[tmtranscripts] Michael 10.2.06

[JERRY LANE]

Michael—October 2, 2006

Marin TM Group—Mill Valley, California—U.S.A.

MICHAEL—T/R-JL

(A big picture)
(Principles of transparency and democracy)
(A necessary monumental forgiveness)
(Michael’s life)
(God’s will, and His creatures’ free will)
(Good and evil are not abstract dualities)
(The mercy-lag of justice)

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,    Thank You for visiting with us this way, 
and for your words of hope, and insight, and understanding.  We thank You 
for the Teaching Mission You have inaugurated, and we wish to thank all Your 
Sons and Daughters for Their contributions to it.  And finally, we wish to 
thank our initial teacher, our beloved elder brother, Welmek, for setting 
our feet on this path.  Amen.

MICHAEL:  Good evening, My worshipful sons, this is Michael, your 
father—your Dad, and your brother, and your close friend, your very informal 
buddy.  If I were here in person, we could go fishing together.  I did have 
a bit of experience with that once upon a time.  This is always how I would 
like you to think of Me, because this is definitely how I think of us, 
Myself.

(A big picture)

Though Mother and I are parents to literally millions of worlds at all 
stages of development, some just now coming on line, so to speak, with their 
evolving, primitive type human beings, others on the other end of the 
spectrum having been settled in Light and Life for endless millennia; still 
to all My sons and daughters, both Mother and I feel very close.  And We 
derive such pleasure, such enjoyment when each of you feels this same 
closeness.

Your knowledge of Us, your ability to receive Us this way, marks the 
entrance upon a definite stage of planetary evolution that has happened on 
every evolved planet.  When every world’s population reaches a certain stage 
of maturity in understanding, We are able to communicate this way through 
its members.

And while there is a general pattern of planetary development, it is really 
most general.  Your own world has departed from this pattern in many ways, 
and it has been the purpose of the Urantia book to explain some of these 
differences. Now you can have some sense of reference, some understanding of 
the more common or usual ways of planetary development.  All these 
explanations serve to help your faith in God’s ultimate justice.

No matter how severe life seems to have treated you, or those you know of, 
about the world, you can understand that there is no other way to give your 
kind of being the freedom you do have without allowing for some temporal 
disruptions.  If all human actions were instantaneously adjudicated and 
corrected, there would be no freedom as you know it.  There would be no 
possibility for any deviation from God’s will.  So it is true that much of 
what you know as human-created suffering is the price you pay for this 
ability you have to choose. The evolution of your civilization and your 
culture depends upon a thorough understanding of this principle, and a 
thoroughgoing appreciation of this price you pay for your freedom.

There is still a great percentage of the world’s children who are not taught 
they have this freedom, nor made aware they have a responsibility, not only 
to others, but even to themselves.  In fact, much of the institutionalized 
teaching of either church or state is in the opposite direction, its 
purpose, more or less, to mentally and spiritually enslave each younger 
generation coming along, to not question, nor to realize they have 
individual choices to make.

In a more ideal world each individual, though raised by authority, would be 
thoroughly prepared so that, at a certain stage of maturity, he or she would 
realize the necessity to make inner choices--for themselves--as to what is 
real--no less.  Just think of the trust in your children that this would 
require.  Think of the faith involved when each parent and teacher would 
welcome their children’s or their students’ surpassing them--voluntarily 
being guided in the wise use of  power as it’s passed on from generation to 
generation--smoothly, lovingly, progressively.

(Principles of transparency and democracy)

Make no mistake: the human races on Urantia are evolving.  Civilization and 
culture are maturing, and the worldwide communications coming into play are 
fantastically accelerating the process.  Great principles of transparency in 
all institutions of government, and religion, and learning, are transforming 
concepts of where responsibility ultimately rests, ever so surely 
transferring it on to its origin, the people themselves.

As one of your wise statesman put it: there is no safe repository for the 
ultimate powers of society but the people themselves.  But obviously the 
people themselves must want this.  They must be willing to devote the life 
energies and time necessary to make their representatives responsible to 
them.  The general principle of representative democracy is sound.  It is 
only in the final stages of Light and Life, the final maturation of 
civilization and culture on a world, that the state has pretty much faded 
away and men and women no longer require these institutions of law and 
authority to behave wonderfully.

