A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL WORLD VIEW

 
 

12. DOES THE RESURRECTION MAKE SENSE?

Easter Healing
A few weeks after I was Baptised with the Holy Spirit  it was Easter time and most of the Massey University students were departing from the hostels where we were staying for home. I wanted to stay to catch up on study for some exams that were following shortly after Easter. But on the Thursday I found that I was coming down with ‘flu, and was feeling quite awful. I prayed with a few other students before they left, and at the time of the prayer realised that Easter was all about overcoming evil. I thought, “surely this ‘flu is an evil, and that God, you can overcome this virus more easily than to raise Jesus from death!”

That evening, although I was shaking in my body and using all my handkerchiefs, I carried on with my study – in resistance against the ‘flu. I wasn’t going to give in. Then about 10 pm as I finished and readied for bed, I began to feel an awesome warmth come into me, which made me realise this was God’s answer to prayer. I praised God. When I awoke the next morning, there were absolutely no symptoms of the ‘flu. I was able to complete my study – and sensed that I was offering it afresh to God.

Since that time I have experienced many healings from 'flu. I have learned that the resurrection power of Jesus applies for us today.

How did Jesus' Rise From Death?
Every Easter I prepare a number of messages about the meaning of Easter to share with my congregation, and I take this as an opportunity to grow more in trying to understand this amazing event. This year I looked at Easter from the point of view of someone asking questions about the Easter events and giving some answers to those questions. One of the questions I asked myself was 'How did Jesus rise from death?' I explained that we don't have to know all the answers about how something happens in order to accept that it happened.

Then I made a comment, "Could it be that Jesus' resurrected body was a multi-dimensional body, not just a four dimensional body like ours is now?" I didn't say much more at the time. After Easter that idea came back to me and I knew that I had to check it out further. That was the start of a new faith adventure that has led to the writing of this book.

The Bible gives some important clues as to what happened at the resurrection.

1. Characteristics of the Resurrection Body
We could ignore the details of Jesus' resurrection body assuming that they were not significant. But in any serious investigation we should look at all the facts and ask what they mean. Even tiny facts may make a difference to what they mean.

• The tomb was empty, indicating that the new body arose from the body that had died. It was a transformed body, not an alternative one.

• His body was a real body as shown by Jesus eating food with his disciples, and Thomas touching him, yet it had abilities beyond our limited physical bodies. It was obviously not just a resuscitated body.

• It was a healed body that had instantaneously overcome all the effects of decay and death. The principles of decay were replaced by a much greater power of life.

• Although the women and the disciples recognised Jesus for who he was, there was something different about him, as Mary, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and also Peter on Lake Galilee didn't recognise him immediately. There is too much repetition of this same thing happening for it to be of no significance.

• It was able to counter gravity – as Jesus rose into the air on his ascension.

• It was a body that could travel large distances in a short time. It was no longer time dependent. It could also disappear from his grave clothes, and appear into a locked room.

• He had greater knowledge abilities so that Jesus knew where the disciples were in  the locked room in Jerusalem– and later when seven of them were out fishing  on Lake Galilee. He also knew what Thomas had said about not believing  unless he saw the risen Jesus even though he wasn't there at the time. A week later he reminded Thomas about this, and appeared to him in order to  challenge Thomas and lead him to faith. He was also a person who could either had the knowledge of abundance or  had the power to produce abundance – when he told the disciples to put down  their net on the right side of the boat, they caught 153 fish.

• The risen Jesus identified himself as the same person, and talked with the disciples and women in the same way as he always had. They recognised him by what he did and how he spoke. He had scars on his hands and side that he referred to.

How do we explain these things? They are unique characteristics that have no other parallels in the Scriptures - or elsewhere. They are not seen in Jesus body prior to his death. Why do the gospels not explain these things? They do not try to explain them except to say that all the disciples were convinced that Jesus had risen from death.

We however have Paul's writing in 1 Corinthians 15:35-55 which explains some aspects of the nature of the resurrection body which we also will inherit in union with Christ. Paul was asking the question that I am asking, "How did Jesus rise?" and relating it to our own future. Paul is linked the resurrection body of Jesus to the human spiritual body that those who will one day inhabit heaven will be given. Our future bodies will be the same type as Jesus’ resurrection body. That is a neat revelation that Paul hints at elsewhere too, “This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.” [Ephesians 1:19-20]

So how does Paul explain the resurrection body?

• It will be a body that will arise from the dead body. "What you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up." [1 Corinthians 15:37]

• It will be a different kind of body. The body will be as different from our body now as the heavenly bodies are different from earthly bodies. Paul calls this a spiritual body in contrast to our physical body.

• It  will be immortal, beautiful and strong, contrasted to our human body which can get sick, tired, become disabled, and die. This is a kind of body that is of a completely different quality than our human body.

• It will be a spiritual body - empowered and transformed by the Spirit. It is not a body that can be formed by any human effort. This idea of spirit and body together may seem like a contradiction of terms. Two opposite ideas are put together. This does not mean that the body is a ghost. Paul treats what is physical as real, but not opposite to spiritual. A spiritual body is a redeemed and fulfilled body, what it was intended to be in the first place.

