The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 5 -
The Pharisees talk among each other about the early death of children and about the Messiah.
Then the first speaker said: "Yes, I truly cannot reply anything on this, except that with all your good ideas you did not give us any clarification about how the early death of children can be reconciled with the wisdom, goodness and justice of God.
2
According to your idea, man has been called by God to acquire a true and to God pleasing solidity of his soul by means of a good ordered pre-existent life on this Earth, because the fact that this is the purpose of God appears clearly from all revelations which came to us through the mouth of the first patriarchs and the prophets. But what happens in the beyond with the children of which, because of their early death, a disordered, and even less an ordered pre-existent test life was actually not possible? If the soul of man can only reach the solid, true eternal life through a good ordered pre-existent test life, how is this possible for the soul of a child to reach it? Or does the soul of the child die together with the body?"
3
Then the second, good speaker said: "From the early times of men it is not known if children have died during that time. The early death of children is only caused by the sins of the parents, and therefore, consciously or unconsciously, the early death of their children is their fault. But God in His highest wisdom will also know how to take care of the innocent souls of children. They certainly will be able to catch up with what they have failed to do here when it was not their fault.
4
Is this Earth the only world? Let us take a look at the starry sky. Great wise men from ancient times and even Moses in his supplement books that we still have but in which we do not believe anymore, have pointed out that the sun, the moon and all stars are worlds and are often a lot bigger than ours. If this is so, then it also will not be so difficult for God's wisdom and power to show the souls of the children another and perhaps also in many aspects better world to live in, upon which they can reach their completion of life.
5
There is really no question to the fact that God has still other school worlds in the eternal great space of creation for the human beings. We as small and weak human beings have also more than one school building for our children. If this is possible with us powerless human beings, then why should that be impossible for the almighty and very wise God?
6
The patriarchs, who certainly were more in contact with God's Heaven than we now, knew very well that this is so. We however, by our materialistic worldly attitude have lost everything that is of the spirit, and we hardly know anything about it anymore. Although I also am a material man, but I have learned and experienced many things and therefore I speak now as I speak. Of course, in the temple in the presence of everyone I cannot speak like that."
7
The first speaker said: "Now I have no more objections and I am truly glad that you have changed my mind. But now it is time to return to our main subject, namely the wonderful prophet from Galilee. In the beginning I made immediately the remark that on Earth there are always special men from whose words and deeds we easily and indisputably can recognize a higher intelligence equal to God, as this seems now to be the case with our Galilean.
8
But also other people do not lack identical gifts. Take for instance today the sudden disappearance of our coats and the magical appearance of the 3 lions. This is a real wonder that a simple human being cannot understand. Now, these people could say: 'I or he over there is your Messiah because he is capable to perform wonders', which we however cannot accept, because if we would do that, then it soon would entirely be crowded with messiahs. The Essenes are also performing wonders, but for this reason they are by far no messiahs. The Galilean however presents Himself to us as such. What can we say about this?"
9
The second, good speaker said: "My opinion - that I however was not able to express for understandable reasons - is as follows: His teachings and deeds are well known to me. As far as His life and way of acting are concerned, He is the most pure Jew, completely according to the meaning of Moses. However, how things are with us in the temple with the best Moses, this we all know very well. And also He seems to know it perfectly, otherwise He would not have added such hard words to us this morning. Moreover, with the born-blind man He has performed a true wonder of God, only by His will, which before was possible to no one. And thus, I am of the opinion that we as sharp observers must leave the matter alone. Time will give us advice. If finally He still is the One who He openly proclaims to be before all the people, then we will do eternally nothing against Him. If finally He is not the One, then He also will not do anything against us, despite all His wonders.
10
The best is to secretly examine all His teachings and deeds. If we see that those are totally pure and His deeds totally of a godly nature, then we will also believe in Him. However, if in our eyes He does not comply with this condition, then we will stay as we are and will leave everything else to God."
11
All of them agreed on this and they continued to eat and drink.
12
After this speech, Lazarus went at My order to them again. He knew what they all had said because I told it to everyone.