Monastery of St John on the island of Patmos

At the time of Jesus the time was not yet ripe for the masses to understand what he said to the Samaritan woman. So Jesus prepared St John and instructed him in the essential philosophical, cabbalistic and esoteric knowledge, and the symbolic foundation of these new concepts. This he did in secret, without the knowledge of the other disciples, and when the others found out about it they were inclined to be envious of St John; in fact, St Peter reproached Jesus for it one day.

But Jesus wanted to be sure that before he left at least one of his disciples would be in possession of those parts of his teaching that had not been revealed to all. This is why he gave St John this special instruction. And St John founded a Church which was never really accepted or understood by the Church of St Peter.

Remember also what Jesus said at the very end when Peter, referring to St John, asked, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus replied, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’

And the Gospel adds, ‘So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die.’ What if St John were living even today in some unknown place! The Church of St John has formed an elite, an elite that has always worked in secret and been the depository of this esoteric science throughout the ages.

The religion of St John is the new religion that is to come, and however fiercely the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches fight it—as they have always fought and tried to wipe out the Church of St John—they will be no more successful now than they have been in the past.

All the purest and most knowledgeable initiates of the past have been disciples of St John, and those who belonged to the established Churches have always rejected and persecuted them and refused to acknowledge their superiority.

But even though the Church of John has always been forced to live and work in secret it has never ceased preparing the sons and daughters of God. The time is coming now when for it to manifest itself, and when it does so, its riches and its superiority will be visible to the whole world.

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov,
The Bonfin, August 25, 1965

To be continued…
Complete Works Volume 26. A New Dawn, Book 2
Chapter 2, section II, The True Religion of Christ