THE

RESURRECTION

OF

JESUS CHRIST

Clarification between the scholarly hypotheses

and the Divine truth in the Bible

dictated to

Franz Schumi

Christian Theosophical Script

Nr. 21a

1907

Translated from German to English I 2020

Preface

My dear children!

The time of decision between Me, Christ, the Lord of the world and My adversaries is approaching, therefore it is time that I raise My word and illuminate the enemies of truth as such, so that the world learns what it has to believe and what not.

My resurrection is the highest point in the religious world history - an event that the enemies of light strive to darken, yes, to eradicate completely, in order to numb and kill their conscience so that it should no longer reproach them in their life contrary to the commandments of God.  Whether they have succeeded in these dark acts of the spirit, we will test in the following, because the light need to appear regarding the question of My resurrection: If the resurrection has indeed taken place, then Christ's religion is Divine; if not, then your faith is a philosophical-religious work of man and not what it actually is.  Now let's get down to business.

The Year 33

It was 3 o'clock in the morning on March 27 in the year 33, and that was a workday, because on March 25, on Friday, I was crucified and laid in the grave.  March 26 was the Passover of the Jews, in memory of the exodus from Egyptian-Babylonian captivity in 1491 before My birth, and March 27 was again an ordinary working day.  Then My Divine Spirit descended into the silence of the tomb, seized the dead and broken body with the fire of His holy Love, healed it except for the scars of the wounds and transformed it into invisible spiritual form.

This was done with a strong fire-resembling electric light, and this intense and blinding light was seen by the five Roman soldiers as guards of the tomb.  They were very much frightened by this and ran away in wild flight of fear and into the city to Pilate and the priests, to bring them the news of My resurrection.

After the transformation of My flesh-body through the fire of Divine Love into spirit, it was no longer visible to the fleshly eyes except when I opened people's spiritual eyes.  My resurrection is the crowning glory of My teaching - because if I had not risen, it would never have risen to this sublimity as it did, because its Teacher and Propagator was God Himself, before Whom the power of hell and death had to give way.  I rose as the conqueror of hell and death, as the victor over both.  In Me, their sting has lost all strength and power, and as such I appeared again among My beloved and dear ones.  Thereby was the Divinity of My teaching sealed, for as victor over death, I have given the proof of My Divinity and Divine mission.

The prophets have proclaimed My Divinity in advance.  Yes, the prophet David says in Psalm 16:10 that I, the beloved of God (the soul as the Wisdom of God together with My earthly flesh) will not see the decay (in the grave).  But the main prophet about My resurrection on the third day after death, was I Myself on various occasions, namely

The prophecies of the resurrection on the third day

According to Matthew, I said: "Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of Leviathan, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the earth.  According to Mark and Luke, I said: "The Son of Man still has to suffer much and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. He will be killed, but will rise again the third day.”  According to John, I told the Jews at their request that I should give a sign of My Divine mission: "Break this temple, and on the third day I will raise it up!”  When I then rose from the grave on the third day, the disciples understood that I called My body a temple of God and therefore spoke of My resurrection.

But My disciples have never before understood My words and could also never imagine that I, to whom everything had to bow, who I commanded with Divine omnipotence over life and death and over the elements of nature, would let Myself be crucified and murdered by the temple priests.  That is why My suffering, My death on the cross and My resurrection were completely strange and unexpected to them although I announced it in advance.

Now that the Sabbath was over, the seven women who were also present at the crucifixion got up, namely: Mary of Magdalon, Mary - mother of My body, Salome - the sister of Mary of Bethlehem, the sisters Mary and Martha of Bethany, Joanna - the wife of Chusa - Herod's steward, and Mary - (called) the younger, a relative of Joseph, who had come with Mary and Salome of Nazareth to Jerusalem for Passover, and they all went to the tomb at 4 o'clock in the morning with the spices they had already bought on Friday; soon after that time, the dawn was announced by the rising sun.

