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Greetings of love and peace to all my fellow readers and students of the Book,
I’m trying to find a specific quote! I’m sure you’ve all had this experience! You know it’s there somewhere in the UB but all efforts to find it prove unsuccessful…..even with my trusty search engine. So either the quote doesn’t exist, or I’ve misconstrued the keywords or ……
I’m trying to find the passage in the UB where the midwayers said that had the apostles stuck to preaching the gospel of Jesus rather than declaring the gospel about Jesus, the world at that time would have become unified. I’m not sure of the exact words but this is the gist of what I’m looking for.
I know there are several similar quotes which make reference to the two gospels or two religions….the one about and the other of but I’ve been unable to find one that specifically states that spirit unity would have been possible in the first century had the apostles heeded Jesus’ admonition to proclaim the religion of Jesus.
Any help or comments would be much appreciated!
Warm wishes,
Julian
Greetings Julian! I have failed to find the quote you are looking for but wanted to share text which supports such a inference. Still looking for a more definitive example by key word search but a little tedious and unfruitful so far!
95:7.3 (1051.1) Here and there throughout Arabia were families and clans that held on to the hazy idea of the one God. Such groups treasured the traditions of Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, and Zoroaster. There were numerous centers that might have responded to the Jesusonian gospel, but the Christian missionaries of the desert lands were an austere and unyielding group in contrast with the compromisers and innovators who functioned as missionaries in the Mediterranean countries. Had the followers of Jesus taken more seriously his injunction to “go into all the world and preach the gospel,” and had they been more gracious in that preaching, less stringent in collateral social requirements of their own devising, then many lands would gladly have received the simple gospel of the carpenter’s son, Arabia among them.
And still does the world await the banquet of and will the world still come to feast and fatten upon the Jesusonian Gospel:
94:4.10 (1032.2) Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel—the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion.
94:12.7 (1041.5) All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.
Julian, 196:2 might be a close candidate for your thoughts. Its not precisely what you requested, but does shed some light in that the writer reminds us we humans took a different pathway than what the Master intended.
Julian, 196:2 might be . . . .
Is this what you are referring to Mark?
194:2.9 But these mistakes of the intellect in no way interfered with the believer’s great progress in growth in spirit. In less than a month after the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made more individual spiritual progress than during their almost four years of personal and loving association with the Master. Neither did this substitution of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus for the saving gospel truth of sonship with God in any way interfere with the rapid spread of their teachings; on the contrary, this overshadowing of Jesus’ message by the new teachings about his person and resurrection seemed greatly to facilitate the preaching of the good news.I’m trying to find a specific quote! I’m sure you’ve all had this experience! You know it’s there somewhere in the UB but all efforts to find it prove unsuccessful…..even with my trusty search engine. So either the quote doesn’t exist, or I’ve misconstrued the keywords or …… I’m trying to find the passage in the UB where the midwayers said that had the apostles stuck to preaching the gospel of Jesus rather than declaring the gospel about Jesus, the world at that time would have become unified. I’m not sure of the exact words but this is the gist of what I’m looking for. I know there are several similar quotes which make reference to the two gospels or two religions….the one about and the other of but I’ve been unable to find one that specifically states that spirit unity would have been possible in the first century had the apostles heeded Jesus’ admonition to proclaim the religion of Jesus.
I did find this bit about “spirit unity”.
