THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 11 -
The Nubian's opinions on the miracle.
When this was in order as well, Oubratouvishar came to Me again and said, "You alone are almighty above almighty! Look, my brothers, sisters and I have now seen the salvation of all people who have an honest heart and a good will, who look to educate their heart and soul and not before it is time, their mind, which should actually be just a right arm of the heart. This is and will remain the only right way of true life and its salvation, which we blacks, like a clever man, all understand and accept.
2
But with all our maturity and knowledge this miracle bothers us a lot, and some guesses were made among us, so that some of us think that even a man made perfect through Your spirit could perform such a miracle. Others on the other hand reckon: Bringing about such things, will only ever be possible for God because it takes an almighty godly will, which no created spirit could ever have on its own because it is not infinite, but only a highly limited spirit.
3
Further they say and think that it could be noticed in the creatures of this world. The bigger they are, the more powerful and mighty is their demeanor, and the smaller they are, the less powerful they are. The story goes among our people that once there were giant elephants; compared to them the ones existing on earth now are only small monkeys. These animals were supposedly so powerful that they were easily able to uproot the strongest trees with their trunks. So, if the basic condition for power in the various creatures is that the bigger it is on this earth is, the more powerful it is, how much more of a difference should be noticed in the spirits! Therefore, what is possible for You as the eternal spirit, because You alone are of infinite greatness, is not possible for a finitely created spirit and thus it is also not possible for it to create such a house, a garden and such magnificent ships out of nothing!
4
I too, have a split opinion on this; I said to them, upholding the opinion of the first ones: creating in an instant something that people could also accomplish"even if with a lot of work and time "should be easier for God, than creating something that will always remain and must remain impossible for people.
5
People can in time build wonderfully magnificent and extremely big buildings; but all the people of the world cannot create even moss that would grow, bloom and carry seeds suitable for reproduction, let alone any fruit tree or an animal that can move freely, look for its food and procreate.
6
To create such things out of nothingness through the almighty will alone will hardly ever be possible for even the most perfect person because it takes more than the finite power of a human spirit limited both in time and space. But things that he has already, even though strenuously, created as finite, should be possible to be created in an instant by the perfect spirit of a person. The only question remaining is whether they would be permanent, or just momentary only to appear on an occasion when one would try, without any self-interest and just for the glorification of Your name, to give the spiritually blind true light!
7
Would You, oh Lord, give me the right answer to that? Am I right, or are the others? I would not have bothered you with this question if I had not noticed that You were given - by Your own will of course - a small respite. Thus, if Your holy will allowed You to give me an eternally valid answer to my question, it would be a great blessing for all of us, for which we will never be able to thank You enough."