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After reading Part IV, now what?

61 posts · 8 participants · started Dec 16, 2023, 1:48 PM

JulianParticipant
Apr 26, 2024, 6:06 AM
Bradly, further to my previous post, I would also like to address the following comment you made:

“But what seems to be missing (so far) in your proposition Julian is the profound and radical planetary transformation this past 2000 years by the power of the Spirit of Truth and stream of God Fragments. I would certainly disagree that the Jesusonian Gospel has been idle, let alone “dormant”, by any observation or measurement.”

“It is odd to believe that Jesus failed somehow on this Shrine of Nebadon”

In fact the UB does state that the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom, while not becoming “idle”, did temporarily fail to achieve what Jesus always intended. And what did he intend?

(1569.4) 140:1.7 “And this which your eyes now behold, this small beginning of twelve commonplace men, shall multiply and grow until eventually the whole earth shall be filled with the praise of my Father. And it will not be so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and have learned of the realities of the kingdom”.

But there was a temporary setback.

(1865.6) 170:5.15 The church thus became in the main a social brotherhood which effectively displaced Jesus’ concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood.

(1865.6) 170:5.16 Jesus’ ideal concept largely failed….

But why??

(1670.2) 149:2.1 Jesus understood the minds of men. He knew what was in the heart of man, and had his teachings been left as he presented them, the only commentary being the inspired interpretation afforded by his earth life, all nations and all religions of the world would speedily have embraced the gospel of the kingdom. The well-meant efforts of Jesus’ early followers to restate his teachings so as to make them the more acceptable to certain nations, races, and religions, only resulted in making such teachings the less acceptable to all other nations, races, and religions.

This temporary failure was a result of the first century apostles and disciples beginning to proclaim a different gospel, which, while effective in producing rapid numbers of converts, did not even come close to what Jesus foretold would occur if they had faithfully continued to preach the original gospel of Jesus.

However, Jesus’ word would ultimately and eventually be fulfilled.

(1866.4) 170:5.21 Mistake not! there is in the teachings of Jesus an eternal nature which will not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of thinking men. The kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being, an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the Master’s teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus’ concept now slumbers. The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development.

Bradly, you also said:

“While the Jesusonian Gospel may have been distorted and abandoned by the doctrines, creeds, and theologies of Christendom, the Spirit of Truth has had and is having and will always now have the direct ministry of the Son’s Spirit and voice that all souls may hear.”

“The Spirit and our spiritization awaits nothing and no one. The world is transformed only by the spiritization of the souls upon it, generation by generation.”

Please forgive me if I have misunderstood you. I agree that the prediction contained in my previous quote would not be possible without the presence of the Spirit of Truth. However, the Spirit of Truth on its own will not produce the changes that Jesus foretold. It provides a foundation for change but we have to harness its power.

(820.3) 72:12.5 The pouring out of the Spirit of Truth provides the spiritual foundation for the realization of great achievements in the interests of the human race of the bestowal world.

This is how the butterfly emerges:

(2043.1) 191:5.3 When you have faith, when power from on high, the Spirit of Truth, has come upon you, you will not hide your light here behind closed doors; you will make known the love and the mercy of God to all mankind. Through fear you now flee from the facts of a disagreeable experience, but when you shall have been baptized with the Spirit of Truth, you will bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of proclaiming the good news of eternal life in the kingdom of God.

(2044.3) 191:6.2 And when men see you so love them, and when they behold how fervently you serve them, they will perceive that you have become faith-fellows of the kingdom of heaven, and they will follow after the Spirit of Truth which they see in your lives, to the finding of eternal salvation.

(2057.4) 193:5.2 “I am about to ascend to my Father, and soon, very soon, will we send into this world of my sojourn the Spirit of Truth; and when he has come, you shall begin the new proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom…”

(1866.2) 170:5.19 There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, such a restatement as will undo the work of his early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of belief regarding the fact of Michael’s sojourn on earth.

When I stated that I believe we are still within the purview of the 4^th epochal revelation, I meant that the work of the 4^th ER has not been completed. It was derailed for many centuries but now it has been revived. The spiritization of humanity, the coming of the spiritual renaissance, awaits the proclamation of Jesus’ gospel.

(2082.9) 195:9.4 Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.

Bradly I’m sorry if this is somewhat longwinded. There is much more that I would like to say but I should leave it for now. Of course I may be mistaken but I sincerely believe that this is the urgent work that The Urantia Book instructs us to do. Of all people on this planet, I believe that we, as students of the book, have been given the clearest picture of what the world needs right now.
BradlyParticipant
Apr 26, 2024, 4:36 PM
Julian – I look forward to more on this fascinating topic!

From my perspective “the present ideological struggle” may persist for generations still. It appears the evolutionary transition from greed based capitalism to the service economy and the Golden Rule of just and equitable governance is some distance yet for Urantia.

As for the effect of the Spirit of Truth over the past 100 generations, the calculus must include the Adjusters and the increased spiritual amperage and “downward pressure from above” that results from these new Deity Connections enhancements now poured out to activate and energize the spiritization of humanity.

194:2.11 (2061.9) Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is subject to the teaching and guidance of a threefold spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the Thought Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

Me here: This new and combined effect of God Fragments and youthful soul cocreation is a profound upliftment of personal and planetary ministries and the mortal response to our Deity Connections and circuitry.

52:6.7 (598.2) 5. Spiritual insight. The brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal love are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization of the brotherhood of man.

Me here: Bless all those who have worked this past century in this seed bed and garden of the 5th Epochal Revelation to our world, plowing, planting, tending, and watering this gift of light and truth and knowledge and universe reality perspective.

So much has been done by so many faith children for so long…. still there is so much more to be done!

But destiny is certain for all who live with hope and faith and the Divine Assurance that all such children are so blessed with.

To me, the greatest teaching in the UB is that our beliefs and disbelief, our knowledge and our ignorance, and the accuracy and inaccuracies of our beliefs and knowledge do not limit or define or determine our faith experience and relationship with Deity!!

Faith is simply any positive response or experience or expression of our Deity Connections. Even cave dwellers, superstitious primitives, ignorant barbarians, and children experience and express such faith and demonstrate those fruits of the Spirit which always attend faith.

I am personally so inspired by the obvious morality based idealism and goodness and kindness and generosity exhibited by 7 billion souls today, despite the conflicts and confusions and suffering in our world. The Spirit is shining forth all around in so many ways and places, even dark and desperate places can love be found at work.

5:2.4 (64.7) It is because of this God fragment that indwells you that you can hope, as you progress in harmonizing with the Adjuster’s spiritual leadings, more fully to discern the presence and transforming power of those other spiritual influences that surround you and impinge upon you but do not function as an integral part of you. The fact that you are not intellectually conscious of close and intimate contact with the indwelling Adjuster does not in the least disprove such an exalted experience. The proof of fraternity with the divine Adjuster consists wholly in the nature and extent of the fruits of the spirit which are yielded in the life experience of the individual believer. “By their fruits you shall know them.”

5:2.5 (65.1) It is exceedingly difficult for the meagerly spiritualized, material mind of mortal man to experience marked consciousness of the spirit activities of such divine entities as the Paradise Adjusters. As the soul of joint mind and Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent, there also evolves a new phase of soul consciousness which is capable of experiencing the presence, and of recognizing the spirit leadings and other supermaterial activities, of the Mystery Monitors.

