Eternal Life, Yet Again

WED., DEC. 23, 1987, 6:19 AM
FARM, STUDY

It has been sometime since I have given you some direct words on what, in the Christian context, I call eternal life. (I urge you to use this term in your Death Education class as a parallel to reincarnation. It may help some to see truth more clearly.) This is the season of Christmas, which is the story of a birth, but you have experienced many Christmases, so this has become a rebirth, and it therefore becomes part of the symbol of eternal life.

The whole symbol is My breathing a soul into the first humans, My birth as Jesus, the crucifixion and then resurrection, and then Pentecost, the commencement of My active life as the Holy Spirit in the earth. Each time these events are noted, observed, and celebrated, it is also a celebration of eternal life. Each soul has a moment of creation and then, out of timelessness, is born into the earth. She lives a life of some length (and hopefully of some quality) and then dies. But the spirit is now freed for other service, and the process continues.

How, then is it Christian? Since My life, as Jesus, is the “starter” life, My life, death, and resurrection have become a “gift” to all persons. Accept the gift of grace and the quality of your eternal life changes. You have more of a sense of who you really are and what life is about, and you see the desirability of returning to be a part of Me, the Holy and Creating Spirit.

There is a parallel model/symbol in the physical world I have created. Matter is, ultimately, energy. Matter was created… and continues to exist, even as its form changes. A carbon atom (a fundamental “block” of creation) may be part of your now departed rooster, may then become part of you, may be breathed out as waste, taken in by a tree, and eventually be part of a log that is burned for heat, and then part of ashes that are put in a garden, and then part of a vegetable, and then… The form can change rather radically with the circumstances, but the eternity of life is maintained.

This is a crude and incomplete, but yet a provocative symbol. The spirit is not as tangible as a carbon atom, but it is more ultimate reality. Just consider, with your limited knowledge, the variety of lives you could be living, even as a human on this very day. When you include the possibilities in past historical time and project to historical futures the variety increases evermore. And other realms are even more diverse.

Or suppose you were an angel assigned to the earth. The variety of life tasks you could have are unimaginable. Spirit can grow and develop or can wither and diminish with each episode in a continuing, eternal life. And the wonderful economy of My created realms is that the potential for spiritual development is as great where you are (wherever that is) as in any other place.

You are a Presbyterian Christian. Consider the many other “forms” of being a Christian that there are. (You even has “played at” some of these, with some satisfaction.) I tell you that this is what you should be, and you should be it with zeal and dedication. You know not what it leads to, but if you live it with awareness and appreciation it shall be presently satisfying and good preparation for what comes next. But I would say the same if you were called to be a Mormon, a Unitarian, or a befuddled agnostic. You learned well in school, and you have continued to learn well throughout life. If you hadn’t taken advantage of school learning you could not be where you are now. Likewise if you don’t take advantage of your life situation, whatever it is, you are missing a present opportunity and also not preparing well for the life that comes next.