The Late Great Urantia Revelation

Status
Not open for further replies.

Caino

BANNED
Banned
[h=4]7. THE SEVENTH AND FINAL BESTOWAL[/h]
119:7.1 For tens of thousands of years we all looked forward to the seventh and final bestowal of Michael. Gabriel had taught us that this terminal bestowal would be made in the likeness of mortal flesh, but we were wholly ignorant of the time, place, and manner of this culminating adventure.

119:7.2 The public announcement that Michael had selected Urantia as the theater for his final bestowal was made shortly after we learned about the default of Adam and Eve. And thus, for more than thirty-five thousand years, your world occupied a very conspicuous place in the councils of the entire universe. There was no secrecy (aside from the incarnation mystery) connected with any step in the Urantia bestowal. From first to last, up to the final and triumphant return of Michael to Salvington as supreme Universe Sovereign, there was the fullest universe publicity of all that transpired on your small but highly honored world.


https://truthbook.com/urantia-book/paper-119-the-bestowals-of-christ-michael
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
The Urantia fallacy is far better fiction than Star Wars. They should make a movie series... I'm sure some people would go see it.
 

freelight

Eclectic Theosophist
The author(s) channeled evil spirits to write them.


Proof?

Readers can research and read the Urantia Papers for themselves and make their own minds on the truth, substance and validity of the content. If indeed it is a revelation to mankind, being the 5th Epochal Revelation to the planet, then consideration ought to at least be given to its message, which is Christ-exalting and God-glorifying through-out. The book teaches only the highest religious truth principles and precepts to guide man along his path Godward, the goodnews of Jesus rooted in and based on the truth of the Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of man.

Its been 10 years this thread has been in existence and the demonizers of it still rant on. As I've said before in the thread, an investigator can read the first 5 papers and see if it speaks the fundamental truth about God and his relationship to creation and to individuals, then move on to at least complete the first 12 papers. All else stems from that foundational thesis on God which agrees in essence and principle with most traditional judeo-christian theology about 'God', but provides more insight and revelation into the nature of such relationships within a greater cosmic context, adding more about man's enlightement, progress and spiritual evolution.

If you can show what is 'channeled by demons' in the first 5 papers and WHY, and where its theology is wrong or 'satanic' then lets see your evidence for such.


The Urantia Book Online (UB Fellowship)

So, the challenge is for you to find what is 'demonically' inspired in the first 5 papers, and the proof for such. This is only a small part of the entire book, so it should be easy for you to show what is 'demonic' there, and the challenge goes for all readers here, regardless of their religious faith or orientation, if they would be so enlightened to its contents. The first 12 papers are foundational to the entire theology.

This thread has a 10 year anniversary this year sometime, my how time flies :)
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
Every single word is demonically inspired and leads away from Truth, which is Christ, The Creator... not Michael or a lesser god. You’re a good deceiver but you’re deceived yourself and don’t even know it or want to come to a knowledge of The Truth. If you did you would. God promised that He would be found by all those who seek and search for Him with all of their heart. Obviously you haven’t. Pity, that. :nono:
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
[h=4] THE TALK WITH NATHANIEL [/h]
159:4.1 And then went Jesus over to Abila, where Nathaniel and his associates labored. Nathaniel was much bothered by some of Jesus' pronouncements which seemed to detract from the authority of the recognized Hebrew scriptures. Accordingly, on this night, after the usual period of questions and answers, Nathaniel took Jesus away from the others and asked: “Master, could you trust me to know the truth about the Scriptures? I observe that you teach us only a portion of the sacred writings—the best as I view it—and I infer that you reject the teachings of the rabbis to the effect that the words of the law are the very words of God, having been with God in heaven even before the times of Abraham and Moses. What is the truth about the Scriptures?” When Jesus heard the question of his bewildered apostle, he answered:

159:4.2 "Nathaniel, you have rightly judged; I do not regard the Scriptures as do the rabbis. I will talk with you about this matter on condition that you do not relate these things to your brethren, who are not all prepared to receive this teaching. The words of the law of Moses and the teachings of the Scriptures were not in existence before Abraham. Only in recent times have the Scriptures been gathered together as we now have them. While they contain the best of the higher thoughts and longings of the Jewish people, they also contain much that is far from being representative of the character and teachings of the Father in heaven; wherefore must I choose from among the better teachings those truths which are to be gleaned for the gospel of the kingdom.

159:4.3 “These writings are the work of men, some of them holy men, others not so holy. The teachings of these books represent the views and extent of enlightenment of the time in which they had their origin. As a revelation of truth, the last are more dependable than the first. The Scriptures are faulty and altogether human in origin, but mistake not, they do constitute the best collection of religious wisdom and spiritual truth to be found in all the world at this time.

