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Evangelism & The Urantia Book

11 posts · 1 participants · started Mar 21, 2025, 4:29 PM

BradlyParticipant
Mar 21, 2025, 4:29 PM
In Christianity, Evangelism is the commitment to or act of publicly preaching of the Gospel with the intention of spreading the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field, although some Christian traditions refer to such people as missionaries in either case. (Wiki)

There is nothing quite so straightforward and yet so complicated as the task of evangelism. Evangelism is our call to share our faith with our neighbors, be it as small as a one-on-one talk with a co-worker or as large as a Billy Graham Crusade. Evangelicals tend to differentiate between “missions” and “evangelism” primarily by location (missions is abroad, whereas evangelism stays close to home), but the end goal is the same: to be Jesus Christ’s witnesses to all people. (Christianity Today)

While the terms “evangelist” or “evangelism” do not exist in the Papers, certainly the act of spreading the Gospel or Good News is very well represented and discussed. There are the Seraphic Evangels and the Evangels of Light and other text describing “evangels” to consider:

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Evangels&x=11&y=15

And much text on “missionaries”:

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Missionaries+&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

And “preachers, preach, preaching:

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Preachers&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Preach+&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Preaching&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

The act of evangelism does not describe or determine the truth content of the message of the evangelist or missionary. But according to Rodan if one is not an evangel of their religious experience, then one is not having much of an experience. For the inner life of religious experience should excite and enthuse and invigorate the religionist to enthusiastically share that experience.

According to Rodan: 160:5.3 If something has become a religion in your experience, it is self-evident that you already have become an active evangel of that religion since you deem the supreme concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all mankind, all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of your religion, you are self-deceived in that what you call a religion is only a traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy. If your religion is a spiritual experience, your object of worship must be the universal spirit reality and ideal of all your spiritualized concepts. All religions based on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term the intellectual religions, while those based on true spirit experience I would term the true religions. The object of religious devotion may be material or spiritual, true or false, real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can therefore be either good or evil.

We are also taught that belief is not faith unless and until it changes our mode of living. One may not be religious by mere belief.

100:6.1 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 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.

101:8.1 Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.

101:8.2 Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.

Me here: It is interesting how universal is the evangelistic spirit among all believers, including UB students who become so enthused that they wish to share the book and its teachings with others. There are many stories of such sharing here at TruthBook and the success, failure, frustration, and commitment of readers to share that which is life altering and sublime in their own experience with others. Evangelism is as natural to the religionist as swimming is to the tadpole! At its most fundamental it is an act of loving service….combining caring and sharing to others in our generosity of love and service.

I look forward to a discussion of Evangelism & The Urantia Book and the thoughts of all here who feel and embrace such enthusiasm and the personal need and the impulse to share the Good News of God’s friendly universe. Our Creator/Master Son – the Son of God and Son of Man – came here specifically to be an evangel to a world and to a universe spreading hope, good cheer, encouragement, truth, peace, and the fact of God’s love for all the children of time in all the universe of universes!!

There are so many ways of such sharing and such caring to be expressed. Thanks for joining in and reading along!!

Bradly

"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
Mar 21, 2025, 4:39 PM
It is very true that much of historical and modern evangelism is riddled with error and evil and sometimes even sin itself….were the crusades and colonialism forms of evangelism? I think so, yes. Genocide and conversion-or-death are part of human “evangelical-ism”.

Conversion of others is a form of forced or persuasive experience of conformity related to evolutionary religious creeds, doctrines, ceremonies, and beliefs. This is the ugly side of evangelism and not at all Christ like…I agree.

The evangelism of Jesus did not include creeds, doctrines, and ceremonies – those things which separate and isolate and differentiate us…just the simple unifying and encompassing and inclusive truth that God is love and is our parent and we are God’s beloved children in one family of creation/kingdom in a friendly universe.

Jesus did not insult the religious experience of others nor impose the unwelcome haughty superiority of ego in spreading the Good News.

The effective evangelist cannot begin any ministry with disappointment and insult and cannot use fear as a tool or weapon of “persuasion”. To berate and castigate and accuse and threaten are all too often the tools of the self righteous zealot. To them Jesus offered the parables of the Good Samaritan and the beam in the eye and the casting of the first stone and the harvest of that which is sown and those lessons of humility and the forgiveness of others to receive such forgiveness and that of the mill stone about the neck. First do no harm!

99:5.11 (1091.10) What a mistake for Christians to make when, in presenting Christ as the supreme ideal of spiritual leadership, they dare to require God-conscious men and women to reject the historic leadership of the God-knowing men who have contributed to their particular national or racial illumination during past ages.

