Life after Life

A great storm on the sea destroyed many lives. Jesus makes an appeal for aid, and the people give with a generous hand. In answer to a lawyer's question, Jesus explains the philosophy of disasters.

As Jesus taught, a man stood forth and said, Rabboni, may I speak? And Jesus said, say on. And then the man spoke out and said, a storm upon the sea last night wrecked many fishing boats, and scores of men went down to death, and lo, their wives and children are in need. What can be done to help them in their distress? And Jesus said, a worthy plea. You men of Galilee, take heed. We may not bring again to life these men, but we can succor those who looked to them for daily bread. Unlock your vaults, bring forth your hoarded gold and bestow it with a lavish hand. This wealth was laid aside for times as these. It is not charity to give to those who need, it is but giving man their own. And there was gold and silver, food, and raiment in abundance for  the needs of the bereaved. 

And a lawyer said, Rabboni, if God rules the worlds and all that in them is, did he not bring this sore distress upon these people here, and was it done to punish them for crimes? And we remember well when once a band of earnest Jews from Galilee were in Jerusalem, and at a feast and were, for fancied crimes against the Roman law, cut down within the very temple court by Pontius Pilate, and their blood became their sacrifice. Did God bring on this slaughter all because these men were doubly vile? And then we bring to mind that once a tower called Siloam, graced the defenses of Jerusalem, and, seemingly, without a cause it tottered and it fell to earth and eighteen men were killed. Were these men vile?

And Jesus said, we cannot look upon a single span of life and judge of anything. There is a law that men must recognize. Result depends on cause. Men are not motes to float about within the air of one short life, and then be lost in nothingness. They are undying parts of the eternal whole that come and go, lo, many times into the air of earth and of the great beyond, just to unfold the God-like self. A cause may be a part of one brief life; results may not be noted til another life. I cannot reap except I sow, and I must reap whatever I sow. The law of all eternities is known to master minds. Whatever men do unto other men the judge and executioner will do to them. We do not note the execution of this law among the sons of men. We note the weak, dishonored, trampled on and slain by those men called the strong. We note that men with wood-like heads are seated in the chairs of state, are kings and judges, senators and priests, while men with giant intellects are scavengers about the streets. We note that women with a moiety of common sense, and not a whit of any other kind, are painted up and dressed as queens, becoming ladies of the courts of puppet kings, because they have the form of something beautiful, while God's own daughters are their slaves, or serve as common laborers in the field. The sense of justice cries aloud. This is travesty on right! So when men see no further than one little span of life it is no wonder that they say, there is no God, or if there is a God he is a tyrant. If you would judge aright of human life, you must arise and stand upon the crest of time and note the thoughts and deeds of men as they have come up through the ages past, for we must know that man is not a creature made of clay to turn again to clay and disappear. He is a part of the eternal whole. There never was a time when he was not; a time will never come when he will not exist. 

The men who suffer now stood aloft and shouted with a fiend's delight while others suffered at their hands. And men are sick, and lame, and blind because they once transgressed the laws of perfect life, and every law of God must be fulfilled. Man may escape the the punishment that seems but due for his misdoings in this life, but the doer of the wrong desires to make it right. And when the wrongs have all been righted, then will man arise and be one with God again. 

          Excerpts from "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus The Christ" by Levi Dowling.