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So, "spiritual body" says saint Paul. That's his understanding of the resurrection.
Everybody, anybody, when you are resurrected, you will be spiritualized.
And he was only confirming what Jesus had said in the Gospel of Saint Luke, according to the records, chapter 20,
In chapter 20 of Luke, we read there that the Jews, his own people, they come to him.
They were always coming to him with poses and riddles, trying to trip this man of God.
Now they come to him, and they say "Master", in the Hebrew language "Rabbi", respected / learned man, priest, bishop, whatever, Rabbi,
there was a woman among us, and that woman, according to a Jewish practice had 7 husbands.
See, there was a Jewish custom that if one brother died, and if he left no offspring, then the 2nd brother takes her to wife,
and when he fails (to have offspring) and dies, the 3rd fellow takes her to wife,
and when he fails and dies, the 4th and the 5th and the 6th and the 7th. Seven guys had this one woman.
One after another. But there was no problem, because it was all one by one.
So they're asking Jesus now, that at the resurrection, which guy is going to have her, because they all had her here.
See, if you have her here, you want to have her on the other side. This is natural.
Suppose you and your wife are resurrected and you see her on the other side, meet, you say darling, sweetheart, come
sweetie, this is ... this is natural, If you recognize your wife,
you know, on the other side, he says, well you know, the closeness that you have established on this earth,
for 5 years for 50 years, you have been together, as husband and wife.
Now, you want to establish, or continue the same relationship on the other side.
But at the resurrection, since everybody is resurrected instantaneously, you know, simultaneously, (at the) same time,
then the 7 brothers waking up (at) one time, and they see this woman. Then everybody will be going after her,
you see, he says "this is mine, I had her", the other guy says "this is mine, I had her", everybody had her,
and everybody will be fighting over this one woman. As wife.
And there will be war in heaven between the 7 brothers, "get away, this is mine, this is mine"...
"now, where (did) you come from" he says "I had her"
because they won't remember the other guys having her before them, you see.
So they want to know from Jesus which guy is going to have her on the other side, because they all had her here.
In answer to that, Jesus says
he says (Luke 20:36) "neither shall they die any more", meaning that once they are resurrected, they will be immortalized.
(Luke 20:36) "Neither shall they die any more". They will be immortalized.
In other words, the things that kill a person, lack of food, shelter, clothing, rest, these things will not be necessary on the other side.
Once you die, you do not die a 2nd time. No more death, immortalized.
This is a physical body which has got its physical needs: food, shelter, clothing, sex, rest.
That body, no food, no shelter, no clothing, no sex, no rest, of the type that we know.
It will be of some kind, other kind, spiritual kind, but not this kind.
So he says (Luke 20:36) "Neither shall they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels".
In other words, they will be angelized. They will have spiritual bodies, like angels.
What kind of bodies (do) they have? Not this. (Luke 20:36) "For they are equal unto the angels", they will be angelized.
They will be spiritualized. They will have spiritual bodies. They will be spirits.
(Luke 20:36) "For they are equal unto the angels; and the children of God" for SUCH are "the children of the resurrection". SUCH.
Spirits, they will be "such". Spirits. Paul says spirits, Jesus says spirits.
I wonder if there is a single person here who takes exception to that, he says it will be this body? Is there one here?
In the Royal Albert Hall in front of some 6,000 people in London, I posed the question,
and there was not a single Muslim or Christian who could take exception to these axiomatic truths,
that resurrection at that time your bodies will be spiritualized. Paul says so, Jesus says so, I say so, and you say so.
So he (Jesus) says (Luke 24:39) "a spirit has no flesh and bones" in other words, I am not what you are thinking.
You are thinking that I have come back from the dead, that is not so, I am not resurrected.
And yet the whole Christian world, they say that he died and he was resurrected.
The man says, I am not what you are thinking, and eating broiled fish and honeycomb. These are the needs of this physical body.
But somehow, you see, people get programmed.
I was talking about people getting "brainwashed" at the Berkeley University in 1977, I was talking to the
my American people, some teachers and students, and I said "You people are brainwashed".
So one professor stood up, he says "I beg your pardon, we are programmed". I say, right, "programmed"
not "brainwashed", so we all get programmed. See, from childhood.
Because our salvation depends on this, that we must believe that Christ died and was resurrected.
But resurrection is spiritual, and we find that everything about Jesus, after...his post-crucifixion events,
not once does he appear to be a spirit.
He is ever in hiding. He is ever in hiding. He never came out into the open. He never went to the temple of Jerusalem.
He had given the Jews a sign. He never went to fulfill that sign. "Sign" means a miracle.
To say, look "you remember what I told you, here I am, do your worst".
But he didn't dare do anything, he didn't dare to go to meet these people, the Jews, his own people.
He had given them a sign. In Matthew 12:38-40, we read there... again the same type of confrontation.
The Jews come along, and they said "master" again in the Hebrew language "Rabbi"
(Matt 12:38) "we would have a sign of thee".
In other words, we want you to show us a miracle to convince us that you are above the ordinary,
you are the man we are waiting for "the Messiah". Do something like flying in the air, like a bird.
Walk on the water. Give life to the dead, do something man. Then we know that you are above the ordinary.
So that we can believe that you are our Messiah.
In response to that, Jesus says to his people, he said (Matt 12:39) "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign".
That's a horrible nation, horrible people, you looking for miracles, tricks, it's tricks.
To convince you that I am a genuine man of God, you want me to show you some tricks, magic.
