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Why do you suppose that is?
To my knowledge there are no wise sayings about the kingdom of heaven from the 3rd Epochal – Machiventa Melchizedek. Jesus did talk to the apostles about the previous Epochals.
176:2.3 In further answer to Peter’s question, Jesus said: “Why do you still look for the Son of Man to sit upon the throne of David and expect that the material dreams of the Jews will be fulfilled? Have I not told you all these years that my kingdom is not of this world? The things which you now look down upon are coming to an end, but this will be a new beginning out of which the gospel of the kingdom will go to all the world and this salvation will spread to all peoples. And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, even as he has already bestowed upon this world him who became the prince of darkness, and then Adam, who was followed by Melchizedek, and in these days, the Son of Man. And so will my Father continue to manifest his mercy and show forth his love, even to this dark and evil world. So also will I, after my Father has invested me with all power and authority, continue to follow your fortunes and to guide in the affairs of the kingdom by the presence of my spirit, who shall shortly be poured out upon all flesh. Even though I shall thus be present with you in spirit, I also promise that I will sometime return to this world, where I have lived this life in the flesh and achieved the experience of simultaneously revealing God to man and leading man to God. Very soon must I leave you and take up the work the Father has intrusted to my hands, but be of good courage, for I will sometime return. In the meantime, my Spirit of the Truth of a universe shall comfort and guide you.Did Melchizedek teach about the kingdom of heaven?93:3.6 Melchizedek taught his followers all they had capacity to receive and assimilate. Even many modern religious ideas about heaven and earth, of man, God, and angels, are not far removed from these teachings of Melchizedek. But this great teacher subordinated everything to the doctrine of one God, a universe Deity, a heavenly Creator, a divine Father. Emphasis was placed upon this teaching for the purpose of appealing to man’s adoration and of preparing the way for the subsequent appearance of Michael as the Son of this same Universal Father..98:7.12 And this is the long story of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek on Urantia. It is nearly four thousand years since this emergency Son of Nebadon bestowed himself on Urantia, and in that time the teachings of the “priest of El Elyon, the Most High God,” have penetrated to all races and peoples. And Machiventa was successful in achieving the purpose of his unusual bestowal; when Michael made ready to appear on Urantia, the God concept was existent in the hearts of men and women, the same God concept that still flames anew in the living spiritual experience of the manifold children of the Universal Father as they live their intriguing temporal lives on the whirling planets of space.Abraham was taught the spiritual kingdom of heaven. (93:6.1) But. . .93:9.5 It was hard for the next generation to comprehend the story of Melchizedek; within five hundred years many regarded the whole narrative as a myth. Isaac held fairly well to the teachings of his father and nourished the gospel of the Salem colony, but it was harder for Jacob to grasp the significance of these traditions. Joseph was a firm believer in Melchizedek and was, largely because of this, regarded by his brothers as a dreamer. Joseph’s honor in Egypt was chiefly due to the memory of his great-grandfather Abraham. Joseph was offered military command of the Egyptian armies, but being such a firm believer in the traditions of Melchizedek and the later teachings of Abraham and Isaac, he elected to serve as a civil administrator, believing that he could thus better labor for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven.The Melchizedeks are emergency ministers. (35:4.2) (35:4.4) Machiventa “. . . taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God’s favor.” (92:4.7) His mission was to insure “. . .that the truth of the one and only God would become strongly established in the minds of his followers.” (93:8.1).My current thinking is that Jesus originated the fact of and the truth of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. And we go forward from the 4th with the 5th Epochal: an elaboration, an expansion, an illumination of the previous four Epochals.Mara wrote: My current thinking is that Jesus originated the fact of and the truth of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven.If that is true, why did John the Baptist preach about the kingdom of God? (We’re told that Jesus used the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven interchangeably.)
135:5.2-3 About one hundred years before the days of Jesus and John a new school of religious teachers arose in Palestine, the apocalyptists. These new teachers evolved a system of belief that accounted for the sufferings and humiliation of the Jews on the ground that they were paying the penalty for the nation’s sins. They fell back onto the well-known reasons assigned to explain the Babylonian and other captivities of former times. But, so taught the apocalyptists, Israel should take heart; the days of their affliction were almost over; the discipline of God’s chosen people was about finished; God’s patience with the gentile foreigners was about exhausted. The end of Roman rule was synonymous with the end of the age and, in a certain sense, with the end of the world. These new teachers leaned heavily on the predictions of Daniel, and they consistently taught that creation was about to pass into its final stage; the kingdoms of this world were about to become the kingdom of God. To the Jewish mind of that day this was the meaning of that phrase – the kingdom of heaven – which runs throughout the teachings of both John and Jesus. To the Jews of Palestine the phrase “kingdom of heaven” had but one meaning: an absolutely righteous state in which God (the Messiah) would rule the nations of earth in perfection of power just as he ruled in heaven – “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” In the days of John all Jews were expectantly asking, “How soon will the kingdom come?” There was a general feeling that the end of the rule of the gentile nations was drawing near. There was present throughout all Jewry a lively hope and a keen expectation that the consummation of the desire of the ages would occur during the lifetime of that generation.
