Development of The State

 

Jesus said...

 

a Slave...

 

The Eternal Isle of Paradise

11:0.1 (118.1)PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.

11:0.2 (118.2)The material beauty of Paradise consists in the magnificence of its physical perfection; the grandeur of the Isle of God is exhibited in the superb intellectual accomplishments and mind development of its inhabitants; the glory of the central Isle is shown forth in the infinite endowment of divine spirit personality—the light of life. But the depths of the spiritual beauty and the wonders of this magnificent ensemble are utterly beyond the comprehension of the finite mind of material creatures. The glory and spiritual splendor of the divine abode are impossible of mortal comprehension. And Paradise is from eternity; there are neither records nor traditions respecting the origin of this nuclear Isle of Light and Life.

Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the Universe

9:0.1 (98.1)A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the Universal Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing in this eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would personalize as an unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and endowed with unique prerogatives of energy manipulation. His coming into being completes the Father’s liberation from the bonds of centralized perfection and from the fetters of personality absolutism. And this liberation is disclosed in the amazing power of the Conjoint Creator to create beings well adapted to serve as ministering spirits even to the material creatures of the subsequently evolving universes.

9:0.2 (98.2)The Father is infinite in love and volition, in spiritual thought and purpose; he is the universal upholder. The Son is infinite in wisdom and truth, in spiritual expression and interpretation; he is the universal revealer. Paradise is infinite in potential for force endowment and in capacity for energy dominance; it is the universal stabilizer. The Conjoint Actor possesses unique prerogatives of synthesis, infinite capacity to co-ordinate all existing universe energies, all actual universe spirits, and all real universe intellects; the Third Source and Center is the universal unifier of the manifold energies and diverse creations which have appeared in consequence of the divine plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal Father.

9:0.3 (98.3)The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine minister. The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son’s mercy and the Father’s love, even in harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the Paradise Trinity. His influence and personalities are ever near you; they really know and truly understand you.

9:0.4 (98.4)Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and Center, the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The Conjoint Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things consist—things, meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits.

9:0.5 (98.5)The Infinite Spirit pervades all space; he indwells the circle of eternity; and the Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is perfect and changeless—absolute.

Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the Universe

9:0.1 (98.1)A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the Universal Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing in this eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would personalize as an unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and endowed with unique prerogatives of energy manipulation. His coming into being completes the Father’s liberation from the bonds of centralized perfection and from the fetters of personality absolutism. And this liberation is disclosed in the amazing power of the Conjoint Creator to create beings well adapted to serve as ministering spirits even to the material creatures of the subsequently evolving universes.

9:0.2 (98.2)The Father is infinite in love and volition, in spiritual thought and purpose; he is the universal upholder. The Son is infinite in wisdom and truth, in spiritual expression and interpretation; he is the universal revealer. Paradise is infinite in potential for force endowment and in capacity for energy dominance; it is the universal stabilizer. The Conjoint Actor possesses unique prerogatives of synthesis, infinite capacity to co-ordinate all existing universe energies, all actual universe spirits, and all real universe intellects; the Third Source and Center is the universal unifier of the manifold energies and diverse creations which have appeared in consequence of the divine plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal Father.

9:0.3 (98.3)The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine minister. The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son’s mercy and the Father’s love, even in harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the Paradise Trinity. His influence and personalities are ever near you; they really know and truly understand you.

9:0.4 (98.4)Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and Center, the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The Conjoint Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things consist—things, meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits.

9:0.5 (98.5)The Infinite Spirit pervades all space; he indwells the circle of eternity; and the Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is perfect and changeless—absolute.

The Attributes of God

3:0.1 (44.1)GOD is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of eternity. But he rules in the local universes in the persons of his Paradise Creator Sons, even as he bestows life through these Sons. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Sons.” These Creator Sons of God are the personal expression of himself in the sectors of time and to the children of the whirling planets of the evolving universes of space.

3:0.2 (44.2)The highly personalized Sons of God are clearly discernible by the lower orders of created intelligences, and so do they compensate for the invisibility of the infinite and therefore less discernible Father. The Paradise Creator Sons of the Universal Father are a revelation of an otherwise invisible being, invisible because of the absoluteness and infinity inherent in the circle of eternity and in the personalities of the Paradise Deities.

3:0.3 (44.3)Creatorship is hardly an attribute of God; it is rather the aggregate of his acting nature. And this universal function of creatorship is eternally manifested as it is conditioned and controlled by all the co-ordinated attributes of the infinite and divine reality of the First Source and Center. We sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of the divine nature can be regarded as being antecedent to the others, but if such were the case, then the creatorship nature of Deity would take precedence over all other natures, activities, and attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates in the universal truth of the Fatherhood of God.

The Actual Birth date of Jesus

8. The Birth of Jesus

122:8.1 (1351.5)All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21, 7 b.c., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near-by manger.

122:8.2 (1351.6)In just the same manner as all babies before that day and since have come into the world, the promised child was born; and on the eighth day, according to the Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus).

