What steps can Christianity take to re-invent itself?

197 posts · 15 participants · started May 31, 2015, 1:16 AM

1. S

   SabinatuBlocked
   Oct 19, 2015, 9:00 AM

   Taking a second look at who/what/where/how/why of Jesus in the context of TUB is interesting, and the truth is probably going to be better received outside of Occidental races, for the time being. This passage came up during a “happy” word search:

   6. Urantia’s Post-Bestowal Age

   ^{52:6.1 (597.2)} The bestowal Son is the Prince of Peace. He arrives with the message, “Peace on earth and good will among men.” On normal worlds this is a dispensation of world-wide peace; the nations no more learn war. But such salutary influences did not attend the coming of your bestowal Son, Christ Michael. Urantia is not proceeding in the normal order. Your world is out of step in the planetary procession. Your Master, when on earth, warned his disciples that his advent would not bring the usual reign of peace on Urantia. He distinctly told them that there would be “wars and rumors of wars,” and that nation would rise against nation. At another time he said, “Think not that I have come to bring peace upon earth.”

   ^{52:6.2 (597.3)} Even on normal evolutionary worlds the realization of the world-wide brotherhood of man is not an easy accomplishment. On a confused and disordered planet like Urantia such an achievement requires a much longer time and necessitates far greater effort. Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:

   ^{52:6.3 (597.4)} 1. Social fraternity. Multiplication of international and interracial social contacts and fraternal associations through travel, commerce, and competitive play. Development of a common language and the multiplication of multilinguists. The racial and national interchange of students, teachers, industrialists, and religious philosophers.

   ^{52:6.4 (597.5)} 2. Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love.

   ^{52:6.5 (597.6)} 3. Ethical awakening. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of human intolerance and the sinfulness of fratricidal strife. Only a moral conscience can condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. Only moral beings will ever seek for that spiritual insight which is essential to living the golden rule.

   ^{52:6.6 (598.1)} 4. Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal — destructive of all those enduring qualities which insure planetary group survival.

   ^{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.

   ^{52:6.8 (598.3)} If you could be transplanted from your backward and confused world to some normal planet now in the postbestowal Son age, you would think you had been translated to the heaven of your traditions. You would hardly believe that you were observing the normal evolutionary workings of a mortal sphere of human habitation. These worlds are in the spiritual circuits of their realm, and they enjoy all the advantages of the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity services of the superuniverse.”

   “Caesar” is definitely not the “pressure from above” being discussed as the “the only technique for ACCELERATING the natural trend of social evolution”….

   TUB is an “emergency” revelation.

   Two of my friends, real friends at one time, found “Jesus” in the rock music, self-help sermon delivering “brotherhoods” of modern USA “Christian” churches when they moved away from their home town out into the big US of A. The transformation in their social skills was disturbing. They seemed to have acquired a whole new “political” book of limited vocabulary to explain their aggressive zeal for “Christ is Lord” that did not explain the new set of ethics that went with them out of the weekly service into their work, parenting, service to others. They acquired intolerance, mercilessness, hypercritical psychological analysis that erased their ability to see the “good” in anyone anymore – no one was good enough. A different take on the “you are all sinners” erroneous approach to introducing Jesus in light of the Atonement Doctrine. Very uncomfortable, and sad to lose the “spiritual brotherhood” connection true friendship is based on, usually. Could not trust them anymore because they provided no security or privacy for the other person, be it family, friend, customer or colleague, in their one on one relationships. Christianity seemed to hang on and pass on generation after generation what only Jesus was able to impressed as a “truth” on some of those who met him in the flesh – the fact that personality – the person, if you will – is “sacred”.

   So I think “Christianity” has already recently re-invented itself. But it is coming up empty – in spirit.

   Jesus never lost focus on discerning “God’s Will” as the Son of Man. I’m not getting that vibe in the modern adaptation of collective worship that was the re-invention started by Vatican II….one critique:

   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/vatican-ii-opened-the-church-to-the-world.html?_r=0

   Why is Pope Francis focusing on changing people’s considered and rational reaction to “immigration” in tandem with other obtuse groups such as UK scientists who are shutting down some cerebral cortex functions with “magnets” to accelerate “acceptance” of “immigration”. Don’t think “magnets” directed at the biologic brain is the pressure from above, either, that TUB is talking about….yikes.

