THE CAMBRIAN PESHER
THE VOICE OF THE DESPOSYNI TO THE AMERICAN DISPERSION
All Hallows Eve, 2007
The
Science of Eternal Life
Halloween is becoming an ever more
popular autumn celebration for many people.
Its origins are Celtic, of course, according to our cultural historians,
yet another commeration – like Christmas - blending
the old religion (Druidism) with the new (Christianity).
For
the Celts, it was the eve of Samhain, summer’s end
and the beginning of the New Year. For
the Christian world, November 1st is “All Saints’ Day,” a time to
memorialize the martyrdom of saints not famous enough to have been designated their
own day. October 31st, “All
Hallows Eve”, is based upon the superstition that the living
are revisited by the spirits of the dead.
Now,
the Celts were a superstitious people with strong animistic beliefs. But that was true of all societies in the
ancient world. Even Christ’s own
disciples were superstitious. They
mistook Him for a ghost when he approached their vessel once on the
According
to a latest poll, two out of three Americans believe in ghosts (or is it one
out of three, I forget?). The poll is not official, but it is enough to
say that a lot of us believe in ghosts, spirits, phantoms, or poltergeists. For some reason, we love the creepiness of it
and we love to sit around the electronic campfires at night and listen to ghost
stories. It must be primeval.
Some
of these superstitions historians lay at the feet of the Druids, but I believe mistakenly so.
The Druids were the scientists of the ancient world, much like the Magi
which came to honor our Lord at His birth.
The Druids tried to understand the causal links in the various phenomena
around them. Animism finds these causes
in spirits and many early Christian thinkers thought that angels were in charge
of the forces of nature. Angels are
sentient beings, as are spirits, and because so many phenomena did not occur
with benevolent results, many of the ancients thought that these spirit forces
were malevolent beings.
Now,
however, we understand that there is such a thing as “natural” law which exists
with certainty, regularity, and complexity.
It is not arbitrary, nor does it manifest the motives of a sentient
being. True, its over-all existence indicates design and the will of a creator
as its first cause, but no longer is man trapped inside a chaotic universe of
capricious beings who work like gremlins in the machine of nature. The rain is
sent upon the just and the unjust. The
law of gravity is as predictable for both saint and sinner alike.
Grail
Christianity believes in an after-life, but unlike pagan religions – including
Catholicism on this point – it does not believe that our eternal existence
consists in an immaterial, spiritual essence.
It does not believe in the immortality of the soul; rather, it embraces
the Resurrection, and that was why early missionaries were mocked by pagan
philosophers (e.g. Acts 17).
This notion seems
rather un-Celtic and runs counter to our modern understanding of Druidism. We are told that the Celts believed in a host
of mysterious spirit beings and that Druidism taught an alternate, parallel universe
where our spiritual counterparts live.
Much of Wicca’s world view claims a Celtic origin, including the notion
of dream-like astral planes of existence.
On that point,
however, the Old Religion is misunderstood.
Classical theology taught the Christian world a dichotomy between the
spiritual and earthly realms. In
contrast, Celtic theology, and certainly Grail theology, teaches that these
realms are united in a continuous flow of existence.
Reincarnation figures
prominently in the Old Religion. Celtic
Christianity abandoned the notion of reincarnation. And while it differed from Classical theology
in that it did not abandon our material existence, it also differed from the
Old Religion in that it embraced a cosmic personalism.
In a future life, we do not return as someone else or something else(!) In the Resurrection, we come back as
ourselves and “are known even as we are known” (1 Corinthians
Is
there life after death?
Before we can answer
the question of whether there is life after death, we must first answer the
question: “Did Adam poop in the Garden of Eden?” Or better yet, “Did Jesus poop
after His resurrection?”
Although the question seems irreverent and
perhaps frivolous, the notion of eternal life must square with the recycling
processes of nature. The universe is a
dynamic place where electrons, atoms, and various compounds are exchanged,
changed, and smashed. Life forms resperate, even plants.
There is constant death which appears to be essential to the making of
new life. Before we can assume our
eternal existence, we must first show why that would fit within the economy of
the life-cycle. What compelling reason
is there for you to live forever?
When
I was in seminary many years ago, one of my professors
shared with the class his belief that the resurrected body of Jesus expelled no
wastes. When He ate, there was complete
and perfect assimilation of the food.
When He drank, there was no urine or sweat. He had no blood.
