Urantia Book 122. The Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua bin Joseph, Yeshua, Christ Michael, Sovereign God of Nebadon. The Ascension was rather anticlimactic. At 7:30 on May 18, Jesus and the eleven were half-way up Mt. Olivet on the western slope. The apostles were silent and bewildered. Jesus prepared to say his final words to them before leaving them. They sat in a circle around him. He said: “I am now about to take leave of you; I am about to ascend to my Father, and soon, very soon will we send into this world the Spirit of Truth; and when he has come, you will begin the new proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, first in Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the world. Love men as I have loved you and serve your fellow mortals as I have served you. By the spirit fruits of your lives impel souls to believe the truth that man is a son of God, and that all are brothers and sisters. My love overshadows you, my spirit will dwell with you, and my peace will abide upon you. Farewell….He vanished, and it was no different from the times he appeared and vanished during the 40 days during which he appeared 19 times….Jesus then went to Edentia, the HQ of the Constellation Norlatiadek, where the Most Highs released him from the morontia state and returned him to the status of Paradise Sonship and supreme sovereignty on Salvington, the universe HQ. Meanwhile, Peter gave the order to gather everyone at the Marks’ house. 120 of the important disciples gathered to hear about the Ascension. Among them was Mary, the mother of Jesus. James, the brother of Jesus, was also present at this meeting, which was the first meeting held after Jesus’ termination of his earthly career. Mathias was chosen by straw vote to replace Judas, but he never was very active in the apostolic community. Soon after Pentecost, the twins returned to their homes in Galilee. Simon Zelotes was in retirement for a long time before he went out to teach the gospel. Thomas worried for a shorter period and then went out to teach. Nathaniel differed with Peter about teaching the kingdom of heaven. He wanted to teach as Jesus taught: the kingdom of heaven, the love of God and the brotherhood of man. The disagreement became so acute that Nathaniel left for Philadelphia, staying there for a year and later going east to Mesopotamia. That left 6 apostles to carry out the plans of the Master: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip and Matthew………….. As the believers were praying for spiritual strength to accept the Spirit, they began to feel a peculiar presence in the room. Then they became conscious of a feeling of spiritual joy, security and confidence. This new consciousness of spiritual strength was immediately followed by a strong urge to go out and publicly proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good news that Jesus was risen from the dead. Peter stood up and declared that this must be the Spirit of Truth which the Master had promised them and proposed that they go to the temple and begin the proclamation of the Good News committed to their hands. And that’s what they did. Now, these men had been trained to preach about the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, son of God, brotherhood of man, love of God for all people; the kingdom of heaven is within, that meme. But, the apostles and disciples, in a crazed condition, couldn’t think of anything but Jesus. “And so they went forth, endowed by power from on high, preaching glad tidings to the people–even salvation through Jesus–but they unintentionally stumbled into the error of substituting some of the facts associated with the gospel for the gospel message itself. Peter unwittingly led off in this mistake, and others after him on down to Paul, who created a whole new religion out of the new version of the good news” (194.0.3)