The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Galilee
- Chapter 70 -
The 2nd coming of the Lord.
After this conversation among themselves the disciples turned to Me and said: "Lord and Master, You have said already several times that it will be given to us to well understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God, and You also have very clearly revealed to us already so many things, so that in the spirit we can well understand Your infinite creation and still 1.000 other things which no worldly wise person could ever imagine and which, even through personal investigation and seeking he will never be able to clearly imagine, for which reason all human knowledge was until now only piece-work. Please tell us now also something more specific about Your 2nd coming. In which time will You return, and where and how? Because we are of the opinion that also this is part of understanding the secrets of God's Kingdom."
2
I said: "Also this I have told you already several times very extensively. But because you also are not completely permeated with My Spirit you still do not understand it fully. The year, the day and the hour I cannot tell you with certainty because everything on this Earth depends on the complete free will of men. Therefore, not even an angel in Heaven knows it, but only the Father and also the one to whom He wants to reveal it. Besides, it is for the salvation of the soul not absolutely necessary to know it very precisely beforehand.
3
Would it be good for someone to know very precisely beforehand the day and the hour of his death? For very few who are reborn in the spirit, yes, but for numberless people it would be very bad, because the approaching hour of their death would fill them so much with fear, anguish and despair and become great enemies of life, in such a way that they would prematurely take away their life in order to escape the anguish of death, or they would come into such great laziness of life that little salvation could be expected for the soul. So it is better for man not to know all things for sure beforehand, namely as to what, how and when this and that can and also must come over him in this world.
4
I say to you: the time will come that your spiritual descendants will ask, just like now here, when the day of the Son of Man will come, and will desire to see the day, and they will still not see it as you desire. In that time many will rise and come forward, and with a wise face they will say: 'Look here', 'Look there' and 'That is the day'. But then do not go there to follow such prophets.
5
The day of My 2nd coming will be as a lightning that goes from the east to the west, high in the clouded sky, and will illuminate everything that is under the sky. Before that will happen - as I have told you already several times - the Son of Man must still suffer many things and be rejected entirely by this generation, namely by the Jews and the Pharisees, and in later times by those who will be called the new Jews and Pharisees.
6
As it happened during the time of Noah so it will happen in the time of the 2nd coming of the Son of Man. They ate and drank very cheerfully, they married and let themselves be given to marriage until the day that Noah climbed into the ark and the flood came and they all drowned. And it will happen in the same manner as during the time of Lot: they ate and drank, they bought and sold, and they planted and constructed. But on the day - as I have explained to you more in detail on the Mount of Olives - that Lot went out of Sodom it was already raining fire and sulfur from the sky, and they all perished by it.
7
Now look, this is how it also will be and happen during the time when the Son of Man will be revealed again. Whoever will be on that day on the roof and knows that his household goods are in the house, let him not come down from the roof to get his household goods - which has to be understood as follows: he who really understands those things should stay with that understanding and not leave that level out of fear that by that he might lose worldly advantages, because those things will be destroyed.
8
So also still another image: whoever is in the field (the freedom of understanding) should not turn around to what is behind him (old deceiving teachings and their rules), but should remember the wife of Lot, and should continue to strive forwards in the truth.
9
I will still tell you more: during that same time there will be 2 in a mill and do the same work. The one will be accepted and the other left behind, which means: the honest worker will be accepted and the dishonest and selfish one will be left behind, because he who will try to keep his soul because of the world, will lose it, but he who will lose it for the sake of the world will keep his life and will help him towards true eternal life.
10
And still further, I say to you: in one and the same night of the soul, 2 people will lie in one and the same bed. Also then, the one will be accepted and the other left behind, which means: 2 people will outwardly be in the sphere of one and the same confession of faith, but the one will be in the active living faith and will therefore be accepted in the living and lightful Kingdom of God, but the other will only adhere to the outer cult, which has no inner value for the life of the soul and the spirit, and will not be accepted in the living and lightful Kingdom of God, because his faith without the works of neighborly love is as it were dead.
11
And further: there will be 2 people in the field of work. The one who will work without self-interest in the living faith out of love for God and out of love for his fellowman, will also be accepted in the true Kingdom of God. But the one who will work in the same field as the Pharisees without inner living faith out of pure self-interest, will obviously be left behind and will not be accepted in the living and lightful Kingdom of God.
12
See, that is how it will be and happen during the 2nd coming the Son of Man, and this is how it will manifest itself. When in the future you will be permeated deeper with My Spirit, you will also clearly understand all that I have said now. At this moment however, I cannot explain it to you more clearly and more understandably."
13
The disciples said: "Lord and Master, that is all right and we believe Your words, but where and when will it happen, counted according to earthly time? Surely, this You also can tell us."