Global Change Teachings for the New Millennium

Presented by Gabriel of Urantia and Niánn Emerson Chase

to members and guests of Global Community Communications Church at a World-Wide Sunday Service

(Also available in the book,Global Change Teachings for the New Millennium, Series Three)

Teaching by Niánn Emerson Chase

I have a letter I’d like to read to you. It’s to all of us.

Dear Friend:

How are you? I just had to send you this letter to tell you how much I love and care about you. I saw you yesterday as you were walking with your friends. I waited all day hoping you would talk to me also. As evening drew near I gave you a sunset to close your day and a cool breeze to rest you. And I waited. You never came. Oh yes, it hurt me, but I still love you because I am your friend. I saw you fall asleep last night, and I longed to touch your brow so I spilled moonlight upon your pillow and face. Again, I waited, wanting to rush down so we could talk. I have so many gifts for you. You awakened late and rushed off for the day. My tears were in the rain. Today you looked so sad, so alone. It makes my heart ache because I understand. My friends let me down and hurt me many times too,. but I love you. I try to tell you in the quiet green grass; I whisper it in the leaves and trees; breathe it in the colors of the flowers. I shout it to you in the mountain streams and give the birds love songs to sing. I clothe you with warm sunshine and perfume the air. My love for you is deeper than oceans and bigger than the biggest want or need you have. We will spend eternity together in heaven. I know how hard it is on this earth. I really know because I was there, and I want to help you. My Father wants to help you too. He’s that way you know. Just call me; ask me; talk to me. It’s your decision. I have chosen you, and because of this, I will wait because I love you.

Your friend,
Jesus

This letter (that has been floating around on the Internet) in all its simplicity reflects the fact that Jesus has indeed risen and He’s here with each one of us today.

In His farewell discourse in The URANTIA Book before Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified, He spoke words of encouragement to His apostles. He had much to say about the gift of His presence in the Spirit of Truth. These are some of His words from pages 1948, 1949, and 1951.

I will not leave you desolate. Today I can be with you only in person. In the times to come I will be with you and all other [persons] who desire my presence, wherever you may be, and with each of you at the same time. Do you not discern that it is better for me to go away, that I leave you in the flesh so that I may the better and the more fully be with you in the spirit? And this Spirit of Truth which I will bestow upon you shall guide and comfort you and shall eventually lead you into all truth …. I am going to send you my spirit, just like me except for this material body. This new teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts, and so will all the children of light be made one and be drawn toward one another. And in this very manner will my Father and I be able to live in the souls of each one of you and also in the hearts of all other [persons] who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now loving you…. And when my spirit comes to indwell you, he will illuminate the difference between sin and righteousness and will enable you to judge wisely in your hearts concerning them.

In Jesus’ final admonitions and warnings to His beloved apostles, He reminded them about His teachings on the continuance of life after physical death.

Life in the Father’s eternal creation is not an endless rest of idleness and selfish ease but rather a ceaseless progression in grace, truth and glory. Each of the many, many stations in my Father’s house is a stopping place, a life designed to prepare you for the next one ahead. And so will the children of light go on from glory to glory until they attain the divine estate wherein they are spiritually perfected even as the Father is perfect in all things. (ibid., 1953)

Just before His ordeal of arrest and eventual death, Jesus encouraged His apostles by clarifying how He could live on in them.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I make these gifts not as the world gives—by measure—I give each of you all you will receive. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. I have overcome the world, and in me you shall all triumph through faith. In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have triumphed in the world and shown you the way to eternal joy and everlasting service.” (ibid., 1954)

The midwayers tell us on page 1954 that, “Jesus gives peace to his fellow doers in the will of God, but not on the order of the joys and satisfactions of this material world.”

The URANTIA Book makes us aware that as the Son of Man, Jesus indeed suffered tribulation as any human being on Urantia (Earth) does. In fact, The URANTIA Book is very clear in pointing out that just before His arrest, Jesus experienced the thoughts and emotions that any human would have who was aware of the physical torture and the ridicule that He would have before His demeaning death. When Jesus was praying that night in Gethsemane, a few hours before His arrest, He said to Peter, James and John, “Cannot you see my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death, and that I crave your companionship?” Those three apostles “could not help recognizing that [Jesus] was grievously oppressed; never before had they observed their Master to be so heavy-laden and sorrowful.” (ibid., 1968) The URANTIA Book tells us on page 1969 that throughout His life, Jesus “experienced the natural ebb and flow of feeling which is common to all human experience.” During this intense time of prayer and communion with God in Gethsemane before His arrest we are told by the midwayers that,

just now, he was weary from work, exhausted from the long hours of strenuous labor and painful anxiety concerning the safety of his apostles. While no mortal can presume to understand the thoughts and feeling of the incarnate Son of God at such a time as this, we know that he endured great anguish and suffered untold sorrow, for the perspiration rolled off his face in great drops….The divine mind of Michael knew he had done his best for the twelve apostles, but the human heart of Jesus wished that more might have been done for them before they should be left alone in the world. Jesus’ heart was being crushed. He truly loved his brethren. He was isolated from his family in the flesh. One of his chosen associates was betraying him. His father Joseph’s people had rejected him and thereby sealed their doom as a people with a special mission on earth. His soul was tortured by baffled love and rejected mercy. It was just one of those awful human moments when everything seems to bear down with crushing cruelty and terrible agony.
Jesus’ humanity was not insensible to this situation of private loneliness, public shame, and the appearance of the failure of his cause. All of these sentiments bore down on him with indescribable heaviness. In this great sorrow, his mind went back to the day of his childhood in Nazareth and to his early work in Galilee. At the time of this great trial there came up in his mind many of those pleasant scenes of his earthly ministry and it was from these old memories of Nazareth, Capernaum, Mount Herman and of the sunrise and sunset on the shimmering sea of Galilee that he soothed himself as he made his human heart strong and ready to encounter the traitor who should so soon betray him.
Before Judas and the soldiers arrived the Master had fully regained his customary poise, the Spirit had triumphed over the flesh, faith had asserted itself over all human tendencies to fear or entertain doubt. The supreme test of the full realization of the human nature had been met and acceptably passed. Once more the Son of Man was prepared to face his enemies with equanimity and in the full assurance of his invincibility as a mortal man unreservedly dedicated to doing the Father’s will. (ibid., 1969–1970)

What I see in this revelation of Jesus’ mindal process before His arrest was that He was aware of what He would have to endure and He did not want to go through this terrible physical and psychological torture and die, branded as a common criminal who was a disillusioned fool. He didn’t want to do that. Jesus was accused by the media of His day of being an egomaniac. After all, He made the claim that He was the divine son, the promised Messiah, the one whom the prophets had spoken about hundreds of years before. He was considered a heretic. He did not stick to the teachings of the Hebrew scripture but went beyond them and actually dared to contradict some of those teachings. He claimed to be bringing through expanded revelation that went beyond these sacred writings of the Hebrews. How dare He do that? He even was forming a little alternative religious group with a bunch of apostles and disciples looking to Him as their leader and teacher over and above the established respected religious leaders. With all of the ridicule, condemnation and rejection of the mainstream, which included family and friends of His childhood, Jesus naturally felt down. His career and destiny seemed ruined with no hope of Him becoming a respected, loved and accepted spiritual leader, the spiritual leader of the day.

What did Jesus do about all of this? What was His process? First and foremost, He thought of someone else. He encouraged His followers, especially the apostles. He told them about the Spirit of Truth that He was giving them and that this Spirit of Truth would be even more effective than His physical presence. He encouraged them and inspired them by reminding them of His teachings, the revelation that they were mandated to carry forth and share with the world. He was feeling strong and confident during that time of encouragement. But just a couple of hours later, just a few hours before His arrest, He plummeted in emotions and thoughts and suffered that tremendous sorrow, grief and fear—the fear for His beloved apostles who He realized were so fragile and so limited in their understanding of the revelation He had given them. In this time of distress, Jesus reached out to these apostles, especially three of them, admitting that He needed their presence and love during this time. He even became frustrated with them, for they kept falling asleep on Him and not really being present for Him and His ordeal. His human mind was disappointed in them, but His divine heart and mind understood that they were only able to give to Him in a limited manner, for they were but children in their understanding and spiritual growth. He also communed with God, pouring out His heart in the presence of these apostles allowing them to see His humanness. And in that communion with God His mind shifted into a higher understanding. It shifted into the divine mind, and He rose up out of that human suffering to face the ordeal of his arrest and ensuing torture and death with great poise, dignity and love.

