Chapter 4 - The Transition Years

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CHAPTER 4

THE TRANSITION YEARS

At the temple of religion on Lake Urmia Jesus delivered a series of lectures:

The Urmia Lectures

  • “When we, the midwayers, first prepared the summary of Jesus' teachings at Urmia, there arose a disagreement between the seraphim of the churches and the seraphim of progress as to the wisdom of including these teachings in the Urantia Revelation. Conditions of the twentieth century, prevailing in both religion and human governments, are so different from those prevailing in Jesus' day that it was indeed difficult to adapt the Master's teachings at Urmia to the problems of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men, as these world functions are existent in the twentieth century. We were never able to formulate a statement of the Master's teachings that was acceptable to both groups of these seraphim of planetary government. Finally, the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission appointed a commission of three of our number to prepare our view of the Master's Urmia teachings as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions on Urantia. Accordingly, we three secondary midwayers completed such an adaptation of Jesus' teachings, restating his pronouncements as we would apply them to present-day world, 1935, conditions, and we now present these statements as they stand after having been edited by the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission.”


Sovereignty -- Divine And Human

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions:

  • “The brotherhood of men is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God is derived from the love of God -- God is love. God the Father divinely loves his children, all of them.
  • "The kingdom of heaven, the divine government, is founded on the fact of divine sovereignty. God is spirit, and since God is spirit, this kingdom is spiritual. The kingdom of heaven is neither material nor merely intellectual, it is a spiritual relationship between God and man.
  • "If different religions recognize the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then will all such religions remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it is in some way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive authority over other religions, will such a religion presume to be intolerant of other religions or dare to persecute other religious believers.
  • "Religious peace -- brotherhood -- can never exist unless all religions are willing to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.
  • “You cannot have equality among religions (religious liberty) without having religious wars unless all religions consent to the transfer of all religious sovereignty to some superhuman level, to God himself.
  • "The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men will create religious unity (not necessarily uniformity) because any and all religious groups composed of such religious believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical authority -- religious sovereignty.
  • "God is spirit, and God gives a fragment of his spirit self to dwell in the heart of man. Spiritually, all men are equal. The kingdom of heaven is free from castes, classes, social levels, and economic groups. You are all brethren.
  • "But the moment you lose sight of the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some one religion will begin to assert its superiority over other religions. Then, instead of peace on earth and good will among men, there will start dissensions, recriminations, and even religious wars, at least wars among religionists.
  • “Freewill beings who regard themselves as equals, unless they mutually acknowledge themselves as subject to some super sovereignty, some authority over and above themselves, sooner or later are tempted to try out their ability to gain power and authority over other persons and groups. The concept of equality never brings peace except in the mutual recognition of some over controlling influence of super sovereignty.
  • "There can be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all religious groups freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme will men become religious brothers and live together in religious peace on earth.”


Political Sovereignty

While the Master's teaching concerning the sovereignty of God is a truth -- only complicated by the subsequent appearance of the religion about him among the world's religions -- his presentations concerning political sovereignty are vastly complicated by the political evolution of nation life during the last nineteen hundred years and more. In the times of Jesus there were only two great world powers -- the Roman Empire in the West and the Han Empire in the East -- and these were widely separated by the Parthian kingdom and other intervening lands of the Caspian and Turkestan regions. We have, therefore, in the following presentation departed more widely from the substance of the Master's teachings at Urmia concerning political sovereignty, at the same time attempting to depict the import of such teachings, as they are applicable to the peculiarly critical stage of the evolution of political sovereignty in the twentieth century after Christ.

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions:

  • “War on earth will never end so long as nations cling to the illusive notions of unlimited national sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sovereignty: the spiritual free will of the individual human being and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole. Between the level of the individual human being and the level of the total of mankind, all groupings and associations are relative, transitory, and of value only in so far as they enhance the welfare, well-being, and progress of the individual and the planetary grand total -- man and mankind.
  • "Religious teachers must always remember that the spiritual sovereignty of God overrides all intervening and intermediate spiritual loyalties. Someday civil rulers will learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.
  • "This rule of the Most Highs in the kingdoms of men is not for the special benefit of any favored group of people. There is no such thing as a "chosen people." The rule of the Most Highs, the over controllers of political evolution, is a rule designed to foster the greatest good to the greatest number of all men and for the greatest length of time.
  • "Sovereignty is power and it grows by organization. This growth of the organization of political power is good and proper, for it tends to encompass ever-widening segments of the total of mankind. But this same growth of political organizations creates a problem at every intervening stage between the initial and natural organization of political power -- the family -- and the final consummation of political growth -- the government of all mankind, by all mankind, and for all mankind.
  • “Starting out with parental power in the family group, political sovereignty evolves by organization as families overlap into consanguineous clans that become united, for various reasons, into tribal units -- super consanguineous political groupings. Then, by trade, commerce, and conquest, tribes become unified as a nation, while nations themselves sometimes become unified by empire.
  • "As sovereignty passes from smaller groups to larger groups, wars are lessened. That is, minor wars between smaller nations are lessened, but the potential for greater wars is increased as the nations wielding sovereignty become larger and larger. Presently, when all the world has been explored and occupied, when nations are few, strong, and powerful, when these great and supposedly sovereign nations come to touch borders, when only oceans separate them, then will the stage be set for major wars, world-wide conflicts. So-called sovereign nations cannot rub elbows without generating conflicts and eventuating wars.


