This is the day of resurrection. In the Christian world it is Easter Day, a time when the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated. But this is the day of resurrection. Most people find it a little difficult to relate to the idea of resurrection. As we have noted before, it is easy to relate to the event of the crucifixion. We all, I’m sure, feel that we have been treated unjustly, at times at least, and we all can relate to suffering. But resurrection is a different matter. There is seemingly no experience in this regard, so imagination has been used. This is understandable by reason of the fact that there has been no experience of resurrection for human beings in general. For something to be known it must be experienced; otherwise it only exists in imagination.
Nevertheless this is the day of resurrection for all people; not just for special candidates, but for the whole human race. Does this mean that it will happen during this twenty-four hours? It is happening during this twenty-four hours, but a day in this sense relates to a period of time. There are certain days of creation recorded in the Book of Genesis. Some have assumed this meant that the world was created in a week. But the word day used in this way is a period of time. This is the day of resurrection; this is the period of time in which resurrection is taking place. In some ways this period of time might be looked upon as having been quite lengthy thus far, because it was particularly initiated almost two thousand years ago. The process of resurrection has been in operation ever since, working at levels where the conscious mind had virtually no awareness at all.
This day of resurrection for mankind was set in motion, as I say, almost two thousand years ago. This was done on an individual basis by one man. As we were noting, we could easily relate to some of His experiences leading up to the crucifixion. It is easily seen that He didn’t resist what was occurring. He let it work out the way it was going. He didn’t make any plea for His human rights, something which is very strongly in the minds of human beings these days. He didn’t resist; He didn’t even object. He simply let it happen. It seems to me that one of the comments He is supposed to have made was, “Resist not evil.” So He was true to His own instruction. There came a moment when He was on the cross when He accepted the actual state of mankind into Himself. This was at the point when it was said He gave up the ghost, when in fact He relinquished the awareness of His conscious mind.
This is the actual state of mankind. There is no true awareness, in the conscious sense, in the body of mankind, or there has been no awareness. The only awareness there has been has been of the nature of a dream state. One may think of oneself as being present in one’s dream, moving around, doing whatever it is, but it is something that is simply occurring subconsciously, and yet there is a conscious awareness of it. That is pretty well descriptive of the state of mankind, functioning at a subconscious level, with some conscious awareness of the fact. That could hardly be described better than a dream.
It was indicated that should human beings eat of the forbidden fruit, become subject through their own feeling reactions to the world around them, judging it this way and that, they would die. It would be a fatal mistake. That has certainly proved out to be the case. A sure thing is death, they say. But the body of mankind as a whole is still in existence. The death sentence hasn’t been carried out yet—individually speaking, yes, generation after generation. At that point on the cross this Man assumed into Himself the state of mankind. His body shortly thereafter was removed from the cross and placed in a sepulcher. Clearly He was unconscious, in the mental sense, during that time. It is assumed that He was dead, although it didn’t prove out to be the case. According to the record some words were imputed to Him which were supposed to mean something, which in fact they didn’t: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”—supposedly “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” a quotation from the Psalms. I doubt if He was too interested in quoting from the Psalms under those circumstances! Would you be? No, the indication here was, as it might be translated: “Darkness, darkness, covers my face.” In other words He was relinquishing the awareness of His conscious mind; He was losing consciousness. It is indicated that He “gave up the ghost.” This has been used subsequently to indicate that a person is dead at that point when he has given up the ghost.
But fundamentally, while the conscious mind was relinquished, the subconscious mind was still in operation, the realm of the ghost; the control was being given into that realm. There was no more conscious mind on hand to do anything. But something was happening in the subconscious levels; here was present a pure heart—one point within the total consciousness of mankind at that time, of a pure heart. We recognize that all people participate in the consciousness of mankind. This was true of this one man, the same as everybody else; the distinction was that His heart was pure. In other words there was free access for the spirit of God through this open window of heaven. It was by reason of this fact that what has been called the resurrection took place.
