Is Satan a Reality or a Myth? Was there a War in Heaven? Who is Michael Referred in the Bible?

In the Bible, there are two books which keep intriguing Christian scholars for quite some time due to the immense scope they provide for speculations. 

The first one is the Book of Daniel which is part of the Old Testament Bible and the second one is the Book of Revelations, which is part of the New Testament and also the last book of the Bible.

Do Christians Really Follow Jesus?

[Picture Courtsey: Sunil Mathew]

Both these books contain some shrouded revelations about some mysteries, some events and some personalities about which the readers can only speculate. Let me quote some of those statements that are relevant in this context:

The first one is from Chapter-10 of the Book of Daniel. In verse 12 of this chapter, it is written like this:

Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael,one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

Chapter-12 of the Book of Daniel  begins like this:

“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.  Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.  Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.  But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

Now let me take your attention to Chapter-12 of the last book of Bible, the Book of Revelation: In verses-7 to 9 we read like this:

Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Carefully reading this much, we can safely deduce a few things as given below:

1. Bible does not elaborate much about the personality named Michael, except that he is introduced as one of the Chief Princes and he has angels under his command. This implies that Michael was not a human being, but an invisible celestial personality.

2. There is another Prince who is referred as the prince of the Persian kingdom who was preventing the narrator for nearly 21 days from reaching Daniel (if you read preceding narrations in the book of Daniel carefully, you could perhaps realize that it was an angelic revelator who was explaining certain mysteries to Daniel in his vision). The angelic narrator tells Daniel that it was the the Chief Prince, Michael who helped him to overcome the resistance of the prince of Persia. Obviously, the personality referred here as the Prince of Persia is not a human being, but an invisible celestial personality and he too was a kind of prince or a ruler. But the personality referred as Michael was one of the Chief Princes and powers greater than the former.  

3. For some reasons, the angelic prince of Persia and the celestial Chief Prince, Michael were not in agreement to each other.

4. There was some kind of a war in the celestial world or heavens. The war was between the dragon or Satan and his angels and Michael and his angels.

5. The Satanic group was not any match to the powers of the Michael's group and thus, the outcome of the heavenly war that happened long ago was not in favor of the former. Consequently, the former group was removed from the heaven ( or heavenly worlds) and confined to earth. Perhaps on earth they got some powers  of celestial superintendence over the kingdoms of human beings. The prince of Persia as referred may be such a celestial personality. 

6. The celestial group which got castigated and confined to earth after the war in the heavens have been somehow leading the whole world (of humans) astray (away from the right path).

The whole Bible is a collection of books with several accounts that depict the history of human evolution over the centuries with human progress towards civilization. The Biblical narrations take a small sample of human communities of the Hebrews, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, etc settled around the Babylonian region as the subjects for detailed discussions. Objectively it shows how the human concepts progress towards the understanding of the spiritual empire of God and the relationship between God and man. The Bible, for a serious student is a collection of several books containing immense study material that exposes truthful treasures of knowledge that matters humans and their relationship with God. Unlike many other religious books, the human authors of the bible books from the past had written what they wanted to communicate to others in a simple manner without the use of fantasies or imaginative exaggerations.

Nevertheless, the Bible is a book of records written by human beings who lived during a long span of time covering several centuries with the last included book authored some 1900 years ago. The authors of the bible books were people who believed in the existence of an unseen God who mysteriously maintained a relationship with humans as a father through his messengers and angels. Bible books are indeed recorded history of human civilizational struggles giving human trials, tribulations and achievements with God as the central theme.

Yet, human civilization had been passing through centuries of dark ages. Humans in general have been in existence as brutal savages fighting and killing each other for the silliest of reasons. Humanity in humans have been developing very slowly. Even in the modern times, we cannot say that we are fully civilized peoples who have acquired divine qualities of universal brotherhood. We lack the qualities of divine love to a great extent.

In my opinion, we are not able to acquire the divine brotherhood of love due to various reasons. Some of these are due to our own weaknesses in assessing truth from falsehoods. 

To add to this problem is an external invisible force that is working against the divine plans. Remember what the Biblical narrations above stated. There is the presence and nefarious activities of invisible castigated celestial princes and angels on earth that have been happening without the humans not realizing much directly.

Humans with weak mind qualities easily fall prey to these nefarious forces  enhancing the problems of earth. Besides there are human beings who themselves have mind qualities that are similar to the castigated angels. They knowingly or unknowingly work against the divine plans of God. Simply stated they work against the divine human quality of love and compassion or twist the real meanings of love and compassion in their own ways.

It is not my intention to go in to a scholastic commentary of the Bible narrations that I mentioned above. There are several such articles and essays by Bible theologians all of whom giving their commentaries from their own studies and thoughts. 

Nevertheless, as a layman reader, let me point out some of the thoughts that come in to my mind in this context:

1. The Bible contains writings of several persons who lived several centuries ago. Perhaps their writings contain thoughts of their own mixed with certain truths that they received within their minds as provided by some divine communication channels. These writers of the books of the Bible lived thousands of years ago when the human knowledge, culture and civilization were vastly different from the present. There is also a possibility of several missing links. With the advancement of human knowledge in the field of science, it is quite natural that atleast a few modern human minds desire for some clarifications to the contents of the ancient religious texts lest they discard them as pure nonsense originating from the minds of the ancient underdeveloped humans.

2. The depictions of the Bible with regard to the war in heaven, Satan and Michael and their relations to God are not very clear. The modern human mind could discard these as myths unless their inner curiosities are not satisfactorily addressed.

