Urantia Book Commentary and Articles: The Urantia Book â€“ A Personal View

The Urantia Book, the fifth epochal revelation and a restatement of the life of Jesus, the fourth epochal revelation, is an extensive, profound and complex work. Its complexity challenges any earnest student to find his understanding of the true message of the revelation and then determine his personal approach thereto. This is my view:

The Urantia Book, the 50th anniversary of whose first printing we are celebrating today, is a revelation of truth; but this statement needs to be qualified with another statement of what it is not. Even if a revelation of truth, The Urantia Book is not a revelation of absolute truth. [N]o revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. [1008:2]. Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." [242:3]. He did not say that the holy books of this or that religion are the truth, or that The Urantia Book or any creeds and dogmas are the truth. Existence and reality are only partially in time and space. We are time-bound and space-conditioned beings. This means that we are incapable of fathoming existence in its entirety and immensity. Consequently, any revelation of what existence is has to be only partial and laden with paradoxes.

This 50-year-old book is a revelation of truth. Jesus said: â€œYou shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.â€� [1594:0; 1796:4] (1112:6). Freedom is joyous; it is imbued with joy and delight. This book then is a joyful and delightful work, a book about the joy of life; the joy of existence. It is a book about the joy of learning answers to the question, what the purpose of life is; questions about our origin and the reasons for our existence; the joy of finding God and ultimately becoming like him. The joy of learning the liberating truths that God is great, that he is not a petty, old and wily man whose fatherly heart in all its austere coldness and hardness was so untouched by the misfortunes and sorrows of his creatures that his tender mercies were not forthcoming until he saw his blameless Son bleeding and dying upon the cross of Calvary [60:5]. The joy of the realisation that the Universal Father is not a narrow-minded, cruel and punishing god decreeing arbitrary rules and laws and then making damaging entries in his books about those who fail to live up to his rules, and then, in due time pushing me and other sinners into an everlastingly burning hell.

This revelation is the story of existence. Existence is God, the I AM. â€œIn Him we live and move and have our being." [35:4, 29:6] (139:1, 1155:4, 1283:1). The I AM â€“ God â€“ is personal, and much more than that. He is the Original, he is the Absolute, he is the Ultimate, he is the Supreme, he is God the Sevenfold, he is the Thought Adjuster. He is both existential and experiential. The Original, the I AM, has diversified existence, his existence. He has caused the myriads of divine and celestial beings to be; has caused time and space to be; he has caused supertime and transcended space to be; he has caused the diversification of existence into absolute, absonite and finite; into material, mindal and spiritual; into imperfect, perfecting and perfect. Finally, he has caused the human being to be and created a universe path for his mortal creatures to follow, so to find him and become like him: â€œBe you perfect, even as I am perfect.â€� [21:3, 22:3, 86:1, 290:2, 295:1, 449:2, 637:1] (86:2, 297:1, 348:3, 411:1, 1574:8)

His is a nature of absolute truth, perfect beauty, eternal goodness and everlasting love. It is his will that all of his mortal beings have a free will, and that nobody is forced to be or to do anything against his will. It is Godâ€™s will that mortals make a free-will choice to do his will and accept the ministry extended to them by myriads of celestial beings and become like him and continue to exist eternally; that no one would choose to become non-existent. It is his will that all human beings view him as their Heavenly Father and that they relate to their fellow mortals as children of this same Father, as their brothers and sisters; and that they treat their fellow men with the same love as the Father bestows upon them. We are to understand that it is a joy to do the Fatherâ€™s will, to become, by faith, a faith-son of the Father and to join the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Urantia Book reveals the nature of true and genuine religion. And it is a matter of rejoicing to realise that true religion is always personal; genuine religion is a grateful and worshipful personal relationship with the Father. True religion is free from creeds, dogma, doctrines, traditions, rituals and standardisation. Instead its fruits are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance [381:7]. It is a joy to do the Fatherâ€™s will. It is not an obligation. Jesus said: â€œwhen the Father's will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the kingdom ... When God's will is your law, you are noble slave subjects; but when you believe in this new gospel of divine sonship, my Father's will becomes your will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, liberated sons of the kingdom." [1589:0].

It is a matter of much reassurance, relief and joy to learn that evil in the world is only relative, is not God-created, is a transient feature in our imperfect, but perfecting, existence. What, instead, is true is progress and growth. Can you not advance in your concept of God's dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress? [Divine Counsellor 54:5]. What is true is goodness and love, the desire to do good to others [648:4]. Jesus was not anxiously bothered by the evil in the world [1594:5]. But it is comforting to learn that at a moment of anxiety over the evil in the world, [w]hen the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable [1096:4].

We who so believe and are united in our desire to love the Father, to do the Fatherâ€™s will, to be the faith-sons of God, to love and to serve our brothers and sisters have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world [381:7].

SEPPO KANERVA
16 October 2005

Labels: God, Jesus, progress, religion, Revelation, Seppo Kanerva, spiritual growth, The Urantia Book, truth

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1 Comments:

The Urantia book is a book of revelation. I agree that it is not absolute truth, but it does contain a picture of absolute truth. A Picture is a crystalization of reality. I don't think that finite creatures as exist on Urantia have the capacity to comprehend absolute truth. As humanity increases it's capacity to comprehend God, the U book is helping in this. I believe we will see more revealed revelation in the form of say...Urantia Book II.

By thoughtful, at 5:55 PM