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The Jesus MeetUp
"Taking the Kingdom!"
Week #37
The Jesus MeetUp Taking the Kingdom Week #37
The core purpose of our Urantia Book is to help us come to KNOW God
who dwells within us and then tell others.
Here’s what we know from our Revelators:
“The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries. Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even the splendid concept of the glorified Christ. What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices of living as will enable it to “follow after” the Master in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father’s will and of consecration to the unselfish service of man. Do professed Christians fear the exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of social respectability and selfish economic maladjustment? Does institutional Christianity fear the possible jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of traditional ecclesiastical authority if the Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds and souls of mortal men as the ideal of personal religious living? Indeed, the social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant the theologic religion about Jesus.” 196:1.2
Let’s break this down a bit and clearly understand Their wishes.
The time is RIPE...
definition of ripe: adjective
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Fully developed; mature. "ripe peaches should be used now."
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Sufficiently advanced in preparation or aging to be used or eaten. "ripe cheese."
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Thoroughly matured, as by study or experience; seasoned.
Our Revelators are telling us that the time to share Jesus’ True Religion teachings is NOW.
A hundred years ago, when They came to teach us, They told us the time was RIPE – BACK THEN. This means we are sufficiently advanced, thoroughly matured and seasoned enough to do what Jesus has asked of us. The question for each of us to ask ourselves is “Am I going to be obedient to my Master?” What a compliment They are giving to us! They think we are ready to grasp the baton that Jesus passed on to His apostles 2000+ years ago, but they missed the mark with His gospel message of “the kingdom of God that dwells within you.” Instead, nearly all of them promoted the influences of Paul and Peter. Today, 2000+ years later we CAN comprehend what He said and pass this Good News on to others. This work is joyful!
Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even the splendid concept of the glorified Christ.
Definition of sacrifice: noun
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The act of offering an animal/person/thing to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially a ritual slaughter.
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A victim offered in this way.
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The act of giving up something highly valued for the sake of something else considered to have a greater value.
In the slaughter of the person of Joshua ben Joseph, Jesus, Paul’s invented religion called Christianity portrays Jesus as a human offering to an angry deity in propitiation for our mistakes or ‘sins’ and to assuage our ‘original sin nature’ [which Jesus never taught!]. The Pauline doctrines define Jesus as a martyred victim who’s life-blood must be spilled at the behest of a vengeful god who desires His Son’s death so that others may receive forgiveness/redemption. Jesus was/is nothing of the sort, and neither is our Paradise Father. Our Paradise Father is LOVE and Jesus is MERCY. Promoting the atonement doctrine [the cross] in any way becomes an assault upon our Paradise Father’s true character and nature [as do the doctrines of Hell and works].
A philosophic assault upon our Paradise Father.
2:6.5 states: “Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the universe. Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and craves affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father’s attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.“
Presenting the Living Jesus to our world!
“What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology [Judaism/Christianity] and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name [using the cross], and to all other religions” [with all of their symbols representing their doctrines].
This is why They gave us the awareness of our Universe Trinity Circles, as this symbol promotes the true teachings of our celestial family, Jesus Himself and all the way up to Paradise Itself. For us to add anything to our Trinity Circles, the emblem of our Master, is to breed even more confusion than we are already dealing with, and even possible offense/s, as the cross is off-putting to many around the world. Although our Revelators tell us that Jesus’ new religion comes out of Christianity, our Revelators are not instructing for us to add a symbol of Paul’s erroneous and false teachings onto it. Let’s not default or rebel against Their crystal clear and original instructions regarding our concentric circles and what constitutes an assault upon our Father!
These are the changes They would like to see.
1. “Surely the Christian fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices of living as will enable it to "follow after" the Master in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father's will and of consecration to the unselfish service of man.” [This teaching is found in Week #5] The highest level of loving service to man is to tell them that their loving Father lives in their own hearts and minds and can be fully KNOWN by each individual.
2. “Do professed Christians fear the exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of social respectability and selfish economic maladjustment?” Our teachers are referring to the profit-motive, ecclesiastical, hierarchical money-system originating from Judaism and then adopted by Paul for his invented religion called Christianity.
3. “Does institutional Christianity fear the possible jeopardy, or even the OVERTHROW of traditional ecclesiastical authority if the Jesus of Galilee [not the ‘Jesus of the Damascus Road’] is reinstated in the minds and souls of mortal men as the ideal [not just an idea] of personal religious living?” Our Revelators are painting a picture for us of what Jesus’ True Religion is. If we do this then we are opening a door for His children to walk through so that they may then enter into the kingdom of God that dwells within them.
definition of overthrow: transitive verb
1. To bring about the downfall, destruction, or ending of, especially by force or concerted action. “overthrow the cartels."
2. To throw or push over; overturn. "overthrew the tables while He took a strap and drove out the animals from the temple."
"Indeed, …
definition of indeed: adverb
1. In reality; in truth; in fact; verily; truly; -- used in a variety of senses. Esp.: (a) Denoting emphasis. (b) Denoting concession or admission. (c) Denoting surprise. "indeed it is so"
...the social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should SUDDENLY supplant the theologic religion about Jesus."
These would ALL be good things.
definition of revision: noun
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A revised or new version, as of a book or other written material.
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The act of revising; reexamination for correction; review. "the revision of a book or writing, or statutes”
These things have never been tried before.
“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 people of many subsequent generations have said the same things. Many intelligent and well-meaning people, 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. 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.” 154:4.6
Again, we’re 2000+ years late in terms of what Jesus instructed to His group. However...
“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, 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 Michael's [Jesus’] 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.” 170:5.19
So, They are telling us that this next John the Bapitst is due to arise with Their blessings.
Does it make sense to us that if this person is to arise on the scene then we best get on board with what this person is going to say and do? And, They state clearly what this John the Baptist #2 shall emphasize. Then, may we agree to begin proclaiming all of this NOW?
To finding our courage within to proclaim our Paradise Father,
dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer.
Questions to discuss:
1. What do you think ‘dominant and transcendent’ means? How does this happen?
2. Why do you think we are so late in obeying our Master and proclaiming His True Religion to our world? What happens when we do?
3. What will make Jesus smile when He watches our efforts? Why?
Next week we will discuss the recognition of the power of parenting in Week #38