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Urantia Book Paper 193 Final Appearances And Ascension
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 ... Final Appearances And
Ascension
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Paper 193 Final Appearances And Ascension
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Introduction
THE sixteenth morontia manifestation of Jesus occurred on Friday, May 5, in the
courtyard of Nicodemus, about nine o'clock at night. On this evening the
Jerusalem believers had made their first attempt to get together since the
resurrection. Assembled here at this time were the eleven apostles, the women's
corps and their associates, and about fifty other leading disciples of the
Master, including a number of the Greeks. This company of believers had been
visiting informally for more than half an hour when, suddenly, the morontia
Master appeared in full view and immediately began to instruct them. Said
Jesus:
"Peace be upon you. This is the most representative group of
believers--apostles and disciples, both men and women--to which I have appeared
since the time of my deliverance from the flesh. I now call you to witness that
I told you beforehand that my sojourn among you must come to an end; I told you
that presently I must return to the Father. And then I plainly told you how the
chief priests and the rulers of the Jews would deliver me up to be put to
death, and that I would rise from the grave. Why, then, did you allow
yourselves to become so disconcerted by all this when it came to pass? and why
were you so surprised when I rose from the tomb on the third day? You failed to
believe me because you heard my words without comprehending the meaning
thereof.
"And now you should give ear to my words lest you again make the mistake of
hearing my teaching with the mind while in your hearts you fail to comprehend
the meaning. From the beginning of my sojourn as one of you, I taught you that
my one purpose was to reveal my Father in heaven to his children on earth. I
have lived the God-revealing bestowal that you might experience the God-knowing
career. I have revealed God as your Father in heaven; I have revealed you as
the sons of God on earth. It is a fact that God loves you, his sons. By faith
in my word this fact becomes an eternal and living truth in your hearts. When,
by living faith, you become divinely God-conscious, you are then born of the
spirit as children of light and life, even the eternal life wherewith you shall
ascend the universe of universes and attain the experience of finding God the
Father on Paradise.
"I admonish you ever to remember that your mission among men is to proclaim the
gospel of the kingdom--the reality of the fatherhood of God and the truth of
the sonship of man. Proclaim the whole truth of the good news, not just a part
of the saving gospel. Your message is not changed by my resurrection
experience. Sonship with God, by faith, is still the saving truth of the gospel
of the kingdom. You are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service
of man. That which the world needs most to know is: Men are the sons of God,
and through faith they can actually realize, and daily experience, this
ennobling truth.
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My bestowal should help all men to know that they are the children of God, but
such knowledge will not suffice if they fail personally to faith-grasp the
saving truth that they are the living spirit sons of the eternal Father. The
gospel of the kingdom is concerned with the love of the Father and the service
of his children on earth.
"Among yourselves, here, you share the knowledge that I have risen from the
dead, but that is not strange. I have the power to lay down my life and to take
it up again; the Father gives such power to his Paradise Sons. You should the
rather be stirred in your hearts by the knowledge that the dead of an age
entered upon the eternal ascent soon after I left Joseph's new tomb. I lived my
life in the flesh to show how you can, through loving service, become
God-revealing to your fellow men even as, by loving you and serving you, I have
become God-revealing to you. I have lived among you as the Son of Man that you,
and all other men, might know that you are all indeed the sons of God.
Therefore, go you now into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom
of heaven to all men. Love all men as I have loved you; serve your fellow
mortals as I have served you. Freely you have received, freely give. Only tarry
here in Jerusalem while I go to the Father, and until I send you the Spirit of
Truth. He shall lead you into the enlarged truth, and I will go with you into
all the world. I am with you always, and my peace I leave with you."
When the Master had spoken to them, he vanished from their sight. It was near
daybreak before these believers dispersed; all night they remained together,
earnestly discussing the Master's admonitions and contemplating all that had
befallen them. James Zebedee and others of the apostles also told them of their
experiences with the morontia Master in Galilee and recited how he had three
times appeared to them.
