© 2022 Michael Hill
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Thy Kin-Dom Come | Volume 22, Number 1, 2022 (summer) — Index | Another and Greater John (or Joan) the Baptist |
by Michael Hill
“… revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities (Wikipedia)."
While I am not a student of religion, it seems that all religions report some superhuman -sourced (or supernatural) text. God is merciful and loving; it is not a stretch that he would use his superhuman agents and agencies to reach down to us struggling mortals and proffer some spiritual insight and guidance from time to time.
The Apostle Paul urged us to look at what is offered as revelation and “hold fast what is good.” For Christian communities, we have seen revelation in the teachings of Moses, Melchizedek, and Jesus. Probably the greatest Christian revelation is the gospel of Jesus, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, and that the only requirement for salvation is faith. Jesuit theologian Avery Dulles’ Revelation and Quest for Unity offers a good example of contemporary writing about revelation. Can we not ask “are there others?”
The Urantia Book includes much revelation; it is written by celestial beings who offer us insights into our Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit and how a host of spiritual beings work to aid us in knowing the will of God so we may live in peace with one another. The book provides us with a universe frame that includes cosmology, philosophy, psychology, a history of the planet, and the complete life of Jesus.
The Urantia Book tells us that “Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief (UB 101:8.1).” What does it mean that faith “shapes the mode of living?” It means that since I have faith in a loving God, his plan for me must be better than anything I could ever dream up, so it behooves me to truth-seek his plan-to know and live his will for me.
So how to do that? The book very clearly identifies habits of living that foster spiritual growth: “…cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God (UB 100:1.8).”
By what measure do I assess the success of my efforts at living his will? We are taught that such spirit-led folks “…spontaneously show forth the fruits of the spirit in [their] daily lives; and the fruits of the spirit are the essence of the highest type of enjoyable and ennobling selfcontrol, even the heights of terrestrial mortal attainment-true self-mastery (UB 143:2.8).”
In addition to the Biblical fruits (love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance), The Urantia Book states that Jesus adds: “loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace (UB 193:2.2).”
Religious growth-one’s developing relationship with God-is also furthered by: "the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism-conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals (UB 100:1.5).”
The next time you’re in a bookstore, check out The Urantia Book, “Paper 1. The Universal Father.” It is full of revelation.
Michael Hill lives on a small farm in Alsea, Oregon.
¶ References
- Article obtained from The Fellowship site
| Thy Kin-Dom Come | Volume 22, Number 1, 2022 (summer) — Index | Another and Greater John (or Joan) the Baptist |