© 2002 The Brotherhood of Man Library
The ultimate aim set by George Fox, one of the founding fathers of the Quaker movement around 1650, was for each individual to so relate to the indwelling Spirit of God that they would be enabled to live as Jesus lived—in total dedication to the will of God. Fox had a further purpose—to influence the whole of Christendom to do likewise.
Sincere Quakers were relatively disadvantaged compared with those who have the Urantia Papers. Although the basics of Jesus’ life can be discerned from the Gospels (with the guidance of the indwelling Spirit), they nevertheless contain some misleading doctrinal statements. Paramount among these are two verses from John 3:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”[1]
These verses readily lead to an exclusivity mentality—“I’m right, you are wrong. Believe as I do or be damned.” Fox meant for his philosophy to be universal but the minds of men readily adapt, and so adopt the exclusivity concept. It is highly contagious. Not even Urantians are immune.
If Jesus were on Earth today,. . . he would not take sides in present-day political, social, or economic disputes. Rather, he would make men God-like—and leave them to solve their own purely human problems. (see UB 140:8.17)
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wild flower,
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Blake
The Urantia Papers reiterate that Jesus’ gospel was for all men, that he wanted “to make all men God-like” (UB 140:8.18); that he wanted his children on Earth to live as though they were already citizens of the completed heavenly kingdom" (UB 140:8.25); and that “he was concerned only with the principles of man’s inner and personal spiritual life,” (UB 140:8.31)
The Papers also stress that our spirituality was the dominant concern of Jesus’ life.
“Jesus concerned himself exclusively with the underlying and permanent spiritual needs of the human race. His life revealed a goodness equal to God. He exalted love—truth, beauty and goodness—as the divine ideal and the eternal reality.” (UB 140:8.31)
So what are the principles of an inner and spiritual life?
“The one characteristic of Jesus’ teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relationship of the individual and God—this very child-Father relationship.” (UB 140:10.5)
“Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living.” (UB 140:10.5)
“Jesus taught morality not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to God.” (UB 140:10.8)
Thus morality and spirituality are tied inextricably together, both having their real origins in divine sources. Even the first moral decision in childhood that initiates our indwelling by the Spirit of God derives not from ourselves but has its source in the Eternal Spirit.
Bearing fruit can be given a widespread meaning. Jesus reduced the boundaries:
“Jesus refused to have his attention diverted from his mission. . . he would not permit himself to be concerned about anything else; in all his public teachings he ignored the civic, social, and economic realms. He told his followers that he was concerned only with the principles of man’s inner personal spiritual life.” (UB 140:8.9)
Jesus informed us that bearing spirit fruit is an imperative: “My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit.” And the boundaries spelled out in listing the fruits of the spirit (UB 193:2.2) exclude the secular realms, those social areas within which the Quaker’s were so active.
We are left in no doubt that we are intended not to follow the pathway that brought disaster to the Quaker movement. Shouting our message from the roof tops is not our intended role. The contrary: Jesus said when we give alms, when we are bearing fruit in service to our brothers and sisters, we are not to do as other men do—try to draw attention to their philanthropy. We are to do our good deeds, to bear fruit, in secret. We are not to let our left hand know what our right hand does.
But what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.
Tennyson
Something attempted, something done, has earned a night’s repose.
Longfellow
But our first duty lies within ourselves. First we must “be:”
“That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness—salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, ‘In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.’ Many times did he repeat, ‘Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ All the while was the Master explaining to his bewildered apostles that the salvation which he had come to bring to the world was to be had only by believing, by simple and sincere faith.” (UB 140:10.1)
How do we set ourselves right so that we can live as Jesus lived? The Papers state:
“To ‘follow Jesus’ means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.” (UB 196:1.3)
For those blessed with a photographic memory, a mere 700 or so pages of Jesus life might not present a major challenge. To most of us, it is not even a possibility.
