real heathen, I have often raged against such a way of acting of the gods. But since a heavy wind on sea will certainly have an equal beneficial meaning as for the Earth and its creatures, just like on the main land, I will also praise it above the sea and leave it alone. Good friend, is this right?"
4
Raphael said: "This most certainly, because man whose life and everything depends on God, should - once he has come to know God - always acknowledge the regulations and decrees of God, glorifying and praising them, and should not grumble about them or rebel against them, for God the Lord knows certainly always and eternally best of all why He allows once this and then that to happen on a celestial body.
5
But moreover, man should behave patiently and with complete devotion to the will of God and by that also remember: this happens according to the will of God for the greatest benefit of man. For everything that happens on the Earth, on the moon, on the sun and on all stars, happens all exclusively for the greatest benefit of men, because man is the only reason and the only purpose of the whole creation in the endless space.
6
If man will think and feel this way, he will also find and have peace in all circumstances of his life of freedom, development and testing on this Earth, and God will save him out of every need and let him find the way to the true life, the way to the light and all truth.
7
But he who becomes impatient and grumbles about one thing or the other about the phenomena in this world which seem to be disgusting to him, which he cannot change anyway - even in his coarse anger, often in thoughts and openly spoken out - will not make God's love his own but will only separate himself ever further away from it. And this will not give any human being peace and happiness, not here on Earth and most certainly not in the beyond. Because indeed, everything happens by God's love, as already said, only for the true well being of man. If man recognizes this gratefully in his mind, then he will come ever closer to God's love and His order and will then soon without much difficulty pass into it completely and thereby become wise and mighty himself. But if he does the opposite, then he will become more foolish and weaker and powerless in every respect.
8
I surely know that on this Earth there are all kinds of things happening that are not pleasant for men. So there is often an unpleasant heat and also a great cold. There is a long lasting night and many gloomy days, the fire burns and destroys, the water devastates the countries and kills men and animals if it bursts its banks. In short: everything you see in the whole nature of the world can give you death when you use it senselessly and set out for danger.
9
But therefore, God cannot change anything to His well-ordered creation. Should for example the fire not be so red-hot and burning and destroying as it is? Then for what would it still be useful? Or should the water not be fluid, so that men and animals could not physically find death when they fall into it? Or should the mountains not be high and steep, so that nobody could fall down from its summits and find by that also death? Should there be no devouring animals, no snakes and no poisonous plants because they all are dangerous for the life of men?
10
Yes, if men would like to ban all the things that could be dangerous for his life, there finally would not be an atom left of the Earth, nor man himself. Everything must be and exist as it is and exists, and everything can be useful to man when he uses it wisely. But to the one who uses it unwisely, and thus not in harmony with God's order, must finally everything be harmful.
11
Then he who takes offense at the harmfulness of the things and arrangements in this natural world, and thereby rebels against God's wisdom and might, takes obviously also offense at God and mocks His love and wisdom. But he who does that, certainly does not live in friendship, but in a real enmity against God the Lord. Will this bring him any blessing? I think that such a blind enmity against God will cause man in the first place to lose God, and man can then in his godlessness no longer expect any happiness of live, just as long as he will not repent, acknowledging and glorifying God's love, wisdom and order in every respect, and which he in course of time will also clearly understand.
12
But if you take offence at the storm at sea, then stay on the main land when it storms at sea, and only go on board of a ship when the stormy times of the sea are over. And everyone who lives close by the sea and who has often experienced it, surely knows when it is continuously raging the most and the heaviest.
13
Look, friend, these are also wise rules. He who knows them and will keep them, will also be happy already on this Earth, and be at peace in all phenomena and incidents during the earthly life."