   Maybe we should start carving out social security in our places of worship, again, the freedom (of speech) from persecution as “whistle-blowers” – and demand non-psychological explanations from religious “authority” as to why they are so certain that they ARE “God’s Will”, not merely discerning His “love” through “service to others” in the guise of “immigration”?

   Have to agree with the PM of Hungary making the SANE observation that thousands of unaccompanied teenage men demanding food shelter and free access to everything else you got is an “army”, not “immigration”.

   Ever raise a teenager? All are a “special needs” class of citizens to begin with as far as organizing their developing brains around ethics and service to others….the facts are what they are, it has been a slaughter of Christians in the Middle East since the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq….a “multi-cultural” decision, to invade, right?

2. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 20, 2015, 2:29 AM

   Sabinatu wrote:  …hypercritical psychological analysis that erased their ability to see the “good” in anyone anymore – no one was good enough. A different take on the “you are all sinners” erroneous approach to introducing Jesus in light of the Atonement Doctrine. Very uncomfortable, and sad to lose the “spiritual brotherhood” connection true friendship is based on…

   Thanks Sab for sharing this experience of a personal loss of a onetime close friend through the effects of institutionalized religion. It is sad indeed that the enduring values of a personal relationship can be eroded in this way.

   Being mortal means being imperfect, faith requires honesty to accept personal imperfection with all the less than lovely habits of a lifetime, to be forgiving of self requires ability to forgive others, the limitations that a sincere soul discovers in themselves. Judge not.

   …Jesus had a firm sense of justice, but it was always tempered with mercy. He did not teach his apostles that they were to be imposed upon by social parasites or professional alms-seekers. The nearest he came to making sociological pronouncements was to say, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”  ^{[Paper 140:8.12, page 1580:7]}
   
3. S

   SabinatuBlocked
   Oct 21, 2015, 10:12 PM

   “….Thanks Sab for sharing this experience of a personal loss of a onetime close friend through the effects of institutionalized religion. It is sad indeed that the enduring values of a personal relationship can be eroded in this way….”

   They even mis-diag-nose “what is irony?”.  They paw through their psycho book and code it as “cynical”.  That’s what happens when the baseline – “first do no harm to soul growth” – is dismissed as believing in the Easter Bunny. Like their Math God is not another Easter Bunny fiction?

   Without that baseline – what is the harm that you can’t do to another – if only because it is an EXPERIENTIALLY earned Rule of Law that did have it’s origin in “pressure from above”, God’s Will –

   (this is the point I am babbling around)

   – that is the LAW to be applied to every individual human being with a bona-fide imperfect personality – me, you, them, us, ALL – because that kind of earned law is based not on “faith” in an Easter Bunny, it is an earned right. Even TUB notes that nothing is allowed to replace the position earned through experience, ever, in that long journey to Paradise.

   All of us got a Personality that was a gift given whenever the sovereignty of God’s Will decided in perfect wisdom o activate it.

   There are no chosen people.  We all got the gift of a bona fide imperfect personality.  THAT is what Caesar can’t claim as his own, if he’s got any political smarts at all….

   So the psychology that got all “christian”, that is in charge of managing the “religion” impulse as we are discussing, here, from Papers 99-103 of The Urantia Book,

   is analyzing the moral and ethical interpretations – the Experientially Earned Rule of Law – against what standard?  Who/what is doing the judging? Spirit/soul?  Or even the secular outworkings of their version of personality, with all the mystery and paradoxes that only revelation can clarify the origins of – the “fatherly” pressure from above?

   They have a play book, penned in the blood of collateral human damage, about how individuals will have to correctly adapt to Nihilism, Hedonism and Anarchy – the AI of their Math God.  

   Here’s the dangerous new ism that love, truth, beauty and goodness seems to have no spiritual power to fight – puerilism. First wrong turn done at the re-invention of “christianity” in USA co-inciding with the Reagan Presidency.

   I lost two friends, and more went scattering under the pews, when the SHamans of Gizmology rolled into the north east ethnic Churchs, re-inventing “christianity” for us….armed with their psychology script….

   A more unworthy juggernaut of organized “christians”, committed to not being held responsible for actually doing the apparatchik job they stole in a way that “does no harm” to the people who’s “data” they are gathering, has never graced the pages of USA history.

   They respond to pressure from above, irregardless of it’s “quality”. In the meantime, just change the list of qualifications.

   “Did you participate in discussing “what is torture?” on the internet?”

4. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 21, 2015, 11:14 PM

   Sabinatu wrote:  …nothing is allowed to replace the position earned through experience, ever, in that long journey to Paradise.

   Sab Be of good cheer, this is Michael’s universe we live in and he has a plan for all here on Urantia. Yes, you are absolutely right, the tried and true evolutionary method of growth by personal experience is the only way forward. Life is but a day’s work, do it well.

   Freedom of choice is very constrained in mortals, from the Father’s point of view, there are only “two groups” of people in the world, those who are seeking to do his will and those who are not. Most average men and women are leaning Godward by virtue of Adjuster indwelling and are co-operating with spirit leading to varying degrees. We are informed most of us are weak rather than intentionally sinful, prone to errors of judgment when decisions of a moral kind are to be made. Hence, failure and consequent adjusting to one’s failures is the normal learning technique.

   Christianity is still tainted with primitive notions of a battle between good and evil

   The gods of evolutionary religion have generally been opposed by the forces of darkness.

   Evolutionary religion has, however, paid a terrible price for the concept of dual spiritism. Man’s early philosophy was able to reconcile spirit constancy with the vicissitudes of temporal fortune only by postulating two kinds of spirits, one good and the other bad. And while this belief did enable man to reconcile the variables of chance with a concept of unchanging supermortal forces, this doctrine has ever since made it difficult for religionists to conceive of cosmic unity. The gods of evolutionary religion have generally been opposed by the forces of darkness. ^{[Paper87:4.6, page 961:7]}

   Our secular society is infested with this notion of disproportionate reasoning, that each argument being presented in a “for” and “against” case, is of equal merit. Confusion about spiritual realities, combined with a fear of letting go of traditional ways of thinking, have perpetuated a situation where life is viewed as a battle between good and bad under the misguided notion each have equal standing in the way the universe is run. The fact we live in a friendly universe dominated by love, in which sin and iniquity is only manifest in extremely few isolated instances, is yet to be fully appreciated.

   The tragedy of all this lies in the fact that, when these ideas were taking root in the primitive mind of man, there really were no bad or disharmonious spirits in all the world. Such an unfortunate situation did not develop until after the Caligastic rebellion and only persisted until Pentecost. The concept of good and evil as cosmic co-ordinates is, even in the twentieth century, very much alive in human philosophy; most of the world’s religions still carry this cultural birthmark of the long-gone days of the emerging ghost cults.  ^{[Paper87:4.7, page 962:1]}

5. S

   SabinatuBlocked
   Oct 22, 2015, 12:20 AM

   “….Hence, failure and consequent adjusting to one’s failures is the normal learning technique…..”

   Yes, we ALL have had that “learning” and the lesson learned, agreed to by the ALL, is a Rule of Law.  That is one of the ways that the “pressure from above” becomes wisdom held by the individual, augmented by the society.  A “hacker” I worked with before hacking even had the word for it told me that the only reason he does not go out killing people is because of the legal consequences.

   “….Our secular society is infested with this notion of disproportionate reasoning, that each argument being presented in a “for” and “against” case, is of equal merit. Confusion about spiritual realities, combined with a fear of letting go of traditional ways of thinking, have perpetuated a situation where life is viewed as a battle between good and bad under the misguided notion each have equal standing in the way the universe is run. The fact we live in a friendly universe dominated by love, in which sin and iniquity is only manifest in extremely few isolated instances, is yet to be fully appreciated…..”

   Who is deciding on the where and when of THAT truth being appreciated?  Caesar?  Caesar’s kingdom on earth is threatened most by the existential threat of people knowing that we live in a “friendly universe dominated by love”? (you forgot “generous” – it is a generous and friendly universe). Is anyone allowed to have the conversation with the Caesars that asks for the data they are analyzing?

   TUB states in so many numerous instances and from so many different angles that Personality operates outside of evolutionary dependency on antecedent causes/events.  No one NEEDS iniquity to learn the truth that the universe is a friendly and generous place dominated by even material expressions of Divine Love that are found all the way down to the origin purpose and destiny of an ultimaton

   Cheap is the twin sister of Greed.  But I guess even back in the days of archetype theater for the masses, Greed and Cheap were not represented in the constellation of gods and goddesses as a “divine” trait….unlike now when they have become evolutionary contributions to the quality of the Supreme – or so the teachers seem to be heading that way in their incessant clamoring for “forgiveness”.  How about an explanation now and then for the reason God’s Will is all tied up with legal focus on the un-forgiver – teaching that iniquity (and the victims) are “destroyed” forever when they are forgiven.  Granted, that becomes a much more efficient – cost wise – legal system.  Case closed and dismissed once the un-forgiver forgives.

