Death, Physical and Metaphysical

Physical death is “the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism; the state of being dead, the permanent ending of vital processes in a cell or tissue; the destruction or permanent end of something; a damaging or destructive state of affairs.” —OED Dying is “being on the point of death; occurring at or connected with the time that someone dies; gradually ceasing to exist or function; in decline and about to disappear; (of a period of time) final; closing.”—OED

Death is a strictly physical phenomenon of the material universe. The soul is immortal, eternal, and ethereal—having no need for a body except to dwell in the physical world. Thus the body is nothing more than a vehicle for the soul to use during a period of time called a life, which is merely a temporary embodiment of the soul in order to gain experience and to learn lessons. So long as the immortal soul inhabits the body, as its vehicle in the material world, that body remains “alive.” When the soul leaves that earthly vehicle, the body dies, having lost its animating vitality.


“Only the body dies; the soul is immortal.” –Linda Mihalic


The you that is you is your soul, not your body. You are a soul who has a body, not a body that has a soul. The soul is what you really are, and you wear a body for a mere instant in eternal terms. All your loved ones are also souls who are wearing bodies for this one brief lifetime. Do not mistake the body for the soul. You love the soul, not the body that soul is wearing in this life. The soul deals in eternal realities—truth, beauty and goodness, but the body deals with the physical senses and addictive sensations such as pleasure and satiety, or pain.

The discussion of death and the period of dying that precedes it is essential to understanding life —temporal life, eternal life and the soul’s immortality. Death of the body is a necessary experience to comprehend the difference between the truth of appearances versus the truth of reality. The body is a temporal manifestation, designed to exist for only a short time in universal terms. As you dwell in a physical body, you are submitting to a simulation of reality, a virtual reality, a world in which what you see seems to be true, but is not.

Metaphysical death: You enter an earth life to learn lessons and to earn degrees, just as you would enroll in a university to earn a graduate or post-graduate degree. So life on earth is a school, a place and time for learning everything you need to become a perfectly well-rounded and balanced soul. We call the syllabus, the course catalog of this school of life, the “Via Christa,” for that is the lens we use to view it and to understand it.

Life’s basic degrees include childhood, schooling, making mistakes, learning a trade or earning a scholastic degree, romantic relationships, being accepted and loved, being rejected and discarded, marriage, being a daughter, sister, lover, wife and mother or son, brother, lover, husband and father, career, family, aging, losing a loved one, and dying.


“The school of life is the remediation of the soul’s failure
to make the grade in some area.”–Linda Mihalic


In the “old days,” the 20th Century, if you failed a course in school, you had to take the class again in summer school, to graduate on time. This is remediation, which means “to provide a remedy for; to redress (the balance) or make right.” The school of life is the remediation of the soul’s failure to make the grade in some area. If you failed math, your summer school would focus on math solely. In the school of life, you are remediating many subjects during a lifetime, not one. The experiences that seem hardest or most annoying are topics you have failed before.

Self is the only aspect of your being that needs summer school. Self is the accretion of soul taints that you acquire during successive embodiments, or earth lives. Jesus Christ came to earth to show us how to live a good life, a perfect life devoted to truth, which he attained by conquering the selfishness that is inherent in the physical body’s chemistry and hardwiring — the neurotransmitters of the central nervous system, and the hormones of the endocrine system.

The difficulty in dwelling in a physical body is that the soul tends to let the body take charge, dictating the terms of living through the physical appetites, beginning with thirst and hunger. All appetites are branches of instinct, which is defined as “a natural or inherent aptitude, impulse, or capacity; a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason; behavior that is mediated by reactions below the conscious level.”—MWD

You know that you have a mind that thinks, emotions that you feel, and an imagination that enables you to form pictures in your mind’s eye. These dimensions roughly equate with three phases or functions of your soul — appetitive soul, rational soul, and Oversoul, which correlate with the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the soul’s interaction with the physical realm.


