© 2015 Demetrio Gómez
© 2015 Urantia Association of Spain
| Appearance on the cosmic stage of matter and energy | Luz y Vida — No. 40 — June 2015 — Index | Our universe and the universe of The Urantia Book |
[Editor’s note: Due to the length of this article, what appears here is a summary. You can read the full article in the “Works” section, “fourth part”: http://urantia.es/node/49.]
In the 1st century C.E., Yahshua ben Yosef, the carpenter of Nazareth, spent part of his 28th year and all of his 29th year touring nearly the entire Mediterranean basin area of the Roman Empire. This was a fascinating period of his life. Possibly the most captivating adventure of your human experience. And for many reasons at that time, he was known as “THE SCRIBE OF DAMASCUS.”
Yeshua ben Yosef worked as a shipwright in a Capernaum shipyard with the builder, Zebedee, until March 22 C.E. he said goodbye to him to spend the Jewish Passover of that same year, in Jerusalem. During the week of Easter, apparently by chance, he met a wealthy merchant from India and his son, a young man of about 17 years of age, whose names were Gonod and Ganid. They soon became friends and Gonod asked Yahshua to accompany them, hired as a translator for his business and incidentally as a tutor for the boy.
The main reason for such a long trip was to meet people from the world directly in their own countries. He met many men and women: rich, poor, powerful, humble, slaves, religious, atheists, philosophers and many other professions. All this before the ministry of public life. [UB 129:3.8]
They left Jerusalem on Sunday morning, April 26, 22 C.E. The journey lasted 19 months and 14 days.
The young Ganid learned a lot from his tutor, since he was able to observe how he, at every opportunity that presented itself, made friends with the people he met along the way. Also his Master learned a lot about Indian civilization and culture from Gonod and Ganid.
During the stop in Joppa they made friends with a young Philistine seeker of the truth and, since the Master was a giver of the truth, one day after dinner the young Philistine, not knowing that this “scribe of Damascus” was well versed in the Hebrew culture, asked him: “Do you really believe that the great fish swallowed Jonah?” UB 130:1.2. The Master’s answer is in this very paragraph.
The young man, like many people today, wonders: why, if God, who is so infinitely good, allows evil and injustice? How can he allow us to suffer so much pain because of evil? I imagine the kind look of the Scribe when answering this question UB 130:1.5.
When our traveling friends arrived at Caesarea, they had to stay there longer than they had planned, because one of the great oars that served as the ship’s rudder was about to break, so the captain decided to replace it with a new one. Since in Caesarea there were no qualified carpenters to make such huge oars, Yahshua, who was a good carpenter, offered to help in their manufacture.
A young Greek who worked as an assistant to the Master, when he heard him say that the Father who is in heaven is interested in the welfare of his children on earth, asked him: “If the Gods are interested in me, then why Don’t they remove the cruel and unfair foreman who runs this workshop?” UB 130:2.4. The boy was very surprised by the Master’s response, which is in that same paragraph.
Ganid realized that his Master spent a lot of time in his spare time talking and interacting with the people who came his way. The young Indian decided to find out the reason for this way of acting from his tutor, and the Master replied: “Ganid, no man is a stranger to the one who knows God. In the experience of meeting the Father who is in heaven, you discover that all men are your brothers, and isn’t it normal for one to feel joy when meeting a recently discovered brother? Knowing our brothers and sisters, understanding their problems and learning to love them, is the supreme experience of life” UB 130:2.6
That afternoon they had enjoyed playing with a very intelligent sheepdog, and Ganid wanted to know if the dog had a soul. The Master told him: “The dog has a mind that can know material man, its owner, but it cannot know God, who is spirit. Thus, the dog does not possess a spiritual nature and cannot enjoy a spiritual experience… The possession of these powers of spiritual discrimination and choice of the truth is what makes mortal man a moral being, a creature endowed with the attributes of spiritual responsibility and the potential for eternal survival” UB 130:2.8
The young man had also asked the Master to explain the difference between God’s will and the human act of choosing, which is also called will. In summary, Yahshua told him: God’s will is God’s way, choosing to partner with God over any potential alternative. In fact, doing God’s will is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like Him. God is the source and destination of all that is good, beautiful, and true. Doing God’s will is the deliberate choice of a self-conscious being, leading to decision and even behavior based on intelligent reflection.
