© 2023 Zshonette Reed
© 2023 Urantia Association of Quebec
Zshonette Reed
California
In taking a stand on the ideological struggle, which we believe to be freedom versus license, as instigated by the Lucifer Rebellion, it is imperative that we understand what we are dealing with.
Lucifer began his rebellion by publishing his manifesto, the so-called Declaration of Liberty. In it, he presented three basic accusations:
- The Universal Father is not real.
- The administration of the Local Universe is unfair.
- The mortal ascension plan is a hoax.
The second and third accusations are incidental. They depend on the truth of the first accusation, so that if the first accusation is not true, the other accusations do not hold. In other words, if the Universal Father is real, then the administration of the Local Universe is righteous, and the ascension plan is real. We will therefore focus our attention, in this article, on Lucifer’s first accusation.
In his first accusation, Lucifer claimed that the Universal Father did not really exist, and that physical gravity and spatial energy were inherent to the universe, meaning there was no need for a Creator. He accused the Father of being a myth invented by the Paradise Sons to enable them to maintain domination of the universes in the name of a fictitious Father.
As an aside
This accusation is very enlightening. Lucifer claimed that the Universal Father does not exist. You might ask how can a celestial being who lives in the heavens not believe in God? We can accept that a twisted mind may not want to worship or obey God. But for a celestial being not to believe that God exists? How can this be possible?
Well, we must remember that Lucifer was a creation of the Local Universe. He may have ventured outside the Local Universe on occasion, and he is certainly aware of the Ancients of Days, but he has never been outside the Superuniverse. He has never visited Havona, and he certainly has never reached Paradise. Therefore, he has no personal knowledge of the existence of the Universal Father. He, as well as all other creations of the Local Universe, must have faith that the Universal Father exists. And Lucifer, as well as all who followed him into rebellion, have lost theirs. Yes, faith in the existence of God is not limited to mortal experience. Even after our resurrection, we will need faith in the existence of the Paradise Father until we meet him “face to face.” Think of that.
So Lucifer was willing to acknowledge Michael as his Creator father, but not as his God and rightful ruler. We find a parallel to this accusation in atheism. Atheists acknowledge that they are the creation of their mortal mother and father. They do not deny that they are descended from a long line of mortals, but they reject the idea of a First Father, an uncreated personality. Like Lucifer, they believe that life is inherent in the universe and does not require the actions or intervention of a personal God.
They want the benefits of being created, the joy of being alive and living, but they do not want the responsibility of acknowledging a Creator. This concept has infiltrated our science, our social philosophies, and even our spiritual philosophies by presenting what we call “half-truths.” And half-truths can be just as deadly as outright lies. Here is an example of how half-truths have infiltrated our spiritual philosophies.
You have probably heard of the teaching that “we are all gods.” We are all part of the oneness that is the universe. We and the rest of the world are what God is. God is consciousness expanding. “Source energy.” This all sounds great, but it is only partially true.
We ARE part of the oneness of the universe and we HAVE a fragment of God within us, but that half that is missing is the reality of the great personal God. Most of these philosophies exclude or omit the idea of a personal God to whom we are accountable. For them, the story ends with the “deification” of the self. Some of these theories go so far as to reject belief in God and ridicule faith as foolish and delusional.
This is no different than Lucifer’s claim in his manifesto. Lucifer does not deny the great source of energy. He denies the great personal God, just as atheism and pseudoscience glorify nature, but deny the one who created “nature.” These philosophies are half-truths. They take you halfway to the truth, and stop there. They omit the most important half, the existence and reality of a great personal God, the First Central Source of all things, including the source of energy and nature. If we can be deluded into embracing these half-truths, then Lucifer has won a convert in the ideological struggle.
These types of godless philosophies are subtle deceptions. And they are seductive. Who doesn’t want to see themselves as a powerful being who has conquered their fears and difficulties? Who doesn’t want to feel the power of divinity? If you have prayed to God and felt a surge of power and confidence, you may have felt that power yourself. We have felt it, and it is real. But what we feel is not divinity. The power we feel is sonship.