What is the lesson for us today from this? It’s a lesson of Easter. It’s the lesson of resurrection. We know that Jesus did literally resurrect from the dead. But before His actual physical arrest He had already resurrected from His own discouragement. What does resurrection mean? In Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary there are a few definitions. “To rise from the dead; to rise again to life of all the human dead before the final judgment; resurgence; revival; a spiritualization of thought. [Isn’t that an interesting one?] Material belief that yields to spiritual understanding.” I think we’re familiar with the ones about rising from the dead, rising again from life, and the resurrection of people before judgment, but I want to read those last two definitions again because that’s the type of resurrection that Jesus experienced in His mind before He was even arrested. “A spiritualization of thought. Material belief that yields to spiritual understanding.” Here at the First Planetary Sacred Home we are not doing that type of resurrection in the hour or two that Jesus did. It’s taking us a little longer, but we are resurrecting. We are in the process of resurrecting within our minds, and I think we all can see that; we are very aware of that in each other as well as in ourselves. So then, Jesus was literally resurrected before His arrest, for His human thoughts and feelings became spiritualized. His material mind yielded to His divine mind, and His human understanding of His dilemma rose to a spiritual understanding, and that is why that process was described in The URANTIA Book. That’s a lesson for us here today. Jesus set the example for us to follow, to rise from those ashes of deadly fear, discouragement, doubt, lack of faith, self-pity, and live again in the spiritualized mind, the morontia mind, the fourth dimensional understanding of all the tribulations that we go through. For fourth order starseed, resurrection is point-of-origin reconstruction.

Jesus rose from the material mind and body into the morontia mind and body; we too are in that process. We are ascending from a merely material consciousness into a morontia understanding of life. It’s going to take longer than it did for Jesus, but that is exactly what we’re doing. Can we do any less than Jesus, the man, did? Yes, He was perfect; He was the Creator Son; we know that, but He told His apostles that they would do even greater things than He. Now what did He mean by that? He told them that He was going to be even more present with them after His physical death, and that would enable them to do greater things than He. What does that mean to us today? It means that we apostles of this Divine New Order can reach even greater numbers of people with Jesus’ Fourth Epochal Revelation and in addition, the Fifth Epochal Revelation which encompasses The URANTIA Book and which continues to come through Gabriel of Urantia in The Cosmic Family volumes, in personal transmissions, and in community transmissions. That is the Continuing Fifth Epochal Revelation. It means that Jesus started the adjudication process, and we are with Him in finishing it. It means that He spoke of light and life, which He attained for Himself personally as the Son of Man, Jesus. Not only can we humans attain light and life personally as individuals, we can actually help bring the entire planet into that status of light and life. It means that we can actually have Jesus’ mind—the mind of Christ through His Spirit of Truth. And with that understanding, if we can continue forth through that, yes, we can do greater things than He as a man did, and that is what He has called us to do.

He called some of us to do that about two-thousand years ago, and He continues to call His apostles and disciples to do that today. With all that He has bestowed upon us, with all that we have, all those gifts, how can we fail?
Teaching by Gabriel of Urantia

The Simple Message of Jesus
I think Good Friday is actually “bad” Friday. My seven-year-old son, Amadon, said to me, “Why do they call it Good Friday? Jesus was crucified.” I said, “Well, like anything else on this world, Amadon, they get things backwards.” I went on to explain that some people believe Jesus came to die for the sins of humankind, that it’s good that He died. I said, “I could never figure that one out myself when I was your age because that’s really bad that He died. But He didn’t really die permanently; there was a resurrection. That’s Easter. It all happened within three days.”Caligastia, through his troops of the day—Caesar and company, Herod and company—gave it the best shot to destroy the message that Jesus Christ Michael came to give about His kingdom. Caligastia thought that the Messenger was dead and buried. He thought the apostles and disciples were emotionally scattered and defeated. And they were, temporarily. Through Herod, the puppet Jewish king, the proclamation went through the empire of the death of the alternative spiritual leader, Jesus of Nazareth, who was only a carpenter’s son.

