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 144 -
The future relationship between the Essenes and the priesthood.
When Roklus informs his companions of what he has heard from Me, they are highly joyful about it, and the previous speaker says, "You see, my friend, how good it was that I gave you this impulse to seek advice about it from the Lord Himself, since He is still here! Now we know what we are at, and what we have to do and do not need any white lie "but instead we step forward with the most naked truth and will make everyone who calls us to question be silent with only a few words! Oh, that is great and holy advice! Yes, yes, whoever the Lord helps, is truly helped, and thereby he is helped truly also for all times!"
2
The still present Roklus says, "Yes, you are indeed totally and fully correct there! You have been greatly helped with this advice; but nonetheless with time there will be no end of all sorts of troubles and temptations in your institute, and you will then at all times "remember this well! "count very many friends, but at the same time also always a thousand times as many enemies who will persecute you constantly for being against them, and also because the Lord Himself has been persecuted on this Earth by the blind and evil people.
3
For all professional magicians and all the priests, of whichever confession, hate Him, and most of all however the templars of Jerusalem. But since exactly the priesthood was always the very most comfortable caste of people on this Earth and was so advantageously positioned, they will indeed never be completely got rid of; and not much time will pass before even fractions of this now newest religion of God will be picked up by all sorts of rogues and idlers, and a priesthood will rise out of them, against which even the temple caste is hardly a shadow play.
4
And in comparison with this priesthood you will always have a hard stand. They will of course never do anything to you or harm; but they will persecute you in all ways and places, just as now the Pharisees persecute the Lord in all ways and means. Alone, that will be a true sign to you that you are fully the Lord's and that you keep His word pure in writing and in deed; and for that reason you will have much to rejoice about all the time at such a witness.
5
But you will not ever fear your persecutors, because you will always live under the visible protection of the Lord; but your opponents will fear you extremely and will persecute you exactly for this reason. All their persecutions however will do them as little good as it does the templars when they persecute the Lord now with all their strength, as which you will soon experience here a little test of. The Lord has announced to you, my Roklus, already in advance that something else would happen before the morning meal! But what "listen!
6
The wicked ones have learned through a evil refugee from Caesarea Philippi that the prophet from Nazareth is staying here performing His 'mischief', and also that the supreme governor is staying here at His favor. Therefore they have hastily put together a very astute plan in order to capture the Lord, in that they want to make Him seem to Cyrenius an agitator of the people with actual reasons and make Him hateful. The plan has been satanically well laid out so that you will be quite amazed at it.
7
They will fare badly here, namely with Cyrenius; but this event here will bring about a great stir, apart from the fact that such an undertaking here will be immediately talked round most cheerfully. You will play a little part yourselves, but not to your disadvantage, but instead only to the advantage of the good cause. Therefore just be very attentive to everything; just another little quarter of an hour, and things will kick off! But in the meantime we want to keep very calm; Cyrenius himself still has no idea of this, because that is the Lord's will! But the story will therefore be all the more striking. Therefore quiet now!"
8
Everything now became calm without any disruption, to which the imminent sunrise contributed a lot; but mainly everyone there was expecting something special and therefore listened with a certain anxious curiosity to hear what would happen.