611 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
611 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
Urantia Book Paper 170 The Kingdom Of Heaven
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SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
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of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
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Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
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Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
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Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
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Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
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The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
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Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
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The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
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In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
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Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
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Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
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Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
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Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
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Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
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Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
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Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
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Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
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Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
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To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ...
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Paper 170 The Kingdom Of Heaven
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Introduction
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SATURDAY afternoon, March 11, Jesus preached his last sermon at Pella. This was
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among the notable addresses of his public ministry, embracing a full and
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complete discussion of the kingdom of heaven. He was aware of the confusion
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which existed in the minds of his apostles and disciples regarding the meaning
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and significance of the terms "kingdom of heaven" and "kingdom of God," which
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he used as interchangeable designations of his bestowal mission. Although the
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very term kingdom of heaven should have been enough to separate what it stood
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for from all connection with earthly kingdoms and temporal governments, it was
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not. The idea of a temporal king was too deep-rooted in the Jewish mind thus to
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be dislodged in a single generation. Therefore Jesus did not at first openly
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oppose this long-nourished concept of the kingdom.
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This Sabbath afternoon the Master sought to clarify the teaching about the
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kingdom of heaven; he discussed the subject from every viewpoint and endeavored
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to make clear the many different senses in which the term had been used. In
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this narrative we will amplify the address by adding numerous statements made
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by Jesus on previous occasions and by including some remarks made only to the
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apostles during the evening discussions of this same day. We will also make
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certain comments dealing with the subsequent outworking of the kingdom idea as
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it is related to the later Christian church.
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1. CONCEPTS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
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In connection with the recital of Jesus' sermon it should be noted that
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throughout the Hebrew scriptures there was a dual concept of the kingdom of
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heaven. The prophets presented the kingdom of God as:
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1. A present reality; and as
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2. A future hope--when the kingdom would be realized in fullness upon the
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appearance of the Messiah. This is the kingdom concept which John the Baptist
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taught.
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From the very first Jesus and the apostles taught both of these concepts. There
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were two other ideas of the kingdom which should be borne in mind:
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3. The later Jewish concept of a world-wide and transcendental kingdom of
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supernatural origin and miraculous inauguration.
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4. The Persian teachings portraying the establishment of a divine kingdom as
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the achievement of the triumph of good over evil at the end of the world.
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Just before the advent of Jesus on earth, the Jews combined and confused all of
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these ideas of the kingdom into their apocalyptic concept of the Messiah's
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top of page - 1859
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coming to establish the age of the Jewish triumph, the eternal age of God's
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supreme rule on earth, the new world, the era in which all mankind would
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worship Yahweh. In choosing to utilize this concept of the kingdom of heaven,
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Jesus elected to appropriate the most vital and culminating heritage of both
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the Jewish and Persian religions.
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The kingdom of heaven, as it has been understood and misunderstood down through
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the centuries of the Christian era, embraced four distinct groups of ideas:
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1. The concept of the Jews.
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2. The concept of the Persians.
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3. The personal-experience concept of Jesus--"the kingdom of heaven within
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you."
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4. The composite and confused concepts which the founders and promulgators of
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Christianity have sought to impress upon the world.
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At different times and in varying circumstances it appears that Jesus may have
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presented numerous concepts of the "kingdom" in his public teachings, but to
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his apostles he always taught the kingdom as embracing man's personal
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experience in relation to his fellows on earth and to the Father in heaven.
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Concerning the kingdom, his last word always was, "The kingdom is within you."
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Centuries of confusion regarding the meaning of the term "kingdom of heaven"
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have been due to three factors:
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1. The confusion occasioned by observing the idea of the "kingdom" as it passed
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through the various progressive phases of its recasting by Jesus and his
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apostles.
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2. The confusion which was inevitably associated with the transplantation of
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early Christianity from a Jewish to a gentile soil.
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3. The confusion which was inherent in the fact that Christianity became a
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religion which was organized about the central idea of Jesus' person; the
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gospel of the kingdom became more and more a religion about him.
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2. JESUS' CONCEPT OF THE KINGDOM
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The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with, and be
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centered in, the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the
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correlated fact of the brotherhood of man. The acceptance of such a teaching,
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Jesus declared, would liberate man from the age-long bondage of animal fear and
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at the same time enrich human living with the following endowments of the new
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life of spiritual liberty:
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1. The possession of new courage and augmented spiritual power. The gospel of
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the kingdom was to set man free and inspire him to dare to hope for eternal
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life.
