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when we examine closely those who are the wealthiest and greediest and most destructive we find them to be zionists not capitalists
I think you mean zealots, not zionists. Zionists are Jews who stand for the establishment of an independent Jewish state, i.e. Israel.
Bradly asserted that The Spirit of Truth functions in organizations such as the military and NGOs and non-profits and this is not true.
I think this is a response to the Spirit of Truth ministry – less “self” interest and more “other than self” interests being demonstrated.
Whatever changes a society is the result of changes to the individuals within that society….society is an aggregational effect and governments, corporations, and NGOs are groups of persons. And the point is that more and more individuals are aggregating their private, group, and public resources for that which does not serve them personally….and do so in response to internal and personalized spiritization – “response to the Spirit of Truth ministry”. A personal response which often IS then or can become collectively responsive and cooperative with the angels of religion, progress, etc. Our world is under the active management of many agents of change and progress that are certainly not mortal or guided by a mortal agenda or our shortcomings. But they must and do work within each status quo to effect such progress.
(1950.3) 180:5.8 But the highest realization and the truest interpretation of the golden rule consists in the consciousness of the spirit of the truth of the enduring and living reality of such a divine declaration. The true cosmic meaning of this rule of universal relationship is revealed only in its spiritual realization, in the interpretation of the law of conduct by the spirit of the Son to the spirit of the Father that indwells the soul of mortal man. And when such spirit-led mortals realize the true meaning of this golden rule, they are filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe, and their ideals of spirit reality are satisfied only when they love their fellows as Jesus loved us all, and that is the reality of the realization of the love of God.
(1950.4) 180:5.9 This same philosophy of the living flexibility and cosmic adaptability of divine truth to the individual requirements and capacity of every son of God, must be perceived before you can hope adequately to understand the Master’s teaching and practice of nonresistance to evil. The Master’s teaching is basically a spiritual pronouncement. Even the material implications of his philosophy cannot be helpfully considered apart from their spiritual correlations. The spirit of the Master’s injunction consists in the nonresistance of all selfish reaction to the universe, coupled with the aggressive and progressive attainment of righteous levels of true spirit values: divine beauty, infinite goodness, and eternal truth — to know God and to become increasingly like him.
(1950.5) 180:5.10 Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. Love must thereby grasp the ever-changing and enlarging concepts of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And then love goes on to strike this same attitude concerning all other individuals who could possibly be influenced by the growing and living relationship of one spirit-led mortal’s love for other citizens of the universe. And this entire living adaptation of love must be effected in the light of both the environment of present evil and the eternal goal of the perfection of divine destiny.
Capitalists want access to resources and markets to create more opportunities for the capital at risk potential rewards (increased profits) and they have over the past century realized the barriers and obstacles to expansion – globalization of money, markets, travel, and trade. Capitalist greed has served to break down barriers that politics never did or possibly could. Fascinatingly, the apex of this transition coincided with instant and universal global communications and access to the entire contents of human knowledge (and stupid amusement to be sure – haha!).
Capitalist = greed is simply not true. This is a rally cry for the populist as well as those addicted to the welfare state.
I agree Nelson and should have said “capitalist appetite for profit” as more accurate. Money/capital is not moral or immoral and it has no characteristics except as a method of exchange. However, capitalism is investing capital into risk for potential reward – profit – or it stays under the mattress. No potential for reward means no capital is deployed. It is the one making and choosing the investment that determines morality and motive for the deployment of capital. As nelson suggests, it is this risk/reward opportunity that has delivered up wealth creation and distribution by its need for both labor and customer which moves money through a growing network of investors and owners of commercial enterprise and the responding growing labor pool at the same time.
Wealth creation in the modern world is not a result of hoarding gold or salt or grain or capital….it is its deployment that does that. And that deployment seeks profit or a return on the risk taken with capital. It’s a wonderfully effective incentive. And it is now breaking down nationalist and cultural/language barriers that religion and politics/governments have not successfully penetrated without capital seeking opportunity for profit. And more and more, labor is becoming another source for capital investment and for non-profit deployment both. And such democratization of capital results in more and more people self determining priorities for their capital and income.
But, we are taught, it is only a progressive step toward a service economy – service to others becoming the driving motivation for economic policy and practice. My point was to give evidence that suggests this transformation is underway, albeit only in its infancy. And that this transformation will be the result of personal changes in response to, perhaps as one factor, the ministry of the Spirit of Truth.
Sorry for my clumsy word choices. I’m a big fan of capitalism/profit for its power to change the world. But I’m far more interested in how this system of economy and economic relationships is connecting us all into an integrated cooperative of personal expression and mutual dependence. While there is plenty of money for war still, the cost/benefit factors are changing before our eyes as war becomes too expensive to wage compared to diplomacy and cooperation for mutual benefit. Thanks everyone.
I have to agree with Bradly. Wherever two or three believers are gathered, the Spirit of Truth is present. It doesn’t matter where the two are three are gathered together either. And it could be 20 or 20 believers or 200 or 300 believers. All that is necessary is for these people to attempt to have loving contact with one another or to follow the golden rule. There are plenty of people in civil organizations attempting to do just that, although I’m not sure about the IRS . . . said tongue in cheek.
