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What is spiritual brotherhood?

234 posts · 7 participants · started Jun 18, 2015, 9:25 PM

SabinatuBlocked
Jul 25, 2015, 9:37 PM
Paper 101 is a wonderful read to clarify “religion” in a “spiritual brotherhood”:

^101:1.5 ^(1105.2) While religion is not the product of the rationalistic speculations of a material cosmology, it is, nonetheless, the creation of a wholly rational insight which originates in man’s mind-experience. Religion is born neither of mystic meditations nor of isolated contemplations, albeit it is ever more or less mysterious and always indefinable and inexplicable in terms of purely intellectual reason and philosophic logic. The germs of true religion originate in the domain of man’s moral consciousness, and they are revealed in the growth of man’s spiritual insight, that faculty of human personality which accrues as a consequence of the presence of the God-revealing Thought Adjuster in the God-hungry mortal mind.

^101:1.6 ^(1105.3) Faith unites moral insight with conscientious discriminations of values, and the pre-existent evolutionary sense of duty completes the ancestry of true religion. The experience of religion eventually results in the certain consciousness of God and in the undoubted assurance of the survival of the believing personality.

^101:1.7 ^(1105.4) Thus it may be seen that religious longings and spiritual urges are not of such a nature as would merely lead men to want to believe in God, but rather are they of such nature and power that men are profoundly impressed with the conviction that they ought to believe in God. The sense of evolutionary duty and the obligations consequent upon the illumination of revelation make such a profound impression upon man’s moral nature that he finally reaches that position of mind and that attitude of soul where he concludes that he has no right not to believe in God. The higher and superphilosophic wisdom of such enlightened and disciplined individuals ultimately instructs them that to doubt God or distrust his goodness would be to prove untrue to the realest and deepest thing within the human mind and soul — the divine Adjuster.
VernParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 2:40 AM

Mara wrote: …priceless powers of choice…

Hello Mara beautifully put, thank you for your additional insight.

It all comes down to how integrated/balanced is the ability of a person to relate to other persons and the universe at large, in terms of thing, meaning, value decisions in their exercise of the priceless powers of choice.

It is by exercise of the priceless powers of choice that we gain progressive comprehension of reality.

I maintain, persons comprising the spiritual brotherhood are likewise, exercising their priceless powers of choice, making real mankind’s indefatigable approach to God. They achieve this by consecrating their choices to align with spirit leading—wholehearted co-operation with the Father who delights in his children’s progress as all loving parents do.

There are just three elements in universal reality: fact, idea, and relation. The religious consciousness identifies these realities as science, philosophy, and truth. Philosophy would be inclined to view these activities as reason, wisdom, and faith — physical reality, intellectual reality, and spiritual reality. We are in the habit of designating these realities as thing, meaning, and value. ^[Paper ^{196:3.2, page 2094:1]}

The progressive comprehension of reality is the equivalent of approaching God. The finding of God, the consciousness of identity with reality, is the equivalent of the experiencing of self-completion — self-entirety, self-totality. The experiencing of total reality is the full realization of God, the finality of the God-knowing experience. ^[Paper ^{196:3.3, page 2094:2]}

The more a person comprehends reality, the closer they approach God, the more a person identifies with God the more “real” they become.
VernParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 3:22 AM

Sabinatu wrote: …spiritual urges are not of such a nature as would merely lead men to want to believe in God, but rather are they of such nature and power that men are profoundly impressed with the conviction that they ought to believe in God. The sense of evolutionary duty and the obligations consequent upon the illumination of revelation make such a profound impression upon man’s moral nature that he finally reaches that position of mind and that attitude of soul where he concludes that he has no right not to believe in God.…

Sabinatu I’m so glad you’ve shared this methodical and philosophically sound application of rational thought to experience of the religious impulse. Thanks, it profoundly resonated with me when I first read it in my youth.

Sabinatu wrote: …he finally reaches that position of mind and that attitude of soul where he concludes that he has no right not to believe in God.

The sincere truth seeker is fully equipped to arrive at this conclusion no matter what dead ends curiosity may attract him/her to.

Sabinatu wrote: …instructs them that to doubt God or distrust his goodness would be to prove untrue to the realest and deepest thing within the human mind and soul — the divine Adjuster.

Truth never suffers from honest examination and to be true to the …realest and deepest thing within the human mind and soul…, invites honest examination of living experience. Being true to self leads to the source of all Truth.
MaraParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 3:57 AM

Sabinatu wrote:. . .a BASELINE reading is mandatory in order to make any sense of the metadata collection that follows.