On the way the women said among themselves, "But who will roll the stone from the entrance of the tomb for us?"  When they looked, they saw that the stone was already rolled away, even though it was very large.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man in a long white dress sitting to the right, and they were very frightened.  But he said to them, "Do not be frightened!  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified; He is risen and not here.  See the place where He was.  But go and tell His disciples that He is risen."  Now they left the tomb and hurried away, for shuddering and trembling had seized them, and no-one heard a word from them, so afraid were they.

John 20 - Mary Magdalene ran to Peter and John and told them what they had experienced; and the two disciples ran to the tomb to see what was said.

Scholarly contradictions against the resurrection of Jesus

The learned heathen Celsius

The first adversary of My resurrection was the heathen Celsius in the 2nd century.  He was the first scientific denier of Christianity - its wittiest, but also most poisonous adversary, and what he reproached Christianity with, was also done by his modern followers, whose hypotheses is  shown here in the three attempts to explain My resurrection.

Christ's apparent death

The first attempt to explain My resurrection from the dead as a deception, was to state the hypothesis: Jesus was only apparently dead!

This hypothesis alone has been completely misplaced, for I was already so physically exhausted by the bloody scourging, crowning with thorns, and long pre-morning ordeals, that I could no longer carry the cross Myself, but Simon of Cyrene did this for Me, and still I fell to the ground three times before I came to the hill of Golgotha.  By tearing off the clothes from the wounds and the crucifixion that followed, the last blood flowed from My body; now the Roman soldier Petronius came and pierced My heart with the spear, thus putting an end to all life and activity in My human body.

But no man has ever lived without blood in his body and with a pierced heart, no-one has ever been in suspended animation and no-one has risen from the grave by his own power and strength.  So the opponents of My person have very badly consulted with their intellect when they put up the apparent death opposed to My actual bodily death, because this hypothesis reveals itself as a weakness of thought and gross nonsense of My opponents.

Even My adversary, the unbelieving Dr. Strauss, broke the ground of senseless hypothesis of the apparent death of Christ.  He said: "It would be impossible for a half dead person to creep out of the grave, crawling around needing medical care, bandages, protection and strength and, in the end, the suffering of death, to give the disciples the impression of the victor over death and the grave, the prince of life, which was the basis of their later (powerful) appearance.”

The self-deception or deliberate lie of the disciples

The second attempt to explain, came from Reimarus who saw My revival as an illusion.  He said: "Either the resurrection message is based on self-deception or on the conscious lie of the disciples."  This last but most succinct explanation was chosen by Reimarus, the author of the so-called Wolfenbüttel fragments edited by Lessing.  But no credible support was found in this explanation, which Reimarus wanted to support with that the disciples had stolen My body and wanted to prove the resurrection of the same by means of a fabricated lie, and they soon felt that the religion which I preached, since it spread so quickly, could well have owed its origin to a miracle, but not to a lie.

Even the unbelieving Dr. Strauss, who wrote his contradictions against Christian truths in the 19th century, says: "This suspicion of Reimarus is already suppressed by the remark of the church writer Origenes, that a self-made lie could not possibly have inspired the disciples to such a steadfast proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus under the greatest dangers (of life).  The change from the deepest depression, hopelessness (and fear and anxiety of the disciples before the Pharisees) at the death of Jesus to the strength of faith and enthusiasm with which they proclaimed Him as the Messiah on the following Pentecost, could not be explained at all, if something quite extraordinary had not happened in the meantime - something that (completely) convinced them of the revival of the crucified Jesus.”  And this actually happened at Pentecost on such a large scale that the disciples lost all fear of the Pharisees.

Self-deception of the disciples

The third kind of explanation is the following: The disciples deceived themselves through the great events of the past when they walked with Me.  They saw and recognized in Me the expected Messiah and this self-deception deceived them that they referred all the reports of the prophets to Me and through this made Me the hero of the day.  Through this self-deception, also My resurrection has become a visionary imagination for them, through which they have raised their own visions to truth.