Alexandria was a huge city of a million people, with many attractive places to visit. His library was then the largest in the world, containing close to a million manuscripts bequeathed from all civilized countries. There, under the direction of his Master, Ganid made a compilation of all the religions of the world that recognized a Universal Deity, although they could also admit other subordinate deities. The Master praised Ganid on many aspects of Greek philosophy and the doctrine of the Stoics, but instilled in him the truth that these belief systems, as well as the inaccurate teachings of some of Ganid’s compatriots, were only religions in the sense that they they induced men to find God and to enjoy the living experience of knowing the Eternal.
There, the Master began a long talk about reality. In short, he said: the source of reality is the Infinite. The fake material things are the repercussion in space-time of the Paradise Archetype and of the Universal Mind of the Eternal God. Causality in the physical world, self-awareness in the intellectual world, and the progressive self in the spiritual world. These realities projected on a universal scale, combined in an eternal connection and experienced with perfect qualities and divine values. they constitute the reality of the Supreme. The highest level that finite creatures can reach is the recognition of the Universal Father and the knowledge of the Supreme.
The creature can only become one with the Creator through perfection, harmony and unanimity of will. The desire to do the will of the Father must always be supreme in the soul, and must dominate the mind of an ascending child of God. Mindless causation cannot transform the rudimentary simple into refined and complex elements; neither can experience without spirit make the material minds of mortals of time become divine characters of eternal survival.
The one attribute of the universe that is uniquely characteristic of Infinite Deity is the perpetual creative bestowal of personality, which can survive to godhood. Personality is the cosmic endowment, it is that phase of universal reality that can coexist with unlimited changes and at the same time preserve its identity indefinitely for all eternity.
Life comes into existence through the action of the Universal Mind and the activation of the spiritual spark of God which is spirit. The value of life is its capacity for progress. And its meaning is its harmonious adaptability to the universal environment. The maladaptation of self-conscious life to the universe produces cosmic disharmony. If the will of the personality definitively diverges from the tendency of the universe, it ends in intellectual isolation and segregation of the personality. The loss of the inner spiritual pilot comes with the spiritual cessation of existence.
Knowledge is the ability of the material mind to discern facts. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge can be demonstrated, but the truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth is the experience of the soul, of the self that progresses.
Error (evil) is the consequence of imperfection. The presence of evil is proof of the inaccuracies of the mind and the immaturity of the evolving self. So evil is also a measure of the imperfection with which the universe is interpreted. Error (evil) is not a real peculiarity of the universe; it is simply the observation of a relativity in relationships, between the imperfection of the incomplete finite and the ascending levels of the Supreme and the Ultimate.
The stop on the island of Crete there were only a couple of occasions that are worth remembering. One day, during the visit to Buenos Aires, an incident occurred that Ganid would never forget. A drunk was assaulting a slave girl on the public highway. When Yahshua saw the girl in trouble, he did not hesitate for a moment and pounced on the couple, pulling the young woman away while holding the drunkard tightly with his powerful outstretched arm, until the drunkard exhausted himself kicking and punching the air. Ganid wanted to help his tutor in the possible fight but Gonod prevented him. Probably Yahshua in all his human life was never so close to fighting with one of his peers as on this occasion.
The next day, the three friends went to the mountains (The White Mountains) and while walking through the hills they met a lonely, sad and despondent young man. The Damascus scribe was determined to bring the young man out of his despair and, enhancing the physical and mental qualities that the young man possessed, urged him to get up and put his mind to work to solve life’s problems, free himself from his fears and trust. in the inner spirit that would guide him to the point of being reborn in the spirit restoring his lost faith, and to quickly return to his duties and live life in the flesh as a child of God. This young man, named Fortunato, later became the leader of the Cretan Christians and a close associate of Titus in his efforts to uplift believing Cretans spiritually.
In Cyrene, Yahshua and Ganid rendered first aid to a boy named Rufus who had been injured when a loaded oxcart overturned. As for his father, Simon, he could never imagine that the man he later helped carry the cross in Jerusalem on the orders of a Roman soldier was the same foreigner who had once helped his son (Mt.27: 32;Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26)
In Carthage, the Master had a long conversation with a Mitrian priest about time and space. In a nutshell, he told her: Time is the stream of periodically flowing temporal events perceived by creature consciousness. Time is a name given to the order in which events happen, which allows us to recognize and separate them. The movement of time is only revealed in relation to something that does not move in space as a phenomenon of time. There are seven different concepts of space as it is conditioned by time. Space is measured by time and not time by space. Space is not empty and the mind is the only thing that the man who knows God can transcend, even partially. The more consciousness approaches the notion of the seven cosmic dimensions, the concept of potential space approaches ultimacy.
