The Urantia Book
PAPER 194
BESTOWAL OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
194:0.1 ABOUT one o'clock, as the one hundred
and twenty believers were engaged in prayer, they all became aware
of a strange presence in the room. At the same time these
disciples all became conscious of a new and profound sense of
spiritual joy, security, and confidence. This new consciousness of
spiritual strength was immediately followed by a strong urge to go
out and publicly proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good
news that Jesus had risen from the dead.
194:0.2 Peter stood up and declared that this
must be the coming of the Spirit of Truth which the Master had
promised them and proposed that they go to the temple and begin
the proclamation of the good news committed to their hands. And
they did just what Peter suggested.
194:0.3 These men had been trained and
instructed that the gospel which they should preach was the
fatherhood of God and the sonship of man, but at just this moment
of spiritual ecstasy and personal triumph, the best tidings, the
greatest news, these men could think of was the fact of the
risen Master. And so they went forth, endowed with power from on
high, preaching glad tidings to the people -- even salvation
through Jesus -- but they unintentionally stumbled into the error
of substituting some of the facts associated with the gospel for
the gospel message itself. Peter unwittingly led off in this
mistake, and others followed after him on down to Paul, who
created a new religion out of the new version of the good news.
194:0.4 The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact
of the fatherhood of God, coupled with the resultant truth of the
sonship-brotherhood of men. Christianity, as it developed from
that day, is: the fact of God as the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in association with the experience of believer-fellowship
with the risen and glorified Christ.
194:0.5 It is not strange that these
spirit-infused men should have seized upon this opportunity to
express their feelings of triumph over the forces which had sought
to destroy their Master and end the influence of his teachings. At
such a time as this it was easier to remember their personal
association with Jesus and to be thrilled with the assurance that
the Master still lived, that their friendship had not ended, and
that the spirit had indeed come upon them even as he had promised.
194:0.6 These believers felt themselves suddenly
translated into another world, a new existence of joy, power, and
glory. The Master had told them the kingdom would come with power,
and some of them thought they were beginning to discern what he
meant.
194:0.7 And when all of this is taken into
consideration, it is not difficult to understand how these men
came to preach a new gospel about Jesus in the place of
their former message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of men.
1. THE PENTECOST SERMON
194:1.1 The apostles had been in hiding for
forty days. This day happened to be the Jewish festival of
Pentecost, and thousands of visitors from all parts of the world
were in Jerusalem. Many arrived for this feast, but a majority had
tarried in the city since the Passover. Now these frightened
apostles emerged from their weeks of seclusion to appear boldly in
the temple, where they began to preach the new message of a risen
Messiah. And all the disciples were likewise conscious of having
received some new spiritual endowment of insight and power.
194:1.2 It was about two o'clock when Peter
stood up in that very place where his Master had last taught in
this temple, and delivered that impassioned appeal which resulted
in the winning of more than two thousand souls. The Master had
gone, but they suddenly discovered that this story about him had
great power with the people. No wonder they were led on into the
further proclamation of that which vindicated their former
devotion to Jesus and at the same time so constrained men to
believe in him. Six of the apostles participated in this meeting:
Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, and Matthew. They talked for
more than an hour and a half and delivered messages in Greek,
Hebrew, and Aramaic, as well as a few words in even other tongues
with which they had a speaking acquaintance.
194:1.3 The leaders of the Jews were astounded
at the boldness of the apostles, but they feared to molest them
because of the large numbers who believed their story.
194:1.4 By half past four o'clock more than two
thousand new believers followed the apostles down to the pool of
Siloam, where Peter, Andrew, James, and John baptized them in the
Master's name. And it was dark when they had finished with
baptizing this multitude.
194:1.5 Pentecost was the great festival of
baptism, the time for fellowshipping the proselytes of the gate,
those gentiles who desired to serve Yahweh. It was, therefore, the
more easy for large numbers of both the Jews and believing
gentiles to submit to baptism on this day. In doing this, they
were in no way disconnecting themselves from the Jewish faith.
Even for some time after this the believers in Jesus were a sect
within Judaism. All of them, including the apostles, were still
loyal to the essential requirements of the Jewish ceremonial
system.
2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PENTECOST
194:2.1 Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel
which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of
the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God.
Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his day, was an
effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of
its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he
sends in his place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in
man and, for each new generation, to restate the Jesus message so
that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the
earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just
such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be
an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied spiritual
difficulties.
194:2.2 The first mission of this spirit is, of
course, to foster and personalize truth, for it is the
comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form of human
liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the
believer's feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all
believers would experience a sense of loneliness had not the
Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men's hearts.
194:2.3 This bestowal of the Son's spirit
effectively prepared all normal men's minds for the subsequent
universal bestowal of the Father's spirit (the Adjuster) upon all
mankind. In a certain sense, this Spirit of Truth is the spirit of
both the Universal Father and the Creator Son.
194:2.4 Do not make the mistake of expecting to
become strongly intellectually conscious of the outpoured Spirit
of Truth. The spirit never creates a consciousness of himself,
only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus
taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof,
therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to
be found in your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your
experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael.
194:2.5 The spirit also came to help men recall
and understand the words of the Master as well as to illuminate
and reinterpret his life on earth.
194:2.6 Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help
the believer to witness to the realities of Jesus' teachings and
his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now again lives it
anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing
generation of the spirit-filled sons of God.
194:2.7 Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth
comes really to lead all believers into all truth, into the
expanding knowledge of the experience of the living and growing
spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending
sonship with God.
194:2.8 Jesus lived a life which is a revelation
of man submitted to the Father's will, not an example for any man
literally to attempt to follow. This life in the flesh, together
with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, presently
became a new gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in
order to purchase man back from the clutch of the evil one -- from
the condemnation of an offended God. Nevertheless, even though the
gospel did become greatly distorted, it remains a fact that this
new message about Jesus carried along with it many of the
fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier gospel of the
kingdom. And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to
effectually transform the civilization of all mankind.
194:2.9 But these mistakes of the intellect in
no way interfered with the believer's great progress in growth in
spirit. In less than a month after the bestowal of the Spirit of
Truth, the apostles made more individual spiritual progress than
during their almost four years of personal and loving association
with the Master. Neither did this substitution of the fact
of the resurrection of Jesus for the saving gospel truth of
sonship with God in any way interfere with the rapid spread of
their teachings; on the contrary, this overshadowing of Jesus'
message by the new teachings about his person and resurrection
seemed greatly to facilitate the preaching of the good news.
194:2.10 The term "baptism of the spirit," which
came into such general use about this time, merely signified the
conscious reception of this gift of the Spirit of Truth and the
personal acknowledgment of this new spiritual power as an
augmentation of all spiritual influences previously experienced by
God-knowing souls.
194:2.11 Since the bestowal of the Spirit of
Truth, man is subject to the teaching and guidance of a threefold
spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the Thought Adjuster;
the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
194:2.12 In a way, mankind is subject to the
double influence of the sevenfold appeal of the universe spirit
influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals are subject to
the progressive contact of the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the
local universe Mother Spirit. As man progresses upward in the
scale of intelligence and spiritual perception, there eventually
come to hover over him and dwell within him the seven higher
spirit influences. And these seven spirits of the advancing worlds
are:
194:2.13 1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal
Father -- the Thought Adjusters.
194:2.14 2. The spirit presence of the Eternal
Son -- the spirit gravity of the universe of universes and the
certain channel of all spirit communion.
194:2.15 3. The spirit presence of the Infinite
Spirit -- the universal spirit-mind of all creation, the spiritual
source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive
intelligences.
194:2.16 4. The spirit of the Universal Father
and the Creator Son -- the Spirit of Truth, generally regarded as
the spirit of the Universe Son.
194:2.17 5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit
and the Universe Mother Spirit -- the Holy Spirit, generally
regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit.
194:2.18 6. The mind-spirit of the Universe
Mother Spirit -- the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the local
universe.
194:2.19 7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and
Spirits -- the new-name spirit of the ascending mortals of the
realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born soul with the
Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment of
the divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps
of the Finality.
194:2.20 And so did the bestowal of the Spirit
of Truth bring to the world and its peoples the last of the spirit
endowment designed to aid in the ascending search for God.
