The Late Great Urantia Revelation

[freelight]

cosmic law..................

cosmic law..................

~*~*~

Greetings all,

Interestingly, I've been finding a few parallels between the teaching of the 'laws of nature' being universal principles in the school of Theosophy, that I've correlated to some of the cosmic laws shared about in the UB. Granted, the main tenets and principles in Theosophy do differ in some respects than certain concepts shared in the papers, but both agree that the Universe itself is law-governed and coordinated, and that even 'God' himself (if we personify the Supreme Infinite Deity, to use the pronoun 'him') or the all Supreme Being or Absolute, is 'law' itself. This takes us deeper philosophically to explore the subject. This is just a 'nibbler' for now,....more to come :surf:

12:7.1 There is operative throughout all time and space and with regard to all reality of whatever nature an inexorable and impersonal law which is equivalent to the function of a cosmic providence.

On the other hand the papers reveal much about the 'personality' of God, yet also refer to God as being 'law', meaning Deity is the essential source of all true 'being' and 'becoming',....what is 'actual' and 'potential'.

10:6.1 All law takes origin in the First Source and Center (The Universal Father); he is law.

 

[Caino]

~*~*~

Greetings all,

Interestingly, I've been finding a few parallels between the teaching of the 'laws of nature' being universal principles in the school of Theosophy, that I've correlated to some of the cosmic laws shared about in the UB. Granted, the main tenets and principles in Theosophy do differ in some respects than certain concepts shared in the papers, but both agree that the Universe itself is law-governed and coordinated, and that even 'God' himself (if we personify the Supreme Infinite Deity, to use the pronoun 'him') or the all Supreme Being or Absolute, is 'law' itself. This takes us deeper philosophically to explore the subject. This is just a 'nibbler' for now,....more to come :surf:



On the other hand the papers reveal much about the 'personality' of God, yet also refer to God as being 'law', meaning Deity is the essential source of all true 'being' and 'becoming',....what is 'actual' and 'potential'.

Thanks Free, I thought of this parallel quote:

2:6.6 "The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality—one of justice and one of mercy—neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge." UB

 

[freelight]

law

law

Thanks Free, I thought of this parallel quote:

2:6.6 "The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality—one of justice and one of mercy—neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge." UB

This is very interesting as we relate 'sin' to being the transgression of 'law', its consequence being 'death'. Even Paul speaks of the law of sin and death, how the wages of sin equals 'death'. Some passages below -

2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster. Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual extinction of being. Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature, cannot exist forever in a progressingly real and increasingly spiritual universe.

Above we see that divine love is always afforded the soul, and that sin or iniquity, if fully embraced and allowed its full fruition ends in 'death' (unreality/non-existence/oblivion). Interesting verse "the love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin". - it would seem the law of God both saves and destroys, since being in harmony with divine law is life-sustaining, while transgressing law tends towards 'dis-integration' (death).

Below we see that the law itself is 'life', being the very essence and principle of life,....hence earlier we see that all law has its source in God. God is life. God is law.

48:6.33 Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct. Evil is a transgression of law, not a violation of the rules of conduct pertaining to life, which is the law.

Concerning your first quote above Caino,....indeed....the Father's love is already granted by his divine nature and will, to 'be' and 'do' all he can for his universe children. A blood sacrifice is not needed to compel or legally permit God's love, which is actually a mistaken perception or wrong assumption about God.

 

[freelight]

Law as both impersonal and personal.......

Law as both impersonal and personal.......

~*~*~

102:7.1 The Universal Father, being self-existent, is also self-explanatory; he actually lives in every rational mortal. But you cannot be sure about God unless you know him; sonship is the only experience which makes fatherhood certain. The universe is everywhere undergoing change. A changing universe is a dependent universe; such a creation cannot be either final or absolute. A finite universe is wholly dependent on the Ultimate and the Absolute. The universe and God are not identical; one is cause, the other effect. The cause is absolute, infinite, eternal, and changeless; the effect, time-space and transcendental but ever changing, always growing.

102:7.2 God is the one and only self-caused fact in the universe. He is the secret of the order, plan, and purpose of the whole creation of things and beings. The everywhere-changing universe is regulated and stabilized by absolutely unchanging laws, the habits of an unchanging God. The fact of God, the divine law, is changeless; the truth of God, his relation to the universe, is a relative revelation which is ever adaptable to the constantly evolving universe.

