Prologue
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
Prologue
From Paradise—the center of all creation, the home of the Paradise Trinity, and the destiny of all eternal souls—came forth a creator son like had happened 611,120 times in the past. This creator son’s name is Michael, and four hundred billion years ago he began creating, evolving, and perfecting his universe to be in harmony with God the Father, God the Eternal Son, and God the Infinite Spirit. From our perspective on Earth, Michael’s universe, Nebadon, is our known creation: yet unknown to us it is but one of many universes in a much vaster cosmos, each of which is filled with innumerable worlds and orders of celestial beings.
As a creator son Michael’s final task to bring his universe into full harmony with the Paradise Trinity was to incarnate seven times as one of the different orders of celestial beings administering his creation. This process of experiencing the life of his creatures allows a creator son to both demonstrate the perfection of being of that particular order of celestial entity, and for the creator son to gain—through the actual experience of living as his created beings—the empathy and compassion required to rule his universe as would God the Father.
Our creator, Michael, began this final adventure experiencing the lives of his universe creatures about a billion years ago. Somehow using the powers inherent in him as a creator son, Michael then incarnated—bestowed himself—six times on six different worlds as a different order of celestial being. Each of these successive incarnations was in submission to one of the seven different associations of the Paradise Trinity, each of which embraces our universe with a slightly different flavor. Michael’s first bestowal was in submission to the will of the Trinity itself: God the Father, God the Eternal Son, and God the Infinite Spirit serving as a Melchizedek Son. His second bestowal was in submission to the will of the Father and the Eternal Son serving as a primary Lanonandek Son. His third bestowal was in submission to the Father and the Infinite Spirit serving as a Material Son. His fourth bestowal was in submission to the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit serving as a seraphim, a supreme angel of the local universe attached to the corps of teaching counselors. His fifth bestowal was to the will of the Infinite Spirit serving in the spirit phase form of an ascending mortal of time and space, and his sixth bestowal was in submission to the will of the Eternal Son serving as a perfectly trained spirit mortal of the Morontia realm, that intervening transformative space between the spiritual realm and the material worlds of time and space.
In each of these bestowals Michael lived as that order of universe intelligence in all ways performing all duties as they normally would. After mastering their life and demonstrating to them and the rest of the universe the perfection of living as that particular type of celestial entity, he would disappear, return to his administrative duties, and then go back out and repeat the exercise on another world as another type of being.
Michael’s seventh and final experience of bestowing himself as one of his universe creatures took place on Earth as the son of man, Jesus of Nazareth. This bestowal experience was much different than the six he had already completed. Before, when Michael incarnated as one of his celestial personalities he arrived on that world as a fully mature member of that order of intelligence. Created beings are brought to consciousness knowing themselves to be citizens of a greater universe: they have no question of God’s existence, nor any need for the motivational force we know as faith.
Humans—mortals born on the material worlds of time and space—are not created beings: they must evolve to maturity and grow in their understanding of God the Father. Human beings are born like all other animals on the material worlds, and like all other animals we are born without souls. But different from animals, we have the potentialto form eternal souls because most of us have minds complex enough to make a moral choice: the ability to choose truth, beauty, and goodness over that not. The first time a child demonstrates that ability though an actual choice, God knows that a new human personality capable of doing his will has come into existence and immediately God invests himself in that mind through an entity called a Thought Adjuster. This event of God actually becoming resident in the person’s mind begins the long process of the Thought Adjuster conditioning that finite mortal mind to know the eternity, infinity, and universality of God its Father.
