The lecturer took a breath, apologized for leaving the main topic. The experts were partly delighted, partly surprised. They listened with pleasure and wanted to continue.

– Let's remember where we left off. At the situation when the crypt with Christ was empty. What happened next? These guards, after finding the crypt empty, went to the chief priests and reported the body missing. Here it may seem strange why the guards went to the chief priests. In order to understand this mishap (as if the power in the country is Roman in general, accordingly, all the soldiers are subordinate to Pilate), we need to look into the Gospel itself. Matthew writes about it as follows: "…on the next day, which follows Friday, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate and said, 'Sir! We remembered that that deceiver, while he was still alive, had said, 'After three days I will rise again; therefore order the tomb to be guarded until the third day, lest His disciples, coming by night, steal Him away and say to the people, "He has risen from the dead"; and the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, You have guards; go, guard as you know how. They went and set a guard at the tomb, and put a seal to the stone." According to another version – they persuaded Pilate to allocate their men to the guard, because the Sabbath was ahead and Jews should not work. The officials of the high priest probably paid the prosecutor for the favor. And afterwards, when they reported the missing…I quote "…And these assembled with the elders, and took counsel, and gave quite a sum of money to the soldiers, and said, Say, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept; and if a rumor of it should come to the governor, we will persuade him, and save you the trouble. And they took the money, and did as they were taught; and this word has passed among the Jews until this day" (Matthew 28:11-15). I understand what you are thinking right now…and yet.....

He habitually paused to study the reactions of his listeners.

– What's next? The Ascension. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the assembled apostles for forty days, strengthening their faith in Him. On the fortieth day Christ appeared to the disciples again, confirmed all that had been said before, and led them out of the city to the Mount of Olives. Does not the fortieth day seem strange to you? For some reason this number is taken as a certain boundary, which meant a special chronological measure. You may have heard of the unspoken rule not to show a child to strangers for forty days. In traditions, not only Christian ones, related to burial rules, there are rules for observing time measures. For example, according to church statements, after death, the spirit of a person for three days is in those places that were important to him during his life. After that, the soul appears before the Creator. He is shown paradise, where the souls of people who led a righteous way of life enjoy. For six days the soul delights in the delights of paradise. On the ninth day the spirit appears before the Lord again. As I have already said, not only in Orthodoxy there is a tradition of remembering the dead. In many spiritual practices and, of course, mainly Eastern ones it is considered that on the ninth day the astral body (the body of emotions) is destroyed, and on the fortieth day – the mental body (the body of thoughts). That is, the soul comes out of its shells. In the sacred Tibetan Book of the Dead ("Bardo Thedol"), the body is only a vessel that temporarily houses the soul. Just as a clay pot is broken when it is empty, the body is to be destroyed when the soul no longer needs it. This book explains in detail, almost scientifically, how to more easily pass through the "wheel" of rebirths and reach the next reincarnation, incarnation. The process of separating the soul from the former shell lasts three days, during which the monks chant special mantras. These mantras, like a guide, pave the way for the soul's consciousness through the stages of the bardo, from death to new life. In the process, the old body becomes an empty form, forever devoid of meaningful content. The body undergoes a major metamorphosis, splitting into the primary elements: earth, air, fire and water. The soul becomes finally free from the shell to plunge into a new vessel, in which, perhaps, it will be able to approach nirvana. Physicists believe that the fortieth day after death is the period after which DNA ceases to produce a reference vibration (loses its individual electromagnetic field). Death is not the end. In fact, death is the beginning, another stage of maturation. At the moment of physical death, your spirit will travel to the spiritual world where it will continue to learn and evolve. Death is a necessary step in your development, just as birth is. There is even a religious belief that someday, after your death, your spirit and body will be reunited, never to be separated again. According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, the ascension of Christ is the highest degree of glorification of human nature, which in this ascension was elevated by God above all angelic titles. All religious tenets, much less their interpretations, are an article of faith. And the object of faith will always remain an object of faith, and for the most part interpreted by us as it pleases our souls. Let us examine such an article of faith as the Second Coming. Jesus himself spoke of the Second Coming of the Messiah to bring about the Last Judgment, but it is not entirely clear, even if we are certain that it was he who was quoted, whether he was speaking of himself. There is a certain idea evident, and in the whole Christian teaching, that man is opposed to certain mythical gods, often terrible and evil, and they are the heavenly elite, and man is insignificant. The doctrine of Christ proclaims the hidden rebellion of man as a representative of a kind of thinking beings against the tyranny of heaven. And it has quite earthly manifestation, when equality with God is preached. Don't you find here a parallel with modern socio-political declarations?

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