© 1996 Ken Glasziou
© 1996 The Brotherhood of Man Library
In Part 4 of The Urantia Book, there are not less than thirty repetitions of Jesus’ advocacy of the “positive” way. The book tells us that it was Jesus’ habit to refrain from placing emphasis on evil by forbidding or actively opposing it. In contrast, he exalted the good by commanding its performance. “Goodness,” says the book, “is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth values of the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart–the shadows of potential evil.” (UB 132:2.7)
The book tells us that we are are endowed with the congenital power to choose between truth and error, the latter being the negative of the positive way of light and life. But whereas truth is a positive spiritual value, its negative has no real existence–until such time as an intelligent creature wills that existence by mischoosing that which is contrary to the nature of God. (UB 130:1.5) Thus to fight against those things we conceive to be error is to join the army of a Don Quixote and pass our lives tilting at non-existent windmills.
On so many occasions, Jesus not only himself refused to fight against perceived error but he also asked his disciples to do likewise. One slightly different but highly significant occasion was when John approached him in a highly emotional state to announce, “Master, yesterday I went over to Ashtaroth to see a man who was teaching in your name and even claiming to be able to cast out devils. Now this fellow had never been with us, neither does he follow after us; therefore I forbade him to do such things.” Then said Jesus: “Forbid him not.”
Jesus went on to explain to John, “Do you not perceive that this gospel of the kingdom shall presently be proclaimed in all the world? How can you expect that all who will believe the gospel shall be subject to your direction? Rejoice that already our teaching has begun to manifest itself beyond the bounds of our personal influence.”
The next part of this conversation is of enormous importance to all who would learn the positive way. Jesus tells John that all those who profess to do good works in his name shall be reckoned as being with them, even though this meant that whatever they did would be outside the jurisdiction and control of the apostolic group. The likelihood was also that much of their teaching would be erroneous.
The man whom John forbade to teach in Jesus name did not heed John’s prohibition–nor did he need to. His name was Aden. He was a healer, a caster-out of unclean spirits, a doer of positive good. And although he lacked the training the apostles had received and was an unauthorized teacher, he went on to achieve great things for the kingdom. However, despite their years in the personal company of Jesus, plus their endowment with the Spirit of Truth, the apostles had problems with the idea that they were not the sole proprietors of the truths of the Fourth Epochal Revelation. Many times after Jesus had departed from their midst, they “took offense at those who made bold to teach in the Master’s name. To them it always seemed inappropriate that those who had never sat at Jesus’ feet should dare to teach in his name.” (UB 159:2.3)
Relevant to the positive way, the book provides us with an account of another instructive incident. One Teherma, a Persian, had come from Damascus to see Jesus and was allocated to Simon Zelotes for preliminary instruction. Simon regarded Teherma as a fire-worshipper (presumably a follower of the sun-god, Ahura-Mazda). Reading between the lines, it appears that Simon proceeded authoritatively to set this ignorant Persian straight–but succeeded only in alienating him. Thus having failed dismally, Simon wondered why Jesus had no such problem with Teherma. Jesus responded, “Simon, Simon, how many times have I instructed you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error. When you have presented to mortal man the good news that God is his Father, you can the easier persuade him that he is in reality a son of God. And having done that, you have brought the light of salvation to the one who sits in darkness. Simon, when the Son of Man came first to you, did he come denouncing Moses and the prophets and proclaiming a new and better way of life? No. I came not to take away that which you had from your forefathers but to show you the perfected vision of that which your fathers saw only in part.” (UB 141:6.2)
Why is it that Urantia mortals so readily reject the positive way of Jesus, the way of quietly and unobtrusively living that which is basic and right? Instead we like to grab onto the errors we perceive in our neighbors’ thinking, and engage in battle against their error? The history of Christianity reeks of the stench of battle against heresy and error–and frequently did the rivers run red with the blood of the defeated. Perhaps one reason may be physio-logical, the effect of factors that accompanied the evolution of the fight or flight response, and the strange euphoria that follows the adrenalin fix induced by conflict. But whatever the cause of our attraction to engaging in conflict of one kind or another, to succumb to that attraction is contrary to the positive way–the way of Jesus.
Jesus had little to say about the social vices of his day; seldom did he make reference to moral delinquency. He was a positive teacher of true virtue. He studiously avoided the negative method of imparting instruction; he refused to advertise evil. He was not even a moral reformer. He well knew, and so taught his apostles, that the sensual urges of mankind are not suppressed by either religious rebuke or legal prohibidons. His few denunciations were largely directed against pride, cruelty, oppression, and hypocrisy. (UB 140:8.21)
It should, by now, be obvious that the teachings of The Urantia Book will not win out against the materialsm of our age until professed followers of the book learn that there is no battle to join that can be won. Souls for the kingdom must surely be won mainly by example–the example of God-revealing lives being lived out inconspicuously and without trumpets and fanfare by those already in the kingdom. It was the example of Jesus’ actual life as he lived it among them that won the loyalty-unto-death kind of faith that the apostles gave to Jesus.
Surely it is only a similar kind of behavior, the actual living out of a personal, God-revealing life as a matter of duty from each of its adherents that will lift the teachings of the Fifth Epochal Revelation to the point where it will begin to displace other religious teaching.
Fifty years of experience has now demonstrated that mere words, spoken or read, are unlikely to bring the true religion of the Jesus of The Urantia Book to the churches that bear his name. People need to see God-like–Jesus-like–actual, real, lives being lived out among them before they will be lifted up to the heights of Christian living exemplified in the teachings of the book. For the very few who are receptive, The Urantia Book can do, and has done, a great task. But for the many, the positive way of Jesus is needed. People need to actually see Jesus-like characters living among them, and simply going about whatever confronts them, doing good in the manner of Jesus.
Speaking of the early followers of the Fourth Epochal Revelation, the book says: “Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love.” (UB 194:3.11)
And speaking directly to all those who would follow him into the kingdom, Jesus said: “Now that you are ambassadors of my Father’s kingdom, you have thereby become a class of men separate and distinct from all other men on earth. You are not now as men among men but as the enlightened citizens of another and heavenly country among the ignorant creatures of this dark world. It is not enough that you live as you were before this hour, but henceforth must you live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and have been sent back to earth as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better world. Of the teacher more is expected than of the pupil; of the master more is exacted than of the servant. Of the citizens of the heavenly kingdom more is required than of the citizens of the earthly rule. Some of the things which I am about to say to you may seem hard, but you have elected to represent me in the world even as I now represent the Father; and as my agents on earth you will be obligated to abide by those teachings and practices which are reflective of my ideals of mortal living on the worlds of space, and which I exemplify in my earth life of revealing the Father who is in heaven.” (UB 140:3.1)
The above quotation is, of course, at the commencement of the ordination sermon to the twelve apostles. However, on page 1569, it is made clear that Jesus’ invitation was to “all others who would follow you (the apostles) into this kingdom.” And surely that includes recipients of the Fifth Epochal Revelation! The ball is now in our court!
And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-bom and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them. (UB 193:2.2)
But do not make the mistake of trying to prove to other men that you have found God; you cannot consciously produce such valid proof, albeit there are two positive and powerfull demonstrations of the fact that you are God-knowing, and they are:
- The fruits of the spirit of God showing forth in your daily routine life.
- The fact that your entire life plan furnishes positive proof that you have unreservedty risked everything you are and have on the adventure of survival after death in the pursuit of the hope of finding the God of eternity, whose presence you have foretasted in time. (UB 155:6.14-16)