Urantia21: A Restatement of The Urantia Book for the 21st Century

“Jesus enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in the Creator, experiencing the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but never doubting the certainty of the Creator’s watchcare and guidance.” “In the Master’s life on Urantia, this and all other worlds of the local creation discover a new and higher type of religion, religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Source and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience.” On Urantia, “The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from the burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of twenty centuries.” “You may preach a religion about Jesus, but you must live the religion of Jesus.”

The events of the day of Pentecost “were to decide the future policies, and to determine the plans, of the majority of the apostles in their efforts. Peter was the real founder of the Christian church; Paul carried the Christian message to the gentiles, and the Greek believers carried it to the whole Roman Empire.” Today, “The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus with a new and enlarged presentation of the message which would spiritually unite in loving service the numerous communities of present-day professed followers.”

As about one hundred and twenty followers were gathered together, “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 doctrine of the new realm and the news that Jesus had risen from the dead.” “And so they went forth, endowed with power, preaching redemption through Jesus to the people, but they unintentionally stumbled into the error of substituting some of the facts associated with the teachings for the message itself.”

In a final appearance to the apostles, Jesus gave a parting instruction. “I directed you to wait in Jerusalem until you were endowed with power from on high. I am now about to take leave of you; I am about to ascend to the Creator, and soon, very soon, we will send the Spirit of Truth into this world; and when it has come, you will begin the proclamation of the doctrine of the new realm, first in Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the world.” And then Jesus disappeared “to begin the ascent to the Creator, to receive formal confirmation of the completed sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon.

Jesus continued to make appearances to the apostles, and Peter began to preach that “...Jesus is not dead; we declare that the Master has risen from the tomb; we proclaim that we have seen and talked with Jesus.” “Already the first steps had begun of changing the doctrine of the new realm — relationship with the Creator and with mortals — into the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus.” “And so, under the vigorous leadership of Peter and before the Master ascended to the Creator, these well-meaning representatives began that subtle process of gradually and certainly changing the religion of Jesus into a new and modified form of religion about Jesus,” in spite of all Jesus’ warnings to the contrary.

“Resurrection Sunday was a terrible day in the lives of the apostles; ten of them spent the larger part of the day in the upper chamber behind locked doors. They might have fled from Jerusalem, but they were afraid of being arrested by the agents of the Sanhedrin if they were found.” It took quite a while for the apostles to accept the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, even though they had been told it would happen. After several appearances they became fully

“The resurrected Jesus now prepares to spend a short period on Urantia for the purpose of experiencing the ascending morontia career of a mortal of the realms. Although this time of the morontia life is to be spent on

Michael of Nebadon, the creator of our local universe, having completed the life experience of a mortal in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, now “having freely made the decision to give up the mortal life, had the power to take it up

The day and a half that Jesus’ mortal body lay in the tomb, the period between death on the cross and resurrection, is somewhat mysterious even to the authors of this paper, which describes the burial and the activities of the followers

“Jesus freely submits to death on the cross.” Foretelling this experience, Jesus said: “I will rise again. No one takes my life away from me — I lay it down myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up. I have received such a commandment from the Creator.” “Jesus lived and died royally, freely admitting being divine and remaining master of the situation throughout this tragic day.” This paper describes the events of that fateful day.