third day

• after death, bestowal Sons reappear on

20:6.6When the be­stowal Sons, Cre­ator or Mag­is­te­rial, en­ter the por­tals of death, they reap­pear on the third day. But you should not en­ter­tain the idea that they al­ways meet with the tragic end en­coun­tered by the Cre­ator Son who so­journed on your world nine­teen hun­dred years ago. The ex­traor­di­nary and un­usu­ally cruel ex­pe­ri­ence through which Je­sus of Naz­a­reth passed has caused Uran­tia to be­come lo­cally known as “the world of the cross.” It is not nec­es­sary that such in­hu­man treat­ment be ac­corded a Son of God, and the vast ma­jor­ity of plan­ets have af­forded them a more con­sid­er­ate re­cep­tion, al­low­ing them to fin­ish their mor­tal ca­reers, ter­mi­nate the age, ad­ju­di­cate the sleep­ing sur­vivors, and in­au­gu­rate a new dis­pen­sa­tion, with­out im­pos­ing a vi­o­lent death. A be­stowal Son must en­counter death, must pass through the whole of the ac­tual ex­pe­ri­ence of mor­tals of the realms, but it is not a re­quire­ment of the di­vine plan that this death be ei­ther vi­o­lent or un­usual.

• Graduate Guides appear on

24:7.6When such an en­try ap­pears on the rec­ords, the ca­reer of such a servi­tal is closed. But in just three mo­ments (a lit­tle less than three days of your time) a new­born Grad­u­ate Guide “spon­ta­neously” ap­pears on the outer cir­cuit of the Ha­vona uni­verse. And the num­ber of Grad­u­ate Guides, al­low­ing for a slight dif­fer­ence, due no doubt to those in tran­si­tion, ex­actly equals the num­ber of van­ished servi­tals.

• Havona Servitals appear in third moment

25:1.3The num­ber of servi­tals is prodi­gious, and more are be­ing cre­ated all the time. They ap­pear in groups of one thou­sand on the third mo­ment fol­low­ing the as­sem­bly of the Mas­ter Spir­its and the Su­preme Power Di­rec­tors at their joint area in the far northerly sec­tor of Par­a­dise. Ev­ery fourth servi­tal is more phys­i­cal in type than the oth­ers; that is, out of each thou­sand, seven hun­dred and fifty are ap­par­ently true to spirit type, but two hun­dred and fifty are semi­phys­i­cal in na­ture. These fourth crea­tures are some­what on the or­der of ma­te­rial be­ings (ma­te­rial in the Ha­vona sense), re­sem­bling the phys­i­cal power di­rec­tors more than the Mas­ter Spir­its.

• Jews believed soul would not linger past

167:4.3The Jews were in the habit of bury­ing their dead on the day of their demise; this was a nec­es­sary prac­tice in such a warm cli­mate. It of­ten hap­pened that they put in the tomb one who was merely co­matose, so that on the sec­ond or even the third day, such a one would come forth from the tomb. But it was the be­lief of the Jews that, while the spirit or soul might linger near the body for two or three days, it never tar­ried af­ter the third day; that de­cay was well ad­vanced by the fourth day, and that no one ever re­turned from the tomb af­ter the lapse of such a pe­riod. And it was for these rea­sons that Je­sus tar­ried yet two full days in Phil­a­del­phia be­fore he made ready to start for Beth­any.

