Why Seek Ye The Living Among The Dead?

Why  Seek  Ye  The  Living  Among  The  Dead?

Resurrection

Uranda  April 5, 1953  Class

As we see the indication of the earth’s share in the resurrecting power of God, the beginning manifestations of the springtime; and as we see the pattern of that process of resurrection extending into the realm of birds and animals bursting with the joy of life, we recognize that it is God’s will that we should share here and now in the spirit and the reality of the resurrection—that we ourselves may move into a new pattern of life and share in the coming of the Garden of God from out of the east, from out of the future, into the expression of life here on earth. The Master said that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, the Garden that God planted eastward in the beginning, the means by which we may let the Divine take form on earth—and in the prayer which He taught men to pray, we find the words, “Thy kingdom come.” If it had not been for the reality of that Kingdom, the power of the Kingdom, the truth of the Kingdom, our Master Himself could not have revealed the victory. Thy Kingdom come—and we have the privilege of receiving the reality of that Kingdom in our lives more fully today. And that prayer concluded, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.” Forever.

The Master made that statement a little over nineteen centuries ago. These nineteen centuries that have passed were included in that forever. This present moment is included in forever—and yet human being have imagined that the Kingdom of God could not have any meaning on earth, that the power of God could not be effective on earth, that man had, for some reason or other, to face the necessity of living his little life-span on earth as if the power of God were not a reality, as if that power could have meaning only some time in the future, or after the human being has passed from this sphere of things. The will of God is done in Heaven, and the Kingdom of God is in Heaven, but the will of God is to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory belong to the KING, our Father in Heaven, forever—and that forever includes this present moment, this hour which we now share. If we are to experience that which God would have us know in this hour, we must begin to recognize that the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God are a reality in this hour, that they are available to us in this hour. We cannot accept the blessings of God when we do not actually believe that they are present with us, and available to us.

We read the record and find that there were those in the long ago who sought to find out LORD in the tomb. They came to the tomb weeping, they looked within the tomb—they were trying to find God, to find the LORD of Heaven and Earth, in the tomb. Even when their own eyes revealed the fact that He was not there, they could hardly believe it—even when they were told, they still doubted—and humanity has been looking for the LORD in the tomb for nineteen centuries. Those who claim to follow him have not learned the lesson contained in the record: “He is not here.” He liveth; He is risen; He is not here. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” And yet, for nineteen centuries those who have thought to follow Him have been looking in the tomb to find the LORD.

When they begin to move to the end of their days on earth, how many there are who say, “I am soon going to die; I am going to meet my Lord.” They are going to find the Lord in the tomb! Why look ye for the living among the dead?—for God is a God of the living and not of the dead. The Master quoted these words of Divine inspiration. For God is a God of the living and not of the dead. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” For nineteen centuries human beings have been looking to the tomb to find the LORD. They say, “We know that He is not in the tomb; we believe that He rose from the tomb; but I’ll find Him in the tomb nevertheless. When I go into the tomb, there I will find my Lord.” Why look for the living among the dead?

Does the God of the Living, who is not the god of the dead, according to the Master’s Word, have to wait until people are dead before He can begin to be their God; before He can begin to make manifest the reality of His Kingdom, His Truth, the control, the design, the beauty of Life, the power to make that design have meaning? Why must human beings imagine that it is not until they go into the grave that they can find the LORD? “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” Until we begin to realize that God is indeed the God of the Living we cannot begin to have that pattern of consciousness which will allow the promises of God to have meaning in our lives here and now. As long as man insists on postponing the promises that relate to life until after he is dead, he cannot know the fulfilment of those promises while he lives on earth.