Continued

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions continued:

  • “The difficulty in the evolution of political sovereignty from the family to all mankind lies in the inertia-resistance exhibited on all intervening levels. Families have, on occasion, defied their clan, while clans and tribes have often been subversive of the sovereignty of the territorial state. Each new and forward evolution of political sovereignty is (and has always been) embarrassed and hampered by the "scaffolding stages" of the previous developments in political organization. This is true because human loyalties, once mobilized, are hard to change. The same loyalty that makes possible the evolution of the tribe makes difficult the evolution of the super tribe -- the territorial state. The same loyalty (patriotism) that makes possible the evolution of the territorial state vastly complicates the evolutionary development of the government of all mankind.
  • "Political sovereignty is created out of the surrender of self-determinism, first by the individual within the family and then by the families and clans in relation to the tribe and larger groupings. This progressive transfer of self-determination from the smaller to ever-larger political organizations has generally proceeded unabated in the East since the establishment of the Ming and the Mogul dynasties. In the West it obtained for more than a thousand years right on down to the end of the World War, when an unfortunate retrograde movement temporarily reversed this normal trend by re-establishing the submerged political sovereignty of numerous small groups in Europe.
  • "This world will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of men -- mankind government. Internationalism -- Leagues of Nations -- can never bring permanent peace to mankind. Worldwide confederations of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three, four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of these world powers will withdraw from the League and declare war. You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military governments of earth.
  • “As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases so do both opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of super national power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty of all mankind.
  • "Peace will not come to this world until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN. When such a representative or democratic world power controls the world's land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail -- but not until then.


Continued

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions continued:

  • “To use an important nineteenth- and twentieth-century illustration: The forty-eight states of the American Federal Union have long enjoyed peace. They have no more wars among themselves. They have surrendered their sovereignty to the federal government, and through the arbitrament of war, they have abandoned all claims to the delusions of self-determination. While each state regulates its internal affairs, it is not concerned with foreign relations, tariffs, immigration, military affairs, or interstate commerce. Neither do the individual states concern themselves with matters of citizenship. The states suffer the ravages of war only when the federal government's sovereignty is in some way jeopardized.
  • "These states, having abandoned the twin sophistries of sovereignty and self-determination, enjoy interstate peace and tranquility. So will the nations of Urantia begin to enjoy peace when they freely surrender their respective sovereignties into the hands of a global government -- the sovereignty of the brotherhood of men. In this world state the small nations will be as powerful as the great, even as the small state of Rhode Island has its two senators in the American Congress just the same as the populous state of New York or the large state of Texas.
  • "The limited (state) sovereignty of these states were created by men and for men. The super state (national) sovereignty of the American Federal Union was created by the original thirteen of these states for their own benefit and for the benefit of men. Sometime the super national sovereignty of the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for their own benefit and for the benefit of all men.
  • “Citizens are not born for the benefit of governments. Governments are organizations created and devised for the benefit of men. There can be no end to the evolution of political sovereignty short of the appearance of the government of the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status.
  • "With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought and how many leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the blessings of permanent peace and thrive on the tranquility of good will -- worldwide good will -- among men?"


Law, Liberty, and Sovereignty

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions:

