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Sections 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Paper 133 are some of the best reading in the UB IMO…it lays out the seeds of the Jesusonian Gospel to come as a clear articulation of very important teachings about universe realities and personal spiritualization. I hope to examine each element with some time and care and post related text throughout the Papers in reference to those topics introduced in these sections.
4. Personal Work in Corinth
133:4.1 (1474.1) Jesus and Ganid had many more interesting experiences in Corinth. They had close converse with a great number of persons who greatly profited by the instruction received from Jesus.
133:4.2 (1474.2) The miller he taught about grinding up the grains of truth in the mill of living experience so as to render the difficult things of divine life readily receivable by even the weak and feeble among one’s fellow mortals. Said Jesus: “Give the milk of truth to those who are babes in spiritual perception. In your living and loving ministry serve spiritual food in attractive form and suited to the capacity of receptivity of each of your inquirers.”
Me here: Spiritual truth is not reserved for the educated or wise or intelligent…all of us have access to truth and insight and perspective and faith and faith assurance and personal revelation. Each of us is connected to Deity and their gravity circuits of personality, spirit, and mind and each and all are beloved children who are blessed equally by the Divine Affection and the potential of eternal destiny.
The UB is replete with this teaching. None deserve or earn God’s grace….it is bestowed upon us each and all freely and completely. God does not measure or sort mortals or celestials by their importance or standing or wisdom or knowledge or progress. God is intimately aware of our circumstances and situations and opportunities (and their lack) and our suffering and also our heart’s desires and hopes and aspirations and ideals!
Remember the courtesans we just read about? Remember how Jesus demonstrated the difference and distinction between those who err and the error itself? This is the Jesusonian Gospel…we are beloved children who are cherished and understood and always will we find mercy and forgiveness for our mistakes of immaturity and ignorance and even selfishness. Later we will learn that we cannot receive that which we do not also give freely to others…love and mercy in particular. Love is the law of the universe. Love does not measure us by what we do so much as by what we hope to do and attempt to do.
God measures motive…the heart. And God awaits the softening of the hardened heart. Love is transformative and overcomes all evil and sin…with time and sufficient experience. Progress is always potential and destiny awaits our potential to take root and blossom and bear fruit.
12:7.8 (138.3) The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.
12:7.9 (138.4) The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father’s love glorifies each child of God, illuminating each member of the celestial family, sharply silhouetting the unique nature of each personal being against the impersonal levels that lie outside the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. The love of God strikingly portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status to the lowest personality of will dignity among the savage tribes of men in the dawn of the human species on some evolutionary world of time and space.
12:7.10 (138.5) This very love of God for the individual brings into being the divine family of all individuals, the universal brotherhood of the freewill children of the Paradise Father. And this brotherhood, being universal, is a relationship of the whole. Brotherhood, when universal, discloses not the each relationship, but the all relationship. Brotherhood is a reality of the total and therefore discloses qualities of the whole in contradistinction to qualities of the part.
12:7.11 (138.6) Brotherhood constitutes a fact of relationship between every personality in universal existence. No person can escape the benefits or the penalties that may come as a result of relationship to other persons. The part profits or suffers in measure with the whole. The good effort of each man benefits all men; the error or evil of each man augments the tribulation of all men. As moves the part, so moves the whole. As the progress of the whole, so the progress of the part. The relative velocities of part and whole determine whether the part is retarded by the inertia of the whole or is carried forward by the momentum of the cosmic brotherhood.
133:4.3 (1474.3) To the Roman centurion he said: “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s. The sincere service of God and the loyal service of Caesar do not conflict unless Caesar should presume to arrogate to himself that homage which alone can be claimed by Deity. Loyalty to God, if you should come to know him, would render you all the more loyal and faithful in your devotion to a worthy emperor.”
Me here: One of the greatest features of the UB is its portrayal of Jesus as such an upright and productive citizen and family man. As the eldest brother he became the head of household and the bread winner and the finance manager at a young age. He excelled at overcoming these challenges and was an exemplary student, brother, son, tradesman, craft journeyman, contractor, investor, taxpayer, and community member.
His family had grand plans for his career as religious student and spiritual leader and teacher. Those plans were set aside by the family tragedy and the duty and loyalty exhibited by Jesus the youth. He rose to these challenges with grit and determination and also a light heart and steady hand – no matter the tragedies and frustrations and failures suffered. Jesus was no esoteric aesthetic or mystic navel watcher!! He did not isolate himself from life or people!
127:0.2 (1395.2) No adolescent youth who has lived or ever will live on this world or any other world has had or ever will have more weighty problems to resolve or more intricate difficulties to untangle. No youth of Urantia will ever be called upon to pass through more testing conflicts or more trying situations than Jesus himself endured during those strenuous years from fifteen to twenty.
127:0.3 (1395.3) Having thus tasted the actual experience of living these adolescent years on a world beset by evil and distraught by sin, the Son of Man became possessed of full knowledge about the life experience of the youth of all the realms of Nebadon, and thus forever he became the understanding refuge for the distressed and perplexed adolescents of all ages and on all worlds throughout the local universe.
127:0.4 (1395.4) Slowly, but certainly and by actual experience, this divine Son is earning the right to become sovereign of his universe, the unquestioned and supreme ruler of all created intelligences on all local universe worlds, the understanding refuge of the beings of all ages and of all degrees of personal endowment and experience.
127:1.1 (1395.5) The incarnated Son passed through infancy and experienced an uneventful childhood. Then he emerged from that testing and trying transition stage between childhood and young manhood—he became the adolescent Jesus.
127:1.2 (1395.6) This year he attained his full physical growth. He was a virile and comely youth. He became increasingly sober and serious, but he was kind and sympathetic. His eye was kind but searching; his smile was always engaging and reassuring. His voice was musical but authoritative; his greeting cordial but unaffected. Always, even in the most commonplace of contacts, there seemed to be in evidence the touch of a twofold nature, the human and the divine. Ever he displayed this combination of the sympathizing friend and the authoritative teacher. And these personality traits began early to become manifest, even in these adolescent years.
127:1.3 (1395.7) This physically strong and robust youth also acquired the full growth of his human intellect, not the full experience of human thinking but the fullness of capacity for such intellectual development. He possessed a healthy and well-proportioned body, a keen and analytical mind, a kind and sympathetic disposition, a somewhat fluctuating but aggressive temperament, all of which were becoming organized into a strong, striking, and attractive personality.
Me here: We are taught to embrace other religionists and that personal relationship IS value. Personalities crave other personalities! We primally and inherently feel God’s presence within. The Divine Personality is an assuring presence within mortal mind and all personalities are connected to each other by their connection to God through the Personality Gravity Circuit.
5:4.5 (67.3) All religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony, ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from sin, sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the rigorous moral standards of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is salvation from self, deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time and in eternity.
