Teacher-Brother Dave's initial comments: I am presenting some of my Topical Studies from the fully public domain, 2097 page, Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth and with my added comments. The Revealed text is free of copyright, so you may freely share individually these supernal quotes with your friends and relatives. But my order of selections, font types for emphasis and my added comments are Copyright 2014 by Dave@PureChristians.org All Rights Reserved. Contact me first about using the whole Study or group of Studies.
[My added comments of explanation below are in these square brackets]
Topical Study 79 "Spiritual Proof & Conviction in Truth"
Compiled 7/02/2014 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 9 of several]
PAPER 153 THE CRISIS AT CAPERNAUM
153:2. THE EPOCHAL SERMON [selections]
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153:2.3 [Jesus: "The priests and teachers of that day sought to kill Jeremiah, but the judges would not consent, albeit, for his words of warning, they did let him down by cords in a filthy dungeon until he sank in mire up to his armpits. That is what this people did to the Prophet Jeremiah when he obeyed the Lord's command to warn his brethren of their impending political downfall. Today, I desire to ask you: What will the chief priests and religious leaders of this people do with the man who dares to warn them of the day of their spiritual doom? Will you also seek to put to death the teacher who dares to proclaim the word of the Lord, and who fears not to point out wherein you refuse to walk in the way of Light which leads to the entrance to the kingdom of heaven?
153:2.4 "What is it you seek as evidence of my mission on earth? We have left you [Jewish temple leaders] undisturbed in your positions of influence and power while we preached glad tidings to the poor and the outcast. We have made no hostile attack upon that which you hold in reverence but have rather proclaimed new liberty for man's fear-ridden soul. I came into the world to reveal my Father and to establish on earth the spiritual brotherhood of the sons of God, the kingdom of heaven. And notwithstanding that I have so many times reminded you that my kingdom is not of this world, still has my Father granted you many manifestations of material wonders in addition to more evidential spiritual transformations and regenerations.
153:2.5 "What new sign is it that you seek at my hands? I declare that you already have sufficient evidence to enable you to make your decision. Verily, verily, I say to many who sit before me this day, you are confronted with the necessity of choosing which way you will go; and I say to you, as Joshua said to your forefathers, 'choose you this day whom you will serve.' Today, many of you stand at the parting of the ways.
153:2.6 "Some of you, when you could not find me after the feasting of the multitude on the other side, hired the Tiberias fishing fleet, which a week before had taken shelter near by during a storm, to go in pursuit of me, and what for? Not for truth and righteousness or that you might the better know how to serve and minister to your fellow men I No, but rather that you might have more bread for which you had not labored. It was not to fill your souls with the Word of Life, but only that you might fill the belly with the bread of ease. And long have you been taught that the Messiah, when he should come, would work those wonders which would make life pleasant and easy for all the chosen people. It is not strange, then, that you who have been thus taught should long for the loaves and the fishes. But I declare to you that such is not the mission of the Son of Man. I have come to proclaim spiritual liberty, teach eternal truth, and foster living faith. [and that Jesus does here in Spirit today !]
153:2.7 "My brethren, hanker not after the meat which perishes but rather seek for the spiritual food that nourishes even to eternal Life; and this is the Bread of Life which the Son gives to all who will take it and eat, for the Father has given the Son this Life without measure. And when you asked me, 'What must we do to perform the works of God?' I plainly told you: 'This is the work of God, that you believe Him whom He has sent."'
153:2.8 And then said Jesus, pointing up to the device of a pot of manna which decorated the lintel of this new synagogue, and which was embellished with grape clusters: "You have thought that your forefathers in the wilderness ate manna -- the bread of heaven -- but I say to you that this was the bread of earth. While Moses did not give your fathers bread from heaven, my Father now stands ready to give you the true Bread of Life. The Bread of Heaven is that which comes down from God and gives eternal Life to the men of the world. [All humans.] And when you say to me, Give us this living bread, I will answer: I AM this Bread of Life. [Yes, He is !!] He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who believes me shall never thirst. You have seen me, lived with me, and beheld my works, yet you believe not that I came forth from the Father. But to those who do believe -- fear not. All those led of the Father shall come to me, and he who comes to me shall in nowise be cast out. [Amen !]
153:2.9 1711 "And now let me declare to you, once and for all time, that I have come down upon the earth, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the final will of Him who sent me, that of all those He has given me I should not lose one. And this is the will of the Father: That every one who beholds the Son and who believes Him shall have eternal Life. [!!] Only yesterday did I feed you with bread for your bodies; today I offer you the Bread of Life for your hungry souls. Will you now take the Bread of the Spirit as you then so willingly ate the bread of this world?"
153:2.10 As Jesus paused for a moment to look over the congregation, one of the teachers from Jerusalem (a member of the Sanhedrin) rose up and asked: "Do I understand you to say that you are the bread which comes down from heaven, and that the manna which Moses gave to our fathers in the wilderness did not?" And Jesus answered the Pharisee, "You understood aright." Then said the Pharisee: "But are you not Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, the carpenter? Are not your father and mother, as well as your brothers and sisters, well known to many of us? How then is it that you appear here in God's house and declare that you have come down from heaven?"
153:2.11 By this time there was much murmuring in the synagogue, and such a tumult was threatened that Jesus stood up and said:
"Let us be patient; the truth never suffers from honest examination. I AM all that you say but more. The FATHER and I ARE ONE; the Son does only that which the Father teaches him, while all those who are given to the Son by the Father, the Son will receive to himself. You have read where it is written in the Prophets, 'You shall all be taught by God,' and that 'Those whom the Father teaches will hear also his Son.' Every one who yields to the teaching of the Father's indwelling Spirit [The Thought Adjuster within each moral human today] will eventually come to me. Not that any man has seen the Father, but the Father's Spirit does live within man. And the Son who came down from heaven, He has surely seen the Father. And those who truly believe this Son already have eternal Life. [Deep spiritual Truths !! Our Father God is with us; and we are now in His Family; and God's pure, adjusting spirit Gift indwells you as well as the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of the Holy Spirit in all truth seekers !!]
153:2.12 "I AM this Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. But this Bread which comes down from God, if a man eats thereof, [allows to enter and transform his soul and mind] he shall never die in Spirit. I repeat, I AM this Living Bread, and every soul who attains the realization of this united nature of God and man shall live forever. And this Bread of Life which I give to all who will receive is my own Living and Combined [GOD-MAN] Nature. The Father in the Son and the Son one with the Father -- that is my life-giving Revelation to the world and my saving Gift to all nations." [Yes, May 24, A.D.1977 - on, I am given the Sacred Vision of God the Father on Paradise and Jesus Christ the Creator Son from Paradise as fully and eternally One and here in Spirit pouring out infinite love, mercy and ministry to all humans. All we have to do is to accept and believe in faith these precious Gifts of Being and continue to experience Life Eternal in the Family of God, both here and in higher Heavens and in Eternal Paradise !]
153:2.13 When Jesus had finished speaking, the ruler of the synagogue dismissed the congregation, but they would not depart. They crowded up around Jesus to ask more questions while others murmured and disputed among themselves. And this state of affairs continued for more than three hours. It was well past seven o'clock before the audience finally dispersed.
153: 3. THE AFTER MEETING
153: 3.1 Many were the questions asked Jesus during this after meeting. Some were asked by his perplexed disciples, but more were asked by caviling [quibbling, having trifling objections] unbelievers who sought only to embarrass and entrap him.