   Still an applied force from above….forgiving under legal duress…when are we going to look at the data whether that is really true?  Iniquity being vanquished by forgiveness?  Before or after the release of the truth info that the we live in a friendly and generous universe….?

6. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 22, 2015, 4:06 AM

   Sabinatu wrote:  …it is a generous and friendly universe

   I understand friendship is characterized by generosity. A quality of friendship that “freely gives.”

   Christianity can show generosity in restoring man’s dignity

   The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the potential of religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore man’s dignity when he declared that all men are the children of God. ^{[Paper 99:5.5, page 1091:4]}

   That would be something one friend would do for another.

7. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 22, 2015, 8:22 AM

   Christianity has a chance as mankind ripens sufficient to appreciate real religion

   …With the dawn of civilization the human race espoused the more mystic and symbolic beliefs, while now, with approaching maturity, mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself.  ^{[Paper 92:1.2, page 1003:7]}

   Christianity stands ready to transcend its cultish roots

   … olden cult practices persist alongside newer economic customs and social evolutions and, of course, appear grossly inconsistent. The remnants of the cult present a true picture of the racial religions of the past. Always remember, the cults are formed, not to discover truth, but rather to promulgate their creeds.  ^{[Paper 92:3.1, page 1005:3]}

   Christianity is poised to rid itself of a fundamental mischief making error

   Religion has always been largely a matter of rites, rituals, observances, ceremonies, and dogmas. It has usually become tainted with that persistently mischief-making error, the chosen-people delusion. ^{[Paper 92:3.2, page 1005:4]}

   Christianity can prevent truth becoming a casualty to human appeal

   …when tempted to criticize evolutionary religion, be careful. Remember, that is what happened; it is a historical fact. And further recall that the power of any idea lies, not in its certainty or truth, but rather in the vividness of its human appeal. ^{[Paper 92:3.3, page 1005:5]}

   Christianity can be changed by revelation

   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. … …Evolutionary belief in ghosts laid the foundation for a philosophy of revealed religion which will eventually destroy the superstition of its origin. ^{[Paper 92:3.5, page 1006:2]}

   Christianity is destined to be refined and ennobled by both, revelation and science

   And this sacred heritage of animal ascent, evolutionary religion, must ever continue to be refined and ennobled by the continuous censorship of revealed religion and by the fiery furnace of genuine science.  ^{[Paper 92:3.10, page 1006:7]}

8. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 23, 2015, 4:00 AM

   Has Christianity’s capacity of receptivity been accurately anticipated by the Revelatory Commission?

   …if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity. ^{[Paper 92:4.1, page 1007:1]}

9. V

   VernParticipant
   Oct 23, 2015, 10:23 AM

   Do the leaders within Christianity have the capacity to faith-grasp the significance of revelation as a censor and sorter?

   …It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution.   ^{[Paper92:4.1, page 1007:1]}

   Do the leaders within Christianity have the capacity to faith-grasp the significance of the 5th epochal revelation when considered together with the previous four?

   …Revelatory religion is propounded by the real spiritual world; it is the response of the superintellectual cosmos to the mortal hunger to believe in, and depend upon, the universal Deities. Evolutionary religion pictures the circuitous gropings of humanity in quest of truth; revelatory religion is that very truth. ^{[Paper92:4.3, page 1007:3]}

   As the authors of the Urantia Papers so authoritatively state, they……. “know whereof they speak.” Think of it, authors such as the very Life Carriers who scoped out this region of the universe looking for a suitable planet to implant life upon, then modified the life plasm patterns accordingly, implanted them and participated in the delivery of the life spark that activated it in the primordial soup of the warm shallow seas of pre-history and then fostered emergent life as it evolved over millions of years to arrive at the first will creatures capable of knowing their creator, Andon and Fonta, parents of mankind. Life carriers serving still to guide us to Light and Life. Urantia is very much a Life Carrier project, of course they are dedicated to see their decimal life modification experiment succeed. Well, if an ordinary person like myself can appreciate in some measure, how amazing this truth is, I’m sure there are sincere truth-motivated Christians who can do likewise.

