Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 119
THE BESTOWALS OF CHRIST MICHAEL
1. When the Eternal Son bestows a Creator Son upon a projected local universe, that Creator Son assumes full responsibility for the completion, control, and composure of that new universe, including the solemn oath to the eternal Trinity not to assume full sovereignty of the new creation until his seven creature bestowals shall have been successfully completed and certified by the Ancients of Days of the superuniverse of jurisdiction.
2. The purpose of these creature incarnations is to enable such Creators to become wise, sympathetic, just, and understanding sovereigns...they come to know the various groups over which they rule and exercise universe authority. By living experience they possess themselves of practical mercy, fair judgment, and the patience born of experiential creature existence.
3. The local universe of Nebadon is now ruled by a Creator Son who has completed his service of bestowal ,..His bestowals have occurred about one hundred and fifty million years apart, the last taking place on Urantia nineteen hundred years ego.
4. It was a solemn occasion on Salvington almost one billion years ago when the assembled directors and chiefs of the universe of Nebadon heard Michael announce that his elder brother, Immanuel, would presently assume authority in Nebadon while he (Michael) would be absent on an unexplained mission ...In all Salvington, only the Divine Minister and Immanuel knew what was taking place, and the Union of Days shared his secret only with the chief executive of the universe, Gabriel, the Bright end Morning Star.
5. Not until the third day after Michael's departure was any message of possible significance received. On this day a communication was registered on Salvington from the Melchizedek sphere...which simply recorded this extraordinary and never‑before‑heard‑of transaction: "At noon today there appeared on the receiving field of this world a strange Melchizedek Son, not of our number but wholly like our order. He was accompanied by a solitary omniaphim who bore credentials from Uversa and presented orders addressed to our chief, derived from the Ancients of Days and concurred in by Immanuel of Salvington, directing that this new Melchizedek Son be received into our order and assigned to the emergency service of the Melchizedeks of Nebadon.
6. Nothing more appears until after one hundred years of Urantia time, when there was recorded the fact of Michael's return and unannounced resumption of the direction of universe affairs. But a strange record is to be found on the Melchizedek world ..."By universal consent he has become chief of Melchizedeks, having earned our love and adoration by his matchless wisdom, supreme love, and. superb devotion to duty. He loved us, understood us, and served with us, and forever we are his loyal, and. devoted fellow Melchizedeks, for this stranger on our world has now eternally become a universe minister of Melchizedek nature."
7. For almost one hundred and fifty million years after the Melchizedeks bestowal of Michael, all went well in the universe of Nebadon, when trouble began to brew in system 11 of constellation 37...This rebel System Sovereign, Lutentia, reigned supreme on his headquarters planet for more than twenty years of standard Nebadon time; whereupon, the Most Highs, with approval from Uversa, ordered his segregation and requisitioned the Salvington rulers for the designation of a new System Sovereign to assume direction of that strife‑torn and confused system of inhabited worlds…Michael again took leave of his headquarters sphere. Three days after this unexplained leave-taking there appeared among the reserve corps of the primary Lanonandek Sons of Nebadon, a new and unknown member.
8. For more than seventeen years of universe time this strange and unknown temporary ruler administered the affairs and wisely adjudicated the difficulties of this confused and demoralized local system. No System Sovereign was ever more ardently loved or more widespreadly honored and respected.
9. His departure was not unceremonious; a great celebration was arranged when he left the system headquarters. Even his erring predecessor sent this message: "Just and righteous are you in all your ways. While I continue in rejection of the Paradise rule, I am compelled to confess that you are a just and. merciful administrator."
10. The supreme council on Salvington had just finished the consideration of the call of the Life Carriers on planet 217 in system 87 in constellation 61 for the dispatch to their assistance of a Material Son….Michael proceeded to place universe direction in the hands of Immanuel…And, as might have been expected, on the third day thereafter there appeared…a strange Material Son…Immediately the acting System Sovereign appointed this new and mysterious Material Son acting Planetary Prince of world 217 and this designation was at once confirmed by the Most Highs of constellation 61.
11. Thus did this unique Material Son begin his difficult career on a quarantined world of secession and rebellion, located in a beleaguered system without any direct communication with the outside universe, working alone for one whole generation of planetary time. This emergency Material Son effected the repentance and reclamation of the defaulting Planetary Prince and his entire staff and witnessed the restoration of the planet to the loyal service of the Paradise rule as established in the local universes.
12. Never, since this marvelous bestowal as the Planetary Prince of a world in isolation and. rebellion, have any of the Material Sons or Daughters in Nebadon been tempted to complain of their assignments or to find fault with the difficulties of their planetary missions.
13. Each of these missions was followed by an age of increasing service and loyalty among all celestial intelligences of universe origin, while each succeeding bestowal age was characterized by advancement and improvement in all methods of universe administration and in all techniques of government.
14. It was at the end of one of the periodic millennial roll calls of Uversa that Michael proceeded to place the government of Nebadon in the hands of Immanuel and Gabriel... On the third day after this bestowal disappearance we observed…this significant news item from the seraphic headquarters of Nebadon: "Reporting the unannounced arrival of an unknown seraphim ...This seraphim tests out as belonging to the supreme order of the angels of a local universe and has already been assigned to the corps of the teaching counselors."
15.Michael was absent from Salvington during this, the seraphic bestowal, for a period of over forty standard universe years. During this time he was attached as a seraphic teaching counselor, what you might denominate a private secretary, to twenty‑six different master teachers, functioning on twenty‑two different worlds.
16. A little over three hundred million years ago, as time is reckoned on Urantia,, we witnessed another of those transfers of universe authority to Immanuel and observed the preparations of Michael for departure...Shortly after his departure from Salvington there did appear in the Uversa broadcasts this significant statement: "There arrived today an unannounced and unnumbered ascendant pilgrim of mortal origin from the universe of Nebadon."
