Resurrection In Fact

Resurrection  in  Fact

Martin Exeter   April 19, 1987

During the last fifty-five years a miracle has been occurring in the body of mankind. The view of most is fastened upon external events, of which there are multitudes, some close at hand which we may observe, others reported to us—probably quite inaccurately—by the media. But the miracle has been overlooked. We ourselves properly have some awareness of this miracle in our own personal experience.

At Eastertime in the Christian world, which incidentally is only a part of the total world, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated. It is assumed that this person really existed and lived on earth and, according to the Christian view, was finally crucified, placed in a tomb from which He came forth in the resurrection. If one stops to consider the matter, setting aside for the moment the multitude of beliefs that are present in human hearts and minds with respect to all this, it is simply based in a story that has, rather miraculously I suppose, come down to us out of the far-distant past. Apparently the story was written some considerable time after the events, if you think of two or three hundred years as being considerable time, so how accurate the stories are might be open to question. But in any case there are stories which those who are associated with the Christian religion remember. They remember the stories about something that was supposed to have happened almost two thousand years ago. No one living on earth today was present at that time; no one has firsthand knowledge of what it was that occurred—consequently there has had to be the development of a considerable system of belief.

One might possibly be inclined, observing all this, to see something of a fantasy which is present in human consciousness, firmly believed in by many people. The belief varies somewhat from one group to another, but the fundamental factors seem to be commonly accepted. However, in fact it is a fantasy. I do not say that to denigrate anyone’s beliefs, but merely to state a fact. Such memory as there has been—and this was thought to be important—has related to some events which may have taken place a long time ago, a memory of the past. It’s interesting to note that in one of the central observances of the Christian religion there is what is called the communion service, and this is designed to call something to remembrance also. But, always, the calling to remembrance has been relegated to the past, as though this was the only kind of memory that anyone could have.

Recalling the past, even our own individual pasts, is presently recalling a fantasy. It isn’t real now. At the time in the past, when that was the present, there was a sense of meaning to it, or a sense of reality to it; but looking back upon it, it becomes a fantasy. I’m sure you’ve all noted how memories differ when recalling past events: “This was the way it was!” “Oh no, I remember it quite differently!” It’s all a fantasy! Even the experience at the time was quite different for different people. The only reality we could possibly know is in this present moment. The only connection we have with reality at all is now. As soon as anything slips into the past it is removed from the present and immediately becomes fantastic. It becomes imagination.

The experience that needs to be remembered is what that experience might be in this present moment. Our experience in the present moment is virtually all based in what has gone before in the past. It is all based, in other words, in a fantasy—so that we live in a fantastic world. Anyone who has opportunity to examine what is going on in this world would be inclined to agree that it really is fantastic—not in a very pleasing way, either, for the most part. So remembering the past, blocks the remembering of the present. There is something to remember now, an experience which has not been known up to this point.

Obviously there is a lack in human experience; otherwise so much attention wouldn’t be paid to all these things in the past. It is hoped that somehow or other we can drag something out of the past to ourselves to fill this gaping void in our own experience. At least this is the general state of affairs insofar as most people are concerned. Apparently the only value of the past is to make the present bearable! Why shouldn’t the present be bearable for itself? Something must be being excluded, if there is a void in our experience now which has to be filled up with all the stuff that may be remembered out of the fantastic past. This view of memory, as though that was important, is a faulty view. We are given the opportunity to remember now what we have forgotten now. And one of the things, it seems, that everybody has forgotten is who they are, why they are here; and I suppose you could say where they came from, but that is the past. The only connection we have with ourselves is right now.

The story that is central to Christianity, having come down to us out of the past, is some sort of a memory of a fantasy. The only reason for remembering is to see it as an allegory which relates to the present moment. All too many Christians, particularly around Eastertime, think that one has to get back into the past there and suffer so, because of what supposedly happened two thousand years ago. What good is that supposed to do now? But as an allegory of something which is applicable to our present experience, there is value and meaning, to the extent that what we remember is true. The only way we can prove out if it is true or not is to let the allegory find application in our experience now.