133:4.4 (1474.4) To the earnest leader of the Mithraic cult he said: “You do well to seek for a religion of eternal salvation, but you err to go in quest of such a glorious truth among man-made mysteries and human philosophies. Know you not that the mystery of eternal salvation dwells within your own soul? Do you not know that the God of heaven has sent his spirit to live within you, and that this spirit will lead all truth-loving and God-serving mortals out of this life and through the portals of death up to the eternal heights of light where God waits to receive his children? And never forget: You who know God are the sons of God if you truly yearn to be like him.”
Me here: Consider that the Master was never able to teach this truth to his own Apostles – the kingdom of God is not hither or thither and is not a material kingdom of some future deliverance from material enemies and suffering. The kingdom dwells within us and we abide and exist within that kingdom. We do not need to seek or find God for God is within us each and all. The Spirit is connected to mind and personality and spirit and soul!!!
Jesus is quoted many times reminding the Apostles that the Kingdom is not of this world:
https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=%22Kingdom+is+not%22&x=12&y=15
Even at the Last Supper did the Apostles argue about who would sit where at the Supper and relative to the throne of Jesus when the kingdom was established!!
Here Jesus begins to teach about the Jesusonian Gospel – that mortals are the beloved children of affectionate parents and within a universe family of other beloved children!!!! We are directly and personally connected to God. The Spirit lives within! The Kingdom is at hand!! All who will may enter in!! Here and now!!
137:8.5 (1536.2) When he had finished reading, Jesus said:
137:8.6 (1536.3) “I have come to proclaim the establishment of the Father’s kingdom. And this kingdom shall include the worshiping souls of Jew and gentile, rich and poor, free and bond, for my Father is no respecter of persons; his love and his mercy are over all.
137:8.7 (1536.4) “The Father in heaven sends his spirit to indwell the minds of men, and when I shall have finished my work on earth, likewise shall the Spirit of Truth be poured out upon all flesh. And the spirit of my Father and the Spirit of Truth shall establish you in the coming kingdom of spiritual understanding and divine righteousness. My kingdom is not of this world. The Son of Man will not lead forth armies in battle for the establishment of a throne of power or a kingdom of worldly glory. When my kingdom shall have come, you shall know the Son of Man as the Prince of Peace, the revelation of the everlasting Father. The children of this world fight for the establishment and enlargement of the kingdoms of this world, but my disciples shall enter the kingdom of heaven by their moral decisions and by their spirit victories; and when they once enter therein, they shall find joy, righteousness, and eternal life.
137:8.8 (1536.5) “Those who first seek to enter the kingdom, thus beginning to strive for a nobility of character like that of my Father, shall presently possess all else that is needful. But I say to you in all sincerity: Unless you seek entrance into the kingdom with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child, you shall in no wise gain admission.
137:8.9 (1536.6) “Be not deceived by those who come saying here is the kingdom or there is the kingdom, for my Father’s kingdom concerns not things visible and material. And this kingdom is even now among you, for where the spirit of God teaches and leads the soul of man, there in reality is the kingdom of heaven. And this kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
137:8.10 (1536.7) “John did indeed baptize you in token of repentance and for the remission of your sins, but when you enter the heavenly kingdom, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
137:8.11 (1536.8) “In my Father’s kingdom there shall be neither Jew nor gentile, only those who seek perfection through service, for I declare that he who would be great in my Father’s kingdom must first become server of all. If you are willing to serve your fellows, you shall sit down with me in my kingdom, even as, by serving in the similitude of the creature, I shall presently sit down with my Father in his kingdom.
137:8.12 (1536.9) “This new kingdom is like a seed growing in the good soil of a field. It does not attain full fruit quickly. There is an interval of time between the establishment of the kingdom in the soul of man and that hour when the kingdom ripens into the full fruit of everlasting righteousness and eternal salvation.
137:8.13 (1536.10) “And this kingdom which I declare to you is not a reign of power and plenty. The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of meat and drink but rather a life of progressive righteousness and increasing joy in the perfecting service of my Father who is in heaven. For has not the Father said of his children of the world, ‘It is my will that they should eventually be perfect, even as I am perfect.’
137:8.14 (1537.1) “I have come to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom. I have not come to add to the heavy burdens of those who would enter this kingdom. I proclaim the new and better way, and those who are able to enter the coming kingdom shall enjoy the divine rest. And whatever it shall cost you in the things of the world, no matter what price you may pay to enter the kingdom of heaven, you shall receive manyfold more of joy and spiritual progress in this world, and in the age to come eternal life.
137:8.15 (1537.2) “Entrance into the Father’s kingdom waits not upon marching armies, upon overturned kingdoms of this world, nor upon the breaking of captive yokes. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and all who enter therein shall find abundant liberty and joyous salvation.
137:8.16 (1537.3) “This kingdom is an everlasting dominion. Those who enter the kingdom shall ascend to my Father; they will certainly attain the right hand of his glory in Paradise. And all who enter the kingdom of heaven shall become the sons of God, and in the age to come so shall they ascend to the Father. And I have not come to call the would-be righteous but sinners and all who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of divine perfection.
137:8.17 (1537.4) “John came preaching repentance to prepare you for the kingdom; now have I come proclaiming faith, the gift of God, as the price of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. If you would but believe that my Father loves you with an infinite love, then you are in the kingdom of God.”
137:8.18 (1537.5) When he had thus spoken, he sat down. All who heard him were astonished at his words. His disciples marveled. But the people were not prepared to receive the good news from the lips of this God-man. About one third who heard him believed the message even though they could not fully comprehend it; about one third prepared in their hearts to reject such a purely spiritual concept of the expected kingdom, while the remaining one third could not grasp his teaching, many truly believing that he “was beside himself.”
133:4.5 (1474.5) To the Epicurean teacher he said: “You do well to choose the best and esteem the good, but are you wise when you fail to discern the greater things of mortal life which are embodied in the spirit realms derived from the realization of the presence of God in the human heart? The great thing in all human experience is the realization of knowing the God whose spirit lives within you and seeks to lead you forth on that long and almost endless journey of attaining the personal presence of our common Father, the God of all creation, the Lord of universes.”
One of the most important elements of the Gospel OF Jesus is the personal and paternalistic relationship between God and mortals…actually, all celestials and mortals too.
That relationship is a direct connection that is an integral and inherent and natural connection on multiple levels by multiple agents and agencies of Deity. Every being endowed with personality and mind is so connected directly to Deity. No being is required to do anything, know anything, believe anything, find anything, choose anything, avoid anything, stop anything, denounce anything, overcome anything, say anything, or create anything to be connected to Deity!!!
Indeed it is true that the more we respond to that connection the more our soul grows and the more we become spiritized and the more content, happy, and fruitful we become. The connection is normal and inherent in design and function BUT it is our freewill choices of response TO that connection which deliver birth of soul, soul growth, soul survival, and eventual soul fusion with the God Fragment that assures eternal life.
