© 1994 Ken Glasziou
© 1994 The Brotherhood of Man Library
Condensed from Jacob Needleman, “Lost Christianity. A Journey of Rediscovery to the Centre of Christian Experience.”
In a book on comparative religion, Professor Jacob Needleman has sought to address the question of what has been lost, or what is missing, from the teachings of the world’s great religions. Needleman believes that something has happened that has virtually halted the progress of mankind towards that state The Urantia Book would call “light and life.”
After many interviews with religious leaders from many countries, including Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, and Muslims, Professor Needleman came up with these conclusions:
Very little needs to be changed other than these two factors:
Recognition that truth is the sustained consciousness of error. Only in this way can the Holy Spirit appear within the individual.
If we seek for what is possible within ourselves, what is not possible will be added unto us.
That seems simple enough but hunting in Needleman’s book for an in-depth explanation of their meaning proved to be tedious and frustrating. Perhaps this is necessary for the benefit of those who are searching. Or perhaps it is a means by which academics and mystics ensure they do not do themselves out of a job.
The key to the first requirement is to be found in the gospel of Matthew (Mt 15:18-20). Some Pharisees had approached Jesus to complain about his disciples not washing their hands in the proper ritual manner prior to eating. Jesus answered that it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. Then he added:
“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make a person unclean. For from his heart come the evil ideas which lead him to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. These are the things that make a person unclean.” Mt 15:18-20
The Bible lists these as evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies. The Urantia Book describes the same incident but says:
“Do you not know it is from the heart that there come forth evil thoughts, wicked projects of murder, theft, and adulteries, together with jealousy, pride, anger, revenge, railings, and false witness?” UB 153:3.5
To the above Needleman adds another quotation from the gospel of Matthew:
“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You clean the outside of your cup and plate, while the inside is full of what you have gotten by violence and selfishness. Blind Pharisees! Clean what is inside the cup first, and then the outside will be clean too!” Mt 23:25-26
The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions, but in the realm of the highest of the most spiritualized thinking. It is your thoughts, not your feelings that lead you Godward. The divine nature may be perceived only with the eyes of the mind But the mind that really discerns God, hears the indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind. “Without holiness no man may see the Lord.” (UB 101:1.3)
The Urantia Book puts it more strongly:
“Woe upon you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! for you are scrupulous to cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within there remains the filth of extortion, excesses, and deception. You are spiritually blind. Do you not recognize how much better it would be first to cleanse the inside of the cup, and then that which spills over would of itself cleanse the outside? You wicked reprobates! You make the outward performances of your religion to conform with the letter of your interpretation of Moses’ law while your souls are steeped in iniquity and filled with murder.” UB 175:1.18
In other words, the major hindrance to the further spiritual progress of our planet is the continued deleterious effects of inherited animalistic emotions in most (all?) of us. The point made by many of the religious leaders interviewed by Professor Needleman is that the necessary intimate contact with the indwelling presence of God required for the continuing development of our souls, cannot occur while our hearts still harbor those things that Jesus said defile us.
Needleman claims that a tragedy for mainstream Christianity is the concept that the soul comes into existence as a complete entity, rather than something that grows progressively through experience with the God-within. If we believe that our soul is already a completed entity, then we need only ensure its survival. This is something that many Christians presume is assured because of their belief that Jesus has saved them from the consequences of their sins (i.e. those things that defile them). Hence, they are more concerned with seeking forgiveness for sin already committed, than the continuing process of spiritual growth of the soul that could become available through intimate communion with the God-Spirit within.
Much self questioning and introspection is required to develop the “inner being”—that part of us that co-operates with the Spirit (of God) as an intermediary between the “body” (which includes bodily appetites, emotions and thoughts) and the growing soul. But, having cleansed our “inner being,” there are still traps that can paralyze further growth.
One of these is that of excessive feelings of guilt, remorse, etc., that may arise during the course of introspection on our failings. The crime here is not so much the sin itself but the time wasted in unnecessary self-flagellation. That is why we should concentrate on what is possible for us, rectify what we can, and rely on divine help to achieve the seemingly impossible.
