The Urantia Book
PAPER 119
THE BESTOWALS OF CHRIST MICHAEL
This
paper, depicting the seven bestowals of Christ Michael, is the
sixty-third of a series of presentations, sponsored by numerous
personalities, narrating the history of Urantia down to the time
of Michael's appearance on earth in the likeness of mortal
flesh. These papers were authorized by a Nebadon commission of
twelve acting under the direction of Mantutia Melchizedek. We
indited these narratives and put them in the English language,
by a technique authorized by our superiors, in the year A.D.
1935 of Urantia time.
119:0.1 CHIEF of the Evening Stars of Nebadon,
I am assigned to Urantia by Gabriel on the mission of revealing
the story of the seven bestowals of the Universe Sovereign,
Michael of Nebadon, and my name is Gavalia. In making this
presentation, I will adhere strictly to the limitations imposed
by my commission.
119:0.2 The attribute of bestowal is inherent
in the Paradise Sons of the Universal Father. In their desire to
come close to the life experiences of their subordinate living
creatures, the various orders of the Paradise Sons are
reflecting the divine nature of their Paradise parents. The
Eternal Son of the Paradise Trinity led the way in this
practice, having seven times bestowed himself upon the seven
circuits of Havona during the times of the ascension of
Grandfanda and the first of the pilgrims from time and space.
And the Eternal Son continues to bestow himself upon the local
universes of space in the persons of his representatives, the
Michael and Avonal Sons.
119:0.3 When the Eternal Son bestows a Creator
Son upon a projected local universe, that Creator Son assumes
full responsibility for the completion, control, and composure
of that new universe, including the solemn oath to the eternal
Trinity not to assume full sovereignty of the new creation until
his seven creature bestowals shall have been successfully
completed and certified by the Ancients of Days of the
superuniverse of jurisdiction. This obligation is assumed by
every Michael Son who volunteers to go out from Paradise to
engage in universe organization and creation.
119:0.4 The purpose of these creature
incarnations is to enable such Creators to become wise,
sympathetic, just, and understanding sovereigns. These divine
Sons are innately just, but they become understandingly merciful
as a result of these successive bestowal experiences; they are
naturally merciful, but these experiences make them merciful in
new and additional ways. These bestowals are the last steps in
their education and training for the sublime tasks of ruling the
local universes in divine righteousness and by just judgment.
119:0.5 Though numerous incidental benefits
accrue to the various worlds, systems, and constellations, as
well as to the different orders of universe intelligences
affected and benefited by these bestowals, still they are
primarily designed to complete the personal training and
universe education of a Creator Son himself. These bestowals are
not essential to the wise, just, and efficient management of a
local universe, but they are absolutely necessary to a fair,
merciful, and understanding administration of such a creation,
teeming with its varied forms of life and its myriads of
intelligent but imperfect creatures.
119:0.6 The Michael Sons begin their work of
universe organization with a full and just sympathy for the
various orders of beings whom they have created. They have vast
stores of mercy for all these differing creatures, even pity for
those who err and flounder in the selfish mire of their own
production. But such endowments of justice and righteousness
will not suffice in the estimate of the Ancients of Days. These
triune rulers of the superuniverses will never certify a Creator
Son as Universe Sovereign until he has really acquired the
viewpoint of his own creatures by actual experience in the
environment of their existence and as these very creatures
themselves. In this way such Sons become intelligent and
understanding rulers; they come to know the various
groups over which they rule and exercise universe authority. By
living experience they possess themselves of practical mercy,
fair judgment, and the patience born of experiential creature
existence.
119:0.7 The local universe of Nebadon is now
ruled by a Creator Son who has completed his service of
bestowal; he reigns in just and merciful supremacy over all the
vast realms of his evolving and perfecting universe. Michael of
Nebadon is the 611,121st bestowal of the Eternal Son upon the
universes of time and space, and he began the organization of
your local universe about four hundred billion years ago.
Michael made ready for his first bestowal adventure about the
time Urantia was taking on its present form, one billion years
ago. His bestowals have occurred about one hundred and fifty
million years apart, the last taking place on Urantia nineteen
hundred years ago. I will now proceed to unfold the nature and
character of these bestowals as fully as my commission permits.