   To put things into perspective I’ve attached a diagram of the Planetary Epochal Timeline as you reflect upon the significance of each of  the five epochal revelations:

   1. The Dalamatian teachings. The true concept of the First Source and Center was first promulgated on Urantia by the one hundred corporeal members of Prince Caligastia’s staff. This expanding revelation of Deity went on for more than three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the planetary secession and the disruption of the teaching regime.… ^{[Paper92:4.5, page 1007:5]}

   2. The Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve again portrayed the concept of the Father of all to the evolutionary peoples. The disruption of the first Eden halted the course of the Adamic revelation before it had ever fully started. But the aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire trend of Levantine religious evolution was modified by the teachings of the Sethites. But by 2500 B.C. mankind had largely lost sight of the revelation sponsored in the days of Eden.  ^{[Paper 92:4.6, page 1007:6]}

   3. Melchizedek of Salem. This emergency Son of Nebadon inaugurated the third revelation of truth on Urantia. The cardinal precepts of his teachings were trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God’s favor. His teachings gradually commingled with the beliefs and practices of various evolutionary religions and finally developed into those theologic systems present on Urantia at the opening of the first millennium after Christ.  ^{[Paper 92:4.7, page 1007:7]}

   4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father.  ^{[Paper 92:4.8, page 1008:1]}

   5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings. … …the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia.  ^{[Paper 92:4.9, page 1008:2]}

   It is consistent with the mission of the revelators that they state up front in the Forword the mission of clearing up confusion.

   IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia — that being the name of your world — there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity.…  ^{[Foreword 0:0.1, page 0:1]}

   The Time has arrived for Christianity to consider these frank statements delivered in timely fashion so that confusion can be converted to clarity and certitude.

    

   Attachments:

   You must be logged in to view attached files.
10. V

    VernParticipant
    Oct 23, 2015, 10:11 PM

    Christianity can achieve much if believers were to pool their respective spiritual possessions

    “Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented only by intimate contact with other minds” the mind of one augments the spiritual values of the other to mutual benefit.

    Thus does the mind of one

    augment its spiritual values

    by gaining much of the insight of the other.

    In this way men enrich the soul

    by pooling their respective spiritual possessions.

    Likewise, in this same way,

    man is enabled to avoid that ever-present tendency

    to fall victim to distortion of vision,

    prejudice of viewpoint, and narrowness of judgment. 

    ^{[Paper 160:3.7, page 1776:1]}
    

     

    Attachments:

    You must be logged in to view attached files.
11. S

    SabinatuBlocked
    Oct 23, 2015, 11:46 PM

    Hey, has anyone done a word count for how many times “father” appears in TUB and how many times “mother” appears?  Is it equal?

    If not an equal amount of times, how can that be interpreted?  That motherhood is spiritually UNEQUAL?

    Humor always needed when “logic” is applied.

    In the “mother” word search, here is this tale of “history” not forgotten by everyone else out there:

    ^{“98:2.11 (1080.1)} All Greece became involved in these new methods of attaining salvation, these emotional and fiery ceremonials. No nation ever attained such heights of artistic philosophy in so short a time; none ever created such an advanced system of ethics practically without Deity and entirely devoid of the promise of human salvation; no nation ever plunged so quickly, deeply, and violently into such depths of intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual poverty as these same Greek peoples when they flung themselves into the mad whirl of the mystery cults.”

    
    @Vern, thank you for the continuing discussion, in the spirit of “brotherhood”.  Good stuff, good thinking.  Unity in “spirit”…

    I do not hold out hope for the self-appointed “leadership” that concerns itself only with the current psychological management of “religion”.  Especially when the prevailing philosophies that accompany their secular power over others is Nihilism, Hedonism and Anarchy. Their personal experience with “religion” has been limited to finding what gives them most power over others.

    As for the Math God of the Shamans of Gizmology, the introduction of “0” (zero) into their “beliefs” has destroyed any possibility for their “god” to create success in establishing a HIGH QUALITY man to land ratio.

    So if you can’t even do that, how can that be the leadership that has its paws on the levers of “genetics” AND “religion”?!

    Bottom line, they also broke every single “interpretation” of the First Amendment – freedom of speech – and the RIGHT to religious freedom.