182:1.8 Jesus prayed for unity among his followers, but he did not desire uniformity. Sin creates a dead level of evil inertia, but righteousness nourishes the creative spirit of individual experience in the living realities of eternal truth and in the progressive communion of the divine spirits of the Father and the Son. In the spiritual fellowship of the believer-son with the divine Father there can never be doctrinal finality and sectarian superiority of group consciousness.Do you think that “. . . spirit unity would have been possible in the first century had the apostles heeded Jesus’ admonition to proclaim the religion of Jesus.”?Paper 195 also adds insight:
195:0.3 (2069.3) Upon such a stage of human society the teachings of Jesus, embraced in the Christian message, were suddenly thrust. A new order of living was thus presented to the hungry hearts of these Western peoples. This situation meant immediate conflict between the older religious practices and the new Christianized version of Jesus’ message to the world. Such a conflict must result in either decided victory for the new or for the old or in some degree of compromise. History shows that the struggle ended in compromise. Christianity presumed to embrace too much for any one people to assimilate in one or two generations. It was not a simple spiritual appeal, such as Jesus had presented to the souls of men; it early struck a decided attitude on religious rituals, education, magic, medicine, art, literature, law, government, morals, sex regulation, polygamy, and, in limited degree, even slavery. Christianity came not merely as a new religion—something all the Roman Empire and all the Orient were waiting for—but as a new order of human society. And as such a pretension it quickly precipitated the social-moral clash of the ages. The ideals of Jesus, as they were reinterpreted by Greek philosophy and socialized in Christianity, now boldly challenged the traditions of the human race embodied in the ethics, morality, and religions of Western civilization.
We are told that evolutionary, organized, and personal religions should refrain from social, political, and economic issues and disputes. I was a little surprised by that teaching. But this topic reveals just why such advice is effectively important. If religion were to remain focused on changing the attitudes, motives, intentions, priorities, and choices of religionists, then would morals, ethics, and mores self-adjust in response to the spiritualization of the personal religious experience.
With Christianity specifically – and I think most evolutionary religions generally – the principal focus is on behaviors and beliefs and thus challenge the established and progressive status quos that are more civil, social, and secular. This causes a tension and often retards either religions or sciences in their own pursuits related to social change – the ballast of conformity and history conflicting with the realization of progress. In its purist and most simple form, the Jesusonian Gospel does not directly defy or challenge the status quo so much as it organically and effectively changes it over time, by its response to the spiritualization of the each as it slowly effects the all…as goes the parts so goes the whole.
Jesus also addressed this issue in the parables of the sower and the tares I think. The sower spreads good seed wherever he/she goes and it sprouts in all good soil. When wheat is sown sufficiently it crowds out the tares and survives and grows, ever sowing ever more and more wheat in each field, to push back and overwhelm the tares generation after generation. Religions too often seek to rip the tares from the soil while too often neglecting the sowing of good seed. Such a strategy is confrontational and defiant and arrogant and fosters resistance, rejection, and resentment!
This is part of the story of Christianity vs. Jesusonian. Very interesting that Christianity did not fail but became so Westernized that it did fail in other cultures where the Jesusonian would have formulated. Would the Jesusonian have won the East and failed in the West?
Jesus taught us to always add to the light of others….not to remove and replace and correct. By adding more light and hope and feeding faith to others do both/all parties grow and become more fruitful.
Thanks for asking Julian…been nice to contemplate on the topic today.
Hi Julian,
Here are two more:
(1543.1, 138:6.3) Jesus endeavored to make clear to his apostles the difference between his teachings and his life among them and the teachings which might subsequently spring up about him. Said Jesus: “My kingdom and the gospel related thereto shall be the burden of your message. Be not sidetracked into preaching about me and about my teachings. Proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and portray my revelation of the Father in heaven but do not be misled into the bypaths of creating legends and building up a cult having to do with beliefs and teachings about my beliefs and teachings.” But again they did not understand why he thus spoke, and no man dared to ask why he so taught them.
(1413.2, 128:4.6) “One purpose which Jesus had in mind, when he sought to segregate certain features of his earthly experience, was to prevent the building up of such a versatile and spectacular career as would cause subsequent generations to venerate the teacher in place of obeying the truth which he had lived and taught. Jesus did not want to build up such a human record of achievement as would attract attention from his teaching. Very early he recognized that his followers would be tempted to formulate a religion about him which might become a competitor of the gospel of the kingdom that he intended to proclaim to the world. Accordingly, he consistently sought to suppress everything during his eventful career which he thought might be made to serve this natural human tendency to exalt the teacher in place of proclaiming his teachings.”
