Resurrection explained
Underlying topic(s):
- By John Eagles, August 8, 2006.
This page is part of an ERW course, Divine Principle.
Here i shall explain a little about resurrection. Resurrection should always be understood in a spiritual way. Physical bodies don't get resurrected. Once they have gone to dust, dust they remain. The term resurrection implies that a fall has taken place that makes resurrection necessary. The fall that is meant is downfall of the spirit.
In the spiritual world there have always been angels with the task to resurrect those spirits who entered spirit world after the death of their physical bodies. Just after physical death, most spirits are in need of resurrection, quite literally meant here. These people can just do nothing in the spiritual world because they were not aware of themselves as a spiritual being, they don't know the world they have entered and many of them just don't know how to do a thing there. Angels go to such spirits, speak to them, bring them to a specially protected place, give them energies and wait until these spirits can walk, talk and use their minds again. Only few spirits don't need this treatment, some need weeks, others years and again others need millenniums.
The word resurrection is also used in other ways. There is a general resurrection that takes place with the advancing of history. When certain internal and spiritual truth becomes known to large groups of people, for example because of the teachings of an elevated spiritual person on earth, a widespread resurrection takes place for many people at the same time. New realms in spirit world are opened then. With the coming of the New Age in this frame of time we can expect such a general resurrection to take place.
For each of us, eventually resurrection always means resurrection of myself and yourself. When everyone gets resurrected but i don't, the concept will be of no meaning to me. So, what is your resurrection and what can you do to make it happen?
There is an original growth of the spirit that goes through several stages. Everything that grows, grows through stages. A tree is first a seed, then a seedling, then a young tree and finally it bears fruit and produces new offspring. A human being is first just two combined cells, a sperm cell and an egg cell, then grows as a fetus in the womb, then is born in a new world, grows up as a baby and a child, eventually will unite with someone of the other gender to have new children. Finally, you get old, your body dies and you enter a new spiritual life.
The stages are distinct, they don't just flow smoothly from one into another. An important concept connected to resurrection is that of rebirth. Rebirth means to completely begin your life all over again. Resurrection of your spirit always begins with a rebirth of your spirit. Before you can be reborn, you must go through a process of dying. This dying is the dying of the old self. When the old self got used to ways of living that hampered or even destroyed your spiritual growth, you must get rid of these habits as they have taken root in your heart of desires, your mind of stuck ways of thinking and feeling and your body of bad ways of acting. To do that feels like dying and is dying. Once you have determined to make a new start and you are strong enough, you need to get some kind of rebirth. Rebirth must be given to you. It essentially comes from the Creator who gave birth to you in the first place. Other people must have a role as well, functioning as a kind of spiritual father and mother. You cannot give rebirth to yourself. You can determine yourself to end your old ways if they are wrong, you can do a lot to grow up well after your rebirth, but rebirth is a gift of love that must be given to you by those in the position of spiritual parents.
In many religions, you get a new name as proof for your rebirth and your new identity. Not always such a rebirth leads to a satisfying resurrection afterward. Maybe your rebirth was not complete, maybe you didn't get good spiritual food in your stage as a spiritual baby, maybe you don't invest yourself enough and fall back in your old habits. At any rate, rebirth is the beginning of resurrection. It is the conclusion of a period of dying of the old self, but it is just the beginning of your new path of growth to become a spiritually adult and good person.
There is much more to be said about resurrection, about the character of the stages of spiritual growth that follow rebirth, about your own responsibility to live a life of faith and sacrifice for others so that you also really will grow, etc. For now i conclude with saying that resurrection of the spirits is taking place right now at a large scale.
