200 Million Mortal Ascenders on Jerusem

Brad, thats from me to you.

To me the primary issue here is not the assumption of one’s own salvation but the presumption of the inadequacies and undeserving masses of others compared to ourselves who are believed unworthy of salvation….a sad form of self superiority and judgment….made far worse by its source coming from Urantia Book students when the UB is the greatest source of hope and trust ever gifted or written, endlessly presenting the function of mercy, love, faith, and the inherent religious life all people experience….even those who apparently disappoint others so very much.  Thankfully, Jesus seems much less disappointed and enduringly endeared to us mortals in his own opinions and expressions of understanding, no matter the immaturity or brutality he endured…still did and does he love us and teach us and guide us today.

Hopefully, THIS is the gospel and good news we share with others. For the message that few are worthy and the path to paradise is closed but for the few who pass the judgment of other tadpoles is the same old message of doom and gloom and suffering and damnation that the true gospel of Good News was given to overcome!! Such a perspective certainly does not come from the Revelation itself!  And those who claim such and seek to prove their own despair and blindness by the text of the UB should be corrected, not coddled.  This is a friendly universe in which all of reality is formed and founded on LOVE and the relentless ministry of mercy and Divine Patience wherein every single mind and being is provided sufficient time to embrace this truth and reality…even Lucifer and all the rebels are in this embrace of love, kindness, mercy, and patience….surely we mortals might assume our own safety and standing as God’s beloved Children?  I think so….yes!

Tadpoles judging tadpoles….hilarious if not so sad in its source and audience here…….

(1115.3) 101:9.2 When you presume to sit in critical judgment on the primitive religion of man (or on the religion of primitive man), you should remember to judge such savages and to evaluate their religious experience in accordance with their enlightenment and status of conscience. Do not make the mistake of judging another’s religion by your own standards of knowledge and truth.

194:3.2 (2062.11) Many things which happen in the course of a human life are hard to understand, difficult to reconcile with the idea that this is a universe in which truth prevails and in which righteousness triumphs. It so often appears that slander, lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness — sin — prevail. Does faith, after all, triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does. And the life and death of Jesus are the eternal proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of the spirit-led creature will always be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross, saying, “Let us see if God will come and deliver him.” It looked dark on that day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously bright on the resurrection morning; it was still brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost. The religions of pessimistic despair seek to obtain release from the burdens of life; they crave extinction in endless slumber and rest. These are the religions of primitive fear and dread. The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of faith to be proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion is founded on faith, hope, and love.

194:3.11 (2064.3) Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love. No longer did these believers look upon Yahweh as “the Lord of Hosts.” They now regarded the eternal Deity as the “God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.” They made that progress, at least, even if they did in some measure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the spiritual Father of every individual.

Me here: Not just every deserving individual…..let us trust the sheep to the shepherd…for who of us is ‘deserving’ after all??!!  For God knows best and rules by love and leaves the 99 to find and save even the one who is lost.  In the UB, even the barbarous savage of a caveman standing snarling and club raised between those loved and danger to them is given as example of that which is noble and endearing in human kind….any and all love is by and from but the original source, even the love of a child or a primitive savage, and all such love saves us from material death for our chance at immortality for no one may give love to another by any measure without being loved first.  Who is not loved?

And this is the Gospel – all are so loved and may trust God…in this material life and in the next…such is the hope and trust demonstrated by Jesus on Easter Morning.  This is a good week to consider his life and his gift and his example and all the many lessons on God’s endless love and the triumph of that love and the tender mercy and forgiveness we are each and all given.  This is the Good News….let us proclaim it….and believe it!

Yes…those and so many more….

In the study topics here on Papers 100 & 101 (so far), we have read much about “primitive religion” and the “religions of primitive” people and also studied the broad spectrum of “faith” and also the very inherent nature of the Spirit ministry within us all….children, barbarian, primitive, and the less primitive, including those with a more “genuine religious experience” which “actually takes salvation for granted” as “Salvation should be taken for granted…”.