159:4.4 “Many of these books were not written by the persons whose names they bear, but that in no way detracts from the value of the truths which they contain. If the story of Jonah should not be a fact, even if Jonah had never lived, still would the profound truth of this narrative, the love of God for Nineveh and the so-called heathen, be none the less precious in the eyes of all those who love their fellow men. The Scriptures are sacred because they present the thoughts and acts of men who were searching for God, and who in these writings left on record their highest concepts of righteousness, truth, and holiness. The Scriptures contain much that is true, very much, but in the light of your present teaching, you know that these writings also contain much that is misrepresentative of the Father in heaven, the loving God I have come to reveal to all the worlds.

159:4.5 "Nathaniel, never permit yourself for one moment to believe the Scripture records which tell you that the God of love directed your forefathers to go forth in battle to slay all their enemies—men, women, and children. Such records are the words of men, not very holy men, and they are not the word of God. The Scriptures always have, and always will, reflect the intellectual, moral, and spiritual status of those who create them. Have you not noted that the concepts of Yahweh grow in beauty and glory as the prophets make their records from Samuel to Isaiah? And you should remember that the Scriptures are intended for religious instruction and spiritual guidance. They are not the works of either historians or philosophers.

159:4.6 “The thing most deplorable is not merely this erroneous idea of the absolute perfection of the Scripture record and the infallibility of its teachings, but rather the confusing misinterpretation of these sacred writings by the tradition-enslaved scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem. And now will they employ both the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures and their misinterpretations thereof in their determined effort to withstand these newer teachings of the gospel of the kingdom. Nathaniel, never forget, the Father does not limit the revelation of truth to any one generation or to any one people. Many earnest seekers after the truth have been, and will continue to be, confused and disheartened by these doctrines of the perfection of the Scriptures.

159:4.7 “The authority of truth is the very spirit that indwells its living manifestations, and not the dead words of the less illuminated and supposedly inspired men of another generation. And even if these holy men of old lived inspired and spirit-filled lives, that does not mean that their words were similarly spiritually inspired. Today we make no record of the teachings of this gospel of the kingdom lest, when I have gone, you speedily become divided up into sundry groups of truth contenders as a result of the diversity of your interpretation of my teachings. For this generation it is best that we live these truths while we shun the making of records.

159:4.8 “Mark you well my words, Nathaniel, nothing which human nature has touched can be regarded as infallible. Through the mind of man divine truth may indeed shine forth, but always of relative purity and partial divinity. The creature may crave infallibility, but only the Creators possess it.

159:4.9 “But the greatest error of the teaching about the Scripture is the doctrine of their being sealed books of mystery and wisdom which only the wise minds of the nation dare to interpret. The revelations of divine truth are not sealed except by human ignorance, bigotry, and narrow-minded intolerance. The light of the Scriptures is only dimmed by prejudice and darkened by superstition. A false fear of sacredness has prevented religion from being safeguarded by common sense. The fear of the authority of the sacred writings of the past effectively prevents the honest souls of today from accepting the new light of the gospel, the light which these very God-knowing men of another generation so intensely longed to see.

159:4.10 “But the saddest feature of all is the fact that some of the teachers of the sanctity of this traditionalism know this very truth. They more or less fully understand these limitations of Scripture, but they are moral cowards, intellectually dishonest. They know the truth regarding the sacred writings, but they prefer to withhold such disturbing facts from the people. And thus do they pervert and distort the Scriptures, making them the guide to slavish details of the daily life and an authority in things nonspiritual instead of appealing to the sacred writings as the repository of the moral wisdom, religious inspiration, and the spiritual teaching of the God-knowing men of other generations.”

159:4.11 Nathaniel was enlightened, and shocked, by the Master's pronouncement. He long pondered this talk in the depths of his soul, but he told no man concerning this conference until after Jesus' ascension; and even then he feared to impart the full story of the Master's instruction."
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
The invention of Hell


"Early man entertained no ideas of hell or future punishment. The savage looked upon the future life as just like this one, minus all ill luck. Later on, a separate destiny for good ghosts and bad ghosts— heaven and hell—was conceived. But since many primitive races believed that man entered the next life just as he left this one, they did not relish the idea of becoming old and decrepit. The aged much preferred to be killed before becoming too infirm.