There is a divinity in sonship with God. There is a power of oneness with the universe. There is a kind of co-creativity with it. It is dynamic and, in some ways, intoxicating. But the power of sonship exists only because of the reality of the Father. The power we experience as sons of God is a divine gift, for which we can be grateful. But let us not forget to recognize the wise and loving Father who gave it to us, and we must be careful.
Booklet 111 speaks of the danger of giving in to the temptation to deify oneself, which is the case for those who adhere to this half-truth of divinity, of which here is an extract:
The courage required to effect the conquest of nature and to transcend one’s self is a courage that might succumb to the temptations of self-pride. The mortal who can transcend self might yield to the temptation to deify his own self-consciousness. The mortal dilemma consists in the double fact that man is in bondage to nature while at the same time he possesses a unique liberty—freedom of spiritual choice and action. On material levels man finds himself subservient to nature, while on spiritual levels he is triumphant over nature and over all things temporal and finite. Such a paradox is inseparable from temptation, potential evil, decisional errors, and when self becomes proud and arrogant, sin may evolve. (UB 111:6.2)
This tells us that transcending our mortal frailties and temporal challenges takes real courage. But those who are able to transcend them face a new problem, the temptation to become proud and arrogant, which can lead to sin. This is not to say that such a person MUST become proud and arrogant. It is to say that such a person will inevitably have the opportunity to prove who he really is. Is this person a courageous spiritual son of God, or has this person deluded himself into believing that he IS God? This is the danger of half-truths.
It is good to gain the confidence and courage to triumph over our mortal existence. But when we attempt to experience this divine sonship without recognizing the loving First Source and Center, we are on the verge of delusion and self-destruction.
There is another reason why this particular half-truth is so dangerous. It robs us of our spiritual rights. Notice what is written in Paper 54:
Lucifer’s crime was the attempted creative disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment of the creature’s personal participation—freewill participation—in the long evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually and collectively.
The Lucifer rebellion thus threatened the maximum possible infringement of the freewill choice of the ascenders and servers of the system of Satania—a threat forevermore to deprive every one of these beings of the thrilling experience of contributing something personal and unique to the slowly erecting monument to experiential wisdom which will sometime exist as the perfected system of Satania.
Thus does the Lucifer manifesto, masquerading in the habiliments of liberty, stand forth in the clear light of reason as a monumental threat to consummate the theft of personal liberty and to do it on a scale that has been approached only twice in all the history of Nebadon.
In short, what God had given men and angels Lucifer would have taken away from them, that is, the divine privilege of participating in the creation of their own destinies and of the destiny of this local system of inhabited worlds.
No being in all the universe has the rightful liberty to deprive any other being of true liberty, the right to love and be loved, the privilege of worshiping God and of serving his fellows. (LU LU 54:2.3-5)
These passages reveal the danger of philosophies that take God out of the equation. So it’s not just a question of whether God exists or not. It’s a question of whether WE exist as creatures with free will, and whether we will allow another creature to close the door on opportunities and possibilities. Such half-truths are not just atheistic. They are Luciferian.
But how many people who embrace these philosophies of half-truths are aware of this fact? How many people believe they are self-actualizing when in fact they are inhibiting and annihilating themselves? They do not understand that they are on the wrong side of the ideological struggle when they exalt their own spirituality but exclude the Great Universal Father God, the personal and loving God.
But how will they know to progress beyond the half-truths and continue the journey to the personal God? How will they know without qualified and competent teachers and leaders who can reveal it? It is therefore up to each of us who carry Michael’s banner to become those qualified teachers and leaders who can stand on Michael’s side in the ideological struggle and provide an alternative to Luciferian ideas.
If this resonates with you, please write to us. Perhaps together we can make a difference. And please consider enrolling in The Ambassadors School to develop and improve your ministerial skills so that you can be effective in promoting and supporting Michael’s side in the ideological struggle.
In the meantime, may the Spirit of Truth accompany you.