If that is true, why did John the Baptist preach about the kingdom of God? (We’re told that Jesus used the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven interchangeably.)
Thanks for the reference. And Mel did teach Abraham about it. Joseph, son of Jacob, (Old Testament) was of Abraham’s blood. (See Genesis 37:1-11) Abraham was his great-grandfather. In Egypt Joseph was “. . . a firm believer in the traditions of Melchizedek and the later teachings of Abraham and Isaac, he elected to serve as a civil administrator, believing that he could thus better labor for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven.” (93:9.5) So precedence does exist for the teaching and I addressed it in part, though I forgot about John the Baptist.
To my mind Jesus originated it, as our Creator Son, prior to his bestowal. He imparted all he could to us and to his entire universe at the time. Not much of the material has been preserved in the written records of the past. I think more could have been preserved, but the people who decided the content of the New Testament were selective. That is a different subject. I do think the people in Jesus’ times could comprehend a measured amount, according to the capacity of spiritual receptivity. Even today people comprehend the UB material according to capacity of spiritual receptivity, among other things. Monarchies still exist on our world, as do the rule of kings. So the kingdom of heaven idea will, in my opinion, be around for a long time.
The Jews thought they were God’s kingdom. So, references to the kingdom of God in the Old Testament is about the Jewish nation, the chosen people. And when that didn’t work out like they hoped, the story became apocalyptic. I don’t think Jesus originated any of this before his bestowal. We know what the true covenant between Melchizedek and Abraham was (see quote 93:6.4 below).
Exodis 19″3-6 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fullyand keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
93:6.4 This covenant of Melchizedek with Abraham represents the great Urantian agreement between divinity and humanity whereby God agrees to do everything; man only agrees to believe God’s promises and follow his instructions. Heretofore it had been believed that salvation could be secured only by works – sacrifices and offerings; now, Melchizedek again brought to Urantia the good news that salvation, favor with God, is to be had by faith. But this gospel of simple faith in God was too advanced; the Semitic tribesmen subsequently preferred to go back to the older sacrifices and atonement for sin by the shedding of blood.
93:6.4 [. . .] Melchizedek again brought to Urantia the good news that salvation, favor with God, is to be had by faith. But this gospel of simple faith in God was too advanced; the Semitic tribesmen subsequently preferred to go back to the older sacrifices and atonement for sin by the shedding of blood.
Interesting to note that Mel’s gospel of simple faith in God, simple monotheism, was too advanced for the Semites and people slid back to blood sacrifice to atone for sin. That superstition is super-olden. Since Mel’s mission, many outstanding personalities have shed their light of truth in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of religion on our world. Moses comes to mind.
96:6.2 The spell of the extraordinary personality of Moses had kept alive in the hearts of his followers the inspiration of an increasingly enlarged concept of God; but when they once reached the fertile lands of Palestine, they quickly evolved from nomadic herders into settled and somewhat sedate farmers. And this evolution of life practices and change of religious viewpoint demanded a more or less complete change in the character of their conception of the nature of their God, Yahweh. During the times of the beginning of the transmutation of the austere, crude, exacting, and thunderous desert god of Sinai into the later appearing concept of a God of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews almost lost sight of Moses’ lofty teachings. They came near losing all concept of monotheism; they nearly lost their opportunity of becoming the people who would serve as a vital link in the spiritual evolution of Urantia, the group who would conserve the Melchizedek teaching of one God until the times of the incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all..96:5.8 While Moses presented fleeting glimpses of a universal and beneficent Deity to the children of Israel, on the whole, their day-by-day concept of Yahweh was that of a God but little better than the tribal gods of the surrounding peoples. Their concept of God was primitive, crude, and anthropomorphic; when Moses passed on, these Bedouin tribes quickly reverted to the semibarbaric ideas of their olden gods of Horeb and the desert. The enlarged and more sublime vision of God which Moses every now and then presented to his leaders was soon lost to view, while most of the people turned to the worship of their fetish golden calves, the Palestinian herdsman’s symbol of Yahweh.Didn’t our Creator Son know he would bestow himself as a mortal on the realm of Urantia 150,000 years ago? Didn’t he have complete knowledge of the all the happenings on Urantia from the beginning – all the while Urantia history was unfolding as it was then, as it is now, and as it will occur in the future? It’s nice to know he came to our world during an age of spiritual revival. . .121:1.1 Jesus did not come to this world during an age of spiritual decadence; at the time of his birth Urantia was experiencing such a revival of spiritual thinking and religious living as it had not known in all its previous post-Adamic history nor has experienced in any era since. When Michael incarnated on Urantia, the world presented the most favorable condition for the Creator Son’s bestowal that had ever previously prevailed or has since obtained. In the centuries just prior to these times Greek culture and the Greek language had spread over Occident and near Orient, and the Jews, being a Levantine race, in nature part Occidental and part Oriental, were eminently fitted to utilize such cultural and linguistic settings for the effective spread of a new religion to both East and West. These most favorable circumstances were further enhanced by the tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans.I don’t know why this posted twice. I don’t know how to get rid of the duplicate.
