The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 157 -
The teaching of the Lord about the one, only true God.
While the 2 Greeks were still having these thoughts, I interrupted them and said the following to them: "My friends, after the words of My disciple John, you let strange thoughts come up in yourselves. If it would be as you think, you finally would be right. But concerning the one, only true God it is quite different than what you have thought, and therefore your opinion is very incorrect.
2
You want to receive a light and full clarity about the God of the Jews, and that is a very fair desire of yours. However, you have read the books of Moses where it is written with great certainty and much clarity about who that one, only true God is, in whom only men should believe and besides whom they should not have any strange gods.
3
That one, only true God has revealed Himself - as well as the fact that He exists - to Moses on the mountain Sinai. And He did not only perform great visible signs for all the present Israelites, but He also gave them extremely wise commandments and rules with which they could be a very happy people if they would strictly follow them. Because, with this, they not only would have had God completely visibly before them, with whom they could, and were allowed to, freely and openly speak as real children to their Father concerning all their requests and needs. But He has also always greatly enlightened the way to the eternal life of the soul to them, and has kept open the great world in the beyond with its blessed inhabitants, what thousands of people can still testify in this very dark time, and about which a lot of old prophets and seers have spoken and written.
4
Now if this is so and not different, then why, under such happy conditions of life which were often confirmed by a lot of the most infallible personal experiences, did they not remain in that belief and in the best and most living order by loving God above all as their dear Father?
5
Look, the reason was self-love and love for the world that became more and more predominant with a lot of people, and from which they finally have never again turned away, despite many warnings and also often severe chastising.
6
Thus they sank down into the old judgment of matter of the world and its lecherous flesh, lost the ancient, inner light of life of their souls, so much so that they cannot distinguish anymore their soul from their flesh. They do not know anymore what a soul is, and so it is not clear at all to them that they have a soul, who will live forever.
7
But if man has lost himself in his most noble part of life, in such a way that he, although still alive and existing, is no more able to discover that he exists, then how can he recognize the Being of God and believe in Him firmly while he himself has become almost completely dead in his part of life by an excessive love for the world and which should be alive,?
8
But as it happened with you, before you searched for the lost ancient truth, and as this is still partly happening with you, it happens now with almost numberless many people in a thousand times more terrible way. And truly, if I did not come into this world to show men again the way to the eternal life of the soul, then no man could have discovered that way anymore and become blessed, here and in the beyond.
9
Therefore, I Myself am the Way, the Truth and the eternal Life. The one who believes in Me and lives and acts according to My words, will save his soul from eternal death and the judgment of the world and its matter.
10
The will of the one, only true God and Father of men, eternally living from His own power, you can come to know from the books of Moses and the prophets. If you strictly will live according to the - say - only 10 commandments, then God's Spirit will penetrate you and will enlighten you. In that light you will then not only completely know the one and only true God, and consequently be able to love Him above all, but then He will also reveal Himself to you and raise you to all wisdom and its power.
11
Then you will no more think that according to My teaching every man will finally have his own god if he would imagine one, in whom he should believe without doubting and whom he also should love above all if he wants to attain to the eternal life of the soul. But then you will receive in yourselves the light awareness that the God who revealed Himself to you is one and unchangeably the same who has always faithfully revealed Himself at all times to all those who have lived and acted completely according to His will.
12
If you understood Me better now than before, then act accordingly. And only when there will be light and when it will become clear in you, you will completely realize that you have found here with Me what you have searched in vain for 20 long years, together with still several of your other companions, and have only found it now here."