fanofVan wrote:
Mark/mrlucky posts:
"World govt. is an important milestone and needs to have careful considerations of the motives of those advocating such things."The Urantia Papers advocate "such things". So do I. And so do millions, perhaps billions of people.
Are you questioning the motivation of everyone who supports international cooperation and globalization??
Absolutely. What are the self-interests of such supporters? Are they sincere? Do they have economic conflicts of interest? Use the same forms of scrutiny Jesus used.
121:7:3 (1340.1) The scribes, the pharisees, and the priesthood held the Jews in a terrible bondage of ritualism and legalism, a bondage far more real than that of the Roman political rule.
126:0:3 (1386.3) Jesus had great respect for the sincere pharisees and the honest scribes, but he held the hypocritical Pharisees and the dishonest theologians in great contempt; he looked with disdain upon all those religious leaders who were not sincere.
The exploitation that triggered Jesus to cleanse the temple was the monopoly the greedy priests had over the sale of sacrificial animals:
173:1.2 (1888.5) This sale of animals in the temple prospered because, when the worshiper purchased such an animal, although the price might be somewhat high, no more fees had to be paid, and he could be sure the intended sacrifice would not be rejected on the ground of possessing real or technical blemishes. At one time or another systems of exorbitant overcharge were practiced upon the common people, especially during the great national feasts. At one time the greedy priests went so far as to demand the equivalent of the value of a week’s labor for a pair of doves which should have been sold to the poor for a few pennies. The “sons of Annas” had already begun to establish their bazaars in the temple precincts, those very merchandise marts which persisted to the time of their final overthrow by a mob three years before the destruction of the temple itself.