    They slithered, temporarily, out of the grasp of justice AND mercy, for pre-emptive strikes against humanity economically and physically, but the trap has been set by Freedom of Religion in USA.  That’s going to be one humdinger of a debate….:-)

12. V

    VernParticipant
    Oct 25, 2015, 1:12 AM

    Sabinatu wrote:  …self-appointed “leadership”…

    If we look honestly a this, we all are self-appointed leaders of ourselves, self-mastery is the foundation of strong character, however, the attempt to have mastery over others is delusional. There is a huge difference between self-forgetful service for others and self-willed egoism by self, for self.

    Unbridled self-will and unregulated self-expression equal unmitigated selfishness, the acme of ungodliness. Liberty without the associated and ever-increasing conquest of self is a figment of egoistic mortal imagination. Self-motivated liberty is a conceptual illusion, a cruel deception. License masquerading in the garments of liberty is the forerunner of abject bondage.  ^{[Paper 54:1.5, page 613:7]}

    The truth shall set people free, true liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration.

    True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.  ^{[Paper 54:1.6, page 614:1]}

    When we view the actions of those in positions of  leadership we have this measure to now them by their fruits. In what measure have they strayed into the moral quicksand of self-admiration? Why have they allowed themselves to wallow in the swamp of selfishness as they sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings? Can they be called back from the brink by the light of compelling truth? If a brother wanders off the track, another brother aught call the brother back.

    Christianity needs to be watchful to retain the capacity to recognize true leaders when they appear

    Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming “the kingdom of God is at hand” — meaning a return to the high spiritual concept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom is the will of his heavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer — and doing all this without in any way referring either to the visible church on earth or to the anticipated second coming of Christ. 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. In a short time the teaching of this story about Jesus nearly supplanted the preaching of Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. In this way a historical religion displaced that teaching in which Jesus had blended man’s highest moral ideas and spiritual ideals with man’s most sublime hope for the future — eternal life. And that was the gospel of the kingdom.  ^{[Paper 170:5.19, page 1866:2]}

    There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, the ball of revealed truth is in our court and it is up to each “self-appointed” leader within the family of man to make those marvelous gains of self-mastery that show such individuals as paragons of altruistic service. Such a personal manifestation of  “true liberty” is progressively related to reality and is ever regardful of social equity, cosmic fairness, universe fraternity, and divine obligations. Such a person is socially fragrant and exhibits “charismatic” drawing power of a love saturated soul.
13. S

    SabinatuBlocked
    Oct 26, 2015, 4:41 AM

    @Vern – “….There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, the ball of revealed truth is in our court and it is up to each “self-appointed” leader within the family of man to make those marvelous gains of self-mastery that show such individuals as paragons of altruistic service. Such a personal manifestation of “true liberty” is progressively related to reality and is ever regardful of social equity, cosmic fairness, universe fraternity, and divine obligations. Such a person is socially fragrant and exhibits “charismatic” drawing power of a love saturated soul…..”.

    Someone had to change your diapers and feed you and love you and shelter you and….well, you get the point….until you could evolve to entertain the possibility of that kind of mastery, no? The pressure is needed from above, right? The first egg had someone other than a chicken hatch it so that then the chicken could keep the chicken life force in motion…

    Need a safe place to hatch. Urantia’s story is still getting past the barbarism of 3 defaults in order to get to that place where raising an immortal soul is the TRUE goal of the human species – origin, purpose, destiny.

    Here’s the only TUB text that showed up in a word search for “austerity”:

    “87:6.16 (965.3) Next came the practice of ritual vows, soon to be followed by religious pledges and sacred oaths. Most of these oaths were accompanied by self-torture and self-mutilation; later on, by fasting and prayer. Self-denial was subsequently looked upon as being a sure coercive; this was especially true in the matter of sex suppression. And so primitive man early developed a decided austerity in his religious practices, a belief in the efficacy of self-torture and self-denial as rituals capable of coercing the unwilling spirits to react favorably toward all such suffering and deprivation.

    87:6.17 (965.4) Modern man no longer attempts openly to coerce the spirits, though he still evinces a disposition to bargain with Deity. And he still swears, knocks on wood, crosses his fingers, and follows expectoration with some trite phrase; once it was a magical formula.”

    Hmmm, who will the Zero Money God require tortured and sacrificed as “payment” for THEIR “sins”?