93:6.4 [. . .] Melchizedek again brought to Urantia the good news that salvation, favor with God, is to be had by faith. But this gospel of simple faith in God was too advanced; the Semitic tribesmen subsequently preferred to go back to the older sacrifices and atonement for sin by the shedding of blood.Interesting to note that Mel’s gospel of simple faith in God, simple monotheism, was too advanced for the Semites and people slid back to blood sacrifice to atone for sin. That superstition is super-olden. Since Mel’s mission, many outstanding personalities have shed their light of truth in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of religion on our world. Moses comes to mind.96:6.2 The spell of the extraordinary personality of Moses had kept alive in the hearts of his followers the inspiration of an increasingly enlarged concept of God; but when they once reached the fertile lands of Palestine, they quickly evolved from nomadic herders into settled and somewhat sedate farmers. And this evolution of life practices and change of religious viewpoint demanded a more or less complete change in the character of their conception of the nature of their God, Yahweh. During the times of the beginning of the transmutation of the austere, crude, exacting, and thunderous desert god of Sinai into the later appearing concept of a God of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews almost lost sight of Moses’ lofty teachings. They came near losing all concept of monotheism; they nearly lost their opportunity of becoming the people who would serve as a vital link in the spiritual evolution of Urantia, the group who would conserve the Melchizedek teaching of one God until the times of the incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all..96:5.8 While Moses presented fleeting glimpses of a universal and beneficent Deity to the children of Israel, on the whole, their day-by-day concept of Yahweh was that of a God but little better than the tribal gods of the surrounding peoples. Their concept of God was primitive, crude, and anthropomorphic; when Moses passed on, these Bedouin tribes quickly reverted to the semibarbaric ideas of their olden gods of Horeb and the desert. The enlarged and more sublime vision of God which Moses every now and then presented to his leaders was soon lost to view, while most of the people turned to the worship of their fetish golden calves, the Palestinian herdsman’s symbol of Yahweh.Didn’t our Creator Son know he would bestow himself as a mortal on the realm of Urantia 150,000 years ago? Didn’t he have complete knowledge of the all the happenings on Urantia from the beginning – all the while Urantia history was unfolding as it was then, as it is now, and as it will occur in the future? It’s nice to know he came to our world during an age of spiritual revival. . .121:1.1 Jesus did not come to this world during an age of spiritual decadence; at the time of his birth Urantia was experiencing such a revival of spiritual thinking and religious living as it had not known in all its previous post-Adamic history nor has experienced in any era since. When Michael incarnated on Urantia, the world presented the most favorable condition for the Creator Son’s bestowal that had ever previously prevailed or has since obtained. In the centuries just prior to these times Greek culture and the Greek language had spread over Occident and near Orient, and the Jews, being a Levantine race, in nature part Occidental and part Oriental, were eminently fitted to utilize such cultural and linguistic settings for the effective spread of a new religion to both East and West. These most favorable circumstances were further enhanced by the tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans.The reason the Jewish race, God’s alleged kingdom on earth, was chosen for Michael’s incarnation were multiple, but primary was the fact that the Jews were one of the “higher” mortal races containing the largest amount of Adamic stock.
21.4.3 In the final bestowal a Creator Son appears as a member of one of the higher mortal races on some inhabited world, usually as a member of that racial group which contains the largest hereditary legacy of the Adamic stock which has previously been imported to upstep the physical status of the animal-origin peoples.
Mara wrote: Didn’t our Creator Son know he would bestow himself as a mortal on the realm of Urantia 150,000 years ago? Didn’t he have complete knowledge of the all the happenings on Urantia from the beginning – all the while Urantia history was unfolding as it was then, as it is now, and as it will occur in the future?Mara wrote: My current thinking is that Jesus originated the fact of and the truth of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven.So let me get this straight Mara, you think Jesus dreamt up the idea of the kingdom of God/heaven 150,000 years ago and some how instilled it into the minds of the Jews before he came to earth so he could use it as part of his gospel. Is that right? Was it instilled into the minds of the Gentiles as well? How about the Hindus and Buddhists?