So have faith in these principles, My sons and daughters.  Have faith in 
yourselves and your children.  Appreciate these freedoms that are yours for 
the very terrible price your particular world has paid for them.  When you 
consider the evolution of your societies, you can feel again a wondrous 
wellspring of hope for the movement towards a recognition of individual 
liberties.  Though hardly constant over the years, with all its many 
setbacks, it’s still been on the whole: unstoppable.

Remember that all the individual freedoms with respect to government that 
you have, all have come about one small step at a time.  Some, concerning 
the franchising of all races, both sexes, and all economic classes, have 
only come about very recently indeed, and are still not by a long shot 
universal.  But this is the way to go.  This is the orientation of true 
progress.  You help bring about this ideal future by thoroughly exploring, 
and understanding, and respecting the process as it has developed over the 
past.

(A necessary monumental forgiveness)

The monumental forgiveness that is necessary now is perfectly consistent 
with forgetting nothing, neither in your own individual past, nor as you 
look out on your society and world.  As I have said before, everything that 
has ever happened is deserving of respect for its sheer actuality.   Ask 
only: was it real, did it really happen?  Only then, once you have accepted 
all the facts of any matter, can you turn to understanding why, based upon 
this acceptance.

There you will find the grounds for hope, for the supreme optimism that 
Mother Spirit and I only wish We could transfer to you directly from our 
viewpoint overlooking the evolution of millions of worlds, and our 
understanding of God’s will and ways.  For you this is largely a matter of 
faith.  Yet it is this faith We see burning in your souls like a laser of 
pure light that gives Us the greatest hope of all.

Oh, My children, if you could only see yourselves as We do.  So keep your 
faith burning strong.  Keep your hope from faltering.  Keep stretching to 
appreciate all your forbearers have done to pass their life and their hopes 
on to you.  Then smile as you meet the eyes of your children and send them 
out into the world, trusting they will move things along one small step 
further.  This is the passing of the lamp we are all involved in; and it is 
good.  It is eternal.

If you have any questions or comments this evening, it is My great pleasure 
to do My best to meet your expectations.

Student:  Thank You, Michael, for taking time out from Your life to be with 
us tonight.  Thank You for putting a positive outlook on the way life 
evolves, and the events in this world.  I don’t have any questions tonight, 
just those two comments.

(Michael’s life)

MICHAEL:  Thank you, C, for your heartfelt appreciation.  This is not really 
taking any kind of time out for, you see, this is what I do.  This is My 
life.  And I certainly don’t call it work.  As Mother has so often told you, 
being a Creator Son is mostly being a father to Our creations.  And as I 
mentioned this evening, it’s wonderful when the human races of an evolving 
planet reach the stage where they can consider Us and our Universal Father, 
not as some tyrannical, cranky rulers, but as the closest, wisest, and most 
loving of friends.  So I am pleased to say, thank you for your appreciation. 
  You are very welcome.  Be in My peace.

Student: Thank You, Father Michael.

Student:  Yes, Michael, I’m pondering upon what we discussed in our previous 
meeting about the phenomenon of evil, and I guess what I was getting caught 
up in was, was the idea of duality--that there is love and then there’s 
evil.  But then as I thought more about that: in a sense, love and evil are 
of the same coin--two sides of the same coin, a gold coin if you may, in 
that even with the expression of evil there is love.  I don’t know if I’ll 
be able to make this clear, but I still do not believe that God knows of 
evil, because all He knows is love, absolute love.

So the evil we see in the world is just a perverted expression of love.  
When one chooses to live God’s will, then there is no capacity to commit 
evil, or even think of it, or conceive of it.  This leads me into the next 
thing of God’s will and free will, for I think and perceive that God’s will 
for all of us is absolute harmony, and goodness, and love, and wealth, and 
so on.  So how can there be evil if there is absolute love, if that’s His 
intention?  With the idea of free will, I perceive that free will, possibly 
as God intended it to be expressed, was to…  You can’t separate yourself 
from God’s will: there is no separation: we are God’s will.  Free will is a 
further expression of God’s will, but in our own unique fashion, and 
experience, and flavor.  So that’s how I perceive of free will, and God’s 
will.

MICHAEL:  Yes, My son, I understand your quandary…

Student:  I’m not denying there’s evil things out there in the world.  I 
mean I realize…I feel it.  I see the suffering.  I know what is going on in 
the world.

