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Urantia Book Paper 194 Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth
SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Bestowal Of The
Spirit Of Truth
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Paper 194 Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth
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Introduction
ABOUT one o'clock, as the one hundred and twenty believers were engaged in
prayer, they all became aware of a strange presence in the room. At the same
time these disciples all became conscious of a new and profound sense of
spiritual joy, security, and confidence. This new consciousness of spiritual
strength was immediately followed by a strong urge to go out and publicly
proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good news that Jesus had risen from
the dead.
Peter stood up and declared that this must be the coming of the Spirit of Truth
which the Master had promised them and proposed that they go to the temple and
begin the proclamation of the good news committed to their hands. And they did
just what Peter suggested.
These men had been trained and instructed that the gospel which they should
preach was the fatherhood of God and the sonship of man, but at just this
moment of spiritual ecstasy and personal triumph, the best tidings, the
greatest news, these men could think of was the fact of the risen Master. And
so they went forth, endowed with power from on high, preaching glad tidings to
the people--even salvation through Jesus--but they unintentionally stumbled
into the error of substituting some of the facts associated with the gospel for
the gospel message itself. Peter unwittingly led off in this mistake, and
others followed after him on down to Paul, who created a new religion out of
the new version of the good news.
The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact of the fatherhood of God, coupled with
the resultant truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men. Christianity, as it
developed from that day, is: the fact of God as the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in association with the experience of believer-fellowship with the
risen and glorified Christ.
It is not strange that these spirit-infused men should have seized upon this
opportunity to express their feelings of triumph over the forces which had
sought to destroy their Master and end the influence of his teachings. At such
a time as this it was easier to remember their personal association with Jesus
and to be thrilled with the assurance that the Master still lived, that their
friendship had not ended, and that the spirit had indeed come upon them even as
he had promised.
These believers felt themselves suddenly translated into another world, a new
existence of joy, power, and glory. The Master had told them the kingdom would
come with power, and some of them thought they were beginning to discern what
he meant.
And when all of this is taken into consideration, it is not difficult to
understand how these men came to preach a new gospel about Jesus in the place
of their former message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men.
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1. THE PENTECOST SERMON
The apostles had been in hiding for forty days. This day happened to be the
Jewish festival of Pentecost, and thousands of visitors from all parts of the
world were in Jerusalem. Many arrived for this feast, but a majority had
tarried in the city since the Passover. Now these frightened apostles emerged
from their weeks of seclusion to appear boldly in the temple, where they began
to preach the new message of a risen Messiah. And all the disciples were
likewise conscious of having received some new spiritual endowment of insight
and power.
It was about two o'clock when Peter stood up in that very place where his
Master had last taught in this temple, and delivered that impassioned appeal
which resulted in the winning of more than two thousand souls. The Master had
gone, but they suddenly discovered that this story about him had great power
with the people. No wonder they were led on into the further proclamation of
that which vindicated their former devotion to Jesus and at the same time so
constrained men to believe in him. Six of the apostles participated in this
meeting: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, and Matthew. They talked for more
than an hour and a half and delivered messages in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic,
as well as a few words in even other tongues with which they had a speaking
acquaintance.
The leaders of the Jews were astounded at the boldness of the apostles, but
they feared to molest them because of the large numbers who believed their
story.
By half past four o'clock more than two thousand new believers followed the
apostles down to the pool of Siloam, where Peter, Andrew, James, and John
baptized them in the Master's name. And it was dark when they had finished with
baptizing this multitude.
Pentecost was the great festival of baptism, the time for fellowshipping the
proselytes of the gate, those gentiles who desired to serve Yahweh. It was,
therefore, the more easy for large numbers of both the Jews and believing
gentiles to submit to baptism on this day. In doing this, they were in no way
disconnecting themselves from the Jewish faith. Even for some time after this
the believers in Jesus were a sect within Judaism. All of them, including the
apostles, were still loyal to the essential requirements of the Jewish
ceremonial system.
2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PENTECOST
Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the
superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity
of a faith son of God. Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his
day, was an effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of
its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his
place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new
generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to
appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of
the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove
to be an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied spiritual
difficulties.
The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize
truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form
of human
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liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer's
feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would
experience a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in
men's hearts.
This bestowal of the Son's spirit effectively prepared all normal men's minds
for the subsequent universal bestowal of the Father's spirit (the Adjuster)
upon all mankind. In a certain sense, this Spirit of Truth is the spirit of
both the Universal Father and the Creator Son.
Do not make the mistake of expecting to become strongly intellectually
conscious of the outpoured Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a
consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the
beginning Jesus taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof,
therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in
your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced
fellowship with Michael.