I suppose Easter should bring us to the point of considering the resurrection—not considering it from the standpoint of a story out of the past which is deemed to be factual but from the standpoint of considering that story as an allegory applicable to our present experience. The resurrection, as I recall it according to that story, is of the body of the Son of God. This is the Christian view. The Son of God was deemed to be the person who was called Jesus Christ. Remembering that, isn’t it wonderful that the body of this particular person survived the tomb and came forth in resurrection and then in due season ascended into the heavens? A lovely story, but completely meaningless insofar as human experience now is concerned. We don’t observe too many people coming forth from the grave and walking into the surrounding garden, then communing with those who remained, and later disappearing into the heaven. It’s a fairy tale, isn’t it? Let us see how it applies, what it means in present, practical experience; otherwise it is a waste of time considering it. This may offend many who are imbued with the Christian doctrine, but is nevertheless the fact if one can disassociate oneself sufficiently from this packet of beliefs that has been swallowed by human beings generation after generation after generation, so that it is in the very genes of those who are of Christian extraction. It is very difficult, seemingly, to shrug off all that—we’ve got to carry around the burden with us. We don’t need to really, because the allegory simply points to the fact that there is rightly the experience of resurrection now.

I commented on this matter of the fifty-five years when a miracle has been occurring within the body of mankind. That miracle relates to many of us, and others who are not here present. There has been the emergence of a body of people, drawn together not on the basis of some belief—there are some who have tried to make it be on that basis. It isn’t on that basis, but on the basis of the fact that there is a focus of spirit present in form on earth—and has been for fifty-five years, in this particular aspect of the moving cycle of things—who provided that focus of the spirit of the Most High, so that the Word might be spoken and the Tone of Life sounded.

Because that has been the fact of the matter—readily available in our experience as we came along the way, but readily available in our experience now—there has been the magnetic force which has drawn a body into form, to the extent that it has up to this point. This is the resurrection of the body. Christians are very much inclined to say, very often, “We believe in the resurrection of the body.” Okay, here it is! It isn’t a matter of believing in it; it’s a matter of accepting the experience of it. And the allegory of the old story which is familiar to Christians can be accepted and acknowledged as relating to oneself here and now.

We are taking a look at this this morning, but it’s something that we’ve been aware of, most of us anyway, for some considerable time. It isn’t just a matter of taking a look at it, is it? That may be helpful, may be necessary to start with, to begin to see that there is something to be experienced which hasn’t yet been experienced. Even with respect to those who have experienced something. I’m sure each one would readily admit that the experience is as yet rather incomplete. But by reason of the fact that there has been a focus of spirit on earth moving in the creative process, the Word has been spoken and the Tone has been sounded. That is all that is necessary, for the body to be drawn together—at least from the standpoint of the Most High, that is all that is necessary. It isn’t all that is necessary insofar as the rest of us are concerned, because there has to be a willingness to be drawn. There has to be a willingness to let the resurrection take place, to let this body take form within the darkness of the tomb of this human world. After all, that’s the only place it could take form. This is the place. We are here. And the earth presumably is valuable to make it possible for us to be here. As I understand it, none of the other planets would be very conducive presently for life to be known in human form.

So we’re here. This is the fact of the matter. And it is the fact of the matter that there is a tomb. We are well aware of that. Virtually the whole population of the earth revolves around death. Death is the supremely important thing, because in various ways death has been looked upon as the gateway to life. It’s rather a backwards idea, one would think. Life is the gateway to life, isn’t it? And the fact that we’re alive indicates that the gateway is present with us. Perhaps if one waits until one is dead one may find that the gateway has slammed shut. Life is the gateway to life. Even in the Christian world the central figure said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” He certainly didn’t say, “I am come that everybody might die and find life.” That is some fantastic concept that the rather ignorant and stupid human mind has thought up, and a lot of people have swallowed it whole. We’re alive! Let’s take advantage of the fact. We’re not really supposed to sit around hopefully waiting to die.

