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Does the UB have information like the Revelations in the bible? Does it talk about antichrist, apocolypse, and related biblical teachings? Thank you.
Does it talk about antichrist, apocolypse, and related biblical teachings?
Well, first I’ll mention the notion that scriptures are *not* (thank you Bradly!) infallible by this reference.
159:4.8 « Mark you well my words, Nathaniel, nothing which human nature has touched can be regarded as infallible. Through the mind of man divine truth may indeed shine forth, but always of relative purity and partial divinity. The creature may crave infallibility, but only the Creators possess it..« But the greatest error of the teaching about the Scriptures is the doctrine of their being sealed books of mystery and wisdom which only the wise minds of the nation dare to interpret. The revelations of divine truth are not sealed except by human ignorance, bigotry, and narrow-minded intolerance. The light of the Scriptures is only dimmed by prejudice and darkened by superstition. A false fear of sacredness has prevented religion from being safeguarded by common sense. The fear of the authority of the sacred writings of the past effectively prevents the honest souls of today from accepting the new light of the gospel, the light which these very God-knowing men of another generation so intensely longed to see..“But the saddest feature of all is the fact that some of the teachers of the sanctity of this traditionalism know this very truth. They more or less fully understand these limitations of Scripture, but they are moral cowards, intellectually dishonest. They know the truth regarding the sacred writings, but they prefer to withhold such disturbing facts from the people. And thus do they pervert and distort the Scriptures, making them the guide to slavish details of the daily life and an authority in things nonspiritual instead of appealing to the sacred writings as the repository of the moral wisdom, religious inspiration, and the spiritual teaching of the God-knowing men of other generations.”.No antichrist, except that Caligastia is still roaming around. No apocalypse, except that Urantia might encounter some physical catastrophe that could doom the planetary residence of the evolving races in which case emergency dematerialization techniques would be emplaced to salvage survivors. Here is the context in which this is mentioned:
51:2.3 While there is this dematerializing technique for preparing the Adams for transit from Jerusem to the evolutionary worlds, there is no equivalent method for taking them away from such worlds unless the entire planet is to be emptied, in which event emergency installation of the dematerialization technique is made for the entire salvable population. If some physical catastrophe should doom the planetary residence of an evolving race, the Melchizedeks and the Life Carriers would install the technique of dematerialization for all survivors, and by seraphic transport these beings would be carried away to the new world prepared for their continuing existence. The evolution of a human race, once initiated on a world of space, must proceed quite independently of the physical survival of that planet, but during the evolutionary ages it is not otherwise intended that a Planetary Adam or Eve shall leave their chosen world.You’ll note that once human life is initiated on a world, it must proceed.
In general the UB is meant to de-confuse us. HERE a link to the search engine findings for the word *confusion*. Happy reading.
Hello again Karen!!
I’m sure Mara meant to say that so called scriptures and holy books are not infallible (?).
I grew up in a fundamentalist church where the book of Revelation was a most important source of the scariest of all doctrines inserting fear into the fellowship of believers. You’ll find the UB teaches their is no hell or damnation or end of days. John did indeed have a most glorious vision and revelation. Unfortunately this personal revelation inspired John to try and describe this vision without any adequate context or concepts to bring any accuracy of the vision to any others…..and then over half of it was lost and the rest was heavily edited much later.
Personally I left the church because I determined that most Christian doctrines directly contradict the Jesusonian Gospel found in the Bible, especially easy to find in the red letter edition.
An excellent topic!
Thank you Mara and Bradly. Very interesting selections and input. Some of the events taught from today’s bible seem to be happening, so I was just wondering if UB also discusses an apocalyptic scenario and antichrist.