We have an awareness that the subconscious levels of the mind constitute the realm of power: “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” The Holy Ghost relates immediately to these levels of the mind of man, at least rightly so. It has been a pretty unholy ghost of course heretofore. But at that point of initiation of the creative cycle of resurrection for the body of mankind there was one point of purity of heart. Through that one point something could work. It proved out that it did work by reason of the resurrection of the body of Jesus. Here was the power of not only transformation but transmutation at work. This was the action of the spirit of God through the pure heart and subconscious levels of mind in that particular form.
One can speculate about these things but it is of little consequence because such speculation is all in the realm of imagination. It only has meaning when there is the actual experience. This is the day of resurrection. It has been this day for the last almost two thousand years. It has now reached this point. During this whole period the creative action of the spirit of God has been working—initially through that one point but subsequently there has been an expansion in that regard—within the scope of the subconscious levels of the mind of mankind. Changes have been in the process of being wrought. This is the case whether human beings like it or not, whether they know it or not. Something has been happening. Perhaps we begin to be in position, with others, to realize these things, because what has been happening has finally begun to emerge and break through to the level of consciousness, to the level of the conscious mind, the waking conscious mind. This waking conscious mind is aware of a world that is not at all the same as the world of which the sleeping mind is aware, not the same as the dream world in other words. I’m sure all of you would acknowledge that in whatever measure you have had the opportunity to see things in a different way, to understand things in a different way from that which is common in the world as human beings know it, your understanding, your approach, is different—or has the opportunity of being different. There is somewhat of a distinction here. Some have taken advantage of the opportunity; others haven’t. All these things prove themselves out.
In any case here is the day of resurrection. The One who came on earth, and was called Jesus, offered a different way, to start with; but clearly that was rejected. Christians subsequently have tried to convince themselves that somehow it wasn’t rejected, because they were picking up the scraps, so to speak, afterwards. But what He brought was absolutely rejected. And there is nothing that anybody could do about it subsequently to try to gather it together again. What He brought was gone. But He did establish, by assuming the responsibility which He did while hanging on the cross, the day of resurrection, resurrection which would come inevitably. Who would be included in the experience might be a question. But the day comes. The day is here. The fulfilment comes. We have called the resurrection the restoration of mankind to the true state of man, revealing the likeness of God on earth. Simple. This is not something that human beings by their own efforts could possibly do. They do not know God, after all.
But the working of this creative spirit, through the mass consciousness of mankind since this working was initiated, has wrought many changes. Human beings are inclined to take credit for these changes when they seem to be indicative of real evolution in the human race: technology for instance. This is claimed as though the human mind thought it up, and people feel proud of themselves in this and compliment each other about it—the great men of the earth. In every field this is the way it works from the human standpoint; but it isn’t the way it is really working, because anything that has happened has happened because of this creative working through the subconscious minds of the human race as such, emerging specifically in this individual and that and invariably being mistranslated, translated according to the structures that were already present in the impure hearts of human beings. So all kinds of marvelous things have happened. There is a great civilization, were told. It doesn’t seem to be quite so great and stable as it might be.
So in this day of resurrection the creative spirit of God has been at work, transforming things in the mass consciousness. Many people have the notion these days that we’re moving into some sort of a new age. If we see it in the terms which I have been describing I suppose that could be one way of describing what is happening. As this creative spirit has been at work changes have been wrought, and according to the quality that was present in individual human beings they have either been caused to move upward in the process of resurrection—that is, letting something clarify in their own subconscious minds—or they have been resisting the process. If the resistance is over fifty percent, I suppose, then the individual tends to go down; it tends to be a destructive and painful experience. While the choice may not for the most part—to start with at least—be a conscious one, a choice is constantly being made by people as to how they shall relate to the creative movement of this spirit through their own subconscious minds.