Me here: We are taught by the UB that we are not to look down upon the primitive religion in our fellows or the primitive fellows in religion and we are to honor the religious experiences of all and of prior generations. Can we be evangels that do not require conversion and acceptance of our own beliefs and creeds and doctrines and knowledge? We must if we are to be true to the reality of the universe. Seeking agreement with ourselves is not the sharing and the caring required of evangelism.

101:9.2 (1115.3) When you presume to sit in critical judgment on the primitive religion of man (or on the religion of primitive man), you should remember to judge such savages and to evaluate their religious experience in accordance with their enlightenment and status of conscience. Do not make the mistake of judging another’s religion by your own standards of knowledge and truth.

Me here: For myself, social evangelism has failed to show great results and has generated frustrations and failures due to my immature and unwise approaches to it. However, my personal evangelism has proven far more effective and rewarding where I simply share the light of my spirit and the fruits of the spirit with others day by day as I walk by.

I have worked for decades in support of the dissemination of the UB in community, country, and around the globe. I do not consider this evangelism however. I am passionate about spreading the source of good news and good cheer I consider a gift to our world and an epochal revelation of universe reality because of its impact and effect on my spiritual journey, discovery, and growth. But I do not think such work is the same as sharing the Good News personally.

We are told there will be priests, prophets, and preachers for many more years into future mortal epochs as the religions of evolution persist and the religion of revelation grows. But evangelism is a tool of evolutionary religions I think. For the personal religion of personal revelation and relationship is growing and will eventually become universal and when the light within shines brightly enough in us all, then what is the purpose of evangelism I wonder?

We are taught that the Holy Spirit and her Adjutant Spirits, the Father’s Spirit, and the Spirit of Truth all already give testimony and bear witness of the Gospel and deliver the whisper, the yearn, the knock, the hunger, the thirst, the bread and living water, the satisfaction, and the assurance within.

Sharing our assurance and good cheer and creating hope and encouragement in others is all good.

But then there is this to consider:

99:5.7 (1091.6) Just as certainly as men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious group of some sort which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. Let the term “faith” stand for the individual’s relation to God rather than for the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree upon as a common religious attitude. “Have you faith? Then have it to yourself.”

"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
Mar 21, 2025, 4:42 PM
I would suggest we emulate the Master’s example and utilize the lessons provided in the UB which include:

Attempting to stir the embers of light and truth and amplify the whisper that resides within others already…to presume the influence of the Spirit and the fact of soul. We are to add to faith and the existing progress and religious experience of the soul. Jesus said add more TB&G to others, not attempt to remove or convert or condemn others and their experience in Spirit.

To seek out and confirm those beliefs, choices, words, and acts which demonstrate faith in Spirit and also demonstrate truth, beauty, and goodness. We should presume that others have hopes and ideals that can be shared and reinforced.

To demonstrate ourselves, first, the calmness and serenity and confidence and peace and joy and positive perspective that the fruits of the spirit deliver to our being and very nature and our own experience as faith children. If we do not have and cannot share such fruit, then what are we evangelizing?

Too many so called evangelists fail to presume or seek out or find or recognize the work and success of the Spirit in the lives of others and compare others to ourselves in ways which make us disappointed and them somehow inferior and often are also disappointed in the world and in God and the perceived failure of the righteous to prevail over evil and sin. The evangelist is too often driven by beliefs and acts defined by creed and doctrine and ceremony that requires conversion and uniformity rather than the simple delivery of Good News as they themselves do not truly have any good news to deliver! More like judgments and warnings and threats…the use of fear to motivate.

Jesus never acted in such a way. Jesus was not judgmental or disappointed in his fellows. Jesus was unafraid and preached a presumption of safety in a friendly universe and the reality of soul and the fruits of simple faith. Jesus never used negativity in any form to persuade others. He made confident happiness and faith an infectious force for good as he passed by.

One need not feel or act called to the mountaintops to proclaim the Good News. That is for the few. But the true faith child is compelled to give testimony of God’s love and goodness and by example, give witness of the fruits of the spirit that others may see this love of God exemplified by the loving service to others. This is enough to change the world. But we cannot change the world if what we see is ugly and disappointing and dark. If that is our view then we will only add to the gloom and to the doom we perceive.

We cannot win souls for the Kingdom by accusation, insult, guilt, and disappointment, warning, and threats. So counterproductive and so indicative of the unworthiness of the evangelist for their chosen occupation. This only adds gloom to the doom of the blind perspective of fear and discouragement.

