In Three Days
Martin Cecil April 14, 1974
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The Son of God is the Shekinah. The Shekinah is indeed sent into the world, or the world would not exist. But the Shekinah was sent into the world, specifically the focalized essences of Shekinah, through Jesus, that the world might be made aware of the reality of Shekinah. The world certainly did not see Him or acknowledge Him but, rather, rejected Him. The Shekinah has always been present for the children of men, although for long they have been unaware of it. The Shekinah came into the world through Jesus, so that the reality of it might be known to the children of men within the range of their own state of consciousness. The Shekinah, although present, has remained unknown because of the impurity of human hearts. The veil has been present, obscuring Shekinah, obscuring the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells.
Jesus spoke of the One Who Dwells as “the Father.” He, Jesus, was the evidence of the presence of the Father within the range of human consciousness, so that they might have seen Him and known Him and He might have led them into a new state of consciousness where the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells should be the experience of all people. These words are recorded as having been spoken by Jesus; they are contained within the 6th chapter of the Gospel according to John:
“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
In this particular chapter is recorded what has been called His great discourse on the bread of life. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
What is the last day? First of all we may recognize that the raising up, as it has been translated, the raising again, the resurrection, is achieved by Shekinah. “I” will raise him up. It does not say that human beings will be able to change their minds, change their consciousnesses, raise themselves up. Shekinah gets the job done — the Son of God, the evidence of the presence of the Father. The Son of God is the evidence of the presence of the Father in the dimensionless state. The Son of man is the evidence of the presence of the Father in the dimensional state. The Shekinah revealed through the refined substance of consciousness in man, in the dimensional state, has always been present with man; for this is the source of his life and being. But the veil has stood between the Shekinah in the dimensional realm and the level of consciousness at which he existed. The mind of man knows not Shekinah. Pharaoh knows not the Lord; there is a veil. The veil is the impure heart. The heart cannot be purified by any human effort, only by Shekinah — Shekinah which is present. Shekinah is present as long as there is the experience of life, but because of the veil there is a distorted experience of life. The impurity of heart, which produces all this, may be seen as being described as sin. On one occasion in particular Jesus said to someone, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” There were others present at the time who felt that He was blaspheming by making such a statement, so He asked whether it was easier to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or “Arise, and walk.”
Human beings have been very much engaged in this business of trying to get healing, of trying to make it so that they could arise and walk. Great effort has been expended in this in all the affairs of men. Would it not be easier to say, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”? — because, in spite of all the effort that has been put forth, human beings have not yet arisen and walked. They have remained in the crippled state. They have remained in the crippled state and must remain in the crippled state until their sins are forgiven them, until the veil is dissolved, until the impure heart is no longer a barrier to the working of Shekinah. So the obvious requirement is the forgiveness of sins, the purifying of the heart, which allows a change of consciousness so that all that comes within the range of human consciousness is no longer distorted because of the veil. Human beings think they see what they see, in themselves and in the world around them, but they do not truly see; they are in darkness because of the veil. What they think they see is a distorted image. There is no way, really, by which that distorted image can be changed, except as the veil is dissolved. But over many thousands of years human beings have attempted to change the image without letting anything be done about the veil. Clearly that is quite impossible.
To God all things are possible, because whatever is right and fitting to be expressed in consciousness allows the true image to appear. But it will not appear, insofar as man is concerned, as long as the veil remains in him. It is still anticipated that by the efforts of human beings, particularly because of their supposed scientific progress, they're going to be able to defeat the enemy, the enemy who is out to get them. The enemy is out to get them by war, by pestilence, by starvation, famine. He's out to get them in every conceivable way. But what human beings see in this regard is evil imagination. It is a false image, generated by reason of impurity of heart. The false image is not going to change if there is no change in the heart. If the heart is polluted the image will be polluted, and there is no method available to human beings to make it any other way. A change of heart is what is needful. And how does that come? Through Shekinah. And Shekinah raises again the consciousness of man in the last day. The last day — doomsday? For some perhaps. Here reference is again to the creative process, days of creation.
Here is another passage, from the 2nd chapter of the same Gospel: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.”