Your idea of a BASELINE reading and the idea of metadata appears to me to be a quantitative collection of information, as against that which is qualitative, personal and subjective – religious experience in relation to God and our fellows which relationships are living experiences and such relatedness is an end in and of itself, not a means to an end.

195:6:5 Science is a quantitative experience, religion a qualitative experience, as regards man’s life on earth. Science deals with phenomena; religion, with origins, values, and goals. To assign causes as an explanation of physical phenomena is to confess ignorance of ultimates and in the end only leads the scientist straight back to the first great cause — the Universal Father of Paradise.

.

Spiritual brotherhood isn’t a club, though one reader suggested using the term to describe it. Is it an organization? Hmmm. In thinking about this I say it is an invisible (to us) organization I think it is a mistake to think of it as a human organization. It is destined to be a living organism ( 195:10:11 ) and living organisms are efficient and highly organized. They were designed that way.

.

I think spiritual brotherhood is highly organized all the way from here to Paradise, as we progress through our training on the billion-plus worlds of the ascension career. This is our natal world where we weakly or strongly discover, recognize, interpret and choose to go to God, to do his will, to consecrate ourselves to loving service of our fellows in whatever form we are invited to participate. Every day God is extending an invitation to us to serve. We have to develop service habits of living. We probably already do this unconsciously. The right hand doesn’t need to know what the left hand is doing.

.

I like your idea of spiritual brotherhood being a state of relatedness, as in 1.) me-and-God and 2.) me-and-God- and-you, my fellows.

.

Sabinatu wrote:. . . and a “spiritual brotherhood” has as much “right” to “free will” acts as have the atheist political brotherhoods.

Interesting you say “a ‘spiritual brotherhood'” as though there were more than one spiritual brotherhood. I think there is only one spiritual brotherhood. And yes it is specific. But brotherhood, whether spiritual or otherwise, does not have free will. Only persons have free will.
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 26, 2015, 4:52 AM

Mara wrote:

Sabinatu wrote:. . .a BASELINE reading is mandatory in order to make any sense of the metadata collection that follows.

Your idea of a BASELINE reading and the idea of metadata appears to me to be a quantitative collection of information, as against that which is qualitative, personal and subjective – religious experience in relation to God and our fellows which relationships are living experiences and such relatedness is an end in and of itself, not a means to an end.

A quantitative collection of information is not *against* qualitative, personal, subjective – it is what it is – a qualitative collection and the only VALID way to discover whether the biologic part of a LIVING organism is progressive, static and balanced as it functions in a living organism, or whether it is diseased and acting upon the LIVING organism in a way that is retrogressive and degenerate. Our biology on Urantia has been messed with “free will” so blaming God for what others has done is not going to get us to Light and Life.

195:6:5 Science is a quantitative experience, religion a qualitative experience, as regards man’s life on earth. Science deals with phenomena; religion, with origins, values, and goals. To assign causes as an explanation of physical phenomena is to confess ignorance of ultimates and in the end only leads the scientist straight back to the first great cause — the Universal Father of Paradise.

We have a “cause” for “physical phenomena” that really happened. Your quote is about the error of a philosophy that invents speculative causes for physical phenomena…the metaphysical error….just sayin’….here’s the cut and paste from The Urantia Book that I provide for clarity:

^12:9.3 ^(141.4) Mathematics, material science, is indispensable to the intelligent discussion of the material aspects of the universe, but such knowledge is not necessarily a part of the higher realization of truth or of the personal appreciation of spiritual realities. Not only in the realms of life but even in the world of physical energy, the sum of two or more things is very often something more than, or something different from, the predictable additive consequences of such unions. The entire science of mathematics, the whole domain of philosophy, the highest physics or chemistry, could not predict or know that the union of two gaseous hydrogen atoms with one gaseous oxygen atom would result in a new and qualitatively superadditive substance — liquid water. The understanding knowledge of this one physiochemical phenomenon should have prevented the development of materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology.

Spiritual brotherhood isn’t a club, though one reader suggested using the term to describe it. Is it an organization? Hmmm. In thinking about this I say it is an invisible (to us) organization I think it is a mistake to think of it as a human organization. It is destined to be a living organism ( 195:10:11 ) and living organisms are efficient and highly organized. They were designed that way.

The living systems weren’t designed by us, I’ll go with that truthful fact

Paper 12, Section 7 – The Part and the Whole:

^12:7.8 ^(138.3) The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.

