Magisterial Missions
by Behzad Sarmast
Thousands of years before the arrival of Michael on Urantia, Machiventa Melchizedek’s missionaries foretold of the impending arrival of a Paradise Son on Urantia. Likewise did Van and his associates prepare the civilized world for the arrival of Adam and Eve, correctly discerning their imminent arrival. History shows that such divine visitations are always foretold, and that heaven gives enough signs to “prepare the way” for such heavenly gifts – today is no different.
As our planet continues to tread the blind path of service to the self, and carry our race toward yet another age of secular madness and destruction, a new revelation has come to light the way of those who would abide by the Father’s will. The Fifth Epochal Revelation in the form of the Urantia Papers has no shortage of prophecy regarding the impending events tied to the terminal judgment of our present age, and though the order of celestial visitations remains an unknown, there are enough clues given to facilitate the formulation of several distinct inevitabilities.
Yet again the world cries out for a Messiah who will fit the shape of their particular ideology, and put an end to their suffering. Again we are confronted by what appears to be the “world crisis” referred to by Michael. The purpose of this paper is not to uphold such theories, nor is it to reject them; rather the objective is to clearly define the “harvest” visitations as revealed through the Urantia Papers, whether it occurs tomorrow or a thousand years from now.
“But not often do these world princes fail in their missions of organizing and administering the inhabited spheres, and their success greatly facilitates the subsequent missions of the Material Sons, who come to engraft the higher forms of creature life on the primitive men of the worlds. Their rule also does much to prepare the planets for the Paradise Sons of God, who subsequently come to judge the worlds and to inaugurate successive dispensations.” ( P. 573)
An Avonal Son of Paradise origin, often called a Magisterial Son, is the only order other than Michael himself who is authorized and capable of terminating one age and beginning another. Urantia had the fortune of hosting our Creator Son on a bestowal mission, but all other evolutionary planets of Nebadon must sometime be visited by an Avonal on a bestowal mission, who experiences a natural birth and death, and subsequently pours the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh. In every way are these Avonals the equal of Michael in carrying out these bestowal missions; they are truly divine.
Regarding the “end of the age,” Jesus told us: “But the times of the reappearing of the Son of Man are known only in the councils of Paradise; not even the angels of heaven know when this will occur. However, you should understand that, when this gospel of the kingdom shall have been proclaimed to all the world for the salvation of all peoples, and when the fullness of the age has come to pass, the Father will send you another dispensational bestowal, or else the Son of Man will return to adjudge the age.” (P. 1915)
As only a Magisterial Son is capable of terminating a dispensation, Michael’s statement above states that at the point of harvest we are due a visit by either an Avonal Paradise Son or Michael himself. There is simply no other order capable of performing such a function. But the revelation, however subtle, repeats this same fact several times.
“We most positively believe that Michael will again come in person to Urantia, but we have not the slightest idea as to when or in what manner he may choose to come. Will his second advent on earth be timed to occur in connection with the terminal judgment of this present age, either with or without the associated appearance of a Magisterial Son?” (P. 1919)
So we have repeated reference to the possibility of the arrival of a Magisterial Son, but with the quote above we may further infer that it could be Michael, a Magisterial Son, or both at the same time.
An Avonal Son performs three distinct and separate functions when visiting a planet for a judicial action. “The arrival of a Paradise Avonal on an evolutionary world for the purpose of terminating a dispensation and of inaugurating a new era of planetary progression is not necessarily either a magisterial mission or a bestowal mission. Magisterial missions sometimes, and bestowal missions always, are incarnations; that is, on such assignments the Avonals serve on a planet in material form – literally. Their other visits are “technical,” and in this capacity an Avonal is not incarnated for planetary service. If a Magisterial Son comes solely as a dispensational adjudicator, he arrives on a planet as a spiritual being, invisible to the material creatures of the realm. Such technical visits occur repeatedly in the long history of an inhabited world.” (P. 226)
This means that when the previous quotes told us about the possibility of a Magisterial Son visit, it could be any one of the three functions mentioned above. However, since we have already had a bestowal son, Michael, this would only leave the “technical” visit, or a Magisterial mission, since each planet receives only one bestowal Son (born as an infant) during its career. In other words, the prophecy about a magisterial visit can only come in the way of a technical visit or a magisterial mission. The main difference between these two scenarios is all-important to us, because the former case only necessitates an Avonal to visit in an invisible form, while the latter demands an actual, visible incarnation by this Paradise Son – an incarnation like that of Machiventa.