Almost every group had a different idea regarding the destiny of the ghost soul. The Greeks believed that weak men must have weak souls; so they invented Hades as a fit place for the reception of such anemic souls; these unrobust specimens were also supposed to have shorter shadows. The early Andites thought their ghosts returned to the ancestral homelands. The Chinese and Egyptians once believed that soul and body remained together. Among the Egyptians this led to careful tomb construction and efforts at body preservation. Even modern peoples seek to arrest the decay of the dead. The Hebrews conceived that a phantom replica of the individual went down to Sheol; it could not return to the land of the living. They did make that important advance in the doctrine of the evolution of the soul."
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels long before man was created. Jesus gave us the Truth about hell, although the Urantia nonsense belittles most all Truths found in the Holy Scriptures. Obviously it's not from above. It's from below... :devil:
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
[h=4]DURING THE SABBATH DAY[/h]
188:3.1 Throughout this Sabbath day the disciples and the apostles remained in hiding, while all Jerusalem discussed the death of Jesus on the cross. There were almost one and one-half million Jews present in Jerusalem at this time, hailing from all parts of the Roman Empire and from Mesopotamia. This was the beginning of the Passover week, and all these pilgrims would be in the city to learn of the resurrection of Jesus and to carry the report back to their homes.

188:3.2 Late Saturday night, John Mark summoned the eleven apostles secretly to come to the home of his father, where, just before midnight, they all assembled in the same upper chamber where they had partaken of the Last Supper with their Master two nights previously.

188:3.3 Mary the mother of Jesus, with Ruth and Jude, returned to Bethany to join their family this Saturday evening just before sunset. David Zebedee remained at the home of Nicodemus, where he had arranged for his messengers to assemble early Sunday morning. The women of Galilee, who prepared spices for the further embalming of Jesus’ body, tarried at the home of Joseph of Arimathea.

188:3.4 We are not able fully to explain just what happened to Jesus of Nazareth during this period of a day and a half when he was supposed to be resting in Joseph’s new tomb. Apparently he died the same natural death on the cross as would any other mortal in the same circumstances. We heard him say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” We do not fully understand the meaning of such a statement inasmuch as his Thought Adjuster had long since been personalized and so maintained an existence apart from Jesus’ mortal being. The Master’s Personalized Adjuster could in no sense be affected by his physical death on the cross. That which Jesus put in the Father’s hands for the time being must have been the spirit counterpart of the Adjuster’s early work in spiritizing the mortal mind so as to provide for the transfer of the transcript of the human experience to the mansion worlds. There must have been some spiritual reality in the experience of Jesus which was analogous to the spirit nature, or soul, of the faith-growing mortals of the spheres. But this is merely our opinion—we do not really know what Jesus commended to his Father.

188:3.5 We know that the physical form of the Master rested there in Joseph’s tomb until about three o’clock Sunday morning, but we are wholly uncertain regarding the status of the personality of Jesus during that period of thirty-six hours. We have sometimes dared to explain these things to ourselves somewhat as follows:
1. The Creator consciousness of Michael must have been at large and wholly free from its associated mortal mind of the physical incarnation.

2. The former Thought Adjuster of Jesus we know to have been present on earth during this period and in personal command of the assembled celestial hosts.

3. The acquired spirit identity of the man of Nazareth which was built up during his lifetime in the flesh, first, by the direct efforts of his Thought Adjuster, and later, by his own perfect adjustment between the physical necessities and the spiritual requirements of the ideal mortal existence, as it was effected by his never-ceasing choice of the Father’s will, must have been consigned to the custody of the Paradise Father. Whether or not this spirit reality returned to become a part of the resurrected personality, we do not know, but we believe it did. But there are those in the universe who hold that this soul-identity of Jesus now reposes in the “bosom of the Father,” to be subsequently released for leadership of the Nebadon Corps of the Finality in their undisclosed destiny in connection with the uncreated universes of the unorganized realms of outer space.

4. We think the human or mortal consciousness of Jesus slept during these thirty-six hours. We have reason to believe that the human Jesus knew nothing of what transpired in the universe during this period. To the mortal consciousness there appeared no lapse of time; the resurrection of life followed the sleep of death as of the same instant.​
188:3.10 And this is about all we can place on record regarding the status of Jesus during this period of the tomb. There are a number of correlated facts to which we can allude, although we are hardly competent to undertake their interpretation.

188:3.11 In the vast court of the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of Satania, there may now be observed a magnificent material-morontia structure known as the “Michael Memorial,” now bearing the seal of Gabriel. This memorial was created shortly after Michael departed from this world, and it bears this inscription: “In commemoration of the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia.”

188:3.12 There are records extant which show that during this period the supreme council of Salvington, numbering one hundred, held an executive meeting on Urantia under the presidency of Gabriel. There are also records showing that the Ancients of Days of Uversa communicated with Michael regarding the status of the universe of Nebadon during this time.

188:3.13 We know that at least one message passed between Michael and Immanuel on Salvington while the Master’s body lay in the tomb.