1. THE FIRST BESTOWAL
119:1.1 It was a solemn occasion on Salvington
almost one billion years ago when the assembled directors and
chiefs of the universe of Nebadon heard Michael announce that
his elder brother, Immanuel, would presently assume authority in
Nebadon while he (Michael) would be absent on an unexplained
mission. No other announcement was made about this transaction
except that the farewell broadcast to the Constellation Fathers,
among other instructions, said: "And for this period I place you
under the care and keeping of Immanuel while I go to do the
bidding of my Paradise Father."
119:1.2 After sending this farewell broadcast,
Michael appeared on the dispatching field of Salvington, just as
on many previous occasions when preparing for departure to
Uversa or Paradise except that he came alone. He concluded his
statement of departure with these words: "I leave you but for a
short season. Many of you, I know, would go with me, but whither
I go you cannot come. That which I am about to do, you cannot
do. I go to do the will of the Paradise Deities, and when I have
finished my mission and have acquired this experience, I will
return to my place among you." And having thus spoken, Michael
of Nebadon vanished from the sight of all those assembled and
did not reappear for twenty years of standard time. In all
Salvington, only the Divine Minister and Immanuel knew what was
taking place, and the Union of Days shared his secret only with
the chief executive of the universe, Gabriel, the Bright and
Morning Star.
119:1.3 All the inhabitants of Salvington and
those dwelling on the constellation and system headquarters
worlds assembled about their respective receiving stations for
universe intelligence, hoping to get some word of the mission
and whereabouts of the Creator Son. Not until the third day
after Michael's departure was any message of possible
significance received. On this day a communication was
registered on Salvington from the Melchizedek sphere, the
headquarters of that order in Nebadon, which simply recorded
this extraordinary and never-before-heard-of transaction: "At
noon today there appeared on the receiving field of this world a
strange Melchizedek Son, not of our number but wholly like our
order. He was accompanied by a solitary omniaphim who bore
credentials from Uversa and presented orders addressed to our
chief, derived from the Ancients of Days and concurred in by
Immanuel of Salvington, directing that this new Melchizedek Son
be received into our order and assigned to the emergency service
of the Melchizedeks of Nebadon. And it has been so ordered; it
has been done."
119:1.4 And this is about all that appears on
the records of Salvington regarding the first Michael bestowal.
Nothing more appears until after one hundred years of Urantia
time, when there was recorded the fact of Michael's return and
unannounced resumption of the direction of universe affairs. But
a strange record is to be found on the Melchizedek world, a
recital of the service of this unique Melchizedek Son of the
emergency corps of that age. This record is preserved in a
simple temple which now occupies the foreground of the home of
the Father Melchizedek, and it comprises the narration of the
service of this transitory Melchizedek Son in connection with
his assignment to twenty-four missions of universe emergency.
And this record, which I have so recently reviewed, ends thus:
119:1.5 "And at noon on this day, without
previous announcement and witnessed by only three of our
brotherhood, this visiting Son of our order disappeared from our
world as he came, accompanied only by a solitary omniaphim; and
this record is now closed with the certification that this
visitor lived as a Melchizedek, in the likeness of a Melchizedek
he worked as a Melchizedek, and he faithfully performed all of
his assignments as an emergency Son of our order. By universal
consent he has become chief of Melchizedeks, having earned our
love and adoration by his matchless wisdom, supreme love, and
superb devotion to duty. He loved us, understood us, and served
with us, and forever we are his loyal and devoted fellow
Melchizedeks, for this stranger on our world has now eternally
become a universe minister of Melchizedek nature."
119:1.6 And that is all I am permitted to tell
you of the first bestowal of Michael. We, of course, fully
understand that this strange Melchizedek who so mysteriously
served with the Melchizedeks a billion years ago was none other
than the incarnated Michael on the mission of his first
bestowal. The records do not specifically state that this unique
and efficient Melchizedek was Michael, but it is universally
believed that he was. Probably the actual statement of that fact
cannot be found outside of the records of Sonarington, and the
records of that secret world are not open to us. Only on this
sacred world of the divine Sons are the mysteries of incarnation
and bestowal fully known. We all know of the facts of the
Michael bestowals, but we do not understand how they are
effected. We do not know how the ruler of a universe, the
creator of the Melchizedeks, can so suddenly and mysteriously
become one of their number and, as one of them, live among them
and work as a Melchizedek Son for one hundred years. But it so
happened.