102:7.3 Those who would invent a religion without God are like those who would gather fruit without trees, have children without parents. You cannot have effects without causes; only the I AM is causeless. The fact of religious experience implies God, and such a God of personal experience must be a personal Deity. You cannot pray to a chemical formula, supplicate a mathematical equation, worship a hypothesis, confide in a postulate, commune with a process, serve an abstraction, or hold loving fellowship with a law.


- Paper 102.7, UB

Here we have a wonderful passage about the unchanging nature of law, and how that Deity is revealed as a divine personality capable of communion/fellowship with other personalities, hence his revelation of being 'Our Father' and we his children (the concept of 'sonship'). I love the last verse - nevertheless,...there are impersonal aspects of universal law operating in the cosmos. The papers acknowledge all levels of reality, from personal to non-personal, as the totality of reality includes all aspects, levels and dimensions.

We might note here that Theosophy holds the supreme eternal, infinite principle or 'The Absolute' as Impersonal, beyond form, knowledge, attributes....so does not advocate invoking or addressing 'God' as 'Father' (or as a 'personality') since to do so is to bring the infinite down to the level of limited, finite human understanding. 'God' only becomes 'personal' or 'personalized' in the relative realm of reality as we give him such qualities or attributes. In Hinduism, 'Brahman'(God, the Supreme) has both a 'nirguna' (without form or attributes) and a 'saguna' (with form or attributes) aspect...so various schools in that tradition are fine with accepting both 'modes' of 'God' as it were. The higher cosmic view includes 'God' in his invisible and visible 'forms', metaphorically speaking.

 

[freelight]

The law of the kingdom.......

The law of the kingdom.......

~*~*~

Jesus comes to fulfill, enlarge and illuminate.

140:6.2 When he had entered the garden, he gathered the apostles around him and taught them further, saying: "You find it difficult to receive my message because you would build the new teaching directly upon the old, but I declare that you must be reborn. You must start out afresh as little children and be willing to trust my teaching and believe in God. The new gospel of the kingdom cannot be made to conform to that which is. You have wrong ideas of the Son of Man and his mission on earth. But do not make the mistake of thinking that I have come to set aside the law and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill, to enlarge and illuminate. I come not to transgress the law but rather to write these new commandments on the tablets of your hearts.

It is unity of will, the will of the Spirit dynamically active and directing the inner man, that is key to realizing the kingdom.

141:2.2 “When you are the subjects of this kingdom, you indeed are made to hear the law of the Universe Ruler; but when, because of the gospel of the kingdom which I have come to declare, you faith-discover yourselves as sons, you henceforth look not upon yourselves as law-subject creatures of an all-powerful king but as privileged sons of a loving and divine Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, when the Father's will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in you. When God's will is your law, you are noble slave subjects; but when you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship, my Father's will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom.”

The essentials of the gospel of Jesus included:

42:1.1 Throughout this month Jesus or one of the apostles taught daily in the temple. When the Passover crowds were too great to find entrance to the temple teaching, the apostles conducted many teaching groups outside the sacred precincts. The burden of their message was:


1. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
2. By faith in the fatherhood of God you may enter the kingdom of heaven, thus becoming the sons of God.
3. Love is the rule of living within the kingdom—supreme devotion to God while loving your neighbor as yourself.
4. Obedience to the will of the Father, yielding the fruits of the spirit in one's personal life, is the law of the kingdom.

 

[patrick jane]

~*~*~

Jesus comes to fulfill, enlarge and illuminate.




It is unity of will, the will of the Spirit dynamically active and directing the inner man, that is key to realizing the kingdom.



The essentials of the gospel of Jesus included:

Biblical principles to live by and experience, but the Bible is all we need to read.

 

[Caino]

Biblical principles to live by and experience, but the Bible is all we need to read.

The Jews were also closed minded and afraid of Jesus. There is more truth than the Bible AND the Urantia Book.

 

[freelight]

Progressive Revelation.......

Progressive Revelation.......

Biblical principles to live by and experience, but the Bible is all we need to read.

The UB greatly enhances our general knowledge base from the 20th century, building on such human knowledge (in religion, philosophy and science), illumining/enhancing it, plus giving a greater cosmological revelation of the Universe of universes, 'God', 'dynamics of creation', 'angelic heirarchies', 'nature of religion' and the ministry of Jesus (4 Parts, 196 papers).

