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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 119
THE BESTOWALS OF CHRIST MICHAEL
119:0.1
CHIEF of the Evening Stars of Nebadon, I am assigned to
Urantia by Gabriel on the mission of revealing the story
of the seven bestowals of the Universe Sovereign,
Michael of Nebadon, and my name is Gavalia. In making
this presentation, I will adhere strictly to the
limitations imposed by my commission.
119:0.2
The attribute of bestowal is inherent in the Paradise
Sons of the Universal Father. In their desire to come
close to the life experiences of their subordinate
living creatures, the various orders of the Paradise
Sons are reflecting the divine nature of their Paradise
parents. The Eternal Son of the Paradise Trinity led the
way in this practice, having seven times bestowed
himself upon the seven circuits of Havona during the
times of the ascension of Grandfanda and the first of
the pilgrims from time and space. And the Eternal Son
continues to bestow himself upon the local universes of
space in the persons of his representatives, the Michael
and Avonal Sons.
119:0.3
When the Eternal Son bestows a Creator Son upon a
projected local universe, that Creator Son assumes full
responsibility for the completion, control, and
composure of that new universe, including the solemn
oath to the eternal Trinity not to assume full
sovereignty of the new creation until his seven creature
bestowals shall have been successfully completed and
certified by the Ancients of Days of the superuniverse
of jurisdiction. This obligation is assumed by every
Michael Son who volunteers to go out from Paradise to
engage in universe organization and creation.
119:0.4
The purpose of these creature incarnations is to enable
such Creators to become wise, sympathetic, just, and
understanding sovereigns. These divine Sons are innately
just, but they become understandingly merciful as a
result of these successive bestowal experiences; they
are naturally merciful, but these experiences make them
merciful in new and additional ways. These bestowals are
the last steps in their education and training for the
sublime tasks of ruling the local universes in divine
righteousness and by just judgment.
119:0.5
Though numerous incidental benefits accrue to the
various worlds, systems, and constellations, as well as
to the different orders of universe intelligences
affected and benefited by these bestowals, still they
are primarily designed to complete the personal training
and universe education of a Creator Son himself. These
bestowals are not essential to the wise, just, and
efficient management of a local universe, but they are
absolutely necessary to a fair, merciful, and
understanding administration of such a creation, teeming
with its varied forms of life and its myriads of
intelligent but imperfect creatures.
119:0.6
The Michael Sons begin their work of universe
organization with a full and just sympathy for the
various orders of beings whom they have created. They
have vast stores of mercy for all these differing
creatures, even pity for those who err and flounder in
the selfish mire of their own production. But such
endowments of justice and righteousness will not suffice
in the estimate of the Ancients of Days. These triune
rulers of the superuniverses will never certify a
Creator Son as Universe Sovereign until he has really
acquired the viewpoint of his own creatures by actual
experience in the environment of their existence and as
these very creatures themselves. In this way such Sons
become intelligent and understanding rulers; they come
to know the
various groups over which they rule and exercise
universe authority. By living experience they possess
themselves of practical mercy, fair judgment, and the
patience born of experiential creature existence.
119:0.7
The local universe of Nebadon is now ruled by a Creator
Son who has completed his service of bestowal; he reigns
in just and merciful supremacy over all the vast realms
of his evolving and perfecting universe. Michael of
Nebadon is the 611,121st bestowal of the Eternal Son
upon the universes of time and space, and he began the
organization of your local universe about four hundred
billion years ago. Michael made ready for his first
bestowal adventure about the time Urantia was taking on
its present form, one billion years ago. His bestowals
have occurred about one hundred and fifty million years
apart, the last taking place on Urantia nineteen hundred
years ago. I will now proceed to unfold the nature and
character of these bestowals as fully as my commission
permits.
1. THE FIRST BESTOWAL
119:1.1
It was a solemn occasion on Salvington almost one
billion years ago when the assembled directors and
chiefs of the universe of Nebadon heard Michael announce
that his elder brother, Immanuel, would presently assume
authority in Nebadon while he (Michael) would be absent
on an unexplained mission. No other announcement was
made about this transaction except that the farewell
broadcast to the Constellation Fathers, among other
instructions, said: "And for this period I place you
under the care and keeping of Immanuel while I go to do
the bidding of my Paradise Father."
