Paper 189 Overview: The Resurrection

Following Jesus' entombment on Friday afternoon, the chief archangel of Nebadon convened a celestial council to contemplate the potential restoration of Jesus to life. This convocation yielded the conclusion that created beings could not facilitate the resurrection of their Creator. Gabriel informed them that since Michael had voluntarily relinquished his life, he possessed the sovereign authority to reclaim it through his own determination. The Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, commanding the assembled celestial hosts on Urantia, clarified that what the universe was witnessing was the mortal transit of Jesus, his progression from physical incarnation to morontia existence, a journey that Jesus would complete through his own inherent power rather than through the intervention of his created beings.

The resurrection manifested at precisely 3:02 a.m. on Sunday, when Jesus emerged from the tomb in morontia form while his physical body remained undisturbed within the sepulchre. Upon resurrection, Jesus first greeted Gabriel, issued directives regarding universal administration under Immanuel, and began his morontia existence. His material body was subsequently dissolved through an accelerated process at the request of the archangels, creating the enigma of the empty tomb that became central to early Christian faith. The resurrection initiated a dispensational transition, triggering the general resurrection of those who had died since Adam's time. Through subsequent appearances to his followers, particularly to the women who first discovered the empty tomb and later to Peter and John, Jesus provided tangible confirmation of his triumph over death, though his disciples initially struggled to comprehend the profound reality of his resurrection despite his repeated forewarnings of this event.

Shortly after Jesus' burial on Friday afternoon, the chief archangel of Nebadon summoned his council to consider possible methods for the restoration of Jesus to life. This assembly of the celestial sons of the local universe deliberated on their own initiative without Gabriel's authorization. By midnight, they concluded that created beings could do nothing to facilitate the Creator's resurrection. They accepted Gabriel's counsel that since Michael had willingly relinquished his life, he possessed the inherent power to reclaim it according to his own determination. Following this council's adjournment, the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, who commanded the assembled celestial hosts on Urantia, addressed the expectant observers regarding the impending transition.

The Personalized Adjuster explained that none of the celestial beings could assist Jesus in his return to life. Having experienced mortal death as a creature of the realm, Jesus was now navigating the transition from material existence to morontia life—a journey all ascending mortals must undertake. The Adjuster emphasized that while celestial beings typically assist ordinary creatures through this process, they could not participate in the Creator's self-resurrection. Jesus had chosen to experience the full spectrum of mortal existence, from birth through natural death to resurrection, but certain aspects of this process were reserved exclusively for the Creator. The Adjuster concluded with certainty regarding these proceedings, stating, "I know whereof I speak," indicating direct knowledge from the Paradise Father regarding the impending resurrection.

At precisely 2:45 Sunday morning, seven unidentified Paradise personalities arrived at the tomb and deployed themselves around it. At 3:02 a.m., on April 9, A.D. 30, the resurrected morontia form and personality of Jesus emerged from Joseph's new tomb. Significantly, his physical body remained undisturbed inside, still wrapped in burial linens exactly as it had been placed by Joseph and his associates. The stone blocking the entrance remained unmoved, Pilate's seal unbroken, and the temple and Roman guards continued their vigilant watch, completely unaware that the object of their vigil had transcended to a higher form of existence. The material body now represented merely a discarded outer shell with no further connection to the liberated and resurrected morontia personality of Jesus, illustrating the profound truth that matter serves as the skeletal framework for morontia, both being reflected shadows of enduring spirit reality.

The revelators emphasize that no creature from this universe or any other participated in Jesus' morontia resurrection. On Friday, he relinquished his mortal life; on Sunday morning, he reclaimed it as a morontia being of the system of Satania in Norlatiadek. While the precise mechanics of this transition remain partially mysterious to the revelators, they affirm with certainty that it occurred exactly as described and at the specified time.