“The metaphysical death of selfishness is the door to freedom of the soul.”
–Linda Mihalic


Death is how the soul ends the school year and goes on summer vacation. The metaphysical death of self, of selfishness, is the door to freedom of the soul. Physical death is the method by which the soul leaves a tired, worn out husk behind. Death is the door through which you leave one tiny room to enter the mansion of soul. Death is nothing to fear, for no separation can exist in the soul’s life eternal.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions.”–John 14:2. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”–John 14:16-17.

– Linda Mihalic, Via Christa site editor








Death, Physical and Metaphysical

The best way to prepare for a future life is to be kind, live one day at a time, and do the very best that you can do each day. – Edna Lister, March 12, 1938.


We believe in the purifying process of sorrow, and that death is but a manifestation of eternal life. – Edna Lister, March 12, 1938.


To inflate the little self is a death of truth indeed. – Edna Lister, November 14, 1939.


When even an iota of the soul calls for repentance, the rational mind still holds, is not discarded and may turn to God because of sorrow or disease. Such a soul is in regression, but is not cut off. When a soul is doing harm, but has credits remaining, it will return again after death of the physical. When a soul consumes its own soul substance in wrong deeds and demands, to the point of endangering the Oversoul, its identity fades away. That soul's hope of salvation then rests with some closely related soul who chooses to sponsor the failing one. – Edna Lister, December 4, 1941.


Not one prayer can be lost, nor one hour’s devotion go astray. They are all written in the Book of Life from which all Creation stems. – Edna Lister, June 18, 1942.


Praise vitalizes any dying thing, whether deadened or disabled cells, a crystallized intellect, or paralyzed business. – Edna Lister, September 29, 1942.


Many seek but do not find the Master because they do not seek him in the way of sacrifice. He said, “Follow me,” and carried the cross to physical death. If the experience of death was not set aside for the Only Begotten Son, how can it be annulled for any other? The Via Christa requires courage and endurance, so laugh and sing while remembering that no task is too hard or too long, and no effort too great to do in love. – Edna Lister, November 5, 1942.


Stand and know that nothing can harm you until you forget everything else and go free of all past bondage. Nearly always, a sudden pain or illness releases poisons that would cause death later if not allowed to escape into the Light where you can fully conquer them. Therefore, all is good and all things do work together for very good. – Edna Lister, February 18, 1943.


Death is more than the final transition from physical life. To turn your life around is a death of your old ways of being, and brings a new incarnation. Thus, you may be reborn endlessly, and without leaving the body. Souls whom you knew before may still make noises to attract your attention, but do not look right or left, only up to God. Look at the new step the Master will place for you. See only his hand outstretched to you. Let nothing of the past capture your attention. – Edna Lister, August 28, 1944.


“You are life, embodied.” – Edna Lister


“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7. Why do you express crystallized ideas as repressions, fears, opinions, prejudices and inhibitions that can lower and freeze the body’s vibration to the point of paralysis and death? – Edna Lister, November 3, 1944.


“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” – Hebrews 13:8. Life is deathless, ageless and abiding, the same yesterday, today and forever, and we are life embodied. – Edna Lister, January 8, 1945.


Everyone who dies to the old sees the main objective and main darkness of his life. – Edna Lister, May 19, 1947.


A live wire kills because it has too much life for a body to take, and needs a stepdown transformer. God needs you as the stepdown transformer of His power of life. – Edna Lister, June 7, 1951.


To give up self, you must be able to look into the face of death and say, “You are good! You are life!” – Edna Lister, August 31, 1952.


“GOD in heaven is GOOD on earth, so call God's name (GOOD) on all creations.” – Edna Lister


Put others into a pillar of fire first for purging, then into a sphere of Light for healing. GOD in heaven is GOOD on earth, so call God’s name (GOOD) on all creations. This symbolizes the three (GOD) falling into the four (GOOD). It overcomes anything, sets aside all medical law, causes the great miracle, and no outer law can affect the physical body. What doctors say doesn’t mean a thing. “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” – 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 speaks of the corruptible and incorruptible. Physical cells are filled with desire body molecules, inside which are atoms, the source of energy. This is law and no doctor can set it aside. Words create. It works this way. – Edna Lister, May 28, 1953.


