Angelic Revelations—the Gospel of God’s Love
Chapter 13
The True Resurrection
The Resurrection That Is Common to All, Be They Saint or Sinner (Paul the Apostle)
A Corroboration by Jesus That Paul Wrote on the Resurrection
The True Resurrection That Jesus Taught (Paul)
The True Resurrection
The Resurrection That Is Common to All, Be They Saint or Sinner
I am here, Paul
I have written to you before on my alleged writings as they are contained in the Bible, and which, as I have said, were not written by me as they there appear.
I desire tonight to write for a short time on the subject of the resurrection, because, as I see, the church doctrine of the resurrection is founded more on what is ascribed to me than on the writings of the Gospels, although the latter also contain a basis for the doctrine.
I never said there would be a resurrection of the physical body, nor of the individual clothed in any body of flesh. My teachings were that man would rise in a spiritual body at death, and that it would not be a new one made for the special occasion of his departure from the material body, but would be one that had been with him through life and that came into an individualized form when he first became a living being. This spirit body is necessary to man's existence, and it is that part of him which contains his senses and the seat of his reasoning powers.
Of course, the organs of the physical body are necessary for the utilization of these senses. Without these organs, there could be no manifestations of the senses which are inherent in the spirit body. Even if a man should lose the perfect workings of his physical organs of sight, yet the power of seeing would still exist in him, although he might not be able to realize that fact; and this same principle applies to the hearing and the other senses.
So, when man loses the use of his physical organs which are necessary for him to see with, he is dead as to sight - just as dead as he ever becomes with reference to all the other organs of sense when the whole physical body dies. And were it possible to restore these physical organs that are necessary to enable him to see or hear, he would be able to see and hear just as he could before their loss. The restoration of these organs does not, of itself, bring him the power to see and hear, but merely enables the faculties of sight and hearing to use the physical organs again for the purpose of manifesting the powers which are in, and a part of, the spirit body.
When the whole physical body dies, at the very time of death, the spirit body becomes resurrected; and with all these faculties of which I have spoken, it continues to live thereafter free and unencumbered from the material body, which, with these physical organs being destroyed, can no longer perform the objects of its creation. The physical body becomes dead, and thereafter, no resurrection of this body occurs, although its atomic elements or parts do not die. In the workings of God's Laws, these elements enter upon other and new functionings, though never that of reuniting and re-forming the body that has died.
So the resurrection of the body, as taught by me, is the resurrection of the spiritual body - not from death, for it never dies, but from its envelopment in the material form which had been visible as a thing of apparent life.
There is a law controlling the uniting of the two bodies, and a law controlling the functioning of the powers and faculties of the spirit body through the organs of the physical body, that limits the extent of the operations of these spirit faculties to those things that are wholly material, or which have the appearance of the material. And when I say material, I mean that which is grosser or more compact than the spirit body. Thus, these faculties of sight of the spirit body can see what are called ghosts or apparitions, as well as the more material things through the organs of the material body, but never see things of pure spirit in this way. And when it is said that men or women see clairvoyantly, which they do, it is not meant, or is it a fact, that they see through the organs of the physical eyes. On the contrary, this clairvoyant sight is a purely spiritual one, and its workings are entirely independent of the material organs.
Now, when the material body dies, the spirit body becomes resurrected, as it is said, and free from all the limitations which its incarnation in the flesh had imposed. It is then able to use all its faculties without the limitations or help of the physical organs. And as regards the sight, everything in nature, both material and spiritual, becomes the object of its vision; and that which the limitations of the material organs prevented its seeing, and which is the unreal and non-existent to men, becomes the real and truly existing.
This, in short, is what I meant by the resurrection of the body. And you will realize from this that the resurrection is not to take place at some unknown day in the future, but at the very moment when the physical body dies and, as the Bible says, "in the twinkling of an eye" (This saying of the Bible attributed to me, I did write and teach). And this resurrection applies to all mankind; for all who have ever lived and died have been resurrected, and all who shall live hereafter and die will be resurrected.
But this resurrection is not the Great Resurrection I declared was the great foundation Truth of Christianity in my teachings. This is not the Resurrection of Jesus that I declared "without which is our faith as Christians vain," but is the common resurrection that is applicable to all mankind of every nation and race, whether they have a knowledge of Jesus or not. And many times, in many nations, it has been demonstrated, even before the coming of Jesus, that men had died and appeared again as living spirits in the form of angels and men, and that they were recognized by mortal men as spirits who had had a previous earth existence.
So I say, this is the resurrection common to all men. The coming and death and resurrection of Jesus, as taught by the churches, did not bring the Great Resurrection to the knowledge or comfort of men, and did not furnish the true foundation upon which the true Christian belief and faith rest.