This kind of explanation has now become the authoritative and ruling one among the godforsaken critics of My resurrection.  We want to subject this view to an enlightenment in order to remove its basis from this scholarly hypothesis.  We want to examine how the visions of imagination arise and whether they are justifiable in our question.  The matter is as follows:

Fantasy or imagination?

Man can get a vision of his own imagination only when he believes a thing so firmly that he is completely convinced that it is what he imagines it to be.  In rare cases, such visions can happen in the waking state and are called visions of one's own imagination or opinion in which one firmly believes; more certainly, visions of one's own imagination can occur in dreams during sleep, but after all, such reflections of one's imagination are rare, but in the waking state they occur even less frequently.

With the apostles, however, such a self-deception cannot be seen anywhere in the Bible; on the contrary, they were fearful, fled and hid themselves from the Pharisees.  The question is: what visionary self-deception was in the rock-solid believer Peter?  Perhaps that He denied Me three times in the court of Caiaphas!?  That is the supreme contradiction of a visionary self-deception!  And the others were even more fearful than Peter, so this whole third attempt to explain, falls into the water and runs into nothingness.

John did indeed come under the cross on Friday, but not until he received assurance from Nicodemus that no-one would be hurt; and so seven women stood under the cross, the disciple John, Lazarus of Bethany and Joseph of Arimathea.  Therefore there is no trace of self-deception of the disciples anywhere.  But when they appeared on the feast of Pentecost, all Jerusalem knew about it, and not because of their preaching, but because of the great sound of the Holy Spirit coming down from above, 3000 were baptized on the very first day.

This fact that the apostles and disciples spent a full 50 days quietly and without any emotion for the cause, but on the feast of Pentecost, when they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit from heaven, which all Jerusalem knew about and ran together and asked what had happened, is decisive.  They now appeared as fearless fighters for the truth, telling the Jews in their faces what crime they committed against the Messiah, and from this time on their apostolic career began, just as Paul also began on his way to Damascus in the year 34.

With the apostles the seclusion, often also unbelief; with Paul, a wild fanaticism against Christianity, speak clearly and plainly that the hypothesis of the visionary self-deception of the apostles is a self-deception of the opponents regarding My person and My teaching.  They are the ones who believe in their own lies and thus deceive themselves; for the history of the apostles speaks of exactly the opposite of what the critics pretend to be the gullible.

In order to get a clear picture between the hypothesis of the scholars and the truth, let us examine the facts according to the only relevant and therefore only authoritative source, and that is the Bible of the New Covenant, and it teaches you:

The women had no hallucinations

The women did not think of any resurrection; for the report according to Matthew reads: "I know that you are looking for Jesus the crucified.  He is not here; for He is risen. Go home and tell his disciples."  So one of the angels said to the women in the name of both angels who were in the tomb.

Here certainly no proof of a self-deception of the women is to be suspected; otherwise they would not have sought Me in the grave to embalm Me even better.  But still no man has heard anything about a hallucination of the angels, because such a thing cannot take place at all.

Neither the women nor the disciples had self-deception

According to John 7, which he recorded himself, the disciples did not yet know for certain that I, Jesus, would indeed rise from the grave.  That is why they had no objection to the message of Mary of Magdalon when she said: "They have taken away the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

The fact that neither the women nor the disciples lived in a delusion that I would rise again, nor that I was risen when John and Peter hastened to the tomb in order to convince themselves about the taking away of My body from the crypt, also clearly states that there were no self-deceptions among either the disciple or the women, since John 8 specifically notes that they only understood My words about the destruction of the temple and its restoration on third day, when I had risen from the dead.

The two disciples going to Emmaus

When I went unrecognized to Emmaus with the disciples of Cleophas and Barsabas Justus, they told Me that angels in the tomb had told the women that I had risen from the dead.  This statement of Cleophas proves to you that the disciples were not at all prepared for My resurrection, because otherwise they would surely have said: 'We knew that He would rise; therefore, His resurrection from the dead was a joyful confirmation of our expectation, for which we were already prepared.'  But you will find nothing of this kind in the Bible.  How then can one speak of a self-deception of the apostles, since especially in the Bible, there is counter-evidence against any imaginations or hallucinations of My disciples?

