Paper 120 Overview: The Bestowal of Michael on Urantia

Paper 120 reveals the profound cosmic significance of Michael's seventh and final bestowal as Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia. As a Creator Son, Michael had previously bestowed himself six times in the likeness of different orders of his universe creation, but this terminal bestowal as a mortal of the realm represented the culmination of his experiential path to full sovereignty. This sovereignty was not merely a matter of divine right but required Michael's voluntary subordination to the Paradise Trinity through lived experience as the very beings he had created, ultimately embracing the lowest form of intelligent will creatures in his universe.

The paper documents the pivotal pre-incarnation conference between Michael and Immanuel, his Paradise counselor, who presented the formal bestowal commission and detailed counsel concerning the imminent incarnation. Immanuel outlined specific bestowal limitations, cosmic objectives, and practical advice for Michael's life as Jesus, including the recommendation to adjudicate the Lucifer rebellion while in human form and to focus on spiritual liberation rather than political or economic reform. The discourse concludes with a profound theological clarification regarding the incarnation—that Christ Michael was not God associated with man but God incarnate in man, a unified being who was simultaneously divine and human from conception through resurrection. This bestowal represented not merely a demonstration of Michael's commitment to serving rather than being served, but also the supreme fulfillment of his purpose to enhance the revelation of the Universal Father to the worlds of time and space.

I, the Melchizedek director of the revelatory commission assigned by Gabriel, am authorized to present this narrative concerning the events immediately preceding the Creator Son's arrival on Urantia to begin the terminal phase of his universe bestowal experience. Every Creator Son must bestow himself in the likeness of the various orders of intelligent beings he has created as part of the price required for achieving full and supreme sovereignty over his self-created universe of things and beings. Prior to the events I am about to delineate, Michael of Nebadon had already bestowed himself six times in the likeness of six different orders of his diverse creation.

Michael was now preparing to descend upon Urantia as a mortal human being, thus executing the final act in the drama of acquiring universe sovereignty in accordance with the mandates of the Paradise Rulers. Throughout his previous bestowals, Michael had been voluntarily acquiring the experiential understanding necessary for sovereign rulership, not merely seeking to rule Nebadon in his isolated right as a Creator Son. His aspiration extended beyond perfection of rule as a Creator Son to the supremacy of administration as the embodiment of universe wisdom and divine experience of the Supreme Being. This double purpose involved completing the required experiential understanding of creature life demanded of all Creator Sons before assuming complete sovereignty, while simultaneously aspiring to represent the maximum authority of the Paradise Trinity in the direct and personal administration of his local universe.

After Michael had assigned to Gabriel all powers of universe administration not previously conferred upon him, he presented himself before Immanuel, his Paradise counselor, to receive the bestowal commission. Immanuel, representing the Universal Father, addressed Michael with solemn gravity, acknowledging the faithful completion of his six previous bestowals and expressing confidence in Michael's triumphant fulfillment of this terminal sovereignty bestowal. Unlike his previous appearances as fully developed beings of the orders of his choosing, this bestowal would present Michael with an entirely new and challenging experience—appearing not as a fully developed mortal but as a helpless human infant, thereby paying the full price of bestowal and experiencing the complete enlightenment of incarnation as a Creator in the likeness of a creature.

Immanuel explained that with this bestowal, Michael would subject himself wholly to the will of his Paradise Father—the only aspect of the Supreme's sevenfold will he had not yet experienced. As Michael embarked on this Urantia bestowal, he would divest himself of all extraplanetary support and special assistance, becoming wholly dependent upon his Paradise Father for safe conduct through the vicissitudes of mortal life, just as his created beings depend upon him. Immanuel assured Michael that during his absence, the universe would be securely administered, for the Ancients of Days had issued a mandate for the instantaneous extinction of any being who might attempt rebellion during the bestowal period. With this unparalleled guarantee of universal security, Michael could proceed with his mission with but one concern—the unbroken communion between himself and his Paradise Father, through which the universe would behold a new and more understandable revelation of the Universal Father.

Immanuel outlined specific parameters for Michael's incarnational experience, assuring him that all arrangements had been made in accordance with the usages of Sonarington and the mandates of the Eternal Son of Paradise. Michael would grow up on Urantia as a natural child of the realm, subject to the will of his Paradise Father, living the life he had determined, and eventually preparing for his ascension to receive supreme sovereignty. Beyond his primary mission of universe revelation, Immanuel counseled Michael to technically terminate the Lucifer rebellion while on Urantia, approaching this task not as a divine Creator wielding arbitrary power but as the Son of Man, demonstrating how the lowest type of created intelligence could adjudicate the blasphemous pretensions of rebellious Sons of Light through faith-submission to the Father's will.