If that new personality eventually chooses survival through embracing the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of humanity, then after this first qualifying life in the flesh it and its Thought Adjuster advance on through many hundreds of training worlds in the Morontia realm. With each successive incarnation the two manifest on a different training world in a finer and more spirit-like body. Eventually, when the person has graduated through all of the training worlds and they have achieved the level of being where every aspect of their personality is dedicated to doing God’s will, the finite personality birthed in the material realm and its Thought Adjuster from God meld into one and the new eternal soul is formed. Jesus demonstrated this transformative process of the mortal becoming divine for us and the rest of the material worlds in his universe in his one short lifetime on Earth. Jesus’ life was his gospel, and it is through knowing Jesus’ life, not his words or teachings, that people find their same way to perfection with God.
A mortal will creature’s spiritual progression hinges on faith and the wholehearted dedication to doing the Father’s will. On the one hand mortals are birthed into the material realms as the lowest order of being that can know God, while on the other hand mortals have the potential to know God in a more personal way than any other beings in the universe because they are actually partnered with God in the creation of their eternal soul. Furthermore, since mortals are evolutionary beings born without the knowledge of God they must develop and exercise faith—the belief in God without proof of God—to embark on their personal journey to eternal life. This force known as faith sets the mortal experience apart from all others in the universe and carries with it its own unique rewards and future adventures.
Michael’s incarnation as a helpless babe of the realm contained many risks. Our planetary system of material worlds had experienced rebellion against the Paradise Trinity and the rebels were still in play: they were intent on stopping Michael’s assumption of full authority over his universe. Michael’s aids searched all of Nebadon looking for suitable planets on which he could be born. Finally, Michael chose the planet Urantia in the system Satania. We are one of 666 worlds in Satania whose planetary prince 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 involved suffered much from this war in the heavens. Our Adam and Eve, those celestial beings brought to new planets to uplift the mortals on them, failed in their mission. Their disloyalty sent our world into chaos, violence, and spiritual confusion from which we have yet to recover. As a result, our planet and all of the others involved in Lucifer’s rebellion were placed into spiritual quarantine: since that time we have been shut off from contact with all other worlds in Nebadon so we would not diminish the level of God’s presence in the rest of the superuniverse.
In obedience to his Father’s will, during this bestowal into mortal form Michael was tasked with defeating the rebels—the fallen archangel Lucifer; the midway traitor Beelzebub; Urantia’s Planetary Prince, Caligastia, and all of the other nefarious minions who had given in to their lies and disloyalty—and end the Luciferic Rebellion. Furthermore, Michael had to win this battle without using his powers as a creator son, which would have allowed him to annihilate the rebels at will. Instead, Michael was directed to defeat these once great spiritual beings by nothing more than his demonstration of living a superb life in obedience to his Father’s will: a life in perfect harmony with the Paradise Trinity. By doing so Michael’s grace, dignity, and elegance would destroy the rebels’ lies and demonstrate to the entire cosmos the power of faith in and obedience to the will of God the Father. When Michael defeated the rebels and ended the rebellion it opened the path to terminating the spiritual quarantine that has kept our world from knowing our Father. The path to peace on Earth has been revealed, and we will soon take our rightful place in the universe.
Son of Man: Urantia, is the story of Jesus’ life on Earth and Michael’s final assumption of sovereignty over Nebadon in harmony with the Paradise Trinity as has been certified by the Ancient of Days.
Before leaving the spiritual realm and being conceived on Earth, Michael received advice for conducting his mission from his elder creator son brother, Immanuel. It was Immanuel who assumed responsibility for guarding Michael’s universe from further rebellion while he was off meeting his divine duties, and it was the archangel Gabriel who was assigned to oversee Jesus’ care while he was incarnated on Earth as a mortal of the realm.
Immanuel warned his younger creator son brother not to interfere in the Earth’s normal evolution. Michael was to follow the laws and customs, and to trust his Thought Adjuster when teaching people improved ethics and spiritual knowledge. He was not to allow any cults to form around him, and he was not to involve himself with politics or business affairs. Michael’s mission was for the benefit of all humanity regardless of culture, religion, or ethnicity: he would have no favorites among the people of Earth. Michael was also instructed not to leave behind any writings or pictures of himself. He could marry and have sexual relations if he so desired, but Immanuel thought that he probably would not: regardless, Michael was forbidden to leave behind any children.