This dematerialization really interests me. I remember things from before I was born, one of them being I and my niece, along with many others, had to go through a particular process « to be born ». I’ve spoken of this my entire life, since I learned to talk, actually. I remember this, but I do not remember the process. It seems to me after we underwent the process, we had to get on something like a ship or train or plane, like we were boarding something to go to the place where we could be born. These were memories, not dreams. I have others too, but I am wondering if it had something to do with materialization maybe, or the opposite of dematerialization?? I remember when it was time for me to be born, I had to go into a hole-like thing, and I was very nervous, but there were others around me teasing me about being scared to go. One in particular, I felt very supported by, like he or she was my teacher maybe. Finally I got into the hole, but the memory stops there. I told of this memory in a spiritual facebook group, and a woman commented that she knows of the hole, and that she remembers it too before she was born. She drew a picture of it many years ago, and so she took a digital picture of it and posted it on that thread. When I saw it, my jaw dropped open because this was exactly how the hole looked to me in my memory. No memories of past lives however, just parts of the spirit world prior to coming here as me. Which is why Dr. Michael Newton’s life between lives cases are my favorite. I have not adopted pretty much anything at all as true « beliefs » however. At the same time, I know these weren’t dreams, so I just try not to categorize it too much.
I appreciate your time on this subject. I do plan to dig into the book soon and find information for myself, but this is a busy time right now and things just pop into my head that I’m curious about, but don’t really have time to search for. So I ask on here just to see ideas on the subjects of people well-read on the UB. Would like to see if an antichrist-type individual (or earth system) is discussed. Thanks again! I will see you again when something else pops up.
Hey Karen…..the UB teaches that every material world where mortals are born is one that has successfully formed geologically to support life, then life is brought to the planet by beings called Life Carriers. For millions of years all of biological evolution is patiently guided to one outcome, native, human life. Such a world is deemed « inhabited » and then begins the long, slow, evolutionary struggle of humanity to develop civilization….and each world is provided help to learn agriculture, tools, manufacturing, language, trade, etc. The Garden of Eden is one example of such an established city.
When any world is considered ‘inhabited’ by mortal beings, evolved slowly from the earliest and smallest of life forms, then it becomes inevitable that every such world will eventually be transformed, step by step and age by age, taking well over a million years of planetary time to achieve ever higher states of civilization until the world becomes settled in « light and life ». There are trillions of such inhabited worlds. Our world and every world has their own unique path to this inevitable planetary destiny…but it IS inevitable. This takes tens of thousands of generations and each generation is a link in the chain of timely progress.
So….no to Armageddon regarding the UB. Our world is not the center of the universe and God has trillions and trillions of free will mortal born children who share the potential for eternal life and each mortal and generation of mortals has the capability of choosing the spiritual nature and growing in spirit through free will choice and with the help of the Spirit within to guide us. So a world takes a long, long time to evolve into light and life but a person may be transformed into an eternal entity in one short human/mortal life.
It is this story of our world and our own life that makes the UB the most interesting and exciting book in the world today – in my opinion.
I don’t want to overwhelm your curiosity or current set of preconceptions by too much too soon. It’s always best to digest the source material personally and ask questions as they come up. One thing you will come to notice reading the UB….it has an uncanny way of bringing questions to mind….which are then answered (often) in the text to come. Enjoy!!
Ragathea/Karen – After reading my last post in attempting to answer your questions, I feel I have erred in approach. It is not appropriate here to ‘explain’ what the UB says for itself…or not until the newer reader/student has done some reading which brings questions about what has been read. There is no substitute for actual, personal study to then better guide the discussion to come.
So, rather than asking broad questions about that which has not yet been read, let me suggest we use your time here to focus upon that text you read and have questions about that which has been read. The authors of the Papers suggest a front to back reading, from the eternal/infinite center of all reality to the outer edges of time and space creation, followed by Part IV known as the Jesus papers. Many of us did not take such sage advice and it’s okay to start anywhere, jump around from Paper to Paper to trace specific topics of interest, so it does not matter to me what you read in what order.
The UB is beautifully coherent and redundant and integrates all subject matter brilliantly in a way that should engage most any sincere truth seeker. But it is a big book! But there is no way to understand, appreciate, and apply the teachings to one’s own life without reading it. There is no short hand or short cut and no abbreviated version like the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. It does take time. I would encourage you that the time spent is well worth it!!