We are motes in the balance, then we ascend. “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” – Hebrews 2:9-10. We have ascended. We have chosen to return to God “a little higher than the angels.” – Edna Lister, July 6, 1953.


Lift the fear of death, which is a concoction of evil, from earth and replace it with absolute truth: The soul is immortal. When you want special protection for a loved one, envision a blue sheath around his body — sheathe all elderly people this way. Do not forget to enclose yourself in a suit of Light to renew your body’s atomic substance at night. Zip yourself up to the neck. If you work from heaven and see earth as “way down there” as you tend to each detail, the Light will whirl into you and out through your fingers in ten rays. Love God enough. You are the instrument, and when you raise your hands and ascend, He does the work. – Edna Lister, June 17, 1954.


“Lift the fear of death and replace it with absolute truth:
The soul is immortal.” – Edna Lister


Anyone who has taken a life deliberately and with malice has lost the right to live among men. – Edna Lister, July 6, 1954.


Death takes a holiday as you speak the Word. – Edna Lister, Seven Degrees in the Great Pyramid, November 30, 1954.


Speak the Word, “Let there be Light,” to vitalize anything and everything that needs more life. The Word has tone and number, which is the combined vibration that calls life sparks back to life. When you surround someone in Light, it forms a sheath of near-earthly atomic substance, an actual radiant body, which his own Great Guard fills with love. Death is the thought-image encased in the idea of “hard work.” High service is born of life itself, with an increasing capacity for expanding service. – Edna Lister, December 20, 1954.


Every conquering of self is a victory over death. You are reborn every night because the River of Life flowing through you cleanses all taints from your cells to renew you. It’s your choice whether to suffer pains and disease, which are nothing more than habits adopted from the world mind. – Edna Lister, August 4, 1956.


Pride, resentment and intolerance cause a deathly travail. Someone who loves such a self-afflicted soul enough must breathe life back into him. – Edna Lister, December 20, 1956.


You must declare “it” good no matter what. Stand still in the Light when you speak the Word and wait upon the Lord. When you see death and destruction about you, stand still and declare it good. “This is good and very good. Let there be Light.” – Edna Lister, July 4, 1957.


The roots of self are buried deeply. For example, to dream about death implies resurrection. If you have killed something and buried it in the subconscious, a dream of death is the sign that it smells and you must resurrect it. If you dream that you have killed an animal or person, you could have hurt a friend. Place him on a cloud continent and fill him with Light. You are not of the world as the world thinks. You are of heaven and think after heavenly ways. – Edna Lister, December 19, 1957.


People say, “That’s dead wrong,” but no “dead wrong” exists to soul, only “alive right.” The subconscious little self is the “dead wrong” dead man. To live by the appetites of self is the insidious weakness that leads to death. – Edna Lister, February 5, 1958.


You can pour out life as a challenge to darkness and say no to death. Treat so and bring back to life what was thought dead. Ask for great miracles. You can bring the dead to life. Ask for real miracles. – Edna Lister, March 6, 1958.


Stop cutting off life immortal by false “if” and “but” statements. – Edna Lister, March 18, 1958.


Words go forth as you speak them, so give your statements a clean-cut pronunciation and a period. Then, having done this, stand on principle, and hold to the truth to set aside much more evil and lift it from the face of the earth. If you read of death and destruction, lift it, set pillars of fire around it, stand on truth and hold to law. – Edna Lister, June 12, 1958.


“Death is the highest degree of love.” – Edna Lister


Death is the highest degree of love. Only love can change a form or coax a soul from the body. A soul hangs onto an old, sick body only because it is fearful, unloving, or unable to accept the idea of change. Lift! – Edna Lister, October 23, 1958.


Sit in silence — raising your hands above the waist line, shoulder-height or higher — before you draw in earth’s magnetic currents. Inhale and pull the abdominal muscles in to draw the magnetic currents from your feet to the solar plexus. “I am good” is the open sesame. Say, “You are good” to everyone you know on earth to release the Power on them. This is the key to life and death. God will increase the Power to help you hold your discipleship. Be joyous for on the wings of joy all things are added. – Edna Lister, June 25, 1959.