We have recognized that man has come to believe that Jesus Christ did die, and that He had to die to save man. For centuries this concept has been held by human beings, but until we begin to see the truth: first, that he did not die upon the cross; and second, that it was not God’s Will that He should die—we cannot understand His teaching; we cannot receive the beauty of His promises; we cannot experience the reality of living. Humanity has imagined that the God of the Living somehow sentenced His Son to die, and that without His death there could be no resurrection. While the Master yet lived, before the crucifixion, the Word of God passed through His lips: “I am the resurrection and the life.” He did not say, “I am going to be the resurrection and the life after I am dead.” He said, long before the resurrection morn, in relationship to Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life.” If we are to accept the Word of Jesus Christ as having meaning, if it is the truth, then the concept that He had to die is not truth—because He was the resurrection before He was crucified; He was the Life before He was crucified.

Let us consider for a moment, some of the factors which have confused the minds of men with respect to these fundamental principles of Being. When our Master came into the world to reveal the Way, the Truth and the Life, He did not add, at any time, I came into the world to show you how to die, and how to be resurrected after you are dead. Not once! He spoke many times of life, of living, of glorifying God in life, of letting the power of God work through our lives to the glory of our Father in Heaven. He spoke about letting the Kingdom come and have meaning in our lives; He spoke of letting the Father’s Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven; but He did not suggest that these things could not be known to the children of men until after they are dead—for He recognized that it was here on earth that there was a need. Presumably those who have gone to heaven are not suffering; presumably they are in peace; presumably all is well with them. And our LORD and KING, when He was on earth, said that the physician is for those who are well and strong. No! He made the statement—when He was accused of serving publicans and sinners—He made the statement that the need for the physician is with the sick. Are they sick in heaven? or on earth? Where is the need for the manifestation of the power of God? When the human being gets to heaven, is he going to carry some great blessing to heaven; is he going to serve there in some marvellous way, to increase the beauty and glory and wonder of heaven? Obviously not! For the human being to feel that by going to heaven he is going to increase God’s Glory in heaven is presumption and arrogance. No!

The Master said that he who would be great among you, let him be the servant of all. Is your goal to be the servant of all those who would dwell in heaven, so that you would be great? His Ministry was a Ministry of service—He taught the principles of service; He exemplified the principles of service; and He made it clear that that service was to be rendered on earth, that it was here where there is the misery and the suffering and the sorrow and the death, that there was need for the manifestation of the resurrecting power of God, the need for the power of God in the lives of the children of men while they walked on earth. If we were to assume that the God of Love somehow, as is imagined, decreed that Jesus Christ had to come into the world and die before human beings could be saved—which is not true—then, remember, we must accept—if we are to be logical and reasonable—we must accept the idea that Judas was not betraying our LORD, he was serving God, and that outside of our LORD Himself on earth, we owe a debt of gratitude that is greater to Judas than to any other man that ever lived.

If we take the attitude that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross, we must take the attitude that all of those who helped produce the process of crucifixion were serving God and it is only because of them and their deeds that we can hope to have salvation—only because Pilate was so weak-kneed and spineless that he could not stand up to the people, but washed his hands of the whole affair. So by spineless Pilate we were accorded the privilege of salvation; by Judas who betrayed we were accorded the privilege of salvation; by Peter who denied; by those who drove the nails into His hands; by all of those who fled Him at the time of the trial; by all of those who shouted crucify Him, release unto us Barabbas, the murderer and the robber—by all of these who served God so excellently, we are granted the privilege of salvation! When we begin to stop and look at it, we see that this contemptible lie that has been foisted upon humanity has made man believe that since Jesus could not know the resurrection until after he was dead, so likewise we cannot—to make people believe that all the promises of God are to be fulfilled after they are dead; to deny the words the Master spoke in so many ways; for we begin to see that these things are not the words of our LORD. These concepts and beliefs, they have been added, or they have been expressed by human beings who did not understand the teaching of our LORD Jesus Christ He said, “Follow me.” He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” But man has continued to look for the LORD in the tomb, as if that is the only place they could find Him; that God is not powerful enough to make His Power have any meaning while we are living, only after we are dead, only in the future some time, somehow.

