PAPER 194
BESTOWAL OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
194:0.1
ABOUT one o'clock, as the one hundred and twenty
believers were engaged in prayer, they all became
aware of a strange presence in the room. At the same
time these disciples all became conscious of a new
and profound sense of spiritual joy, security, and
confidence. This new consciousness of spiritual
strength was immediately followed by a strong urge
to go out and publicly proclaim the gospel of the
kingdom and the good news that Jesus had risen from
the dead.
194:0.2
Peter stood up and declared that this must be the
coming of the Spirit of Truth which the Master had
promised them and proposed that they go to the
temple and begin the proclamation of the good news
committed to their hands. And they did just what
Peter suggested.
194:0.3
These men had been trained and instructed that the
gospel which they should preach was the fatherhood
of God and the sonship of man, but at just this
moment of spiritual ecstasy and personal triumph,
the best tidings, the greatest news, these men could
think of was the
fact of
the risen Master. And so they went forth, endowed
with power from on high, preaching glad tidings to
the people -- even salvation through Jesus -- but
they unintentionally stumbled into the error of
substituting some of the facts associated with the
gospel for the gospel message itself. Peter
unwittingly led off in this mistake, and others
followed after him on down to Paul, who created a
new religion out of the new version of the good
news.
194:0.4
The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact of the
fatherhood of God, coupled with the resultant truth
of the sonship-brotherhood of men. Christianity, as
it developed from that day, is: the fact of God as
the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, in association
with the experience of believer-fellowship with the
risen and glorified Christ.
194:0.5
It is not strange that these spirit-infused men
should have seized upon this opportunity to express
their feelings of triumph over the forces which had
sought to destroy their Master and end the influence
of his teachings. At such a time as this it was
easier to remember their personal association with
Jesus and to be thrilled with the assurance that the
Master still lived, that their friendship had not
ended, and that the spirit had indeed come upon them
even as he had promised.
194:0.6
These believers felt themselves suddenly translated
into another world, a new existence of joy, power,
and glory. The Master had told them the kingdom
would come with power, and some of them thought they
were beginning to discern what he meant.
194:0.7
And when all of this is taken into consideration, it
is not difficult to understand how these men came to
preach a new
gospel about Jesus in the place of their former
message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of men.
1. THE PENTECOST SERMON
194:1.1
The apostles had been in hiding for forty days. This
day happened to be the Jewish festival of Pentecost,
and thousands of visitors from all parts of the
world were in Jerusalem. Many arrived for this
feast, but a majority had tarried in the city since
the Passover. Now these frightened apostles emerged
from their weeks of seclusion to appear boldly in
the temple, where they began to preach the new
message of a risen Messiah. And all the disciples
were likewise conscious of having received some new
spiritual endowment of insight and power.
194:1.2
It was about two o'clock when Peter stood up in that
very place where his Master had last taught in this
temple, and delivered that impassioned appeal which
resulted in the winning of more than two thousand
souls. The Master had gone, but they suddenly
discovered that this story about him had great power
with the people. No wonder they were led on into the
further proclamation of that which vindicated their
former devotion to Jesus and at the same time so
constrained men to believe in him. Six of the
apostles participated in this meeting: Peter,
Andrew, James, John, Philip, and Matthew. They
talked for more than an hour and a half and
delivered messages in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, as
well as a few words in even other tongues with which
they had a speaking acquaintance.
194:1.3
The leaders of the Jews were astounded at the
boldness of the apostles, but they feared to molest
them because of the large numbers who believed their
story.
194:1.4
By half past four o'clock more than two thousand new
believers followed the apostles down to the pool of
Siloam, where Peter, Andrew, James, and John
baptized them in the Master's name. And it was dark
when they had finished with baptizing this
multitude.
194:1.5
Pentecost was the great festival of baptism, the
time for fellowshipping the proselytes of the gate,
those gentiles who desired to serve Yahweh. It was,
therefore, the more easy for large numbers of both
the Jews and believing gentiles to submit to baptism
on this day. In doing this, they were in no way
disconnecting themselves from the Jewish faith. Even
for some time after this the believers in Jesus were
a sect within Judaism. All of them, including the
apostles, were still loyal to the essential
requirements of the Jewish ceremonial system.
