Struggling with the UB and the Bible

ketsune23 wrote:

Hi everyone,
I left Christianity and the Bible +- 3 years ago and I follow deism until someone introduced me to the UB last year. I've been reading the UB for some time but I can't understand why the UB quotes or tries to correct the stories of the Bible? This is a huge disappointment for me since I reject the Bible and I do not feel comfortable when the UB quotes the Bible (it only quotes the Bible, not any other holy book) or uses some of its "heroes". Nowhere the UB quotes the Quran, the Vedas or any other holy book but just the Bible, and I have a BIG BIG problem with that the Bible is a book full of fairy tales and fantasy stories. The UB has great cosmology but why spoil it with the Bible stories? IF the Urantia Book is a WORLDWIDE revelation to EVERY human being on this planet it should avoid so much Bible and be more EQUAL or not quoting the Bible at all. A person who has Buddhism or Hinduism as their background would NEVER accept the Urantia Book teachings because it is too much "Jewish\Christian" and most of them probably NEVER read the Bible at all to understand who is Abraham or Moses or any other biblical character quoted in the UB much less the corrections it makes to the Jewish stories. I want to believe the UB but some things are just ridiculous to me. I give you an example: Why the UB tries to explain the origin of the Shabbat if perhaps 99% of the people in the world never kept the Shabbat in their lives??? I see here the touch of Saddler's Adventism. I was an Adventist too and the way the book explains the origin of Shabbat is the same way the Seventh Day Adventist Church prophet which by coincidence was Saddler's friend explains it. I feel that the UB is more of a Western creation or to the Western world than a WORLDWIDE revelation as it claims

Hmmm....there are thousands of quotes and a collection of humanity's highest concepts presented in the UB....from many religious texts and teachings too! It is simple falsehood to claim that only the Bible is quoted...nonsense! Untrue. A simple lack of knowledge on your part I think. All doctrines of all religions which require certain beliefs or behaviors or ceremonies or priests are shown to be lacking...all of them. It is not ritual or beliefs that delivers spiritual progress. The Jewish sabbath is not taught nor recommended to anyone by the UB and no rituals or superstitions are presented as helpful...they are merely explained in an evolutionary context.

I understand your skepticism of and disappointment with the Bible and the Christian denial of science and the obvious fact of geological and astronomical time frames (and so many other realities denied in the church of my youth). I too found the Bible a poor source for inspiration and credible history. And the church preached fear of an angry and blood thirsty God. Only beliefs and behaviors "saved" us from eternal suffering no matter our ignorance or intentions. Wow.

But, as someone who abandoned Christianity and discovered the Jesusonian Gospel while embracing Taoism and Zen, I am a little confused why any Eastern religionist or any student of any philosophy would be offended by the UB. Indeed, it is so very Eastern...as was the Master himself. The beauty of learning by paradox and koan. Balance and harmony. The dual nature of humanity. The connection to both spirit and material and the great I AM presence within. The WAY of being and becoming. Satori and Nirvana. Karma. Again...your claims lack truth and display ignorance (lack of knowledge).

The UB is the story of social and religious evolution and begins long before Judaism or Christianity and merely places them in historical and evolutionary context. Have you read Papers 89 or 94? Or the description and study of the World's Religions - Paper 131?

I hope you will forgive my skepticism of your skepticism. But your claims about the UB do not reflect my experience or understanding at all.

Perhaps a full reading might help with your perspective and understanding? I think so. And hope you will take the time to more fully explore and examine this amazing story of our world and universe realities!!

I have found the UB to be a compelling and inspiring view of time and creation and source and destiny and purpose. It really helped me gain context and perspective that has helped me in very practical ways. The UB offers teachings and methods for a progressive and experiential wisdom that leads to a personal peace and trust as I face the uncertainties and vicissitudes of daily life!

Best wishes!

Bradly

The UB authors disagree with your claim that Hindus and Buddhists do not and would not relate to the Gospel of the Universe...the Fatherhood of God and the Family of humanity. God's friendly universe and Divine Affection is a universal teaching that is appreciated by all who embrace it!!

94:4.8 (1031.9) While Hinduism has long failed to vivify the Indian people, at the same time it has usually been a tolerant religion. Its great strength lies in the fact that it has proved to be the most adaptive, amorphic religion to appear on Urantia. It is capable of almost unlimited change and possesses an unusual range of flexible adjustment from the high and semimonotheistic speculations of the intellectual Brahman to the arrant fetishism and primitive cult practices of the debased and depressed classes of ignorant believers.

94:4.9 (1032.1) Hinduism has survived because it is essentially an integral part of the basic social fabric of India. It has no great hierarchy which can be disturbed or destroyed; it is interwoven into the life pattern of the people. It has an adaptability to changing conditions that excels all other cults, and it displays a tolerant attitude of adoption toward many other religions, Gautama Buddha and even Christ himself being claimed as incarnations of Vishnu.

94:4.10 (1032.2) Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel—the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion.

94:9.6 (1038.4) Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who do not.

94:12.4 (1041.2) The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama’s followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ.

94:12.5 (1041.3) Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution.

94:12.6 (1041.4) At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?

94:12.7 (1041.5) All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.

Me here: There are so many different angles and approaches and perspectives of reality that the UB appeals to: scientific, historical, evolution of species, atomic and astronomy, mass and motion and vector and velocity physics, biology, social, religious, etc. To declare that anyone would be unable to relate to the UB is to ignore the totality of its presentations and the balance and harmony it so exquisitely presents.