We are to find and see the light to ADD to the light we find and see. We are no effective evangelist who cannot find the good within others and see the hand of God in our world and to have confidence in God’s plan, purpose, power, and WAY. We cannot force faith upon others….but we can recognize and encourage and stoke the embers of hope while sharing the fruits of the Spirit.

Indeed do we need this form of evangelism as it is but the expression of love of God to one another in loving service to one another. Is evangelism other than the example of faith in God and the sharing of the fruit of the Spirit? I don’t think so. No. Caring….and sharing.

"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
Mar 21, 2025, 4:53 PM
Upon further study of assurance – both faith-assurance (delivered by evolutionary religious experience by the Holy Spirit and Adjutants) and truth-assurance (delivered by personal revelatory religious experience by the God Fragment)- it is increasingly apparent that we are being provided a pattern for personal ministry and loving service and interaction with all other religionists. We too are to become and learn to be agents of assurance! Universe reality is itself assuring and confirming of truth, beauty, and goodness.

In our interactions with others do we confirm universe reality and our own faithful assurance of this friendly universe and God’s profound and paternal love and mercy and patience and the evolutionary progress of our world and the safety of all creation and creatures in the universe? Do we share faithful assurance that is proven and demonstrated only by the sharing of the Divine Fruits of the Spirit – the only true evidence of our own religious experience and faith?

To accuse others of error or ignorance and to share our disappointments in any, some, or all others and to demand others measure up to our own levels of expectation and ‘superior’ understanding while we blame others for our own suffering or the suffering of others and to point out the errors of others in knowledge and belief – none of these are the caring sharing of our own fruits or own assurance.

How assured do we feel? What certainties do we have and feel related to God’s love? Or are our certainties related to beliefs and knowledge which we think we should impose upon others who are lesser in understanding than us? Even those of us with this Epochal Revelation of Universe Reality are often too quick to share knowledge with and demand conformity by others rather than seek out ways to give and share a caring assurance of God’s love and presence and our/their safety in this friendly and loving universe. We fail to find the truth and the light within others first to add to the assurance of faith and personal revelation each of us is connected to.

Too often do we presume that others need some form of conversion and salvation – when what is so often needed most is simply affirmation, reassurance, empathy, support, comfort, and the sharing of Spirit fruit. I think it is this need and perspective that Jesus presented in the parable of the beam in the eye and the Good Samaritan and the talents and the mill stone and his example of finding that truth which is held in common and adding to the spiritual experience of others rather than to attempt to change or remove something and the imperative to never diminish the faith of another in our efforts to minister, preach, or evangelize to others.

Love is never a criticsm or a threat or an accusation or blame…and never will be.

So…are we confirmers and affirmers? For that is the pattern of reality. All else is but further error and the sowing of tares amongst the wheat I think.

Disclaimer: For those who may be wondering why the “whatever floats your boat” standard above is not my standard here at this or any Forum or study group venue, be advised that I believe this is a classroom and study group of a very specific book containing very specific facts and truths. The ministry mission here is to learn the contents of the UB and to share in that learning of knowledge and truth. This is not a place to minister or preach or evangelize or present theories or fables which contradict the text book we gather here to study….it is a place to learn a specific text.

So those who disagree with the UB or who misstate or misrepresent the teachings or are here to save others or lead others to safety or convert minds and souls to your own beliefs, creeds, and doctrines should expect certain resistance and redirection….back to the text itself for confirmations, elaborations, or for corrections.

Disagreement with the UB is no vice and it is fruitless to insist or impose our own confidence in the text upon any other reader or student or visitor. Seeking converts is not appropriate in a classroom or study group I do not think. And might (should) drive off real truth seekers.

I certainly do believe and strive to assert confidence in our source and destiny and our rulers and this friendly universe ruled by love and mercy ministry and hope to demonstrate extreme tolerance of personal religious experience and personal faith in all others here…whether they believe the UB or not. My disagreements come primarily with those who say the UB says what it does not or does not say what it does and those fellow students who misrepresent the contents either generally or in detail.

After all, we are here to learn of that reality, that very specific reality, presented in a very specific book written with great specificity. Such study will challenge our preconceptions and reveal misconceptions – or conflicts and contradictions of personal perception and beliefs….can’t be helped…it is what it is.

I don’t believe the Forum is Kumbayah Island where all crackpots are welcome, all opinions are created equal, and anything goes. The study and accurate portrayal of the contents of the Urantia Papers is at the core of this corps of learners according to the Guidelines posted here. So whatever floats anyone’s boat is fine and dandy…anywhere else. What an interesting place it has been and continues to be! Agree or disagree with the UB, all we can prove here is what it says…not the truth of what it says. That requires personal revelation…or so I understand the UB to teach!

