The Deity in Jesus
Sometime near the beginning of time, God the Father and God the Eternal Son created their 700,000 offspring of the order of Michael. Billions of years later, the Michael sons each would venture into time and space outside paradise and create and administer a universe of 10 million inhabited planets. After hundreds of billions of years of universe creation, each Michael son engages in a series of extended personalizations in the form of descending orders of his universe children. In the last of these personalizations, the Michael of each universe is born as a mortal and lives the entire life of an ordinary human to give him the experience of growing up as a mortal in his own universe. Our local universe of 10,000,000 planets is named Nebadon. Michael of Nebadon is the creator and administrator of our universe. His first minister is Gabriel of Nebadon.
Planning for Jesus’ Birth
Tens of thousands of years ago Michael and Gabriel authorized a study to identify the characteristics of certain inhabited planets which might be chosen as the one in ten million on which Michael would live as a human. They were apparently interested in a world that was not very advanced and which had suffered the isolation consequences of the Lucifer rebellion. Our planet qualified on both of these. Our planet was further qualified as an interesting and challenging place by the default of our Adam and Eve. So, about 37,000 years ago a message was sent to Adam and Eve, even as they were in the midst of their default turmoil, that this planet would be Michael’s mortal bestowal world.
Bestowal World Privilege
You and I enjoy a great privilege to be natives of the planet Michael chose to be his mortal bestowal planet and especially within such a short time after he lived his bestowal life and before the planet had changed very much in culture or climate. The circumstances of our lives are not so different from life as he lived it. The joys and the pains and the achievements of his life are fully understandable to us without interpretation and because of them, he now has a special experiential understanding of the difficulties and pleasures of life on our planet. The experience of living on this planet must be special, primitive, about the bottom of the ladder for ascending mortals and that is a very useful experience for us to take with us into our afterlife.
It is important to remember who was being born. This was Michael, our universe creator and ruler, coming as a human baby to experience human existence, and to demonstrate the perfect human life of intentionally living in harmony with the indwelling spirit of the father of all creation. He was also coming here to spiritually uplift humanity with a living portrayal of the loving nature of our heavenly Father. This was the creator and ruler of stars and galaxies and ten million inhabited planets. This was a very big deal.
Selection of Hebrew culture
Sometime much closer to Jesus’ birth, Gabriel came here and surveyed the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and geographic features of our planet as they would likely impact Jesus’ life and the spread of his teachings. He decided that the Hebrew culture and religion had advantages warranting their selection as the bestowal race. In this sense they were a chosen people; chosen to be the religious and cultural foundation of Jesus’ mortal life. Michael gave his approval to this decision and Gabriel sent the Family Commission of twelve to investigate Jewish family life. Gabriel was present at the conclusion of the study to receive nominations of three equally favorable unions, and he selected Mary and Joseph.
Nature of Galilee and Mary and Joseph
Joseph’s family was Jewish back to Abraham but his relationship to king David was by adoption generations earlier. Joseph was a dark-eyed brunette. Mary’s lineage was much more varied, embracing many of the most remarkable women in the history of our planet. Racially she was hardly Jewish. Mary had brown eyes and her hair was almost blond. Joseph and Mary were selected because they were average people. Michael wanted to live the life of an average person so that common people could understand and accept him.
The circumstances of this bestowal were about perfect. Our planet was never before or since at a higher level of spiritual thinking or religious living. Jews, being part western and part eastern, were well suited to spreading the new religion both East and West. Tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans enhanced the favorable circumstances. The Greek language and culture were pervasive and Jewish religious and moral teachings were spreading rapidly. For the first time in world history, good roads connected many major cities. Seas were cleared of pirates and travel was rapidly advancing. While it was a time of peace and prosperity, there was no middle class, and most people lived a miserable and impoverished lower-class existence.
Galilee was more gentile than Jewish when Jesus was born. Nazareth was particularly well situated because half the caravan traffic between the orient and the Mediterranean ports passed through or near it. Dispersion of Jews with over 200 synagogues and religious communities throughout the Roman world provided culture centers where the new gospel of the kingdom of heaven found its initial reception and from which it spread.