14. V

    VernParticipant
    Oct 27, 2015, 5:25 AM

    Sabinatu wrote:  Need a safe place to hatch. Urantia’s story is still getting past the barbarism of 3 defaults in order to get to that place where raising an immortal soul is the TRUE goal of the human species – origin, purpose, destiny.

    Hi Sabinatu, there is a place in the book that mentions the need for the “golden rulers” the idealists, to act in the interests of self-preservation and remove themselves from dangerous associations that could result in premature death. I don’t think it has got to that sage in your country yet which still is the land of hope and glory.

    Humanity still hangs out for superhuman help

    Most great religious epochs have been inaugurated by the life and teachings of some outstanding personality; leadership has originated a majority of the worth-while moral movements of history. And men have always tended to venerate the leader, even at the expense of his teachings; to revere his personality, even though losing sight of the truths which he proclaimed. And this is not without reason; there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons. On Urantia man has been deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers, and therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his human leaders with legends pertaining to supernatural origins and miraculous careers.  ^{[Paper 92:5.5, page 1008:7]}

    So, we have this “instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond.”

    We’ve got a bad record of killing the messenger of God, even put our Creator Son, God in person, on the cross to die and then still have the audacity to ask for “help from above” as if we’ve never had it all along. Talk abut the remedial class of 606….shish!

    Now we’ve been given some plain talk in a book, do you think we’ve learned enough lessons from the past to run with it?

    See it for what it is……………..”help from above and beyond?”

    Attachments:

    You must be logged in to view attached files.
15. S

    SabinatuBlocked
    Oct 27, 2015, 8:27 PM

    Vern wrote, “…..to act in the interests of self-preservation and remove themselves from dangerous associations that could result in premature death. I don’t think it has got to that stage in your country yet which still is the land of hope and glory….”

    The reason I did this previous cut and paste:

    “98:2.11 (1080.1) All Greece became involved in these new methods of attaining salvation, these emotional and fiery ceremonials. No nation ever attained such heights of artistic philosophy in so short a time; none ever created such an advanced system of ethics practically without Deity and entirely devoid of the promise of human salvation; no nation ever plunged so quickly, deeply, and violently into such depths of intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual poverty as these same Greek peoples when they flung themselves into the mad whirl of the mystery cults.”

    was to provide TUB service that a NATION can be plunged “….quickly, deeply, and violently into such depths of intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual poverty…”

    The Urantia Book exists because GOD et al came to the conclusion that we were ready for an “emergency” intervention – and 60 years later even fewer people know about it.

16. V

    VernParticipant
    Oct 29, 2015, 4:11 AM

    Sabinatu wrote:  …ready for an “emergency” intervention…

    Yes, this shows that our universe family have faith in our ability to work this through using reason and by actual experience. You as one individual, cannot know the inner workings of the invisible spiritual tide when……….. Adjusters flock………..that is sweeping our planet. Your tiny moment of life is not an accurate measure for the outworking of a plan that is to span centuries.

    What I’m thinking about that quote you shared, that was then, this is now. We have the benefit of lessons learned and spiritual ministry that has been augmented since the times of ancient Greece. Communication is now on a planetary scale, no longer confined to an isolated pinpoint of culture in the Mediterranean. Humanity has been largely weaned from subsisting on superstition. We are entering the “age of reason” where a premium will be placed on depth of thinking.
17. SS

    Samuel Stuart MaynesParticipant
    Nov 13, 2015, 2:39 AM

    Vern & Mara – Thanks for this thread. My suggestion is that Christianity can renew itself through religious pluralism. I have a new essay/website in which I show that an abstract version of the Christian Trinity can be a paradigm for the inclusion of all major faiths in a “minimal consensus” of religions, based on their underlying systematic unity (see “Trinity – the Soul of One God” at http://www.trinityabsolute.com ).
    Basically, the first step to religious pluralism in the spirit of Trinity is panentheism (all in God). This unites Christianity and Krishnan Hinduism. Then, Shaivite Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism fall naturally into place, as descriptive of the Holy Ghost
    “Jesus came to proclaim spiritual liberty” – free personality and spiritual originality – within the broad limitations of spiritual unity. 141:5:1 (1591C). His religion of the spirit is the “religion of personal spiritual experience.” 155:6:8 (1732A).

    I’d love to have your comments.

    Samuel Stuart Maynes

    http://www.trinityabsolute.com

     

Reply on the current forum