I keep using “spiritual brotherhood” because we do not want to make the mistake made in ancient Rome by the first Christians…and also it is the Ascender “quality”, whereas the Descender qualifies it as a “universal brotherhood”

I think spiritual brotherhood is highly organized all the way from here to Paradise, as we progress through our training on the billion-plus worlds of the ascension career. This is our natal world where we weakly or strongly discover, recognize, interpret and choose to go to God, to do his will, to consecrate ourselves to loving service of our fellows in whatever form we are invited to participate.

Wait, who is doing the “inviting”?!

Every day God is extending an invitation to us to serve. We have to develop service habits of living. We probably already do this unconsciously. The right hand doesn’t need to know what the left hand is doing.

This is how you are experiencing it at this point in time, Mara. Should I put God on my dance card today at #8 after all the other-than-God invites….it helps to personalize….not preach….

Do we need an invitation to LOVE from God, or are we still engaging in the million year old battle of fighting for the freedom to love and be loved that our fellow willful Urantians periodically get all violent about denying…? I am rather surprised and disappointed (in a concerned way about biologic retrogression and degeneration) that such a puerile and QUALITY-less philosophic concoction as “greed is good” ever got the better of modern man…if we do not know better by now then it is only because our biologic mind has become diseased.

.

I like your idea of spiritual brotherhood being a state of relatedness, as in 1.) me-and-God and 2.) me-and-God- and-you, my fellows.

.

Sabinatu wrote:. . . and a “spiritual brotherhood” has as much “right” to “free will” acts as have the atheist political brotherhoods.

Interesting you say “a ‘spiritual brotherhood’” as though there were more than one spiritual brotherhood. I think there is only one spiritual brotherhood. But brotherhood, whether spiritual or otherwise, does not have free will. Only persons have free will.

The “spiritual brotherhood” is like water, and as noted in TUB, by examining oxygen and hydrogen to the exhaustion of their material facts, we will not find that there was a built in prediction that the combo would produce water.
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 26, 2015, 4:56 AM

Sabinatu wrote:

Mara wrote:

Sabinatu wrote:. . .a BASELINE reading is mandatory in order to make any sense of the metadata collection that follows.

Your idea of a BASELINE reading and the idea of metadata appears to me to be a quantitative collection of information, as against that which is qualitative, personal and subjective – religious experience in relation to God and our fellows which relationships are living experiences and such relatedness is an end in and of itself, not a means to an end.

A quantitative collection of information is not *against* qualitative, personal, subjective – it is what it is – a qualitative collection and the only VALID way to discover whether the biologic part of a LIVING organism is progressive, static and balanced as it functions in a living organism, or whether it is diseased and acting upon the LIVING organism in a way that is retrogressive and degenerate. Our biology on Urantia has been messed with “free will” so blaming God for what others has done is not going to get us to Light and Life.

195:6:5 Science is a quantitative experience, religion a qualitative experience, as regards man’s life on earth. Science deals with phenomena; religion, with origins, values, and goals. To assign causes as an explanation of physical phenomena is to confess ignorance of ultimates and in the end only leads the scientist straight back to the first great cause — the Universal Father of Paradise.

We have a “cause” for “physical phenomena” that really happened. Your quote is about the error of a philosophy that invents speculative causes for physical phenomena…the metaphysical error….just sayin’….here’s the cut and paste from The Urantia Book that I provide for clarity:

^12:9.3 ^(141.4) Mathematics, material science, is indispensable to the intelligent discussion of the material aspects of the universe, but such knowledge is not necessarily a part of the higher realization of truth or of the personal appreciation of spiritual realities. Not only in the realms of life but even in the world of physical energy, the sum of two or more things is very often something more than, or something different from, the predictable additive consequences of such unions. The entire science of mathematics, the whole domain of philosophy, the highest physics or chemistry, could not predict or know that the union of two gaseous hydrogen atoms with one gaseous oxygen atom would result in a new and qualitatively superadditive substance — liquid water. The understanding knowledge of this one physiochemical phenomenon should have prevented the development of materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology.

Spiritual brotherhood isn’t a club, though one reader suggested using the term to describe it. Is it an organization? Hmmm. In thinking about this I say it is an invisible (to us) organization I think it is a mistake to think of it as a human organization. It is destined to be a living organism ( 195:10:11 ) and living organisms are efficient and highly organized. They were designed that way.

The living systems weren’t designed by us, I’ll go with that truthful fact

Paper 12, Section 7 – The Part and the Whole:

^12:7.8 ^(138.3) The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.

I keep using “spiritual brotherhood” because we do not want to make the mistake made in ancient Rome by the first Christians…and also it is the Ascender “quality”, whereas the Descender qualifies it as a “universal brotherhood”

I think spiritual brotherhood is highly organized all the way from here to Paradise, as we progress through our training on the billion-plus worlds of the ascension career. This is our natal world where we weakly or strongly discover, recognize, interpret and choose to go to God, to do his will, to consecrate ourselves to loving service of our fellows in whatever form we are invited to participate.

Wait, who is doing the “inviting”?!

Every day God is extending an invitation to us to serve. We have to develop service habits of living. We probably already do this unconsciously. The right hand doesn’t need to know what the left hand is doing.

This is how you are experiencing it at this point in time, Mara. Should I put God on my dance card today at #8 after all the other-than-God invites….it helps to personalize….not preach….

Do we need an invitation to LOVE from God, or are we still engaging in the million year old battle of fighting for the freedom to love and be loved that our fellow willful Urantians periodically get all violent about denying…? I am rather surprised and disappointed (in a concerned way about biologic retrogression and degeneration) that such a puerile and QUALITY-less philosophic concoction as “greed is good” ever got the better of modern man…if we do not know better by now then it is only because our biologic mind has become diseased.

.

I like your idea of spiritual brotherhood being a state of relatedness, as in 1.) me-and-God and 2.) me-and-God- and-you, my fellows.

.

Sabinatu wrote:. . . and a “spiritual brotherhood” has as much “right” to “free will” acts as have the atheist political brotherhoods.

Interesting you say “a ‘spiritual brotherhood’” as though there were more than one spiritual brotherhood. I think there is only one spiritual brotherhood. But brotherhood, whether spiritual or otherwise, does not have free will. Only persons have free will.

The “spiritual brotherhood” is like water, and as noted in TUB, by examining oxygen and hydrogen to the exhaustion of their material facts, we will not find that there was a built in prediction that the combo would produce water.
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 26, 2015, 5:06 AM
oooops – sorry for the triple posting, still trying to figure out the edit function – please feel free to delete 1 and 2, was just trying to clear up visually who was saying what in the conversation thread…
VernParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 7:08 AM

Sabinatu wrote: I keep using “spiritual brotherhood” because we do not want to make the mistake made in ancient Rome by the first Christians…and also it is the Ascender “quality”, whereas the Descender qualifies it as a “universal brotherhood” I think spiritual brotherhood is highly organized all the way from here to Paradise, as we progress through our training on the billion-plus worlds of the ascension career. This is our natal world where we weakly or strongly discover, recognize, interpret and choose to go to God, to do his will, to consecrate ourselves to loving service of our fellows in whatever form we are invited to participate.

This paragraph on the term “spiritual brotherhood” is instructive as the revelators have considered the time has arrived for presenting unadorned truth with the confidence we are sufficiently socially evolved to comprehend it. Jesus lived in the time of kings and emperors, therefor a representative body of believers were designated members of “the kingdom of heaven.” That is both erroneous—God is not a king—and anachronistic—does not relate to this generation nor will it to future generations, the “spiritual brotherhood” is prosaic and clear. Clarity is what we need in these times of complexity and confusion.

The work of the kingdom now prepared to enter upon its terminal phase under the personal leadership of Jesus. And this present phase was one of spiritual depth in contrast with the miracle-minded and wonder-seeking multitudes who followed after the Master during the former days of popularity in Galilee. However, there were still any number of his followers who were material-minded, and who failed to grasp the truth that the kingdom of heaven is the spiritual brotherhood of man founded on the eternal fact of the universal fatherhood of God.^[Paper^{163:7.4, page 1808:6]}

So, what we get from this paragraph is a neat answer to the question What is spiritual brotherhood?

Spiritual brotherhood of man founded on the eternal fact of the universal fatherhood of God.

Material-mindedness is the obstacle to a greater realisation of spiritual brotherhood. At present the secular world is having difficulty accepting the “fact” of God—the most self-evident of all realities.

Jesus always had trouble trying to explain to the apostles that, while they proclaimed the establishment of the kingdom of God, the Father in heaven was not a king. At the time Jesus lived on earth and taught in the flesh, the people of Urantia knew mostly of kings and emperors in the governments of the nations, and the Jews had long contemplated the coming of the kingdom of God. For these and other reasons, the Master thought best to designate the spiritual brotherhood of man as the kingdom of heaven and the spirit head of this brotherhood as the Father in heaven. Never did Jesus refer to his Father as a king. In his intimate talks with the apostles he always referred to himself as the Son of Man and as their elder brother. He depicted all his followers as servants of mankind and messengers of the gospel of the kingdom. ^[Paper^{169:4.1, page 1855:2]}

From the following paragraph it can be appreciated that the spiritual brotherhood as that place of mutual knowing where it can be taken for granted everyone believes in the Father.

Jesus never gave his apostles a systematic lesson concerning the personality and attributes of the Father in heaven. He never asked men to believe in his Father; he took it for granted they did. Jesus never belittled himself by offering arguments in proof of the reality of the Father. His teaching regarding the Father all centered in the declaration that he and the Father are one; that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father; that the Father, like the Son, knows all things; that only the Son really knows the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal him; that he who knows the Son knows also the Father; and that the Father sent him into the world to reveal their combined natures and to show forth their conjoint work. He never made other pronouncements about his Father except to the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well, when he declared, “God is spirit.” ^[Paper^{169:4.2, page 1855:3]}

This goes to confirm the obvious—if God were a man, that man is Jesus. Outworking the principle that the Father knows our needs before we ask. With his spirit presence within us—our Thought Adjuster—he has already spanned the universe from Paradise to here, to share our lives, to guide us back to meet him personally and recognise him as the original personality, father of all personalities, before we even formed a concept of who we are or where we are going. The Thought Adjuster is the perfection of our unique self already in place.

…These heavenly helpers are dedicated to the stupendous task of guiding you safely inward and upward to the celestial haven of happiness. These tireless toilers are consecrated to the future personification of the triumph of divine truth in your life everlasting. They are the watchful workers who pilot the God-conscious human mind away from the shoals of evil while expertly guiding the evolving soul of man toward the divine harbors of perfection on far-distant and eternal shores. The Adjusters are loving leaders, your safe and sure guides through the dark and uncertain mazes of your short earthly career; they are the patient teachers who so constantly urge their subjects forward in the paths of progressive perfection. They are the careful custodians of the sublime values of creature character. I wish you could love them more, co-operate with them more fully, and cherish them more affectionately. ^([Paper ^{110:1.2, page 1203.4]}

Such is the Adjuster’s plea, that we …love them more, co-operate with them more fully, and cherish them more affectionately.
MaraParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 6:06 PM

Sabinatu wrote: I keep using “spiritual brotherhood” because we do not want to make the mistake made in ancient Rome by the first Christians…and also it is the Ascender “quality”, whereas the Descender qualifies it as a “universal brotherhood”

I’m thinking along the same line as you on this point of not wanting to make a mistake. Vern pointed out that the phrase “kingdom of heaven” is familiar in the mainstream of Christianity, so perhaps over time as more people grasp the enlarged concept of it, as explicated by Jesus, as the heavenly family under the Fatherhood of God. ( 142:7:4 ) And, as explicated by us, as we sweat through the comprehension of the spiritual brotherhood, as we learn it and live it. Interesting point about spiritual brotherhood and universal brotherhood.

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Sabinatu wrote:

This is how you are experiencing it at this point in time, Mara. Should I put God on my dance card today at #8 after all the other-than-God invites….it helps to personalize….not preach….

.

I know this bothers you.

Sabinatu wrote:Do we need an invitation to LOVE from God, or are we still engaging in the million year old battle of fighting for the freedom to love and be loved that our fellow willful Urantians periodically get all violent about denying…?

.

The invitation to which I referred is the still small voice within. I do think we are invited every day by Him who indwells us. Invited to do what? To do something, whether it is on your dance card or not.

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(140:10:1) […] But it was a difficult task to persuade these Galilean fishermen that, in the kingdom, being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in the daily life of the mortals of earth.

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.Sabinatu wrote: I am rather surprised and disappointed (in a concerned way about biologic retrogression and degeneration) that such a puerile and QUALITY-less philosophic concoction as “greed is good” ever got the better of modern man…if we do not know better by now then it is only because our biologic mind has become diseased.

.

I think it is poppycock that our biologic mind has become diseased. My opinion. It is wonderful to have the 5th Epochal to help us unravel what has thus far been hidden from mortal understanding, especially about mind and spirit. Why have regrets about where we are on the evolutionary continuum? This is merely a paragraph in a chapter of countless chapters of our history.

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Sabinatu wrote: The “spiritual brotherhood” is like water, and as noted in TUB, by examining oxygen and hydrogen to the exhaustion of their material facts, we will not find that there was a built in prediction that the combo would produce water.

.

Amazing, isn’t it? You did, however, cite the following reference that informs us that had we known about that one particular physiochemical phenomenon, we should have prevented such materialistic philosophies and mechanistic cosmologies from developing.

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Sabinatu wrote: ( ^12:9.3^(141.4) ) […] The understanding knowledge of this one physiochemical phenomenon should have prevented the development of materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology.

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The good news is that we now know about it. Science is amazing. Maybe it will help us get past dead-end philosophies and cosmologies.
MaraParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 6:36 PM

Mara wrote: Science is amazing. Maybe it will help us get past dead-end philosophies and cosmologies.

.

Such as *

118:10:14 2. Man’s increasing control — the gradual accumulation of the knowledge of the laws of the material world, the purposes of spiritual existence, and the possibilities of the philosophic co-ordination of these two realities. Man, the savage, was helpless before the onslaughts of natural forces, was slavish before the cruel mastery of his own inner fears. Semicivilized man is beginning to unlock the storehouse of the secrets of the natural realms, and his science is slowly but effectively destroying his superstitions while at the same time providing a new and enlarged factual basis for the comprehension of the meanings of philosophy and the values of true spiritual experience. Man, the civilized, will someday achieve relative mastery of the physical forces of his planet; the love of God in his heart will be effectively outpoured as love for his fellow men, while the values of human existence will be nearing the limits of mortal capacity.

.

.

* ( 118:10:0 )
MaraParticipant
Jul 26, 2015, 6:50 PM

Mara wrote: (118:10:14 ) […] Semicivilized man is beginning to unlock the storehouse of the secrets of the natural realms, and his science is slowly but effectively destroying his superstitions while at the same time providing a new and enlarged factual basis for the comprehension of the meanings of philosophy and the values of true spiritual experience. Man, the civilized, will someday achieve relative mastery of the physical forces of his planet; the love of God in his heart will be effectively outpoured as love for his fellow men, while the values of human existence will be nearing the limits of mortal capacity.

.

What do you think? Are we civilized or semicivilized?
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 26, 2015, 8:40 PM
@Vern – and thanks for a kind and careful assessment of who God would be if he were a human – Jesus. So refreshing when someone who actually likes Jesus takes a second look at the perfect human life he led as an example for ALL of Nebadon….always inspiring….

@Mara – don’t poppycock me, Missy – LOL. Take your argument here:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/nih-initiatives/index.shtml
VernParticipant
Jul 27, 2015, 12:19 AM

Sabinatu wrote: …God would be if he were a human – Jesus.

Yes Sabinatu, that fact profoundly registered in my mind when I first discovered his true identity and purpose in coming here.

My faith informs me, our Father delights in our progress.

Progress is assured when we “cease to resist” his leading.

The success of your Adjuster in the enterprise of piloting you through the mortal life and bringing about your survival depends not so much on the theories of your beliefs as upon your decisions, determinations, and steadfast faith. All these movements of personality growth become powerful influences aiding in your advancement because they help you to co-operate with the Adjuster; they assist you in ceasing to resist. ^[Paper^{110:3.2, page 1205:6]}

What’s really important—decisions, determinations, and steadfast faith—rather than theories, even the highest theories of the paragraph itself. Decisions, determinations and steadfast faith are only real if they are lived—actively manifest.

As unity between believers substantiates, spiritual brotherhood manifests as a powerful force for good, to bring relief, clarity and purpose, to the confusion of these troubling times of transition.
MaraParticipant
Jul 27, 2015, 4:07 PM

Vern wrote: What’s really important—decisions, determinations, and steadfast faith—rather than theories. . . .

Yet, I would add, inquiring minds want to know. That’s why I ask questions. I want to know more and I want to know what you think. For example, I’ve been mulling over these two paragraphs.

( 159:2:1 ) Jesus went over to Gamala to visit John and those who worked with him at that place. That evening, after the session of questions and answers, John said to Jesus: “Master, yesterday I went over to Ashtaroth to see a man who was teaching in your name and even claiming to be able to cast out devils. Now this fellow had never been with us, neither does he follow after us; therefore I forbade him to do such things.” Then said Jesus: “Forbid him not. Do you not perceive that this gospel of the kingdom shall presently be proclaimed in all the world? How can you expect that all who will believe the gospel shall be subject to your direction? Rejoice that already our teaching has begun to manifest itself beyond the bounds of our personal influence. Do you not see, John, that those who profess to do great works in my name must eventually support our cause? They certainly will not be quick to speak evil of me. My son, in matters of this sort it would be better for you to reckon that he who is not against us is for us. In the generations to come many who are not wholly worthy will do many strange things in my name, but I will not forbid them. I tell you that, even when a cup of cold water is given to a thirsty soul, the Father’s messengers shall ever make record of such a service of love.”

.
This instruction greatly perplexed John. Had he not heard the Master say, “He who is not with me is against me“? And he did not perceive that in this case Jesus was referring to man’s personal relation to the spiritual teachings of the kingdom, while in the other case reference was made to the outward and far-flung social relations of believers regarding the questions of administrative control and the jurisdiction of one group of believers over the work of other groups which would eventually compose the forthcoming world-wide brotherhood.

One is about personal relations with Jesus’ spiritual teachings, and the other pertains to the outward and far-flung social relations of believers who have developed groups of like-minded people, which groups are eventually to compose the world-wide brotherhood. It seems to me the spiritual brotherhood is composed of believers in Jesus’ spiritual teachings. Doesn’t this indicate the specificity of what is the invisible spiritual brotherhood?
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 27, 2015, 7:49 PM
Let’s put this search back in the context of “origin, purpose, destiny” – PERFECT Beings – the Descenders, already are, well, perfect, but here is what perfection needs to be MORE than perfect:

“^3:5.17 ^(52.3) The creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they are not courageous in the human sense. They are innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic in the human way. They are expectant of a pleasant future, but not hopeful in the exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the uncertain evolutionary spheres. They have faith in the stability of the universe, but they are utter strangers to that saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise. They love the truth, but they know nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are loyal, but they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to duty in the face of temptation to default. They are unselfish, but they never gained such levels of experience by the magnificent conquest of a belligerent self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend the sweetness of the pleasure escape from the pain potential.”

Finite creatures that we are, we live and progress and ACT in the eternal NOW, as I call it….lots of suggestions in TUB for Ascenders acquiring the complementary

courage, altruism, saving faith, soul-saving truth, idealists by free-will choice, intelligent devotion to duty, conquest of a belligerent self, and the sweetness of the pleasure escape from the pain potential

to the Descenders “perfection”

on HOW to live in the NOW

^71:4.17 ^(804.17) Idealism can never survive on an evolving planet if the idealists in each generation permit themselves to be exterminated by the baser orders of humanity.

So what did Jesus REVEAL as the Fourth Epochal Revelation?

I speculate that the “spiritual brotherhood” can handle the FER safely since a “brotherhood” is something more as a combo of 4 epochal revelations – ie. courage, altruism, saving faith, etc. have already been acquired…
VernParticipant
Jul 28, 2015, 2:49 PM

Mara wrote:Then said Jesus: “Forbid him not. Do you not perceive that this gospel of the kingdom shall presently be proclaimed in all the world? How can you expect that all who will believe the gospel shall be subject to your direction? Rejoice that already our teaching has begun to manifest itself beyond the bounds of our personal influence.

Identical spirit influence, differential Truth registry according to capacity. A seed of truth once germinated will continue to grow in a sincere seeker. It’s a good thing too. Worth rejoicing about, that such a powerful transformative motivator is quickening hearts and minds throughout the world. Knowledge is possessed by sharing—safeguarded by wisdom, socialized by love.

Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.^[Paper^{48:7.28, page 557:12]}

Sharing is Godlike.

The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God — with the very God who has made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is Godlike — divine. God shares all with the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, while they, in turn, share all things with the divine Sons and spirit Daughters of the universes. ^[Paper^{111:5.1, page 1221:2]}

Those who dare to be Godlike with childlike openness and courageous steadfastness are of the spiritual brotherhood.

The imitation of God is the key to perfection; the doing of his will is the secret of survival and of perfection in survival. ^[Paper^{111:5.2, page 1221:3]}

The first quote allows for variation of interpretation of truth by individuals in a social context based on the understanding that we don’t need to think alike to be alike. The second quote (below), as I understand it, sees the world comprised of two kinds of people—those who desire to do God’s will and those who do not.

Mara wrote: He who is not with me is against me“? …………………………. Jesus was referring to man’s personal relation to the spiritual teachings of the kingdom.