2. THE SECOND BESTOWAL
119:2.1 For almost one hundred and fifty
million years after the Melchizedek bestowal of Michael, all
went well in the universe of Nebadon, when trouble began to brew
in system 11 of constellation 37. This trouble involved a
misunderstanding by a Lanonandek Son, a System Sovereign, which
had been adjudicated by the Constellation Fathers and approved
by the Faithful of Days, the Paradise counselor to that
constellation, but the protesting System Sovereign was not fully
reconciled to the verdict. After more than one hundred years of
dissatisfaction he led his associates in one of the most
widespread and disastrous rebellions against the sovereignty of
the Creator Son ever instigated in the universe of Nebadon, a
rebellion long since adjudicated and ended by the action of the
Ancients of Days on Uversa.
119:2.2 This rebel System Sovereign, Lutentia,
reigned supreme on his headquarters planet for more than twenty
years of standard Nebadon time; whereupon, the Most Highs, with
approval from Uversa, ordered his segregation and requisitioned
the Salvington rulers for the designation of a new System
Sovereign to assume direction of that strife-torn and confused
system of inhabited worlds.
119:2.3 Simultaneously with the reception of
this request on Salvington, Michael initiated the second of
those extraordinary proclamations of intention to be absent from
the universe headquarters for the purpose of "doing the bidding
of my Paradise Father," promising to "return in due season" and
concentrating all authority in the hands of his Paradise
brother, Immanuel, the Union of Days.
119:2.4 And then, by the same technique
observed at the time of his departure in connection with the
Melchizedek bestowal, Michael again took leave of his
headquarters sphere. Three days after this unexplained
leave-taking there appeared among the reserve corps of the
primary Lanonandek Sons of Nebadon, a new and unknown member.
This new Son appeared at noon, unannounced and accompanied by a
lone tertiaphim who bore credentials from the Uversa Ancients of
Days, certified by Immanuel of Salvington, directing that this
new Son be assigned to system 11 of constellation 37 as the
successor of the deposed Lutentia and with full authority as
acting System Sovereign pending the appointment of a new
sovereign.
119:2.5 For more than seventeen years of
universe time this strange and unknown temporary ruler
administered the affairs and wisely adjudicated the difficulties
of this confused and demoralized local system. No System
Sovereign was ever more ardently loved or more widespreadly
honored and respected. In justice and mercy this new ruler set
the turbulent system in order while he painstakingly ministered
to all his subjects, even offering his rebellious predecessor
the privilege of sharing the system throne of authority if he
would only apologize to Immanuel for his indiscretions. But
Lutentia spurned these overtures of mercy, well knowing that
this new and strange System Sovereign was none other than
Michael, the very universe ruler whom he had so recently defied.
But millions of his misguided and deluded followers accepted the
forgiveness of this new ruler, known in that age as the Savior
Sovereign of the system of Palonia.
119:2.6 And then came that eventful day on
which there arrived the newly appointed System Sovereign,
designated by the universe authorities as the permanent
successor of the deposed Lutentia, and all Palonia mourned the
departure of the most noble and the most benign system ruler
that Nebadon had ever known. He was beloved by all the system
and adored by his fellows of all groups of the Lanonandek Sons.
His departure was not unceremonious; a great celebration was
arranged when he left the system headquarters. Even his erring
predecessor sent this message: "Just and righteous are you in
all your ways. While I continue in rejection of the Paradise
rule, I am compelled to confess that you are a just and merciful
administrator."
119:2.7 And then did this transient ruler of a
rebellious system take leave of the planet of his short
administrative sojourn, while on the third day thereafter
Michael appeared on Salvington and resumed the direction of the
universe of Nebadon. There soon followed the third Uversa
proclamation of the advancing jurisdiction of the sovereignty
and authority of Michael. The first proclamation was made at the
time of his arrival in Nebadon, the second was issued soon after
the completion of the Melchizedek bestowal, and now the third
follows upon the termination of the second or Lanonandek
mission.
