I AM HERE. Paul, the Apostle.

I have written to you before on my alleged writings as they are contained in the Bible, and which, as I have said, were not written by me as they there appear.

I desire tonight to write for a short time on the subject of the resurrection because, as I see, the church doctrine of the resurrection is founded more on what is ascribed to me than on the writings of the Gospels, although the latter also contain a basis for the doctrine.

I never said there would be a resurrection of the physical body, nor of the individual clothed in any body of flesh. My teachings were that man would rise in a spiritual body at death, and that it would not be a new one made for the special occasion of his departure from the material body, but would be one that had been with him through life and that came into an individualized form when he first became a living being. This spirit body is necessary to man’s existence, and it is that part of him which contains his senses and the seat of his reasoning powers.

Of course, the organs of the physical body are necessary for the utilization of these senses. Without these organs, there could be no manifestations of the senses which are inherent in the spirit body. Even if a man should lose the perfect workings of his physical organs of sight, yet, the power of seeing would still exist in him, although he might not be able to realize that fact; and this same principle applies to the hearing and the other senses.

So, when man loses the use of his physical organs which are necessary for him to see with, he is dead as to sight—just as dead as he ever becomes with reference to all the other organs of sense when the whole physical body dies. And were it possible to restore these physical organs that are necessary to enable him to see or hear, he would be able to see and hear just as he could before their loss. The restoration of these organs does not, of itself, bring him the power to see and hear, but merely enables the faculties of sight and hearing to use the physical organs again for the purpose of manifesting the powers which are in, and a part of, the spirit body.

When the whole physical body dies, at the very time of death, the spirit body becomes resurrected. And with all these faculties of which I have spoken, it continues to live thereafter free and unencumbered from the material body, which, with these physical organs being destroyed, can no longer perform the objects of its creation. The physical body becomes dead and, thereafter, no resurrection of this body occurs, although its atomic elements or parts do not die. In the workings of God’s Laws, these elements enter upon other and new functionings, though never that of reuniting and re-forming the body that has died.

SO, THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY, AS TAUGHT BY ME, IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY—NOT FROM DEATH, FOR IT NEVER DIES, BUT FROM ITS ENVELOPMENT IN THE MATERIAL FORM WHICH HAD BEEN VISIBLE AS A THING OF APPARENT LIFE.

There is a law controlling the uniting of the two bodies, and a law controlling the functioning of the powers and faculties of the spirit body through the organs of the physical body, that limits the extent of the operations of these spirit faculties to those things that are wholly material, or which have the appearance of the material. And, when I say material, I mean that which is grosser or more compact than the spirit body. Thus, these faculties of sight of the spirit body can see what are called ghosts or apparitions, as well as the more material things through the organs of the material body, but never see things of pure spirit in this way. And when it is said that men or women see clairvoyantly, which they do, it is not meant, or is it a fact, that they see through the organs of the physical eyes. On the contrary, this clairvoyant sight is a purely spiritual one, and its workings are entirely independent of the material organs.

Now, when the material body dies, the spirit body becomes resurrected, as it is said, and free from all the limitations which its incarnation in the flesh had imposed. It is then able to use all its faculties without the limitations or help of the physical organs. And, as regards the sight, everything in nature, both material and spiritual, becomes the object of its vision; and that which the limitations of the material organs prevented its seeing, and which is the unreal and non-existent to men, becomes the real and truly existing.

This, in short, is what I meant by the resurrection of the body. And you will realize from this that the resurrection is not to take place at some unknown day in the future, but at the very moment when the physical body dies and, as the Bible says, “in the twinkling of an eye.” (This saying of the Bible attributed to me, I did write and teach.) And this resurrection applies to all mankind; for all who have ever lived and died have been resurrected, and all who shall live hereafter and die will be resurrected.

But this resurrection is not the Great Resurrection I declared was the great foundation Truth of Christianity in my teachings. This is not the Resurrection of Jesus that I declared “without which is our faith as Christians vain,” but is the common resurrection that is applicable to all mankind of every nation and race, whether they have a knowledge of Jesus or not. And many times, in many nations, it has been demonstrated, even before the coming of Jesus, that men had died and appeared again as living spirits in the form of angels and men, and that they were recognized by mortal men as spirits who had had a previous earth existence.

So, I say, this is the resurrection common to all men. The coming and death and resurrection of Jesus, as taught by the churches, did not bring the Great Resurrection to the knowledge or comfort of men, and did not furnish the true foundation upon which the true Christian belief and faith rest.

Many of the infidels, agnostics, and Spiritualists assert and claim, and truly, that the resurrection of Jesus, as above referred to, was not a new thing and did not prove a future life to humanity any more convincingly than had been proved before his time by the experiences and observations of men and followers of other sects and faiths, and of no faiths at all.

The great weakness of the church today is that they claim and teach this resurrection of Jesus, as set forth above, as the foundation of their faith and existence. And as is plainly and painfully apparent to the churches themselves, that as men think for themselves (as they are doing more than ever in the history of the world), the result is that they refuse to believe in this resurrection as sufficient to show the superiority of Jesus’ coming and mission and teachings over those of other reformers and teachers who had preceded him in the world’s history of faiths and religions. And, as a further result, the churches are losing their adherents and believers. Christianity is waning, and rapidly, and agnosticism is increasing and manifesting itself in the forms of free thought societies and secularism, etc.

Hence you will see the necessity of making known again to mankind the true foundation stone of the real Christianity that the Master came to teach and which he did teach, but which was lost as his early followers disappeared from the scene of earthly action and practice, and men of less spiritual insight and more material desires, with their ambition for power and dominion, became the rulers and guides and interpreters of the church.

There is a Resurrection, though, that the Master taught, and his apostles taught when they came into a knowledge of it, and which I as a humble follower taught. This Resurrection is vital to man’s salvation and is the foundation of true Christianity which no other man, angel, or reformer has ever taught before or since.

It is too late tonight to explain this Resurrection, but I will come again very soon and try to make it plain to you and to the world.

I will now say good night. And may God bless you and keep you in His Care.

Your brother in Christ,

PAUL.