Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 116 -
A SCENE WITH SATAN FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF GOD'S CHILDREN. MARTIN'S DISPUTE WITH SATAN. MARTIN IS CORNERED. THE LORD'S ADVICE.
1
(Martin is crying from the distance): "Lord, help us, help us! The beast will harm us. We are not strong enough to manage it."
2
(Say I): "Satan, obey your Lord!"
3
(Roars the dragon): "I shall never obey you! I do not acknowledge any Lord above me!"
4
(Say I): "If you do not obey My fatherly words, you will have to obey My omnipotence, which experience is not new to you. I am calling you once more as Father and Lord: Come here and justify yourself!"
5
(Roars the dragon): "No, no, no, I shall never obey you, for I alone am the Lord of infinity, and what you are, you are only through me!"
6
(Say I): "Satan, do not defy God, your eternal Creator, any longer, or your everlasting, inexorable judgment will be upon you!"
7
(Roars the dragon again): "I, your Lord, will defy you and your miserable judgment forever. Move me from this spot if you can!"
8
Now I seize him with the might of My will and throw him with all his adherents to the ground in front of Me, holding him down so that he is lying there as if dead.
9
Martin asks him (the dragon) immediately why he has not defied Me now.
10
(But I say): "Let him be until he recovers. Then we shall see what he has to say."
11
(Says Martin): "Oh, Lord, just now I would love to let my tongue run away with me to tell this incredibly stupid being a few truths! If I could only have a go at this foolish, pig-headed monster! Its ridiculously horrible appearance does not frighten me at all. It only makes me laugh - although angrily!"
12
(Say I): "If you are so keen on tackling My arch-enemy, you may as well try your luck. But watch out that you do not get the worst of it! Only his tongue shall be released for this purpose, for if I release him completely he would play with you like a lion plays with a gnat. I assure you that without Me, the entire creation could not withstand him, considering the power he still possesses. However, you may try to master his tongue, which has now been released. You may now start your dispute."
13
(Martin fearlessly walks to within a step of the beast's jaws and begins to attack it with the following questions): "Listen, you most stupid beast in the whole of infinity! What do you hope to gain from God with your constant, ridiculous defiance? Haven't a few eternities sufficed to prove to you that you are the most stupid wretch in all creation? Of an ass, one says that it goes dancing on ice but once. And what about you, you ancient, filthy beast, you deceiver of worlds, men and beasts? Haven't the fires of hell fried your brains long enough, through decillions of years or eternities, provided you know what that means? Answer me, you wretch, if you have an answer at all!"
14
(Says the dragon): "Listen, you forward fool, a lion does not catch gnats! And I, as a primordial spirit, am even in my deepest misery too generous to enter into a dispute with a nomadic spirit. Besides, I am only too willing to forgive you, who on earth used to be such a good worker for my kingdom. So, no harm meant, my dear Martin!"
15
This answer has infuriated Martin. Such contempt of his person is almost unbearable. He takes a deep breath and says:
16
(Martin): "Oh, you wretched scoundrel, how dare you degrade me, a citizen of heaven, in the presence of God? Don't you know what is written: 'Woe betide him who will lay hands on one of My anoited'? I, as a citizen of heaven, would be one of the anointed, and do you believe, you wretch, that the Lord will let you go unpunished for such wickedness?"
17
(Says the dragon): "Listen, Martin, I, whom on earth, while in my pay, you used to call the prince of falsehood, have calmly told you the plain truth in reply to your infamous abuse of me in my wretchedness. And you, one of God's anointed, a citizen of heaven, blow up like a powder magazine on earth, threatening me with God's revenge if I impugned your anointed person.
18
But tell me, who gave you the right to abuse me in such a way in the presence of God? Am not I, too, from God, only with the difference that I am an infinite part of God, while you are just a particle of dust out of me, recovered by the Lord from the chaff of nothingness and formed into the tiniest human spirit?
19
If you have any respect for God, you have to respect everything that is from Him and not only your own anointed head, which seems to be much more important to you than the Lord. Or have you measured those primordial depths of the Deity in all detail to enable you to face me with the infinite fundamental wisdom and say: 'Why are you as you should not be?'
20
Can you prove to me that I am not what I must be for crea-tional reasons, forever unfathomable to you, to enable you to be the little bit that you are? Or do you know of a potter who makes pots without a wheel? What the wheel is to the potter, the whole world is to God. I am the matter of all the world, thus also its foundation. Therefore, I am the consolidated antithesis, the basis without which no being and evolution could ever manifest itself.
21
From all this, you may gather with your anointed head that, no doubt, I, too, am necessary in the great order of God, and that God, by originally creating me, has surely not placed an absurdity at the root of all being and evolution. Admit that this is so, if you understand this and are willing to fully respect God! How is it that you, with your anointed head, do not understand that by abusing God's works, you are abusing God Himself, calling Him - in your great stupidity, of course - a bungler?
22
Therefore, my dear Martin, calm down! For many eternities will pass before you will comprehend only a fraction of an atom of that unfathomably deep relationship between me and God. By the way, doesn't it strike you, an anointed citizen of God's heaven, as most peculiar that you have to learn meekness from me, Satan?
23
If you still have to tell me something, Martin, speak up. But speak like a wise man and not like a silly street urchin in the world. Bear in mind that you are standing here before God and His greatest primordial spirit, Whose shape and whose to you forever inconceivable defiance are annoying you because of your ignorance!"
24
(Martin is considerably startled and quite at a loss what to say. He looks in turn at Me and at the dragon, and asks Me secretly): "Lord, what does this mean? How can I answer the dragon? Although inconceivable, deep down he seems to be right.
25
The devil - and to be right. How absurd that is! But what can I say if he is right after all? No, that beats me! The devil - being right!"
26
(Say I): "You were so keen on a dispute with him, so carry on. You must on no account allow the devil to defeat you. So endeavor to fight him to your heart's content. Go on with your dispute and refute his contention."
27
(Says Martin): "Oh, what a refutation that will be! Oh dear, oh dear, I and that one!"