The mystery of death reveals that what we call physical death is a life-vibration raised so high that the physical cells, molecules and atoms cannot stand the strain, burst, and so free the embodied soul. The death ray is the lowest degree of the Emanation of Love. Death of the little self, of old imagination, thinking and desire, is the lowest degree of initiation under the love ray. – Edna Lister, October 6, 1959.


You say you love God all you can and are satisfied that you do, but when you analyze it, you find a surprise. Decide that you love God with your all. Look into the face of death, declare it good, no matter what, and you will be giving God your all. Do not just struggle toward the Light and do your best. There is no progress in standing still, for it always becomes regression. It would pay you well never to ask why. This turns you backward. What difference does knowing the reason make? Your task is still to lift it into Light. – Edna Lister, October 15, 1959.


“Death of the body and consciousness begins
when aspiration dies.” – Edna Lister


Old age results from letting go of mental alertness, of vitality, of caring, letting go of the goal, living from day to day as the world sees it. To be alive and alert, climb higher. You must always make a definite choice between life and death: constant vigilance and steadfastness are the keynotes of life. Do not speak of pain, ignore it. Ascend in consciousness, and remain up. Declare, “Faith is the invisible substance of my visible miracles to come.” – Edna Lister, February 23, 1960.


Little self is “dead wrong” and leads to weakness and death. Soul is Light, “alive right.” – Edna Lister, June 12, 1960.


All progress depends on your burning desire and love for God. Love is the ruler. Love is the guard. Love is the substance. Love is the action. Love is the faith. Love is the beauty of God manifest. Love is deathless, ageless and abiding. Love is enough to rebuild all form hourly. Love enough causes a stream of unconquerable faith to move forth, and the conclusion is inevitable. – Edna Lister, September 8, 1960.


There is no separation at death of the physical body, for life goes on forever with a closer than ever companionship. – Edna Lister, November 29, 1962.


If you call someone back from death’s door unwarrantedly, when everything is ready to receive them above, you must pay all their debts contracted from that time to their later transition, no matter how long that time may be, and you also owe them the time stolen from them through forcing them to live on earth when they might have been advancing, studying and learning in heavenly realms. Everything turns in cycles and they cannot leave until the next cycle rolls around.

Under this law of force, you may also make demands, although unconscious, upon Guards who are appointed to protect and care for the soul held on earth. Thus, you owe a debt of time and service to the Guards. What do you use for payment? How do you pay debts caused by not taking on personal responsibility? Doctors work under the rules of the adept degree. They pay the same debt, the only difference being in degree and kind. Some gain further understanding though research, others gain insight through intuition and, in rare cases, through spiritual illumination. – Edna Lister, June 9, 1961.


The Book of the Revelation speaks of the first and the second death in chapter 20. You die the “first death” when you live by doubts and fears. The “second death” is to consort with evil and to lose your identity with God. The path of ascension from earth to heaven requires translation, transition, and transmutation. Victory over death is victory over the emotional life, and any evil influence or tendencies, which includes soul taints. You can and do live on three levels at once, which philosophy names as Oversoul, rational soul, and appetitive soul; psychology names these the super-conscious mind, conscious mind, and subconscious mind, which prompts you to remember. – Edna Lister, August 3, 1961.


You reach your fate line when you desire to do only good. There you transcend your fate line, the appointed time of passing, the death of the physical. However, you must pay your soul debts. The soul’s experience determines all these things, including whether you will need to build another body. – Edna Lister, November 16, 1962.


Your loved ones who have passed over before you help to prepare your place as you near the time of joining them after your passing, the death of the physical. – Edna Lister, May 15, 1963.


“You are as immortal now as you will ever be in God's divine soul substance.” – Edna Lister


The first movement in civilization and in the expression of life must be an aspiration. The dictionary defines aspiration as “to desire earnestly to do.” There can be no life expression, no advance, or achievement without aspiration. An individual without aspiration becomes smug, self-righteous, and unhappy unless he can force everyone to do things his way. The beginning of desire is based on aspiration toward something greater than what you have. Death of the body and consciousness begins when aspiration dies. – Edna Lister, June 7, 1963.


