[tmtranscripts] Pocatello transcript 4-7-00

[Bill Kelly]

POCATELLO TEAM
4-7-00

OPENING PRAYER by unknown entity (Bill): Father of lights, to you we owe
our allegiance, our very existence.  We gather tonight to be in fellowship
with each other and with you, aware of your presence, aware of the presence
of Christ Michael, that we may cherish the experience of personality
existence that we each enjoy, your gift to us all.  Help us to have ears to
hear, hearts to share and hands to do service.  Amen.

Daniel (Bob S): This is Daniel, you teacher, guide and elder brother.  My
friends, how wonderful it is to gather with you at this time in your busy
lives.  We cherish these times together for they allow all of us, those on
your side and those on our side, to grow spiritually.  You are not given
the gift of spiritual growth visualization, but you have been given
guidelines which allow you to gage the growth of your individual soul's
existence.  Once on Morontial World #1 you gain instant visual perspective
as to your soul's growth.  It is quite a change.  You will be amazed how
things are different just one level above where you are now.
My friends we plan quite a full evening tonight, so let's get with it.
(Laughter.)  One moment please.

Aaron (Bill): Hello, dear friends.  I am Aaron present with you, as I
usually am, this evening.  I would like to have us interact as we sometimes
do, and I would like to pose some inquiries, which you are invited to
respond to.  I realize that this sometimes makes some of you nervous.  You
are less comfortable when you are speaking than when you are listening.  On
the other hand it is perhaps only fair for you to share in the teaching
mode of our interaction, for you are in fact being trained as, you know, as
both students and teachers.  In as much as we are in the Easter season, a
time when this world celebrates the Easter event, I would like to inquire
how your relationship with Michael, otherwise known as Joshua ben Joseph,
Jesus the Christ, has been effected by your involvement with the Fifth
Epochal Revelation which includes both the Urantia Book as text and the
Teaching Mission participation that each of you has taken part in?  I will
give you a little time to think about this, and I would appreciate your
expression along the lines of my inquiry.  Before we begin I would ask you
if my question is clear or do I need to elaborate?

Virginia: Please elaborate.  I think I heard you say how is Jesus effected
by our involvement in the Urantia Book and the Teaching Mission.  Is that
what you said?

Aaron (Bill): If that is what was said, I will blame it on this TR.
(Laughter.)  For my intention is to ask, ...how is your relationship with,
and your understand of, Jesus been effected by your involvement with the
Fifth Epochal Revelation including either/or the Urantia Book and the
Teaching Movement or both?  How's that?

Marty: Is this just in reference to the Easter resurrection or in general?

Aaron (Bill): No, it is not limited to Easter.  However, there is a much
larger scope of information which the Urantia Book has added to that event,
but the answer is your understanding and your relationship with Christ
Michael as a result of this latest epochal revelation.  I would request
that someone offer to start and we will then move clockwise.

Pat: I'll start, to get it over with.  How's that?  (Laughter and comments.)

Aaron (Bill): Thank you for your bravery, Patricia.  (More laughter and
comments.)  I am eagerly awaiting your words.

Pat: Well, I'll be brief.  (More laughter.)  I guess I'll start with the
Urantia Book, and say that I enjoy very much the life of Christ that I am
reading right now.  It has made him more human, more real to me, and made
me so in awe of him also in the life that he led here.  As for the teaching
mission I think that it has made me aware that he is very accessible to me,
if I so choose.  And I am very thankful for both the Urantia Book and for
this Teaching Mission.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you for that clear affirmation of value in your life.
Kenneth? 

Ken: Pass.  (Laughter.)  Well, I agree with Pat.  Not being grounded
strongly in the Bible or any other doctrine prior to receiving the Urantia
Book, and then subsequently this Teaching Mission that we are in, it has
given me an insight into Michael and how human he is, how human God is.
The combination of the two is overpowering.  They carry details.  I don't
know what (else) I can say.  I find myself talking to Michael more and more.

Aaron (Bill): Yes, and this has been our hope, that the actual contact that
you are undergoing with our interaction with you makes it more believable
and feasible to actually communicate with Christ Michael himself.  Thank
you for your words, my friend.  Marty could you reply to my question, please?
Marty: I don't know that I have a lot to add.  It seems that Pat and I seem
to come up on the same track a lot of the time, and I think her two points
are pretty well the same for me.  Christ Michael seems much more real.  I
guess you think that in traditional Christianity he was almost unreachable.
 I felt he was out there, but he was not somebody you could talk to, let
alone hear a response from.  I don't know why, but he didn't seem like a
personal-type person.  But now he seems much more reachable.

