© 1997 Bruce R. Jackson
© 1997 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
| My Spiritual Pilgrimage | Spring 1997 — Index | Significant Books: The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson |
During my last semester at a major evangelical seminary I was forced by the church establishment to make a firm decision regarding the public statement of my faith. This was a truly difficult task as my decision was to have serious consequences on my ministerial career and the public expression of my faith. I was forced to seriously rethink my understanding of the basic tenants of the Christian faith in the light of my personal experience, my Christian training, and a basic reading of The Urantia Book.
Some four years before entering the seminary I had come in contact with The Urantia Book. At the time I was convinced that it was an important revelatory document sent to this planet by Jesus Christ through the efforts of many diverse beings as is clearly indicated in “The Titles of the Papers.” Though I believed that my basic convictions were not in conflict with the teachings of the church, I recognized that The Urantia Book would be slow to find acceptance in mainline Christianity.
My initial relationship with The Urantia Book prior to entering the seminary was rather brief. I read it only once and would seldom reread passages. I estimate that I initially read only about two-thirds of the book, and I skipped around the text as I felt led by the Spirit. One of the most interesting phenomena that I experienced in my initial reading of the book was that once I had read a passage I seldom would forget it. That remains true to this day.
As the result of my experience with the church and The Urantia Book I have concluded that the church is in dire need of a second reformation. Additionally, I believe that the book significantly adds to the wisdom and spiritual vision of Christianity and other world religions.
While in the seminary I did not actively read or study The Urantia Book and was totally immersed in the Christian faith and teachings. Only in the last of my five years as a doctoral student at the seminary did I develop a catalogue of inconsistencies between the Christian faith and the religion of Jesus as represented by The Urantia Book. In that final semester I identified four significant areas of potential conflict between the public faith practice of Christianity and the faith outlined in The Urantia Book: a first century vs. a twenty-first century cosmology, formalized religion vs. personal religious experience, the promise of eternal. life vs. the realities of eternal living, and the interpretation of the meaning of the cross in relation to sin.
As the result of my experience with the church and The Urantia Book I have concluded that the church is in dire need of a second reformation. Additionally, I believe that the book significantly adds to the wisdom and spiritual vision of Christianity and other world religions. Though there are profound differences between the Christian religion and the religion of Jesus as represented by The Urantia Book, I am convinced that Christianity is fully capable of learning from The Urantia Book and incorporating its teachings into its 21st Century theology.
Some day a reformation in the Christian church may strike deep enough to get back to the unadulterated religious teachings of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You may preach a religion about Jesus, but, perforce, you must live the religion of Jesus. In the enthusiasm of Pentecost, Peter unintentionally inaugurated a new religion, the religion of the risen and glorified Christ. The Apostle Paul later on transformed this new gospel into Christianity, a religion embodying his own theologic views and portraying his own personal experience with the Jesus of the Damascus road. The gospel of the kingdom is founded on the personal religious experience of Jesus of Galilee; Christianity is founded almost exclusively on the personal religious experience of the Apostle Paul. Almost the whole of the New Testament is devoted, not to the portrayal of the significant and inspiring religious life of Jesus, but to a discussion of Paul’s religious experience and to a portrayal of his personal religious convictions… The New Testament is a superb Christian document, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian. (UB 196:2.1)
Largely as the result of this quotation and one other passage (UB 195:10.5), I have adopted the title “Jesusonian” as the descriptive title for the public expression of my personal faith and beliefs. Though it is dangerous to adopt titles for the public expression of the religion of Jesus because such titles somewhat falsely imply the existence of institutions, dogma, worship practice, and other evolutionary rationalizations of a living religious experience, I have found it necessary in order to differentiate between the public ramifications of the religion of Jesus and the established practices of the traditional church.
I have found that the first century cosmology of Christianity has serious cultural and personal ramifications, and is in need of revision in the light of the teachings of The Urantia Book. The Christian cosmology transmits a first century understanding of the cosmos which projects a flat earth between a dual universe of heaven and hell. It is a cosmology that has long been outdated, and is very difficult for a member of the “Star Trek” generation to accept. Most twentieth century men and women conceptualize the universe as a gigantic, complex, and very probably inhabited cosmos.
