The True Resurrection That Jesus Taught

 

This mediated message discusses the true resurrection that Jesus taught, which is the re-bestowal of the Divine Love giving humans, if they desire and pray for it, immortality. Man lost the potentiality for immortality at the fall.  Jesus taught the restoration of this privilege and exemplified in in his own life. He is thus the resurrection and the life”. For related information, go to this page.

 

The True Resurrection That Jesus Taught,

Without Which Our Faith as Christians Is in Vain.

(PAUL, THE APOSTLE)

(February 8th, 1916 | Received by James Padgett)

 

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 or 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 re-bestowal 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 re-bestowal 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 re-bestowed (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 which such potentiality merely made it possible for them to acquire by aspiration and effort. In fact, before the re-bestowal 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 re-bestowal 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 re-bestowal, but the privilege of arising from death to life— of 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 re-bestowal 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 re-bestowed 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 RE-BESTOWED 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.

 

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