2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PENTECOST
194:2.1
Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which
redeemed man from the superstition that he was a
child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity
of a faith son of God. Jesus' message, as he
preached it and lived it in his day, was an
effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties
in that day of its statement. And now that he has
personally left the world, he sends in his place his
Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and,
for each new generation, to restate the Jesus
message so that every new group of mortals to appear
upon the face of the earth shall have a new and
up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal
enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be
an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied
spiritual difficulties.
194:2.2
The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to
foster and personalize truth, for it is the
comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest
form of human liberty. Next, it is the purpose of
this spirit to destroy the believer's feeling of
orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all
believers would experience a sense of loneliness had
not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men's
hearts.
194:2.3
This bestowal of the Son's spirit effectively
prepared all normal men's minds for the subsequent
universal bestowal of the Father's spirit (the
Adjuster) upon all mankind. In a certain sense, this
Spirit of Truth is the spirit of both the Universal
Father and the Creator Son.
194:2.4
Do not make the mistake of expecting to become
strongly intellectually conscious of the outpoured
Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a
consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of
Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus taught
that the spirit would not speak of himself. The
proof, therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit
of Truth is not to be found in your consciousness of
this spirit but rather in your experience of
enhanced fellowship with Michael.
194:2.5
The spirit also came to help men recall and
understand the words of the Master as well as to
illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth.
194:2.6
Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer
to witness to the realities of Jesus' teachings and
his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now
again lives it anew and afresh in the individual
believer of each passing generation of the
spirit-filled sons of God.
194:2.7
Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth comes
really to lead all believers into all truth, into
the expanding knowledge of the experience of the
living and growing spiritual consciousness of the
reality of eternal and ascending sonship with God.
194:2.8
Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man
submitted to the Father's will, not an example for
any man literally to attempt to follow. This life in
the flesh, together with his death on the cross and
subsequent resurrection, presently became a new
gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in
order to purchase man back from the clutch of the
evil one -- from the condemnation of an offended
God. Nevertheless, even though the gospel did become
greatly distorted, it remains a fact that this new
message about Jesus carried along with it many of
the fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier
gospel of the kingdom. And, sooner or later, these
concealed truths of the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually
transform the civilization of all mankind.
194:2.9
But these mistakes of the intellect in no way
interfered with the believer's great progress in
growth in spirit. In less than a month after the
bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made
more individual spiritual progress than during their
almost four years of personal and loving association
with the Master. Neither did this substitution of
the fact
of the resurrection of Jesus for the saving gospel
truth of
sonship with God in any way interfere with the rapid
spread of their teachings; on the contrary, this
overshadowing of Jesus' message by the new teachings
about his person and resurrection seemed greatly to
facilitate the preaching of the good news.
194:2.10
The term "baptism of the spirit," which came into
such general use about this time, merely signified
the conscious reception of this gift of the Spirit
of Truth and the personal acknowledgment of this new
spiritual power as an augmentation of all spiritual
influences previously experienced by God-knowing
souls.
194:2.11
Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is
subject to the teaching and guidance of a threefold
spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the
Thought Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit
of Truth; the spirit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
194:2.12
In a way, mankind is subject to the double influence
of the sevenfold appeal of the universe spirit
influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals
are subject to the progressive contact of the seven
adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe Mother
Spirit. As man progresses upward in the scale of
intelligence and spiritual perception, there
eventually come to hover over him and dwell within
him the seven higher spirit influences. And these
seven spirits of the advancing worlds are:
194:2.13
1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father --
the Thought Adjusters.
194:2.14
2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son -- the
spirit gravity of the universe of universes and the
certain channel of all spirit communion.
194:2.15
3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit -- the
universal spirit-mind of all creation, the spiritual
source of the intellectual kinship of all
progressive intelligences.
194:2.16
4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the
Creator Son -- the Spirit of Truth, generally
regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son.
194:2.17
5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the
Universe Mother Spirit -- the Holy Spirit, generally
regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit.
194:2.18
6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit --
the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the local
universe.
194:2.19
7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits --
the new-name spirit of the ascending mortals of the
realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born
soul with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after
the subsequent attainment of the divinity and
glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of
the Finality.
194:2.20
And so did the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth bring
to the world and its peoples the last of the spirit
endowment designed to aid in the ascending search
for God.
3. WHAT HAPPENED AT PENTECOST
194:3.1
Many queer and strange teachings became associated
with the early narratives of the day of Pentecost.
