© 2020 Pablo Morales
© 2020 Urantia Association of Spain
Christmas
First, let’s look at a few points to get some context:
¶ Problems with our Calendar:
Dionysius Exiguus did not provide for our era with a year zero
Additionally, Dionysius was wrong by about 7 years in dating the reign of Herod I the Great, so he deduced that Jesus was born in the year 753 BC from the founding of Rome when it should have been around 746 BC.
¶ Why was December 25 adopted?
Festivities of Mithraism
On December 25 (approximately coinciding with the winter solstice) the birth of Mithras was commemorated.
Pagan Festivals
According to other authors, the celebration of this festival on December 25 is due to the ancient celebration of the annual birth of the Sun-god at the winter solstice (Natalis Invicti Solis), adapted by the Catholic Church in the third century AD to allow the conversion of pagan peoples.
The Festival of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) was celebrated when daylight increased after the winter solstice, alluding to the “rebirth” of the sun.
Pope Julius I established the solemnity of Christmas on December 25 for the Western Church. He took this date because, in the Julian calendar, the winter solstice occurred on that day, and this event was celebrated by many peoples of the Northern Hemisphere as a new rebirth of the cycle of life. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_I
The beginnings of Christianity in the Roman era were difficult, with constant revolts among the population and clashes between pagans and newly converted Romans. The celebration of certain pagan festivals was also a source of social and political disputes. In order to pacify these conflicts and Christianize the festivals, Emperor Constantine the Great, with the support of Pope Julius I, decided to coincide the pagan festival of Saturnalia with the celebration of the birth of the Messiah. In this way, the birth of the Son of God, the Christ, would be celebrated on this date.
¶ The Star of Bethlehem
In the year 7 BC (-7) an unusual planetary conjunction occurred, Jupiter passed almost directly in front of Saturn, up to 3 times in a short time, in the constellation of Pisces…
www.asociacionastronomicadeespaña.es/conjunciones-planetarias.html
Today, December 21, 2020, we will have this same planetary conjunction:
Which by the way has not happened with this closeness since 1623…
¶ Taken from The Urantia Book (UB 122:8.7):
No star guided these wise men to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of the Star of Bethlehem originated in this way:
Jesus was born at noon on August 21, 7 BC
On May 29, 7 BC, there was an extraordinary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Piscis.
And it is a remarkable astronomical fact that similar conjunctions occurred
- on September 29 and
- on December 5 of the same year.
On the basis of these extraordinary, but entirely natural events, well-intentioned believers of successive generations constructed the compelling legend of the Star of Bethlehem and the adoring Three Wise Men led by the star to the manger to gaze upon and adore the newborn.
The Eastern and Near Eastern mind delights in fables, constantly inventing beautiful myths about the lives of its religious leaders and political heroes. In the absence of the printing press, when most human knowledge was transmitted orally from one generation to the next, it was very easy for myths to become traditions, and for traditions to eventually be accepted as facts.
Now, having clarified the above, let’s continue:
Universal God the Father, the First Source-Cause and Center of all things and beings, dwells together with the Original Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit on the Isle of Paradise, around which revolves Havona, a perfect and eternal Universe, the nucleus of all cosmic reality
Further out, surrounding this Central Universe, are the seven inhabited Super Universes of time and space, one of these being our Milky Way galaxy.
Continuing outwards, after crossing the centre of the galaxy (towards outer space), we find the Sagittarius star cloud, around which our Local Universe oscillates at the limits of the Milky Way.
Our astronomers consider Sagittarius to be the galactic center: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centro_galáctico
The Urantia Book (UB 15:3.5 15:3.5) : “The center of rotation of your minor sector is located far away in the enormous and dense Sagittarius star cloud, around which your local universe and its associated creations revolve, and from opposite sides of the vast Sagittarius subgalactic system you may observe two great streams of star clouds issuing forth in stupendous stellar spirals.”
A Paradise Creator-Son is created by God the Universal Father and God the Eternal Son,
These Paradise Sons are perfect and divine personalities. The Father and his Sons are one.
When God the Father and God the Son create a Creator-Son, at the same time God the Infinite Spirit creates a Creative-Spirit Daughter, the consort and associate of the Creator-Son
The Urantia Book:
…the universes of time and space are all created and organized by the Paradise corps of the Creator Sons. UB 1:2.9
“A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a Creative Spirit of the Infinite Spirit created you and your universe; and while the Father in faithfulness upholds that which they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son and this Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their work as well as to minister to the creatures of their own making.” UB 8:3.4
Thus, a Paradise couple created this enormous Local Universe, within which our young solar system had its origin almost 6 billion years ago, then the formation of our planet occurred and once the oceans reached the ideal degree of salinity about 550 million years ago, the seeding of life on Urantia occurred.
Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. The process of biological evolution on a planet is orderly and controlled. A little less than a million years ago, our Urantia world was formally recognized as a human habitation planet; one of several million planets with evolving beings in our local universe.
The Urantia Book : “The story of man’s ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. Man’s primordial ancestors were literally the slime and ooze of the ocean bed in the sluggish and warm-water bays and lagoons of the vast shore lines of the ancient inland seas, those very waters in which the Life Carriers established the three independent life implantations on Urantia.” UB 65:2.1
Some 500,000 years after the appearance of primitive man, a planetary ruler was sent along with 100 super-mortals brought from the system capital (who served as interlocutors with evolving man). The Planetary Prince exercised efficient administration for 300,000 years, at which time he tragically joined the Lucifer rebellion, plunging our planet into chaos and leading it on a stormy course.
