PART I - Section 3

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPIRITUAL DYING - II

 

    First -- although it may be granted that he carries an appearance for God and eternal things, and that with zeal too, yet there is a close alliance to the worldly interests and earthly elements for there will be a holding fast to the ground of mixture,(34) putting heavenly things on one scale and earthly things on another.

    If they can find an even balance, then the Rational mind carries all smoothly and wise in his generation, not willing to lose his part for either spiritual or temporal things. But the worldly interests shall be sure to be adhered to closely. If they cannot co-exist together, but the one must be laid down, then wise Rationality will quickly show that his birth is only from that Astral Region and no higher -- from the womb of fallen Time, and therefore one not to be trusted.

    Secondly -- there is the great enmity in which the Rational Life stands to the Spirit of Faith, which curbs and nips it in its first buddings. For as long as degenerated Reason lives, this Plant (Faith) can never thrive or prosper for it is ever casting choking doubts, as in the case of Nicodemus' "How shall a man be born again that is old?"

    Or as in Elijah's time when the famine was so grievous in Samaria, the Prophet then declaring how scarcity should suddenly be turned into plenty, the unbelieving lord of Reason stands up to declare, "If God should make windows in heaven, can this be?" So, as unbelief prevented him from partaking of that blessing, so it does this day.

    Therefore, if we should have any great and wonderful thing effected, either in Time or Eternity, we must shut Reason out as a treacherous counsellor. For this there is no way but to give him up for spiritual martyrdom(35) and for the sharp ax of the Spirit to execute him.

    But you may say, "This is too severe a judgement to wholly cut him off, for he may be regenerated and made subordinate to the Life of Faith."  That, indeed, may be allowed upon the animal-man's account, to order and govern those low and earthly affairs which the fallen state has made necessary, if kept there and permitted to go no further.

    For in no case must he be admitted into the inward and sublime matters of the spirit and soul, because the way of restoration depends so much upon faith which crosses the whole course and grain of Reason. All his refining and regenerating can never make him (Reason) serviceable to help the soul towards its translation for degrees of perfection, its birth being of an unbelieving nature.

    Reason looks upon these things as unattainable for the soul to regain what it has lost; this alone is enough to lay him aside in all spiritual matters. Rationality was not in Adam before the fall so he had no occasion to use subtlety and craft, all things being made ready to his hand.

    So now, this way of our return to the more transcendent liberty and glory, for which the Holy Spirit operates in the power of faith to perfect, will allow nothing which is contributed by the Rational spirit. Nay, the time is coming when he shall be put out of his stewardship of the outward man.

    It is very rare to find a just steward in the use of this worldly mammon, therefore God will settle the power for all blessing and increase for bodily requirements upon the Spirit of Faith.(36)

    This faith will rise to a supremacy, even where all the worldly goods upon which so many are now engrossed are concerned, supplanting the corrupted rule which Reason now bears.

    Therefore, it will be worth our care and vigilance to take inventory, upon the basis of Faith, in reference to both heavenly and earthly things, to depose the Rational spirit from all claims and powers as to those superior transactions between God and the soul. He may only be allowed for the present necessity as a hewer of wood and drawer of water(37) until we shall discharge him of this service also.

    You may see what a full charge is given against the man of Reason, which may cause sufficient incentive to die to him as we are able from day to day until he is fully dead. The conquest of which will produce wonderful and miraculous working powers which, in its place and order, shall be given more fully to you further on.

    Now we fall upon the third particular, which is the Sensitive Life. It is divided into three branches: (1) exterior, (2) interior and (3) natural. I shall begin with the exterior first. The lusting eye,(38) which delights to please itself in visible objects for the very heart and mind to be trained with.

    The outward eye is a veritable wandering star. It glides up and down to please its own ravenous appetite among all the various gross and perishing things that can be found in this evil world. So does every depraved sense pursue its own vain delight and satisfaction. But of this more gross part of sensuality I shall not further enlarge, knowing that it has been sufficiently set forth and decreed down by the godly, pious ones.