Nigel
Thank you Bradly, Mark, Mara, and Nigel for your very helpful responses! I’m beginning to think that the quote I’m looking for is really just a combination of the many quotes in the Book on this subject, including the excellent ones that you have suggested.
Do you think that “. . . spirit unity would have been possible in the first century had the apostles heeded Jesus’ admonition to proclaim the religion of Jesus.”?
I think there is a strong inference that this would have been the ultimate outcome. Take these two utterances for example:
The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called mankind to the achievement of its highest ideals in time and eternity — to be perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect. (P.1091.2; 99.5.3)
The religion of Jesus is the most powerful unifying influence the world has ever known. (P.2065.5; 194.3.17)
Jesus was fully aware of the human tendency to glorify and worship the divine messengers who have been sent to our planet. He went to great lengths to prevent this from happening with respect to his own bestowal:
(1413.2, 128:4.6) “One purpose which Jesus had in mind, when he sought to segregate certain features of his earthly experience, was to prevent the building up of such a versatile and spectacular career as would cause subsequent generations to venerate the teacher in place of obeying the truth which he had lived and taught. Jesus did not want to build up such a human record of achievement as would attract attention from his teaching. Very early he recognized that his followers would be tempted to formulate a religion about him which might become a competitor of the gospel of the kingdom that he intended to proclaim to the world. Accordingly, he consistently sought to suppress everything during his eventful career which he thought might be made to serve this natural human tendency to exalt the teacher in place of proclaiming his teachings.”
The first century apostles and disciples became understandably enamored of Jesus….particularly following his resurrection and ascension. This lead to a serious blunder:
(1670.5) 149:2.4 2. The second great blunder of the Master’s early followers, and one which all subsequent generations have persisted in perpetuating, was to organize the Christian teaching so completely about the person of Jesus. This overemphasis of the personality of Jesus in the theology of Christianity has worked to obscure his teachings, and all of this has made it increasingly difficult for Jews, Mohammedans, Hindus, and other Eastern religionists to accept the teachings of Jesus. We would not belittle the place of the person of Jesus in a religion which might bear his name, but we would not permit such consideration to eclipse his inspired life or to supplant his saving message: the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
Christians throughout the centuries have focused their attention on the messenger (the 4th epochal revelation) rather than his message. Indeed, they have become infatuated with the book that contains the gospel of Jesus, proclaiming it in total as the word of God. This has created insuperable obstacles for many religionists to accept the true gospel of Jesus.
My concern, which I would be happy to elaborate on later, is that we today are making the same mistake with the 5th epochal revelation. History could be repeating itself! Just a thought!
I’m trying to find the passage in the UB where the midwayers said that had the apostles stuck to preaching the gospel of Jesus rather than declaring the gospel about Jesus, the world at that time would have become unified. I’m not sure of the exact words but this is the gist of what I’m looking for.
Have you considered this quote:
(1866.3) 170:5.20 It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master’s manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. Always we may have diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable and reprehensible.
Julian,
I look forward to an articulation of your concerns. I think that the real danger lies in the evangelist’s hiding or keeping to one’s self the Revelation itself while attempting to distill, restate, and thereby humanly edit the text….rather than disseminate the text for the full embrace of the mind as intended. What is included in the UB that is unimportant I wonder? The partial and filtered and interpretive and humanized presentations of the teachings will certainly, and already do certainly, distort the actual text presented and deliver editorial falsehoods I think. This is the real danger IMO.
The book itself cannot be misrepresented (misunderstood, yes – but not misrepresented) by its own words and in total. I suppose some primitives might idolize a book still but that risk is dimminishing I think…especially for anyone who actually reads it!!
