Urantia Book 42. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua ben Joseph, Christ Michael, Sovereign God of the Universe of Nebadon. At Ramah Jesus encountered a Greek philosopher who taught that science and philosophy were sufficient to meet the needs of human experience. Jesus listened patiently to the old philosopher’s ideas. When he was finished, Jesus said: “Where you leave off, we begin. Religion is a revelation to the human soul dealing with spiritualities which the mind alone could never discover or fully fathom. Intellectual striving may reveal the facts of life, but the gospel of the kingdom unfolds the truths of being.” For more than an hour, Jesus taught the Greek the truths of the kingdom of heaven, and since the old philosopher was susceptible to Jesus’ mode of approach and open-minded, he became a believer in the gospel of salvation (146.3.1).********************** On the second evening at Ramah, Thomas asked Jesus an important question: “Master, how can a new believer in your teaching really know, really be certain, about the truth of this gospel of the kingdom?” And Jesus answered Thomas: “Your assurance that you have entered into the kingdom family of the Father, and that you will eternally survive with the children of the kingdom, is wholly a matter of personal experience–faith in the word of truth. Spiritual assurance is the equivalent of your personal religious experience in the eternal realities of divine truth and is otherwise equal to your intelligent understanding of truth realities plus your spiritual faith and minus your honest doubts. A practical way of determining the degree to which you ceded control of your soul to the Father is in the degree of your love for other people. The Spirit of Truth will be poured out on you after I return to my Father, and it will lead you. Since the old Jewish teachings were confusing on the survival of the righteous, the apostles were greatly cheered by these blessed words (146.3.3-8). Jesus started pairing John’s apostles with his own apostles. Andrew and Abner were paired, etc. They both preached and went door to door, healing the sick and comforting the downcast. ****************************** The next town of note was Iron. Jesus worked at mining while he taught the miners. He also took the morning sermon at the synagogue. This was before Jesus was banned from all preaching in all synagogues in Judea. At Iron Jesus performed his first intentional miracle. He cured a man of leprosy and told the man to tell no one. But the man told everyone he saw, and Jesus was overwhelmed by sick and disabled people clamoring for a cure. So Jesus moved out of town and taught the miners from another location. They did not win many souls for the kingdom there or at their next town, Madan. It was the apostles’ opinion that they weren’t winning souls because Jesus wouldn’t heal people or let them refer to him as a healer. The apostles thought that he should manifest his power and heal people.*************** They went to Cana and were doing quite well in reaping souls when a nobleman from Capernaum hastened toward them saying his son was critically ill. When the nobleman importuned Jesus to heal his son, Jesus said: “How long shall I bear with you?” But the man was not to be deterred: “My Lord, I believe, but come before my child perishes!” Jesus bowed his head in thought, and then told the man to go home, his son would live. Titus, the nobleman, determined that his son was cured at the exact time that Jesus said he would live. It was not a miracle, however; it was more like a sixth sense on Jesus’ part. Titus and his whole household entered the kingdom. But Jesus and company fled town and headed for Nain (146.5.1-3).********************** On their way to Nain, Jesus and the apostles were followed by people with nervous disorders who thought that Jesus had cured them with miracles. Of course, this wasn’t the case, because they had psychosomatic disorders. Also those following were looking for signs and wonders. Jesus and the apostles couldn’t get rid of them. And they were met by a funeral procession near Nain. The mother of the dead boy recognized Jesus and besought him to bring her son back to life. Jesus put aside the covering of the bier and looked at the boy, discovering that he was not really dead. He told the mother: “Weep not; your son is not dead; he sleeps. He will be restored to you.” And Jesus took the boy by the hand and told him to wake up. He did and Jesus sent them home. Jesus tried to explain to the crowd that the boy wasn’t really dead, but they weren’t buying it. The crowd and the townspeople were aroused to the highest peak of emotional frenzy. Fear or panic seized some, while others fell into prayer and wailing over their sins. They had seen a miracle! Jesus was too modest! The news traveled fast and far, and people who heard it, believed it. Even the apostles had a hard time understanding why it was not a miracle. It was suppressed, and only Luke recorded it in his Gospel, and he made it seem like the episode was related or told to him. And again Jesus was so importuned to be a physician instead of a Messiah that he left early the next morning for Endor (146.6.1-4).************************************** At Endor Jesus “went in quest of physical healing.” I sense that he is experiencing a lot of stress due to his ambivalence about healing people. I wish the UB had given more information on this juicy item. They didn’t do much, if any, religious work in Endor. Jesus told the apostles about King Saul and the witch of Endor. He also told them about the rebellious midwayers who had impersonated the spirits of the dead and that they would be brought under control. Again he told his apostles that after the Spirit of Truth was poured out, unclean spirits could no longer possess the feeble and evil-minded mortals. (And I ask again why we still have this phenomenon.) Jesus also told his followers that the spirits of departed humans do not come back and visit their relatives. After this stop, they went to Capernaum for a few days’ rest.********* Jesus and the apostles arrived in Capernaum on Wednesday, March 17, and spent two weeks at the headquarters before going to Jerusalem. During this time Jesus and the Zebedee twins made two secret trips to Tiberius, where they met with believers and instructed them in the kingdom. These believers were relatives or in the household of Herod, and they had explained to him that the “kingdom” Jesus proclaimed was spiritual in nature, not political. So Herod was tolerant of Jesus. But the real danger to Jesus was the Jerusalem religious leaders, who had an irrational hostility toward him.