YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We left off yesterday talking about the uncovering of mysteries and this we do in science and in medicine and in many other fields nearly on a daily basis. What is all so normal to us today was inconceivable some years ago or was the subject of science fiction and wishful thinking. We have done wonders here on this physical plane of existence and in many ways it can be said that we are actually touching some of what could be considered spiritual realms; The electrical energy the magnetic response of the physical body of man and, for that matter, of every living thing, our concept of mental and emotional energy in the conveyance of feelings and thoughts, and the divine inspiration of some of the forerunners of our race (whether religious or no is of no importance) who see visions of things and make them a reality in the world, are but a few. Life is mysterious and we, under the precepts of Christian thinking, greatly limit our ability to discover the Truth of the mysteries that have been covered for ages. We seem comfortable in the age old interpretations of the Church Fathers and reformers and we fail to see what we teach when we say that the scriptures are alive. We remain trapped as Christians in a world of redemption and the blood of Christ as our salvation where we rely on prayer and faith and on the small amount of time we give to our spiritual growth…..the most important part of this Earthly life. We know the message of the Master but we do not rely on it.
Continuing our review of what we are calling the Parable to Teach the Sadducees, we should see His teaching on resurrection as He intended it and not as it has been propounded in the Church. There may be an end time and there may be a final judgment but these are not comprehensible to us today; we can only paint fanciful pictures based on the intentionally vague words of the Master an the writings and dreams of some of His disciples. One thing we should understand in this context is that whatever there will be to happen, it will not involve the raising again of this physical body and this for reasons that we have elucidated before (In the Words of Jesus part 68). A look around at the nature of the bodies that do die should be enough to tell one of the inadequacy of these theories of resurrection and rapture and, in an understanding of our True Spiritual Self, we should be reminded that it is as the Apostle Paul tells us, “…that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). In this context can we not look at this Holy Spirit as US? Here then is another good example of the effect of different views in interpreting the scriptures.
Continuing from “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world” as our entry into the rest of the Master’s words to the Sadducees we come to His saying of: “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection“. What can this mean? In the commentary that we discussed yesterday that skipped the previous verse regarding “accounted worthy” (The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible), we find this: neither….die any more–Marriage is ordained to perpetuate the human family; but as there will be no breaches by death in the future state, this ordinance will cease. equal–or “like.” unto the angels–that is, in the immortality of their nature. children of God–not in respect of character but nature; “being the children of the resurrection” to an undecaying existence (Romans 8:21Romans 8:23). And thus the children of their Father’s immortality (1 Timothy 6:16)**^. We should see here the idea from our lead in today; granted that this commentary is old, but it is still the type of explanation given by the church today for this dynamic parabolic teaching by the Master. Another commentary says of this verse that: Neither can they die any more Therefore there will be no need of marrying to procreate children, to keep up a succession of men, any more than there is among the angels: for they are equal unto the angels; in spirituality, purity and immortality; (See Gill on Matthew 22:30) and are the children of God: as they are now by adopting grace; but, as yet, it does not appear as it will then, what they are and will be: being the children of the resurrection; as Christ was declared to be the son of God by his resurrection, so will they appear to be the children of God by their resurrection to eternal life; for though others will rise, yet not to everlasting life, and thus appearing to be children of God, they will also be heirs of God, and enjoy the inheritance, which they will always live to possess in their persons; and therefore the case being different with them from the children of the world, they will not marry, nor be given in marriage, as they are. (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)**^. Similarly here we have a rather literal attempt to explain the vague and uncertain words of Jesus which, for us, would not engender these types of interpretation even if we did view them in their literal form.
