The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 181 -
Philosophical ideas about nature.
When the old servant stood at My table, he immediately asked Kado what was happening and if he had to do something.
2
Kado said: "Old friend, you know why I have sold everything in the actual Greek country, with exception of my possessions on Patmos, and you know also that I mainly was driven to it by those appearances and the dream of our old priest. So we have searched with all zeal for these particular god-men of which you also are a loyal witness. We also heard about them, from far and wide, and especially about One - the good Savior from Nazareth in Galilee whose mother and brothers we have seen and have spoken to them. In short, we have found 1.000 and again 1.000 witnesses, but not He Himself."
3
Here the old servant interrupted Kado and said: "Yes, only He Himself we have not found yet, and that is actually the sad thing of this whole matter. The little cloud of light that we have seen on Patmos during 3 evenings and with which we have even spoken to twice in a wonderful way can also not be found or seen in this country from where it came to us.
4
Yes, dear friends, the whole Earth is full of wonders and glorious things, and thereby it witnesses in numberless ways that there must be only one extremely good, wise and almighty God as Creator and Ruler. Man can find everything with his zeal, his love and with his intellect. Except the Creator who nevertheless seems to be present everywhere, he does not found. And if he calls Him, He does not answer, although everything that we can see seems to announce His continuous presence. And so, friend Kado, also we will search for the human God but will not find Him, as this was the case with us until now. But because of that, we still should not give up our searching, for from the little cloud of light we have heard that we should search to find our salvation.
5
But I still should tell something very openly what I clearly felt here. You know that the little cloud of light on Patmos had stirred up in us a strange feeling of immortality, which regrettably disappeared slowly. And now, when I came into this room, that same feeling seized me. The little cloud can therefore not be far away from us. What do you feel, friend Kado, and what do you think?"
6
Kado said: "Yes, you have rightly concluded. We all feel the same way and we will also feel it continuously from now on, because what we have searched we also have found here. Look to the Man who is sitting here at my right side. He obviously has sent this little cloud to us."
7
When the old servant heard that, he looked at Me with great awe and said: "O the great grace and mercy that is shown to us, poor, weak and sinful human race. If Kado, the faithful and ever truthful, had not said this to me, I hardly would have believed it, but now I believe it and I understand now the feeling of immortality, which awakens in me again.
8
So it is You who have visited us 3 times with Your Spirit, love and will on that faraway island in the form of a little cloud of light? Who else except only You can we thank that You finally have let Yourself be found by us? And because we have found You Yourself now, we also have found the most important, greatest, happiest and most desirable that man can find. I can say now nothing more, for my heart is too happy and has become blessed."
9
These words of the old servant caused great sensation, and all the Greeks and Jews who were present began to look at Me with much different eyes, and said among each other: "He must be more than only a mighty descendant of David."
10
Then Kado turned again to Me and said: "O dear Savior, Lord and Master, what happened with that little cloud of light?"
11
I said: "I do not have to give you an extensive explanation on that, because your old servant did already explain it to you. Even when I am here now bodily present among you, nevertheless, by My love and My will, in the spirit I am present everywhere.
12
The old priest has done well to abolish the polygamy service with great zeal and to teach the people faithfully and truthfully to believe in only one true God. For this he will receive the great reward in Heaven. But as you can see and speak to Me now bodily, so also the old priest sees and speaks to Me now also in the spirit, and he writes down the words into a book. When you will be in Patmos again, you will hear it from his mouth, and then you can make known to him that I have said this to you here. Whoever believes in Me and acts according to My teaching will reap eternal life.
13
There is now indeed great misery and all kind of distress among the people on this Earth. There are all kinds of bodily diseases that were mainly caused by the people themselves because they left the way of life that have been faithfully revealed to them. By their increasing love for the world and its judgment and death they began also to walk on the ways of the world and its judgment and death, and consequently they have inevitably called all that great misery and distress upon themselves.
14
There were, and there are some philosophers - and there will be also in the future - who say: 'There is no God. God is nothing else than an old myth that was invented a long time ago by certain more intelligent people in order to make other people helpful and servile to them. The world, and everything that is in it, is indeed intelligent and wise and well arranged, but if one or the other God - invented by men as if He would really exist - would have really created that, and He would have only called man - who is simply His most noble creature - only to life to let him suffer and bear everything since his birth, then this would disprove God's wisdom, His goodness, which is closely connected to that, and consequently also Himself, for without wisdom there is no power and without love and goodness no will to ever bring anything to a happy life.
15
Thus everything had to exist from the power of the Earth, the sun, the elements and the planets and all other celestial bodies. They are - according to them - still very coarse and rough, and only in their produces they assume a kind of softening and development. But even the most suitable produces would finally be much too weak to stand firm against the great coarseness and roughness of the formerly mentioned first powers, and they finally would have to submit to be destroyed by these powers. Only that person could be called happy and wise who knows how to make the time that he lives as pleasant as possible for himself and to search his greatest happiness as a worldly wise person in the eternal non-existence.' And this is then also the background from which one of your philosophers say: 'Go, eat, drink and just do what you like, for after death there is no more pleasure.'
16
Do you see, My beloved friends, that I also know very well the worldly wisdom of your philosophers and have known it all too well for already a long time? And I say to you that among all misery and distress of men there is nothing worse than their spiritual blindness. For out of this will arise inevitably all other evils among the people and these will exist as long as there will be Epicures in all communities of men. Because by its enticing example the worldly spirit of such wise men spoils all too soon many thousands.
17
Because a part of men begins already using all means to live a life in an Epicure manner. By this, another and still greater part must undeniably go to ruin in the greatest bodily and still greater spiritual need, and this will make then the misery and distress among the people on Earth complete.
18
But if this is so, can God help it when people who possess their completely free will, turn God aside and live a life according to their worldly love? Or must God continuously not allow all this misery and distress among the people because of His love, goodness, wisdom and might? Listen, if God would not allow this, then very soon things would turn out even more horrible among men than now. What would become of men in course of time? Nothing else than an extremely coarse and completely spiritless and lifeless rough piece of work, just like the heathenish idols of stone, metal and wood."