The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the Vicinity of Caesara Philippi (Matthew 16)
- Chapter 203 -
Materialism and its proponents.
1
(Jarah:) "There certainly are unheard of abominations taking place constantly being initiated by the so-called servants of God! But mankind, bound to hear about it, and themselves not un-versed in God's scriptures, increasingly ask one another daily: 'What's this? What is the word of God? Can it be God's will, and purpose of His word, that the proclaimers of God's word, His love-will, grace, gentleness and peace should be the most greedy, domineering, selfish, loveless and impudent devils towards their fellow-men?'
2
And behold, these are good questions, for these are the first impulses towards peoples' true independence of action, without which they can never go over into true spiritual freedom, either through benevolence and even less so through evil and so-to-say hellish coercion, for without spiritual freedom there can be no eternal life for the soul and its spirit.
3
It is true, when observing the actions of the priesthood, one can shear of just annoyance and nearly get completely dissolved by it and one often would like to scream at top of one's voice: 'Lord! Don't You have no lightening, no hail, no sulphur and no pitch anymore to punish these people-tigers with the most severe sharpness of Your divine rage?' But then a gentle voice from the innermost heart says: 'Be clever and wise, and watch your step! If you see an adder lurking next to the road, sidestep it; for the whole earth is not yet covered by adders!
4
It has to be night just as there is day, so that people can recognise the value of light. During the day no person has any need for the light of a lamp; but if it gets night then every person feels painfully the absence of light and gets himself a light as best he can and even a weak luster makes his room more friendly then a total lack of light.
5
Behold, if the Lord provides the people of this earth with all kinds of goods, they soon become wanton and start to provide too much for their body and their soul in which the divine spirit resides, which then soon is consumed, similar to the noble seminal grain by the surrounding saturation greedy earth, instead of obtaining in the right measure the strengthening from the body for the germination of the divine spirit to an everlasting life, as such is prescribed by God, and for which final purpose God actually has given the soul a body. However, if the soul has been consumed by its body, instead of noble fruits, only thorns, thistles and all kinds of evil weeds appear, from which surely no grapes and figs can be harvested!
6
Such a person is then spiritually as good as dead! He doesn't know anything about the spirit. He denies everything spiritual and materialises everything. Accept for coarse matter nothing else exists for such a person; his stomach and his sensuous skin are the only two divinities for which he is day and night prepared to bring any sacrifice. For such a person no God exists anymore, and if such people finally become priests and servants of God as it is unfortunately very often the case today, one hopefully will not have to ask and say anymore: 'Why have these pure servants of the flesh for whom basically soul, spirit and God and His heavens are nothing more than outdated, poetically fantastic pictures of speech, have become priests and servants of God? ' One has to look only at their oversized bellies and one has the fullest answer vividly before one eyes!
7
For such broadcasters of the word of God is it of course just the same whether they satisfy their entrusted congregationals with bread from the heavens or with the mud from nauseating puddles; as long as they are paid majestically well! Therefore we should not be too surprised, if we not seldom hear things from the temple, which quite often makes us becoming nearly stiff from terror.
8
If a pure body person has progressed to the point that he feels nearly less than a mushroom of the forest growing out of any earth mud, for the worthiness to be a human being, what nobleness can be expected from such a mud-person? One should let him lie like a disgusting adder lurking and hissing next to the road and look for any adderless place on the wide surface of mother earth. For the Lord is with everybody who truly is searching for Him, and does not abandon him, who in his misery turns to Him!
9
Those of us living upon the shores of the inland sea have for a long time been Temple toys. Judea was spared as mus as possible, but in return we Galileans had to for many years already, serve the Temple as merest scapegoats and milking-cows, - for which however we enjoy the advantage of the much earlier advent of the most glorious Light in and above everything, whilst Judea still finds itself in deepest night.
10
First of all we discerned the exceeding rapacity of the Temple-earth, by which I mean the Priest food of course, freeing ourselves of them as much as possible. And we ourselves, as a choice seed of God, did not squander our inner life-force on filling the massive Temple-stomach, but instead turned to our increasingly recognized divine order within us and now, as a fruit with multiple blessings, stand upon God's field free. But the Judeans, Mesopotamians and the inhabitants of the noon (South) shall not for a long time yet realize how they are the most solidly deceived fools of the Temple!
11
In this my somewhat drawn-out answer to my own question it shall be recognized by every guest, I hope, that the Nazarene maiden knows fairly well what to make of divine providence. You oh Lord, however, through Your grace forgive me for chattering so much in Your presence, and that at Your holy side; and possibly vain things! I did not thereby intend to exhibit the depth of my understanding, but the opportunity allowing it, to faithfully render whatever was in my heart!"