Aaron(Bill): So for you also the Urantia Book and the Teaching Mission have
enhanced your contact experience


Marty: Considerably.

Aaron (Bill): considerably.  Thank you very much.  	Carol, can you give you
give some comments to this question?

Carol: Well, I totally agree with Pat and what she said.  We also are
reading the life story of Jesus in part 4 of the Urantia Book in our
Tuesday (American Falls) reading group, and it broadens the scope immensely
because there are so many things that you didn't have contact with before,
that you didn't hear about before.  To me it's more like an autobiography,
because it is much clearer than the Bible.  It makes Jesus more of a real
person to me; I think, like Marty said, much more reachable, and generally
has much more  broadened the scope of things for me.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you for your additional comments, that so far have
pretty much blended together in terms of all of your experiences.  	And now
my friend Bob, would you please comment on the question?

Bob: Before I was introduced to the book and the Teaching Mission, I spent
a lot of time in the organized church.  I had heard people, Christians,
talk about their (personal) relationship to Jesus, and I never felt that.
God and Jesus were beings that were off in the distance somewhere.  I
certainly believed in them, but they were unapproachable or unattainable,
or just over the horizon.  I never felt any close kind of relationship,
until I got the Urantia Book with the Teaching Mission.  It just amplified
them, so that now I feel much closer to both of those Deity entities.  And
I feel, rather than them being off in the distance somewhere, they are
right beside me.  They are walking along with me, and one can communicate
with them just about whenever you want.  If you open the door, they'll step
in.  It's amazing.  So as a result I've become a ‘born-again' Christian.
(Laughter.)  

Aaron (Bill): Those were my very thoughts.  I was going to paraphrase what
you were saying.  (Laughter and comments.)  So, yes, I think you have said
it very well.  I am sorry if my words terminated your comments..

Bob: No, I was finished.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you very much, Bob.

Bob: Maybe I got that idea (of being born again) from you?

Aaron (Bill): It was definitely in the ecosphere.  (Comments.)  Virginia,
my dear, I await your words.

Virginia: A lot of thoughts have come into my mind.  When Pat said that
Jesus was more human, I pictured what I had just listened to on the
(Urantia Book) tape this morning of Jesus in the city of Nazareth sitting
on hill on his third preaching tour, I believe, enjoying the memories of
that place he had as a child.  And so Jesus really is more human.  I can
remember that before the Urantia Book I used to argue that his divinity
kept him from sinning, that he had no choice because he was divine.  And I
think that, if nothing else, the book has made me realize that his lack of
sin really was the choices that he made, rather than the inability to stray
from the Father's will.  So I think that is one thing that is very clear
for me.

The other thing is the book and the Teaching Mission have so broadened
God's love, because growing up I chose a fundamentalist situation.  It was
very exclusive, and taught that certainly no one had the right path but
those that I had identified with at that time.  And throughout my years of
changing churches and changing belief-systems, the identification of ‘the
saved' was different.  But the Urantia Book makes it very plain that we are
all children of God.  So that is a tremendous aspect of the book, and of
course the Teaching Mission has replaced my severe conscience with such
support, almost daily support from the beings that we hear from.  And I
know it is not my alter ego, because that person used to always beat me up
all the time.  (Laughter.)  But I don't have that experience any more.

And I don't what to get too wordy here, but I think the other big thing is
the Easter story itself.  The book has really made that such a big reality;
that Jesus did not have to die  because it was God's will, but it was
because of human beings making choices.  But again in the section I am in,
it talks about the enemies he had, those who were threatened by the truth
that he lived.

And of course the big issue that was a major disagreement before the book
came into our lives was that I could not believe that God would require one
of his children to die to save another child.  So there are just so many
things I could say I am so grateful for.  I know I am a better person, a
better wife, a better teacher, a better mother, a better everything because
of the Urantia Book and the Teaching Mission.

Aaron (Bill): I thank you with all my heart, Virginia, for your eloquent
words, and also my thanks goes out to the rest of you as well.  You have in
your comments covered major areas, and have brought great joy to your
teachers this evening, for you have justified our fondest hopes and dreams
that this planet was ready for new truth; that the time was right for an
enlarged revelation of the meaning of the Fourth Revelation, viz., the
coming of the Bestowal Son, known as Joshua ben Joseph, or Jesus to your
world.  