5:2.6 (65.2) The entire experience of Adjuster communion is one involving moral status, mental motivation, and spiritual experience. The self-realization of such an achievement is mainly, though not exclusively, limited to the realms of soul consciousness, but the proofs are forthcoming and abundant in the manifestation of the fruits of the spirit in the lives of all such inner-spirit contactors.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
Apr 27, 2024, 3:27 PM
Julian posts: “When I stated that I believe we are still within the purview of the 4^th epochal revelation, I meant that the work of the 4^th ER has not been completed. It was derailed for many centuries but now it has been revived. The spiritization of humanity, the coming of the spiritual renaissance, awaits the proclamation of Jesus’ gospel.”

Indeed! My opinion is that we remain “within the purview” of every Epochal Revelation throughout every Mortal Epoch and every stage of Light and Life. The work of each and every Epochal Revelation is not complete until the final stages of Light and Life.

We also remain under the ongoing and perpetually increasing influences of the Supreme and prior social evolutionary progress by all the many ministry adjustments and course correcting Plan Bs implemented by the Most Highs to counterbalance the setbacks of rebellion and default in our history.

I think the spiritual renaissance has been quite active the past 100 generations with obvious results and increasing momentum and mass with an inspiring and identifiable trajectory toward planetary evolutionary destiny.

Consider the impact of the soul consciousness since the flood of God Fragments began pouring onto our world in every generation. What a crossroads! Before the Spirit of Truth and after the Spirit of Truth marks a massive upliftment of humanity on every sphere every time, no matter all prior progress and/or deprivations.

Regardless of the current status of the Jesusonian Gospel in our planetary awareness or embrace, the effects of the Son’s Spirit and the Adjusters for the past 2000 years has been profound.

We “quiver” on the brink of further transformation and spiritization on this Shrine of Nebadon!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
JulianParticipant
Apr 28, 2024, 3:40 AM
Hello Bradly,

Thank you for your thought-provoking responses to my two posts.

I’m not sure that I understand what you meant in the following quote:

Bradly wrote:

I think the spiritual renaissance has been quite active the past 100 generations with obvious results and increasing momentum and mass with an inspiring and identifiable trajectory toward planetary evolutionary destiny.

The past 100 generations would take us back to the first century of our common era, that’s if we counted each generation as 20 years.

The expression “spiritual renaissance” only occurs only twice in the UB, in the following paragraphs:

^(2082.9) ^195:9.4 Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.

^(2086.3) ^195:10.17 Even secular education could help in this great spiritual renaissance if it would pay more attention to the work of teaching youth how to engage in life planning and character progression. The purpose of all education should be to foster and further the supreme purpose of life, the development of a majestic and well-balanced personality. There is great need for the teaching of moral discipline in the place of so much self-gratification. Upon such a foundation religion may contribute its spiritual incentive to the enlargement and enrichment of mortal life, even to the security and enhancement of life eternal.

In my opinion, neither of these two pronoucements seems to be referring to a time back in the first century. In the first one, it speaks of Christianity persisting in neglecting its spiritual mission, which would necessitate the coming of new teachers of Jesus’religion. Unless I’m mistaken, this is addressed to people living at the time of the release of the UB; in other words around the middle of the 20th century.

So it would seem to me that the spiritual renaissance would occur at a time that was future to the mid-twentieth century. It would come about as a result of these new leaders or teachers of Jesus’ religion being “exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men”. Moreover, it states that these leaders “will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings”. It is in my opinion a more logical interpretation of these words. But I could be mistaken.
BradlyParticipant
Apr 28, 2024, 7:29 PM
Religious renaissance is also described in Papers 92 and 94, including more recently. I am wondering about the differences between “spiritual renaissance” and “religious renaissance”. Aren’t both describing planetary evolutionary progress?

And how does personal spiritization affect both? The Son’s Spirit of Truth and the flood of Adjusters to co-create souls in all the children of a world must have a tremendous impact on planetary evolutionary and epochal progress.

92:5.8 (1009.2) There have been hundreds upon hundreds of religious leaders in the million-year human history of Urantia from Onagar to Guru Nanak. During this time there have been many ebbs and flows of the tide of religious truth and spiritual faith, and each renaissance of Urantian religion has, in the past, been identified with the life and teachings of some religious leader. In considering the teachers of recent times, it may prove helpful to group them into the seven major religious epochs of post-Adamic Urantia:

92:5.9 (1009.3) 1. The Sethite period. The Sethite priests, as regenerated under the leadership of Amosad, became the great post-Adamic teachers. They functioned throughout the lands of the Andites, and their influence persisted longest among the Greeks, Sumerians, and Hindus. Among the latter they have continued to the present time as the Brahmans of the Hindu faith. The Sethites and their followers never entirely lost the Trinity concept revealed by Adam.

92:5.10 (1009.4) 2. Era of the Melchizedek missionaries. Urantia religion was in no small measure regenerated by the efforts of those teachers who were commissioned by Machiventa Melchizedek when he lived and taught at Salem almost two thousand years before Christ. These missionaries proclaimed faith as the price of favor with God, and their teachings, though unproductive of any immediately appearing religions, nevertheless formed the foundations on which later teachers of truth were to build the religions of Urantia.

92:5.11 (1009.5) 3. The post-Melchizedek era. Though Amenemope and Ikhnaton both taught in this period, the outstanding religious genius of the post-Melchizedek era was the leader of a group of Levantine Bedouins and the founder of the Hebrew religion—Moses. Moses taught monotheism. Said he: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God.” “The Lord he is God. There is none beside him.” He persistently sought to uproot the remnants of the ghost cult among his people, even prescribing the death penalty for its practitioners. The monotheism of Moses was adulterated by his successors, but in later times they did return to many of his teachings. The greatness of Moses lies in his wisdom and sagacity. Other men have had greater concepts of God, but no one man was ever so successful in inducing large numbers of people to adopt such advanced beliefs.

92:5.12 (1009.6) 4. The sixth century before Christ. Many men arose to proclaim truth in this, one of the greatest centuries of religious awakening ever witnessed on Urantia. Among these should be recorded Gautama, Confucius, Lao-tse, Zoroaster, and the Jainist teachers. The teachings of Gautama have become widespread in Asia, and he is revered as the Buddha by millions. Confucius was to Chinese morality what Plato was to Greek philosophy, and while there were religious repercussions to the teachings of both, strictly speaking, neither was a religious teacher; Lao-tse envisioned more of God in Tao than did Confucius in humanity or Plato in idealism. Zoroaster, while much affected by the prevalent concept of dual spiritism, the good and the bad, at the same time definitely exalted the idea of one eternal Deity and of the ultimate victory of light over darkness.

92:5.13 (1010.1) 5. The first century after Christ. As a religious teacher, Jesus of Nazareth started out with the cult which had been established by John the Baptist and progressed as far as he could away from fasts and forms. Aside from Jesus, Paul of Tarsus and Philo of Alexandria were the greatest teachers of this era. Their concepts of religion have played a dominant part in the evolution of that faith which bears the name of Christ.

92:5.14 (1010.2) 6. The sixth century after Christ. Mohammed founded a religion which was superior to many of the creeds of his time. His was a protest against the social demands of the faiths of foreigners and against the incoherence of the religious life of his own people.

92:5.15 (1010.3) 7. The fifteenth century after Christ. This period witnessed two religious movements: the disruption of the unity of Christianity in the Occident and the synthesis of a new religion in the Orient. In Europe institutionalized Christianity had attained that degree of inelasticity which rendered further growth incompatible with unity. In the Orient the combined teachings of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism were synthesized by Nanak and his followers into Sikhism, one of the most advanced religions of Asia.