No where are we instructed to take our own salvation for granted but doubt and determine the jeopardy and  the doomed-to-oblivion status of any others….ANY OTHERS at all!!   And to then attempt to prove this false and presumptuous belief of the unworthiness of others while also claiming, by obvious logical extension and conclusion so associated, the very real failure of love, mercy, patience, and universe leadership to overcome evil, ignorance, immaturity, and even sin by the purpose and plan of Deity!!  A preposterous and dangerous conclusion for any person or believer or student of the Revelation or the Gospel OF Jesus to believe, preach, teach, or otherwise perpetuate!

This is a critically important lesson taught by Jesus as the Son of Man and redundantly and repeatedly in the Papers.  Our low opinion of others is a crime against ourselves!!  Our ability to receive forgiveness is based upon our willingness and ability to forgive others first!  We are taught that the love others and forgiveness of others and that which we perceive and claim to be their faults, failures, weaknesses, evils, and sins are inherently linked together!!  We are to love and forgive…and we will receive forgiveness according to our ability and willingness to forgive.  It is neither loving nor forgiving to believe and claim few of our fellows survive by our judgments and perspective.

Perhaps we should start a topic on “Forgiveness”?? (or maybe we have already right here?) It so relates to Religion In Human Experience and The Real Nature of Religion too!!  Our own religious experience and personal progress in the Spirit depends upon an understanding of the fact and function of forgiveness.  How cruel and false it is for any of us to judge this world of 7 billion souls so coldly and brutally and to also include all of Satania, and by extension all the mortal spheres of time and space, and by such accusation to most cruelly indict all those who lovingly minister to us mortals by God’s purpose, plan, and power of Love of their own abject failure.  Lord have mercy…what a claim!!!!

Those here who defend such a proclamation and stance and perspective and/or those who make such false claims should reconsider such support and the beliefs such a conclusion and claim demonstrates.  I think it shameful personally…a most unworthy proposition without any support whatsoever in the Papers but, rather, with an endless litany of proofs to the contrary!!

Wisdom requires consideration of the motivations of words and perspective and claims made and also must consider, by logic and reason, the extended and consequential conclusions such claims must lead us to in our considerations of the claims and motives.  Why would someone presume and claim that there are few who survive?  This claim cannot originate in the UB itself by or for those who know its contents.  Several here have wrongly claimed that the spiritual progress and attitudes required for fusion are the same as those for survival – an inherently flawed position easily proved incorrect by the text itself in multiple places and ways!  The differences between these two are profoundly different as redundantly described….a topic addressed here on many threads, including the studies on Papers 100 and 101.  Can one fuse with but a flicker?  An obviously flawed belief and lack of understanding when confusing the two very distinct issues.

Faith and religious experience have many levels in their spectrums of progressions…including object worship, ghost fears, and many forms of childish, immature, inexperienced, primitive, and other forms of inferior practice based on false beliefs and total ignorance….and still are they personalized faith and religious experiences which delivers progress in the Spirit….and by such ones not to be judged so harshly by those of us who consider ourselves more knowledgeable, experienced, wise, and enlightened.  Indeed, we are admonished to be very careful with such self evaluations and the resulting low opinions of others which might result thereby.

This topic is a very big deal!

Here’s a link to a study of the key words “Forgive OR Forgiveness”:

https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=forgive+OR+forgiveness&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

140:3.16 “Your Father in heaven makes the sun to shine on the evil as well as upon the good; likewise he sends rain on the just and the unjust. You are the sons of God; even more, you are now the ambassadors of my Father’s kingdom. Be merciful, even as God is merciful, and in the eternal future of the kingdom you shall be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.

140:3.17 “You are commissioned to save men, not to judge them. At the end of your earth life you will all expect mercy; therefore do I require of you during your mortal life that you show mercy to all of your brethren in the flesh. Make not the mistake of trying to pluck a mote out of your brother’s eye when there is a beam in your own eye. Having first cast the beam out of your own eye, you can the better see to cast the mote out of your brother’s eye.

2:4.2 [Part I]
God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his loving-kindness. The creature’s need is wholly sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father’s tender mercies and his saving grace. Since God knows all about his children, it is easy for him to forgive. The better man understands his neighbor, the easier it will be to forgive him, even to love him.

2:6.6 [Part I]
The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality — one of justice and one of mercy — neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father’s favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.