This has been interpreted to mean that He was simply speaking of Himself. What He said included what occurred in His own experience, but His own experience set the stage, sounded the Tone, for something more to which He had reference in these particular words. Who is going to destroy the temple? Many people look upon such events as the judgment of God, something like a hurricane — an act of God! All bad experiences are attributed to God, apparently. But human beings, behind or below the veil, function in that state of consciousness to destroy themselves. The prince of this world is lost. So no one has to go about destroying the temple — certainly not God! Human beings themselves do an excellent job and have done an excellent job, individually speaking, generation after generation. They destroy the image which they themselves create.
We might remember that the temple, far from being a house of prayer, became a den of thieves and consequently is destroyed by the thieves. “Destroy this temple” — that's sure, from the standpoint of human consciousness below the veil — “and in three days I will raise it up.” Three days. Human beings in their self-centeredness have been hopeful, apparently, that somehow or other, even though they had been in the grave for many, many years, on the day of judgment they would be resurrected. I think this view has tended to pall a little in human consciousness. But what are the three days to which reference is here made? Our vision, of course, needs to expand, see beyond the self-centered individual state where human beings try to relate resurrection to themselves.
The first three creative days are necessary for the resurrection of the body of the Son of God. We may recognize the four forces at work in their sequence of dominance: water, air, earth. This cycle was initiated within the scope of recorded history at the time of Abraham. It was initiated on the basis of the water force. It emerged into specific evidence at the time of Moses, and we may well recall that he led the children of Israel out of Egypt over the Red Sea; and later they moved over Jordan. Moses brought what has been called the Law, which relates to the design of truth, and water is a symbol of truth. Here was the first day.
Then came the second day, when the Lord Himself came, in the body of a man, into the consciousness of the world to make evident Shekinah, to provide the only means by which resurrection of the consciousness of man might occur. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” — no other way, one truth, one life: Shekinah. He spoke and acted from the standpoint of spirit. He said that it was necessary to be born of water (the first force, the first day) and of the spirit (the second day). Water, air — air is the symbol of spirit. There was a baptism of the holy spirit, the spirit descended upon Him as a dove — the second day.
And the third day centers in relationship to the third force, earth. In the creeds of Christianity the statement has been made, “I believe in the resurrection of the body”; and of course people, being self-centered, thought of their own bodies. But the resurrection is the resurrection of the body of the Son of God, which obviously would relate to the earth force. The resurrection of the body comes because sins are forgiven, because the heart is purified. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Where? In the dimensionless realm? Physical eyes don't work there. No, God is seen by reason of His image. Man is made in the image and likeness of God, truly. When the heart is pure the image which appears in the consciousness of man is the true image, no longer the false distorted image; the pure evidence of Shekinah revealed at those levels of consciousness that are described as earth — physical, mental and spiritual expression. Three days. The third day is the last day in this cycle as it relates to the resurrection. If it goes longer than that, there is nothing. If the body isn't resurrected, if the true image and likeness of God does not emerge out of the tomb state of distorted and disordered consciousness, there is nothing left. If the body disintegrates in the tomb, that's it.
The resurrection comes because sins are forgiven. The fact that sins are forgiven is established by Shekinah. It is certainly not established by human beings trying to be good; they remain sinners on that basis, as has been recognized in the Christian world. The assumption has been made that it must stay that way and the only possibility to emerge out of the sinful state is to die. To die is to make sure that that emergence could never happen. Jesus said that He had the power to lay down His life and to take it again. In the human state of distorted consciousness such an idea seems impossible; it doesn't conform to the images in the distorted state of human consciousness. Therefore human beings say, “Such a thing could not happen.” It could not happen in the distorted state of human consciousness, that's for sure! But that is to change; sins are to be forgiven so that there may be a pure heart, a pure heart experienced now here. Shekinah is not sent into the world to condemn the world, to destroy the world, but that the world, through Shekinah, might be saved, resurrected; that sins might be forgiven, that hearts might be made pure, and that consequently a new experience of identity in consciousness might be known.
So may there be a single eye, not so much spelled “eye” as just the letter “I” — not a human “I” and a true “I,” but a single “I,” the single eye which is true. Then the whole body is full of light, and, standing at the apex of true being in the dimensional world, all else is below that apex. The whole of the dimensional consciousness is below that point. Whatever is right and fitting and true may emerge through that point to be differentiated into all levels of consciousness, initially at the level of Shekinah in the dimensional world. And Shekinah, now moving unhindered through the pure heart, re-creates the earth. The resurrection of the body results. “Behold, I make all things new” — a new image, not the image of the beast anymore but the image which man is, the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, the evidence of the presence of the Lord in dimensional form and expression in the world composed of the substance of consciousness.