3. The Bible narrations with regard to human history and human evolution seem have some contradictions  with the evolved scientific knowledge of the present day.

4. Languages and meanings have changed much in the last several centuries which necessitates some kind of authentic knowledge that would supplement our knowledge about the Bible contents and perhaps remove our wrong notions authentically.

5. If God exists and has been a kind of guiding force for the authors of the Bible books, would it be erroneous to think that God would not act to remove human misconceptions at a later era?

The 20th century humans are fortunate (only if they so desire!) that they have now a celestially authored and humanly published book that is capable of removing human doubts and misconceptions about the role of humans not only on earth but also in the whole of the universe. 

The beauty and the reality is that God exists and He is eternal and loving to all His creations, even for the lowly humans. God is not hiding from humans. On the contrary, it is the human inherent limitations that prevent humans from comprehending the infinite God of the Universe. That inherent limitation coupled with the confusions caused by some lesser creations of God causes humans to go astray from God.

I have gained much insight on this from this new book. The Bible and for that matter most of the religious texts contain truths coupled with exaggerations and errors crept in due to the inadequacies of human minds. But just as we comprehend more of a book with the help of a good dictionary or an encyclopedia, these texts become more understandable with the help of the guidance provided by this 20th century guide book whose contents come from several super human minds. The only requirement for a human being to enhance his or her knowledge is an open and seeking mind devoid of preconceived notions!

Let me now reproduce below a couple of statements from this superior explanatory book which now gives a kind of complimentary clarification to what have been written in the Bible :

“There was war in heaven; Michael's commander and his angels fought against the dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes); and the dragon and his rebellious angels fought but prevailed not.” This "war in heaven" was not a physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on earth. In the early days of the struggle Lucifer held forth (talked) continuously in the planetary amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision. 

"But this war in heaven was very terrible and very real. While displaying none of the barbarities so characteristic of physical warfare on the immature worlds, this conflict was far more deadly; material life is in jeopardy in material combat, but the war in heaven was fought in terms of life eternal".

There are much more things to be learnt. For paucity of space and time I am not venturing to write all those. Let me tell you in brief what I learnt now with the help of the new book:

1. Lucifer had been  a celestial prince or ruler. He is not just an angel, but was a celestial administrator vested with divine powers to rule material worlds on and behalf of his superior divine administrators all of whom under the general delegation of powers according to the never changing laws of the Supreme Creator God of the Universe . There are innumerable lower order angels under his command. To be precise he was the celestial ruler of hundreds of evolutionary planets where human life flourished. Satan was his immediate administrative assistant. They also had the planetary princes for each of the material worlds under their command, including our earth of the solar system. Innumerable numbers of subordinate celestial personalities for various functions worked under them such as the so-called angels. 

2. Michaels are an order of Divine Sons of God who are delegated with the powers to create and organize material universes from the non material energy sources of the universe originating from God. Innumerable orders of intelligent celestial beings execute the task of creation under the overall supervision of the Creator Sons of God. The material creation domain of each Michael is too huge that it in itself is called a local universe which could contain millions of stars, dark bodies, barren planets and planets that can sustain and evolve material life. There could be over 10 million such material life sustaining planets in one local universe. 1000 local universe spaces constitute one super universe and the whole of the known space is divided in to 7 super universe regions. As mentioned in the Bible, there is a Michael who is the Creator of the universe space in which our earth belongs and he is the Chief Prince or the Chief ruler of this universe space. As such, Lucifer, Satan and other such subordinate celestial rulers gained their authority from this Michael. Just as our universe space have a creator prince originating from God the first source of everything, there are other such creator princes for other material universe spaces.

3. Michael is not an angel, but a divine creator and ruler directly originating from God. He is the creative head of material universe spaces and the living beings that are contained within those spaces. All the 7000 universe spaces have a Creator Son of God as their respective Chief. Thus, what the Bible says as, Michael-one of the Chief Princes- is right. The creative chief prince of a universe space, later becomes the Sovereign Ruler of that universe space, after he fulfills certain divine stipulations. Our earth belongs to such a universe space where such a Michael reigns. He is our Sovereign Lord.

My dear readers! I have written this only to point out to you about the vast knowledge that exists that would enhance our minds and enable us to find out the real purpose of human lives. But for that we need to open out our rigid minds a bit and be receptive to new thoughts and information that our heavenly father so kindly provides us. At the same time we should realize the dangers of external sophistries that play around to hoodwink us from realities and truths. Remember, the expelled celestial prince and his associates are still doing their subtle acts to distract humans from God. He will keep doing that for some more time till he is fully prevented from doing so.

But we have God given powers to distinguish truths from untruths provided we honestly desire so. When we do not use that judiciously we get immersed in mind confusions caused by the mixture of truths and untruths. That causes us to depart from divine paths.

That is what the dethroned prince who is now roaming on earth wants.

Jesus' Thirty Six Hours in the Tomb: What the Bible Didn't Say !

The Bible says that Jesus of Nazareth was the human incarnation of the only Son of God on our earth who was killed by crucifixion on the cross during the time of the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. It also says that his dead body was buried in the tomb of one Joseph of Arimethia and he was resurrected on the third day. The risen Jesus ascended to his heavenly abode after appearing to many of his followers.

The narratives in the Bible about the life of Jesus are written by various human authors a few decades after the ascension of Jesus. The biblical authors of the new testament biographies (the four gospels according to St.Matthew, St.Mark, St.Luke and St.John) depended on their human memories to write these accounts about the life and teachings of Jesus and therefore are incomplete in many respects and influenced by their own viewpoints and knowledge levels, though maintaining the same essence.