153: 3.2 One of the visiting Pharisees, mounting a lampstand, shouted out this question: "You tell us that you are the bread of life. How can you give us your flesh to eat or your blood to drink? What avail is your teaching if it cannot be carried out?" And Jesus answered this question, saying: "I did not teach you that my flesh is the Bread of Life nor that my blood is the Water thereof. But I did say that my Life in the flesh is a bestowal of the Bread of Heaven. The fact of the Word of God bestowed in the flesh and the phenomenon of the Son of Man subject to the will of God, constitute a Reality of experience which is equivalent to the Divine Sustenance. You cannot eat my flesh nor can you drink my blood, but you can become One in Spirit with Me even as I AM One in Spirit with the Father. [!!] You can be nourished by the Eternal Word of God, which is indeed the Bread of Life, and which has been Bestowed in the likeness of mortal flesh; and you can be Watered in soul by the Divine Spirit, which is truly the Water of Life. The Father has sent me into the world to show how he desires to indwell and direct all men; and I have so lived this life in the flesh as to inspire all men likewise ever to seek to know and do the will of the indwelling heavenly Father."
153:5. THE SATURDAY EVENING
153:5.3 It was a little after midnight when Jesus came down from the upper chamber and stood among the twelve [apostles] and their associates, numbering about thirty in all. He said: "I recognize that this sifting of the kingdom distresses you, but it is unavoidable. Still, after all the training you have had, was there any good reason why you should stumble at my words? Why is it that you are filled with fear and consternation when you see the kingdom being divested of these lukewarm multitudes and these halfhearted disciples? Why do you grieve when the new day is dawning for the shining forth in new glory of the spiritual teachings of the kingdom of heaven? If you find it difficult to endure this test, what, then, will you do when the Son of Man must return to the Father? When and how will you prepare yourselves for the time when I ascend to the place whence I came to this world?
153:5.4 "My beloved, you must remember that it is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh and all that pertains thereto is of little profit. The Words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life. [Living Spirit Light and Eternal Life in believing and following Jesus our True God-man here in Spirit !] Be of good cheer! I have not deserted you.
PAPER 154 LAST DAYS AT CAPERNAUM
154:4.6 There was much talk about Jesus' preaching doctrines which were upsetting for the common people; his enemies maintained that his teachings were impractical, that everything would go to pieces if everybody made an honest effort to live in accordance with his ideas. And the men of many subsequent generations have said the same things. Many intelligent and well-meaning men, even in the more enlightened age of these revelations, maintain that modern civilization could not have been built upon the teachings of Jesus -- and they are partially right. But all such doubters forget that a much better civilization could have been built upon his teachings, and sometime will be. [Yes !] This world has never seriously tried to carry out the teachings of Jesus on a large scale, notwithstanding that halfhearted attempts have often been made to follow the doctrines of so-called Christianity.
PAPER 155 FLEEING THROUGH NORTHERN GALILEE
155:5.7 And then the Master, in his hour of teaching, went on to make clear these truths:
155:5.8 Until the races become highly intelligent and more fully civilized, there will persist many of those childlike and superstitious ceremonies which are so characteristic of the evolutionary religious practices of primitive and backward peoples. Until the human race progresses to the level of a higher and more general recognition of the realities of spiritual experience, large numbers of men and women will continue to show a personal preference for those religions of authority which require only intellectual assent, in contrast to the religion of the Spirit, which entails active participation of mind and soul in the faith adventure of grappling with the rigorous realities of progressive human experience.
155:5.9 The acceptance of the traditional religions of authority presents the easy way out for man’s urge to seek satisfaction for the longings of his spiritual nature. The settled, crystallized, and established religions of authority afford a ready refuge to which the distracted and distraught soul of man may flee when harassed by fear and tormented by uncertainty. Such a religion requires of its devotees, as the price to be paid for its satisfactions and assurances, only a passive and purely intellectual assent.
155:5.10 And for a long time there will live on earth those timid, fearful, and hesitant individuals who will prefer thus to secure their religious consolations, even though, in so casting their lot with the religions of authority, they compromise the sovereignty of personality, debase the dignity of self-respect, and utterly surrender the right to participate in that most thrilling and inspiring of all possible human experiences: the personal quest for truth, the exhilaration of facing the perils of intellectual discovery, the determination to explore the realities of personal religious experience, the supreme satisfaction of experiencing the personal triumph of the actual realization of the victory of spiritual faith over intellectual doubt as it is honestly won in the supreme adventure of all human existence — man seeking God, for himself and as himself, and finding him. [Beautiful ! Direct, personal God-consciousness is the absolute proof experience in soul and mind !]
155:5.11 The religion of the Spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress. The religion of the mind — the theology of authority — requires little or none of these exertions from its formal believers. Tradition is a safe refuge and an easy path for those fearful and halfhearted souls who instinctively shun the Spirit struggles and mental uncertainties associated with those faith voyages of daring adventure out upon the high seas of unexplored truth in search for the farther shores of spiritual realities as they may be discovered by the progressive human mind and experienced by the evolving human soul.
155:5.12 And Jesus went on to say: "At Jerusalem the religious leaders have formulated the various doctrines of their traditional teachers and the prophets of other days into an established system of intellectual beliefs, a religion of authority. The appeal of all such religions is largely to the mind. And now are we about to enter upon a deadly conflict with such a religion since we will so shortly begin the bold proclamation of a new religion -- a religion which is not a religion in the present-day meaning of that word, a religion that makes its chief appeal to the divine Spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of man; a religion which shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance that will so certainly appear in the personal experience of all who really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion." [The sacred experiences of personal God-consciousness -- spiritual fellowship with our loving and merciful Father God ! ]
155:5.13 Pointing out each of the twenty-four and calling them by name, Jesus said: “And now, which one of you would prefer to take this easy path of conformity to an established and fossilized religion, as defended by the Pharisees at Jerusalem, rather than to suffer the difficulties and persecutions attendant upon the mission of proclaiming a better way of salvation to men while you realize the satisfaction of discovering for yourselves the beauties of the realities of a living and personal experience in the eternal truths and supreme grandeurs of the kingdom of heaven? Are you fearful, soft, and ease-seeking? Are you afraid to trust your future in the hands of the God of Truth, whose sons you are? Are you distrustful of the Father, whose children you are? Will you go back to the easy path of the certainty and intellectual settledness of the religion of traditional authority, or will you gird yourselves to go forward with me into that uncertain and troublous future of proclaiming the new truths of the religion of the Spirit, the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men?”
155:5.14 All twenty-four of his hearers rose to their feet, intending to signify their united and loyal response to this, one of the few emotional appeals which Jesus ever made to them, but he raised his hand and stopped them, saying: "Go now apart by yourselves, each man alone with the Father, and there find the unemotional answer to my question, and having found such a true and sincere attitude of soul, speak that answer freely and boldly to my Father and your Father, whose Infinite Life of Love is the very Spirit of the religion we proclaim." [Tremendous Truth Revelation !]
155:5.15 The evangelists and apostles went apart by themselves for a short time. Their spirits were uplifted, their minds were inspired, and their emotions mightily stirred by what Jesus had said. But when Andrew called them together, the Master said only: "Let us resume our journey. We go into Phoenicia to tarry for a season, and all of you should pray the Father to transform your emotions of mind and body into the higher loyalties of mind and the more satisfying experiences of the Spirit."
155:5.16 As they journeyed on down the road, the twenty-four were silent, but presently they began to talk one with another, and by three o'clock that afternoon they could not go farther; they came to a halt, and Peter, going up to Jesus, said: "Master, you have spoken to us the words of Life and Truth. We would hear more; we beseech you to speak to us further concerning these matters." [Jesus' Second Discourse will be here next.]
Topical Study 79 "Spiritual Proof & Conviction in Truth"
Compiled 7/04/2014 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 10 of several]
155:6. THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON RELIGION
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155:6.1 And so, while they paused in the shade of the hillside, Jesus continued to teach them regarding the religion of the Spirit, in substance saying:
155:6.2 You have come out from among those of your fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange your feelings of authoritative certainty for the assurances of the Spirit of adventurous and progressive faith. You have dared to protest against the grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject the authority of the traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of God. Our Father did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, but he did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed [graciously granted] one age and withheld from another. Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration. [ Read I Thes 5: 19-21 !! Amen !]