I’m trying to find the passage in the UB where the midwayers said that had the apostles stuck to preaching the gospel of Jesus rather than declaring the gospel about Jesus, the world at that time would have become unified. I’m not sure of the exact words but this is the gist of what I’m looking for.
Have you considered this quote:
(1866.3) 170:5.20 It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master’s manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. Always we may have diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable and reprehensible.
welcome back
i was hoping you really didn’t retire
Julian, I look forward to an articulation of your concerns. I think that the real danger lies in the evangelist’s hiding or keeping to one’s self the Revelation itself while attempting to distill, restate, and thereby humanly edit the text….rather than disseminate the text for the full embrace of the mind as intended. What is included in the UB that is unimportant I wonder? The partial and filtered and interpretive and humanized presentations of the teachings will certainly, and already do certainly, distort the actual text presented and deliver editorial falsehoods I think. This is the real danger IMO. The book itself cannot be misrepresented (misunderstood, yes – but not misrepresented) by its own words and in total. I suppose some primitives might idolize a book still but that risk is dimminishing I think…especially for anyone who actually reads it!!
I will do a bad thing and quote from a book called “ the Urantia notebook of Sir Hubert Wilkins”
Anybody read this? The man was brilliant, a forum member too.
anyway: his views on personal evangelism:
sir hubert spent much of the last years of his life studying TUB and trying to interest his friends and colleagues in it. Realizing the book was too demanding for the average reader he was undaunted by the lack of positive reaction. He wrote h. Sherman in 1955 just after initial publication: of the books I handed out only 1 interested response. Some think it’s a joke, or a novel, Anyway, the response is a good criterion their real mindal ability.
Part of the reason, I think, is that we are uncomfortable sharing the exact source of our faith. Those of us who go to church, for example, feel uncomfortable telling those at church that we do not believe in the Bible, but instead believe in TUB. I know I do. I may share parts of TUB that are rellavent to whatever discussion we are having in Sunday School class, I might even mention some ideas that are being discussed by my study group. But I never admit to a belief in TUB unless I’m sure of a positive (or at least, an open) reaction. I never mention TUB to anyone in fact. If I do use something from TUB I say that it is from a book I was reading.
Part of the reason, as I’ve stated on the forum before, is that I live in Alabama. The south of the U.S. is the most conservative region in the country. To most people around here it would not matter (assuming that they knew that I believe in The Urantia Book) if I told them I follow Jesus. All that they would say, as my mother-in-law says, is that I do not follow Jesus. The reason is simple. I do not follow the Jesus as portrayed in the Bible. I do not follow the Bible. One of the things she dreads, in fact, is the rest of the family finding out that I am not, strictly speaking, a Christian, but instead, follow the teachings found in The Urantia Book. I wear a Urantia necklace. She dreads one of the family asking me about it. To them, nothing else matters. In the South, if you are not a conservative fundamentalist Christian, you are the outsider. In the South Christianity is tied to literally every aspect of both public and private life. The very first thing that is asked in the South of a political candidate is what are his religious beliefs. If they do not line up with what the majority of the South believes, well, he could have the best ideas and have them acknowledged as such. Having said that, he will not win the election. Same is true of business. If he is a businessman, well, he could have the best ideas and the best platform for running his business. But if he is not a professing Christian, bye bye business. Living in the South is something that a person has to experience to understand. Oh there are exceptions to this rule. But by in large this rule applies to literally every area of life, both public and private, in the South.
All other religions are cults and false religions. If you believe in a different religion (as they will say TUB is, and indeed I do hold the book as the source document of my religion/faith) then you must, according to them, belong to a cult… as, according to my mother-in-law, I do. I was going out to eat with her and her at the time boyfriend who was an ordained preacher. She brought TUB up wondering if he had ever heard of it. She did so indirectly though. She told him that I believed in something different and asked me to tell him about it. I said that I was a follower of Jesus. Her next words, as would be the reaction of most in the South were, no you’re not!
He had never heard of the book by the way.