119:1.2
After sending this farewell broadcast, Michael appeared
on the dispatching field of Salvington, just as on many
previous occasions when preparing for departure to
Uversa or Paradise except that he came alone. He
concluded his statement of departure with these words:
"I leave you but for a short season. Many of you, I
know, would go with me, but whither I go you cannot
come. That which I am about to do, you cannot do. I go
to do the will of the Paradise Deities, and when I have
finished my mission and have acquired this experience, I
will return to my place among you." And having thus
spoken, Michael of Nebadon vanished from the sight of
all those assembled and did not reappear for twenty
years of standard time. In all Salvington, only the
Divine Minister and Immanuel knew what was taking place,
and the Union of Days shared his secret only with the
chief executive of the universe, Gabriel, the Bright and
Morning Star.
119:1.3
All the inhabitants of Salvington and those dwelling on
the constellation and system headquarters worlds
assembled about their respective receiving stations for
universe intelligence, hoping to get some word of the
mission and whereabouts of the Creator Son. Not until
the third day after Michael's departure was any message
of possible significance received. On this day a
communication was registered on Salvington from the
Melchizedek sphere, the headquarters of that order in
Nebadon, which simply recorded this extraordinary and
never-before-heard-of transaction: "At noon today there
appeared on the receiving field of this world a strange
Melchizedek Son, not of our number but wholly like our
order. He was accompanied by a solitary omniaphim who
bore credentials from Uversa and presented orders
addressed to our chief, derived from the Ancients of
Days and concurred in by Immanuel of Salvington,
directing that this new Melchizedek Son be received into
our order and assigned to the emergency service of the
Melchizedeks of Nebadon. And it has been so ordered; it
has been done."
119:1.4
And this is about all that appears on the records of
Salvington regarding the first Michael bestowal. Nothing
more appears until after one hundred years of Urantia
time, when there was recorded the fact of Michael's
return and unannounced resumption of the direction of
universe affairs. But a strange record is to be found on
the Melchizedek world, a recital of the service of this
unique Melchizedek Son of the emergency corps of that
age. This record is preserved in a simple temple which
now occupies the foreground of the home of the Father
Melchizedek, and it comprises the narration of the
service of this transitory Melchizedek Son in connection
with his assignment to twenty-four missions of universe
emergency. And this record, which I have so recently
reviewed, ends thus:
119:1.5
"And at noon on this day, without previous announcement
and witnessed by only three of our brotherhood, this
visiting Son of our order disappeared from our world as
he came, accompanied only by a solitary omniaphim; and
this record is now closed with the certification that
this visitor lived as a Melchizedek, in the likeness of
a Melchizedek he worked as a Melchizedek, and he
faithfully performed all of his assignments as an
emergency Son of our order. By universal consent he has
become chief of Melchizedeks, having earned our love and
adoration by his matchless wisdom, supreme love, and
superb devotion to duty. He loved us, understood us, and
served with us, and forever we are his loyal and devoted
fellow Melchizedeks, for this stranger on our world has
now eternally become a universe minister of Melchizedek
nature."
119:1.6
And that is all I am permitted to tell you of the first
bestowal of Michael. We, of course, fully understand
that this strange Melchizedek who so mysteriously served
with the Melchizedeks a billion years ago was none other
than the incarnated Michael on the mission of his first
bestowal. The records do not specifically state that
this unique and efficient Melchizedek was Michael, but
it is universally believed that he was. Probably the
actual statement of that fact cannot be found outside of
the records of Sonarington, and the records of that
secret world are not open to us. Only on this sacred
world of the divine Sons are the mysteries of
incarnation and bestowal fully known. We all know of the
facts of the Michael bestowals, but we do not understand
how they are effected. We do not know how the ruler of a
universe, the creator of the Melchizedeks, can so
suddenly and mysteriously become one of their number
and, as one of them, live among them and work as a
Melchizedek Son for one hundred years. But it so
happened.