When Jesus was born, Herod the Idumean ruled both Galilee and Judea. (Herod died in 4BC.) He was not a Jew but an outsider who held power because he had ingratiated himself with the Roman rulers. Because Herod was friendly with Roman rulers, the world was safe for Jewish travelers and the way was open for evangelists to carry the gospel throughout the Roman Empire.
Gabriel’s Visit and announcement to Mary
Mary and Joseph married in March of 8 BC. Mary was 14 years old, and Joseph was 21. Joseph and his brothers had built a one room home for the new family. In November of 8 BC Mary and Joseph conceived Jesus and the next day Gabriel appeared to Mary at dusk at her home. Joseph had not returned from work. Gabriel’s appearance shocked Mary but after she regained her composure, Gabriel said to her: “I come at the bidding of one who is my master and whom you shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce to you that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Your son shall proclaim the message of deliverance with great power and deep conviction.”
It is significant that Gabriel told Mary what name to give her son. He had done the same with Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother. In Hebrew, John (Yochanan) means “God is gracious.” Joshua (Yehoshua) means “God is salvation”.
It is interesting and perhaps significant that Gabriel spoke in person only to Mary and Elizabeth. Joseph and Zacharias, John’s father, were left with no direct communication. They had vivid dreams, but these came months later and after their wives had told them what had happened.
Mary didn’t tell Joseph of Gabriel’s visit for many weeks. Not until she knew she was pregnant. It was many nights before Joseph could sleep soundly. At first, he doubted the Gabriel visitation. Even after he became convinced of the visit, he was still troubled by how the offspring of humans could be a child of divine destiny. After several weeks, Joseph and Mary concluded that they had been chosen to be parents of the Messiah, but it hadn’t been part of the Jewish concept that the deliverer was to be of divine nature.
Trip to Bethlehem
As Mary’s time approached, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to register for the census. Joseph virtually forbade Mary to make the journey to Bethlehem with him, but she insisted, and he relented. Jesus was born at noon, August 21, 7 BC in a grain storage room of a caravan stable of an inn in Bethlehem. The following day, a wealthy person at the inn exchanged rooms; and Mary, Joseph and Jesus resided at the inn for three weeks until they found lodging with a distant relative of Joseph. They stayed in Bethlehem for a year because Mary, Elizabeth and Zacharias thought Jesus was to be the Jewish Messiah and therefore that he should grow up in the city of David.
Hiding from the Murderous Herod
After the three priests from Ur (the wise men) made inquiry in Jerusalem about the newborn king of the Jews, Herod’s spies looked for Jesus for a year. Then in mid-October of 6 BC Herod ordered a systematic search of all houses in Bethlehem and the murder of all baby boys less than two years of age. Sixteen baby boys perished as a result. Jesus was a little over one year old and still living in Bethlehem but one of Herod’s assistants communicated the baby slaughter order to Zacharias, who dispatched a messenger to Joseph. The night before the massacre Joseph and Mary left Bethlehem for Alexandria in Egypt. They journeyed alone to avoid attention. Zacharias provided the funds for them to travel.
Joseph worked in Alexandria, and they lodged with well-to-do relatives of Joseph’s family. They stayed in Alexandria for two years and returned to Bethlehem only after Herod’s death.
The Three Wise Men
Certain wise men of spiritual insight had been informed of the impending bestowal of Michael on Earth. This was probably an earlier announcement that he was coming. More specifically, the angels of attachment to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden arranged an announcement to Ardnon and his associates in Ur that the light of life was about to appear as a babe on earth and among the Jews. Apparently, the communication to Ardnon was by way of an angel who either posed as or communicated through a strange religious teacher who said these insights came to him through a dream. This strange teacher must have been very believable because Ardnon and two other Chaldean priests traveled for weeks just to have the chance to see the child. They were in Jerusalem looking for the babe when by chance Zacharias heard of their quest and directed them to Jesus in Bethlehem. Jesus was about three weeks old when they arrived.
The wise men were following specific information communicated to them as interested persons who were part of the spiritual continuum. That is terribly significant because it suggests that mortals can be contacted by their celestial friends. I don’t know if this is something we can all aspire to, but I expect that it is.