…Said Jesus: “Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not. Those who cannot know God are reckoned among the animals of any given realm. Mankind can appropriately be divided into many classes in accordance with differing qualifications, as they may be viewed physically, mentally, socially, vocationally, or morally, but as these different classes of mortals appear before the judgment bar of God, they stand on an equal footing; God is truly no respecter of persons. Although you cannot escape the recognition of differential human abilities and endowments in matters intellectual, social, and moral, you should make no such distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of men when assembled for worship in the presence of God.” ^[Paper ^{133:0.3, page 1468:3]}

Those who desire to do his will may appear to their fellows expressing their own religious experiences in terminology inspired by their own creativity, this does not invalidate the genuine expression of spirit which motivated it.
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 28, 2015, 6:23 PM
Recently, a FaceBook friend posted something they deemed as “wise and realistic” – a Pope Francis quote:

“It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notion of God is outdated. One can be spiritual but not religious. It is not necessary to go to church and give money – for many, nature can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not believe in God, while some of the worst deed were done in His name.”

So the “Vicar of Christ” is promoting the psychological pablum of propaganda instead of following Jesus who never deviated from REVEALING GOD to humanity?

I will admit to it being a pet peeve of mine – when people do NOT do the job they were “hired” to do. If the Pope can’t find the time, space and resources to stay focused on REVEALING GOD to humanity, then who else has the “authority” to “share” the religion OF Jesus with the billion+ “believers” under his “spiritual” stewardship?
AnonymousInactive
Jul 29, 2015, 12:31 AM

Sabinatu wrote:

So the “Vicar of Christ” is promoting the psychological pablum of propaganda instead of following Jesus who never deviated from REVEALING GOD to humanity?

I will admit to it being a pet peeve of mine – when people do NOT do the job they were “hired” to do. If the Pope can’t find the time, space and resources to stay focused on REVEALING GOD to humanity, then who else has the “authority” to “share” the religion OF Jesus with the billion+ “believers” under his “spiritual” stewardship?

I’m somewhat puzzled with your post, where your statement above seems fragmented, and does not indicate as to how would you define, “following Jesus” as He did not deviate “from REVEALING GOD to humanity?”

Then, how should, in your opinion and definition, “the Pope” “stay focused on REVEALING GOD to humanity”; are you proposing that “the Pope” should be teaching from the Urantia Book?
SabinatuBlocked
Jul 29, 2015, 2:14 AM
@midi – here, knock yourself out with just how “fragmented” my CONTINUING CONVERSATION of posts are:

https://watson-pi-demo.mybluemix.net/
VernParticipant
Jul 29, 2015, 3:46 AM

Sabinatu wrote: One can be spiritual but not religious.

Hello Sabinatu I’m of he view our current Pope is a sincere and humble man who appreciates Jesus’ great liberating pronouncement “the kingdom is within you,” confirming that between God and the individual, there are no intermediaries. I think he knows full-well, this does free believers from the control of the church of which he is leader. Yet there he is, head of the largest branch of Christianity. The only safe approach is the appeal to spirit, which in his own way, I think the Pope is making.

I recently watched an Australian bishop who had read the Pope’s most recent paper on the need to become more ethically aware stewards of the world we inhabit. I have not read the Pope’s “Environmental” report myself, but what this bishop was clearly saying, was that the Pope was staying true to his spiritual purpose in drawing attention to our spiritual interconnectedness. The doings of mankind when viewed as an interconnected group of God’s children, the fact of what family members do in specific regions, affects the wellbeing of all, socially, and environmaentally. The responsibility of stewardship means taking care of the place, that it is in good working order, for ever-and-ever, amen. Man the destroyer must through co-operation—teamwork—become man the conservator. Nurture that which has value, pursuit of agriculture and land-care is the great civilizer after all. The world is an organism and the spiritual brotherhood is organic group of greenskeepers.

…The cultivation of the soil is inherent in the establishment of an advancing civilization on the evolutionary worlds, and this injunction was the center of all teaching of the Planetary Prince and his staff throughout the three hundred thousand years which intervened between their arrival on Urantia and those tragic days when Caligastia threw in his lot with the rebel Lucifer. Work with the soil is not a curse; rather is it the highest blessing to all who are thus permitted to enjoy the most human of all human activities. ^[Paper ^{66:7.19, page 751:14]}

In this respect I can appreciate what the Pope is doing to move towards spiritual brotherhood.

After all, Pope Francis is a man like all others, with his own personal limitations, I’ve found a wise approach in assessing what people do, is expect little, and then be pleasantly surprised when performance exceeds expectations. The Father is always testing us to find out what we are capable of. He wants to make us, not break us. Our Father delights in our progress, I’m sure of it.

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