There is also the Deity focused renaissance of Japanese Buddhism in the last few centuries, reminding us in the West that while Christianity may have failed to, so far, deliver its potential by its distraction and paganistic detours, other traditions may still progress into light and truth.

After fleeing the fundamentalist church of my youth (upon discovering the abandoned and ignored Jesusonian Gospel within the Bible), it was Taoism and Zen Buddhism that brought me back into truth seeking and the light of spiritual realities. Then came the UB. What a gift!

94:12.4 (1041.2) The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama’s followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ.

94:12.5 (1041.3) Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution.

94:12.6 (1041.4) At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?

94:12.7 (1041.5) All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.

In evolutionary and experiential progress, there is always opportunity for slow, incremental growth and also sudden,transformative growth. It is impossible for any evolutionary world to be unresponsive to the critical ministry of the Son’s Spirit of Truth and the flood of Adjusters AND emergence of souls in the children of that world.

Urantia has not failed to respond to morality, idealism, the Golden Rule, or the Jesusonian Gospel, or the Ministry of Adjusters and Spirit of Truth these past 100 generations.

Obviously so!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
Apr 29, 2024, 5:45 PM
So…I have always found the Papers to be so consistent and redundant throughout the entire text, regardless of authors or topics. Whenever there are ‘apparent’ contradictions or conflicts to my mind, additional study to expand context and my own perspective, improved perception and understanding usually leads to satisfactory resolution.

Julian – you commented above that it’s your opinion that the Jesusonian Gospel has been “dormant” these past 2000 years.

But the text below certainly conflicts with any notion that Christianity’s failure in upholding and preaching the Jesusonian Gospel has led to its failure to find voice by the combined ministries of the Spirit of Truth and Adjusters and flowering of souls on Urantia.

The Spirit of Truth speaks directly to the souls/morontia mind of mortals. Every soul. All souls. Every generation. Restated and updated to every generation since Pentacost. Got a soul? You are receiving the testimony and ministry of the Son’s Spirit, the Jesusonian Gospel, since the release of the Son’s Spirit 100 generations ago.

The text is clear and redundant on this fact.

Personal spiritization results in planetary spiritualization and evolutionary progress. Or so I understand…

From the end of The Forward:

0:12.13 (17.2) We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.

194:2.1 (2060.6) Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God. Jesus’ message, as he preached it and lived it in his day, was an effective solvent for man’s spiritual difficulties in that day of its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an effective solvent for man’s ever-new and varied spiritual difficulties.

194:2.2 (2060.7) The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form of human liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer’s feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would experience a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men’s hearts.

194:2.3 (2061.1) This bestowal of the Son’s spirit effectively prepared all normal men’s minds for the subsequent universal bestowal of the Father’s spirit (the Adjuster) upon all mankind. In a certain sense, this Spirit of Truth is the spirit of both the Universal Father and the Creator Son.

194:2.4 (2061.2) Do not make the mistake of expecting to become strongly intellectually conscious of the outpoured Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof, therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael.

194:2.5 (2061.3) The spirit also came to help men recall and understand the words of the Master as well as to illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth.

194:2.6 (2061.4) Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer to witness to the realities of Jesus’ teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing generation of the spirit-filled sons of God.

194:2.7 (2061.5) Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth comes really to lead all believers into all truth, into the expanding knowledge of the experience of the living and growing spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending sonship with God.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
JulianParticipant
May 1, 2024, 8:56 AM
Dear Bradly,

Thanks for sharing your understanding with me. I have no argument with the UB texts you have quoted. Paper 194, section 2 clearly sets out the ministry of the Spirit of Truth since he was poured out on humanity back on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit of Truth was “designed to live in man” but the fruits of Michael’s spirit are not automatic; they depend on whether or not each individual accepts that spirit into their hearts. Michael will never override the will of the individual.

(379:5) 34:5.5 Though the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit of the Son is almost wholly limited in function and power by man’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal Son.

(1829.4) 166:3.7 Slowly the apostles and many of the disciples were learning the meaning of Jesus’ early declaration: “Unless you are born again, born of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Nevertheless, to all who are honest of heart and sincere in faith, it remains eternally true: “Behold, I stand at the doors of men’s hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him and will feed him with the bread of life.

(1954:1) 181:1.4 I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, but all men will not choose to receive this new teacher as the guide and counselor of the soul. But as many as do receive him shall be enlightened, cleansed, and comforted. And this Spirit of Truth will become in them a well of living water springing up into eternal life.

Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly true that the state of our planet would be a lot more grievous were it not for the presence of the Holy Triad, the Thought Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit.

However, humanity should not be complacent merely because these spirit forces are actively involved in our lives. While the Spirit of Truth “lead(s) all believers into all truth”, it should be remembered that notwithstanding the presence of the Spirit of Truth, the early apostles and disciples preached a different message to the one that the Master instructed them to preach. While successful in creating a religion about Jesus, they did not see the fruition of Jesus’ visionary concept – the Kingdom of God in the hearts of all inhabitants of the world.

(1569.4) 140:1.7 “And this which your eyes now behold, this small beginning of twelve commonplace men, shall multiply and grow until eventually the whole earth shall be filled with the praise of my Father.

Bradly, you stated: “Julian – you commented above that it’s your opinion that the Jesusonian Gospel has been “dormant” these past 2000 years.” By the term “Jesusonian Gospel”, I presume you are talking about the gospel of Jesus or the gospel of the kingdom. Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the word “dormant” but it is not just my opinion that Jesus’ gospel became inactive. Paper 170, section 5, speaks about how “Jesus’ concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood…. largely failed…” and “The kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being, an outward church has taken its place”; and then it speaks of the Christian church being “only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the Master’s teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus’ concept now slumbers.”

I believe that the Spirit of Truth will be successful in his mission because he will empower godly men and women to proclaim the original gospel of Jesus (the 4^th ER) to a world that is hungry for divine truth.

(1041.5) 94:12.7 All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.

Because Jesus’ gospel message is contained within the teachings of the world’s great religions, their adherents will be receptive to this proclamation.

(1865.7) 170:5.17 The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world. Paul’s Christian church is the socialized and humanized shadow of what Jesus intended the kingdom of heaven to be — and what it most certainly will yet become.

In the second last Paper of the UB we encounter this extraordinary prophetic statement:

(2082.9) 195:9.4 Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.

Bradly, what an incomparable, unrepeatable privilege and responsibility lies before us. How blessed are we!!
BradlyParticipant
May 4, 2024, 1:50 PM
Truly blessed indeed!

Such a transformative celestial perspective of universe reality! A complete realignment of personal priorities and philosophy of living and the strategies employed to now face the uncertainties of life with the adventurer’s anticipation and the traveler’s wonderment and awe!

The perspective of our purpose and potential and origin and our destiny are exhilarating inspiration for the intrepid faith children of our world. I believe it’s impact will be profound in the millenia to come as human ideals and priorities are redirected by our spiritization and experiential wisdom gained by the many ministries we now share in common globally.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
May 5, 2024, 12:56 PM
Julian – agreed. Each must choose to respond to the Spirit within and receive the illumination so eagerly offered by our Deity Connections.