On the other hand, the human beings of earth of the present modern era are fortunate to have a book-called the Urantia Book which means the Earth Book or the Book for the Humans of Earth- written and presented to them by invisible non-human authors having superior abilities and immortal existence in this vast universe of ours. Incidentally, this book has now become my favorite book of life guidance.

It may be difficult for us, human beings, to believe in some thing which we cannot sense or see for ourselves and the same authors of this wonderful book seem to understand that problem well. I have meticulously considered all that and finally came to the conclusion that what the authors of the book say is hundred percent true. As I have stated many times in my blogs in this site and in my urantia-india website, I consider it my bounden duty to do such things to dissemenate the knowlege of this book to my fellow beings, in whatever small way that I can, because I am truly convinced that this super human imparted knowledge could do wonders in their lives as far as their approach to life as a whole is concerned, just as it has done in me. 

The human bestowal life of Jesus Christ on earth is depicted in Part-4 of the Urantia Book. This part of the book is authored by the lowest order of the invisible beings, that too by an empowered group, identified as the Midwayer Commission who are a few select members of the United Midwayers of Urantia (earth). These invisible beings are told as permanent residents of earth and to know about them the best source is the Urantia Book itself. However, if you want a quick condensed reading about these invisible personalities you may read my earlier blog titled : Are Ghosts Real ?

The various topical papers in the Urantia Book are handled by various orders of  intelligent celestial beings who are invisible to humans but  competent to give authentic information about that topic. This I find a very important aspect of this book. The book contains details about the class and functions of various orders of celestial beings about whom they want the humans to know now, excluding those orders which are specifically withheld or not important for humans to know.

The Midwayers reside on earth invisible to us and are in a way immortals and super intelligent as compared to we humans. They had witnessed the life of Jesus as a human and they know much about his existence in the spiritual realm. But they are not so knowledgeable as the superior orders of celestials as some of the other authors of the Urantia Book dealing with more sophisticated topics.

Yet, there is a seamless flow , rhythm and a divine beauty in the whole of the book.

At the time of Jesus' death, the present day Christian Era calender did not exist. It came centuries later and refined many times later to the form what we have now. It is for the first time in human history that we now have many of the dates, days and timing of the happenings of Jesus' earth ministry given to us in our own modern calender. A fantastic and accurate work which is humanly almost impossible at the time when the book got first printed in the USA way back in 1955. A few enthusiastic and knowledgeable Urantia Book readers have now varified the authenticity and correctness of these dates using elaborate computer algorithms. 

The above background information, I thought essential before I reproduce the statements of the authors of the Jesus' Papers in the Urantia Book (ie, the Midwayer Commission) regarding the time when Jesus' body rested in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethia .

As this blog is part of the series of blogs that I thought to publish during this lent season of 2013, I request those interested readers to have a look at the previous blogs which covered the trial and death of Jesus. This you may do by clicking the 'Older Posts' button at the bottom of this blog.

Now you may read the commentary of the Midwayer Commission regarding the sequence of events after the death of Jesus on the cross and the time Jesus' dead body rested in the tomb, something never told to humans any where other than the Urantia Book:

The day-and-the-half that Jesus’ mortal body lay in the tomb of Joseph, the period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in the earth career of Michael which is little known to us.

We can narrate the burial of the Son of Man and put in this record the events associated with his resurrection, but we cannot supply much information of an authentic nature about what really transpired during this epoch of about thirty-six hours, from three o’clock Friday afternoon to three o’clock Sunday morning. This period in the Master’s career began shortly before he was taken down from the cross by the Roman soldiers. He hung upon the cross about one hour after his death. He would have been taken down sooner but for the delay in dispatching the two brigands.

The rulers of the Jews had planned to have Jesus’ body thrown in the open burial pits of Gehenna, south of the city; it was the custom thus to dispose of the victims of crucifixion. If this plan had been followed, the body of the Master would have been exposed to the wild beasts.

In the meantime, Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, had gone to Pilate and asked that the body of Jesus be turned over to them for proper burial. It was not uncommon for friends of crucified persons to offer bribes to the Roman authorities for the privilege of gaining possession of such bodies.

Joseph went before Pilate with a large sum of money, in case it became necessary to pay for permission to remove Jesus’ body to a private burial tomb. But Pilate would not take money for this. When he heard the request, he quickly signed the order which authorized Joseph to proceed to Golgotha and take immediate and full possession of the Master’s body.

In the meantime, the sandstorm having considerably abated, a group of Jews representing the Sanhedrin had gone out to Golgotha for the purpose of making sure that Jesus’ body accompanied those of the brigands to the open public burial pits.

When Joseph and Nicodemus arrived at Golgotha, they found the soldiers taking Jesus down from the cross and the representatives of the Sanhedrin standing by to see that none of Jesus’ followers prevented his body from going to the criminal burial pits.

When Joseph presented Pilate’s order for the Master’s body to the centurion, the Jews raised a tumult and clamored for its possession. In their raving they sought violently to take possession of the body, and when they did this, the centurion ordered four of his soldiers to his side, and with drawn swords they stood astride the Master’s body as it lay there on the ground.

The centurion ordered the other soldiers to leave the two thieves while they drove back this angry mob of infuriated Jews.

When order had been restored, the centurion read the permit from Pilate to the Jews and, stepping aside, said to Joseph:

“This body is yours to do with as you see fit. I and my soldiers will stand by to see that no man interferes.”