2:6.9 [Part I]
Facing the world of personality, God is discovered to be a loving person; facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious experience he is both. Love identifies the volitional will of God. The goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine free-willness — the universal tendency to love, show mercy, manifest patience, and minister forgiveness.

159:1.5 [Part IV]
“And this chief steward, having thus received mercy and forgiveness at the hands of the king, went about his business, and finding one of his subordinate stewards who owed him a mere hundred denarii, he laid hold upon him and, taking him by the throat, said,’Pay me all you owe. And then did this fellow steward fall down before the chief steward and, beseeching him, said:’Only have patience with me, and I will presently be able to pay you. But the chief steward would not show mercy to his fellow steward but rather had him cast in prison until he should pay his debt. When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were so distressed that they went and told their lord and master, the king. When the king heard of the doings of his chief steward, he called this ungrateful and unforgiving man before him and said:’You are a wicked and unworthy steward. When you sought for compassion, I freely forgave you your entire debt. Why did you not also show mercy to your fellow steward, even as I showed mercy to you?‘ And the king was so very angry that he delivered his ungrateful chief steward to the jailers that they might hold him until he had paid all that was due. And even so shall my heavenly Father show the more abundant mercy to those who freely show mercy to their fellows. How can you come to God asking consideration for your shortcomings when you are wont to chastise your brethren for being guilty of these same human frailties? I say to all of you: Freely you have received the good things of the kingdom; therefore freely give to your fellows on earth.”

(1861.10) 170:3.3 It is in the consideration of the technique of receiving God’s forgiveness that the attainment of the righteousness of the kingdom is revealed. Faith is the price you pay for entrance into the family of God; but forgiveness is the act of God which accepts your faith as the price of admission. And the reception of the forgiveness of God by a kingdom believer involves a definite and actual experience and consists in the following four steps, the kingdom steps of inner righteousness:

(1862.1) 170:3.4 1. God’s forgiveness is made actually available and is personally experienced by man just in so far as he forgives his fellows.

(1862.2) 170:3.5 2. Man will not truly forgive his fellows unless he loves them as himself.

(1862.3) 170:3.6 3. To thus love your neighbor as yourself is the highest ethics.

(1862.4) 170:3.7 4. Moral conduct, true righteousness, becomes, then, the natural result of such love.

Me here:  Let us love one another and forgive one another and give hope and good news one to another…for this is the Good News given to us!!

Those who have accepted sonship are at liberty to take salvation for granted.  Both are gifts.  Nothing can be done to earn salvation, being a faith-son is enough to assure salvation.  That’s not to diminish the importance of growth and progress, which does require considerable effort and commitment.

I think there are many souls who have yet to embrace their own sonship.  Until they do, they will doubt their own salvation even though it exists for them quite freely for the choosing. Consciousness of sonship and its acceptance naturally leads to fruit production which is shared with the rest of the family.  I think our job as faith-sons is to teach sonship with God to those who doubt it. And I think the best way to teach it is to live it. Said Jesus:

(2054.3) 193:2.2 “Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding. The bread of life and the water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness — for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the kingdom. These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless branches on the living vine, and they soon will be taken away. My Father requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide in your hearts. My peace I leave with you.”

Agreed Bonita…I find nothing ambiguous about the quotes you posted: “…it actually takes salvation for granted…” and “Salvation should be taken for granted…” by those who claim to believe…

So, while I think some who accuse so many others of unworthiness to survive due to their own egoistic pride in their own self perceived superiority of religious progress and standing, it is also true there are those who wallow in self doubt and guilt which means they “….will doubt their own salvation even though it exists for them quite freely for the choosing.”   Their judgment of others originates in their own self doubts, as you point out.

But in either case or by either form or origination of belief and proposition….both are flawed and inaccurate.  Especially so by the contents and teachings of the UB.  And professed believers who do not show forth the Divine Fruits are not any source of value or meaning to believers or students of the teachings we share here.

So, by definition, those who proclaim that few survive death and make it to the Mansion Worlds are mighty poor representatives of the either the Jesusonian Gospel OR the Urantia Papers and their false claims and assumptions should be rigorously opposed by those who know better!