I tend to think the kingdom of God/heaven is a man-made idea adapted and utilized by Jesus. I don’t think he liked the kingdom idea very much, but did the best he could with it, waiting for mankind’s improved understanding of fatherhood and brotherhood from his revelation. It’s kind of unfortunate that Paul didn’t absorb Jesus’ teachings very well because he twisted Jesus’ brotherhood revelation into that weird thing about the Church being the body of Christ. The true church is the invisible, spiritual Jesus brotherhood, and I think the Spirit of Truth is at the heart of it, so it transcends Christendom. The Jesus brotherhood is the revealed version of the kingdom idea which began as a chosen people doctrine which was a twisted interpretation of Melchizedek’s revelation. Then the Church twisted Jesus’ revelation to mean church membership. Today folks are twisting the TUB revelation concerning brotherhood as well. Nothing’s changed.
For our modern world, the kingdom idea doesn’t resonate very well. TUB does a good job of explaining why both the multitudinous social brotherhoods and the one single spiritual brotherhood are vital. We’ve done a bang-up job forming social brotherhoods but have barely begun the idea of one spiritual brotherhood. And I guess this is why so many are screaming about TUB groups joining forces and working towards one world religion. I think they are misdirected, but understandably so. The spiritual brotherhood is supposed to be invisible, it’s spiritual! People in general have a tough time dealing with invisible stuff, since they can’t organize it, manipulate it, control it and put a human in charge of it. But it’s ok. We’ll get there.
When it comes to the spiritual brotherhood, time is not an issue. The spiritual brotherhood is already here, it’s a matter of being able to recognize it.
It’s the social brotherhood that takes time.
52:6.2 Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:
Again, most folks have trouble understanding the difference between the spiritual brotherhood and the social brotherhood. The spiritual brotherhood is here right now. The social brotherhood must evolve, like everything else.
The spiritual brotherhood is here right now. The social brotherhood must evolve, like everything else.
Yes. That’s why I hope more and more people get involved and participate. Like you said Bonita, we’ll get there.
TUB defines evolution as creativity in time. Evolution must allow for the creativity of all creatures to be expressed. Everyone is already participating on one level or another. Those who do not participate cease to exist. TUB also defines evolution as a cosmic technique of growth. Growth is unconscious, therefore evolution is unconscious.
The kingdom of heaven is simply doing the will of God. Jesus wanted to abandon the term “kingdom of God” for the more practical “will of God” message. The will of God is a living love (bringing love to life). We know that the will of God does not uniformly manifest itself in one short lifetime, we do well to simply strive to approach it. It takes time.
3:6.2 The universe is a work of creation and is therefore wholly subject to the will of the Creator. The will of God is divine truth, living love; therefore are the perfecting creations of the evolutionary universes characterized by goodness – nearness to divinity; by potential evil – remoteness from divinity.
I’m curious. How many people here think the kingdom of heaven is where everyone gets along perfectly and there is no strife?
I’m curious. How many people here think the kingdom of heaven is where everyone gets along perfectly and there is no strife?
Here on Earth? Everyone getting along perfectly is impossible. In our eternal destiny, a long way down the road, yes. Somehow if we are all to be Godlike throughout eternity then I’m sure there won’t be any strife between us.
But I wonder how long strife in human relationships will be a part of life after we continue living on the system worlds.
If I’m reading this next quote right, the “oil of reconciliation” is necessary for the entire superuniverse:
28:5.13 3. The Union of Souls. Completing the triune staff of attachment to the Perfectors of Wisdom, are these reflectors of the ideals and status of ethical relationships. Of all the problems in the universe requiring an exercise of the consummate wisdom of experience and adaptability, none are more important than those arising out of the relationships and associations of intelligent beings. Whether in human associations of commerce and trade, friendship and marriage, or in the liaisons of the angelic hosts, there continue to arise petty frictions, minor misunderstandings too trivial even to engage the attention of conciliators but sufficiently irritating and disturbing to mar the smooth working of the universe if they were allowed to multiply and continue. Therefore do the Perfectors of Wisdom make available the wise experience of their order as the “oil of reconciliation” for an entire superuniverse. In all this work these wise men of the superuniverses are ably seconded by their reflective associates, the Unions of Souls, who make available current information regarding the status of the universe and concurrently portray the Paradise ideal of the best adjustment of these perplexing problems. When not specifically directionized elsewhere, these seconaphim remain in reflective liaison with the interpreters of ethics on Paradise.
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