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 213 -
The necessity of the true, clear faith.
I say, "My dear Epiphan, if I had not given Aziona and Hiram already the clearest and brightest answers and teaching, I would gladly follow your very justified demand immediately; but as I have already done that, and both of them know exactly where they are in relation to Me, they will tell you already in just as an illuminating way as I told them, and then you will only need to live accordingly and your spirit itself will then reveal everything that you have to necessarily know on the correct path.
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"You must not completely reject faith, for without it you would find it far more difficult to reach the goal.
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But there are, of course, two kinds of faith. The true faith, full of light, is held by one who trusts in a truthful and widely experienced man without harboring any doubts and accepts what he says as a full truth, even when he does not immediately grasp it in its full depth and clarity.
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For behold, whoever wants to study higher mathematics must in the beginning of his studies accept everything. Only after he comprehends the true value of the numbers and units does he gradually come to understand clearly one proof after another. And look, the same applies here.
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If a very truthful man tells you something he has personally experienced, you may at first only believe what you have heard, but then promptly become active according to such a belief in the manner shown, and you will then through your own activity and experience gain the light that you would never have seen as a result of an ever so logical verbal discussion.
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Somebody could go to the trouble of patiently describing to you the city of Rome in great detail, but you would never be able to form a true and clear picture in your mind of that great metropolis. However, you fully believed what the story-teller told you and were filled with a mighty longing to see Rome personally and looked diligently and eagerly for a chance to visit it. Soon you had your chance and came to Rome. And now you marveled at the city and found it exactly as it had been described to you, - but how different the real Rome looked from the city you had pictured in your imagination!
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Was the fact that you had believed in the true description of Rome of advantage or disadvantage to you when later you really beheld Rome? Obviously, only of a tremendous advantage. For one thing, you would never have entertained the idea of visiting Rome save for the description given you beforehand. Then, supposing you had entered the great city without knowing anything about it, you would have walked around like one blind, would hardly have dared to ask anyone about this or that, but would of sheer fear and boredom have tried to leave this metropolis as soon as possible. However, had you not believed at all in the faithful description, well, it would anyway have been as good as none, and half a belief is not much better than none at all, for it does not prompt anyone to a true and lively action.
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Thus you see that one must, at least in the beginning, not be without faith when listening to a new precept. To be sure, man can examine the precepts and what gives rise to them, but he must first accept them as truths of high value on the strength of the authority and truthfulness of the teacher, even without at once comprehending them in their depth; for the comprehension occurs only when the condition imposed by the precept itself has been fulfilled. Only if this does not occur could he say with a shrug of his shoulders: 'Either the precept was a fabrication, or the conditions imposed have not yet been completely fulfilled by me.' Then it is high time to discuss the matter thoroughly with the master and to find out whether the faithful observation of the principles of the new teaching has also failed to produce a hoped-for result for everybody else.
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However, if it did work for somebody else but not for you, the fault obviously would only be with you. You would then without delay have to make up for many a failure and omission in order to achieve what your fellowman did. But if no one had achieved anything by observing ever so strictly the duties imposed by the new teaching, well, then it would be time to turn your back on such a false teaching."