Returning Resurrection - what we need to know

[According to the Principle of Creation, (EotDP P1 C1 S6.3.2) the growth of the human spirit requires two kinds of nourishment: life elements received from God and vitality elements received through give and take action with the physical self. Spirits can neither grow nor be resurrected apart from a physical self. Consequently, the spirits of people who died before they could reach perfection during their earthly life can be resurrected only by returning to earth and completing their unaccomplished responsibility through cooperation with earthly people. By assisting people of faith living on the earth to fulfill their missions, the spirits may complete their missions at the same time. Herein lies the meaning behind the verse which foretold that in the Last Days the Lord will come “with his holy myriads.” (Jude14) We call this process returning resurrection. 

How do spirits help people on earth fulfill the Will of God? When people become receptive to spirits through prayer or other spiritual activities, the spirits descend to them to form a common base with their spirit selves and work with them. Spirits perform various works. For example, they pour spiritual fire on earthly people and give them the power to heal diseases. They help people enter states of trance and perceive the realities of the spirit world. They give people revelations and the gift of prophecy. They can also give deep inspiration to the soul. In these various works, spirits act on behalf of the Holy Spirit, guiding people on the earth to accomplish the Will of God. 

Spirits of those who kept the Mosaic Law and worshipped God sincerely while living on earth during the Old Testament Age came to abide at the form-spirit level of the spirit world. After the advent of Jesus, these spirits all returned to earth and assisted faithful people on earth to accomplish the Will of God. By thus helping the people to attain the level of life spirit, they too received the same benefit: namely, they became life spirits and entered Paradise. We call this dispensation growth-stage returning resurrection. 

Let us draw some examples from the Bible. Since Elijah appeared as a spirit before Jesus and his disciples, (Mt17:3) it is clear enough that Elijah still lived in the spirit world. Yet Jesus referred to John the Baptist, who lived on the earth, as Elijah. (Mt17:12-13) Jesus called him Elijah because in terms of their common mission, John’s body concurrently served as Elijah’s body. The spirit of Elijah descended to John the Baptist to help John fulfill the mission Elijah had left unfinished during his earthly life. This was Elijah’s returning resurrection. 
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It is recorded in the Bible that when Jesus died on the cross, many bodies of the saints rose from their tombs. (Mt27:52) This verse does not mean that these saints’ decayed bodies were regenerated, enabling them to rise up in the flesh. Rather, it describes the spiritual phenomenon of returning resurrection. The spirits of the faithful Jews descended to the earth from the form-spirit level of the spirit world where they had been living. 

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They returned to help the believers on earth, who had the opportunity to benefit from the redemption by the cross, to believe in Jesus and become life spirits. In doing so, the returning spirits also became life spirits. If the saints had risen bodily from their tombs, as is literally written in the Bible, they certainly would have testified to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. Would anyone then have dared to persist in disbelieving in Jesus? Moreover, their deeds and works would have been recorded in the Bible, yet we have nothing other than the vague report that the saints rose from their tombs. This was a fleeting spiritual phenomenon perceptible only to those believers whose spiritual senses were open.

​Compared to Paradise, which people could enter by virtue of the redemption by Jesus’ crucifixion, the region of the spirit world where the spirits of the Old Testament saints were staying was relatively dark and miserable; thus it was called a “tomb.”] Exposition of the Divine Principle Part 1, Chapter 5, Section 2

We (the people) are spiritual beings with a physical body. A main purpose of this physical body is a means to perfect our spiritual self which is eternal and which does not have the limitations of the physical body. Losing this physical body before we reach the fulfillment of the purpose of creation means that we will have to cooperate with someone on the earth to reach maturity. This explains why Jesus was so focused on fulfilling his responsibility on the earth and gave rise to his significant prayer in Gethsemane, misinterpreted by many Christians. And also why giving the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter (his chief disciple) Jesus declared that, “what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Mt16:19) The fallen archangel Lucifer (re-named Satan after the Fall) is the false ruler, and false god, of this world. (Jn12:31; 2Cor4:4) Understanding this would change the whole focus of our lives to center upon being able to successfully graduate from this world rather than centering upon living our life while we’re here. A little bit like the contrast between two students at university where one is enjoying the social aspect of university life, whilst the other is mainly focused on life after university and graduating successfully. Our physical body, to make an analogy here, is like a car that has to get us where we need to go, rather than just enjoying the journey.

Had the first human ancestors taken God’s commandment, “do not eat” seriously then this type of conversation wouldn’t have even started. We (all mankind) would have been of the lineage of God and wouldn’t need re-birth. We would live in an environment that was naturally and spontaneously focused on fulfilling the Will of God, our Heavenly Father (Parent). But, nevertheless, here we are in a world that is in the Last Days of satan’s rule.

Returning resurrection is currently misunder-stood as reincarnation.  As creations of God we are unique and eternal having been created originally in the image of God. All of history has been to recover this lost image and the Messiah is, essentially, the re-creation of true parents that were lost at the time of the Fall. The Messiah, from this understanding, has to be born on the earth and cannot be spiritual. The ‘clouds’ that the Messiah comes on then are figurative clouds and all the signs of the Last Days do need to be re-appraised to enable us to align with God’s Will.

Looking forward to hearing your views about this. It should be becoming increasingly clear that we’re currently living in the Last Days right now. 

Andrew Derricutt