The Urantia Book not only projects such an enlarged material cosmology, but reveals a parallel spiritual cosmology. It offers Christianity the opportunity to develop a better understanding of how our mortal lives intersect with the eternal spirit beings who are assigned to our watchcare. In twentieth century Christianity it is not popular to believe that invisible beings influence our personal lives because of the role such beings are supposed to have played in the development of splinter cults, fanaticism, and mysticism. In this materialistic age, that which cannot be understood through empirical demonstration or evolutionary (time tested) faith is immediately suspect. It is a great mistake, however, to believe that just because we are unable to see angels and other immortal beings, they do not exist. Their ministry to the human races is extensively recorded in the sacred scriptures of the world religions, and no doubt their participation in modern life is more pervasive than is realized by our secular culture. Indeed, our paucity of knowledge and distortion of understanding regarding spirit personalities has caused a great deal of confusion in Christian and other world faiths.
One of the greatest sources of confusion on Urantia concerning the nature of God grows out of the failure of your sacred books clearly to distinguish between the personalities of the Paradise Trinity and between Paradise Deity and the local universe creators and administrators. During the past dispensations of partial understanding, your priests and prophets failed clearly to differentiate between Planetary Princes, System Sovereigns, Constellation Fathers, Creator Sons, Superuniverse Rulers, the Supreme Being, and the Universal Father. Many of the messages of subordinate personalities, such as Life Carriers and various orders of angels, have been, in your records, presented as coming from God himself. (UB 4:5.2)
The pervasive influence of orthodoxy has resulted in a large segment of the Christian Church focusing on the changeless past rather than facing the conceptual challenges of spiritual growth.
The traditional ignorance of the structure and organization of the universe has spawned some rather unfortunate consequences. Christianity has often failed to enlarge and evolve its spiritual concepts because of its bondage to dogma. There has been a tendency to make a fetish out of the Bible as the only source of revelation, and to worship the text as the “Holy Word of God.” The pervasive influence of orthodoxy has resulted in a large segment of the Christian Church focusing on the changeless past rather than facing the conceptual challenges of spiritual growth.
For ages the inhabitants of Urantia have misunderstood the providence of God. There is a providence of divine outworking on your world, but it is not the childish, arbitrary, and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to be. The providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic law, unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual advancement of his universe children.
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? (UB 4:1.1-2)
Many Christians believe that the spiritual challenge of our complex contemporary world remains the same as it was in Biblical times. The limited cosmology of Christian orthodoxy tends to confirm this stagnate view of history in which the Holy Bible is seen as the only revelation of God which was given once and for all time. Any other spiritual vision or source of revelation is seen as erroneous, heretical, or inspired by the devil. This narrow view of orthodox theology justifies their refusal to honestly and seriously examine The Urantia Book. Even as a Christian, years ago I was forced to question this orthodox view as a “self fulfilling prophecy” that perpetuates a Biblical perspective that may not be based on historical or universal reality.
The reliance of the Christian faith on the Bible as the only “Word of God” is a serious weakness of the faith that tends to exclude the wisdom of other cultures and faiths, and separates believers from the authentic brotherhood of humanity. I am deeply concerned that the Christian faith has created for itself a truly lamentable form of exclusivism and isolation from the rest of the human race that is wholly out of keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
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. (UB 103:1.3)
The Urantia Book describes God as constantly involved in history. From the Christian perspective, I had serious difficulty with the idea of a stagnant (quasi deist) God ministering to an unchanging (nonevolutionary) people. Any assertion that the cultural and spiritual challenges of the 20th Century are the same as those of the first century shows a lack of knowledge and insight. In our Information Age human society has a markedly different approach to reality and spirituality than the peoples of prescientific civilization. There are many evidences of God’s involvement in our times. For example, the collapse of communism is the product of a much greater historical dynamic than the confrontational political policies of the United States. It is, in my judgment, one of the greatest demonstrations of the leadership of the Most Highs in history. The sovereignty of God’s overcontrol in history always prevails. Armageddon is not “just around the corner.”
The time is dawning when the human races are beginning to recognize that we are all part of the same Kingdom of God enunciated by Jesus. Though the religious expressions of that kingdom may take on many indigenous forms of worship and interpretations of theology, the reality of that eternal kingdom is destined to become a focal awareness in the consciousness of all peoples as we live out the central truth of The Urantia Book: in the Fatherhood of God we must live as brothers and sisters on our planet.