It might be said that we have no business dying. All sorts of ideas erupt into consciousness when such a statement is made, but those who live would not be of the nature and the character of those who die. We do, all of us, spend the days of our years dying, rather than living. It seems that for the first few years there is a spurt of increased life burgeoning through the human form, but shortly thereafter it’s downhill all the way. People frantically try to keep themselves in shape and all this, so that they may live a little longer. What a travesty of the crowning creation on earth, man. It has no resemblance to MAN whatsoever. Yet human beings are very well able to pat themselves on the back for all their marvelous achievements, and they do it. We do it. We puff ourselves up in various ways: we need to be recognized! Why do we need to be recognized? Because we deem that we don’t have much value, and if someone recognizes us then that will help to convince us that we really do have value, when we know very well that we don’t. Let’s be honest about it. As human beings, we have no value whatsoever, just a potential, that’s all—the potential which becomes a realized fact by reason of the resurrection. The resurrection, whatever it may have been in the past, was never intended to give an excuse to human beings for failing to experience the reality of it now. “Oh we can just rest in the arms of Jesus, because He was resurrected.” If we can get into His arms, then I suppose we’ll go up too! What fantasy—what a fairy tale.

But the truth is available, to experience the reality now. Very few human beings have proved to be willing to let it happen. But since the focus of spirit was reestablished in form on earth, there has been a sounding of the Tone and a speaking of the Word; and it is because of this that the miracle has been occurring within the body of mankind, through you and others, of a body being drawn together, drawn together by spirit. There are lots of people who inquire: “Well what do you believe?” How do you answer that? What’s the point of believing something? Let’s know the truth. If we have to believe something we don’t know the truth. We hope that what we’re believing is the truth, but we may be very assured that it isn’t, because the only way one can know the truth is to experience it in the expression of one’s own life. It comes forth in expression through oneself. That is the only way anyone could ever know the truth. No one else can tell someone what the truth is. There may be indication, as I am indicating now, that this is the only way it could be known, but that doesn’t hand the truth to anybody.

It is the individual’s personal responsibility, and there has been virtually no one for the last two thousand years who has actually accepted that responsibility. It is said of Jesus Christ that He spoke the words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Who else has been able to speak those words? There are those who say, “Well, He was an example.” Okay, let’s come into position to speak those words then, and make them stick. It is initially a very individual and personal matter. One has to accept the responsibility for oneself. You can’t accept the responsibility for anyone else, and no one can accept it for you, the responsibility of experiencing the resurrection. In the resurrection, the body of the One who spoke those words comes into form, so that the words may again be spoken. The allegory comes into the present moment, to be known now, to be experienced now, because of the willingness to accept the responsibility of it.

The responsibility always must be accepted individually. There has been a good deal of hope on the part of many of those who are associated with this ministry that, somehow or other by being associated with it, they would be lifted up. Well they may find it works for a little, but then somewhere along the way they’re dumped. No one dumps them, they dump themselves, because you can’t float into the experience of the resurrection in the arms of somebody else—not even Jesus, whoever He might be. And who knows that? People have concepts, they have visions—and usually their visions stem from stained-glass windows. Did you ever note that those who have had visions of Jesus make Him appear always the same? I don’t think it’s Jesus at all. It’s an eruption out of their subconscious minds. After all, we have a lot of stuff in our subconscious minds. I was going to say rubbish, which is what it really is. It needs to get out of there, so that there is space to receive the working of the spirit of the living God now.