155:6.3 [The next two paragraphs are full of spiritual Truths from our Master Jesus:] I have called upon you to be born again, to be born of the Spirit. I have called you out of the darkness of authority and the lethargy of tradition into the transcendent light of the realization of the possibility of making for yourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make -- the supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in your own personal experience. And so may you pass from death to life, from the authority of tradition to the experience of knowing God; thus will you pass from darkness to light, from a racial faith inherited to a personal faith achieved by actual experience; and thereby will you progress from a theology of mind handed down by your ancestors to a true religion of Spirit which shall be built up in your souls as an eternal endowment.
155:6.4 Your religion shall change from the mere intellectual belief in traditional authority to the actual experience of that living faith which is able to grasp the reality of God and all that relates to the divine Spirit of the Father. The religion of the mind ties you hopelessly to the past; the religion of the Spirit consists in progressive revelation and ever beckons you on toward higher and holier achievements in spiritual ideals and eternal realities.
155:6.5 While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such a transient satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom and religious liberty. My Father does not require of you as the price of entering the kingdom of heaven that you should force yourself to subscribe to a belief in things which are spiritually repugnant, unholy, and untruthful. It is not required of you that your own sense of mercy, justice, and truth should be outraged by submission to an outworn system of religious forms and ceremonies. The religion of the Spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the Spirit may take you. And who can judge -- perhaps this Spirit may have something to impart to this generation which other generations have refused to hear?
155:6.6 Shame on those false religious teachers who would drag hungry souls back into the dim and distant past and there leave them! And so are these unfortunate persons doomed to become frightened by every new discovery, while they are discomfited by every new revelation of truth. The prophet who said, "He will be kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God," [Isa 26:3] was not a mere intellectual believer in authoritative theology. This truth-knowing human had discovered God; he was not merely talking about God.
155:6.7 I admonish you to give up the practice of always quoting the prophets of old and praising the heroes of Israel, and instead aspire to become living prophets of the Most High and spiritual heroes of the coming kingdom. To honor the God-knowing leaders of the past may indeed be worth while, but why, in so doing, should you sacrifice the supreme experience of human existence: finding God for yourselves and knowing him in your own souls? [What a Gift of eternal peace and joy !!! Thanks to Jesus and to the Spirit of the Father within ... as One ...]
155:6.8 Every race of mankind has its own mental outlook upon human existence; therefore must the religion of the mind ever run true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only by and through the superendowment of the religion of the Spirit. Racial minds may differ, but all mankind is indwelt by the same divine and eternal Spirit. The hope of human brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and ennobling religion of the Spirit -- the religion of personal spiritual experience. [Personal God-consciousness at all times and in all places will eventually replace dogmatic ecclesiastical human authorities in the many types of churches and other religious groups !]
155:6.9 The religions of authority can only divide men and set them in conscientious array against each other; the religion of the Spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become understandingly sympathetic with one another. The religions of authority require of men uniformity in belief, but this is impossible of realization in the present state of the world. The religion of the Spirit requires only unity of experience -- uniformity of destiny -- making full allowance for diversity of belief. The religion of the Spirit requires only uniformity of insight, not uniformity of viewpoint and outlook. The religion of the Spirit does not demand uniformity of intellectual views, only unity of Spirit feeling. The religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds; the religion of the Spirit grows into the increasing joy and liberty of ennobling deeds of loving service and merciful ministration.
155:6.10 But watch, lest any of you look with disdain upon the children of Abraham because they have fallen on these evil days of traditional barrenness. Our forefathers gave themselves up to the persistent and passionate search for God, and they found him as no other whole race of men have ever known him since the times of Adam, [and Eve, biologically uplifting Material Sons of God who came down here about 38,000 years ago] who knew much of this as he was himself a Son of God. My Father has not failed to mark the long and untiring struggle of Israel, ever since the days of Moses, to find God and to know God. For weary generations the Jews have not ceased to toil, sweat, groan, travail, and endure the sufferings and experience the sorrows of a misunderstood and despised people, all in order that they might come a little nearer the discovery of the truth about God. And, notwithstanding all the failures and falterings of Israel, our fathers progressively, from Moses to the times of Amos and Hosea, did reveal increasingly to the whole world an ever clearer and more truthful picture of the eternal God. And so was the way prepared for the still greater Revelation of the Father which you have been called to share.
155:6.11 Never forget there is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt to discover the will of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do that divine will. And fail not to remember that the will of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are Spirit led; that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and restrained by fairness -- justice. The Spirit which my Father and I shall send into the world is not only the Spirit of Truth but also the Spirit of idealistic beauty. [The Father-Son Union Spirit of All Truth !]
155:6.12 You must cease to seek for the word of God only on the pages of the olden records of theologic authority. Those who are born of the Spirit of God shall henceforth discern the word of God regardless of whence it appears to take origin. Divine truth must not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human. Many of your brethren have minds which accept the theory of God while they spiritually fail to realize the presence of God. And that is just the reason why I have so often taught you that the kingdom of heaven can best be realized by acquiring the spiritual attitude of a sincere child. It is not the mental immaturity of the child that I commend to you but rather the spiritual simplicity of such an easy-believing and fully-trusting little one. It is not so important that you should know about the fact of God as that you should increasingly grow in the ability to feel the presence of God.
155:6.13 When you once begin to find God in your soul, presently you will begin to discover him in other men's souls and eventually in all the creatures and creations of a mighty universe. But what chance does the Father have to appear as a God of supreme loyalties and divine ideals in the souls of men who give little or no time to the thoughtful contemplation of such eternal realities? While the mind is not the seat of the spiritual nature, it is indeed the gateway thereto.
155:6.14 But do not make the mistake of trying to prove to other men that you have found God; you cannot consciously produce such valid proof, albeit there are two positive and powerful demonstrations of the fact that you are God-knowing, and they are:
155:6.15 1. The fruits of the Spirit of God showing forth in your daily routine life.
155:6.16 2. The fact that your entire life plan furnishes positive proof that you have unreservedly risked everything you are and have on the adventure of survival after death in the pursuit of the hope of finding the God of Eternity, whose presence you have foretasted in time.
155:6.17 Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. He takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religions of authority, the Father is ever alert to honor and foster even all such feeble attempts to reach out for him. But you who have been called out of darkness into the Light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and Spirit.
155:6.18 You are my apostles, and to you religion shall not become a theologic shelter to which you may flee in fear of facing the rugged realities of spiritual progress and idealistic adventure; but rather shall your religion become the fact of real experience which testifies that God has found you, idealized, ennobled, and spiritualized you, and that you have enlisted in the eternal adventure of finding the God who has thus found and sonshipped you. [!!]
155:6.19 And when Jesus had finished speaking, he beckoned to Andrew and, pointing to the west toward Phoenicia, said: "Let us be on our way." [This great Revelation of Jesus' two Discourses on True Religion are some of my favorites in this 2097 page tome of Truth ! This original Revelation in English has no copyright and may be freely shared. Only my added comments and my text highlighting are copyrighted. Love, peace and progress in Spirit and in Father-Son Eternal Truth !!]
PAPER 157 AT CAESARIA-PHILIPPI
157:6. THE NEXT AFTERNOON
157:6.2 Neither Peter nor the other apostles had a very adequate conception of Jesus’ divinity. They little realized that this was the beginning of a new epoch in their Master’s career on earth, the time when the teacher-healer was becoming the newly conceived Messiah — the Son of God. From this time on a new note appeared in the Master’s message. Henceforth his one ideal of living was the revelation of the Father, while his one idea in teaching was to present to his universe the personification of that supreme wisdom which can only be comprehended by living it. He came that we all might have life and have it more abundantly.
157:6.3 Jesus now entered upon the fourth and last stage of his human life in the flesh. The first stage was that of his childhood, the years when he was only dimly conscious of his origin, nature, and destiny as a human being. The second stage was the increasingly self-conscious years of youth and advancing manhood, during which he came more clearly to comprehend his divine nature and human mission. This second stage ended with the experiences and revelations associated with his baptism. The third stage of the Master’s earth experience extended from the baptism through the years of his ministry as teacher and healer and up to this momentous hour of Peter’s confession at Caesarea-Philippi. This third period of his earth life embraced the times when his apostles and his immediate followers knew him as the Son of Man and regarded him as the Messiah. The fourth and last period of his earth career began here at Caesarea-Philippi and extended on to the crucifixion. This stage of his ministry was characterized by his acknowledgment of divinity and embraced the labors of his last year in the flesh. During the fourth period, while the majority of his followers still regarded him as the Messiah, he became known to the apostles as the Son of God. Peter’s confession marked the beginning of the new period of the more complete realization of the truth of his supreme ministry as a bestowal Son on Earth and for an entire universe, and the recognition of that fact, at least hazily, by his chosen ambassadors.
157:6.4 Thus did Jesus exemplify in his life what he taught in his religion: the growth of the spiritual nature by the technique of living progress. He did not place emphasis, as did his later followers, upon the incessant struggle between the soul and the body. He rather taught that the Spirit was easy victor over both and effective in the profitable reconciliation of much of this intellectual and instinctual warfare.
157:6.5 A new significance attaches to all of Jesus’ teachings from this point on. Before Caesarea-Philippi he presented the gospel of the kingdom as its master teacher. After Caesarea-Philippi he appeared not merely as a teacher but as the divine representative of the eternal Father, [Yes, the only one Person in our universe ! Furthermore, after Jesus ascended back to the Universal Father on Paradise, He, Jesus, received all power and is fully the personification of God here to us ! We who have seen Jesus Christ here with us in Spirit have seen the Universal Father of all Reality !] who is the center and circumference of this spiritual kingdom, and it was required that he do all this as a human being, the Son of Man.
157:6.6 Jesus had sincerely endeavored to lead his followers into the spiritual kingdom as a teacher, then as a teacher-healer, but they would not have it so. He well knew that his earth mission could not possibly fulfill the Messianic expectations of the Jewish people; the olden prophets had portrayed a Messiah which he could never be. He sought to establish the Father’s kingdom as the Son of Man, but his followers would not go forward in the adventure. Jesus, seeing this, then elected to meet his believers part way and in so doing prepared openly to assume the role of the bestowal Son of God.
157:6.7 Accordingly, the apostles heard much that was new as Jesus talked to them this day in the garden. And some of these pronouncements sounded strange even to them. Among other startling announcements they listened to such as the following:
157:6.8 “From this time on, if any man would have fellowship with us, let him assume the obligations of sonship and follow me. And when I am no more with you, think not that the world will treat you better than it did your Master. If you love me, prepare to prove this affection by your willingness to make the supreme sacrifice.”
157:6.9 “And mark well my words: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to bestow his life as the gift for all. I declare to you that I have come to seek and to save those who are lost.” [What love and mercy ! Amen ! (see Matt 18:11 and Luke 19:10)]
157:6.10 “No man in this world now sees the Father except the Son who came forth from the Father. But if the Son be lifted up, he will draw all men to himself, and whosoever believes this truth of the combined nature of the Son shall be endowed with life that is more than age-abiding.” [This great Truth is also in John 12:32]
157:6.11 “We may not yet proclaim openly that the Son of Man is the Son of God, but it has been revealed to you; wherefore do I speak boldly to you concerning these mysteries. Though I stand before you in this physical presence, I came forth from God the Father. Before Abraham was, I AM. [Yes, I know in Spirit that HE IS I AM ] I did come forth from the Father into this world as you have known me, and I declare to you that I must presently leave this world and return to the work of my Father.”
157:6.12 “And now can your faith comprehend the truth of these declarations in the face of my warning you that the Son of Man will not meet the expectations of your fathers as they conceived the Messiah? My kingdom is not of this world. Can you believe the truth about me in the face of the fact that, though the foxes have holes and the birds of heaven have nests, I have not where to lay my head?”
157:6.13 “Nevertheless, I tell you that the Father and I are one. [Yes !] He who has seen me has seen the Father. [Yes !] My Father is working with me in all these things, and he will never leave me alone in my mission, even as I will never forsake you when you presently go forth to proclaim this gospel throughout the world. [Yes, Jesus Christ Michael is fully here with us now and always as He the Spirit of Truth ! See John 16:7-16]
157:6.14 “And now have I brought you apart with me and by yourselves for a little while that you may comprehend the glory, and grasp the grandeur, of the life to which I have called you: the faith-adventure of the establishment of my Father’s kingdom in the hearts of mankind, the building of my fellowship of living association with the souls of all who believe this gospel.”
157:6.15 The apostles listened to these bold and startling statements in silence; they were stunned. And they dispersed in small groups to discuss and ponder the Master’s words. They had confessed that he was the Son of God, but they could not grasp the full meaning of what they had been led to do.
Topical Study 79 "Spiritual Proof & Conviction in Truth"
Compiled 7/07/2014 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 11 of several]
PAPER 159 - THE DECAPOLIS TOUR
159:3 INSTRUCTION FOR TEACHERS AND BELIEVERS
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159:3.8 [Jesus teaches:] The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the bread of life; men die searching for the very God who lives within them. [!!!] Men seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith. Faith is to religion what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of life. There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt -- unbelief.
159:3.9 In preaching the gospel of the kingdom, you are simply teaching friendship with God. [!!!] And this fellowship will appeal alike to men and women in that both will find that which most truly satisfies their characteristic longings and ideals. Tell my children that I am not only tender of their feelings and patient with their frailties, but that I am also ruthless with sin and intolerant of iniquity. I am indeed meek and humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and sinful rebellion against the will of my Father in heaven.
159:3.10 You shall not portray your teacher as a man of sorrows. Future generations shall know also the radiance of our joy, the buoyance of our good will, and the inspiration of our good humor. We proclaim a message of good news which is infectious in its transforming power. Our religion is throbbing with new life and new meanings. Those who accept this teaching are filled with joy and in their hearts are constrained to rejoice evermore. Increasing happiness is always the experience of all who are certain about God. [perfect peace and lasting joy ...]
159:3.12 When my children once become self-conscious of the assurance of the divine presence, such a faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance the power to love and be loved. [Spiritually beautiful, good and true !!]
159:3.13 Teach all believers that those who enter the kingdom are not thereby rendered immune to the accidents of time or to the ordinary catastrophes of nature. Believing the gospel will not prevent getting into trouble, but it will insure that you shall be unafraid when trouble does overtake you. If you dare to believe in me and wholeheartedly proceed to follow after me, you shall most certainly by so doing enter upon the sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you through all of them. [Thank You our loving and merciful Creator Father !!!]
PAPER 163 ORDINATION OF THE SEVENTY AT MAGADAN
163:6.7 [Jesus stated to his seventy newly ordained disciple-teachers:] "You have entered upon this great work of teaching mortal man that he is a son of God. [That is the true gospel of Jesus that this world needs most to know and believe in living faith !] I have shown you the way; go forth to do your duty and be not weary in well doing. To you and to all who shall follow in your steps down through the ages, let me say: I always stand near, and my invitation-call is, and ever shall be, Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am true and loyal, and you shall find spiritual rest for your souls." [True today also ! Amen !]
163:6.8 And they found the Master's words to be true when they put his promises to the test. And since that day countless thousands also have tested and proved the surety of these same promises. [Yes ! Come and join with Jesus and help us continue to transform our still needy world in God's love and Light Eternal !]