Many souls undertake to build a body that ends in so severe a malformation that the result is either miscarriage (a spontaneous abortion) or no possibility of a normal life. This may seem to be a tragedy, but it serves a useful purpose for parents and child: parents must sacrifice their expectations for that child, for example. For the soul building the body, the process offers the perfect opportunity to withdraw its soul substance previously invested in earthly affairs and relationships. Only then can the soul reintegrate that misused or unwisely invested soul substance with the full living soul. This is also how the soul substance of evildoers is collected for purging it of memory. – Edna Lister, July 9, 1963.


“All those who hate Me love death.”– Proverbs 8:36. If you are not for life, you are against it. Life never leaves you alone. – Edna Lister, November 3, 1963.


Lukewarmness and indifference send you halfway down to cold death. Death is no life in your form. – Edna Lister, November 3, 1963.


Those who pass to the other side, at the death of the body, while loving the Master and the Father are granted such beauties in heaven. Yet those who pass while still loving the self more, find it a hard place. They say, “If this is what heaven is like, give me earth!” All they are saying is, “I want to go where I can have my own way.” In the next breath they add, “If it’s God’s will.” The wrecks of regression such trite statements create are shocking, for they cover complete selfishness. You need to attend to the now, to accept rather than asking why or making excuses. – Edna Lister, November 15, 1963.


When you look up, the Light charges you with energy. Lines of Light radiate from you to all who are connected to you, and those who are in great need may start to depend on you to recharge them! They will delay you until you loosen their lines so your good can come. Quit pushing them away and blaming them for delaying you. When a soul (like your uncle) returns from near death, pray for Light to rebuild his brain cells. The soul can do no more than his brain cells allow. It takes longer for an adult to rebuild atrophied brain cells than for a child to build new ones. This is how to free you both. – Edna Lister, June 25, 1964.


Only those with a burning desire can meet the challenge of obedience to the law from the Source. The others grow weary, faint, and fail. At transition, or death of the body, they must review their neglected work; the penalty of regression is to repeat the work from the beginning of the initiation. This is universal law, and may not be set aside for any soul. The rewards for holding, accepting and assuming the responsibilities of full lifting will be greater than you have room to receive. You achieve this ascension goal under the law of assuming all blame and debts created, not only around you, but all over earth. Hold. Only self can interfere with your ascension or cause you to fail. It is each soul’s personal choice. – Edna Lister, July 26, 1964.


Remember that there is no death, only transfiguration. – Edna Lister, November 30, 1964.


“There is no death, only transfiguration.” – Edna Lister


You cannot have sufficient life unless you breathe deeply. The more shallowly you breathe, the more atoms collapse, so you have pain, illness, old age and death. – Edna Lister, December 13, 1964.


What we call death is only transition, moving from one form and level to another. The word “death” has various meanings: The first death is when the soul descends from the Light, which begins the soul’s loss of the use of faculties, of the outer body and equipment, the loss of the outer image and likeness of God. The second death is the loss of identity. – Edna Lister, May 9, 1966.


At transition, those who have been ill (but are not among the Elect) go to the heavenly degree of their family group. They are constantly under the lights and cared for by their loved ones or those close to them who are already there and doing the Father’s work. Some are partly conscious. Sometimes they are not wholly conscious until that soul who was closest to them on earth also passes and is ready to awaken them. – Edna Lister, May 15, 1966.


Death following a terminal illness: This woman’s husband had suffered a massive stroke and was not expected to live: Reach out into Name’s babyhood and childhood, scoop up his family and friends with your arms and lift them all into the Light. This releases them all from the old vibration to enter the new. Be sure to sweep up all taints from the prenatal time for him and for his brothers and sister. When he passes, it must be on a high vibration. Live hour by hour, and think no more of the future while you lift each into perfection. Be sure to surround Name with Light to protect him. Strive to be aware that the whole glory of the kingdom of heaven surrounds you.

