God's New Bible

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 169 -

The Roman speaks with his deceased father.

I hardly had said that when 4 armed Romans stood before our judge, who were not only visible to him but also to all the others who were present, and they became really scared of them because they looked at them with eyes that were glowing from anger. At first he did not have the courage to speak to them. Only after I told him that he should speak to those who appeared, he asked one of them - who was his father - if his life really continued after the death of his body, and how.
2
Then the spirit said with a screeching voice, which was very well known to his son: "Stupid fool of a son, what is this that you disturb our rest, our love and our activity?
3
That we continue to exist and have actually never completely died, you surely can see with your eyes full of dirt. We were just preparing a great campaign and we have haste to take advantage of the enemy, and now you want to hinder this glorious heroic deed for my emperor. I just would like to chop you, stupid scoundrel, with my sharp sword into a thousand pieces.
4
If that dumb magician of Nazareth, to whom your stupidity gives godly honor, would not stand behind you with His skill, your stupidity would cost you dearly. But delaying is not renouncing. When you will leave your bag of flesh and come to us, you surely will receive the reward for your stupidity."
5
Very faintheartedly, our Roman said: "How could I have disturbed you in your rest, since you do not seem to have any rest in going to war. And if the Man here next to me is only a dumb magician of Nazareth, then why do you obey His will. Are you as heroes not mightier than He?"
6
The spirit said: "What do you, dumb stupid, understand of our things. We do what we want and do not allow anyone to give us orders."
7
The judge said: "If you are that mighty, then why do you stay here and do you not think that the enemy is gaining advantage over you now? Do you then not believe that there is only one almighty God, against whose will your futile weapons can eternally do nothing?"
8
The spirit said: "Do you perhaps think that we, perfected people in our big world, which has no beginning and no end, are still as blind as you, moles and blindworms of this dirty Earth that is not much bigger than a hazelnut? Where did there ever exist a God apart from us? We are the gods, and our great emperor is the main god, and I am now also standing in line to become an emperor, because there are now already a great number of emperors with us."
9
The judge said: "Yes, then finally everyone among you can become an emperor?"
10
Being completely blown up by pride, the spirit said: "Know, you stupid, that there will never be an emperor coming out of the common people, because the people are only there to always work and fight for us in the sweat of their face, so that all glory and all good life would only befall indisputably on us. We give laws for the sake of ourselves, and the people have to follow these under the threat of the most severe punishment. If one from the common people would dare to speak even one wrong word against us, he will be punished for high treason by death, for we are the only ones who have the right to slaughter everything that displeases us in the least. We also can kill at will our servable people, and not one sage has the right to ask us if this was justified or unjustified, for only that what we want and do is right. Everything that goes against that is a punishable crime."
11
That was a little too much for our judge, and being greatly exited, he said: "O you extremely blind souls, how endlessly far away are you from the inner truth of life. How do you want to kill someone in your world, since death can impossibly exist anymore with you?"
12
The spirit said: "All the better. If here with us, a common soul, after being torn up into pieces, will gather himself and continue to live, then he can be grabbed and be torn up into pieces again."
13
The judge said: "Then what about the glory of your world?"
14
The spirit said: "Stupid, open your dirty eyes and see."
15
Then the judge saw a very dark environment in which all kinds of castles could be seen. Apart from those castles were a big number of dirty huts. And furthermore he saw a crowd of people who looked very poor. He also saw warriors, equipped with all kinds of weapons, and in a greater distance he also saw camps, and outside of these, battles.
16
Then he asked Me (the judge): "O Lord and Master, bring me again into the condition in which I cannot see anymore the souls who live in the beyond, for if all souls have to expect such condition after the death of their body, it would be a thousand times better for man if he were never created or born."
17
Then I immediately took away the ability of the Roman to see the lower, dirty world of impure souls. And when the very evil spirits had suddenly left and had become invisible, I asked him: "Well now, friend, did you well recognize your relatives, regarding their form, speech and character? How did you like them?"
18
The Roman and also the doctor said: "O Lord and Master, this is certainly more than awful."
19
Then the Roman continued to speak alone like this: "I immediately recognized my father, for he was the same extremely proud Roman that he was during his physical life. He who was not an aristocrat meant less to him than a wandering dog without a master, and I, who was weak, as far as my body was concerned, and thus unsuitable for the military service that he exalted above all, was not his favorite. But still, I had to be someone before whom the whole people had to tremble, and therefore I always was placed in Asia that was always inclined for rebellion, with the assignment to act against the transgressors with the extreme severity of the law, which however I, as a more or less suffering human being, did not do. For I thought to myself: 'You also are human beings just like me, despite the unrestrained pride of my relatives, and you are tormented over and over. I surely want to judge according to justice and fairness, but you will not be tormented with tyrannical severity by me.' And that is why I was always loved by the supreme governor.
20
When father was still a citizen of this world and came once to Tyre, he asked me with his screeching, imperious voice how many men were already beheaded because of my severe jurisdiction, and how many were already crucified. And I answered him completely according to the truth: 'No one until now, for luckily there never was a well-founded reason for it yet.'
21
Then he said to me with eyes that were really glowing from anger: 'You were, are and will remain a stupid fool. If you want to keep up an ever increasing respect for the law, you still must give an example from time to time, even if no one has transgressed the law. If there are no criminals, you must take with force the first one you can find, out of the crowd, accuse him of a crime, confirm it by hired witnesses and then do your job, severely and relentlessly. By that, you will incite a true respect for the law with the people, and by that you can acquire great honor with the emperor.'
22
Then I said: 'But we secretly received from the emperor the order not to torment someone with the too sharp severity of the law when there is not sufficient reason for it. A soldier and commander can act like that indeed, but this can absolutely not be done in the peaceful sphere of the citizens.'
23
Then father said again, with a despising smile: "You were, are and will remain a stupid fool', turned his back on me and left me with apparent haste, and later I never saw him again. A couple of years later I received the message from Rome that he died. And I truly could not mourn for him.
24
As he was during his physical life, so he is still now, but his idolization of the emperor is much worse.
25
O Lord and Master of all existence and life, will such a soul eternally never improve? Will he never more receive a better understanding - and the crowd of souls in the beyond who conform themselves to him, neither?"
26
With a friendly face I said: "Friend, with God all things are possible, even if they seem for man on this Earth ever so impossible. However, the 'how' and 'when' you will only understand when My Spirit of eternal love and truth in your soul will reveal it to you personally."
27
The Roman was satisfied with that, and thought more deeply about what he had seen and what I had said.

Footnotes