A second problem that arises is that, having achieved a degree of growth of our inner being, many of us then expend our energies on instructing others on what they should be doing, and fail in the further development of our own souls. In The Urantia Book, Jesus tells us that we have to “be” before we can “do,” for “doing” without “being” merely labels us as hypocrites.
A Christian religious leader interviewed by Professor Needleman defined a Christian as one who can love all men in accordance with the commandment to love our neighbor as Jesus loves us. To do this we have to love all men with both our mind (intellect) and our “essence” (heart or soul). If we can love them with our mind only, then we are “pre-Christian,” and, if not even that, we are “non-Christian.” Note that, according to this definition, we have to love all men, even our enemies and those who despitefully use us, to qualify either as pre-Christian or Christian. So unless we have overcome those things that come from the heart to defile us, we are not going to qualify, whereas many whom we might label as non-Christian, atheist, agnostic or heathen may do so.
Needleman says it is to assist the arising and unfolding in him of that which can harmonize the real elements of his nature. The Urantia Book says it is to want for him his utmost cosmic good. UB 180:5.10 Perhaps these definitions are equivalent. Needleman says that we can love another only in accord with the degree that we have activated the soul within ourselves. Loving our neighbor takes far more than words, the teachings of concepts, or intellectual explanations. That kind of “education” may affect only the thinking faculty. To transmit the truth to our neighbor, we have to nurture the growth in him of his soul. Only our concerned love can nourish his soul.
My Father requires all his children to grow in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. You who know these truths must yield the increase of the fruits of the spirit and manifest a growing devotion to the unselfish service of yourfellow servants. (UB 176:3.5)
Only those faithful servants who thus grow in the knowledge of the truth, and who thereby develop the capacity for divine appreciation of spiritual realities, can ever hope to enter “fully into the joy of their Lord.” (UB 176:3.7)
But with the vast majority of Urantians the Adjuster must patiently await the arrival of death deliverance; must await the liberation of the emerging soul from the well-nigh complete domination of the energy patterns and chemical forces inherent in your material order of existence. The chief difficulty you experience in contacting with your Adjusters consists in this very inherent material nature. So few mortals are real thinkers; you do not spiritually develop and discipline your minds to the point of favorable liaison with the divine Adjusters. The ear of the human mind is almost deaf to the spiritual pleas which the Adjuster translates from the manifold messages of the universal broadcasts of love proceeding from the Father of mercies. The Adjuster finds it almost impossible to register these inspiring spirit leadings in an animal mind so completely dominated by the chemical and electrical forces inherent in your physical natures. (UB 110:7.6)
Three kinds of love are defined:
Psychological love deals with the mind, the intellect. By itself, this kind of love can cause fragmentation.
Mystical love cares about inward-directed or internal aspects of human nature. It can communicate the ideal of inner perfection but has no practical means of leading our neighbor to its attainment.
Ontological love. The third kind of love is concerned with fostering the soul. Without this, neither psychological nor mystical love can lead human beings to the fulfillment of their real possibilities—that which The Urantia Book would term their utmost cosmic good.
It appears that the major limitation to achieving the love of all men that could qualify us as “real” Christians lies within ourselves. It is our lack of serious attention to those things that defile us—the evil thoughts, wicked projects of murder, theft, adulteries, jealousy, pride, anger, revenge, railings, and false witness that block communion and interaction with our Thought Adjusters and the Spirit of Truth.
According to Needleman, cleansing the inside so that the outside, too, may be clean requires that we renounce all other spiritual work in order to first concentrate wholly on this one thing, “guarding our hearts.” This means introspection with the positive aim of finding ways to completely negate the pernicious effects of our animalistic emotions. When we do this, every other virtue will be more easily attained, finally permitting us to “be,” and thus release our potential to “do.”
Needleman has concluded that the progress of mankind will remain stagnated until a significant proportion of its people volunteer to really cleanse their innermost thoughts, thereby releasing the power of the Spirit into the world. The Urantia Book draws a similar conclusion!