The Urantia Book
PART IV
The Life and Teachings of Jesus
PAPER 120
THE BESTOWAL OF MICHAEL ON URANTIA
120:4.6
In and through all this
extraordinary experience, God the Father chose to manifest himself
as he always does -- in the usual way -- in the normal, natural,
and dependable way of divine acting. 120:4.6
120:0.1 ASSIGNED by Gabriel to supervise the
restatement of the life of Michael when on Urantia and in the
likeness of mortal flesh, I, the Melchizedek director of the
revelatory commission intrusted with this task, am authorized to
present this narrative of certain events which immediately
preceded the Creator Son's arrival on Urantia to embark upon the
terminal phase of his universe bestowal experience. To live such
identical lives as he imposes upon the intelligent beings of his
own creation, thus to bestow himself in the likeness of his
various orders of created beings, is a part of the price which
every Creator Son must pay for the full and supreme sovereignty of
his self-made universe of things and beings.
120:0.2 Before the events I am about to
delineate, Michael of Nebadon had bestowed himself six times after
the similitude of six differing orders of his diverse creation of
intelligent beings. Then he prepared to descend upon Urantia in
the likeness of mortal flesh, the lowest order of his intelligent
will creatures, and, as such a human of the material realm, to
execute the final act in the drama of the acquirement of universe
sovereignty in accordance with the mandates of the divine Paradise
Rulers of the universe of universes.
120:0.3 In the course of each of these preceding
bestowals Michael not only acquired the finite experience of one
group of his created beings, but he also acquired an essential
experience in Paradise co-operation which would, in and of itself,
further contribute to constituting him the sovereign of his
self-made universe. At any moment throughout all past local
universe time, Michael could have asserted personal sovereignty as
a Creator Son and as a Creator Son could have ruled his universe
after the manner of his own choosing. In such an event, Immanuel
and the associated Paradise Sons would have taken leave of the
universe. But Michael did not wish to rule Nebadon merely in his
own isolated right, as a Creator Son. He desired to ascend through
actual experience in co-operative subordination to the Paradise
Trinity to that high place in universe status where he would
become qualified to rule his universe and administer its affairs
with that perfection of insight and wisdom of execution which will
sometime be characteristic of the exalted rule of the Supreme
Being. He aspired not to perfection of rule as a Creator Son but
to supremacy of administration as the embodiment of the universe
wisdom and the divine experience of the Supreme Being.
120:0.4 Michael, therefore, had a double purpose
in the making of these seven bestowals upon the various orders of
his universe creatures: First, he was completing the required
experience in creature understanding which is demanded of all
Creator Sons before they assume complete sovereignty. At any time
a Creator Son may rule his universe in his own right, but he can
rule as the supreme representative of the Paradise Trinity only
after passing through the seven universe-creature bestowals.
Second, he was aspiring to the privilege of representing the
maximum authority of the Paradise Trinity which can be exercised
in the direct and personal administration of a local universe.
Accordingly, did Michael, during the experience of each of his
universe bestowals, successfully and acceptably voluntarily
subordinate himself to the variously constituted wills of the
diverse associations of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. That
is, on the first bestowal he was subject to the combined will of
the Father, Son, and Spirit; on the second bestowal to the will of
the Father and the Son; on the third bestowal to the will of the
Father and the Spirit; on the fourth bestowal to the will of the
Son and the Spirit; on the fifth bestowal to the will of the
Infinite Spirit; on the sixth bestowal to the will of the Eternal
Son; and during the seventh and final bestowal, on Urantia, to the
will of the Universal Father.
120:0.5 Michael, therefore, combines in his
personal sovereignty the divine will of the sevenfold phases of
the universal Creators with the understanding experience of his
local universe creatures. Thus has his administration become
representative of the greatest possible power and authority
although divested of all arbitrary assumptions. His power is
unlimited since it is derived from experienced association with
the Paradise Deities; his authority is unquestioned inasmuch as it
was acquired through actual experience in the likeness of universe
creatures; his sovereignty is supreme since it embodies at one and
the same time the sevenfold viewpoint of Paradise Deity with the
creature viewpoint of time and space.
