In the Light of Truth

58. 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 bring into being and maintain the Work of Creation. Perfect as well, therefore, are 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 about so many assertions! Some teachings 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.

With this, however, the germ of disease was introduced into many a teaching. Like a boring worm that forces the entire structure to collapse. This collapse is all the more inevitable where such contradictions are made into foundational pillars, which not only cast doubt on the Perfection of God but directly deny it! This denial of the perfection of God even belongs to creeds upon which entry into the community of faith is conditioned.

Reference is made to the resurrection of the flesh, i.e. the resurrection of the physical body of the Son of God which is quite thoughtlessly accepted by most people without leaving the faintest trace of an understanding. Others again, although fully aware of their own ignorance, accept this assertion 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 pitiful such a group of people appears in his eyes when they quite often consider themselves to be ardent confessors of their faith, strict believers, showing their zeal in ignorant presumption by impetuously looking down upon those of different opinion, while not realizing that this is an infallible sign of their helpless lack of understanding.

He who accepts and professes important matters as his conviction without question shows boundless indifference, not true faith.

It is in this light that such a person stands before that which he is used to calling the highest and the holiest, which should represent the content and the mainstay of his whole being.

As such he is not an alive member of his religion who may expect ascent and redemption, rather he is but sounding brass, only an empty tinkling cymbal, which neither understands the Laws of his Creator nor himself makes the effort to recognize them.

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

The wrong conception of the resurrection of the flesh, like any other erroneous opinion, is also an artificially constructed obstacle which they take over with them into the beyond, before which they will have to come to a halt without the possibility of progress, since they cannot get rid of it of their own accord and since a false belief tightly clings to them and binds them in such a way that they are cut off from any unobstructed view towards the Luminous Truth.

They do not dare to change their way of thinking, thus cannot advance. With this the danger arises that these souls, who keep themselves thus fettered, will miss the last opportunity of becoming free and cannot ascend to the Light in time, as a consequence of which they will have to slide down into disintegration, and will find eternal damnation as their final goal.

Eternal damnation is permanent exclusion from the Light. As a natural consequence it is the self-determined separation from the opportunity of being able to return to the Light as a fully conscious and mature personality. This condition occurs through being drawn into disintegration which not only atomizes and dissolves the ethereal body, but also all that has been gained by the spirit in terms of individual consciousness*(Lecture: The World). That, then, is the so-called “spiritual death” from which there can no longer be any ascent towards the Light for the conscious “ego” developed up to that point, whereas in the case of an ascent, the conscious ego not only endures but continues to mature till it reaches spiritual perfection.

A man who has passed into the beyond with a wrong or thoughtlessly accepted faith remains bound and hampered until he becomes alive and free within himself through a different conviction, thus shattering the obstacle which through his own faith keeps him from striding forward along the right and true path.

This overcoming and the expenditure of energy required to free oneself from such a false belief, however, is enormous. The mere step towards approaching such a thought calls for an immense spiritual boost. Thus millions keep themselves imprisoned and therefore cannot gain sufficient strength even to lift a foot, under the fatal delusion that they would be doing something wrong. They are as if paralyzed and would indeed be lost unless the Living Power of God Itself seeks a way to them. But this Power can intervene and help only if the human soul harbors the spark of a volition for it which reaches out towards it.

Nothing could be more terrible and fatal than the paralysis arising from this simple and natural happening. For with this the blessing of free decision entrusted to man becomes a curse through false application. Each individual is always free to exclude himself or to join. And a heavy price is paid, when a man blindly embraces a teaching without careful and serious examination! 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 to the keenest scrutiny everything that they call faith! Perdition indeed awaits those who cause such great misery! Who as false shepherds lead their sheep into the desolate wilderness. Nothing can help them but to lead their misguided sheep back onto the true path. The great question, however, is whether there will still be enough time left for them to do so. Hence everyone must carefully examine himself before he presumes to teach his neighbor.

False belief is delusion! Which keeps the human spirit closely and tightly bound here as well as in the beyond with such strength that only the Living Power of the true Word of God can break loos. Therefore harken to its call whenever it is heard. It is only meant for him who perceives the call! Such a one must then weigh and examine and become free!

He should not forget that only his own decision can 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 teaching or other without seriously examining it in all its aspects, or just as perhaps he tried to deny God because up till then he was not able to find a way to Him that satisfied his legitimate desire for logical completeness, so now it is again necessary that the first volition for uncompromising examination in all his seeking must 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.

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 such an examination, but even makes it an absolute necessity! If he regards it as a healthy instinct for self-preservation, then this is by no means wrong! He would certainly never sign an earthly contract which would burden him with some responsibility without examining it carefully, word by word, and considering whether he would be able to comply with all its conditions. It is no different, but far more serious in spiritual matters regarding the decision to devote oneself 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 Pure-Spiritual Realm of God the Father! Gross material substance that cannot even pass over into 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, for the laws are perfect. Hence gross matter cannot, after death has occurred, ascend into the Kingdom of the Father, 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 impossible!