    I shall continue now to the interior sense which is in part renewed and enlightened far enough to escape the pollutions into which the gross sense falls. This interior sense, being yet an inward sober sense, comprehends immortal and divine things but is still closely joined to the Man of Reason, being the very body of that spirit (Reason) which can have no accord nor oneness with a Life of Faith.

    Right here commences a hard struggle in the matter of a soul looking for redemption out of the body of sin. At this point, the good sense that is awakened to this account will very likely run itself into despondency, seeing, feeling and tasting the strength and bitterness of sin which may rise up in the soul in such an uproar and mutiny that will not for some considerable time be quietened or calmed.

    But you will say, "This is good and necessary to be immersed into such a deep sense of sin." It is in some degree to be granted that an effectual sorrow for sin awakened by the Holy Anointing and divine light and conviction is to be allowed.

    Thus it was with saints of old, crying out to be delivered from the Body of Death and sin, and what penitential Psalms did the holy David in this sense make. But remember that there was no staying here. Such were soon acquitted their sense, flying up to the operating spirit of Faith, as David and Paul did, crying, "Thanks be to God that giveth us the victory through the blood which cleanseth from all sin, springing from the vein of Christ's Life opening from within, that washes out the pollutions of sin."

    For if a soul should not hasten out of this function of sensibility it would soon be overwhelmed. If in the life of this good sense any should long abide, what anxiety and sorrow(39) of life they would know. Therefore, what saith the Spirit of Jesus? "Believe and ye shall enter into your rest." In sensibility you will find none.

    Now, to speak to the natural and bodily sense -- this hangs as close as skin does to flesh. It affords an unwelcome loyalty which resolves not to leave the soul unless mortality happens to be swallowed up of life. This sense is indeed apt and fit for such an inferior mortal state into which we are fallen; a low and earthly sense well agrees with a low and earthly world.

    But, Oh! What an enlightened spirit can take up here, that hath been in the divine seeing. For bodily sense(40) is the great and only impediment to all divine vision, prophecy and revelation (for now all three degrees of sense we include(41)). These senses are as a dark gathering cloud upon the center of Light and a strong inclosure to keep the spirit from passing into that realm where the Trinity and all the holy train of angels -- seraphim and cherubim -- do attend God's Throne.

    From a particular experience, I soberly declare that no soul or spirit can come to have a plain and open view of a glorified Personality, as seen and known in the heavenly spheres, but as their sensible part is suspended and laid as if in a dead sleep(42) during the time that it is in open sight of such an express glory.

    Indeed, there are representations of heavenly objects and things of a lower degree which may consist with the bodily sensation as of a calmness and sweet stillness. Then the spirit of the soul stands in a powerful capacity for divine seeing and hearing, and this is frequently known and enjoyed by saints at this present time.

    But that which is most sure knowledge, sight and hearing is when the whole sensitive motion of soul, spirit and body enters into an eternal nothingness. Then it knows, hears and sees as in God's glance and light of eternity. Thus it was with Daniel, Paul and John. They were struck out of their senses while the visions lasted upon them.

    So has it been witnessed in these last days that when the Lord has any special revelation to give forth by his chosen, the element of Reason has been shut up and the sparkling stars of sense have fallen down. Because these senses do not agree with that pure Spirit descending from God with great and deep revelations, Reason is suspended that God's mind and Word might not be adulterated. This is a more sure way of it -- even through the cessation of the senses.

    But here I meet with an objection. "When thus it happens upon some extraordinary account and one is caught up out of their senses, it is not to be expected that it should be lasting, as you seem to imply."

    You should not blame me if I do so imply, for if you knew what it is like to be but one hour from the working motion of sense, by which you might really and substantially find yourself entered into the very beatific vision of God, you would never care to know your sense any more. This does but agree with that good saying of Paul, "...knowing that while we are present in the body of sense we are absent from the Lord."

