The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 176 -
Existence and non-existence.
Raphael said: "I knew that you would have an experience on me by which your Greek philosophy, which is still greatly stuck in you, would be shipwrecked. That must be put out of your mind if you want to grasp the nature of the Kingdom of God already during your physical life.
2
What is this foolish talk about existence and non-existence? There is only 1 existence. There is absolutely nowhere in the whole endless space of creation a non-existence. Although the temporarily, material existence is only a test-existence in order to attain to the true existence that can never more be destroyed, it is nevertheless also in itself a complete spiritual existence, for it is impossible that another real and true existence should exist in the whole extended sphere of infinity.
3
Look friend, with all your Greek worldly wisdom, there is the Lord, sitting in our midst. He alone is the true and eternal true existence in Himself. We are only, by His will, His realized ideas and thoughts of light, from the smallest to the greatest.
4
Since His ideas and thoughts of light are the fruit of His eternal endless love - which is His Being and Life - and which are just like Himself, imperishable and eternally indestructible, so is also our existence forever completely indestructible in the real spiritual life.
5
And since His endless wisdom and His love did not only create the visible, movable images for Himself out of His ideas and thoughts - if this can be said in a human manner - as it were for His perishable and in a certain way temporary pleasure, but have to exist eternally as independent free beings who are completely like Him - since they existed out of Him - His ideas and thoughts cannot be compared with the fantasy of men, but they are true realities, as He Himself is the only One, and forever only true reality.
6
He gives to all His extremely endless many ideas and thoughts a certain material test-existence for the fortification of their independence. And for this, He most certainly has His best and most true reason in His endless wisdom. Because which true master, who wants to build a big work of art, will not first clearly deliberate with himself as to how it can be preserved, as it must be according to the very wise plan of the master.
7
So it is completely impossible for even a little dot to be destroyed of what once existed. For once something exists in the endless abundance of thoughts and ideas of the Lord and eternal Master, it possesses its indestructible reality. That the forms, appearances and existent things and beings in the material world are subject to changes and apparent temporality is determined by the Lord, just like with a wise architect who has to build a big strong castle. Thereby you will also see at the beginning of the construction a lot and all kinds of raw construction stones, bricks, beams and still a lot of other things that are necessary for the construction, but all these things separately will first have to be submitted to great changes before they are suitable to be used for the construction of the big castle, which you very easily will be able to conclude and understand from the mentioned image. In exactly the same manner, all the things in nature, of which man is the cornerstone, are the preceding construction materials from which only then the actual existence and indestructibility of the spiritual world must and will continue.
8
Or do you perhaps think that the Master, who created the visible sky, this Earth with all the things on it, and man out of Himself according to His eternal love and wisdom, will let exist the most insignificant moss plant, so that He, the eternal One, would have pleasure on such little creature for a few moments and then let it go to ruin and perish, and immediately after that, for His pleasure, He would begin a same game in another spot? O friend, how narrow-minded would such idea be.
9
Look, if the Lord would be able to completely eradicate and destroy even one of His smallest created, divine thoughts and ideas, He obviously would loose something of His endless perfection, which in itself would be a pure impossibility. For, as far as His eternal Spirit is concerned, He is precisely the power that fills the endless space of creation everywhere with His omnipresent activity. Then where in Himself could He put a being that was once placed out of Him and in Him in an independent existence, realized by His will, so that it could be completely destroyed?
10
If you have understood all this in the right manner, you will be able to correct your old existence and non-existence philosophy insofar that there can only be an existence but eternally never a non-existence. For if there would be a non-existence, it nevertheless must be and exist somewhere, and if it exists somewhere, then it obviously would not be a non-existence but something that finally would exist anyway, and then there should be no more question concerning all your worldly wisdom of a non-existence.
11
Look, since you wanted to prove to me, out of your Greek philosophy, something that can never be proven, I made use of the same weapon and have thereby illuminated a real light for you. If you will let it become a real bright flame of life in yourself, you also will clearly understand what in fact the Kingdom of God is in itself. That means in its pure spiritual sphere, as well as in its corresponding relation and inner connection, on this Earth as well as on the other numberless celestial bodies of which you can see a very few as stars at the so-called firmament. But you should remove your old Greek philosophy out of yourself completely. For in this obvious truth you certainly will find a more true comfort than in a teaching according to which a person at the end of his short earthly life has to expect his bliss in a complete non-existence."