Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book

Following are several questions submitted in one request. Two of our Truthbook team (L) and (M) have given their answers in reply.

Q: Do you follow the teachings of the Urantia Book only?

L: Basically, students of The Urantia Book are individuals coming from all manner of background; they do their own thing. Some feel they're escaping organized religion and seek refuge in the teachings of TUB. Others are grateful for their religious heritage and continue on in it. Some have no tradition of religious belief before finding TUB. There are Urantia Book readers who are pastors, ministers, priests, nuns, rabbis, preachers of every Christian denomination, Jews, Muslims, Hindus... The teachings of TUB are not "a" religion; they clarify, augment, emphasize and uplift what is best "in" religion. There are no rules for readers/students/believers -- it's a book; it's a superlative education; we read it and are edified and uplifted by it.

M: The Urantia Book is unique in that it contains many, many truths gleaned from many different established religions, and at the same time, encourages us to develop what Jesus called the religion of personal spiritual experience; it is this revealed teaching that inspires me to find the best in any religion, and to nurture and grow that personal experiential relationship with God in whatever I do. So, in that sense, I do follow the teachings of The Urantia Book, but the experience leaves me free to follow the truth wherever I find it.

Q: What is your viewpoint on the King James Bible?

L: Students of The Urantia Book have no orthodox viewpoint. Some readers are Bible scholars. Some readers hardly know the Bible at all. Personally, I like the King James better than any of the more modern versions, but I think you're asking do Urantia Book readers view the Bible as the infallible word of God and the answer to that would be a pretty unanimous no although most Urantia Book readers appreciate and take comfort in the Bible.

M: I personally prefer the New Jerusalem Bible, which is in common, everyday language. To me, other Bibles are difficult to read because the language is so stilted. I never had much interest in the Bible before I found The Urantia Book, but now I use it pretty regularly as a reference work. Jesus quoted scripture quite often in his life, and I have read many of those parts of the Bible. I do not believe it is inerrant, but like Jesus, I do find much in it that is quite valuable and worthwhile.

Q: Who is Jesus to you?

L: Again, a personal reply -- I didn't understand Jesus before I became a student of The Urantia Book and, in fact, it was my desire to know Jesus better that led me to become a reader of the book 35 years ago. To me, Jesus is Lord. He's the maker and administrator of this world. He's my guide as a human being and he's my nearest goal when I become a spirit being. He's who I turn to when I need help or comfort or wisdom or advice. His spirit is here to help me discern and sift truth from error. I trust Jesus.

M: I knew Jesus from my early childhood as a Catholic, and he always seemed to me to be quite real; however, I also found that the Church was full of inconsistencies regarding Jesus and his words, and I had a hard time separating Jesus from the hypocrisy I experienced. I left the church in my 20s, but I never abandoned Jesus completely. Once I freed myself from the authority of the church, I started to see Jesus differently; however, I did not seriouly think about Jesus for awhile after that. When I discovered The Urantia Book many years later, I was thrilled and deeply moved to rediscover the Jesus that I always loved as a child, and SO much more. Today, Jesus is once again my friend, my companion, my brother, and my Divine pathway to the Father. I believe in him and trust him, and I love him.

Q: Do you believe him to be the son of God who died for mankind's sins?

L: I believe Jesus to be a Son of God of a special order -- The Urantia Book guides us away from the tendency to believe that our race or religion, or in this case, world, is the most important one and that its aspects are superior to any others. Jesus came for all the peoples of this world, not just Christians, of which there were none until some time after he died. He also came for all the worlds of his dominion -- we're not the only one but we are nearly the most barbaric and that's partly the reason he chose to come to this place. So yes, "a" Son of God, a divine being, a creator not a creature like us. Did he come to die for mankinds sins? Again, among students of The Urantia Book, the answer to that would be a pretty unanimous no. We hold God the Father in too high regard to relegate him to human purposes and emotions. God is not vindictive, retributive, jealous, or any of the other human-like attibutes he's so often described as having. God is love and does not condemn his children, neither the divine ones nor the mortal ones, to pain and suffering and sacrifice. Jesus understood this and tried to teach it to a world that didn't understand him or his heavenly Father.