The Correcting Time, of which the Teaching Mission is a part, is also a
part of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, as well as the next dispensation to
this planet.  You are the men and women that the Urantia Book speaks of,
the new teachers of the gospel of Michael, of the Fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of humankind.  You are, by your own choice, apostles, teachers,
evangelists.  You are the salt of the earth in this generation.  You are
witnesses to the Light of the World in these times.  Our work is very
great, and yet it is very wonderful, for once again, the Christian calendar
forces people to pay attention to the inexplicable experiences which
brought about the origin of Christianity.  Thinking people are more and
more coming to understand that the Easter event cannot be dismissed as a
myth, but was the cause of the formulation of the religion about Jesus
known as Christianity.  It is that time for the chrysalis to break forth in
resurrection glory and transformation; the gospel about Jesus to become the
gospel that he preached, that he taught, that he lived.  

What you have said tonight is testimony to the fact that you are sharing
his faith.  You are experiencing contact with God, and yes, you are ‘born
again' without the narrow confines that those words often suggest in the
minds of those that hear it.  While it is literally true that no one comes
to the Father except through the Son, this has been misunderstood to mean
no one can be saved except they become a Christian.  This is not true, for
in each man and women is that true light which enlightens all, that Thought
Adjuster, that Mystery Monitor, that contact point with God.  It is true
that in the ascension career all will first meet the Son in person at the
universe headquarters world, having met him spiritually throughout their
career prior.  It is also true that ascension candidates will meet the
Eternal Son before they meet the Universal Father on Paradise.  
Those words refer to these experiences and not as some Christians have
conjectured that all persons must think their patterns of thought and
worship in their modalities.  The Fifth Epochal Revelation is not limited
to Christianity.  It is designed to leaven the truth in all religions.  And
so the book and the Teaching Mission and the Correcting Time are all
unified in the effort to bring along this planet in its journey toward
Light and Life.  We have deliberately asked you all to help us think about
these things tonight, so that we can in a sense pause and look at the
scenery, and see where we have come, and take pleasure in our progress.
And now your have certainly satisfactorily answered my question, and I do
heartily thank you all.  Isaac, do you wish to add anything?

Bill: Yes, Aaron, I would just say that everything that has been said by
everyone else there applies to me as well.  I already  had a spiritual
experience when I was nineteen in which I truly did meet Christ Michael,
who I knew as Jesus, and I did experience the sense of forgiveness and
reality that is described as being ‘born again'; but I think that what the
Fifth Epochal Revelation has done for me is to satisfy all the questions
that I had about what the whole, big universe was all about: Are we the
only planet with life?  Why is this world so screwed up?  (Laughter.)  Why
are we so in the dark about what is going on?  All these things have been
so well answered by the Urantia Book.  And then what the Teaching Mission
has done for me is to make me realize that the intensity of spiritual
contact that you can see in the New Testaments writings, that happened back
there in so-called primitive Christianity, is now happening; and I am as
intimately connected as Paul or any of those people with God and with
Jesus; and that we are all given the same task, to be apostles, to be
teachers, to be bringers of light.  That's my answer.

Aaron (Bill): My dear friend, I appreciate your additional comments.  I
would now return this meeting to Daniel who will offer you the chance to
reverse the process and be the questioners, if you so desire.  One moment,
please.

Daniel (Bob S): This is Daniel.  I now open the floor to questions.  Are
there questions or comments any of you wish to raise at this time?

Ken: Daniel, can you give me a little more insight into the love of God and
the grace of God?

Daniel (Bob S): Ah, my friend, ever the inquisitive one.

Ken: I'm sorry. I'm not supposed to ask those type of questions.  (Laughter.)

Daniel (Bob S):  No, it is a legitimate question.  (More laughter and
comments.)  I shall attempt to give it a legitimate answer.

The love which our father/brother Michael demonstrated during his brief
bestowal on Urantia rather adequately describes the love which is
characteristic of the Father.  And to those of you who now, through the
Urantia Book, understand Michael's feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and life
purpose, now can grasp rather completely what God's love is like.

Grace on the other hand is a much more illusive concept, for it requires
faith as well as intellectual knowledge.  The purpose by which the concept
of grace was delivered to this planet was to endeavor to bridge the gap
that existed in earlier concepts of God's love to that concept
characterized by Michael's bestowal.  If you can for a moment separate your
early experience of what God's love was like as a child or youth, or
someone just beginning your religious career, to where you are today, in
terms of understanding God's love, you can possibly see why the concept of
grace was given to this planet.  Those of us from more advanced planets had
no need for this initially divergent view of God's view, hence it was not
taught to us.  So consider what has been said tonight as the possible
culmination of your need for understand the concept of grace.  Kenneth, how
am I doing?  (Laughter.)