The spirit also came to help men recall and understand the words of the Master
as well as to illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth.
Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer to witness to the realities
of Jesus' teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now
again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing
generation of the spirit-filled sons of God.
Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth comes really to lead all believers
into all truth, into the expanding knowledge of the experience of the living
and growing spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending
sonship with God.
Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father's will,
not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow. This life in the
flesh, together with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection,
presently became a new gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in order
to purchase man back from the clutch of the evil one--from the condemnation of
an offended God. Nevertheless, even though the gospel did become greatly
distorted, it remains a fact that this new message about Jesus carried along
with it many of the fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier gospel of
the kingdom. And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually transform the
civilization of all mankind.
But these mistakes of the intellect in no way interfered with the believer's
great progress in growth in spirit. In less than a month after the bestowal of
the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made more individual spiritual progress than
during their almost four years of personal and loving association with the
Master. Neither did this substitution of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus
for the saving gospel truth of sonship with God in any way interfere with the
rapid spread of their teachings; on the contrary, this overshadowing of Jesus'
message by the new teachings about his person and resurrection seemed greatly
to facilitate the preaching of the good news.
The term "baptism of the spirit," which came into such general use about this
time, merely signified the conscious reception of this gift of the Spirit of
Truth and the personal acknowledgment of this new spiritual power as an
augmentation of all spiritual influences previously experienced by God-knowing
souls.
Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is subject to the teaching and
guidance of a threefold spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the Thought
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Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit.
In a way, mankind is subject to the double influence of the sevenfold appeal of
the universe spirit influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals are
subject to the progressive contact of the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the
local universe Mother Spirit. As man progresses upward in the scale of
intelligence and spiritual perception, there eventually come to hover over him
and dwell within him the seven higher spirit influences. And these seven
spirits of the advancing worlds are:
1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father--the Thought Adjusters.
2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son--the spirit gravity of the universe
of universes and the certain channel of all spirit communion.
3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit--the universal spirit-mind of all
creation, the spiritual source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive
intelligences.
4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son--the Spirit of Truth,
generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son.
5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the Universe Mother Spirit--the Holy
Spirit, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit.
6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit--the seven adjutant
mind-spirits of the local universe.
7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits--the new-name spirit of the
ascending mortals of the realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born soul
with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment of the
divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of the Finality.
And so did the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth bring to the world and its
peoples the last of the spirit endowment designed to aid in the ascending
search for God.
3. WHAT HAPPENED AT PENTECOST
Many queer and strange teachings became associated with the early narratives of
the day of Pentecost. In subsequent times the events of this day, on which the
Spirit of Truth, the new teacher, came to dwell with mankind, have become
confused with the foolish outbreaks of rampant emotionalism. The chief mission
of this outpoured spirit of the Father and the Son is to teach men about the
truths of the Father's love and the Son's mercy. These are the truths of
divinity which men can comprehend more fully than all the other divine traits
of character. The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation of
the Father's spirit nature and the Son's moral character. The Creator Son, in
the flesh, revealed God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the
Creator Son to men. When man yields the "fruits of the spirit" in his life, he
is simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his own
earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he lived his life as one
personality--Jesus of Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of the "new teacher,"
the Master has, since Pentecost, been able to live his life anew in the
experience of every truth-taught believer.
Many things which happen in the course of a human life are hard to understand,
difficult to reconcile with the idea that this is a universe in which truth
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prevails and in which righteousness triumphs. It so often appears that slander,
lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness--sin--prevail. Does faith, after all,
triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does. And the life and death of Jesus
are the eternal proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of the
spirit-led creature will always be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross,
saying, "Let us see if God will come and deliver him." It looked dark on that
day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously bright on the resurrection
morning; it was still brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost. The
religions of pessimistic despair seek to obtain release from the burdens of
life; they crave extinction in endless slumber and rest. These are the
religions of primitive fear and dread. The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of
faith to be proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion is founded on
faith, hope, and love.
To Jesus, mortal life had dealt its hardest, cruelest, and bitterest blows; and
this man met these ministrations of despair with faith, courage, and the
unswerving determination to do his Father's will. Jesus met life in all its
terrible reality and mastered it--even in death. He did not use religion as a
release from life. The religion of Jesus does not seek to escape this life in
order to enjoy the waiting bliss of another existence. The religion of Jesus
provides the joy and peace of another and spiritual existence to enhance and
ennoble the life which men now live in the flesh.