    But we shall be sober and not run you out of your sensitive life all at once except some sudden shower of the Spirit from heaven should fall and drown you. This it has for some time done upon those of goodwill toward these tidings, for which I would heartily welcome further witnesses hereof, as to the importance of those great and eminent effects of cessation from senses.

    Such effects are not the lot of every saint; nay, there are very few who may know open vision but will yet find their names written in the Book of Life. But seeing it opens a door and makes way to have more clear knowledge and familiar access to God and the glorified person of Christ and the high order of angels, let this be a powerful motive to be dying by degrees from the life which is separating and hiding the face of God where all peace, joy and assurance of love is enjoyed.

    But here meets me this question, "Who is it that can die out to their own sense? For so great and glorious are the advantages of that dying that if we could find the passage-door out of these senses we would not stay in them to be further molested and troubled." To this I shall give you what has been effected in my own experience, in which I found great remedy and help in this case, being instructed of Jesus herein. This brought me to starve the life of the low mortal sense.

    First, avoiding all that might feed and nourish it, withdrawing from all various forms of worldly concerns which tend no higher than the exterior life, denying everything which was not of an absolute necessity in order to slay all extravagance that sense works upon.(43) Continuing in this way for the execration of every mutinous sense, you will find that this life will grow weak and gradually expire, so that there may not be so much as an evil essence left.

    But, indeed, while this is but doing and not thoroughly done, the senses will be striving and casting up muddy waters that cloud the divine sight and stop the inward hearing so long as you remain among the noise and throng which, from this worldly region, encompasses everyone. Therefore, I can give you no other hopes by which to get victory over the sensitive life but by starving it of all the gross matter upon which it feeds.

    Indeed, there may be a quenching and silencing of this stirring motion of the sensitive life before there is an arrival to the high degree of annihilation which makes for permanence. Which quenching and silencing is a good introduction and, as daily exercised herein, may at last come to depose whatever will not co-exist with that most excellent Life of Faith which is the only ministry the Lord Christ sets forth afresh now in this day. Therefore, let it not be thought a strange or severe doctrine -- blessed are those that are able to receive and practice it. There will be no loss, for as this sense dies, the fresh and supersensed life will spring forth.

    There is one more sense of which we must not neglect to speak. It is the anguish, pains and griefs of the natural body(44), which may abide when death of the sinful sense has been accomplished to a good degree. These must be allowed until this corporeal figure is changed. Sensible hunger, thirst and want of this or that refreshing for the outward body are ongoing symptoms of mortality.

    Impediments of this kind may exist and yet be sinless. Christ, the Lord, was not without the sense of this hanging upon His outward body, so we cannot expect to be loosed from it until something else follows. Yet, we are carried through cheerfully in hope of the redemption of the body also.

    Here then, we shall conclude by well agreeing with that precious saying, "I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, yet not I" --Galatians 2:20. Notice how he calls that word back again, "Do not think it is I, whose life did consist of the animal, rational, sensitive being that is worn out and dead -- no, I live upon another Root, though I appear in this natural body. I have changed my life of sense for that high, graduated life of Faith in which I please God. Therefore I am beloved, finding all acceptation with Him and therefore never desire to know the disharmony of sense anymore.(45)"

    This is the triumph of a spirit and soul that has gotten over that low sensibility! Here is a new model indeed. You may say, "But who is it that has put off the body of sense this masterfully?" We shall not determine who has done it, but we may determine that, except it be done, or doing,(46) THERE IS NO FOUNDATION LAID FOR RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION!

    Now then, see your way as to how you are to be exercised in preparation for what is to follow. Christ the Lord has prepared the way by returning in Spirit(47) with great and mighty power to carry you through as you give up and let Him take your wills, giving consent to demolish and pluck that off which has been as a briar twisting about the lily. Which lily is to be transplanted to the Mt. of Immortality and open vision of God's Face when gotten free from the Valley of Death.(48)

    Thus you have had the true dimensions concerning what is to be died unto in order to finish and complete the whole mystery of Death. We may pronounce blessing, joy and glory to the Overcomers who can show these dying marks as have been described. Who shall now keep them from the presence of God and the Lamb, for they will have right to possess and inherit all things in heights above and depths beneath?