3. THE THIRD BESTOWAL
119:3.1 The supreme council on Salvington had
just finished the consideration of the call of the Life Carriers
on planet 217 in system 87 in constellation 61 for the dispatch
to their assistance of a Material Son. Now this planet was
situated in a system of inhabited worlds where another System
Sovereign had gone astray, the second such rebellion in all
Nebadon up to that time.
119:3.2 Upon the request of Michael, action on
the petition of the Life Carriers of this planet was deferred
pending its consideration by Immanuel and his report thereon.
This was an irregular procedure, and I well remember how we all
anticipated something unusual, and we were not long held in
suspense. Michael proceeded to place universe direction in the
hands of Immanuel, while he intrusted command of the celestial
forces to Gabriel, and having thus disposed of his
administrative responsibilities, he took leave of the Universe
Mother Spirit and vanished from the dispatching field of
Salvington precisely as he had done on two previous occasions.
119:3.3 And, as might have been expected, on
the third day thereafter there appeared, unannounced, on the
headquarters world of system 87 in constellation 61, a strange
Material Son, accompanied by a lone seconaphim, accredited by
the Uversa Ancients of Days, and certified by Immanuel of
Salvington. Immediately the acting System Sovereign appointed
this new and mysterious Material Son acting Planetary Prince of
world 217, and this designation was at once confirmed by the
Most Highs of constellation 61.
119:3.4 Thus did this unique Material Son
begin his difficult career on a quarantined world of secession
and rebellion, located in a beleaguered system without any
direct communication with the outside universe, working alone
for one whole generation of planetary time. This emergency
Material Son effected the repentance and reclamation of the
defaulting Planetary Prince and his entire staff and witnessed
the restoration of the planet to the loyal service of the
Paradise rule as established in the local universes. In due time
a Material Son and Daughter arrived on this rejuvenated and
redeemed world, and when they had been duly installed as visible
planetary rulers, the transitory or emergency Planetary Prince
took formal leave, disappearing at noon one day. On the third
day thereafter, Michael appeared in his accustomed place on
Salvington, and very soon the superuniverse broadcasts carried
the fourth proclamation of the Ancients of Days announcing the
further advancement of the sovereignty of Michael in Nebadon.
119:3.5 I regret that I do not have permission
to narrate the patience, fortitude, and skill with which this
Material Son met the trying situations on this confused planet.
The reclamation of this isolated world is one of the most
beautifully touching chapters in the annals of salvation
throughout Nebadon. By the end of this mission it had become
evident to all Nebadon as to why their beloved ruler chose to
engage in these repeated bestowals in the likeness of some
subordinate order of intelligent being.
119:3.6 The bestowals of Michael as a
Melchizedek Son, then as a Lanonandek Son, and next as a
Material Son are all equally mysterious and beyond explanation.
In each instance he appeared suddenly and as a fully
developed individual of the bestowal group. The mystery of such
incarnations will never be known except to those who have access
to the inner circle of the records on the sacred sphere of
Sonarington.
119:3.7 Never, since this marvelous bestowal
as the Planetary Prince of a world in isolation and rebellion,
have any of the Material Sons or Daughters in Nebadon been
tempted to complain of their assignments or to find fault with
the difficulties of their planetary missions. For all time the
Material Sons know that in the Creator Son of the universe they
have an understanding sovereign and a sympathetic friend, one
who has in "all points been tried and tested," even as they must
also be tried and tested.
119:3.8 Each of these missions was followed by
an age of increasing service and loyalty among all celestial
intelligences of universe origin, while each succeeding bestowal
age was characterized by advancement and improvement in all
methods of universe administration and in all techniques of
government. Since this bestowal no Material Son or Daughter has
ever knowingly joined in rebellion against Michael; they love
and honor him too devotedly ever consciously to reject him. Only
through deception and sophistry have the Adams of recent times
been led astray by higher types of rebel personalities.
4. THE FOURTH BESTOWAL
119:4.1 It was at the end of one of the
periodic millennial roll calls of Uversa that Michael proceeded
to place the government of Nebadon in the hands of Immanuel and
Gabriel; and, of course, recalling what had happened in times
past following such action, we all prepared to witness Michael's
disappearance on his fourth mission of bestowal, and we were not
long kept waiting, for he shortly went out upon the Salvington
dispatching field and was lost to our view.