PAPER 165 THE PEREAN MISSION BEGINS
165:3. SABBATH SERMON AT PELLA
165:3.8 [Jesus:] "How long will you tarry in the valley of decision? Why do you halt between two opinions? Why should Jew or Gentile hesitate to accept the good news that he is a son of the eternal God? [The True, Living Gospel of Jesus is that each and every human person of all ages is now a divinely beloved son of God ! Thank You Jesus ! Teaching all humans this Good News of sonship will certainly help transform this needy world !] How long will it take us to persuade you to enter joyfully into your spiritual inheritance? I came into this world to reveal the Father to you and to lead you to the Father. The first I have done, but the last I may not do without your consent; the Father never compels any man to enter the kingdom. The invitation ever has been and always will be: Whosoever will, let him come and freely partake of the water of life." [May we always seek and listen to God as His beloved sons; and pray for the endowments to successfully do His will !]
PAPER 166 LAST VISIT TO NORTHERN PEREA
166:3. THE SERMON AT GERASA
166:3.1 As Jesus and the twelve visited with the messengers of the kingdom at Gerasa, one of the Pharisees who believed in him asked this question: "Lord, will there be few or many really saved?" And Jesus, answering, said:
166:3.2 "You have been taught that only the children of Abraham will be saved; that only the gentiles of adoption can hope for salvation. Some of you have reasoned that, since the Scriptures record that only Caleb and Joshua from among all the hosts that went out of Egypt lived to enter the promised land, only a comparatively few of those who seek the kingdom of heaven shall find entrance thereto.
166:3.3 "You also have another saying among you, and one that contains much truth: That the way which leads to eternal life is straight and narrow, that the door which leads thereto is likewise narrow so that, of those who seek salvation, few can find entrance through this door. You also have a teaching that the way which leads to destruction is broad, that the entrance thereto is wide, and that there are many who choose to go this way. And this proverb is not without its meaning. But I declare that salvation is first a matter of your personal choosing. Even if the door to the way of life is narrow, it is wide enough to admit all who sincerely seek to enter, for I am that door. [Jesus Christ is the open door to Eternal Life in the Family of God !] And the Son will never refuse entrance to any child of the universe who, by faith, seeks to find the Father through the Son. [True ! The only Way into God the Universal Father on Paradise is through and with our Creator Son of God Jesus Christ!]
166:3.4 "But herein is the danger to all who would postpone their entrance into the kingdom while they continue to pursue the pleasures of immaturity and indulge the satisfactions of selfishness: Having refused to enter the kingdom as a spiritual experience, they may subsequently seek entrance thereto when the glory of the better way becomes revealed in the age to come. And when, therefore, those who spurned the kingdom when I came in the likeness of humanity seek to find an entrance when it is revealed in the likeness of divinity, [Jesus is fully here since A.D. 30 - on as He the Spirit of All Truth !] then will I say to all such selfish ones: I know not whence you are. You had your chance to prepare for this heavenly citizenship, but you refused all such proffers of mercy; you rejected all invitations to come while the door was open. Now, to you who have refused salvation, the door is shut. [Humans have freewill to accept or reject eternal salvation !] This door is not open to those who would enter the kingdom for selfish glory. Salvation is not for those who are unwilling to pay the price of wholehearted dedication to doing my Father's will. When in spirit and soul you have turned your backs upon the Father's kingdom, it is useless in mind and body to stand before this door and knock, saying, 'Lord, open to us; we would also be great in the kingdom.' Then will I declare that you are not of my fold. I will not receive you to be among those who have fought the good fight of faith and won the reward of unselfish service in the kingdom on earth. And when you say, 'Did we not eat and drink with you, and did you not teach in our streets?' then shall I again declare that you are spiritual strangers; that we were not fellow servants in the Father's ministry of mercy on earth; that I do not know you; and then shall the Judge of all the earth say to you: 'Depart from us, all you who have taken delight in the works of iniquity.' [worse than sin -- a knowing and final rejection of God !]
166:3.5 "But fear not; every one who sincerely desires to find eternal life by entrance into the kingdom of God shall certainly find such everlasting salvation. [All who really want to be saved will be !!!] But you who refuse this salvation will some day see the prophets of the seed of Abraham sit down with the believers of the gentile nations in this glorified kingdom to partake of the bread of life and to refresh themselves with the water thereof. And they who shall thus take the kingdom in spiritual power and by the persistent assaults of living faith will come from the north and the south and from the east and the west. And, behold, many who are first will be last, and those who are last will many times be first."
166:3.6 This was indeed a new and strange version of the old and familiar proverb of the straight and narrow way.
[Here are some Bible verses on this to prayerfully reflect upon:]
[I JESUS AM COME that ALL might have LIFE, and that they might have LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY!!! John 10:10]
[(Disciples) Who then can be saved? (JESUS) With men, this is impossible, but WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. Mat 19:25,26 Mark 10:26,27]
[...an ENTRANCE shall be ministered unto YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO the EVERLASTING KINGDOM (FAMILY) of our Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST. II Peter 1:11]
[I (JESUS CHRIST) WILL DRAW ALL MEN ONTO ME !!! John 12:32]
166:3.7 Slowly the apostles and many of the disciples were learning the meaning of Jesus' early declaration: "Unless you are born again, born of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." Nevertheless, to all who are honest of heart and sincere in faith, it remains eternally true: "Behold, I stand at the doors of men's hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him and will feed him with the bread of life; we shall be one in spirit and purpose, and so shall we ever be brethren in the long and fruitful service of the search for the Paradise Father." And so, whether few or many are to be saved altogether depends on whether few or many will heed the invitation: "I am the door, I am the new and living way, and whosoever wills may enter to embark upon the endless truth-search for eternal life."
166:3.8 Even the apostles were unable fully to comprehend his teaching as to the necessity for using spiritual force for the purpose of breaking through all material resistance and for surmounting every earthly obstacle which might chance to stand in the way of grasping the all-important spiritual values of the new life in the spirit as the liberated sons of God.
PAPER 169 LAST TEACHING AT PELLA
169:4. THE FATHER AND HIS KINGDOM
[This section on very significant Theology is very important to prayerfully reflect and study several times carefully. I will add just a few comments of explanation; but not too much, as this is best spiritually grasped in your ongoing personal God-consciousness.]
169:4.1 Jesus always had trouble trying to explain to the apostles that, while they proclaimed the establishment of the kingdom of God, the Father in heaven was not a king. At the time Jesus lived on earth and taught in the flesh, the people of earth knew mostly of kings and emperors in the governments of the nations, and the Jews had long contemplated the coming of the kingdom of God. For these and other reasons, the Master thought best to designate the spiritual brotherhood of man as the kingdom of heaven and the Spirit Head of this brotherhood as the Father in heaven. Never did Jesus refer to his Father as a king. In his intimate talks with the apostles he always referred to himself as the Son of Man and as their elder brother. He depicted all his followers as servants of mankind and messengers of the gospel of the kingdom.
169:4.2 Jesus never gave his apostles a systematic lesson concerning the personality and attributes of the Father in heaven. He never asked men to believe in his Father; he took it for granted they did. Jesus never belittled himself by offering arguments in proof of the reality of the Father. His teaching regarding the Father all centered in the declaration that he and the Father are one; [Yes !] that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father; [Yes !] that the Father, like the Son, knows all things; [Jesus as our Sovereign Creator Son is also all-knowing !] that only the Son really knows the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal him; [Tremendous and Sacred ...] that he who knows the Son knows also the Father; and that the Father sent him into the world to reveal their combined natures and to show forth their conjoint work. He never made other pronouncements about his Father except to the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, when he declared, "God is Spirit." [We are privileged to worship God in Spirit and in Father-Son-son Union-Communion Truth !]