1. THE APPEARANCE AT SYCHAR
About four o'clock on Sabbath afternoon, May 13, the Master appeared to Nalda
and about seventy-five Samaritan believers near Jacob's well, at Sychar. The
believers were in the habit of meeting at this place, near where Jesus had
spoken to Nalda concerning the water of life. On this day, just as they had
finished their discussions of the reported resurrection, Jesus suddenly
appeared before them, saying:
"Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the
life, but this will avail you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal
spirit, thereby coming to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you
are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish. The
gospel of the kingdom has taught you that all men are the sons of God. And this
good news concerning the love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth
must be carried to all the world. The time has come when you worship God
neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem, but where you are, as you are, in spirit
and in truth. It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of
God to all who believe they are his sons. But be not deceived; while salvation
is the free gift of God and is bestowed upon all who accept it by faith, there
follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived
in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies
that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man. And
if man is your brother, he is
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even more than your neighbor, whom the Father requires you to love as yourself.
Your brother, being of your own family, you will not only love with a family
affection, but you will also serve as you would serve yourself. And you will
thus love and serve your brother because you, being my brethren, have been thus
loved and served by me. Go, then, into all the world telling this good news to
all creatures of every race, tribe, and nation. My spirit shall go before you,
and I will be with you always."
These Samaritans were greatly astonished at this appearance of the Master, and
they hastened off to the near-by towns and villages, where they published
abroad the news that they had seen Jesus, and that he had talked to them. And
this was the seventeenth morontia appearance of the Master.
2. THE PHOENICIAN APPEARANCE
The Master's eighteenth morontia appearance was at Tyre, on Tuesday, May 16, at
a little before nine o'clock in the evening. Again he appeared at the close of
a meeting of believers, as they were about to disperse, saying:
"Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the
dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive
mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously
born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding. The bread of life and the
water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for
righteousness--for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the
kingdom. These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this
gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are
embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed
and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into
the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you
abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God,
but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the
fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the
fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and
God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous
loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust,
merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace.
If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their
lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless
branches on the living vine, and they soon will be taken away. My Father
requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If,
therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your
unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as
you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a
child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature
of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good
news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide
in your hearts. My peace I leave with you."
And then the Master disappeared from their sight. The next day there went out
from Tyre those who carried this story to Sidon and even to Antioch and
Damascus. Jesus had been with these believers when he was in the flesh, and
they
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were quick to recognize him when he began to teach them. While his friends
could not readily recognize his morontia form when made visible, they were
never slow to identify his personality when he spoke to them.
3. LAST APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM
Early Thursday morning, May 18, Jesus made his last appearance on earth as a
morontia personality. As the eleven apostles were about to sit down to
breakfast in the upper chamber of Mary Mark's home, Jesus appeared to them and
said:
"Peace be upon you. I have asked you to tarry here in Jerusalem until I ascend
to the Father, even until I send you the Spirit of Truth, who shall soon be
poured out upon all flesh, and who shall endow you with power from on high."
Simon Zelotes interrupted Jesus, asking, "Then, Master, will you restore the
kingdom, and will we see the glory of God manifested on earth?" When Jesus had
listened to Simon's question, he answered: "Simon, you still cling to your old
ideas about the Jewish Messiah and the material kingdom. But you will receive
spiritual power after the spirit has descended upon you, and you will presently
go into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom. As the Father sent
me into the world, so do I send you. And I wish that you would love and trust
one another. Judas is no more with you because his love grew cold, and because
he refused to trust you, his loyal brethren. Have you not read in the Scripture
where it is written: `It is not good for man to be alone. No man lives to
himself'? And also where it says: `He who would have friends must show himself
friendly'? And did I not even send you out to teach, two and two, that you
might not become lonely and fall into the mischief and miseries of isolation?
You also well know that, when I was in the flesh, I did not permit myself to be
alone for long periods. From the very beginning of our associations I always
had two or three of you constantly by my side or else very near at hand even
when I communed with the Father. Trust, therefore, and confide in one another.
And this is all the more needful since I am this day going to leave you alone
in the world. The hour has come; I am about to go to the Father."