This is why Jesus taught that the Kingdom Is At Hand and not hither or thither or eventually or to come in the future. God’s Kingdom is here and now…and everywhere and always! We are born as God’s precious and most beloved children. We do not and cannot earn this relationship and connection nor create it. We can only choose to respond and nurture our connection to the Spirit within or we can choose materialism and self importance and isolation from that connection.
We choose that. The results of such choosing determines our outcomes and becomes our fate and future and creates either happiness or loneliness in our lives. The motives and intentions and priorities of our choices are based on our responses to the Spirit within. Those choices are Spirit led or a function of ego and self importance. Each has a very different set of results and repercussions.
The UB teaches that our choices determines our outcomes and the more we respond to the Spirit within then the greater our spiritual mass and momentum on our Paradise journey. As motives become purified and experiential wisdom is gained we grow and perfect by evolutionary and experiential progress.
34:5.4 (379.4) When mind is thus endowed with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it possesses the capacity for (consciously or unconsciously) choosing the spiritual presence of the Universal Father—the Thought Adjuster. But it is not until a bestowal Son has liberated the Spirit of Truth for planetary ministry to all mortals that all normal minds are automatically prepared for the reception of the Thought Adjusters. The Spirit of Truth works as one with the presence of the spirit of the Divine Minister. This dual spirit liaison hovers over the worlds, seeking to teach truth and to spiritually enlighten the minds of men, to inspire the souls of the creatures of the ascending races, and to lead the peoples dwelling on the evolutionary planets ever towards their Paradise goal of divine destiny.
34:5.5 (379.5) Though the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit of the Son is almost wholly limited in function and power by man’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal Son. The Holy Spirit is partly independent of human attitude and partially conditioned by the decisions and co-operation of the will of man. Nevertheless, the ministry of the Holy Spirit becomes increasingly effective in the sanctification and spiritualization of the inner life of those mortals who the more fully obey the divine leadings.
34:5.6 (379.6) As individuals you do not personally possess a segregated portion or entity of the spirit of the Creator Father-Son or the Creative Mother Spirit; these ministries do not contact with, nor indwell, the thinking centers of the individual’s mind as do the Mystery Monitors. Thought Adjusters are definite individualizations of the prepersonal reality of the Universal Father, actually indwelling the mortal mind as a very part of that mind, and they ever work in perfect harmony with the combined spirits of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit.
34:6.9 (381.3) In every mortal there exists a dual nature: the inheritance of animal tendencies and the high urge of spirit endowment. During the short life you live on Urantia, these two diverse and opposing urges can seldom be fully reconciled; they can hardly be harmonized and unified; but throughout your lifetime the combined Spirit ever ministers to assist you in subjecting the flesh more and more to the leading of the Spirit. Even though you must live your material life through, even though you cannot escape the body and its necessities, nonetheless, in purpose and ideals you are empowered increasingly to subject the animal nature to the mastery of the Spirit. There truly exists within you a conspiracy of spiritual forces, a confederation of divine powers, whose exclusive purpose is to effect your final deliverance from material bondage and finite handicaps.
34:6.10 (381.4) The purpose of all this ministration is, “That you may be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man.” And all this represents but the preliminary steps to the final attainment of the perfection of faith and service, that experience wherein you shall be “filled with all the fullness of God,” “for all those who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God.”
34:6.11 (381.5) The Spirit never drives, only leads. If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. Every step you take must be one of willingness, intelligent and cheerful co-operation. The domination of the Spirit is never tainted with coercion nor compromised by compulsion.
34:6.12 (381.6) And when such a life of spirit guidance is freely and intelligently accepted, there gradually develops within the human mind a positive consciousness of divine contact and assurance of spirit communion; sooner or later “the Spirit bears witness with your spirit (the Adjuster) that you are a child of God.” Already has your own Thought Adjuster told you of your kinship to God so that the record testifies that the Spirit bears witness “with your spirit,” not to your spirit.
34:6.13 (381.7) The consciousness of the spirit domination of a human life is presently attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” Such spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit.
And this is the Good News proclaimed by Jesus and the UB.
Just a reminder here that any and all words posted here that are not direct UB text quotes are offered for your consideration as my personal understanding and opinion and perspective of the UB. Such opinions are certainly subject to dispute, disagreement, correction, revision, and reconsideration.
While my understanding and perspective have been formed by much study of the text over the past 45 years, the Papers clearly teach us that truth, meaning, comprehension, wisdom, and reality perspective are, each and all, progressive, and therefore can only be partial and incomplete in time as we gain experience and insight and knowledge upon our journey of adventure and advancement of spiritization!
Feel free to question or challenge or contribute or pick some nits and split some hairs related to my musings. The UB tells us we will all share the same philosophy of living some day when we first share a more complete and accurate perspective of universe reality. The very purpose of Epochal Revelation!!!
May we always be joyful in the Paradise journey and the adventure of discovery!
Namaste…
133:4.6 (1474.6) To the Greek contractor and builder he said: “My friend, as you build the material structures of men, grow a spiritual character in the similitude of the divine spirit within your soul. Do not let your achievement as a temporal builder outrun your attainment as a spiritual son of the kingdom of heaven. While you build the mansions of time for another, neglect not to secure your title to the mansions of eternity for yourself. Ever remember, there is a city whose foundations are righteousness and truth, and whose builder and maker is God.”
Me here: Jesus teaches us that God’s love and mercy and paternal relationship is a gift and cannot be earned or deserved or won or bargained for…and yet it is only by our freewill choices and sincere responses to the Spirit within that we “grow a spiritual character” and secure our title to our eternal destiny. Our sincere response to the Spirit within inherently spiritizes our very being and realizes our potential.
While we are born as God’s precious and most beloved children still must we choose our legacy. The Paradise Path is a sacred road where progress is measured not by footsteps or speed but by choices and by sincerity and our motives and intentions and by a growing experiential wisdom as we grow in the Spirit by such experience. The closer to Paradise and the Spirit we get, the greater the forces of the Spirit Gravity Circuit pull us forward gaining mass and momentum.
1. The Spirit-Gravity Circuit
7:1.1 (81.6) Everything taught concerning the immanence of God, his omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience, is equally true of the Son in the spiritual domains. The pure and universal spirit gravity of all creation, this exclusively spiritual circuit, leads directly back to the person of the Second Source and Center on Paradise. He presides over the control and operation of that ever-present and unerring spiritual grasp of all true spirit values. Thus does the Eternal Son exercise absolute spiritual sovereignty. He literally holds all spirit realities and all spiritualized values, as it were, in the hollow of his hand. The control of universal spiritual gravity is universal spiritual sovereignty.
7:1.2 (82.1) This gravity control of spiritual things operates independently of time and space; therefore is spirit energy undiminished in transmission. Spirit gravity never suffers time delays, nor does it undergo space diminution. It does not decrease in accordance with the square of the distance of its transmission; the circuits of pure spirit power are not retarded by the mass of the material creation. And this transcendence of time and space by pure spirit energies is inherent in the absoluteness of the Son; it is not due to the interposition of the antigravity forces of the Third Source and Center.