Ken: Your opening statement that Christ sojourned on the earth, on this
planet, was the expression of God's love.  Did I get that right?

Daniel (Bob S): Yes.

Ken: And grace goes beyond that to overall love of the Father, the expanding


Daniel (Bob S): I would say, if I might, (Laughter.) those of you gathered
in this room will see no difference between your vision of God's love and
God's grace from your more accurate and now more mature view.

(Editor: A few lines were lost in tape breaking.)

Bill: Daniel, my understanding of what you said was a new idea to me, that
grace was a concept of God that intervened between more primitive ideas of
God and the full presentation of his love by his son, Jesus, our Bestowal
Son.  And I am thinking the word grace in our English language is kind of
in contrast to ferocious, angry, or to be gracious is the opposite of
ferocious, angry; and I am thinking that primitive religion conceives of
God as angry and requiring sacrificial propitiation and these kinds of
things.  So the concept of grace would be that God is other that than, that
he is kind and loving.  Now you didn't say all of that, but it seemed like
it was coming out of your thought.  Do I understand this correctly, in
terms of what you were trying to say?

Daniel (Bob S): I would say that your characterization of my words is
accurate.  I sense you have a follow-up question.

Bill: Well, its just that, if I heard you correctly just a minute ago, we
don't really have to dwell much any more on grace as we have seen the full
shining of God's love in the face of Jesus, and this needs to be what we
talk about and get out.

Daniel (Bob S): Yes.  Again your assessment and characterization of my
words is excellent.  That is precisely what I was attempting to portray.

Virginia: Daniel, I couldn't sleep Sunday night, as you probably know, and
I pulled up on the computer the word grace in the Urantia Book.  And I
think that what you are saying is the concept that I got, the synthesis,
the paragraphs that I read that night, that grace has to do with or is a
result of personal growth after having experienced the love of God.

Daniel (Bob S): I would say that this is a generally accepted view of the
definition of the word grace in organized Christian religions today.  My
thought was to lift you beyond the need for that less mature view, to say
you no longer need to consider it necessary to even consider what you call
grace, for you now have in your minds what was presented in the Fifth
Epochal Revelation and it supplants and completes and fulfills what earlier
definitions of grace were attempting to portray.

Virginia: Thank you, Daniel.

Bill: Well that, Daniel, reminds me of something in the Urantia Book where
it is that we are not to be concerned with personal salvation.  That is no
longer an issue.  We take that foregranted, I guess, and what we should be
concerned with instead is service.  

Daniel (Bob S): Again, my son, your sensitivity to my words is stunning.
You have accurately seen what I have attempted to clarify and have in my
judgement raised it to the next level.  Once you have seen God clearly, you
no longer need to rely on his angels for your understanding.

Are there further questions or comments you wish to lift up at this time?
(No questions.)  Hearing none, it is my sense of culmination.  Therefore I
suggest we close tonight's meeting and prepare for what you have planned
next.  Are there final concluding statements?

Ken: Yes.  "Thank you, Daniel".

Daniel (Bob S): And I thank you, Kenneth, my friend.  Friends, shall we
stand and join hands, and prepare for a time of prayer.  I shall pause at
this time to see if others wish to close this section of tonight's meeting
with a prayer.

Alkon (Bill): I am Alkon.  I would like to pray.  Let us all unite in worship.

 Oh thou great First Source and Center who dwells both in our hearts and on
Paradise, we your children offer to you our most sincere thanks for
granting us personality existence.

Oh great Second Source and Center, Eternal Son, we your children worship
you and thank you for sending your Sons to our worlds of space to reveal
the perfection of Deity expressed in humanity.

Oh great Third Source and Center, Infinite Spirit, we thank you for the
gift of mind that you given to us through your Divine Ministers, and for
our seraphim companions that we value and enjoy so much.

Christ Michael and Nebanonia, you are our actual creators, and we thank you
for taking the initiative of creating your own universe were we are
privileged to have been born and ascending in.  You are ever present with
us and we your children are also your companions and apostles and teachers.

For all of these things do we thank you, God the Seven Fold, that we can be
part of God the Supreme, that we can play in the great orchestra of the
Supreme our own tunes on our own instruments.  Therefore, as my brothers
and sisters go about their socializing may they truly experience the depth
of love that they have as members of this cosmic family, this wonderful
orchestra.  May it be so.  Amen.