In subsequent times the events of this day, on which
the Spirit of Truth, the new teacher, came to dwell
with mankind, have become confused with the foolish
outbreaks of rampant emotionalism. The chief mission
of this outpoured spirit of the Father and the Son
is to teach men about the truths of the Father's
love and the Son's mercy. These are the truths of
divinity which men can comprehend more fully than
all the other divine traits of character. The Spirit
of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation
of the Father's spirit nature and the Son's moral
character. The Creator Son, in the flesh, revealed
God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart,
reveals the Creator Son to men. When man yields the
"fruits of the spirit" in his life, he is simply
showing forth the traits which the Master manifested
in his own earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he
lived his life as one personality -- Jesus of
Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of the "new
teacher," the Master has, since Pentecost, been able
to live his life anew in the experience of every
truth-taught believer.
194:3.2
Many things which happen in the course of a human
life are hard to understand, difficult to reconcile
with the idea that this is a universe in which truth
prevails and in which righteousness triumphs. It so
often appears that slander, lies, dishonesty, and
unrighteousness -- sin -- prevail. Does faith, after
all, triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does.
And the life and death of Jesus are the eternal
proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of
the spirit-led creature will always be vindicated.
They taunted Jesus on the cross, saying, "Let us see
if God will come and deliver him." It looked dark on
that day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously
bright on the resurrection morning; it was still
brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost.
The religions of pessimistic despair seek to obtain
release from the burdens of life; they crave
extinction in endless slumber and rest. These are
the religions of primitive fear and dread. The
religion of Jesus is a new gospel of faith to be
proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion
is founded on faith, hope, and love.
194:3.3
To Jesus, mortal life had dealt its hardest,
cruelest, and bitterest blows; and this man met
these ministrations of despair with faith, courage,
and the unswerving determination to do his Father's
will. Jesus met life in all its terrible reality and
mastered it -- even in death. He did not use
religion as a release from life. The religion of
Jesus does not seek to escape this life in order to
enjoy the waiting bliss of another existence. The
religion of Jesus provides the joy and peace of
another and spiritual existence to enhance and
ennoble the life which men now live in the flesh.
194:3.4
If religion is an opiate to the people, it is not
the religion of Jesus. On the cross he refused to
drink the deadening drug, and his spirit, poured out
upon all flesh, is a mighty world influence which
leads man upward and urges him onward. The spiritual
forward urge is the most powerful driving force
present in this world; the truth-learning believer
is the one progressive and aggressive soul on earth.
194:3.5
On the day of Pentecost the religion of Jesus broke
all national restrictions and racial fetters. It is
forever true, "Where the spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty." On this day the Spirit of Truth
became the personal gift from the Master to every
mortal. This spirit was bestowed for the purpose of
qualifying believers more effectively to preach the
gospel of the kingdom, but they mistook the
experience of receiving the outpoured spirit for a
part of the new gospel which they were unconsciously
formulating.
194:3.6
Do not overlook the fact that the Spirit of Truth
was bestowed upon all sincere believers; this gift
of the spirit did not come only to the apostles. The
one hundred and twenty men and women assembled in
the upper chamber all received the new teacher, as
did all the honest of heart throughout the whole
world. This new teacher was bestowed upon mankind,
and every soul received him in accordance with the
love for truth and the capacity to grasp and
comprehend spiritual realities. At last, true
religion is delivered from the custody of priests
and all sacred classes and finds its real
manifestation in the individual souls of men.
194:3.7
The religion of Jesus fosters the highest type of
human civilization in that it creates the highest
type of spiritual personality and proclaims the
sacredness of that person.
194:3.8
The coming of the Spirit of Truth on Pentecost made
possible a religion which is neither radical nor
conservative; it is neither the old nor the new; it
is to be dominated neither by the old nor the young.
The fact of Jesus' earthly life provides a fixed
point for the anchor of time, while the bestowal of
the Spirit of Truth provides for the everlasting
expansion and endless growth of the religion which
he lived and the gospel which he proclaimed. The
spirit guides into
all
truth; he is the teacher of an expanding and
always-growing religion of endless progress and
divine unfolding. This new teacher will be forever
unfolding to the truth-seeking believer that which
was so divinely folded up in the person and nature
of the Son of Man.
