From Paradise, the center of all creation, the home to the Paradise Trinity, and the destiny of all eternal souls came forth a Creator Son like had happened before 611,120 times. This creator son’s name is Michael. Four hundred billion years ago he began his mission of creating, evolving, and perfecting his own universe in harmony with God the Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. From our perspective on Earth, this universe that Michael’s bringing to perfection, called Nebadon by the crew in heaven, is all of our known creation. Yet unknown to us, our universe is but one of many in a greater kosmos filled with innumerable worlds and celestial beings.
As with all Creator Sons, Michael’s final task before being granted supreme authority over his universe was to incarnate seven times as one of his different created beings. By going through this experience of living as others, these Creator Sons learn how to rule with the empathy, compassion, and understanding that can only come from walking in the shoes of those they made.
Michael began this final adventure to assume authority over his universe about a billion years ago. Somehow, and in a literal sense, he appeared six times on different worlds as a fully mature member of one of his universe personalities. Each time he came to a different world and took the form of a different order of celestial being. He lived his life as they did, and performed all duties as they normally would. After he’d mastered their life and demonstrated to them and the rest of the universe the perfection of their existence, he’d disappear, return to administer his universe, and then go back out and repeat the exercise on another world as another type of being.
Michael’s seventh and final experience of living as one of his created beings was different. This time he had to live as the lowest order of being, a human born on one of the material worlds of time and space.
But unlike all other personalities in the kosmos, humans are not created beings. At least not like the others in Michael’s universe.
When celestial entities become conscious of life, they’re fully formed mature beings of their type of creature. They’re actually born, or brought into existence, knowing that things like God, heaven, spirits, etc., are real. For them, there is no question. Nor, is there any need for faith. But then again, they miss out on the rewards that come from faith in that unknown.
Everything about a human’s spiritual progression hinges on faith. That’s the belief in God without proof of God. On the one hand we’re the lowest of the bunch when it comes to the rest of the kosmos. We’re born as nothing more than smart monkeys, as some of those in the angelic orders might say in contempt. But on the other hand, we have the potential to know God in a more personal way than any of the other beings in the universe. And this happens through our own efforts to know God based on nothing more than our personal faith in God.
We humans are born like any other animal, without a soul. But we’re different from animals because we have the potential to become an eternal soul. We’re gifted as a species with minds complex enough to make a moral choice, in other words, to make a decision between something godlike and something not.
This event usually happens for the first time when a kid’s around four or five years old. If and when that child makes the choice to do good, that act alone alerts God that there’s a new human personality somewhere in the kosmos. One that can know truth, beauty, and goodness. So, God comes a knocking.
As soon as the child makes that first moral choice, a part of God called a Thought Adjuster enters the kid’s mind. This spirit then begins the long process of conditioning that mind. Slowly, the person comes to know the eternity, universality, and infinity of God. Michael showed us this whole process in just one human lifetime; for us it takes a lot longer. We have many training worlds ahead of us to pass through on our way to perfection, and with each one of those we’re given a finer and more spirit-like body to learn our lessons. Everything for us is based on knowing by experience. And then eventually, sometime way in our celestial futures, that once human personality and its Thought Adjuster from God meld together in harmony, and a new eternal soul is born. A soul that is the same as, yet different in terms of personality, from all other souls throughout creation.
Michael’s seventh and final incarnation into human form was full of risk. Nebadon had experienced rebellion against the Paradise Trinity, and the rebels were still in play. They were intent on destroying Michael’s plans to assume full authority of his universe.
Michael’s aids searched all of Nebadon looking for a suitable planet on which he could be born. Finally, Michael chose the planet Urantia in the system of Satania. This planet, Urantia, is our Earth. We’re one of 666 worlds whose planetary prince had succumbed to the false arguments of Lucifer, the greatest of the fallen children of light and the leader of the Luciferic Rebellion against the Paradise Trinity in Paradise.
Earth and the other planets suffered much from this war in the heavens. Our Adam and Eve, those beings brought to new planets to uplift the humans on them, failed in their efforts. This sent Earth’s people into chaos, violence, and spiritual confusion from which we’ve yet to recover. Our planet, and all of the others involved in Lucifer’s rebellion, was placed into spiritual quarantine. This means we’ve been shut off from spiritual contact with the rest of Nebadon since that time so we wouldn’t contaminate or reduce the presence of God within the greater kosmos.
In obedience to his Father’s will, Michael was tasked to defeat the fallen archangel Lucifer, Urantia’s Planetary Prince Caligastia, the Midway traitor Beelzebub, and all of the other nefarious minions who had given in to their lies and disloyalty. Michael had to win without using his powers as a Creator Son, which would have allowed him to annihilate the rebels at will. Instead, he had to defeat these once great spiritual beings by nothing more than living a superb life in obedience to his Father’s will. A life in perfect harmony with the Paradise Trinity. In doing so his grace, dignity, and elegance would destroy the rebels lies and demonstrate to the entire kosmos the power of faith in, and obedience to, the will of God the Father. And in doing this, Michael opened the way to ending the spiritual quarantine that has kept our world from knowing God.
The path to the end of war on Earth has opened, and we’ll soon take our place in the greater kosmos.
Michael, the son of God born on Urantia as a son of man, is Jesus.
This is the story of his Jesus’ life on earth, and Michael’s final assumption of full authority over Nebadon in harmony with the Paradise Trinity, as has been certified by the Ancient of Days.
And, yes, Michael did say that someday he’d return, though not when.
Before leaving the spiritual realm and being conceived on Earth, Michael received advice for his mission from his elder creator brother, Immanuel. It was Immanuel who’d assume responsibility for keeping Michael’s universe safe from further rebellion as he met his divine duties as a man of the realm. The archangel Gabriel was assigned to oversee Jesus’ care while he was incarnated as human.
Immanuel warned Michael not to interfere in our normal evolution. He had to follow the laws and customs like everyone else. He was to trust his Thought Adjuster when teaching people improved ethics and spiritual understanding. He wasn’t supposed to get involved with politics or business affairs, and he couldn’t allow any cults to form around him. His mission was for the benefit of all of the people on Earth regardless of their culture, ethnicity, or religion. He would have no favorites. He also wasn’t allowed to leave behind any writings or pictures of himself. He was told that if he wanted to, he could marry and have sexual relations like normal people, but Immanuel thought he probably wouldn’t do this. Regardless, he was forbidden to leave behind any children.
After this talk, Michael vanished from the spiritual realm. From then on, the entire universe waited in suspense for every broadcast reporting how the greatest story in all of Nebadon was unfolding.
Earth Before Jesus is Born
On Urantia, the people had entered into many ways of belief after Adam and Eve failed us. Everyone believed in miracles, and that spirits could possess anything from a rock to a person. The world was a place based in magic and superstition, and evil spirits were ever on the make to take over some unsuspecting person. There was no science as we know it today. Most people knew nothing of geography or other cultures. Astrology served as their astronomy, and any sickness or disease was the fault of evil doings.
But even so, the people were ready for a spiritual revival. The Roman Empire had brought together everyone across the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East. Palestine and Syria were the crossroads to three continents. While society was divided into a few rich people, their slaves, and a lot of poor folk, the land was mostly peaceful. And Nazareth was right in the middle of this hub where people from all around the world passed and exchanged ideas, goods, and knowledge.
The Jews were dispersed throughout the entire Roman empire. They were a well-organized people, and built cultural centers in many of the cities where they lived. Overseeing everything in Jewish life were the scribes and Pharisees, kind of like the Jewish priesthood. These guys enforced the laws handed down by Moses, and strictly bound the people to the Jewish religious traditions.
Herod the Idumean was the ruler of all of Judea. He kept himself in good terms with the Caesars in Rome by constructing the huge harbor at Caesarea, and building temples throughout the land to the many Roman gods. This Herod had always been despised by the Jews, and became the greatest danger to Jesus during his youngest years. Herod the Idumean died in the year A.D. 4.
Herod the Idumean had a son, Herod Antipas, who governed the provinces of Galilee and Peria throughout Jesus’ life on Earth. Antipas also tried to please the Romans by building a lot of things, including the city of Sepphoris. Herod Antipas had a slightly better relationship with the Jews, even though he was, of course, a gentile. Young Herod was less of a danger than his dad, and this was one reason why Joseph and Mary chose to live in Galilee rather than Jerusalem. Herod Antipas died in the year A.D. 39.
But Galilee had its own problems within the Jewish community: The people living there were looked down on by the other Jews. They thought the people in Galilee were too liberal, and that the synagogue was too lax in upholding the strict laws and traditions of the Jewish faith. Because Galilee had this reputation, there was often pressure on Joseph and Mary to have Jesus study under the religious leaders in Jerusalem.
Since they were spread out across the world, the Jews held together as a community in three ways: First, they all hoped for a Jewish savior to come along and free them from the Romans. Second, they all believed that Jerusalem was the center of their religion. For every Jew back in the days of Jesus, Jerusalem was the most important place in all the world.
And third, they held their community together in the false belief that they were God’s favorite people. They were the Jews; everyone else was a gentile. And for them, anything gentile was held in contempt. The more religious the person was, the more arrogant, self-righteous, and disrespectful they usually were to the people who weren’t Jewish. The one exception to this were the gentiles who believed more or less in the Jewish religion. These friends of the Jews even had their own place to meet on the outside edge of the Jewish religious centers. As Jesus’ message spread through the Jewish community, it was this group that took it to heart. How could they not? The Jews were saying they were special and everyone else was below them according to God. Jesus was saying no one is special, and that everyone has in fact a literal personal relationship with God. Later, after Jesus was killed, it was from these gentiles attached to all the Jewish cultural centers around the world that Paul got the majority of his converts.
The Jews’ belief that they were God’s chosen people, and their contempt for and lack of tolerance and kindness to anyone not Jewish, caused most of their problems. It also stopped them from being able to understand Jesus’ message: That all people are equal under God, that all people have a personal connection with God, and that no priest, religion, or ceremony is needed in our worship of God.
But most of the Jews believed that God was theirs and theirs alone, and they weren’t about to share him with anyone.
That’s it for the Prologue.
Next week’s Son of Man, Chapter 1, is “The Birth and Infancy of Jesus”.
Take care, friends.