188:3.14 There is good reason for believing that some personality sat in the seat of Caligastia in the system council of the Planetary Princes on Jerusem which convened while the body of Jesus rested in the tomb.

188:3.15 The records of Edentia indicate that the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek was on Urantia, and that he received instructions from Michael during this time of the tomb.

188:3.16 And there is much other evidence which suggests that not all of the personality of Jesus was asleep and unconscious during this time of apparent physical death.
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
The obvious demonic Urantia Book calls The Holy Spirit: "the Thought Adjuster," making God into a divine puppet-master. That's how Satan operates: manipulation. It's how psychopaths operate. Not God. He is Truth. His Presence causes us to recognize Truth and to know Him. The Holy Spirit ensures us of the Truths found in His Word. He doesn't need to 'adjust' thought, He lets us choose our own thoughts and decide who is true. He doesn't want puppets, He wants us to love Him and trust that He is faithful to His Word, in spite of our circumstances.

Calling Jesus, Who is the Creator of the Universe: "Michael," attempts to belittle Him and make Him equal with angels. Again: obvious bunk. Urantia is demonically inspired, clearly. A cursory glimpse at even a single premise stated in it makes it painfully obvious. Being deceived by it is proof that there is no Truth in you.

The Urantia teachings which are diametrically opposed to these two simple Truths:
  1. God's Sprit is NOT a 'thought-adjuster' but a helper, comforter and encouragement to the Living Word of God, and;
  2. Christ is Creator, not a created being (angel);
ought to be enough proof to anyone who is able to reason that the inspiration of this blasphemy is NOT from above. The evidence is overwhelming. If you deny it, you're anathema.
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
“While it is necessary that I go to the Father, it was not required that one of you should become a traitor to fulfill the Father’s will. This is the coming to fruit of the concealed evil in the heart of one who failed to love the truth with his whole soul. How deceitful is the intellectual pride that precedes the spiritual downfall! My friend of many years, who even now eats my bread, will be willing to betray me, even as he now dips his hand with me in the dish.” UB 179 4.2
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
“While it is necessary that I go to the Father, it was not required that one of you should become a traitor to fulfill the Father’s will. This is the coming to fruit of the concealed evil in the heart of one who failed to love the truth with his whole soul. How deceitful is the intellectual pride that precedes the spiritual downfall! My friend of many years, who even now eats my bread, will be willing to betray me, even as he now dips his hand with me in the dish.” UB 179 4.2
As always: the UB is in glaring contradiction of the Holy Scriptures. :duh:
 

freelight

Eclectic Theosophist
The obvious demonic Urantia Book calls The Holy Spirit: "the Thought Adjuster," making God into a divine puppet-master. That's how Satan operates: manipulation. It's how psychopaths operate. Not God. He is Truth. His Presence causes us to recognize Truth and to know Him. The Holy Spirit ensures us of the Truths found in His Word. He doesn't need to 'adjust' thought, He lets us choose our own thoughts and decide who is true. He doesn't want puppets, He wants us to love Him and trust that He is faithful to His Word, in spite of our circumstances.

Calling Jesus, Who is the Creator of the Universe: "Michael," attempts to belittle Him and make Him equal with angels. Again: obvious bunk. Urantia is demonically inspired, clearly. A cursory glimpse at even a single premise stated in it makes it painfully obvious. Being deceived by it is proof that there is no Truth in you.

The Urantia teachings which are diametrically opposed to these two simple Truths:
  1. God's Sprit is NOT a 'thought-adjuster' but a helper, comforter and encouragement to the Living Word of God, and;
  2. Christ is Creator, not a created being (angel);
ought to be enough proof to anyone who is able to reason that the inspiration of this blasphemy is NOT from above. The evidence is overwhelming. If you deny it, you're anathema.

Hi, its been awhile :) - popped back in, for a little bit of dialogue and commentary, - those interested in the UB can begin with the OP and read on through this entire large thread of already covered subjects, - research what you will, and let your own conscience, reason, intelligence and divine inspiration guide,...thats how one moves forward, continuing to learn or unlearn whatever the case may be. All stories, legends, myths, personalities are subject to questioning within any given context or narrative, and religious stories, heresay and theological concepts are debatable.

Much has already been covered in our past dialogue here, as well as addressing your 'points' above. For a quick response, I'll just add a student can see what the UB teaches for himself about the 'thought-adjuster', and while this term is peculiar, it by no means entails a coercion or controlling of one's mind by some other power or entity, but that this divine spirit within the mind guides, inspires and leads the soul, so naturally the spirit of God will 'adjust' one's thoughts bringing them more into alignment and right frequency with Gods. 'God' is not a puppet master, as he enables all his children to make their own choices (free will). In fact the UB speaks much on the subject of free will in great depth and profundity.