7:1.3 (82.2) Spirit realities respond to the drawing power of the center of spiritual gravity in accordance with their qualitative value, their actual degree of spirit nature. Spirit substance (quality) is just as responsive to spirit gravity as the organized energy of physical matter (quantity) is responsive to physical gravity. Spiritual values and spirit forces are real. From the viewpoint of personality, spirit is the soul of creation; matter is the shadowy physical body.
7:1.4 (82.3) The reactions and fluctuations of spirit gravity are ever true to the content of spiritual values, the qualitative spiritual status of an individual or a world. This drawing power is instantly responsive to the inter- and intraspirit values of any universe situation or planetary condition. Every time a spiritual reality actualizes in the universes, this change necessitates the immediate and instantaneous readjustment of spirit gravity. Such a new spirit is actually a part of the Second Source and Center; and just as certainly as mortal man becomes a spiritized being, he will attain the spiritual Son, the center and source of spirit gravity.
7:1.5 (82.4) The Son’s spiritual drawing power is inherent to a lesser degree in many Paradise orders of sonship. For there do exist within the absolute spirit-gravity circuit those local systems of spiritual attraction that function in the lesser units of creation. Such subabsolute focalizations of spirit gravity are a part of the divinity of the Creator personalities of time and space and are correlated with the emerging experiential overcontrol of the Supreme Being.
7:1.6 (82.5) Spirit-gravity pull and response thereto operate not only on the universe as a whole but also even between individuals and groups of individuals. There is a spiritual cohesiveness among the spiritual and spiritized personalities of any world, race, nation, or believing group of individuals. There is a direct attractiveness of a spirit nature between spiritually minded persons of like tastes and longings. The term kindred spirits is not wholly a figure of speech.
7:1.7 (82.6) Like the material gravity of Paradise, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son is absolute. Sin and rebellion may interfere with the operation of local universe circuits, but nothing can suspend the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son. The Lucifer rebellion produced many changes in your system of inhabited worlds and on Urantia, but we do not observe that the resultant spiritual quarantine of your planet in the least affected the presence and function of either the omnipresent spirit of the Eternal Son or the associated spirit-gravity circuit.
133:4.7 (1474.7) To the Roman judge he said: “As you judge men, remember that you yourself will also some day come to judgment before the bar of the Rulers of a universe. Judge justly, even mercifully, even as you shall some day thus crave merciful consideration at the hands of the Supreme Arbiter. Judge as you would be judged under similar circumstances, thus being guided by the spirit of the law as well as by its letter. And even as you accord justice dominated by fairness in the light of the need of those who are brought before you, so shall you have the right to expect justice tempered by mercy when you sometime stand before the Judge of all the earth.”
Me here: This teaching opens up a new perspective to reality and the mortal’s self importance vs. love of others I think. It presents a paradox of sorts that Jesus goes on to illuminate in several different ways which are profoundly important in understanding the Gospel OF Jesus.
Here we are told we will receive mercy according to our giving of mercy. Our willingness, even eagerness, to give mercy to others defines our own capacity to accept and receive mercy. Consider that Jesus will later teach us about the beam in our own eye which blinds us to our own needs for redemption and mercy and our own foolishness and immaturity and errors while we harshly judge others and withhold love, forgiveness, and mercy.
140:3.15 (1571.2) “I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you. And whatsoever you believe that I would do to men, do you also to them.
140:3.16 (1571.3) “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 (1571.4) “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.
Me here: Interestingly, we are told God’s love and mercy (mercy being love in action) are endless and limitless in their giving to the children of time. We have lavish mercy credits that far exceed our needs. BUT….we cannot receive more mercy than our personal capacity to receive mercy…a pint cannot hold a quart…and we each determine and define and limit our own capacity by our own spirituality and experiential wisdom acquired over time by our own freewill choices.
We cannot receice more than our capacity to receive which is determined by our willingness to give that which we receive, including love, mercy, and forgiveness. We are told to forgive that we might receive forgiveness. Not because love, mercy, and forgiveness are limited. No…but because our capacity to receive those are limited by self and the choices, motives, intentions, and priorities of self.
A liitle mota:
48:7.5 (556.5) 3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. The spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the material memory mold.
146:2.4 (1638.4) 3. By opening the human end of the channel of the God-man communication, mortals make immediately available the ever-flowing stream of divine ministry to the creatures of the worlds. When man hears God’s spirit speak within the human heart, inherent in such an experience is the fact that God simultaneously hears that man’s prayer. Even the forgiveness of sin operates in this same unerring fashion. The Father in heaven has forgiven you even before you have thought to ask him, but such forgiveness is not available in your personal religious experience until such a time as you forgive your fellow men. God’s forgiveness in fact is not conditioned upon your forgiving your fellows, but in experience it is exactly so conditioned. And this fact of the synchrony of divine and human forgiveness was thus recognized and linked together in the prayer which Jesus taught the apostles.
146:2.5 (1638.5) 4. There is a basic law of justice in the universe which mercy is powerless to circumvent. The unselfish glories of Paradise are not possible of reception by a thoroughly selfish creature of the realms of time and space. Even the infinite love of God cannot force the salvation of eternal survival upon any mortal creature who does not choose to survive. Mercy has great latitude of bestowal, but, after all, there are mandates of justice which even love combined with mercy cannot effectively abrogate. Again Jesus quoted from the Hebrew scriptures: “I have called and you refused to hear; I stretched out my hand, but no man regarded. You have set at naught all my counsel, and you have rejected my reproof, and because of this rebellious attitude it becomes inevitable that you shall call upon me and fail to receive an answer. Having rejected the way of life, you may seek me diligently in your times of suffering, but you will not find me.”
146:2.6 (1639.1) 5. They who would receive mercy must show mercy; judge not that you be not judged. With the spirit with which you judge others you also shall be judged. Mercy does not wholly abrogate universe fairness. In the end it will prove true: “Whoso stops his ears to the cry of the poor, he also shall some day cry for help, and no one will hear him.”
Me here: So….I mentioned paradox. Hmmmmm…..
Jesus also taught us not to throw our pearls to swine and to withhold false sympathies for those who suffer by their own bad choices and that much misery is created by the indulgence of foolishness and indiscriminate kindness!! We are to be innocent but also wise.
We must be fair and merciful but without indulgence and false sympathies. We must discern there are enemies of truth among us, wolves in sheep’s clothing and lunatics and self centered persons with agendas and evil intentions. We are to be discerning and not presume others are innocent OR to harshly judge others either! We are not to be naive or foolish.
I think many believers error in both ways here. We are not to ignore or be blind to evil and sin. We are to forgive it, yes. But not indulge it either. Complicated. Paradoxical. We are to respond to evil with goodness but nowhere are we taught to passively indulge or sybmit to evil or unrighteousness.