“Ring out throughout the land, the alternative religious leader with a new revelation is dead and crucified.” On His cross of crucifixion, they wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The false religious leaders of the day proclaimed it through the media of the day—messengers on the fastest chariots, on the fastest horses. They proclaimed in all the towns and the cities of Caesar’s empire that the impostor king was tried justly, that they gave Him an equal representation, convicted and found guilty by the people themselves, not by those in political power, not the media, but by the people. “I wash my hands of this,” said Pontius Pilate. “The people convict Him.” Some of the loudest voices that cried out to crucify Him were the apostates that once walked with Him, that once ate with Him, who once were tickled by Him with a feather upon their nose. Some of these cried out the loudest, “Crucify Him!” And He was betrayed by one of His own apostles. “So we, the media and the powers that be who ‘protect’ you, had no choice but to crucify Him, for this is what you wanted.”

In the land that was then called the land of peace, and in Jerusalem, the city of peace, as the people ate and drank at their evening meals with their children and their families, they said to each other, “The false king was deserving of His suffering. He deserved to be whipped, beaten, and scorned. He deserved it. He deserved His death, for His message did not prosper us. It didn’t even prosper Him. We receive our food and sustenance and the good things from Caesar.” “That’s how I got my job and that’s how I’ll keep it, with Caesar. I make a hundred grand a year.” “I’m seen all over national television,” says the journalist on nightly news. “Let us toast to the ruler and king, the true king and ruler, Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!” And the people who rendered to Caesar what was Caesar’s and what was God’s cared not for the lives of the families and the children of those families who followed that so-called “egomaniac alternative-view leader” who had died on the cross with thieves and murderers who, after all, were just like Him. “Is He a liar?” “Yes!” “Is He a thief?” “Yes!” “Has He deceived you?” “Yes!” “We did not prosper from His teachings. Crucify Him! Glad He’s dead! Those followers of His are kooks and pagans. They don’t deserve even welfare or our tax money we worked hard to get.” “Well, do you know that some of them even changed their birth names? Who is that Simon? I know him. Now they call him Peter. Do you know that some of them even say that this non-traditional leader, this egomaniac, this one who says that He’s the king is going to resurrect? Ha, ha, ha, ha, give me another piece of meat! Pass the wine!”

Many people today know that Jesus did resurrect and came back from the dead. He was the ruler of not only the earth, but of all in the vast universe of Nebadon. Oh, He didn’t give all of that information at the time; His followers could hardly handle the little He did tell them. They were too busy trying to catch the fish to feed their children and deal with Caesar. Jesus didn’t want to tell them too much. He was the Fourth Epochal Revelation, not the Fifth. His main message was that there is one God, that all humans are brothers and sisters in God, and that people need to love each other and take care of each other. He was just trying to make it as simple as possible. He didn’t deal with the cosmology of the master universe. He was just saying, “My little children, love one another,” which John wrote in the first century in his gospel. It was a pretty simple message. You would think that’s very easy and that everyone would understand that one.

What is Love?How do we know when someone loves us? It’s easy to say, “I love you.” It’s very easy to say. That’s what is being said all over the Internet by “spiritual people.” It’s said in much of the literature that you read today; it’s the jargon of many religions—Christian, New Age, Islam, Buddhism—”I love you.” It’s easy to write down, easy to say. First of all, when someone really loves you, they care for you, and you know they really care for you. It’s not something that you read and talk about; it’s something that is happening to the people involved. They have to put their words into action. Action. They put their loved one/s before themselves, unselfishly and unconditionally. Action. They are willing to become fools to teach or protect their loved ones. They are willing to become fools to get the message of love across. They don’t have to stay in their uppity mindsets. They don’t have to stay in their suit and ties and be “reverends.” They are willing to take the fancy clothes and titles off and wash your car if necessary. They are willing to do whatever needs to be done to show that they love you.