All
of these bodily functions figure prominently in our lives. For most of us, they
are annoyances. Yet, they are essential
to the biology of our existence. It is
difficult to imagine an existence in which these natural processes do not
occur.
Let
us suppose, for a moment, that my seminary professor
was correct. Jesus did not poop after
His resurrection. What does it mean to
say “the perfect assimilation of food?”
Food represents calories; calories represent energy available to produce
work. Did Jesus, in His resurrected
body, need food? No, apparently not,
because the necessity of an external source of energy – food – reintroduces the
notion of death. Withold
the source of energy and the creature dies.
If
Jesus did not need the calories, where did they go? Did He get fat? Or did they get “burned off” in some unique
way? The Resurrection stories tell us
that there was a great light when Jesus rose from the dead. Could this mean that a new metabolic process
was introduced into human existence?
Instead of sweating, pooping, and even breathing – may Jesus have simply
expelled the excess energy as light?
The notion of
breathing is an interesting twist to this idea of eternal life. Biological organisms require oxygen to burn
food and use calories. Did Jesus need to
breath in order to live in the resurrected state? He ascended into heaven through the upper
atmosphere, so apparently not. If He did
not need the food, then He did not need the oxygen to metabolize it.
But
everything in nature is connected.
Biological organisms breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Plants require carbon dioxide to live. If in a resurrected state, humans no longer
contribute to the processes of nature, where do the plants get their carbon
dioxide? Will they be resurrected, too,
and acquire a new metabolic process? Will
light become the new aether of existence? If so, then everything will become the life
of stars. This raises new questions.
Science
tells us that light represents the activity of photons. It is the frequency of smashed atoms. Are resurrected beings simply radioactive
creatures? If the earth becomes a place
inhabited by such creatures, how will that alter nature? Will we no longer need the sun because the
world is full of beings emitting light?
What would a world full of light do to the retina of our eyes? Will we still be able to
see color, or will we all be blinded by the “glory” of our fellow
light-bearers?
The
notion of “color” is simply an aspect of the light spectrum. We see color because objects absorb all of
the colors of the light spectrum except for one. Will a world full of
light-bearers create “light pollution” or will there be objects capable of
absorbing excess light and hence emit color? Will the activity of light-bearing be
constant or will it be random, reflecting the ebb and flow of energy
consumption choices (food - from whatever source derived) made by the light
bearers?
You
may not like this line of questioning.
Some people may think it is impious.
“God will sort this all out!,” many will
argue. But our Pesher is entitled “The Science of Eternal Life” and seeks to
awaken you to these possibilities and to suggest that, perhaps, our theology,
like the old science, is primitive. If
we can say that electricity is the bumping of electrons instead of the caprice
of angelic beings, can we not say that the Resurrection results in more than
bloodless zombies or spiritual phantoms?
Much
is made of the fact that the resurrected Jesus referred to Himself as “flesh
and bone” and not “flesh and blood.” An
entire theological scenario for our resurrected existence has been built upon
that inference. And, yet, it is not
biblically accurate. Yes, Jesus did say
He was “flesh and bone,” but that expression does not imply “bloodless.” He said it to prove to the superstitious
minds of His disciples that He was not a ghost. If Jesus had bones, He would
have had blood, because our bones contain blood marrow from which our blood is
made.
Frequently
in the biblical text, “flesh and bone” is used to express kinship: “flesh of my
flesh, bone of my bone.” It is not said
with the intent to mean “without blood.”
Does
this suggest that blood is still an essential element in the resurrected state?
Consider
Adam and Eve before the Fall. Were they created with blood? The Bible says that the soul (nephesh) is in
the blood (Leviticus 17). If they were
living souls like the other creatures God had made, then they must have had blood
just as they did.
They were destined to
live forever after partaking of the “Tree of Life,” which they never did. In what way would have the “Tree of Life”
altered their existence?
Well, it wouldn’t have
changed Adam’s dominion task. He was
still called to subdue the earth, meaning that he still had to work the
soil. Presumably, he would have had to
continue to eat. What would the purpose
of the Trees of the Garden have been if not for him and his offspring to eat?
He would have resperated.
Remember, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He shared that same breath with the animals.
It is safe to say that
his metabolic process would not have changed; it just would have worked
perfectly because of his access to the Tree of Life. He would have had blood.
