"The Savior saves us by going to work on its vehicle (our
personalities). The three methods that the Savior (Christ) uses to go to work on
its vehicle are Death, the Devil, and Trial/Verification/Temperance. "
If you believe that the Savior uses Death to go to work on our
personalities, to perfect us through many cycles of birth and death, perhaps you
might find the following interesting.
Here is a parable told by Jesus, your "great example". It seems
to suggest that you only get one life.
"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived
in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat
what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's
side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw
Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send
Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in
this fire.'
"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you
received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted
here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those
who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's
house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come
to this place of torment.'
"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen
to
them'.
'No father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them,
they will repent.'
"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets,
they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " Luke
19-31
Now you will probably have some complex, metaphysical explanation for what
you think Jesus really meant, but if it's possible that he meant it literally,
couldn't this mean:
1) You only get one life, not many.
2) People who have died cannot contact the living because of the
"great
chasm" that has been fixed between them.
3) Those who will not listen to Moses and the Prophets (God's Word)
probably won't listen to Jesus either, the only one who has ever returned from
the dead.
4) What was the consistent message of the Prophets and later Jesus?
We should repent and return to God from our self-imposed separation, and
from worshipping other gods of our own making.
"The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped.
Since
they have rejected THE WORD OF THE LORD, what kind of wisdom do they
have?"
Jeremiah 8:9
If you believe that the Savior uses Death to go to work on our
personalities, to perfect us through many cycles of birth and death [...]
Yes, but it is also much, much more than that. This principle is also the way
that Christ goes to work on our desire nature. For all desire is really a desire
for more livingness, more aliveness, and these desires bring about changes
and transformations that are Death to the previous conditions. In other words, schooling is death to ignorance,
marriage is death to bachelorhood, being employed is death to unemployment, growth is death to
stagnation, etc.., etc... Change is a given, just like death and taxes :-).
When we outgrow a given form, then that form dissolves in order to release
the energy for us to use in creating a new form to replace it. Like
trading in an old car for a new one, or eating food (death to the plant) in order to
assimilate its energy and nutrients to build and maintain your body.
Death teaches us not to be attached to material things or to the past. But
instead to rely on that which is eternal - God. God is the ever changeless mover and doer within which the
continuously changing tapestry of space and time
revolves.
So even if you choose not to believe in reincarnation, this principle of Death as
a method of growth still holds true within the context of a single lifetime.
For death, as the dissolution of old outworn forms, is the ever present and
continuous method whereby we grow and learn and receive ever more livingness. So let's face it, as much as
we may fear death, death is a good and beneficent thing - it is a blessing! On the other hand, being
forever stuck in one groove or rut, and not being able to change - now that would be HELL!
For in order to grow, the old outworn ways of thinking, of being, and of living must be let go of and allowed to die.
In the parable you mention, the rich man was receiving an unpleasant afterlife
experience as a result of his missing the mark in his incarnate life. Yet nowhere do I see that he was
condemned to everlasting fire and damnation for all of eternity for his goof ups. His soul was being tempered
in his discarnate life, but his soul was NOT being terminated. So even in the
afterlife "I will look upon every circumstance of my life as a
particular dealing of God with my soul."
jc
