The Dispensational Resurrection 

Dispensations are periods of time during which celestial messengers or ambassadors arrive on earth to fellowship evolutionary human beings and assist them in their physical, civilizational, and spiritual progress. Dispensations are periodic and can last for thousands of years. Each new dispensation, each mortal epoch, inaugurates a new order of life, unfolding a divine plan that upsteps humanity into a new level of evolutionary achievement and widens the experience of revealed religion for those who live during such a period of time.

Generally speaking, during the span of a dispensation, mortals who experience physical death can either go on to resurrection in the next world in a short amount of time or, if such mortals have not met the requisite spiritual attainments, they enter into a longer unconscious sleep state. To the sleeping survivor, time is irrelevant; they awaken with no consciousness of the passage of time since they went to sleep. These sleeping survivors await the conclusion of the dispensation in which they have lived, at which time a Son of God inaugurates a dispensational resurrection, taking them to the next world, there to resume participation in the Father’s plan of ascension.

Our world has experienced three such dispensational resurrections over a time span of approximately half a million years. The first resurrectional dispensation was accomplished upon the arrival of our first Planetary Prince 500,000 years ago; the second commenced with the arrival of Adam and Eve about 38,000 years ago; the third took place on the day of Jesus’ resurrection from the tomb, about 2,000 years ago on April 9, 30 CE. All sleeping survivors from the days of Adam and Eve to the day of Jesus’ resurrection were taken en masse in an instant of time to the mansion worlds.

Another dispensational age is now upon us; a dispensation illuminated by the life and teachings of Jesus; a new age of grace, truth, and brother/sisterhood of the spiritually liberated sons of God; an age informed by the presence of the Spirit of Truth that was poured out upon all mortals on the day of Pentecost. This new age will continue until these teachings of Jesus have borne spiritual fruit worldwide and may require a millennium or longer to be completed, at which time another Son of God, or Jesus himself, will return to inaugurate the fourth dispensational resurrection.

Shortly after Jesus was resurrected from the tomb, the archangel Gabriel summoned a host of angels to his side and prepared to start the general resurrection of those souls who had been asleep for thousands of years.

Jesus, in his risen form as a semi-spirit being, appeared before Gabriel and said: "As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin."

The voice of Gabriel was then heard on the first mansion world saying: "By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia (earth) dispensation rise!" Then, all of those human beings of all races who had been asleep since the times of Adam and Eve, appeared in the resurrection halls of the first mansion world to begin their normal progression in the Father's plan of ascension. And it was said of that day that "He led a great multitude of captives."

The reason that there was such a great multitude of souls resurrected on that day was due to the fact that all who died after the Lucifer rebellion 200,000 years ago awaited passage to the mansion worlds during dispensational resurrections. Our planet had been isolated in space, and the normal process of mortal resurrection had been suspended. All souls, even Moses, had to wait for this special dispensational resurrection. But since the day of Jesus' resurrection on April 9, 30 CE, there are fewer sleeping survivors, as we mortals can now proceed directly to the mansion worlds approximately three days after death.

This third dispensational resurrection was foretold even before Christ Michael incarnated on our world, and was in accordance with his request to end his bestowal mission by such a resurrection of the multitude of sleeping survivors and the establishment of a new dispensation. This new dispensation is that of the Spirit of Truth, Jesus’ spiritual counterpart who even now, and always, guides all those who seek truth.

Another dispensational age has begun – a new dispensation of grace and truth. Jesus’ life and teachings stand as the blueprint for this new age of the brotherhood and fellowship of the liberated faith sons of the living God. This new dispensation may continue for another millennium or longer.

Jesus spoke of this new dispensation at the Last Supper, when he blessed the cup of wine, saying: "This is the cup of the blessing of a new dispensation of grace and truth. This shall be to you the emblem of the bestowal and ministry of the divine Spirit of Truth.

In fact, the entire Remembrance Supper is symbolic of this new dispensational age in which all seekers of truth are delivered from the bondage of ceremonial conformity into an experience of spiritual freedom as the liberated faith sons and daughters of the living God.

Jesus told us, "When the 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." This foretells a time in the distant future when the present age will be terminated in favor of another, newer age. And at that time, another divine celestial Son, or Jesus himself, will return to our world to judge the realm and initiate another dispensational resurrection. But no one, not even the angels of heaven, knows when Jesus may come again.