Blessed Ones, if Jesus Christ died on the cross His body would not have come forth from the tomb. You can consider the medications that were applied to His body—pain-relieving elements, healing ointments. He was unconscious when they took Him from the cross, but His body was not dead, or His body would not have come from the grave. If man had been able to kill the Son of God on earth, God would have had no means, then, of saving man. It was the very fact that Jesus did not die on the cross that proves that God has the power to establish His Kingdom on earth, for if man had killed God in fact, then man would have been superior to God and there would have been no hope of salvation; but the fact that when man did his worst, committing the greatest atrocity of all time, the fact that under those circumstances the body of Jesus did not die—it is because of this that the resurrection has true meaning for each and every one of us; for it means that no matter what the ill conditions which we must face, no matter what suffering, no matter what need of healing, the power of God is great enough to provide the victory—and it is a victory in living.

What victory is there in relationship to this world, where the need is, if that victory shall come only after death? I ask you? He came into the world to establish a victory on earth in relationship to the lives we live here now; and if the only victory that our LORD could make manifest was a victory after He was dead and beyond the control of human beings, beyond their reach, then what victory is it? A victory to die? Sometimes, perhaps, the way the world is. But if our LORD had not revealed to us how to live, how to experience the reality of the resurrection here and now, why did He come into the world? If His Ministry was only with respect to something after death, why did He need to come into the world? He could do it all after we were dead. He could do it in some other realm. If He did not come into the world to reveal something with respect to living life her eon earth, why did He come? He could have stayed in that realm, and have done anything in that realm that He did, if He had died, or could have done.

I know that it seems at first to the human mind that it is sacrilegious. This concept, this lie, has been held for centuries, and there are millions of sincere men and women who have never heard of anything else, who have no way of knowing the truth—the truth that makes men free—but when human beings look at the life of Jesus Christ, instead of seeing a life of victory they see a life that was persecuted, and it came to an end, as far as this world is concerned, on the cross. And humanity is filled with futility. It has no hope which will allow the acceptance of God’s promises in relationship to this time, this place where we live; and man is denied the privilege of sharing in the victory. There is no condemnation in our hearts when we recognize this truth; no condemnation towards any, no criticism of any—but our Master said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Man has been believing this concept for nineteen centuries, and has it made the world of humanity free? It has not. Those who suffer physically, are they all non-Christians; are those who are in hospitals, all non-Christians; are those who have difficulties all non-Christians? No! The degree to which the actuality of the power about which the Master taught us to pray—what is the difference? We look out into the world, Christian or non-Christian—actually, from the standpoint of those who classify themselves as Christians it is all a hope for the hereafter, after they are dead, after they are gone from this sphere of things, then they are going to have heaven. But the Master’s life was a life of service and He taught us to serve; He said to let the power of God have meaning on earth here and now. He did the works, and He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” He did not once say, “You’ll have to believe that I died on the cross.” How many there are who think they are teaching and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ when they say, “I teach Jesus and Him crucified”—as if that were the end and aim and goal of all that Jesus did on earth—and Him crucified; Him subject to the power of man, brought to a state of degradation. Yes, He did go through those horrible experiences, but not to die—to prove the victory over man, over the power of man, over the ability of man to defeat God.

Once we begin to see that if we are to serve—it isn’t to be in some hereafter, in some heaven, it is to be on earth, where we are. If we are going to serve God and man we must have a share in letting the Kingdom come now—but what is His Gospel? The Gospel as He stated it, was and is, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; available to us, within reach. And what did He say, “And this gospel, this good news of the Kingdom, shall be preached in all the world, as a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” But where are those who have taught the Gospel of the Kingdom, or preached it? They have preached an idea that Jesus died on the cross; that you have to believe on His shed blood, as they put it. Yes, blood is the symbol of life. He expressed His life on earth; He lived His life among men, revealing the Way, the Truth and the Life—not death—revealing the power of God among men, revealing the laws of God, the truths of God, and He taught men to pray, “Thy Kingdom come”—and He did not include in that prayer, “… two or three thousand years from now.” So many claim, “Well, God’s kingdom is going to come some day; it will come some day in the future; we’ve been looking for it for some nineteen centuries now; we surely will not have to wait much longer.” How is it going to come?—ready made, floating down from the sky, into the world; ready made; man will not have to do anything; he will not have to serve; he will not have to the life of Christ on earth; he will not have to do the works of God on earth. It’s a denial of everything that Jesus Christ taught, to believe that His Kingdom is coming in any such fashion! Actually, the Bible does not teach it. It is something that has been developed out of the figments of human fancy.

Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is—in exactly the same manner, not in a different manner. If we were to believe these popular concepts we would have to say—not, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” but—Thy will be done on earth as it is not done in heaven. They would have to be two different wills: one for the state of Heaven and one for the state of the earth—for here we would have to be subject to misery and sorrow. Every ill thing is supposed to be the will of God, which is a lie. It is not God’s will that any should perish. It is God’s will that His will should be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Do you think it is God’s will that all the Beings in Heaven shall die? Is it God’s will that those Beings who have gone to Heaven, whoever they are, that after they live for fifty years, or a hundred years, or a thousand, they must die? If it is not God’s will that the Beings in Heaven shall die, then it is not God’s will that Beings on earth should die—or our Master didn’t know what He was talking about when He taught men to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is—in exactly the same manner “as it is in heaven”. Thy Kingdom come—where? in Heaven? on earth! “Thy will be done”—where—on earth, “as it is in heaven”—and then the words, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.”

Are we going to acknowledge that God does have the power to change things on earth, to meet these conditions? Is God an impractical God? Did He not create man? Does He not know the needs of man? Did the Master not say, “Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him”? Is our God so impractical that He does not know what we need on earth? Why did Jesus Christ come into the world? He came into the world to reveal the Way, the Truth and the Life, and He established His own pattern of beliefs. “He that believeth on me”, and He introduced it, “Verily, verily”—or truly, truly, “I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall ye do also.” Where are the works? Where are the evidences of belief? Human beings say they believe that they’ve been saved, that they are going to be all right when they die, meanwhile they are subject to every ill thing. They say, “But the devil reigns here; we can’t get away from that; this is the devil’s kingdom; so we have to suffer; so we have to do all kinds of things.” But what did He teach men to pray? “Thine is the kingdom”—not going to be—“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” Why must we say, “Thine is going to be the kingdom; meanwhile we are subject to the devil; meanwhile we are subject to these ill things; we can’t help it. Jesus Christ didn’t mean it when he said, ‘Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ He didn’t mean it.” But He did—of course He meant it, every word of it. And He did not ask the impossible of us. The human concept of what it means to be perfect may be a far cry from the Divine design. But He said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

What was it that was to make you free? Man says, “You believe that Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sins, and you’ll be free.” Jesus says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Now, which is it? Are we to believe man or Jesus Christ? Over and over again, the Master’s words sounded in the earth, and the record comes down to us, revealing the fact that we are to live on earth, that we are to let the power of God have meaning on earth—and that we can; and that we can serve God. How? By saying, “We’ll drift through life; we’ll get by the best we can; we’ll do what we have to to be saved, and then we’ll serve God when we get to heaven; we’ll serve God forever. Won’t it be wonderful to serve God in heaven.” How about serving God on earth, and letting His power have some meaning, His will accomplish something! Is God’s power so weak that it cannot penetrate into this realm?  Is His will so weak that it can have no real meaning in our lives? Jesus Christ did not come into the world teaching a weak and vacillating pattern of life. If ever anyone, anywhere revealed strength and courage and power, it was the manifestation of our LORD and KING on earth. Nobility!—the simple majesty of the KING He was and is. Why must we take His words then, and pervert them, and teach men so? He spoke about that too—about how there would be those who would pervert His words, and teach men so; and it has been done.