2. THE SECOND BESTOWAL
119:2.1
For almost one hundred and fifty million years after the
Melchizedek bestowal of Michael, all went well in the
universe of Nebadon, when trouble began to brew in
system 11 of constellation 37. This trouble involved a
misunderstanding by a Lanonandek Son, a System
Sovereign, which had been adjudicated by the
Constellation Fathers and approved by the Faithful of
Days, the Paradise counselor to that constellation, but
the protesting System Sovereign was not fully reconciled
to the verdict. After more than one hundred years of
dissatisfaction he led his associates in one of the most
widespread and disastrous rebellions against the
sovereignty of the Creator Son ever instigated in the
universe of Nebadon, a rebellion long since adjudicated
and ended by the action of the Ancients of Days on
Uversa.
119:2.2
This rebel System Sovereign, Lutentia, reigned supreme
on his headquarters planet for more than twenty years of
standard Nebadon time; whereupon, the Most Highs, with
approval from Uversa, ordered his segregation and
requisitioned the Salvington rulers for the designation
of a new System Sovereign to assume direction of that
strife-torn and confused system of inhabited worlds.
119:2.3
Simultaneously with the reception of this request on
Salvington, Michael initiated the second of those
extraordinary proclamations of intention to be absent
from the universe headquarters for the purpose of "doing
the bidding of my Paradise Father," promising to "return
in due season" and concentrating all authority in the
hands of his Paradise brother, Immanuel, the Union of
Days.
119:2.4
And then, by the same technique observed at the time of
his departure in connection with the Melchizedek
bestowal, Michael again took leave of his headquarters
sphere. Three days after this unexplained leave-taking
there appeared among the reserve corps of the primary
Lanonandek Sons of Nebadon, a new and unknown member.
This new Son appeared at noon, unannounced and
accompanied by a lone tertiaphim who bore credentials
from the Uversa Ancients of Days, certified by Immanuel
of Salvington, directing that this new Son be assigned
to system 11 of constellation 37 as the successor of the
deposed Lutentia and with full authority as acting
System Sovereign pending the appointment of a new
sovereign.
119:2.5
For more than seventeen years of universe time this
strange and unknown temporary ruler administered the
affairs and wisely adjudicated the difficulties of this
confused and demoralized local system. No System
Sovereign was ever more ardently loved or more
widespreadly honored and respected. In justice and mercy
this new ruler set the turbulent system in order while
he painstakingly ministered to all his subjects, even
offering his rebellious predecessor the privilege of
sharing the system throne of authority if he would only
apologize to Immanuel for his indiscretions. But
Lutentia spurned these overtures of mercy, well knowing
that this new and strange System Sovereign was none
other than Michael, the very universe ruler whom he had
so recently defied. But millions of his misguided and
deluded followers accepted the forgiveness of this new
ruler, known in that age as the Savior Sovereign of the
system of Palonia.
119:2.6
And then came that eventful day on which there arrived
the newly appointed System Sovereign, designated by the
universe authorities as the permanent successor of the
deposed Lutentia, and all Palonia mourned the departure
of the most noble and the most benign system ruler that
Nebadon had ever known. He was beloved by all the system
and adored by his fellows of all groups of the
Lanonandek Sons. His departure was not unceremonious; a
great celebration was arranged when he left the system
headquarters. Even his erring predecessor sent this
message: "Just and righteous are you in all your ways.
While I continue in rejection of the Paradise rule, I am
compelled to confess that you are a just and merciful
administrator."
119:2.7
And then did this transient ruler of a rebellious system
take leave of the planet of his short administrative
sojourn, while on the third day thereafter Michael
appeared on Salvington and resumed the direction of the
universe of Nebadon. There soon followed the third
Uversa proclamation of the advancing jurisdiction of the
sovereignty and authority of Michael. The first
proclamation was made at the time of his arrival in
Nebadon, the second was issued soon after the completion
of the Melchizedek bestowal, and now the third follows
upon the termination of the second or Lanonandek
mission.