Of course the already existing structures that are present in the subconscious minds of human beings the world around tend to influence what happens in the individual experience. Tradition dies hard, for instance. All that tradition is is a more or less rigid structure which has been built in the consciousness of human beings over the centuries, over the millennia indeed. And so they have these things still in their subconscious minds and the creative spirit of God comes up against them. They either are allowed to yield, because the character of the individual is such as to permit this to happen, or if there is no yielding there is resistance. And there is nothing that can stand in the way of the movement of that creative spirit, so people find themselves being thrown down. That is an uncomfortable experience; it’s much more comfortable to be resilient, to be willing to let go and not to feel that one is betraying anything by doing so. The reason why people feel that they are betraying something is because they have worshipped these images, these traditions, these rigid structures in their subconscious minds. And they occasionally come out into the conscious mind; human beings describe them this way and that; but it has been more important to most people, seemingly, to be loyal and true to these rigid structures than to be true to the creative spirit of God. Of course the choice hasn’t been clear-cut in their own consciousness, but it has become clear-cut in our consciousness, hasn’t it? It started out by being a subconscious thing, and finally it broke surface somewhere along the way and we became conscious of the truth, conscious of the way things really are—at least to the extent that we could see it at that point, which certainly was not a complete view, and isn’t a complete view yet. But we can understand something of what is happening on the grand scale—we could put it that way—at least grand in the eyes of human beings; small potatoes from the universal standpoint.
Seeing this larger view of things we can emerge out of our self-centeredness a little more, if we will, and recognize what our individual responsibility is in the matter, because if we do have a conscious awareness of these things, such as it is at the moment, then we have a responsibility to handle what arises in our own subconscious minds on the basis of what we see, what we know, and not on the basis of the usual traditional eruptions out of the subconscious state. We have noted recently that all human thinking, all of it, has been based in the fact that human beings in their present state have impure hearts, so that what rises up to be thought about rises up out of an impure heart, so that what is called thinking is always rationalization, rationalizing something that is already present in the impure heart. Human beings have become expert at this. There are some brilliant rationalizers in the world—they are sometimes called brilliant minds—very capable of making things seem to be something that they aren’t, making it all seem so logical and reasonable when it isn’t, when all it is is explaining away the impurities that are present in human hearts. This is a futile undertaking, leading nowhere. The nowhere is called the grave.
The body of Jesus was placed in the sepulcher, in the tomb, but obviously there was something happening with respect to that body or it surely couldn’t have stood upon its feet and walked out into the garden. Of course there was the little problem of rolling away the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher to start with. The illustration is absolutely accurate. He had taken upon Himself, accepted the state of, the body of mankind, which is lying in a tomb. Who can dispute that fact? Is not the consciousness of mankind oriented in death? It is a general attitude that death is the most important thing in life! Rather contradictory, one would suppose, but death occupies center stage. And, as Job put it one time, “The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me.” We worship death through fear. It’s interesting to observe that death is the central theme of human experience, the absolutely sure thing in their view. They put taxes alongside; but they’re not really quite the same as death, are they? Here is the one thing that is supposed to be absolutely sure; here is god, eternal god: death. Of course people don’t look at it that way, but that’s the attitude that is being taken. And they revolve around this god.
But there is something at work in the mass consciousness, as there was something at work in the subconscious mind of Jesus in the tomb. He was in a coma there. Human beings, the body of mankind, has been in a coma for a long time: no conscious awareness of the truth, no conscious awareness of what the being of man is, just a sick figment of fancy, an un- pleasant dream in the tomb. This is the human state. Whether anyone believes it or not, likes it or not, that’s the way it is. Human beings have long lost consciousness of the truth as it relates to themselves. Because there has been such a big blank there they have invented all kinds of things to try to fill the blank, but not too successfully. There has always been that emptiness, that sense of insecurity, which they try to fix one way or an- other. We’ve all indulged in this stuff. And all that leads to nothing.
But now, the human race having been given opportunity repeatedly to rise up of its own choice consciously, and having refused to do that, the only way left by which it can be done is subconsciously. This is what is happening. There is the creative action of the spirit of God, initiated at that starting point long ago and working in the subconscious mind of man ever since to sort things out there; so that there will be those who rise up and there will be those who go down. And this is what is happening. We have the experience, in some measure at least, of rising up, or of being given the opportunity to rise up; and again I make that distinction. There are others of course in the world; certainly we’re not the only ones! Everyone in fact is participating in this process: up or down. For a while there are those who are in between—the lukewarm they were called, weren’t they? Neither one thing nor the other. But eventually the issue is presented and each individual either rises up or goes down.