"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
Mar 21, 2025, 5:03 PM
I believe the potential value of anyone’s efforts to evangelize or become an evangel depends mightily upon their own spirituality as a “measure of one’s usefulness to others”. One’s motives being in alignment with universe realities is an essential element to their effectiveness. I’ve known many an evangelist who was unworthy of the title.

I grew up in an evangelical church where fear of damnation was the motivation for evangelism. It was less about spreading any good news or cheer or hope so much as it was an exercise in scaring the hell out of people. It was less about loving others than a duty to prevent eternal damnation to save our own souls from that fate. We were enthusiastically going about sharing our fears and doubts about that which was not and is not reality based….not even Jesusonian based.

This form of evangelism is about conversion and persuasion and conformity of belief and behavior more than it is about the contributions of hope and kindness and patience and forgiveness. We taught others that forgiveness comes only with a cost and by a belief and act….not by the very nature of God and God’s paternal nature and personal love and mercy ministry for all his children in a friendly universe.

That’s why I have embraced the form of evangelism “as I walk by” in my daily life…it is a personal and caring form of sharing and serving. It becomes as natural as breathing and requires no persuasions or conversions or conformity or acceptance or embrace or even acknowledgment by others. But, the UB teaches, this form of evangelism changes the world as it also changes the evangelist!! The UB teaches this form of evangelism…the sowing of seed as we pass by without regard to the results or the consequences…to give the harvest into God’s hands and to let God separate the wheat and the tares as we cannot be trusted with such work. Do we sow the seeds of hope and faith and trust in God’s eternal love for us?

Another form of evangelism I have always supported and engaged in is the dissemination of the UB Epochal Revelation itself. Infrequently hand to hand or person to person…and with similar results as everyone else. Although, I have always asked this of every person I gave a UB….please give this to someone else if it does not appeal to you and if you read it and embrace it, please give 3 such books to others in time to come. My first book came to me from someone who received it as a gift but had not read it except just enough to think it weird and know me just well enough to also think me weird enough to enjoy the book!! So who knows where the books we hand out end up and whose lap they land in eventually??!! The parable of the sower demands we focus on the sowing and not the harvest. A very important lesson for us all.

The dissemination I have engaged in has mostly been library placements in my local area and support of those groups and organizations which have published and/or distributed the UB in multiple languages around the world. For 40 years every book found or received was given hand tp hand and person to person…there was zero institutional or commercial distribution.

The very nature of dissemination has radically changed over the last 25 years compared to the 40 before that. We used to try to cultivate readers. Now we simply try to keep up with the demand. A complete paradigm shift in one generation!!

Today, and for some time now, the angels and the internet provide an ever growing, exponentially growing, readership – now in 16 different languages on all continents (yes there’s a copy at the Antarctica Station too!) with other languages in production and some languages in third and fourth revisions/corrections. Free downloads and commercial distribution are globally available. Rate of distribution is accelerating. Number of websites and social media groups is exploding as are secondary published books and study aides and multi-media productions and chat rooms and on-line study groups and conferences and symposiums, etc., etc.

UB evangelism used to be about audience/readership creation or creating readers and demand. Now its really more about supplying the demand that is self-creating and growing!! This is not ‘personal’ or person to person evangelizing but is definitely a service ministry/mission which could be considered social evangelism!

I have always supported this form of service ministry because I believe the Revelation is its own best voice and representative!! It speaks for itself. We should allow it to speak for itself!! The UB was not given to the few to explain it to the many. It was given to the few that they would share it with the many!! Even the whole world and all people on the world.

The UB claims it is the seed that will grow and grow in influence and effect generation after generation for 40+ generations….we are now in but the third of those generations. And look at the success and progress of the angels and gift makers so far!! Despite all the human frailties and failures of those three generations…still has the book made it to every corner of the globe already!

The UB is a gift for the ages…as was every epochal revelation before it.

We believers in its teachings should live its teachings as we pass by….and we should support the dissemination of the Revelation around the world to those who request their own copies of this gift. Due to poverty and the lack of technology in some parts of the world, the Foundation, the Association, and the Fellowship are still paying for books to be shipped to many places free of charge…pallets of cases by boat and plane….some still literally smuggled in and some delivered by ox, donkey, and cart to eager readers already formed into study groups where one book is shared by many. The need for eager and committed disseminators is still great.