One of the most serious weaknesses of Christianity, I believe, has been the fostering of denominationalism, ecclesiasticism, dogmatism, and the suppression of creative individual spiritual experience-all of which are the result of institutionalization.
One of the most serious weaknesses of Christianity, I believe, has been the fostering of denominationalism, ecclesiasticism, dogmatism, and the suppression of creative individual spiritual experience — all of which are the result of institutionalization. The fractionalization of Christianity has created serious inconsistencies and ambiguities in the presentation of the religion of Jesus Christ, and must be addressed if Christian institutions are to remain a vital spiritual force in the modern world. What the church needs now is the uncompromised teachings of Jesus. Theological interpretations of his message through historical criticism are legitimate approaches for the religious scholar, but society needs to hear anew the gospel of Jesus in order to experience first hand the religion of Jesus.
But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God to the service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the aristocratic “chosen-people” attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; the routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship; tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up-to-date interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation. (UB 99:6.3)
Christianity has suffered the fate of evolutionary religion. In its attempt to mold religious experience into definable forms, Christianity has lost the very essence upon which it was founded and is no longer the spiritual adventure that so excited its first apostles. The Christian faith has become convenient, lacking in spiritual challenge, and is slowly dissolving under its own institutional weight. The Urantia Book indicates that this was not the case in the beginning.
The early Christian cult was the most effective, appealing and enduring of any ritual ever conceived or devised, but much of its value has been destroyed in a scientific age by the destruction of so many of its original underlying tenets. The Christian cult has been devitalized by the loss of many fundamental ideas.
In the past, truth has grown rapidly and expanded freely when the cult has been elastic, the symbolism expansile. Abundant truth and an adjustable cult have favored rapidity of social progression. A meaningless cult vitiates religion when it attempts to supplant philosophy and to enslave reason; a genuine cult grows. (UB 87:7.4-5)
A recent Time magazine article examined this very issue and concluded that the “baby boom” generation no longer feels an allegiance to a single denomination, but now employs a “super-market approach” to religious experience: dabbling here and there to find what best fits at the moment. The concern of many church leaders about the lack of growth in mainline churches indicates that the spiritual message is no longer reaching the people. The Time article, however, did not recognize the harmful effect of sectarianism and dogma.
Sectarianism is a disease of institutional religion, and dogmatism is an enslavement of the spiritual nature. It is far better to have a religion without a church than a church without a religion. (UB 99:6.1)
The sad fact is that many mainline churches have become little more than exclusive country clubs for the social benefit of its patrons. This trend can do little more than offer congregation members the humanistic comforts of an appealing message, acceptable music, entertainment for the kids, and an atmosphere of community and friendship. Many church leaders bemoan the fact that when spiritually challenged these same church members will be quick to leave for another venue. This is the dilemma of the modern materialistic age where the primary concern is for temporal security rather than eternal reality. Accordingly, church clergy have elected to cater to these temporal needs in emphasizing social action and parroting the traditional dogma in which the laity have been conditioned, rather than to challenge them with the larger spiritual truths taught in mainline theological seminaries. At the same time, the power structure of the church largely ignores the religious experience of earnest seekers of truth that appear to be outside of their theological boundaries. The Urantia Book suggests that the church needs to return to its spiritual message and foster an atmosphere of creative spirituality.
The visible church should refuse longer to handicap the progress of the invisible and spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom of God. And this brotherhood is destined to become a living organism in contrast to an institutionalized social organization. It may well utilize such social organizations, but it must not be supplanted by them…
And the genuine lovers of truth will be slow to forget that this powerful institutionalized church has often dared to smother newborn faith and persecute truth bearers who chanced to appear in unorthodox raiment.
It is all too true that such a church would not have survived unless there had been men in the world who preferred such a style of worship.Many spiritually indolent souls crave an ancient and authoritative religion of ritual and sacred traditions. Human evolution and spiritual progress are hardly sufficient to enable all men to dispense with religious authority. And the invisible brotherhood of the kingdom may well include these family groups of various social and temperamental classes if they are only willing to become truly spirit-led sons of God. But in this brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, nor assertions of moral superiority and spiritual infallibility. (UB 195:10.11-14)
The authors of The Urantia Book are quick to point out, however, “But the Christianity of even the twentieth century must not be despised. It is the product of the combined moral genius of the God-knowing men of many races during many ages, and it has truly been one of the greatest powers for good on earth, and therefore no man should lightly regard it, notwithstanding its inherent and acquired defects.” (UB 195:10.12) It is easy to point out the problems of Christianity resulting from over institutionalization and dogmatic formalism, but in the Christian faith the seeds of truth are deep and eternal.
