Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
1. John was formally inducted into Nazarite brotherhood when he was fourteen years old at Engedi, close to the Dead Sea. His vows included no alcohol, not to cut his hair, and not to touch dead people. The Jews respected a Nazarite almost as much as they did the high priest.
2. John was tall, strong, and used to living with the sheep in the wilds. At sixteen he read about the prophet Elijah and took on his manner and dress. He was direct and forceful in speech, and wore a hairy rawhide pullover with a wide leather belt hung with suspenders cinched around his waist.
3. John’s father, Zacharias died when John was eighteen. After a couple of years, John and Elizabeth took their flock and moved into Hebron, known as the wilderness of Judea. They joined the other Nazarites tending their flocks, and John would visit the brotherhood in Engedi.
4. John believed that the world was at the end of an age, and the beginning of the new era of the kingdom of heaven. He longed to go forth and tell all men, “Repent! Get right with God! Get ready for the end; prepare yourselves for the appearance of the new and eternal order of earth affairs, the kingdom of heaven.”
5. Elizabeth died when John was twenty-eight. He gave his flock to the Nazarite’s, and went into a period of prayer and fasting. Two and a half years later, John came to a plan. He left Engedi, March, A.D. 25, to go forth telling the people that the Messiah was coming and the Kingdom of God was upon us.
6. The Jews were ready for John’s message. They had rationalized their oppression as the people paying for their nation’s sins. Now, though, they were ready for the era of the kingdom of heaven on Earth – when the Messiah would over all of the kingdoms of men.
7. Jews agreed on the coming of the Messiah, but differed on who he would be. Some thought the son of David, others thought a divine personality – one who had sat with God before coming to Earth as a son of man. John entered the scene telling the people to flee the wrath to come: To repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8. John began preaching at Bethany ford on the Jordan River. The people were eager for his message of their salvation and divine future. John made the Jews submit to baptism for the remission of their sins. Over the next fifteen months he baptized over one hundred thousand people.
9. John started moving his camp up the Jordan River. Messengers from the priests and Levites wanted to know if he was the Messiah, and by what right he preached. He told them to tell their masters that they had heard the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make ready the way for the lord.
10. John had little tact. To a group of Pharisees and Sadducees who wanted baptized, he asked: “Who warned you to flee, as vipers before the fire, from the wrath to come? John baptized them, but warned them to bring forth fruit worthy of sincere repentance if they would receive the remission of their sins.
11. Above all else he taught, John told everyone to make ready for the end of the age because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
Okay, folks, that’s it for the Highlights for, Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 14, part 1, “John the Baptist.”
This week is Chapter 14, part 2, of “John the Baptist.”
Have a fantastic week out there.
Bob