120:0.6 Having determined the time of his final
bestowal and having selected the planet whereon this extraordinary
event would take place, Michael held the usual prebestowal
conference with Gabriel and then presented himself before his
elder brother and Paradise counselor, Immanuel. All powers of
universe administration which had not previously been conferred
upon Gabriel, Michael now assigned to the custody of Immanuel. And
just before Michael's departure for the Urantia incarnation,
Immanuel, in accepting the custody of the universe during the time
of the Urantia bestowal, proceeded to impart the bestowal counsel
which would serve as the incarnation guide for Michael when he
would presently grow up on Urantia as a mortal of the realm.
120:0.7 In this connection it should be borne in
mind that Michael had elected to execute this bestowal in the
likeness of mortal flesh, subject to the will of the Paradise
Father. The Creator Son required instructions from no one in order
to effect this incarnation for the sole purpose of achieving
universe sovereignty, but he had embarked upon a program of the
revelation of the Supreme which involved co-operative functioning
with the diverse wills of the Paradise Deities. Thus his
sovereignty, when finally and personally acquired, would actually
be all-inclusive of the sevenfold will of Deity as it culminates
in the Supreme. He had, therefore, six times previously been
instructed by the personal representatives of the various Paradise
Deities and associations thereof; and now he was instructed by the
Union of Days, ambassador of the Paradise Trinity to the local
universe of Nebadon, acting on behalf of the Universal Father.
120:0.8 There were immediate advantages and
tremendous compensations resultant from the willingness of this
mighty Creator Son once more voluntarily to subordinate himself to
the will of the Paradise Deities, this time to that of the
Universal Father. By this decision to effect such associative
subordination, Michael would experience in this incarnation, not
only the nature of mortal man, but also the will of the Paradise
Father of all. And further, he could enter upon this unique
bestowal with the complete assurance, not only that Immanuel would
exercise the full authority of the Paradise Father in the
administration of his universe during his absence on the Urantia
bestowal, but also with the comforting knowledge that the Ancients
of Days of the superuniverse had decreed the safety of his realm
throughout the entire bestowal period.
120:0.9 And this was the setting of the
momentous occasion when Immanuel presented the seventh bestowal
commission. And from this prebestowal charge of Immanuel to the
universe ruler who subsequently became Jesus of Nazareth (Christ
Michael) on Urantia, I am permitted to present the following
excerpts:
1. THE SEVENTH BESTOWAL COMMISSION
120:1.1 "My Creator brother, I am about to
witness your seventh and final universe bestowal. Most faithfully
and perfectly have you executed the six previous commissions, and
I entertain no thought but that you will be equally triumphant on
this, your terminal sovereignty bestowal. Heretofore you have
appeared on your bestowal spheres as a fully developed being of
the order of your choosing. Now you are about to appear upon
Urantia, the disordered and disturbed planet of your choice, not
as a fully developed mortal, but as a helpless babe. This, my
comrade, will be a new and untried experience for you. You are
about to pay the full price of bestowal and to experience the
complete enlightenment of the incarnation of a Creator in the
likeness of a creature.
120:1.2 "Throughout each of your former
bestowals you have voluntarily chosen to subject yourself to the
will of the three Paradise Deities and their divine
interassociations. Of the seven phases of the will of the Supreme
you have in your previous bestowals been subject to all but the
personal will of your Paradise Father. Now that you have elected
to be wholly subject to your Father's will throughout your seventh
bestowal, I, as the personal representative of our Father, assume
the unqualified jurisdiction of your universe for the time of your
incarnation.
120:1.3 "In entering upon the Urantia bestowal,
you have voluntarily divested yourself of all extraplanetary
support and special assistance such as might be rendered by any
creature of your own creation. As your created sons of Nebadon are
wholly dependent upon you for safe conduct throughout their
universe careers, so now must you become wholly and unreservedly
dependent upon your Paradise Father for safe conduct throughout
the unrevealed vicissitudes of your ensuing mortal career. And
when you shall have finished this bestowal experience, you will
know in very truth the full meaning and the rich significance of
that faith-trust which you so unvaryingly require all your
creatures to master as a part of their intimate relationship with
you as their local universe Creator and Father.