The Bible has its place and contributions, but cannot be the 'one' and 'only' source for truth, since 'God' is a universal reality, and there is 'progressive revelation'. If one wishes to just stick with one religious book of a particular tradition, they are free too, but to not consider and accept that 'God' has/is continually revealing himself and has poured out his light and wisdom in every culture and tradition, is to be rather closed-minded to reality. Any truth or relevant concept found in the papers enhances our knowledge and comprehension of the universe and nature of God, so can only be of 'benefit' not detriment.


Acknowledgement at end of the Foreword:

0:12.11 In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.

0:12.12 Successive planetary revelations of divine truth invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and enhanced co-ordination of planetary knowledge. Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.

0:12.13 We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.

0:12.14 [Indited by an Orvonton Divine Counselor, chief of the corps of superuniverse personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes.]

 

[freelight]

Biblical principles to live by and experience,.....

Note that true religious principles, ideals and ethics are universal, and will be true wherever they are found and practiced.

 

[freelight]

The Jews were also closed minded and afraid of Jesus. There is more truth than the Bible AND the Urantia Book.

Hi Caino,

Not sure if you worded the above correctly, if we might get a better understanding of your last sentence

In any case,...having multiple attestation of truth from more than one source enhances original or previous revelation, and enlarges it, - a new dispensation adding to and revising previous concepts if needed, is also beneficial.

 

[Caino]

Hi Caino,

Not sure if you worded the above correctly, if we might get a better understanding of your last sentence

In any case,...having multiple attestation of truth from more than one source enhances original or previous revelation, and enlarges it, - a new dispensation adding to and revising previous concepts if needed, is also beneficial.

Yes, well, I meant to say that more will be revealed, that there is more to know and discover. Our friends here are offended at the apparent revision of the Bible, I'm simply telling the truth that the Urantia Book will also undergo revision in the future as newly discovered facts and truths will emerge from the scaffolding of the current understanding.

Forward​

"It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning."UB​

frank statement​

"But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia."UB

 

[freelight]

law and truth.............

law and truth.............

Yes, well, I meant to say that more will be revealed, that there is more to know and discover. Our friends here are offended at the apparent revision of the Bible, I'm simply telling the truth that the Urantia Book will also undergo revision in the future as newly discovered facts and truths will emerge from the scaffolding of the current understanding.

Forward​

"It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning."UB​

frank statement​

"But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia."UB

Indeed,...this is most logical in the light of 'progressive revelation'. In the evolving consciousness of mortals, new dispensations of revelation must be forthcoming. Hence the arising of new and better 'covenants' if not by divine unfolding, also by the evolving intellect of man for seeing the need for new innovations or translations of religious principle and philosophy. Such is the nature of life in its forward movement.

While researching references for 'law' in the papers,....I came upon this which sheds light on the nature of 'truth' as it is revealed by the 'Helper' or 'Spirit of truth' which is Christ's own spirit being given to man, his 'promised presence' (the Spirit of truth to be distinguished from other spirit-ministers, but working in conjunction with) -

180:5.1 The new helper which Jesus promised to send into the hearts of believers, to pour out upon all flesh, is the Spirit of Truth. This divine endowment is not the letter or law of truth, neither is it to function as the form or expression of truth. The new teacher is the conviction of truth, the consciousness and assurance of true meanings on real spirit levels. And this new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth.

180:5.2 Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. Post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind .

Here we see and most would agree, that truth is a living dynamic of experiential knowing, and cannot be contained or imprisoned in any creed or intellectual formulation. Its fine to have tenets written describing various truths, philosophical concepts or theological viewpoints, as 'language' is our medium of 'relating' (literal or figurative), but it is ever the spirit of truth that is communicating the truth of anything to us, thru 'experience' and 'knowing'.

 

[freelight]

Error, evil, sin, iniquity.......

Error, evil, sin, iniquity.......

Disprove Original Sin all you want, there is still NONE who are sinless, besides Christ, and without His Blood you are still dead in your trespasses and sins.

Well,...as far as 'original sin' goes, its just a concept, or an 'assumed' doctrine for some. From a biblical perspective, Alfred Overstreet does a wonderful job to disprove the concept here, lots of good stuff there.

The papers give a different view and definition of 'sin' as we've shared here previously.

See: Error, Evil, Sin and Iniquity

"Evil is the unconscious or unintended transgression of the divine law, the Father's will. Evil is likewise the measure of the imperfectness of obedience to the Father's will. Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father's will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed. Iniquity is the willful, determined, and persistent transgression of the divine law, the Father's will. Iniquity is the measure of the continued rejection of the Father's loving plan of personality survival and the Sons' merciful ministry of salvation.