In the rising-up process of course something begins to be seen of a larger vision. To start with, that larger vision is always translated on the basis of previous traditions, but obviously what is to be known in the resurrection is not something that has ever occurred before. It can’t be translated on the basis of forms out of the past. You’ll note that the writers of the Gospels had a little difficulty in describing what happened after the resurrection. Of course! They didn’t know what happened. So they wrote some stories, which may have within them a kernel of truth but they are rather deceptive, because the resurrected state is not the same state as the unresurrected state. The state and condition of the experience of Jesus was not the same after the resurrection as it was before the crucifixion—something different, about which human beings know nothing. They have no experience of it, so all they can do is invent imaginative stories. How about finding out what it is?
Well we have the opportunity, not just for ourselves as individuals but because we are a part of the whole body of mankind. What is happening is happening to the whole body of mankind, no exceptions. Those who compose that body of mankind participate in the resurrection or in the disintegration of what has existed in the experience of human beings heretofore. This nightmare state is passing away. We either identify ourselves with the nightmare state and pass away with it or we allow ourselves to move in the resurrecting process. This is happening, as I say, with human beings everywhere. Some have come to a level of breakthrough into a conscious awareness of the true identity of mankind: Man, made in the image and likeness of God, a facility for God’s action on earth. The identity of man is God, but it hasn’t been in his own consciousness. He has tried to have something separate, all his own, so he could do as he pleased.
Now we come again, in this cycle of resurrection, to the opportunity of participating ever more fully in a true conscious awareness of the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Here is the Son state of consciousness. But the Son state of consciousness is not separate from the subconscious levels, the Holy Ghost state of consciousness. It is all one and is all being clarified. The process of resurrection is in operation. Awakening to this, then consciously we are in position to be deliberate in our attitudes, deliberate with respect to whatever it is of the impurity, the filthiness, of the subconscious mind which may present itself to us. Human beings are inclined to kowtow to these things and say they can’t help it. They are going to be unpleasant if they feel like it. They are going to judge things, they are going to judge people, they’re going to condemn, they’re going to criticize, if they feel like it. Well that’s a dead giveaway! Very dead. If they feel like it: the filthiness of the heart coming out and establishing the control as to how the individual is going to operate, what he’s going to do, what he’s going to say, how he’s going to act, how he’s going to behave. In the resurrection one acts and behaves in the consciousness of the Son of God, or the Daughter of God, and not on the basis of the way one feels. So many people say, “Well I would be dishonest: I feel this way, therefore I have to act this way.” That is dishonesty! It is denying the truth, denying the reality that is present to be expressed. The individual says, “I can’t express that reality; that would be dishonest because I feel some other way.” Who cares how human beings feel? What is it that should be expressed that is honorable and true and right and which does not judge and condemn and criticize and throw down? When we begin to associate ourselves with that truth, which is the only truth, then we find ourselves participating in the resurrection of life. The other aspect of the resurrection is the resurrection of damnation, as it was called—in other words going down, refusing to accept honestly the truth of one’s own divine character. That acceptance is the only honest thing to do; everything else is dishonesty.
So here we are to share in the resurrection, not because we set it up or are so much better than somebody else; but we have the opportunity of seeing, of knowing, and woe unto those who have this opportunity and do not accept the responsibility that goes with it. So we share in allowing the conscious mind of the body of humanity to be reconstituted. By reason of the Son, this conscious mind, the direction is given, the control is extended, with respect to anything that is not fitting that rises up out of the sub- conscious mind. “Get thee hence, satan!” Quite simple. But it takes deliberate action to do it.
This is the day of resurrection. Behold, I come quickly. It may have seemed to be rather slow heretofore, having taken almost two thousand years to get to this point, but I think you and many others are quite aware that something is coming quite quickly now. There has been a clearing, the creative action of the spirit of God is present, and human beings either yield to it, forget all their human nonsense, or they go down. We have the opportunity to the extent that we see, understand and know these things, to offer a point of orientation to all those who, although they do not see clearly, nevertheless sense what is happening and are moving in that resurrecting way. We rejoice to provide for them an enfoldment, a love with no judgment. But we will not be in position to offer no judgment if we have been judging the person sitting right next to us, or if we’ve been judging ourselves, and condemning and criticizing, tearing down, and refusing to face honestly one’s own impure heart, trying to justify and excuse oneself. Ugh! Horrible, isn’t it, if you really look at it. I had the misfortune to see quite a little of it, and one sees it in oneself too.