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2. The gospel carried a message of new confidence and true consolation for all
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men, even for the poor.
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3. It was in itself a new standard of moral values, a new ethical yardstick
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wherewith to measure human conduct. It portrayed the ideal of a resultant new
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order of human society.
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4. It taught the pre-eminence of the spiritual compared with the material; it
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glorified spiritual realities and exalted superhuman ideals.
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top of page - 1860
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5. This new gospel held up spiritual attainment as the true goal of living.
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Human life received a new endowment of moral value and divine dignity.
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6. Jesus taught that eternal realities were the result (reward) of righteous
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earthly striving. Man's mortal sojourn on earth acquired new meanings
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consequent upon the recognition of a noble destiny.
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7. The new gospel affirmed that human salvation is the revelation of a
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far-reaching divine purpose to be fulfilled and realized in the future destiny
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of the endless service of the salvaged sons of God.
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These teachings cover the expanded idea of the kingdom which was taught by
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Jesus. This great concept was hardly embraced in the elementary and confused
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kingdom teachings of John the Baptist.
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The apostles were unable to grasp the real meaning of the Master's utterances
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regarding the kingdom. The subsequent distortion of Jesus' teachings, as they
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are recorded in the New Testament, is because the concept of the gospel writers
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was colored by the belief that Jesus was then absent from the world for only a
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short time; that he would soon return to establish the kingdom in power and
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glory--just such an idea as they held while he was with them in the flesh. But
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Jesus did not connect the establishment of the kingdom with the idea of his
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return to this world. That centuries have passed with no signs of the
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appearance of the "New Age" is in no way out of harmony with Jesus' teaching.
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The great effort embodied in this sermon was the attempt to translate the
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concept of the kingdom of heaven into the ideal of the idea of doing the will
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of God. Long had the Master taught his followers to pray: "Your kingdom come;
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your will be done"; and at this time he earnestly sought to induce them to
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abandon the use of the term kingdom of God in favor of the more practical
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equivalent, the will of God. But he did not succeed.
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Jesus desired to substitute for the idea of the kingdom, king, and subjects,
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the concept of the heavenly family, the heavenly Father, and the liberated sons
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of God engaged in joyful and voluntary service for their fellow men and in the
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sublime and intelligent worship of God the Father.
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Up to this time the apostles had acquired a double viewpoint of the kingdom;
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they regarded it as:
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1. A matter of personal experience then present in the hearts of true
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believers, and
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2. A question of racial or world phenomena; that the kingdom was in the future,
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something to look forward to.
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They looked upon the coming of the kingdom in the hearts of men as a gradual
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development, like the leaven in the dough or like the growing of the mustard
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seed. They believed that the coming of the kingdom in the racial or world sense
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would be both sudden and spectacular. Jesus never tired of telling them that
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the kingdom of heaven was their personal experience of realizing the higher
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qualities of spiritual living; that these realities of the spirit experience
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are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and
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eternal grandeur.
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On this afternoon the Master distinctly taught a new concept of the double
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nature of the kingdom in that he portrayed the following two phases:
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"First. The kingdom of God in this world, the supreme desire to do the will of
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God, the unselfish love of man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical
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and moral conduct.
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top of page - 1861
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"Second. The kingdom of God in heaven, the goal of mortal believers, the estate
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wherein the love for God is perfected, and wherein the will of God is done more
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divinely."
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Jesus taught that, by faith, the believer enters the kingdom now. In the
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various discourses he taught that two things are essential to faith-entrance
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into the kingdom:
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1. Faith, sincerity. To come as a little child, to receive the bestowal of
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sonship as a gift; to submit to the doing of the Father's will without
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questioning and in the full confidence and genuine trustfulness of the Father's
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wisdom; to come into the kingdom free from prejudice and preconception; to be
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open-minded and teachable like an unspoiled child.
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2. Truth hunger. The thirst for righteousness, a change of mind, the
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acquirement of the motive to be like God and to find God.
