Episode:Jesus Culminates His Ministry—Final Preaching and Teaching (Part 4)
The fact that the spiritual leaders and the religious teachers of the Jewish nation onetime rejected the teachings of Jesus and conspired to bring about his cruel death, does not in any manner affect the status of any individual Jew in his standing before God. And it should not cause those who profess to be followers of the Christ to be prejudiced against the Jew as a fellow mortal.
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Hatred of Jews, Sanhedrin Death Sentence, Spiritual Battle Lines
Opening thought: Then [King] Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am.” Acts 26:28-29
Closing thought: Notice that the end of Paper 175 presents the situation "among men."
Note: This was Ruthie Wilde Wenger's first episode as a new co-host. David Tucker joined at the beginning to read aloud his summary of the previous episode.
Summary by Andrea
Commentary after Review
We discussed the last Temple Discourse and the stark language that Jesus used. How could the leaders reject this call to repent and not heed the call into the Kingdom? We must remember that this discourse was not just for men and women of another age but for every age, especially this one.
In [34:6.7] we are reminded “It is not enough that this spirit be poured out upon you; the divine Spirit must dominate and control every phase of human experience.” This consecration must be chosen. If there is one thing that we will not submit to, then all of our other strivings are in vain. Courage must be in play so that we can obtain the purity of our soul that we desire. We have been given everything we need to accomplish this task.
We considered one of the "woes" that Jesus proclaimed: “Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! for you do indeed encompass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you have succeeded, you are not content until you have made him twofold worse than he was as a child of the heathen.” The further elucidation of this helped us understand that not only do folks not take revelation seriously enough, but even moreso when a person is born into a world where they simply cannot know reality to any extent living on a sin-darkened sphere it is no fault of theirs. Many will need a probation extension to eradicate these deficits.
In addition, if you take someone in that grace-filled innocent state and give them religious training that is nothing but falsehood and full of unrelenting burdens to bear, it does indeed put them in a 2-fold worse state.
Of course, there are always times in the early days of any world where these sorts of fear-based concepts simply must be a part of the natural evolution of early religion.
We all get programmed to live and behave in certain ways. It’s not easy to reprogram ourselves. People just get hard-wired for certain behaviors and because our mindal inertia is so great, change can be difficult, even impossible. Our lack of the Adamic uplift is a big part of the issue. Let us remember that even if we can’t do much about that inertia we can still work around it using our upper domain of mind, our personality management. That top-down approach can overcome some of these shortcomings. Just as Jesus did, in the Garden of Gethsemane that awful night, when he felt the weight of deep depression and anxiety, we too can work through these issues using our upper domain.
For us, with our various programmed traits, the only way to resolve this is to be resurrected on the Mansion Worlds where our "feet of clay" no longer encumber us. And onward we progress until, by the time we reach the 3rd Mansion World, these vestigial animal traits just aren’t reprogrammable any longer.
One more question about those "woes" that Jesus delivered was how we can look at the witting, not unwitting secularists of today. When someone is willfully set against the idea of believing in God there could still be redemption because perhaps there are circumstances that would reveal a faint flicker of faith that will bring them through. We should all consecrate to a purity that involves turning away from those things which put the glory of man above the glory of God and be unrelenting in our search for those things that might lead us astray.
Let us beware of putting first:
- The human instead of the divine
- The temporal instead of the eternal
- The material instead of the spiritual
175:2 Status of Individual Jews
The revelators tell us that those professed followers of Jesus of Nazareth who have murdered the descendants of the Jews are considered intolerant, unworthy, and bigoted. The term "unworthy" is particularly stark. The Midwayers speak so clearly here and leave no room about what an ungodlike response this hatred of the Jews is. Many of the descendants of Jesus’ apostles have been killed. But, we are told in no uncertain terms not to participate in any un-Christlike hatred of the Jews. The consequences to the Jews have been severe and they have paid the full price. Remember that hatred is the spiritualization of dislike. Each individual Jew should be judged on the fact that they are a potential son of God, just like all of us.
This thinking that people are to blame for the sins of their ancestors is playing out in our current society. While this may be a natural way for people to think, it is not a truly religious approach. A secularized framing of life will create these erroneous and godless ways of thinking. The manipulation of facts designed for personal gain around this issue because of supposed guilt about what one’s predecessors have done is an attempt at domination by vicious minorities that the revelators warn us about. This substitution of secular, so-called niceties for true, religious modalities is part of the corruption happening in our society. God is no respecter of persons that he knows. But who does God know?
We continued this interesting conversation by reviewing [133:0]. Said Jesus: "Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not." And "...the way of the ungodly shall perish."
175:3 The Fateful Sanhedrin Meeting
We read that “It was just before midnight on this Tuesday, April 4, A.D. 30, that the Sanhedrin, as then constituted, officially and unanimously voted to impose the death sentence upon both Jesus and Lazarus.” This verdict represented their reaction of bitter resentment toward Jesus and we are told that was the last offer of heavenly mercy ever to be extended to the Jewish nation, as such. The cost that the Jews have paid for this is great. Their favored nation status was taken away. They are no longer the "chosen people." This section is a painful and stark reminder about the Most Highs ruling in the kingdoms of men.
The Jews really were the chosen people. It was not just an old-timey phrase when they use the term “divine covenant.” Before this moment, the Jews had been protected by the shields of the Most Highs. But that was withdrawn when this fateful meeting occurred. Within 40 years Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were scattered to the far ends of the earth. Again, individual Jews of today are not responsible for what happened then.
While the Sadducees and the Pharisees had different reasons for wanting Jesus dead both groups were only looking out for their selfish and self-serving ways.
175:4 The Situation in Jerusalem
The state of mind of Judas Iscariot was discussed. He missed the first mercy-proffering half of Jesus’s discourse in the temple, only hearing the final part where Jesus denounced the leaders. It was at this moment that he finally made up his mind to leave. However, he did go with them back to the camp that night. Did he really reject Jesus in the deepest core of his heart? We conjectured that if had done that, he wouldn’t have committed suicide because of the shame he felt.
Everyone in Jerusalem asked the question "What will become of Jesus?" We imagined that even the business of the universe slowed to a standstill as these hours played out.
Reflecting on Jesus’s piercing rebuke of the Sanhedrin, we are reminded that Jesus is a whole Jesus. The fact that his discourse was described with words like ruthless denunciation and scathing rebuke should remind us that Jesus represents not only the love of God but the justice of the Paradise Trinity.
Brad's Notes
- Brad gave testimony of his personal journey at last week's International Conference 2023 in Chicago Illinois
- This plenary talk was entitled “An Unwitting Geologic Misadventure Into the Secular Wastelands".
- Andrea also spoke at this conference on “The inevitabilities”.
- We tried our best to present honest reflection and personal recognition.
- Links to the recorded videos may be available here at some point.
