© 2024 Claude Flibotte
© 2024 Urantia Association of Quebec
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
Recently, in a study group, I asked this question, hoping, following the UBIS teaching method, to lead the participants to a deep personal reflection on this subject. Unfortunately, I obtained very little participation, most remaining silent, probably because the question caught them off guard.
One of the participants suggested that Jesus, who was the truth itself on earth, could only proclaim this truth to those in direct contact with him, but to extend the truth to everyone, he had to leave this world and return in spirit. In my eyes, this answer was not wrong, but it seemed to me to partially answer the question. It was also suggested that Jesus, by resuming his status as Michael of Nebadon, creator of his universe, by his return to the Father, had received additional powers allowing him to diffuse his Spirit of Truth on his creatures. Again, although I also agree with this, since Michael did indeed receive full authority over his universe following his seventh bestowal, this answer represented more a consequence of the completeness of his ministry than an explanation why he absolutely had to die to spread his spirit.
In short, after a short reflection, I had to answer my own question, in order not to leave my companions behind in this study! According to my understanding, there are three aspects to consider in order to put forward a draft answer. First, what was Michael’s real purpose in coming to accomplish his seventh and final bestowal on Urantia, second, to define the Spirit of Truth, and third, what is the function of this Spirit of Truth spread over all humanity?
¶ Michael’s goal in this last outpouring
We all remember that Michael of Nebadon had already accomplished six other bestowals in the likeness of one of his creatures before this one as a material human being. In becoming a defenseless little baby of animal nature, what dangers did this creator of a universe incur? The following quotation clearly explains the risks and the consequence.
We then not only realized that our Creator and friend was taking the most precarious step in all his career, apparently risking his position and authority on this bestowal as a helpless infant, but we also understood that his experience in this final and mortal bestowal would eternally enthrone him as the undisputed and supreme sovereign of the universe of Nebadon. (UB 119:7.4)
Each of his bestowals in the likeness of one of his creatures brought to Michael the finite and essential experience of cooperation with Paradise which was to make him sovereign of his own universe (UB 102:0.3). In completing his seven bestowals, Michael had a twofold purpose. He sought to complete his experience of understanding his own creatures required of all Creator Sons, and he aspired to represent the maximum authority of the Paradise Trinity that could be exercised in the direct and personal administration of a local universe (UB 120:0.4).
After Michael’s final and successful bestowal on Urantia he was not only accepted by the Ancients of Days as sovereign ruler of Nebadon, but he was also recognized by the Universal Father as the established director of the local universe of his own creation. (UB 119:8.1)
Another goal less often mentioned in the fact of this last effusion, and yet essential for the smooth running of the divine plan, consists in the repercussion in the Supreme.
In completing his creature bestowals, Michael was not only establishing his own sovereignty but also was augmenting the evolving sovereignty of God the Supreme. In the course of these bestowals the Creator Son not only engaged in a descending exploration of the various natures of creature personality, but he also achieved the revelation of the variously diversified wills of the Paradise Deities, whose synthetic unity, as revealed by the Supreme Creators, is revelatory of the will of the Supreme Being. (UB 119:8.3)
¶ What is the Spirit of Truth?
It is the divinity of the Creator Son joined to that of the Father through the presence of the Adjusters and distributed by the Holy Spirit of the Divine Minister of the local universe, co-ordinated and unified in the personality of every believer in this gospel throughout the evolutionary experience of each human. This threefold endowment corresponds to the ministry of the Supreme to his children in the seven superuniverses (UB 101:2.12).
This new teacher is the conviction of truth and the assurance of true meanings on truly spiritual levels. He is the spirit of living and growing truth, of truth in process of expansion, development and adaptation (UB 180:5.1) not because he is written in a book or enclosed in a doctrine, but because he lives in the mind of every spirit-motivated being whose consequences are the multiplication of the fruits of the spirit through loving and selfless service.
¶ What is the function of this Spirit of Truth spread over all humanity?
