The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 99 -
Fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecies. The freedom of will of man and the omniscience of God.
Now one of the Pharisees whose wife and children were also in Bethany, asked Me: "Lord and Master, would You mind if I would go away to greet my wife and children?"
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I said: "Oh absolutely not, but just look at My oldest disciples. They also have a wife and children and none of them asks Me something as you have asked Me now. But now I say to you, and also to all of you: whoever loves something in this world more than Me, is not worthy of Me, and he who once has put his hand to the plow and looks behind, that means: to that which is of the world, is not yet suitable for the Kingdom of God. Do you think that your wife and children will be better taken care of if you still would see and speak to them tonight? Now this is My opinion. Apart from that, you are completely free to do as you please."
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When the Pharisee heard that from Me, he had no more desire to visit now late at night his wife and children, and he remained very quietly sitting at the table.
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However, another one of the group of Jewish Greeks, who also was a Pharisee, asked: "Lord and Master, You know already since eternity in Your Spirit all the things that You will do and undertake tomorrow. Now and then You let us know, although we did not ask for it. Therefore, it surely cannot be so very wrong if I would ask You for all the things that You will undertake tomorrow."
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I said: "If this would be for you and the others necessary and useful, I also would tell you about all the things that I will undertake tomorrow, but because this is not the case, I also do not tell you.
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Actually, it is not good for man to know too much about what will definitely happen in the future, for this would bring men to despair or finally would make them very lazy and passive.
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On this Earth, where the children of God are educated, it is also impossible to predict the future with the same great certainty as can be the case on any other planet, for because of the complete freedom of will of men on this Earth it depends in the very first place on what men want themselves and how they act according to their knowledge and will.
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If I would say now: 'You can now know, will and act as you want, but with complete certainty it still will happen what I will and what I say to you.' Yes, if this would be the case, then I really would have descended from the Heavens to you men completely in vain, and My whole teaching that I give to you would be useless.
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Yes, I even will say it stronger: when from a moral and national point of view, only what I proclaim to you would happen, actually unchangeably, then you men would not have a higher destination than the animals, and why would you then have your insight, your intellect and your love, and from that your perfect free will? I only can tell you beforehand that this or that will happen to you when you will want it and act like this or like that, but if I ever beforehand would say to a nation or only to a person as something completely definite that this or that will absolutely happen, then you would not be intended to become children of God and I would not be your Father in My Spirit.
10
Just look at all the prophets who predicted future things, if ever one has predicted something as an inevitable coming fact. Every one of them has formulated his prediction only under certain conditions, which always referred to the improvement or change for the worse of the people. Only My incarnation was predicted to the people as completely definite for their salvation, independently of their will or acting. Therefore, this is merely My work, but although this is so, I still let everyone who wants, to take part in this extremely great work of Mine.
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Guided by My Spirit, Jonah had to go to the Ninevites to announce their downfall if they would persist in their wickedness. He did not like to do that because he as a prophet knew well that My predictions were always based on conditions. But the people of Nineveh improved their life and of course the actual execution of My threat did not come, which was even irritating to Jonah.
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This was also the case with Jeremiah, a son of Hilkiah, from the offshoot of priests of Anathoth in the land Benjamin, who I had called at the time of Josiah, the son of Amon, in his 13th year of reign as king of Judah, and also at the time of king Jehoiakim, a son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, also a son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the captivity of Jerusalem in the 5th month. Yes, the prediction of this prophet was fulfilled in many different ways, and the captivity took place, but not because of the fact that I had announced it beforehand by the named prophet to the Jews at that time who had completely forgotten Me, but because the Jews did not improve their life, were only laughing at the prophet and insulted him and finally even persecuted him, so that he himself became unwilling and destroyed everything he had written, and I told him then that he should write everything again and also permitted him to do so.
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Thus, the Jews themselves were to blame for the fact that unfortunately the greatest part of what had been announced to them was fulfilled. But for many Jews who actually improved their life, the evil part of the prediction of Jeremiah was not fulfilled, but only the good part.
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And so it is easy to understand that everything I have predicted to you and will still predict are by necessity divided into two parts: either the bad things will happen, or the good. So also, the time is never definitely determined, but this is always completely depending on the will and the actions of men. For how could I say to a people, no matter how degenerated they are: 'Since you have become so evil and did not pay attention to My serious admonitions, in 7 days from now on you must be destroyed with lightning and thunder and pitch and sulfur from heaven'. But if the people will take that very much at heart, do penance in sack and ashes and would turn to Me, would I under such circumstances still execute My threat on the 7th day because I had predicted it Myself? Oh no, I will have mercy on the people who repented and will bless them and not chastise them.
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You have seen the signs and know what I Myself have predicted about the future of Jerusalem, but this does not mean that in its entirety it also has to take place unchangeably and definitely, but it all will depend on the will and the actions of the Jews and temple servants."
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Now the Pharisee said: "But Lord, You surely must be able to see for Yourself with complete certainty if the Jews and temple servants will improve their life or not, and on those grounds You will then also be able to say if the announced judgment will or will not come over them."
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I said: "Yes, this is how you think as a human being, but I am of a completely different opinion. Have you never read on certain places in the Scripture that it was written: 'And God had turned away His face from this people'? Now what does that mean? Look, that means as much as: if I have warned a people once, 2, 3 to 7 times, I do not pay attention anymore on what they want and what they further will do. In short, those people or also every human being can then will and do what they want, and I do not want to know anything until they have completely improved their life or until the measure of sins is full. So, as a people or also a person wills and acts, so it will happen. For I have arranged it on Earth in such a way that for every way of acting of men, the sure result will come by itself.
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And so, also the day of tomorrow will come without I have to predict to you what it will look like. Even if now and then, pure light spirits would prophecy to men, then it still will remain with what I have told you now and of which your reason has to recognize that this alone can be the only truth. But because we have talked sufficiently today about all kinds of things, we will now go to rest again and strengthen our inward parts by way of sleep."
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Then they all stood up and went to the places of rest that were made ready for them. I however stayed on My rest chair in the hall until the morning.