Many of the infidels, agnostics and spiritualists assert and claim (and truly) that the resurrection of Jesus, as above referred to, was not a new thing, and did not prove a future life to humanity any more convincingly than had been proved before his time by the experiences and observations of men and followers of other sects and faiths, and of no faiths at all.
The great weakness of the church today is that they claim and teach this resurrection of Jesus, as set forth above, as the foundation of their faith and existence. And as is plainly and painfully apparent to the churches themselves, that as men think for themselves (as they are doing more than ever in the history of the world), the result is that they refuse to believe in this resurrection as sufficient to show the superiority of Jesus' coming and mission and teachings over those of other reformers and teachers who had preceded him in the world's history of faiths and religions. And as a further result, the churches are losing their adherents and believers. Christianity is waning, and rapidly, and agnosticism is increasing and manifesting itself in the forms of free thought societies and secularism, etc.
Hence you will see the necessity of making known again to mankind the true foundation stone of the real Christianity that the Master came to teach; and which he did teach, but which was lost as his early followers disappeared from the scene of earthly action and practice, and men of less spiritual insight and more material desires, with their ambition for power and dominion, became the rulers and guides and interpreters of the church.
There is a Resurrection, though, that the Master taught, and his apostles taught when they came into a knowledge of it, and which I as a humble follower taught. This Resurrection is vital to man's salvation, and is the foundation of true Christianity which no other man, angel or reformer has ever taught before or since.
It is too late tonight to explain this Resurrection, but I will come again very soon and try to make it plain to you and to the world.
I will now say good night. And may God bless you and keep you in His Care.
Your
brother in Christ,
Paul
A Corroboration by Jesus That Paul Wrote on the Resurrection
I am here, Jesus
I am pleased that Paul was able to write to you as successfully as he did upon the two subjects which I know will prove to be interesting to you. The message that Paul will write about the True Resurrection is very vital to the beliefs of man, for upon the question of the resurrection is founded the doctrine of what is called Christianity. And I must say that the present foundation, as explained by the orthodox churches and the commentators on the Bible, is a very weak foundation, and very vulnerable to the assaults of those who are not satisfied with the authority of the Bible or the explanations of its teachings as they now exist.
Paul will finish this most important message, and let me encourage you to make the effort to get in the best condition for receiving it correctly.
I will not write more tonight, but will only further say that I am with you in my love and influence, and I am trying to help you in the ways which we have described to you. With all my love and blessings, I will say good night.
Your
brother and friend,
Jesus
The True Resurrection That Jesus Taught
I am here, Paul
I desire to continue my message tonight. As I said in closing my last writing, there is a Resurrection which Jesus taught that is vital to the salvation of men, the knowledge of which, after the death of his followers and believers of the early centuries, was lost to the world and to those who assumed they were teaching the doctrines of the Resurrection that he came to declare and teach.
You and all mankind must know that the Resurrection which is the foundation stone of Christianity is a Resurrection from the dead, and not from the mere death of the physical body on earth, nor a mere resurrection of the soul from its environments and limitations that the earth life had placed upon it.
Then, what is the Resurrection that Jesus referred to, when he said: "I am the Resurrection and the Life?"
Now, in order to understand this Resurrection, it is necessary to understand what is meant by the "death" of man - that is, the real man, the ego, that part of him in which the breath of life exists, no matter whether he is of the physical or of the spiritual.
As has been explained to you elsewhere, when man was created, his creation was of the physical body, the spiritual body, and the soul. And in addition (and the addition was the most important part of his creation), he had the potentiality of becoming so at-one with the Father in His Nature and certain of His Attributes, and so possessed of some of the Divine Essence of the Father, that death could never deprive him of his existence, and actual consciousness of Immortality would be his.
This potentiality, then, was a part of his creation, and as we have explained elsewhere, it was the only part of his creation that "died" as the result of his disobedience.
It is very apparent from the mere knowledge that man has (or may have) from the ordinary investigation of the qualities of his being and from the truths of psychical research of modern days, as well as from the understanding of the many instances related in the Bible of the appearance of departed spirits on earth and the manifestations of their existence, and also from the many occurrences of the appearances of spirits related in what is called secular history, that the soul and spirit body of man never died; and that his physical body lived for many years after the day on which the biblical sentence that he should "die" (because of his disobedience) was announced. And as I have said, this mortal body is not man - the man - but merely the vesture of covering for the real man.
This potentiality, then, being the only part of the created man that "died," and as Jesus' mission was to teach the resurrection of man from that death, it necessarily follows that the only thing that was intended to be resurrected was this potentiality of becoming a part of God's Divinity. This is the only real and true Resurrection, and upon this Resurrection must rest the faith and truth of Christianity. And, by Christianity, I mean religion which is based upon the true teachings of Jesus, the Christ.
There are some things which are contained in the Bible which, if properly understood, would reveal to man that no resurrection of the body was intended as the thing which Jesus came to earth to declare and teach.
