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The Uniqueness of Jesus
From the commencement of his public ministry onwards to his crucifixion, Jesus' life was lived as a revelation of the nature of God and in accordance with the constraints imposed by the pact with Immanuel spelled out in Urantia Paper 120, pages 1325 to 1330.
Among these commitments we find Immanuel counselling: "that you assume, after you are sufficiently self-conscious of your divine identity, the additional task of technically terminating the Lucifer rebellion…." (1327)
And: "Exhibit in your one short life in the flesh, as it has never before been seen in all Nebadon, the transcendent possibilities attainable by a God-knowing human during the short career of mortal existence." (1325)
This phase of Jesus' life on Urantia commenced only after his baptism by John. Hence, it is to the social structure of Israel during the period of his post-baptismal public ministry that we must look in order to gain an understanding of what Jesus was seeking to demonstrate as a set of transcendent possibilities attainable by his followers.
The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, inform us that the two major groups attempting to be models for a practicing Jew population were the Pharisees and the Saducees. Both groups claimed strict adherence to "The Law" as the dominating influence governing their life style. And both groups displayed virtually fanatic adherence to their interpretation of "The Law" as the correct way for a practicing Jew to live his life.
For the Pharisees and Saducees of 2000 years ago, this meant to follow the instructions contained in the "Torah," the first five books of the Old Testament, ostensibly written by Moses and claimed to be divine instruction from God himself. It included the 613 specific laws contained in those five books which defined almost every aspect of what it meant to be a Jew.
The Torah makes it clear that provided Jews live according to "the Law and the prophets," their God, Yahweh, will look after them. But if they disobey then Yahweh will unfailingly hand out suitable punishment.
Not only was Yahweh on the side of Moses and his Israelite adherents but he was heavy handed with anyone who opposed God's plan for them--which included being recipients of "the promised land." This is illustrated in Deuteronomy 2 in which Moses states:
And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left.
Apparently this was an unreasonable request as Moses further states:
But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD thy God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into thy hand.
Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain--all of which, on modern standards, makes Moses and his Israelites a pitiless mob of murderers of women and children.
Og, the king of Bashan and the kings of the Amorites, their people and possessions suffered a similar fate to Sihon--but that was as nothing compared to the later victories of Joshua who was successor to Moses. Joshua's record of slaughter and dispossession included Jericho and its people, plus the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites--all under the guiding hand and protection of their God, Yahweh.
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