THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST’S PHYSICAL BODY

PERFECT IS GOD the Lord!

Perfect is His Will, which is in Him and which issues from Him in order to produce and maintain the Work of Creation!

Perfect, therefore, are also the laws that permeate Creation according to His Will!

Perfection, however, excludes any changes from the very beginning.

This is the fundamental fact which absolutely justifies doubt in so many assertions!

Some doctrines contradict themselves in that although they quite rightly teach the Perfection of God, yet at the same time they make assertions exactly to the contrary, demanding belief in things which exclude the Perfection of God and of His Will which rests in the Laws of Creation!

As a result there was implanted in many a doctrine the germ of disease which, boring like a worm from within, will one day cause the whole structure to collapse!

This collapse is all the more inevitable wherever such contradictions are made the pillars of a doctrine, which not only drag into doubt the Perfection of God but directly deny it!

This denial of the Perfection of God has even been made part of the qualified declaration of belief required for membership in some congregations!

Thus we have talk of the resurrection of the flesh, referring to the resurrection of the physical body of the Son of God!

This is quite thoughtlessly accepted by most people without the faintest trace of an understanding being apparent in them.

Others again accept this assertion although fully aware of their own ignorance, because they lacked a teacher who could give them the proper explanation for it.

What a sad picture this presents to the calm and serious observer!

How pitiable such a group appears in his eyes!

When they exhibit their zeal by unhesitatingly looking down in ignorant presumption upon those of different opinion, as they quite often do, they even go so far as proudly to consider themselves zealots of their faith, strict believers, not realizing that in so doing they give an infallible sign of their helpless stupidity!

He who accepts important matters without question and professes them as his own conviction shows boundless indifference and no true belief!

And it is in this light that such a person stands before Him Whom he customarily calls the Highest and the Holiest, Who should represent the purpose and the support of his whole being!

As such he is not a live member of his religion who may expect ascent and redemption, rather he is but “sounding brass”, only an empty “tinkling cymbal”, one who neither understands the Laws of his Creator nor troubles to recognize them!

For all who act thus it means standstill and retrogression on the road meant to lead them in their development and advancement through the World of Matter towards the Light of Truth!

Like any other erroneous opinion, the wrong conception of the resurrection of the flesh is also an artificially constructed obstacle which they take over with them into the beyond, and before which they will then have to halt!

They can make no further progress as they cannot get rid of it of their own accord, because a false belief tightly clings to and binds them in such a way that they are cut off from every independent view towards the Luminous Truth.

They do not dare to think otherwise, and thus cannot advance!

Through this the danger arises that these souls, who keep themselves thus fettered, miss the last opportunity of becoming free and cannot ascend to the Light in time.

As a consequence they will have to slide down into disintegration, with eternal damnation as their final goal!

Eternal damnation is exclusion in perpetuity from the Light!

It is the self-determined separation from the opportunity of being able to return to the Light as a fully conscious and mature personality, which would be brought about in the natural and logical course of events.

This condition becomes effective through being drawn into the disintegration which not only disperses and dissolves the ethereal body, but also all the personal consciousness acquired spiritually.*

That, then, is the so-called “spiritual death”, from which there can be no further ascent towards the Light for the conscious “ego” developed up to that point.

On the other hand, where an ascent does take place, that particular ego not only remains intact but continues to mature till it reaches spiritual perfection!

A man who has passed into the beyond with a wrongly or thoughtlessly accepted belief remains hampered until another conviction awakens him to life inwardly and sets him free, thus shattering the obstacle which through his own faith keeps him from striding forward along the right and true path!

It requires an enormous exertion to conquer oneself and to develop the strength necessary to become free from such a false belief.

The mere step towards indulging in such a thought calls for an immense spiritual effort!

Thus millions keep themselves imprisoned and therefore cannot gain sufficient strength even to move a step, under the fatal delusion that they would be doing wrong thereby!

They are as if paralyzed and would indeed be lost unless the Living Power of God Itself sought a way to them.

But again this Power cannot intervene and help unless there rests in the human soul the spark of a volition which reaches out towards it!

The condition of paralysis arising through this simple and natural happening is such that nothing could be more terrible and fatal, for here the blessing of free decision entrusted to man becomes a curse by being wrongly used!

Each individual is always free to adhere or to exclude himself.

But it is just when a man blindly embraces a doctrine without careful and serious examination that a terrible punishment will be exacted!

* Lecture I–13: “The World”

Indolence in this matter may cost him his entire being!

Man’s worst enemy in purely earthly matters is indolence!

Indolence in matters of faith, however, will result in his spiritual death!

Woe unto those who do not awaken soon, pull themselves together and submit all they call faith to the keenest scrutiny!

Perdition indeed awaits those who cause such great misery, those false shepherds who lead their sheep into the desolate wilderness!

Nothing can help them unless they lead their misguided sheep back onto the true path.

The great question, however, is whether there will still be time enough left for them to do so.

Hence everyone should carefully examine himself before he attempts to teach his neighbor!

To believe what is erroneous means delusion!

This holds the human spirit closely and tightly bound here as well as in the beyond, and with such a strength that only the Living Power of the true Word of God can break it!

Therefore when it hits home let all such men harken to its call!

It is only meant for him who perceives it!

Such a person should then examine, consider and free himself!

He should not forget that only through his own resolution can he burst the fetters with which he had previously bound himself through a false belief!

Just as he once resolved, out of sloth or indolence, blindly to embrace some doctrine he had not seriously examined in all its aspects, or just as perhaps he tried to deny God because up till then he could not find a way to Him that satisfied his justifiable desire for logical completeness, so now it is again necessary that the first volition for an inflexible examination in all his seeking should issue from himself!

Only then will he be able to raise the foot held so firmly down by his own will, and so take the first step that will lead him to the Truth and thereby to freedom in the Light!

It is always and only man himself who can, shall and must weigh these matters because he possesses the gift to do so.

He himself must also shoulder all responsibility for everything he wills and does!

Whatever it may be, it is all the same!

This knowledge alone should impel him to the keenest scrutiny!

It is just this responsibility which not only gives every man the unlimited right to carry out such an examination, but which even makes it an imperative necessity!

May he regard it as a healthy instinct for self-preservation!

This is not at all wrong!

No doubt he would never sign any earthly contract burdening him with some responsibility without examining it carefully word by word, and considering whether he could comply with the conditions!

Nor is it any different, but far more serious, in spiritual matters, such as the decision to devote himself to a particular belief!

If men would only exercise a little more of the sound instinct for self-preservation in this respect it would not be a sin but a blessing!

Resurrection of the flesh!

How can flesh of gross material substance ascend to the Primordial Spiritual Realm of God the Father, gross material substance that cannot even enter the ethereal substance of the beyond?

All gross matter, and even all ethereal matter, is subject to disintegration in accordance with the eternal Laws of Nature.

There are no exceptions or deviations in this because the laws are perfect.

Hence gross matter cannot ascend into the Kingdom of the Father after death has set in, nor even into the ethereal beyond, which is also subject to disintegration.

Due to the perfection of the Divine Laws of Nature such deviations are simply an impossibility!

All this can be quite distinctly observed in a small way in the laws of physics for these, too, demonstrate nothing but the immovable Laws of the Creator, which also penetrate this field as they do everything else in the entire existence.

All that exists is subject to the uniform Laws of Origin which clearly and distinctly carry within them the simple but inexorable Divine Will!

Nothing can be exempted from them!

Thus it is all the more regrettable if some teachings refuse to acknowledge the great magnitude of God revealing itself in these matters, which brings Him so manifestly close to the understanding of mankind!

Quite correctly every doctrine points to the Perfection of God.

If, however, the Origin or the Primordial Source as such is perfect it follows that all that issues from It cannot be otherwise than perfect.

Consequently the Laws of Creation, resting as they do in the Acts of Will that have issued from the Primordial Source, must necessarily be perfect also!

Quite naturally the one cannot be separated from the other.

These perfect Laws of Creation, namely the Laws of Nature, penetrate and support all that has come into existence.

Perfection, however, means immutability!

Hence it follows that a change in these fundamental or natural laws is completely impossible.

In other words: In no circumstances can there occur exceptions which are contrary to the naturalness of all the other events!

Thus no resurrection of the flesh can take place because the flesh is gross material substance and remains absolutely bound to gross matter!

As all the primordial laws have proceeded from Divine Perfection, no new manifestation of God’s Will can take a form different from that which was laid down at the primordial beginning of Creation.

If some teachings refuse to accept this self-evident fact, which is absolutely representative of God’s Perfection, they prove thereby that their foundation is faulty, that they are based upon the human intellect which is bound to space and time.

Therefore such teachings may not lay claim to be a Message of God, because such a Message would be without gaps; It can only come from Perfection, from the Truth Itself, which is without flaw and also understandable in Its simple magnitude!

In the first place it is natural, because what man so often called Nature issued from the Perfection of the Divine Will, and still maintains its vitality unchanged and therefore cannot be subject to any exceptions!

Consequently when Christ came to this earth to proclaim God’s Message of Truth He was obliged to make use of a physical body, i.e., a body of flesh.

Every thinking man should recognize in this the immutability of the Laws of Nature, as also in His physical death which occurred through crucifixion!

This gross material flesh could not, however, be the subject of any exception after death, but had to remain in the Gross Material World!

It could not rise from the dead in order to enter another world!

The immutable Divine or Natural Laws, through their Perfection which issued from the Divine Will, do not permit of such a thing.

They cannot permit it, otherwise they would not be perfect, which in turn would also imply that the Will of God, His Power and He Himself are not perfect!

Since this remains forever impossible, however, as any science in Creation can observe for itself, it follows that it is wrong and a doubt in God’s Perfection if it should be asserted that this gross material flesh was resurrected and ascended into another world after forty days.

If the flesh is really to come to life again, this can only be done if the soul, which for a time is still connected to the physical body by an ethereal cord, is called back into the body.*

In accordance with the Natural Laws this is only possible as long as this cord still exists.

Once this cord is severed a raising from the dead, i.e., a recalling of the soul into its physical body, would be impossible!

This also is strictly subject to the perfect Laws of Nature, and even God Himself could not do it because it would be against His Own Perfect Laws, against His Own Perfect Will which operates automatically in Nature!

It is just on account of this very Perfection that there could never occur to Him such an imperfect thought, which would only be an arbitrary action!

Here again God appears to be bound within the work of Creation through His flawless Perfection, which must be fulfilled in every case and which permits of no change; nor indeed is such a change intended or necessary.

* Lecture II–30: “Death”

But this restraint is not real at all, it only appears so in some things because man is unable to overlook the entire happening.

And this inability to overlook the whole is the cause of his expecting – in all goodwill and respect – arbitrary acts from his God which, to the keen observer, must only belittle Divine Perfection!

What a man thinks in all humility is good does not in this case become a looking upward in veneration, but merely a dragging down into the quite natural limitation of the human spirit!

The strict observance of the Laws of the Divine Will or the Laws of Nature also became evident in the raising of Lazarus and of the youth of Nain.

These could be raised because the cord connecting body and soul was still intact.

At the Master’s call the soul could re-unite with the body, which was then compelled to remain in the Gross Material World, according to the Laws of Nature, until a new separation between the gross material body and ethereal body took place, i.e., until a new physical death occurred, permitting the ethereal body to enter the ethereal beyond.

However, it is impossible for a gross material body to pass over into another world!

If the Spirit of Christ had again returned into His gross material body, or had It perhaps not even left the body at all, He would have been forced to remain in gross matter till He died again, not otherwise!

The resurrection of the flesh into another world is completely out of the question for men, as it was then for Christ!

The physical body of the Redeemer followed the same course as every other physical body has to follow in accordance with the Natural Laws of the Creator.

Consequently Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did not rise again in the flesh!

Yet in spite of all logic and the far greater reverence towards God expressed in this, there will still be many who, in the blindness and indolence of their erroneous faith, will not be willing to follow such simple paths of the Truth.

There are also some who cannot do so because of their self-imposed limitations.

Others again will purposely and furiously try to fight against it on account of their well-founded fear that their laboriously erected edifice of comfortable faith must collapse.

It is of no avail to them to base their assertions on nothing but literal transmissions, for the disciples were also human beings.

It is only human if at that time the disciples, who were greatly agitated by all the dreadful happenings, also wove some of their own thoughts into the accounts they gave from memory; thoughts which, through having witnessed miracles they themselves could still not explain, caused them to report some things differently from what they had been in reality!

Their writings and stories were repeatedly based too strongly on their own human assumptions, which then later on became the basis for many an error, as for instance in the erroneous combining of the Son of God and the Son of Man into one person!

Even though they were helped by the strongest spiritual inspiration, their own preconceived ideas nevertheless interfered strongly with their transmission and often dimmed the clearest and best meant picture!

Jesus Himself, however, never wrote down anything, and thus nothing was left upon which one could absolutely and indisputably rely!

He never would have said or written anything that was not wholly and fully in accord with the Laws of His Father, the Divine Laws of Nature or the Creative Will.

For He said expressly: “I am come to fulfil the Laws of God!”

The Laws of God, however, are clearly evident in Nature which, indeed, extends further than the mere Gross Material Sphere, yet remaining also “natural” everywhere, in the Ethereal as well as in the Animistic and Spiritual Worlds!

Any man who thinks can surely find something in these important words of the Redeemer which goes beyond the confusing religious dogmas and shows a way to all who are really serious in their seeking!

In addition, however, everybody can find important points about this in the Bible, for Jesus appeared to many – and what happened?

Mary did not recognize Him at first, Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him immediately, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus did not recognize Him for hours, although He walked and spoke with them…

What must be inferred from this?

That it must have been another body they saw, otherwise they would all have recognized Him at once!

However, let him who does not wish to hear remain deaf, and let him who is too lazy to open his eyes remain blind!

The general conception “resurrection of the flesh” finds its justification when applied to earthly births, which will never cease as long as there are men on earth!

It is a great promise that repeated lives here on earth are possible, repeated incarnations for the purpose of a more rapid advance and a necessary redemption of the baser reciprocal actions, which is synonymous with the forgiveness of sins!

A proof of the immeasurable Love of the Creator Who graciously permits that departed souls, which have wholly or partly frittered away their time on earth and who were therefore still immature when they entered the beyond in order to ascend, are given another opportunity to clothe themselves in a new gross material body or cloak, whereby the flesh they laid aside celebrates a resurrection in the new flesh!

The soul that had already passed over thereby celebrates a new resurrection in the flesh.

The spirit of man, which cannot overlook all things, will only later on be able to grasp the blessing that rests in the constant recurrence of this high Grace!

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