• It will be able to share in God's millennium [Revelation 20] and eternal Kingdoms [Revelation 21]. The significance of this is that God's Kingdom is a greater realm than what we experience on earth.

Could the resurrection body have been a multi-dimensional body that was able to move beyond the dimensions that limit us to life in this universe? If it was a multi-dimensional body, it would surely have all the characteristics of a natural body with additional abilities, so appear to be physical yet actually be more than just physical. Do extra dimensions explain the resurrection body of Jesus? What would a multi-dimensional body look like?

A Multi-Dimensional Body
Let's look at each of the dimensions and see how they may explain what the Bible describes as the resurrection body. There may be a number of different ways that the dimensions could operate to create the same or similar effects. So what I write below is not definitive, but rather possibilities of how it might work.

a. Space. What would extra dimensions of space look like? We already have three dimensions of space. But if there were extra spatial dimensions as seems to be indicated by superstrings how would they work?

Just as the three spacial dimensions are formed by each dimension being rotated 90^o, so any new dimensions could be formed by their dimensional line being rotated to form a new dimension. We can recognise as many spacial dimensions as we like if we rotate the line a different way. When we add three line dimensions to each other, we get space. But what do we get if we add more space dimensions than these three?

A line when it is rotated 90^o becomes a point. (How a line looks like from end on.) Now that point can pass through something that is much smaller than the line was originally. That means that extra dimensions added will be able to pass through objects. If we therefore add up to two more dimensions to each of the space dimensions (to make up to three each of the three dimensions of length, width and height) we can allow each of the three spacial dimensions to rotate and pass through objects.

That could explain how Jesus' body was able to pass out of the grave clothes leaving them untouched, and also how he could get into a locked room.

This ability would be vital if there was to be any space-time travel at high speed, to avoid crashing into any objects on the way.

b. Time. For us it takes time to travel, but in three time dimensions it can be instantaneous. That would explain how the risen Jesus could instantaneously appear and disappear from a place.

An example of this is when Philip was transported from the road to Gaza back to Azotus [Acts 8:39-40] We may wonder how this could happen because Philip's body was not a resurrected body. But were not all the miracles of Jesus and other people examples of the healing, or transformations of the resurrection body? However outside the resurrection body they are only occasional and not normal properties of the body.

In extra dimensions of time, travel over large distances would be a normal expectation. Whereas the fastest means of travel we know of now would leave us trapped mainly on earth, extra-dimensional travel could make travel to other solar systems and even galaxies possible.

Extra dimensions of time will also allow immortality - for our bodies to not suffer death. In this case our bodies will not age, but will be able to travel to different time zones at will.

c. Mass-Energy. Mass-energy has normally only one dimension operating in our universe– over time its direction is towards decay. Although energy and matter can change from one to the other, or to different forms of energy – the overall effect is energy loss. A cup of coffee left to itself will get cold. Our bodies also suffer from this entropy– they get sick, wear out, get old and die.

But when another mass-energy dimension inputs energy into the system, instead of sickness and death, there would be healing and new energy available in our body. A second dimension of mass-energy that could provide that. [See page 35] What would the effect of a third dimension of mass-energy? In the third dimension of mass-energy we would have an immortal body, because it is only in the third dimension where there is no beginning or ending. Jesus’ resurrection body, would therefore be possible with the further energy from the third and unlimited mass-energy dimension being added to it.

Another characteristic of mass-energy is the gravity that ties us to earth, and ties the earth to the sun. Jesus’ body was able to ascend into the clouds the Bible tells us. Gravity was no longer a limitation.

Three dimensions of mass-energy allow us to have a completely different kind of body. Extra mass-energy dimensions would allow our bodies to be free of degeneration, sickness, disability, or physical limitations needed to do our Kingdom work.

d. Knowledge. Jesus had to have a greater source of knowledge to appear as he did in his resurrection body. Normally, knowledge for us works one way – we have to receive it from other people or from our own previous experience.

But any extra dimensions of knowledge will add to the knowledge we already have. For Jesus’ it was the revelation knowledge of where the disciples were and what Thomas had previously said that was vital.

In the heavenly Kingdom we will have the capacity for a much greater knowledge than we now experience, and will be able to receive revelation knowledge to a greater degree. Communication between people will be possible by revelation. It is also likely to be necessary for us to need special knowledge about how to operate in all the new dimensions.

e. Spirit. The spiritual dimension would be necessary to cause all of the above changes. The glory of God's Kingdom will be a great outpouring of spiritual power and revelation.

The characteristics of each of the dimensions neatly fit the gospel accounts of the resurrection, and Paul's theology. Paul's spiritual body is the multi-dimensional body we can look forward to.