17. If you should visit Uversa today, you would hear the recounting of the days when Eventod sojourned there…And this ascending mortal, at least a superb personality in the exact likeness of the spirit stage of the ascending mortals, lived and functioned on Uversa for a period of eleven years of Orvonton standard time.
18. Not until the completion of this bestowal did it finally dawn upon us that Michael was probably going to incarnate in the likeness of his various orders of universe personalities, from the highest Melchizedeks right on down to the mortals of flesh and blood on the evolutionary worlds of time and space. About this time the Melchizedek colleges began to teach the probability of Michael's sometime incarnating as a mortal of the flesh, and there occurred much speculation as to the possible technique of such an inexplicable bestowal.
19. Still, the technique of these successive bestowals remained a mystery. Even Gabriel confesses that he does not comprehend the method whereby this Paradise Son and universe Creator could, at will, assume the personality and live the life of one of his own subordinate creatures.
20. Now that all Salvington was familiar with the preliminaries of an impending bestowal, Michael called the sojourners on the headquarters planet together and, for the first time, unfolded the remainder of the incarnation plan, announcing that he was soon to leave Salvington for the purpose of assuming the career of a morontia mortal at the courts of the Most High Fathers on the headquarters planet of the fifth constellation. And then we heard for the first time the announcement that his seventh and final bestowal would be made on some evolutionary world in the likeness of mortal flesh.
21. Michael appeared on the headquarters of constellation five as a full‑fledged morontia mortal of ascending status. I regret that I am forbidden to reveal the details of this unnumbered morontia mortal's career, for it was one of the most extraordinary and amazing epochs in Michael's bestowal experience, not even excepting his dramatic and tragic sojourn on Urantia.
22. When Michael returned from this morontia bestowal, it was apparent to all of us that our Creator had become a fellow creature, that the Universe Sovereign was also the friend and. sympathetic helper of even the lowest form of created intelligence in his realms.
23. For tens of thousands of years we all looked forward to the seventh and final bestowal of Michael…The public announcement that Michael had selected Urantia as the theater for his final bestowal was made shortly after we learned about the default of Adam and Eve. And thus, for more than thirty‑five thousand years, your world occupied a very conspicuous place in the councils of the entire universe.
24. While we believed that this would be the method, we never knew, until the time of the event itself, that Michael would appear on earth as a helpless infant of the realm...We then not only realized that our Creator and friend was taking the most precarious step in all his career, apparently risking his position and authority on this bestowal as a helpless infant, but we also understood that his experience in this final and. mortal bestowal would eternally enthrone him as the undisputed and supreme sovereign of the universe of Nebadon.
25. Joshua ben Joseph, the Jewish baby, was conceived and was born into the world just as all other babies before and since except that this particular baby was the incarnation of Michael of Nebadon, a divine Son of Paradise and the creator of all this local universe of things and beings.
26. Certain wise men of earth knew of Michael's impending arrival ...the seraphim did, through the midway creatures, make announcement to a group of Chaldean priests whose leader was Ardnon. These men of God visited the newborn child in the manger. The only supernatural event associated with the birth of Jesus was this announcement to .Ardnon and his associates by the seraphim of former attachment to Adam and Eve in the first garden.
27. After Michael's final and successful bestowal on Urantia he was not only accepted by the Ancients of Days as sovereign ruler of Nebadon, but he was also recognized by the Universal Father as the established director of the local universe of his own creation.
28. Michael would not consent to the withdrawal of the Trinity Sons of counsel and co‑operation. He assembled them on Salvington and personally requested them forever to remain on duty in Nebadon. They signified their desire to comply with this request to their directors on Paradise, and. shortly thereafter there were issued those mandates of Paradise divorcement which forever attacked these Sons of the central universe to the court of Michael of Nebadon.
29. It required almost one billion years of Urantia time to complete the bestowal career of Michael and to effect the final establishment of his supreme authority in the universe of his own creation. Michael was born a creator, educated an administrator, trained an executive, but he was required to earn his sovereignty by experience.
30. On his Melchizedek bestowal he manifested the united will of the Father, Son, and Spirit, on his Lanonandek bestowal the will of the Father and the Son; on the Adamic bestowal he revealed the will of the Father and the Spirit, on the seraphic bestowal the will of the Son and the Spirit; on the Uversa mortal bestowal he portrayed the will of the Conjoint Actor, on the morontia mortal bestowal the will of the Eternal Son; and on the Urantia material bestowal he lived the will of the Universal Father, even as a mortal of flesh and. blood.
31. Urantia is the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon, the chief of ten million inhabited worlds, the mortal home of Christ Michael, sovereign of all Nebadon, a Melchizedek minister to the realms, a system savior, an Adamic redeemer, a seraphic fellow, an associate of ascending spirits, a morontia progressor, a Son of Man in the likeness of mortal flesh, and the Planetary Prince of Urantia. And your record tells the truth when it says that this same Jesus has promised some time to return to the world of his terminal bestowal, the World. of the Cross.
Discussion Questions1. How does the vast amount of time it took Michael to create the universe of Nebadon and earn his sovereignty condition our appreciation of his fatherly love?
2. Why were the early bestowals of Michael not formally announced?
3. Why was Michael’s exceptional service as a Material Son and a morontia mortal not given to us?
4. Why was there full publicity of Michael’s seventh bestowal?
5. Why were Chaldean priests informed of the birth of Jesus?
6. Why did Michael ask the Trinity Sons to stay in our universe?
7. Why do you think Michael selected the specific types of beings for his seven bestowals?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship