The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 157 -
Floran philosophises about God.
Stahar says, "Friend, I know that you are a great wise man of the world, and that one finds it hard to contradict you; but the strange deeds of the angel cannot possibly have escaped you! Was he performing these for our natural life or only for our spirit?"
2
The speaker says, "We saw it with our own eyes; did they see it in Jerusalem as well? No! Because they did not see it with the living eyes and therefore cannot believe it if they are told about it, should they be informed. Can we then as reasonable people be angry with them or even damn them to all sorts of punishments?!
3
The necessity of faith has only just been shown to us through our senses; without our eyes we were as much confused as those in Jerusalem. Tell me where the actual demure stance begins! Wipe the eyes and wipe away the necessary vision, and then determine for me the absolute moral viewpoint!"
4
Stahar says, "Friend, I see well that we will not easily become equals! Such things must be clarified to us by a higher spirit! I now see the angel coming towards us; you must speak to him, and I would be very curious to learn how you will settle the issue between you!"
5
The constantly sober speaker says, "Dear friend! The angel does not bother me a jot more than you do, and I will speak to him as with you, and will give him even less than you in that he is a holy spirit and rejoices in every perfection, while we must still crawl on the hard and dirty ground of this Earth as worms in the dust of nothingness! There is only one truth, and that applies to an angel just as well as to the dirtiest rogue in the world!"
6
With these words the angel was beside him and said, "Floran, you do not fear me then at all?"
7
The speaker says, "If you know my name, you will also already know the reasons in me why I can have no fear before God, neither before you, even if you performed a thousand of the greatest miracles! I can even think of a thousand miracles, but not carry them out; what difference does it make?! If I could perform them, then yours would not seem miraculous anymore! Or should I then be sad if I cannot shine like the midday sun or fly around like a bird in the air?! I am satisfied with what I know, what I am and what I can do, and I do not need anything more at least for this world!
8
But what I know, am and can, is a gift from God for me personally, for which I am grateful to the Creator; I do not need anything more and I do not envy anyone who has more!
9
Should I fear you then because you are infinitely more powerful than I? Oh, not at all! If you were more foolish than I, you would have either no power or it would be crude, and I would be able to meet it with my pure reason just as well as the power of the storm; but you are much wiser than I and that gives me the confidence that you will do me no harm, particularly as I have never been able to do you any harm nor have I wanted to. And if you wanted to have a joke at my expense, I would not be angry with you, but I would also not praise you as a lion of wisdom, of whose seriousness one says that he is no beginner. But God is endlessly wiser and more powerful than you, thus I fear Him even less than you."
10
The angel says, "But don't you know that God can destroy you for eternity, or that He can set an eternal highest scourge on you if you do not respect Him?! And in this way should God not be feared?!"
11
Floran says, "Without intruding on your wisdom even the littlest bit, I must admit honestly that this question of yours - speaking straight - did no particularly heavenly justice to your wisdom! To doubt that God can destroy me as the most all-powerful being would be an even greater madness than your strongly silly reminder of my subjective and objective nothingness. What will happen then if I become nothing again as I was an eternal nothing before this existence?! The nothing is nothing, needs nothing and has eternally nothing to care for! Thus forget the eternal destruction of my nothingness, and I will give you the assurance that I as pure nothingness will never call you before a court! But should it please a god, the certainly very wisest being, to persecute me for eternity and to torture me, his wisdom is not far off; for such a longing would hardly appear for a tiger of a tyrant.
12
But history can show us no example that ever any tyrant was a wise man; and what could you and your God answer me if I prove to you that you were highly unwise instead of highly wise?! But no-one can claim that about God who has made only one glance into the highly wise decision of any creation! God is therefore highly wise and certainly highly good.
13
Equipped with such very most perfect characteristics, He can impossibly have created any creature in all the whole eternity for eternal torture! Ah, through all sorts of bitter and painful experiences to purify a being, here or in the afterlife that is something quite different; for man is a work of God that has to perfect itself according to the wisest order of God in the demure sphere in order to become what was determined by the Creator!
14
But the Creator only allows such short-lasting painful moments of betterment to occur and does not create them himself in order to torment a person for some time for His pleasure for a mistake, but only to lead him back to the sober recognition of the order and thereby ease his self-fulfillment. But as a dictatorial punishment I can eternally never see such a purely divine safety precaution out of which only love and a highest good will shine!
15
Therefore you cannot insult God any worse than if you present him to me as an eternal tyrant! I think that you will have understood me!
16
I can only love God above all else and worship Him as the most holy best and wisest being; but fear Him - never!"
17
At this the angel taps Floran on the shoulder and says smiling, "You did that well, and do not believe that I wanted to enter any sort of battle of words with you; for you are right, as I am also right! I wanted only to offer you the opportunity through my somewhat shallow questions to express your opinions before your brothers more than was the case before, and I say to you that you are now mature enough to meet the Lord! Therefore follow me - I myself will lead you to Him!"
18
Floran says, "So it is fully true that the old prophecy has been fulfilled here?"
19
The angel says, "Yes! The fullest truth, of which I am certainly a most audible witness from heaven; now therefore follow me alone!"