120:1.4 "Throughout your Urantia bestowal you
need be concerned with but one thing, the unbroken communion
between you and your Paradise Father; and it will be by the
perfection of such a relationship that the world of your bestowal,
even all the universe of your creation, will behold a new and more
understandable revelation of your Father and my Father, the
Universal Father of all. Your concern, therefore, has only to do
with your personal life on Urantia. I will be fully and
efficiently responsible for the security and unbroken
administration of your universe from the moment of your voluntary
relinquishment of authority until you return to us as Universe
Sovereign, confirmed by Paradise, and receive back from my hands,
not the vicegerent authority which you now surrender to me, but,
instead, the supreme power over, and jurisdiction of, your
universe.
120:1.5 "And that you may know with assurance
that I am empowered to do all that I am now promising (knowing
full well that I am the assurance of all Paradise for the faithful
performance of my word), I announce to you that there has just
been communicated to me a mandate of the Ancients of Days on
Uversa which will prevent all spiritual jeopardy in Nebadon
throughout the period of your voluntary bestowal. From the moment
you surrender consciousness, upon the beginning of the mortal
incarnation, until you return to us as supreme and unconditional
sovereign of this universe of your own creation and organization,
nothing of serious import can happen in all Nebadon. In this
interim of your incarnation, I hold the orders of the Ancients of
Days which unqualifiedly mandate the instantaneous and automatic
extinction of any being guilty of rebellion or presuming to
instigate insurrection in the universe of Nebadon while you are
absent on this bestowal. My brother, in view of the authority of
Paradise inherent in my presence and augmented by the judicial
mandate of Uversa, your universe and all its loyal creatures will
be secure during your bestowal. You may proceed upon your mission
with but a single thought -- the enhanced revelation of our Father
to the intelligent beings of your universe.
120:1.6 "As in each of your previous bestowals,
I would remind you that I am recipient of your universe
jurisdiction as brother-trustee. I exercise all authority and
wield all power in your name. I function as would our Paradise
Father and in accordance with your explicit request that I thus
act in your stead. And such being the fact, all this delegated
authority is yours again to exercise at any moment you may see fit
to requisition its return. Your bestowal is, throughout, wholly
voluntary. As a mortal incarnate in the realm you are without
celestial endowments, but all your relinquished power may be had
at any time you may choose to reinvest yourself with universe
authority. If you should choose to reinstate yourself in power and
authority, remember, it will be wholly for personal reasons
since I am the living and supreme pledge whose presence and
promise guarantee the safe administration of your universe in
accordance with your Father's will. Rebellion, such as has three
times occurred in Nebadon, cannot occur during your absence from
Salvington on this bestowal. For the period of the Urantia
bestowal the Ancients of Days have decreed that rebellion in
Nebadon shall be invested with the automatic seed of its own
annihilation.
120:1.7 "As long as you are absent on this final
and extraordinary bestowal, I pledge (with Gabriel's co-operation)
the faithful administration of your universe; and as I commission
you to undertake this ministry of divine revelation and to undergo
this experience of perfected human understanding, I act in behalf
of my Father and your Father and offer you the following counsel,
which should guide you in the living of your earth life as you
become progressively self-conscious regarding the divine mission
of your continued sojourn in the flesh:
2. THE BESTOWAL LIMITATIONS
120:2.1 "1. In accordance with the usages and in
conformity with the technique of Sonarington -- in compliance with
the mandates of the Eternal Son of Paradise -- I have provided in
every way for your immediate entrance upon this mortal bestowal in
harmony with the plans formulated by you and placed in my keeping
by Gabriel. You will grow up on Urantia as a child of the realm,
complete your human education -- all the while subject to the will
of your Paradise Father -- live your life on Urantia as you have
determined, terminate your planetary sojourn, and prepare for
ascension to your Father to receive from him the supreme
sovereignty of your universe.