Do not overlook the value of your spiritual heritage, the river of truth running down through the centuries, even to the barren times of a materialistic and secular age. In all your worthy efforts to rid yourselves of the superstitious creeds of past ages, make sure that you hold fast the eternal truth. But be patient! when the present superstition revolt is over, the truths of Jesus’ gospel will persist gloriously to illuminate a new and better way. (UB 195:9.1)
We cannot escape the social reality in which we currently find ourselves. We have a responsibility to the kingdom to recognize our problems and to deal with them. The Information Age has brought upon our planet a new consciousness of obligation and commitment that must result in significant social change if the human race is to survive.
The twentieth century has brought new problems for Christianity and all other religions to solve. The higher a civilization climbs, the more necessitous becomes the duty to “seek first the realities of heaven” in all of man’s efforts to stabilize society and facilitate the solution of its material problems.
Truth often becomes confusing and even misleading when it is dismembered, segregated, isolated and too much analyzed. Living truth teaches the truth seeker aright only when it is embraced in wholeness and as a living spiritual reality, not as a fact of material science or an inspiration of intervening art…
A lasting social system without a morality predicated on spiritual realities can no more be maintained than could the solar system without gravity. (UB 195:5.1-9)
The Urantia Book makes it clear that there are few institutions better prepared to lay the spiritual foundations for necessary social changes than the Christian Church. The contemporary church will have to make a serious effort to revitalize its spiritual message if it is to continue to serve the spiritual kingdom.
The Urantia Book makes it clear that there are few institutions better prepared to lay the spiritual foundations for necessary social changes than the Christian Church. The contemporary church will have to make a serious effort to revitalize its spiritual message if it is to continue to serve the spiritual kingdom.
Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now most needed is Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men. It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where you find yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation. (UB 195:10.1)
When I entered the seminary I truly believed that such a rethinking of Christian theology was possible, and I still hold to that belief. The current climate of rapid social change clearly indicates that the Most Highs have prepared our world for such a change. I am deeply convinced that the institutional church can experience a second reformation through the new and uncompromised teachings of Jesus revealed in The Urantia Book.
Of all the teachings of The Urantia Book, the discussion of eternal life starting on the mansion worlds had the most profound effect on my life. It is my personal testimony that the revelation of the eternal career ahead was the most profound and life changing event that I have ever experienced. Christianity has woefully little to say about the realities of eternal life. What little the Christian faith has to say about our ascension career is couched in surreal terms like “golden streets” and “pearly gates.” My grandmother, for instance, after 75 years of marriage to a highly successful evangelical minister, was convinced that her resurrection from death would be to the streets of gold at the feet of Christ where all of her problems would be transformed into a life of perfection and ease.
The Gods cannot — at least they do not — transform a creature of gross animal nature into a perfected spirit by some mysterious act of creative magic. When the Creators desire to produce perfect beings, they do so by direct and original creation, but they never undertake to convert animal-origin and material creatures into beings of perfection in a single step. (UB 48:0.1)
I consider the inability of Christianity to explain the realities of eternal life in a credible manner to be one of the most significant limitations of its teachings. A parallel analogy might be something like the development of an entire society of grade schoolers who attempt to plan their lives without the benefit of knowing what middle school, high school, college, or graduate school have in store for them. Human beings are severely handicapped in their spiritual growth without this knowledge. A large section of the Christian constituency has seriously misunderstood the nature of evolution and the important role that it has in the development of our lives, our planet, and the entire universe.
The first and perhaps most glaring error of the church in understanding the nature of eternal life is the basic requirements to attain eternal life. It is generally assumed in orthodox dogma that “being saved” requires allegiance to certain creedal or doctrinal positions and that our status in heaven is immediate perfection where there are no problems or suffering. Many hold that the church is the door way to eternal life; it holds “the keys to the kingdom of heaven.”
Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured. Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. (UB 5:5.13)
From the perspective of The Urantia Book, it is clear that it is easy to ascend into heaven. It is a great mistake to maintain, as do some sections of the institutional church, that they hold the keys to eternal life. Even the mightiest beings in the universe, the authors of The Urantia Book point out, do not profess to hold such power.