3. THE THIRD BESTOWAL
119:3.1
The supreme council on Salvington had just finished the
consideration of the call of the Life Carriers on planet
217 in system 87 in constellation 61 for the dispatch to
their assistance of a Material Son. Now this planet was
situated in a system of inhabited worlds where another
System Sovereign had gone astray, the second such
rebellion in all Nebadon up to that time.
119:3.2
Upon the request of Michael, action on the petition of
the Life Carriers of this planet was deferred pending
its consideration by Immanuel and his report thereon.
This was an irregular procedure, and I well remember how
we all anticipated something unusual, and we were not
long held in suspense. Michael proceeded to place
universe direction in the hands of Immanuel, while he
intrusted command of the celestial forces to Gabriel,
and having thus disposed of his administrative
responsibilities, he took leave of the Universe Mother
Spirit and vanished from the dispatching field of
Salvington precisely as he had done on two previous
occasions.
119:3.3
And, as might have been expected, on the third day
thereafter there appeared, unannounced, on the
headquarters world of system 87 in constellation 61, a
strange Material Son, accompanied by a lone seconaphim,
accredited by the Uversa Ancients of Days, and certified
by Immanuel of Salvington. Immediately the acting System
Sovereign appointed this new and mysterious Material Son
acting Planetary Prince of world 217, and this
designation was at once confirmed by the Most Highs of
constellation 61.
119:3.4
Thus did this unique Material Son begin his difficult
career on a quarantined world of secession and
rebellion, located in a beleaguered system without any
direct communication with the outside universe, working
alone for one whole generation of planetary time. This
emergency Material Son effected the repentance and
reclamation of the defaulting Planetary Prince and his
entire staff and witnessed the restoration of the planet
to the loyal service of the Paradise rule as established
in the local universes. In due time a Material Son and
Daughter arrived on this rejuvenated and redeemed world,
and when they had been duly installed as visible
planetary rulers, the transitory or emergency Planetary
Prince took formal leave, disappearing at noon one day.
On the third day thereafter, Michael appeared in his
accustomed place on Salvington, and very soon the
superuniverse broadcasts carried the fourth proclamation
of the Ancients of Days announcing the further
advancement of the sovereignty of Michael in Nebadon.
119:3.5
I regret that I do not have permission to narrate the
patience, fortitude, and skill with which this Material
Son met the trying situations on this confused planet.
The reclamation of this isolated world is one of the
most beautifully touching chapters in the annals of
salvation throughout Nebadon. By the end of this mission
it had become evident to all Nebadon as to why their
beloved ruler chose to engage in these repeated
bestowals in the likeness of some subordinate order of
intelligent being.
119:3.6
The bestowals of Michael as a Melchizedek Son, then as a
Lanonandek Son, and next as a Material Son are all
equally mysterious and beyond explanation. In each
instance he appeared
suddenly and
as a fully developed individual of the bestowal group.
The mystery of such incarnations will never be known
except to those who have access to the inner circle of
the records on the sacred sphere of Sonarington.
119:3.7
Never, since this marvelous bestowal as the Planetary
Prince of a world in isolation and rebellion, have any
of the Material Sons or Daughters in Nebadon been
tempted to complain of their assignments or to find
fault with the difficulties of their planetary missions.
For all time the Material Sons know that in the Creator
Son of the universe they have an understanding sovereign
and a sympathetic friend, one who has in "all points
been tried and tested," even as they must also be tried
and tested.
119:3.8
Each of these missions was followed by an age of
increasing service and loyalty among all celestial
intelligences of universe origin, while each succeeding
bestowal age was characterized by advancement and
improvement in all methods of universe administration
and in all techniques of government. Since this bestowal
no Material Son or Daughter has ever knowingly joined in
rebellion against Michael; they love and honor him too
devotedly ever consciously to reject him. Only through
deception and sophistry have the Adams of recent times
been led astray by higher types of rebel personalities.