120:2.2 "2. Apart from your earth mission and
your universe revelation, but incidental to both, I counsel that
you assume, after you are sufficiently self-conscious of your
divine identity, the additional task of technically terminating
the Lucifer rebellion in the system of Satania, and that you do
all this as the Son of Man; thus, as a mortal creature of
the realm, in weakness made powerful by faith-submission to the
will of your Father, I suggest that you graciously achieve all you
have repeatedly declined arbitrarily to accomplish by power and
might when you were so endowed at the time of the inception of
this sinful and unjustified rebellion. I would regard it as a
fitting climax of your mortal bestowal if you should return to us
as the Son of Man, Planetary Prince of Urantia, as well as the Son
of God, supreme sovereign of your universe. As a mortal man, the
lowest type of intelligent creature in Nebadon, meet and
adjudicate the blasphemous pretensions of Caligastia and Lucifer
and, in your assumed humble estate, forever end the shameful
misrepresentations of these fallen children of light. Having
steadfastly declined to discredit these rebels through the
exercise of your creator prerogatives, now it would be fitting
that you should, in the likeness of the lowest creatures of your
creation, wrest dominion from the hands of these fallen Sons; and
so would your whole local universe in all fairness clearly and
forever recognize the justice of your doing in the role of mortal
flesh those things which mercy admonished you not to do by the
power of arbitrary authority. And having thus by your bestowal
established the possibility of the sovereignty of the Supreme in
Nebadon, you will in effect have brought to a close the
unadjudicated affairs of all preceding insurrections,
notwithstanding the greater or lesser time lag involved in the
realization of this achievement. By this act the pending
dissensions of your universe will be in substance liquidated. And
with the subsequent endowment of supreme sovereignty over your
universe, similar challenges to your authority can never recur in
any part of your great personal creation.
120:2.3 "3. When you have succeeded in
terminating the Urantia secession, as you undoubtedly will, I
counsel you to accept from Gabriel the conference of the title of
`Planetary Prince of Urantia' as the eternal recognition by your
universe of your final bestowal experience; and that you further
do any and all things, consistent with the purport of your
bestowal, to atone for the sorrow and confusion brought upon
Urantia by the Caligastia betrayal and the subsequent Adamic
default.
120:2.4 "4. In accordance with your request,
Gabriel and all concerned will co-operate with you in the
expressed desire to end your Urantia bestowal with the
pronouncement of a dispensational judgment of the realm,
accompanied by the termination of an age, the resurrection of the
sleeping mortal survivors, and the establishment of the
dispensation of the bestowed Spirit of Truth.
120:2.5 "5. As concerns the planet of your
bestowal and the immediate generation of men living thereon at the
time of your mortal sojourn, I counsel you to function largely in
the role of a teacher. Give attention, first, to the liberation
and inspiration of man's spiritual nature. Next, illuminate the
darkened human intellect, heal the souls of men, and emancipate
their minds from age-old fears. And then, in accordance with your
mortal wisdom, minister to the physical well-being and material
comfort of your brothers in the flesh. Live the ideal religious
life for the inspiration and edification of all your universe.
120:2.6 "6. On the planet of your bestowal, set
rebellion-segregated man spiritually free. On Urantia, make a
further contribution to the sovereignty of the Supreme, thus
extending the establishment of this sovereignty throughout the
broad domains of your personal creation. In this, your material
bestowal in the likeness of the flesh, you are about to experience
the final enlightenment of a time-space Creator, the dual
experience of working within the nature of man with the will of
your Paradise Father. In your temporal life the will of the finite
creature and the will of the infinite Creator are to become as
one, even as they are also uniting in the evolving Deity of the
Supreme Being. Pour out upon the planet of your bestowal the
Spirit of Truth and thus make all normal mortals on that isolated
sphere immediately and fully accessible to the ministry of the
segregated presence of our Paradise Father, the Thought Adjusters
of the realms.
120:2.7 "7. In all that you may perform on the
world of your bestowal, bear constantly in mind that you are
living a life for the instruction and edification of all your
universe. You are bestowing this life of mortal incarnation
upon Urantia, but you are to live such a life for the
spiritual inspiration of every human and superhuman intelligence
that has lived, now exists, or may yet live on every inhabited
world which has formed, now forms, or may yet form a part of the
vast galaxy of your administrative domain. Your earth life in the
likeness of mortal flesh shall not be so lived as to constitute an
example for the mortals of Urantia in the days of your
earthly sojourn nor for any subsequent generation of human beings
on Urantia or on any other world. Rather shall your life in the
flesh on Urantia be the inspiration for all lives upon all
Nebadon worlds throughout all generations in the ages to come.