194:3.9
The manifestations associated with the bestowal of
the "new teacher," and the reception of the
apostles' preaching by the men of various races and
nations gathered together at Jerusalem, indicate the
universality of the religion of Jesus. The gospel of
the kingdom was to be identified with no particular
race, culture, or language. This day of Pentecost
witnessed the great effort of the spirit to liberate
the religion of Jesus from its inherited Jewish
fetters. Even after this demonstration of pouring
out the spirit upon all flesh, the apostles at first
endeavored to impose the requirements of Judaism
upon their converts. Even Paul had trouble with his
Jerusalem brethren because he refused to subject the
gentiles to these Jewish practices. No revealed
religion can spread to all the world when it makes
the serious mistake of becoming permeated with some
national culture or associated with established
racial, social, or economic practices.
194:3.10
The bestowal of the Spirit of Truth was independent
of all forms, ceremonies, sacred places, and special
behavior by those who received the fullness of its
manifestation. When the spirit came upon those
assembled in the upper chamber, they were simply
sitting there, having just been engaged in silent
prayer. The spirit was bestowed in the country as
well as in the city. It was not necessary for the
apostles to go apart to a lonely place for years of
solitary meditation in order to receive the spirit.
For all time, Pentecost disassociates the idea of
spiritual experience from the notion of especially
favorable environments.
194:3.11
Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was
designed forever to loose the religion of the Master
from all dependence upon physical force; the
teachers of this new religion are now equipped with
spiritual weapons. They are to go out to conquer the
world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good
will, and abounding love. They are equipped to
overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love,
to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith
in truth. Jesus had already taught his followers
that his religion was never passive; always were his
disciples to be active and positive in their
ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of
love. No longer did these believers look upon Yahweh
as "the Lord of Hosts." They now regarded the
eternal Deity as the "God and Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ." They made that progress, at least,
even if they did in some measure fail fully to grasp
the truth that God is also the spiritual Father of
every individual.
194:3.12
Pentecost endowed mortal man with the power to
forgive personal injuries, to keep sweet in the
midst of the gravest injustice, to remain unmoved in
the face of appalling danger, and to challenge the
evils of hate and anger by the fearless acts of love
and forbearance. Urantia has passed through the
ravages of great and destructive wars in its
history. All participants in these terrible
struggles met with defeat. There was but one victor;
there was only one who came out of these embittered
struggles with an enhanced reputation -- that was
Jesus of Nazareth and his gospel of overcoming evil
with good. The secret of a better civilization is
bound up in the Master's teachings of the
brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual
trust.
194:3.13
Up to Pentecost, religion had revealed only man
seeking for God; since Pentecost, man is still
searching for God, but there shines out over the
world the spectacle of God also seeking for man and
sending his spirit to dwell within him when he has
found him.
194:3.14
Before the teachings of Jesus which culminated in
Pentecost, women had little or no spiritual standing
in the tenets of the older religions. After
Pentecost, in the brotherhood of the kingdom woman
stood before God on an equality with man. Among the
one hundred and twenty who received this special
visitation of the spirit were many of the women
disciples, and they shared these blessings equally
with the men believers. No longer can man presume to
monopolize the ministry of religious service. The
Pharisee might go on thanking God that he was "not
born a woman, a leper, or a gentile," but among the
followers of Jesus woman has been forever set free
from all religious discriminations based on sex.
Pentecost obliterated all religious discrimination
founded on racial distinction, cultural differences,
social caste, or sex prejudice. No wonder these
believers in the new religion would cry out, "Where
the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
194:3.15
Both the mother and brother of Jesus were present
among the one hundred and twenty believers, and as
members of this common group of disciples, they also
received the outpoured spirit. They received no more
of the good gift than did their fellows. No special
gift was bestowed upon the members of Jesus' earthly
family. Pentecost marked the end of special
priesthoods and all belief in sacred families.
194:3.16
Before Pentecost the apostles had given up much for
Jesus. They had sacrificed their homes, families,
friends, worldly goods, and positions. At Pentecost
they gave themselves to God, and the Father and the
Son responded by giving themselves to man -- sending
their spirits to live within men. This experience of
losing self and finding the spirit was not one of
emotion; it was an act of intelligent self-surrender
and unreserved consecration.
194:3.17
Pentecost was the call to spiritual unity among
gospel believers. When the spirit descended on the
disciples at Jerusalem, the same thing happened in
Philadelphia, Alexandria, and at all other places
where true believers dwelt. It was literally true
that "there was but one heart and soul among the
multitude of the believers." The religion of Jesus
is the most powerful unifying influence the world
has ever known.
