YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We have spent quite some time now on this parable presentation from the Master on the question of marriage and the resurrection. Included in this teaching to the Sadducees is a Truer understanding of resurrection as well as some insight into the nature of angels. The current understanding of both of these subjects can be seen as a carryover of the legends and traditions and we might add here superstitions brought forward from the Old Testament times into early Christianity and, through centuries of church doctrine concerning them, up to today. With no specific and definitive scriptural explanations of either, the church has built up elaborate dogmatic teachings which we are asked to believe. In our last post we covered some of the Master’s sayings regarding resurrection and found nothing that should lead us to believe in resurrection as it is taught in the church. We continue now with more of the Master’s sayings on this subject.
- “Verily, verily, I say unto you , The hour is coming , and now is , when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:25-29). For us this is a cumbersome series of statements by the Master but in dissecting it in the Light of what we know we can see the reality in this teaching as well. Looking at the above as two separate statements we should see in the first the idea that “The hour is coming , and now is” and we should look at the idea of death here in the context given to us by the Apostle Paul: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence forth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:6-8). This is Truly an effect for now; and we can see Jesus as saying that those dead in this carnal life will hear the voice of the Soul, the Christ Within, and shall then crucify the flesh and shall thereby live. In the second statement we see only that “the hour is coming” and here we can readily see Jesus’ reference to those who have died the death of the physical body. He does not say that on a specific day and time for all, He only says that “the hour is coming” and we should see this also in the Light of that which we know; that we are not this body. Being in the grave is for the body and the dead body does not hear, individually or in mass, so we should understand that there must be more to this saying than we can readily see. In our general theme on resurrection we have said that at the time of death is a resurrection for those that are “accounted worthy” and looking at the Master’s saying here we can get the same idea. Men die and are buried and those “that have done good”, will go “unto the resurrection of life” and “they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation“. The word translated as evil can as easily be just ‘not good‘ (Vincent tells us that it is literally light, paltry, trivial and so worthless****), a more harmless term and the word translated as damnation is better translated as judgement**. Depending on the strictness of our interpretation we can see those “that have done good” in a great range from just as it says, good, to the grand idea of “accounted worthy” which is akin to doing His Word and attaining to His Presence. We speak here of a resurrection of our spiritual life, of our Souls in an afterlife that is as yet undefinable but of which we can say that each of us will find ourselves at whatever level of spiritual consciousness that we have attained through this Life in form. Whatever our desires and wants may be here they will be in a similar way there; if gross and lustful they will still be so and the torment will be in the continually unfulfilled; if of a generally good character we may long for relationship with loved ones and find our torment there; if of a spiritual nature we will continue in this vein, seeking God with a relative fulfillment based on the intensity that we presented on Earth and, if we are “accounted worthy“, keeping the word of the Lord, we will be in His Presence just as we have achieved in this life in form. There is an infinite range of values to be considered here and, at some level this will be, for a time, our afterlife. Some say that the immediate afterlife can be likened to a dream like state but how do they know? If it is a dream like state, it will still be as described above for we reap what it is that we sow and, according to the teaching of the Master, we will only be in His Presence if we are “accounted worthy“. Others believe that they will go to a heaven or a hell at the death of the body but how do they know? Do they understand the idea of “accounted worthy” and what it means? and if the choice is just the one or the other, where will they find themselves? We could go on here but this should suffice to keep this clear for us and to remind us that the opportunity is at hand to do what we must in this life, and it all begins with Love. Even if we believe that there is a resurrection at the end of the age or wherever we can place it, it must still be seen as a resurrection of Spirit beings and not a resurrection of flesh which is dead and rather worthless. We will expand on this as we go forward in other posts.