Thomas the witness

The greatest and most convincing proof against the assertions of the Bible critics, that the apostles were in the imagined self-deception that I rose from the dead while I did not, is provided by the apostle Thomas.  This firm nature, to only believe what is proved and stands there conclusively proved, would not even believe his fellow disciples, although all confirmed it to him that they saw Me standing in their midst, speaking and eating, and gave Me their hands. Only then, when I showed him My pierced hands and side, did he believe it and said enthusiastically in full faith: "My Lord and My God!"  For now he knew that such a thing is only possible to God, but never to a mortal man.

From these facts, the truth clearly speaks that the critics, regarding My resurrection, have never thought of the fact that exactly the reports in the Bible accuse them of ignorance, slander and lies and will brand them as darkness before the whole world; because exactly what they wanted to make out of My disciples - namely dreamers and fools of their own opinions - the Bible refutes them and shows their own character, how it speaks and works in contradiction to the open truth.

Saul's conversion on the way to Damascus

The story of Saul's conversion on the way to Damascus is explained by the opponents to the effect that it was the self-deception of a phantom.  But just this assertion is the open objection against logical thinking and judging.

Saul was a learned Pharisee who received his scientific training at the feet of Gamaliel, a famous scribe of the temple.  Saul was a fiery and zealous young Pharisee who was fiercely fanatical and opposed to the Christians.  His trip to Damascus was not a infatuation and flirtation with Christianity, but the opposite: "Saul snorted against the disciples of the Lord with harassment and murder.  He wanted to eradicate Christianity and did a lot of evil, as he himself tells us, against the Christians.

Since the critics explain Saul's conversion as self-deception or ecstasy, we must ask: What is ecstasy and how does it arise?  The answer is:

Ecstasy or rapture

The ecstasy or rapture arises when man rises so high and deeply into the heavenly through his love for the cause, that he forgets and dies to everything else.  And what he gets so absorbed in, he gets to see - nothing else.

From the occult sciences, the preceding evidence: Chapters 7,13,14, we see that Saul could not have come into the state of the event that was decisive for his whole life, neither by his own imagination, even less through a rapture, but only by the grace of God.

Precisely what the critics attribute to him, is the greatest contradiction and complete impossibility in relation to Saul's mission; for Saul, later called Paul, went out to destroy the Christians, but not to become a Christian himself!  The message of Acts 9 and occult science, destroy all hypotheses of the opponents of truth.  The adversaries forget the fact that no-one has ever been blinded by the light of a vision; they also forget the fact that I, namely the same Jesus by Whose light Saul became blind, sent the disciple Ananias to Saul and that he healed him from blindness through My Divine healing power.

They also forget the words exchanged between Me, Christ, and Saul on the way to Damascus.  In the Bible, the following is recorded about this:

Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostels

Saul's conversion and first encounter in Damascus

(Verse 1-21; ch. 22:3-16; 9:18)

[1] And Saul, yet breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

[2] And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

[3] And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (1 Cor 15:8)

[4] And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

[5] And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

[6] And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

[7] And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

[8] And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

[9] And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

[10] And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.

[11] And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,

[12] And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

[13] Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:

[14] And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

[15] But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.

[16] For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

[17] And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

[18] And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

[19] And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

[20] And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

[21] But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?”

[22] But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

[23] And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:

[24] But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

[25] Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

conclusion

See, this story of Saul on the way to Damascus clearly says that there was no self-deception, much less ecstasy for Christianity, but the purest light from My heavens, which made the learned mortal enemy against Christianity, the heroic fighter for the truth of My Word.  This is proven and historically preserved truth, and that is all you need to distinguish truth from lies.