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Jesus taught that sin is not the child of a defective nature but rather the
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offspring of a knowing mind dominated by an unsubmissive will. Regarding sin,
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he taught that God has forgiven; that we make such forgiveness personally
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available by the act of forgiving our fellows. When you forgive your brother in
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the flesh, you thereby create the capacity in your own soul for the reception
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of the reality of God's forgiveness of your own misdeeds.
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By the time the Apostle John began to write the story of Jesus' life and
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teachings, the early Christians had experienced so much trouble with the
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kingdom-of-God idea as a breeder of persecution that they had largely abandoned
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the use of the term. John talks much about the "eternal life." Jesus often
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spoke of it as the "kingdom of life." He also frequently referred to "the
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kingdom of God within you." He once spoke of such an experience as "family
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fellowship with God the Father." Jesus sought to substitute many terms for the
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kingdom but always without success. Among others, he used: the family of God,
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the Father's will, the friends of God, the fellowship of believers, the
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brotherhood of man, the Father's fold, the children of God, the fellowship of
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the faithful, the Father's service, and the liberated sons of God.
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But he could not escape the use of the kingdom idea. It was more than fifty
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years later, not until after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies,
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that this concept of the kingdom began to change into the cult of eternal life
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as its social and institutional aspects were taken over by the rapidly
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expanding and crystallizing Christian church.
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3. IN RELATION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
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Jesus was always trying to impress upon his apostles and disciples that they
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must acquire, by faith, a righteousness which would exceed the righteousness of
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slavish works which some of the scribes and Pharisees paraded so vaingloriously
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before the world.
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Though Jesus taught that faith, simple childlike belief, is the key to the door
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of the kingdom, he also taught that, having entered the door, there are the
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progressive steps of righteousness which every believing child must ascend in
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order to grow up to the full stature of the robust sons of God.
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It is in the consideration of the technique of receiving God's forgiveness that
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the attainment of the righteousness of the kingdom is revealed. Faith is the
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price you pay for entrance into the family of God; but forgiveness is the act
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of God
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top of page - 1862
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which accepts your faith as the price of admission. And the reception of the
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forgiveness of God by a kingdom believer involves a definite and actual
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experience and consists in the following four steps, the kingdom steps of inner
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righteousness:
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1. God's forgiveness is made actually available and is personally experienced
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by man just in so far as he forgives his fellows.
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2. Man will not truly forgive his fellows unless he loves them as himself.
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3. To thus love your neighbor as yourself is the highest ethics.
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4. Moral conduct, true righteousness, becomes, then, the natural result of such
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love.
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It therefore is evident that the true and inner religion of the kingdom
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unfailingly and increasingly tends to manifest itself in practical avenues of
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social service. Jesus taught a living religion that impelled its believers to
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engage in the doing of loving service. But Jesus did not put ethics in the
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place of religion. He taught religion as a cause and ethics as a result.
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The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive; the highest forms
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of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or
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ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual
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fellowship with God the Father which so certainly and directly manifests itself
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as outward and loving service for man. He taught that the religion of the
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kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within
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himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers
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leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the
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service of one's brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the
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brotherhood.
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The religion of the kingdom is personal, individual; the fruits, the results,
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are familial, social. Jesus never failed to exalt the sacredness of the
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individual as contrasted with the community. But he also recognized that man
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develops his character by unselfish service; that he unfolds his moral nature
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in loving relations with his fellows.
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By teaching that the kingdom is within, by exalting the individual, Jesus
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struck the deathblow of the old society in that he ushered in the new
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dispensation of true social righteousness. This new order of society the world
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has little known because it has refused to practice the principles of the
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gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And when this kingdom of spiritual
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pre-eminence does come upon the earth, it will not be manifested in mere
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improved social and material conditions, but rather in the glories of those
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enhanced and enriched spiritual values which are characteristic of the
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approaching age of improved human relations and advancing spiritual
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attainments.
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4. JESUS' TEACHING ABOUT THE KINGDOM
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Jesus never gave a precise definition of the kingdom. At one time he would
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discourse on one phase of the kingdom, and at another time he would discuss a
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different aspect of the brotherhood of God's reign in the hearts of men. In the
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course of this Sabbath afternoon's sermon Jesus noted no less than five phases,
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or epochs, of the kingdom, and they were:
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1. The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship
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of the individual believer with God the Father.