If,
as the Scriptures testify, Jesus is the “last Adam,” then it is reasonable to
conclude that His resurrected condition reflected what the human race would
have experienced had they partaken of the Tree of Life. He would have had blood. He did breath on his disciples, after all
(John
The
Apostle Paul’s view of the resurrected state seems to differ from this
one. He says Adam was a “living soul”
while the resurrected Christ was a “life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians
It
seems that in Paul’s mind the condition of shedding blood is corruption. But if light replaces blood in the
resurrected state, as many have theorized, it ultimately changes nothing. If light energy is emitted, it still degrades
over time and distance. It dissipates,
just as blood dissipates. Light would
become a waste product, just as blood which is spilt either through wounds or
through the metabolic process of its conversion into energy, sweat or
urine. Both light and blood would be
manifesting a condition of corruption.
Is
Paul correct in his assessment or have we misunderstood him? We might suggest that Paul was too influenced
by his Pharisaical training. The
Pharisees theorized along similar lines.
But
it does no violence to the biblical text here to say simply that corruption is
not inherent in “flesh and blood”;
rather, it is a condition which has
been imposed upon “flesh and
blood.” That condition is the principle
of death – meaning that flesh and blood are in a condition that they cannot
sustain themselves. Christ, as a
life-giving spirit, is a being who can impart immortality to flesh and
blood. It is possible for “flesh and
blood” to live forever if it is eternally connected to the source of life.
The
book of Revelations tells us more about the Tree of Life:
In the
midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree
of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations.
- 22:2
While
this book is highly symbolic, we would want to believe that this “tree of life”
is real, otherwise, we would have to suppose that the first tree of life
mentioned in Genesis, too, was not real.
If the tree of life is symbolic, so is the “tree of the knowledge of
good and evil,” in which case, we would be required to pursue different
metaphysical questions.
Whether
real or symbolic, a monthly feeding appears to be necessary to maintain our
eternal existence according to this text.
“Leaves for the healing of the nations”
suggests the possibility of ailments which need a cure.
We
see the same metabolic processes of the original creation, only refined to
perfection.
In
this scenario, there is no source of natural light, everything being
illuminated by God. There is liquid; for
a river flows from the throne of God to nurture the tree of life. All of this suggests a material existence of
some kind, and if the resurrected Christ is any indication, it is the same
physical existence as before, except relieved of the burdens of the Curse.
Gravity
is one of the burdens of the Curse. In a
sense, we can say that death is simply the final victory of gravity over our
physical beings. The resurrected Christ was not limited by gravity. He could sail through the skies, levitate,
and move about in a moment’s time. He
passed through walls, apparently displaying superiority over the laws of
matter.
Christ’s
body was dead three days, not long enough for it to decay. We have no witness of decayed bodies being
resurrected, but we are assured that those who “sleep in the dust” will awaken
at His command (Daniel 12:2).
The
reason why the ancients wanted to believe in floating spirits as the seat of
real human existence is for the simple reason that they could not understand
how a man could possibly be restored once his body decayed and was recycled into
the elements of nature. That is why the
Pharaohs built elaborate tombs and practiced embalming. Somehow, they believed that if they could
prevent the total decay of their bodies, they had the hope of life in the
hereafter.
This
represents faith in man, or at least, a sense that the gods need our help if we
are ever to be revived.
In
the Christian faith, our total reliance is upon an omniscient God who knows
every atom of our existence - as the Druids used to say, “Every rhith of life.” We
believe in a God who has observed and recorded every thought, every emotion,
and every experience that makes us who we are.
Though we be dead, we are never dead to Him.
Science now tells us
that our glands are made of crystals and every element of our body emits a
frequency which is stored in those crystals in a kind of cellular memory. These
frequencies which change in an ebb and flow as we move about and experience
life from moment to moment create our unique identities. If all of our frequencies could be logged
throughout our lives, it would be possible to resurrect us, including our
memories, from “the dust of the earth.”
Clearly, this is a task beyond all human comprehension. Only an omniscient mind could perform such a
feat.
It
is incumbent upon us as God’s creatures to acknowledge His sovereignty with
humility and to serve His pleasure. If
we make ourselves detestable in His eyes, why would He ever want to spend
eternity with us? Only those whose
“names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” will have access to the life
which proceeds from God’s throne. Love
Him, and He will love you and “raise you up at the last day.”
A servant of Jesus,
James Wesley Stivers
Church Overseer