Immanuel advised Michael to accept from Gabriel the title of "Planetary Prince of Urantia" upon his success in ending the secession, and to do everything consistent with the purpose of his bestowal to atone for the sorrow and confusion caused by the Caligastia betrayal and subsequent Adamic default. He counseled Michael to function primarily as a teacher, liberating and inspiring humanity's spiritual nature, illuminating their darkened intellects, healing their souls, and emancipating their minds from age-old fears. While ministering to physical well-being when wisdom permitted, Michael's essential task was to live the ideal religious life for the inspiration of all Nebadon, to set rebellion-segregated humanity spiritually free, and to pour out the Spirit of Truth, making all normal mortals on Urantia immediately accessible to the ministry of the indwelling Thought Adjusters.

Following the principal bestowal commission, Immanuel presented additional advice developed in consultation with Gabriel concerning more practical aspects of Michael's forthcoming life on Urantia. He advised Michael to balance his pursuit of the ideal religious life with some attention to practical matters that could immediately help his fellow humans. Michael was instructed to give precedence to the accepted customs of family life as established in the time and generation of his bestowal, living in accordance with the practices of the people among whom he would appear.

Regarding societal engagement, Immanuel recommended that Michael confine his efforts largely to spiritual regeneration and intellectual emancipation, avoiding entanglements with economic structures and political commitments of his day. He was specifically counseled not to interfere with the normal evolutionary development of the Urantia races, though this did not prohibit leaving behind an improved system of positive religious ethics. While Michael was advised to identify with existing religious movements, he was cautioned against establishing an organized cult, a crystallized religion, or a segregated ethical grouping of mortals. To prevent the creation of subsequent stereotyped religious systems, Immanuel urged Michael to leave no writings behind, make no images or likenesses of himself, and ensure nothing potentially idolatrous remained after his departure. Though he would live a normal social life, the incarnation mandates of Sonarington forbade him from leaving human offspring behind on any planet of his bestowal.

The bestowal incarnation of Michael effectively silenced those unworthy children who had accused their Creator-father of selfishly seeking rulership, suggesting that he was arbitrarily and autocratically upheld in power by virtue of the unreasoning loyalty of deluded creatures. The life of self-forgetful service that the Son of God entered as the Son of Man—subject to the will of the Paradise Father—left these rebellious beings forever confounded and disillusioned about Michael's true character and motivation. This profound demonstration of divine humility revealed the true nature of Michael's sovereignty as rooted in service rather than arbitrary power.

The incarnation represented a metaphysical mystery of profound proportions, for Christ Michael was not a double personality but a single, unified being who was simultaneously divine and human. He did not progressively become God during his earth life, nor did God at some vital moment become man; Jesus was always God and man—always and forevermore one. This God-man unity was comparable to the indivisible oneness of the Paradise Trinity, though manifested in the context of a temporal, material existence. The supreme spiritual purpose of the Michael bestowal was to enhance the revelation of God to the mortal inhabitants of a confused and darkened world. His appearance through seemingly natural processes of human birth, yet as a divine Son, was regarded by the citizens of Nebadon as the most intriguing of all miracles—the operation of universal laws beyond comprehension that allowed the Creator of a universe to live among his creatures as one of them while remaining the sovereign architect of all existence.

Michael's incarnation as Jesus established an eternal paradigm of the relationship between God and humanity. Through this terminal bestowal, the Creator Son not only fulfilled the technical requirements for full universe sovereignty but more importantly demonstrated the nature of divine love in its most accessible and transformative expression. The Creator chose to experience the full limitations of his lowest creatures, including their trials, sufferings, and mortality, not merely as an administrative requirement but as an act of profound identification and compassion.

This incarnation transcended philosophical abstraction to become experiential reality—God did not merely observe human existence from a distance but lived it completely. In doing so, Michael transformed the very concept of divine revelation from a matter of precepts and principles to one of personal presence and participation. The limitations Michael voluntarily accepted during his bestowal—particularly his willing subordination to the Father's will and his reliance on the indwelling Adjuster—established a pattern for all creatures seeking to know and do the divine will. Through his life as Jesus, Michael revealed that true sovereignty lies not in the exercise of power but in the surrender to love, and that genuine divinity is expressed not through exemption from creaturely limitations but through the perfect fulfillment of divine purpose within those limitations.