194:3.18
Pentecost was designed to lessen the
self-assertiveness of individuals, groups, nations,
and races. It is this spirit of self-assertiveness
which so increases in tension that it periodically
breaks loose in destructive wars. Mankind can be
unified only by the spiritual approach, and the
Spirit of Truth is a world influence which is
universal.
194:3.19
The coming of the Spirit of Truth purifies the human
heart and leads the recipient to formulate a life
purpose single to the will of God and the welfare of
men. The material spirit of selfishness has been
swallowed up in this new spiritual bestowal of
selflessness. Pentecost, then and now, signifies
that the Jesus of history has become the divine Son
of living experience. The joy of this outpoured
spirit, when it is consciously experienced in human
life, is a tonic for health, a stimulus for mind,
and an unfailing energy for the soul.
194:3.20
Prayer did not bring the spirit on the day of
Pentecost, but it did have much to do with
determining the capacity of receptivity which
characterized the individual believers. Prayer does
not move the divine heart to liberality of bestowal,
but it does so often dig out larger and deeper
channels wherein the divine bestowals may flow to
the hearts and souls of those who thus remember to
maintain unbroken communion with their Maker through
sincere prayer and true worship.
4. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
194:4.1
When Jesus was so suddenly seized by his enemies and
so quickly crucified between two thieves, his
apostles and disciples were completely demoralized.
The thought of the Master, arrested, bound,
scourged, and crucified, was too much for even the
apostles. They forgot his teachings and his
warnings. He might, indeed, have been "a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the
people," but he could hardly be the Messiah they had
hoped would restore the kingdom of Israel.
194:4.2
Then comes the resurrection, with its deliverance
from despair and the return of their faith in the
Master's divinity. Again and again they see him and
talk with him, and he takes them out on Olivet,
where he bids them farewell and tells them he is
going back to the Father. He has told them to tarry
in Jerusalem until they are endowed with power --
until the Spirit of Truth shall come. And on the day
of Pentecost this new teacher comes, and they go out
at once to preach their gospel with new power. They
are the bold and courageous followers of a living
Lord, not a dead and defeated leader. The Master
lives in the hearts of these evangelists; God is not
a doctrine in their minds; he has become a living
presence in their souls.
194:4.3
"Day by day they continued steadfastly and with one
accord in the temple and breaking bread at home.
They took their food with gladness and singleness of
heart, praising God and having favor with all the
people. They were all filled with the spirit, and
they spoke the word of God with boldness. And the
multitudes of those who believed were of one heart
and soul; and not one of them said that aught of the
things which he possessed was his own, and they had
all things in common."
194:4.4
What has happened to these men whom Jesus had
ordained to go forth preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man? They have a new gospel; they are on fire
with a new experience; they are filled with a new
spiritual energy. Their message has suddenly shifted
to the proclamation of the risen Christ: "Jesus of
Nazareth, a man God approved by mighty works and
wonders; him, being delivered up by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you did crucify
and slay. The things which God foreshadowed by the
mouth of all the prophets, he thus fulfilled. This
Jesus did God raise up. God has made him both Lord
and Christ. Being, by the right hand of God, exalted
and having received from the Father the promise of
the spirit, he has poured forth this which you see
and hear. Repent, that your sins may be blotted out;
that the Father may send the Christ, who has been
appointed for you, even Jesus, whom the heaven must
receive until the times of the restoration of all
things."
194:4.5
The gospel of the kingdom, the message of Jesus, had
been suddenly changed into the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They now proclaimed the facts of his
life, death, and resurrection and preached the hope
of his speedy return to this world to finish the
work he began. Thus the message of the early
believers had to do with preaching about the facts
of his first coming and with teaching the hope of
his second coming, an event which they deemed to be
very near at hand.
194:4.6
Christ was about to become the creed of the rapidly
forming church. Jesus lives; he died for men; he
gave the spirit; he is coming again. Jesus filled
all their thoughts and determined all their new
concept of God and everything else. They were too
much enthused over the new doctrine that "God is the
Father of the Lord Jesus" to be concerned with the
old message that "God is the loving Father of all
men," even of every single individual. True, a
marvelous manifestation of brotherly love and
unexampled good will did spring up in these early
communities of believers. But it was a fellowship of
believers in Jesus, not a fellowship of brothers in
the family kingdom of the Father in heaven. Their
good will arose from the love born of the concept of
Jesus' bestowal and not from the recognition of the
brotherhood of mortal man. Nevertheless, they were
filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique
lives that all men were attracted to their teachings
about Jesus. They made the great mistake of using
the living and illustrative commentary on the gospel
of the kingdom for that gospel, but even that
represented the greatest religion mankind had ever
known.