When he said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," he did not say or mean, "Wait until I die and then I will demonstrate the Resurrection," or, "When you see me ascend to heaven, then will I become the Resurrection and you will know it." Rather, not only in the first instance mentioned but also at all times, his declarations were that he was the Resurrection while living! And these declarations did not refer to the man, Jesus, or to any disposition that he might make of his body, either physical or spiritual; or to any apparent ascension of his physical body (which never took place) or to any ascension of his spiritual body (which did occur). In these particulars, he was essentially no more than, or different from, other men who had died or would die.
But the meaning of his saying and his mission was that, as by man's disobedience there had occurred the death of the possibility of his becoming at-one with the Father and partaking of His Divine Nature, and as that possibility had never been restored to man in all the intervening years, and man had remained in this condition of death during all the long centuries, if man would only believe in him as the true Christ, and in his teachings as to the rebestowal of this Great Privilege, then he would become conscious that Jesus was the Resurrection from the dead. This does not refer to Jesus, the man or teacher, or the chosen and anointed one of the Father, but to Jesus, the exemplar of the Truth which he proclaimed as to the rebestowal of the Great Gift. Only in this way was Jesus the Resurrection and the Life.
Jesus himself had received the Great Gift, and realized his at- onement with God, the consciousness of his Immortality, and the possession of the Divine Nature; and he knew that he had been lifted from death into life. Therefore, if men would believe his teachings as to the Resurrection, these teachings (and not the man Jesus or even the fact that he had been resurrected) would draw all men unto him - that is, into the condition of Divine life and consciousness that he possessed.
Then, the Resurrection that Jesus promised to man was the resurrection of this Great Potentiality which he had lost at the time of the first disobedience, and which had never been restored until the coming of Jesus.
Now, let it not be misunderstood as to what was meant by this Resurrection. As I have said, after men were deprived of this potentiality, they were in a condition of death, and it was not possible for them to get out of this condition. They were possessed of only what is called their natural love, without any possibility of obtaining the Divine Love which was necessary in order to give them any portion of the Divine Nature and a consciousness of Immortality. When the great potentiality was rebestowed (which, to them, was as if it had never existed), then men were again placed in the position of the first man before his fall. They became no longer actually dead, but were possessed of this potentiality to become that which had been forfeited by the first parents.
But, as we have told you, the gift of this potentiality was not of itself the actual bestowal upon man of those qualities of the Divine Nature; such potentiality merely made it possible for them to acquire those qualities, by aspiration and effort. In fact, before the rebestowal of this potentiality, men could not obtain the conditions and qualities which this potentiality made possible by any aspirations or efforts on their part, and this no matter how great the effort might be. These qualities were simply unavailable to men. However, after the rebestowal of this potentiality, the impossibility which this death had imposed was removed, and men then received - not the full fruition of what was possible to obtain because of such rebestowal, but the privilege of arising from death to life; the Resurrection from Divinity withheld to the glories of Immortal Life.
And while this privilege had become a part of man's possession, yet, if he had remained without consciousness of that fact, he would have remained in his condition of death, in effect, and would have never received the benefit of the rebestowal of the Great Gift. So to reveal to man the vital Truth, in his own life Jesus taught and demonstrated the possession of those qualities that became his because of the existence of this Gift.
And while he also taught that men had the privilege spoken of, yet, unless they sought for and prayed to the Father in sincerity for the Gift of His Divine Love, the potentiality which had been bestowed upon them would not bring to them the Resurrection from the dead, and they would continue in their lives as mortals and as inhabitants of the spirit world as if they were still under the doom of death.
I may state here that this potentiality, which was lost by the disobedience of the first parents and was rebestowed by the Father and revealed by Jesus to mankind, was the privilege of receiving and possessing the Divine Love of the Father; which, when possessed, would give to man certain qualities of Divinity and Immortality.
So, the Resurrection from the dead that the Master taught, and which is the one foundation of the Christian faith, arises from the fact that God rebestowed upon mankind the privilege of seeking for and receiving His Divine Love, which would make the mortal one with Him and Immortal; and upon the further fact that, in order to obtain the Resurrection, man must seek and find this Divine Love, and thereby become a child of the true Resurrection that was never known to prophet or seer or reformer or teachers of faiths before the coming of Jesus, no matter how excellent their moral teachings and private lives may have been.
Truly, Jesus was the Resurrection and the Life; and I, Paul, who am the recipient of this Resurrection and know whereof I speak, and have knowledge of the fact that those inhabitants of the spirit world who have never received this Resurrection are still in a condition of death, insofar as obtaining the Divine Love of the Father and the consciousness of Immortality are concerned, declare unto you that what I have attempted to describe as the Resurrection from the dead is the True Resurrection.
I will stop, as I have written a long time.
So my dear brother, I will say good night.
Your
brother in Christ,
Paul