While on the subject of universal consciousness -

'God' is not limited or constrained to any one book or collection of books(bible), since 'God' is infinite Spirit, but more importantly, the spirit of God indwells the mind of man, as his very body-mind is the temple of Deity. The 'thought-adjuster' is a divine spirit fragment of 'God' himself, a pre-personal fragment that may become personalized when a soul attains immortality and fuses with that divine adjuster within, so that both become one. The 'thought-adjuster' is also called a 'Father-fragment', 'mystery monitor', 'pilot light', etc,...since it is an actual fragment of the infinite Father himself, given as a gift to a mortal, so one needs to learn about that a thought adjuster actually is, and the subject is deep and multi-faceted, since 'God' himself is in fact INFINITE. (links provided for info/discussion). - God within Man - The Thought Adjuster

We addressed previously in many places, here among others.

The issue of Jesus being called 'Christ-Michael' is more a matter of definition of terms and understanding UB Christology as it were, as Jesus is a Creator-Son, an order of divine Sons who are also called 'Michaels' or of the Order of Michael, these are not angels, but actual Creator-Sons (see Here)...of which Jesus is one. Only in history and legend did the Creator Son of this universe later become alluded to or confused as the archangel Michael in traditional lore or scripture, due to commonalities of meaning, attribution, legend concerning the name 'Michael'. Jesus in the UB is definitely our Creator-Son, and in that regard is the 'God' or 'Lord' of this creation, so Jesus is indeed Lord in every right and respect of the word, and 'Savior' as defined in the UB.

So, we address your assumptions again -

1) The 'thought-adjuster', a divine spirit-fragment of God indwelling the mind of any given mortal, does not control or force itself but works together with the mind to inspire, enlighten, lead, guide, 'adjust' one's thoughts to the MIND of 'God'. - there is a synthesis, coordination, relationship, friendship of 'minds' as it were, although all originates from one universal MIND. The term may not sit well with some, but when a true understanding is afforded of its function, it 'adjusts' itself naturally in 'context'.

2) Christ is indeed our Creator and is not an archangel in the traditional sense as ascribed by scriptures and legend, since beliefs about 'Michael' later evolved from a foundation of truth in planetary knowledge. The title 'Christ-Michael' is given honorably recognizing that Christ is a Creator-Son who are known as 'Michaels' in the divine heirarchy. A Creator-Son can also be called a 'Michael-Son'. - as touched on earlier, the tradition of an archangel named Michael was later woven into scriptural lore and legend and later confused with Christ in various ways. A Creator-Son however is always the head of all archangels and angels of his heirarchy in any given universe or world, while any given Creator-Son is still a divine Creator-Son of the first and original Paradise Trinity.


The claims of this or any other book about Jesus as being 'demonic' are unsubtantiated or proven beyond one's own preclusion or assumption, just because it doesnt fit one's particular 'Christology' or chosen theological beliefs based in traditional-orthodox Christianity, hence a habit of continual degrading and demonizing of the UB or other revelations of Jesus or about Jesus. Any are free to examine the data and determine what has truth, wisdom, love or inspiration in it, as the UB along with other religious works have inspired and beneficial information in them, some more helpful than others, and this includes the Bible as well, which is subject to scrutiny, multiple translations and varied interpretation.

At the end of the day, the soul itself determines what religion or theology best suits it, using it sown discerning faculties, which is subject to change as better information, knowledge or information presents itself, as revelation is progressive.

Injoy ! :)
 

Aimiel

Well-known member
Hi, its been awhile :) - popped back in, for a little bit of dialogue and commentary, - those interested in the UB can begin with the OP and read on through this entire large thread of already covered subjects, - research what you will, and let your own conscience, reason, intelligence and divine inspiration guide,...thats how one moves forward, continuing to learn or unlearn whatever the case may be. All stories, legends, myths, personalities are subject to questioning within any given context or narrative, and religious stories, heresay and theological concepts are debatable.
Jesus Christ: the same, yesterday, today and forever. Your beloved UB changes His position and authority making Him less than Saviour and Lord and is pure heresy. Scripture is Truth, UB is bunk. It's plain for any Christian to see, which is why the UB has so few followers.
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
Why the Jews couldn’t accept Jesus.

JEWS AND GENTILES





121:7.1 By the times of Jesus the Jews had arrived at a settled concept of their origin, history, and destiny. They had built up a rigid wall of separation between themselves and the gentile world; they looked upon all gentile ways with utter contempt. They worshiped the letter of the law and indulged a form of self-righteousness based upon the false pride of descent. They had formed preconceived notions regarding the promised Messiah, and most of these expectations envisaged a Messiah who would come as a part of their national and racial history. To the Hebrews of those days Jewish theology was irrevocably settled, forever fixed.