159:3.11 (1766.7) Teach all believers to avoid leaning upon the insecure props of false sympathy. You cannot develop strong characters out of the indulgence of self-pity; honestly endeavor to avoid the deceptive influence of mere fellowship in misery. Extend sympathy to the brave and courageous while you withhold overmuch pity from those cowardly souls who only halfheartedly stand up before the trials of living. Offer not consolation to those who lie down before their troubles without a struggle. Sympathize not with your fellows merely that they may sympathize with you in return.
163:1.3 (1800.5) Before Jesus laid his hands upon the heads of the seventy to set them apart as gospel messengers, addressing them, he said: “The harvest is indeed plenteous, but the laborers are few; therefore I exhort all of you to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send still other laborers into his harvest. I am about to set you apart as messengers of the kingdom…Remember, as you go forth proclaiming peace on earth and good will among men, you must contend with bitter and self-deceived enemies; therefore be as wise as serpents while you are also as harmless as doves.
159:5.9 (1770.1) Jesus did not hesitate to appropriate the better half of a Scripture while he repudiated the lesser portion. His great exhortation, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” he took from the Scripture which reads: “You shall not take vengeance against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus appropriated the positive portion of this Scripture while rejecting the negative part. He even opposed negative or purely passive nonresistance. Said he: “When an enemy smites you on one cheek, do not stand there dumb and passive but in positive attitude turn the other; that is, do the best thing possible actively to lead your brother in error away from the evil paths into the better ways of righteous living.” Jesus required his followers to react positively and aggressively to every life situation. The turning of the other cheek, or whatever act that may typify, demands initiative, necessitates vigorous, active, and courageous expression of the believer’s personality.
159:5.10 (1770.2) Jesus did not advocate the practice of negative submission to the indignities of those who might purposely seek to impose upon the practitioners of nonresistance to evil, but rather that his followers should be wise and alert in the quick and positive reaction of good to evil to the end that they might effectively overcome evil with good. Forget not, the truly good is invariably more powerful than the most malignant evil. The Master taught a positive standard of righteousness: “Whosoever wishes to be my disciple, let him disregard himself and take up the full measure of his responsibilities daily to follow me.” And he so lived himself in that “he went about doing good.” And this aspect of the gospel was well illustrated by many parables which he later spoke to his followers. He never exhorted his followers patiently to bear their obligations but rather with energy and enthusiasm to live up to the full measure of their human responsibilities and divine privileges in the kingdom of God.
159:5.11 (1770.3) When Jesus instructed his apostles that they should, when one unjustly took away the coat, offer the other garment, he referred not so much to a literal second coat as to the idea of doing something positive to save the wrongdoer in the place of the olden advice to retaliate—“an eye for an eye” and so on. Jesus abhorred the idea either of retaliation or of becoming just a passive sufferer or victim of injustice. On this occasion he taught them the three ways of contending with, and resisting, evil:
159:5.12 (1770.4) 1. To return evil for evil—the positive but unrighteous method.
159:5.13 (1770.5) 2. To suffer evil without complaint and without resistance—the purely negative method.
159:5.14 (1770.6) 3. To return good for evil, to assert the will so as to become master of the situation, to overcome evil with good—the positive and righteous method.
So much for a tadpole to learn….
133:4.8 (1475.1) To the mistress of the Greek inn he said: “Minister your hospitality as one who entertains the children of the Most High. Elevate the drudgery of your daily toil to the high levels of a fine art through the increasing realization that you minister to God in the persons whom he indwells by his spirit which has descended to live within the hearts of men, thereby seeking to transform their minds and lead their souls to the knowledge of the Paradise Father of all these bestowed gifts of the divine spirit.”
Me here: Jesus taught us that all occupations and endeavors in life can be noble based on the perspective and motives of the person so occupied and engaged. All vocations can be expressions of a spirit led life which minister to others as we “pass by” by sharing the fruits of the Spirit.
Conversely, even ministers and priests and judges and rulers, etc. can also be unworthy and unholy and unrighteous in their expressions of the inner life and can be without any spiritual value or social meaning. Our titles and education and intelligence and material status in this life offer no value to anyone without spiritual fruit as an inherent companion to all mortal endeavors and expressions of the mortal life.
171:7.4 (1874.7) Jesus could help men so much because he loved them so sincerely. He truly loved each man, each woman, and each child. He could be such a true friend because of his remarkable insight—he knew so fully what was in the heart and in the mind of man. He was an interested and keen observer. He was an expert in the comprehension of human need, clever in detecting human longings.
155:3.4 (1727.4) Increasingly they learned from Jesus to look upon human personalities in terms of their possibilities in time and in eternity. They learned that many souls can best be led to love the unseen God by being first taught to love their brethren whom they can see. And it was in this connection that new meaning became attached to the Master’s pronouncement concerning unselfish service for one’s fellows: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.”
Me here: Jesus was interested in people and liked people and looked first to understand others to discern what motivated them to act the way that they do. He knew no one acts badly without some cause first. Remember earlier the story about the “two public women” whom Ganid immediately judged and condemned but Jesus took to Justus’ wife for food and conversation…and for friendship and guidance.
Jesus did not suffer fools or the enemies of truth but he was kind and patient and curious and genuinely liked people! He was social and gregarious and kind and generous and patient (innocent) but also wise and discerning and advised against false sympathy and throwing pearls to swine and quiet or passive submission to evil or sin. Jesus was an activist, not a pacifist. Still was Jesus slow to anger and slower to judge and readily sought understanding of the suffering endured by others and its source and offered hope and confidence to all who would listen to such comfort.
133:4.9 (1475.2) Jesus had many visits with a Chinese merchant. In saying good-bye, he admonished him: “Worship only God, who is your true spirit ancestor. Remember that the Father’s spirit ever lives within you and always points your soul-direction heavenward. If you follow the unconscious leadings of this immortal spirit, you are certain to continue on in the uplifted way of finding God. And when you do attain the Father in heaven, it will be because by seeking him you have become more and more like him. And so farewell, Chang, but only for a season, for we shall meet again in the worlds of light where the Father of spirit souls has provided many delightful stopping-places for those who are Paradise-bound.”
Me here: This quote and teaching refers to a profound lesson detailed in the UB. To “follow the unconscious leadings of this immortal spirit” opens many avenues of study and reflection for the sincere religionist and truth seeker!!! This quote refers to the natural and inherent Divine connection and ministry of love, truth, beauty, and goodness that is very personal and individualized.
It also alludes to the functional fact that faith and soul birth and religious experience and progress in the Spirit can, and in many ways does indeed, happen unconsciously. Beliefs, whether true or false, are not what determines personal faith or spiritization. Faith and belief are connected, perhaps, but they are not at all the same thing and belief can never have the transformative power of faith.
Accuracy of beliefs comes slowly and only by education and experience. Faith is the engine of religious growth and will be so for a long time in our Paradise journey, but is especially so in this brief material life. Knowledge will confirm faith but faith will always supersede belief…and knowledge… and mortal understanding.