If religion is an opiate to the people, it is not the religion of Jesus. On the
cross he refused to drink the deadening drug, and his spirit, poured out upon
all flesh, is a mighty world influence which leads man upward and urges him
onward. The spiritual forward urge is the most powerful driving force present
in this world; the truth-learning believer is the one progressive and
aggressive soul on earth.
On the day of Pentecost the religion of Jesus broke all national restrictions
and racial fetters. It is forever true, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty." On this day the Spirit of Truth became the personal gift from the
Master to every mortal. This spirit was bestowed for the purpose of qualifying
believers more effectively to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but they
mistook the experience of receiving the outpoured spirit for a part of the new
gospel which they were unconsciously formulating.
Do not overlook the fact that the Spirit of Truth was bestowed upon all sincere
believers; this gift of the spirit did not come only to the apostles. The one
hundred and twenty men and women assembled in the upper chamber all received
the new teacher, as did all the honest of heart throughout the whole world.
This new teacher was bestowed upon mankind, and every soul received him in
accordance with the love for truth and the capacity to grasp and comprehend
spiritual realities. At last, true religion is delivered from the custody of
priests and all sacred classes and finds its real manifestation in the
individual souls of men.
The religion of Jesus fosters the highest type of human civilization in that it
creates the highest type of spiritual personality and proclaims the sacredness
of that person.
The coming of the Spirit of Truth on Pentecost made possible a religion which
is neither radical nor conservative; it is neither the old nor the new; it is
to be dominated neither by the old nor the young. The fact of Jesus' earthly
life provides a fixed point for the anchor of time, while the bestowal of the
Spirit of
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Truth provides for the everlasting expansion and endless growth of the religion
which he lived and the gospel which he proclaimed. The spirit guides into all
truth; he is the teacher of an expanding and always-growing religion of endless
progress and divine unfolding. This new teacher will be forever unfolding to
the truth-seeking believer that which was so divinely folded up in the person
and nature of the Son of Man.
The manifestations associated with the bestowal of the "new teacher," and the
reception of the apostles' preaching by the men of various races and nations
gathered together at Jerusalem, indicate the universality of the religion of
Jesus. The gospel of the kingdom was to be identified with no particular race,
culture, or language. This day of Pentecost witnessed the great effort of the
spirit to liberate the religion of Jesus from its inherited Jewish fetters.
Even after this demonstration of pouring out the spirit upon all flesh, the
apostles at first endeavored to impose the requirements of Judaism upon their
converts. Even Paul had trouble with his Jerusalem brethren because he refused
to subject the gentiles to these Jewish practices. No revealed religion can
spread to all the world when it makes the serious mistake of becoming permeated
with some national culture or associated with established racial, social, or
economic practices.
The bestowal of the Spirit of Truth was independent of all forms, ceremonies,
sacred places, and special behavior by those who received the fullness of its
manifestation. When the spirit came upon those assembled in the upper chamber,
they were simply sitting there, having just been engaged in silent prayer. The
spirit was bestowed in the country as well as in the city. It was not necessary
for the apostles to go apart to a lonely place for years of solitary meditation
in order to receive the spirit. For all time, Pentecost disassociates the idea
of spiritual experience from the notion of especially favorable environments.
Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the
religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of
this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out
to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and
abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate
by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had
already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were
his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their
manifestations of love. No longer did these believers look upon Yahweh as "the
Lord of Hosts." They now regarded the eternal Deity as the "God and Father of
the Lord Jesus Christ." They made that progress, at least, even if they did in
some measure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the spiritual
Father of every individual.
Pentecost endowed mortal man with the power to forgive personal injuries, to
keep sweet in the midst of the gravest injustice, to remain unmoved in the face
of appalling danger, and to challenge the evils of hate and anger by the
fearless acts of love and forbearance. Urantia has passed through the ravages
of great and destructive wars in its history. All participants in these
terrible struggles met with defeat. There was but one victor; there was only
one who came out of these embittered struggles with an enhanced
reputation--that was Jesus of Nazareth and his gospel of overcoming evil with
good. The secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master's teachings
of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust.
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Up to Pentecost, religion had revealed only man seeking for God; since
Pentecost, man is still searching for God, but there shines out over the world
the spectacle of God also seeking for man and sending his spirit to dwell
within him when he has found him.
Before the teachings of Jesus which culminated in Pentecost, women had little
or no spiritual standing in the tenets of the older religions. After Pentecost,
in the brotherhood of the kingdom woman stood before God on an equality with
man. Among the one hundred and twenty who received this special visitation of
the spirit were many of the women disciples, and they shared these blessings
equally with the men believers. No longer can man presume to monopolize the
ministry of religious service. The Pharisee might go on thanking God that he
was "not born a woman, a leper, or a gentile," but among the followers of Jesus
woman has been forever set free from all religious discriminations based on
sex. Pentecost obliterated all religious discrimination founded on racial
distinction, cultural differences, social caste, or sex prejudice. No wonder
these believers in the new religion would cry out, "Where the spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty."