121:7.2 The teachings and practices of Jesus regarding tolerance and kindnessran counter to the long-standing attitude of the Jews toward other peoples whom they considered heathen. For generations the Jews had nourished an attitude toward the outside world which made it impossible for them to accept the Master's teachings about the spiritual brotherhood of man. They were unwilling to share Yahweh on equal terms with the gentiles and were likewise unwilling to accept as the Son of God one who taught such new and strange doctrines.

121:7.3 The scribes, the Pharisees, and the priesthood held the Jews in a terrible bondage of ritualism and legalism, a bondage far more real than that of the Roman political rule. The Jews of Jesus' time were not only held in subjugation to the law but were equally bound by the slavish demands of the traditions, which involved and invaded every domain of personal and social life. These minute regulations of conduct pursued and dominated every loyal Jew, and it is not strange that they promptly rejected one of their number who presumed to ignore their sacred traditions, and who dared to flout their long-honored regulations of social conduct. They could hardly regard with favor the teachings of one who did not hesitate to clash with dogmas which they regarded as having been ordained by Father Abraham himself. Moses had given them their law and they would not compromise. *

121:7.4 By the time of the first century after Christ the spoken interpretation of the law by the recognized teachers, the scribes, had become a higher authority than the written law itself. And all this made it easier for certain religious leaders of the Jews to array the people against the acceptance of a new gospel.

These circumstances rendered it impossible for the Jews to fulfill their divine destiny as messengers of the new gospel of religious freedom and spiritual liberty. They could not break the fetters of tradition. Jeremiah had told of the "law to be written in men's hearts," Ezekiel had spoken of a "new spirit to live in man's soul." and the Psalmist had prayed that God would "create a clean heart within and renew a right spirit." But when the Jewish religion of good works and slavery to law fell victim to the stagnation of traditionalistic inertia, the motion of religious evolution passed westward to the European peoples.

121:7.6 And so a different people were called upon to carry an advancing theology to the world, a system of teaching embodying the philosophy of the Greeks, the law of the Romans, the morality of the Hebrews, and the gospel of personality sanctity and spiritual liberty formulated by Paul and based on the teachings of Jesus.” UB 1955
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
The Urantia Book

Paper 89



SIN, SACRIFICE, AND ATONEMENT



PRIMITIVE MAN REGARDED himself as being in debt to the spirits, as standing in need of redemption. As the savages looked at it, in justice the spirits might have visited much more bad luck upon them. As time passed, this concept developed into the doctrine of sin and salvation. The soul was looked upon as coming into the world under forfeit—original sin. The soul must be ransomed; a scapegoat must be provided. The head-hunter, in addition to practicing the cult of skull worship, was able to provide a substitute for his own life, a scapeman.

The savage was early possessed with the notion that spirits derive supreme satisfaction from the sight of human misery, suffering, and humiliation. At first, man was only concerned with sins of commission, but later he became exercised over sins of omission. And the whole subsequent sacrificial system grew up around these two ideas. This new ritual had to do with the observance of the propitiation ceremonies of sacrifice. Primitive man believed that something special must be done to win the favor of the gods; only advanced civilization recognizes a consistently even-tempered and benevolent God. Propitiation was insurance against immediate ill luck rather than investment in future bliss. And the rituals of avoidance, exorcism, coercion, and propitiation all merge into one another.



CONT>



https://truthbook.com/urantia-book/paper-89-sin-sacrifice-and-atonement
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
SACRIFICES AND SACRAMENTS



89:9.1 The human sacrifice, throughout the course of the evolution of Urantian rituals, has advanced from the bloody business of man-eating to higher and more symbolic levels. The early rituals of sacrifice bred the later ceremonies of sacrament. In more recent times the priest alone would partake of a bit of the cannibalistic sacrifice or a drop of human blood, and then all would partake of the animal substitute. These early ideas of ransom, redemption, and covenants have evolved into the later-day sacramental services. And all this ceremonial evolution has exerted a mighty socializing influence.

89:9.2 In connection with the Mother of God cult, in Mexico and elsewhere, a sacrament of cakes and wine was eventually utilized in lieu of the flesh and blood of the older human sacrifices. The Hebrews long practiced this ritual as a part of their Passover ceremonies, and it was from this ceremonial that the later Christian version of the sacrament took its origin.