Those committed to organizing groups of dedicated volunteers for this purpose do important work and have proven their effectiveness over the past 60 years. How do books get printed, published, and distributed? It ain’t fairy dust. How do students find others and meet and socialize and study and create and share and care in community? It ain’t fairy dust. Real people must act to help those who rule and lead and serve our world to achieve progress through the mortal epochs of time and reach our planetary destiny. Such progress does not happen on its own or without the work of dedicated humans…dedicated to service and the ministry of love.

Many thousands of such evangelists and missionaries and servants have served the revelators mission of the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus and the Fifth Epochal Revelation over the past century. They have succeeded. The seed has sprouted and the tree grows and blooms and fruits and gives more seed for future generations. I am so thankful to all those who made such efforts of loving service to disseminate this gift to our world.

I find such dissemination service ministry still relevant. The evangelistic and enthusiastic dissemination of that gift which speaks so eloquently for itself and those who gave this epochal gift of fact and truth. Spread that love around!!!

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:30 AM
Evangelists so often, and incorrectly, declare presumptions of how others have failed and what others are doing wrong and what others should be doing… rather than seeking and finding the light of the Spirit in others and feeding that light. They so often tend to make sweeping claims about the world and its 7 billion souls they could not possibly substantiate or factually know but which clearly demonstrates their own flaws and failures to achieve a reality-perspective based on love, forgiveness, truth, beauty, and goodness.

Rather than hope, trust, faith, peace, and a message truly worthy of the reality of God’s love and friendly universe, so often do the sermons and stories reek of a very personal, subjective, and distorted human perspective filled with judgment and demand and disappointment in our world and its people. Such a message is NOT useful to anyone….for anything.

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:37 AM
I recently read that mystery is a universal blessing and reality. Only God has no mysteries. All other beings do so. I also read that mind, if short of facts and knowledge, is compelled to invent those to organize reality and perspective…and this is the source of human metaphysics….explanations for the otherwise unexplained. Science and religion depend heavily upon theories that have no basis in reality to explain reality as observed or hypothesized.

Metaphysics is the inevitable human exercise of inventing false realities based on lack of facts, knowledge, and understanding. And this is why Epochal Revelation is so important periodically to reduce the confusions and eliminate the falsehoods and errors in fictional reality-constructs people will inherently create in order to attempt to organize our perspective of perceived reality….the subjective point of view. The facts and knowledge delivered by Epochal Revelation balance the misunderstandings and shortcomings of personal revelation and science and philosophy.

It is also worthy of note, and related I think, that uncertainty is a requirement for adventure and is a basic unit or element of mystery too. Without uncertainty of outcome and of the effects of cause and the cause of effects then there can be no adventure or mystery. And mind is excited and motivated and captivated by both adventure and mystery….that which is unknown drives mind forward to satiate the compelling and insatiable yearn to understand. Metaphysics is the mind seeking to organize perspective of reality into meaningful and workable models of understanding and explanation.

The more we advance in our universe careers, the more knowledge of reality we obtain through education and experience and the more objective does our perspective become and the more mota replaces the inventions of metaphysics by more certain perception and understanding. But only God has true and absolute objectivity of universe reality perspective. Objectivity requires facts, philosophy, and spirit. True perspective cannot come from only one but only in harmonious combination.

103:7.7 (1138.5) What both developing science and religion need is more searching and fearless self-criticism, a greater awareness of incompleteness in evolutionary status. The teachers of both science and religion are often altogether too self-confident and dogmatic. Science and religion can only be self-critical of their facts. The moment departure is made from the stage of facts, reason abdicates or else rapidly degenerates into a consort of false logic.

103:7.8 (1138.6) The truth—an understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts, and spiritual values—can best be had through the ministry of the Spirit of Truth and can best be criticized by revelation. But revelation originates neither a science nor a religion; its function is to co-ordinate both science and religion with the truth of reality. Always, in the absence of revelation or in the failure to accept or grasp it, has mortal man resorted to his futile gesture of metaphysics, that being the only human substitute for the revelation of truth or for the mota of morontia personality.

Me here: This is the problem with replacing Epochal Revelation with the evangelist’s opinions about reality. There are those, even amongst the readership of the Revelation, who claim the dissemination of the Revelation is less important somehow than preaching about its contents. A pecularly priestly claim… and so dangerously familiar.

Who is undeserving of the actual facts and relationships and values given us by Epochal Revelation? What’s the point? Why not, rather, make the Revelation available to as many people as possible and empower the fellowship and community sharing of this knowledge to help everyone who seeks truth and understanding (and all normal minds do!) to feast at this banquet of objective reality?

And that I believe is what takes place here at the Forum and many other gatherings of the students of the Urantia Papers!

In my youth I was so disappointed in the promised perfection and eternal bliss in the Biblical heavenly estate, acquired by simple death and resurrection. How much more glorious is the truth given us in the Revelation?!! Endless mysteries, experiential wisdom, and adventure instead! Marvelous.

Mortals are led and driven to religious experience by urges and yearns that are inherent in our very nature as created by the Life Carriers and Adjutants. The TA’s are masters at inserting and inciting the incessant yearn and hunger and thirst for assurance and nourishment of the Spirit that grows the soul and brings contentment and happiness in ways only this connection can. The urge to understand and know more and solve problems and puzzlements and fatten on paradox while cleaning our teeth with conundrum while feasting on uncertainty…this is the Tadpole Way!!!!

Only the mortals of the realms of time and space have the privilege of this Way of being and becoming. It’s a good thing really!

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:38 AM
Since neither religion or religious experience may be given, loaned, or created in another mortal by any other mortal, what is it the evangelist does or might do which affects another person in a positive way? For it to be in a positive way, then fear cannot be any element of the evangelism. This question is regarding one who purposely and intentionally determines it important to go forth and spread the good news.

How I wonder were the missionaries of Machiventa and Jesus taught to evangelize? I am sure there is significant contrast between those and the evangelistic revivalists of my youth and today….the doom and gloom and fire and brimstone messengers who seek to scare the hell out of people enough to get on the straight and narrow before it is too late!

The lessons in the Papers on the Prince, the Garden, and the Neighboring Planet give the example of bringing in the best of the surrounding peoples to provide education and orientation to send back out to their own people as a form of salt and leaven.

We are taught that we cannot force progress or enlightenment or understanding or religiosity upon others – individually or collectively. But evidently, truth, beauty, and goodness can be communicated in ways which profoundly affect others. Consider music for example:

44:1.15 (500.6) While you have assembled some beautiful melodies on Urantia, you have not progressed musically nearly so far as many of your neighboring planets in Satania. If Adam and Eve had only survived, then would you have had music in reality; but the gift of harmony, so large in their natures, has been so diluted by strains of unmusical tendencies that only once in a thousand mortal lives is there any great appreciation of harmonics. But be not discouraged; some day a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. One such human being could forever change the course of a whole nation, even the entire civilized world. It is literally true, “melody has power a whole world to transform.” Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits. Harmony is the speech of Havona.

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:43 AM
Are random acts of kindness a form of evangelism? Are the expressions of truth, beauty, and goodness forms of evangelism? Was the Good Samaritan an evangelist? Is loving service an expression of an evangel? Is evangelism only a form of vocalized telling or preaching or exhortation?

Those evangelists of my youth primarily used fear and guilt to motivate me to avoid hell’s fire and damnation, offering a rather gruesome choice between eternal suffering and eternal guilt. I was unworthy and would always be unworthy, only given free passage despite my guilt and shame due to the suffering and sacrifice of another to make me feel even more guilty and unworthy.

Was Jesus an evangelist? I think so. The greatest in our history too. And never did Jesus teach anyone that eternal suffering was real or that eternal guilt was God’s will or way. The evangelism of Jesus was only positive and hopeful and encouraging and filled with trust for God’s love and mercy in this friendly universe. Jesus saw the light of hope flicker or the light of trust blaze in the souls of others and was gladdened by this shared belief and faith and experience of personal religion within each person…his sole purpose was to encourage and strengthen the flame within all. His evangelism was a celebration of the universality of this experience. He inspired others, not just in his teaching and preaching but as he walked by, every day, one on one, and in normal every day situations and circumstances of life…from the difficult times to the easy times and all times in between. A life of joy and trust and sublime peace is the life of an evangel…one who inspires!

I wonder if the greatest evangelists in the world are those who inspire others to strive toward our highest ideals and our highest hopes by their examples and their expressions of their own experiences of personal religion and religious insight?

120:2.5 “5. As concerns the planet of your bestowal and the immediate generation of men living thereon at the time of your mortal sojourn, I counsel you to function largely in the role of a teacher. Give attention, first, to the liberation and inspiration of man’s spiritual nature. Next, illuminate the darkened human intellect, heal the souls of men, and emancipate their minds from age-old fears. And then, in accordance with your mortal wisdom, minister to the physical well-being and material comfort of your brothers in the flesh. Live the ideal religious life for the inspiration and edification of all your universe.