Still…I remain confused here by the proposition that the 4th Epochal Revelation somehow failed and the Jesusonian Gospel has been dormant. When the UB says in Paper 170 – “Jesus’ ideal concept largely failed….”, that is a specific reference to the Christian church’s failure to preserve and present and perpetuate Jesus’s ideal concept of the kingdom of heaven as the universal brotherhood of creation, but it is not a declaration of the failure of the 7th Bestowal or 4th Epochal Revelation or Spirit of Truth or planetary evolutionary progress since Pentacost.

What is humanity’s complacency? Perhaps you mean the phase of commercialism and materialism we are in?

195:6.4 (2076.9) At the time of this writing the worst of the materialistic age is over; the day of a better understanding is already beginning to dawn. The higher minds of the scientific world are no longer wholly materialistic in their philosophy, but the rank and file of the people still lean in that direction as a result of former teachings. But this age of physical realism is only a passing episode in man’s life on earth. Modern science has left true religion—the teachings of Jesus as translated in the lives of his believers—untouched. All science has done is to destroy the childlike illusions of the misinterpretations of life.

Me here: or perhaps you use “complacent” to describe secularism?

195:8.1 (2081.1) But even after materialism and mechanism have been more or less vanquished, the devastating influence of twentieth-century secularism will still blight the spiritual experience of millions of unsuspecting souls.

Me here: That failure of Christianity to embrace the gospel of the family of creation or kingdom of brotherhood is not a failure of the ministry of the Son’s Spirit of Truth and flood of TAs, also elements of the 4th. The Jesusonian Gospel survives and is easily found in the words ascribed to the Master in the KJV and humanity receives this same gospel to every soul of every generation since. Consider:

170:5.17 (1865.7) The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world…..

The fruits of the 4th and the new ministries released as part of the 4th have shown remarkable results on Urantia. Personally, I am amazed by the progress and trajectory of Urantian evolutionary progress and spiritization!

I certainly agree that the mission and ministry of every Epochal Revelation is a sequel and additional ministry to all those before… and afterwards. But the Mortal Epochs of evolutionary progress are distinct from Epochal Revelations which are interspersed as needed into any Mortal Epoch based on the leadership needs and strategic planning priorities on each evolutionary world.

The Son’s Bestowal is more than an Epochal Revelation, it begins a whole new Mortal Epoch or sequential stage and step that usually lasts tens of thousands of years. The UB is not that. It is a complimentary and supplementary “revelation of epochal significance”. There is a distinction in form and function and timing.

Urantia’s Mortal Epochs are dispensational ages that are out of sequence. The functions and effects of Michael’s bestowal and gift of the Spirit of Truth will never end, no matter how many Epochal Revelations or Mortal Epochs come or when.

52:0.1 (589.1) FROM the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order:

52:0.2 (589.2) 1. Pre-Planetary Prince Man.

52:0.3 (589.3) 2. Post-Planetary Prince Man.

52:0.4 (589.4) 3. Post-Adamic Man.

52:0.5 (589.5) 4. Post-Magisterial Son Man.

52:0.6 (589.6) 5. Post-Bestowal Son Man.

52:0.7 (589.7) 6. Post-Teacher Son Man.

52:0.8 (589.8) 7. The Era of Light and Life.

92:3.5 (1006.2) Only two influences can modify and uplift the dogmas of natural religion: the pressure of the slowly advancing mores and the periodic illumination of epochal revelation…

Me here: As to Michael’s final bestowal: “The postbestowal Son age may extend from ten thousand to a hundred thousand years. There is no arbitrary time allotted to any of these dispensational eras. This is a time of great ethical and spiritual progress. Under the spiritual influence of these ages, human character undergoes tremendous transformations and experiences phenomenal development. It becomes possible to put the golden rule into practical operation.”

Me here: It is important to understand how our reality perspective is distorted by our personal and subjective experience, knowledge, wisdom, preconceptions, misconceptions, and our emotional state of being. The UB teaches that we lose subjectivity and gain objectivity slowly in time and by gains in knowledge and understanding and experiential wisdom and spiritization.

An old Zen saying is that things are not at they appear… and neither are they different! Things will never “appear” differently to us until our perspective changes by greater knowledge, insight, understanding, experience, and wisdom. Then things will “appear” different. And yet things will still not be as they appear.

Probably, things ARE as they appear to be only to God. All other personalities suffer, to some degree, experiential limits and bias in our/their reality perspective.

Of the 7+ billion souls on Urantia, it truly is quite easy and simple to find endless examples of truth, beauty, goodness, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, duty, loyalty, idealism, hope, faith, and love. Such inspiration surrounds us. They’re everywhere. Everyday. All day long.

The number of volunteer service hours and money donated to righteous causes has never been so great around the planet, and has been measurably increasing, decade after decade, for over the past century. By the wealthy, the working class, the poor, and even those in crisis, suffering desperate circumstances and personal deprivation.

It’s incredible to see the changes and planetary evolutionary progress since the printing press, and industrialization, and the ages of electricity and radio and digitization and global travel and computerization and space exploration and wireless communication and personal access to the world’s collective knowledge, etc., etc., etc.

We may choose to turn a blind eye to such stupendous progress and its likely, even inevitable, trajectories of epochal transformation. We may choose to embrace disappointment or anxiety… or we may choose to have faith in God’s goodness and power and plan, and the friendly universe of eternal adventures and progress.

We choose our perspective of universe reality.

Let us choose wisely!! And may we recognize and be inspired by all the progress achieved since the 4th to make the more recent gift of the 5th Epochal Revelation vibrantly relevant and well deserved in its purpose and reality perspective presented to us 2000 years after our Creator Son became Master Son of Nebadon.

Planetary evolutionary progress is the proof of the success of the Most Highs and Michael’s ministries to Urantia these past 2000 years.

“….The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development.”

Still alive…indeed!!!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
Nigel NunnParticipant
May 8, 2024, 12:35 PM
Dear Julian and Bradly,

Thanks for considering this central issue!

Julian’s insights bring to mind not only the powerful motivation humans feel when harnessing sincerity to a noble cause, but also the complexity faced by our seraphic government. Consider the “religious guardians” (114:6.7) defending, conserving and improving that which social evolution has achieved; and then consider their problem — of having to accommodate the necessary nudges of those who “labor incessantly to make things what they ought to be” (114:6.6).

As for us, consider the unique experience, inclinations and aspirations of any sincere student of the Urantia Book. Some of us seem naturally moved to work with those “angels of the churches“, while others appear curiously tuned to help foster “progress“.

But getting back to Julian’s central appeal. In paper 195:9, the revelators explain that “spiritual renaissance” will require new teachers “who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men.” (195:9.4). Then they emphasize features we face as we tune our approach:

“The modern age will refuse to accept a religion which is inconsistent with facts and out of harmony with its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and goodness. The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity — the real life and teachings of Jesus.” (195:9.5)

Julian, to get the ball rolling, can you describe the revelation that Jesus revealed, and which these new teachers will need to “teach”? And looking ahead, having been taught, how might a group of sincere and love-saturated souls help to reveal such truth to the equally sincere souls in Iran’s Council of Experts? Or to feisty congregations of Christian nationalists?

