(rough draft)
Jesus and the apostles camped at Zebedee’s house in Bethsaida for the next five months, from May 3rd to October 3rd A.D. 28, which was the dry season in the area. Close by on the shores of the Sea of Galilee they had built and enormous tent camp that kept getting larger as people continued to come looking for the truth or to be healed. Under the supervision of David Zebedee and with the Alpheus twin’s help, this camp housed between five and fifteen hundred people at a time. Those needing to be healed were separated into different types of sickness and put under the care of a Syrian physician named Elman. The entire camp was a model of order and sanitation.
The apostles fished at least one day a week, selling their catch to David for the people in the camp. The money they received went into the general funds. Each of them also had one week a month off to visit with their family and friends.
Andrew was still charge of the apostles, and Peter was put in charge of the new school for the evangelists. The apostles taught the evangelists in the morning, and then in the afternoon the apostles and the evangelists taught the people. Five nights a week the apostles held question and answer sessions for the evangelists, and one night a week Jesus would show up to answer any unresolved questions from the week’s teaching.
Over these five months several thousand people came through the camp. They hailed from every part of the Roman empire as well as the lands east of the Euphrates river. David Zebedee had arranged the camp to be self-sustaining, yet still managed it to where no one was ever turned away. This was the longest and best organized teaching period to take place while Jesus was with us. His immediate family spent most of this time in either Cana or Nazareth.
A New School of the Prophets
The students attending the new school of the evangelists, also called the new school of the prophets, came from all parts of the Roman Empire, and some from as far east as India. Peter, James, and Andrew were in charge of selecting the pupils. What these students learned in the morning at the school, they taught to the people in the afternoon down on the shore. Then after supper, they’d all get together to go over the day’s events.
Each of the apostles taught in his own words. There was no dogma or attempts to standardize their teachings. They all taught the same truth, but according to their own understanding of it. Jesus, in turn, would help to harmonize these many different interpretations of his teachings during his weekly question and answer sessions. Still, Simon Peter tended to dominate the theology of the group, with James Zebedee also having a strong influence on the students. Over the five months the school was in operation, more than one hundred students attended. It was from this group, along with Aber and John’s apostles, that Jesus later selected the seventy evangelists. This larger group, though, didn’t live together or share community property to the same degree as the apostles.
It wasn’t until later when Jesus ordained the seventy new messengers of the kingdom that they were allowed to baptize people. Of all of the people healed at this place during the earlier sundown scene, only seven were among the students at the school, and one of those was the nobleman’s son from Capernaum.
The Bethsaida Hospital
At the big seaside camp, a Syrian physician named Elman along with a group of twelve men and twenty-five young women set up what was for all intents and purposes the kingdom’s first hospital. It was located a little way to the south of the main tent city, and over the time it was in place they cared for over a thousand people. The sick were treated with whatever remedies they knew, as well as prayer. Jesus visited the hospital at least three times a week, and spoke with every person there.
As far as is known, there were no miracles attached to any of the healing, although most of the people healed never ceased to say it was Jesus who made them well. Still, many of the cures did appear to be miracles. But the authors of the Urantia revelation state that much that healing was the result of people releasing their fears and expecting to be healed because of Jesus’ strong and inspirational personality.
Almost everyone back then believed sickness, whether physical or mental, was caused by unclean spirits. Elman and his staff tried to teach the people otherwise, but with little success.
And when Jesus treated the people, he had to always keep in mind the instructions from his Paradise brother, Immanuel, right before he left and incarnated on Earth.
Everyone else learned a lot just by watching how Jesus was able to inspire hope and faith in those who were suffering. They disbanded the camp and hospital right before the flu and cold season arrived.
The Father’s Business
During this time of the seaside camp, Jesus let the apostles do most of the work. He publicly preached less than a dozen times, and only once spoke at the Capernaum synagogue, which was a couple of weeks before they all headed out on the second public preaching tour in Galilee with all of the newly trained evangelists.