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top of page - 1863
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2. The enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects of the
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enhanced morals and quickened ethics resulting from the reign of God's spirit
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in the hearts of individual believers.
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3. The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on
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earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God.
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4. The prospect of the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God, the advance
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toward the dawn of a new social order in connection with improved spiritual
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living--the next age of man.
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5. The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on
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earth.
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Wherefore must we always examine the Master's teaching to ascertain which of
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these five phases he may have reference to when he makes use of the term
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kingdom of heaven. By this process of gradually changing man's will and thus
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affecting human decisions, Michael and his associates are likewise gradually
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but certainly changing the entire course of human evolution, social and
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otherwise.
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The Master on this occasion placed emphasis on the following five points as
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representing the cardinal features of the gospel of the kingdom:
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1. The pre-eminence of the individual.
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2. The will as the determining factor in man's experience.
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3. Spiritual fellowship with God the Father.
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4. The supreme satisfactions of the loving service of man.
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5. The transcendency of the spiritual over the material in human personality.
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This world has never seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic
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ideas and divine ideals of Jesus' doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. But you
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should not become discouraged by the apparently slow progress of the kingdom
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idea on Urantia. Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected
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to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the
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spiritual worlds. The bestowal of Jesus as an incarnated Son was just such a
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strange and unexpected event in the spiritual life of the world. Neither make
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the fatal mistake, in looking for the age manifestation of the kingdom, of
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failing to effect its establishment within your own souls.
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Although Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future and did, on
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numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might appear as a part of a
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world crisis; and though he did likewise most certainly, on several occasions,
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definitely promise sometime to return to Urantia, it should be recorded that he
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never positively linked these two ideas together. He promised a new revelation
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of the kingdom on earth and at some future time; he also promised sometime to
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come back to this world in person; but he did not say that these two events
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were synonymous. From all we know these promises may, or may not, refer to the
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same event.
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His apostles and disciples most certainly linked these two teachings together.
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When the kingdom failed to materialize as they had expected, recalling the
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Master's teaching concerning a future kingdom and remembering his promise to
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come again, they jumped to the conclusion that these promises referred to an
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identical event; and therefore they lived in hope of his immediate second
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coming to establish the kingdom in its fullness and with power and glory. And
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so have
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top of page - 1864
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successive believing generations lived on earth entertaining the same inspiring
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but disappointing hope.
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5. LATER IDEAS OF THE KINGDOM
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Having summarized the teachings of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, we are
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permitted to narrate certain later ideas which became attached to the concept
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of the kingdom and to engage in a prophetic forecast of the kingdom as it may
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evolve in the age to come.
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Throughout the first centuries of the Christian propaganda, the idea of the
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kingdom of heaven was tremendously influenced by the then rapidly spreading
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notions of Greek idealism, the idea of the natural as the shadow of the
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spiritual--the temporal as the time shadow of the eternal.
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But the great step which marked the transplantation of the teachings of Jesus
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from a Jewish to a gentile soil was taken when the Messiah of the kingdom
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became the Redeemer of the church, a religious and social organization growing
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out of the activities of Paul and his successors and based on the teachings of
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Jesus as they were supplemented by the ideas of Philo and the Persian doctrines
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of good and evil.
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The ideas and ideals of Jesus, embodied in the teaching of the gospel of the
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kingdom, nearly failed of realization as his followers progressively distorted
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his pronouncements. The Master's concept of the kingdom was notably modified by
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two great tendencies:
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1. The Jewish believers persisted in regarding him as the Messiah. They
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believed that Jesus would very soon return actually to establish the world-wide
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and more or less material kingdom.
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2. The gentile Christians began very early to accept the doctrines of Paul,
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which led increasingly to the general belief that Jesus was the Redeemer of the
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children of the church, the new and institutional successor of the earlier
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concept of the purely spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom.
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The church, as a social outgrowth of the kingdom, would have been wholly
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natural and even desirable. The evil of the church was not its existence, but
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rather that it almost completely supplanted the Jesus concept of the kingdom.
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Paul's institutionalized church became a virtual substitute for the kingdom of
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heaven which Jesus had proclaimed.