169:4.3 You learn about God from Jesus by observing the divinity of his life, not by depending on his teachings. From the life of the Master you may each assimilate that concept of God which represents the measure of your capacity to perceive realities spiritual and divine, truths real and eternal. The finite [each of us] can never hope to comprehend the Infinite [Universal, Eternal Paradise FATHER GOD I AM] except as the Infinite was focalized in the time-space personality of the finite experience of the human life of Jesus of Nazareth. [Deep !]
169:4.4 Jesus well knew that God can be known only [!!] by the realities of experience; never can he be understood by the mere teaching of the mind. Jesus taught his apostles that, while they never could fully understand God, they could most certainly know him, even as they had known the Son of Man. You can know God, not by understanding what Jesus said, but by knowing what Jesus was. Jesus was [and IS here in Eternal Spirit with us] a revelation of God. [Behold our God in Spirit Glory ... for the time is at hand !]
169:4.5 Except when quoting the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus referred to Deity by only two names: God and Father. And when the Master made reference to his Father as God, he usually employed the Hebrew word signifying the plural God (the Trinity) [Elohim, found about 2500 times in the Bible ! See Gen 1:1 and 1:26-27] and not the word Yahweh, which stood for the progressive conception of the tribal God of the Jews.
169:4.6 Jesus never called the Father a king, and he very much regretted that the Jewish hope for a restored kingdom and John's proclamation of a coming kingdom made it necessary for him to denominate his proposed spiritual brotherhood the kingdom of heaven. [The Family of God; the Brotherhood of believers in Jesus, etc., can be better used today] With the one exception -- the declaration that "God is Spirit" -- Jesus never referred to Deity in any manner other than in terms descriptive of his own personal relationship with the First Source and Center of Paradise. [The Universal Father-Infinite I AM]
169:4.7 Jesus employed the word God to designate the idea of Deity and the word Father to designate the experience of knowing God. When the word Father is employed to denote God, it should be understood in its largest possible meaning. The word God cannot be defined and therefore stands for the infinite concept of the Father, while the term Father, being capable of partial definition, may be employed to represent the human concept of the divine Father as he is associated with man during the course of mortal existence. [We should conceive-realize The Father of all Reality as both Transcendent in Eternal, Infinite Paradise, our future Home, and his pure Spirit Essence now dwells within us -- the small, still Voice of God -- His perfect and Absolute will ...]
169:4.8 To the Jews, Elohim was the God of gods, while Yahweh was the God of Israel. Jesus accepted the concept of Elohim and called this supreme group of beings God. In the place of the concept of Yahweh, the racial deity, he introduced the idea of the Fatherhood of God and the world-wide brotherhood of man. He exalted the Yahweh concept of a deified racial Father to the idea of a Father of all [ALL humans are divinely beloved sons of God !] the children of men, a Divine Father of the individual believer. And he further taught that this God of universes and this Father of all men were one and the same Paradise Deity. [Deep !]
169:4.9 Jesus never claimed to be the manifestation of Elohim (God) in the flesh. He never declared that he was a revelation of Elohim (God) to the worlds. He never taught that he who had seen him had seen Elohim (God). But he did proclaim himself as the revelation of the Father in the flesh, and he did say that whoso had seen him had seen the Father. As the divine Son he claimed to represent only the Father. [When Christ Michael was Incarnate here with us from 7 B.C.- A.D.30, He was only a Vicegerent (Deputy) Deity; when He finished his earthly Bestowal Career and stated "IT IS FINISHED ..."; He was and IS elevated by the Infinite, Universal Father God on Paradise to being fully God here, and thus also as Elohim God here in Jesus' universe of his own making and in which we live and ascend in to higher spiritual levels of being. Jesus is the Holy Father-Son-Spirit God to us ... and more is being Revealed in progressive stages. Jesus is now a Member of the Trinity Ultimate; and thus a part of the Trinity of Trinities mentioned earlier once briefly in this magnificent Revelation.]
169:4.10 He was, [and He IS] indeed, the Son of even the Elohim God; [Deep ! Yes !] but in the likeness of mortal flesh and to the mortal sons of God, he chose to limit his life revelation to the portrayal of his Father's character in so far as such a revelation might be comprehensible to mortal man. As regards the character of the other persons of the Paradise Trinity, we shall have to be content with the teaching that they are altogether like the Father, who has been revealed in personal portraiture in the life of his incarnated Son, Jesus of Nazareth. [In our personal God-conscious experiences, all Divine Coordinate Deity Persons appear as One in Spirit to us. That is very important; and was covered well here earlier.]
169:4.11 Although Jesus revealed the true nature of the heavenly Father in his earth life, he taught little about him. In fact, he taught only two things: that God in himself is Spirit, and that, in all matters of relationship with his creatures, he is a Father. On this evening Jesus made the final pronouncement of his relationship with God when he declared: "I have come out from the Father, and I have come into the world; again, I will leave the world and go to the Father."
169:4.12 But mark you! never did Jesus say, "Whoso has heard me has heard God." But he did say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." To hear Jesus' teaching is not equivalent to knowing God, but to see Jesus is an experience which in itself is a revelation of the Father to the soul. The God of universes rules the far-flung creation, but it is the Father in heaven who sends forth his Spirit to dwell within your minds. [Deep ! He the Spirit of Truth here with us is the One Combined Spirit of both God the Father on Paradise and God our Creator Father-Son Jesus Christ Michael !!! See JESUS: See GOD the FATHER; They are One !!]
169:4.13 Jesus is the spiritual lens in human likeness which makes visible to the material creature Him who is invisible. He is your elder brother who, in the flesh, makes known to you a Being of Infinite attributes whom not even the celestial hosts can presume fully to understand. But all of this must consist in the personal experience of the individual believer. God who is Spirit can be known only as a spiritual experience. God can be revealed to the finite sons of the material worlds, by the divine Son of the spiritual realms, only as a Father. You can know the Eternal as a Father; you can worship him as the God of universes, the Infinite Creator of all existences. [Yes, come and experience in Spirit our loving and merciful Father-Son here upon all humans and within all Truth-lovers ! Amen !]
Topical Study 79 "Spiritual Proof & Conviction in Truth"
Compiled 7/09/2014 by Dave@PureChristians.org
[Part 12 of several]
PAPER 170 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
170:5. LATER IDEAS OF THE KINGDOM
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170:5.17 The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world. Paul's Christian church is the socialized and humanized shadow of what Jesus intended the kingdom of heaven to be -- and what it most certainly will yet become. [!!] Paul and his successors partly transferred the issues of eternal life from the individual to the church. Christ thus became the head of the church rather than the Elder Brother of each individual believer in the Father's Family of the kingdom. Paul and his contemporaries applied all of Jesus' spiritual implications regarding himself and the individual believer to the church as a group of believers; and in doing this, they struck a deathblow to Jesus' concept of the divine kingdom in the heart of the individual believer.
170:5.18 And so, for centuries, the Christian church has labored under great embarrassment because it dared to lay claim to those mysterious powers and privileges of the kingdom, powers and privileges which can be exercised and experienced only between Jesus and his spiritual believer brothers. And thus it becomes apparent that membership in the church does not necessarily mean fellowship in the kingdom; one is spiritual, [the Family of God on earth,] the other mainly social. [the many human-made churches.]
170:5.19 [Important:] Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming "the kingdom of God is at hand" -- meaning a return to the high spiritual concept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom is the will of his heavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer -- and doing all this without in any way referring either to the visible church on earth or to the anticipated second coming of Christ. There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, [Yes ! Amen !] such a restatement as will undo the work of his early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of belief regarding the fact of [Jesus Christ] Michael's sojourn on earth. In a short time the teaching of this story about Jesus nearly supplanted the preaching of Jesus' gospel of the kingdom. In this way a historical religion displaced that teaching in which Jesus had blended man's highest moral ideas and spiritual ideals with man's most sublime hope for the future -- eternal life. And that was the gospel of the kingdom.
170:5.20 It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master's manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. [All believers in our loving Universal Father God, as well as all Christians, let us unite in Spirit to defeat godless secular humanism, atheism and socially dangerous immorality worldwide !] Always we may have diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable and reprehensible.
