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Q.   Isn’t it John 11:24 - 25 that says “He who believes in Me, though he dies shall live again; but he who lives and believes in Me, shall never die, but shall have life everlasting”. If Jesus meant what he said, then we live more than one time (indeed many many times) until we can shift the focus to achieve perfect oneness and life everlasting. What say you?

A.   The verses from John that you referred to present a bit of a conundrum at first blush, but I think Jesus is making the distinction between those who believe in Him (yet don't believe  Him) and are waiting to die so that He can save them via His resurrection, and those who believe in Him (and believe what He says) and find their own way to everlasting life by following His lead, without first having to go through death. And that's where the gospel of Thomas comes in - Thomas said that Jesus told him that whoever finds the correct interpretation of His words never would taste Death.

Here, I'm anticipating a chapter in my new book. I call it the "Poseidon Effect."  “Poseidon” is the story of a magnificent cruise ship of the same name, filled to capacity, that is capsized by a rogue tidal wave. The fearful survivors of the impact are trapped in an upside-down ballroom, and they are told by a crew member that they will be safe as long as they follow his instructions. He explains that the ship’s progress is monitored 24/7 on radar screens, and the monitors will notice immediately that the ship has disappeared and rescuers will be scrambled to its last reported position. He assures them that there is plenty of air locked into the ballroom to last them until the rescuers arrive, and most of the passengers choose to believe him. Several, however, choose not to buy into the Fear/Safety paradigm, opting instead to seek their own way out and ignoring the crew member’s warnings of peril and impossibility. As art imitates life, those who chose the wait-to-be-rescued plan experienced Death when the ship’s windows succumbed to the water pressure bearing down on them, while those who fearlessly sought another way out found it - according to the “seek and you shall find” imperative - and did not taste death.

We are living fearfully in a capsized world. The Paradise into which we originally were created has been turned upside down, not by the poor choices Adam and Eve made, but by the poor choices the rest of us continue to make to perpetuate their first mistakes, rather than to learn from them and to choose differently. Organized [Christian] Religion will play on our fears and have us wait to be rescued by Jesus in the airlock of our capsized world. But, we will die. And, Jesus will save those who perish and who have chosen to believe in Him (this is Plan B), even though they also have chosen not to believe Him when He assures that there is another way back to Paradise without tasting Death should we choose to continue to seek the correct translation of His teachings (this is Plan A).   So, Jesus is making the distinction between Plan A and Plan B in John 11:24-25.

"What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what already has been said still is not enough."

- Eugene Delacroix