Let the resurrection occur under the hand of the Lord, by the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost at work in the subconscious mind raising up what needs to come to the conscious mind, so that it may be dealt with. Behold I make all things new. And as that consciousness clarifies, the dream state, the old world of the dream state, passes away and the true world, which is in fact already present, becomes known. That movement is easy when it is our movement; it’s tough when we resist it. So there is a little hint: Do you find anything tough? You know why. Move easily in the creative spirit of God and participate thereby in these final cycles of the day of resurrection, final hours I suppose, of the day of resurrection. Praise the Lord for this opportunity. As we well know, the true character of God in expression through man reveals itself in thanksgiving and thankfulness, amongst other ways. Let us be thankful for this glorious way which is consciously open before our awareness. Let us give thanks for it and walk in that way.
Since man was created male and female, in the image and likeness of God, it at once becomes evident that all God Beings are under the Law of the Positive and the Negative, and so are they male and female. The Great Master pointed out that there is no marriage in Heaven, neither giving in marriage, and a host of ignorant, shortsighted people have jumped to the false conclusion that that meant that all God Beings were some sort of sexless creatures, neither male nor female. The Great Master never intended that His words should be used in support of such a foolish fancy, for He was only pointing out that because God Beings are eternal, they have their eternal Cosmic Mates. So there could be no cause for marrying or giving in marriage, because all those who are in Heaven, or are in the Inner Planes, already have their Cosmic Mates; for they are the Angels of God in Heaven. Some ignorant persons point to the fact that the Great Master did not marry as evidence supporting the idea that it is better not to marry. Such an idea fails to take the facts into consideration.
The Great Master came into the Outer Planes to bring the truths of salvation to mankind, but His Placewas and is in the Inner Planes. He was revealing the Father from the standpoint of the Inner Planes. If He had married in the Outer Planes it would have indicated that there is marriage in Heaven. Therefore He could not marry during His life on earth, though His Cosmic Mate incarnated to be with Him during His outer ministry.
Mary of Bethany and the Master Jesus,
being Cosmic Mates, were very close sweethearts during all of their outer life manifestation.
Let it be noted that Mary of Bethany was not Mary Magdalene, and that it was Mary of Bethany, and not Mary Magdalene, who anointed Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 26:6-13. Also, that Mary of Bethany was of all women most beautiful, holy and pure. So it is that it was necessary for them, under Cosmic Law, because of their mission, and because they were and are our Great KING and QUEEN, to wait until after the resurrection and ascension of the Master for the time when they might properly experience the completed union. But such a limitation does not, and cannot, apply to any being other than Jesus, and certainly does not apply to any person living on earth today.
Do
you think the Master's life was without love? No. Mary of Bethany was His
sweetheart. Mary of Bethany provided the centering, from the standpoint of the
negative aspect of Being, for that outworking for which He was on earth, for
which He labored. (Uranda from God's Love November 23, 1952)
Remember
the story of Lazarus? That story has a great deal to reveal from the standpoint
of heavenly magic... Mary
of Bethany was the Master's sweetheart... She rendered a wonderful
service on earth in relationship to Him and she was of course one of those who
stood at the cross... now
don't get Mary Magdalene mixed up with Mary of Bethany; they were two different
people entirely. (Uranda from Functional Factors June 9, 1953)
At a supper with Mary and Martha, Lazarus and others, when Mary took “a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”—not just the ointment, but the love. Then said Judas: “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag,” and so on. “Then said Jesus, Let her alone.” That is a beautiful, revealing passage.(Grace Van Duzen from The Kingdom of Love September 3, 1989)
Lord
Raisara(Rah-e'-sah-rah):LORD of the Sacred Seven, who manifested as Jesus. He is the Supreme
Being of this Seven Plane World. Queen Raisoma (Rah-es'-om-a— the o and the final a are long): She is the Eternal Mate of
Lord Raisara, and She was manifest as Mary of Bethany at the time of Jesus. She
has not incarnated since that time. She ascended with the Master Jesus. (Uranda from Young Folks' Explorers Club #10 May 30, 1939)
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.
