Rodan may have resembled this
portrait of Bishop Clement of Alexandra,
who followed in the footsteps of Rodan
Rodan’s Influence on the Early Church
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The Urantia Book reveals that Rodan taught philosophy in Alexandria, Egypt, perhaps the greatest educational center of the Roman world. Having become a fervent convert to the teachings of Jesus, Rodan is depicted as being “earnestly engaged in the task of harmonizing his philosophy of life with Jesus’ new religious teachings.” Paper 160 and Paper 161 provide a condensed version of his grand synthesis.
Rodan meets Jesus in person. We are told that Rodan travelled to the town of Magadan and sought out Jesus, who received him graciously and then referred him to Nathaniel and Thomas. Presumably with Jesus’s sanction, Rodan delivered his prepared lectures and engaged in dialogue with these two men—the most philosophic of the twelve apostles—along with many other believers assembled in this location.
[Nathaniel, also known as Bartholomew, is depicted above.]
Rodan’s service as a discipline.In Paper 160 we learn that Rodan “expounded his philosophy” to this group, while Thomas and Nathaniel “alternated in presenting the gospel of the kingdom to the Greek philosopher.” Paper 161 depicts these three men as privately engaged in a more advanced theological discussion, with special focus on God’s attribute of personality and the divine nature of Jesus. After this encounter, “Rodan made his way back to Alexandria, where he long taught in the school of Meganta. He became a mighty man in the later affairs of the kingdom of heaven; he was a faithful believer to the end of his earth days, yielding up his life in Greece with others when the persecutions were at their height” (116:2.12). [An artist’s conception of a young student in Alexandria, above]
Pupils of Rodan go on mission to Jerusalem.
Rodan’s efforts bore fruit in ways that were dramatic. We learn that the new “Jesus brotherhood” in Jerusalem—the Jewish apostles and disciples—at first enjoyed relatively peaceful relations with the Jewish establishment immediately after Pentecost. “And so all went well in Jerusalem until the time of the coming of the Greeks in large numbers from Alexandria” (194:4.11). Chief among this group were “two of Rodan’s pupils.” We must bear in mind that this what occurred next was preceded by Pentecost, “When the spirit descended on the disciples at Jerusalem, the same thing happened in Philadelphia, Alexandria, and at all other places where true believers dwelt” (119:4.17).
The evangelization of the Jerusalem Hellenists.
These well-trained, Greek-speaking missionaries hailing from the leading philosophic center of the Roman world, who were sent there by Rodan and powered by the Spirit of Truth, went over to Jerusalem to evangelize the “Hellenists.” These included one Stephen, who soon became the leader of these Greek converts and “began to preach more as Jesus taught.”
The martyrdom of Stephen.
Stephen’s provocative public sermons brought the group into direct and tragic conflict with the rulers (in part because his gentile followers did not follow the Jewish law). And then one horrific day Stephen’s opponents stoned him to death, making him the first Christian martyr (Acts 54–60) and causing the Jewish believers at Jerusalem to quickly form the church in an act of defense against their persecutors, and in “the recognition that believers couldnot longer go on as a sect within the Jewish faith” (194:4.12).
Early leadership in Greek hands. Led by Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, these Jewish Christians held forth in Jerusalem. But in these days, we learn, “the leadership . . . was in Greek hands; and these first missionaries [went onto] the uttermost parts of the empire” (194:4.13). Students of Rodan were among the leading pioneers of the earliest movement to create a distinct community in Jerusalem and thereupon evangelize the Roman world
The Later Influence of Rodan’s Lineage
At the Rodan Institute, it is also our view that Rodan’s teachings foreshadow the more spiritual interpretation of the gospel that especially took root in the Eastern Church, mainly by providing its philosophic foundations. Notably, Rodan is the only person in the Urantia text who literally describes the actual spiritual practice of Jesus: “Look to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. . . . At least, that is the way the philosopher views it” (160:3.1).
In particular, this teaching foreshadows the later efforts of the so-called Desert Fathers and Mothers, those pioneers of the inner life beginning with St. Anthony, as well as the work of Clement, bishop of Alexandria (pictured above) and especially Athanasius (a third century bishop of Alexandria), who the UB credits with almost single-handedly laying the conceptual foundations for the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation.
During the next two centuries this same Greek lineage originated the idea of theosis—the ultimate quest for what the UB calls “God fusion”—in response to Jesus’ instruction to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.” And this practice, also know as deification, is a key focus of Rodan Institute.