119:4.2 On the third day after this bestowal
disappearance we observed, in the universe broadcasts to Uversa,
this significant news item from the seraphic headquarters of
Nebadon: "Reporting the unannounced arrival of an unknown
seraphim, accompanied by a solitary supernaphim and Gabriel of
Salvington. This unregistered seraphim qualifies as of the
Nebadon order and bears credentials from the Uversa Ancients of
Days, certified by Immanuel of Salvington. This seraphim tests
out as belonging to the supreme order of the angels of a local
universe and has already been assigned to the corps of the
teaching counselors."
119:4.3 Michael was absent from Salvington
during this, the seraphic bestowal, for a period of over forty
standard universe years. During this time he was attached as a
seraphic teaching counselor, what you might denominate a private
secretary, to twenty-six different master teachers, functioning
on twenty-two different worlds. His last or terminal assignment
was as counselor and helper attached to a bestowal mission of a
Trinity Teacher Son on world 462 in system 84 of constellation 3
in the universe of Nebadon.
119:4.4 Never, throughout the seven years of
this assignment, was this Trinity Teacher Son wholly persuaded
as to the identity of his seraphic associate. True, all seraphim
during that age were regarded with peculiar interest and
scrutiny. Full well we all knew that our beloved Sovereign was
abroad in the universe, disguised as a seraphim, but never could
we be certain of his identity. Never was he positively
identified until the time of his attachment to the bestowal
mission of this Trinity Teacher Son. But always throughout this
era were the supreme seraphim regarded with special solicitude,
lest any of us should find that we had unawares been host to the
Sovereign of the universe on a mission of creature bestowal. And
so it has become forever true, concerning angels, that their
Creator and Ruler has been "in all points tried and tested in
the likeness of seraphic personality."
119:4.5 As these successive bestowals partook
increasingly of the nature of the lower forms of universe life,
Gabriel became more and more an associate of these incarnation
adventures, functioning as the universe liaison between the
bestowed Michael and the acting universe ruler, Immanuel.
119:4.6 Now has Michael passed through the
bestowal experience of three orders of his created universe
Sons: the Melchizedeks, the Lanonandeks, and the Material Sons.
Next he condescends to personalize in the likeness of angelic
life as a supreme seraphim before turning his attention to the
various phases of the ascending careers of his lowest form of
will creatures, the evolutionary mortals of time and space.
5. THE FIFTH BESTOWAL
119:5.1 A little over three hundred million
years ago, as time is reckoned on Urantia, we witnessed another
of those transfers of universe authority to Immanuel and
observed the preparations of Michael for departure. This
occasion was different from the previous ones in that he
announced that his destination was Uversa, headquarters of the
superuniverse of Orvonton. In due time our Sovereign departed,
but the broadcasts of the superuniverse never made mention of
Michael's arrival at the courts of the Ancients of Days. Shortly
after his departure from Salvington there did appear in the
Uversa broadcasts this significant statement: "There arrived
today an unannounced and unnumbered ascendant pilgrim of mortal
origin from the universe of Nebadon, certified by Immanuel of
Salvington and accompanied by Gabriel of Nebadon. This
unidentified being presents the status of a true spirit and has
been received into our fellowship."
119:5.2 If you should visit Uversa today, you
would hear the recounting of the days when Eventod sojourned
there, this particular and unknown pilgrim of time and space
being known on Uversa by that name. And this ascending mortal,
at least a superb personality in the exact likeness of the
spirit stage of the ascending mortals, lived and functioned on
Uversa for a period of eleven years of Orvonton standard time.
This being received the assignments and performed the duties of
a spirit mortal in common with his fellows from the various
local universes of Orvonton. In "all points he was tested and
tried, even as his fellows," and on all occasions he proved
worthy of the confidence and trust of his superiors, while he
unfailingly commanded the respect and loyal admiration of his
fellow spirits.