Just sayin’…..

Bonita wrote:

Gene wrote:

I take hold of mercy, take control of it as opposed to taking it for granted.

How exactly does one control mercy?

you left out the word “assume” which is key to my idea. A Webster alternative interpretation that I used to make my point.

I n regard to divine mercy we know we cannot control. I did state in above post that this interpretation (taking over, taking control of) of the word “assume” was a Webster alternative but not vald in the intended topic of the quote from the paper. Aren’t we told to not assume divine mercy?

but we can be merciful, I suppose this is an element of control.

i feel like I never make sense to people and I get lost in explanations.

Gene wrote:

Aren’t we told to not assume divine mercy?

I think you mean presume, but I guess that’s splitting hairs. Yes, one of the habitual religious attitudes we are supposed to cultivate is refusal to presume on divine mercy:

100:1.8 Habits which favor religious growth embrace 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. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.

But I don’t see a link between taking survival for granted and presuming on mercy.  I suppose if something was gained by survival, if survival was some kind of reward, one might not want to presume on one’s worthiness of the reward.  But that’s not how it goes, we gain nothing after death, nothing except continued life; it’s not a reward for being good.

Survival is about everlasting life, mercy is about divine justice applied to that life.  We are all going to make many mistakes and use up many mercy credits in this life and in the next one as well, but that doesn’t preclude survival.  Every last mercy credit must be squandered away resulting in complete moral and spiritual bankruptcy before survival is rescinded.  And even then, it has to be a wholehearted conscious decision, and the personality must agree to his own annihilation, which we all agree is some kind of insanity.

Gene wrote:

. . . but we can be merciful, I suppose this is an element of control.

It takes a lot of growth to be merciful.  Recall that there are several steps that must be traversed before a person can show mercy.  First you need to be just, then fair, then patient, then kind and then, and only then, if you happen to have it in your heart, you can show mercy.  As I see it, most folks have trouble with step #1 let alone the rest of it. Mercy really relies on sonship consciousness and its resultant brotherhood consciousness, if you really think about it.  So, if you accept sonship, you can take survival for granted and then start working on the 5 steps toward actual mercy.

28:6.8 While the spirit techniques of mercy ministry are beyond your concept, you should even now understand that mercy is a quality of growth. You should realize that there is a great reward of personal satisfaction in being first just, next fair, then patient, then kind. And then, on that foundation, if you choose and have it in your heart, you can take the next step and really show mercy; but you cannot exhibit mercy in and of itself. These steps must be traversed; otherwise there can be no genuine mercy. There may be patronage, condescension, or charity — even pity — but not mercy. True mercy comes only as the beautiful climax to these preceding adjuncts to group understanding, mutual appreciation, fraternal fellowship, spiritual communion, and divine harmony.*

In my recent studies on the topic of “assurance”, I was struck even more so about the motive and intent and the very real danger of the topic here and the claims by some related to it.  The most fundamental and elemental foundation of a person’s faith is survival assurance and the inner assurance of God and God’s love for me….every “me”!  This is the reality and truth that is experienced by children and primitives alike!  The I AM tells us each I AM AND YOU ARE TOO!!  And I AM WITH YOU AND YOU ARE OF ME!!

Those who doubt and despair for their own safety or the safety of others diminish this reality of God’s love for and understanding of the mortal children of time.  They misunderstand the very nature of faith itself and its expressions by the children of time….especially those children from the cusp of planetary inhabitation through the early mortal epochs when ignorance and fear combine to, perhaps, distort the religious experience compared to its eventual fullness and enlightenment in the ages to come….but the truth, reality, and power of that primitive and immature religious experience is very real.

The flicker comes early.  The soul may grow and commune despite mortal ignorance and material gravity effects.  So the flicker might grow in some without a clear perception of its vitality by those mortals inclined to measure and judge the light within others!!   I think this topic is most unwise and foolish even and defies that hope and assurance which is the very point of the Revelation! Faith assurance and truth assurance are the objectives of every level of Spirit ministry…it is the very source of the branch and its attachment to the vine….no matter how tender or small….and no other branches are worthy to assess the worthiness of another. We are reminded of the need to remove our own timbers of personal blindness, the better to “see”…and let God do the seeing and weighing and judging!