He said (Matt 12:39) "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" but "there shall no sign be given unto it". No sign, no miracle.
Except (Matt 12:39) "the sign of the Prophet Jonah". Only one, none but one.
(Matt 12:40) "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale,"
"so shall the son of man" referring to himself "be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth".
This is the only sign I am prepared to give you. The only miracle I'm prepared to concede to, is this.
He didn't say, you know, blind Bartimaeus, I healed him. You know, that woman with issues,
bleeding profusely for years, she touched me and she got healed. You know, I brought up Lazarus back from the dead.
You know, that girl, she had died and I brought her back. You know, that fig tree, I destroyed it from its very roots.
You know, I killed those 2000 pigs. You know, I turned water into wine. Nothing, nothing of the kind.
He never showed any of these things, says "look, look back, look back man, at what I have done so far"...um.
The only sign I'm prepared to give you, is the sign of Jonah.
What happened to Jonah is going to happen to me. His miracle is my miracle.
And I have been asking these Missionaries of Christendom, these hot gospellers, these bible thumpers, Evangelists, Preachers,
I said now, what was that sign?
He said my sign is the sign of Jonah, I said what was that sign?
And believe me, in 40 years, no Christian worth the name has ever come forth to tell me what was that sign.
I say, did he fulfill it, he says, yes. I said, what... how? Speechless.
Of course, our Dr. Robert Douglas may be better prepared, he might know all these things beforehand, he is a missionary,
you know, in the Middle East among the Muslims he has been, and he's somebody big in the Zwimmer Institute.
He might have the answer. But, I will give it to you, in case he fails, so I might as well give it to you beforehand.
What was the sign, I said, look, to get the sign... to know what was the sign of Jonah, you have to go to the book of Jonah in the Bible.
And that Book of Jonah is 1 page. This is the page. Four short chapters, 1 page.
So if you go to the book of Jonah, it won't take you 2 minutes.
It won't take you 2 minutes to read this book. This whole book. It won't take you 2 minutes.
So we read there that Jonah was sent to the Ninevites. God Almighty commands him, go to Nineveh,
and warn the people that they must repent, and in sackcloth and in ashes,
humble themselves before the Lord, otherwise, I will destroy the people.
Jonah, a prophet of God, but he is human, he feels despondent,
he says, these materialistic people, they will not harken to the message, they will make a mockery out of me,
as Jesus described them, a wicked and adulterous generation, this wicked and adulterous generation of Jonah's time,
they're going to make a mockery of him. So he says, instead of going to Nineveh to warn the people,
he goes to Joppa and takes a boat and is running away, to Tarshish. You don't have to remember the names.
Instead of going to one direction, he goes in the opposite direction, and is running away.
At sea, there is a storm. And according to the superstitions of these people,
whosoever runs away from his master's command, deserts his duty, calls for such punishment.
So they began to question, who can be responsible for this havoc, because the storm is not abiding. It is not subsiding.
So Jonah, he realizes that he is the guilty person. Because actually, he is running away from his master's command.
God tells him to go to Nineveh, and he's going to Joppa. As a soldier of God, he had no right to do things presumptuously.
So he makes a manly come-back. He said, I am the guilty man, and it is expedient that you take me and you throw me into the sea.
And God will be satisfied, because actually he is after my blood, not you. And because of me, you innocent people will die.
It's better for you that you throw me into the sea.
One man perish, save the nation.
They said, no, you are such a nice man, holy man, maybe praying continuously. He said, we have a system of our own.
Our own system to find out right from wrong. And that system, is a system, what is called "casting of lots".
Like head or tail. We do "head or tail", we did it just now, head or tail. So they had a system of casting lots like head or tail.
And according to that system, of tossing the coin, it came to the turn of Jonah, that Jonah was the guilty man,
so they took him and they threw him overboard.
And the storm subsided. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but the storm subsided.
Now, I'm asking the question,
that when they threw Jonah overboard, was he dead or was he alive? But before you answer,
I don't want to get the wrong answer. Because once you give the wrong answer, your going to stick by it.
This is human nature. You know, once you make a wrong statement, you don't like to admit your mistake.
So I want to help you before you open your mouth. You don't mind.
I said, you see, Jonah had volunteered. He had volunteered. He says throw me overboard.
And a man when he ... volunteers, you don't have to strangle him before throwing.
You agree, he says, throw me. You don't have to kill him, you don't have to break his arm or limb, you don't have to spear him.
Am I right? The man says, throw me.
So when they threw him overboard, was he dead or was he alive? I want to hear from you all.
And please, I want to hear, that it can also be recorded on our tapes, please.
Was he dead or was he alive when they threw him overboard? What? ALIVE.
You got the right answer. But you get no prize for that.
It was too simple. As you see, it's very simple.
The Jews say he was alive, the Christians say he was alive, the Muslims say he was alive, no prize.
The storm subsides, and a fish comes and gobbles him up. Dead or alive? Alive. Right.
From the fish's belly, he prays to God for help, according to the Book of Jonah.
I am asking, do dead men pray? Dead people, do they pray? No.
So, he was? Alive. A little louder please. Alive.
(heckler - inaudible)
(to heckler) You will be given the opportunity at question time, whoever you are,
you will be given the opportunity at question time to ask questions.
Be man enough, be Christian enough to please keep your mouth shut for the moment.
Three days and three nights, the fish takes him round the ocean. Dead or alive? Alive.
Don't be afraid. Don't get terrified.
On the third day, the fish vomits him on the seashore. Dead or alive? Alive. Look,
whether you are a Hindu, or a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim,