Episode:Jesus Goes Public—Preparation and Preaching (Part 17)
Illuminating the evolution of the Jewish concept of Deity, Jesus said: “Our Father in Paradise is changeless. But the concept of his nature has enlarged and grown from the days of Moses down through the times of Amos and even to the generation of the prophet Isaiah. And now have I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds.”
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, God’s Wrath, The Concept of God, The Ten Commandments
Opening thought: Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins [115:1.1]
Closing thought: How about reading some of the Bible this week? May your evolutionary engagement of the Bible be fruitful.
Summary by Kermit
Commentary after Review
Our discussion began with a description of two friends of long standing experiencing the delights of spirit unity in spite of their different theological orientations. Genuine personal relationships within the context of truth are able to transcend conflicting concept frames to experience such unity of spirit feeling.
Concerning dispensational boundaries, the dispensation to which one belongs is determined by date of birth, not death. In addition it must be recognized that there are significant disparities among mortals of different dispensations in the energy configurations of the triune domains of matter, mind, and spirit. Mortals in specific dispensations bear markedly distinct differences and are denominated according to their dispensation as “post-Planetary Prince Man”, “post Bestowal Son Man” in our case, and so on.
Continuing conversation led to examining differences between our relation to time in the flesh and on the mansion worlds. These differences make interplay between our material adjutant mind self and our budding morontia soul virtually inscrutable. Only through the translating mechanism of the indwelling Thought Adjuster are these “selves” capable of meaningful intercommunication. This should disabuse us of thinking that extrapolation of material mortal experiences to the morontial realm can really provide accurate insights about the nature of the next stage of our universe journey. In all such mindal adventures recognize that extrapolation across transcendental boundaries is fruitless. The best we can do is to potentialize our thinking by recognizing transcendent realms to be unlike our current state of consciousness and allow for that without creating detailed extrapolated projections.
142:2 God’s Wrath
This section is an account of what happens when a truth seeker meets a truth revealer. One Jacob, in Jerusalem for the Passover, in a secret meeting with the Master inquires how Jesus’ characterization of the Father as a God of love and mercy can be reconciled with the teachings of the olden prophets that God is a jealous, angry, and vengeful God, bent on punishing lawbreakers.
Jesus responds, acknowledging Jacob’s accurate understanding of the olden teachings and by noting that while God is changeless, the concept of his nature has enlarged over time. Jesus proceeds to declare his mission to reveal the Father in new glory as a God of love and mercy to all, even the spiritual father of each individual. And yet, embracing the love and mercy the Father has for each individual in no way relieves the believer from the personal responsibilities of establishing a righteousness worthy of such divine fellowship. Membership in a faith community does not confer an ex-officio righteousness in a believer. Speaking to this and noting Jesus’ reference to Amos in his reply to Jacob we find in [97:4.4] Amos’ warning “ritual must not take the place of righteousness”.
Jesus concludes his instruction appealing to Jacob’s experience as a father chastising his children. The immature child sees the father as angry and wrathful. As grown-ups the same children are able to discern the father’s love in his disciplines. Challenging Jacob to leave the past, and in the presence of the Master himself, see the Father in this new light, to which Jacob confesses belief and declares his desire to enter the Father’s kingdom.
141:3 The Concept of God
Having heard Jesus’ discussion with Jacob, most of the twelve asked many questions about the Father in heaven. This section represent a midwayer digest in modern phraseology of the Master’s answers.
The Master proceeds to mildly upbraid the apostles for their lack of knowledge of the traditions of Israel regarding the growth of the God concept. He reviewed six phases of the growth of the God idea spanning the history of the Hebrews, which incidentally closely parallel [96:1] Deity Concepts among the Semites.
Jesus demonstrated complete mastery of the scriptures comparing details from one book to another, pointing out discrepancies which demonstrate their evolutionary nature. Can we see this as a challenge to engage the 5th ER synthetically?
Jesus concludes his instruction by contrasting the “old” ten commandments with the “new” ten commandments given by Moses on Mount Sinai, subsequently upgraded in Isaiah’s day to the Great Commandment to love God supremely and you neighbor as yourself, which he declares to them as the whole duty of man.
On major information overload and smarting from exposure of their ignorance of Hebrew scripture, no man asked him a question, going each to his sleep.
Notes by Brad
- This author told a story of fellowship with a longtime friend who is an evangelical Christian.
- There was spirit unity. Discussions of doctrinal discrepancies were skipped, as they have been for years among these old friends.
- Our families talked about their values, their goals, their ways of engaging secular society as religionists. It was refreshing.
- Transcendence is not the same as extrapolation.
- Hold your concept frames lightly, with humility, so you can be grown.
- The upper domain of your mind in the hourglass analogy is not an extrapolation of your current consciousness.
- Just humbly leave space for a kind of mind that is not like your animal-origin mind.
- This is a potentializing step. Allow there to be something of yourself that is beyond mere extrapolation.
- In that beyond-imagination domain, there is God.
- Love versus obedience. From [142:1.4-5], can one keep one eye of each of these and not have love and obedience set against one another?
- The inner life is purely about an individual and their relationship with God.
- It's certainly not about the community, or even the natural family.
- When in a community of like-minded individuals, often we
- Plant our notion of righteousness in the community--"we are the chosen people."
- Leave only the love of God in the inner life.
- That's wrong. Righteousness is up to you, within, all by yourself, first.
- You can't first lean, or exclusively lean, on your community for righteousness.
- Yes, some of their time-filtered ideas can point you in a helpful direction. But righteousness is first an individual matter.
- The love of God is found within. As is your righteousness. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness.
- Did you community indirectly give you some stable anchoring to an essence of the cosmos? We are glad! But you must re-found your own righteousness within, and not lean on the community forever.
- See [97:4]. Amos pointed out that (community) ritual must not take the place of (true) righteousness.
- "Just because you're a chosen people, you don't get a free pass on righteousness just because you live in a ritual-filled community."
- Why is there an emergency now? In the (relatively few) remaining religious communities in the Western world, ritual has taken the place of righteousness.
- We like "the bright light of this hour" when Jesus was illuminating Jacob.
- Don't forget about that wrath thing. The father must chastise. But as you mature you will recognize that as the same unchanged love.
- The law is always there. The consequences of separating yourself from the law are always there.
- Have you not read?. Just as Jesus "upbraids" the apostles for not knowing God's evolution across the Old Testament, how much more are we being upbraided for not knowing the Bible while trying to understand the 5th ER? Read more, not less!
- This author was able to talk about the evolution of the God concept with his evangelical Christian friend because he happened to have taken the time to study Ecclesiastes.