Having thus provided for the growth of the immortal soul and having liberated man’s inner self from the fetters of absolute dependence on antecedent causation, the Father stands aside. Now, man having thus been liberated from the fetters of causation response, at least as pertains to eternal destiny, and provision having been made for the growth of the immortal self, the soul, it remains for man himself to will the creation or to inhibit the creation of this surviving and eternal self which is his for the choosing. No other being, force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of universes can interfere to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the mortal free will, as it operates within the realms of choice, regarding the eternal destiny of the personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to eternal survival, God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal will, and that decree is absolute. (UB 5:6.8)
In the light of Jesus’ teachings about our Heavenly Father, this decree of God establishing the sovereignty of human free will choice regarding eternal survival resonates with authenticity. And in the face of God’s respect for the free will choice of even the lowest of God’s mortal children, it is regrettable that some sections of the church declare that only their creedal position for eternal salvation will prevail, and even assert the infallibility of their judgment.
What is so incredible about The Urantia Book is its demystification of life after death presented in concepts and descriptions that make sense to the rational mind.
What is so incredible about The Urantia Book is its demystification of life after death presented in concepts and descriptions that make sense to the rational mind. The portrayal of the “mansion worlds” and celestial abodes where we sojourn in our educational pilgrimage to Paradise and the Universal Father is given in sufficient detail to stimulate spiritual growth in the here and now. It is refreshing to learn that there are even more differing careers in our post-mortal existence than in our contemporary world.
The Urantia Book also makes an astounding promise of adventure to all mortals: we will be playing a very significant role in the development of the ongoing evolution of the universe. Although mortals are the lowest of God’s created beings capable of eternal survival, we have the opportunity to evolve to the very heights of spiritual experience. We must move through many stages before we become perfected spirit beings, and this process takes a very long time-maybe eons. While each transformation on our journey to Paradise brings new opportunities to grow as a spirit being, we will always retain our personality identity which is absolutely unique for each individual.
Those things which you might have learned on earth, but which you failed to learn, must be acquired under the tutelage of these faithful and patient teachers. There are no royal roads, short cuts, or easy paths to Paradise. Irrespective of the individual variations of the route, you master the lessons of one sphere before you proceed to another; at least this is true after you once leave the world of your nativity. (UB 48:5.7)
The Urantia Book authors remind us that what is not learned here as mortal beings must be learned after our resurrection on the mansion worlds. I found that this counsel and enlightenment greatly effected my perception of life and my understanding of my mortal obligations. For example, consider some of the earliest lessons of the lowest (the seventh) mansion world:
One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking. The mansonia life early teaches the young morontia pupils that postponement is in no sense avoidance. After the life in the flesh, time is no longer available as a technique of dodging situations or of circumventing disagreeable obligations. (UB 48:5.8)
I believe that it is important for the church to seriously rethink its message about eternal life. For far too long most Christians have embraced the view that eternal life is some form of heavenly bliss, a trip to Nirvana, the eradication of tribulations, and a ticket to a life of ease. According to The Urantia Book, this is clearly not the case!
The mortal-survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labor and painstaking training only that you may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal of transcendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the present universe age. If the Gods designed merely to take you on one long and eternal joy excursion, they certainly would not so largely turn the whole universe into one vast and intricate practical training school, requisition a substantial part of the celestial creation as teachers and instructors, and then spend ages upon ages piloting you, one by one, through this gigantic universe school of experiential training. The furtherance of the scheme of mortal progression seems to be one of the chief businesses of the present organized universe, and the majority of innumerable orders of created intelligences are either directly or indirectly engaged in advancing some phase of this progressive perfection plan. (UB 48:8.3)
With such a knowledge of our eternal career we no longer need to fear death; it is a graduation to a more dynamic continuation of our life. The Urantia Book indicates that although we have a more durable morontia (part material, part spiritual) body, our spiritual growth continues just where we left it in our mortal existence. The great wonderment and exciting promise of this eternal ascension career is that we mortal will-creatures are promised an incredible universe career that even those beings created in perfection are envious of.