The morontia resurrection took place within Joseph's tomb without external assistance, with the seven Paradise personalities present as witnesses but not participants. Jesus emerged in the form characteristic of resurrected morontia beings who ascend from the resurrection halls of the first mansion world. His first action upon arising was to greet Gabriel and instruct him to continue executive management of universe affairs under Immanuel, after which he requested certification from the Ancients of Days confirming his completed mortal transit and initiated his experiences in morontia form.

Following Jesus' resurrection, as he engaged with assembled morontia personalities from the seven mansion worlds of Satania, the chief of archangels approached Gabriel with a formal request regarding Jesus' physical remains. The archangel petitioned for custody of the mortal body, not to employ their usual dematerialization techniques, but rather to implement an accelerated time process for its dissolution. He articulated that while celestial beings had witnessed their Sovereign's mortal life and death on Urantia, they wished to be spared the distressing spectacle of his physical form's gradual decomposition. The archangel appealed for immediate dissolution of the body, emphasizing that witnessing the Creator's mortal form slowly decay would be an unnecessary burden for the celestial hosts. After Gabriel consulted with the senior Most High of Edentia, the archangel received authorization to proceed as requested.

The chief archangel summoned numerous colleagues and representatives of all orders of celestial personalities who, with the assistance of Urantia midwayers, took possession of Jesus' physical body. Unlike the morontia form that could pass through material barriers, the physical body required physical manipulation to be removed from the tomb. Secondary Urantia midwayers were assigned to roll away the massive circular millstone that moved in a rock-hewn groove from the tomb entrance.

When the Jewish and Roman guards witnessed this stone moving apparently by its own power in the dim morning light, they fled in terror. Rather than investigating this phenomenon or disciplining the guards who abandoned their post, the Jewish leaders chose to bribe both the Jewish guards and Roman soldiers to claim that Jesus' disciples had stolen his body while they slept. This fabrication became the official explanation for the empty tomb, while the truth was that Jesus' physical remains had undergone a unique, accelerated return to elemental components. This was not through resurrection or rehabilitation, but through a special dissolution that bypassed the normal processes of mortal decay.

Shortly after 4:30 Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the archangels and prepared to inaugurate the general resurrection marking the conclusion of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of seraphim and cherubim involved in this momentous event had assembled in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel and authorized the resurrection to commence. Though Jesus had not yet fully resumed his universal jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation did not restrict his authority to bestow life upon his "sleeping sons." Gabriel and the archangels positioned themselves at the planet's spiritual polarity, and at Gabriel's signal, his voice transmitted to the first mansion world the decree: "By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise." Instantly, all survivors of human races who had died since Adam's time and had not yet been judged materialized in the resurrection halls of mansonia, prepared for morontia investiture.

This event constituted the third planetary roll call or complete dispensational resurrection in Urantia's history. The first occurred when the Planetary Prince arrived, the second during Adam's time, and this third resurrection coincided with Jesus' morontia resurrection and mortal transit. Though countless individuals with personal seraphic guardians and those achieving requisite spiritual progress had ascended to mansonia throughout the ages since Adam and Eve, and despite several special and millennial resurrections of Urantia's sons, this marked only the third complete dispensational resurrection.

Following this monumental event, the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus relinquished authority over the assembled celestial hosts on Urantia, returning them to their respective commanders' jurisdiction. The Adjuster then departed for Salvington to register with Immanuel the completion of Michael's mortal transit, followed by all celestial beings not required for ongoing duties on Urantia. Gabriel, however, remained with the morontia Jesus. This account represents the resurrection events as they actually transpired, free from the limitations of partial and restricted human perception that characterized subsequent accounts.

As the time of Jesus' resurrection approached early Sunday morning, the ten apostles were secluded at Elijah and Mary Mark's home, while Thomas had separated from the group, seeking solitude at Simon's home in Bethpage. The apostles suffered not merely from doubt and despair but from fear, grief, and shame following the traumatic events of the crucifixion. Elsewhere in Jerusalem, approximately twelve of Jesus' prominent disciples had gathered at Nicodemus' home with David Zebedee and Joseph of Arimathea, while about fifteen to twenty leading women believers remained sequestered at Joseph's residence. These women, having remained indoors through the Sabbath, were unaware of the military guard posted at the tomb and the second stone placed before it under Pilate's seal.