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But doubt not, this same kingdom of heaven which the Master taught exists
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within the heart of the believer, will yet be proclaimed to this Christian
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church, even as to all other religions, races, and nations on earth--even to
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every individual.
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The kingdom of Jesus' teaching, the spiritual ideal of individual righteousness
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and the concept of man's divine fellowship with God, became gradually submerged
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into the mystic conception of the person of Jesus as the Redeemer-Creator and
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spiritual head of a socialized religious community. In this way a formal and
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institutional church became the substitute for the individually spirit-led
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brotherhood of the kingdom.
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The church was an inevitable and useful social result of Jesus' life and
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teachings; the tragedy consisted in the fact that this social reaction to the
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teachings of the kingdom so fully displaced the spiritual concept of the real
|
||
kingdom as Jesus taught and lived it.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1865
|
||
|
||
The kingdom, to the Jews, was the Israelite community; to the gentiles it
|
||
became the Christian church. To Jesus the kingdom was the sum of those
|
||
individuals who had confessed their faith in the fatherhood of God, thereby
|
||
declaring their wholehearted dedication to the doing of the will of God, thus
|
||
becoming members of the spiritual brotherhood of man.
|
||
|
||
The Master fully realized that certain social results would appear in the world
|
||
as a consequence of the spread of the gospel of the kingdom; but he intended
|
||
that all such desirable social manifestations should appear as unconscious and
|
||
inevitable outgrowths, or natural fruits, of this inner personal experience of
|
||
individual believers, this purely spiritual fellowship and communion with the
|
||
divine spirit which indwells and activates all such believers.
|
||
|
||
Jesus foresaw that a social organization, or church, would follow the progress
|
||
of the true spiritual kingdom, and that is why he never opposed the apostles'
|
||
practicing the rite of John's baptism. He taught that the truth-loving soul,
|
||
the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for God, is admitted by
|
||
faith to the spiritual kingdom; at the same time the apostles taught that such
|
||
a believer is admitted to the social organization of disciples by the outward
|
||
rite of baptism.
|
||
|
||
When Jesus' immediate followers recognized their partial failure to realize his
|
||
ideal of the establishment of the kingdom in the hearts of men by the spirit's
|
||
domination and guidance of the individual believer, they set about to save his
|
||
teaching from being wholly lost by substituting for the Master's ideal of the
|
||
kingdom the gradual creation of a visible social organization, the Christian
|
||
church. And when they had accomplished this program of substitution, in order
|
||
to maintain consistency and to provide for the recognition of the Master's
|
||
teaching regarding the fact of the kingdom, they proceeded to set the kingdom
|
||
off into the future. The church, just as soon as it was well established, began
|
||
to teach that the kingdom was in reality to appear at the culmination of the
|
||
Christian age, at the second coming of Christ.
|
||
|
||
In this manner the kingdom became the concept of an age, the idea of a future
|
||
visitation, and the ideal of the final redemption of the saints of the Most
|
||
High. The early Christians (and all too many of the later ones) generally lost
|
||
sight of the Father-and-son idea embodied in Jesus' teaching of the kingdom,
|
||
while they substituted therefor the well-organized social fellowship of the
|
||
church. The church thus became in the main a social brotherhood which
|
||
effectively displaced Jesus' concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood.
|
||
|
||
Jesus' ideal concept largely failed, but upon the foundation of the Master's
|
||
personal life and teachings, supplemented by the Greek and Persian concepts of
|
||
eternal life and augmented by Philo's doctrine of the temporal contrasted with
|
||
the spiritual, Paul went forth to build up one of the most progressive human
|
||
societies which has ever existed on Urantia.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1866
|
||
|
||
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 other mainly social.
|
||
|
||
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 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.
|
||
|
||
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. 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.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1867
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
|
||
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
|
||
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
|
||
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
|
||
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
|
||
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
|
||
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
|
||
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
|
||
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
|
||
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
|
||
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
|
||
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
|
||
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
|
||
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
|
||
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
|
||
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
|
||
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
|
||
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
|
||
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
|
||
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
|
||
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
|
||
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
|
||
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
|
||
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
|
||
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
|
||
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
|
||
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
|
||
Faith Of Jesus
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>Ŀ
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|
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//
|
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