The Ordination of The Twelve Apostles

 The Ordination of the Twelve

140:0.1 (1568.1)JUST before noon on Sunday, January 12, a.d. 27, Jesus called the apostles together for their ordination as public preachers of the gospel of the kingdom. The twelve were expecting to be called almost any day; so this morning they did not go out far from the shore to fish. Several of them were lingering near the shore repairing their nets and tinkering with their fishing paraphernalia. 140:0.2 (1568.2)As Jesus started down the seashore calling the apostles, he first hailed Andrew and Peter, who were fishing near the shore; next he signaled to James and John, who were in a boat near by, visiting with their father, Zebedee, and mending their nets. Two by two he gathered up the other apostles, and when he had assembled all twelve, he journeyed with them to the highlands north of Capernaum, where he proceeded to instruct them in preparation for their formal ordination. 140:0.3 (1568.3)For once all twelve of the apostles were silent; even Peter was in a reflective mood. At last the long-waited-for hour had come! They were going apart with the Master to participate in some sort of solemn ceremony of personal consecration and collective dedication to the sacred work of representing their Master in the proclamation of the coming of his Father’s kingdom.

Training the Kingdom’s Messengers

138:0.1 (1538.1)AFTER preaching the sermon on “The Kingdom,” Jesus called the six apostles together that afternoon and began to disclose his plans for visiting the cities around and about the Sea of Galilee. His brothers James and Jude were very much hurt because they were not called to this conference. Up to this time they had regarded themselves as belonging to Jesus’ inner circle of associates. But Jesus planned to have no close relatives as members of this corps of apostolic directors of the kingdom. This failure to include James and Jude among the chosen few, together with his apparent aloofness from his mother ever since the experience at Cana, was the starting point of an ever-widening gulf between Jesus and his family. This situation continued throughout his public ministry—they very nearly rejected him—and these differences were not fully removed until after his death and resurrection. His mother constantly wavered between attitudes of fluctuating faith and hope, and increasing emotions of disappointment, humiliation, and despair. Only Ruth, the youngest, remained unswervingly loyal to her father-brother.

138:0.2 (1538.2)Until after the resurrection, Jesus’ entire family had very little to do with his ministry. If a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, he is not without understanding appreciation save in his own family.

The Origen of Ideals

 

The origin of ideals

103:5.1 (1133.6)The early evolutionary consciousness gives rise to a sense of social duty and moral obligation, stemming primarily from emotional apprehension. The more positive impulse to serve the community and the idealism of altruism come from the direct impulse of the divine spirit dwelling in human consciousness.

103:5.2 (1133.7)This idea-ideal of doing good to others-the impulse to deny the ego something for the benefit of one's neighbor-is at first very limited in scope. Primitive man considers as his neighbor only those who are very close to him, those who also treat him as their neighbor; as religious civilization progresses, the concept of neighbor widens and comes to include the clan, the tribe, and the people. And then Jesus extended the concept of neighbor to all of humanity, to the point that we must love even our enemies. And there is something inside every normal human being that tells him that this teaching is ethical - right. Even those who practice this ideal the least admit that it is correct in theory.

103:5.3 (1134.1)All people recognize the morality of this universal human urge to be unselfish and altruistic. The humanist attributes the origin of this urge to the natural workings of material consciousness; the religious man recognizes that it is more accurate to say that the truly selfless urge in mortal consciousness is a reaction to the inner spiritual directions of the Thought Giver.

103:5.4 (1134.2)Yet 's human interpretation of these initial conflicts between the ego-will and the on-the-other-will is not always reliable. Only a fairly well unified personality can act as arbiter between the multifarious claims of the ego's desires and the burgeoning social consciousness. The self has rights as much as the neighbor. Neither has the exclusive right to the individual's attention and service. When left unresolved, this problem raises the earliest form of human guilt.

103:5.5 (1134.3)Human happiness can be achieved only when the ego desire of the self and the altruistic drive of the higher self (the divine mind) are coordinated and reconciled by the unified will of the integrating, supervising personality. The consciousness of evolutionary man always faces the complicated task of acting as arbiter in the struggle between the natural expansion of his emotional impulses and the moral growth of his altruistic impulses based on spiritual insight - true religious reflection.

103:5.6 (1134.4)The attempt to obtain for oneself as much good as for the greatest possible number of others constitutes a task that cannot always be resolved to full satisfaction in a time-space framework. Starting from an eternal life, such antagonisms can be worked out, but in a single short human life they cannot possibly be resolved. Jesus was alluding to such a paradox when he said, “Whoever will preserve his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for the sake of the kingdom will find it.

103:5.7 (1134.5)The pursuit of the ideal - the striving to be like God - is a constant effort, both before death and after. Life after death is no different in essentials from mortal existence. All the good we do in this life contributes directly to the elevation of the life to come. True religion does not breed moral indolence and spiritual laziness by giving man the vain hope that all the virtues of a noble character will be bestowed upon him once he has passed through the gate of natural death. True religion does not belittle man's efforts to make progress during the span of mortal life. Every progress of the mortal is a direct contribution to the enrichment of the first stages of his experience of survival as an immortal.