I used to say to my dad when I was a kid of sixteen, “Could I have the car tonight? Could I have your car? I’ve got a really special date, and I don’t want to take my ‘54 Ford. Could I have your ‘59 Dodge?” “Sure, Son, but would you first mind taking out the rubbish and putting your stuff away that you left under the bed? Would you mind asking your mother if she needs anything from the store? Then come back and ask me again.” “Dad there’s four garbage cans full of rubbish out there. I’m all dressed up; look at me.” He says, “You should have thought of that before you got dressed up. I shouldn’t even have had to ask you to take the rubbish out. Why do I always have to ask you at this time, when you want something from me?” By the time I was twenty-one, I finally got it. By that time I had left the house, and I looked back. I was on my own trying to keep a roof over my head myself. That’s when I got it. I didn’t get it when I was spoiled, when my dad and my mom loved me lavishly. Maybe they gave me too much at times. But no matter what, I think I was raised pretty well.

Lovers listen to their beloved’s voice. If you love someone, you are going to respect them. You are going to honor them. One thing that is missing today is that very few understand what the word “honor” means. Very few live up to honor. I learned it from my father. He wasn’t the executive of a corporation. He wasn’t a Mafia leader. He was a steel worker, and he taught me honor. True lovers are willing to die for their beloved. There are other deaths besides physical death. Many men and women give up careers so that the one they love, the beloved, can pursue his or her career. That’s love, unselfish love. In this society, mostly the women give up their careers so that their husbands can seek their careers and become the main wage earner. Hopefully that man will appreciate the sacrifice of his beloved wife, complement, and never ever choose to leave that beloved complement. Unfortunately, many men do choose to be dishonorable when they get older and leave their beloved, loyal female complements and seek younger women. That’s one of the reasons why the women activists today are justifiably angry. Our society structure needs to be different—very different.

Romantic love is not just sex. It is much, much more than that, and when the sex vibes are long gone, the only thing that’s left is loving the spirit within the soul no matter what that body looks like. You can show your love to someone much, much more than just the sexual method. You can be married to someone without having sex and have a very wonderful and happy life. I’ve known couples where one was wounded or physically impaired, and they stayed with each other; there was no sex in their life, but there was love. There were no children. That which could make children was wounded in action or damaged in some other way, but the soul and spirit continued and the love continued. So if your love is based upon the parts that excite your flesh, then you’ve never come to the spirit.

Those leaders who sincerely love, devote their lives to giving uplifting and inspiring messages to their loved ones. The more honorable the leader, the more experience in living in spirit and ascension of God, the more he/she can be loved and followed. We need truly loving leaders. We need many leaders. The only way individuals are going to become leaders is if they first show other leaders the honor that is deserved them. Good leaders deserve your honor and love. The apostles and many of the first followers themselves were martyred because they chose God’s kingdom over Caesar’s. Boy, that made Caesar and company very mad because now they thought that the troublesome leader of the people was dead, and He wasn’t. Here were Jesus’ followers still preaching His message after He was crucified. Caesar and company thought, “He’s dead; He has no power; He’s not the real king. Why are you still following this false ego-maniac?” They thought they had ended it.

For many centuries, the followers of Jesus looked for the promise of His physical return, but even though He did not return, they realized the precious gift of his Spirit of Truth within them. They knew that Jesus was real. They knew that He resurrected. Even though He didn’t return physically, like He did once before when they saw Him walk among them after the crucifixion, they knew Jesus was alive because He lived in them. They knew it, and they were able to discern truth from untruth to the best of their ability as long as they made the choice for God’s kingdom. Those who continued to choose Caesar over the true kingdom of God were always Jesus’ followers’ worst enemies.

In each century when they repersonalized, the followers of the true kingdom began new renaissance’s. They were continuing the part of the Fourth Epochal Revelation that didn’t get a chance to be completed in the first century. Think about it. They continued with the Fourth Epochal Revelation that ended when Jesus was crucified, because He lived within them, teaching them the continuation of the Fourth Epochal Revelation. “I’m leaving now but I’m going to leave behind the helper that will help you all to discern the truth. Go unto all the world and teach it, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I will be with you always.”

