58. The Resurrection Of Christ's Physical Body

   
Perfect is God, the Lord! Perfect is His Will, which is within Him and which emerged from Him to beget and sustain the work of Creation. Perfect, therefore, are also the Laws which, as His Will, permeate Creation.
 
Perfection, however, excludes any deviation from the outset. This is the basis on which questions about so many claims are absolutely justified! Some teachings contradict themselves by quite rightly proclaiming the perfection of God, yet at the same time making assertions that are the exact opposite and demanding belief in things that exclude the perfection of God and His Will, which lies in the Laws of Creation.
 
But, by doing so, the germ was sown in many a teachings. A gnawing worm that is bound to cause the whole structure to collapse one day. This collapse is all the more inevitable where such contradictions have become cornerstones, casting doubt not only on the Perfection of God, but denying it outright! This denial of God’s Perfection is even a condition for admission to certain communities.
 
Then there is the notion of the resurrection of the flesh, with regard to the resurrection of the earthly body of the Son of God, which most people accept without second thought, without leaving the slightest evidence of understanding upon others. Others, again, adopt this claim with fully conscious ignorance, because they lacked a teacher who could provide a proper explanation.
 
What a sad picture this presents to a calm and serious observer! How pitiful is it to see such crowds, who often regard themselves proudly as zealous followers of their religion, as strict believers, display their zeal by hastily looking down from a presumptuous and ignorant arrogance upon those with different views. Not realizing, however, that precisely this must be taken as the unmistakable sign of a helpless lack of understanding.
 
Anyone who unquestioningly accepts and professes important matters as their conviction thereby displays boundless indifference, but no true faith.
 
In this light, such a person stands before that which they are accustomed to calling the Highest and the Holiest, which is meant to provide the meaning and support for their entire existence.
 
Thus, they are not a living members of their religion, capable of ascent and redemption; rather, they are sounding brass, merely a hollow, tingling bells, who neither understand the Laws of their Creator nor make any effort to recognize them.
 
For those who act in this way, it means stagnation and regression on the path that is meant to lead them, for the purposes of development and advancement, through the World of Matter to the Light of Truth.
 
Like every other erroneous belief, the false conception of the resurrection of the flesh is an artificially obstacle they create for themselves and take with them into the Beyond, where they must then also come to a standstill and cannot proceed further, because they cannot free themselves from it on their own; for false belief clings to them and binds them so tightly that every free view of the Luminous Truth is cut off from them.
 
They dare not think otherwise and therefore cannot advance. There is a danger that these souls, who thus keep themselves bound, will also miss the final opportunity granted for becoming free, and will not ascend to the Light in time, whereby they will slide into disintegration and find eternal damnation as their final destination.
 
Eternal damnation is the state of being permanently cut off from the Light. This means being forever cut off from the possibility of returning to the Light as a fully conscious, developed personality, through oneself and by the very nature of the logically consistent events. This circumstance arises from being drawn into the process of disintegration, which pulverizes and dissolves not only the ethereal body, but also everything that has been spiritually attained as personal consciousness. This is then the so-called ‘spiritual death’, from which there can be no further ascent to the Light for the conscious ‘ego’ that had developed up to that point. In contrast, in the case of an ascent, the ‘ego’ not only survives but continues to develop towards spiritual perfection.
 
Those who have passed over while holding a false belief, or one thoughtlessly adopted as their own, remain bound and hindered until they become alive and free within themselves, through a different conviction, thereby shattering the obstacle which, through their own belief, prevents them from treading the right and true path and proceeding along it.
 
However, overcoming this delusion and the exertion of force required to free oneself is enormous. Even the step of approaching such a thought requires a formidable buoyant force. Thus millions hold themselves captive and, as a result, can no longer muster the strength even to lift a foot, in the ruinous delusion that they would be doing wrong thereby. They are as if paralyzed and also lost, unless the Living Force of God Itself finds a way for them. Yet the Force can only intervene helpfully as soon as a spark of a willingness rests within the human soul and comply with It.
 
In this inherently so simple and natural process lies a paralysis more dreadful and ruinous than one can imagine. Thus, the blessing of the free power of decision entrusted to humanity becomes a curse through wrong application. Everyone always holds it in their own hands to exclude or include themselves. And it is precisely here that it takes a terrible revenge when anyone blindly entrusts themselves to a teaching without the most careful and serious examination! This indolence can cost them their entire existence!
 
In purely earthly terms, humanity’s worst enemy is comfort. However, comfort in faith will become one’s spiritual death!
 
Woe betide those who do not soon awaken and rouse themselves to the most rigorous examination of all that they call faith! But a downfall awaits those who are responsible for such great misery! Those who, as false shepherds, lead their sheep into a desolate wilderness. Nothing else can help them but guiding back the strayed sheep onto the true path. The great question, however, is whether they have enough time left to do so. Therefore, let everyone examine themselves carefully before seeking to instruct their neighbour.
 