89:9.3 The ancient social brotherhoods were based on the rite of blood drinking; the early Jewish fraternity was a sacrificial blood affair. Paul started out to build a new Christian * religion on "the blood of the everlasting covenant." And while he may have unnecessarily encumbered Christianity with teachings about blood and sacrifice, he did once and for all make an end of the doctrines of redemption through human or animal sacrifices. His theologic compromises indicate that even revelation must submit to the graduated control of evolution. According to Paul, Christ became the last and all-sufficient human sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied.

89:9.4 And so, after long ages the cult of the sacrifice has evolved into the cult of the sacrament. Thus are the sacraments of modern religions the legitimate successors of those shocking early ceremonies of human sacrifice and the still earlier cannibalistic rituals. Many still depend upon blood for salvation, but it has at least become figurative, symbolic, and mystic.
 
Last edited:

Caino

BANNED
Banned

GOD IN RELIGION​



5:4.1 The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest by the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to seek for a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not merely a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety of survival"; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment predicated on humanity service.

5:4.2 The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound assurance. With primitive man, even polytheism is a relative unification of the evolving concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the making. Sooner or later, God is destined to be comprehended as the reality of values, the substance of meanings, and the life of truth.

5:4.3 God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal destination. All nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting service of self; the truly religious individual seeks to identify the self with the universe and then to dedicate the activities of this unified self to the service of the universe family of fellow beings, human and superhuman.

5:4.4 The domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and the religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual realities and universe values of eternal meanings.

Religious Symbols
5:4.5 All religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony, ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from sin, sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the rigorous moral standards of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is salvation from self, deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time and in eternity.

5:4.6 The Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the Greeks on beauty; both religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love, and love is all-embracing of truth, beauty, and goodness.

5:4.7 The Zoroastrians had a religion of morals; the Hindus a religion of metaphysics; the Confucianists a religion of ethics. Jesus lived a religion of service. All these religions are of value in that they are valid approaches to the religion of Jesus. Religion is destined to become the reality of the spiritual unification of all that is good, beautiful, and true in human experience.

5:4.8 The Greek religion had a watchword "Know yourself"; the Hebrews centered their teaching on "Know your God"; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a "knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ"; Jesus proclaimed the good news of "knowing God, and yourself as a son of God." These differing concepts of the purpose of religion determine the individual's attitude in various life situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and the nature of his personal habits of prayer. The spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the nature of its prayers.

5:4.9 The concept of a semihuman and jealous God is an inevitable transition between polytheism and sublime monotheism. An exalted anthropomorphism is the highest attainment level of purely evolutionary religion. Christianity has elevated the concept of anthropomorphism from the ideal of the human to the transcendent and divine concept of the person of the glorified Christ. And this is the highest anthropomorphism that man can ever conceive.

5:4.10 The Christian concept of God is an attempt to combine three separate teachings:

1. The Hebrew concept—God as a vindicator of moral values, a righteous God.
2. The Greek concept—God as a unifier, a God of wisdom.
3. Jesus' concept—God as a living friend, a loving Father, the divine presence.
5:4.14 It must therefore be evident that composite Christian theology encounters great difficulty in attaining consistency. This difficulty is further aggravated by the fact that the doctrines of early Christianity were generally based on the personal religious experience of three different persons: Philo of Alexandria, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus.

Philo by André Thévet

Jesus (detail) by Russ Docken

Paul by Rembrandt

5:4.15 In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think not so much of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his loving service. Jesus upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God who is the Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer.
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned

THE LEGEND OF CREATION​



74:8.1 The story of the creation of Urantia in six days was based on the tradition that Adam and Eve had spent just six days in their initial survey of the Garden. This circumstance lent almost sacred sanction to the time period of the week, which had been originally introduced by the Dalamatians. Adam's spending six days inspecting the Garden and formulating preliminary plans for organization was not prearranged; it was worked out from day to day. The choosing of the seventh day for worship was wholly incidental to the facts herewith narrated.

74:8.2 The legend of the making of the world in six days was an afterthought, in fact, more than thirty thousand years afterwards. One feature of the narrative, the sudden appearance of the sun and moon, may have taken origin in the traditions of the onetime sudden emergence of the world from a dense space cloud of minute matter which had long obscured both sun and moon.

74:8.3 The story of creating Eve out of Adam's rib is a confused condensation of the Adamic arrival and the celestial surgery connected with the interchange of living substances associated with the coming of the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince more than four hundred and fifty thousand years previously.

74:8.4 The majority of the world's peoples have been influenced by the tradition that Adam and Eve had physical forms created for them upon their arrival on Urantia. The belief in man's having been created from clay was well-nigh universal in the Eastern Hemisphere; this tradition can be traced from the Philippine Islands around the world to Africa. And many groups accepted this story of man's clay origin by some form of special creation in the place of the earlier beliefs in progressive creation—evolution.