M: I do believe Jesus to be a divine Son of God. As pointed out above, The Urantia Book teaches us that Jesus is one of many Sons, just as there are many inhabited worlds, and many universe systems throughout God's vast creation. Jesus did indeed come to our earth - he chose us especially - and he did die here, but I do not believe that he died as a punishment from God, or as a sacrificial lamb to atone for mankind's sins. His mission was to establish the kingdom of God in the hearts of mankind, to proclaim the good news of the Fatherhood of God and the resultant brotherhood of mankind, and to live and die as a true man among men (and women). He was to portray to mortal eyes the love of the infinite and invisible God who is his, and our, Father. The fact that he died in such a cruel way was not the will of God, but as the consequence of the fears and prejudices of the times in which he lived. His new religion of the spirit was terribly threatening to the religions of authority of his day and time. He was killed by men - not by God. But he did die a "natural" death, and as a result, he did complete that part of his mission, to resurrect victoriously on the 3rd day. He showed all mortals of all worlds in his universe how to live as a "son of God."

Labels: atonement, Bible, God, Jesus, King James, kingdom of heaven, religion, The Urantia Book

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I've been checking out your website and The Urantia Book passages...

Q: I've been checking out your website and The Urantia Book passages.
I'm very interested in your religion, its beliefs, references, etc. I'm currently a Lutheran and I'm finding out more about them that I don't like. I'm tired of mainstream Christianity. Do you have churches like other churches?

A: Urantia Book readers come from all manner of beliefs or lack thereof -- Catholic priests and nuns, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems, atheists and agnostics and everything in between, even Lutherans.

There have been attempts in the past to establish a Urantia Church but the concept isn't particularly well received among Urantians -- you see, most of us believe that the teachings of The Urantia Book do not denote a new religion as much as they provide an umbrella under which all world religions can function. The Urantia Book is here, in part, to elevate and uplift the religious thought in the world, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, or pagan, not to impose another form of religion.

The Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus introduced is what The Urantia Book calls the "invisible brotherhood."

The true churchâ€”the Jesus brotherhoodâ€”is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity...(195:10.11)

Labels: churches, invisible church, Jesus, kingdom of heaven, The Urantia Book

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Saturday, July 12, 2008

I Can't Find a Reason To Live. Why Am I Alive?

Q: I have heard that emptiness is the ultimate peak of consciousness. I feel a sort of emptiness in me. I can't find a reason to live. The only thing that is haunting my mind is why am I alive. I wanna die or wanna do something purposeful in life. Please guide.

A: This shouldnâ€™t be too difficult for you to correct â€” your basic assumption just needs some tweaking. The ultimate peak of consciousness is to be fully aware, open, loving, giving and not at all to be empty. Perhaps youâ€™re confusing emptiness with begin unattached to material things â€” material things wonâ€™t bring happiness. A fulfilling job that gives you the wherewithal to live comfortably and to enjoy the good things of life is a worthy goal where simply accumulating things is not.

You may not yet understand why youâ€™re here â€” getting a grasp on that is often a life-long pursuit â€” but any thinking person will easily recognize that there is a purpose to existence, that the scheme of things is too grand to be meaningless therefore the pursuit of meaning is a true spiritual adventure to be experienced now during this life.

With that in mind, dying prematurely will only subvert your purpose for being here now and will merely postpone your struggles, not remove them.

There is no better guide for living than to know and to understand the life Jesus led while here â€” thatâ€™s one of the great messages provided by The Urantia Book. Jesus came to the world for everyone, not just for Christians, and itâ€™s up to us to learn about him, who he was, why he came, what his message was â€” thatâ€™s hard to do when filtered through Christianity but is a wonderful, inspiring story when told as the angels tell us through the words in The Urantia Book. The life and teachings of Jesus in The Urantia Book gives Jesus to us before the Christian Church got ahold of him. So to get a good handle on your own life, where you are, why you are, where youâ€™re headed you owe it to yourself to read just this enthralling portion of the book. You can read the life and teachings of Jesus on-line from our site or from the book which can be ordered from Amazon. For the on-line version, take the left hand link "The Urantia Book" on our home page at www.truthbook.com and then the link "Urantia Book Introduction." Scroll clear to the bottom of the page and take the "Go to Part IV of the Urantia Book" link â€” you may want to skip Paper 120 which ties Part IV with the preceding 3 Parts and go right to Paper 121 to begin your reading. I think you'll soon find your spirits lifting and life beginning to look more promising to you.
____________________

I hope you will not mind a second answer to your searching question...Larry gave you some great advice, and I agree completely. Knowing the life of Jesus is the ideal place to find answers, as Jesus was our great teacher and the highest example of how to live and why to persevere, even when life is hard. He was the original Son of God, and he showed us how we can also live as sons of God, which we are, in truth. He is your spiritual brother and is with you always. Reading of his matchless life as a real human man, while also a true God, is endlessly inspiring. Even though his life was lived over 2000 years ago, his words ring clear and relevant to our present lives. Please follow this advice. Take advantage of our Truthbook.com site. We are here for YOU!

