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It is apparent that John was both pleased and sickened by the message as a function
of the reading of a scroll given him by an angel whose feet were planted on two foundations;
the message gave him the power to prophesy again, as in a second time.
I Corinthians 1:13 asks this question: "Has Christ been divided?" I, too, am asking this
question. Paul was asking this question before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were presumably
written, which ought to tell us that what was then testified concerning Jesus was considered
to be a unity--one gospel, as he so often puts it. Since these factions that Paul is
referring to began to proliferate even in his day, isn't it at least plausible that
they are the types of people that could have led to the destruction of the other gospels?
It is written that Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. If Jesus is the Word, then the one
who showed an apparent love for the word was the very same one who was most responsible
for his mockery of a trial, and his humiliation on the cross.
By spreading the ‘gospel' out over several gospels, God is demonstrating to us that His
revelation can only be apprehended if we take all the facts into account. If there had only
been a single gospel that contained all of the information that we currently accept,
and no others to compete with it, then none of the arguments which I have raised would
be possible. But in light of the fact that these assertions can be made, we should not
be too ready to discount them. If such arguments are possible, and the result would be the
fulfillment of so many prophecies, such as the last being first, and the first being
last, or any of the things which I have discussed here, then maybe there is some truth to them.
Of course this idea is quite condemning to the Church, and naturally they will not accept
it. For a while, they will be able to oppose it by throwing their weight around, by persecution
and character assassination--a sign of their own ignorance and that of the present body
of believers, whose ignorance they have cultivated for the purposes of exploiting them for money
and power and the glory of this world. Of course not all Christians are of this kind,
but as it is written: "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." If God had inspired many
gospels, but we only accepted four, then God could not be faulted for not telling us the
truth--rather, we would only have ourselves to blame for our stubborn refusal to accept
His truth in its entirety. It is a means by which His mysteries can be concealed, and
yet give Him an opportunity to say to us that He wronged us in no way whatsoever; and furthermore,
if at any point in Church History, there had been this kind of faith in him, we could have
been healed. But now it is the ‘Third Day', the dawn of the third millennium, and these
things can no longer be hidden--just as death could not hold him on the third day. He--that
is to say the Word of God--is risen. Consider what it says in Mark 16:14&15, which interestingly
enough is found in some manuscripts and not others, "He reproached them (his disciples)
for their lack of trust and obstinacy, because they did not believe those who had seen him
after he had been raised. And he said to them: ‘Go out into the whole world and announce
the gospel to every creature. "’ As for the need for spiritual perception, consider
Luke 24:45 & 46: "Then he prepared their minds to understand the Scriptures. He said to them,
‘This is what is written: the Anointed will suffer and rise from the dead on the third
day."' There were many who witnessed the miracles
and teachings of Jesus; who passed on oral and written accounts, and some were believed
and others were not. Jesus reproached even the Apostles for their unbelief. Was this
admonition passed down to us merely for moral edification, or does it make more sense to
see this also as a reproach to ourselves? What, then, is this preparation of their minds
if not that their minds were not prepared even after his resurrection. We, for our own
good, were not meant to understand these things until the proper time. Let us see ourselves,
therefore, as modern-day John the Baptists, as it is written in Luke 3:4 6: "The voice
of someone shouting in the wilderness: ‘Make ready the way of the Lord!' ‘Make his paths
straight!' Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill leveled. What is crooked
will be made straight, and the rough ways smooth. Then the whole human race will see
the salvation of God."