A crucified person could not be buried in a Jewish cemetery; there was a strict law against such a procedure. Joseph and Nicodemus knew this law, and on the way out to Golgotha they had decided to bury Jesus in Joseph’s new family tomb, hewn out of solid rock, located a short distance north of Golgotha and across the road leading to Samaria.

No one had ever lain in this tomb, and they thought it appropriate that the Master should rest there.

Joseph really believed that Jesus would rise from the dead, but Nicodemus was very doubtful.

These former members of the Sanhedrin had kept their faith in Jesus more or less of a secret, although their fellow Sanhedrists had long suspected them, even before they withdrew from the council.

From now on they were the most outspoken disciples of Jesus in all Jerusalem.

At about half past four o’clock the burial procession of Jesus of Nazareth started from Golgotha for Joseph’s tomb across the way. The body was wrapped in a linen sheet as the four men carried it, followed by the faithful women watchers from Galilee.

The mortals who bore the material body of Jesus to the tomb were: Joseph, Nicodemus, John, and the Roman centurion.

They carried the body into the tomb, a chamber about ten feet square, where they hurriedly prepared it for burial. The Jews did not really bury their dead; they actually embalmed them. Joseph and Nicodemus had brought with them large quantities of myrrh and aloes, and they now wrapped the body with bandages saturated with these solutions. When the embalming was completed, they tied a napkin about the face, wrapped the body in a linen sheet, and reverently placed it on a shelf in the tomb.

After placing the body in the tomb, the centurion signaled for his soldiers to help roll the doorstone up before the entrance to the tomb. The soldiers then departed for Gehenna with the bodies of the thieves while the others returned to Jerusalem, in sorrow, to observe the Passover feast according to the laws of Moses.

There was considerable hurry and haste about the burial of Jesus because this was preparation day and the Sabbath was drawing on apace. The men hurried back to the city, but the women lingered near the tomb until it was very dark.

While all this was going on, the women were hiding near at hand so that they saw it all and observed where the Master had been laid. They thus secreted themselves because it was not permissible for women to associate with men at such a time. These women did not think Jesus had been properly prepared for burial, and they agreed among themselves to go back to the home of Joseph, rest over the Sabbath, make ready spices and ointments, and return on Sunday morning properly to prepare the Master’s body for the death rest.

The women who thus tarried by the tomb on this Friday evening were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha another sister of Jesus’ mother, and Rebecca of Sepphoris.

Aside from David Zebedee and Joseph of Arimathea, very few of Jesus’ disciples really believed or understood that he was due to arise from the tomb on the third day.

 If Jesus’ followers were unmindful of his promise to rise from the grave on the third day, his enemies were not. The chief priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees recalled that they had received reports of his saying he would rise from the dead.

This Friday night, after the Passover supper, about midnight a group of the Jewish leaders gathered at the home of Caiaphas, where they discussed their fears concerning the Master’s assertions that he would rise from the dead on the third day. This meeting ended with the appointment of a committee of Sanhedrists who were to visit Pilate early the next day, bearing the official request of the Sanhedrin that a Roman guard be stationed before Jesus’ tomb to prevent his friends from tampering with it.

Said the spokesman of this committee to Pilate:

“Sir, we remember that this deceiver, Jesus of Nazareth, said, while he was yet alive, `After three days I will rise again.’ We have, therefore, come before you to request that you issue such orders as will make the sepulchre secure against his followers, at least until after the third day. We greatly fear lest his disciples come and steal him away by night and then proclaim to the people that he has risen from the dead. If we should permit this to happen, this mistake would be far worse than to have allowed him to live.”

When Pilate heard this request of the Sanhedrists, he said:

“I will give you a guard of ten soldiers. Go your way and make the tomb secure.”

They went back to the temple, secured ten of their own guards, and then marched out to Joseph’s tomb with these ten Jewish guards and ten Roman soldiers, even on this Sabbath morning, to set them as watchmen before the tomb.

These men rolled yet another stone before the tomb and set the seal of Pilate on and around these stones, lest they be disturbed without their knowledge.

And these twenty men remained on watch up to the hour of the resurrection, the Jews carrying them their food and drink.

We are not able fully to explain just what happened to Jesus of Nazareth during this period of a day and a half when he was supposed to be resting in Joseph’s new tomb. Apparently he died the same natural death on the cross as would any other mortal in the same circumstances. We heard him say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” We do not fully understand the meaning of such a statement inasmuch as his Thought Adjuster had long since been personalized and so maintained an existence apart from Jesus’ mortal being. The Master’s Personalized Adjuster could in no sense be affected by his physical death on the cross. That which Jesus put in the Father’s hands for the time being must have been the spirit counterpart of the Adjuster’s early work in spiritizing the mortal mind so as to provide for the transfer of the transcript of the human experience to the mansion worlds. There must have been some spiritual reality in the experience of Jesus which was analogous to the spirit nature, or soul, of the faith-growing mortals of the spheres. But this is merely our opinion—we do not really know what Jesus commended to his Father.

We know that the physical form of the Master rested there in Joseph’s tomb until about three o’clock Sunday morning, but we are wholly uncertain regarding the status of the personality of Jesus during that period of thirty-six hours. We have sometimes dared to explain these things to ourselves somewhat as follows:

1. The Creator consciousness of Michael must have been at large and wholly free from its associated mortal mind of the physical incarnation.

2. The former Thought Adjuster of Jesus we know to have been present on earth during this period and in personal command of the assembled celestial hosts.

