Chapter 9 — The Boy Jesus Makes a Promise to the Roman Judge

DTT.01_009,01 I looked at the Roman judge with great kindness and said, “You are a Gentile, but you are just and good at heart. Truly, when the true kingdom of God comes to the people of this earth, you and your whole household will be far from the last to be received into it. Whoever is received into it will be blessed and will never see death!”

DTT.01_009,02 The judge said, “How can you make me such a promise?”

DTT.01_009,03 I said, “Nothing could be easier! I have already told you that I know that wonder-working boy very well and am His closest friend. When I go to Him, I shall remember you. He will bless you, and His blessing will have its effect!”

DTT.01_009,04 The high priest rose in anger and said, “Is that boy a god, that he can give a blessing as though he were God? Do you not know that God alone can bless, and that His high priest may do so three times a year at God’s command? How can you say the boy can bless even a man and his entire household? What sort of teachers do you have, if their pupils can talk such nonsense?”

DTT.01_009,05 I said, “First of all, you yourselves gave us those teachers. If the pupils talk nonsense, it reflects on you, and one piece of nonsense breeds another. But if it is nonsense for Me to say that the wonder-working boy blesses His true friends, why do you teach that parents should always bless their children and children should bless their parents?

DTT.01_009,06 “Noah was no god, yet he blessed his two sons who covered his shame, and his blessing bore abundant fruit. Old, blind Isaac was no god either when he blessed Jacob and gave him the name ‘Israel’, which means ‘From you shall come forth the people of God.’ Was that blessing fruitless?

DTT.01_009,07 “In your great pride as a man of the Temple, you ask whether that boy is a god. What can you say to Me if I tell you that yes, He is, and with plainly more right than it is written of you, ‘The Lord Jehovah of hosts spoke to His gods’? If you in your conceit are gods, why should that boy, endowed and filled with so many truly divine qualities, not be a god, when He is even descended from David through the firstborn line?

DTT.01_009,08 “Whoever hears the Word of God and acts on it has the living Word of God within and has become, in their whole being, a living Word of God. In spirit they are therefore from God. Where that is so, who can say that the whole person is not from God? If a person has become the living Word of God in their whole being and is thereby filled with the Spirit of God, are they not a god? For what is truly divine must be regarded as God wherever it is found, all the more so in a human being.”

DTT.01_009,09 The high priest said, “What reprehensible, blasphemous nonsense are you talking now? Only a senseless fool could speak like that! It is mindless babble that would make any clear-sighted thinker laugh out loud!” The high priest himself then laughed out loud.

DTT.01_009,10 I said, “Why do you call it nonsense? If it is nonsense, then you high priests, elders and scribes invented it and spread it yourselves, as I can prove at once as plainly as possible!”

DTT.01_009,11 The high priest said, “How will you prove that to us, you insolent Galilean swineherd?”

DTT.01_009,12 I said, “Bring Me the People’s Catechism!”

DTT.01_009,13 The high priest asked, “And what do you want with it?”

DTT.01_009,14 I said, “You will see. First bring Me the book!”

DTT.01_009,15 The book was brought, and the high priest said, “Here it is. What are you going to do with it now?”

DTT.01_009,16 I said, “You will see in a moment!” I opened the book and asked the Roman judge to read aloud the passage I pointed out to him. He did so with evident pleasure.

DTT.01_009,17 The Roman judge read, “Whoever hears the Word of God and acts on it has the living Word of God within and has become, in their whole being, a living Word of God. In spirit they are therefore from God. Where that is so, who can say that the whole person is not from God? If a person has become the living Word of God in their whole being and is thereby filled with the Spirit of God, are they not a god? For what is truly divine must be regarded as God wherever it is found, all the more so in a human being.”

DTT.01_009,18 The Roman judge then said, “Why, those are exactly the words the honourable priest here previously dismissed as a swineherd’s nonsense! Well, from what I can see, the affair is getting more and more amusing. I am quite curious myself to see what comes of it!”