119:5.3 On Salvington we followed the career
of this spirit pilgrim with consummate interest, knowing full
well, by the presence of Gabriel, that this unassuming and
unnumbered pilgrim spirit was none other than the bestowed ruler
of our local universe. This first appearance of Michael
incarnated in the role of one stage of mortal evolution was an
event which thrilled and enthralled all Nebadon. We had heard of
such things but now we beheld them. He appeared on Uversa as a
fully developed and perfectly trained spirit mortal and, as
such, continued his career up to the occasion of the advancement
of a group of ascending mortals to Havona; whereupon he held
converse with the Ancients of Days and immediately, in the
company of Gabriel, took sudden and unceremonious leave of
Uversa, appearing shortly thereafter in his accustomed place on
Salvington.
119:5.4 Not until the completion of this
bestowal did it finally dawn upon us that Michael was probably
going to incarnate in the likeness of his various orders of
universe personalities, from the highest Melchizedeks right on
down to the mortals of flesh and blood on the evolutionary
worlds of time and space. About this time the Melchizedek
colleges began to teach the probability of Michael's sometime
incarnating as a mortal of the flesh, and there occurred much
speculation as to the possible technique of such an inexplicable
bestowal. That Michael had in person performed in the role of an
ascending mortal lent new and added interest to the whole scheme
of creature progression all the way up through both the local
universe and the superuniverse.
119:5.5 Still, the technique of these
successive bestowals remained a mystery. Even Gabriel confesses
that he does not comprehend the method whereby this Paradise Son
and universe Creator could, at will, assume the personality and
live the life of one of his own subordinate creatures.
6. THE SIXTH BESTOWAL
119:6.1 Now that all Salvington was familiar
with the preliminaries of an impending bestowal, Michael called
the sojourners on the headquarters planet together and, for the
first time, unfolded the remainder of the incarnation plan,
announcing that he was soon to leave Salvington for the purpose
of assuming the career of a morontia mortal at the courts of the
Most High Fathers on the headquarters planet of the fifth
constellation. And then we heard for the first time the
announcement that his seventh and final bestowal would be made
on some evolutionary world in the likeness of mortal flesh.
119:6.2 Before leaving Salvington for the
sixth bestowal, Michael addressed the assembled inhabitants of
the sphere and departed in full view of everyone, accompanied by
a lone seraphim and the Bright and Morning Star of Nebadon.
While the direction of the universe had again been intrusted to
Immanuel, there was a wider distribution of administrative
responsibilities.
119:6.3 Michael appeared on the headquarters
of constellation five as a full-fledged morontia mortal of
ascending status. I regret that I am forbidden to reveal the
details of this unnumbered morontia mortal's career, for it was
one of the most extraordinary and amazing epochs in Michael's
bestowal experience, not even excepting his dramatic and tragic
sojourn on Urantia. But among the many restrictions imposed upon
me in accepting this commission is one which forbids my
undertaking to unfold the details of this wonderful career of
Michael as the morontia mortal of Endantum.
119:6.4 When Michael returned from this
morontia bestowal, it was apparent to all of us that our Creator
had become a fellow creature, that the Universe Sovereign was
also the friend and sympathetic helper of even the lowest form
of created intelligence in his realms. We had noted this
progressive acquirement of the creature's viewpoint in universe
administration before this, for it had been gradually appearing,
but it became more apparent after the completion of the morontia
mortal bestowal, even still more so after his return from the
career of the carpenter's son on Urantia.
119:6.5 We were informed in advance by Gabriel
of the time of Michael's release from the morontia bestowal, and
accordingly we arranged a suitable reception on Salvington.
Millions upon millions of beings were assembled from the
constellation headquarters worlds of Nebadon, and a majority of
the sojourners on the worlds adjacent to Salvington were
gathered together to welcome him back to the rulership of his
universe. In response to our many addresses of welcome and
expressions of appreciation of a Sovereign so vitally interested
in his creatures, he only replied: "I have simply been about my
Father's business. I am only doing the pleasure of the Paradise
Sons who love and crave to understand their creatures."
119:6.6 But from that day down to the hour
when Michael embarked upon his Urantia adventure as the Son of
Man, all Nebadon continued to discuss the many exploits of their
Sovereign Ruler as he functioned on Endantum as the bestowal
incarnation of a morontia mortal of evolutionary ascension,
being in all points tested like his fellows assembled from the
material worlds of the entire constellation of his sojourn.