When he had spoken, he beckoned for them to come with him, and he led them out
on the Mount of Olives, where he bade them farewell preparatory to departing
from Urantia. This was a solemn journey to Olivet. Not a word was spoken by any
of them from the time they left the upper chamber until Jesus paused with them
on the Mount of Olives.
4. CAUSES OF JUDAS'S DOWNFALL
It was in the first part of the Master's farewell message to his apostles that
he alluded to the loss of Judas and held up the tragic fate of their traitorous
fellow worker as a solemn warning against the dangers of social and fraternal
isolation. It may be helpful to believers, in this and in future ages, briefly
to review the causes of Judas's downfall in the light of the Master's remarks
and in view of the accumulated enlightenment of succeeding centuries.
As we look back upon this tragedy, we conceive that Judas went wrong,
primarily, because he was very markedly an isolated personality, a personality
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shut in and away from ordinary social contacts. He persistently refused to
confide in, or freely fraternize with, his fellow apostles. But his being an
isolated type of personality would not, in and of itself, have wrought such
mischief for Judas had it not been that he also failed to increase in love and
grow in spiritual grace. And then, as if to make a bad matter worse, he
persistently harbored grudges and fostered such psychologic enemies as revenge
and the generalized craving to "get even" with somebody for all his
disappointments.
This unfortunate combination of individual peculiarities and mental tendencies
conspired to destroy a well-intentioned man who failed to subdue these evils by
love, faith, and trust. That Judas need not have gone wrong is well proved by
the cases of Thomas and Nathaniel, both of whom were cursed with this same sort
of suspicion and overdevelopment of the individualistic tendency. Even Andrew
and Matthew had many leanings in this direction; but all these men grew to love
Jesus and their fellow apostles more, and not less, as time passed. They grew
in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. They became increasingly more
trustful of their brethren and slowly developed the ability to confide in their
fellows. Judas persistently refused to confide in his brethren. When he was
impelled, by the accumulation of his emotional conflicts, to seek relief in
self-expression, he invariably sought the advice and received the unwise
consolation of his unspiritual relatives or those chance acquaintances who were
either indifferent, or actually hostile, to the welfare and progress of the
spiritual realities of the heavenly kingdom, of which he was one of the twelve
consecrated ambassadors on earth.
Judas met defeat in his battles of the earth struggle because of the following
factors of personal tendencies and character weakness:
1. He was an isolated type of human being. He was highly individualistic and
chose to grow into a confirmed "shut-in" and unsociable sort of person.
2. As a child, life had been made too easy for him. He bitterly resented
thwarting. He always expected to win; he was a very poor loser.
3. He never acquired a philosophic technique for meeting disappointment.
Instead of accepting disappointments as a regular and commonplace feature of
human existence, he unfailingly resorted to the practice of blaming someone in
particular, or his associates as a group, for all his personal difficulties and
disappointments.
4. He was given to holding grudges; he was always entertaining the idea of
revenge.
5. He did not like to face facts frankly; he was dishonest in his attitude
toward life situations.
6. He disliked to discuss his personal problems with his immediate associates;
he refused to talk over his difficulties with his real friends and those who
truly loved him. In all the years of their association he never once went to
the Master with a purely personal problem.
7. He never learned that the real rewards for noble living are, after all,
spiritual prizes, which are not always distributed during this one short life
in the flesh.
As a result of his persistent isolation of personality, his griefs multiplied,
his sorrows increased, his anxieties augmented, and his despair deepened almost
beyond endurance.
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While this self-centered and ultraindividualistic apostle had many psychic,
emotional, and spiritual troubles, his main difficulties were: In personality,
he was isolated. In mind, he was suspicious and vengeful. In temperament, he
was surly and vindictive. Emotionally, he was loveless and unforgiving.
Socially, he was unconfiding and almost wholly self-contained. In spirit, he
became arrogant and selfishly ambitious. In life, he ignored those who loved
him, and in death, he was friendless.
These, then, are the factors of mind and influences of evil which, taken
altogether, explain why a well-meaning and otherwise onetime sincere believer
in Jesus, even after several years of intimate association with his
transforming personality, forsook his fellows, repudiated a sacred cause,
renounced his holy calling, and betrayed his divine Master.