You have known the depth of love from the beginning of time, and now begin to comprehend the heights of it. All is well and very well. Rejoice and be glad in all ways. After he passes, visit him in the silence twice a day. He will be in a pavilion, his soul under the lights to heal his vehicles, from lesser to higher. Stand over him, pouring in love substance to heal him completely. His vehicles shall be recreated anew, even his desire body shall be rebuilt. You are protected and can release tenfold Power beyond anything you dreamed possible. This is what surrender of self does. Be filled with joy and praise without ceasing. – Edna Lister, May 19, 1966.


When you lift the life sparks of someone who is doing evil, they are stored in a sphere of fire, where they are cleansed of all taint and the memories of evil. Thus, enough life sparks will be available when the soul leaves the body to return under the same identity (name and number). In cases where the evil-doing has been too great, the life sparks are taken to Perdition, a great lake of fire, where the identity and all memory is burned away. The life sparks are then scattered in the great abyss of unnamed and unnumbered universal substance. This is the annihilation of identity, the true metaphysical death of soul. – Edna Lister, June 4, 1966.

You cannot kill life, only a body. The Elect slough heavy crystallization gradually to build bodies of higher grade substance. Death is a transition of the soul from an earth body to one of finer substance; metaphysically, death can a change in state of consciousness. When you ascend, the finer inner bodies make you immortal in that degree. Yet, you must remain in balance here and now. Heaven is both a state of consciousness and a place, and you are as immortal now as you will ever be in God’s divine soul substance. When you declare, “Let there be Light,” you stand in the Light, Light condenses, and you can walk in your stardust body.

We all live under the law of God, the greatest principle of which is nonresistance. The outer sheath is the total of your resistance in life. Loose the world and let it go in selfless, sacrificial surrender. People die by the score rather than live by nonresistance, which is the pure law of love. No one cares about your opinions and prejudices, which are the seats of all illnesses. Keep envisioning the substance growing within the molds you are building for ascension. Cease worrying that it takes so long. God does not allow your prayers to go unheard. – Edna Lister, June 26, 1966.


“When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full‑grown, brings forth death.” – James 1:15. Each is tempted and enticed by his own desires. – Edna Lister, Am I Strong to Endure, December 18, 1966.


Disintegration is a great factor in miracles. If God grants a miracle when the death ray is predominating, it could wear a body out by vibrating through it, causing the slow dissolution of cohesion between the life sparks. – Edna Lister, May 12, 1967.


When the evil remaining on earth is concentrated to be lifted, it draws the angel of death. We must have a death vibration of disintegration to lift and cleanse or nothing here would disintegrate. God does not instigate fires, for example, but the death ray takes the victims of one out with as little agony as possible.

In any holocaust or disaster, the reward is past telling for the good souls who lose their bodies. The height of the vibration when they go out is tremendous, and the violence of such a death awakens the desire body brain cells; Christ’s Legions take them to the right teachers at once. For example, the young men whom they take out in war attend the right classes for their lessons, and the Father may shortcut their needed incarnations from ten to two. When they return to earth, they receive great rewards for their sacrifice. – Edna Lister, May 15, 1967.


To lift and cleanse requires a death vibration of disintegration or nothing here could disintegrate. – Edna Lister, May 15, 1967.


Identify with the image of God, which is the truth about yourself. Racial consciousness feeds worn out beliefs, and belief in the letter of the law rather than the spirit. Mortal beliefs include such ideas as “Death is inevitable,” not really believing in your Christed being, or that “It’s God’s will,” or that you must earn everything by the “sweat of your brow.” Your attention is focused out on things, persons and circumstances. Release this focus and do something constructive with the Power you free from your outward-focused attention. Lift yourself to a level a bit higher, where you do not entertain thoughts of weakness and limitation. – Edna Lister, March 13, 1968.


The world says, “Speak no ill of the dead,” which means not to condemn a person after his or her transit, which is usually a revenge attitude, caused by the subconscious usurping the conscious mind’s role. It can build a black cloud of misused soul substance to gather over the one who condemns, a cloud that he must then lift to be absorbed in Light. The law is to see the deceased in the Light of God, forgiven by God. You use your own soul substance to form the mold when you condemn another, and can drag him from his ascension path. To lift is like focusing a camera and snapping a picture — you never look again, just declare it perfect and good. So when you speak of the dead, do so only after applying a just appraisal. – Edna Lister, March 16, 1968.


