The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 163 -
Moses and Elijah admonish the newly repented Pharisees.
Be further attentive now. In order to reassure you completely, there will be more witnesses coming from the other side, and will tell you that I in the first place am the promised Messiah for the Jews, and through them, also for all men of this Earth. Choose now for yourselves whoever you wish to see and to speak."
2
The two said: "Lord, now that You want it that way, let us then see Moses and Elijah because those two were certainly Your greatest prophets."
3
I said: "Sure. Since you have chosen them, I also will that they come."
4
When I had said that, it seemed as if a lightning fell down from the clear sky, and the two witnesses stood with serious faces before the Pharisees, bowed deeply before Me and Moses pointed with his right hand and with fiery eyes to Elijah and said with a thundering voice: "Do you know him?"
5
Then the two Pharisees were tremendously frightened and being afraid they could not give an answer to Moses, because soon enough they recognized in Elijah John the Baptist to whom they themselves had contributed the most in his imprisonment and his beheading.
6
But Elijah said: "Now that the sharp axe is laid at your root, you can only see now that judgment is at the door. It was the highest time for you to be converted, and because the Lord, the almighty, has been Himself so merciful to you, I too forgive you the crime against me. But a thousandfold woe to those who also will lay their evil hands on the Lord's body. The judgment and the curse are already written on their foreheads."
7
Then the one Pharisee took a little more courage and said in a trembling voice: "O great prophet, who could ever have suspected that in you was hidden the spirit of Elijah?"
8
Elijah said: "Is it not written that Elijah would come to prepare the way of the Lord? Did you not read: 'Look, a voice of someone crying in the desert - prepare the way for the Lord. Look, I send My angel before You to straighten Your footsteps'?
9
If you knew that, then why did you not believe it? Why did you persecute me, and why did you until now persecute the Lord?"
10
The Pharisee said full of fright: "O, great prophet, have patience with our great blindness, because only that is the main culprit of all the evil that has been done by and through us."
11
Elijah said: "What the Lord has forgiven you, will also be forgiven by us. But beware of being blinded again by a new temptation, because out of a new abyss you would hardly ever come again to the light."
12
Upon that, the two prophets disappeared, and the Pharisees turned to Me and begged Me not to perform such a sign again, because this had driven them already in a too great fright and fear.
13
I said: "If this is already driving you to such a great fright and fear, then how would you like it if I would introduce you to all those whom, by your great craving for vengeance and persecution, you have helped out of this world in the most miserable way?"
14
The Pharisees said: "O Lord and Master, please do not do this to us, because that would be our death."
15
I said: "That surely not, as long as I am among you for the sake of your faith. However, bear in mind that once more you still will have to come together with all those souls in the great beyond. What will you answer them if before God's throne, with unlimited power, they will demand an account from you?"
16
The Pharisees said: "O Lord and Master of eternity, we still in this world want to do everything whatever You will instruct us to do. But let us then not in this way be called to account on the other side, because then we would not have a single reply. However, in Your goodness and mercy give us advice as to what we still have to do in order to be spared from this anguish and this terrible painful torment in the beyond."
17
I said: "What you should do, this I have already told you, and thereby you will come to the light and to life. But I tell you also that it would be good for you to examine your conscience accurately and so to perceive the magnitude of all your sins and vices that you have committed.
18
When you have done that, you will have confessed your sins in the first place, and you will then also rightly abhor them, and in your heart you will truly feel sorrow about them. Then it will not be difficult for you to effectively take the firm decision not to commit a sin anymore, and in yourselves, you will feel an increasing desire to repair with all your might every damage that you have ever inflicted to anyone. Yet, you will be unable to carry out this completely, especially to those who are already in the beyond, but then I will accept your firm will for the deed, and will make for you everything good again for the evil you have caused.
19
However, you should take that very seriously to heart, otherwise it can happen to you what the prophet Elijah has told you, because you still will have many temptations to endure. An old body does not so easily put off its habits as one imagines when he makes his first good resolution. You will go with Me indeed. But at My side, as long as I still will wander about this Earth, you still will, like My other disciples, come into many temptations. And then it also will be obvious how weak your flesh still is, even if the spirit in you has become reasonably strong. That is why it is now so necessary to do everything possible to free your soul out of the old imprisonment of your body, and this is only possible when you will do what I have advised you. Because sin will leave the soul in the same measure as the soul recognizes sin as being a sin, regrets it, abhors it and further on does not commit it again. Did you all understand this well?"