103:5.8 (1134.6)It is fatal to man's idealism when he is taught that all his altruistic impulses are no other than the development of his natural herd instincts. But he is veined and greatly strengthened when he learns that these higher impulses of his soul emanate from the spiritual forces that dwell in his mortal consciousness.

103:5.9 (1134.7)Man is lifted above himself once he becomes fully aware that something lives and strives within him that is eternal and divine. And so it is that a living belief in the superhuman origin of our ideals validates our belief that we are sons of God, and gives reality to our altruistic convictions, the feelings of the brotherhood of man.

103:5.10 (1134.8)Man does indeed have free will in his spiritual realm. Mortal man is not the helpless slave of the immovable sovereignty of an all-powerful God, nor the victim of the hopeless inevitability of a mechanistic cosmic determinism. Man, in the truest sense, is the architect of his own eternal destiny.

103:5.11 (1135.1)Yet by pressure man is neither saved nor veined. Spiritual growth sprouts from within the developing soul. Pressure may disfigure the personality, but it never stimulates growth. Even pressure applied in education and upbringing is only negatively helpful in the sense that it can help prevent disastrous experiences. Spiritual growth is greatest where all outside pressure is minimal. “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Man develops best when the forms of pressure from the family, from the community, from the church, and from the state are least. Yet this should not be taken to mean that in a progressive society there would be no place for the family, for social institutions, for a church, or for a state.

103:5.12 (1135.2)When a member of a religious community has fulfilled the requirements of such a group, he should be encouraged to religious freedom in the full expression of his own personal interpretation of the truths of religious faith and the facts of religious experience. The security of a religious group depends on spiritual unity, not theological uniformity. A religious group should be able to enjoy the freedom of free thought without becoming a group of “freethinkers. One should expect the best from any church that glorifies the living God, affirms the brotherhood of men, and dares to abolish all pressure of creeds on its members.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book

Seraphim of the morontia worlds - transitional servants

Seraphim of the morontia worlds - transitional servants

48:6.1 (551.6)Although all orders of angels, from the planetary helpers to the supreme seraphim, serve on the morontia worlds, the transitional servants are charged more exclusively with these activities. These angels belong to the sixth order of seraphim servants, and their service consists in facilitating the transition of material, mortal creatures from temporal life in the flesh to the first stages of morontia existence on the seven dwelling worlds.

48:6.2 (551.7)It should be understood that the morontia life of an ascending mortal really begins on the inhabited worlds at the conception of the soul, at the moment when in the creature-consciousness with moral status comes to inhabit the spirit-Richter. From that moment on, the mortal soul has the potential capacity to function in super-mortal ways, even to be recognized at the higher levels of the morontia worlds in the local universe.

48:6.3 (552.1)However, you will only become aware of the service of the transitional seraphim upon reaching the dwelling worlds, where they work tirelessly to advance their mortal pupils. They are appointed to serve in the following seven divisions:

48:6.4 (552.2)1. Seraphic Evangelists. The moment you come to consciousness on the dwelling worlds, you are classified in the archives of the system as an evolving spirit. True, you are not yet a spirit in reality, but you are no longer a mortal or material being; you have begun the pre-spiritual career and are duly admitted to morontia life.

48:6.5 (552.3)On the dwelling worlds, the seraphic evangelists will help you choose wisely among the optional routes to Edentia, Salvington, Uversa and Havona. If a number of these routes are equally recommendable, they will be presented to you and you will be given permission to choose the one that attracts you the most. These seraphim then make recommendations to the twenty-four counsellors on Jerusem as to the course which will most benefit each ascending soul.

48:6.6 (552.4)You shall not have unlimited freedom in your choice concerning your future course, but you may choose within the limits of what the transitional servants and their superiors in their wisdom determine is most suitable for your future spiritual level. The spirit world is governed on the principle that your free will choice is res- pected, provided the course you choose is not detrimental to yourself or harmful to your companions.

48:6.7 (552.5)These seraphic evangelists devote themselves to proclaiming the gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of attaining perfection. On the dwelling worlds they proclaim the great law that goodness preserves and dominates: no act that is good is ever completely lost. Such an act may be opposed for a long time, but it is never entirely nullified, and has eternal power according to the divinity of the motivation from which it was performed.

48:6.8 (552.6)Even on Urantia, they advise human teachers of truth and righteousness to adhere to the preaching of “the goodness of God, which leads to repentance,” to the proclamation of “the love of God, which drives out all fear. This is exactly how the following truths have been proclaimed on your world:

48:6.9 (552.7)The gods are my keepers; I will not go astray;

48:6.10 (552.8)Side by side they lead me along the clean paths and through the glorious refreshment of eternal life.

48:6.11 (552.9)In this Divine Presence I shall not hunger for food nor thirst for water.