Those of the true bride of Christ, in a way had a much more difficult time over the centuries knowing the Bridegroom, for the world of Caesar made it very difficult then to be different. The world has always made it very difficult for them to be true followers of the Spirit of God. So those who really followed were the ones who were persecuted the most throughout the history of this planet.

Although many may come in His name and say they are Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, etc., trying to identify with being religious, some are not followers of the Spirit of Truth, and some are. Even after the Fifth Epochal Revelation (The URANTIA Book) became available for the world in 1955 and The Cosmic Family, Volume I in 1993, those of the true call to come to the wedding banquet could also become confused. That’s why there are thousands upon thousands of Christians confused. Thousands upon thousands of The URANTIA Book readers are confused regarding the true call. They are confused. Why? Because they are listening to Caesar and not the Spirit of Truth that they claim to be listening to. They are not listening to the voice of the Beloved because they are deceived by the materialistic god of Babylon. Those who do attempt to follow the Universal Father and the pure teachings of Jesus seem strange and non-mainstream and are thus called “nuts,” “fruitcakes,” “heretics,” and other names not worth mentioning. That’s what most people in the materialistic mainstream want to believe and want others to believe. If we and others who challenge the ways of Caesar are right, then Caesar and everyone who has succumbed to the values of Caesar are wrong.

Those who consider themselves “religious” but have compromised with Caesar do not connect with the helper that Jesus left behind like they think they do. They have other helpers—their paychecks, their positions, their prestige, their girlfriends or boyfriends, their power over others, etc. They have other helpers, but they aren’t the helper that Jesus was talking about. Those who follow the true call to come to the wedding banquet, who choose the voice of the Bridegroom over the voice of Caesar, will have the peace that passes all understanding. A life of inner peace is attained when you are in God’s perfect will. If you think that materialism and all the things that materialism can buy is lasting, deep happiness, then you have much more living and experiences to go through.

And the war goes on. What is this war, this great controversy? Well, it’s pretty simple. This great controversy is the war between good and evil, between those who follow the true Prince of Peace and the Spirit of Truth and those who follow the spirit of Caesar and the world. The battle goes on. So many who come in His name compromise with Caesar and think that they’re good upright religious and holy people. Oh it’s nice to be in the age of innocence, you know, the age that all you want is the joy of the Lord, the prosperity of God. “Oh! I’m a king’s kid, got a Cadillac, Lincoln, BMW, Porsche, king’s kid. I deserve it all.” They get Jesus confused with E.F Hutton; they get Jesus confused with Ted Turner. They get our Lord confused with corporate executives. They equate all of that wealth and that physical stuff, materialism, with the blessings of our Lord rather than with Ted Turner or IBM or whatever it is that they work for in the system of the Caesar’s. To this day the battle continues.

Christianity today in the U.S. and other Western civilization countries wants us to be unrealistic. That’s why I can’t call myself a twentieth-century Christian. By no means can I, unless I can identify with a Christian in eastern Christianity who knows what it is and understands the suffering of humanity and the fact that we live in this kind of a world where everyone is not rich and powerful or middle class. So we have those who say loudly, “I’m His bride,” and we have those who are saying softly, “I’m His bride.” It takes a spiritized mind to discern who really is His bride because they have truly chosen Him.

How do we know who is the bride of Christ? Time will tell who the true bride is. Who are the people of the greatest love? Who are the people of the greatest fruits of His Spirit that He left behind, the Spirit of Truth? He said, “I’m leaving it behind for you, and you can eat all those fruits you want.” Only time will tell who are the ones of His greatest reflectivity. You have heard the saying on this planet that cream rises to the top. Well, our Lord’s cream will rise to the top.

Meanwhile, walk with the Beloved moment to moment each day, reaching out in love to those you encounter. Remember, sometimes love is confronting someone with the truth about error and wrongdoing, and sometimes love is pointing out the truth of right and good. Either way, love is encouraging someone to become a better person, to grow closer to the Beloved and His ways of beauty and goodness.