- “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6: 39, 40, 44, 54). We have discussed these verses before (In the Words of Jesus part 67) but not specifically in connection with the resurrection other than to say that these are generally attributed to be sayings by the Master regarding it. Four times Jesus repeats this saying “I will raise him up at the last day” to the assembled people and we should understand first that it is important and second that it is in the way of a parable; as we know this is how He spoke to the people. Fifty one posts removed from our first discussion of this we will here say basically the same thing as before but with some further elaboration based on the scriptures that we have revealed since. In each of the statements above the Master is telling us that He is speaking of those that we now can consider “accounted worthy“, those that are true disciples. These are those that the Father has given to Him (v39) which is to say that these are those who hear the call of the Spirit and heed it and begin to live the life of the Soul, the Son, the Christ Within. These are those men in form who have heard the call of the Soul (v40), the Christ Within, and follow it. Jesus reminds us next that no man can come to Him unless that man’s conscious life in form is drawn to Him by the Spirit which we are (v44) and then that conscious man follows the promptings of the Soul. Last, Jesus tells us that it is only when we give our all consciously, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and becoming like unto Him (v54) that we will experience the realization of eternal life in His Presence and be freed from any life, in any form, at the death of the physical body, on the last day; we can then enter directly into the Kingdom of God as this is where we were during our physical life.
This is the extent of the Master’s teaching that many regard as being about that final resurrection of the body and through our discussion we should see it as the it really is and that is as His teaching on how to get to His Kingdom.
- In Jesus examples of the “men of Nineveh” and the “queen of the south” we should see His reminder of the attitudes of both of these in their time and that these will rise or come forward as witnesses** against that generation and for the Greatness of the Master (Matthew 12:41-42).
- In the teaching from Luke we should see that Jesus is telling us that we should not seek reward for our good works in this life and that we will be rewarded for our good works, blessed, after this life. In our own resurrection of the righteous into His Presence or, if we have not attained that state, we are still blessed by these works as they will bring us away from the gross and lustful ways of the flesh and into a higher place in the afterlife (Luke 14:14).
- In the Masters dialogue with Martha we should see the confirmation to her that there is a resurrection and that He is that resurrection and the Life that is. We are Spirit and we are Life and as Spirit we give that Life to this form. In the end we leave this body and, if we have followed the Master and done the Will of God, we are resurrected back into Life bringing forth our conscious self into union with our Spirit and in His Presence. This is a complex issue that leaves the realm of our understanding and we will build upon it as we can.
- In today’s verses we see also the idea of hearing the call of the Spirit that we are and consciously following the Master according to His word. Focusing on the Kingdom and on the things of God brings us to the realization of eternal life and to the Presence of God and in the end of our time here, we will be “accounted worthy” and be raised up into the Kingdom of God.
Through this all we should see that the idea of “accounted worthy” which we have taken from our subject Parable of Teaching the Sadducees, can become a keynote for our lives. It is the key to entry now and after we leave this Earth. We know the rules and we know the way and it is always our choice to follow the narrow path to the strait gate. If we want to believe that there is a final resurrection that will someday come and find us, that is fine but we will still need to be ready and the only place to prepare is here in this Life. Once this Earth Life is over the opportunity is lost and it is only through the view of reincarnation that we are not totally lost with it. We can have faith and we can pray and we can believe but if we do not do then we are as James tells us; we are deceiving ourselves.
This is the message behind the message to the Sadducees. It is a message that passes by many without notice and it is a message confirming our spiritual nature. If we are “accounted worthy” we can then enter into the resurrection, full life with our God, after the death of this body. If we are “accounted worthy” we will die no more because we have attained His Kingdom. If we are “accounted worthy” we will be as the angels, with God and this is so whether we see ourselves as those angels or not. If we are “accounted worthy” we are truly children of God and children of the resurrection complete and in His Presence eternally.
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 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.
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king (1 Peter 2:17). This is the new verse attached to our Quote of the Day and it says all that we would want to say about the Brotherhood of Man. It is a shame that a large part of the Christian world chooses to interpret this as that we should love our Christian brothers and not all of our brothers and our sisters around the world. The word translated brotherhood is the Greek word adelphotes which is found only in this passage by Peter and is closely associated with the word used by Jesus in describing His brethren: “Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:37-40). The word adelphotes appears only in Peter and Vines says of it that it is primarily ‘a brotherly relation’ and so, the community possessed of this relation, ‘a brotherhood’ *!!!*. How do we see it? It all depends on our point of view.
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 Assembly adopted 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 member states.
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.
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. (1 Peter 2:17)
- *!!!* Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
- ** from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- **** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