This emptiness you speak of is part of the human condition. It has been called "existential loneliness," among other things. Many people have experienced this, and so you must not feel as if you are alone, even though it does feel that way sometimes.

Why do we feel so lonely? We learn in The Urantia Book that this planet earth (Urantia) that we live on is a very disordered kind of world. We have been in spiritual isolation for a very long time, and because of this, we have to discover on our own the reality of the spiritual life. This discovery will change your life, as it puts all of the sorrows and hardships of our lives into a larger perspective, and gives us a solid, indestructible foundation from which to deal with everyday problems and moods of the mind.

You hold within yourself a "pilot light -" a spark of God himself. He has been inside you for a long time, and waits patiently for you to recognize his presence, so that he can share your life, your sorrows, your confusion - and your joys and spiritual victories, too. When you get quiet and ask for him, he will answer you in a "still, small voice." It is hard to hear this voice sometimes, but when you really desire it, you will hear. You are never alone, but God does not call attention to himself. He waits for you to turn to him, and then he can truly commune with you. Far from "emptiness," the consciousness of God is the highest consciousness that there is, and worth every effort to achieve.

Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. He taught us that all you have to do to enter this holy kingdom is to believe that you are a son of God. Very simple. And after that, the best way to experience the joys of the Kingdom is to do something for someone else. Do some kind of service for another. This will take you out of your own problems, if even for a little while, and will help you to see what even a small kindness to another can do for your self-esteem and your own sense of self-worth. I am sure that you know someone right now in your life who could benefit from a service offered by you in love.

It is a difficult world we live in, and I know that sometimes, it is very discouraging to keep on, when we see so much emptiness - not only in ourselves, but in the world around us. The only thing that can fill that emptiness is God. Once you have found God within yourself, you will become energized once more, and will have a new reason to live. God intends that we live lives of joy and originality, and you have within you all that you need to make this a reality.

As Larry pointed out, you cannot escape the business of living and spiritual growth. Even if you leave the earth by your own hand, you will still have to make progress in the next world. It is just the way it is. We will always have to make progress, for "progress" is the watchword of the universe. When you decide to enter the Kingdom by faith now, you are making a great step towards improving your life - and the lives of all who will benefit from your love, understanding, tolerance, and brotherhood. And that is real, here-and-now progress...

As Jesus was fond of saying, "Fear not."
And he also said "the kingdom of Heaven is within you."
Open up your life, instead of ending it. The best is yet to be!!!

Labels: consciousness, God, Jesus, kingdom of heaven, loneliness, service, The Urantia Book

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

What did Jesus teach his disciples about setting up churches?

Q: What did Jesus teach his disciples about setting up churches?

A: In the Urantia Book, we learn that Jesus' mission on Earth was one of revelation -revelation to mankind of the loving character of God, the goodness of God, and the love and mercy of God as spiritual Father. Jesus proclaimed the good news that man is a child of God, and the resultant truth that all men are brethren.

Jesus did not incarnate in order to establish a church, and he did not counsel his disciples to establish churches. His mission was to proclaim the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the hearts of mankind, and to free mankind from the bondage of churches of authority. He himself, a child of Jewish parents, raised in the churches and synagogues of his day, later was murdered for his refusal to conform to the authority of that very belief system in which he was raised. Jesus was not wholly opposed to churches; he worked with members of churches, and honored and encouraged church members, but, as the Urantia Book so well points out:

p1098:4(100:5.1) The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the theologic sense but lost in the directional meaning, wandering about in confusion among the isms and cults of a frustrated philosophic era. Too few have learned how to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority. (The symbols of socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the river bed is not the river.)
(Bolding of text is mine)

Jesus' message was one of spiritual liberation - liberation from set dogmas, creeds, and established tenets - into a new way of realizing and finding God, who, he taught, indwells every human mind. This new way of discovering God and recognizing Truth had nothing to do with setting up churches. Instead, it proclaimed that the Kingdom is within each of us, discoverable by each individual.
There was a church established, of course, and the following quote outlines for us how this occurred:

p1865:4(170:5.14) When Jesus' immediate followers recognized their partial failure to realize his ideal of the establishment of the kingdom in the hearts of men by the spirit's domination and guidance of the individual believer, they set about to save his teaching from being wholly lost by substituting for the Master's ideal of the kingdom the gradual creation of a visible social organization, the Christian church. And when they had accomplished this program of substitution, in order to maintain consistency and to provide for the recognition of the Master's teaching regarding the fact of the kingdom, they proceeded to set the kingdom off into the future. The church, just as soon as it was well established, began to teach that the kingdom was in reality to appear at the culmination of the Christian age, at the second coming of Christ.

This Christian church and its many offshoots, while good in many respects, still maintains many of the unfavorable aspects of all established churches, in that it demands a loyalty to dogma, to rules and regulations, that have little to do with the reality of the Kingdom as Jesus taught it. Jesus taught that the Kingdom is within - right now - and that one enters its gates simply by faith that one is, in fact, a child of God. No creedal pressure was brought to bear by Jesus on any of his followers. The new gospel of Jesus proclaimed that man is a child of God, and that faith is the only price of entry into the Father's kingdom. It is this very simplicity, I believe, that is sometimes very hard to grasp by human minds.

The idea of making a church that packages "the truth" for its followers is directly opposed to the actual teachings of Jesus. A church as a social organization, or as a place where believers can share their faith is a good idea, but churches as they are now operate on the planet, largely run counter to the idea of spiritual freedom, as Jesus taught it.

Consider this quote from The Urantia Book:
p1135:2(103:5.12) When a member of a social religious group has complied with the requirements of such a group, he should be encouraged to enjoy religious liberty in the full expression of his own personal interpretation of the truths of religious belief and the facts of religious experience. The security of a religious group depends on spiritual unity, not on theological uniformity. A religious group should be able to enjoy the liberty of freethinking without having to become "freethinkers." There is great hope for any church that worships the living God, validates the brotherhood of man, and dares to remove all creedal pressure from its members.

Labels: Christianity, churches, Jesus, kingdom of heaven, spiritual freedom, The Urantia Book

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Friday, May 04, 2007

What Is The Will Of God?

Q: What is the will of God?

A: This is a wonderful question, and I am happy to help you explore the subject as it is treated in The Urantia Book. It is actually a more elusive subject than one might think at first glance.

In this following quote we find the first mention of the will of God:

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.

This quote explains that the will of God is present in our world, but it exists only in the Spirit of God which indwells all normal-minded mortals. The good Spirit actually IS God, and is our only means of contacting God outside of Paradise . This is a wonderful and reassuring truth - that God actually DOES indwell our minds, and through our own efforts, we can use this indwelling presence to progressively discern the will of God.

This following quote further explains just how we, as mortals of earthly origin, grow to adopt the leadings of the indwelling Spirit, the "will of God," thereby achieving ultimate eternal survival. When we choose to be led by the Spirit-within, we then create that indestructible entity known as the soul, which is the very part of us that survives.

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.

Although you did not specifically ask, I thought you might like to have further information regarding the will of God - for example, how the will of God is discerned and performed in a human life. How do we actually DO the will of God?

These quotes may give you some direction and encouragement:

p1221:2 111:5.1 The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with Godâ€”with the very God who has made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is Godlikeâ€”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.

p1221:3 111:5.2 The imitation of God is the key to perfection; the doing of his will is the secret of survival and of perfection in survival.

p1221:7 111:5.6 This choosing of the Father's will is the spiritual finding of the spirit Father by mortal man, even though an age must pass before the creature son may actually stand in the factual presence of God on Paradise. This choosing does not so much consist in the negation of creature willâ€”"Not my will but yours be done"â€”as it consists in the creature's positive affirmation: "It is my will that your will be done."

So, we can now see that the "will of God" is truly an "inside job." The will of God exists in the form of the indwelling Spirit of God in the minds of mortals (known in Urantia Book teachings as the Thought Adjuster, or Mystery Monitor), and the finding and doing of that will consists in sharing that inner life - the life apart from the purely mechanical function of the brain - the life of the mind, and in the arena of free will. In other words, it is our mandate to choose, of our own free will, to do the will of God, allowing the leadings of the indwelling Spirit to inform our choices in life.

Finally, I chose the following quotes to give you an even broader view of the function of the will of God in the mind of man.

p138:2 12:7.7 The will of God does not uniformly prevail in the heart of the God-seeking material mortal, but if the time frame is enlarged beyond the moment to embrace the whole of the first life, then does God's will become increasingly discernible in the spirit fruits which are borne in the lives of the spirit-led children of God.

p382:6 34:7.6 ... present-day mortals would experience less of this apparent warfare between the flesh and the spirit if they would enter the spirit kingdom, wherein the faith sons of God enjoy comparative deliverance from the slave-bondage of the flesh in the enlightened and liberating service of wholehearted devotion to doing the will of the Father in heaven.

p435:7 39:4.14 The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use themâ€”advance in spirit statusâ€”by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest moral choice is the choice of the highest possible value, and alwaysâ€”in any sphere, in all of themâ€”this is to choose to do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he is great, though he be the humblest citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals on Urantia.

p1176:4 107:0.4 Any mortal who has seen a Creator Son has seen the Universal Father, and he who is indwelt by a divine Adjuster is indwelt by the Paradise Father. Every mortal who is consciously or unconsciously following the leading of his indwelling Adjuster is living in accordance with the will of God. Consciousness of Adjuster presence is consciousness of God's presence.