Clearly, inching our world towards light and life will take all sorts! And tact. And graciousness:

“Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul.” (171:7.1)

So let’s take stock: a quick glance at our world reveals…
- a few hundred million baby souls whose motivation is bound up with firm beliefs that the Qur’an is the word of the one true God, as delivered by His final prophet;
- a few hundred million more, whose motivation is bound up with equally firm beliefs that their local version of the Old and New Testaments are the Word Intended by the Father of Jesus, as delivered by His prophets and His only Son;
- a billion or so who are content to believe and follow local traditions and expectations;
- another billion or so who think that belief in some invisible divine is nonsense;
- and billions whose lives are a more or less tragic struggle for daily survival.
And then there are those few thousand of us, currently trying to accommodate a “Jerusem perspective”, as presented via the Urantia Book.

So Julian, given that 7 billion Adjusters, and Michael himself, are on our side, and that the Divine Minister maintains the very minds with which we choose, and that our world is “the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon” (119:8.8), any thoughts on how, individually and as a team, we might proceed?

Thanks again!
Nigel
JulianParticipant
May 9, 2024, 1:21 AM
Dear Nigel,

Thankyou for your encouraging comments. I am more than happy to respond to your request. But it might take me a while because I like to do things properly – there is much to sift through! Hopefully you’ll hear from me again within a week.

In loving friendship,

Julian
BradlyParticipant
May 11, 2024, 1:39 PM
Greetings Nigel!!

You posted this text:

“The modern age will refuse to accept a religion which is inconsistent with facts and out of harmony with its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and goodness. The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity — the real life and teachings of Jesus.” (195:9.5)

Me here: I wonder if the Jews, Christians, and Muslims may be the last religionists on Urantia to convert to the brotherhood and the kingdom of the Jesusonian Gospel? So many of them are so deeply entrenched and socially integrated and intertwined in secular politics and the rhetoric of partisanship.

99:2.1 (1087.4) Institutional religion cannot afford inspiration and provide leadership in this impending world-wide social reconstruction and economic reorganization because it has unfortunately become more or less of an organic part of the social order and the economic system which is destined to undergo reconstruction. Only the real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively in the present crisis of civilization.

99:2.2 (1087.5) Institutional religion is now caught in the stalemate of a vicious circle. It cannot reconstruct society without first reconstructing itself; and being so much an integral part of the established order, it cannot reconstruct itself until society has been radically reconstructed.

Me here: It is incredibly important to recognize the multiple ways that Michael’s Bestowal affected Urantia, but also, all of Nebadon. The UB presents this 4th Epochal Revelation simultaneously in our history as a new Planetary Mortal Epoch, one of 7 such transformational stages of social evolutionary progress and planetary spiritualization on every evolutionary sphere.

The Urantia Papers teach that because our Son’s Bestowal happened to be the 7th and final Creator Son’s Bestowal, at least 4 distinct effects were realized and actualized therefore and thereby. A Creator Son became a Master Son. The Son’s Spirit of Truth was released upon our world. This brought the Adjusters to every child forever afterward. And the form and power and nature and effect of the Son’s Spirit was forever changed and strengthened throughout all of Nebadon!

Of course, the influence and function and power of God the Supreme was likewise tremendously enhanced. And so was Nebadon immediately stabilized and more settled in its evolutionary progress and spiritization and trajectory!!

Lots to consider here!

Paper 21 offers much information relevant regarding the impact, effects, and results of Michael’s bestowal 2000 years ago to our world and our universe.

21:3.15 (238.9) Before the completion of the bestowal career a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but subsequent to his finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the form and likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven times sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is finished, then is he supremely settled in universe authority; he has become a Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.

And:

21:4.5 (240.1) It is of record that the divine Son of last appearance on your planet was a Paradise Creator Son who had completed six phases of his bestowal career; consequently, when he gave up the conscious grasp of the incarnated life on Urantia, he could, and did, truly say, “It is finished”—it was literally finished. His death on Urantia completed his bestowal career; it was the last step in fulfilling the sacred oath of a Paradise Creator Son. And when this experience has been acquired, such Sons are supreme universe sovereigns; no longer do they rule as vicegerents of the Father but in their own right and name as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” With certain stated exceptions these sevenfold bestowal Sons are unqualifiedly supreme in the universes of their abode. Concerning his local universe, “all power in heaven and on earth” was relegated to this triumphant and enthroned Master Son.

21:4.6 (240.2) Creator Sons, subsequent to the completion of their bestowal careers, are reckoned as a separate order, sevenfold Master Sons. In person the Master Sons are identical with the Creator Sons, but they have undergone such a unique bestowal experience that they are commonly regarded as a different order. When a Creator deigns to effect a bestowal, a real and permanent change is destined to take place. True, the bestowal Son is still and none the less a Creator, but he has added to his nature the experience of a creature, which forever removes him from the divine level of a Creator Son and elevates him to the experiential plane of a Master Son, one who has fully earned the right to rule a universe and administer its worlds. Such beings embody all that can be secured from divine parentage and embrace everything to be derived from perfected-creature experience. Why should man bemoan his lowly origin and enforced evolutionary career when the very Gods must pass through an equivalent experience before they are accounted experientially worthy and competent finally and fully to rule over their universe domains!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
May 12, 2024, 3:04 PM
More from Paper 195 regarding the success of the 4th Epochal Revelation (which is also Michael’s 7th and final bestowal and the beginning of a new dynastic empowerment as a Master Son and a new Planetary Mortal Epoch on Urantia) and also the timing of the Urantia Papers as our world’s 5th Epochal Revelation as the “new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus” at this precise intersection of time, progress, and destiny trajectory!

195:9.2 (2082.7) But paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the Master’s life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.

195:9.3 (2082.8) The teachings of Jesus, even though greatly modified, survived the mystery cults of their birthtime, the ignorance and superstition of the dark ages, and are even now slowly triumphing over the materialism, mechanism, and secularism of the twentieth century. And such times of great testing and threatened defeat are always times of great revelation.

Me here: The Urantia Papers seem so clearly an affirmation of the evolutionary success of Urantia and the transformation of our world since Pentacost and the ministry of Michael and the Spirit of Truth ever since.

Was Urantia “quivering on the very brink” 2000 years ago? The text above certainly describes the epochal, transformative progress of our world by the cause of the 4th Epochal Revelation and the effects of the Jesusonian Gospel and by the subsequent ministry of the Spirit of Truth and God Fragments.

While we should not be impatient, we should also not be disappointed in the great evolutionary progress of our world and the success of our Divine watch-care in their ministry of transformation!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
May 13, 2024, 1:02 PM
It is said in the UB (or so I understand) that evolutionary religions are vital and formative and foundational to personal spiritization and planetary spiritualization, but also inherently disappointing and inadequate compared to revelatory religion.

The great value and benefit of our “innate” and natural religious reactions and experience is the function of faith. Faith itself is a religious experience and causes personal spiritual growth. Faith does not depend upon or require facts or knowledge or accuracy of beliefs or reality perspective.

Our faith experience is expressed by our Deity Connections fruits of idealism, morality, kindness, generosity, duty, loyalty, forgiveness, love, etc. Faith is not beliefs or church affiliations, but the motives, intentions, priorities, and acts in response to our spirit nature.

Personal and epochal revelation adds greater insight and understanding and perspective to our faith experience. The Spirit of Truth and our Adjusters contribute an enormous impact to our ability to receive both personal and epochal revelation.

100:6.1 (1100.3) Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.

100:6.2 (1100.4) The accepted supreme value of the religionist may be base or even false, but it is nevertheless religious. A religion is genuine to just the extent that the value which is held to be supreme is truly a cosmic reality of genuine spiritual worth.

