© 2006 Luis Coll
© 2006 Urantia Association of Spain
When will humanity learn to acquire a true character, nature, and correct spiritual foundation?
One of Jesus’ apostles (John) wrote: … for the darkness is passing away, and the true Light is already shining. (I John 1:8)
But this doesn’t seem to be what has happened to Christianity and some other religions. They have remained stuck in the darkness of the past. What good is all that pomp, traditions, images, riches, temples, etc., when most people are languishing and dying spiritually?
I fear that if Jesus were to come down to that earth again, He would be forced to take up the whip again, but this time not to drive the money changers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12), but to drive those religious hypocrites, with all their nonsense, hypocrisy, and senseless traditions, not out of the temple but out of this earth. But Jesus is not a character of wrath and anger, and He has given human beings free will, and His invitation is: “Whoever wants to come to the Light, let them come.”
Holy Week and other similar weeks and traditions in other religions could better be called the impure week. How dare human beings try to earn “God’s favor” with all that pomp of sacrifices, penances, flagellations, and even some crazy people who allow themselves to be crucified on purpose (Philippines) and similar things in other religions, whippings, flagellations, trying to obtain some favor from God? As if God were some kind of ferocious monster who only delights in seeing the blood of his children spilled so he can grant them some favor. This constitutes a true abomination and an insult to the Son of God himself. Life is hard enough without doing such crazy things.
“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 to divert the fictitious divine wrath.” (UB 4:5.4)
Humanity, if it wants to advance and progress on the right path, must awaken from this terrible spiritual blindness and leave those things behind and walk forward, towards “the true Light”.
The heroic and courageous death of Jesus on the cross and of his first followers in the lion’s arena and defenders of the Truth from then on was the example of Someone who stood up in defense of the living Truth to the very end.
Jesus Christ never, ever taught or preached that we should imitate him or surround ourselves with all that suffocating ceremony of traditions, hypocrisy, and sacrifices that bring more darkness, curiosity, and morbidity than light and do not foster true character and spiritual growth. He was diametrically opposed to all of that and came to teach precisely the opposite.
Jesus’ noble mission was to reveal the Father’s infinite love to all his creatures toward a better and more enlightened life. Human beings must free themselves from these ancient errors and pagan superstitions.
“All too long has man thought of God as one like himself. God is not, never was, and never will be jealous of man or any other being in the universe of universes. Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece of the planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing down before idols of wood, stone, gold, and selfish ambition—these sordid scenes stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of him.”
“The eternal God is incapable of wrath and anger in the sense of these human emotions and as man understands such reactions. These sentiments are mean and despicable; they are hardly worthy of being called human, much less divine; and such attitudes are utterly foreign to the perfect nature and gracious character of the Universal Father.” (UB 4:3.1-2)
For enlightened people, it’s time to start a new day and a new, broader concept of what God is, and to leave behind those old and outdated things because…
“…the darkness is passing and the true Light is already shining”
“The revelation of the truth about God is appearing, and the human race is destined to know the Universal Father in all that beauty of character and loveliness of attributes so magnificently portrayed by the Creator Son who sojourned on Urantia as the Son of Man and the Son of God.” (UB 4:5.7)