120:2.7 “7. In all that you may perform on the world of your bestowal, bear constantly in mind that you are living a life for the instruction and edification of all your universe. You are bestowing this life of mortal incarnation upon Urantia, but you are to live such a life for the spiritual inspiration of every human and superhuman intelligence that has lived, now exists, or may yet live on every inhabited world which has formed, now forms, or may yet form a part of the vast galaxy of your administrative domain. Your earth life in the likeness of mortal flesh shall not be so lived as to constitute an example for the mortals of Urantia in the days of your earthly sojourn nor for any subsequent generation of human beings on Urantia or on any other world. Rather shall your life in the flesh on Urantia be the inspiration for all lives upon all Nebadon worlds throughout all generations in the ages to come.

Me here: To the extent that our expressions of our religious life inspire others do we then act as evangels for universe reality!

129:4.7 And this was his true and supreme purpose. He did not come down to live on Urantia as the perfect and detailed example for any child or adult, any man or woman, in that age or any other. True it is, indeed, that in his full, rich, beautiful, and noble life we may all find much that is exquisitely exemplary, divinely inspiring, but this is because he lived a true and genuinely human life. Jesus did not live his life on earth in order to set an example for all other human beings to copy. He lived this life in the flesh by the same mercy ministry that you all may live your lives on earth; and as he lived his mortal life in his day and as he was, so did he thereby set the example for all of us thus to live our lives in our day and as we are. You may not aspire to live his life, but you can resolve to live your lives even as, and by the same means that, he lived his. Jesus may not be the technical and detailed example for all the mortals of all ages on all the realms of this local universe, but he is everlastingly the inspiration and guide of all Paradise pilgrims from the worlds of initial ascension up through a universe of universes and on through Havona to Paradise. Jesus is the new and living way from man to God, from the partial to the perfect, from the earthly to the heavenly, from time to eternity.

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:44 AM
I think it might be useful for discussion to divide evangelists into two groups – natural evangelists and missionary evangelists. Natural evangelists are everyday folks have a personal religious experience based on faith and truth which delivers the fruits of the spirit to their branch attached to the vine which fruit they willingly and generously share with others…specifically and generally. I think of them as being unintentional…they simply are expressing their inner life with others, its a reflexive sharing and caring that does not require intent and thought so much as just a basic motive and priority to help and serve others.

Missionary evangelists often feel a calling and compulsion, being compelled to very intentionally form or join a specific activity seeking out others for their personal or group ministry. Most of this topic and discussion has been focused on these evangelists and this form of evangelism – currently and historically.

But I wonder if it is the first group, the natural evangelists who provide the better and more effective and longer lasting effects upon our world? Isn’t this the way every world actually proceeds throught the Mortal Epochs of time? As go the parts so goes the whole? As the parts mature in faith and the relgious experience, and as the fruits of the Spirit materialize and effect the faithful and influence and inspire others in their own faith experience, a world becomes transformed.

Are the missionary type of evangelist less important and relevant as a world is spiritualized through the epochs as more natural evangelism rises and the fruits of the spirit are more widely shared amongst us?

It seems to me that missionary evangelism comes so often with belief, creed, doctrine, and a limiting theology and frequently also comes with blame and guilt and disappointment and demand and deadline and the motive of fear to spur behavioral changes; while natural evangelism simply spreads love through truth, beauty, and goodness so that others might see and taste the sweet fruits of faith and might become inspired in their own personal and unique experience and expressions of faith and truth.

The religious experience of faith and truth is so highly personalized. The artist who portrays their inner experience by pen, brush, instrument, note, voice, design, and all other expressions of that connection within, inspire others to feel, to think, to wonder, and come to know or hope to know such a connection for themselves. Such inspiration can come from so many sources including but not limited to art forms.

I am inspired by science and learning about animals and plants and planets and stars!! Such beauty and power and all the handiwork of Michael and God. Fascination and wonder inspire the mind to consider the source and the cause and the connections of everything. This innate wonder is a gift to lead us to faith and that to truth and that to relationship with Deity and a sublime peace and confidence in this friendly universe. And I am awed by so many people and peoples who find this sublime peace and faith and hope and trust despite deep and abiding suffering!

I am inspired by the historical record of struggle and evolutionary progress in the UB. I have always be inspired by Gandhi and MLK and modern Jews and all those around the world who are persecuted and under the heel of abuse and power, the struggles of the oppressed who overcome all suffering eventually by faith. The stories of those who are afflicted and suffer mightily who STILL demonstrate kindness and generosity and forgiveness like Jesus did so long ago. Neighbors helping neighbors in times of disaster and loss. Strangers from around the world joining together to respond to natural disasters in far away places. I have met some of the “lost boys”, orphans of war who survived atrocities too mean to tell and whose faces glowed with happiness and powerful faith as they demonstrated generosity and joy.

