STATION 12: BIRTH IS DEATH, DEATH IS BIRTHThere is something remarkable in the Bible, which I have not heard any other Christian commentator's note. That is the miraculous way the Bible is so clear to parallel Jesus' birth with His death. I will attempt to explain this to you the best I can. The basic idea is that Jesus existed before He came to the Earth. He came to the Earth, and then He left the Earth and continues to exist. Just like someone who earns a dollar and spends a dollar, ultimately the end result is nothing. If I take one breath in and give one breath out, ultimately I have completed one cycle, and have accomplished essentially nothing. That is one of the secret hidden messages in the Bible. By secret, I do not mean cultic or evil. I simply mean it is a message which all of us have overlooked. Jesus' birth and His death are portrayed in the Bible as being essentially identical events. They both have several things in common. Number 1, they were foretold by prophets. The Old Testament prophets proclaimed the coming of the Messiah through His virgin birth, and also proclaimed the suffering servant of God, who would be slain for all us. Number 2, they both had witnesses. Jesus' birth was witnessed by the Wise men. Jesus' death was witnessed by His mother and other people at Golgotha. Number 3, it was miraculous. The virgin birth was as miraculous as the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Number 4, they both involved sacrifice. It is clear that Jesus emptied himself, though He existed in the form of God, in order to come to the Earth in the form of a humble servant. That involved sacrifice. To be born on the Earth, having dwelt in the Celestial Kingdom, involved great sacrifice. So, too, to go through this very painful death upon the tree was likewise a great sacrifice. Number 5, angels attended both His death and His resurrection. Angels danced in the fields declaring, joy to the world the Lord has come. And, the angel appeared at the tombstone on Easter morning to tell the disciples that He is not here, He is risen. Number 6, they were both accompanied by signs and wonders in Heaven. We have the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem for Jesus' birth, and we have the great darkness which passed over the face of the Earth during His death. Number 7, they were both accompanied by blood and pain. Birth is a very a painful bloody experience for a mother. Likewise as we've already discussed, Jesus' death was very bloody and extremely painful. Number 8, they both brought salvation. Jesus' birth brought the Savior and salvation to the world. Jesus' death poured out salvation to all mankind for all time. Number 9, they both involved a tearing of the veil to the sanctuary. As a virgin, Mary retained her hymen, which is the thin membrane covering to the vagina. Upon Jesus' birth, He came from the inner sanctuary of her womb, tore the veil of her temple and was born. Upon His death, the veil of YHWH's temple, which separated the people from God, was also torn. I find these 9 elements to be astounding in their parallel nature. The angel appears before Jesus is born. Jesus is born. Jesus dies, and there is an angel to appear after His resurrection. The signs and the wonders in heavens and all of these various events seem to be mirror images, one of the other. Jesus tears the veil of the sanctuary coming out into the world, and as He leaves the world, the pathway for all people to gain access to YHWH's Sanctuary likewise becomes torn and made available to everyone. What is the Bible telling us here. I think it is quite clear. Birth is death, death is birth. The soul, as it dwells in oneness with the mother, feels no pain, needs of nothing, rests at one with the universe naturally, automatically, receiving all nourishment from the mother. That is the state to which we seek to attain. We wish to go to heaven, wherein we have no more struggle, no more pain. We want to be enveloped within the womb of God. The baby experiences birth as a death, a wrenching away, an ugly unpleasant experience. The soul that leaves the body experiences death as a birth into the new world back into the loving arms of oneness with God. Birth is death, and death is birth. You have already gone through the hard part. You have been born. You are here on the Earth. You need not be afraid. The good part is just around the corner. It has been said that one of the reasons that God saves death for the end is that it's like dessert. He wants to save the best for the last. He wants to help us all to have comfort over the uncertainty and fear of the future. That is why, I think, God spent so much time to very carefully lay out this scheme within the Bible. He wants us to understand that birth for the baby is not a happy event. It is a happy event for those around the baby. Death is actually a joyous ecstasy, as the soul is no longer entrapped within the body, although for those around it, it is a sadness. What comes in, must go out. We breath in; we breathe out. What goes up, must come down. As we come into the world, we must leave the world. It is also quite clear that there is nothing to fear here. Death is nature. Death is as much a part of life as birth. I understand the scriptures, and I understand the feeling that death is the final enemy. There is great truth here because those parts of you which are not in tune with eternal life must die away before you can experience the totality of eternal life. So it is true that the wages of sin is death. It is absolutely
true that death is the final enemy to be conquered. But, in terms
of pure biology, death is as natural and normal a part of
existence as birth is. If nothing died, nothing could live. It is
only the leaves and decayed bark and branches of dead trees which
are able to nourish the forest. Without death, there can be no
life. Birth is a death; death is a birth to the new world. The
Passion of Christ tells us so. |
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