Friday, October 27, 2006
Do my loved ones remember me in Heaven?
Q: My mother and father are gone and I was their only child. I'm worried if they will remember me and that I'm still here on Earth when their resurrected, will they remember me while I continue my test here on Earth?
A: The Urantia Book offers us a great wealth of information and comfort regarding the process of death and the experience of mortal resurrection. More importantly, it also offers us assurances that on our eternal journey through the Father's realms, we will always "...know and be known - remember and be remembered by, our onetime associates in the short but intriguing life on Urantia."
This quote is from the section titled "Survival of the Human Self," p1232. It is part of Paper112 entitled "Personality Survival."
As to whether your parents remember you now, while you still are on earth...they surely do, just as you remember them. Not only that, but they remember only the best of times that they shared with you. All experiences that you shared that were less than wonderful will have been forgotten, but the love that they feel for you is still as real now as it was when they were with you here on earth. The loving relationships that we establish on earth are eternal relationships, and can never die, for they have eternal value.
Quoting from the same section as above, "...mortal memory of personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist."
And when you yourself pass over into the Father Mansions, you will be given an opportunity to reunite with your loved ones. I know it will be a joyous time for all of you! The fact that you still hold your parents in your heart means that they have not really gone from you - their physical presence is gone, but that love is so real that it will remain with you for the rest of your days, and beyond. The teaching that they gave and the way they raised you have made you the person you are today, and you carry them in your heart and mind because of it. And I am sure that you had an equally profound effect upon them.
Do your parents remember you today as you remember them? They do. Just as in our earthly life, those with whom we have love ties are always connected to us. Time and space are no barriers to this connection. Even if we don't think of each other every minute, we know our loved ones care for us as we care for them. And when we need them, all we need to do is think of them, remember them and their love, and their "love presence" is upon us in an instant. That is the reality of love, and God is the source of the comfort that it gives, since he is the Author of Love itself.
You are so correct to describe this life as a "test." This earthly life is a testing time, and part of that test for us is to grow a living faith in the Father's goodness, and the promise of Jesus, who said, "If you are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish." When you are having hard times in your life, I hope you will remember your parents, and trust that they are remembering you as well. Trust in God, hold Jesus's hand, and be of good cheer. In God's universe, love is just about the most important thing there is.
MaryJo
Truthbook.comLabels: Earth, God, love, Mary Jo, memory, the departed, The Urantia Book
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What was Jesus mission to the world?
Q: What was Jesus mission to the world?
In today’s world, and for centuries before this, the general understanding of the Christian churches regarding Jesus’ mission has been that Jesus came to earth to act as a sacrificial lamb – that his death on the cross was a necessary event in order for man to be ransomed from the “evil one -" saved by the shedding of innocent blood, much like the ancient rituals of slaughtering lambs, rams, goats and so forth at certain times of the year.
This understanding has been predicated upon the belief in a God who is all-powerful, but also jealous and quite vengeful. And since information regarding the actual LIFE of Jesus in the Bible and elsewhere is so scanty, practically all of the emphasis has been placed on the facts of his terrible and shocking death on the cross – and his subsequent resurrection on Easter morning.
The children of God – human beings – have been portrayed as sinful and lost, and the only way that we can be redeemed is through the blood of Jesus which was shed on the cross. This is known as “the atonement doctrine.”
The Urantia Book gives us a picture of God the Father which is far different from that of the Old Testament – a picture that is consistent with the actual teachings of Jesus, as revealed in Part IV of the book. Jesus showed us a loving father, a faithful upholder, and not a vengeful judge. Following are a few Urantia Book quotes which expand upon the atonement doctrine, its ancient beginnings, and its unfortunate repercussions:
63:6.4 Very early the Andonic peoples formed the habit of refraining from eating the flesh of the animal of tribal veneration. Presently, in order more suitably to impress the minds of their youths, they evolved a ceremony of reverence which was carried out about the body of one of these venerated animals; and still later on, this primitive performance developed into the more elaborate sacrificial ceremonies of their descendants. And this is the origin of sacrifices as a part of worship. This idea was elaborated by Moses in the Hebrew ritual and was preserved, in principle, by the Apostle Paul as the doctrine of atonement for sin by "the shedding of blood."
2:6.5 Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the universe. Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and craves affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent and child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.
149:2.3 1. The effort to connect the gospel teaching directly onto the Jewish theology, as illustrated by the Christian doctrines of the atonement—the teaching that Jesus was the sacrificed Son who would satisfy the Father's stern justice and appease the divine wrath. These teachings originated in a praiseworthy effort to make the gospel of the kingdom more acceptable to disbelieving Jews. Though these efforts failed as far as winning the Jews was concerned, they did not fail to confuse and alienate many honest souls in all subsequent generations.
4:5.4 The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath.
p1083:6 98:7.1 A Creator Son did not incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and bestow himself upon the humanity of Urantia to reconcile an angry God but rather to win all mankind to the recognition of the Father's love and to the realization of their sonship with God. After all, even the great advocate of the atonement doctrine realized something of this truth, for he declared that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."
103:4.4 Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt and sense of isolation in the universe by declaring that man is a child of God; the creature-Creator relationship was placed on a child-parent basis. God becomes a loving Father to his mortal sons and daughters. All ceremonials not a legitimate part of such an intimate family relationship are forever abrogated.
194:2.8 Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father's will, not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow. This life in the flesh, together with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, presently became a new gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in order to purchase man back from the clutch of the evil one—from the condemnation of an offended God. Nevertheless, even though the gospel did become greatly distorted, it remains a fact that this new message about Jesus carried along with it many of the fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier gospel of the kingdom. And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually transform the civilization of all mankind.
It might help you to understand even better to let the words of Jesus speak here:
165:3.8 …“ I came into this world to reveal the Father to you and to lead you to the Father. The first I have done, but the last I may not do without your consent; the Father never compels any man to enter the kingdom. The invitation ever has been and always will be: Whosoever will, let him come and freely partake of the water of life."
149:6.2 "…I have come to reveal the Father's love so that you will be attracted to the worship of the Eternal by the drawing of a son's affectionate recognition and reciprocation of the Father's profound and perfect love. I would deliver you from the bondage of driving yourselves through slavish fear to the irksome service of a jealous and wrathful King-God. I would instruct you in the Father-son relationship of God and man so that you may be joyfully led into that sublime and supernal free worship of a loving, just, and merciful Father-God.
On the subject of the Father's love for mankind, Jesus said:
142:2.2 …I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds. As the gospel of this kingdom shall spread over the world with its message of good cheer and good will to all men, there will grow up improved and better relations among the families of all nations. As time passes, fathers and their children will love each other more, and thus will be brought about a better understanding of the love of the Father in heaven for his children on earth. Remember…that a good and true father not only loves his family as a whole—as a family—but he also truly loves and affectionately cares for each individual member."
With a little bit of reflection, one can see that the idea of the atonement is an idea which is not conducive to establishing a loving relationship with our Creator Father. Modern religions emphasize Jesus’ death and resurrection over his actual life, which in itself was a revelation of the Father’s love to all mankind – even to the inhabitants of the universe in which we live.
So – one might ask “What about Jesus’ death on the cross? Is that not important? It is certainly important. The Urantia Book devotes much attention to the passion of Jesus, and the terrible events of that week. It was an unprecedented spectacle of cruelty and barbarity practiced on the Son of God.
The cross is forever a symbol which we can embrace and use as an example of the creature’s desire to do the will of God. This following section may be helpful for you to understand the importance – even without the atonement doctrine – of the Cross of Jesus.
The Meaning of Jesus’ Death on the Cross
p2016:6 188:4.1 Although Jesus did not die this death on the cross to atone for the racial guilt of mortal man nor to provide some sort of effective approach to an otherwise offended and unforgiving God; even though the Son of Man did not offer himself as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God and to open the way for sinful man to obtain salvation; notwithstanding that these ideas of atonement and propitiation are erroneous, nonetheless, there are significances attached to this death of Jesus on the cross which should not be overlooked. It is a fact that Urantia has become known among other neighboring inhabited planets as the "World of the Cross."
p2016:7 188:4.2 Jesus desired to live a full mortal life in the flesh on Urantia. Death is, ordinarily, a part of life. Death is the last act in the mortal drama. In your well-meant efforts to escape the superstitious errors of the false interpretation of the meaning of the death on the cross, you should be careful not to make the great mistake of failing to perceive the true significance and the genuine import of the Master's death.
p2016:8 188:4.3 Mortal man was never the property of the archdeceivers. Jesus did not die to ransom man from the clutch of the apostate rulers and fallen princes of the spheres. The Father in heaven never conceived of such crass injustice as damning a mortal soul because of the evil-doing of his ancestors. Neither was the Master's death on the cross a sacrifice which consisted in an effort to pay God a debt which the race of mankind had come to owe him.
p2016:9 188:4.4 Before Jesus lived on earth, you might possibly have been justified in believing in such a God, but not since the Master lived and died among your fellow mortals. Moses taught the dignity and justice of a Creator God; but Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father.
p2016:10 188:4.5 The animal nature—the tendency toward evil-doing—may be hereditary, but sin is not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is the act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the Father's will and the Sons' laws by an individual will creature.
p2017:1 188:4.6 Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the races of this one world. While the mortals of the realms had salvation even before Jesus lived and died on Urantia, it is nevertheless a fact that his bestowal on this world greatly illuminated the way of salvation; his death did much to make forever plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh.
p2017:2 188:4.7 Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain; he did better and more surely show the way of salvation for all the mortals of all the worlds of the universe of Nebadon.
p2017:3 188:4.8 When once you grasp the idea of God as a true and loving Father, the only concept which Jesus ever taught, you must forthwith, in all consistency, utterly abandon all those primitive notions about God as an offended monarch, a stern and all-powerful ruler whose chief delight is to detect his subjects in wrongdoing and to see that they are adequately punished, unless some being almost equal to himself should volunteer to suffer for them, to die as a substitute and in their stead. The whole idea of ransom and atonement is incompatible with the concept of God as it was taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth. The infinite love of God is not secondary to anything in the divine nature.
p2017:4 188:4.9 All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness. Jesus taught that service to one's fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believer's chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one's fellows even as Jesus loved and served mortal men.
p2017:5 188:4.10 Neither do genuine believers trouble themselves so much about the future punishment of sin. The real believer is only concerned about present separation from God. True, wise fathers may chasten their sons, but they do all this in love and for corrective purposes. They do not punish in anger, neither do they chastise in retribution.
p2017:6 188:4.11 Even if God were the stern and legal monarch of a universe in which justice ruled supreme, he certainly would not be satisfied with the childish scheme of substituting an innocent sufferer for a guilty offender.
p2017:7 188:4.12 The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met death.
p2017:8 188:4.13 This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature's faith and thereby become incorporated into individual human experience: the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man. It is true, after all, that you are to be "forgiven your debts, even as you forgive your debtors."
You can see how important Jesus’ death on the cross is to our understanding of Jesus life lived as an obedient child of a loving Father. Jesus did not have to die in this fashion. His mission of revealing the Father was completed before the terrible events of the Passion, but he chose to go through the agony and humiliation of death on the cross in order that he might complete his earth life the way all mortals do - by actually dying. The fact that his death was caused by wicked men was not God's plan. It was planned by men, but Jesus chose to accept his fate, rather than to escape the cross - which he could have done, had he so wished.
Thank you for this most important question.
MaryJo
Truthbook.comLabels: atonement, God, Jesus, love, the Cross, The Urantia Book
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Who is Lucifer?
Who is Lucifer?
There is much misunderstanding on Urantia regarding Lucifer, and the Urantia Book gives us a clear picture of this fallen and disgraced Son of God. To begin with:
LUCIFER WAS A BRILLIANT primary Lanonandek Son of Nebadon. He had experienced service in many systems, had been a high counselor of his group, and was distinguished for wisdom, sagacity, and efficiency. Lucifer was number 37 of his order, and when commissioned by the Melchizedeks, he was designated as one of the one hundred most able and brilliant personalities in more than seven hundred thousand of his kind. From such a magnificent beginning, through evil and error, he embraced sin and now is numbered as one of three System Sovereigns in Nebadon who have succumbed to the urge of self and surrendered to the sophistry of spurious personal liberty—rejection of universe allegiance and disregard of fraternal obligations, blindness to cosmic relationships.
Lucifer was a System Sovereign. To better understand Lucifer's role in the one-time administration of our world, it might be helpful to know what the role of a System Sovereign is:
p392:1 35:8.1 After the creation of the Vorondadeks, the Creator Son and the Universe Mother Spirit unite for the purpose of bringing into existence the third order of universe sonship, the Lanonandeks. Although occupied with varied tasks connected with the system administrations, they are best known as System Sovereigns, the rulers of the local systems, and as Planetary Princes, the administrative heads of the inhabited worlds.
p392:15 35:8.9 Since Lanonandeks are a somewhat lower order of sonship than the Melchizedeks and the Vorondadeks, they are of even greater service in the subordinate units of the universe, for they are capable of drawing nearer the lower creatures of the intelligent races. They also stand in greater danger of going astray, of departing from the acceptable technique of universe government. But these Lanonandeks, especially the primary order, are the most able and versatile of all local universe administrators. In executive ability they are excelled only by Gabriel and his unrevealed associates.
Here is more information about Lucifer:
p601:3 53:1.1 Lucifer was not an ascendant being; he was a created Son of the local universe, and of him it was said: "You were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you."
p601:4 53:1.2 Lucifer was a magnificent being, a brilliant personality; he stood next to the Most High Fathers of the constellations in the direct line of universe authority. Notwithstanding Lucifer's transgression, subordinate intelligences refrained from showing him disrespect and disdain prior to Michael's bestowal on Urantia. Even the archangel of Michael, at the time of Moses' resurrection, "did not bring against him an accusing judgment but simply said, `the Judge rebuke you.'" Judgment in such matters belongs to the Ancients of Days, the rulers of the superuniverse.
p601:5 53:1.3 Lucifer is now the fallen and deposed Sovereign of Satania. Self-contemplation is most disastrous, even to the exalted personalities of the celestial world. Of Lucifer it was said: "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your brightness." Your olden prophet saw his sad estate when he wrote: "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cast down, you who dared to confuse the worlds!"
Because Lucifer was such a high spirit being, he delegated authority, as do all executives. In Lucifer's case, he delegated much of his authority on this planet to a very familiar figure: Satan. In fact, this system, of which our planet is a part, was given the name Satania, in honor of this selfsame Satan. This name was given before the rebellion, however, when Satan was still loyal to the Father. Thus, the name "Satania" has no sinister meaning, once this fact is understood.
In addition, there is another familiar name associated with this archrebel: Beelzebub. The folowing quote delineates the differences between these evil spirit beings:
p602:1 53:1.4 Very little was heard of Lucifer on Urantia owing to the fact that he assigned his first lieutenant, Satan, to advocate his cause on your planet. Satan was a member of the same primary group of Lanonandeks but had never functioned as a System Sovereign; he entered fully into the Lucifer insurrection. The "devil" is none other than Caligastia, the deposed Planetary Prince of Urantia and a Son of the secondary order of Lanonandeks. At the time Michael was on Urantia in the flesh, Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia were leagued together to effect the miscarriage of his bestowal mission. But they signally failed.
p602:2 53:1.5 Abaddon was the chief of the staff of Caligastia. He followed his master into rebellion and has ever since acted as chief executive of the Urantia rebels. Beelzebub was the leader of the disloyal midway creatures who allied themselves with the forces of the traitorous Caligastia.
p602:3 53:1.6 The dragon eventually became the symbolic representation of all these evil personages. Upon the triumph of Michael, "Gabriel came down from Salvington and bound the dragon (all the rebel leaders) for an age." Of the Jerusem seraphic rebels it is written: "And the angels who kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he has reserved in sure chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day."
I doubt whether any account of Lucifer can be complete without an examination of exactly why and how this magnificent being created such a world-changing event known as "the Lucifer rebellion." The following quotes will illuminate the nature of this terrible event:
p602:4 53:2.1 Lucifer and his first assistant, Satan, had reigned on Jerusem for more than five hundred thousand years when in their hearts they began to array themselves against the Universal Father and his then vicegerent Son, Michael.
p602:5 53:2.2 There were no peculiar or special conditions in the system of Satania which suggested or favored rebellion. It is our belief that the idea took origin and form in Lucifer's mind, and that he might have instigated such a rebellion no matter where he might have been stationed. Lucifer first announced his plans to Satan, but it required several months to corrupt the mind of his able and brilliant associate. However, when once converted to the rebel theories, he became a bold and earnest advocate of "self-assertion and liberty."
p602:6 53:2.3 No one ever suggested rebellion to Lucifer. The idea of self-assertion in opposition to the will of Michael and to the plans of the Universal Father, as they are represented in Michael, had its origin in his own mind. His relations with the Creator Son had been intimate and always cordial. At no time prior to the exaltation of his own mind did Lucifer openly express dissatisfaction about the universe administration. Notwithstanding his silence, for more than one hundred years of standard time the Union of Days on Salvington had been reflectivating to Uversa that all was not at peace in Lucifer's mind. This information was also communicated to the Creator Son and the Constellation Fathers of Norlatiadek.
p602:7 53:2.4 Throughout this period Lucifer became increasingly critical of the entire plan of universe administration but always professed wholehearted loyalty to the Supreme Rulers. His first outspoken disloyalty was manifested on the occasion of a visit of Gabriel to Jerusem just a few days before the open proclamation of the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. Gabriel was so profoundly impressed with the certainty of the impending outbreak that he went direct to Edentia to confer with the Constellation Fathers regarding the measures to be employed in case of open rebellion.
The Lucifer Manifesto
p603:2 53:3.1 Whatever the early origins of trouble in the hearts of Lucifer and Satan, the final outbreak took form as the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. The cause of the rebels was stated under three heads:
p603:3 53:3. 1. The reality of the Universal Father. Lucifer charged that the Universal Father did not really exist, that physical gravity and space-energy were inherent in the universe, and that the Father was a myth invented by the Paradise Sons to enable them to maintain the rule of the universes in the Father's name. He denied that personality was a gift of the Universal Father.
p603:4 53:3.3 2. The universe government of the Creator Son—Michael. Lucifer contended that the local systems should be autonomous. He protested against the right of Michael, the Creator Son, to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of a hypothetical Paradise Father and require all personalities to acknowledge allegiance to this unseen Father. He asserted that the whole plan of worship was a clever scheme to aggrandize the Paradise Sons. He was willing to acknowledge Michael as his Creator-father but not as his God and rightful ruler.
p603:5 53:3.4 Most bitterly did he attack the right of the Ancients of Days—"foreign potentates"—to interfere in the affairs of the local systems and universes. These rulers he denounced as tyrants and usurpers. He exhorted his followers to believe that none of these rulers could do aught to interfere with the operation of complete home rule if men and angels only had the courage to assert themselves and boldly claim their rights. p603:6 53:3.5 He contended that the executioners of the Ancients of Days could be debarred from functioning in the local systems if the native beings would only assert their independence. He maintained that immortality was inherent in the system personalities, that resurrection was natural and automatic, and that all beings would live eternally except for the arbitrary and unjust acts of the executioners of the Ancients of Days.
p604:1 53:3.6 3.The attack upon the universal plan of ascendant mortal training. Lucifer maintained that far too much time and energy were expended upon the scheme of so thoroughly training ascending mortals in the principles of universe administration, principles which he alleged were unethical and unsound. He protested against the agelong program for preparing the mortals of space for some unknown destiny and pointed to the presence of the finaliter corps on Jerusem as proof that these mortals had spent ages of preparation for some destiny of pure fiction. With derision he pointed out that the finaliters had encountered a destiny no more glorious than to be returned to humble spheres similar to those of their origin. He intimated that they had been debauched by overmuch discipline and prolonged training, and that they were in reality traitors to their mortal fellows since they were now co-operating with the scheme of enslaving all creation to the fictions of a mythical eternal destiny for ascending mortals. He advocated that ascenders should enjoy the liberty of individual self-determination. He challenged and condemned the entire plan of mortal ascension as sponsored by the Paradise Sons of God and supported by the Infinite Spirit.
p604:2 53:3.7 And it was with such a Declaration of Liberty that Lucifer launched his orgy of darkness and death.
In effect, Lucifer was denying the existence of God, and claiming for himself the loyalty and fealty that rightfully belongs to God. He was denigrating the eternal plans of the Universal Father to the beings for whom he was responsible as a sovereign and ambassador of the Eternal Father, essentially disenfranchising them from the reality of God and the chance to take part in the plan of eternal life. Lucifer's clarion call was "personal liberty:"
p604:3 53:4.1 The Lucifer manifesto was issued at the annual conclave of Satania on the sea of glass, in the presence of the assembled hosts of Jerusem, on the last day of the year, about two hundred thousand years ago, Urantia time. Satan proclaimed that worship could be accorded the universal forces—physical, intellectual, and spiritual—but that allegiance could be acknowledged only to the actual and present ruler, Lucifer, the "friend of men and angels" and the "God of liberty."
p604:4 53:4.2 Self-assertion was the battle cry of the Lucifer rebellion. One of his chief arguments was that, if self-government was good and right for the Melchizedeks and other groups, it was equally good for all orders of intelligence. He was bold and persistent in the advocacy of the "equality of mind" and "the brotherhood of intelligence." He maintained that all government should be limited to the local planets and their voluntary confederation into the local systems
p605:1 53:4.4 While there had been two previous rebellions in Nebadon, they were in distant constellations. Lucifer held that these insurrections were unsuccessful because the majority of the intelligences failed to follow their leaders. He contended that "majorities rule," that "mind is infallible."
In time, the rebellion was finally confined to the system of Satania:
p605:4 53:4.7 Lucifer was permitted fully to establish and thoroughly to organize his rebel government before Gabriel made any effort to contest the right of secession or to counterwork the rebel propaganda. But the Constellation Fathers immediately confined the action of these disloyal personalities to the system of Satania. Nevertheless, this period of delay was a time of great trial and testing to the loyal beings of all Satania. All was chaotic for a few years, and there was great confusion on the mansion worlds.
The "War in Heaven:"
p606:2 53:5.6 "There was war in heaven; Michael's commander and his angels fought against the dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes); and the dragon and his rebellious angels fought but prevailed not." This "war in heaven" was not a physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on Urantia. In the early days of the struggle Lucifer held forth continuously in the planetary amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision.
p606:3 53:5.7 But this war in heaven was very terrible and very real. While displaying none of the barbarities so characteristic of physical warfare on the immature worlds, this conflict was far more deadly; material life is in jeopardy in material combat, but the war in heaven was fought in terms of life eternal.
While there was a war in Heaven, here on earth much damage was being done, and evil seeds were being planted in the minds of our less-developed and primitive ancestors. Our Planetary Prince at that time, Caligastia, was in league with Lucifer and Satan, and this misguided ruler did all he could to lead the peoples of the earth into this plan, promising "liberty." This is a legacy which has borne dire consequences for all succeeding generations, including the one in which we find ourselves.
p607:3 53:7.2 Throughout this period Caligastia was advocating the cause of Lucifer on Urantia. The Melchizedeks ably opposed the apostate Planetary Prince, but the sophistries of unbridled liberty and the delusions of self-assertion had every opportunity for deceiving the primitive peoples of a young and undeveloped world.
Why didn't God put a stop to this rebellion? Why was this archrebel permitted to execute his scheme, and mislead and deceive so many evolving planets of mortals - over 600 of them in the Satania System?
p615:3 54:3.1 The moral will creatures of the evolutionary worlds are always bothered with the unthinking question as to why the all-wise Creators permit evil and sin. They fail to comprehend that both are inevitable if the creature is to be truly free. The free will of evolving man or exquisite angel is not a mere philosophic concept, a symbolic ideal. Man's ability to choose good or evil is a universe reality. This liberty to choose for oneself is an endowment of the Supreme Rulers, and they will not permit any being or group of beings to deprive a single personality in the wide universe of this divinely bestowed liberty—not even to satisfy such misguided and ignorant beings in the enjoyment of this misnamed personal liberty.
p615:4 54:3.2 Although conscious and wholehearted identification with evil (sin) is the equivalent of nonexistence (annihilation), there must always intervene between the time of such personal identification with sin and the execution of the penalty—the automatic result of such a willful embrace of evil—a period of time of sufficient length to allow for such an adjudication of such an individual's universe status as will prove entirely satisfactory to all related universe personalities, and which will be so fair and just as to win the approval of the sinner himself.
p615:5 54:3.3 But if this universe rebel against the reality of truth and goodness refuses to approve the verdict, and if the guilty one knows in his heart the justice of his condemnation but refuses to make such confession, then must the execution of sentence be delayed in accordance with the discretion of the Ancients of Days. And the Ancients of Days refuse to annihilate any being until all moral values and all spiritual realities are extinct, both in the evildoer and in all related supporters and possible sympathizers.
p615:6 54:4.1 Another problem somewhat difficult of explanation in the constellation of Norlatiadek pertains to the reasons for permitting Lucifer, Satan, and the fallen princes to work mischief so long before being apprehended, interned, and adjudicated.
p616:1 54:4.2 Parents, those who have borne and reared children, are better able to understand why Michael, a Creator-father, might be slow to condemn and destroy his own Sons. Jesus' story of the prodigal son well illustrates how a loving father can long wait for the repentance of an erring child.
p616:2 54:4.3 The very fact that an evil-doing creature can actually choose to do wrong—commit sin—establishes the fact of free-willness and fully justifies any length delay in the execution of justice provided the extended mercy might conduce to repentance and rehabilitation.
p616:3 54:4.4 Most of the liberties which Lucifer sought he already had; others he was to receive in the future. All these precious endowments were lost by giving way to impatience and yielding to a desire to possess what one craves now and to possess it in defiance of all obligation to respect the rights and liberties of all other beings composing the universe of universes. Ethical obligations are innate, divine, and universal.
Even with this blatant and far-reaching rebellion - the outright defiance of the Universal Father - God's mercy was a factor in the progress, and outcome of the rebellion:
p616:5 54:4.6 Supreme justice can act instantly when not restrained by divine mercy. But the ministry of mercy to the children of time and space always provides for this time lag, this saving interval between seedtime and harvest. If the seed sowing is good, this interval provides for the testing and upbuilding of character; if the seed sowing is evil, this merciful delay provides time for repentance and rectification. This time delay in the adjudication and execution of evildoers is inherent in the mercy ministry of the seven superuniverses. This restraint of justice by mercy proves that God is love, and that such a God of love dominates the universes and in mercy controls the fate and judgment of all his creatures.
p616:7 54:4.8 But these mercy delays are not interminable. Notwithstanding the long delay (as time is reckoned on Urantia) in adjudicating the Lucifer rebellion, we may record that, during the time of effecting this revelation, the first hearing in the pending case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer was held on Uversa, and soon thereafter there issued the mandate of the Ancients of Days directing that Satan be henceforth confined to the prison world with Lucifer. This ends the ability of Satan to pay further visits to any of the fallen worlds of Satania. Justice in a mercy-dominated universe may be slow, but it is certain.
The legacy of the Lucifer rebellion on our planet is still having repercussions on our world. A quick read of the newspaper headlines can illustrate this point. Everywhere there is self-assertion - wars are fought and millions slaughtered in the name of self-assertion by governments and individuals. "I am right and you are wrong." Greed and avarice are rife, while the needy and downtrodden are ignored. The "me first" idea runs rampant in devious business practices. And worst of all, there is still disbelief in the reality of God. These are all remnants of the Lucifer rebellion.
p618:4 54:6.1 Whatever the difficulties evolutionary mortals may encounter in their efforts to understand the Lucifer rebellion, it should be clear to all reflective thinkers that the technique of dealing with the rebels is a vindication of divine love. The loving mercy extended to the rebels does seem to have involved many innocent beings in trials and tribulations, but all these distraught personalities may securely depend upon the all-wise Judges to adjudicate their destinies in mercy as well as justice.
p618:5 54:6.2 In all their dealings with intelligent beings, both the Creator Son and his Paradise Father are love dominated. It is impossible to comprehend many phases of the attitude of the universe rulers toward rebels and rebellion—sin and sinners—unless it be remembered that God as a Father takes precedence over all other phases of Deity manifestation in all the dealings of divinity with humanity. It should also be recalled that the Paradise Creator Sons are all mercy motivated.
We are still paying a price for the sins of this former administration. Many have suffered and continue to suffer - either as misguided adherents to the false promise of "personal liberty," or as a result of the infliction of such unworthy ideas and practices on others. But The Urantia Book teaches us that even so, we still have our free will intact, and we are not going to be eternally bothered by this harmful episode in our distant history.
p618:6 54:6.3 If an affectionate father of a large family chooses to show mercy to one of his children guilty of grievous wrongdoing, it may well be that the extension of mercy to this misbehaving child will work a temporary hardship upon all the other and well-behaved children. Such eventualities are inevitable; such a risk is inseparable from the reality situation of having a loving parent and of being a member of a family group. Each member of a family profits by the righteous conduct of every other member; likewise must each member suffer the immediate time-consequences of the misconduct of every other member. Families, groups, nations, races, worlds, systems, constellations, and universes are relationships of association which possess individuality; and therefore does every member of any such group, large or small, reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of the rightdoing and the wrongdoing of all other members of the group concerned.
p619:1 54:6.4 But one thing should be made clear: If you are made to suffer the evil consequences of the sin of some member of your family, some fellow citizen or fellow mortal, even rebellion in the system or elsewhere—no matter what you may have to endure because of the wrongdoing of your associates, fellows, or superiors—you may rest secure in the eternal assurance that such tribulations are transient afflictions. None of these fraternal consequences of misbehavior in the group can ever jeopardize your eternal prospects or in the least degree deprive you of your divine right of Paradise ascension and God attainment.
p620:1 54:6.9 One error of human thinking respecting these problems consists in the idea that all evolutionary mortals on an evolving planet would choose to enter upon the Paradise career if sin had not cursed their world. The ability to decline survival does not date from the times of the Lucifer rebellion. Mortal man has always possessed the endowment of freewill choice regarding the Paradise career.
In spite of the ravages of the Lucifer rebellion, there is much good on our world, and the good keeps growing. Over the intervening millenia, goodness has gradually overcome many of the effects of the rebellion, and good continues to accrue. As for the present time, you may be comforted to know the following:
p619:3 54:6.6 At first the Lucifer upheaval appeared to be an unmitigated calamity to the system and to the universe. Gradually benefits began to accrue. With the passing of twenty-five thousand years of system time (twenty thousand years of Urantia time), the Melchizedeks began to teach that the good resulting from Lucifer's folly had come to equal the evil incurred. The sum of evil had by that time become almost stationary, continuing to increase only on certain isolated worlds, while the beneficial repercussions continued to multiply and extend out through the universe and superuniverse, even to Havona. The Melchizedeks now teach that the good resulting from the Satania rebellion is more than a thousand times the sum of all the evil.
I hope that this accounting of Lucifer, and the history of his deeds, will help you to understand better why this once-beautiful being is now hated and feared by so many, and why the name "Lucifer" is now rightly seen as the embodiment of the devil himself.
Thank you for this most important question.
MaryJo
Truthbook.comLabels: goodness, Lucifer, Lucifer Manifesto, Lucifer Rebellion, Mary Jo, mercy, Satan, Satania, System Sovereign, The Urantia Book
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Is Reincarnation Real?
Q: Towards the bottom of page 1811 in part 4, the text reads:
"There was, throughout all these regions, a lingering belief in reincarnation. The older Jewish teachers, together with Plato, Philo, and many of the Essenes, tolerated the theory that men may reap in one incarnation what they have sown in a previous existence; thus in one life they were believed to be expiating the sins committed in preceding lives. The Master (Jesus) found it difficult to make men believe that their souls had not had previous existences."
Is the Midway author of this text saying that there is no reincarnation? I'd very much like to know how others who have studied the Urantia papers interpret this passage. Thank you very much.
A: There are a number of teachings in The Urantia Book that many readers find difficult to accept at face value at first and the reincarnation issue is one over which many stumble.
Everyone who comes to The Urantia Book comes with baggage -- spiritual, religious, psychological, intellectual. We all have beliefs and prejudices and opinions that we rely on to help us answer life's toughest questions to our own satisfaction and to make sense of the world around us. The Urantia Book is a phenomenon from outside the flow of human events or the personal realities we've managed to concoct and for some its teachings are too much to handle and they dismiss it, usually without taking time or making effort to have actually begun to understand it -- they just see that it doesn't agree with their preconceptions so assume it, and not they, are mistaken.
So, some readers say they believe The Urantia Book but they still cling to beliefs that run counter to UB teachings; others accept TUB and allow the new wine to be held in new wineskins -- there's a natural tension between ego and humility that must at some time be resolved.
The teachings of reincarnation that originated in eastern philosophy may well be remnants of the teachings of the planetary prince from over 500,000 years ago. In a sense they're reflections of the actual "reincarnation" we experience on the mansion worlds as we progress through them but rather than understanding this as a journey that transpires after we leave here it became a belief associated with mortal existence.
Eastern philosophies are inspired as well as being of evolutionary origin -- they contain truths and legends and myths mixed in with superstition and fear, ghosts and psychic upwellings. They help make sense of why the human condition is so confused but they add another layer of confusion in the process.
The Urantia Book teachings are more consistent, more logical, more elevating, more exciting than anything that the theory of reincarnation has to offer -- it's just a matter of deciding for one over the other.
Thanks for the question.
Larry Watkins
Truthbook.comLabels: eastern philosophy, Jesus, reincarnation, The Urantia Book
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Thursday, October 26, 2006
What does the Urantia Book say about hell and judgment day?
Q: What does the Urantia Book say about hell and judgment day?
A: The Urantia Book does not teach the existence of a place called "hell." There is no place of eternal fire for the erring children of God. However, here are several quotes that illustrate the beginnings of the concept of hell, and its subsequent growth in human history:
The Death Survival Concept
p953:6 86:4.7 Early man entertained no ideas of hell or future punishment. The savage looked upon the future life as just like this one, minus all ill luck. Later on, a separate destiny for good ghosts and bad ghosts—heaven and hell—was conceived. But since many primitive races believed that man entered the next life just as he left this one, they did not relish the idea of becoming old and decrepit. The aged much preferred to be killed before becoming too infirm.
p953:7 86:4.8 Almost every group had a different idea regarding the destiny of the ghost soul. The Greeks believed that weak men must have weak souls; so they invented Hades as a fit place for the reception of such anemic souls; these unrobust specimens were also supposed to have shorter shadows. The early Andites thought their ghosts returned to the ancestral homelands. The Chinese and Egyptians once believed that soul and body remained together. Among the Egyptians this led to careful tomb construction and efforts at body preservation. Even modern peoples seek to arrest the decay of the dead. The Hebrews conceived that a phantom replica of the individual went down to Sheol; it could not return to the land of the living. They did make that important advance in the doctrine of the evolution of the soul.
The Concept Of Sin
p975:5 89:2.1 The fear of chance and the dread of bad luck literally drove man into the invention of primitive religion as supposed insurance against these calamities. From magic and ghosts, religion evolved through spirits and fetishes to taboos. Every primitive tribe had its tree of forbidden fruit, literally the apple but figuratively consisting of a thousand branches hanging heavy with all sorts of taboos. And the forbidden tree always said, "Thou shalt not."
p975:6 89:2.2 As the savage mind evolved to that point where it envisaged both good and bad spirits, and when the taboo received the solemn sanction of evolving religion, the stage was all set for the appearance of the new conception of sin. The idea of sin was universally established in the world before revealed religion ever made its entry. It was only by the concept of sin that natural death became logical to the primitive mind. Sin was the transgression of taboo, and death was the penalty of sin.
p975:7 89:2.3 Sin was ritual, not rational; an act, not a thought. And this entire concept of sin was fostered by the lingering traditions of Dilmun and the days of a little paradise on earth. The tradition of Adam and the Garden of Eden also lent substance to the dream of a onetime "golden age" of the dawn of the races. And all this confirmed the ideas later expressed in the belief that man had his origin in a special creation, that he started his career in perfection, and that transgression of the taboos—sin—brought him down to his later sorry plight.
p976:1 89:2.4 The habitual violation of a taboo became a vice; primitive law made vice a crime; religion made it a sin. Among the early tribes the violation of a taboo was a combined crime and sin. Community calamity was always regarded as punishment for tribal sin. To those who believed that prosperity and righteousness went together, the apparent prosperity of the wicked occasioned so much worry that it was necessary to invent hells for the punishment of taboo violators; the numbers of these places of future punishment have varied from one to five
p976:2 89:2.5 The idea of confession and forgiveness early appeared in primitive religion. Men would ask forgiveness at a public meeting for sins they intended to commit the following week. Confession was merely a rite of remission, also a public notification of defilement, a ritual of crying "unclean, unclean!" Then followed all the ritualistic schemes of purification. All ancient peoples practiced these meaningless ceremonies. Many apparently hygienic customs of the early tribes were largely ceremonial.
Early Egyptian Religion
p1045:2 95:2.9 When Melchizedek appeared in the flesh, the Egyptians had a religion far above that of the surrounding peoples. They believed that a disembodied soul, if properly armed with magic formulas, could evade the intervening evil spirits and make its way to the judgment hall of Osiris, where, if innocent of "murder, robbery, falsehood, adultery, theft, and selfishness," it would be admitted to the realms of bliss. If this soul were weighed in the balances and found wanting, it would be consigned to hell, to the Devouress. And this was, relatively, an advanced concept of a future life in comparison with the beliefs of many surrounding peoples.
p1045:3 95:2.10 The concept of judgment in the hereafter for the sins of one's life in the flesh on earth was carried over into Hebrew theology from Egypt. The word judgment appears only once in the entire Book of Hebrew Psalms, and that particular psalm was written by an Egyptian.
Zoroaster - The Salem Teachings In Iran.
p1050:2 95:6.6 The Jewish traditions of heaven and hell and the doctrine of devils as recorded in the Hebrew scriptures, while founded on the lingering traditions of Lucifer and Caligastia, were principally derived from the Zoroastrians during the times when the Jews were under the political and cultural dominance of the Persians. Zoroaster, like the Egyptians, taught the "day of judgment," but he connected this event with the end of the world.
p1050:3 95:6.7 Even the religion which succeeded Zoroastrianism in Persia was markedly influenced by it. When the Iranian priests sought to overthrow the teachings of Zoroaster, they resurrected the ancient worship of Mithra. And Mithraism spread throughout the Levant and Mediterranean regions, being for some time a contemporary of both Judaism and Christianity. The teachings of Zoroaster thus came successively to impress three great religions: Judaism and Christianity and, through them, Mohammedanism.
p1050:4 95:6.8 But it is a far cry from the exalted teachings and noble psalms of Zoroaster to the modern perversions of his gospel by the Parsees with their great fear of the dead, coupled with the entertainment of beliefs in sophistries which Zoroaster never stooped to countenance.
p1050:5 95:6.9 This great man was one of that unique group that sprang up in the sixth century before Christ to keep the light of Salem from being fully and finally extinguished as it so dimly burned to show man in his darkened world the path of light leading to everlasting
The idea of "judgment day," when it is thought that each one is to stand before God and be deemed worthy or unworthy for Heaven, is more real. But as the following quote illustrates, each person is seen as equal before God, and equally worthy of admission to the heavenly realms.
p1468:3 133:0.3 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."
The only thing that can keep a soul from progressing to Heaven is the final decision of that person to reject God's mercy, and his invitation to live forever. Every soul will be given an equal opportunity to accept or reject God's love. Those who do reject God, rather than going to a place of damnation, are extinquished as personality in all the universe. It is as though they never existed at all. But there is no place called hell for sinners.
Following are some quotes illustrating the importance of the spiritual life to mortals as far as survival after death is concerned:
From "God Is A Unversal Spirit:"
p25:6 1:3.6 In the universes God the Father is, in potential, the overcontroller of matter, mind, and spirit. Only by means of his far-flung personality circuit does God deal directly with the personalities of his vast creation of will creatures, but he is contactable (outside of Paradise) only in the presences of his fragmented entities, the will of God abroad in the universes. This Paradise spirit that indwells the minds of the mortals of time and there fosters the evolution of the immortal soul of the surviving creature is of the nature and divinity of the Universal Father. But the minds of such evolutionary creatures originate in the local universes and must gain divine perfection by achieving those experiential transformations of spiritual attainment which are the inevitable result of a creature's choosing to do the will of the Father in heaven.
p26:1 1:3.7 In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such material-linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival is embraced in those adjustments of the human will and those transformations in the mortal mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes spirit taught and eventually spirit led. This evolution of the human mind from matter association to spirit union results in the transmutation of the potentially spirit phases of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of the immortal soul. Mortal mind subservient to matter is destined to become increasingly material and consequently to suffer eventual personality extinction; mind yielded to spirit is destined to become increasingly spiritual and ultimately to achieve oneness with the surviving and guiding divine spirit and in this way to attain survival and eternity of personality existence.
From "The Goodness Of God:"
p41:6 2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster. Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual extinction of being. Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature, cannot exist forever in a progressingly real and increasingly spiritual universe.
p42:1 2:6.9 Facing the world of personality, God is discovered to be a loving person; facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious experience he is both. Love identifies the volitional will of God. The goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine free-willness—the universal tendency to love, show mercy, manifest patience, and minister forgiveness.
In general, humans who are of survivor status, but who have not made the ultimate decision to survive before their death, are numbered among the "sleeping survivors." Groups of these souls slumber peacefully until a resurrectional roll call is made.
Following are some quotes having to do with what might be thought of a real "judgment day." These are rare, and wonderful events - times when many, many souls are resurrected at once, rather than having been resurrected "on the third day." You can assume that each of these souls will, once reawakened, be given the same opportunity for survival as any other soul, before or since. And the desision of the soul itself will determine the soul's being judged worthy of eternal life.
Ascending Mortals
p341:1 30:4.4 2. Sleeping Survivors. All mortals of survival status, in the custody of personal guardians of destiny, pass through the portals of natural death and, on the third period, personalize on the mansion worlds. Those accredited beings who have, for any reason, been unable to attain that level of intelligence mastery and endowment of spirituality which would entitle them to personal guardians, cannot thus immediately and directly go to the mansion worlds. Such surviving souls must rest in unconscious sleep until the judgment day of a new epoch, a new dispensation, the coming of a Son of God to call the rolls of the age and adjudicate the realm, and this is the general practice throughout all Nebadon. It was said of Christ Michael that, when he ascended on high at the conclusion of his work on earth, "He led a great multitude of captives." And these captives were the sleeping survivors from the days of Adam to the day of the Master's resurrection on Urantia.
p341:2 30:4.5 The passing of time is of no moment to sleeping mortals; they are wholly unconscious and oblivious to the length of their rest. On reassembly of personality at the end of an age, those who have slept five thousand years will react no differently than those who have rested five days. Aside from this time delay these survivors pass on through the ascension regime identically with those who avoid the longer or shorter sleep of death.
p341:3 30:4.6 These dispensational classes of world pilgrims are utilized for group morontia activities in the work of the local universes. There is a great advantage in the mobilization of such enormous groups; they are thus kept together for long periods of effective service.
And this final quote illustrates the last dispensational resurrection, made by Jesus at the time of his ascension into Heaven following his resurrection from the tomb.
The Dispensational Resurrection
p2024:3 189:3.1 A little after half past four o'clock this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the archangels to his side and made ready to inaugurate the general resurrection of the termination of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of the seraphim and the cherubim concerned in this great event had been marshaled in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel, saying: "As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin."
p2024:4 189:3.2 The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: "By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!" Then all the survivors of the human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds. Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at this time because of the necessity of Gabriel's presence here in connection with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.
p2024:5 189:3.3 Notwithstanding that countless individuals having personal seraphic guardians and those achieving the requisite attainment of spiritual personality progress had gone on to mansonia during the ages subsequent to the times of Adam and Eve, and though there had been many special and millennial resurrections of Urantia sons, this was the third of the planetary roll calls, or complete dispensational resurrections. The first occurred at the time of the arrival of the Planetary Prince, the second during the time of Adam, and this, the third, signalized the morontia resurrection, the mortal transit, of Jesus of Nazareth.
p2024:6 189:3.4 When the signal of the planetary resurrection had been received by the chief of archangels, the Personalized Adjuster of the Son of Man relinquished his authority over the celestial hosts assembled on Urantia, turning all these sons of the local universe back to the jurisdiction of their respective commanders. And when he had done this, he departed for Salvington to register with Immanuel the completion of the mortal transit of Michael. And he was immediately followed by all the celestial host not required for duty on Urantia. But Gabriel remained on Urantia with the morontia Jesus.
p2025:1 189:3.5 And this is the recital of the events of the resurrection of Jesus as viewed by those who saw them as they really occurred, free from the limitations of partial and restricted human vision.
Thanks for this question.
MaryJo
Truthbook.comLabels: ascension, dispensational resurrection, Egyptian religion, hell, Judgment day, Mary Jo, Salem teachings, sin, sleeping survivors, soul, Zoroaster
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Our son had not yet found God before he died. Do you think he will become a sleeping survivor?
Q: We recently lost our 21 year-old son. He was a good person, but he had not really found God. Given his young age, do you think that he will become a sleeping survivor?