Despite the planetary isolation as a result of the rebellion, biological evolution continued its course and when it reached its apex almost 40 thousand years ago a pair of material children were designated to come to the planet and take charge (among other important things) of the biological improvement of the races, the arrival of Adam and Eve was a very important event and there were great expectations, but they had only been in the Garden of Eden for 117 years when the deception of the rebel prince, Eve’s impatience and Adam’s errors in judgment led them to deviate from the agreed path, seeking disaster and causing the ruinous delay of the progression of planetary development.
¶ The Urantia Book (UB 51:3.9)
“Not all worlds have always been as unfortunate as Urantia, nor have the missions of the Planetary Adams been so difficult and so dangerous. When they succeed, they contribute to the development of a great people, continuing as the visible heads of planetary affairs even beyond the era when such a world is established in light and life.”
5 thousand years ago the revealed truth, the concept of God had become very nebulous in the minds of men, so Maquiventa Melquisedek after a special permission materialized as a son of urgency, appeared as an adult man in the city of Salem, in Palestine, was known in the times of Abraham as the Priest of Salem
Shortly after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Machiventa Melchizedek decided to end his emergency mission on Urantia, he was 94 years as a material being.
¶ Taken from The Urantia Book:
…The Melchizedek covenant with Abraham represents the great Urantia agreement between divinity and humanity, whereby God agrees to do everything, and man agrees to believe God’s promises and follow his instructions. UB 93:6.4
… Faith in God brings divine favor and eternal survival. UB 94:11.13
… What a mistake to dream of a remote God in the heavens when the spirit of the Universal Father lives within your mind! UB 5:2.3
A local universe encompasses 10 million inhabited (or yet to be inhabited) worlds; as part of the process of truth revelation on the evolutionary worlds, only once on each planet is a Divine Son bestowed, born as a child, and living a life like the creatures of that realm; but only one world in the entire local universe receives the bestowal of the Paradise Creator-Son, the creator and ruler of that universe.
¶ Taken from The Urantia Book (UB 76:5.7):
Misfortune, however, has not been Urantia’s only lot; although the follies and errors of the early world rulers plunged the planet into such a state of hopeless confusion, exacerbated by evil and sin, this planet has also been the most fortunate in the local universe of Nebadon, since the Creator Son selected this world as the scene upon which He would reveal the benign personality of the Father in heaven. The deplorable condition of the planet offered the Creator Son a more spectacular background against which to reveal the Paradise Father’s unparalleled love, mercy, and forbearance.
Let’s look at the events leading up to the greatest event in the history of our planet:
¶ Taken from The Urantia Book:
The Annunciation of Gabriel to Mary
One evening about sundown, before Joseph had returned home, Gabriel appeared to Mary by the side of a low stone table and, after she had recovered her composure, said: “I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and who shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and who will prepare the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall proclaim to men with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for this home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My benediction rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, and the Lord of all the earth shall overshadow you.” UB 122:3.1
Joseph’s Dream
Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among other things, said: “Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life shall become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but they will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will he reveal that they are the children of God.” After this experience Joseph never again wholly doubted Mary’s story of Gabriel’s visit and of the promise that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to the world. UB 122:4.1
The Journey to Bethlehem
“In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation. The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to “number the people,” and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.” UB 122:7.1
“There was no need for Mary to go to Bethlehem to be registered, for Joseph had authority to register his entire family, but Mary, being an energetic and adventurous woman, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone in case the child were born during Joseph’s absence, and since Bethlehem was not far from the City of Judah, Mary anticipated a possible pleasant visit with her relative Elizabeth.”
“All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near-by manger.” UB 122:8.1
“Thus was born the promised child; that is, in the same manner as all children who have come into the world before and since. And on the eighth day after his birth, in accordance with Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus).” UB 122:8.5
“On that noonday when Jesus was born, the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their directors, did indeed sing hymns of glory over the manger at Bethlehem, but these songs of glory were undetected by human ears. No shepherds or other mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until the day of the arrival of certain priests of Ur, who had been sent from Jerusalem by Zechariah.”
“These priests from Mesopotamia had been told some time ago by a strange religious teacher from their country that he had had a dream in which he was informed that the “light of life” was about to appear on earth in the form of a child, among the Jewish people. The three priests then set out in search of this “light of life.” After many weeks of fruitless searching in Jerusalem, they were about to return to Ur when they met Zechariah, who conveyed to them his belief that Jesus was the object of their search and sent them to Bethlehem, where they found the child and left offerings with Mary, his earthly mother. The child was almost three weeks old at the time of this visit.”
So, I would like to invite you to read the beautiful story of the one who chose to present himself as the Son of Man and revealed in his life the truth of his divinity as the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Paradise Creator Son during his life in the flesh:
www.urantia.org/en/el-libro-de-urantia/leer
Jesus proclaimed, “God is love” UB 92:1.5
«In the kingdom of heaven, which I have come to declare, there are no high and mighty kings; this kingdom is a divine family. UB 149:6.8
**The universally recognized and unreservedly adored center and head of this vast brotherhood of intelligent beings is my Father and your Father.
I am his Son, and you also are his children. Therefore, it is eternally true that you and I are brothers in the heavenly state, and even more so since we have become brothers of flesh in earthly life.
… Jesus … was:
- a living illustration of the fatherhood of God
and- a profound demonstration of the brotherhood of man. UB 196:1.5
¶ Jesus said:
… “Behold, I stand at the doors of men’s hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him and will feed him with the bread of life; we shall be one in spirit and purpose, and so shall we ever be brethren in the long and fruitful service of the search for the Paradise Father.” UB 166:3.7
So whether many or few will be saved depends entirely on whether many or few will accept the invitation:
“I am the door, I am the new living path, and whoever so wishes may enter to embark on the endless search for the truth of eternal life.”
https://urantia-association.org/?lang=es
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