There is a statistic I heard in college that said the South of the U.S. was 50 years behind the rest of the country. This was in relation to culture. We were studying the civil rights movement at the time, but the professor broadened it out and said that it applies to everything.
Look at morals for example. The homosexuality issue is largely in the south.
Interacial Marriage? Same thing. Less open to other religious views? Yes.
Perhaps in a couple centuries (and I’m not saying that just for effect) it will change.
Hello and thanks once again to all of you who responded to my call for assistance. I’m writing now to let you know that I did eventually find that quote I was looking for. And here it is:
Jesus understood the minds of men. He knew what was in the heart of man, and had his teachings been left as he presented them, the only commentary being the inspired interpretation afforded by his earth life, all nations and all religions of the world would speedily have embraced the gospel of the kingdom. The well-meant efforts of Jesus’ early followers to restate his teachings so as to make them the more acceptable to certain nations, races, and religions, only resulted in making such teachings the less acceptable to all other nations, races, and religions. [Paper 149:2.1, page 1670.2]
I think this is a very telling statement.
We stand at the threshold of something truly amazing: the re-emergence of the religion or gospel of Jesus from the cocoon of Christianity following centuries of slumber. As in the first century, a vital work needs to be done:
The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of faith to be proclaimed to struggling humanity. [Paper194:3.2, page 2062.11]
All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus. [Page 94:12.7, page 1041.5] Emphasis added
There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, such a restatement as will undo the work of his early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of belief regarding the fact of Michael’s sojourn on earth. [Paper 170:5.19, page 1866.2] Emphasis added
The hour is striking (meaning now!) for presenting to the peoples of all faiths, the gospel of Jesus, which should not be confused with The Urantia Book, the fifth epochal revelation! My concern is that we may inadvertently repeat history. Our focus seems to be on promoting The Urantia Book rather than the original teachings of Jesus.
Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. [Paper 195:9.4, page 2082.9] Emphasis added
Who are these “new leaders”, these “new teachers”? If not us, then who?
Are my concerns unfounded? I would welcome your comments.
The hour is striking (meaning now!) for presenting to the peoples of all faiths, the gospel of Jesus, which should not be confused with The Urantia Book, the fifth epochal revelation! My concern is that we may inadvertently repeat history. Our focus seems to be on promoting The Urantia Book rather than the original teachings of Jesus.
What do you do with the new revelations of Jesus’ life as presented in the Urantia Book? What about those years with Ganid, and the things he taught him? What about all those pre-baptismal years where so much of the human Jesus is revealed? And isn’t it the human Jesus we are to present to the world? Yes, we must allow the Spirit of Truth, the spiritual Jesus, to dictate our relations, and sometimes even the words, used in our associations with other people, but what about the human Jesus? What about the way he lived and the power of his faith, the dedication of his life to God’s will? We are told not to take the human Jesus away from struggling mortals, (196:1.1) and that it’s now time to resurrect the human Jesus from his burial tomb. (196:1.2)
(2090.4) 196:1.3 To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. 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.
There appears to be an ongoing debate about keeping the UB in its pure form versus restating the teachings, as Bradley, Gene, and Julian pointed out. Personally, I feel it is our job to restate the teachings to those who show spiritual interest but do not care to read the book, or who may find it too challenging. The caveat, of course, is to keep any such teachings in line with those of Jesus.
We should keep in mind that none of the apostles could teach as Jesus did, nor did they understand as much as he did, nonetheless, Jesus gave them the job. Each apostle taught in their own individual way and each seemed to appeal to a certain sector of society. Despite all shortcomings, they taught these truths as best they understood them – and were successful in their attempts.
“For these two months the group worked most of the time in pairs, one of Jesus’ apostles going out with one of John’s. The apostle of John baptized, the apostle of Jesus instructed, while they both preached the gospel of the kingdom as they understood it. And they won many souls among these gentiles and apostate Jews.” 144:7.3 [emphasis added]
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