Did you know that the Jesusonian Gospel is the Gospel of all Nebadon? It has been repeated on Urantia upon every single Epochal Revelation and on every world and to every being on every world in our universe!!

It is a gospel believed or taught in some form by every monotheistic religion and many others considered pagan by some. Even barbarians and children know this gospel as it is whispered by the small still voice within! Although Christianity and all evolutionary religions offer distortions and primitive superstitions in their creeds and doctrines, we are told that the Gospel OF Jesus is alive and growing in effect and will rule our world in time to come!

God is good. God is great. God loves all people as his children. We are all one family in a friendly universe. That is the universal Gospel. The Jesusonian Gospel. The good news of personal salvation, resurrection, and eternal adventure! The Gospel of hope, love, and universal brotherhood.

Greetings. I hope we might learn the reality perspective presented in the UB here by the study and reference of its actual text.

The link you included is most unfortunate as it's title and content certainly and directly contradicts the Urantia Papers.

Personal outcomes are determined by each person's freewill choices and our response to the Divine Connection within and our experiential wisdom gained during our spiritization, based on our personal motives, intentions, priorities, and "decisions, decisions, and more decisions."

Our name, numerology, and so called destiny divined by magic numbers are all irrelevant to our progress on the path to Paradise and the eternal adventures to come.

150:3.8 (1681.3) 6. Divination, sorcery, and witchcraft are superstitions of ignorant minds, as also are the delusions of magic. The belief in magic numbers, omens of good luck, and harbingers of bad luck, is pure and unfounded superstition.

111:1.5 (1216.6) Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul—the morontia self—will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.

111:1.6 (1217.1) Mind is the cosmic instrument on which the human will can play the discords of destruction, or upon which this same human will can bring forth the exquisite melodies of God identification and consequent eternal survival. The Adjuster bestowed upon man is, in the last analysis, impervious to evil and incapable of sin, but mortal mind can actually be twisted, distorted, and rendered evil and ugly by the sinful machinations of a perverse and self-seeking human will. Likewise can this mind be made noble, beautiful, true, and good—actually great—in accordance with the spirit-illuminated will of a God-knowing human being.

39:4.13 (435.6) To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of morality portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many links. Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important. Even the work of this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so important as the way in which you do this work. There is no material reward for righteous living, but there is profound satisfaction—consciousness of achievement—and this transcends any conceivable material reward.

39:4.14 (435.7) The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use them—advance in spirit status—by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest moral choice is the choice of the highest possible value, and always—in any sphere, in all of them—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.

5. Survival of the Human Self

112:5.1 (1232.2) Selfhood is a cosmic reality whether material, morontial, or spiritual. The actuality of the personal is the bestowal of the Universal Father acting in and of himself or through his manifold universe agencies. To say that a being is personal is to recognize the relative individuation of such a being within the cosmic organism. The living cosmos is an all but infinitely integrated aggregation of real units, all of which are relatively subject to the destiny of the whole. But those that are personal have been endowed with the actual choice of destiny acceptance or of destiny rejection.

112:5.2 (1232.3) That which comes from the Father is like the Father eternal, and this is just as true of personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it is of the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God. Man’s personality is eternal but with regard to identity a conditioned eternal reality. Having appeared in response to the Father’s will, personality will attain Deity destiny, but man must choose whether or not he will be present at the attainment of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme Being. The cycle is foreordained, but man’s participation therein is optional, personal, and experiential.

112:5.3 (1232.4) Mortal identity is a transient time-life condition in the universe; it is real only in so far as the personality elects to become a continuing universe phenomenon. This is the essential difference between man and an energy system: The energy system must continue, it has no choice; but man has everything to do with determining his own destiny. The Adjuster is truly the path to Paradise, but man himself must pursue that path by his own deciding, his freewill choosing.

112:5.4 (1232.5) Human beings possess identity only in the material sense. Such qualities of the self are expressed by the material mind as it functions in the energy system of the intellect. When it is said that man has identity, it is recognized that he is in possession of a mind circuit which has been placed in subordination to the acts and choosing of the will of the human personality. But this is a material and purely temporary manifestation, just as the human embryo is a transient parasitic stage of human life. Human beings, from a cosmic perspective, are born, live, and die in a relative instant of time; they are not enduring. But mortal personality, through its own choosing, possesses the power of transferring its seat of identity from the passing material-intellect system to the higher morontia-soul system which, in association with the Thought Adjuster, is created as a new vehicle for personality manifestation.

112:5.5 (1233.1) And it is this very power of choice, the universe insignia of freewill creaturehood, that constitutes man’s greatest opportunity and his supreme cosmic responsibility. Upon the integrity the human volition depends the eternal destiny of the future finaliter; upon the sincerity of the mortal free will the divine Adjuster depends for eternal personality; upon the faithfulness of mortal choice the Universal Father depends for the realization of a new ascending son; upon the steadfastness and wisdom of decision-actions the Supreme Being depends for the actuality of experiential evolution.

I hope the reality perspective presented in the UB guides our posts and study here. I do appreciate the concern expressed regarding our ecological relationship and responsibility to our planet and the likely repercussions we face by abusing that relationship.

Bradly.

I also hope the link above called "destiny number" is removed or disabled. Just my opinion of course. :biggrin:

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