• Jesus would rise on

171:4.2Early on Thurs­day morn­ing be­fore the oth­ers were awake, Je­sus called An­drew and said: “Awaken your breth­ren! I have some­thing to say to them.” Je­sus knew about the swords and which of his apos­tles had re­ceived and were wear­ing these weapons, but he never dis­closed to them that he knew such things. When An­drew had aroused his as­so­ciates, and they had as­sem­bled off by them­selves, Je­sus said: “My chil­dren, you have been with me a long while, and I have taught you much that is need­ful for this time, but I would now warn you not to put your trust in the un­cer­tain­ties of the flesh nor in the frail­ties of man’s de­fense against the tri­als and test­ing which lie ahead of us. I have called you apart here by your­selves that I may once more plainly tell you that we are go­ing up to Je­ru­sa­lem, where you know the Son of Man has al­ready been con­demned to death. Again am I telling you that the Son of Man will be de­liv­ered into the hands of the chief priests and the re­li­gious rulers; that they will con­demn him and then de­liver him into the hands of the gen­tiles. And so will they mock the Son of Man, even spit upon him and scourge him, and they will de­liver him up to death. And when they kill the Son of Man, be not dis­mayed, for I de­clare that on the third day he shall rise. Take heed to your­selves and re­mem­ber that I have fore­warned you.”

• Jesus would rise on
• Jewish expression signifying “presently”

171:4.8It was a con­fused and be­wil­dered group of be­liev­ers who this day fol­lowed Je­sus into Jeri­cho. The apos­tles could dis­cern only the cer­tain note of fi­nal tri­umph in Je­sus’ dec­la­ra­tions re­gard­ing the king­dom; they just could not bring them­selves to that place where they were will­ing to grasp the warn­ings of the im­pend­ing set­back. When Je­sus spoke of “ris­ing on the third day,” they seized upon this state­ment as sig­ni­fy­ing a sure tri­umph of the king­dom im­me­di­ately fol­low­ing an un­pleas­ant pre­lim­i­nary skir­mish with the Jew­ish re­li­gious lead­ers. The “third day” was a com­mon Jew­ish ex­pres­sion sig­ni­fy­ing “pres­ently” or “soon there­after.” When Je­sus spoke of “ris­ing,” they thought he re­ferred to the “ris­ing of the king­dom.”

• Jesus would rise on

186:3.4This pe­cu­liar-minded David Zeb­e­dee was the only one of the lead­ing dis­ci­ples of Je­sus who was in­clined to take a lit­eral and plain mat­ter-of-fact view of the Mas­ter’s as­ser­tion that he would die and “rise again on the third day.” David had once heard him make this pre­dic­tion and, be­ing of a lit­eral turn of mind, now pro­posed to as­sem­ble his mes­sen­gers early Sun­day morn­ing at the home of Nicode­mus so that they would be on hand to spread the news in case Je­sus rose from the dead. David soon dis­cov­ered that none of Je­sus’ fol­low­ers were look­ing for him to re­turn so soon from the grave; there­fore did he say lit­tle about his be­lief and noth­ing about the mo­bi­liza­tion of all his mes­sen­ger force on early Sun­day morn­ing ex­cept to the run­ners who had been dis­patched on Fri­day forenoon to dis­tant cities and be­liever cen­ters.

• Jesus would rise on

188:1.8Aside from David Zeb­e­dee and Joseph of Ari­mathea, very few of Je­sus’ dis­ci­ples re­ally be­lieved or un­der­stood that he was due to arise from the tomb on the third day.

• Jesus would rise on

188:2.1If Je­sus’ fol­low­ers were un­mind­ful of his prom­ise to rise from the grave on the third day, his en­e­mies were not. The chief priests, Phar­isees, and Sad­ducees re­called that they had re­ceived re­ports of his say­ing he would rise from the dead.

• Jesus would rise on

188:2.2This Fri­day night, af­ter the Pass­over sup­per, about mid­night a group of the Jew­ish lead­ers gath­ered at the home of Cai­a­phas, where they dis­cussed their fears con­cern­ing the Mas­ter’s as­ser­tions that he would rise from the dead on the third day. This meet­ing ended with the ap­point­ment of a com­mit­tee of San­hedrists who were to visit Pi­late early the next day, bear­ing the of­fi­cial re­quest of the San­hedrin that a Ro­man guard be sta­tioned be­fore Je­sus’ tomb to pre­vent his friends from tam­per­ing with it. Said the spokesman of this com­mit­tee to Pi­late: “Sir, we re­mem­ber that this de­ceiver, Je­sus of Naz­a­reth, said, while he was yet alive, ‘Af­ter three days I will rise again.’ We have, there­fore, come be­fore you to re­quest that you is­sue such or­ders as will make the sepul­chre se­cure against his fol­low­ers, at least un­til af­ter the third day. We greatly fear lest his dis­ci­ples come and steal him away by night and then pro­claim to the peo­ple that he has risen from the dead. If we should per­mit this to hap­pen, this mis­take would be far worse than to have al­lowed him to live.”