If you haven’t found them yet, here’s a couple of helpful links. The first is the online version of the entire book and the second is the key word search engine which can help with specific topics addressed throughout the Papers. Enjoy! I look forward to your progress and assure you there are readers here most willing to help in your discovery and understanding. But for me, I should not answer such broad questions as posted here until and unless you have read something specific that brings questions to mind. The UB says no one has truly learned something they do not teach….we are both students and teachers throughout our time and space adventures and education. It is the sincere questions of truth seekers which often begin the teaching and the learning cycle….especially does the teacher learn more and better by being student always.
Karen – regarding « dematerialization » and/or « pre-existence » of soul and/or any form of reincarnation….the Urantia Papers do not support these beliefs. Each mortal born person has but one such life on a native or material planet. On our world of origination and birth, we are all endowed with the spirit nature as well as the material nature – we are dual natured beings. Upon our first moral free will, individual choice, soul is born into being. That soul grows and strengthens over time (or not) based on all the decisions/choices made in our mortal life in response to the spirit nature or spirit within mind.
At mortal death on the planets of birth, it is the soul which survives the physical corpse and it carries identity and experience that is spiritually true, beautiful, and good….love centered experience and the wisdom such spirit identification brings to our being. We then enter the next phase of spiritualization and education and experience but not on the worlds of birth…our own or any other such planet of mortal origins. Thus we begin the long, long progressive adventure and journey toward the center of all creation – Paradise – becoming more and more spirit and less and less material.
I have no comment on your ‘memories’ or beliefs Karen….just wishing to clarify the teachings of the Papers for those who may follow this topic and inquiry. It is not the duty of anyone here to say what is true or right or what any others are to believe. Our opportunity is simply to let the contents of the UB to guide our discussions and considerations of understanding what the authors wrote. What one does with what is written is entirely up to each student.
2:5.5 (39.4) After all, the greatest evidence of the goodness of God and the supreme reason for loving him is the indwelling gift of the Father — the Adjuster who so patiently awaits the hour when you both shall be eternally made one. Though you cannot find God by searching, if you will submit to the leading of the indwelling spirit, you will be unerringly guided, step by step, life by life, through universe upon universe, and age by age, until you finally stand in the presence of the Paradise personality of the Universal Father.
2:5.12 (40.4) When man loses sight of the love of a personal God, the kingdom of God becomes merely the kingdom of good. Notwithstanding the infinite unity of the divine nature, love is the dominant characteristic of all God’s personal dealings with his creatures.
2:7.11 (43.4) All truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good. All real beauty — material art or spiritual symmetry — is both true and good. All genuine goodness — whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry — is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
5:1.4 (63.2) The mortals of the realms of time and space may differ greatly in innate abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy environments exceptionally favorable to social advancement and moral progress, or they may suffer from the lack of almost every human aid to culture and supposed advancement in the arts of civilization; but the possibilities for spiritual progress in the ascension career are equal to all; increasing levels of spiritual insight and cosmic meanings are attained quite independently of all such sociomoral differentials of the diversified material environments on the evolutionary worlds.
5:1.5 (63.3) However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin, while they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of these Mystery Monitors.
5:1.6 (63.4) If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly consecrated to the doing of the Father’s will, then, since he is so certainly and so effectively spiritually endowed by the indwelling and divine Adjuster, there cannot fail to materialize in that individual’s experience the sublime consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more like him.
Links to related topical discussions here at the Forum:
I remember things from before I was born, one of them being I and my niece, along with many others, had to go through a particular process “to be born”. I’ve spoken of this my entire life, since I learned to talk, actually. I remember this, but I do not remember the process. It seems to me after we underwent the process, we had to get on something like a ship or train or plane, like we were boarding something to go to the place where we could be born. These were memories, not dreams. I have others too, but I am wondering if it had something to do with materialization maybe, or the opposite of dematerialization??
Ragathea: what you and others may be or have experienced is possibly a form of « protoplasmic memory » described in the UB in the following narration, however there are other indications that there are various genetic « germ plasm » and « life plasm » which can linger on as memories but since they are basic genetic structures may also be recalled as memories by others. These memories may manifest themselves to the conscious mind but maybe, should be considered as a common memory which has pushed itself forward but should or may be a « primitive form of creature consciousness ». Therefor, may or should be considered as residual memories that have no real meaning, and presented as something that may represent some alternate conclusion.