170:5.21 Mistake not! there is in the teachings of Jesus an eternal nature which will not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of thinking men. The kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being, an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the Master's teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus' concept now slumbers. The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development. [Amen ! Back in A.D.1989, I wrote the following on this: "The caterpillar worm enters the cocoon; the butterfly then leaves -- "emerges".]
PAPER 174 TUESDAY MORNING IN THE TEMPLE
174:5. THE INQUIRING GREEKS
174:5.1 About noontime, as Philip was purchasing supplies for the new camp which was that day being established near Gethsemane, he was accosted by a delegation of strangers, a group of believing Greeks from Alexandria, Athens, and Rome, whose spokesman said to the apostle: "You have been pointed out to us by those who know you; so we come to you, Sir, with the request to see Jesus, your Master." Philip was taken by surprise thus to meet these prominent and inquiring Greek Gentiles in the market place, and, since Jesus had so explicitly charged all of the twelve not to engage in any public teaching during the Passover week, he was a bit perplexed as to the right way to handle this matter. He was also disconcerted because these men were foreign Gentiles. If they had been Jews or near-by and familiar Gentiles, he would not have hesitated so markedly. What he did was this: He asked these Greeks to remain right where they were. As he hastened away, they supposed that he went in search of Jesus, but in reality he hurried off to the home of Joseph, where he knew Andrew and the other apostles were at lunch; and calling Andrew out, he explained the purpose of his coming, and then, accompanied by Andrew, he returned to the waiting Greeks.
174:5.2 Since Philip had about finished the purchasing of supplies, he and Andrew returned with the Greeks to the home of Joseph, where Jesus received them; and they sat near while he spoke to his apostles and a number of leading disciples assembled at this luncheon. Said Jesus:
174:5.3 "My Father sent me to this world to reveal his loving-kindness to the children of men, but those to whom I first came [the Jews] have refused to receive me. True, indeed, many of you have believed my gospel for yourselves, but the children of Abraham and their leaders are about to reject me, and in so doing they will reject Him who sent me. [!!] I have freely proclaimed the gospel of salvation to this people; I have told them of sonship with joy, liberty, and life more abundant in the spirit. My Father has done many wonderful works among these fear-ridden sons of men. But truly did the Prophet Isaiah refer to this people when he wrote: 'Lord, who has believed our teachings? And to whom has the Lord been revealed?' Truly have the leaders of my people deliberately blinded their eyes that they see not, and hardened their hearts lest they believe and be saved. All these years have I sought to heal them of their unbelief that they might be recipients of the Father's eternal salvation. I know that not all have failed me; some of you have indeed believed my message. [Yes, a small percentage of Jews believed and accepted Jesus ! Today, a few more do.] In this room now are a full score of men who were once members of the Sanhedrin, or who were high in the councils of the nation, albeit even some of you still shrink from open confession of the truth lest they cast you out of the synagogue. Some of you are tempted to love the glory of men more than the glory of God. But I am constrained to show forbearance since I fear for the safety and loyalty of even some of those who have been so long near me, and who have lived so close by my side.
174:5.4 "In this banquet chamber I perceive there are assembled Jews and Gentiles in about equal numbers, and I would address you as the first and last of such a group that I may instruct in the affairs of the kingdom before I go to my Father."
174:5.5 These Greeks had been in faithful attendance upon Jesus' teaching in the temple. On Monday evening they had held a conference at the home of Nicodemus, which lasted until the dawn of day, and thirty of them had elected to enter the kingdom.
174:5.6 As Jesus stood before them at this time, he perceived the end of one dispensation and the beginning of another. Turning his attention to the Greeks, the Master said: [Very important to take into our Spirit-led souls and minds !]
174:5.7 "He who believes this gospel, believes not merely in me but in Him who sent me. When you look upon me, you see not only the Son of Man but also Him who sent me. [The Father is fully in Jesus ! SEE JESUS: SEE GOD !!] I am the Light of the world, [then and now !!] and whosoever will believe my teaching shall no longer abide in darkness. If you Gentiles will hear me, you shall receive the words of life and shall enter forthwith [without delay] into the joyous liberty of the truth of sonship with God. If my fellow countrymen, the Jews, choose to reject me and to refuse my teachings, I will not sit in judgment on them, for I came not to judge the world but to offer it salvation. Nevertheless, they who reject me and refuse to receive my teaching shall be brought to judgment in due season by my Father and those whom he has appointed to sit in judgment on such as reject the gift of mercy and the truths of salvation. Remember, all of you, that I speak not of myself, but that I have faithfully declared to you that which the Father commanded I should reveal to the children of men. And these words which the Father directed me to speak to the world are words of Divine Truth, Everlasting Mercy, and Eternal Life. [Amen !!!]
174:5.8 "But to both Jew and Gentile I declare the hour has about come when the Son of Man will be glorified. You well know that, except a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies in good soil, it springs up again to life and bears much fruit. He who selfishly loves his life stands in danger of losing it; but he who is willing to lay down his life for my sake and the gospel's shall enjoy a more abundant existence on earth and in heaven, life eternal. If you will truly follow me, even after I have gone to my Father, [Jesus then soon returns as He the Spirit of Truth pouring down upon all humans !] then shall you become my disciples and the sincere servants of your fellow mortals.
174:5.9 "I know my hour is approaching, and I am troubled. I perceive that my people are determined to spurn the kingdom, but I am rejoiced to receive these Truth-seeking Gentiles who come here today inquiring for the Way of Light. Nevertheless, my heart aches for my people, and my soul is distraught by that which lies just before me. What shall I say as I look ahead and discern what is about to befall me? Shall I say, Father save me from this awful hour? No! For this very purpose have I come into the world and even to this hour. Rather will I say, and pray that you will join me: Father, glorify your name; your will be done." [May we each seek God's will and be endowed in Spirit to do it with ever living and increasing Living Truth Conviction !]
174:5.10 When Jesus had thus spoken, the Personalized Adjuster of his indwelling during prebaptismal times appeared before him, and as he paused noticeably, this now mighty Spirit of the Father's representation spoke to Jesus of Nazareth, saying: "I have glorified my name in your bestowals many times, and I will glorify it once more." [Jesus Christ's Incarnation Bestowal down on earth was his Seventh and last Bestowal in Revealing the Sevenfold Will-Union combinations of the Three Persons of the Existential Paradise Trinity. That is explained in Paper 119, Section 8, pages 1317-1319]
174:5.11 While the Jews and Gentiles here assembled heard no voice, they could not fail to discern that the Master had paused in his speaking while a message came to him from some superhuman source. They all said, every man to the one who was by him, "An angel has spoken to him." [No, a Personalized Adjuster of the highest Deity level !]
174:5.12 Then Jesus continued to speak: "All this has not happened for my sake but for yours. [!!] I know of a certainty that the Father will receive me and accept my mission in your behalf, but it is needful that you be encouraged and be made ready for the fiery trial which is just ahead. Let me assure you that victory shall eventually crown our united efforts to enlighten the world and liberate mankind. [Mankind is, overall, slowly progressing in following Jesus in Spirit and in Father-Son Truth Union ! On the last page of this mighty Revelation of Truth we will read: "Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of GOD to the world, IN AND THROUGH JESUS, shall not fail." We lovers of Jesus need to further unite in this good and needed continuing Mission of Truth to all humans. Let us work together under Jesus here in Spirit !] The old order is bringing itself to judgment; the Prince of this world I have cast down; and all men shall become free by the Light of the Spirit which I will pour out upon all flesh after I have ascended to my Father in heaven. [Very important: See John 12:31]
174:5.13 "And now I declare to you that I, if I be lifted up on earth and in your lives, [HE IS !] will draw all men to myself and into the fellowship of my Father. [Very important: John 12:32] You have believed that the Deliverer would abide on earth forever, but I declare that the Son of Man will be rejected by men, and that he will go back to the Father. Only a little while will I be with you; only a little time will the Living Light [Pure Spirit Luminosity Presence of God and Jesus as One Spirit] be among this darkened generation. Walk while you have this Light so that the oncoming darkness and confusion may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness knows not where he goes; but if you will choose to walk in the Light, you shall all indeed become liberated sons of God. And now, all of you, come with me while we go back to the temple and I speak farewell words to the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the benighted rulers of Israel."
