Urantia Book 33. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua ben Joseph, Christ Michael, Sovereign God of Nebadon. Sunday evening Jesus and the Apostles reached the Zebedee home in Capernaum. Jesus went for a walk and the 12 talked among themselves. Andrew went to find Jesus and told him that the Apostles needed more instruction from Jesus because they did not understand his finer points. Jesus entered the garden, where they had a fire going, and said: “You find it difficult to receive my message because you would build the new teaching directly upon the old, but I declare that you must be reborn. You must start out afresh as little children and be willing to trust my teaching and believe in God.” He told them the mistakes they were making: they were trying to conform the new gospel to the present circumstances; they have wrong ideas about the Son of Man and his mission; and they believe Jesus came to abolish the law and the prophets. They don’t seem to get it that Jesus came to fulfill, enlarge and illuminate, not to transgress the law, but to write the new commandments on the hearts of every human being. Jesus demanded an extra righteousness of his Apostles that consists in love, mercy and truth–the sincere desire to do the will of their Father in heaven. This section of the life of Jesus has the hard sayings in it. For example, Moses allowed divorce, but Jesus said: “every man who looks upon a woman with intent to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (140.6.5). James Zebedee interrupted Jesus and asked what to teach regarding divorce. Jesus answered: “I have not come to legislate but to enlighten. I have not come to reform the kingdoms of this world but rather to establish the kingdom of heaven…I am on earth solely to comfort the minds, liberate the spirits and save the souls of men”(146.6.6). According to Jesus there are two viewpoints of all mortal conduct: the human and the divine; the way of the flesh and the way of the spirit; time and eternity. The Apostles didn’t understand what Jesus meant by this analysis. Whenever Jesus became intellectual, he lost the Apostles. Nathaniel wanted to know if “an eye for an eye” still applied as a form of justice. Jesus replied: “You shall return good for evil…Measure for measure shall not be your rule…mercy always shall determine your judgments and love your conduct” (140.6.9). The Apostles were dismayed at these hard rulings, so Jesus told them they could back out or return to the less rigorous path of discipleship. They drew apart and talked among themselves. They then told Jesus they wanted to remain attached to him as Apostles. But Jesus had still more instructions. They were to hide their good works, like almsgiving. They were to pray in private, not like the Pharisees, who shout their prayers to be noticed. Don’t pray in vain, repetitious phrases. If they fast, they aren’t to do it with a gloomy expression. And last, they were not to save money or other valuable objects. They were to continue living in common. They weren’t to be anxious about where their next meal was coming from, or about what to wear. Once they were in the kingdom, all things would be added to them. Don’t be anxious for tomorrow; tomorrow has troubles of its own.******* The following week the Apostles weren’t ready to go out on the road preaching, so the group stayed at the Zebedee house and let the curious come to them. They preached and went fishing, and it was a very relaxing week. The Apostles were grateful for the “charmingly beautiful life (Jesus) lived with them.”***************** Jesus knew of course that his followers were confused by his teachings. He decided to take Peter, James and John out on the Sea for a 4-hour teaching conference. He hoped that these three would be able to clarify his teachings for the rest of the Apostles. These Apostles stubbornly persisted in attaching the new spiritual teachings onto their old and entrenched literal concepts of the kingdom of heaven as a restoration of David’s throne and the re-establishment of Israel as a temporal power on earth. (It is now a temporal power, and some say this is a sign of the end times. But people get carried away with Bible codes and prophecies. Jesus will come when he comes–maybe when everyone is a Christian. But getting to that point will be full of threats and dangers. In fact we see it in the world today. The Patriot Act turned the US into a police state. China is trying to force other countries to adopt 5G. Then there are chemtrails, which drop nanotech bots into our bodies. I’ve heard that physicians can remove that from the body. I could go on and on, but I already covered threats in my previous blog.)**** Simon Peter explained the teaching to Andrew the next morning: First, Peter covered “doing the Father’s will.” Jesus had no problem with forethought; what he preached against was anxiety or worry. He also discussed the personal practice of non-resistance. Jesus made a distinction between what was allowed the state and what was allowed the individual. The individual could not get revenge for an injury, but the state could act to maintain social order. Jesus told them not to defend themselves and not to resist evil. But he did not teach passive tolerance of wrongdoing. The government could punish criminals and must sometimes use force in the execution of justice. Jesus drilled the 3 men in the boat about the evil practice of revenge.****************** The next area Peter relayed to Andrew was “political attitude.” Jesus forbade his Apostles from becoming embroiled in the Zealot cause or any other revolutionary movement which tried to throw off Roman rule. They were not to say anything to stimulate Jews to react emotionally about Roman rule. Jesus himself refused to have his attention diverted from his mission of bringing the kingdom to the people. And no generation is exempt from the labor of discovering how best to adapt Jesus’ life to its own problems. (140.8.1-10). ****************** Next, Peter said Jesus taught them about “social attitudes.” Jesus was not a sociologist, but he sought to break down all form of selfish isolation. His justice was always tempered with mercy. The keynote of our universe of Nebadon and our superuniverse of Orvonton is mercy, so we are very fortunate, because actual courts exist on Uversa, the capital of Orvonton. Lucifer and Satan were tried there, and they no longer exist. To continue, Jesus made it clear that indiscriminate kindness has caused many social evils (like Big Government?). He told Judas that no alms were to be given out unless he permitted it.*************** Jesus also taught on “economic attitudes.”Jesus did not teach against wealth and property, only against their unjust distribution. He didn’t tell his followers to avoid earthly possessions, only his Apostles. Jesus warned his listeners against covetousness, saying that more possessions don’t bring happiness. He constantly said: “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?”************ The last subject Peter related to Andrew was “personal religion.” Jesus did not attack the prophets of the Jews or the moralists of the Greeks. He taught something additional: the voluntary conformity of man’s will to God’s will. Jesus wasn’t interested in producing a merely religious man. The kind of man produced and the image of Jesus have both been perverted by institutional Christianity. Jesus had a “superb self-respect” and that’s what he wanted for his new man (woman?). Instead, he got monks who denied themselves everything and even flagellated themselves. The heart of his religion was a compassionate character joined to a desire to do the will of the Father. Peter grasped that the gospel they were about to proclaim was really a fresh beginning for the whole human race. Jesus wanted each soul to develop in its own way, a perfecting and separate individual before God. And he made no provision for the examination of sins. Confession would be invented much later.