The UB teaches that the mortal faith and evolutionary religious experience in this life does not depend upon the accuracy of our beliefs and the inaccuracy and falseness of our beliefs does not determine or prevent the inner faith experience and unconcious ministry and personal response to that ministry of the Divine presence and connection.
We do not find God. God is already connected to us at birth. That connection has multiple sources and forms. We are wired as fully connected to the Divine Presence within. We do not find it or create it. It does not require our belief or understanding or any particular declarations or actions to make connection with us and create spirit hunger and yearning in us and for us to thirst for truth and to receive Divine ministry and assurance.
For more about Divine Assurance, please review this topic:
https://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/divine-assurance/
133:4.10 (1475.3) To the traveler from Britain he said: “My brother, I perceive you are seeking for truth, and I suggest that the spirit of the Father of all truth may chance to dwell within you. Did you ever sincerely endeavor to talk with the spirit of your own soul? Such a thing is indeed difficult and seldom yields consciousness of success; but every honest attempt of the material mind to communicate with its indwelling spirit meets with certain success, notwithstanding that the majority of all such magnificent human experiences must long remain as superconscious registrations in the souls of such God-knowing mortals.”
Me here: Once again…so many UB teachings to consider in reference to this encounter!
First to my mind is prayer. Link to keyword search:
https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Prayer&x=3&y=14
Paper 91 – The Evolution of Prayer:
https://urantia-association.org/the-urantia-book/part-3/paper-91/
91:6.4 (999.7) Prayer, even as a purely human practice, a dialogue with one’s alter ego, constitutes a technique of the most efficient approach to the realization of those reserve powers of human nature which are stored and conserved in the unconscious realms of the human mind. Prayer is a sound psychologic practice, aside from its religious implications and its spiritual significance. It is a fact of human experience that most persons, if sufficiently hard pressed, will pray in some way to some source of help.
91:8.4 (1001.8) To some individuals prayer is the calm expression of gratitude; to others, a group expression of praise, social devotions; sometimes it is the imitation of another’s religion, while in true praying it is the sincere and trusting communication of the spiritual nature of the creature with the anywhere presence of the spirit of the Creator.
91:8.5 (1001.9) Prayer may be a spontaneous expression of God-consciousness or a meaningless recitation of theologic formulas. It may be the ecstatic praise of a God-knowing soul or the slavish obeisance of a fear-ridden mortal. It is sometimes the pathetic expression of spiritual craving and sometimes the blatant shouting of pious phrases. Prayer may be joyous praise or a humble plea for forgiveness.
91:8.6 (1001.10) Prayer may be the childlike plea for the impossible or the mature entreaty for moral growth and spiritual power. A petition may be for daily bread or may embody a wholehearted yearning to find God and to do his will. It may be a wholly selfish request or a true and magnificent gesture toward the realization of unselfish brotherhood.
91:8.7 (1001.11) Prayer may be an angry cry for vengeance or a merciful intercession for one’s enemies. It may be the expression of a hope of changing God or the powerful technique of changing one’s self. It may be the cringing plea of a lost sinner before a supposedly stern Judge or the joyful expression of a liberated son of the living and merciful heavenly Father.
91:8.8 (1001.12) Modern man is perplexed by the thought of talking things over with God in a purely personal way. Many have abandoned regular praying; they only pray when under unusual pressure—in emergencies. Man should be unafraid to talk to God, but only a spiritual child would undertake to persuade, or presume to change, God.
91:8.9 (1002.1) But real praying does attain reality. Even when the air currents are ascending, no bird can soar except by outstretched wings. Prayer elevates man because it is a technique of progressing by the utilization of the ascending spiritual currents of the universe.
91:8.10 (1002.2) Genuine prayer adds to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes, and yields that satisfaction which comes from communion with divinity. It is a spontaneous outburst of God-consciousness.
91:8.11 (1002.3) God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. Prayer is a subjective gesture, but it contacts with mighty objective realities on the spiritual levels of human experience; it is a meaningful reach by the human for superhuman values. It is the most potent spiritual-growth stimulus.
91:8.12 (1002.4) Words are irrelevant to prayer; they are merely the intellectual channel in which the river of spiritual supplication may chance to flow. The word value of a prayer is purely autosuggestive in private devotions and sociosuggestive in group devotions. God answers the soul’s attitude, not the words.
91:8.13 (1002.5) Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth in the very face of conflict. Pray only for values, not things; for growth, not for gratification.
Me here: The other BIG thing I think in this quote is the internal Spirit within to whom prayer/conversation is directed and the fact that all prayers are directed by the universe spirit and reality circuits to that person and agency of Deity most involved in the answers to each particular and individual prayer.
The concept of the “indwelling spirit” introduced here is also a profound and new teaching to the world by Jesus…or truly a restoration of a teaching lost to history sometime after the fall of the Garden.
God is within. Evolutionary and primitive religions believed in ghosts and spirits but those were external. God within us and directly connected to us was a rather radical teaching with significant meanings to grasp and embrace. Not only is God kind and affectionate and caring like the parent God is but God is always here and available and within….not some horrible and great and indifferent and demanding giant authoritarian judge in the sky….but a gentle nurturing force of love within. The religious experience and faith itself is that relationship. Faith is the response to relationship between creator and creature. The creator/parent already resides within and is fully connected to us directly and personally.
Our response to that relationship and connection is expressed by moral decisions and expressions of love and truth and beauty and goodness and hope and happiness and caring and sharing!!! Whoever experiences and expresses ANY of those feelings and thoughts and choices and acts is having a religious experience and is growing in the Spirit and is making progress in the Circles and is being spiritized and is transforming and transferring the seat of identity from the material nature to the spirit nature!!!
Profound indeed!!
133:4.11 (1475.4) To the runaway lad Jesus said: “Remember, there are two things you cannot run away from—God and yourself. Wherever you may go, you take with you yourself and the spirit of the heavenly Father which lives within your heart. My son, stop trying to deceive yourself; settle down to the courageous practice of facing the facts of life; lay firm hold on the assurances of sonship with God and the certainty of eternal life, as I have instructed you. From this day on purpose to be a real man, a man determined to face life bravely and intelligently.”
Me here: Yes….no matter where you go, there YOU are…still!! There are always two witnesses to everything we think, say, and do. Ourselves and God within. We cannot escape the reality of who we are. By better choices and motives and priorities we can change who we will become but we are now who our prior choices have created. We are a result and reflection of personal choices. It is only by better choices that better results and outcomes might come to be.
It is not our circumstances or situations that determine who we are….it is our responses to those that so determine who we are…and who we become.