MICHAEL:  There you just anticipated what I was about to say, because in 
your first discourse you more or less denied the existence of evil…

Student:  I think I was meaning, I didn’t deny the existence of evil, but 
that God created evil.  He cannot even experience evil, or even know of 
evil—if He is absolute love, and absolute joy.  Evil is only our sense of 
separation from this absolute love.  But in reality there is no separation.

(God’s will, and His creatures’ free will)

MICHAEL:  The only way out of this circular reasoning is to more thoroughly 
understand these terms.  This is why the Urantia book goes to some lengths, 
and needs to, in defining the meaning to be put on certain word symbols such 
as sin or evil.  The creation of a finite universe full of, as I put it, 
immature and imperfect beings, allows for deviation from God’s will and 
ways—which you are correct in seeing are perfect, or absolute and infinite.  
But His creatures are not.  They are immature and imperfect.  They are given 
a free will to make it possible to deviate from His ways.  That is the 
meaning of free will.

On the simplest level, they can make mistakes.  Every parent is aware of the 
mistakes their child must make in order to learn hot things burn, sharp 
things cut.  Many of these mistakes are made unconsciously and 
unintentionally as a young being learns about reality.  A sin is your 
consciously going against God’s will, doing something that your own inner 
knowledge tells you is not right, say, persisting in an unhealthy habit, 
since God wants you healthy and strong.   Yet the very existence of, say, 
cigarettes, means there is this possibility for sin, for choosing something 
you know is not His will.  The same is true of evil—willfully, knowingly 
harming another.  As you came to admit, there is no denying the reality of 
this.  We go one step further and define iniquity as the whole-hearted 
identification with, or devotion to evil, which some men have chosen to do.

When God created the universes of time and space and peopled them with 
beings such as yourselves, He created this possibility.  This possibility is 
the very definition of free will, free to deviate from His will.  The 
creature’s free will is not synonymous with His.

Student:  But how can He do so?  We may be getting beyond what I can 
comprehend, but how can He conceive of that?

MICHAEL:  Because He is God.  You cannot put limits upon His creativity.  
Nor can you say that He does not know every tiny aspect of everything that 
is happening.  He is cognizant of every act throughout all of time and 
space.  This is what is meant by omniscience. You’ve expressed some notions 
that God cannot know evil, whereas He knows every evil act that has ever 
taken place, and He definitely allows it, for He is also omnipotent.  There 
can be no limits put upon His power to change anything, in that His power is 
also consistent and one with His absolute and infinite wisdom.

On this absolute and infinite scale, He is truly a divine parent who allows 
His children to make their mistakes, allows them to be responsible for what 
they do so that their experiences are truly their own; their souls are truly 
their own.  Seen from this scale, all sin, evil, and iniquity—all are 
definitely time-limited.  Every evil act has a definite beginning and end, 
whereas God’s goodness does not.  The goodness of the total is never in 
doubt.  God’s will prevails by the very definition of who and what we mean 
by God, what we mean by omnipotence and omniscience.  He is ubiquitous 
within time and space, and omnipresent in a time-and-space transcended way.

So read the transcripts, My son, and re-think some of your notions of what 
God can or cannot create.  You yourself are the proof of His ability to 
create an imperfect and immature being.  As We keep reassuring you: you are 
absolutely real.

Student:  You also keep saying, if only I could see myself as You see 
me—which is as God sees me—full of love and full of joy, and wholeness.  And 
more.

MICHAEL:  Yet with the potential, the ability for anything conceivable.  
Also, My son, look at your understanding of what an enlightened person—as 
you think of one—experiences as he goes through a normal day in your 
society.  He is constantly confronted with a thousand and one choices along 
a whole spectrum of good and evil.  It is not that he would no longer 
conceive of, or have any contact or cognizance of evil when he is surrounded 
by all these relatively good and evil acts impinging upon his consciousness. 
  Consider the violence in your mass entertainment, the real warfare on your 
world.  So don’t think there is some state of mind you should achieve where 
you do not have to consider or conceive of these things.  They are part of 
the stream of life you are living in, full of all these contrastive elements 
of good and evil.

Getting into the meaning of meaning once again, both the concept and the 
real virtue of loyalty only exists within the possibility of default and 
betrayal.  And so it is with all the virtues.  But I must admit I do not 
know what you mean by good and evil are the same thing, or the same coin.

Student:  Two sides of the same coin.