3. WHAT HAPPENED AT PENTECOST
194:3.1 Many queer and strange teachings became
associated with the early narratives of the day of Pentecost. In
subsequent times the events of this day, on which the Spirit of
Truth, the new teacher, came to dwell with mankind, have become
confused with the foolish outbreaks of rampant emotionalism. The
chief mission of this outpoured spirit of the Father and the Son
is to teach men about the truths of the Father's love and the
Son's mercy. These are the truths of divinity which men can
comprehend more fully than all the other divine traits of
character. The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the
revelation of the Father's spirit nature and the Son's moral
character. The Creator Son, in the flesh, revealed God to men; the
Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the Creator Son to men.
When man yields the "fruits of the spirit" in his life, he is
simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his
own earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he lived his life as
one personality -- Jesus of Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of
the "new teacher," the Master has, since Pentecost, been able to
live his life anew in the experience of every truth-taught
believer.
194:3.2 Many things which happen in the course
of a human life are hard to understand, difficult to reconcile
with the idea that this is a universe in which truth prevails and
in which righteousness triumphs. It so often appears that slander,
lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness -- sin -- prevail. Does
faith, after all, triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does.
And the life and death of Jesus are the eternal proof that the
truth of goodness and the faith of the spirit-led creature will
always be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross, saying,
"Let us see if God will come and deliver him." It looked dark on
that day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously bright on the
resurrection morning; it was still brighter and more joyous on the
day of Pentecost. The religions of pessimistic despair seek to
obtain release from the burdens of life; they crave extinction in
endless slumber and rest. These are the religions of primitive
fear and dread. The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of faith to
be proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion is founded
on faith, hope, and love.
194:3.3 To Jesus, mortal life had dealt its
hardest, cruelest, and bitterest blows; and this man met these
ministrations of despair with faith, courage, and the unswerving
determination to do his Father's will. Jesus met life in all its
terrible reality and mastered it -- even in death. He did not use
religion as a release from life. The religion of Jesus does not
seek to escape this life in order to enjoy the waiting bliss of
another existence. The religion of Jesus provides the joy and
peace of another and spiritual existence to enhance and ennoble
the life which men now live in the flesh.
194:3.4 If religion is an opiate to the people,
it is not the religion of Jesus. On the cross he refused to drink
the deadening drug, and his spirit, poured out upon all flesh, is
a mighty world influence which leads man upward and urges him
onward. The spiritual forward urge is the most powerful driving
force present in this world; the truth-learning believer is the
one progressive and aggressive soul on earth.
194:3.5 On the day of Pentecost the religion of
Jesus broke all national restrictions and racial fetters. It is
forever true, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
On this day the Spirit of Truth became the personal gift from the
Master to every mortal. This spirit was bestowed for the purpose
of qualifying believers more effectively to preach the gospel of
the kingdom, but they mistook the experience of receiving the
outpoured spirit for a part of the new gospel which they were
unconsciously formulating.
194:3.6 Do not overlook the fact that the Spirit
of Truth was bestowed upon all sincere believers; this gift of the
spirit did not come only to the apostles. The one hundred and
twenty men and women assembled in the upper chamber all received
the new teacher, as did all the honest of heart throughout the
whole world. This new teacher was bestowed upon mankind, and every
soul received him in accordance with the love for truth and the
capacity to grasp and comprehend spiritual realities. At last,
true religion is delivered from the custody of priests and all
sacred classes and finds its real manifestation in the individual
souls of men.
194:3.7 The religion of Jesus fosters the
highest type of human civilization in that it creates the highest
type of spiritual personality and proclaims the sacredness of that
person.
194:3.8 The coming of the Spirit of Truth on
Pentecost made possible a religion which is neither radical nor
conservative; it is neither the old nor the new; it is to be
dominated neither by the old nor the young. The fact of Jesus'
earthly life provides a fixed point for the anchor of time, while
the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth provides for the everlasting
expansion and endless growth of the religion which he lived and
the gospel which he proclaimed. The spirit guides into all
truth; he is the teacher of an expanding and always-growing
religion of endless progress and divine unfolding. This new
teacher will be forever unfolding to the truth-seeking believer
that which was so divinely folded up in the person and nature of
the Son of Man.