In essence, all three of the Avonal missions are “judicial actions,” since in each case the sleepers are judged, and a new dispensation started. Regarding the “technical” visits, however, we are told: “This era of light and life, inaugurated by the Teacher Sons at the conclusion of their final planetary mission, continues indefinitely on the inhabited worlds. Each advancing stage of settled status may be segregated by the judicial actions of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of dispensations; but all such judicial actions are purely technical, in no way modifying the course of planetary events.”(P. 621) (Emphasis mine.)
So it would seem that these technical visits occur on planets that are progressing normally, since the government is in the hands of a loyal Prince and Material Son. These technical visits are invisible to the mortals of the realm, apparently because the smooth operation of world affairs does not necessitate a magisterial mission in visible form. We know this because the next dispensational visit for our planet would, by definition, be the harvest spoken of by Michael. An Avonal, therefore, cannot visit in any form without major consequences for the mortals of the realm, since this visit would certainly “modify” the planetary affairs in every way possible. In other words, this visitation cannot be a “technical” visit because such visits do not “in any way modify” the planet, and we know that the harvest will modify our planet in every way imaginable. Therefore, we are left only with the possibility of a Magisterial visit.
This conclusion is further supported by a direct quote from the revelation itself: “Urantia may yet be visited by an Avonal commissioned to incarnate on a magisterial mission, but regarding the future appearance of Paradise Sons, not even “the angels in heaven know the time or manner of such visitations,” for a Michael-bestowal world becomes the individual and personal ward of a Master Son and, as such, is wholly subject to his own plans and rulings.” (P. 227)
Notice that in the quote above we are told, directly, that we are due a”magisterial mission”, not a technical visit. So it would appear that the end of this dispensation, whenever it should occur, would necessitate either the personal presence of Michael, or an Avonal Paradise Son on a Magisterial mission, or both. These facts are confirmed directly by the revelation itself, with no other options given.
The reason for this careful dissection of the revelation regarding this topic is to be found here: “A planet may experience many magisterial visitations both before and after the appearance of a bestowal Son. It may be visited many times by the same or other Avonals, acting as dispensational adjudicators, but such technical missions of judgment are neither bestowal nor magisterial, and the Avonals are never incarnated at such times. Even when a planet is blessed with repeated magisterial missions, the Avonals do not always submit to mortal incarnation; and when they do serve in the likeness of mortal flesh, they always appear as adult beings of the realm; they are not born of woman.” (P. 226) (Emphasis mine).
The quote above says that a planet may be visited by an Avonal Son on a Magisterial mission many times, but they do not always “submit to mortal incarnation.” However, the “initial” visit has a different status: “When the Paradise Avonals come to the mortal spheres on judicial actions, solely as dispensation adjudicators, they are never incarnated. But when they come on magisterial missions, at least the initial one, they are always incarnated, though they do not experience birth, neither do they die the death of the realm.” (P. 594) (Emphasis mine.)
And, of course ..”Urantia has never been host to an Avonal Son on a magisterial mission.” (P. 227)
We are told here that should our world be visited by an Avonal Son prior to the arrival of Michael himself, he would be incarnated as a grown man and visible to all mortals of the realm. With great precision, however subtle, the clues manage to one by one spell out a very clear scenario, or at least narrow down the field to a few solid inevitabilities. These clues are found in different parts of the Urantia Papers, and they required careful analysis and meticulous magnification before the facts revealed themselves. We are never told of this possibility directly, and yet, there it is.