The Historical Nature of The Resurrection
Most Christians are not concerned with the debate on the historicity of the resurrection, but it is a big issue with theologians. George Ladd puts the issue as well as I have seen:

"This is the problem that confronts the historian as historian. Jesus' resurrection body was not of this world; it belonged to the Age to Come. In his resurrection he abolished death and he brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10). Jesus' resurrection body was no longer subject to the natural 'Laws' of time and space. He had entered the world of God. He belonged to the Age to Come. But what can the historian know of a world to come? What can the historian know of the world of God? What can the historian know of bodies which do not respond to the law of motion and gravity? These are matters of Christian faith, not of historical investigation. Although it was an event in history, Jesus' resurrection had no antecedent historical cause - a sequence which the historian assumes. Furthermore, the resurrection itself did not mean the revivification of a dead corpse; it meant the radical transformation of the body of Jesus from the world of nature to the world of God. Nature knows of no bodies like Jesus' resurrection body; it was utterly unique. History has no analogy for it. Is character beggars the imagination. This is why many historians believe in the factuality - the eventfulness - the objective reality of the resurrection and yet feel they must say that the resurrection is not 'historical' because it utterly transcends all historical experience and knowledge. The resurrection of Jesus is the most decisive point at which the Age to Come broke into this age, in which the supernatural world of God intersected this world. In historical idiom, the Age to Come lies beyond history. It will be a state of existence under the control of altogether different laws than the laws of nature." [IBRJ pg 124] Ladd, offers no further explanation of how the resurrection could have happened.

Although this is probably an accepted understanding by many people it leaves many problems:

• It doesn't actually explain the reasons for the particular characteristics of the resurrection body. It seems to avoid the question by saying there can be no adequate explanation.

• It does not allow us to claim the resurrection as an historical event. To say that it is factual and an event is not really adequate, because what is a fact or an event if they are not historical? Therefore all we are left with is to say that it is a faith event. Can we claim that God has come into our history as Jesus Christ, when we are left with the main event of that coming as a non-historical event?

It reflects the popular understanding that there is a complete contrast between what is natural and what is supernatural and that the laws of nature did not  apply any longer to the resurrection as being outside of time and space. The problem here is that the body of Jesus was being seen and experienced by people in time and space. The assumption of a complete contrast between natural and supernatural is the issue. This is a modern idea that was not really there in the Bible times, where spiritual things were accepted as a normal part of life. But in our scientific age it is a view that has been impressed upon us by the discovery of so many natural laws and processes. It is not too big a jump from the dichotomy of natural and supernatural for modern people to leave out the supernatural altogether, which is what seems to be happening in our secular society. It is not the natural laws which are questioned, but the supernatural. It is therefore no longer an adequate explanation for the modern mind to say that the resurrection was a supernatural event. The supernatural itself needs explaining just as science has explained and is still finding out more about nature.

If however we accept the resurrection body as a multi-dimensional body, then we avoid a dichotomy of natural vs supernatural. The multi-dimensional body encompasses all dimensions, those that we experience in our natural world as well as those that belong to the extra dimensions. In the same way we avoid the division between historical and faith event, because the extra dimensions operate alongside of  the normal dimensions. In the resurrection the boundaries of nature and history are being expanded.

In the post resurrection world we are living in a time where those boundaries are permanently expanded, and still expanding. We can't go back to the limitations of the world as we knew it before. The resurrection provides us with new freedom. We didn't expand the world ourselves because it was an act of God, but we do have to see and claim this new world, and live according to it.

Furthermore with a multi-dimensional body we are able to explain in detail why the body of Jesus was like it was and what our own future bodies will be like. We are able to understand what the new post resurrection boundaries of nature and history are for us.

Our Future Body
Why would Jesus show us an extra dimensional body? To show off? It wouldn't fit into his character to do that. It must be because he is offering his extra dimensional ability to us - not just for heaven one day, but for this world now. If he wanted to demonstrate his extra dimensional abilities, he could have managed to leave it until people got to heaven.

God has planned that we can begin to benefit from extra dimensions available to us on earth. He wants us to experience miracles, healing, revelation knowledge, and greater oneness of spirit with God. The purpose of his spiritual gifts [Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; Ephesians 4:11] are to express these extra dimensions. These gifts are all to be expressed as part of the Body of Christ on earth now.

And just as Jesus was given an extra-dimensional body, so also will we who are his sons and daughters and belong to God's Kingdom. Our future multi-dimensional body will of course be perfectly suited for life in the future Kingdom of God. It will have freedom to move and be transported in new ways. It will be living in new dimensions of time, so that we will be able to travel instantly to anywhere. We will not be limited by gravity, so that the New Jerusalem will be as high as it will be long and wide. It will have a new dimension of life that overcomes the principle of decay and death. There must also be added dimensions of knowledge – no wonder God made us with a brain capacity greater than what we use at present.

We can't obtain any of this for ourselves by our own effort (that is what occult involvement tries to do), but the whole point of the resurrection happening in our history is that it is a God given gift for us – not just for the future but for now. God is the one who has planned all this out, and gives it its purpose.

The study of Jesus' resurrection and our future resurrection is one way where our study of all the dimensions comes together. Our future multi-dimensional body is how a multi-dimensional world view affects us personally. But how does this fit with God's plan for the universe as a whole? []

Rev Brian Brandon, Revised October 2004

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