4. THE FOURTH BESTOWAL
119:4.1
It was at the end of one of the periodic millennial roll
calls of Uversa that Michael proceeded to place the
government of Nebadon in the hands of Immanuel and
Gabriel; and, of course, recalling what had happened in
times past following such action, we all prepared to
witness Michael's disappearance on his fourth mission of
bestowal, and we were not long kept waiting, for he
shortly went out upon the Salvington dispatching field
and was lost to our view.
119:4.2
On the third day after this bestowal disappearance we
observed, in the universe broadcasts to Uversa, this
significant news item from the seraphic headquarters of
Nebadon: "Reporting the unannounced arrival of an
unknown seraphim, accompanied by a solitary supernaphim
and Gabriel of Salvington. This unregistered seraphim
qualifies as of the Nebadon order and bears credentials
from the Uversa Ancients of Days, certified by Immanuel
of Salvington. This seraphim tests out as belonging to
the supreme order of the angels of a local universe and
has already been assigned to the corps of the teaching
counselors."
119:4.3
Michael was absent from Salvington during this, the
seraphic bestowal, for a period of over forty standard
universe years. During this time he was attached as a
seraphic teaching counselor, what you might denominate a
private secretary, to twenty-six different master
teachers, functioning on twenty-two different worlds.
His last or terminal assignment was as counselor and
helper attached to a bestowal mission of a Trinity
Teacher Son on world 462 in system 84 of constellation 3
in the universe of Nebadon.
119:4.4
Never, throughout the seven years of this assignment,
was this Trinity Teacher Son wholly persuaded as to the
identity of his seraphic associate. True, all seraphim
during that age were regarded with peculiar interest and
scrutiny. Full well we all knew that our beloved
Sovereign was abroad in the universe, disguised as a
seraphim, but never could we be certain of his identity.
Never was he positively identified until the time of his
attachment to the bestowal mission of this Trinity
Teacher Son. But always throughout this era were the
supreme seraphim regarded with special solicitude, lest
any of us should find that we had unawares been host to
the Sovereign of the universe on a mission of creature
bestowal. And so it has become forever true, concerning
angels, that their Creator and Ruler has been "in all
points tried and tested in the likeness of seraphic
personality."
119:4.5
As these successive bestowals partook increasingly of
the nature of the lower forms of universe life, Gabriel
became more and more an associate of these incarnation
adventures, functioning as the universe liaison between
the bestowed Michael and the acting universe ruler,
Immanuel.
119:4.6
Now has Michael passed through the bestowal experience
of three orders of his created universe Sons: the
Melchizedeks, the Lanonandeks, and the Material Sons.
Next he condescends to personalize in the likeness of
angelic life as a supreme seraphim before turning his
attention to the various phases of the ascending careers
of his lowest form of will creatures, the evolutionary
mortals of time and space.
5. THE FIFTH BESTOWAL
119:5.1
A little over three hundred million years ago, as time
is reckoned on Urantia, we witnessed another of those
transfers of universe authority to Immanuel and observed
the preparations of Michael for departure. This occasion
was different from the previous ones in that he
announced that his destination was Uversa, headquarters
of the superuniverse of Orvonton. In due time our
Sovereign departed, but the broadcasts of the
superuniverse never made mention of Michael's arrival at
the courts of the Ancients of Days. Shortly after his
departure from Salvington there did appear in the Uversa
broadcasts this significant statement: "There arrived
today an unannounced and unnumbered ascendant pilgrim of
mortal origin from the universe of Nebadon, certified by
Immanuel of Salvington and accompanied by Gabriel of
Nebadon. This unidentified being presents the status of
a true spirit and has been received into our
fellowship."
119:5.2
If you should visit Uversa today, you would hear the
recounting of the days when Eventod sojourned there,
this particular and unknown pilgrim of time and space
being known on Uversa by that name. And this ascending
mortal, at least a superb personality in the exact
likeness of the spirit stage of the ascending mortals,
lived and functioned on Uversa for a period of eleven
years of Orvonton standard time. This being received the
assignments and performed the duties of a spirit mortal
in common with his fellows from the various local
universes of Orvonton. In "all points he was tested and
tried, even as his fellows," and on all occasions he
proved worthy of the confidence and trust of his
superiors, while he unfailingly commanded the respect
and loyal admiration of his fellow spirits.