(Good and evil are not abstract dualities)

MICHAEL:  Two sides of the same coin.  Good is definitely what affirms life, 
and is consistent with God’s will.  Evil is a deviation from this that 
causes pain and suffering.  A man who stoops to help a child with food and 
shelter, love and companionship, is in no way analogous to another who may 
obscenely harm a small child.  They both exist on your world.  These are not 
abstract dualities.  They are specific acts that either nurture or harm.  
The consequences are real.  Love and evil are not in any way related.  Love 
is a connecting, bonding, empathizing kind of emotion.  Evil is a 
destructive desire in its essence, fueled by the self indulgence of hatred.  
One connects; the other severs and harms.  So keep your philosophy down to 
earth, My son.  Look at the results of specific acts, for all your 
abstractions, your general terms “good” and “evil” do stem from these.  (a 
very long pause, several minutes)

Let Me ask if you can feel the concrete-ness of My proposals.

Student:  I kind-of don’t feel anything.  Because…  Hmmm… It seems like my… 
I’m trying to take in what You’ve said.  Because some of what You’ve said 
seems contrary to what I’ve come to understand, and what I’ve read in 
certain materials that have come my way.  But I do feel I am grounded in 
living upon this earth, and seeing the God-potential within each human 
being—to the best of my abilities.  Beneath the surface of good and evil, of 
duality, is God’s will, and it’s always there.  You can never be separated 
from it.  It’s what sustains us.

(The mercy-lag of justice)

MICHAEL:  But you can be separated—for a while, due to what We call the 
mercy-lag of justice.  There have been living beings of high estate and 
intelligence who went astray.  Consider Lucifer, the one-time sovereign of 
your Local System of over six hundred inhabited worlds, a being who got His 
name for the brilliance of His intellect, a Primary Lanondadek Son given 
this position of extraordinary responsibility and authority.  At some point, 
out of His own creative abilities, He began to conceive of a reality that 
ultimately denied even the existence of God the Father, and considered 
Myself and the other Creator Sons of the Local Universes as some kind of 
petty tyrants.  He declared that all subordinate beings were free in a way 
of no responsibility whatsoever to God’s will.  Often He cited as proof of 
God’s non-existence and We Creator Sons’ impotence, the fact He was not 
instantaneously annihilated.  As your Urantia book informs you, several 
dozen planetary administrations, including that of Urantia, joined in His 
rebellion.  This rebellion was allowed to go on for a number of years until 
every single being caught up in it had time to make their choice as to which 
side they were on.  At the end of that time He was summarily shorn of all 
His powers and put away.

That was about two hundred thousand years ago, and even though He was 
offered this mercy-lag of justice, He refused in any way to acknowledge a 
greater authority, and mercy, and justice, and was only recently 
annihilated.  He no longer exists.  So think about your statement that no 
one deviates from God’s will, for indeed this is an ultimate possibility.

This is what Mother Spirit referred to last week when She said, eternal life 
is forced upon no one.  But it does have its requirements.  You have to 
choose to be in accord with God’s will, which is reality, which is 
continuing life, evolving life, growing life.  For if you totally identify 
with what is contrary to God’s will--which is your ability to do--you are 
simply taking yourself out of reality.  You’ve identified with what is only 
temporal.  So you can choose to cease to exist.  And this is the ultimate 
proof and demonstration of free will.

So think about these things, My son.  I know deep in your heart you 
certainly will.

Student:  All I know is that without God I am nothing, and with Him I am 
everything—whoever God is.  I know I’m limited in my understanding of the 
scope, the immensity of His being, but I am a part of Him.  And my intention 
is to live as You see me—to the best of my ability.

MICHAEL:  As Mother Spirit encouraged you last week, keep going.  Keep 
exercising this innate curiosity you have about the true reality of things, 
of God’s ways.  Since time immemorial people have wondered how God could let 
evil exist, yet the answer is possible to understand, and seeking it leads 
you to Him.  But you do not achieve God, and a thorough understanding of His 
will, overnight.

Student:  Yes, I do understand that.  Thank You.

MICHAEL:  You are welcome.  You see how being open-minded can lead to real 
quandaries, (much laughter) but that only fuels your determination to stay 
with the game, and keep seeking Him.  You can always find My peace deep 
within yourself.

So good evening, My stalwart sons.  I’ve enjoyed another evening visiting 
with you.  I’ll definitely relay your affection to Welmek.  Be in My peace.


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