194:4.7
Unmistakably, a new fellowship was arising in the
world. "The multitude who believed continued
steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in
prayers." They called each other brother and sister;
they greeted one another with a holy kiss; they
ministered to the poor. It was a fellowship of
living as well as of worship. They were not communal
by decree but by the desire to share their goods
with their fellow believers. They confidently
expected that Jesus would return to complete the
establishment of the Father's kingdom during their
generation. This spontaneous sharing of earthly
possessions was not a direct feature of Jesus'
teaching; it came about because these men and women
so sincerely and so confidently believed that he was
to return any day to finish his work and to
consummate the kingdom. But the final results of
this well-meant experiment in thoughtless brotherly
love were disastrous and sorrow-breeding. Thousands
of earnest believers sold their property and
disposed of all their capital goods and other
productive assets. With the passing of time, the
dwindling resources of Christian "equal-sharing"
came to an
end -- but the world did not. Very soon the
believers at Antioch were taking up a collection to
keep their fellow believers at Jerusalem from
starving.
194:4.8
In these days they celebrated the Lord's Supper
after the manner of its establishment; that is, they
assembled for a social meal of good fellowship and
partook of the sacrament at the end of the meal.
194:4.9
At first they baptized in the name of Jesus; it was
almost twenty years before they began to baptize in
"the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit." Baptism was all that was required for
admission into the fellowship of believers. They had
no organization as yet; it was simply the Jesus
brotherhood.
194:4.10
This Jesus sect was growing rapidly, and once more
the Sadducees took notice of them. The Pharisees
were little bothered about the situation, seeing
that none of the teachings in any way interfered
with the observance of the Jewish laws. But the
Sadducees began to put the leaders of the Jesus sect
in jail until they were prevailed upon to accept the
counsel of one of the leading rabbis, Gamaliel, who
advised them: "Refrain from these men and let them
alone, for if this counsel or this work is of men,
it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will
not be able to overthrow them, lest haply you be
found even to be fighting against God." They decided
to follow Gamaliel's counsel, and there ensued a
time of peace and quiet in Jerusalem, during which
the new gospel about Jesus spread rapidly.
194:4.11
And so all went well in Jerusalem until the time of
the coming of the Greeks in large numbers from
Alexandria. Two of the pupils of Rodan arrived in
Jerusalem and made many converts from among the
Hellenists. Among their early converts were Stephen
and Barnabas. These able Greeks did not so much have
the Jewish viewpoint, and they did not so well
conform to the Jewish mode of worship and other
ceremonial practices. And it was the doings of these
Greek believers that terminated the peaceful
relations between the Jesus brotherhood and the
Pharisees and Sadducees. Stephen and his Greek
associate began to preach more as Jesus taught, and
this brought them into immediate conflict with the
Jewish rulers. In one of Stephen's public sermons,
when he reached the objectionable part of the
discourse, they dispensed with all formalities of
trial and proceeded to stone him to death on the
spot.
194:4.12
Stephen, the leader of the Greek colony of Jesus'
believers in Jerusalem, thus became the first martyr
to the new faith and the specific cause for the
formal organization of the early Christian church.
This new crisis was met by the recognition that
believers could not longer go on as a sect within
the Jewish faith. They all agreed that they must
separate themselves from unbelievers; and within one
month from the death of Stephen the church at
Jerusalem had been organized under the leadership of
Peter, and James the brother of Jesus had been
installed as its titular head.
194:4.13
And then broke out the new and relentless
persecutions by the Jews, so that the active
teachers of the new religion about Jesus, which
subsequently at Antioch was called Christianity,
went forth to the ends of the empire proclaiming
Jesus. In carrying this message, before the time of
Paul the leadership was in Greek hands; and these
first missionaries, as also the later ones, followed
the path of Alexander's march of former days, going
by way of Gaza and Tyre to Antioch and then over
Asia Minor to Macedonia, then on to Rome and to the
uttermost parts of the empire.
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