    We shall add one further thing of which it may be worthy of taking notice. There is a set space of time during which those who have accomplished this mystical death are to be buried. Just as with mortals, when they die, they are buried out of sight -- so it is with those who are departed out of the body of sin.(49)

    There is for them a quick dispatch by those who are yet alive to all that to which they have become dead. Take them under what fellowship or form you will, there is no agreement between the living and the dead(50). The dead are very unpleasant company, being senseless and inactive as to matters and things relating to the fallen life and principle, and being so unserviceable, they may well be forgotten and deferred by persons, Fellowships, and Societies that are not in the dying way.

     Let us not give it much consideration, for was it not thus with the Lord Christ when He went to suffer and die? Did not most of them with whom He was conversant forsake Him? Some followed Him, as John and two or three; others were so afraid they could not bear to see the crucifixion. So it was and so it is at this day.

    There is a kind of horror in seeing one dying from all the pleasant joys and things delectable, inviting and reckoned to be lawfully enjoyed, but a soul and spirit that hath been under Christ's discipline understands other things. It knows that the fall has brought in the poison of the curse and has spread itself through the whole creation.

    Paradise is hid and fled and cannot be known but to the risen from the dead. Therefore, look from one end of earth to the other and gather all up into one representation for allurement and alas, what is in it but bundles of thorny cares which lie at the root of every pleasant flower and suck away the life and sweetness of it? Therefore in a true sense, it is a matter of joy and glory to die out of that realm wherein we live as banished exiles from God in curse, woe and misery. Why then, should it be such a reproach and shame to suffer crucifixion unto such a life?

    Oh, that the face of this covering might be taken off, especially among these that are fellow members of the dying Body of the Lord Jesus! It is seemly that they should encourage it in one another rather than despise it. It is enough for the worldly spirit to call it contemptuous, but fellow saints should rejoice in nothing more than to see a crucified Christ in one another.

    There is a great need of strengthening angels to encourage to hold out as upon an open stage, for the onset of inward fears and temptations will not be wanting at such a dying hour. Suggestions will arise from within and speak to the suffering soul as the thief did to Christ -- "...If thou be the Son of God, save thyself. Let Deity secure and save the humanity and let it not die so ignominiously."

    All this must not move a living Christ in a dying soul, who sees deeper and beyond the visible appearance of things, and will therefore go through it, despising the despisers. But now follows a grave silence in which there are great questionings and misgivings among the very disciplehood, concerning the resurrection(51), with most doubting. So there appears now a dark cloud of dissention.

    While no resurrection immediately appears, censures and judgements run from one to another. "We had expected," saith one to another, "that great things would have been shown forth upon finishing such a course; that a present redemption would follow." Thus it must be suffered and debated a while, for Christ is as if buried in the soul, out of sight, feeling and sensation, which is the highest degree of spiritual death, and far more proving than the dying to the whole sinful worldly life.

    As Christ the Lord committed His spirit to the Father upon giving up the Ghost, so it is with the dying soul -- its spirit is given up and hid with God in Christ. Therefore the soul may remain in a grave silence of darkness and confinement, under the weighty stone, not allowed to move, until the Spirit returns from the Father and the Son to give it quickening life in a glorious resurrection.

    Therefore, fear not, but be comforted from the Lord, you Holy Souls. Whosoever have striven unto death, or are upon the way to it, you have no more cause to doubt your resurrection than Christ in His own person had. For ye are hereby become Christ's dead body and therefore the same Spirit which raised Him, must and will raise up such as are dead in Him.

