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Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:57 pm +0000
Posts: 121
When it comes to Urantia Book dissemination as folks here like to call it, my understanding is that you do not introduce it to people who do not ask first. We don't street preach, go door to door, invite people to Bible studies, invite them to go to church or hand out tracts. What UB believers do is introduce the UB to people who for whatever reason inquire what we believe and keep asking questions on spirituality. If somebody starts a dragged out dinner conversation about the nature of God for example, you might say; "This book might interest you"

So with that out of the way, let's talk about evangelism. I don't like it. I've heard the "Gospel", I'm not interested in getting baptized and do not appreciate repeat invitations. So is it ok to flash Big Blue and say "This is my Bible" as a method to make evangelists stop talking to you?

If somebody like Ray Comfort preaches to me (in public), a Jehovah's Witness or Mormon knocks on my door or a co-worker invites me to a Bible study, I'll say "I'll take a Bible study with you if you take a Urantia Book study with me" More likely than not they will not have heard of the book and are unwilling to take a sermon from ME. I will then point out that if they want me to be open minded, they need to be as well. And if they throw out the words "Satan" and "Hell", I say "Then so be it" This is my way to have people stop preaching to me.

If on the other hand, they declare that they have read the book cover to cover and STILL believe the Bible is the only truth, then I'll be pleasantly surprised and I'll see where the conversation takes me. I'd also however point out that I have read the Bible cover to cover and have my own objections to their "rule book".

I will forgive people for thinking my salvation is in danger and I would NEVER suggest somebody else's salvation is in danger.

A side story: I've successfully convinced my wife to do 2 UB study sessions (conditional to her continued preaching from the Bible to me). While she still prefers traditional Christianity, she says my path to knowing God is unique to hers and does not question my salvation.


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Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2019 3:27 pm +0000
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Location: west central florida
"A side story: I've successfully convinced my wife to do 2 UB study sessions (conditional to her continued preaching from the Bible to me). While she still prefers traditional Christianity, she says my path to knowing God is unique to hers and does not question my salvation."

In my opinion your wife shows far more spiritual maturity than you do. How lucky you are!


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Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:29 am +0000
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Greetings William...glad to see you still study the Papers and pursue personal religious experience and progress!!

The UB teaches us to seek out other religionists and be exposed to a broad spectrum of universe reality perspectives and to seek out common values and ideals and shared perspective. The Golden Rule and the Jesusonian Gospel and the reaping of what is sown, each and all, certainly offers significant common ground with any and all religionists!!

The UB teaches us the Jesusonian method of giving testimony by sharing our "fruits" of spirituality liberally with all others as we pass by...to be cheerful and hopeful and kind and patient and generous and forgiving and long-suffering too!

What we share in common is important. But the universe benefits from and celebrates the personal and unique and very individualized experience and expressions of perspective! We will all come to share the same reality perspective and philosophy of living in the endless adventures to come.

We are all connected to God personally and directly. Sharing that connection benefits us all. Faith delivers salvation in this life and eternity in the next and does so no matter how inaccurate are our beliefs may be today.

Your wife's faith should be honored and celebrated and shared and cherished. So precious. May she find peace, hope, and wisdom by embracing the Gospel OF the Master as presented so clearly in the Bible.

The UB celebrates many human sources of wisdom from history and certainly does not discredit such inspirational and aspirational teachings. Jesus himself found much in the scriptures to illuminate and enlighten his own quest for wisdom.

Truth is where you find it....

8)

_________________
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."


Last edited by fanofVan on Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:54 pm +0000, edited 1 time in total.

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Consider....

1. Philosophy of Religion

103:1.1 (1129.8) The unity of religious experience among a social or racial group derives from the identical nature of the God fragment indwelling the individual. It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique—no two mortals being alike—it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every human being defines religion in the terms of his own experiential interpretation of the divine impulses emanating from the God spirit that indwells him, and therefore must such an interpretation be unique and wholly different from the religious philosophy of all other human beings.

103:1.2 (1130.1) When one mortal is in full agreement with the religious philosophy of a fellow mortal, that phenomenon indicates that these two beings have had a similar religious experience touching the matters concerned in their similarity of philosophic religious interpretation.

103:1.3 (1130.2) While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric—circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial.

103:1.4 (1130.3) Rationalism is wrong when it assumes that religion is at first a primitive belief in something which is then followed by the pursuit of values. Religion is primarily a pursuit of values, and then there formulates a system of interpretative beliefs. It is much easier for men to agree on religious values—goals—than on beliefs—interpretations. And this explains how religion can agree on values and goals while exhibiting the confusing phenomenon of maintaining a belief in hundreds of conflicting beliefs—creeds. This also explains why a given person can maintain his religious experience in the face of giving up or changing many of his religious beliefs. Religion persists in spite of revolutionary changes in religious beliefs. Theology does not produce religion; it is religion that produces theologic philosophy.

103:1.5 (1130.4) That religionists have believed so much that was false does not invalidate religion because religion is founded on the recognition of values and is validated by the faith of personal religious experience. Religion, then, is based on experience and religious thought; theology, the philosophy of religion, is an honest attempt to interpret that experience. Such interpretative beliefs may be right or wrong, or a mixture of truth and error.

_________________
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."


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