When Jesus lived on earth, he taught the people of his time a certain truth adapted to the mentality of that time, but the Spirit of Truth constantly renews this teaching to suit the tastes of the day and according to the mental and spiritual evolution of all humanity at the same time as individually according to the progress of each one (UB 194:2.1).
The first mission of this spirit is to maintain and personalize the truth through the understanding of what true religious freedom is. Its second function is to provide each individual with the feeling of being loved and not orphaned in this vast universe (UB 194:2.2).
Furthermore, as was mentioned during our study group, the Spirit of Truth serves to prepare the mind of every human being to receive a Thought Adjuster. It is in this sense that this spirit is both that of the Son and that of the Father (UB 194:2.3). This spirit helps men to remember and understand the words of Jesus, to reinterpret his life on earth, and to testify to the realities of his teachings (UB 194:2.3 and 4).
¶ So why did Jesus have to die to bless us with his Spirit of Truth?
According to the revelations of The Urantia Book and my understanding of them, I believe that Jesus had to die to extricate himself from his material fleshly envelope in order to reintegrate his status and his state of Creator Son to spread, in collaboration and by the powers of his companion the Divine Minister, this Spirit of Truth. His own declaration during the last supper with his apostles is proof of this!
. . . If I go not away, the new teacher cannot come into your hearts. I must be divested of this mortal body and be restored to my place on high before I can send this spirit teacher to live in your souls and lead your spirits into the truth. (UB 180:6.2)
Clearly, Jesus having lived the human experience in its totality, from birth to death, through a material life constantly devoted to doing the will of his Father, he is the first-hand experience by which any human mind allowing itself to be guided by this spirit will be able in its personal life and the time in which it lives, to reproduce this experience and reach this supreme maximum experiential development leading to fusion with the divinity which inhabits it.
The human experience of Jesus lived on Urantia is an experience very well adapted to our vital condition on our world. An experience comparable, but of another order, to that carried out by the Life Carriers who must adapt the development of material life to each of the planets. The Spirit of Truth will be able at all times to perfectly adapt this evolutionary experience because it is identified and personalized to our particular condition, environmental, societal, cultural and religious. We have had the chance to benefit from the immense honor of receiving our Creator Son as an effusion Son. Only one planet has this opportunity. It is unfortunate that he was treated in such an odious manner by the men of his time!
Just as the divine spirit within us passes through the human mind to disseminate its directives, so does the Spirit of Truth, for it possesses within it all the human experience of the mind of Jesus in addition to the wisdom and perfection of Michael of Nebadon. Remember that it is written that if our mind does not serve us well, we can exchange it for that of Jesus (UB 48:6.26)! This is how this spirit can guide us from our earthly life until we obtain the status of finaliter.
¶ What happens to the other planets?
As far as the other planets of the Nebadon universe are concerned, the Avonal Sons play the same role as the Creator Son. The following two quotes explain well what is happening to them!
When the mortal incarnation is finished, the Avonal of service proceeds to Paradise, is accepted by the Universal Father, returns to the local universe of assignment, and is acknowledged by the Creator Son. Thereupon the bestowal Avonal and the Creator Son send their conjoint Spirit of Truth to function in the hearts of the mortal races dwelling on the bestowal world. In the presovereignty ages of a local universe, this is the joint spirit of both Sons, implemented by the Creative Spirit. It differs somewhat from the Spirit of Truth which characterizes the local universe ages following a Michael’s seventh bestowal. (UB 20:6.8)
Upon the completion of a Creator Son’s final bestowal the Spirit of Truth previously sent into all Avonal-bestowal worlds of that local universe changes in nature, becoming more literally the spirit of the sovereign Michael. This phenomenon takes place concurrently with the liberation of the Spirit of Truth for service on the Michael-mortal-bestowal planet. Thereafter, each world honored by a Magisterial bestowal will receive the same spirit Comforter from the sevenfold Creator Son, in association with that Magisterial Son, which it would have received had the local universe Sovereign personally incarnated as its bestowal Son. (UB 20:6.9)
There you go! I hope that my words will be useful to you at this time when we have just experienced a new Easter celebration while writing these few lines!