3. The acquired spirit identity of the man of Nazareth which was built up during his lifetime in the flesh, first, by the direct efforts of his Thought Adjuster, and later, by his own perfect adjustment between the physical necessities and the spiritual requirements of the ideal mortal existence, as it was effected by his never-ceasing choice of the Father’s will, must have been consigned to the custody of the Paradise Father. Whether or not this spirit reality returned to become a part of the resurrected personality, we do not know, but we believe it did. But there are those in the universe who hold that this soul-identity of Jesus now reposes in the “bosom of the Father,” to be subsequently released for leadership of the Nebadon Corps of the Finality in their undisclosed destiny in connection with the uncreated universes of the unorganized realms of outer space.

4. We think the human or mortal consciousness of Jesus slept during these thirty-six hours. We have reason to believe that the human Jesus knew nothing of what transpired in the universe during this period. To the mortal consciousness there appeared no lapse of time; the resurrection of life followed the sleep of death as of the same instant.

And this is about all we can place on record regarding the status of Jesus during this period of the tomb. There are a number of correlated facts to which we can allude, although we are hardly competent to undertake their interpretation.

In the vast court of the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of Satania, there may now be observed a magnificent material-morontia structure known as the “Michael Memorial,” now bearing the seal of Gabriel. This memorial was created shortly after Michael departed from this world, and it bears this inscription: “In commemoration of the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia.”

There are records extant which show that during this period the supreme council of Salvington, numbering one hundred, held an executive meeting on Urantia under the presidency of Gabriel. There are also records showing that the Ancients of Days of Uversa communicated with Michael regarding the status of the universe of Nebadon during this time.

We know that at least one message passed between Michael and Immanuel on Salvington while the Master’s body lay in the tomb.

There is good reason for believing that some personality sat in the seat of Caligastia in the system council of the Planetary Princes on Jerusem which convened while the body of Jesus rested in the tomb.

The records of Edentia indicate that the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek was on Urantia, and that he received instructions from Michael during this time of the tomb.

And there is much other evidence which suggests that not all of the personality of Jesus was asleep and unconscious during this time of apparent physical death.

[These personalities and places (shown in red above) are explained in detail in the Urantia Book. Here, I am giving some brief explanation about those for the understanding of the readers of this blog:

Michael : The class name of  a high order sons of God who are the creators and rulers of material universe regions called local universes. There are about 7000 local universes in the whole of the grand universe now all created and ruled by different Michaels. Creation of these local universes is a controlled evolutionary process and hence their ages and degree of completion are not same. Our earth belongs to one of the youngest local universes called Nebadon whole creator is known as Michael of Nebadon. This Son of God took the human incarnation on earth and lived here as Jesus of Nazareth in Israel some 2000 years ago. Administratively it is divided into 100 Constellations, each containing 100 Systems of planets and each System containing 1000 planets with intelligent mortal life. At present, this local universe has only about 3.8 Million mortal worlds, though its ultimate capacity when fully complete in evolution is about 10 Million.

Gabriel: The Chief Celestial Chief Executive of Michael of Nebadon.

Salvington: The capital of Nebadon and the seat of power of Michael of Nebadon which is a group of huge non-evolutionary planets.

Urantia: The name given to our material world earth by the Urantia Book authors.

Uversa: The capital of the Super Universe (out of the total seven Super Universes) called Orvonton which has 1000 local universes in all including the local universe of Nebadon.

Ancients of Days : The Divine Judge Rulers of the Super Universes. There is a trio of three personalities each for each of the Super Universe. They too are High Order Sons of the Universal Father God.

Immanuel: The proper name used to denote  a High Son  of God coming in the class identified as Unions of Days. Immanuel functions as the Super Universe representative in the Local Universe of Nebadon. He assumes the responsibility of the Michael of Nebadon, when the latter is not in his HQ.

Planetary Prince: The divine ruler of any material mortal planet like earth, subordinate to the System Head. Normally they are invisible to the mortals/humans. The numerous invisible beings present in the planet functions under the supervision of the Planetary Prince.
Caligastia: The Planetary Prince of Earth for the last many thousands of  years who became rebellious to the Universal Administration of God by siding with his rebellious System head Lucifer and his assistant, Satan, the latter two are now quarantined in a world coming under the Satania System HQ group called Jerusem together with their numerous subordinate rebel personalities. Though Caligastia is removed from the Planetary Prince position just after Michael of Nebadon returned to his HQ after completing his life as Jesus of Nazareth, he has not been quarantined yet. He and his followers are still free to do many nefarious activities, they do not have any power to damage the people of God. The Urantia Book authors predict that these rebels will meet with their ultimate destiny very soon once their fate is adjudged by the Ancients of Days of Orvonton.

Norlatiadek: The name of the Constellation under which earth is a material world.

Edentia: The HQ worlds of Norlatiadek which are non-evolutionary.

Constellation Fathers: The divine rulers of a Constellation subordinate to the Local Universe Sovereign. Also referred to as the Most Highs.

Satania: One among the 100 Systems under the Constellation Norlatiadek previously ruled by Lucifer. Satania presently has 619 mortal worlds where intelligent human like life is established and other worlds are under advanced stages of life establishment. Our earth belongs to this System and it is world number 606 of Satania. Only a couple of worlds like earth in this System have become corrupt due to their divine rulers becoming rebellious to God. It is the misfortune of we humans of earth that we come under a world spoilt by a corrupt divine ruler. Michael of Nebadon purposefully dicided to live like a human being in a corrupt world like our earth just to show that even under a corruptly ruled world it is possible to live a life characterised by love and goodness and that too without the use of power or authority.

Jerusem: The name used to identify the HQ group of non-evolutionary worlds of Satania System.]