I see your point Bonita. However, those religious organizations that go to Africa were not the ones that came immediately to mind when Bradly mentioned NGOs and non-profits. I must confess that I do feel the spirit very much more strongly while in church.
I doubt that The Sierra club, NOW, or any civil organizations share the Spirit. These examples and countless others have banned God, and government organizations that even mention God or Jesus will get slapped with lawsuit from the ACLU. All creeds will be changed to “In Money We Trust” or “In Power We Trust”.
(191.6) 16:6.3 The fact of the cosmic mind explains the kinship of various types of human and superhuman minds. Not only are kindred spirits attracted to each other, but kindred minds are also very fraternal and inclined towards co-operation the one with the other. Human minds are sometimes observed to be running in channels of astonishing similarity and inexplicable agreement.
I did not claim nor mean to suggest that all or most nonprofit organizations are themselves a function or reflection of the spiritization of our world – but, rather, that the nature of philanthropy is changing by the working and tax paying class and that ANY donations of hard earned income and capital that is NOT self serving is an indication of transitional priorities and motives that indicate the early stages of the maturing of capitalism/profit motive to a higher form of economic model that is the norm for all worlds in mortal epochal progress. Who is worthy of my donations is not the subject – it is the fact of and source of free will donations that is the point of my posts – related to the original subject – “the era immediately to follow…..” – my assertion is there are signs of such in this example of the changing nature of capitalism.
I said before that money stays under the mattress until beckoned out to seek reward for risk (or buy something or help out a known loved one) and this has been the case for the history of capital formation – profit seeking. But now, people are giving money, time, and talent to “causes” that do not offer any personal return of, for, or on capital. It is new and increasing and is getting results that inspire more and more of this new application of private and public capital. Who may be worthy or unworthy as either giver or receiver is irrelevant to the premise of the change in not for profit capitalism – service-to others based economics is being born. I think it demonstrates progress by the Most Highs, our unseen friends, and the Spirit of Truth, and, perhaps even, the Supreme’s growing influence (?).
And according to text, we are not entering the material age but that the worst of it is over….for those with the eye to see and ear to hear and the faith that we are well loved and managed in our inherent epochal progress and inevitable destination of Light and Life. I am most optimistic and confident for our world’s future. Sufficient unto this day is the trouble therein.
Yes Bradly, I share your optimism. We are in transition because there is a war on Earth and there is a war in Heaven. There is a fog of war that blinds us to the spiritual progress at hand, but it is there, I agree.
81:5.7 Liberty subject to group regulation is the legitimate goal of social evolution. Liberty without restrictions is the vain and fanciful dream of unstable and flighty human minds.
As far as ‘controlling others’, an Archangel sanctioned by Gabriel of Salvington wrote this. The war on Earth is concerning this very debate. The war on Heaven is concerning this very debate. Just remove the word “human” from the quote above.
Notice that control is “legitimized”. Lets us await The Trial.
I agree with the “blindness”….many are quite distracted by materialism or blinded by anxiety and fear. Thanks Louis.
I am confused though about …. “there is war in heaven.” Perhaps you mean you think that in all the locals, there is always a rebellion going on somewhere? Our local one is over I think, although there are still repurcussions to work through I would agree.
I am confused though about …. “there is war in heaven.” Perhaps you mean you think that in all the locals, there is always a rebellion going on somewhere? Our local one is over I think, although there are still repurcussions to work through I would agree.
Bradly, the war on Earth is fought with guns and ammo. The war in Heaven is the battles of wills. Jesus technically terminated the Lucifer rebellion. The battle is over but the war rages on between the freewill persons of imperfect creations up and until the perfection of the self governed Central Universe is achieved in the Superuniverses.
There will be wars and rumors of wars. A trial is pending. There will be a loser and a winner. The repercussions of the verdict will be for the judged. If the prosecution engaged in judgement then he will be judged justly, regardless of the verdict handed down upon the defendants. Michael has his hands full herding cats.
4:3.1 All too long has man thought of God as one like himself. God is not, never was, and never will be jealous of man or ‘any other being’ in the universe of universes. Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece of the planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing down before idols of wood, stone, gold, and ‘selfish ambition’—these sordid scenes stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of him.
Notice the reference to ‘any other being in the universe of universes’. Notice that although idols of wood, stone, and gold are of human concerns, selfish ambition is an idol that applies to ALL freewill beings in the universe.
4:3.1 All too long has man thought of God as one like himself. God is not, never was, and never will be jealous of man or ‘any other being’ in the universe of universes. Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece of the planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing down before idols of wood, stone, gold, and ‘selfish ambition’—these sordid scenes stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of him.
In order to shed more light on the idolatry of SELFISH AMBITION I will point to another quote.
54:2.3 Lucifer’s folly was the attempt to do the nondoable, to short-circuit time in an experiential universe. 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. In so doing, this onetime Sovereign of your system set the temporal purpose of his own will directly athwart the eternal purpose of God’s will as it is revealed in the bestowal of free will upon all personal creatures. 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.