119:5.3
On Salvington we followed the career of this spirit
pilgrim with consummate interest, knowing full well, by
the presence of Gabriel, that this unassuming and
unnumbered pilgrim spirit was none other than the
bestowed ruler of our local universe. This first
appearance of Michael incarnated in the role of one
stage of mortal evolution was an event which thrilled
and enthralled all Nebadon. We had heard of such things
but now we beheld them. He appeared on Uversa as a fully
developed and perfectly trained spirit mortal and, as
such, continued his career up to the occasion of the
advancement of a group of ascending mortals to Havona;
whereupon he held converse with the Ancients of Days and
immediately, in the company of Gabriel, took sudden and
unceremonious leave of Uversa, appearing shortly
thereafter in his accustomed place on Salvington.
119:5.4
Not until the completion of this bestowal did it finally
dawn upon us that Michael was probably going to
incarnate in the likeness of his various orders of
universe personalities, from the highest Melchizedeks
right on down to the mortals of flesh and blood on the
evolutionary worlds of time and space. About this time
the Melchizedek colleges began to teach the probability
of Michael's sometime incarnating as a mortal of the
flesh, and there occurred much speculation as to the
possible technique of such an inexplicable bestowal.
That Michael had in person performed in the role of an
ascending mortal lent new and added interest to the
whole scheme of creature progression all the way up
through both the local universe and the superuniverse.
119:5.5
Still, the technique of these successive bestowals
remained a mystery. Even Gabriel confesses that he does
not comprehend the method whereby this Paradise Son and
universe Creator could, at will, assume the personality
and live the life of one of his own subordinate
creatures.
6. THE SIXTH BESTOWAL
119:6.1
Now that all Salvington was familiar with the
preliminaries of an impending bestowal, Michael called
the sojourners on the headquarters planet together and,
for the first time, unfolded the remainder of the
incarnation plan, announcing that he was soon to leave
Salvington for the purpose of assuming the career of a
morontia mortal at the courts of the Most High Fathers
on the headquarters planet of the fifth constellation.
And then we heard for the first time the announcement
that his seventh and final bestowal would be made on
some evolutionary world in the likeness of mortal flesh.
119:6.2
Before leaving Salvington for the sixth bestowal,
Michael addressed the assembled inhabitants of the
sphere and departed in full view of everyone,
accompanied by a lone seraphim and the Bright and
Morning Star of Nebadon. While the direction of the
universe had again been intrusted to Immanuel, there was
a wider distribution of administrative responsibilities.
119:6.3
Michael appeared on the headquarters of constellation
five as a full-fledged morontia mortal of ascending
status. I regret that I am forbidden to reveal the
details of this unnumbered morontia mortal's career, for
it was one of the most extraordinary and amazing epochs
in Michael's bestowal experience, not even excepting his
dramatic and tragic sojourn on Urantia. But among the
many restrictions imposed upon me in accepting this
commission is one which forbids my undertaking to unfold
the details of this wonderful career of Michael as the
morontia mortal of Endantum.
119:6.4
When Michael returned from this morontia bestowal, it
was apparent to all of us that our Creator had become a
fellow creature, that the Universe Sovereign was also
the friend and sympathetic helper of even the lowest
form of created intelligence in his realms. We had noted
this progressive acquirement of the creature's viewpoint
in universe administration before this, for it had been
gradually appearing, but it became more apparent after
the completion of the morontia mortal bestowal, even
still more so after his return from the career of the
carpenter's son on Urantia.
119:6.5
We were informed in advance by Gabriel of the time of
Michael's release from the morontia bestowal, and
accordingly we arranged a suitable reception on
Salvington. Millions upon millions of beings were
assembled from the constellation headquarters worlds of
Nebadon, and a majority of the sojourners on the worlds
adjacent to Salvington were gathered together to welcome
him back to the rulership of his universe. In response
to our many addresses of welcome and expressions of
appreciation of a Sovereign so vitally interested in his
creatures, he only replied: "I have simply been about my
Father's business. I am only doing the pleasure of the
Paradise Sons who love and crave to understand their
creatures."