• Jesus would rise on

189:5.1As the two apos­tles raced for Gol­go­tha and the tomb of Joseph, Pe­ter’s thoughts al­ter­nated be­tween fear and hope; he feared to meet the Mas­ter, but his hope was aroused by the story that Je­sus had sent spe­cial word to him. He was half per­suaded that Je­sus was re­ally alive; he re­called the prom­ise to rise on the third day. Strange to re­late, this prom­ise had not oc­curred to him since the cru­ci­fix­ion un­til this mo­ment as he hur­ried north through Je­ru­sa­lem. As John has­tened out of the city, a strange ec­stasy of joy and hope welled up in his soul. He was half con­vinced that the women re­ally had seen the risen Mas­ter.

• Jesus would rise on

190:1.3From the tomb David and Joseph went im­me­di­ately to the home of Eli­jah Mark, where they held a con­fer­ence with the ten apos­tles in the up­per cham­ber. Only John Zeb­e­dee was dis­posed to be­lieve, even faintly, that Je­sus had risen from the dead. Pe­ter had be­lieved at first but, when he failed to find the Mas­ter, fell into grave doubt­ing. They were all dis­posed to be­lieve that the Jews had re­moved the body. David would not ar­gue with them, but when he left, he said: “You are the apos­tles, and you ought to un­der­stand these things. I will not con­tend with you; nev­er­the­less, I now go back to the home of Nicode­mus, where I have ap­pointed with the mes­sen­gers to as­sem­ble this morn­ing, and when they have gath­ered to­gether, I will send them forth on their last mis­sion, as her­alds of the Mas­ter’s res­ur­rec­tion. I heard the Mas­ter say that, af­ter he should die, he would rise on the third day, and I be­lieve him.” And thus speak­ing to the de­jected and for­lorn am­bas­sadors of the king­dom, this self-ap­pointed chief of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and in­tel­li­gence took leave of the apos­tles. On his way from the up­per cham­ber he dropped the bag of Ju­das, con­tain­ing all the apos­tolic funds, in the lap of Mat­thew Levi.

• Jesus would rise on

190:1.5“Men and breth­ren, all this time you have served me in ac­cor­dance with your oath to me and to one an­other, and I call you to wit­ness that I have never yet sent out false in­for­ma­tion at your hands. I am about to send you on your last mis­sion as vol­un­teer mes­sen­gers of the king­dom, and in so do­ing I re­lease you from your oaths and thereby dis­band the mes­sen­ger corps. Men, I de­clare to you that we have fin­ished our work. No more does the Mas­ter have need of mor­tal mes­sen­gers; he has risen from the dead. He told us be­fore they ar­rested him that he would die and rise again on the third day. I have seen the tomb—it is empty. I have talked with Mary Mag­da­lene and four other women, who have talked with Je­sus. I now dis­band you, bid you farewell, and send you on your re­spec­tive as­sign­ments, and the mes­sage which you shall bear to the be­liev­ers is: ‘Je­sus has risen from the dead; the tomb is empty.’”