[Passages in bigger font as above are directly quoted from the Urantia Book . To know more about this wonderful book of non human origin, visit my  urantia-India website. Reproduced for those interested in knowing more about the mortal death of Jesus Christ and what happened before his resurrection as Christians world over observe the lent season of fasting and prayers in this year, 2013 in commemoration of his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection ]

[Please do take some time to come back and read my other blogs as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please also use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might need. 

Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my Blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Did Jesus Die on the Cross for the Redemption of Our Sins ? Its Time to Think Differently !

The following statements are observations made by the non-human celestial authors of my favorite book of life guidance as quoted from the relevant pages of that book. These statements explain the meanings of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha in the present day Israel on the after noon of Friday, the 7th April 0030 and the lessons that should be understood in a different perspective altogether.

Nevertheless, these meanings and lessons can only be appreciated  by open-minded and spiritually enlightened human beings of earth. It would be non-palatable to a good majority of human beings, including even the Christians. The Christians who follow a religion that came into existence in the name of Jesus Christ, are taught differently about the meaning and purpose of the death of Jesus Christ and it would pose much difficulty for them to accept the following which apparently look as contradictory to their faith based on biblical teachings written by the apostles.

I know that there are millions of such people for whom it is extremely difficult to digest any thing which is not based on the texts they consider as sacred, even when such information are intellectually and spiritually superior and good. That makes their minds closed to such an extent that they are reluctant to listen to the voice of God himself. They are too scared to open their eyes and ears lest they might be entrapped by Satan, even when God calls them.

It is indeed a dilemma for simple human beings. They are somehow not capable of using their God given wisdom and intelligence to differentiate evil from good, bad from good and Satanic verses from God's words. In such a scenario, they prefer to close their mind to any thing new. They are content with the traditions and the legacy of their old teachings. Adding to their complexity and confusion are the willful twists and clever manipulations of ideas and texts that are aimed at them day in and day out by forces with vested interests in doing so.

I leave it to the wisdom of the readers to judge, if at all they dare to read these !

You may perhaps also like to read the earlier parts of this series of blogs by clicking the 'Older Post' link at the bottom of this page

Now you may read what the celestial authors of my favorite book had observed about the death of Jesus Christ in the following passages (Pl note, it is their words and not mine ! I have only changed the para breaks, the italicized words in brackets and a few highlighting in bold print or underlining):

Although Jesus did not die this death on the cross to atone for the racial guilt of mortal man nor to provide some sort of effective approach to an otherwise offended and unforgiving God; even though the Son of Man did not offer himself as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God and to open the way for sinful man to obtain salvation; notwithstanding that these ideas of atonement and propitiation are erroneous, nonetheless, there are significances attached to this death of Jesus on the cross which should not be overlooked.

It is a fact that Urantia (earth) has become known among other neighboring inhabited planets as the “World of the Cross.”

Jesus desired to live a full mortal life in the flesh on Urantia.

Death is, ordinarily, a part of life.

Death is the last act in the mortal drama.

In your well-meant efforts to escape the superstitious errors of the false interpretation of the meaning of the death on the cross, you should be careful not to make the great mistake of failing to perceive the true significance and the genuine import of the Master’s death.

Mortal man was never the property of the archdeceivers (such as Satan or Lucifer).

Jesus did not die to ransom man from the clutch of the apostate rulers and fallen princes (like Lucifer) of the spheres (other worlds in the universe).

The Father in heaven (Universal Father God)  never conceived of such crass injustice as damning a mortal soul because of the evil-doing of his ancestors.

Neither was the Master’s death on the cross a sacrifice which consisted in an effort to pay God a debt which the race of mankind had come to owe him.

Before Jesus lived on earth, you might possibly have been justified in believing in such a God, but not since the Master lived and died among your fellow mortals.

Moses taught the dignity and justice of a Creator God; but Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father.

The animal nature—the tendency toward evil-doing—may be hereditary, but sin is not transmitted from parent to child.

Sin is the act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the Father’s will and the Sons’ laws by an individual will creature.

Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the races of this one world (earth).

While the mortals of the realms (the worlds) had salvation even before Jesus lived and died on Urantia (earth), it is nevertheless a fact that his bestowal on this world greatly illuminated the way of salvation; his death did much to make forever plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh.

Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain; he did better and more surely show the way of salvation for all the mortals of all the worlds of the universe of Nebadon.

When once you grasp the idea of God as a true and loving Father, the only concept which Jesus ever taught, you must forthwith, in all consistency, utterly abandon all those primitive notions about God as an offended monarch, a stern and all-powerful ruler whose chief delight is to detect his subjects in wrongdoing and to see that they are adequately punished, unless some being almost equal to himself should volunteer to suffer for them, to die as a substitute and in their stead.

The whole idea of ransom and atonement is incompatible with the concept of God as it was taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth.

The infinite love of God is not secondary to anything in the divine nature.

All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness.

Jesus taught that service to one’s fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God.

The believer’s chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one’s fellows even as Jesus loved and served mortal men.

Neither do genuine believers trouble themselves so much about the future punishment of sin.

The real believer is only concerned about present separation from God.

True, wise fathers may chasten their sons, but they do all this in love and for corrective purposes. They do not punish in anger, neither do they chastise in retribution.

Even if God were the stern and legal monarch of a universe in which justice ruled supreme, he certainly would not be satisfied with the childish scheme of substituting an innocent sufferer for a guilty offender.

The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met death.

This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic.

Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature’s faith and thereby become incorporated into individual human experience: the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man.

It is true, after all, that you are to be “forgiven your debts, even as you forgive your debtors.”

