The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 162 -
THE FOUR DOUBTERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER
And the four bowed to the patriarchs and then descended from our morning height to a small ledge where they settled down and began to take counsel together, as follows:
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"Brothers," began the first, "what do you think: Shall we or shall we not trust Enoch's words?
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"I for my part am of the opinion that this time Enoch is mightily mistaken.
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"Of course, he is a man like we are - and this is sufficient for the arising of errors; that is all we need.
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"For although the Almighty has endowed him with greater perfections and ordained him high priest, He has all the same left him with all human frailty, so that he is still the same Enoch as before, and thus he can also commit errors.
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That this time he has committed a gross error I could have at my finger-tips.
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"I only cannot understand how in his presence I could have been so benighted!
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"For instance: What could he have replied had I told him when he repudiated God: 'Brother, if what you so wisely claimed were true, we need no longer build dwellings for ourselves.
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"For, since we have come into existence without a most wise Creator - being surely in everything more perfect than our dwellings for we can think, talk and act wisely -, why should our inexpressibly more stupid dwellings not also come into existence out of nothing and spontaneously without our help?'
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"But I will keep the good Enoch waiting for a whole eternity and on top pledge my life that he will never have the good fortune to see a well arranged dwelling grow from the dumb ground of the earth.
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We are supposed to be the works of blind forces which before us are even without self-awareness?
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"No, brothers, before Enoch makes me believe this, I believe and prove to him that as a high priest he is a complete fool despite all his wisdom! - What do you have to say? Am I right or not?"
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And another spoke and said: "You are only too right. I must tell you, brother, it has been rankling me in my innermost. Had I not spared the high patriarchs, truly, one word from me and Enoch's tongue would have been paralyzed like a dewdrop in the middle of winter.
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"I should have liked to just hear his answer to my casual question: 'Enoch, if what you so wisely have told us is true, I should really like to learn from you how the love for God is to be explained.'
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"Brothers, if upon this question Enoch without contradicting himself could have answered me with a single syllable, I will swallow before you and him any mountain pointed out by you!
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"For if Jehovah is a falsehood and so to speak a salve for the indolence of our spirit, also all our love is a crass falsehood; and if that is a falsehood, we are ourselves a falsehood - including Enoch!
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"However, if we are a delusion to ourselves, then I ask: 'Brother, what privilege has your wisdom over our folly?
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"Therefore, you can keep quiet just as well as we.' - Tell me straight out: What could Enoch have replied to that?
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"Nothing; for then he would be in a trap and unable to utter a single word."
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"Maybe he believed," said a third one, "that we are some good natured fools who believe just about anything.
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"But our next get-together shall throw light on the four fools before him in a way that despite being a high priest he will feel like sticking in an unripe wild apple; for I am loaded like a cloud ready to burst.
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"Just a little wind, and the good Enoch shall be treated for his denial of God ten times worse than we all were treated on the Pre-Sabbath. He shall firmly feel it and be paid back for the joke he obviously played on us.
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"That Enoch should not believe in a God I believe as little as if someone argued with me denying my existence.
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"However, he played a joke on us and confounded all of us; this is all there is to it.
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"For this I will grapple with him so that he will be stuck like a rock fallen to the bottom of the sea.
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"What sort of an answer will he give me if I tell him straight out: 'Enoch, you iniquitous high priest, now you have lied twofold out of your great blindness! For if there is from eternity no Jehovah, you have anyway talked to the wind.
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"For blind chance certainly did not endow you with more wisdom than it did us; and why should you of all people be more than we who are a complete folly to ourselves, as you are to yourself, and thus to all of us.
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"If, however, there is an old Jehovah, you are anyway before us all obviously and irrefutably a liar.'
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Brothers, what can he say to that?"
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And a fourth said with the first two: "Nothing but at the utmost: 'So I stand before you as an ass and my high priesthood is an empty wind.'
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"As far as Abedam is concerned, I think we should unite in that point and prove to the face of the wise high priest that He was incontestably Jehovah Himself, which, if only we heeded them somewhat, becomes clear from His words and deeds.
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"And if he denies this, I shall simply ask him: 'Brother, who, after all, made you high priest?
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"If He is nothing, then neither are you, - and so do the best thing and abdicate as a high priest; for such an office is not fitting for a repudiator of God.'
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"What can he or anyone else then reply?"
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Here they all became unanimous and the first one rose and said~ "Brothers, now that we agree also in this, let us go and settle our business.
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"Truly, I am burning with curiosity what will be the outcome of this. With Enoch we are as good as completely finished. Thus let us go. Amen."