The first stop on the way to Italy was the island of Malta, where the scribe comforted a despondent and discouraged young man named Claudius. This boy had thought of committing suicide, but when he had finished speaking with the Damascus scribe he said:
“I am going to face life as a man; Enough of playing the coward. I’m going back to my people and start over” UB 130:8.1. Later he joined Peter in proclaiming Christianity in Rome and Naples, and after Peter’s death he went to Spain to preach the gospel. This was another of the many men who never knew that the one who had inspired him in Malta was Yahshua the carpenter of Nazareth, whom he later proclaimed as the Savior of the world.
In Syracuse he became involved with a wayward Jewish innkeeper named Ezra, who asked for his help because, although he wanted to be a good Jew, he could not find God. The Scribe answered him with a few UB 130:8.2 questions, and it was then that Ezra truly found God to the satisfaction of his soul.
Already in Naples, Yahshua and Ganid had enough time to walk around the city giving alms to many people since in those days there was a lot of poverty in the streets of Naples. Ganid was once very surprised when his Master, after giving some coins to a beggar sitting in the street, did not stop to comfort the poor man. When the Master noticed Ganid’s surprised face, he told him: “Why waste words with someone who cannot perceive the meaning of what you say?” UB 130:8.4 (implying that this man had no a normal mind.)
From Naples they proceeded to Rome by way of Capua, where they stayed for three days. From there, via the Appian Way, they continued their journey to Rome with their pack animals, all three eager to see the greatest city in the entire world of the first century C.E.
In the first century C.E. The Roman Empire included all of southern Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. Gonod and Ganid brought the greetings of the princes of India to the taciturn Emperor Tiberius. That day Tiberius was in a good mood and received them amicably. When our friends withdrew, referring to Yashua, he commented: “If I had the royal demeanor and pleasant manners of that individual, I would be a true emperor, right?” UB 132:0.1
The main reason the scribe from Damascus went to Rome was to study the people from different countries who were living in or visiting Rome. And above all, establish contact with the main religious leaders of the capital of the empire. Perhaps he foresaw that the Jews would reject his mission, but surely he foresaw that his messengers would not be long in coming to Rome to announce his message about the kingdom of heaven.
He selected five Stoic leaders, eleven from the Cynics, and sixteen from the Mystery Cult, particularly the Mithriac group. The method he used to instruct them was simply to select the truth in his teachings and then embellish and illuminate them in such a way that in a short time the truth would effectively displace the errors of their beliefs. He was able to carry out this great work of religious education because these men and women were not bound by traditions and were not victims of preconceived ideas.
There were three fundamental reasons that helped prepare the ground for the rapid spread of Christianity throughout Europe:
- The election and maintenance of Simon Peter as an apostle.
- The conversation in Jerusalem with Stephen, whose death led to attracting Saul of Tarsus.
- The preliminary preparation of these thirty Romans so that they would later direct the new religion in Rome and throughout the empire. UB 132:0.6-8
In Rome, the Damascus scribe met a certain Angamon, who was the religious leader of the Stoics. And after a long conversation, Angamon learned:
- That the model of true values must be sought in the spiritual world and in the divine levels of eternal reality.
- That unless humanity’s moral acumen and spiritual achievement increase commensurately, the unlimited progress of a purely materialistic culture can become a threat to civilization.
- That the materialistic scientist and the extreme idealist are destined to clash continually.
- That if the alleged science or the alleged religion of each age are false, then they must purify their activities or else disappear before the emergence of a new material science or spiritual religion of a more authentic and dignified order.
When Paul came to Rome, he befriended Angamon, who became one of the passionate followers of the Christian religion in Rome.
Mardus, the leader of the cynics in Rome, became very friendly with the Damascus scribe and the two had interesting conversations. One night Mardus asked the Master about good and evil. This is how the Master’s answer begins:
My brother, good and evil are merely words symbolizing relative levels of human comprehension of the observable universe. If you are ethically lazy and socially indifferent, you can take as your standard of good the current social usages. If you are spiritually indolent and morally unprogressive, you may take as your standards of good the religious practices and traditions of your contemporaries. But the soul that survives time and emerges into eternity must make a living and personal choice between good and evil as they are determined by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit which the Father in heaven has sent to dwell within the heart of man. This indwelling spirit is the standard of personality survival. (UB 132:2.2)
Nabon, high priest of the Mithriac cult of Rome, was a Jewish-Greek who talked many times with the Damascus scribe because he was not very clear about the concept of faith, because the Jews actually do not mention faith as such in the Torah, but more like a confidence. His intention was to convert the Master to Mithraism without suspecting that, in turn, the Damascus scribe was preparing him to be one of the first converts to the gospel of the kingdom.