48:6.12 (552.10)Though I descend into the valley of uncertainty or ascend into the worlds of doubt,

48:6.13 (552.11)Though I move in solitude or with my peers,

48:6.14 (552.12)Though I triumph in the corn of light or stumble in the lonely places of the worlds,

48:6.15 (552.13)Your good spirit will serve me, and your glorious angel will comfort me.

48:6.16 (552.14)Though I descend into the depths of darkness and death itself,

48:6.17 (552.15)I will not doubt you nor fear you,

48:6.18 (552.16)For I know that in the fullness of time and the glory of thy name

48:6.19 (552.17)Raise up and make me sit down with you on the pinnacles in the high.

48:6.20 (553.1)This is the story that was whispered to the shepherd boy in the night. He could not remember it word for word, but rendered it as best he could remember it, almost in the words in which it is recorded today.

48:6.21 (553.2)These seraphim are also those who proclaim to the entire system, as well as to the individual ascendants, the gospel of the attainment of perfection. Even now, in the young system Satania, their teachings and plans already include provisions for the future ages, when the dwelling worlds will no longer serve as steps by which one reaches the worlds on high.

48:6.22 (553.3)2. Racial interpreters. The races of mortals are not all alike. It is true that a planetary pattern runs through the physical, mental and spiritual nature and inclinations of the several races of a given world, but there are also distinct racial types, and the offspring of these various human archetypes are characterized by very particular social inclinations. On the worlds in time, the seraphic interpreters of the races promote the efforts of the racial commissioners to harmonize the divergent viewpoints of the various races with each other, and they are also still active on the dwelling worlds, where the same differences often remain to some degree. On a confused planet like Urantia, these magnificent beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to perform their work, but they are the skilled sociologists and wise ethnic advisors of the first heavens.

48:6.23 (553.4)When you allow the statement about “heaven” and the “heaven of heavens” to circulate within you, heaven as most of your prophets imagined it is the first dwelling world of the local system. When the apostle told of being “lifted up into the third heaven,” he was referring to that experience in which his Richter was detached from him during sleep and in this unusual state made a projection into the third of the seven dwelling worlds. Some of your wise men have seen the vision of the greater heaven, “the heaven of heavens,” of which the seven dwelling-world experience was only the first; the second is Jerusem, the third Edentia and her satellites, the fourth Salvington and the teaching worlds surrounding her, the fifth Uversa, the sixth Havona and the seventh, Paradise.

48:6.24 (553.5)3. Seraphim of consciousness planning. These seraphim devote themselves to effectively bringing morontia beings together in groups and organizing the teamwork of these beings on the dwelling worlds. They are the psychologists of the first heaven. This special division of seraphic servants, for the most part, has had previous experience as guardian angels of the children of the age, but for some reason their pupils on the dwelling worlds have not come to personalization, or else they have come to survival through the technique of fusion with Spirit.

48:6.25 (553.6)The seraphim of consciousness planning are tasked with studying the nature, experience and status of the Richter souls en route through the dwelling worlds and facilitating the appointment and advancement of these in groups. But these seraphim do not intrigue, manipulate or otherwise abuse the ignorance or other limitations of students on the dwelling worlds. They are perfectly fair and highly equitable. They respect your newborn morontia will; they regard you as independent beings of will and they seek to encourage you to develop quickly and make rapid progress. With them you are face to face with true friends and understanding counselors, angels who are truly able to help you “see yourself as others see you,” and “know yourself as the angels know you.

48:6.26 (553.7)Even on Urantia these seraphim teach the eternal truth that if your own consciousness does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the consciousness of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well.

48:6.27 (554.1)4. Morontia Councillors. These servants bear this name because they are appointed to teach, guide and counsel the surviving mortals of the worlds where humans arise - souls on their way to the higher academies at the headquarters of the system. These are the teachers of those who seek insight into the experiential unity of diverse levels of life, those who seek to bring about the integration of meanings and the union of values. This is the function of philosophy in mortal life, and of mota on the morontia worlds.

48:6.28 (554.2)Mota is more than a superior philosophy, it relates to philosophy as two eyes to one: it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with a single eye - flat. Students on dwelling worlds acquire a cosmic perspective - depth - by superimposing the perceptions of morontia on the perceptions of physical life. And they are largely enabled to truly focus these material and morontial viewpoints through the tireless service of their seraphic counselors, who very patiently teach the dwelling-world students and the morontia continuants. Many teaching counselors of the supreme order of seraphim began their careers as advisors to the newly liberated souls of mortals of the ages.

48:6.29 (554.3)5. Technicians. These are the seraphim who help new ascendants adjust to the new, relatively alien environment of the morontia worlds. Life on the transitional worlds involves real contact with the energies and materials of both the physical level and the morontia level, and to some extent with spiritual realities. Ascendants must acclimate to each new morontia level, and in this they are always greatly assisted by the seraphic technicians. These seraphim act as liaisons to the Morontia Force Supervisors and to the Master Physical Controllers, and they have comprehensive work as instructors of the ascending pilgrims concerning the nature of the energies used on the transitional worlds. They serve as traversers of space in emergencies and perform numerous other regular and special duties.

48:6.30 (554.4)6. Registrar-Teachers. These seraphim are the registrars of operations in the borderland between the spiritual and the physical, of relations between humans and angels, of morontia operations in the lower regions of the universe. They also serve as instructors on the efficient and effective techniques of recording facts. There is a certain artistry in the intelligent collection and coordination of interrelated data, and this art deepens in cooperation with the celestial artists; even the ascending mortals thus find connection with the recording seraphim.

48:6.31 (554.5)The registrars of all seraphic orders devote a certain amount of time to the instruction and training of the morontia continuants. These angels, who are the keepers of the facts of the times, are ideal instructors of all who seek facts. Before you leave Jerusem, the history of Satania and its 619 inhabited worlds will be very well known to you, and this story will be told to you largely by the seraphic registrars.

48:6.32 (554.6)These angels are all links in the chain of registrars that reaches from the lowest to the highest keepers of the facts of time and the truths of eternity. One day they will teach you to seek both truth and facts, and to expand both your soul and your consciousness. Even now thou must learn to water the garden of thy heart as well as to search for the dry ground of knowledge. Outward appearances are without value when lessons are learned. No chick can emerge without the eggshell, and no eggshell is of any value when the chick is hatched. But sometimes error is so great that if it were rectified by revelation, it would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths that are indispensable to overthrow it experientially. When children have their own ideals, do not pry them loose, but let them grow. And as you learn to think like adults, you should also learn to pray like children.

48:6.33 (555.1)The law is life itself and does not consist of the rules according to which one should lead it. Evil is a violation of the law, not a violation of the rules of conduct concerning life, which is the law . Untruth is not a matter of narrative technique, but something deliberately contrived as a distortion of the truth. The creation of new images from old facts, the reformulation of the lives of parents in the lives of children - these are the artistic triumphs of truth. The slightest distortion contrived with untrue intent, the slightest distortion or perversion of that which is principle - that is falsehood. But the fetish of factualized truth, petrified truth, the iron ring of so-called immutable truth, traps man like a blind man in a closed circle of cold facts. One can be technically right regarding facts, and at the same time forever wrong regarding truth.

48:6.34 (555.2)7. Auxiliary Reservists. On the first dwelling world, a large corps of transitional seraphs of all orders is kept in readiness. After the destination servants, these transitional servants are seraphim of the order closest to man, and many of your free hours you will spend with them. Angels take pleasure in service, and when not assigned they often serve as volunteers. The soul of many an ascending mortal is first ignited by the divine fire of will-to-serve, by personal friendship with the voluntary servants who belong to the seraphic reservists.

48:6.35 (555.3)From them you will learn to bring stability and security through pressure, to be faithful and honest, and above all cheerful; to accept challenges without complaining and face difficulties and uncertainties without fear. They will ask you: if you fail, will you rise undaunted to make another attempt? If you succeed, will you always remain balanced - maintain a stabilized, spiritualized attitude - in every effort in the long struggle to break the shackles of material inertia, and achieve the freedom of spirit existence?

48:6.36 (555.4)Like mortals, these angels have many disappointments to their credit, and they will make it clear to you that your most disappointing disappointments have sometimes become your greatest blessings. When a seed is sown, sometimes it must first die - the death of your most ardent hopes - before it can be reborn in order to bring forth the fruits of new life and new opportunities. From them you will also learn to suffer less grief and disappointment, first by making fewer personal plans involving other personalities, and then by accepting your fate when you have faithfully done your duty.

48:6.37 (555.5)You will learn that you weigh down your burdens and reduce the chances of success when you take yourself too seriously. The work of the world of your status - this world or the next - comes before everything else. Very important is the preparatory work for the next, higher world, but nothing is as important as the work of the world where you actually live. But although the work is important, the work itself is not. When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and tear of the ego's dignity, leaving little energy for the work. It is the feeling of one's own importance that exhausts immature creatures, not the importance of their work; it is the element of the self that exhausts, not the effort of accomplishment. You can do weighty work if you do not develop a sense of your own weightiness; you can do several things as easily as one thing if you leave yourself out of it. Variety gives relaxation; monotony is what tires and exhausts. Day after day then is the same thing - nothing more than life, or the alternative of death.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book

The Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness

 28:6.20 (317.1)6 and 7. The Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness. The ascending pilgrims having awakened to the import of time, the way is prepared for the realization of the solemnity of trust and for the appreciation of the sanctity of service. While these are the moral elements of greatness, there are also secrets of greatness. When the spiritual tests of greatness are applied, the moral elements are not disregarded, but the quality of unselfishness revealed in disinterested labor for the welfare of one’s earthly fellows, particularly worthy beings in need and in distress, that is the real measure of planetary greatness. And the manifestation of greatness on a world like Urantia is the exhibition of self-control. The great man is not he who “takes a city” or “overthrows a nation,” but rather “he who subdues his own tongue.”

28:6.21 (317.2)Greatness is synonymous with divinity. God is supremely great and good. Greatness and goodness simply cannot be divorced. They are forever made one in God. This truth is literally and strikingly illustrated by the reflective interdependence of the Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness, for neither can function without the other. In reflecting other qualities of divinity, the superuniverse seconaphim can and do act alone, but the reflective estimates of greatness and of goodness appear to be inseparable. Hence, on any world, in any universe, must these reflectors of greatness and of goodness work together, always showing a dual and mutually dependent report of every being upon whom they focalize. Greatness cannot be estimated without knowing the content of goodness, while goodness cannot be portrayed without exhibiting its inherent and divine greatness.

28:6.22 (317.3)The estimate of greatness varies from sphere to sphere. To be great is to be Godlike. And since the quality of greatness is wholly determined by the content of goodness, it follows that, even in your present human estate, if you can through grace become good, you are thereby becoming great. The more steadfastly you behold, and the more persistently you pursue, the concepts of divine goodness, the more certainly will you grow in greatness, in true magnitude of genuine survival character.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book

The Urantia Book, Paper-55 - Spheres Light and Life, Part 1, 11-19-2024

The Urantia Book, Paper-55 - Spheres Light and Life, Part 1, 11-19-2024 https://fifthepochalrevelationfellows... https:// fifthepochalrevelationfellowship.com /notes/Paper_55_The_Spheres_of_Light_and_Life.pptx

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Dr. Roger Paul

299 abonnees

The origin and nature of the Directives of Thought

 

The origin and nature of the Directives of Thought

107:0.1 (1176.1)HOWEVER the Universal Father resides personally on Paradise, right at the center of the universes, he is also actually present on the worlds in space in the consciousness of his countless children in time, for he dwells with them as their Secret Mentor. The Eternal Father is at the same time farthest from, and most intimately connected with, His planetary mortal sons.

107:0.2 (1176.2)The Richters are the actuality of the Father's love incarnated in the soul of man; they are, captured in the mortal's consciousness, the unquestionable promise of man's eternal career. They are the essence of man's perfected personality as perfection, which he can already savor in time as he learns more and more to master the divine technique, through which he can begin to live the will of the Father, step by step, through the ascent from one universe to the next, until he actually reaches the divine presence of his Paradise-Father.

107:0.3 (1176.3)God, who has commanded man to be perfect as He Himself is perfect, has descended as the Richter to become man's experiential partner in the attainment of the heavenly destiny thus set. The fragment of God dwelling in man's consciousness is the absolute, unlimited assurance that man can find the Universal Father, in cooperation with this divine Richter who has gone forth from God to seek man and join him in sonship, even as early as the days of his existence in the flesh.

107:0.4 (1176.4)Every mortal who has seen a Creator-Son has seen the Universal Father, and in every one in whom dwells a divine Richter, dwells the Paradise Father. Every mortal who consciously or unconsciously follows the guidance of the Richter who dwells with him lives in accordance with the will of God. Awareness of the Richter's presence is awareness of the presence of God. The eternal fusion of the Richter with the evolutionary soul of man is the actual experience of eternal union with God as a universe partner of the Godhead.

107:0.5 (1176.5)It is the Richter who creates in man that insatiable yearning and that relentless desire to be like God, to reach Paradise, and to worship there before the real person of Deity the infinite origin of the divine gift. The Richter is the living presence that actually connects the mortal son with his Paradise Father and draws him ever closer to the Father. The Richter is our compensatory equalizer of the enormous universe tension caused by the distance with which man is removed from God, and by his degree of partiality, in contrast to the all-encompassingness of the eternal Father.

107:0.6 (1176.6)The Richter is an absolute essence of an infinite being, trapped in the consciousness of a finite creature, who, depending on the choice of such a mortal, can ultimately bring this temporary union of God and man to completion and truly actualize a being of a new order, serving forever in the universe. The Richter is the divine universe-reality that makes factual the truth that God is the Father of man. The Richter is “man's infallible cosmic compass, which always infallibly points the soul in the direction of God.

107:0.7 (1177.1)On the evolutionary worlds, will-creatures go through three general stages of development of being: from the advent of the Richter until they reach relative maturity, on Urantia at the age of about twenty years, Mentors are sometimes referred to as Thought Changers. From then until reaching the years of discernment, at about forty years of age, the Secretive Mentors are called Thought Makers. From reaching the years of discernment until liberation from the flesh, they are often referred to as Thought Controllers. These three stages in the life of a mortal do not relate to the three stages of progression known to the Richter in the duplication of consciousness and the development of the soul.

1. The Origin of the Directers of Thought.

107:1.1 (1177.2)Since Thought Directers are part of the essence of the original Godhead, no one can afford to speak with authority about their nature and origin: I can only communicate the traditions of Salvington and what we at Uversa believe regarding them. I can only explain to you how we everywhere in the great universe regard these Secret Mentors and the entities associated with them.