PAPER 176 TUESDAY EVENING ON MOUNT OLIVET
2. THE MASTER'S SECOND COMING
[Please peruse this very carefully in Spirit and in Father-Son Truth !]
176:2.1 On several occasions Jesus had made statements which led his hearers to infer that, while he intended presently to leave this world, he would most certainly return to consummate the work of the heavenly kingdom. As the conviction grew on his followers that he was going to leave them, and after he had departed from this world, it was only natural for all believers to lay fast hold upon these promises to return. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ thus became early incorporated into the teachings of the Christians, and almost every subsequent generation of disciples has devoutly believed this truth [Yes, True !] and has confidently looked forward to his sometime coming. [Jesus Christ can and has returned in Spirit to earth very many times in the last 2,000 years; He is always here as He the Spirit of Truth since May 18, A.D. 30 -on. He will ALSO return as Himself in Person the second time here; but no human knows when, hopefully soon ! Amen !]
176:2.2 If they were to part with their Master and Teacher, how much more did these first disciples and the apostles grasp at this promise to return, and they lost no time in associating the predicted destruction of Jerusalem with this promised second coming. And they continued thus to interpret his words notwithstanding that, throughout this evening of instruction on Mount Olivet, the Master took particular pains to prevent just such a mistake.
176:2.3 In further answer to Peter's question, Jesus said: "Why do you still look for the Son of Man to sit upon the throne of David and expect that the material dreams of the Jews will be fulfilled? Have I not told you all these years that my kingdom is not of this world? The things which you now look down upon are coming to an end, but this will be a new beginning out of which the gospel of the kingdom will go to all the world and this salvation will spread to all peoples. [What a Gift to all humans ! How many will accept eternal Salvation in and with Jesus ?] And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, even as he has already bestowed upon this world him who became the prince of darkness, [200,000 years ago, the deposed evil old planetary prince Caligastia. See John 12:31-32] and then Adam, [and Eve, 38,000 years ago] who was followed by Melchizedek, [4,000 years ago] and in these days, the Son of Man. [Incarnate here 7 B.C. - A.D. 30; now He is our Universe Sovereign God-Man Person !] And so will my Father continue to manifest his mercy and show forth his love, even to this dark and evil world. So also will I, after my Father has invested me with all power and authority, [all the power and authority of the Triune Paradise Godhead is here in our Master Jesus Christ Michael !] continue to follow your fortunes and to guide in the affairs of the kingdom by the presence of my spirit, who [WHO, not an "IT"] shall shortly be poured out upon all flesh. Even though I shall thus be present with you in spirit, [YES !!!] I also promise that I will sometime return to this world, where I have lived this life in the flesh and achieved the experience of simultaneously revealing God to man and leading man to God. Very soon must I leave you and take up the work the Father has intrusted to my hands, but be of good courage, for I will sometime return. [as our Glorious Sovereign Deity Person !] In the meantime, my Spirit of the Truth of a universe shall comfort and guide you. [just like Jesus !!! except you see no physical body !]
176:2.4 "You behold me now in weakness and in the flesh, but when I return, it shall be with power and in the Spirit. [I see that as referring to BOTH May 18, A.D. 30-on as He the Spirit of Truth, and ALSO when He returns the second time as our Deity Person ! I am given to know his loving, powerfully transforming Spirit here upon and within me and upon all humans and beings in his large universe !] The eye of flesh beholds the Son of Man in the flesh, but only the eye of the Spirit will behold the Son of Man glorified by the Father and appearing on earth in his own name. [That can be NOW in Spirit and/or later in his future Personal return if you are still down here and not yet progressing as an ascending Son of God up in the next higher Heavens.]
176:2.5 "But the times ["times" plural ! Do you comprehend this great Truth !?] of the reappearing of the Son of Man are known only in the councils of Paradise; not even the angels of heaven know when this will occur. However, you should understand that, when this gospel of the kingdom shall have been proclaimed to all the world for the salvation of all [ALL !] peoples, and when the fullness of the age has come to pass, the Father will send you another dispensational bestowal, [of high Sons of God under Jesus and high angels and superangels, etc] or else the Son of Man will return to adjudge the age. [It could be possible that a new dispensational bestowal will shortly come to earth around A.D. 2024 - A.D. 2030 as I suspect, if Jesus so wills. He Appears in Spirit to Truth-seekers worldwide when each individual human son of God is ready !! That is between Jesus and the individual human. Good news: There are two persons you can never run away from while on earth: God and your soul higher Self !]
176:2.6 "And now concerning the travail of Jerusalem, about which I have spoken to you, even this generation will not pass away until my words are fulfilled; [that happened just 40 years later !] but concerning the times [plural !!] of the coming again of the Son of Man, no one in heaven or on earth may presume to speak. But you should be wise regarding the ripening of an age; you should be alert to discern the signs of the times. You know when the fig tree shows its tender branches and puts forth its leaves that summer is near. Likewise, when the world has passed through the long winter of material-mindedness and you discern the coming of the spiritual springtime of a new dispensation, should you know that the summertime of a new visitation draws near. [Around A.D. 1935, at the time of this tremendous Epochal Revelation, it stated that the worst of materialism is over ! But now, we have a much greater problem of fast increasing. godless "secular humanism". See the important Paper "AFTER PENTECOST" here: http://www.PureChristians.org/Inspir114.html ]
176:2.7 "But what is the significance of this teaching having to do with the coming of the Sons of God? Do you not perceive that, when each of you is called to lay down his life struggle and pass through the portal of death, you stand in the immediate presence of [loving ! and merciful !] judgment, and that you are face to face with the facts of a new dispensation of service [in God's grace !] in the eternal plan of the infinite Father? What the whole world must face as a literal fact at the end of an age, you, as individuals, must each most certainly face as a personal experience when you reach the end of your natural life and thereby pass on to be confronted with the conditions and demands inherent in the next revelation of the eternal progression [of you and other humans also !] of the Father's kingdom." [I know in the Spirit of our Father God that I am allowed to so explain and amplify Jesus' words in his Spirit and in the Light of the whole Fifth Epochal Revelation which I know well in Spirit and in Truth also. Don't just believe me; ask Jesus if this is True or not ! He is The Only Authority and as One with the Spirit Essence of God within you !]
176:2.8 Of all the discourses which the Master gave his apostles, none ever became so confused in their minds as this one, given this Tuesday evening on the Mount of Olives, regarding the twofold subject of the destruction of Jerusalem and his own second coming. There was, therefore, little agreement between the subsequent written accounts based on the memories of what the Master said on this extraordinary occasion. Consequently, when the records were left blank concerning much that was said that Tuesday evening, there grew up many traditions; and very early in the second century a Jewish apocalyptic about the Messiah written by one Selta, who was attached to the court of the Emperor Caligula, was bodily copied into the Matthew Gospel and subsequently added (in part) to the Mark and Luke records. It was in these writings of Selta that the parable of the ten virgins appeared. No part of the gospel record ever suffered such confusing misconstruction as this evening's teaching. But the Apostle John never became thus confused. [Peruse and pray in Spirit for more comprehensions of John chapters 14 through 17. Note John 14:20-21 and 17:17-26 and Rev 21:3-7 and others ! Sacred Truths ! More on this is in this mighty Epochal Revelation also ! That is published elsewhere on this website.]
