The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 35 -
About the personality of Satan.
I Myself caused Satan to appear in an image for My first disciples and they were extremely frightened. Something similar happened also a few times with the first fathers of this Earth. But during that time no explanation in words was given because the elders who were wise from the spirit, understood very well the symbolic image by way of the inner correspondences and therefore they said: 'It is terrible to fall into the hands of the judging God.' That means to say: it is terrible for a soul, who has already come to complete self-consciousness to let himself be captured again by the unchangeable law of the coercing judgment of the godly will in matter.
2
The fact that this is described as something terrible for the soul, can be learned by everyone from the experience of a dying person who did not attain to the complete rebirth of the spirit.
3
Because why is such a soul so much afraid of the death of his body? Because he - still being entangled in the coercing judgment of the body - thinks that he has to die together with the body. That this is the case, you easily can see with all those who hardly believe, or not at all, in a continuance of life of the soul after the death of the body, because their soul is completely or for the greatest part in the judgment of his flesh, and consequently he also has to experience its death as long as by My will he is not completely separated from it.
4
Since you hopefully well understand now how things are with Satan and his devils, it will also become clear to you that things cannot be different with Hell. It is just like Satan who is in himself the eternal coercive judgment, thus the world and the matter thereof.
5
And why is Satan also called a prince of darkness and the lie? Because all matter is not that which it seems to be. And he who in his love will grab it and allows himself to be captured by it, is then also clearly residing in the kingdom of the lie and, regarding the truth, in the kingdom of darkness.
6
He who for instance loves too much the so-called treasures of the kingdom of the dead matter and keeps them for what they seem to be and not for what they truthfully are, is by that already residing in the kingdom of the lie, because his love - the foundation of his life - is as it were completely blinded and sunken down in matter and will have great difficulty to raise himself up again out of such a night towards the light of the full truth.
7
However, he who only considers gold as a corresponding form of expression which represents the good of the love in God, like pure silver represents the truth of the wisdom in God, knows therefore also the real value of gold and silver and is thus residing in the Kingdom of the truth, and his soul is not entangled in the treacherous appearance of the judgment thereof.
8
So also, with the elders and all prophets, gold, silver and the different kinds of precious stones had only the true meaning. But as matter however, they did not have any value, and for this reason they also could not become a danger for a soul. Through the discernment of the true value of the matter they discovered also easily and quickly for what it could be suitable and be useful and they derived the true benefit from it.
9
However, when in course of time the people bestowed any value to the matter because of their glitter and nice appearance, they passed over to its judgment, became spiritually blind, hard, greedy, stingy, untruthful, quarrelsome, deceitful, proud, malicious and lusting for war and conquest, and they therefore fell into idolatry and paganism, and consequently also in the actual Hell out of which they could not be delivered without Me.
10
For this reason I had to cover Myself in matter and by that in the judgment, and I have to break through it, so that by that I will become the entrance gate to eternal life for all the people who had fallen if they want to enter life through this gate. Therefore, I am also the door to life and Life itself. Whoever will not enter inside through Me, will not attain to life in the light of eternal truth and freedom, but will remain captured in the judgment of matter.
11
Now there is another question that comes up by itself, which sounds like this: are there really no personal Satan and personal devils?
12
And I say: Oh yes, they exist here indeed, still living in the flesh, and even more so in the big world in the beyond, who always intent to exert a bad influence in the world on this side, and this on one hand because of the raw nature spirits who because of their predestined ripening still remain in all kinds of matter. And further also directly by secret whisperings, arousing and enticements. They notice very well the different weaknesses with men and their inclinations, control and stimulate them to burning passions.
13
And once a weakness of a person has become a burning passion, he is already completely in the condition of the judgment of matter and its evil spirits, and then it is difficult for him to loosen himself from it.
14
Satan is the total sum of the total judged matter, and concerning his personality, strictly speaking it exists nowhere, but they have to be considered as an assembly of devils of all kinds, not only of this Earth but of all worlds in the endless space of creation, as also all the numerous many shell globes all together are finally representing an immense great Cosmic Man, according to My explanation that I already have given you.
15
Of course, on a smaller scale, an assembly of devils of a celestial body is also a Satan, and on the smallest scale every separate devil is it also in itself.
16
However, as long as there were no men on a celestial body, there also were no personal devils, but only judged and unfermented spirits in all the matter of a celestial body. Matter is everything that can be observed with your sense organs.
17
But you also can trust that now no devils on any other celestial body are more evil and more malicious than precisely in and on this Earth. If it would be allowed to them, they would terribly harm the Earth and its inhabitants, but they are not allowed to. And in order that the devils would not be able to do that, they are for this reason also afflicted with complete blindness and consequently also with the greatest foolishness. And their assemblies look like the guarded institutions on this Earth in which the fools and madmen are detained, so that they cannot harm other people.
18
From what has been said now, all of you can easily realize with your complete mind and enlightened reason how things are with Satan and his devils. And it is no more necessary for you to ask anything further concerning this. And say now, scribe, if you have well understood all this."