7. THE SEVENTH AND FINAL BESTOWAL
119:7.1 For tens of thousands of years we all
looked forward to the seventh and final bestowal of Michael.
Gabriel had taught us that this terminal bestowal would be made
in the likeness of mortal flesh, but we were wholly ignorant of
the time, place, and manner of this culminating adventure.
119:7.2 The public announcement that Michael
had selected Urantia as the theater for his final bestowal was
made shortly after we learned about the default of Adam and Eve.
And thus, for more than thirty-five thousand years, your world
occupied a very conspicuous place in the councils of the entire
universe. There was no secrecy (aside from the incarnation
mystery) connected with any step in the Urantia bestowal. From
first to last, up to the final and triumphant return of Michael
to Salvington as supreme Universe Sovereign, there was the
fullest universe publicity of all that transpired on your small
but highly honored world.
119:7.3 While we believed that this would be
the method, we never knew, until the time of the event itself,
that Michael would appear on earth as a helpless infant of the
realm. Theretofore had he always appeared as a fully developed
individual of the personality group of the bestowal selection,
and it was a thrilling announcement which was broadcast from
Salvington telling that the babe of Bethlehem had been born on
Urantia.
119:7.4 We then not only realized that our
Creator and friend was taking the most precarious step in all
his career, apparently risking his position and authority on
this bestowal as a helpless infant, but we also understood that
his experience in this final and mortal bestowal would eternally
enthrone him as the undisputed and supreme sovereign of the
universe of Nebadon. For a third of a century of earth time all
eyes in all parts of this local universe were focused on
Urantia. All intelligences realized that the last bestowal was
in progress, and as we had long known of the Lucifer rebellion
in Satania and of the Caligastia disaffection on Urantia, we
well understood the intensity of the struggle which would ensue
when our ruler condescended to incarnate on Urantia in the
humble form and likeness of mortal flesh.
119:7.5 Joshua ben Joseph, the Jewish baby,
was conceived and was born into the world just as all other
babies before and since except that this particular baby
was the incarnation of Michael of Nebadon, a divine Son of
Paradise and the creator of all this local universe of things
and beings. And this mystery of the incarnation of Deity within
the human form of Jesus, otherwise of natural origin on the
world, will forever remain unsolved. Even in eternity you will
never know the technique and method of the incarnation of the
Creator in the form and likeness of his creatures. That is the
secret of Sonarington, and such mysteries are the exclusive
possession of those divine Sons who have passed through the
bestowal experience.
119:7.6 Certain wise men of earth knew of
Michael's impending arrival. Through the contacts of one world
with another, these wise men of spiritual insight learned of the
forthcoming bestowal of Michael on Urantia. And the seraphim
did, through the midway creatures, make announcement to a group
of Chaldean priests whose leader was Ardnon. These men of God
visited the newborn child in the manger. The only supernatural
event associated with the birth of Jesus was this announcement
to Ardnon and his associates by the seraphim of former
attachment to Adam and Eve in the first garden.
119:7.7 Jesus' human parents were average
people of their day and generation, and this incarnated Son of
God was thus born of woman and was reared in the ordinary manner
of the children of that race and age.
119:7.8 The story of Michael's sojourn on
Urantia, the narrative of the mortal bestowal of the Creator Son
on your world, is a matter beyond the scope and purpose of this
narrative.
8. MICHAEL'S POSTBESTOWAL STATUS
119:8.1 After Michael's final and successful
bestowal on Urantia he was not only accepted by the Ancients of
Days as sovereign ruler of Nebadon, but he was also recognized
by the Universal Father as the established director of the local
universe of his own creation. Upon his return to Salvington this
Michael, the Son of Man and the Son of God, was proclaimed the
settled ruler of Nebadon. From Uversa came the eighth
proclamation of Michael's sovereignty, while from Paradise came
the joint pronouncement of the Universal Father and the Eternal
Son constituting this union of God and man sole head of the
universe and directing the Union of Days stationed on Salvington
to signify his intention of withdrawing to Paradise. The
Faithfuls of Days on the constellation headquarters were also
instructed to retire from the councils of the Most Highs. But
Michael would not consent to the withdrawal of the Trinity Sons
of counsel and co-operation. He assembled them on Salvington and
personally requested them forever to remain on duty in Nebadon.