Our world is filled with such examples and such inspiration!! Do we see that? Are we inspired? Do we live to inspire? Do we inspire as we live? Aren’t the most oppressed who respond to faith, the greatest of all citizens of this world and of this universe? The greatest and highest of Agondonters are the least and the last among us here and now. We should all celebrate their victories and be inspired to live in love and share truth, beauty, and goodness.

Bradly

99:7.3 (1093.1) Religion inspires man to live courageously and joyfully on the face of the earth; it joins patience with passion, insight to zeal, sympathy with power, and ideals with energy.

99:7.4 (1093.2) Man can never wisely decide temporal issues or transcend the selfishness of personal interests unless he meditates in the presence of the sovereignty of God and reckons with the realities of divine meanings and spiritual values.

"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
Mar 22, 2025, 4:48 AM
103:8.2 (1140.2) The confusion about the experience of the certainty of God arises out of the dissimilar interpretations and relations of that experience by separate individuals and by different races of men. The experiencing of God may be wholly valid, but the discourse about God, being intellectual and philosophical, is divergent and oftentimes confusingly fallacious.

Me here: Jesus had such a knack for finding the common understanding and shared perspectives of such divergent and confusing issues that language generally seems so lacking in its capabilities to communicate such personal religious experiences as faith experience and truth assurance. He seemed able to do so no matter the wisdom or its lack in the other person or how weak the flicker or strong the flame of the believers around him. Indeed, could he so effectively present to a crowd filled with every spectrum point of comprehension and appreciation in ways to brighten the illumination of all within.

Rodan claimed we are not having much of a religious experience if we are not eager to share it! He did not really advise us how best to achieve this urge…but perhaps we might discuss how best to share the experience of such deeply personal growth and perspective ?

I think we should consider how to become effective evangels of truth, beauty, and goodness. Not to become preachers or teachers or those intent to “save” others or humanity from anything. But how to share our own inner light and experience and relationship without becoming “confusingly fallacious”. How can we add fuel to the fire to kindle the existing light within others that we might serve others kindly and lovingly and graciously? How do we achieve that without wrongly attempting to remove things and correct beliefs and replace the metaphysics of others with our own?

For it is a fact that even armed with the knowledge contained in this epochal revelation about reality, which replaces our own metaphysical constructions and inventions with actual facts, until someone else has also accepted the authority and the facts provided in the UB, then even those facts we know to be true are but our personal metaphysics of belief when compared to any other’s! The facts within the FER are not facts until believed as such and are then only beliefs still after all…at least to others!!

In other words, we may not take any great assumption of superior knowledge with us to our efforts to evangelize truth, beauty, and goodness to others. Think of the knowledge the Son of God had to deliver and share with others that contradicted the fictions and fallacies of this world. Yet he championed reality and truth without such knowledge as a tool or a weapon of conviction or conversion or domination or superiority! He gently fanned the flames of faith and added kindling to the fires of truth within everyone he met. I’ve been thinking about this a great deal lately and there are two key words and strategies I’d like to consider here related to how best to share our inner light and life with others in the most effective and loving way possible.

They are “inspire” and “assure” or inspiration and assurance. It is my opinion that the words of the Master and those within the Revelation have these elements in common and that this pattern of reality-presentation and truth-sharing is tactically effective in removing barriers of inherent disagreement over the description and understanding of reality and the religious experience due to language and its inability to adequately express that experience. Does music and art also remove such barriers?

Yes and no…not everyone is moved or inspired by the same music or the same art expressions either. We respond to certain expressions and find some music and art inspirational, but not all. And thus we are given further demonstration of the great value and benefit of diversity in our experiences and our expressions of those experiences. Or so I think!

We are taught that although the reality of religious experience is personal and unique to the each of us, it is also common among the all of us. It is not unique or personal to have a religious experience or to have faith or to give birth to soul or to host the God Fragment within or to deal with realities from the dual nature perspective or to enjoy the urges, yearns, hungers, and thirsts of righteousness and the rewards and fruits of the spirit by the attachment of the branch to the vine. These are not unique to any of us except in their experience!

So I wonder if the most successful evangels find ways to inspire others and assure others of God’s love and our familial relationship in this friendly universe while assuaging fears and reducing anxieties by sharing our faith and inner peace and poise and confidence in the fact of love and the results of love?

I think so…yes.

"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."

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