This was the most time that Jesus was able to spend alone since his baptism, and when the apostles would ask him where he’d been, all he would say is that he had been “about his Father’s business.” Jesus had relieved Peter, James, and John from their duties as his personal assistant for the time being. So, when he’d take off into the hills to be by himself, Jesus just randomly grab any two of the apostles that weren’t busy to go along with him. That way Peter, James, and John were able to help teach the over one hundred new evangelists, and each of the other apostles got a chance to spend personal time with Jesus when they were in the hills together.
While it wasn’t revealed to the authors of this record, they were led to believe that when Jesus told the others that he was about his Father’s business, he was actually in contact with the many celestial beings running his vast universe. Ever since his baptism, Jesus had been increasingly involved in directing certain aspects of his universe administration. At this time, none of the apostles who were with Jesus on these trips alone ever saw any celestial beings contacting him. They did, though, see Jesus’ face flash through many rapid changes when he was in meditation, although he said nothing out loud.
Evil, Sin, and Iniquity
Two nights a week, in secluded spot in a corner of Zebedee’s garden, Jesus held private meetings with people who asked for them. One evening Thomas was talking with Jesus, and he asked him, “Why is it necessary for men to be born of the spirit in order to enter the kingdom? Is rebirth necessary to escape the control of the evil one? Master, what is evil?”
Jesus said, “Thomas, don’t confuse evil with the evil one, who is better known as the iniquitous one. The iniquitous one is the son of self-love. He was a high administrator in the universe who deliberately rebelled against the rule of my Father and his loyal Sons. But I have already defeated these sinful rebels. It’s important to have clearly in your mind the following ideas about the Father and his will in the universe, and to never forget them.
“Evil is whatever is still not perfect. It covers those times when we do something we don’t know is against divine will, and it measures the imperfection of one’s obedience to divine will. Sin is when we know we are doing something that’s against God’s will, and do it anyway. Sin is a measure of our willingness to go against God’s laws and his guidance. Iniquity, though, is when sin has become a persistent habit. Iniquity measures the degree to which a person continually rejects our Father’s loving and merciful plan of personality survival.
Because of our human nature, before a person is reborn of the spirit, they are obviously not perfect. They will do many things considered evil because those acts are not in absolute alignment with God’s will. But that is not sin or inequity. It’s just us naturally starting out as imperfect beings on our long ascent to perfection. Evil is part of the natural course of events, and it does not make us sinful. So yes, man has the ability to be evil, but he is in no way the child of the iniquitous one unless he that man has deliberately chosen a life of continually progressive sin.
Evil is inherent in the natural order: it’s just that that is not yet perfect. But sin requires the specific intention to go against the divine order, and it was brought to the Earth by those who fell from spiritual light into gross darkness.
“You are confused, Thomas, by the ideas of the Greeks and the mistakes of the Persians. You do not understand the relationship between evil and sin because you think that man started on Earth as a perfect Adam, and then from there fell through sin to man’s present deplorable state.
But why do you refuse to understand the meaning of the record that says how Cain, the son of Adam, went over into the land of Nod and there got himself a wife? And why do you refuse to interpret the meaning of the record that says the sons of God found themselves wives from among the daughters of men?
Yes, for sure men are evil by nature, but that doesn’t make them necessarily sinful. Being born again, being baptized by the spirit, is necessary to escape evil and enter the kingdom of heaven, but none of that takes away from the fact that man is the son of God. And just because evil is inherent in man’s nature, doesn’t mean that it has in some way separated man from his Father in heaven: man is not like a stepchild that has to seek for adoption by God.
Those ideas came about because people didn’t understand God’s nature or the origin, nature, and destiny of man. The Greeks and others have taught that man is falling from godly perfection into oblivion. I’ve come to show you that it’s just the opposite: That man, by entering the kingdom of God, is ascending toward God and divine perfection. And anyone who falls short of the divine and spiritual ideals of the Father’s will is potentially evil, but in no way sinful, much less iniquitous.