I don’t think tadpoles can truly ascertain or measure religious experience, faith in others, circle progress, or the destiny potential for the children of time.  And I’m sure that the UB teaches us to focus only or primarily on our own personal religious experience and its expression in loving service to other children of time…and not by expressing our doubts, fears, suspicions, and determinations of the unworthiness of others for the eternal adventure…and the assurance of our salvation and God’s love and mercy.  Just sayin’…..

5:4.2 [Part I]
The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound assurance. With primitive man, even polytheism is a relative unification of the evolving concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the making. Sooner or later, God is destined to be comprehended as the reality of values, the substance of meanings, and the life of truth.

19:5.12 [Part I]
And from all this, you mortals, just now taking your first step on the eternal journey, can well see that you must advance a long way before you will progress by “sight” and “material” assurance. You will long use faith and be dependent on revelation if you hope to progress quickly and safely.

101:1.6 [Part III]
Faith unites moral insight with conscientious discriminations of values, and the pre-existent evolutionary sense of duty completes the ancestry of true religion. The experience of religion eventually results in the certain consciousness of God and in the undoubted assurance of the survival of the believing personality.

101:5.10 [Part III]
Evolutionary religion is the outworking of the endowment of the local universe mind adjutant charged with the creation and fostering of the worship trait in evolving man. Such primitive religions are directly concerned with ethics and morals, the sense of human duty. Such religions are predicated on the assurance of conscience and result in the stabilization of relatively ethical civilizations.

101:5.12 [Part III]
Evolved religion rests wholly on faith. Revelation has the additional assurance of its expanded presentation of the truths of divinity and reality and the still more valuable testimony of the actual experience which accumulates in consequence of the practical working union of the faith of evolution and the truth of revelation. Such a working union of human faith and divine truth constitutes the possession of a character well on the road to the actual acquirement of a morontial personality.

117:6.8 [Part III]
All soul-evolving humans are literally the evolutionary sons of God the Father and God the Mother, the Supreme Being. But until such time as mortal man becomes soul-conscious of his divine heritage, this assurance of Deity kinship must be faith realized. Human life experience is the cosmic cocoon in which the universe endowments of the Supreme Being and the universe presence of the Universal Father (none of which are personalities) are evolving the morontia soul of time and the human-divine finaliter character of universe destiny and eternal service.

Me here:  I think those who are so disappointed in their fellow mortals and so doubtful as to the survivor rates of tadpoles, are measuring the lack of frogs they perceive as evidence of the failure of tadpoles to survive and yet tadpoles might only perceive other tadpoles I think and will naturally be disappointed by the lack of perceived frogs when that is their measure of tadpole success!  Or put another way, the perception of worms does not see that the worm in the cocoon is a butterfly to be but not a butterfly today and the lack of butterflies is more an indication of the season of being, not the termination of being or the lack of that season to come…the season of the butterfly to come!

So, of 7 billion souls on Urantia today…how many do not hope and yearn and have ideas of God and ideals about God’s nature and pray for the survival of others and themselves?  And how many do?  And how many since Andon and Fonta have enjoyed this faith assurance from the Adjutants and that hope which carries the children of time through trials and tribulations to our grave?  Is not hope the flicker?  Those without hope are hardly them we should trust to fan the flicker I think.  Who hopes to be better than we are?

26:4.14 [Part I]
Faith has won for the ascendant pilgrim a perfection of purpose which admits the children of time to the portals of eternity. Now must the pilgrim helpers begin the work of developing that perfection of understanding and that technique of comprehension which are so indispensable to Paradise perfection of personality.

101:9.2 (1115.3) When you presume to sit in critical judgment on the primitive religion of man (or on the religion of primitive man), you should remember to judge such savages and to evaluate their religious experience in accordance with their enlightenment and status of conscience. Do not make the mistake of judging another’s religion by your own standards of knowledge and truth.

What is “primitive religion”?  Well, survival hope and belief is its core.  And I doubt that ANY who so hope or believe are disappointed.

https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=%22primitive+religion%22&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1