Shortly before three o'clock Sunday morning, five women—Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the Alpheus twins, Salome the mother of the Zebedee brothers, Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna the daughter of Ezra—departed for Jesus' tomb carrying embalming lotions and additional linen bandages. Upon arriving around 3:30 a.m., they were astonished to find the stone removed from the tomb entrance, having just discussed during their journey who might help them with this formidable task. As they stood trembling with fear, Mary Magdalene ventured into the sepulchre and discovered that Jesus' body was gone, though the burial cloths remained neatly arranged. The head napkin folded where Jesus' head had rested and the body bandages were lying intact as they had been placed on the stone. Her cry of alarm startled the already nervous women, who fled toward the Damascus gate before conscience-stricken Joanna rallied them to return for Mary.

When the women returned and all entered the tomb to confirm it was empty, they sat near the entrance contemplating their dilemma. They speculated that the body had been relocated, but could not reconcile this theory with the meticulously arranged grave cloths. As dawn illuminated their surroundings, they noticed a silent, motionless stranger nearby. Mary Magdalene, assuming he was the garden's caretaker, implored him to reveal where Jesus' body had been taken. When the stranger spoke, asking whom they sought, and reminded them of Jesus' promise to rise again, the women were startled but did not immediately recognize him with his back turned to the dim light. It was only when he addressed Mary with his familiar voice that recognition dawned, and she rushed to kneel at his feet, exclaiming, "My Lord, and my Master!" Jesus instructed her not to touch him as he was not as they had known him in the flesh, and directed them to inform his apostles, specifically mentioning Peter, of his resurrection. When the women reported this encounter to the apostles, they were met with skepticism, but Peter and John rushed to the tomb to investigate for themselves.

As the two apostles raced toward Golgotha, Peter's thoughts oscillated between profound fear and tentative hope. The narrative of the women had partially rekindled his faith, and he suddenly recalled Jesus' promise to rise on the third day, a commitment that had not crossed his mind since the crucifixion until this urgent journey northward through Jerusalem. John, younger and more emotionally responsive than Peter, experienced a strange ecstasy of joy and hope swelling within his soul as he ran, half-convinced that the women had indeed encountered the risen Master. John's superior speed brought him first to the tomb, where he paused at the entrance, surveying the scene exactly as Mary had described it, while Peter, upon arrival, immediately entered the sepulchre to confirm the extraordinary report firsthand.

After Peter emerged, John also entered the tomb to witness the evidence personally. The two apostles then sat down on the stone outside to contemplate the significance of what they had observed. They methodically analyzed everything they had been told about Jesus, yet struggled to clearly comprehend the events that had transpired. Peter initially proposed that grave robbers had taken the body, possibly bribing the guards, but John presented the logical counter-argument that thieves would scarcely have left the tomb so orderly, raising the pertinent question of why the bandages remained apparently intact. While they continued their deliberation, Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb in a state of emotional distress, having initially believed in the resurrection upon discovering the empty tomb, but becoming despondent when the apostles dismissed her account as a vision.

While Mary lingered after Peter and John's departure, Jesus appeared to her again, saying: "Be not doubting; have the courage to believe what you have seen and heard." He instructed her once more to inform the apostles of his resurrection and his intention to meet them in Galilee as promised. Mary hurried back to the Mark residence and related her second conversation with Jesus, but again the apostles refused to believe her testimony. However, their skepticism transformed into apprehension and fear when Peter and John returned, no longer ridiculing the women's accounts but rather confirming the mysterious reality of the empty tomb with its peculiarly arranged grave cloths. This empirical evidence, presented by two of their most trusted companions, began to undermine their entrenched disbelief and forced them to confront the possibility that Jesus had indeed fulfilled his promise to rise on the third day.