~ Jesus, The Urantia Book, (148:4.3)

The forgiveness of sin by Deity is the renewal of loyalty relations following a period of the human consciousness of the lapse of such relations as the consequence of conscious rebellion. The forgiveness does not have to be sought, only received as the consciousness of re-establishment of loyalty relations between the creature and the Creator. ~ The Urantia Book, (89:10.6)

There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the universe philosophic viewpoint sin is the attitude of a personality who is knowingly resisting cosmic reality. Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or maladjustment to, universe realities. But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine reality—a conscious choosing to oppose spiritual progress—while iniquity consists in an open and persistent defiance of recognized reality and signifies such a degree of personality disintegration as to border on cosmic insanity. ~ The Urantia Book, (67:1.4)

 

[Caino]

What is personality and where does it come from?

PERSONALITY REALITIES ​

0:5.1 "Personality is a level of deified reality and ranges from the mortal and midwayer level of the higher mind activation of worship and wisdom up through the morontial and spiritual to the attainment of finality of personality status. That is the evolutionary ascent of mortal- and kindred- creature personality, but there are numerous other orders of universe personalities.

0:5.2 Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity co-ordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities.

0:5.3 On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even cocreational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael—Son of Man and Son of God.

0:5.4 All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational capacity. But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy and it is associated only with living energy systems; identity can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.

0:5.5 The Universal Father is the secret of the reality of personality, the bestowal of personality, and the destiny of personality. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality, the secret of spiritual energy, morontia spirits, and perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality, the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal mind. But the Isle of Paradise is nonpersonal and extraspiritual, being the essence of the universal body, the source and center of physical matter, and the absolute master pattern of universal material reality.

0:5.6 These qualities of universal reality are manifest in Urantian human experience on the following levels:


1. Body. The material or physical organism of man. The living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and origin.

2. Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom to the spirit level.

3. Spirit. The divine spirit that indwells the mind of man—the Thought Adjuster. This immortal spirit is prepersonal— not a personality, though destined to become a part of the personality of the surviving mortal creature.

4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to "do the will of the Father in heaven," so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual—it is morontial. This is the emerging and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension.

Personality. The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; and it unifies all other associated factors of individuality. The personality is the unique bestowal which the Universal Father makes upon the living and associated energies of matter, mind, and spirit, and which survives with the survival of the morontial soul.

0:5.12 Morontia is a term designating a vast level intervening between the material and the spiritual. It may designate personal or impersonal realities, living or nonliving energies. The warp of morontia is spiritual; its woof is physical. "UB

 

[Caino]

 

[freelight]

Personality.....

Personality.....

What is personality and where does it come from?

Great quotes on 'personality' as the papers go into the complex dynamic and description of 'personality' existing and operating in a conscious being...until it becomes 'immortalized' within a living soul, as it "puts on immortality". It speaks of personality being unchanging in its essential core or seed, but obviously the personality enlarges, is expanded or enhanced as it progresses in knowledge and experience. While aspects of personality are described or assumed,...even the revelators admit such being a 'mystery', as it is a divine grant/gift of the Universal Father who is its very source.

Audio-video on 'Personality of the Universal Father' here

 

[freelight]

cocreational destiny.....

cocreational destiny.....

PERSONALITY REALITIES ​

0:5.2 Reality is subject to universal expansion, personality to infinite diversification, and both are capable of well-nigh unlimited Deity co-ordination and eternal stabilization. While the metamorphic range of nonpersonal reality is definitely limited, we know of no limitations to the progressive evolution of personality realities.

0:5.3 On attained experiential levels all personality orders or values are associable and even cocreational. Even God and man can coexist in a unified personality, as is so exquisitely demonstrated in the present status of Christ Michael—Son of Man and Son of God.

0:5.4 All subinfinite orders and phases of personality are associative attainables and are potentially cocreational. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all linked together by mutual potential of co-ordinate attainment, progressive achievement, and cocreational capacity. But never does the impersonal directly transmute to the personal. Personality is never spontaneous; it is the gift of the Paradise Father. Personality is superimposed upon energy and it is associated only with living energy systems; identity can be associated with nonliving energy patterns.

"UB

Here we see that 'personality' potentials and capacities are "co-creational"

Note as well, that Jesus (Christ-Michael, our Creator Son and Savior) is a perfect example of both 'God' and 'Man' co-existing in a unified personality, so that this example of high and divine Sonship is the epitome of God-man communion. While this high example of divine Sonship is unique and special regarding the 'Creator-Son',...we too as mortals with immortality-potential experience true God-man communion thru fusion and association with our 'thought-adjuster', the indwelling fragment of Deity.