100:6.8 (1101.3) Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and grandeur because it is a genuine experience. But revelatory religion is excellent as well as genuine. The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual vision create new levels of love and devotion, of service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social outlook produces an enlarged consciousness of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

100:6.9 (1101.4) The characteristic difference between evolved and revealed religion is a new quality of divine wisdom which is added to purely experiential human wisdom. But it is experience in and with the human religions that develops the capacity for subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight.

103:0.1 (1129.1) ALL of man’s truly religious reactions are sponsored by the early ministry of the adjutant of worship and are censored by the adjutant of wisdom. Man’s first supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of the Universe Creative Spirit; and long before either the bestowals of the divine Sons or the universal bestowal of the Adjusters, this influence functions to enlarge man’s viewpoint of ethics, religion, and spirituality. Subsequent to the bestowals of the Paradise Sons the liberated Spirit of Truth makes mighty contributions to the enlargement of the human capacity to perceive religious truths. As evolution advances on an inhabited world, the Thought Adjusters increasingly participate in the development of the higher types of human religious insight. The Thought Adjuster is the cosmic window through which the finite creature may faith-glimpse the certainties and divinities of limitless Deity, the Universal Father.

103:0.2 (1129.2) The religious tendencies of the human races are innate; they are universally manifested and have an apparently natural origin; primitive religions are always evolutionary in their genesis. As natural religious experience continues to progress, periodic revelations of truth punctuate the otherwise slow-moving course of planetary evolution.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
JulianParticipant
May 15, 2024, 4:28 AM
Dear Nigel,

Thank you for this opportunity to answer your questions. There is so much relevant material in the UB which I could use but I will only quote passages that in my opinion give the clearest answers to what you are asking. However, I will include references to other supporting quotes in order to demonstrate the degree of evidence that is available. In so doing, I will try to avoid this post becoming too voluminous. You asked:

Julian, to get the ball rolling, can you describe the revelation that Jesus revealed, and which these new teachers will need to “teach”?

To begin with, Jesus was aware of the human tendency to set up religions containing complex creeds and theologies. The human ego loves knowledge, especially when it makes one feel special, somewhat superior to one’s fellows. In contrast, Jesus proclaimed a message that was simple but profoundly powerful and was universal in it’s appeal. He knew it would attract the masses.

(1413.2) 128:4.6 One purpose which Jesus had in mind, when he sought to segregate certain features of his earthly experience, was to prevent the building up of such a versatile and spectacular career as would cause subsequent generations to venerate the teacher in place of obeying the truth which he had lived and taught. Jesus did not want to build up such a human record of achievement as would attract attention from his teaching. Very early he recognized that his followers would be tempted to formulate a religion about him which might become a competitor of the gospel of the kingdom that he intended to proclaim to the world. Accordingly, he consistently sought to suppress everything during his eventful career which he thought might be made to serve this natural human tendency to exalt the teacher in place of proclaiming his teachings.

Similarly…

(1543.1) 138:6.3 Jesus endeavored to make clear to his apostles the difference between his teachings and his life among them and the teachings which might subsequently spring up about him. Said Jesus: “My kingdom and the gospel related thereto shall be the burden of your message. Be not sidetracked into preaching about me and about my teachings. Proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and portray my revelation of the Father in heaven but do not be misled into the bypaths of creating legends and building up a cult having to do with beliefs and teachings about my beliefs and teachings.” But again they did not understand why he thus spoke, and no man dared to ask why he so taught them.

Because they did not understand him, the apostles found it difficult to not preach a message about Jesus himself, such was their awe of and esteem for this God-man. Moreover, it was hard for them to give up their Jewish roots. (See also P1579:2; P1932:1)

(1542.3) 138:5.2 Always would they make the mistake of trying to fit Jesus’ new gospel into their old forms of religious belief. They could not grasp the idea that Jesus had come to proclaim a new gospel of salvation and to establish a new way of finding God; they did not perceive that he was a new revelation of the Father in heaven.

There was a very good reason why Jesus wanted to keep his message simple, a reason that I believe still applies today.

(1535.6) 137:7.14 Jesus taught these men [the apostles] all they could assimilate. He did not make the mistake of overteaching them. He did not precipitate confusion by the presentation of truth too far beyond their capacity to comprehend.

The same principle was true regarding the preaching of the gospel message that Jesus had taught them.

(1592.6) 141:6.4 That night Jesus discoursed to the apostles on the new life in the kingdom. He said in part: “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men — always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven — God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation.”

This instruction from the Master must surely be as true today as it was in the first century.

We can already see in the few passages I have quoted the nature of the revelation that Jesus brought to our planet: “the gospel of the kingdom which he intended to proclaim to the world”, which is variously referred to as “Jesus’ new gospel”, “his gospel of eternal salvation”, “my kingdom and the gospel related thereto”, “the kingdom of heaven”, and “my revelation of the Father in heaven”.

The UB contains so many clear statements of the message that Jesus wished to reveal to humankind. Here are just some of them:

(1543.2) 138:6.4 There was just one motive in Jesus’ postbaptismal life on Urantia, and that was a better and truer revelation of his Paradise Father; he was the pioneer of the new and better way to God, the way of faith and love. Ever his exhortation to the apostles was: “Go seek for the sinners; find the downhearted and comfort the anxious.”

(1084.10) 98:7.11 As the original teachings of Jesus penetrated the Occident, they became Occidentalized, and as they became Occidentalized, they began to lose their potentially universal appeal to all races and kinds of men. Christianity, today, has become a religion well adapted to the social, economic, and political mores of the white races. It has long since ceased to be the religion of Jesus, although it still valiantly portrays a beautiful religion about Jesus to such individuals as sincerely seek to follow in the way of its teaching. It has glorified Jesus as the Christ, the Messianic anointed one from God, but has largely forgotten the Master’s personal gospel: the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of all men.

[141:7.4; 1593.5] The Master sought to impress upon all teachers of the gospel of the kingdom that their only business was to reveal God to the individual man as his Father—to lead this individual man to become son-conscious; then to present this same man to God as his faith son. Both of these essential revelations are accomplished in Jesus. He became, indeed, “the way, the truth, and the life.”

(1590.5) 141:4.2 In answer to Thomas’s question, “Who is this God of the kingdom?” Jesus replied: “God is your Father, and religion — my gospel — is nothing more nor less than the believing recognition of the truth that you are his son. And I am here among you in the flesh to make clear both of these ideas in my life and teachings.”

(1670.5) 149:2.4 We would not belittle the place of the person of Jesus in a religion which might bear his name, but we would not permit such consideration to eclipse his inspired life or to supplant his saving message: the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

(1862.6) 170:3.9 The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive; the highest forms of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual fellowship with God the Father which so certainly and directly manifests itself as outward and loving service for man. He taught that the religion of the kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the service of one’s brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the brotherhood.

In response to Jacob, Jesus said: (1597.2) 142:2.2 And now have I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds. As the gospel of this kingdom shall spread over the world with its message of good cheer and good will to all men, there will grow up improved and better relations among the families of all nations. As time passes, fathers and their children will love each other more, and thus will be brought about a better understanding of the love of the Father in heaven for his children on earth. Remember, Jacob, that a good and true father not only loves his family as a whole — as a family — but he also truly loves and affectionately cares for each individual member.”