119:6.6
But from that day down to the hour when Michael embarked
upon his Urantia adventure as the Son of Man, all
Nebadon continued to discuss the many exploits of their
Sovereign Ruler as he functioned on Endantum as the
bestowal incarnation of a morontia mortal of
evolutionary ascension, being in all points tested like
his fellows assembled from the material worlds of the
entire constellation of his sojourn.
7. THE SEVENTH AND FINAL BESTOWAL
119:7.1
For tens of thousands of years we all looked forward to
the seventh and final bestowal of Michael. Gabriel had
taught us that this terminal bestowal would be made in
the likeness of mortal flesh, but we were wholly
ignorant of the time, place, and manner of this
culminating adventure.
119:7.2
The public announcement that Michael had selected
Urantia as the theater for his final bestowal was made
shortly after we learned about the default of Adam and
Eve. And thus, for more than thirty-five thousand years,
your world occupied a very conspicuous place in the
councils of the entire universe. There was no secrecy
(aside from the incarnation mystery) connected with any
step in the Urantia bestowal. From first to last, up to
the final and triumphant return of Michael to Salvington
as supreme Universe Sovereign, there was the fullest
universe publicity of all that transpired on your small
but highly honored world.
119:7.3
While we believed that this would be the method, we
never knew, until the time of the event itself, that
Michael would appear on earth as a helpless infant of
the realm. Theretofore had he always appeared as a fully
developed individual of the personality group of the
bestowal selection, and it was a thrilling announcement
which was broadcast from Salvington telling that the
babe of Bethlehem had been born on Urantia.
119:7.4
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. For a
third of a century of earth time all eyes in all parts
of this local universe were focused on Urantia. All
intelligences realized that the last bestowal was in
progress, and as we had long known of the Lucifer
rebellion in Satania and of the Caligastia disaffection
on Urantia, we well understood the intensity of the
struggle which would ensue when our ruler condescended
to incarnate on Urantia in the humble form and likeness
of mortal flesh.
119:7.5
Joshua ben Joseph, the Jewish baby, was conceived and
was born into the world just as all other babies before
and since except
that this particular baby was the incarnation of Michael
of Nebadon, a divine Son of Paradise and the creator of
all this local universe of things and beings. And this
mystery of the incarnation of Deity within the human
form of Jesus, otherwise of natural origin on the world,
will forever remain unsolved. Even in eternity you will
never know the technique and method of the incarnation
of the Creator in the form and likeness of his
creatures. That is the secret of Sonarington, and such
mysteries are the exclusive possession of those divine
Sons who have passed through the bestowal experience.
119:7.6
Certain wise men of earth knew of Michael's impending
arrival. Through the contacts of one world with another,
these wise men of spiritual insight learned of the
forthcoming bestowal of Michael on Urantia. And the
seraphim did, through the midway creatures, make
announcement to a group of Chaldean priests whose leader
was Ardnon. These men of God visited the newborn child
in the manger. The only supernatural event associated
with the birth of Jesus was this announcement to Ardnon
and his associates by the seraphim of former attachment
to Adam and Eve in the first garden.
119:7.7
Jesus' human parents were average people of their day
and generation, and this incarnated Son of God was thus
born of woman and was reared in the ordinary manner of
the children of that race and age.
119:7.8
The story of Michael's sojourn on Urantia, the narrative
of the mortal bestowal of the Creator Son on your world,
is a matter beyond the scope and purpose of this
narrative.
8. MICHAEL'S POSTBESTOWAL STATUS
119:8.1
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. Upon his return
to Salvington this Michael, the Son of Man and the Son
of God, was proclaimed the settled ruler of Nebadon.