 

[Caino]

What was "the rock" ?​

157:3.3 As they paused for lunch, Jesus suddenly confronted the twelve with the first question he had ever addressed to them concerning himself. He asked this surprising question, “Who do men say that I am?”


157:3.4 Jesus had spent long months in training these apostles as to the nature and character of the kingdom of heaven, and he well knew the time had come when he must begin to teach them more about his own nature and his personal relationship to the kingdom. And now, as they were seated under the mulberry trees, the Master made ready to hold one of the most momentous sessions of his long association with the chosen apostles.

157:3.5 More than half the apostles participated in answering Jesus' question. They told him that he was regarded as a prophet or as an extraordinary man by all who knew him; that even his enemies greatly feared him, accounting for his powers by the indictment that he was in league with the prince of devils. They told him that some in Judea and Samaria who had not met him personally believed he was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Peter explained that he had been, at sundry times and by various persons, compared with Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. When Jesus had listened to this report, he drew himself upon his feet, and looking down upon the twelve sitting about him in a semicircle, with startling emphasis he pointed to them with a sweeping gesture of his hand and asked, “But who say you that I am?” There was a moment of tense silence. The twelve never took their eyes off the Master, and then Simon Peter, springing to his feet, exclaimed: “You are the Deliverer, the Son of the living God.” And the eleven sitting apostles arose to their feet with one accord, thereby indicating that Peter had spoken for all of them.

157:3.6 When Jesus had beckoned them again to be seated, and while still standing before them, he said: “This has been revealed to you by my Father. The hour has come when you should know the truth about me. But for the time being I charge you that you tell this to no man. Let us go hence.”



157:3.7 And so they resumed their journey to Caesarea Philippi arriving late that evening and stopping at the home of Celsus, who was expecting them. The apostles slept little that night; they seemed to sense that a great event in their lives and in the work of the kingdom had transpired.


CONT>

 

[Caino]

After they had partaken of their meal and were engaged in discussing plans for the forthcoming tour of the Decapolis, Jesus suddenly looked up into their faces and said: “Now that a full day has passed since you assented to Simon Peter's declaration regarding the identity of the Son of Man, I would ask if you still hold to your decision?” On hearing this, the twelve stood upon their feet, and Simon Peter, stepping a few paces forward toward Jesus, said: “Yes, Master, we do. We believe that you are the Son of the living God.” And Peter sat down with his brethren.

157:4.5 Jesus, still standing, then said to the twelve: “You are my chosen ambassadors, but I know that, in the circumstances, you could not entertain this belief as a result of mere human knowledge. This is a revelation of the spirit of my Father to your inmost souls. And when, therefore, you make this confession by the insight of the spirit of my Father which dwells within you, I am led to declare that upon this foundation will I build the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. Upon this rock of spiritual reality will I build the living temple of spiritual fellowship in the eternal realities of my Father's kingdom. All the forces of evil and the hosts of sin shall not prevail against this human fraternity of the divine spirit. And while my Father's spirit shall ever be the divine guide and mentor of all who enter the bonds of this spirit fellowship, to you and your successors I now deliver the keys of the outward kingdom—the authority over things temporal—the social and economic features of this association of men and women as fellows of the kingdom.” And again he charged them, for the time being, that they should tell no man that he was the Son of God.

157:4.6 Jesus was beginning to have faith in the loyalty and integrity of his apostles. The Master conceived that a faith which could stand what his chosen representatives had recently passed through would undoubtedly endure the fiery trials which were just ahead and emerge from the apparent wreckage of all their hopes into the new light of a new dispensation and thereby be able to go forth to enlighten a world sitting in darkness. On this day the Master began to believe in the faith of his apostles, save one.

157:4.7 And ever since that day this same Jesus has been building that living temple upon that same eternal foundation of his divine sonship, and those who thereby become self-conscious sons of God are the human stones which constitute this living temple of sonship erecting to the glory and honor of the wisdom and love of the eternal Father of spirits.

157:4.8 And when Jesus had thus spoken, he directed the twelve to go apart by themselves in the hills to seek wisdom, strength, and spiritual guidance until the time of the evening meal. And they did as the Master admonished them.

The Rock never was Peter nor the institutional church, any institutional church!​

 

[Aimiel]

Pure fiction. 100% lies.