133:4.12 (1475.5) To the condemned criminal he said at the last hour: “My brother, you have fallen on evil times. You lost your way; you became entangled in the meshes of crime. From talking to you, I well know you did not plan to do the thing which is about to cost you your temporal life. But you did do this evil, and your fellows have adjudged you guilty; they have determined that you shall die. You or I may not deny the state this right of self-defense in the manner of its own choosing. There seems to be no way of humanly escaping the penalty of your wrongdoing. Your fellows must judge you by what you did, but there is a Judge to whom you may appeal for forgiveness, and who will judge you by your real motives and better intentions. You need not fear to meet the judgment of God if your repentance is genuine and your faith sincere. The fact that your error carries with it the death penalty imposed by man does not prejudice the chance of your soul to obtain justice and enjoy mercy before the heavenly courts.”
Me here: The UB teaches that there are nearly endless mercy credits that far exceed our needs in this mortal life…no matter our crimes.
“Mercy”:
https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Mercy&x=2&y=13
“Forgiveness “:
https://urantia-association.org/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=Forgiveness+&x=9&y=11
It is not difficult to “lose your way” on this world and become entangled by materialism and immaturity and impatience and misguided, even foolish distractions and seek the pleasures and escapes from uncertainties, fears, and anxieties of the mortal life. This is true of every evolutionary world in time.
Remember the Master’s attitude toward the courtesan women as well as the condemned criminal above. The Gospel OF Jesus teaches that God is an affectionate parent filled with love and mercy and patience and tenderness and sympathy and understanding for all the situations and circumstances and vicissitudes for us children of time. He taught we are to learn to be the same toward one another in this family of creation.
Indeed did Jesus come later to teach this Gospel more directly and publicly and universally with the additional admonition and warning that we can only accept mercy for ourselves as we give it to others…even those who despise and abuse us…and we must give love in order to be a vessel with any capacity to receive love…the more we love others then the more love we receive.
This is not because God gives more love or mercy to or withholds more love or mercy from any person. No…it is simply a universal law like gravity and mass…it is a response and feedback loop whose power and force and effect is amplified according to each person’s capacity which is limited by, defined as, and demonstrated by the love and mercy given…not taken.
Our capacity grows according to our choices which express LOVE…described as truth, beauty, and goodness in the UB.
1:4.5 (26.7) The divine mystery consists in the inherent difference which exists between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-space creature and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the imperfection of man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The God of universal love unfailingly manifests himself to every one of his creatures up to the fullness of that creature’s capacity to spiritually grasp the qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness.
1:4.6 (27.1) To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
3:4.6 (50.4) Mortal man cannot possibly know the infinitude of the heavenly Father. Finite mind cannot think through such an absolute truth or fact. But this same finite human being can actually feel—literally experience—the full and undiminished impact of such an infinite Father’s LOVE. Such a love can be truly experienced, albeit while quality of experience is unlimited, quantity of such an experience is strictly limited by the human capacity for spiritual receptivity and by the associated capacity to love the Father in return.
48:7.5 (556.5) 3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. …
Me here: It is such a blessing and gift to read about this formulative period in the life of Jesus where his later public teachings were first formed and articulated in a preliminary and personal ministry. Consider the lad who witnessed this universal wisdom and expression of fact, truth, and light on this amazing journey!!!
So many were touched along the way…as he passed by!!!
Bradly
133:4.13 (1476.1) Jesus enjoyed many intimate talks with a large number of hungry souls, too many to find a place in this record. The three travelers enjoyed their sojourn in Corinth. Excepting Athens, which was more renowned as an educational center, Corinth was the most important city in Greece during these Roman times, and their two months’ stay in this thriving commercial center afforded opportunity for all three of them to gain much valuable experience. Their sojourn in this city was one of the most interesting of all their stops on the way back from Rome.
133:4.14 (1476.2) Gonod had many interests in Corinth, but finally his business was finished, and they prepared to sail for Athens. They traveled on a small boat which could be carried overland on a land track from one of Corinth’s harbors to the other, a distance of ten miles.
5. At Athens—Discourse on Science
133:5.1 (1476.3) They shortly arrived at the olden center of Greek science and learning, and Ganid was thrilled with the thought of being in Athens, of being in Greece, the cultural center of the onetime Alexandrian empire, which had extended its borders even to his own land of India. There was little business to transact; so Gonod spent most of his time with Jesus and Ganid, visiting the many points of interest and listening to the interesting discussions of the lad and his versatile teacher.
133:5.2 (1476.4) A great university still thrived in Athens, and the trio made frequent visits to its halls of learning. Jesus and Ganid had thoroughly discussed the teachings of Plato when they attended the lectures in the museum at Alexandria. They all enjoyed the art of Greece, examples of which were still to be found here and there about the city.
133:5.3 (1476.5) Both the father and the son greatly enjoyed the discussion on science which Jesus had at their inn one evening with a Greek philosopher. After this pedant had talked for almost three hours, and when he had finished his discourse, Jesus, in terms of modern thought, said:
133:5.4 (1476.6) Scientists may some day measure the energy, or force manifestations, of gravitation, light, and electricity, but these same scientists can never (scientifically) tell you what these universe phenomena are. Science deals with physical-energy activities; religion deals with eternal values. True philosophy grows out of the wisdom which does its best to correlate these quantitative and qualitative observations. There always exists the danger that the purely physical scientist may become afflicted with mathematical pride and statistical egotism, not to mention spiritual blindness.
133:5.5 (1476.7) Logic is valid in the material world, and mathematics is reliable when limited in its application to physical things; but neither is to be regarded as wholly dependable or infallible when applied to life problems. Life embraces phenomena which are not wholly material. Arithmetic says that, if one man could shear a sheep in ten minutes, ten men could shear it in one minute. That is sound mathematics, but it is not true, for the ten men could not so do it; they would get in one another’s way so badly that the work would be greatly delayed.
133:5.6 (1477.1) Mathematics asserts that, if one person stands for a certain unit of intellectual and moral value, ten persons would stand for ten times this value. But in dealing with human personality it would be nearer the truth to say that such a personality association is a sum equal to the square of the number of personalities concerned in the equation rather than the simple arithmetical sum. A social group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for a force far greater than the simple sum of its parts.
133:5.7 (1477.2) Quantity may be identified as a fact, thus becoming a scientific uniformity. Quality, being a matter of mind interpretation, represents an estimate of values, and must, therefore, remain an experience of the individual. When both science and religion become less dogmatic and more tolerant of criticism, philosophy will then begin to achieve unity in the intelligent comprehension of the universe.
Me here: We are told earlier in the Papers on evolutionary religions and primitive religious experience that magic is the root of science- the metaphysical explanations for the material world were first believed to be spirit manipulations as were all human material interactions and outcomes – likewise blessings or cursings, good luck and bad, came at the hands of ghosts and spirits so both science and religion have origin in superstition and fear.
We are also told that mind with personality has an innate propensity and desire to understand and explain everything. Curiosity and learning are inevitable human traits which demonstrate these characteristics. The mind has an auto function of inventing explanations for all causes and effects it observes or believes to exist, but does not understands and cannot factually explain.