Coming to this present moment, we delight to move in the creative cycle that this miracle which has been happening, and is happening now, may come to fruition, to fulfilment. The question is, “Through whom will this happen?” That has always been my question, and I look around and I see: “Well perhaps through that one, and that one, and the other one.” Some let it work, and keep moving. Changes begin to be wrought, and they begin to discover that they’re not really this human creature they thought they were before. But others are oh, so reluctant to let go of that miserable creature, human nature. Human nature is all based in the past; we all have our heredities. Most people think those heredities are important. They only become important if we’re willing to let them be dissolved. Their dissolution is important.

What has occurred has drawn a body into expression by reason of the working of the spirit, and that alone. This is the miracle, but how many of you within the sound of my voice are aware that you are a part of that miracle? Oh it’s easy to organize human beings and get them to follow out a set of beliefs, imagining that that will bring them security. But the security is in the spirit. Only those who respond to the spirit, without demanding explanations, without requiring anything from anyone, but just yielding to the spirit in the expression of their own living, find themselves drawn together with others who are likewise letting it happen. I know that those who have been drawn have looked askance at one another sometimes: “Well I didn’t choose you!” No, you didn’t! What was the word we might recall? “Ye have not chosen me; I have chosen you.” Those who will accept the choice find that they have no choice, and so there is a drawing together. Gradually it begins to be found that we really have some friends. We stop looking merely at the external factors, the factors of human nature that still may be hanging around. We begin to become aware of the factors of the true nature of man which are also present and which are also emerging into expression. There is the unifying experience, that there might be a state of being all together with one accord in one place, certainly not because of externals.

Who cares what you like or don’t like? It’s immaterial, totally irrelevant. What is the true design emerging in the creative process? Let’s find out what that is, and let’s set aside our human likes and dislikes and let the truth put in an appearance. Do you think the truth would ever be changed because of your likes and dislikes? This has been the very ignorant and stupid idea even in Christianity, hasn’t it? We’re going to pray to God to change things around to suit us! That is blasphemous, I would say. Let’s let it be reversed. Let’s let things be changed around in us so that we suit God, so that we are the evidence of God. Isn’t that the way man was supposed to have been created in the beginning, in the image and likeness of God? Well let’s let it happen, rather than saying, “I’m going to follow out my own course and desires and what I want to do, and what I want to have and what I want to get.” Oh there are some who say, “Oh yes, I’ll go along with God. I’ll worship God, but only if He conforms to my denomination or my religion. If He won’t do that I don’t want to have anything to do with Him.” It’s strange, strange—very strange! Let’s let Him be God.

Human beings say, “Why does God allow all these terrible things to happen?” Presumably God has no particular desire that these terrible things should happen, but we decide that we’re going to produce them. And for man, made in the image and likeness of God, there is this little matter of freedom. God is free to fulfil whatever His purposes are. For man to reveal God he also must be free, so that God can be free in heaven and on earth. Of course God hasn’t been free in human beings as they now are. God in a sense has been in jail, because human beings have been intent on following out their own desires and designs: “I want it this way; I like it that way.” Everybody is at everybody else’s throat. Come out of it! Come out of that ignorant nonsense, that there may be the acceptance of what is present now, the resurrection and the life.

It may seem to have been a slow process, drawing some sort of a body together that could begin to be coordinated and effective. Well, children take a while to grow up. They’re very uncoordinated to start with. Gradually they come together a bit. But then adults impose upon them the adult attitudes and views and ideas and concepts and beliefs, and the poor child becomes a reproduction of his or her forebears. What a sad fate! What an awful fate for one who is made in the image and likeness of God. Let us accept once again the fact of this reality into our own experience, refusing anymore to be pushed around by our own human-nature character, that dumb creature that emerged out of a fantastic past. It’s all fantasy! Let it go. There is a reality here, but nobody knows it until it is expressed. “Well, I don’t know about that,” people say. “I wonder. Maybe it’s so, but I’m not sure.” Of course they never find out, because the only way to find out is to accept the fact and give expression to it.

