The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 79 -
To speak and to act is better than to write. About the true and false gospels.
Also the disciple John asked Me if he, since there was still time for that, had to take notes of what has been said and of what had happened.
2
I said: "Whatever Matthew wrote down is enough, because not everything is meant for the people, and still less for those human pigs, about which I was just talking. After Me you will surely have time enough to write down from the Spirit what you have heard and seen from Me.
3
Because in the distant future I will also awaken helpers and by the spirit in their heart I will dictate to them everything what has happened now and what has been taught since the time that I have began My mastership and made you as My first disciples, and also what will happen next and still a lot of other things. And since this will be possible to Me in the distant future, it will be all the more possible with you to dictate by the spirit of your heart everything which I consider necessary to write down.
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However, in the beginning you should not keep yourselves too busy with writing, but more with speaking, so that the people can in the first place hear what it is all about.
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Once the people have been informed and have formed congregations in My name, then after that you can also write to such congregations if you are at work in other places. But you do not have to write a letter to the congregation where you are preaching. However, if you will leave it, you can also leave a written remembrance behind.
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But warn the congregations very explicitly that they should not idolize such writings that are left behind, like the Pharisees and Jews are doing with the books of Moses and the prophets. Because these are now deeply bowing before the closet in the temple in which these books are kept, and they pray to the tables of the law and think that they present God the right honor by this. Oh, what a blind fools. What is more and better: to worship the tables of the law, thinking to show the right honor to God, or to observe daily the laws that are written on the tables? The second, which would be the only correct one, is actually not practiced by any temple servant and not by a single Jew, but the first one, which is worthless, they practice very conscientiously because it certainly costs them less effort.
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That is why I am saying this now to you, so that firstly you would not write too much but talk more, and so that in the future they would not do with My teaching what the temple servants and arch-Jews are doing now with the books of Moses and with the tables of the law and the prophets, even by attributing certain magical effects to them which those books have never possessed. Therefore, try to avoid this carefully.
8
Further, for the present time, you should not write too much to prevent that the writing spirit among the people would not be too much awakened the first time. It is better that men would act more according to My teaching than that they would write it down after hearing it, for if the writing spirit is awakened too early among the people, then in a short time after Me you will see countless written gospels that will come up, even under your name, and you will be very busy to refute all those writings coming from false prophets. Therefore, rather talk much, but write little. But when the right time has come, then also much has to be written. Did you all understand this well?"
9
Now Simon Judah said: "Lord, then it finally would be better not to write anything down, or else everything should be written down very accurately, so that only one Scripture would exist from Your mouth of which only later authorized and complete copy's for other people can be made. For I imagine that in the course of time certain people will perhaps also write down wrongly and incorrectly the word that we will proclaim, and in this way, a great number of false gospels can come up, and the people will later no more know which gospel is the right and true one, and that will then also lead to all kinds of different directions of faith."
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I said: "Simon Judah, I do not reject your vision, and I also do not say that it is not wise, but what I have advised to you is and remains for the moment the best.
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No matter what you do, you cannot prevent for the future times that next to the true and real gospel also a great number of pseudo gospels will develop, and for the later descendants who will obtain one or the other gospel it will be always difficult to determine if it is real.
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That is why you should now proclaim My Word more with the mouth. Then the real believers will come by themselves to the living word from Me, and then they will not have to examine one or the other written gospel to know if it is real and true.
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But if immediately after Me, instead of speaking much, you would only write much, then surely your writings will be copied all the sooner by other people, with all kinds of omissions or also additions, and in that case the people will soon have to wonder if those writings are really and trustworthily yours. However, if you will teach personally, and if necessary also through signs make yourselves known as such, then no one will ask you if you really are My true disciples and if your words are actually Mine.
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Oh yes, when you will have proclaimed Me often and have baptized many in My name, and because of that, already many have come to the inner living gospel, then, as said, you can also write, so that the descendants can have a witness in your writings that I was and how I was your Lord and Master, and how you were My disciples. But these your writings should then also be kept and guarded only in that congregation, where through action the inner, living gospel will continue from father to son and further on, and so you will remain in the heart of the people, not solely as writing apostles but as living acting apostles as a true and eternal witness.
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If this is not so in a congregation, then those writings should not be given for preservation, for they would not be of any use for the members of the congregation, because their descendants - who are dead as far as the spirit of the heart is concerned - will be no more capable to examine the veracity of it and be no more capable to discern a false writing from within, but would only determine this according to the majority of votes in their generally blind assembly, just like it is now the case in the temple with the Pharisees and high priests. However, what are the many votes of blind people compared to the one truth? I say to you: if one person who lives from within and is full of light tells the truth, what can the countless many assembly votes still do against this one truth?
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There is only one truth, and this can be spoken out and be proven by one person as well as by myriads of angels. But when the worldly wisdom resists it because that truth is not beneficial for its worldly advantages, is that then a reason to assume that the truth has less value?
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The lie can represent itself in a large assembly of people by countless votes, but for this reason it still will never become a truth.
18
Therefore, do not worry about what is better, the proclaimed or written word, for the truth can be very well recognized at its fruits. The lie builds its houses on loose sand, but the truth on rocks, and there, hell cannot undertake a campaign against it, for, as the darkness of the night can never become daylight, so also the lie can never become truth. Then 10.000 false gospels can be written, but always only the one will be and remain the only true one which according to My promise will reveal itself alive in man, if he will live and act according to My words. And until the end of all times that living gospel will also be the only touchstone that is capable to distinguish a written real gospel from a false one.
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Thus, you should recognize it at the fruits, for no figs can be harvested from thistles and no grapes from a bush of thorns. From this, it will be easy to see if someone is My disciple or not. My disciples and also their disciples will love one another, just like I also always love you, but the false disciples will hate one another openly or secretly. Because in this consists the actual black and bad fruit of the lie, that it always hates itself, because the one lie never wants to yield to the other, but the truth continues to search its own and loves it more and more, just like one light never darkens the other, but only makes it more and more clear and finally leads to a united very bright light.
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So the light has a great love for still more light, but the lie hates the lie, because it fears treason in it. Look, this is an important criterion by which one can distinguish very well, even with a blindfold, the truth from the lie.
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That is why one will be able to always distinguish easily the false gospels from the real ones, because the false ones will mutually persecute and hate each other, but the real ones will love each other as twin brothers. They will search for each other and will also quickly and easily find each other.
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I think, My dear Simon Judah, that I have now spoken to you clearly enough. But determine for yourselves if you also have well understood Me."
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Simon Judah said: "Lord, this time You have again spoken exceptionally clear to us, and I have understood You very clearly in every respect, and all the others certainly also. But from these sunny clear words of Yours I also understood that one cannot contradict You in any way. But so it is also completely right, for if one could do that, You would not be the Lord and Master from eternity. And these words of Yours must also remain as a continuous guideline. We thank You all of us for this so clear lesson."
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I said: "Then hold on to this, or else you will fall without being aware of it."