194:3.9 The manifestations associated with the
bestowal of the "new teacher," and the reception of the apostles'
preaching by the men of various races and nations gathered
together at Jerusalem, indicate the universality of the religion
of Jesus. The gospel of the kingdom was to be identified with no
particular race, culture, or language. This day of Pentecost
witnessed the great effort of the spirit to liberate the religion
of Jesus from its inherited Jewish fetters. Even after this
demonstration of pouring out the spirit upon all flesh, the
apostles at first endeavored to impose the requirements of Judaism
upon their converts. Even Paul had trouble with his Jerusalem
brethren because he refused to subject the gentiles to these
Jewish practices. No revealed religion can spread to all the world
when it makes the serious mistake of becoming permeated with some
national culture or associated with established racial, social, or
economic practices.
194:3.10 The bestowal of the Spirit of Truth was
independent of all forms, ceremonies, sacred places, and special
behavior by those who received the fullness of its manifestation.
When the spirit came upon those assembled in the upper chamber,
they were simply sitting there, having just been engaged in silent
prayer. The spirit was bestowed in the country as well as in the
city. It was not necessary for the apostles to go apart to a
lonely place for years of solitary meditation in order to receive
the spirit. For all time, Pentecost disassociates the idea of
spiritual experience from the notion of especially favorable
environments.
194:3.11 Pentecost, with its spiritual
endowment, was designed forever to loose the religion of the
Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of
this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They
are to go out to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness,
matchless good will, and abounding love. They are equipped to
overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear
with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had already
taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always
were his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of
mercy and in their manifestations of love. No longer did these
believers look upon Yahweh as "the Lord of Hosts." They now
regarded the eternal Deity as the "God and Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ." They made that progress, at least, even if they did
in some measure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the
spiritual Father of every individual.
194:3.12 Pentecost endowed mortal man with the
power to forgive personal injuries, to keep sweet in the midst of
the gravest injustice, to remain unmoved in the face of appalling
danger, and to challenge the evils of hate and anger by the
fearless acts of love and forbearance. Urantia has passed through
the ravages of great and destructive wars in its history. All
participants in these terrible struggles met with defeat. There
was but one victor; there was only one who came out of these
embittered struggles with an enhanced reputation -- that was Jesus
of Nazareth and his gospel of overcoming evil with good. The
secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master's
teachings of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and
mutual trust.
194:3.13 Up to Pentecost, religion had revealed
only man seeking for God; since Pentecost, man is still searching
for God, but there shines out over the world the spectacle of God
also seeking for man and sending his spirit to dwell within him
when he has found him.
194:3.14 Before the teachings of Jesus which
culminated in Pentecost, women had little or no spiritual standing
in the tenets of the older religions. After Pentecost, in the
brotherhood of the kingdom woman stood before God on an equality
with man. Among the one hundred and twenty who received this
special visitation of the spirit were many of the women disciples,
and they shared these blessings equally with the men believers. No
longer can man presume to monopolize the ministry of religious
service. The Pharisee might go on thanking God that he was "not
born a woman, a leper, or a gentile," but among the followers of
Jesus woman has been forever set free from all religious
discriminations based on sex. Pentecost obliterated all religious
discrimination founded on racial distinction, cultural
differences, social caste, or sex prejudice. No wonder these
believers in the new religion would cry out, "Where the spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty."
194:3.15 Both the mother and brother of Jesus
were present among the one hundred and twenty believers, and as
members of this common group of disciples, they also received the
outpoured spirit. They received no more of the good gift than did
their fellows. No special gift was bestowed upon the members of
Jesus' earthly family. Pentecost marked the end of special
priesthoods and all belief in sacred families.
194:3.16 Before Pentecost the apostles had given
up much for Jesus. They had sacrificed their homes, families,
friends, worldly goods, and positions. At Pentecost they gave
themselves to God, and the Father and the Son responded by giving
themselves to man -- sending their spirits to live within men.
This experience of losing self and finding the spirit was not one
of emotion; it was an act of intelligent self-surrender and
unreserved consecration.
194:3.17 Pentecost was the call to spiritual
unity among gospel believers. When the spirit descended on the
disciples at Jerusalem, the same thing happened in Philadelphia,
Alexandria, and at all other places where true believers dwelt. It
was literally true that "there was but one heart and soul among
the multitude of the believers." The religion of Jesus is the most
powerful unifying influence the world has ever known.