120:2.8 "8. Your great mission to be realized
and experienced in the mortal incarnation is embraced in your
decision to live a life wholeheartedly motivated to do the will of
your Paradise Father, thus to reveal God, your Father, in
the flesh and especially to the creatures of the flesh. At the
same time you will also interpret, with a new enhancement,
our Father, to the supermortal beings of all Nebadon. Equally with
this ministry of new revelation and augmented interpretation of
the Paradise Father to the human and the superhuman type of mind,
you will also so function as to make a new revelation of man to
God. Exhibit in your one short life in the flesh, as it has never
before been seen in all Nebadon, the transcendent possibilities
attainable by a God-knowing human during the short career of
mortal existence, and make a new and illuminating
interpretation of man and the vicissitudes of his planetary
life to all the superhuman intelligences of all Nebadon, and for
all time. You are to go down to Urantia in the likeness of mortal
flesh, and living as a man in your day and generation, you will so
function as to show your entire universe the ideal of perfected
technique in the supreme engagement of the affairs of your vast
creation: The achievement of God seeking man and finding him and
the phenomenon of man seeking God and finding him; and doing all
of this to mutual satisfaction and doing it during one short
lifetime in the flesh.
120:2.9 "9. I caution you ever to bear in mind
that, while in fact you are to become an ordinary human of the
realm, in potential you will remain a Creator Son of the Paradise
Father. Throughout this incarnation, although you will live and
act as a Son of Man, the creative attributes of your personal
divinity will follow you from Salvington to Urantia. It will ever
be within your power-of-will to terminate the incarnation at any
moment subsequent to the arrival of your Thought Adjuster. Prior
to the arrival and reception of the Adjuster I will vouch for your
personality integrity. But subsequent to the arrival of your
Adjuster and concomitant with your progressive recognition of the
nature and import of your bestowal mission, you should refrain
from the formulation of any superhuman will-to-attainment,
achievement, or power in view of the fact that your creator
prerogatives will remain associated with your mortal personality
because of the inseparability of these attributes from your
personal presence. But no superhuman repercussions will attend
your earthly career apart from the will of the Paradise Father
unless you should, by an act of conscious and deliberate will,
make an undivided decision which would terminate in
whole-personality choice.
3. FURTHER COUNSEL AND ADVICE
120:3.1 "And now, my brother, in taking leave of
you as you prepare to depart for Urantia and after counseling you
regarding the general conduct of your bestowal, allow me to
present certain advices that have been arrived at in consultation
with Gabriel, and which concern minor phases of your mortal life.
We further suggest:
120:3.2 "1. That, in the pursuit of the ideal of
your mortal earth life, you also give some attention to the
realization and exemplification of some things practical and
immediately helpful to your fellow men.
120:3.3 "2. As concerns family relationships,
give precedence to the accepted customs of family life as you find
them established in the day and generation of your bestowal. Live
your family and community life in accordance with the practices of
the people among whom you have elected to appear.
120:3.4 "3. In your relations to the social
order we advise that you confine your efforts largely to spiritual
regeneration and intellectual emancipation. Avoid all
entanglements with the economic structure and the political
commitments of your day. More especially devote yourself to living
the ideal religious life on Urantia.
120:3.5 "4. Under no circumstances and not even
in the least detail, should you interfere with the normal and
orderly progressive evolution of the Urantia races. But this
prohibition must not be interpreted as limiting your efforts to
leave behind you on Urantia an enduring and improved system of
positive religious ethics. As a dispensational Son you are
granted certain privileges pertaining to the advancement of the
spiritual and religious status of the world peoples.
120:3.6 "5. As you may see fit, you are to
identify yourself with existing religious and spiritual movements
as they may be found on Urantia but in every possible manner seek
to avoid the formal establishment of an organized cult, a
crystallized religion, or a segregated ethical grouping of mortal
beings. Your life and teachings are to become the common heritage
of all religions and all peoples.