The cross of Jesus portrays the full measure of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd for even the unworthy members of his flock.

It forever places all relations between God and man upon the family basis.

God is the Father; man is his son.

Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth in the universe relations of Creator and creature—not the justice of a king which seeks satisfaction in the sufferings and punishment of the evil-doing subject.

The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation.

Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness and righteous survival.

Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart.

Love is truly contagious and eternally creative.

Jesus’ death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing.

Jesus disclosed to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice—mere technical right and wrong.

Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them.

The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy.

Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side; but love destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom.

Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia (earth). He taught us not to resist evil but to find through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil.

The forgiveness of Jesus is not condonation; it is salvation from condemnation.

Salvation does not slight wrongs; it makes them right.

True love does not compromise nor condone hate; it destroys it.

The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness.

The Master’s love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival.

It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this eternal rehabilitation.

Jesus, by the power of his personal love for men, could break the hold of sin and evil.

He thereby set men free to choose better ways of living.

Jesus portrayed a deliverance from the past which in itself promised a triumph for the future.

Forgiveness thus provided salvation.

The beauty of divine love, once fully admitted to the human heart, forever destroys the charm of sin and the power of evil.

The sufferings of Jesus were not confined to the crucifixion.

In reality, Jesus of Nazareth spent upward of twenty-five years on the cross of a real and intense mortal existence. The real value of the cross consists in the fact that it was the supreme and final expression of his love, the completed revelation of his mercy.

On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who may have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight of faith, have taken one more look at Jesus on the cross and then have forged on ahead, inspired by the sight of God’s laying down his incarnate life in devotion to the unselfish service of man.

The triumph of the death on the cross is all summed up in the spirit of Jesus’ attitude toward those who assailed him.

He made the cross an eternal symbol of the triumph of love over hate and the victory of truth over evil when he prayed,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

That devotion of love was contagious throughout a vast universe; the disciples caught it from their Master.

The very first teacher of his gospel who was called upon to lay down his life in this service, said, as they stoned him to death,

“Lay not this sin to their charge.”

The cross makes a supreme appeal to the best in man because it discloses one who was willing to lay down his life in the service of his fellow men.

Greater love no man can have than this: that he would be willing to lay down his life for his friends—and Jesus had such a love that he was willing to lay down his life for his enemies, a love greater than any which had hitherto been known on earth.

On other worlds, as well as on Urantia (earth), this sublime spectacle of the death of the human Jesus on the cross of Golgotha has stirred the emotions of mortals, while it has aroused the highest devotion of the angels.

When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offers up his life on the cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and their many purely fictitious grievances.

His life was so glorious and his death so triumphant that we are all enticed to a willingness to share both. There is true drawing power in the whole bestowal of Michael, from the days of his youth to this overwhelming spectacle of his death on the cross.

Make sure, then, that when you view the cross as a revelation of God, you do not look with the eyes of the primitive man nor with the viewpoint of the later barbarian, both of whom regarded God as a relentless Sovereign of stern justice and rigid law-enforcement.

Rather, make sure that you see in the cross the final manifestation of the love and devotion of Jesus to his life mission of bestowal upon the mortal races of his vast universe.

See in the death of the Son of Man the climax of the unfolding of the Father’s divine love for his sons of the mortal spheres.

The cross thus portrays the devotion of willing affection and the bestowal of voluntary salvation upon those who are willing to receive such gifts and devotion.

There was nothing in the cross which the Father required—only that which Jesus so willingly gave, and which he refused to avoid.

If man cannot otherwise appreciate Jesus and understand the meaning of his bestowal on earth, he can at least comprehend the fellowship of his mortal sufferings. No man can ever fear that the Creator does not know the nature or extent of his temporal afflictions.

We know that the death on the cross was not to effect man’s reconciliation to God but to stimulate man’s realization of the Father’s eternal love and his Son’s unending mercy, and to broadcast these universal truths to a whole universe.

[As told by the invisible authors of the Urantia Book and quoted from it. To know more about this wonderful book of non human origin, visit my  urantia-India website. Reproduced for those interested in knowing the  meaning of the mortal death of Jesus Christ on the cross on earth while the Christians observe the lent season of fasting and prayers in this year, 2013 in commemoration of his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection ]

[Please do take some time to come back and read my other blogs as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my Blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

The Lucifer Rebellion : The Event that Changed Our Destiny !

There have been different kinds of inputs to human beings for the last several centuries that many of us are familiar with these two names: Lucifer and Satan.

For many of us who know some thing of these two names, these are synonyms for the spiritual being who is considered as anti-god. Considered in this manner, this  spiritual personality who is invisible to us, is the one which tries to pull human beings away from God. Without Satan and Lucifer, the theme of religious teachings of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc are incomplete. Even oriental religions such as Hinduism has stories of similar negative forces called Asuras or demons.

But none of us are so sure about these. We do not know whether these are facts or myths or mere fictitious imaginations of human beings. That was my position as well until I came across the Urantia Book.

A few of you who are regular readers of my blogs would now be some what familiar with this book. This book has substantially helped me to understand many things for which I could not find plausible answers earlier. 

In this blog I would like to introduce you to the facts about Lucifer and Satan on the basis of information I gathered from this great super human book of advanced revelations.

But before you continue reading I suggest you read this:

What is the Content of the Urantia Book in Brief ?

Now the Urantia Book, for the first time in our history, tells us that Lucifer and Satan are two different personalities. Additionally the book introduces two more personalities about whom we have never heard before. These two have been named as Caligastia and Daligastia.

All these four characters belong to an order of celestial beings named as La-nonan-deks. This too is a class name we have never heard before !