After this conversation, Michael of Nebadon vanished from the spiritual realm not to return until he had fulfilled his father’s will.
Earth before Jesus Was Born
On Urantia many forms of belief arose after Adam and Eve failed in their mission. People believed in miracles and that spirits could possess anything from a rock to a person. The world was based in magic and superstition, and evil spirits were ever on the make to take over an unsuspecting person. There was no science as we know it today, and most people knew nothing of geography or other cultures. Astrology served as astronomy and any sickness or disease was the fault of evil doings and beings.
Even so, people were ready for a spiritual revival. Syria and Palestine were the crossroads to three continents and the Roman Empire had brought cultures together from across the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. While society was divided into a few rich people, their slaves, and many poor the land was mostly peaceful. Nazareth was in the center of this hub where travelers from around the world rested and exchanged ideas, goods, and knowledge.
The Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman empire. They were a well-organized people and built cultural centers in many of the cities where they lived. Overseeing everything in a Jew’s life were the scribes, Pharisees, and Sanhedrin: the Jewish priesthood and supreme court of law. The rabbis dominated the people and strictly bound them to religious traditions and ancient laws long ago handed down by Moses.
Herod the Idumean was the ruler of all of Judea. He had kept himself in good terms with the Caesars in Rome by constructing the huge harbor at Caesarea and building temples throughout the land in honor of the many Roman gods. This older Herod had always been despised by the Jews and he became Jesus’ greatest threat when he was a young child. Herod the Idumean died in A.D. 4.
Herod the Idumean’s son, Herod Antipas, governed the provinces of Peria and Galilee throughout Jesus’ life. Antipas had also worked to please the Romans like his father had, and he built the city of Sepphoris to gain the Caesar’s favor. Even though Herod Antipas was a gentile he had a slightly better relationship with the Jews than his father had managed. This younger Herod was also less of a danger to Jesus than his father, and that was one reason why Mary and Joseph decided to live in Galilee rather than Jerusalem. Herod Antipas died in A.D. 39.
Galilee had created its own problems in the Jewish community. The residents were not well respected by the other Jews because they were too liberal, and the rabbis in the synagogue were too lax upholding the strict laws and traditions of the Jewish faith. Because of Galilee’s reputation, there was often pressure on Mary and Joseph to have Jesus study under the religious leaders in Jerusalem or Alexandria.
Since they had first been dispersed across the world, the Jews held together as a community in three ways: first, they all hoped for a Jewish savior to free them from the Romans; second, they all believed that Jerusalem was the center of their religion: for every Jew in Jesus’ era, Jerusalem was the most important place in all the world, and third, they held their community together under the bigoted belief that they were God’s chosen people: they were the Jews, they were favored by God while others were not, and the stronger the particular Jew’s faith was the more arrogant, self-righteous, and disrespectful the person was to people not Jewish. The Jews called everyone else a gentile, and anything gentile was held in utter contempt. The one exception to the gentile’s status were those gentile friends of the Jews who more or less accepted the Jewish faith, and because of that had been given their own separate place to meet on the outside edge of the synagogues. As Jesus’ message spread through the Jewish community it was this group of gentiles attached to the Jews that took it to heart, and later after Jesus was killed it was from these gentiles that Paul recruited the majority of his converts.
The Jews’ bigotry, their insistence that they were God’s chosen people, and their contempt for and lack of kindness and tolerance toward anyone or anything not Jewish caused them most of their problems. This arrogance blinded them to Jesus’ message that all people are equal under God, that every person has a unique personal connection with God resident in their minds, and that no priest, religion, ceremony, or tradition is needed or desired to worship God. But most of the Jews, especially their rabbis and religious enforcers, insisted that God was theirs and theirs alone and they were not inclined to share him with anyone.