(2017.9) 188:5.1 The cross of Jesus portrays the full measure of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd for even the unworthy members of his flock. It forever places all relations between God and man upon the family basis. God is the Father; man is his son. Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth in the universe relations of Creator and creature — not the justice of a king which seeks satisfaction in the sufferings and punishment of the evil-doing subject. (See also: 192:2.11, 12 , 142:1.4 3)

Significantly for us, there are numerous passages in the book that make it clear that we also should continue to proclaim to the world this original message of Jesus. Here are some of them:

(2084.1) 195:10.1 “The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men…. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation”

(966.1) 87:7.6 Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism. Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new and expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties. This enhanced symbol must arise out of religious living, spiritual experience. And this higher symbolism of a higher civilization must be predicated on the concept of the Fatherhood of God and be pregnant with the mighty ideal of the brotherhood of man.

(1010.4) 92:5.16 The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of teachers of religious truth — the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all creatures. But it is to be hoped that the ardent and sincere efforts of these future prophets will be directed less toward the strengthening of interreligious barriers and more toward the augmentation of the religious brotherhood of spiritual worship among the many followers of the differing intellectual theologies which so characterize Urantia of Satania.

(2082.9) 195:9.4 Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.

(1041.5) 94:12.7 All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.

(See also: 170:5.17,19 & 21, 178:1.9 , 194:2.1,8 , 194:3.2 , 195:0.12 , 195:9.1, 2 , 195:6.2 , 195:10.16)
JulianParticipant
May 15, 2024, 4:33 AM
In your second question Nigel you asked the following:

And looking ahead, having been taught, how might a group of sincere and love-saturated souls help to reveal such truth to the equally sincere souls in Iran’s Council of Experts? Or to feisty congregations of Christian nationalists? ….given that 7 billion Adjusters, and Michael himself, are on our side, and that the Divine Minister maintains the very minds with which we choose, and that our world is “the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon” (119:8.8), any thoughts on how, individually and as a team, we might proceed?

This is a huge question! Once again, as with your former question, the UB is far from silent. It tells us how this critical work of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to our troubled world is to be accomplished. This is largely revealed through the words of the Master himself, both before and following his resurrection.

In the following quotes, Jesus makes it clear to his followers that for the proclaiming of his gospel to be effective in bringing about the establishment of his kingdom worldwide, that is, the promised spiritual renaissance, they will need to not just preach a verbal message, but more importantly, they must exhibit behaviour that is congruent with that message. Anything less than that will simply not succeed. We live in a world where there is fierce competition for minds! The reality is that the media, and in particular the social media, is awash with memes that extol all manner of causes and tribal propaganda. People are impressed with action rather than words! Consider the following:

(1726.2) 155:1.5 “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life.”

(1569.4) 140:1.7 “And this which your eyes now behold, this small beginning of twelve commonplace men, shall multiply and grow until eventually the whole earth shall be filled with the praise of my Father. And it will not be so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and have learned of the realities of the kingdom.

(2057.4) 193:5.2 “I bade you tarry in Jerusalem until you were endowed with power from on high. I am now about to take leave of you; I am about to ascend to my Father, and soon, very soon, will we send into this world of my sojourn the Spirit of Truth; and when he has come, you shall begin the new proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, first in Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the world. Love men with the love wherewith I have loved you and serve your fellow mortals even as I have served you. By the spirit fruits of your lives impel souls to believe the truth that man is a son of God, and that all men are brethren. Remember all I have taught you and the life I have lived among you. My love overshadows you, my spirit will dwell with you, and my peace shall abide upon you. Farewell.”

(2043.1) 191:5.3 “Peace be upon you. For a full week have I tarried that I might appear again when you were all present to hear once more the commission to go into all the world and preach this gospel of the kingdom. Again I tell you: As the Father sent me into the world, so send I you. As I have revealed the Father, so shall you reveal the divine love, not merely with words, but in your daily living. I send you forth, not to love the souls of men, but rather to love men. You are not merely to proclaim the joys of heaven but also to exhibit in your daily experience these spirit realities of the divine life since you already have eternal life, as the gift of God, through faith. When you have faith, when power from on high, the Spirit of Truth, has come upon you, you will not hide your light here behind closed doors; you will make known the love and the mercy of God to all mankind. Through fear you now flee from the facts of a disagreeable experience, but when you shall have been baptized with the Spirit of Truth, you will bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of proclaiming the good news of eternal life in the kingdom of God….Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men — the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you. Let faith reveal your light to the world; let the revelation of truth open the eyes blinded by tradition; let your loving service effectually destroy the prejudice engendered by ignorance. By so drawing close to your fellow men in understanding sympathy and with unselfish devotion, you will lead them into a saving knowledge of the Father’s love. The Jews have extolled goodness; the Greeks have exalted beauty; the Hindus preach devotion; the faraway ascetics teach reverence; the Romans demand loyalty; but I require of my disciples life, even a life of loving service for your brothers in the flesh.”

(2044.3) 191:6.2 “Peace be upon you. That which my Father sent me into the world to establish belongs not to a race, a nation, nor to a special group of teachers or preachers. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to both Jew and gentile, to rich and poor, to free and bond, to male and female, even to the little children. And you are all to proclaim this gospel of love and truth by the lives which you live in the flesh. You shall love one another with a new and startling affection, even as I have loved you. You will serve mankind with a new and amazing devotion, even as I have served you. And when men see you so love them, and when they behold how fervently you serve them, they will perceive that you have become faith-fellows of the kingdom of heaven, and they will follow after the Spirit of Truth which they see in your lives, to the finding of eternal salvation.

(1121.6) 102:3.4 “Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion leads to increased social service.”

(2064.3) 194:3.11 Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love.

We also have to be creative and imaginative in the way that we present the message of salvation. It has to be relevant to the people of this generation rather than couched in words that belong to a bygone era.

(1931.6) 178:1.15 This gospel of the kingdom is a living truth. I have told you it is like the leaven in the dough, like the grain of mustard seed; and now I declare that it is like the seed of the living being, which, from generation to generation, while it remains the same living seed, unfailingly unfolds itself in new manifestations and grows acceptably in channels of new adaptation to the peculiar needs and conditions of each successive generation. The revelation I have made to you is a living revelation, and I desire that it shall bear appropriate fruits in each individual and in each generation in accordance with the laws of spiritual growth, increase, and adaptative development. From generation to generation this gospel must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power. It must not be permitted to become merely a sacred memory, a mere tradition about me and the times in which we now live.

(2042.1) 191:4.4 “Go, then, into all the world proclaiming this gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men to all nations and races and ever be wise in your choice of methods for presenting the good news to the different races and tribes of mankind. (Said to Abner and Lazarus and some one hundred and fifty of their associates, including more than fifty of the evangelistic corps of the seventy.)

(2084.1) 195:10.1 Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now most needed is Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men. It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where you find yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation. And when Jesus becomes thus lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. Jesus’ disciples should be more than conquerors, even overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living to all men. Religion is only an exalted humanism until it is made divine by the discovery of the reality of the presence of God in personal experience.

Of course, the obvious question that one might ask is: how as mere mortals can we possibly achieve what the Master is asking of us? The answer would require another lengthy post but, in a nutshell, it’s all about devotion and consecration. Here are just a few quotes among many that I could choose from:

(756.8) 67:3.7 …. it is entirely possible for the indwelling spirit to make direct contact with the decision-determining powers of the human personality so as to empower the fully consecrated will of the creature to perform amazing acts of loyal devotion to the will and the way of the Father in Paradise.