Perhaps the best place to discover the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it is in Paper 140, “The Ordination Sermon.” In about twenty pages we receive a condensed version of Jesus’ thought and teaching that is described as “a master philosophy of life” (UB 140:4.9) that would help create “a high spiritual and inspirational ideal for all mortal beings on all worlds.” (UB 140:10.3)
“The goal for human self-realization should be spiritual not material. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal.” (UB 100:2.6)
“Spirituality is the indicator of one’s nearness to God. . . it enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, discover goodness in values.”
“Spiritual development is determined by the capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities in love.” (UB 100:2.4)
Being an abstract quality, a precise definition of spirituality is not really a possibility. Any definition will tend to be in terms of other abstract concepts, themselves indefinable. An example: What is spirtuality? Spirituality is all that is encompassed in divine love. But what is divine love? God is love and divine love is what God is.
This life is but the passage of a day,
This life is but a pang and all is over;
But in the life to come which fades not away,
Every love shall abide and every lover.
Christina Rosetti
No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
The nearest thing we have to a definition of spirituality in the Papers is:
“Actual spiritual status is the measure of Deity attainment, Adjuster attunement. The achievement of finality of spirituality is equivalent to the attainment of the maximum of reality, the maximum of Godlikeness.” (UB 100:2.5)
Jesus’ life was a revelation, one that is comprehensible by mortals such as ourselves, as being the “maximum of God-likeness.” Hence the Paper’s statement that the most important thing in our lives is to know the life of Jesus and how he lived it.
Perhaps the best approach may be to view spirituality as being something that is generated more or less unconsciously by experiences that are given meaning and value by the “touch” of divinity—concepts such as truth, beauty, goodness, tolerance, patience, forbearance, fairness, trust, peace, selflessness, etc. All these are “God-likeness” properties that, when grasped and incorporated into our selfhood have the potential to spiritualize our experiences—and thereby become the spiritual reality that, through our indwelling God-Spirit, can generate our eternal soul.
There is a feedback loop involved in the creation of our souls. This process is under the control of the God-Spirit-Within who is both the source of our aspirations to attain to God-likeness, and the control channel by which our spiritualized experiences are conserved for the process of soul formation. And help is always at hand:
“If your own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well.” (UB 48:6.26)
This statement leads to a useful technique. When in a quandary, if we are familiar with the mind of Jesus, we can always ask ourselves and our Spirit-Within, “What would Jesus do?”
“When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men—always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven—God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation.” (UB 141:6.4)
Christians already know that God is their Father. From childhood they are taught the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who is in heaven. . . .” The task confronting us is to modify that concept to include “Our Father whose Spirit dwells within us.” There are more than twenty verses of the New Testament attesting to this virtually forgotten fact. Almost all are from Paul or from John. Examples are:
"Surely you know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells within you (1 Cor. 3:16)
“If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)
Whosoever would become great in my Father’s kingdom shall become a minister to all; and whosoever would befirst among you, let him become the server of his brethren. (UB 140:1.6)
We are left with little doubt that we are not to follow the path of social service that brought disaster to the Quakers. Where does that leave us? Primarily we must put our own house in order, learn how Jesus lived, and seek to be like him. Bearing fruit will tend to be unconscious, a by-product of living as Jesus lived. Mostly it will come about through serving as we pass by. We are to avoid being conspicuous—in giving alms, doing our good deeds in secret—or at least unobtrusively, “not to attract attention to self.” (UB 140:4.5)
So how can we influence Christianity or anyone else? Jesus said to take no thought for tomorrow. When a young Indian lad asked Jesus why he was not yet teaching publicly, Jesus responded: “You must, in all such matters, wait upon time. . . We are now on the way to Rome and that is sufficient for today. My tomorrow is wholly in the hands of my Father”
In other words the doing of God’s will is just that. It is not our will. We are passive performers, living as Jesus lived, doing as Jesus did—leaving the future to God. It is not our world, we are only messengers. Faith is our sole support as we labor inconspicuously, taking no anxious thought. That appears to be the way things are meant to be for God’s messengers.
These words, attributed to John, were written about 70 years after Jesus crucifixion and probably were editorial additions by John’s disciples. See Catholic study edition of the Good News Bible. ↩︎