Religion and science eventually diverge as humans discover the apparently separate realities of the spirit and material. Philosophies reunite the material and spirit realms into the totality of human experience. The morontial experience to come and the understanding of mota will eliminate all mortal confusions about the relationship of fact and truth; and meaning and value; and spirit and material realities.
Until then, a truly balanced and functional mortal mind can harmonize and unify our human experiential reality only by a philosophy and reality perspective which integrates and unites our perception and our experience. The unbalanced mind is distorted by the very false belief that either science or religion somehow exclude or disprove the other.
Or so I understand the teachings of the UB.
The sheep shearing math lesson above is a most hillarious picture for any farmer or shepherd….first time I read that I laughed out loud a long time. Still do. The Master has quite the wit!
81:2.9 (901.12) When asked where fire came from, the simple story of Andon and the flint was soon replaced by the legend of how some Prometheus stole it from heaven. The ancients sought a supernatural explanation for all natural phenomena not within the range of their personal comprehension; and many moderns continue to do this. The depersonalization of so-called natural phenomena has required ages, and it is not yet completed. But the frank, honest, and fearless search for true causes gave birth to modern science: It turned astrology into astronomy, alchemy into chemistry, and magic into medicine.
88:4.1 (970.6) Civilized man attacks the problems of a real environment through his science; savage man attempted to solve the real problems of an illusory ghost environment by magic. Magic was the technique of manipulating the conjectured spirit environment whose machinations endlessly explained the inexplicable; it was the art of obtaining voluntary spirit co-operation and of coercing involuntary spirit aid through the use of fetishes or other and more powerful spirits.
88:4.2 (970.7) The object of magic, sorcery, and necromancy was twofold:
88:4.3 (970.8) 1. To secure insight into the future.
88:4.4 (970.9) 2. Favorably to influence environment.
88:4.5 (970.10) The objects of science are identical with those of magic. Mankind is progressing from magic to science, not by meditation and reason, but rather through long experience, gradually and painfully. Man is gradually backing into the truth, beginning in error, progressing in error, and finally attaining the threshold of truth. Only with the arrival of the scientific method has he faced forward. But primitive man had to experiment or perish.
88:4.6 (970.11) The fascination of early superstition was the mother of the later scientific curiosity. There was progressive dynamic emotion—fear plus curiosity—in these primitive superstitions; there was progressive driving power in the olden magic. These superstitions represented the emergence of the human desire to know and to control planetary environment.
88:4.7 (971.1) Magic gained such a strong hold upon the savage because he could not grasp the concept of natural death. The later idea of original sin helped much to weaken the grip of magic on the race in that it accounted for natural death. It was at one time not at all uncommon for ten innocent persons to be put to death because of supposed responsibility for one natural death. This is one reason why ancient peoples did not increase faster, and it is still true of some African tribes. The accused individual usually confessed guilt, even when facing death.
88:4.8 (971.2) Magic is natural to a savage. He believes that an enemy can actually be killed by practicing sorcery on his shingled hair or fingernail trimmings. The fatality of snake bites was attributed to the magic of the sorcerer. The difficulty in combating magic arises from the fact that fear can kill. Primitive peoples so feared magic that it did actually kill, and such results were sufficient to substantiate this erroneous belief. In case of failure there was always some plausible explanation; the cure for defective magic was more magic.
It is my opinion that Jesus ultimately came to present a very focused distillation of enlightened truth(s) formulated during these formative and transitional years of his personal ministry and travels. Only at this time did he finally become liberated from nearly all restraints and public expectations imposed upon him by family, friends, and community as a local family man, synagogue parishioner, property owner, and business owner.
He finally had the opportunity to be the free and critical and astute thinker he always was, but now he could also freely explore and express his thinking…which also expanded immeasurably by the many great minds and great texts of human knowledge, history, science, and philosophy from Egypt, Rome, Greece, and the Far East found in the greatest libraries in human history, soon after lost to history.
Consider the geographical range and the racial and cultural diversity of humanity that Jesus did not merely encounter but also studied intently and with keen curiosity and an open mind! Jesus studied people from the 4 corners of the known world, as much and as well as he learned of the very highest knowledge ever assembled by humanity…almost all of which was lost to the world and future within a short time thereafter. The knowledge and science and history of our world known at this intersection of time and place has never been recovered, still.
But Jesus met many of the greatest minds of the time and impressed them with his own grasp of reality, perspective, and unifying philosophy which always exhibited the integrated continuity and cohesive unity of reality…and human character!
I think the Master truly relished this season of personal liberation! His public ministry to come had to be more appealing to a far wider audience which enjoyed far less knowledge but far more prejudice and cultural constraints. His message had to become more specific, more focused (limited), more metaphorical, and more repetitive in this era of oral traditions and ignorant masses. The good news of the Gospel OF Jesus was astounding but these years of reflection and expression are a profound treasure to our world, all of Nebadon, and for eternity to come for the entirety of creation.
These lessons are a great example of the value of periodic, epochal revelation which now makes these teachings of the Master a public record for all of humanity for all time.
Bradly
133:5.8 (1477.3) There is unity in the cosmic universe if you could only discern its workings in actuality. The real universe is friendly to every child of the eternal God. The real problem is: How can the finite mind of man achieve a logical, true, and corresponding unity of thought? This universe-knowing state of mind can be had only by conceiving that the quantitative fact and the qualitative value have a common causation in the Paradise Father. Such a conception of reality yields a broader insight into the purposeful unity of universe phenomena; it even reveals a spiritual goal of progressive personality achievement. And this is a concept of unity which can sense the unchanging background of a living universe of continually changing impersonal relations and evolving personal relationships.
133:5.9 (1477.4) Matter and spirit and the state intervening between them are three interrelated and interassociated levels of the true unity of the real universe. Regardless of how divergent the universe phenomena of fact and value may appear to be, they are, after all, unified in the Supreme.
133:5.10 (1477.5) Reality of material existence attaches to unrecognized energy as well as to visible matter. When the energies of the universe are so slowed down that they acquire the requisite degree of motion, then, under favorable conditions, these same energies become mass. And forget not, the mind which can alone perceive the presence of apparent realities is itself also real. And the fundamental cause of this universe of energy-mass, mind, and spirit, is eternal—it exists and consists in the nature and reactions of the Universal Father and his absolute co-ordinates.
133:5.11 (1477.6) They were all more than astounded at the words of Jesus, and when the Greek took leave of them, he said: “At last my eyes have beheld a Jew who thinks something besides racial superiority and talks something besides religion.” And they retired for the night.
133:5.12 (1477.7) The sojourn in Athens was pleasant and profitable, but it was not particularly fruitful in its human contacts. Too many of the Athenians of that day were either intellectually proud of their reputation of another day or mentally stupid and ignorant, being the offspring of the inferior slaves of those earlier periods when there was glory in Greece and wisdom in the minds of its people. Even then, there were still many keen minds to be found among the citizens of Athens.
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