Episode:Jesus Culminates His Ministry—Final Preaching and Teaching (Part 6)
Jesus said: “Make no mistake! your survival faith is a living faith, and it increasingly manifests the fruits of that divine spirit which first inspired it in the human heart. That you have once accepted sonship in the heavenly kingdom will not save you in the face of the knowing and persistent rejection of those truths which have to do with the progressive spiritual fruit-bearing of the sons of God in the flesh.”
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Parable of the Talents, Children of Light, Return of Michael
Opening thought: Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37
Closing thought: Go in the joy and the liberty of truth.
Summary by Brad
We briefly discussed how the gospel records came to be. John Zebedee directed Nathan to begin writing in AD 101. By then, we reasoned Selta's apocalyptic document would have been a well-known human source work. But the elder John Zebedee apparently said, “Ah Nathan, no, ignore Selta's writing. Jesus never said that.”
On revelation meeting evolution
Left to our own devices, our natural thought processes top out at a fairly low level. We cannot naturally think of anything above tribal life or much more than the horde or the early (place-like) mother family. Only revelation can teach us about the four experiential divine ideals:
- representative government (science),
- nation life (politics),
- family life as a purposing, directional influence (society), and
- preeminence of the individual (religion).
All four of these divine ideals must revealed. Only in the context of this larger revealed picture can the proper meaning of the word “love” be understood, for example. The cosmos is one integrated system. You cannot get to the truth of love apart from the truth of everything else.
Fast forward to today. The revelators have decided we must be ready to have revealed to us another concept that evolution could never find on its own: time is an appearance. Time is an experiential actuality. You, as a finite creature, are taking a journey that slowly brings more and more of the pre-existing reality of eternity into your view. If time is a reality to you (instead of eternity being reality) you cannot properly understand God the Father. You might think “maybe God was there at the very beginning of time and then left the scene,” or, “he's magically present at all points in time.” But no: God is in eternity, which is the absolute of time. You might say, “I know God the Father as a temporal presence in my life.” But this cannot be correct. This must be a false conception. God is in eternity. The revelators call us to this better understanding of God because the Supreme has evolved; we are accountable to ideas that would have had no play 2,000 years ago.
176:3. Later Discussion at the Camp
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Once back at their Gethsemane camp, the apostles and some disciples wanted to hear more about these vivid, apocalyptic matters in the world of men. But Jesus led the conversation toward far more important topics. These became the bulk of our study, as well:
What is this kingdom of righteousness? Many today claim to have notions of a loving service. But if that service is not the “righteousness of loving service,” it is a debased spirit of service, a sentimental and ultimately self-serving spirit of service that, sad to record, contributes evil into the world—a malignant virus of false love. Do you love the glory of man more than the glory of God? Are you distracted by the intricate whirring gears of a thousand Godless enterprises?
What is this inner domain, this inner life? It's a citadel of the spirit “which is absolutely unassailable.” [100:2.7] It is not a temporal kingdom. It is not the outer life (the Father is not engageable in the outer life). In the true inner domain, nothing in the outer life can be of serious concern to you—it is absolutely unassailable by such things. It's a “personal experience in the spirit.” So, have you found an inner domain that is absolutely unassailable by the outer life? Or do you find that what you like to call your inner life is quite assailable by feelings? If so, that isn't the inner life. Most likely it's a domain of feelings in your mind you've exalted as the inner life. Aim higher.
Your feelings are not the inner life. Animals have feelings, but they have no control over their response to the feelings. Can you do better than a fancy animal? In this material-comfort era of ours, the inner life can be hard to find because of this pleasing outer life. And in a barren and materialistic age like ours, the inner life is like swimming against the current.
Once saved, always saved? You enter the kingdom by true faith alone, yes, but then you must wear the robe of righteousness. [150:5.2] You “face a severe test.” [140:1.4] You will not continue to be saved unless you “grow up by grace” and also bear fruits of the spirit. [193:2.2] The kingdom of God is dynamic. And throughout all this, you retain your free will. You could choose unrighteousness and forsake the kingdom up to the moment of fusion with the Adjuster. Entrance into the kingdom is free, but your eternal salvation is your divine righteousness.
A reckoning of the truth is placed in our hands. A reckoning? Is that severe of a word in The Urantia Book? It is. Jesus doesn't let up, and the midwayers didn't let up, either. The 5th ER helps clear some things up: our inner life is judged, not our outer life (that's a relief!). But the 5th ER also reinforces: your adjudication, your reckoning, is coming soon! at the end of your short life here. Our Christian brothers and sisters have known this for 2,000 years, and some healthy fear of that has helped them keep the robes of righteousness on—kept that focus in their minds.
Oh my! So much starkness in [176:3]. Is there still love of God? We heard all of this instruction about growing in the kingdom. About righteousness. About a reckoning for that which is entrusted to you. We wondered aloud, “So, where did the love of God go? I thought Jesus taught the love of God!” It's still here. But God's love exists within a sphere of righteousness. You cannot seek and find the love of God outside that sphere of righteousness.
Rolling our eyes at righteousness recommenders. We reflected on how we've each done this, how we've been unfortunately mis-taught by supposed religionists in our secularized churches. That's the emergency—churchgoers drifting away from God's domain of righteousness! A street preacher may be using old theological forms and tired terms, but it is likely they're a righteousness recommender. Could you be a better one, with the truth that has been placed in your hands in the 5th ER?
So, what book have you been reading here? We reflected that we each probably know people who have read The Urantia Book multiple times, cover to cover. And yet they missed [176:3] it seems, because all they can talk about is God's love as an anodyne pleasant sentiment—how everyone can relax because it's a free ride to heaven. The Urantia Book does not support this view. This section is the densest occurrence of the word reckoning in all of the text. As a serious student of the 5th ER you must not read this section and dismiss phrases like “righteousness of loving service” as poetic flourish; you must honestly face each precise word and its implications. No serious student can leave this section still believing “whatever I feel is the definition of love, and whatever I do is the definition of service.”
This was a heavy section, but don't gloss over it. Righteousness is still the bottom line. It has always been the bottom line.
Have you, gentle reader, “knowingly and persistently” rejected these truths? You're here reading this right now. The 5th ER has been placed into your hands. Whose fault is it if you haven't obeyed its truths? Will you take responsibility, or will you blame others? What reckoning will you have for this light you've been given? It's in your freewill hands. Your soul is at stake. Repent if you need to!
Brad's Notes
- Who are these children of light?
- Light, is defined in [0:6.9] as a “personality manifestation.”
- So if you are just assenting to authority, you aren't using your personality.
- Search for “light of” and “darkness of” in the text for more study.
- We studied the parable of the pounds versus talents back in 2021. We are not expected to exceed our ability, but we are expected to live up to our capacity.
- We can lose our sense of direction in the levels of meaning.
- Do you want to handle your strong feelings? Be sure your go up to the level of mind, to evaluate feelings from a higher and more objective vantage point.
- Don't mistakenly go down to the level of the flesh, where you will be “cold and feeling-less.”
- Stay humble. If you say you understand all of the 5th ER “except papers 105 an 106,” then maybe you don't understand much at all. The whole text presents one system.
- Faith is not belief. A true, saving faith will naturally show the fruits of the spirit.