From Uversa came the eighth proclamation of Michael's
sovereignty, while from Paradise came the joint
pronouncement of the Universal Father and the Eternal
Son constituting this union of God and man sole head of
the universe and directing the Union of Days stationed
on Salvington to signify his intention of withdrawing to
Paradise. The Faithfuls of Days on the constellation
headquarters were also instructed to retire from the
councils of the Most Highs. But Michael would not
consent to the withdrawal of the Trinity Sons of counsel
and co-operation. He assembled them on Salvington and
personally requested them forever to remain on duty in
Nebadon. They signified their desire to comply with this
request to their directors on Paradise, and shortly
thereafter there were issued those mandates of Paradise
divorcement which forever attached these Sons of the
central universe to the court of Michael of Nebadon.
119:8.2
It required almost one billion years of Urantia time to
complete the bestowal career of Michael and to effect
the final establishment of his supreme authority in the
universe of his own creation. Michael was born a
creator, educated an administrator, trained an
executive, but he was required to earn his sovereignty
by experience. And thus has your little world become
known throughout all Nebadon as the arena wherein
Michael completed the experience which is required of
every Paradise Creator Son before he is given unlimited
control and direction of the universe of his own making.
As you ascend the local universe, you will learn more
about the ideals of the personalities concerned in
Michael's previous bestowals.
119:8.3
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.
119:8.4
These various will aspects of the Deities are eternally
personalized in the differing natures of the Seven
Master Spirits, and each of Michael's bestowals was
peculiarly revelatory of one of these divinity
manifestations. On his Melchizedek bestowal he
manifested the united will of the Father, Son, and
Spirit, on his Lanonandek bestowal the will of the
Father and the Son; on the Adamic bestowal he revealed
the will of the Father and the Spirit, on the seraphic
bestowal the will of the Son and the Spirit; on the
Uversa mortal bestowal he portrayed the will of the
Conjoint Actor, on the morontia mortal bestowal the will
of the Eternal Son; and on the Urantia material bestowal
he lived the will of the Universal Father, even as a
mortal of flesh and blood.
119:8.5
The completion of these seven bestowals resulted in the
liberation of Michael's supreme sovereignty and also in
the creation of the possibility for the sovereignty of
the Supreme in Nebadon. On none of Michael's bestowals
did he reveal God the Supreme, but the sum total of all
seven bestowals is a new Nebadon revelation of the
Supreme Being.
119:8.6
In the experience of descending from God to man, Michael
was concomitantly experiencing the ascent from
partiality of manifestability to supremacy of finite
action and finality of the liberation of his potential
for absonite function. Michael, a Creator Son, is a
time-space creator, but Michael, a sevenfold Master Son,
is a member of one of the divine corps constituting the
Trinity Ultimate.
119:8.7
In passing through the experience of revealing the Seven
Master Spirit wills of the Trinity, the Creator Son has
passed through the experience of revealing the will of
the Supreme. In functioning as a revelator of the will
of Supremacy, Michael, together with all other Master
Sons, has identified himself eternally with the Supreme.
In this universe age he reveals the Supreme and
participates in the actualization of the sovereignty of
Supremacy. But in the next universe age we believe he
will be collaborating with the Supreme Being in the
first experiential Trinity for and in the universes of
outer space.
119:8.8
Urantia is the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon, the
chief of ten million inhabited worlds, the mortal home
of Christ Michael, sovereign of all Nebadon, a
Melchizedek minister to the realms, a system savior, an
Adamic redeemer, a seraphic fellow, an associate of
ascending spirits, a morontia progressor, a Son of Man
in the likeness of mortal flesh, and the Planetary
Prince of Urantia. And your record tells the truth when
it says that this same Jesus has promised sometime to
return to the world of his terminal bestowal, the World
of the Cross.
119:8.9
This paper, depicting the seven bestowals of Christ
Michael, is the sixty-third of a series of
presentations, sponsored by numerous personalities,
narrating the history of Urantia down to the time of
Michael's appearance on earth in the likeness of mortal
flesh. These papers were authorized by a Nebadon
commission of twelve acting under the direction of
Mantutia Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and
put them in the English language, by a technique
authorized by our superiors, in the year A.D. 1935 of
Urantia time.
*
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