(1923.3) 177:3.2 It was about midafternoon when Nathaniel made his speech on “Supreme Desire” to about half a dozen of the apostles and as many disciples, the ending of which was: “What is wrong with most of us is that we are only halfhearted. We fail to love the Master as he loves us.

(2083.2) 195:9.6 The religion of Jesus does, indeed, dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate their lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and requiring that the energies of living be consecrated to the unselfish service of the brotherhood of man.

Finally, in answer to your question Nigel, here is a summary of the techniques that the Master himself used to proclaim the gospel to his fellows. Of course, each of these points can be backed up by many supporting quotes. But this answer has already become too large!
1. GET TO KNOW PEOPLE WELL – BE FRIENDLY!
2. ASK QUESTIONS AND LISTEN WITH GENUINE INTEREST
3. TEACH WITH RESPECT AND NOT WITH FORCE
4. RECEPTIVITY – DON’T OVERTEACH!
5. BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR HUMAN NEEDS
6. EMPHASIZE TRUTHS HELD IN COMMON
7. BUILD ON THE TRUTH THAT THE OTHER PERSON ALREADY HAS
8. ADD WHAT IS POSITIVE RATHER THAN SUBTRACT WHAT IS NEGATIVE
9. TEACH BY BEING A LIVING WITNESS OF JESUS’ RELIGION
I hope this goes at least partway to answering your questions, Nigel. I didn’t mean for it to be so long, but I had a feeling it would. Personally, I’m very grateful for, and in awe of the privilege and responsibility that the Master has placed on our shoulders.
Nigel NunnParticipant
May 19, 2024, 6:45 PM
Dear Julian,

Thanks for pointing to so many fine quotes!

Sandwiched between our Michael’s personification of Truth and our Father’s incarnation of Love, as I reflect on my rhetorical questions, one thing comes to mind: the mission and opportunity of Adam.

The first and essential task of his small team was simply to become a million. After which, all else would have followed, as day follows night.

In this light, beholding the love blossoming among Muslim families, the compassion and fairness promulgated by Buddhists, and the desire of so many to restore “family values” within confused and complex cultures, I must contend that things are progressing quite well.

With much love and tender feelings,

Nigel
MaraParticipant
May 19, 2024, 11:15 PM
Thank you Nigel and Julian! A lovely discussion.

I especially enjoy these 9 points, Julian:

Julian wrote:

GET TO KNOW PEOPLE WELL – BE FRIENDLY!

ASK QUESTIONS AND LISTEN WITH GENUINE INTEREST

TEACH WITH RESPECT AND NOT WITH FORCE

RECEPTIVITY – DON’T OVERTEACH!

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR HUMAN NEEDS

EMPHASIZE TRUTHS HELD IN COMMON

BUILD ON THE TRUTH THAT THE OTHER PERSON ALREADY HAS

ADD WHAT IS POSITIVE RATHER THAN SUBTRACT WHAT IS NEGATIVE

TEACH BY BEING A LIVING WITNESS OF JESUS’ RELIGION

You discern rightly the ideals demonstrated by his life in the flesh. Jesus would have each of us be so filled up with spiritual love as to be founts of loving and unselfish service to our fellows, as well as to be the best citizens of the various nations of our individual affiliation.

Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father’s will, not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow.

When man yields the “fruits of the spirit” in his life, he is simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his own earthly life.

I am about to say to you may seem hard, but you have elected to represent me in the world even as I now represent the Father; and as my agents on earth you will be obligated to abide by those teachings and practices which are reflective of my ideals of mortal living on the worlds of space, and which I exemplify in my earth life of revealing the Father who is in heaven.

Jesus had an unerring ability for the recognition of truth, and truth he never hesitated to embrace, no matter from what source it appeared to emanate.

…his method of instruction: Never once did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error.

…he did show man the best way of living, and no generation is exempt from the labor of discovering how best to adapt Jesus’ life to its own problems.
BradlyParticipant
May 27, 2024, 5:31 PM

Nigel Nunn wrote:

“…I must contend that things are progressing quite well.”

Yes indeed. I quite agree!! Seems so apparent that the seeds sown 2000 years ago are sprouting, growing, and ripening into a most successful harvest, despite the inevitable tares and patches of stoney ground so focused on by some.

Those who fail to find the progress and feel the momentum and see the trajectories of human hope and idealism these past 100 generations confuse me. The source of such success is as apparent as the success itself.

Quivering….on the brink….

I am all atwitter personally.

From 195:10.1 posted above:

“Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation.”

Me here: Aren’t the Urantia Papers that “new revelation” that delivers the “new understanding”?

Are those of us in possession of the Papers to preach the Jesusonian Gospel? Or are we to live that truth while delivering the celestials’ universe reality perspective presented in the 5th Epochal Revelation to our world as the new revelation of Jesus’ life and new understanding of his good news?

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
MaraParticipant
Jun 20, 2024, 11:25 PM

Bradly wrote:

Are those of us in possession of the Papers to preach the Jesusonian Gospel? Or are we to live that truth while delivering the celestials’ universe reality perspective presented in the 5th Epochal Revelation to our world as the new revelation of Jesus’ life and new understanding of his good news?

Jesus spread good cheer as he passed by. He was never in a hurry. He got to know people. He was really interested in them. We aspire to do this too. And we are supposed to get better at it, as we go along. When we are 20 years old, we will not behave nor think as we would when we become 50 or more. To me the process is one of adaptation and refinement over time. I see a continuum, a journey of becoming a better truth recommender and communicator over time. Baby steps first. Thousands of study groups. The book is not yet a hundred years old. Wasn’t the book published much earlier than its wide acceptance in order to attract people of means who could pay for its publication, distribution and translations? The way I see it, we’ve barely just begun. What’s next after reading Part IV? It seems an audacious question to me. My answer: more of what youv’e been doing – service.

Jesus greeted the individual apostles, from Paper 174, with a personal salutation:

174:0.2 This morning he greeted each of the twelve with a personal salutation. To Andrew he said: “Be not dismayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on your brethren and see that they do not find you downcast.” To Peter he said: “Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Establish yourself on the spiritual foundations of the eternal rocks.” To James he said: “Falter not because of outward appearances. Remain firm in your faith, and you shall soon know of the reality of that which you believe.” To John he said: “Be gentle; love even your enemies; be tolerant. And remember that I have trusted you with many things.” To Nathaniel he said: “Judge not by appearances; remain firm in your faith when all appears to vanish; be true to your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom.” To Philip he said: “Be unmoved by the events now impending. Remain unshaken, even when you cannot see the way. Be loyal to your oath of consecration.” To Matthew he said: “Forget not the mercy that received you into the kingdom. Let no man cheat you of your eternal reward. As you have withstood the inclinations of the mortal nature, be willing to be steadfast.” To Thomas he said: “No matter how difficult it may be, just now you must walk by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to finish the work I have begun, and that I shall eventually see all of my faithful ambassadors in the kingdom beyond.” To the Alpheus twins he said: “Do not allow the things which you cannot understand to crush you. Be true to the affections of your hearts and put not your trust in either great men or the changing attitude of the people. Stand by your brethren.” And to Simon Zelotes he said: “Simon, you may be crushed by disappointment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. Seek the true realities of the spirit and cease to be attracted by unreal and material shadows.” And to Judas Iscariot he said: “Judas, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts of ridicule.”

It behooves each one of us to figure out what is next and to do that.

Thanks for the question, Mark,

Reply on the current forum

After reading Part IV, now what?

Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father’s will, not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow.