Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book: A Question About Going Seriously Astray

Q: Do you think that mortal sons of God, after having tasted of the glories and beautiful realities of sonship with Father through faith can ever apostasize or turn iniquitous? Can truly enlightened mortal sons who have accepted son-ship ever reject Father after having known of His sweet will and unending glories? I think that apostasy (iniquity)of such deadly nature can only be exercised by heavenly enlightened creatures and not mortals.

A: It seems that you have made an important distinction between the iniquitous rejection of God by high spirit beings (such as Satan, Lucifer and Caligastia) and mortal beings like us who grasp God through faith. It is hard enough to understand how a high Son of God such as Lucifer, can be subject to rejecting God's love and mercy; it is harder still to understand how a faith-son of God can reject him, having once experienced his love and mercy as a result of that faith-decision. I don't know of anyone who has done that...but...

No matter how committed we are to God, and no matter how convicted we are of the truth of God - and even if we have tasted of the sweetness of his tender mercies, there always remains the possibility of going astray, simply because we have the freewill choice to do so. Until we have made the ultimate decision, and fused with our Thought adjuster, we are always free to decide differently.

I do think, like you, that once having made that leap of faith into acceptance of sonship with God, rejection of that sonship seems highly unlikely. For me, it seems an impossibility - maybe for you, too. But there always remains that possibility, remote as it might be.

In any event, Satan, or any other spirit being does not have any power to make that rejection for another. Even if a person may be somewhat half-hearted in their commitment to sonship with God, Satan does not have any power to affect their decisions unless that person knowingly seeks his influence, or decides to knowingly embrace sin. Again, all created beings retain the power of choice over their own souls; any rejection of God will come from within, not from without. The "devil" is given far more credit for influencing mortals than he deserves. Oftentimes, it is a person's own unwillingness to keep close to God, or to a tendency to fall prey to their own weaknesses that may separate them from God. The love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of mankind, and is available to all.

Jesus said:

"The child, being immature and lacking in the fuller understanding of the depth of the child-father relationship, must frequently feel a sense of guilty separation from a fatherâ€™s full approval, but the true father is never conscious of any such separation. Sin is an experience of creature consciousness; it is not a part of godâ€™s consciousness."(174:1.4)

Labels: evil, God, iniquity, Jesus, Lucifer, mortals, Satan, The Urantia Book

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