  • “If one man craves freedom -- liberty -- he must remember that all other men long for the same freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving people cannot live together in peace without following such laws, rules, and regulations as will grant each person the same degree of freedom while at the same time safeguarding an equal degree of freedom for all people. If one person is to be absolutely free, then another must become an absolute slave. And the relative nature of freedom is true socially, economically, and politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made possible by the enforcement of LAW.
  • "Religion makes it spiritually possible to realize the brotherhood of men, but it will require mankind government to regulate the social, economic, and political problems associated with such a goal of human happiness and efficiency.
  • "There will be wars and rumors of wars -- nation will rise against nation -- just as long as the world's political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by a group of nation-states. England, Scotland, and Wales were always fighting each other until they gave up their respective sovereignties, reposing them in the United Kingdom.
  • "Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars -- nothing else can.
  • "The American states live together in peace. There are among the citizens of these states all of the various nationalities and races that live in the ever-warring nations of Europe. These Americans represent almost all the religions and religious sects and cults of the whole wide world, and yet here in North America they live together in peace. And all this is made possible because these American states have surrendered their sovereignty and have abandoned all notions of the supposed rights of self-determination.
  • “It is not a question of armaments or disarmament. Neither does the question of conscription or voluntary military service enter into these problems of maintaining worldwide peace. If you take away every form of modern weaponry and all types of explosives from strong nations, they will fight with fists, stones, and clubs as long as they cling to their delusions of the divine right of national sovereignty.
  • "War is not man's great and terrible disease. War is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.
  • "Urantia nations have not possessed real sovereignty. They've never had a sovereignty that could protect them from the ravages and devastations of world wars. In the creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a real, bona fide, and lasting world sovereignty which will be fully able to protect them from all war. Local governments will handle local affairs. National governments will handle national affairs. Global government will administer International affairs.
  • “Treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the sovereignties of nationalism cannot maintain world peace. World law must come into being and must be enforced by world government -- the sovereignty of all mankind.


Continued

Jesus' teachings at Urmia, as adapted to twentieth-century religious and political conditions continued:

  • "The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the citizens of the great nations are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global government.
  • "Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade will come the new era of worldwide peace. Soon may a global language evolve, and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion -- or religions with a global viewpoint.
  • "Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all mankind.
  • "The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure good will among all people. And there is no other way whereby peace on earth and good will among men can be realized.”


The Sojourn on Mount Hermon

Near the end of the mountain sojourn Jesus asked his Father if he might be permitted to hold conference with his Satania enemies as the Son of Man, as Joshua ben Joseph. This request was granted. During the last week on Mount Hermon the great temptation, the universe trial, occurred. Satan (representing Lucifer) and the rebellious Planetary Prince, Caligastia, were present with Jesus and were made fully visible to him. This "temptation," this final trial of human loyalty in the face of the misrepresentations of rebel personalities, had not to do with food, temple pinnacles, or presumptuous acts. It had not to do with the kingdoms of this world but with the sovereignty of a mighty and glorious universe. The symbolism of your records was intended for the backward ages of the world's childlike thought.

To the many proposals and counterproposals of the emissaries of Lucifer, Jesus said:

  • "May the will of my Paradise Father prevail, and you, my rebellious son, may the Ancients of Days judge you divinely. I am your Creator-father. I can hardly judge you justly, and my mercy you have already spurned. I commit you to the adjudication of the Judges of a greater universe."

To all the Lucifer-suggested compromises and makeshifts, to all such specious proposals about the incarnation bestowal, Jesus only made reply:

  • "The will of my Father in Paradise be done."

And when the trying ordeal was finished, the detached guardian seraphim returned to Jesus' side and ministered to him.

On an afternoon in late summer, amid the trees and in the silence of nature, Michael of Nebadon won the unquestioned sovereignty of his universe. On that day he completed the task set for Creator Sons to live to the full the incarnated life in the likeness of mortal flesh on the evolutionary worlds of time and space. And when Jesus came down from his sojourn on Mount Hermon, the Lucifer rebellion in Satania and the Caligastia secession on Urantia were virtually settled.

At the end of this sojourn on the mountain, as Jesus was making his descent, he met Tiglath coming up to the rendezvous with food.

Turning him back, he said only:

  • "The period of rest is over. I must return to my Father's business."


The Time of Waiting

In Capernaum, Jesus went to the chest containing his personal effects, which had remained in Zebedee's workshop, put on his apron, and presented himself for work, saying:

  • "It behooves me to keep busy while I wait for my hour to come."

He worked several months, until January of the following year, in the boat shop, by the side of his brother James. As time passed, rumors came to Capernaum of one John who was preaching while baptizing penitents in the Jordan, and John preached:

  • "The kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and be baptized."

Jesus listened to these reports as John slowly worked his way up the Jordan valley from the ford of the river nearest to Jerusalem. But Jesus worked on, making boats, until John had journeyed up the river to a point near Pella in the month of January of the next year, A.D. 26.

When he laid down his tools, declaring:

  • "My hour has come."

And presently presented himself to John for baptism.

But a great change had been coming over Jesus. Few of the people who had enjoyed his visits and ministrations as he had gone up and down in the land ever subsequently recognized in the public teacher the same person they had known and loved as a private individual in former years. There was a reason for this failure of his early beneficiaries to recognize him in his later role of public and authoritative teacher. For long years this transformation of mind and spirit had been in progress, and it was finished during the eventful sojourn on Mount Hermon.

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