The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 133 -
Of the teachings on the soul. Nature and purpose of matter. The free, automatic development of man into a child of God.
Said I: "My friend, if there is nothing else to make you feel obliged to leave this graceful place, you just as well can stay, and I will here with just a few words explain to you, which makes you so disconcert in your soul! Behold, I knew about this your weakness in your soul and therefore allowed such to happen, that the giant eagle would carry his prey before your nose!
2
It is true that on this earth all life is perpetually exposed to all kinds of enemies and must always be battle ready to assert itself as life. This battle however applies only to matter under judgement by the omnipotent will of God, which always has to suffer the most then, when its inner spiritual life which we call soul, separates itself from the loose matter and rises to a more perfect degree of life.
3
Behold, all matter of this earth - from the hardest rock up to the aether high above you - is soul substance, however in a necessary and thus consolidated state. Its destination however is to return to a unbound, pure spiritual being, if it has reached, by this isolation, the necessary life independence. But to reach this continuously increasing self-activity, the soul freed from bound matter must go through all possible levels of life and must in each new level of life wrap itself anew in a material body, from which the soul again attracts new life- and activity substances and makes it her own.
4
Once a soul in a body - which her spirit out of God can clearly see - being it the soul of a plant or that of an animal, by the necessary ripening has achieved the ability to rise to the next higher level of life, the soul's spirit in the beyond continuously developing the soul, arranges that her further unusable body is taken away from her, so that she then, already equipped with higher intelligence, can build for herself another body, wherein she again for a shorter or also longer period of time can work herself up to an even greater life- and activity intelligence, and this process continues up to a human, where she, as already totally free, reaches in her last body full self-consciousness, the recognition of God and love, which unification we call the new- or rebirth in the spirit.
5
If a human soul has reached this degree of life, she is perfected and can as such a perfect independent being and life not be destroyed and devoured anymore by the most general divine all-being and all-life.
6
The surest sign of the already attained life independence of a human soul is and consists therein, that she recognizes God and even loves Him with all her strength. For as long a soul does not recognizes God as a being separated from herself, the soul is still blind and deaf and not free from the power of the divine almightiness; she then still has to fight immensely to free herself from such chains. But as soon as the soul begins to recognize the true God as outside herself and begins to properly perceiving Him intrinsic through the feeling of love, she then is already free from the bonds of divine almightiness and belongs then also already more and more to herself and is therefore self-creator of her own being and life and thereby an independent friend of God for all eternities of eternities.
7
If so, the actual being loses actually nothing if the further unusable body is taken away from her, so that it can reach its final destination even quicker.
8
What is it about the body of this rabbit with which the eagle satisfies its hunger, - at the same time freeing the soul of the little animal, so that it already has the full ability to rise to a higher level of life? The eagle also has a soul striving for the same destination. In the flesh and blood of the rabbit exists also still more coarse soul substances. They will be united with the soul substances of the eagle so that the eagle's soul thereby becomes a little softer and more intelligent and after the loss of its body can already become something of a human soul, gifted with a considerable amount of light, courage and power.
9
On this earth it just has been the way for growing up of the children of God. Life is and stays a battle with all kinds of enemies for as long it has struggling succeeded to become a winner over all matter out of its own power. And as such you should not be surprised about all the material life enemies; since they are not enemies of the actual life, but only enemies of the material virtual life, which actually is no life at all, but only a tool of the true, inner, spiritual soul life, and is the means whereby she can work her up to the ever increasing, truest actual life freedom, which would not be thinkable possible without this temporary middel-life.
10
God of course can with His almightiness produce a spirit with perfect wisdom and power out of Himself, and this in one moment countless many, - however, all such spirits would not have any independence; since their will and actions are nothing else than those of the divine Itself, which must uninterrupted flow into them that they are, move and act according to the divine will. For themselves they are absolutely nothing, but pure momentary thoughts and ideas of God.
11
Should they however in time become possibly independent, they must go the way of matter or the judged and thus fixed will of God, in the manner as you have it before your eyes on this earth. If they have this, only then they are independent, self-thinking and voluntary acting children of God, who indeed also always do the will of God, but not because it has been imposed on them, but they recognize such as highly wise and decide by themself to act accordingly, which is then for themselves life rewarding and provides for them only then life's highest bliss and happiness.
12
You see, My dear friend, this is the way things are and because they are like that, you can increasingly recognize and admire the one, true God's highest wisdom, since you can see from that, how God out of His very own love and wisdom can form and raise His very own thoughts and ideas to independent, Himself perfectly resembling children! If you have understood all this only to some extend, then tell Me your own opinion about all life of nature!"