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 182 -
How to safe materialistic souls.
However, if the soul, who received the pure teaching, who also understands the truth and thinks within himself: 'Aha, now I know what I rightly should do for my salvation. But before I will completely work on it, I still want to enjoy for a while the charms and sweet things of this world, for they are offered to me, because now that I precisely know the ways to spiritual completion, it really will not matter as to when I earnestly will walk on it. And when I will go that way, I surely will also make progress.' Look, friend, then the soul begins to taste of the charms and sweet things of the world, and also to fully enjoy it. By that, he will give a great overweight to the matter of his flesh that can hardly or not at all be completely conquered anymore with his clear understanding in the things of the spirit.
2
Since such a soul acted in the beginning against his better judgment, he slowly sinks ever deeper into matter. And also the original pure spiritual enlightenment becomes ever more opaque. The soul comes into all kinds of doubts, and in his material laziness it is for him really not that worthy anymore to stand up and to - at least for the short time of a few days or weeks - make a serious attempt, by denying himself, to convince himself whether there is still something true of the teaching that was revealed from the Heavens in order to receive the inner, true life.
3
Yes friend, once such a soul became lazy against his very own judgment, and sees people around him who have attained to the inner life's completion because they did their best since the beginning, then this will still have no strong influence on him, and it will not bring about any activity in him. If he is in a good mood, he will let the wonders of the spiritual in man be told to him by the awakened fellowmen. And now and then, also the wish will be awakened in him to be like those completed men. But immediately after that, the enticements of this world, which he enjoyed and still wants to enjoy, act so mightily upon him that he cannot resist them, and he will think by that: 'Well yes, I do not do anything wrong if I do not fully repent immediately. First I still want to see and try out this and that in the world, and then I still will have largely the time to walk in the footsteps of the completed ones.'
4
And look, in this manner will the descendants of those people, who have become lukewarm and lazy, think, decide, simulate and calculate even more in themselves. And they become completely dark and evil in their spirit if they only are being remembered what they should do as men to attain to the inner life's completion.
5
And so will grow and become rampant the weeds of the night of the souls as a result of their ever awakened worldly lust for pleasure and increasing laziness of one generation of people after another. So much so that I have no choice than to let such people personally experience the futility and evilness of their worldly strivings by visiting them with all kinds of plagues and judgments.
6
Only after all kinds of bitter experiences - when they will come to the point that they themselves will abhor the world and its futile enticements - it will again be the time, like now, to show them the ways to the light of life through new revelations from the Heavens, which will then be followed by many with great dedication. But still a lot more people, who sank down too deeply in the night of the judgment and the death of the world, will nevertheless remain where they are. And they will persecute all those who want to awake them to the life of the spirit, just as long as they will be wiped away from the Earth by the judgments that are allowed to come over them, like the storms that blow away the chaff.
7
Yes friend, on My part, the proportion between spirit, soul and body is perfectly and accurately weighed with each human being. It is only the illusionary wisdom of men, that old inherited sin, which has changed the good proportion into a bad proportion.
8
Take for instance the old myth about your Prometheus and his self-created daughter Pandora. Who is that Pandora actually?
9
Look, this is an image which stands for the illusionary wisdom and the nosiness and worldly lust for pleasure of men by which he is chained to the hard matter. Even if from time to time an eagle comes to him from the heavens, and strongly warns him that he should release himself from matter, then this is of little use. For as soon as the eagle went away for a while, the liver in the soul of man - which is the symbol of his worldly lusts - is again completely enlarged, and the eagle from the heavens must eat it again. Do you understand this image?
10
Moreover, look to what Moses himself said in a clear image about the first human pair, and you will find therein exactly the same thing.
11
And if this is so, then it is not because of Me that the people became worse, because I laid in the soul a little advantage for the world, but gave him on the other hand at the same time a complete light from the Heavens, with which he can overcome that small preference for the world with little effort. Do you understand these things, friend?"
12
After this teaching of Mine, to which also the others had attentively listened, the Roman as well as all the others thanked Me, except the one who did not like My explanation.