    Some may lie longer bound in the grave than others because there is not a thorough death in all members and parts of the body of sin(52); otherwise they could not long be detained, for the witnesses must rise at the third day.(53) Therefore, by what hath been declared, let us examine ourselves by showing forth the Lord's death until He come for life-quickening.

    But it may be said, "While this is still doing and not done, what if the mortal death should come and prevent the manifestation of these things in this world?" Why, if it should, nothing that has been worked out shall suffer loss -- upon the following account.

    After dissolution (mortal death) the soul immediately ascends to be joined to that body which is of the resurrection and is angelic in nature. Therefore, so far as any have attained, it will be accounted for in that invisible world and so there will be no cause to repent except for not beginning sooner in the dying way in order to finish with Christ the whole process while in this life.

    Now we shall leave our dead in the Lord as those who have ceased from their own works and are in the still rest of God, and although the living inhabitants of mortality and time do leave and forsake them, they need not be anxious. For Christ's own life-guard of angels are about them to comfort, watch and secure, and at the third day to roll away the stone to make way for the dead to come forth.

    Who shall first know and see them but the faithful lovers and believers who have watched the sepulchre and would not go from it, attending there in faith and hope for their friend's return from the reproachful death to a life all new and incorruptible, full of joy and all glorious? This is the hidden treasure that lieth in the darkness of death and will be a jewel to them that find it, and though the grave may obscure the beauty and sparkling shine of it, yet know, it will appear in a threefold transparency. As it hath died out to the threefold life of degeneration ( spirit, soul and body), so it shall be quickened and restored into the glory of the Father, Son and Spirit.

    Thus you have had the passover of the Lamb prepared and set before you and commended by the Lord, the true Passover, through such a one as He hath chosen for it and set apart to receive and give forth as from light and experimental knowledge. For I would not be a usable instrument to declare of death unless I had first tasted it.

    I must give this good word and credit, that although it was tart and bitter in the beginning, so that I had some struggle to get it down, yet through a daily exercise of my mind and firm will concerning these things, and from the Holy Spirit's conviction, I was made thoroughly resolved in it. Then it went on pleasant and smooth, and the grievousness of it was turned into joyousness.. This is spoken not by way of boasting but for comfort and encouragement to such as are in fear to venture to go through all the parts and degrees of it.

    I shall conclude this subject with this petition: "Lord Jesus, increase the number of the dying flock and grant that the earth may not cover her slain forever but cast out her dead that they might spring up in Thy Life, Dear Emmanuel."


34. It has been mainly through this type of believer that the so-called gospel of prosperity has gained such in-roads within the Church. This teaching has so blinded some that they cannot see that the true value of spiritual things outweighs the value of temporal material things. If they speak of giving up some material thing, it is their view that God will always give it back to them. These are mind games that people attempt to play with God, never really giving anything up, only pretending to, and thereby deceiving only themselves. There is no place in the dying process for mixture to exist, there is no middle ground to stand on, no fence to straddle, and no grey areas. All is stark and absolute. It is inconceivable that the gospel of prosperity can apply where the cross is at work, bringing to death. It is baffling to think that one who has given up the superficial and trifling baubles of this world in order to enter into the thriving spiritual wealth and affluence of the fullness of God could even think of taking to themselves again that which they had supposedly considered to be but dung. But this they do as they hold to their temporal trinkets with the one hand, as if giving them up, while reaching for the unsearchable riches of Christ with the other, not realizing that Christ requires both hands.

35. It must here be borne in mind that even though Christ may require that we become fools for His sake, He does never require that we become foolish for any cause. We have all seen those who quickly sprouted up as if overnight into super-spiritual Christians who suddenly began seeing every little thing that happened as some spiritual sign or as having some spiritual significance. This reminds us more of a chicken without a head than of a saint who has had his mind replaced by Christ's mind. To lose one's head-life is not the work of the overzealous pretender. It is the work of the Holy Spirit and is best left to Him.