Whenever I see or hear the word, “DISENFRANCHISEMENT”, my ears go up. This is a favorite word of the “self ambitious” to hurl at their political enemy in a purely hypocritical way. This idolatry and hypocrisy leads directly to judgement. This self ambitious agenda inevitably leads to “They are the bad people that would do this to you”. This is pure politics.
Politics requires propaganda. The leaking of certain information is agenda driven. Politics requires at least two sides. It is always a matter of power and control, and on Earth, money as well.
Freewill creatures have a tendency to be self absorbed cats, not lap dogs. Some breeds of dogs are natural herders. Cats resist being herded.
As above , so below.
I am confused though about …. “there is war in heaven.” Perhaps you mean you think that in all the locals, there is always a rebellion going on somewhere? Our local one is over I think, although there are still repurcussions to work through I would agree.
4:3.5 The Universal Father never does anything that causes subsequent sorrow or regret, but the will creatures of the planning and making of his Creator personalities in the outlying universes, by their unfortunate choosing, sometimes occasion emotions of divine sorrow in the personalities of their Creator parents. But though the Father neither makes mistakes, harbors regrets, nor experiences sorrows, he is a being with a father’s affection, and his heart is undoubtedly grieved when his children fail to attain the spiritual levels they are capable of reaching with the assistance which has been so freely provided by the spiritual-attainment plans and the mortal-ascension policies of the universes.
The Master said, “I have not come to bring peace , but a sword”. A sword divides the good from the evil. A sword slices through the confusion, the fog of war.
There is a war on Earth as it is in Heaven. The idolatry of selfish ambition is a war within, between our will and God’s will. The war without is a war between our will and our brother’s will. Ambition is always blind and blinding. The fog is a heavy and thick when the spiritual levels are not attained on Earth nor in Heaven. The fog will lift when the light burns bright with the Fathers’s will, on Earth and in Heaven. His will be done.
A trial is an unfortunate state of affairs. It means that forgiveness was not offered or not accepted. Between God and creature forgiveness is a standing offer and unconditional. Between brothers forgiveness is conditional.
The war above and below is within and without. God’s will is that there be no more wars or rumors of wars.
If it is so, as it says in 52:3.6, then the era that immediately follows our current would be one which stands on the eve of great intellectual development (52:4.1). It is clear that the UB was written for the higher intellect; I think we can all agree that it is not an easy read. In the next era there will be more leisure time for study. Have you ever wondered why there are so many pensioners on the forums and in the study groups? These are intellectual people with plenty of leisure time, a foretaste of what everyone will have in the future, (at least ideally, since we know we are not an ideal world). Free time, free minds, along with the budding of self-government is like a dream come true. I think there are a few who already experience this today and some of them have also discovered the UB, oddly enough, preparing the way for the coming generations. I think there is always a certain amount of overlap between the epochs.
It is clear that the UB was written for the higher intellect; I think we can all agree that it is not an easy read
Are you suggesting that TUB is written for the one percenters? If find a lot of 99 percenters that do not work and have plenty of time on their hands. Then there must be intellect and leisure and will. The leisure will come from technology and energy breakthroughs. Will is personal, but how are we going to elevate the collective IQ?
The first paragraph of the Publication Mandate:
“We regard The Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episodes of epochal revolution, even though it may apparently be timed to appear in the wake of one such revolution in human society. The book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the book has been made ready.”
Epoch or era or age? 50:5:8 They use all three in this reference.
.”The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood. When mortals learn to think and begin to profit by experience, they become philosophical — they start out to reason within themselves and to exercise discriminative judgment. The society of this age becomes ethical, and the mortals of such an era are truly becoming moral beings. Wise moral beings are capable of establishing human brotherhood on such a progressing world. Ethical and moral beings can learn how to live in accordance with the golden rule.”
Seems like the more golden-rulers the better. That would indicat a better era is approaching.
The golden rule precedes the bestowal of our Creator Son. Last week in study group we were impressed to read of Ganid’s abstract of the various world religions put together while he visited Alexandria. 131:0:1 They all contain the teaching what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. Of course Jesus re-framed this negative do-not teaching to its positive.
Mara wrote: “We regard The Urantia Book as a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episodes of epochal revolution . . .What are episodes of epochal revolution????
Bonita wrote:What are episodes of epochal revolution????The big wars of the 20th Century. The current problems of religio-political extremism in the 21th Century – a different kind of big war.Dalamatia at the time of the rebellion is a first example of epochal revolution.67:5:1 Great confusion reigned in Dalamatia and thereabout for almost fifty years after the instigation of rebellion. The complete and radical reorganization of the whole world was attempted; revolution displaced evolution as the policy of cultural advancement and racial improvement. Among the superior and partially trained sojourners in and near Dalamatia there appeared a sudden advancement in cultural status, but when these new and radical methods were attempted on the outlying peoples, indescribable confusion and racial pandemonium was the immediate result. Liberty was quickly translated into license by the half-evolved primitive men of those days.
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