• Jesus would rise on

190:5.3Af­ter walk­ing a short way with them, Je­sus said: “What were the words you ex­changed so earnestly as I came upon you?” And when Je­sus had spo­ken, they stood still and viewed him with sad sur­prise. Said Cleopas: “Can it be that you so­journ in Je­ru­sa­lem and know not the things which have re­cently hap­pened?” Then asked the Mas­ter, “What things?” Cleopas replied: “If you do not know about these mat­ters, you are the only one in Je­ru­sa­lem who has not heard these ru­mors con­cern­ing Je­sus of Naz­a­reth, who was a prophet mighty in word and in deed be­fore God and all the peo­ple. The chief priests and our rulers de­liv­ered him up to the Ro­mans and de­manded that they cru­cify him. Now many of us had hoped that it was he who would de­liver Is­rael from the yoke of the gen­tiles. But that is not all. It is now the third day since he was cru­ci­fied, and cer­tain women have this day amazed us by declar­ing that very early this morn­ing they went to his tomb and found it empty. And these same women in­sist that they talked with this man; they main­tain that he has risen from the dead. And when the women re­ported this to the men, two of his apos­tles ran to the tomb and like­wise found it empty”—and here Ja­cob in­ter­rupted his brother to say, “but they did not see Je­sus.”

190:5.4As they walked along, Je­sus said to them: “How slow you are to com­pre­hend the truth! When you tell me that it is about the teach­ings and work of this man that you have your dis­cus­sions, then may I en­lighten you since I am more than fa­mil­iar with these teach­ings. Do you not re­mem­ber that this Je­sus al­ways taught that his king­dom was not of this world, and that all men, be­ing the sons of God, should find lib­erty and free­dom in the spir­i­tual joy of the fel­low­ship of the broth­er­hood of lov­ing ser­vice in this new king­dom of the truth of the heav­enly Fa­ther’s love? Do you not re­call how this Son of Man pro­claimed the sal­va­tion of God for all men, min­is­ter­ing to the sick and af­flicted and set­ting free those who were bound by fear and en­slaved by evil? Do you not know that this man of Naz­a­reth told his dis­ci­ples that he must go to Je­ru­sa­lem, be de­liv­ered up to his en­e­mies, who would put him to death, and that he would arise on the third day? Have you not been told all this? And have you never read in the Scrip­tures con­cern­ing this day of sal­va­tion for Jew and gen­tile, where it says that in him shall all the fam­i­lies of the earth be blessed; that he will hear the cry of the needy and save the souls of the poor who seek him; that all na­tions shall call him blessed? That such a De­liv­erer shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That he will feed the flock like a true shep­herd, gath­er­ing the lambs in his arms and ten­derly car­ry­ing them in his bo­som. That he will open the eyes of the spir­i­tu­ally blind and bring the pris­on­ers of de­spair out into full lib­erty and light; that all who sit in dark­ness shall see the great light of eter­nal sal­va­tion. That he will bind up the bro­ken­hearted, pro­claim lib­erty to the cap­tives of sin, and open up the prison to those who are en­slaved by fear and bound by evil. That he will com­fort those who mourn and be­stow upon them the joy of sal­va­tion in the place of sor­row and heav­i­ness. That he shall be the de­sire of all na­tions and the ev­er­last­ing joy of those who seek righ­teous­ness. That this Son of truth and righ­teous­ness shall rise upon the world with heal­ing light and sav­ing power; even that he will save his peo­ple from their sins; that he will re­ally seek and save those who are lost. That he will not de­stroy the weak but min­is­ter sal­va­tion to all who hunger and thirst for righ­teous­ness. That those who be­lieve in him shall have eter­nal life. That he will pour out his spirit upon all flesh, and that this Spirit of Truth shall be in each be­liever a well of wa­ter, spring­ing up into ev­er­last­ing life. Did you not un­der­stand how great was the gospel of the king­dom which this man de­liv­ered to you? Do you not per­ceive how great a sal­va­tion has come upon you?”

• Jesus would rise on

191:0.2All day long John up­held the idea that Je­sus had risen from the dead. He re­counted no less than five dif­fer­ent times when the Mas­ter had af­firmed he would rise again and at least three times when he al­luded to the third day. John’s at­ti­tude had con­sid­er­able in­flu­ence on them, es­pe­cially on his brother James and on Na­than­iel. John would have in­flu­enced them more if he had not been the young­est mem­ber of the group.