36. As our example to this, Jesus never looked to Judas who carried the bag with him. In fact, Jesus thought so little of the purse and what it contained, that He knowingly committed it into the hand of one whom He knew to be a thief. When it came time to pay taxes, He looked not to Judas or the purse but to His Father. When it came time to feed the multitudes, He called not to Judas' purse but to His Father. When He needed an ass upon which to ride into Jerusalem, or a room in which to have the final supper with His disciples, He cared not for finances or this world's ways but looked to His Father Who always gives liberally to every one that asks in faith. It is according to this spirit of faith that we are to seek to order our lives, laying to rest the rational, reasoning mind so much at enmity with this way.

37. The Gibeonites, who represented themselves as having come from a far country because of the name of the Lord, made a league with the children of Israel upon a false basis. Because of this, they were made servants for hewing wood and drawing water -- very menial duties, requiring little if any skill or talent. So it must be with the reasoning mind until ascension is complete. It may be allowed to serve so far as the natural realm and needs go but must never be allowed to enter into anything of a spiritual nature.

38. It should be noticed that the lustful eye has far wider range than the limited one commonly given it by most. It is not confined to that lust which a man or woman may have for the opposite gender but extends to anything lower than that realm to which we are called. In this context, the scripture, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way" --Psalm 119:37, takes on new meaning. This member must surely be plucked out and put to death, for it is better for us to go into life maimed than to enter into hell fire whole.

39. It was just here that Christian, in John Bunyan's, "The Pilgrim's Progress," met with the slough of despond in a somewhat similar situation. We are indeed to enter into death but with the resurrection always in view. There is a going through and a coming out on the other side that we are encouraged to seek after, not pretending we have it until we do. For it is by faith that we enter into His rest. As it is written, "The word not being mixed with faith in them that heard it, they entered not in..." --Hebrews 4:2, but we which have believed do enter into rest because the works were finished from the foundation of the world. When we come to the realization that we may despair until we die and never affect anything, we see that it is by trusting in the finished work of Christ, Whose shed blood cleanses every sin that we begin to rest even though our corruption may yet be with us. As T. A. Sparks has said, "It is better to have one great despair and be done with it."

40. Is this not that which the apostle Paul spoke of when he said that the Spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit, the two being contrary one to the other? He also strongly implied a further evidence of this where he lists these things against those he counted as enemies of the cross: they obeyed the lusts of their bellies rather then the drawings of God, they gloried in what was really their shame and they attended to earthly things. (Philippians 3:19) He didn't say that they were enemies of Christ, just enemies of the cross. There must be a putting to death of this sensible body along with all its appetites if we are going to enter into our inheritance in Christ. It cannot be done otherwise.

41. She is referring to the correlation between vision and the lustful eye, prophecy and interior sense, and revelation and bodily sense -- these three natural senses being matched with three corresponding spiritual senses.

42. This is very strong evidence that there must be a putting to death of the senses in order for ascension to occur and a continual living in that realm to follow.

43. It does not require that one be of great intellectual powers or even that one be endowed with a great spirit of revelation to discern that what is here being spoken of in plain detail is complete extermination. To come to this, there can be no quarter given, no compromises, no truces, no agreements, no negotiations, no temporary suspensions -- this is an all-out, scorched-earth, war to the death. Too often we have come to a point in our dying process that can be called a crisis (a crisis is when a person on his death bed has become so critical that unless something is done, he will expire straightaway) and we have thrown the senses a morsel, just enough to keep them barely alive, but alive! This is why so many have been so long in an anguish of dying but never quite dead. This which is here spoken of in clear and easy-to-understand terms is radical Christianity. Radical, in the medical sense of the word, means that it goes to the root and excises the problem until there is nothing of it left. God is not laying the axe to the limb of the tree, but to the root -- Adam in every expression and form of life. This is radical Christianity.