The third day, when the earth force is dominant, relates to the resurrection of the body, the body of the Son of God which has for long been in the tomb. This is the last day. It has been said that the Third Sacred School is the last call, the last opportunity, because if it goes beyond this level it moves out of the level where man has self-consciousness at this present time, out of the level of human existence. In such case humans are left behind. So it is the last call, the last opportunity. It has of course been working out so that nothing has been lost; all is to be raised up at the last day. That was the first statement — all, not just human beings. All! But then everyone who permits certain conditions to be fulfilled is raised up at the last day, not because of human efforts to arise and walk but because there has been a willingness to let sins be forgiven. And that obviously is the easy way. The fact of the matter is that it is the only way; the other way is tough and never succeeds: the attempt to make the false image arise and walk — it won't do it! There is no life in the false image. This fact proves itself out in the end.
Life is in the true image, the true image which is a reflection of Shekinah, at the levels of consciousness designated as the earth. And when that true image is there it is found to have arisen and walked; that is the nature of the true image. It doesn't have to be cajoled into arising and walking; it doesn't have to be forced to arise and walk because it's filled with the required kind of drugs to make it do so. The resurrection of the body of the Son of God on earth reveals life, made evident in the true image which is man. From the standpoint of the false state of consciousness all this has seemed to be very mysterious and mystical, but as the veil dissolves it is all seen as being very natural, very practical, very sensible. There is nothing really mysterious or mystical about it at all. The very idea of mysticism indicates that the individual who is engaged in this sort of approach is still embedded in the disordered and distorted state of consciousness, where he sees through a glass darkly. And what he imagines is beyond the glass is called mysterious or mystical, but then it is all imagination anyway. “I will raise it up on the third day.” That is the word of Shekinah.
This is the third day! The raising up comes because sins are forgiven, because the heart is made pure so that the Tone of Shekinah can be clearly heard; and the reverberations of that Tone call the mental and the flesh levels of consciousness to rise and walk, to be the evidence in dimensional consciousness of the presence of the Lord. Clearly, none of these things come because of human endeavor. All that human endeavor can do is to fiddle with the false image. Some fiddle in a way that makes the false image look better to them; it probably looks worse to somebody else. But nothing is achieved by fiddling with a false image. Only when Shekinah brings forth the true image, which is man, is the resurrection a fact — not a mystical fact but an experienced and very real, natural and beautiful fact, a fact in the experience of the consciousness of human beings who have been restored to the consciousness of God, who knows man as being made in His own image and likeness. In the consciousness of God that's what we know. And what we know, we see. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Here is the resurrection and the life.
We don't really have to look back to anything, do we, because it's all now here. Movement through the first two days has occurred, and the third day is now here. The resurrection is the change of consciousness that comes when the heart is pure. The sounding of the voice of the Tone alone purifies the heart. It purifies the hearts of those who yield their hearts to the sound of that voice, to the sound of that Tone, so that this is all in all to them. The fiddling with false images no longer has any meaning at all, even though it may be necessary to handle such things because we are properly permitting Shekinah to be revealed within the scope, within the range, of human consciousness the way it is. It cannot be expected that something could be done with human consciousness the way it isn't.
So we are here, and we see the false image, but we know it's a false image. We don't give it weight or characterize it as though it had meaning. Being wise, we do not immediately tell human beings the truth of the matter, because they wouldn't understand in their state of consciousness anyway. But we know it! And this we must know constantly, so that we cannot be trapped into the false state of consciousness anymore. We see the false image; we know what it is, but it is false to us. Our concern is to allow Shekinah to emerge, that the veil may be dissolved in all the world, the gospel may be preached in all the world. And then shall the end come. It's the last day, of course — a new state, but a new state not brought about by the manipulations of the false image. This is all that can be seen in the state of the false consciousness. That's all that human beings think they can do. But you, amongst others, are beginning to arise and walk because your sins are forgiven, because the heart is being purified and the true image consequently appearing. The false image cannot blot out your awareness of the true image anymore.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