Erroneous belief is delusion! This binds the human spirit, both here and in the beyond, tightly and firmly with a strength that only the Living Force of the true Word of God can break. Therefore, let everyone to whom this reaches, harken to the call. Only those who feel the call are those for whom it is intended! Let such individuals then examine and weigh it and become free!
 
Let them not forget that only their own decision can break the shackles that they previously imposed on themselves through false belief. Just as in indolence or in laziness they once resolved blindly to adhere to teachings without seriously examining them in all their parts, or as they perhaps denied God merely because, up till then, they had not managed to find a path to Him that corresponded to their justified need for logical consistency, so now, too, the first volition must proceed from themselves for ruthless verification in their search!  Only then will they be able to lift the foot that they held firmly until now through their own will, and take the first step that leads them to the Truth and thus to freedom in the Light.

They themselves, and always only they themselves, can, should and must weigh things up, because they carry the gift for it within themselves. Ultimately, they must also take all responsibility upon themselves alone, in one way or another, whatever they may will and whatever they may do.
 
The mere consciousness of this should compel them to the strictest examination.
 
It is precisely this responsibility that not only gives everyone the unrestricted right to such scrutiny, but even makes it the most urgent necessity! Let them feel free to regard it as a healthy instinct for self-preservation; that is by no means wrong! After all, they would not sign any earthly contract that imposed a responsibility on them without examining it word for word and considering whether they could fulfil it. It is no different, and far more serious, in spiritual matters when it comes to the decision to commit oneself to a belief! If humanity were to exercise a little more of this healthy instinct for self-preservation in this regard, it would not be a sin, but a blessing!
 
Resurrection of the flesh! How can the flesh of the gross material realm ascend into the Pure-Spiritual Realm of God the Father! Coarse matter, which is not even capable of passing into the ethereal substance of the Beyond. All coarse matter, and indeed even ethereal matter, is subject to disintegration according to the eternal Laws of Nature. There are no exceptions or deviations from this, because the Laws are perfect. Consequently, after physical death, coarse matter cannot ascend into the Kingdom of the Father, or even into the etherealized Beyond, both of which are subject to disintegration! Such deviations are simply an impossibility given the Perfection of the Divine Laws of Nature!
 
All this can also be clearly observed on a smaller scale in the laws of physics, which likewise do no more than reveal the immutable Creative Laws that permeate this field as they do everything in existence.
 
Everything that exists is subject to the uniform Laws of Creation, which clearly and unmistakably carry with them the simple yet immutable Divine Will. Nothing can be separated from It.
 
It is therefore all the more regrettable when certain teachings refuse to acknowledge precisely this immense greatness of God revealed therein, through which He visibly draws so close to humanity and its understanding!
 
Every doctrine quite rightly points to the perfection of God. However, if the Origin or Primordial Source as such is perfect in and of Itself, then only perfection can proceed from It. Consequently, the Laws of Creation inherent in the Acts of Will that have arisen from It must necessarily be perfect as well. It is quite natural that one cannot be separated from the other. These perfect Laws of Creation permeate and sustain everything that has come into being as Natural Laws. However, perfection is synonymous with immutability. This means that any deviation from these fundamental or natural laws is entirely impossible. In other words, under no circumstances can exceptions occur that contradict the natural course of all other events.
 
Therefore, there can be no resurrection of the flesh, which, being coarse matter, remains absolutely bound to coarse matter!
 
As all the Primordial Laws have emerged from Divine Perfection, no new act of God’s Will can develop in any form other than that which has existed since the very beginning of Creation.

If certain teachings obscure what is self-evident and absolutely given through the perfection of God, they thereby prove that their foundations are false and that they are built upon human reasoning bound to space and time. Therefore, they cannot lay claim to God’s Message, which would show no gaps, since such teachings can only come from Perfection, from Truth Itself, which is seamless and understandable even in its simple grandeur. Primarily, of course, because what humans call ‘nature’ emerged from the perfection of the Divine Will and still retains Its vitality today in an unaltered form; consequently, it cannot be subject to any exceptions.
 
When Christ came to earth to proclaim God’s Message of Truth, He was therefore obliged to make use a body of coarse matter, that is, flesh, like each human. Every thinking person should already recognize the immutability of the Laws of Nature in this, as well as in the physical death that occurred through the crucifixion.
 
This coarse material flesh, however, could not form an exception after this death either; rather, it had to remain in the World of Coarse Matter! It could not rise again to enter another world! The immutable Divine or Natural Laws, by virtue of their perfection arising from the Divine Will, do not permit this. They simply cannot; otherwise they would not be perfect, and this would imply that God’s Will, His Force, and He Himself are not perfect.
 
Since this is impossible, as any science can ascertain from Creation itself, it is wrong to assert that this coarse material flesh was resurrected and entered another world after forty days, as this casts doubt upon God’s Perfection.
 
For a body to be truly resurrected, this can only happen in such a way that the soul, which for a time is still connected with the physical body by an ethereal cord, is called back into this body. In accordance with the Laws of Nature, this is only possible for as long as this cord remains intact. Once this cord is severed, a resurrection – that is, the recalling of the soul into its former physical body – would be impossible!

This, too, is strictly subject to the unbreakable Laws of Nature, and not even God Himself could bring it about, as it would contradict His own Perfect Laws, contrary to His Perfect Will, which works autonomously with Nature. Precisely because of this Perfection, He could never come to entertain such an imperfect thought, which would be an arbitrary act.

Here, once again, it seems as though there is a constraint on God within the work of Creation due to His flawless Perfection, which must be fulfilled in every instance and allows no alteration. However, this is neither intended nor necessary. This is by no means a real limitation of God, but only appears as such to humans in some matters because they are unable to grasp the whole of what is happening. And this inability to survey the whole leads them, despite their best and most reverent of intentions, to expect arbitrary acts from their God, which, strictly speaking, can only diminish Divine Perfection. In this case, the good that humans intend in all humility does not lead to a reverent looking upwards, but to a descent into the entirely natural limitations of the human mind.
 
The unconditional observance of the Divine Laws of Will or Nature was also at work in the raising of Lazarus and the young man of Nain. They could be raised because the connecting cord with the souls still existed. At the Master’s call, the soul was able to become one with the body once more. However, in accordance with the Laws of Nature, the body was compelled to remain in the World of Coarse Matter until a new separation occurred between the gross-material and the ethereal-material bodies, enabling the latter to enter the ethereal beyond – that is, until a new, coarse-material death took place.
 
The passing of the gross material body into another world, however, is an impossibility. Had the Spirit of Christ returned to the coarse material body, or had it perhaps not left it at all, it would have been compelled to remain in the gross material world until a new death occurred; there is no other way.

Resurrection into another world in the flesh is completely out of the question, both for human beings and, as was the case then, for the incarnate Christ!
 
The Saviour’s earthly body followed the same path as every other physical body, in accordance with the Creator’s Laws of Nature.
 
Accordingly, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did not rise from the dead in the flesh!
 
Despite the logic and the far greater veneration of God involved, there will still be many who, in the blindness and indolence of their false belief, do not wish to follow such simple paths to the Truth. Many also who, because of their own narrow-mindedness, are unable to follow. Others, again, who try to fight furiously against it on purpose, do so out of a well-founded fear that their laboriously constructed edifice of comfortable belief must collapse.
 
It will be of no use to them if their foundation is based solely on the literal transmissions; for the disciples, too, were humans. After all, it was purely human that the disciples, who were deeply shaken at the time by all the terrible events, interwove many of their own thoughts into their accounts when recalling them, influenced by the prior witnessing of miracles that in many ways still remained inexplicable even to them, thus rendering many things differently from the way they actually took place. 

As in the erroneous conflation of the Son of God and the Son of Man, their writings and narratives were often too strongly rooted in their own human assumptions, which then formed the basis for many errors later on.
 
Even though the strongest spiritual inspiration may have stood helpfully at their side, nevertheless preconceived personal opinions intruded very strongly into their retelling and often clouded even the most well‑intentioned and clearest picture.
 
Jesus Himself, however, made no written records on which one could unequivocally rely as an indisputable basis.
 
He would never have said or written anything that was not fully in harmony with His Father’s Laws, the Divine Laws of Nature, or the Creative Will. For He Himself expressly said:
 
“I have come to fulfil the Laws of God!”
 
The Laws of God, however, are clearly evident in Nature, which extends far beyond the coarse material world, yet remains ‘natural’ everywhere – in the Ethereal World as well as in the Essential and Spiritual Worlds. A thoughtful person can certainly find in these meaningful words of the Saviour something that goes beyond the confusing religious teachings and points the way for those who are truly seeking in earnest!
 
Moreover, everyone can also find clues to this in the Bible; as Jesus appeared to many. But what happened? Mary did not recognize Him at first, nor did Magdalene or the two disciples on the road to Emmaus even though He walked with them and spoke to them for hours... What can be concluded from this? It must have been a different body they saw; otherwise they would all have recognized Him immediately! —
 
But let those who are not yet willing to hear remain deaf, and those who are too indolent to open their eyes remain blind!
 
The general concept of the ‘resurrection of the flesh’ finds its justification in earthly births, which will continue as long as there are humans on Earth. It is a great promise of the permission for repeated earthly lives, repeated incarnations for the purpose of faster progress and the necessary redemption from the reciprocal actions of lower natures, which is synonymous with the forgiveness of sins. A proof of the immeasurable Love of the Creator, the Grace that lies in the fact that departed souls who have squandered their time on earth wholly or in part, and thus arrive at the threshold of the Beyond still immature, are given another opportunity to clothe themselves in a new coarse material body or cloak, whereby their dead flesh formalizes a resurrection in the new flesh. The soul that has already passed over thus experiences a new resurrection in the flesh.

The blessing that lies in the constant repetition of the fulfilment of such a high Grace will only later on be grasped by the human spirit, which cannot survey everything!