In this way we have brought the most significant contradictions of the learned critics back to their correct standpoint.  They are illusions and obfuscations of openly proved truth, and nothing else.

Early in the primeval times of human life, I promised to send the Saviour in the Messiah to wipe out the original sin of the original parents and thereby also of all mankind, which originates from the spirit of Adam and Eve.  And on the cross I performed the great deed by which the Father was reconciled with the children and became His beloveds in the Saviour Jesus.

It was an act of the greatest humiliation of God in the human body of Jesus.  It was something that human reason will never understand, since it is so great and holy above all human concepts; for God, whose greatness, omnipotence, holiness and sublimity even the most profound seraphim cannot fully comprehend, has done an act on Golgotha that is called the greatest that any man will ever comprehend.  Yes, on Golgotha, in the body of Jesus, Divine Wisdom fought a life-and-death struggle, because it was a matter of purifying men - as children of God - from original sin or of destroying humanity, because men are not put into the world just to live there, but to become children of God.  To reach this stage alone was impossible for them because original sin blocked the way to it; either I Myself had to remove this great sin, or every man for himself - and this task would have brought all mankind into despair and to extinction in order not to put any children of suffering into the world.

Only then, when you consider this task, that every man should have walked the same path of suffering and death on the cross to satisfy the Divine justice that I have walked, can you approximately conceive the greatness of the Cross of Golgotha.  It would have turned the whole world into a martyr-country, a terrible picture of misery and sorrow, a picture of the horrible despair of all that is dear to people.

This fact reveals to you the greatness of My action on Golgotha, it reveals to you the mystery of the reconciliation of God with His children, it finally reveals to you the great love that unites the Father with the children.  In this love, the Divine face shines as the radiance of the sun, for in this love, the earth unites with heaven and makes the children heirs of the eternal Father and gods of God's love.

Glorious was the day of My resurrection, a day of victory over sin and death, a day of the love of God, which -through this act - sealed the truth of the Gospel as Divine, forever.  But this act proves at the same time how important it is to have the true religion of Christ, to live and act according to it because I cannot be the Shepherd of hundreds of conflicting faith-sects, which men have thought out and set up - but I want that My sheep would be all of one faith, therefore of one knowledge of truth and not a hundred-fold different understandings of the eternal truth.

I died for one sin and rose only for this faith that I Myself taught and established, and not for all kinds of human belief systems, nor for the establishment of religions deviating from My teaching!  Therefore, little children, heed the words which are spoken here for you from the mouth of eternal truth, and believe Me and do what I tell you.

Therefore strive to make My teaching in pure fashion, a living spring in you!  Let love become exalted above all in you, and connect yourselves through love with Me, your Father, then the flowers of eternal love will grow in your hearts and make you bearers of it. - Amen.



Table of Contents

Preface 2

The Year 33 2

The prophecies of the resurrection on the third day 2

Scholarly contradictions against the resurrection of Jesus 3

Christ's apparent death 3

The self-deception or deliberate lie of the disciples 4

Self-deception of the disciples 4

Fantasy or imagination? 5

The women had no hallucinations 5

Neither the women nor the disciples had self-deception 6

The two disciples going to Emmaus 6

Thomas the witness 6

Saul's conversion on the way to Damascus 7

Ecstasy or rapture 7

Das 9. Kapitel der Apostelgeschichte 7

Des Saulus Bekehrung und erste Erfahrungen in Damaskus 7

conclusion 8

Table of Contents

Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostels

Preface

The Year 33

The prophecies of the resurrection on the third day

Scholarly contradictions against the resurrection of Jesus

Christ's apparent death

The self-deception or deliberate lie of the disciples

Self-deception of the disciples

Fantasy or imagination?

The women had no hallucinations

Neither the women nor the disciples had self-deception

The two disciples going to Emmaus

Thomas the witness

Saul's conversion on the way to Damascus

Ecstasy or rapture

Das 9. Kapitel der Apostelgeschichte

Des Saulus Bekehrung und erste Erfahrungen in Damaskus

conclusion