© 2001 The Brotherhood of Man Library
Essentially the Urantia Papers are a recruiting drive for volunteers who will respond to Jesus’ call:
“Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men—the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you”. (UB 191:5.3)
If we are to undertake this mission, we have a problem to face.
“Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s presence.” (UB 196:3.25)
There appears to be little likelihood of success in our “mission to the world” if we are without God-consciousness, hence without effective communication with our Adjuster. Loving and serving our fellows as Jesus loved and served them would be beyond the realms of possibility unless our moral standards are such as to enable God-consciousness. So what is necessary.
“The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.” (UB 196:3.25)
Although human moral nature may be superanimal nevertheless our instinctual behavior is derived from our animal heritage. Basic features are dominance behavior, territorialism, sex drive, and self preservation, often subtly disguised to produce a cloak of respectability.
The self-preservation instinct may be expressed as selfishness in all its forms.
Dominance behavior is strongly evident among herd animals in which in each member has a well defined ranking that permits it to dominate all those below it in status but to be subservient to those above. Position on the ladder has to be vigorously defended. Its counterpart is observable in every aspect of human social interaction.
Territorialism is readily observable among animals that are either “loners” or members of a small group. Territories are often marked out quite precisely and defended vigorously, even to the death.
Territorialism is strongly expressed among human tribes and nations but it too reaches into every avenue of social life. Even such trivia as family arguments about whether the toilet seat should be left up or down derives from animal territorial instinct.
The expression of sexuality and the morality thereof is too complex and too extensive to deal with here. Suffice it to say that self-centeredness and selfishness are dominant contributors to our animal-like behavior while selflessness, real love, service, and altruism figure strongly in the expression of super-animal morality.
Our knowledge of super-animal but sub-spiritual morality derives from the mind endowment coming from the Infinite Spirit, from the God-given gift of our personality, and from the guidance of our indwelling Father Spirit.
There can be no pretense, or partial intention, or compromise, when it comes to our morality and the undertaking of our “mission to the world.” As with our religion, it is an all or none commitment. You cannot be a partially religious or a partially moral person.
“To isolate part of life and call it religion is to disintegrate life and to distort religion. And this is just why the God of worship claims all allegiance or none.” (UB 102:6.1)
Much of the final few pages of the revelation are devoted to explaining what constitutes super-animal but sub-spiritual morality, the qualifier for the undertaking to live as Jesus lived.
The Papers reveal quite definitely that this is a level of morality attainable by mortal beings such as ourselves. In his address to Jesus regarding his coming bestowal, Immanuel states: “Exhibit in your one short life in the flesh, as it has never before been seen in all Nebadon, the transcendent possibilities attainable by a God-knowing human during the short career of mortal existence. . .” (UB 120:2.8)
What are these super-animal moral values and how do we attain them?
The moral values of the universe become intellectual possessions by the exercise of the three basic judgments, or choices, of the mortal mind:
We appear to be facing a “which comes first” situation, the “chicken or the egg?” To make our moral choices we need the guidance of our Thought Adjuster, but God-consciousness and our realization of Adjuster presence are dependent upon our morality level.
“Unless a divine lover lived in man, he could not unselfishly and spiritually love. Unless an interpreter lived in the mind, man could not truly realize the unity of the universe. Unless an evaluator dwelt with man, he could not possibly appraise moral values and recognize spiritual meanings. And this lover hails from the very source of infinite love; this interpreter is a part of Universal Unity; this evaluator is the child of the Center and Source of all absolute values of divine and eternal reality.” (UB 196:3.16)
Thus it is axiomatic that we must achieve a close relationship with our Thought Adjuster if we are to succeed in our task. There may be no better way to do so than to practice the “alter ego” method recommended in Paper 91. This cites the children’s game of inventing an imaginary companion, then play acting both parts when conversing with the “other ego.”
To adapt the method to our task we need to know the life of Jesus to the point at which we can make a reasonable appraisal on how he would react in any given circumstance. We may then ask ourselves a question about what to do, answering ourselves from our memory banks of knowledge of Jesus’ own life. Perhaps this is the reason for:
“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)
Nobody said it would be easy. The mission required of us, to love and serve as Jesus loved and served, requires sincerity, dedication, devotion, and stickability.
Moral evaluation at the super-animal level needs the spiritual insight of our Thought Adjuster. It “connotes the individual’s choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity.”
Like so many other things having that nebulous quality termed “spiritual value,” morality is something we know within ourselves to be “right” simply because we are at least subconsciously “listening” to the voice of the God-spirit within. But the moment we attempt to define morality it collapses into a set of rules or commandments to be obeyed.
“The Hebrews of Jesus’ day already had a religion of moral sublimity.” (UB 196:3.19) But “Jesus revealed and exemplified a religion of love: security in the Father’s love, with joy and satisfaction consequent upon sharing this love in the service of the human brotherhood.”
Without real morality—Jesus kind—we are without real love. Without real love—Jesus’ kind—we stagnate in our animal heritage. “Love is the highest motivation which man may utilize in his universe ascent.”
Once equipped with an appropriately moral nature, God-consciousness and the realization of Adjuster presence becomes possible. We are ready for the mission for which the Urantia revelation has been provided. And we are ready to undertake the task specifically ordained for us, “the life which you will live among men—the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you.”
Ask yourself, “If it were not so, why then do I have the Urantia Papers?”
Heaven is not reached by a single bound, but we build the ladder by which we rise.
J. G. Holland