In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe age. (UB 48:8.4)
Thus, The Urantia Book offers a vision of life that moves far beyond the constraints of this limited planet. Through this vision I was better able to understand something of the possibilities of human life now and in the future; and I am astounded by the unlimited opportunities that are before us. I believe that The Urantia Book presents humanity with the opportunity to anticipate the career adventure ahead while clarifying our current mortal obligations. With this understanding it is possible to avoid being influenced by the fanatic ravings of demagogues who promise eternal life without living its realities. I am convinced that this information is vital to the next phase of evolutionary human progress.
Most of the Christian doctrines of human nature are predicated on the assumption that in “the fall of Adam” human nature was corrupted and as a result human beings are “prone to evil and sin.” These doctrines had their origin in Pauline theology; Jesus did not share this negative view of human nature.
The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the potential of religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore man’s dignity when he declared that all men are the children of God. (UB 99:5.5)
I believe that the core of the contemporary Christian problem is the misinterpretation of the nature of sin in relation to the meaning of the cross. The words “Christ died for our sins” has become the Christian mantra. Just because this phrase is repeated incessantly in many Christian groups does not make it true. It is my opinion that this view of the atonement of sin through Christ’s death on the cross is a barbarous concept unworthy of the 21 st century understanding of God. This doctrine has lead to a serious misunderstanding of the nature of sin, the meaning of the cross, and the nature of God. The atonement for sin doctrine was never taught by Jesus nor did he present a concept of God implied by this doctrine.
The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or divert the fictitious divine wrath. (UB 4:5.4)
The Urantia Book presents a picture of salvation that is compatible with rational and balanced minds: each person is loved by God and their survival is not dependent on subscribing to the right dogmas or performing proper religious rituals. As stated earlier, eternal survival is wholly dependent on the choosing of the human mind: “When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured.” (UB 5:5.13) Even Lucifer would be forgiven by God if he repented and asked forgiveness for his iniquitous acts. The willingness of the Heavenly Father to extend forgiveness for sin is even beyond the comprehension of the immortal beings who authored The Urantia Book.
The Urantia Book presents a picture of salvation that is compatible with rational and balanced minds: each person is loved by God and their survival is not dependent on subscribing to the right dogmas or performing proper religious rituals.
Our contemporary world needs a redefinition of the nature of sin if it is to evolve to the next phase of human achievement. Sin is the result of the choices of a mortal being in relation to the will of the Universal Father. Sin is the responsibility of the individual, and must be actively eradicated through personal will decision, growth, and maturation.
The consciousness of sin persists in the mortal mind, but the thought patterns of salvation there from have become outworn and antiquated. The reality of the spiritual need persists, but intellectual progress has destroyed the olden ways of securing peace and consolation for mind and soul. (UB 89:10.1)
If the Christian Church is to effectively reach the inquiring minds of the Information Age, then we must redefine sin in accordance with universe wisdom:
Sin must be redefined as deliberate disloyalty to Deity. There are degrees of disloyalty: the partial loyalty of indecision; the divided loyalty of confliction; the dying loyalty of indifference; and the death of loyalty exhibited in devotion to godless ideals.
The sense or feeling of guilt is the consciousness of the violation of the mores; it is not necessarily sin. There is no real sin in the absence of conscious disloyalty to Deity. (UB 89:10.2-3)
This is, in my view, a much higher understanding of the nature of sin than the theology presented in conservative Christian dogma. Christianity suffers under the handicap of having no adequate historical record of the events surrounding the Lucifer rebellion. The Urantia Book gives an extended account of this celestial event that adds significantly to the understanding of our planetary history. Though final adjudication of Lucifer and his cohorts has yet to be finalized, the lessons and meaning of sin have been forever clarified for all universe beings through that experience.
There are personal responsibilities in relation to sin. God does recognize our repentance and forgives our sins. As suggested by Christian theology, the religion of Jesus makes provision for coping with our guilt resulting from sin that is basic to our psychological and spiritual well being.
The confession of sin is a manful repudiation of disloyalty, but it in no wise mitigates the time-space consequences of such disloyalty. But confession-sincere recognition of the nature of sin is essential to religious growth and spiritual progress.