5. THE MASTER'S ASCENSION
It was almost half past seven o'clock this Thursday morning, May 18, when Jesus
arrived on the western slope of Mount Olivet with his eleven silent and
somewhat bewildered apostles. From this location, about two thirds the way up
the mountain, they could look out over Jerusalem and down upon Gethsemane.
Jesus now prepared to say his last farewell to the apostles before he took
leave of Urantia. As he stood there before them, without being directed they
knelt about him in a circle, and the Master said:
"I bade you tarry in Jerusalem until you were endowed with power from on high.
I am now about to take leave of you; I am about to ascend to my Father, and
soon, very soon, will we send into this world of my sojourn the Spirit of
Truth; and when he has come, you shall begin the new proclamation of the gospel
of the kingdom, first in Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the
world. Love men with the love wherewith I have loved you and serve your fellow
mortals even as I have served you. By the spirit fruits of your lives impel
souls to believe the truth that man is a son of God, and that all men are
brethren. Remember all I have taught you and the life I have lived among you.
My love overshadows you, my spirit will dwell with you, and my peace shall
abide upon you. Farewell."
When the morontia Master had thus spoken, he vanished from their sight. This
so-called ascension of Jesus was in no way different from his other
disappearances from mortal vision during the forty days of his morontia career
on Urantia.
The Master went to Edentia by way of Jerusem, where the Most Highs, under the
observation of the Paradise Son, released Jesus of Nazareth from the morontia
state and, through the spirit channels of ascension, returned him to the status
of Paradise sonship and supreme sovereignty on Salvington.
It was about seven forty-five this morning when the morontia Jesus disappeared
from the observation of his eleven apostles to begin the ascent to the right
hand of his Father, there to receive formal confirmation of his completed
sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon.
6. PETER CALLS A MEETING
Acting upon the instruction of Peter, John Mark and others went forth to call
the leading disciples together at the home of Mary Mark. By ten thirty, one
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hundred and twenty of the foremost disciples of Jesus living in Jerusalem had
forgathered to hear the report of the farewell message of the Master and to
learn of his ascension. Among this company was Mary the mother of Jesus. She
had returned to Jerusalem with John Zebedee when the apostles came back from
their recent sojourn in Galilee. Soon after Pentecost she returned to the home
of Salome at Bethsaida. James the brother of Jesus was also present at this
meeting, the first conference of the Master's disciples to be called after the
termination of his planetary career.
Simon Peter took it upon himself to speak for his fellow apostles and made a
thrilling report of the last meeting of the eleven with their Master and most
touchingly portrayed the Master's final farewell and his ascension
disappearance. It was a meeting the like of which had never before occurred on
this world. This part of the meeting lasted not quite one hour. Peter then
explained that they had decided to choose a successor to Judas Iscariot, and
that a recess would be granted to enable the apostles to decide between the two
men who had been suggested for this position, Matthias and Justus.
The eleven apostles then went downstairs, where they agreed to cast lots in
order to determine which of these men should become an apostle to serve in
Judas's place. The lot fell on Matthias, and he was declared to be the new
apostle. He was duly inducted into his office and then appointed treasurer. But
Matthias had little part in the subsequent activities of the apostles.
Soon after Pentecost the twins returned to their homes in Galilee. Simon
Zelotes was in retirement for some time before he went forth preaching the
gospel. Thomas worried for a shorter period and then resumed his teaching.
Nathaniel differed increasingly with Peter regarding preaching about Jesus in
the place of proclaiming the former gospel of the kingdom. This disagreement
became so acute by the middle of the following month that Nathaniel withdrew,
going to Philadelphia to visit Abner and Lazarus; and after tarrying there for
more than a year, he went on into the lands beyond Mesopotamia preaching the
gospel as he understood it.
This left but six of the original twelve apostles to become actors on the stage
of the early proclamation of the gospel in Jerusalem: Peter, Andrew, James,
John, Philip, and Matthew.
Just about noon the apostles returned to their brethren in the upper chamber
and announced that Matthias had been chosen as the new apostle. And then Peter
called all of the believers to engage in prayer, prayer that they might be
prepared to receive the gift of the spirit which the Master had promised to
send.
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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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