There is, as we have been saying, little understanding of the concept of resurrection as it is used by the Master. Couple this with the thought of “Neither can they die any more” and we have the even more verbose explanations that we see above and this is especially true when we add again the idea “for they are equal unto the angels”. In angels we have another spiritual term that is clearly misunderstood and which is represented by the nature of those beings of which we read. Before we continue onto the subject of angels however let us address this thought of dying from the Maters’s words “Neither can they die any more”. Remembering that Jesus is speaking to men and speaking in parable, we should see here that He is addressing them as they appear, as men in form, and that they are accepting His words this way. He is saying to them then that as this mortal man who is “accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead” can not “die any more” and we should see in this absolute truth looking at this from the view of what we consider “accounted worthy“. No mystery; if we are worthy of the Kingdom of God, if we are of the few that find the strait gate, we are then among those who can not “die any more”; those who will be Truly called “the children of the resurrection“. There is much more to this which we will explore as we go on to future posts but this can be seen as the teaching behind the teaching to the Sadducees. Looking at this as the Sadducees would, as men in form, can we see Jesus teaching as a simpler message without wrapping it in our Christian jargon as do the commentators above? We have not used the word reincarnation here but can we see how can be interwoven into the sayings here of the Master?
The Master came and taught us of the Kingdom of God and the way to it; how can we then think that this idea of being “accounted worthy” would have any other relevance? If we can see ourselves as the Spirit beings that we are, working through this life in form existence, and if we can try to understand how it is our physical body and conscious personality that must be changed by the inflow of the Light of that Spirit to the point of being “accounted worthy“, then we can see the whole of the Gospel message before us. We can see the entire objective of our life in form. Remember what the Master tells us of the Kingdom:
- First we must change. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
- We must also work at being righteous, “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
- We must also seek the Kingdom and as a FIRST thing not as an afterthought. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
- We must do the Will of God. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdomof heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- We must be humble and innocent. “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
- We must not trust in riches or the things of this world. “how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:24).
- We must enter on the straight and the narrow path of His commandments. “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
- We must be persistent and consistent or be ever starting over. “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
- We must be born again in the Light of our Spirit. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God……Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5).
- Finally, He told us where the Kingdom is and in the where is the when. “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
Continuing on with the Master’s teaching on resurrection we come to the concept of angels. There is much confusion and disagreement in the church as to exactly what angels are and for us, starting out here, we should see them as spiritual beings and in seeing them this way we should remember that we are spiritual beings as well. Let us look at the words defining terms here today and continue with our own understanding in the next post. The Greek word translated as angel is aggelos and of this the lexicon simply says: a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God**; not much here to hold to in relation to our verse above as it would be saying that those “accounted worthy” would be equal to messengers. Strong’s says of aggelos: angel, messenger; this can refer to a human messenger such as John the Baptist, or messengers sent by John or Jesus, or to the supernatural class of being that serves God: the angel***. There is still little clarity as to what this angel may be. The Hebrew word translated as angel is mal’ak and the lexicon says that this is a messenger, representative; messenger, angel, the theophanic angel**. Again we go to Strong’s to find: messenger, a human representative; angel, a supernatural representative of God, someimes delivering messages, sometimes protecting God’s people; the “angel of the Lord” sometimes shares divine characteristics and is sometimes thought to be a manifestation of God himself, or or the preincarnate Christ***. Here we are getting closer to the everyday idea of an angelic being as it is generally understood.
In our context Webster’s has this definition which is where we will continue from next: A spiritual, celestial being, superior to man in power and intelligence. In the Scriptures the angels appear as God’s messengers*.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Today is the beginning of United Nations Week and Monday is United Nations Day. This is our opportunity to support this world body which is humanities best hope for lasting peace and for the uplifting of millions upon millions of our brothers and sisters from poverty and hopelessness to a sense of value and of worth. There is a tab at top, Peace In Our Time, which provides additional insight and information. If nothing else, we can pray for the future success of the United Nations. We will leave this banner up as the Quote of the Day until the end of United Nations Week but will try to change the attached scripture frequently.
The scripture that is included here is meant to be a showing of the New Testament reality of the Brotherhood of Man. It is quite clear and simple in that God made of of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. God’s children, each and every one.
One World, One Humanity, One God
United Nations Day
In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which “shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for” its work.
In 1971 the United Nations General Assemblyadopted a further resolution(Resolution 2782) declaring that United Nations Day shall be an international holiday and recommended that it should be observed as a public holiday by allUnited Nations memberstates.
United Nations Day is devoted to making known to peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations Organization. United Nations Day is part of United Nations Week, which runs from 20 to 26 October.
Wikipedia contributors. “United Nations Day.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation (Acts 17:24-26)
- * Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- ** from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- ** from New Testament Hebrew Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- *** Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- **^ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