Blessed Ones, once we begin to recognize that our LORD and KING intended that His Kingdom should be extended into the earth, and not just kept in Heaven; once we begin to realize that as He had power over evil, the devil, or over demons, or whatever else you want to call them, at that time, His power made manifest through those who should follow Him is sufficient to meet the devil on his own ground, if we are going to consider it from that standpoint. Suppose there is such a devil. Is there not the powers great enough to meet the devil on his own ground, and overcome, and come forth in victory? Our LORD and KING is not a weak KING. Why should we live as if He were? He came forth in the victory of the resurrection. He invited us to follow Him.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” Blessed Ones, until we begin to recognize that we do not have to die first, in order to experience these things, we can begin to study the words of Jesus Christ on the basis of what He said, and not on the basis of the colorations and distortions of the human mind—that we may begin to know the truth about Jesus Christ, and the wonderful revelation of God’s Deity, God’s Power, God’s Love that He made manifest, and he said, “Follow me.” Follow me—just to come and kneel at the foot of a cross as if it were a shrine? No! What have human beings been worshipping down through the centuries? They have not been worshipping our LORD and KING. They have been worshipping the image of a dead body on a cross, and then they wondered why there was no manifestation of life, why no victory, why no world-transforming power! How shall His power come, if not through man? He created man in the beginning to be the means by which His dominion should extend into the world, that man should have dominion over the earth, and all the things that are therein. If the dominion of the Kingdom of God is to extend into the world, it must be through man. It will not be by some mystic, magic means dreamed up by human fancy. It will be by the working of the power of God through the lives of men and women who dare to know the truth, and let the truth make them free.

Until we begin to realize that the reason why there has been no true manifestation of power through all the millions of people who call themselves Christians is simply that they have been worshipping the image of a dead body on a cross. The have not been worshipping a risen LORD. Oh, they mention it a little bit on Easter! But look at the life that is lived, look at the attitude, consider the facts of the case! To worship the image of a dead body on a cross, or to worship God—to worship the LORD, all powerful, whom man could not kill, who came forth victorious over man and over all the limitations which man imposed, all the indignities that man could heap upon Him, as he perpetrated the greatest atrocity of all time! No! It was man in his self-will, in his self-determination that was supposed to be crucified—not Jesus! It was man, limited to the conditions in which it humanity finds itself that was supposed to be resurrected. Jesus was not supposed to need resurrection.

If we begin to read the Bible and see what it actually says, and to recognize that these laws and principles are scientific. When man says, “Here is a fanciful dream; there are many questions we cannot answer; you’re not supposed to understand them; we’re just supposed to believe them, somehow”—Blessed Ones, we can know the truth! We can understand every step in the Way of Life, we can understand the working of life and let it be used to the Glory of God and to the blessing of the children of men. Our purpose is to serve, according to the pattern Jesus Christ established, and not according to the pattern of some human fancy. Consider all the divisions among the churches, all over some little sectarian point or other; there are about as many divisions and variations in this regard in the Roman Catholic Church as there are in the Protestant churches, this pattern believing this and this pattern believing that. There are divisions and variations of every sort in all the religions, and what is the result? No power! A promise of power that will save you after you are dead—and that’s all—a promise of a power that is supposed to save you when you’re dead! But when you’re dead its too late—you are no longer living on earth. You can no longer serve God on earth; no longer let your life be what God intended it to be. And so, Blessed Ones, if we are going to share in the resurrection and the life, we must of necessity begin to realize that man’s concepts are of no avail. Nineteen centuries have passed and man has had a chance to prove out all of his concepts, and there have been many—but Blessed Ones, we cannot depend upon man’s concepts.

We must reach a point where we know the truth, the truth that makes men free; the truth, the living truth that we can live on earth and let the victory of our LORD and KING have some meaning while we live—not merely to save us when we die—for it is the Kingdom of God on earth which the Master taught us to pray for. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever. In the Christ. Aum-en.

© Emissaries of Divine Light