A: So sorry to hear of your loss -- the loss of a child must be even more poignant than the loss of a spouse.
May I offer an interpretation of Urantia Book teachings? Although not so specifically stated, it can be interpreted that children are inescapably linked to the mind currents of both parents from the moment of conception until they reach an age of self-determination, which is about 16, and from that point on they become true individuals. They also receive their Thought Adjuster, their contact with the Holy Spirit, connection with the Spirit of Truth, and the birth of their soul at about age 6. Outward appearances don't indicate what is going on within the mind and soul of any individual whether child or adult.
It's also my interpretation that it requires extraordinary effort here to make sure that one doesn't arrive at the mansion worlds -- I believe the major sorting occurs there after the deficiencies we live with here have been corrected and only then an informed decision about personal survival can be made.
As for myself, I have no concern or worry whether I will arrive on Mansion World One three days after I die here or whether it happens at the next dispensation, however long that takes. We're not in a race, it's a process where time is no longer of any consequence. So I'd be just as happy being a sleeping survivor as I would to be resurrected on the third day -- the time lapse will seem to be the same in either case to my perceptions.
So, my answer for you would be that there is no way for us here to determine what the immediate outcome for your son's journey to Paradise happens to be -- think the best, see him happy and embarking on the mansion world career, pray for your own peace and understanding.
Best wishes,
Larry Watkins (continued...)
Along with Larry, who sent you a letter yesterday, I also want to offer my sincere condolences on the loss of your child.
Your concern for your son's welfare in the afterlife mirrors the concern you likely had for him in his physical life. Now that he is gone from your sight, you continue to hope the best for him, and that you will be seeing him again, sooner than later.You want him to be happy, safe, and protected.
All of us desire the best for our children, and I think that when we read in the Urantia Book about the experiences of the sleeping survivor vs those who resurrect in three days, we automatically hope that we and our loved ones are among the latter group.
One reason may be that we don't want to wait any longer than is necessary to resume our lives in the "better world" to come. And we want our loved ones close - not separated by 1000 years.
I hear in your question a real concern that you and your son may have to postpone your reunion when once you reach the shores of the first Mansion World, if there is a possibility that you will be in different progressing groups.
I don't suppose that any one of us is guaranteed a short sleep of death, or a long one. These are things that we can only speculate about, but I would surely trust in God on this one, and try not to worry. No matter what the conditions of your son's existence right now, he is safe, he is protected, and his resurrection is sure, as is yours.
At some future time, you will reunite with your beloved child. Whether it is sooner or later, it IS certain. For all we really know, he may already be happily progressing and waiting for your someday arrival.
You say that your son was a good person, though he had not really found God. It sounds like he may have been looking, in any event. Jesus said: "My Father responds to even the faintest flicker of faith." It may comfort you to imagine that in his innermost heart, that flicker was present in your son, known only to God.
As Larry has pointed out, time becomes far less of a concern once we leave this time-limited planet, and the sleep of death, whether it is three days or 1000 years will not be a concern to us, no matter where we find ourselves. Those who sleep long will always be protected and safe. The time of reunion is sure, and you can rely on the goodness of God to make it all work out well.
Again, I am sorry for this loss in your life. I can only imagine the effect on your lives.
God bless you.
Sincerely,
MaryJo
Truthbook.comLabels: afterlife, children, death, Larry Watkins, Mary Jo, resurrection, sleeping survivors, The Urantia Book, Thought Adjuster
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Friday, October 20, 2006
What are appropriate sexual relations with a life partner?
Q: What are appropriate sexual relations with a life partner?
A: The Urantia Book has a number of things to say about relationships but rather than quoting the book I'm giving my personal opinion.
Why make sexual relations different from any other relation? Why couldn't the question as meaningfully have been "what are appropriate eating arrangements with someone you love?"
We fixate on sex as if it were the key to happiness and fulfillment, both of which can be had with no sex at all. Like wealth, one can be happy and fulfilled with it or without it (but given the choice happiness and fulfillment with wealth is usually preferable.) Wealth and sex are often the focus of ambition when instead they're sideline issues that are accorded paramount priorities.
Three categories of sexual activity:
1) power and control sex -- licentious sex without regard for the other's free will
2) narcissistic and recreational sex -- sex with little or no regard for the other's emotional or physical wellbeing.
3) loving sex -- sex as an _expression of love and respect, the desire to do good to another
Nature has made sex a strong motivator built into character in order to bring male and female together for the perpetuation of the species -- without it any species would be short-lived since there are enough differences between the sexes that they would tend to remain apart. Numbers 1 and 2 above are animal origin behaviors, but human beings who have more than animal in their makeup will place this strong motivator in the context of number 3. With a spiritual focus our interactions with others regarding sex as with all our other interactions would be with a loving approach but with the current cultural forces at play the two lower categories are given just as much emphasis as if this were natural human behavior
Thank you for your question.
Larry Watkins
Truthbook.com (continue...)
A: I know that you have already had a reply from Larry, but I hope you won't mind the feminine point of view as well...
As you are well aware, sex in all its forms enjoys a very big focus in our American society - and an underserved one, in my opinion. I imagine it is because so many of us equate love with sex, and everyone desires love; but as Larry pointed out in his reply, one can have a perfectly happy - and love-filled - life without sex. Sexual relations are not a necessary ingredient for a whole life, despite what we see in our advertisements and entertainment, but sex IS a necessary ingredient if one wishes to create children and family. Likewise, the pursuit of family life is not necessary to enjoy a fulfilled life, but sex in this context is certainly necessary to sustain the human species and deserves careful, thoughtful consideration.
If you are lucky enough to have a life partner, I would say that you would do well to always follow the "golden rule" in the area of sexual relations, as well as in all other forms of communication. Always treat that person with the respect and care with which you yourself would desire that they treat you. As for the details of this kind of relationship, I cannot judge or prescribe. Many things are possible, but are all things desirable? This is something that only you and your partner can determine. The Urantia Book teaches us that any successful long-term relationship must be based on "genuine and mutual personal devotion." All other things will follow happily if that basis is first established
The Urantia Book treats sex largely in an historical context - as one important ingredient in the progression of civilization; but one thing it does say is that sex can be the source of much sorrow if used intemperately. I think many of us from the age of the "sexual revolution" of the 60's can attest to the truth of that admonition. Unfortunately, there is no rule-book regarding the sexual relations of individuals, but the strong, healthy bonding of two souls, based on true love and mutual devotion, is a great place to start
Thanks so much for writing.
Sincerely,
Mary Jo
Truthbook.comLabels: golden rule, Larry Watkins, Mary Jo, sex, The Urantia Book
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