They signified their desire to comply with this request to their
directors on Paradise, and shortly thereafter there were issued
those mandates of Paradise divorcement which forever attached
these Sons of the central universe to the court of Michael of
Nebadon.
119:8.2 It required almost one billion years
of Urantia time to complete the bestowal career of Michael and
to effect the final establishment of his supreme authority in
the universe of his own creation. Michael was born a creator,
educated an administrator, trained an executive, but he was
required to earn his sovereignty by experience. And thus has
your little world become known throughout all Nebadon as the
arena wherein Michael completed the experience which is required
of every Paradise Creator Son before he is given unlimited
control and direction of the universe of his own making. As you
ascend the local universe, you will learn more about the ideals
of the personalities concerned in Michael's previous bestowals.
119:8.3 In completing his creature bestowals,
Michael was not only establishing his own sovereignty but also
was augmenting the evolving sovereignty of God the Supreme. In
the course of these bestowals the Creator Son not only engaged
in a descending exploration of the various natures of creature
personality, but he also achieved the revelation of the
variously diversified wills of the Paradise Deities, whose
synthetic unity, as revealed by the Supreme Creators, is
revelatory of the will of the Supreme Being.
119:8.4 These various will aspects of the
Deities are eternally personalized in the differing natures of
the Seven Master Spirits, and each of Michael's bestowals was
peculiarly revelatory of one of these divinity manifestations.
On his Melchizedek bestowal he manifested the united will of the
Father, Son, and Spirit, on his Lanonandek bestowal the will of
the Father and the Son; on the Adamic bestowal he revealed the
will of the Father and the Spirit, on the seraphic bestowal the
will of the Son and the Spirit; on the Uversa mortal bestowal he
portrayed the will of the Conjoint Actor, on the morontia mortal
bestowal the will of the Eternal Son; and on the Urantia
material bestowal he lived the will of the Universal Father,
even as a mortal of flesh and blood.
119:8.5 The completion of these seven
bestowals resulted in the liberation of Michael's supreme
sovereignty and also in the creation of the possibility for the
sovereignty of the Supreme in Nebadon. On none of Michael's
bestowals did he reveal God the Supreme, but the sum total of
all seven bestowals is a new Nebadon revelation of the Supreme
Being.
119:8.6 In the experience of descending from
God to man, Michael was concomitantly experiencing the ascent
from partiality of manifestability to supremacy of finite action
and finality of the liberation of his potential for absonite
function. Michael, a Creator Son, is a time-space creator, but
Michael, a sevenfold Master Son, is a member of one of the
divine corps constituting the Trinity Ultimate.
119:8.7 In passing through the experience of
revealing the Seven Master Spirit wills of the Trinity, the
Creator Son has passed through the experience of revealing the
will of the Supreme. In functioning as a revelator of the will
of Supremacy, Michael, together with all other Master Sons, has
identified himself eternally with the Supreme. In this universe
age he reveals the Supreme and participates in the actualization
of the sovereignty of Supremacy. But in the next universe age we
believe he will be collaborating with the Supreme Being in the
first experiential Trinity for and in the universes of outer
space.
119:8.8 Urantia is the sentimental shrine of
all Nebadon, the chief of ten million inhabited worlds, the
mortal home of Christ Michael, sovereign of all Nebadon, a
Melchizedek minister to the realms, a system savior, an Adamic
redeemer, a seraphic fellow, an associate of ascending spirits,
a morontia progressor, a Son of Man in the likeness of mortal
flesh, and the Planetary Prince of Urantia. And your record
tells the truth when it says that this same Jesus has promised
sometime to return to the world of his terminal bestowal, the
World of the Cross.
119:8.9
This paper, depicting the seven bestowals of Christ Michael, is
the sixty-third of a series of presentations, sponsored by
numerous personalities, narrating the history of Urantia down to
the time of Michael's appearance on earth in the likeness of
mortal flesh. These papers were authorized by a Nebadon
commission of twelve acting under the direction of Mantutia
Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and put them in the
English language, by a technique authorized by our superiors, in
the year A.D. 1935 of Urantia time.