107:1.2 (1177.3)Although there are differing opinions as to how the Mind Guides are granted, there is no difference of opinion as to their origin; all agree that they derive directly from the Universal Father, the First Source and Center. They are not created beings: they are entities emitted as fragments that constitute the actual presence of the infinite God. Together with their many unrevealed partners, the Richters are pure, unmixed divinity, unlimited, unaffected parts of the Godhead; they are of God, and as far as we can see, they are God.

107:1.3 (1177.4)As to when they begin their separate existence apart from the absoluteness of the First Source and Center, about this we know nothing, nor do we know their number. As to their career before they arrive on the planets of time and take up residence in the consciousness of human beings, we know little, but from then on we are more or less familiar with their cosmic progress, up to and including the attainment of their triune destiny: the acquisition of personality by fusion with a mortal in ascension, the attainment of personality by decision of the Universal Father, or exemption from the known duties of the Thought-Givers.

107:1.4 (1177.5)Although we do not know, we suppose that Richters are constantly being individuated as the universe expands, and as the candidates for fusion with the Richter increase in number. But it is equally possible that we are mistaken when we attempt to assign numerical greatness to the Richters: like God Himself, these fragments of the unfathomable nature of God may also be existentially infinite.

107:1.5 (1177.6)The technique by which the Directors of Thought come into being is one of the unrevealed functions of the Universal Father. We have every reason to believe that none of the other absolute sharers of the First Source and Center has anything to do with the bringing forth of the Father fragments. Richters are simply and eternally divine gifts; they are of God and from God, and they are like God.

107:1.6 (1177.7)In their relationship to fusion creatures, they reveal a transcendent love and spiritual helpfulness that is a profound affirmation of the statement that God is spirit. But in addition to this transcendent service, much more takes place that has never been revealed to mortals on Urantia. Nor do we fully understand what really happens when the Universal Father gives something of Himself that becomes part of the personality of a creature in time. Nor, as yet, has the continuing ascent of the Paradise Fulfillment unlocked all the possibilities inherent in this exalted partnership of man and God. After all, the Father-fragments must be the gift of the absolute God to those creatures whose final destination includes the possibility that they will reach God at the absolute level.

107:1.7 (1178.1)Just as the Universal Father fragments his pre-personal Godhead, so also the Infinite Spirit grants individuality to parts of his pre-consciousness mind to dwell with, and actually merge with, the evolutionary souls of the survival-coming mortals of the mind-fusion series. However, the nature of the Eternal Son cannot be fragmented in this way: the spirit of the Original Son is either diffuse or distinctly personal. Creatures merged with the Son are united with individualized endowments of the spirit of the Creator-Sons of the Eternal Son.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book

The Later Adult Life of Jesus

129:0.1 (1419.1)JESUS had fully and finally separated himself from the management of the domestic affairs of the Nazareth family and from the immediate direction of its individuals. He continued, right up to the event of his baptism, to contribute to the family finances and to take a keen personal interest in the spiritual welfare of every one of his brothers and sisters. And always was he ready to do everything humanly possible for the comfort and happiness of his widowed mother.

129:0.2 (1419.2)The Son of Man had now made every preparation for detaching himself permanently from the Nazareth home; and this was not easy for him to do. Jesus naturally loved his people; he loved his family, and this natural affection had been tremendously augmented by his extraordinary devotion to them. The more fully we bestow ourselves upon our fellows, the more we come to love them; and since Jesus had given himself so fully to his family, he loved them with a great and fervent affection.

129:0.3 (1419.3)All the family had slowly awakened to the realization that Jesus was making ready to leave them. The sadness of the anticipated separation was only tempered by this graduated method of preparing them for the announcement of his intended departure. For more than four years they discerned that he was planning for this eventual separation.

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Jesus’ Early Manhood

128:0.1 (1407.1)AS JESUS of Nazareth entered upon the early years of his adult life, he had lived, and continued to live, a normal and average human life on earth. Jesus came into this world just as other children come; he had nothing to do with selecting his parents. He did choose this particular world as the planet whereon to carry out his seventh and final bestowal, his incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh, but otherwise he entered the world in a natural manner, growing up as a child of the realm and wrestling with the vicissitudes of his environment just as do other mortals on this and on similar worlds.

128:0.2 (1407.2)Always be mindful of the twofold purpose of Michael’s bestowal on Urantia:

128:0.3 (1407.3)1. The mastering of the experience of living the full life of a human creature in mortal flesh, the completion of his sovereignty in Nebadon.

128:0.4 (1407.4)2. The revelation of the Universal Father to the mortal dwellers on the worlds of time and space and the more effective leading of these same mortals to a better understanding of the Universal Father.

128:0.5 (1407.5)All other creature benefits and universe advantages were incidental and secondary to these major purposes of the mortal bestowal.

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The Lessons of The Cross

 

Lessons of the cross

188:5.1 (2017.9)The cross of Jesus reflects the fullness of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd to even the unworthy members of his flock. It places all relationships between God and man forever on a family basis. God is the Father, man is his son. Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth in the universe-relationships between Creator and creature-not the justice of a king, who seeks satisfaction in the suffering and punishment of his sinning subject.

188:5.2 (2018.1)The cross shows forever that Jesus' attitude toward sinners was neither condemning nor condoning, but rather eternally and lovingly saving. Jesus is truly a Savior, in the sense that people are won to goodness and to righteous survival through his life and death. Jesus loves people so much that his love awakens the response of love in people's hearts. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus' death on the cross illustrates a love strong and divine enough to forgive sin and absorb all evil doing. Jesus revealed to this world a higher quality of justice than righteousness - the purely technical right and wrong. Divine love not only forgives wrong deeds, it absorbs them and actually nullifies them. Forgiveness out of love far exceeds forgiveness out of mercy. Mercy sets aside the guilt of wrongdoing: love, however, nullifies sin, and all the weakness that results from it, forever. Jesus brought a new way of life to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil, but through him to seek a goodness that actually destroys evil. Jesus' forgiveness is not condonation: it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not pass over wrongful acts: it restores them. True love does not compromise with hate, nor does it condone it, but it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master's love involves rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is perfectly correct to speak of salvation as salvation, if by this you mean this eternal rehabilitation.

188:5.3 (2018.2)Jesus, by the power of his personal love for men, was able to break the grip of sin and evil. He thereby set people free so that they could choose better ways of life. Jesus portrayed redemption from the past, which in itself promised victory for the future. Forgiveness thus provided salvation. Once the beauty of divine love has found full access to the human heart, it destroys forever the temptation of sin and the power of evil.

188:5.4 (2018.3)Jesus' suffering was not limited to crucifixion. In fact, Jesus of Nazareth spent more than twenty-five years on the cross of a real, intense, mortal existence. The true value of the cross lies in the fact that it was the highest and final expression of his love, the completion of the revelation of his mercy.

188:5.5 (2018.4)On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who might have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight of faith have looked again to Jesus on the cross and then continued the arduous journey, inspired by the sight of God laying down his incarnate life in dedication to selfless service to man.

188:5.6 (2018.5)The triumph of death on the cross is summed up entirely in the spirit of Jesus' attitude toward those who besieged him. He made the cross an eternal symbol of the triumph of love over hate and the victory of truth over evil when he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That devoted love was contagious throughout this vast universe: the disciples were kindled by their Master with it. The very first teacher of His gospel who was called to leave his life in this service said, when they stoned him, 'Do not impute this sin to them.'

188:5.7 (2018.6)The cross makes an supreme appeal to the best in man because it reveals a man who was willing to give his life for the service of his fellow men. No one can have greater love than this: that he is willing to give his life for his friends - and Jesus had such a love, that he was willing to give his life for his enemies, a love greater than had ever before been known on earth.

188:5.8 (2019.1)On other worlds, as well as on Urantia, this sublime sight of the death of the man Jesus on the cross of Calvary touched the emotions of mortals, while it aroused the highest devotion of angels.

188:5.9 (2019.2)The cross is the high symbol of holy service, of dedicating one's life to the welfare and salvation of one's fellow man. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners in order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does indeed exalt itself forever, on earth as well as everywhere else in this awesome universe, as a sacred symbol of the good giving themselves to the bad, saving them precisely by this devoted love. Indeed, the cross exalts itself as the sign of the highest form of selfless service, the supreme devotion of a righteous life given entirely for the service of sincere service, even in death, the death of the cross. And the mere sight of this great symbol of the self-giving life of Jesus truly inspires us all to do the same.

188:5.10 (2019.3)When thinking men and women look at Jesus as he sacrifices his life on the cross, they will hardly afford to complain even about life's gravest adversities, much less about trivial irritations and their many, purely imaginary grievances. His life was so glorious and His death so triumphant that we are all lured into a willingness to share both. There is a true appeal in the entire self-sacrifice of Michael, from the days of his youth to this overwhelming spectacle of his death on the cross.

188:5.11 (2019.4)Take care, then, that when you consider the cross as a revelation of God, you do not look at it with the eyes of primitive man or from the point of view of the later barbarian, both of whom viewed God as a ruthless Sovereign who renders strict justice and inflexibly enforces his laws. Rather, you should take care to see in the cross the final manifestation of Jesus' love and devotion to the life mission by which he bestowed himself on the mortal races of his vast universe. See in the death of the Son of Man the climax of the unfolding of the Father's divine love for his sons upon the worlds of mortals. Thus the cross depicts the dedication of willing love and the gift of voluntary salvation to those willing to receive these gifts and dedication. There was nothing in the cross that the Father demanded - only what Jesus willingly gave and refused to avoid.

188:5.12 (2019.5)If man cannot appreciate Jesus in other ways and understand the meaning of his self-gifting on earth, at least he can understand the communion expressed in his suffering as a mortal. No one can ever fear that the nature and extent of his afflictions in this world are unknown to the Creator.

188:5.13 (2019.6)We know that the death on the cross took place not to reconcile man to God, but to encourage man to become aware of the eternal love of the Father and the endless compassion of His Son, and to make these universal truths known to a whole universe.

A Thought for Consideration from The Urantia Book

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