Both the mother and brother of Jesus were present among the one hundred and
twenty believers, and as members of this common group of disciples, they also
received the outpoured spirit. They received no more of the good gift than did
their fellows. No special gift was bestowed upon the members of Jesus' earthly
family. Pentecost marked the end of special priesthoods and all belief in
sacred families.
Before Pentecost the apostles had given up much for Jesus. They had sacrificed
their homes, families, friends, worldly goods, and positions. At Pentecost they
gave themselves to God, and the Father and the Son responded by giving
themselves to man--sending their spirits to live within men. This experience of
losing self and finding the spirit was not one of emotion; it was an act of
intelligent self-surrender and unreserved consecration.
Pentecost was the call to spiritual unity among gospel believers. When the
spirit descended on the disciples at Jerusalem, the same thing happened in
Philadelphia, Alexandria, and at all other places where true believers dwelt.
It was literally true that "there was but one heart and soul among the
multitude of the believers." The religion of Jesus is the most powerful
unifying influence the world has ever known.
Pentecost was designed to lessen the self-assertiveness of individuals, groups,
nations, and races. It is this spirit of self-assertiveness which so increases
in tension that it periodically breaks loose in destructive wars. Mankind can
be unified only by the spiritual approach, and the Spirit of Truth is a world
influence which is universal.
The coming of the Spirit of Truth purifies the human heart and leads the
recipient to formulate a life purpose single to the will of God and the welfare
of men. The material spirit of selfishness has been swallowed up in this new
spiritual bestowal of selflessness. Pentecost, then and now, signifies that the
Jesus of history has become the divine Son of living experience. The joy of
this outpoured spirit, when it is consciously experienced in human life, is a
tonic for health, a stimulus for mind, and an unfailing energy for the soul.
Prayer did not bring the spirit on the day of Pentecost, but it did have much
to do with determining the capacity of receptivity which characterized the in-
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dividual believers. Prayer does not move the divine heart to liberality of
bestowal, but it does so often dig out larger and deeper channels wherein the
divine bestowals may flow to the hearts and souls of those who thus remember to
maintain unbroken communion with their Maker through sincere prayer and true
worship.
4. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
When Jesus was so suddenly seized by his enemies and so quickly crucified
between two thieves, his apostles and disciples were completely demoralized.
The thought of the Master, arrested, bound, scourged, and crucified, was too
much for even the apostles. They forgot his teachings and his warnings. He
might, indeed, have been "a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all
the people," but he could hardly be the Messiah they had hoped would restore
the kingdom of Israel.
Then comes the resurrection, with its deliverance from despair and the return
of their faith in the Master's divinity. Again and again they see him and talk
with him, and he takes them out on Olivet, where he bids them farewell and
tells them he is going back to the Father. He has told them to tarry in
Jerusalem until they are endowed with power--until the Spirit of Truth shall
come. And on the day of Pentecost this new teacher comes, and they go out at
once to preach their gospel with new power. They are the bold and courageous
followers of a living Lord, not a dead and defeated leader. The Master lives in
the hearts of these evangelists; God is not a doctrine in their minds; he has
become a living presence in their souls.
"Day by day they continued steadfastly and with one accord in the temple and
breaking bread at home. They took their food with gladness and singleness of
heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. They were all filled
with the spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. And the
multitudes of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of
them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, and they had
all things in common."
What has happened to these men whom Jesus had ordained to go forth preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man?
They have a new gospel; they are on fire with a new experience; they are filled
with a new spiritual energy. Their message has suddenly shifted to the
proclamation of the risen Christ: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man God approved by
mighty works and wonders; him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God, you did crucify and slay. The things which God
foreshadowed by the mouth of all the prophets, he thus fulfilled. This Jesus
did God raise up. God has made him both Lord and Christ. Being, by the right
hand of God, exalted and having received from the Father the promise of the
spirit, he has poured forth this which you see and hear. Repent, that your sins
may be blotted out; that the Father may send the Christ, who has been appointed
for you, even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the
restoration of all things."
The gospel of the kingdom, the message of Jesus, had been suddenly changed into
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They now proclaimed the facts of his life,
death, and resurrection and preached the hope of his speedy return to this
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world to finish the work he began. Thus the message of the early believers had
to do with preaching about the facts of his first coming and with teaching the
hope of his second coming, an event which they deemed to be very near at hand.