194:3.18 Pentecost was designed to lessen the
self-assertiveness of individuals, groups, nations, and races. It
is this spirit of self-assertiveness which so increases in tension
that it periodically breaks loose in destructive wars. Mankind can
be unified only by the spiritual approach, and the Spirit of Truth
is a world influence which is universal.
194:3.19 The coming of the Spirit of Truth
purifies the human heart and leads the recipient to formulate a
life purpose single to the will of God and the welfare of men. The
material spirit of selfishness has been swallowed up in this new
spiritual bestowal of selflessness. Pentecost, then and now,
signifies that the Jesus of history has become the divine Son of
living experience. The joy of this outpoured spirit, when it is
consciously experienced in human life, is a tonic for health, a
stimulus for mind, and an unfailing energy for the soul.
194:3.20 Prayer did not bring the spirit on the
day of Pentecost, but it did have much to do with determining the
capacity of receptivity which characterized the individual
believers. Prayer does not move the divine heart to liberality of
bestowal, but it does so often dig out larger and deeper channels
wherein the divine bestowals may flow to the hearts and souls of
those who thus remember to maintain unbroken communion with their
Maker through sincere prayer and true worship.
4. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
194:4.1 When Jesus was so suddenly seized by his
enemies and so quickly crucified between two thieves, his apostles
and disciples were completely demoralized. The thought of the
Master, arrested, bound, scourged, and crucified, was too much for
even the apostles. They forgot his teachings and his warnings. He
might, indeed, have been "a prophet mighty in deed and word before
God and all the people," but he could hardly be the Messiah they
had hoped would restore the kingdom of Israel.
194:4.2 Then comes the resurrection, with its
deliverance from despair and the return of their faith in the
Master's divinity. Again and again they see him and talk with him,
and he takes them out on Olivet, where he bids them farewell and
tells them he is going back to the Father. He has told them to
tarry in Jerusalem until they are endowed with power -- until the
Spirit of Truth shall come. And on the day of Pentecost this new
teacher comes, and they go out at once to preach their gospel with
new power. They are the bold and courageous followers of a living
Lord, not a dead and defeated leader. The Master lives in the
hearts of these evangelists; God is not a doctrine in their minds;
he has become a living presence in their souls.
194:4.3 "Day by day they continued steadfastly
and with one accord in the temple and breaking bread at home. They
took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising
God and having favor with all the people. They were all filled
with the spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. And
the multitudes of those who believed were of one heart and soul;
and not one of them said that aught of the things which he
possessed was his own, and they had all things in common."
194:4.4 What has happened to these men whom
Jesus had ordained to go forth preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man? They
have a new gospel; they are on fire with a new experience; they
are filled with a new spiritual energy. Their message has suddenly
shifted to the proclamation of the risen Christ: "Jesus of
Nazareth, a man God approved by mighty works and wonders; him,
being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you did crucify and slay. The things which God foreshadowed
by the mouth of all the prophets, he thus fulfilled. This Jesus
did God raise up. God has made him both Lord and Christ. Being, by
the right hand of God, exalted and having received from the Father
the promise of the spirit, he has poured forth this which you see
and hear. Repent, that your sins may be blotted out; that the
Father may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you, even
Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the
restoration of all things."
194:4.5 The gospel of the kingdom, the message
of Jesus, had been suddenly changed into the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They now proclaimed the facts of his life, death,
and resurrection and preached the hope of his speedy return to
this world to finish the work he began. Thus the message of the
early believers had to do with preaching about the facts of his
first coming and with teaching the hope of his second coming, an
event which they deemed to be very near at hand.
194:4.6 Christ was about to become the creed of
the rapidly forming church. Jesus lives; he died for men; he gave
the spirit; he is coming again. Jesus filled all their thoughts
and determined all their new concept of God and everything else.
They were too much enthused over the new doctrine that "God is the
Father of the Lord Jesus" to be concerned with the old message
that "God is the loving Father of all men," even of every single
individual. True, a marvelous manifestation of brotherly love and
unexampled good will did spring up in these early communities of
believers. But it was a fellowship of believers in Jesus, not a
fellowship of brothers in the family kingdom of the Father in
heaven. Their good will arose from the love born of the concept of
Jesus' bestowal and not from the recognition of the brotherhood of
mortal man. Nevertheless, they were filled with joy, and they
lived such new and unique lives that all men were attracted to
their teachings about Jesus. They made the great mistake of using
the living and illustrative commentary on the gospel of the
kingdom for that gospel, but even that represented the greatest
religion mankind had ever known.