44. It should be duly noted here that Christ does not always choose to heal, regardless of the hyper-faith teachings. Reality has shown this to be the case, but He does always choose to be our Life. Mortality in the outward body with its attending pains and griefs in no way conflicts with the reality of that inward life which is Christ and which will, in the Father's appointed time, be manifested, swallowing up the outward body of death.

45. It should be remembered by all of us who are so quick and easy to quote this scripture, that Paul wasn't quoting when he stated this. It was his experience! May it also be ours.

46. This one thought and statement carries with it the entire meaning and force of any hope we may have in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5). Do we really imagine that we will have part in the first resurrection without meeting its requirements? Tradition teaches that we may, but the Spirit of Truth states emphatically that without our suffering the loss of our headlife (Revelation 20:4), we cannot be justified in a hope of the first resurrection. We must content ourselves then in looking for that general resurrection which takes place after the 1,000 years are finished, during which time, those who have overcome this sensible life, will be ruling and reigning with Christ as kings and priests. The general resurrection is that resurrection unto condemnation for some and unto life for others (Luke 12:46-48). Let us strive for, and look for, that better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35) that men, all down through the ages, have held out for.

47. Your personal Pentecost occurred when Christ came to abide in the person of the Holy Spirit in order to prepare you for the Feast of Tabernacles.

48. Who would have thought that Mt. Zion lies just next to the Valley of Death? It is because of this that so many are in this hour turning back, just as the rich young ruler did in Christ's own day, proving that we may be rich in things other than money. But let it not cause alarm nor dismay that this great mountain of the Lord's lies hard upon such a place, for is it not written that even though we walk through just such a place, we shall fear no evil because He is with us, leading us in paths of righteousness for His namesake, comforting us with both rod and staff and even preparing us a table? It is from just such a place that our head is anointed with oil and our cup ceases its ability to contain because of the goodness and mercy of God which follows hard after us. It is that we might dwell in the house (the new one) of the Lord for ever.

49. This, of course, is not meant to be taken as literally departing the natural body. It is indicating that spiritual ascension by which one no longer lives according to the demands placed upon him by the natural body, his Life-source being centered in Christ alone.

50. This is as true of that condition which exists between those having completed the dying process and those still in the doing of it, as it is of that condition which exists between those born to Christ and those still in the old life of sin and woe. There just is not much common ground upon which to fellowship, so high and exalted is that life of the resurrection in comparison to that lower life upon which the Dragon still makes war.

51. As it was with Christ's death and resurrection so will it be with ours. When no visible manifestations appear in order to justify the death, then do there arise questionings and reasonings among those who have not as yet died. "See, this is not what we thought it to be. There are not the great signs and powers we have heard would ensue. We had hoped for more than this. We had hoped that the Kingdom would at this time be established." So go the reasonings among those who are looking on from the outside of things. But they cannot know that there is a probation period through which a soul must pass in order to become established in this new life. Even Christ, after His resurrection, ascended not immediately but was forty days in and out among His disciples awaiting the hour of His ascension. It was during this period of time that great questionings and returnings to nets occurred. All the while our Lord Christ was as crucified and risen again to life as He would ever be. Even so, there is a period of time, a probationary period, between the completion of the dying process and the soul's ascension for glorification. After glorification all mouths are stopped.

52. This has reference to the personal experience of the individual and not to the lack of a thorough dying in other members of the Body of Christ. There is a parallel to this situation in the instance when an animal is slaughtered, dressed and hung up for a period of time in order for the flesh to finish dying. It is called curing.

53. The witnesses rising at the third day is a reference to all those who will rise in the First Resurrection, having been witnesses to Christ. It does not have reference to the two witnesses of Revelation 11 whose dead bodies lie in "the street" for 3½ days and then arise. Even they will rise in the third day from His coming. "The third day" spoken of here has much clearer reference to "the resurrection day." As Jesus arose after three days, it is viewed as that period of time needed to come forth from the inward death to a full and complete inward resurrection in spirit. It has reference to a completion of the death period. And none will rise in the first Resurrection but they that have been witnesses in the true sense.