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Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book



Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What is your viewpoint about the baptism of Jesus and His Cross? Are you with sin or without sin now? How can you solve the problem of daily and futur

Q: What is your viewpoint about the baptism of Jesus and His Cross? Are you with sin or without sin now? How can you solve the problem of daily and future sins?

A: Thank you for your letter to Truthbook.com. We are always glad to hear from truth-seekers.

You asked: What is your viewpoint about the baptism of Jesus and His Cross?

I think that Jesus death on the cross was the great tragedy of our history; that a divine Son of God - the ambassador and creator of the universe - should be brutally tortured and hung on a cross to die is a spectacle of human depravity and cruelty. Nonetheless, through that decision that Jesus made - to allow his life to play out in the most human way - we are gifted with a shining example of human willingness to follow God's will to the nth degree. He showed us throughout his life how to be a son of God - how to live the spirit-filled and spirit-led life - how to overcome sorrow, disappointment and even death through faith and through willingness to do the Father's will.

You might like to read "Lessons from the Cross" from The Urantia Book

You then asked: Are you with sin or without sin now?

We are all without sin, in the sense that we are not born sinful. We may become sinful by our own willful choices that take us away from the Father's will of truth, beauty and goodness. But that is a freewill choice; we also have the choice to walk in God's ways and do our best to live a righteous life, full of the fruits of the spirit. There is no inherent sinfulness in man, no "original sin." Jesus never taught that; instead he taught that we are faith-sons of God, and through that faith we are granted salvation. Referencing your first question: I don't believe that Jesus' death on the cross had any bearing on the question of my being with or without sin. That is a function of freewill choice; always was, and always will be.

And: How can you solve the problem of daily and future sins?

Just so we are clear, the following is a passage from The Urantia Book, and the speaker is Jesus:

"Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father's will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed."

Turning that around we can say that solving the problem of daily and future sin is to deliberately follow divine law, and be willing to be divinely led and spiritually directed. This becomes more and more a real possibility when we understand that we are indwelt by God himself, in the form of the Thought Adjuster - that spark of God that indwells the mind of each mortal. We can choose to listen and be directed. We can choose to spend time seeking the "still, small voice" within at times of decision, doubt or confusion. We can choose to say "It is my will to do your will," and then actually try do it

It is a responsibility that all truth-seekers, and all spiritual seekers have - to walk the talk; to really put into practice what we say we believe. It is challenging to all who are sincere of heart, and we all falter - we all fail at times - we all choose the wrong thing sometimes...but one thing that I have noticed in my years of spiritual seeking: the closer I get to God, the worse I feel when I take the wrong path, and the quicker I am to try and make amends and get right again. And I know that I am forgiven when I sincerely recognize my error and decide to change. So, as time goes on, we should be able to expect that our own experience will help us to increasingly avoid sin. It feels much better when we do the right thing!

Thank you for this question. I hope the reply has been helpful...

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Did Jesus take away the sins of the world?

Q: Did Jesus take away the sins of the world?

A: The belief that Jesus came to earth in order to "take away the sins of the world" is as old as Christianity, but it is not the gospel of Jesus.

The belief in the concept of "original sin" is also an age-old idea, but has no basis in fact.

(194:2.1) Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God.

Jesus taught that human nature is not inherently sinful. He taught that sin is the deliberate choosing of a path or an action that is in direct opposition to God's will. We all still have that ability to choose between good and evil, so the possibility of sin is ever-present, even since Jesus came here.

Jesus' real mission on earth was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven in the hearts of mankind - to proclaim the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, which are the cornerstones of this heavenly kingdom. By entering into this kingdom by faith, we are then fortified with a new purpose, and a new motivation to overcome sin through determination and personal responsibility to the ideals of the good, the true and the beautiful.

The whole idea of Jesus' purpose on earth as an atonement for the sins of mankind is set to rest once and for all in the teachings of The Urantia Book, and this is very good news for all of humanity. Please go HERE for a further exploration of the atonement doctrine.

For further study and inspiration about what really happened as a result of the Crucifixion, please see this reference regarding the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross.

And thanks for this very important question.

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Monday, October 08, 2007

Is Jesus The Son Of God? Did He Die For Our Sins?

Q: Do you believe that Jesus was the
son of God? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from
our sins? If not, then this is not Christianity.