(1111.8) 101:6.4 The evolutionary type of knowledge is but the accumulation of protoplasmic memory material; this is the most primitive form of creature consciousness. Wisdom embraces the ideas formulated from protoplasmic memory in process of association and recombination, and such phenomena differentiate human mind from mere animal mind. Animals have knowledge, but only man possesses wisdom capacity. Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth.
At the same time, I know these weren’t dreams, so I just try not to categorize it too much.
I think it is natural to inquiring minds to want to find explanations for unusual experiences. I am certain that in time you will understand your experiences. Far be it for me to interpret what your experiences are. They are yours. They are personal to you and meaningful to you. Any interpretation coming from someone else is mere speculation in my opinion. In your sincere desire to know the meanings of this sort of stuff, you will find out for yourself. Of this I am sure..Here is something delightful and refreshing to read about treasured memories:160:4.12 Train your memory to hold in sacred trust the strength-giving and worth-while episodes of life, which you can recall at will for your pleasure and edification. Thus build up for yourself and in yourself reserve galleries of beauty, goodness, and artistic grandeur. But the noblest of all memories are the treasured recollections of the great moments of a superb friendship. And all of these memory treasures radiate their most precious and exalting influences under the releasing touch of spiritual worship.Thanks Mara for such a tender and friendly voice! Since memory has been introduced and asked about, here’s some more text where memories are noted ( and there are many):
48:4.20 (550.1) The principles of Urantian play life are philosophically sound and continue to apply on up through your ascending life, through the circuits of Havona to the eternal shores of Paradise. As ascendant beings you are in possession of personal memories of all former and lower existences, and without such identity memories of the past there would be no basis for the humor of the present, either mortal laughter or morontia mirth. It is this recalling of past experiences that provides the basis for present diversion and amusement. And so you will enjoy the celestial equivalents of your earthly humor all the way up through your long morontia, and then increasingly spiritual, careers. And that part of God (the Adjuster) which becomes an eternal part of the personality of an ascendant mortal contributes the overtones of divinity to the joyous expressions, even spiritual laughter, of the ascending creatures of time and space.
112:3.5 (1230.3) After death the material body returns to the elemental world from which it was derived, but two nonmaterial factors of surviving personality persist: The pre-existent Thought Adjuster, with the memory transcription of the mortal career, proceeds to Divinington; and there also remains, in the custody of the destiny guardian, the immortal morontia soul of the deceased human. These phases and forms of soul, these once kinetic but now static formulas of identity, are essential to repersonalization on the morontia worlds; and it is the reunion of the Adjuster and the soul that reassembles the surviving personality, that reconsciousizes you at the time of the morontia awakening.
112:5.22 (1235.4) The Thought Adjuster will recall and rehearse for you only those memories and experiences which are a part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the Adjuster has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind, then will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal consciousness of the Adjuster. But much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; much of material experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having bridged you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a purpose in the universe. But personality and the relationships between personalities are never scaffolding; mortal memory of personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist. On the mansion worlds you will know and be known, and more, you will remember, and be remembered by, your onetime associates in the short but intriguing life on Urantia.
Just now able to get back here. Thank you, I am very appreciative of your responses and trueness in my learning here. I would love nothing more than to be able to spend more time in the book. But, just as I can’t keep someone’s Christmas present in the house any more than a day without breaking down and giving it early, I can’t wait to get the answers to my questions and mental ponderings. I don’t mean to cheat and intentionally skip the hard work, I have every intention of reading every UB word from beginning to end, and appreciate so much the time given to my questions, Mara, Bradly, and MidiChlorian, with your insights, selections, and links. This is very exciting for me.
This protoplasmic memory is very intriguing. As I said before, what I call « pre-birth » memories have been with me since many years before I ever heard about Drs. Weiss, Cannon, and Newton. So I am confident they have not been created or shaped by any reading of this information. I look forward to reading more about this as well.
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