On a small scale, all this can be quite distinctly observed in the laws of physics, for these too, demonstrate nothing but the immutable Laws of the Creator, which spread throughout this field as they do throughout all existence.

All that exists is subject to the uniform Laws of genesis which carry within them clearly and distinctly the simple but inexorable Divine Will. Nothing can be removed from them.

Thus it is all the more regrettable if some teachings refuse to acknowledge the immense greatness of God thus revealed with which He visibly comes so close to human understanding!

Every teaching points quite correctly 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 other 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 one cannot be separated from the other. These perfect Laws of Creation, namely the Laws of Nature, extend throughout and support all that has come into existence. Perfection, however, means immutability. Hence it follows that a bending of these fundamental or natural laws is completely impossible. In other words: under no circumstances can there be exceptions which are contrary to all other happenings in their naturalness.

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

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

If various teachings refuse to accept this self-evident fact given through God’s absolute Perfection then this is proof that their foundation is false; that it is based upon the human intellect which is bound to space and time and therefore cannot lay claim to being a message of God which would not include any gaps, since a message of God can only come out of Perfection, out of the Truth Itself which is without gaps and easily understood in its simple greatness. In the first place it is natural, for what man calls Nature issued from the Perfection of the Divine Will, and still maintains its aliveness 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, like any human being, to use a physical body, i.e., a body of flesh. Every thinking man should recognize in this the immutability of the Laws of Nature, just as he must recognize it in His physical death which occurred through crucifixion.

This gross material flesh could not then be an 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 impossible, however, as any science in Creation can observe for itself, it follows that it is wrong and that any assertion claiming that this gross material flesh was resurrected and ascended into another world after forty days constitutes doubt in God’s Perfection.

If flesh is really to come to life again, this can only occur if the soul, which for a time is still connected to the physical body by an ethereal cord, is called back into the body.*(Lecture No. 40: Death) 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 Laws of Nature which are without gap, 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. Precisely because of this Perfection such an imperfect thought, which would have to be an arbitrary act, would never occur to Him. Here again there appears to be a boundedness of God within the work of Creation through His flawless Perfection, which must be fulfilled in every case and which permits no change; nor indeed is such a change intended or necessary. But this is by no means an actual boundedness; it only appears as such to man in certain things because he is unable to have a complete overview of the entire happening. And this inability to have a complete overview is the cause of his expecting, albeit well-meant and with reverence, arbitrary acts from his God which, on keen reflection, must only belittle Divine Perfection. Thus, man's thinking, intended to be in all humility, is, in this case, not reverentially gazing upward, but rather is a pulling down into the quite natural confines of the human spirit.

The Laws of the Divine Will or the Laws of Nature were strictly observed in the cases of 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 body 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 perhaps not even left the body at all, He would have been forced to remain in gross matter until He died again, not otherwise.

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 that 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, are not willing to follow such simple paths of the Truth. There are also some who cannot follow because of their self-imposed limitations. Others again will angrily and with full intention try to fight against it on account of their well-founded fear that their laboriously erected edifice of convenient faith must collapse.

It is of no avail to them if they rely as a basis only on literal transmissions; for the disciples were human beings too. It is only human if the disciples, who were greatly upset by all of the dreadful happenings at that time, wove, in their memory, some of their own thoughts into the accounts they transmitted; on account of their having witnessed miracles which they themselves could still not explain, they reported some things differently from what they had been in reality.

Their writings and stories were frequently rooted too strongly in their own human assumptions, which then later on became the basis for many an error, as for instance in the erroneous melding together of the Son of God and the Son of Man into one person.

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

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

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

“I am come to fulfill the Laws of God!”

The Laws of God, however, are clearly evident in Nature which extends further than merely to the Gross Material Sphere, yet remains “natural” everywhere, in the Ethereal as well as in the Animistic and Spiritual Worlds. In these significant words of the Redeemer a thinking man can surely find something which goes beyond the confusing religious teaching sand which shows a way to all who are really serious in their seeking!

In addition, however, everybody can find indications in the Bible, for Jesus appeared to many. But 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 concept of “resurrection of the flesh” finds its justification when applied to earthly births, which will never cease for 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 advancement, and for the necessary redemption of reciprocal actions of a lower kind, which is the same as the forgiveness of sins. It is proof of the immeasurable Love of the Creator Who graciously grants departed souls, which totally or partially wasted their time on earth and were therefore unready to ascend when they entered the beyond, another opportunity to take on a new gross material body or cloak, whereby the flesh they had discarded celebrates a resurrection in the new flesh. The soul that had already passed over thereby celebrates a resurrection in the flesh.

The blessing of this continually repeating fulfillment of such high Grace will be recognized only at a later time by the spirit of man which cannot have a complete overview all things!

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]