To go across feeling that God has cheated you creates “unfinished business.” – Edna Lister, November 7, 1968.


When you kill truth, you kill yourself. – Edna Lister, Undated Papers, 1924-1971.

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Death in the New Testament

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. – Matthew 7:13-14.


Another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. – Matthew 8:21-22.


He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. – Matthew 10:39.

God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. – Matthew 15:4.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. – Matthew 16:24-28. (See Mark 9.)

Jesus answered … in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. – Matthew 22:29,31-32.


For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. – Mark 8:35.

He taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him. – Mark 9:9-31-32.


Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. – Luke 9:24.


Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. – Luke 17:32-33.


God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. – John 3:16.


He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. – John 3:36.


He who hears [the Christ’s] word and believes in Him who sent him has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. – John 5:24.


The hour is coming ill which all who are in the graves will hear the Son of Man’s voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. – John 5:28.


As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. – John 5:21.


It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. – John 6:63.


If anyone keeps [Christ’s] word, he shall never see death. – John 8:51.


For those who die in service to their country: Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. – John 15:13.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. – Acts 10:38-42.


The wages of sin are death. – Romans 6:23.


The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. – Romans 8:2.


To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. – Romans 8:6‑7.


Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. Romans 8:38‑39.


All things are yours: whether the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. – 1 Corinthians 3:21-23.


If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:16-22.


The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. – 1 Corinthians 15:26-31.


But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:35-57.


When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full‑grown, brings forth death. – James 1:15.


He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. James 5:20.


If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and Christ will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. – 1 John 5:16.


Those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. – Revelation 17:8.


The dead are judged according to their works, by the things which are written in the books of Life. – Revelation 20:12.

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Death in the Old Testament

Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. – Genesis 5:22-24.

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days. – Deuteronomy 30:15-20.


As righteousness leads to life, so he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death. – Proverbs 11:19.


The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death. – Proverbs 13:14.


The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death. – Proverbs 14:27.


Death and life are in the power of the tongue. – Proverbs 18:21.


Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death. – Proverbs 21:6.


I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. – Ezekiel 18:32.


As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways. – Ezekiel 33:11.


I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. – Hosea 13:14.

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Death in Other Sacred Writings

God created all things, that they might have their being: The generations of the world were healthful; there is no poison of destruction in them, nor was the kingdom of death upon the earth: for righteousness is immortal. – Wisdom of Solomon 1:14-15.


All men have one entrance into life, and the like going out. – Wisdom of Solomon 7:6.


Prosperity and adversity, life and death, poverty and riches, come of the Lord. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 11:14.


It is an easy thing unto the Lord in the day of death to reward a man according to his ways. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 11:26.


Judge none blessed before his death: for a man shall be known in his children. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 11:28.


Let nothing hinder thee to pay your vow in due time, and defer not until death to be justified. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 18:22.


Envy and wrath shorten the life, and carefulness brings age before the time. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 30:24.


Four manner of things appear: good and evil, life and death: but the tongue rules over them continually. – Wisdom of Ben Sirach 37:18.


When you examine death, it will teach you election. None of those who fear death will be saved; for the kingdom belongs to those who put themselves [their self] to death. Make yourself like the son of the Holy Spirit! – The Apocryphon of James, Codex I, 2.


If you consider how long the world existed before you, and how long it will exist after you, you will find that your life is one single day, and your sufferings one single hour. – The Apocryphon of James, Codex I, 2.


In time, Unity will perfect the spaces. Within Unity each will attain himself; within knowledge, he will purify himself from multiplicity into Unity, consuming matter within himself like fire, and darkness by Light, death by Life. – The Gospel of Truth, Codex I, 3 and XII, 2.