74:8.5 Away from the influences of Dalamatia and Eden, mankind tended toward the belief in the gradual ascent of the human race. The fact of evolution is not a modern discovery; the ancients understood the slow and evolutionary character of human progress. The early Greeks had clear ideas of this despite their proximity to Mesopotamia. Although the various races of earth became sadly mixed up in their notions of evolution, nevertheless, many of the primitive tribes believed and taught that they were the descendants of various animals. Primitive peoples made a practice of selecting for their "totems" the animals of their supposed ancestry. Certain North American Indian tribes believed they originated from beavers and coyotes. Certain African tribes teach that they are descended from the hyena, a Malay tribe from the lemur, a New Guinea group from the parrot.

74:8.6 The Babylonians, because of immediate contact with the remnants of the civilization of the Adamites, enlarged and embellished the story of man's creation; they taught that he had descended directly from the gods. They held to an aristocratic origin for the race which was incompatible with even the doctrine of creation out of clay.

74:8.7 The Old Testament account of creation dates from long after the time of Moses; he never taught the Hebrews such a distorted story. But he did present a simple and condensed narrative of creation to the Israelite, hoping thereby to augment his appeal to worship the Creator, the Universal Father, whom he called the Lord God of Israel.

74:8.8 In his early teachings, Moses very wisely did not attempt to go back of Adam's time, and since Moses was the supreme teacher of the Hebrews, the stories of Adam became intimately associated with those of creation. That the earlier traditions recognized pre-Adamic civilization is clearly shown by the fact that later editors, intending to eradicate all reference to human affairs before Adam's time, neglected to remove the telltale reference to Cain's emigration to the "land of Nod," where he took himself a wife.

74:8.9 The Hebrews had no written language in general usage for a long time after they reached Palestine. They learned the use of an alphabet from the neighboring Philistines, who were political refugees from the higher civilization of Crete. The Hebrews did little writing until about 900 B.C., and having no written language until such a late date, they had several different stories of creation in circulation, but after the Babylonian captivity they inclined more toward accepting a modified Mesopotamian version.

74:8.10 Jewish tradition became crystallized about Moses, and because he endeavored to trace the lineage of Abraham back to Adam, the Jews assumed that Adam was the first of all mankind. Yahweh was the creator, and since Adam was supposed to be the first man, he must have made the world just prior to making Adam. And then the tradition of Adam's six days got woven into the story, with the result that almost a thousand years after Moses' sojourn on earth the tradition of creation in six days was written out and subsequently credited to him.

74:8.11 When the Jewish priests returned to Jerusalem, they had already completed the writing of their narrative of the beginning of things. Soon they made claims that this recital was a recently discovered story of creation written by Moses. But the contemporary Hebrews of around 500 B.C. did not consider these writings to be divine revelations; they looked upon them much as later peoples regard mythological narratives.

74:8.12 This spurious document, reputed to be the teachings of Moses, was brought to the attention of Ptolemy, the Greek king of Egypt, who had it translated into Greek by a commission of seventy scholars for his new library at Alexandria. And so this account found its place among those writings which subsequently became a part of the later collections of the "sacred scriptures" of the Hebrew and Christian religions. And through identification with these theological systems, such concepts for a long time profoundly influenced the philosophy of many Occidental peoples.

74:8.13 The Christian teachers perpetuated the belief in the fiat creation of the human race, and all this led directly to the formation of the hypothesis of a onetime golden age of utopian bliss and the theory of the fall of man or superman which accounted for the nonutopian condition of society. These outlooks on life and man's place in the universe were at best discouraging since they were predicated upon a belief in retrogression rather than progression, as well as implying a vengeful Deity, who had vented wrath upon the human race in retribution for the errors of certain onetime planetary administrators.

74:8.14 The "golden age" is a myth, but Eden was a fact, and the Garden civilization was actually overthrown. Adam and Eve carried on in the Garden for one hundred and seventeen years when, through the impatience of Eve and the errors of judgment of Adam, they presumed to turn aside from the ordained way, speedily bringing disaster upon themselves and ruinous retardation upon the developmental progression of all Urantia.
 

Caino

BANNED
Banned
A science claim is never to be taken as un-provable truth, we aren't supposed to use it to 'negate' but to 'check.' Science is MUCH more fluid than theology. As to 'in' the Bible:

This isn't true, Caino. I've told you often where your Urantia thread has clearly disparaged the Lord Jesus Christ. How could you possibly delude yourself that you don't when we have told you, very strongly and clearly in your thread even, where and when it does damage to scripture truths?

Why or how could you think it is about 'losing a debate' at that point? I've clearly showed you, in your thread, where it actually does.
I haven't disparaged Jesus Christ.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top