120:3.7 "6. To the end that you may not
unnecessarily contribute to the creation of subsequent stereotyped
systems of Urantia religious beliefs or other types of
nonprogressive religious loyalties, we advise you still further:
Leave no writings behind you on the planet. Refrain from all
writing upon permanent materials; enjoin your associates to make
no images or other likenesses of yourself in the flesh. See that
nothing potentially idolatrous is left on the planet at the time
of your departure.
120:3.8 "7. While you will live the normal and
average social life of the planet, being a normal individual of
the male sex, you will probably not enter the marriage relation,
which relation would be wholly honorable and consistent with your
bestowal; but I must remind you that one of the incarnation
mandates of Sonarington forbids the leaving of human offspring
behind on any planet by a bestowal Son of Paradise origin.
120:3.9 "8. In all other details of your
oncoming bestowal we would commit you to the leading of the
indwelling Adjuster, the teaching of the ever-present divine
spirit of human guidance, and the reason-judgment of your
expanding human mind of hereditary endowment. Such an association
of creature and Creator attributes will enable you to live for us
the perfect life of man on the planetary spheres, not necessarily
perfect as regarded by any one man in any one generation on any
one world (much less on Urantia) but wholly and supremely replete
as evaluated on the more highly perfected and perfecting worlds of
your far-flung universe.
120:3.10 "And now, may your Father and my
Father, who has ever sustained us in all past performances, guide
and sustain you and be with you from the moment you leave us and
achieve the surrender of your consciousness of personality,
throughout your gradual return to recognition of your divine
identity incarnate in human form, and then on through the whole of
your bestowal experience on Urantia until your deliverance from
the flesh and your ascension to our Father's right hand of
sovereignty. When I shall again see you on Salvington, we shall
welcome your return to us as the supreme and unconditional
sovereign of this universe of your own making, serving, and
completed understanding.
120:3.11 "In your stead I now reign. I assume
jurisdiction of all Nebadon as acting sovereign during the interim
of your seventh and mortal bestowal on Urantia. And to you,
Gabriel, I commit the safekeeping of the Son of Man about-to-be
until he shall presently and in power and glory be returned to me
as the Son of Man and the Son of God. And, Gabriel, I am your
sovereign until Michael thus returns."
***
120:3.12 Then, immediately, in the presence of
all Salvington assembled, Michael removed himself from our midst,
and we saw him no more in his accustomed place until his return as
the supreme and personal ruler of the universe, subsequent to the
completion of his bestowal career on Urantia.
4. THE INCARNATION -- MAKING TWO ONE
120:4.1 And so certain unworthy children of
Michael, who had accused their Creator-father of selfishly seeking
rulership and indulged the insinuation that the Creator Son was
arbitrarily and autocratically upheld in power by virtue of the
unreasoning loyalty of a deluded universe of subservient
creatures, were to be silenced forever and left confounded and
disillusioned by the life of self-forgetful service which the Son
of God now entered upon as the Son of Man -- all the while subject
to "the will of the Paradise Father."
120:4.2 But make no mistake; Christ Michael,
while truly a dual-origin being, was not a double personality. He
was not God in association with man but, rather, God
incarnate in man. And he was always just that combined being.
The only progressive factor in such a nonunderstandable
relationship was the progressive self-conscious realization and
recognition (by the human mind) of this fact of being God and man.
120:4.3 Christ Michael did not progressively
become God. God did not, at some vital moment in the earth life of
Jesus, become man. Jesus was God and man -- always and even
forevermore. And this God and this man were, and now are, one,
even as the Paradise Trinity of three beings is in reality one
Deity.
120:4.4 Never lose sight of the fact that the
supreme spiritual purpose of the Michael bestowal was to enhance
the revelation of God.
120:4.5 Urantia mortals have varying concepts of
the miraculous, but to us who live as citizens of the local
universe there are few miracles, and of these by far the most
intriguing are the incarnational bestowals of the Paradise Sons.
The appearance in and on your world, by apparently natural
processes, of a divine Son, we regard as a miracle -- the
operation of universal laws beyond our understanding. Jesus of
Nazareth was a miraculous person.
120:4.6 In and through all this extraordinary
experience, God the Father chose to manifest himself as he always
does -- in the usual way -- in the normal, natural, and
dependable way of divine acting.