Nabon wanted the Master’s opinion about truth and faith, and he replied UB 132:3.2-10. These truths that the Damascus scribe taught him continued to burn within the heart of the high priest Nabon, who rendered great assistance to the preachers of the Christian gospel when they arrived in Rome. The central idea of his message was that men and women were reborn again as children of God through faith and that God is a God of Love.
The Master had the same ability to teach by answering questions as by asking questions. Those who benefited the most from his teachings were the depressed, the overwhelmed, because they had the chance to unburden their souls with such a compassionate listener. He was that and much more. Yahshua had affectionate and uplifting contact during his stay in Rome with more than five hundred people. The only place in Rome that he did not visit was the public baths because of the sexual promiscuity that was practiced there.
To a forum speaker he said: «Your eloquence is pleasant, your logic is admirable, your voice is pleasant, but your teaching does not reflect the truth. If you could only enjoy the inspiring satisfaction of knowing God as your spiritual Father, then you could use your speaking ability to free your fellow men from the bondage of darkness and the bondage of ignorance" UB 132:4.7 This It was the same Mark who heard Simon Peter preach and became his successor, boldly preaching the new gospel of the kingdom after the Romans crucified Peter.
Finding himself with a poor man who had been falsely accused, the Damascus scribe escorted him before the magistrate and delivered a magnificent speech saying: “Justice makes a nation great, and the greater a nation is, the more careful it will be that it injustice does not reach even the humblest of its citizens. Woe to the nation in which only those with money and influence can obtain speedy justice from its courts! (…) Civil government is based on justice, just as true religion is based on mercy_” UB 132:4.8 The judge reconsidered the case and, after examining the evidence, acquitted the defendant.
A certain rich man, a Roman citizen and Stoic, became very interested in the teachings of the Damascus scribe, and finally asked him what he would do with wealth if he had it. This is how his answer begins: “I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations” UB 132:5.1
Near the end of their stay in Rome, they traveled to Switzerland to see the fabulous mountains of that country. It was there that Gonod asked Master Yahshua a direct question about the Buddha. The Master told him: “Your Buddha was much better than your Buddhism. Buddha was a great man, even a prophet to his people, but he was an orphan prophet; by that I mean that he early lost sight of his spiritual Father, the Father in heaven…” UB 132:7.4
After the Master’s response, Ganid exclaimed: “Teacher, let’s you and I make a new religion, one good enough for India and big enough for Rome, and maybe we can trade it to the Jews for Yahweh”. UB 132:7.6
What a scene to be contemplated by the celestial intelligences, that of this young Indian proposing to the Creator of a universe that they elaborate a new religion! Although the young man did not know it, at that time and place they were developing a new and eternal religion—a new way of salvation, God’s revelation to man through Yahshua. What the young man most wanted to do in the world, he was doing unconsciously at that moment. It was always like that and it will always be like that. What an enlightened and thoughtful human imagination, instructed and guided by the spirit, selflessly and wholeheartedly desires to be and do, becomes sensibly creative, according to the degree to which the mortal is totally devoted to divinely doing the will of the Father who is in heaven.
In the years that followed, Peter, Paul, and the other Christians who taught in Rome heard many times of this “scribe of Damascus” who had gone before them, and who had so evidently prepared the way (without realizing it… they supposed them) for his arrival with the new gospel. Paul never really guessed the identity of this “scribe from Damascus,” but shortly before his death, because of the similarity of the person’s descriptions, he concluded that the “tentmaker from Antioch” was also the Damascus scribe.
On one occasion, while preaching in Rome, Simon Peter suspected, upon hearing a description of the “scribe of Damascus”, that this scribe might have been Yahshua ben Yoshef…but he quickly dismissed the idea, knowing full well (so he believed) that the Master had never been in Rome.
And so it happens and so it should be… When man associates with God, great things can and do happen.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/
| Appearance on the cosmic stage of matter and energy | Luz y Vida — No. 40 — June 2015 — Index | Our universe and the universe of The Urantia Book |