194:4.7 Unmistakably, a new fellowship was
arising in the world. "The multitude who believed continued
steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in prayers." They called each other brother
and sister; they greeted one another with a holy kiss; they
ministered to the poor. It was a fellowship of living as well as
of worship. They were not communal by decree but by the desire to
share their goods with their fellow believers. They confidently
expected that Jesus would return to complete the establishment of
the Father's kingdom during their generation. This spontaneous
sharing of earthly possessions was not a direct feature of Jesus'
teaching; it came about because these men and women so sincerely
and so confidently believed that he was to return any day to
finish his work and to consummate the kingdom. But the final
results of this well-meant experiment in thoughtless brotherly
love were disastrous and sorrow-breeding. Thousands of earnest
believers sold their property and disposed of all their capital
goods and other productive assets. With the passing of time, the
dwindling resources of Christian "equal-sharing" came to an end
-- but the world did not. Very soon the believers at Antioch were
taking up a collection to keep their fellow believers at Jerusalem
from starving.
194:4.8 In these days they celebrated the Lord's
Supper after the manner of its establishment; that is, they
assembled for a social meal of good fellowship and partook of the
sacrament at the end of the meal.
194:4.9 At first they baptized in the name of
Jesus; it was almost twenty years before they began to baptize in
"the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Baptism
was all that was required for admission into the fellowship of
believers. They had no organization as yet; it was simply the
Jesus brotherhood.
194:4.10 This Jesus sect was growing rapidly,
and once more the Sadducees took notice of them. The Pharisees
were little bothered about the situation, seeing that none of the
teachings in any way interfered with the observance of the Jewish
laws. But the Sadducees began to put the leaders of the Jesus sect
in jail until they were prevailed upon to accept the counsel of
one of the leading rabbis, Gamaliel, who advised them: "Refrain
from these men and let them alone, for if this counsel or this
work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you
will not be able to overthrow them, lest haply you be found even
to be fighting against God." They decided to follow Gamaliel's
counsel, and there ensued a time of peace and quiet in Jerusalem,
during which the new gospel about Jesus spread rapidly.
194:4.11 And so all went well in Jerusalem until
the time of the coming of the Greeks in large numbers from
Alexandria. Two of the pupils of Rodan arrived in Jerusalem and
made many converts from among the Hellenists. Among their early
converts were Stephen and Barnabas. These able Greeks did not so
much have the Jewish viewpoint, and they did not so well conform
to the Jewish mode of worship and other ceremonial practices. And
it was the doings of these Greek believers that terminated the
peaceful relations between the Jesus brotherhood and the Pharisees
and Sadducees. Stephen and his Greek associate began to preach
more as Jesus taught, and this brought them into immediate
conflict with the Jewish rulers. In one of Stephen's public
sermons, when he reached the objectionable part of the discourse,
they dispensed with all formalities of trial and proceeded to
stone him to death on the spot.
194:4.12 Stephen, the leader of the Greek colony
of Jesus' believers in Jerusalem, thus became the first martyr to
the new faith and the specific cause for the formal organization
of the early Christian church. This new crisis was met by the
recognition that believers could not longer go on as a sect within
the Jewish faith. They all agreed that they must separate
themselves from unbelievers; and within one month from the death
of Stephen the church at Jerusalem had been organized under the
leadership of Peter, and James the brother of Jesus had been
installed as its titular head.
194:4.13 And then broke out the new and
relentless persecutions by the Jews, so that the active teachers
of the new religion about Jesus, which subsequently at Antioch was
called Christianity, went forth to the ends of the empire
proclaiming Jesus. In carrying this message, before the time of
Paul the leadership was in Greek hands; and these first
missionaries, as also the later ones, followed the path of
Alexander's march of former days, going by way of Gaza and Tyre to
Antioch and then over Asia Minor to Macedonia, then on to Rome and
to the uttermost parts of the empire.
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