A: Yes, students of The Urantia Book do recognize that Jesus was the Son
of God as well as being the Son of Man. Which of these two
qualifications is more meaningful? Each of us is a son of God -- that was one of
Jesus' primary teachings, the value of the individual, and that while God
is no respecter of persons, we're each equally important to our Father
in heaven. Christianity tends to emphasize the teaching that Jesus was
a Son of God, neglecting the equally valuable realization that Jesus
was also a Son of Man and neglecting to emphasize that we too are sons of
God, not in the same sense that Jesus was but in a sense that is
equally as cherished and loved by God the father.

By Jesus taking on the role of Son of Man he acknowledged that he would
live a life in the flesh just as we mortals do. Although having a
pre-existent divine existence before becoming a mortal, he accepted status
as a mortal of the realm, was subject to the same vicissitudes of life
that mortals are subject to, lived life as we do. Jesus was human as
well as divine.

Students of The Urantia Book do not believe that Jesus died on the
cross to save us from our sins; we do not accept the Christian atonement
dogma that proposes that God required a human/divine sacrifice in order
to be appeased. We hold the Father in heaven in much higher regard than
such a primitive anthropomorphized opinion casts. As the Son of Man,
Jesus submitted to torture and a barbaric death, not because God willed
it but as a way of making the continuity of life after death undeniable.
Not only did he teach that death was not the end of existence, that in
his Father's house are many mansions where he has prepared a place for
us, but he manifested this teaching by returning from death. This, and
not that he died for sins, is the great gift Jesus has given to
humanity for all time that has been lost to much of Christian theology.

You concluded by saying "If not, then this is not Christianity."
Exactly. The Urantia Book is a new revelation of truth, not an amplification
of Christianity nor of any other religion on earth. The Urantia Book
does not claim to be Christian; it does claim to be Jesusonian — to be
an accurate restatement of Jesus' life and teachings devoid of
religious dogma.

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Friday, October 27, 2006

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.com

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Monday, March 27, 2006

Did Jesus die for the sins of mankind?

Q: Did Jesus die on the cross for the sins of mankind? Did God send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins so we could go to heaven?

A: Did Jesus die for the sins of mankind? In the Frequently Asked Questions section, upper right corner of our home page - Truthbook FAQ - listed under the heading "About Jesus" you'll find answers to "Do you believe Jesus died to save us?" and "What does The Urantia Book say about Jesus being the Saviour?" which will give you a more detailed answer than this one, but basically, no, God doesn't require the shedding of innocent blood in order to win his favor or to divert fictitious divine wrath.

The concept of original sin, as well as the doctrine of blood atonement are contrary to the idea of a loving Father-God. This is completely covered in The Urantia Book within the first five papers, which reveal to us the exact nature of God, and his relationship to us mortals, his created beings. The Cross of Jesus acquires new and deeper meaning in this light, and again, this subject is well-covered in Part IV, the papers that deal with the life, teachings, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

There's also a good section in the center of our home page titled "There is Life after Death" that describes in vivid detail heaven and the life we experience once this life is over. In addition, there is a flash movie titled "After You Die," which you might find quite illuminating in light of your questions.

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Was it God's plan for Jesus to be crucified?

Q: Was it God's plan for Jesus to be crucified? Is it the blood of Christ that saved us, or was it the resurrection?

A: It was man's plan that Jesus be crucified - God didn't set it up or intervene nor did Jesus; they let the circumstances unfold and play out much as they have done throughout history. Of course God or Jesus could alter the plans of men but divine intervention seldom is employed to interfere in the choices made by free will creatures. Additional examples of the non interference by deity into the affairs of men are the loss of our mission of our planetary prince and the loss of the influence of Adam and Eve. God could have fixed them, but God doesn't interfere.

The blood of Jesus is no different from the blood in your body - what's remarkable about the shedding of Jesus' blood is that by allowing himself to be murdered he exhibited divine love for his creatures, friend and enemy alike, and in so doing planted the seeds for a great world wide religion of love and hope to spring up around his life, death, and teachings.

Jesus' resurrection gave proof that there is life after death and gave hope of better things to come to earth bound mortals. It didn't take a blood sacrifice to appease God so that we can enter an everlasting spiritual existence. We are saved by our desire to do God's will, by having even a small flicker of faith that there is more to existence than what meets the eye - one doesn't have to be Christian or believe in Jesus for salvation.

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