We have found this rather a gradual process occurring. I would that it might be a little faster—it could be—because I don’t know just how much time we might have, individually or as part of the human race. There is a cycle, there is a growing-up period, but if we behave as human beings usually do we find that we never grow up. As we have noted, there is scarcely anyone who grows past the age of five years old emotionally. That is ridiculous, but it is a fact nevertheless. Have you ever watched these “leaders of men” and their behavior? Childish, absolutely childish.

Let us allow a maturity to be present because we live, and this is included in the process of resurrection: a movement into maturity, so that there is something stable and sure and unmoving on the face of the earth. Then there is a body containing the spirit in expression which brings understanding, and what is needful is known and what is needful is done. Very simple, once all this human-nature rubbish is swept out of the way. But as long as we are corrupted by human nature we are in a sad, sad state—a dying state. Individually that’s taken for granted, isn’t it? One could easily take it for granted collectively too. The resurrection is available and is at hand. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away,” were some words written in the Song of Solomon. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” This is the invitation to the resurrection. Each is a fair one when the grotesque mask of human nature falls away. And we may let it happen.

So today we celebrate the resurrection and the life in this present moment in our own experience. That is the only thing that has any meaning in our own experience as individuals. And when we accept it in our experience as individuals we accept it collectively. There is a body which is in the process of resurrection.

Grace Van Duzen — Martin, surely this miracle of fifty-five years has come to a very vital point today. God is free. This is the first Easter Day the world has known. The Lord has come out of the tomb which man made, and this hoax is allowed to be dissolved. Who would ever think that on Easter Day satan would be divested of his power? You wouldn’t think it would happen on Easter Day, with the Easter bunnies and the flowers! But it is on this day, in this year, by you, that this happened; because this was not an innocent accident, this tomb and this hoax; it was deliberate—it was deliberately done to bring into the hands of self-active man the control of the body which belongs to the Most High. And this is done. Praise God!

Lord Exeter — This body belongs to the Most High. It doesn’t belong to anyone who composes it. But those who compose it love it. I have loved this growing body for many years. I loved it just the way it was. What else was there to love? But those who composed it didn’t always agree with me. They had complaints. They wanted me to change something, so that they would be more comfortable, I suppose, or so that whatever was happening would conform more with their view of what should happen. But nobody knew what should happen. I personally was quite content to let it happen the way it would happen, and I have delighted over the years in those who agreed with me on that point, so that they weren’t always trying to stick their two bits’ worth in, to make things be the way they thought they ought to be. If human beings are so clever, why is the world the way it is now? They don’t know. They’re stupid and ignorant, but totally unwilling to admit it for the most part, and so they go blindly on, destroying everything—themselves included. There is nothing new about that, of course, except that it’s coming to some point of climax.

Well if that self-destruction can come to a point of climax, so can the resurrection. I’ve been interested in that, and I’ve loved the body. I didn’t know what the body was going to be. If you indulge in a little self-examination, you might wonder as to whether I would have chosen you or not! Let it be the way it is, with the creative process at work because the spirit was brought to focus, the Word was spoken and the Tone sounded. I trust that—and as this spoken Word and sounded Tone amplifies, I trust that. It amplifies through those who accept absolutely this body, this growing body, and love it as I love it. Do you think for all these years I would have bothered with all the nonsense that has gone on if I didn’t love the body? I love the body because I love my King, and it is His body.

The earth doesn’t belong to human beings; the earth belongs to the Sun. That should be obvious enough for anyone. The earth belongs to the Sun. It orbits around the Sun. It doesn’t orbit around human beings! Let it be possessed where it rightly should, so that we do not interfere with the way things work. We do not try to usurp the control of this earth, as has been customary in human nature for thousands of years, we let it be restored into the hands of the One to whom it belongs, which may well be represented by the Sun in this allegory. We are identified with that radiance, that outpouring of love, of power, of creative purpose. We participate in that and, behold, all things are made new—made new according to the true design. The human-nature design is out.

© Emissaries of Divine Light