They do not go down to Hades, nor have they envy nor groaning nor death within them, but (rather) they rest in Him who is at rest, not striving nor being twisted around the truth. But they themselves are the truth; and the Father is within them, and they are in the Father, being perfect, being undivided in the truly good one, being in no way deficient in anything, but they are set at rest, refreshed in the Spirit. – The Gospel of Truth, Codex I, 3 and XII, 2.


The Son of God was Son of Man; he embraced them both, possessing the humanity and the divinity, so that on the one hand he might vanquish death through his being Son of God, and that on the other through the Son of Man the restoration to the wholeness might occur; because he was originally from above, a seed of Truth, before this structure had come into being." Treatise on the Resurrection, Codex I, 4.


The Savior swallowed up death, for he put aside the world which is perishing. He transformed himself into an imperishability and raised himself up, having swallowed the visible by the invisible, and he gave us the way of our immortality. – Treatise on the Resurrection, Codex I, 4.


If we are manifest in this world wearing him, we are his beams, and we are embraced by him until our setting, our death in this life. – Treatise on the Resurrection, Codex I, 4.


Where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death. – Gospel of Thomas, Codex II, 2.


Take heed of the Living One while you are alive, lest you die and seek to see Him and be unable to do so. – Gospel of Thomas, Codex II, 2.


He who has believed in the truth has found life, and is in danger of dying, for he is alive. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


Christ voluntarily laid down his life from the very day the world came into being. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


Light and Darkness, life and death, right and left are brothers of one another, inseparable. Because of this neither are the good Good, nor evil Evil, nor is life Life, nor death Death. For this reason each one will dissolve into its earliest origin. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


When Eve was still with Adam, death did not exist. When she was separated from him, death came into being. If he enters again and attains his former self, death will be no more. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


If the woman had not separated from the man, she should not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death. Because of this, Christ came to repair the separation, which was from the beginning, and again unite the two, and to give life to those who died as a result of the separation, and unite them. But the woman is united to her husband in the bridal chamber. Indeed, those who have united in the bridal chamber will no longer be separated. Thus Eve separated from Adam because it was not in the bridal chamber that she united with him. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


By perfecting the water of baptism, Jesus emptied it of death. Thus we do go down into the water, but we do not go down into death, in order that we may not be poured out into the spirit of the world. When that spirit blows, it brings the winter. When the Holy Spirit breathes, the summer comes. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


Ignorance is the mother of all evil. Ignorance will result in death, because those who come from ignorance neither were nor are nor shall be. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


This world is a corpse-eater. All the things eaten in it themselves die also. Truth is a life-eater. Therefore no one nourished by truth will die. – Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


Visible bodies survive by devouring creatures similar to them with the result that the bodies change. That which changes will decay and perish, and has no hope of life from then on, since that body is bestial. So just as the body of the beasts perishes, so also will these formations perish. [This typifies "You are what you eat."] – Thomas the Contender, Codex II, 7.


If you set your hope upon the world, and your god is this life; you are corrupting your soul. – Thomas the Contender, Codex II, 7.

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Poets Writing of Death

For Whom the Bell Tolls
No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were,
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thy friend’s were:
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore send not to know
For whom the bells tolls;
It tolls for thee.
– John Donne, 1572-1631

Death Be Not Proud
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell’st thou then
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
– John Donne, 1572-1631, Holy Sonnets, 10

Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
  And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
  When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
  Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
  Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
  And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
  When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
  The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
  When I have crost the bar.
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1809–1892

Let Me Go
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not for long
And not with your head bowed low
Remember the love that once we shared
Miss me, but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone.
It's all part of the master plan
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart
Go to the friends we know.
Laugh at all the things we used to do
Miss me, but let me go.
– Christina Rossetti, 1830–1894


And Death Shall Have No Dominion
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
– Dylan Thomas, 1914–1953


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Edna Miriam Lister
1884 – 1971
The original Christian Pioneering Mystic,
Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of death: Middle English deeth, from Old English death, dheu-, dead, to die.


References

We use many online sources of definition, the most common of which we abbreviate as shown:
American Heritage Dictionary (AHD),
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (CDC),
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (MWD),
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and
Webster’s American Dictionary, 1828 (WAD).

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).