“When a Creator Son enters upon the bestowal career on an evolutionary world, he goes alone; but when one of his Paradise brothers, an Avonal Son, enters upon a bestowal, he is accompanied by the Melchizedek supporters, twelve in number, who so efficiently contribute to the success of the bestowal mission. They also support the Paradise Avonals on magisterial missions to the inhabited worlds, and in these assignments the Melchizedeks are visible to mortal eyes if the Avonal Son is also thus manifest.” (P. 386) (Emphasis mine.)
If we are to believe our eyes, what we are being told here is, that whenever the “terminal judgment” of this dispensation should occur, we are due a visit by either Michael himself or a “touchable” Avonal Paradise Son visibly on the planet, accompanied by twelve Melchizedek emergency Sons also visible to human eyes.
These twelve Melchizedeks are often referred to as the “Melchizedek receivers” in the Urantia Papers. They replaced another twelve of their kind at the time of the planetary rebellion, and have been intimately connected with Urantia’s affairs ever since. After the rebellion…”The affairs of Urantia were for a long time administered by a council of planetary receivers, twelve Melchizedeks, confirmed by the mandate of the senior constellation ruler, the Most High Father of Norlatiadek.” (P. 759) “The twelve Melchizedek receivers of Urantia did heroic work. They preserved the remnants of civilization, and their planetary policies were faithfully executed by Van.” (P. 760)
These twelve effectively handed over the planetary government to Adam and Eve shortly after their arrival, and left Urantia for Jerusem. After the default of our racial uplifters, these same twelve returned once more to Urantia and resumed their authority and jurisdiction.
“Time passed, but Adam was not certain of the nature of their offense until seventy days after the default of Eve, when the Melchizedek receivers returned to Urantia and assumed jurisdiction over world affairs.” (P. 844) Roughly four thousand years ago, these twelve became once again instrumental in the direction of our planet, and proved their loyalty to both God and man.
“The twelve Melchizedek receivers knew of Michael’s impending bestowal on their planet, but they did not know how soon it would occur; therefore they convened in solemn council and petitioned the Most Highs of Edentia that some provision be made for maintaining the light of truth on Urantia…And it was in consequence of having been thrown so completely on their own resources that Machiventa Melchizedek, one of the twelve planetary receivers, volunteered to do that which had been done only six times in all the history of Nebadon: to personalize on earth as a temporary man of the realm, to bestow himself as an emergency Son of world ministry.” (P. 1014)
“During the years of Machiventa’s incarnation the Urantia Medchizedek receivers functioned as eleven.” (P. 1024)
If the dispensational visit does include an Avonal Paradise Son on a magisterial mission, then the twelve Melchizedeks who we are told will accompany this Magisterial Son can be no other than our own Melchizedek receivers. And if these twelve who are so versed in our planet’s history and affairs do accompany an Avonal Son, then Machiventa must also come visibly, since he is an integral part of the twelve.
This possibility is an amazing opportunity for the celestials, as well as for us. In one strategic move the human race on Urantia could be visited by a Paradise Son on a magisterial mission, fully visible and in the flesh, accompanied by twelve visible Melchizedeks, one of them being our vicegerent Planetary Prince, Machiventa Melchizedek, and of course, possibly even Michael himself.
The harvest is not likely to be a calm period on Earth. No mortal or groups of mortals can be expected to do much in the face of a belligerent planet plagued by total chaos – we will need much help and guidance. And now we have the assurance that even if Michael does not come until after the beginning of the next dispensational era, there are other celestials, even divine beings, who will be here personally to help humanity cross that perilous bridge.
Go about your life, continue the labor Michael entrusted us with, but do not neglect to be wise and “discern the signs of the times.” And if you believe that our global problems spell nothing less than the harvest spoken of by the Father incarnate, then know that aside from the “rapture” theory or a military recourse by Michael’s forces, this newest revelation is also foretelling a new possibility: a visible Paradise Son with twelve visible Melchizedeks, likely to contact the more progressive individuals of the realm prior to the judgment.
A service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship
Serving the Readership since 1955