Christ was about to become the creed of the rapidly forming church. Jesus
lives; he died for men; he gave the spirit; he is coming again. Jesus filled
all their thoughts and determined all their new concept of God and everything
else. They were too much enthused over the new doctrine that "God is the Father
of the Lord Jesus" to be concerned with the old message that "God is the loving
Father of all men," even of every single individual. True, a marvelous
manifestation of brotherly love and unexampled good will did spring up in these
early communities of believers. But it was a fellowship of believers in Jesus,
not a fellowship of brothers in the family kingdom of the Father in heaven.
Their good will arose from the love born of the concept of Jesus' bestowal and
not from the recognition of the brotherhood of mortal man. Nevertheless, they
were filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique lives that all men
were attracted to their teachings about Jesus. They made the great mistake of
using the living and illustrative commentary on the gospel of the kingdom for
that gospel, but even that represented the greatest religion mankind had ever
known.
Unmistakably, a new fellowship was arising in the world. "The multitude who
believed continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in prayers." They called each other brother and sister;
they greeted one another with a holy kiss; they ministered to the poor. It was
a fellowship of living as well as of worship. They were not communal by decree
but by the desire to share their goods with their fellow believers. They
confidently expected that Jesus would return to complete the establishment of
the Father's kingdom during their generation. This spontaneous sharing of
earthly possessions was not a direct feature of Jesus' teaching; it came about
because these men and women so sincerely and so confidently believed that he
was to return any day to finish his work and to consummate the kingdom. But the
final results of this well-meant experiment in thoughtless brotherly love were
disastrous and sorrow-breeding. Thousands of earnest believers sold their
property and disposed of all their capital goods and other productive assets.
With the passing of time, the dwindling resources of Christian "equal-sharing"
came to an end--but the world did not. Very soon the believers at Antioch were
taking up a collection to keep their fellow believers at Jerusalem from
starving.
In these days they celebrated the Lord's Supper after the manner of its
establishment; that is, they assembled for a social meal of good fellowship and
partook of the sacrament at the end of the meal.
At first they baptized in the name of Jesus; it was almost twenty years before
they began to baptize in "the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit." Baptism was all that was required for admission into the fellowship of
believers. They had no organization as yet; it was simply the Jesus
brotherhood.
This Jesus sect was growing rapidly, and once more the Sadducees took notice of
them. The Pharisees were little bothered about the situation, seeing that none
of the teachings in any way interfered with the observance of the Jewish laws.
But the Sadducees began to put the leaders of the Jesus sect in jail until they
were prevailed upon to accept the counsel of one of the leading rabbis,
Gamaliel, who advised them: "Refrain from these men and let them alone, for
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if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of
God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest haply you be found even to be
fighting against God." They decided to follow Gamaliel's counsel, and there
ensued a time of peace and quiet in Jerusalem, during which the new gospel
about Jesus spread rapidly.
And so all went well in Jerusalem until the time of the coming of the Greeks in
large numbers from Alexandria. Two of the pupils of Rodan arrived in Jerusalem
and made many converts from among the Hellenists. Among their early converts
were Stephen and Barnabas. These able Greeks did not so much have the Jewish
viewpoint, and they did not so well conform to the Jewish mode of worship and
other ceremonial practices. And it was the doings of these Greek believers that
terminated the peaceful relations between the Jesus brotherhood and the
Pharisees and Sadducees. Stephen and his Greek associate began to preach more
as Jesus taught, and this brought them into immediate conflict with the Jewish
rulers. In one of Stephen's public sermons, when he reached the objectionable
part of the discourse, they dispensed with all formalities of trial and
proceeded to stone him to death on the spot.
Stephen, the leader of the Greek colony of Jesus' believers in Jerusalem, thus
became the first martyr to the new faith and the specific cause for the formal
organization of the early Christian church. This new crisis was met by the
recognition that believers could not longer go on as a sect within the Jewish
faith. They all agreed that they must separate themselves from unbelievers; and
within one month from the death of Stephen the church at Jerusalem had been
organized under the leadership of Peter, and James the brother of Jesus had
been installed as its titular head.
And then broke out the new and relentless persecutions by the Jews, so that the
active teachers of the new religion about Jesus, which subsequently at Antioch
was called Christianity, went forth to the ends of the empire proclaiming
Jesus. In carrying this message, before the time of Paul the leadership was in
Greek hands; and these first missionaries, as also the later ones, followed the
path of Alexander's march of former days, going by way of Gaza and Tyre to
Antioch and then over Asia Minor to Macedonia, then on to Rome and to the
uttermost parts of the empire.
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
Faith Of Jesus
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