Thank you for this most interesting question. I hope the answer has been helpful to you.

Sincerely,

MaryJo
Truthbook.com

Labels: God's Will, inner life, kingdom of heaven, Mary Jo, soul, The Urantia Book, Thought Adjuster

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Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Religion of Jesus

Q: You question the use of the term â€œreligion of Jesus.â€�

Jesus came here as an ambassador of The Kingdom of Heaven. The assumption that he was a divine being, a Son of God, would lead us to believe that he existed before coming here. He was not a Christian; Christianity arose around the fact of Jesusâ€™ life on this world. Neither was he a Jew. He was raised as a Jew but had he been a devout Jew (in the sense of the Jewish beliefs and practices of his day) he would hardly have been crucified as a heretic and law-breaker. The Urantia Book defines religion in many ways but I like this one, â€œIn its true essence, religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God.â€� The religion of Jesus, then, is his whole life, his philosophy of living, the way he lived and the way he treated others with love, respect and dignity. He showed us how to live in grace and in accordance with Godâ€™s will. He showed us the real meaning of devoted and religious living. Religion is so much more than just the church you organized religious sect you belong to. To understand what is meant by â€œthe religion of Jesusâ€� one must expand oneâ€™s own concepts of the word â€œreligion.â€�

Who is Jesus?

Jesus came forth directly from the Father. He is a perfect representation of the Father. Many times he said, â€œHe who has seen me has seen the Father.â€� Do you say that Jesus is not the Father? The Urantia Book says that Jesus is as a Father/Brother to humanity. Always he pointed to the one true God, the Father of all and always did he tell us that the kingdom of God was within us.

Does God really exist?

What The Urantia Book points out is that if you are not already inclined to believe in the existence of God, there is nothing, no scientific experiment, or anything that anyone can say or do to convince you that he does exist. Only a personal experience of faith can do that. Carl Baugh already believes in God and so he is going to feel his evidence is irrefutable. Scientist that donâ€™t already believe in God feel quite the opposite about Carlâ€™s conclusions, and this is the point. Here is the entire quote: â€œThe existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and indispensable to any hope of personality survival.â€�

Are angels real?

The Urantia Book says that all humans have angels who watch over them but that not all have â€œpersonal guardians.â€� Some Angels are assigned to groups of mortals but a personal guardian is assigned only to those mortals who have reached a certain level in their spiritual growth. It is absolutely true that God is not respecter of persons, and any person can potentially have their very own guardian angel if the work diligently to grow in spirit. The creation of God is fair and just, God rewards those mortals who willingly strive to know him and be like him. This is, in part, what Jesus meant when he said, â€œTo him who has, more shall be given, while to him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away.â€�

Is there only one way to heaven?

It is true that no person will come to the Father except by Jesus. The Urantia Book suggests that this is a literal truth. In your journey inward and upward to Paradise you literally will not advance except that Jesus will be the one to send you on. Literally, not one being in this universe will get to God, except through Jesus. Christians use this too often as a condemnation to Jews and Muslims and Buddhists, teaching that unless one accepts Jesus, now, as the only way to God, they are doomed. Jesus is the way shower to God, but every human who bears the fruits of the spirit and who loves God and values the ways of God, truth, beauty and goodness, has a equal opportunity to advance. Christians do Jesus and mankind a great disservice when they presume to judge (by their own imperfect scriptural interpretation) who has eternal value and who does not. â€œYou can only judge men by their acts, but my Father looks into the hearts of his children and in mercy adjudges them in accordance with their intents and real desires." Anyone can say anything, God looks into the heart.

Your quote: 'And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or lo, he is there; believe him not. For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.'

Jesus himself was accused of being false. He was the one who also chastised the religious leaders of his day for persecuting and killing the prophets of God. Too often folks use this passage as an excuse to discount anything that disagrees with their cherished beliefs and interpretations of scripture. It was Jesus who said, â€œThe old things are passing away, behold, all things are becoming new.â€� I think he was referring to our religious beliefs as much as anything else.

Thanks for writing and be of good cheer!

Paula

Labels: angels, Christian, God, heaven, Jesus, kingdom of heaven, Paula, religion