They are an order of living beings having spiritual bodies unlike we human being with material bodies. There are about 700,000 La-nonan-deks in the local universe to which our earth belongs. And our local universe is named Nebadon and its Creator and Sovereign is a Creator Son of the Universal Father God. To know more about our local universe head, you may read this:

Our Sovereign Lord: He has other 3.8 Million Worlds like Earth to look after !

Now this Lucifer was a very senior La-nonan-dek and a very bright and intelligent personality. This order of beings were created in the local universe to serve as administrators and guides to evolutionary worlds like earth where intelligent living beings are being created using the evolutionary technique of creation. Satan was much junior and served as an administrative assistant to Lucifer.

Lucifer was made the head of a System of material worlds like earth where intelligent material living beings had been created and progressing. When he took charge of the System there were 607 worlds. Our earth was world number 606 in his System. As more and more evolutionary worlds got people, his system was to have a maximum of 1000 worlds.

When earth became peopled with primitive people, Lucifer recommended Caligastia to be made in charge of earth and Daligastia was appointed to assist him.

Lucifer and Satan functioned from his System headquarter worlds known as Jerusem. These worlds are specially made globes which are very big as compared to earth and very magnificent beyond our imagination.

Caligastia and Daligastia arrived on earth more than 200,000 years ago and established their HQ somewhere in the present Mesopotamia region.

Lucifer and Satan had been in charge of their System of worlds for about 500,000 years.

They had been nicely performing their duties for all these long time on behalf of their superiors in the universe administration acknowledging the the worship of the Universal Father God and the supremacy of their local universe Creator.

But about 200,000 years ago, Lucifer tried to be rebellious and wanted to be an  independent Ruler going against the Will of God.

In this rebellion mooted by Lucifer, another two of his colleagues who were heads of other two Systems and some of their assistants including some of the world rulers and millions of their spiritual subordinate order of beings participated. Billions of mortal beings including human beings of earth were also affected.

According to the Urantia Book, this rebellion caused extreme hardships on the affected worlds including our earth. Had this unfortunate event never occurred, our earth would have been in an altogether different and advanced stage of progress.

The rebellion that happened in our local universe got almost settled after our universe Creator was elevated as its Sovereign Ruler. This happened some 2000 years ago, when our Creator completed his mandatory mission of successful living as one of his lowly creations in the form of a human being.

According the the universal law of God, no perfect ruler-ship is possible unless the Ruler knows his subjects well. A perfect ruler has to actually experience the lives of his subjects !

So our Creator lived on earth as Joshua Ben Joseph in a small village called Nazareth in Palestine region. In our known history he is known to us as Jesus of Nazareth.

He proved that human beings can live a life of sinless perfection even under adverse situations and even without the use of his immense power as the Creator of his universe and the trillions of power personalities under his command.

He proved that he is capable of sustaining and up-keeping the Will of his father God even while living as a powerless human being of earth.

The events that followed had seen that he became elevated as the Sovereign of the universe of Nebadon and Lucifer, Satan and other rebels removed from their positions and getting quarantined in some worlds called prison worlds.

The three azure blue concentric circles- 

the material emblem of the Sovereign of Nebadon!

In this context, you may like to read this story of a material world called Panoptia just as our Earth whose inhabitants resisted the Lucifer rebellion under the leadership of a lady named Ellanora:

Ellanora: The Story of the Woman who Valiantly Resisted Lucifer ! 

The Urantia Book details out the cause, progress and consequences of the Lucifer rebellion.

They are logical and matter of fact explanations without any exaggerations.

A detailed study of it will make things clear as why God does not act in a magical manner to alleviate our miseries and apparently allow these to happen.

To tell you the truth, this book has given me the answers.

By the way, Caligastia and Daligastia are still moving around in our earth with their multitudes of invisible associates. The Urantia Book informs us that Caligastia is recently removed from the post of the invisible ruler-ship of earth and earth is given in the charge of a few receivers till that time a full fledged ruler is appointed.

Though these one time followers of Lucifer and Satan are able to carry out their nefarious activities on earth, they are powerless against harming those people under the protection of the universal administration of God.

Such a situation might continue for some more generations.

The book informs us that the Universe Sovereign has allowed them some time to repent and return back to his fold voluntarily. Such a mercy is because, these fellows are also the children of the Creator.

To understand that we have to think from the angle of a father, the super human authors of the book remind us.

But corrupt minds are less likely to repent and sooner or later they are going to meet their ultimate fate !

But whatever that happened was not good for us earth beings in one way.

But in many other ways we have got tremendous opportunities to show our strength in challenging situations just as the Panoptians had done.

We are cut off from the universe communication links as of now which curtail our ability to see those invisible beings around us. Both those who work for us and those likely to do just the opposite.

And what are we supposed to do ?

Caligastia and his associates want that we lose our ability to advance in our lives and proceed in our universe adventure and destroy ourselves in this world itself.

God wants that we progress and advance as able personalities capable of taking up higher responsibilities even after our mortal life on this earth.

How do we do that ?

Ensure that we live a life which is guided by goodness and love. 

Love God by living according to his will by serving his creations without selfishness.

Follow the directions of the inner consciousness which is the pilot lamp of God to know what is good and what is not .

When that is followed, our beastly nature would start fading away and we become more and more humane.

That is exactly what God wants us to be.

When we are humanely human beings who acknowledge our Universal Father God, we acquire survival qualities.

We are likely to survive death and make progress  as many advancing personalities of mortal origins of this universe have been experiencing!

That universe adventure is going to be thrilling !

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