“Thomas”, Jesus said, “haven’t you read about this in the Scriptures, where it is written, ‘You are the children of the Lord your God.’ ‘I will be his Father and he shall be my son.’ ‘I have chosen him to be my son—I will be his Father.’ ‘Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even everyone who is called by my name, for I have created them for my glory.’ ‘You are the sons of the living God.’ ‘They who have the spirit of God are indeed the sons of God.’ While there is a material part of the human father in the natural child, there is a spiritual part of the heavenly Father in every faith son of the kingdom.”
All of this and a lot more was told to Thomas, and a lot of it he understood, although Jesus ordered him to not tell the others what he learned until after he had returned to the Father.
And Thomas did as he was told, not mentioning this interview until after Jesus was killed.
The Purpose of Affliction
On another evening in the garden, Nathaniel said, “Master, I’m starting to understand why you refuse to go around healing everyone, but I still don’ understand why our loving Father in heaven allows so many of his children on Earth to suffer so much.”
And Jesus said, “Nathaniel, you and many others are puzzled by this because you don’t realize just how badly the natural order of your world has been screwed up so many times by traitors rebelling against the Father’s will. It will take many ages to restore this part of the universe to its former order, and to release humanity from the resulting pain of sin and rebellion. The presence of evil alone is enough to test man’s ascension to God: sin doesn’t have to be part of the process.
“But, my son, you need to know that the Father does not hurt his children on purpose. Man brings unnecessary pain on himself because of his persistent refusal to live according to divine will. Suffering is potential in evil, but a lot of it has come about by sin and iniquity, people choosing to do that that they know will hurt them. A lot of crazy things have happened on this world, and it is not strange that smart people are confused by all of the suffering they see.
But God doesn’t send suffering to the Earth to indiscriminately punish everyone. Imperfection, evil, is inherent in creation. Punishment, or paying the penalties of sin, is inevitable. And the suicide that comes with iniquity is inescapable.
Man can’t blame God for suffering that he brings on himself, nor should he complain about experiencing life as it’s lived on this planet. Our Father’s will is that man continually works to better his lot in life. A lot of earthly misery could be avoided with a little bit of fore-thought.
“Nathaniel, it is our mission to help men solve their spiritual problems, and to quicken their minds so they are better prepared to solve their many material problems. I know you are confused because I know you’ve read the Scriptures. Too often the tendency in the past has been to blame God for everything that ignorant people don’t understand. The Father is not responsible for your inability to understand. Do not doubt the Father’s love for you because you’ve either, deliberately or unknowingly, broken divine law and are suffering the consequences.
“But, Nathaniel, there’s also a lot in the Scriptures that you could have learned from if you had them only read with a little more care. Do you remember that it is written, ‘My son, don’t deride the Father’s reprimands, or get tired of him correcting you? The people the Lord loves, he corrects, just like a father corrects the son he loves. ‘The Lord does not punish willingly.’ ‘Before I suffered, I went astray, but now I keep the law. Suffering was good for me so I could learn the divine law.’ ‘I know your sorrows. The eternal God is your refuge, while underneath are the everlasting arms.’ ‘The Lord also is a refuge for the oppressed, a place of rest in times of trouble.’ ‘The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of suffering; the Lord will not forget the sick.’
‘As a father has compassion for his children, so is the Lord compassionate to those who love him. He knows your body; he remembers that you are dust.’ ‘He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.’ ‘He is the hope of the poor, the strength of the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the devastating heat.’ ‘He gives power to the faint, and to the weak he increases their strength.’ ‘He won’t break a bruised reed, and he won’t put out a smoldering fire.’ ‘When you pass through the waters of suffering, I will be with you, and when the rivers of adversity overflow you, I will not leave you.’ ‘He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to comfort all who mourn.’ ‘There is growth in suffering: it doesn’t just spring forth from the dust.’”
Bob