The forgiveness of sin by Deity is the renewal of loyalty relations following a period of the human consciousness of the lapse of such relations as the consequence of conscious rebellion. The forgiveness does not have to be sought, only received as the consciousness of re-establishment of loyalty relations between the creature and the Creator. And all the loyal sons of God are happy, service-loving, and ever-progressive in the Paradise ascent. (UB 89:10.5-6)
In the light of God’s relationship to his mortal children and the forgiveness of sin, we must reexamine the meaning of the cross. We can no longer accept the erroneous atonement doctrine as the true meaning of the cross; not only because it misrepresents the nature of sin and forgiveness, but also because the meaning of the cross holds a much higher symbolism for universe beings. The Urantia Book informs us that the cross is the high symbol for selfless and loving service. It is the good bestowing themselves on the evil needing regeneration whose attitude is best portrayed in Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (UB 187:2.4) Through his death on the cross Jesus demonstrated that he did not condemn sinners, but offered them a loving path of salvation in laying down his life for his enemies.
The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one’s life to the welfare and salvation of one’s fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does stand forever, on earth and throughout a vast universe, as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love. The cross does stand as the token of the highest form of unselfish service, the supreme devotion of the full bestowal of a righteous life in the service of whole-hearted ministry, even in death, the death on the cross. And the very sight of this great symbol of the bestowal life of Jesus truly inspires all of us to want to go and do likewise. (UB 188:5.9)
Christianity has always recognized the transforming power of the cross on the life of the believer, but the meaning of that transformation needs to be reformulated. When the concept of the atonement is disassociated from the cross, it stands out in its full power as the ultimate symbol of loving and selfless service, and motivates us to become true sons and daughters of Christ in loving and selfless service.
When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offers up his life on the cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and their many purely fictitious grievances. His life was so glorious and his death so triumphant that we are all enticed to a willingness to share both. (UB 188:5.10)
I have discovered that I possess no particular advantage because of the revelatory power of The Urantia Book. My life has not been materially better, I have not had earth-shaking visions of truth, and I have not experienced any identifiable earthly or spiritual benefits from my knowledge of the information contained in The Urantia Book. I truly believe that I am no different in spiritual or material status than any other child of God, no matter what faith system he or she adopts.
It is a fact that if you are looking for any divine favor, any spiritual advantage or any universe privileges through embracing the Jesusonian religion or reading The Urantia Book, you can expect to be sorely disappointed. God loves all his children of time and space, and each individual has an equal opportunity to progress spiritually. The religion of Jesus is truly open to all and is completely inclusive.
It is a fact that if you are looking for any divine favor, any spiritual advantage or any universe privileges through embracing the Jesusonian religion or reading The Urantia Book, you can expect to be sorely disappointed. God loves all his children of time and space, and each individual has an equal opportunity to progress spiritually. The religion of Jesus is truly open to all and is completely inclusive.
The religious impulse to seek truth and discover the will of God is universal and important to all the mortal races. Anthropologists inform us that there has never been a society that did not posses some form of religion. Inevitably The Urantia Book must have a significant impact on human thought because the revelation of the religion of Jesus is simply too important to be ignored. I am concerned, however, that Christianity may pay a high price in terms of credibility if it continues to ignore The Urantia Book.
The Urantia Book suggests that this new revelation highlighting Jesus’ life and teachings will probably develop into a new public expression of faith and a religious cult quite separate and distinct from the church.
Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism. Modern man must find some adequate symbolism for his new and expanding ideas, ideals, and loyalties. This enhanced symbol must arise out of religious living, spiritual experience…
The old cults were too egocentric; the new must be the outgrowth of applied love. The new cult must, like the old, foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty; but it must do more: It must facilitate spiritual progress, enhance cosmic meanings, augment moral values, encourage social development, and stimulate a high type of personal religious living. The new cult must provide supreme goals of living which are both temporal and eternal-social and spiritual. (UB 87:7.6-7)
Although I respect the forgoing statement, I am not absolutely convinced that it will be necessary to establish a new religion (Jesusonianism?) to present the world with the new and enlarged message of the life and teachings of Jesus. It is my sincere hope that the Christian Church and other religions of the world will be able to absorb these new ideas and evolve their theology to meet the needs of the 21 st Century. I am convinced that all this is possible, and we shall be able to evolve and grow to meet the new challenges of the Information Age and beyond. I should like to conclude this presentation with one of my favorite passages from The Urantia Book-a passage which profoundly influenced my life.
Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world. (UB 195:9.4)
Bruce R. Jackson is a musician, teacher, and minister in background training and experience, and a long time student of The Urantia Book.
| My Spiritual Pilgrimage | Spring 1997 — Index | Significant Books: The Real Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson |