the Urantia Book and the Bible

Arie · May 1, 2007

Hello Everyone

I was interested if any of you have heard of the urantia book and what you think about it and would also like to have a friendly dialogue on the differences and similarities. Adios:shepard: Here is a little introduction if you haven't heard of it taken from truthbook.com"What is it?The Urantia Book contains nearly 2,000 pages divided into 196 Papers related to all aspects of human life.The book begins with a description of God and the central universe of divine perfection. Its description of the cosmos moves outward toward life on our planet, covering in the process the essential elements of our careers from life here on Urantia (the universe name for the earth), all the way until we come into the personal presence of God on Paradise, and beyond.The six hundred fifty page account of Jesus' life places the Urantia Book in a class with the finest literature in the English language."

Christina · May 1, 2007

This is new age teaching mixed with agnostic documents, and a little Bible it is the typical lies of Satan from the begining. Satan is the master of twisting scripture. He knows the human weakness, he is a master at scripture.If it sounds holy it must be. How well do most today know the bible well enough to know when it is being twisted? Why do you need another book? We have the Word of God. Why do we need the word of men?

Arie · May 1, 2007

Hello Kriss!

I am a Urantia Book reader so let me share with you my take on your words. I can assure you that the Urantia Book is of the highest philosophical, theological and scientific quality. It is a definite Theistic work with many, many chapters on various divine personalities and one quarter of the book is dedicated to the life of Jesus which tells us that He was/is the Son of Man and the Son of God, the creator of our universe.Also... in regards to holiness, the authors would tell us that holiness is a reality of God, like peace and love... and a religious book can only be an instrument for which our minds can gain new meanings. Here is a quote on holiness and the Word of God which may enrich you...6:2.4 "The Son not only possesses all the Father's infinite and transcendent righteousness, but the Son is also reflective of all the Father's holiness of character. The Son shares the Father's perfection and jointly shares the responsibility of aiding all creatures of imperfection in their spiritual efforts to attain divine perfection."10:3.3 The divine Sons are indeed the "Word of God," but the children of the Spirit are truly the "Act of God." God speaks through the Son and, with the Son, acts through the Infinite Spirit, while in all universe activities the Son and the Spirit are exquisitely fraternal, working as two equal brothers with admiration and love for an honored and divinely respected common Father. Take care... I'd be happy to answer any questions.:angel1:

Christina · May 1, 2007

The divine Sons ? As I said this is twisting of the words it uses Jesus to sound holy and right. If you follow this and not Gods word you will be mislead. It may have truths in it but that is a the same old trap Satan used when he tried to temp Christ in the desert 40 days. Truth mixed with untruthdoes this not teach you that you can be like God?That we are all gods? That is the same lie Satan told Eve in the garden eat and you will be as god knowing all things ?

Arie · May 1, 2007

Well, the UB urges us to strive for perfection... and that as we progress in the universe we become more and more like Him, but always in a limited and partial way because we will never be infinite. You can kind of think of how like a human child can strive and become like his earthly father, but the child's character is never as strong or mature as his Dad's at least while his a child."God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy."In the above quote, when she uses the term 'sphere,' she is talking about the individual's reality or like how we use 'sphere of influence' in social circumstances.Here are some quotes from the NIV I found on perfection...Psalm 18:32 "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect."1 Corinthians 13:10 "but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears."Matthew 5:48 "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."So how long have you been studying the bible Kriss?

Christina · May 1, 2007

Watered down maybe but same lie why do you want to listen to man over God? There is only one way to God through Christ alone. Not any other diety.Reguardless of their claimed greatness and comparisons to Jesus will get you there

Arie · May 1, 2007

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you.John 15:26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.The real Jesus is a loving reality, an encouraging friend, a tolerant truth lover. God accepts real truth in all religions. The reality of the Infinite is open to all. God transcends all beliefs, all books, all finite reality. The Father in Heaven is the source of living and joyous truth.

HammerStone · May 1, 2007

This new age, all religions have it right concept is nothing new under the sun. I hate to tell you, but your Urantia book is just one in a long line of such works. There are several religions of the world that maintain similar positions. Everyone likes a flowery version of reality. There have been countless people, religions, books, etc. throughout history - all with very different takes on God or the gods - and none of them seem to have it right. I recognize that it's all a matter of belief, and if you choose to believe in it, go right ahead. There's nothing I will say that will dissuade you. However, I will close with a thought. Hitler was in the process of creating the perfect Germany and look what became of him. His philosophy, religion, and so on made a lot of sense to a lot of people. Simply because something sounds good does not mean that it is good. God does indeed love everyone. The problem is, how can we, as humans, love that which we do not know or know in wildly different forms? It's simply not logical that a being desires our love yet is happy if we worship another god that does not exist in his place. "And ye shall be as gods..." sounded pretty good.

Arie · May 1, 2007

Greetings Swampfox!:shepard: To clarify, what I meant was that God accepts truth from whatever the source... even if it is mixed in with falsehoods and superstitions. Tell me, if someone gave you a book on how to be a stand up comedian... would you keep the book even if you didn't agree with a few chapters but the rest of it was great?

Bamp;#39;midbar · May 1, 2007

(Arie;9924)
The six hundred fifty page account of Jesus' life places the Urantia Book in a class with the finest literature in the English language."
Your description seems to indicate that it is written in English, meaning it can't be an ancient book. What is the value of this book, that I would care about it? Who wrote it?

HammerStone · May 1, 2007

To clarify, what I meant was that God accepts truth from whatever the source... even if it is mixed in with falsehoods and superstitions. Tell me, if someone gave you a book on how to be a stand up comedian... would you keep the book even if you didn't agree with a few chapters but the rest of it was great?
And I gave an example to the contrary. Given what examples we have in the Bible of Satan at work, it's pretty clear God doesn't like anyone tampering with Scripture. Most other religions follow suit. This reasoning still fails to explain why God would accept some pretty gross differences from religion to religion. It just doesn't make sense because there is so much variety. There are religions out there with scriptures that it is said it will take 50x the average lifetime to read. There's religions out there that are used to kill and to hate. There are religions with many deities and religions with only one. These differences go on and on. Taking all of this into account, why are we here? I realize this is a deep question, but why are we even here if everyone gets saved regardless of what they believe in? It just sounds nice doesn't hold much water for me. Is this answered based on what we'd like to think? As for the example, that's apples to oranges for me. Someone can write a book, but that doesn't mean they are an expert in the field. In this case, someone has made up a bunch of material relating to various world religions and its picked up because it sounds nice. That's a little more serious then how to be a standup comedian.

Arie · May 2, 2007

Hello B'midbar!:angel9:The value of the book is the stupendous teachings on God and universe reality. The UB also clarifies many historical events on our planet that were never thoroughly understood. The book also expands and greatly illuminates the life of Jesus on earth roughly two thousand years ago. It is indeed a revelation to our planet and they tell us that revelation always seeks to incorporate and include the highest existing truth already in existence. This is why at the end of the Foreword... they tell us that there are more than 2000 human concepts in the Urantia Book. There is another book recently published written by a UB reader entitled, "The Source Authors of the Urantia Book" which you may find interesting. Apparently from what I perused, there were many concepts and ideas compiled from prominent Christians who lived in the earlier part of the twentieth century. The UB isn't just a revelation, but it also a magnificent coordination and presentation of already existent truth on our planet which includes science, history and religion.Swamp Fox, in my mind God doesn't accept falsehood... He can't, it would go against his very nature. But I think God approves of the gems of truth in religions even if there are foolish beliefs contained in it also. God's tolerance stems from his full understanding of our ignorance, weakness, and material handicaps. Here is a quote on religion which may answer your question on the inconsistencies among faiths.103:1.1 "It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique -- no two mortals being alike -- it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion."Also... I think what you were hinting at earlier is that there should be consequences for evil doers. Here is one passage from a section entitled "Justice and Righteousness."2:3.2 "The greatest punishment (in reality an inevitable consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against the government of God is loss of existence as an individual subject of that government. The final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation. In the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity."

Bamp;#39;midbar · May 2, 2007

(Arie;9976)
The UB isn't just a revelation, but it also a magnificent coordination and presentation of already existent truth on our planet which includes science, history and religion.
Hello Arie. :angel9: Nice to meet you. It sounds like part of why you like the book is that it is systematic and fairly complete. I can understand that. The way I interact with the bible is to know God as a person. I’m not saying God isn’t also about truth, just that I focus on my relationship with him. Truth remains important to me. I want to be sure of it because if I live my life based on falsehood, then that is like living in unreality. You and I share this (at least!

) … that we care about truth.O Lord, it is you who are my portion and my cup;it is you yourself who are my prize.

Arie · May 4, 2007

Hello B'midbar

Yes. God definitely is a person. The most perfect personality in the universe. God can only be known if He is a Person. The Universal Father is also the source and destiny of human personalities.Exodus 15:11"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"1:7.2 "Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to the divine will. Such a sublime relationship can exist only between personalities."

StephenBravo · Jan 16, 2024

Arie said:
Hello B'midbar!:angel9:The value of the book is the stupendous teachings on God and universe reality. The UB also clarifies many historical events on our planet that were never thoroughly understood. The book also expands and greatly illuminates the life of Jesus on earth roughly two thousand years ago. It is indeed a revelation to our planet and they tell us that revelation always seeks to incorporate and include the highest existing truth already in existence. This is why at the end of the Foreword... they tell us that there are more than 2000 human concepts in the Urantia Book. There is another book recently published written by a UB reader entitled, "The Source Authors of the Urantia Book" which you may find interesting. Apparently from what I perused, there were many concepts and ideas compiled from prominent Christians who lived in the earlier part of the twentieth century. The UB isn't just a revelation, but it also a magnificent coordination and presentation of already existent truth on our planet which includes science, history and religion.Swamp Fox, in my mind God doesn't accept falsehood... He can't, it would go against his very nature. But I think God approves of the gems of truth in religions even if there are foolish beliefs contained in it also. God's tolerance stems from his full understanding of our ignorance, weakness, and material handicaps. Here is a quote on religion which may answer your question on the inconsistencies among faiths.103:1.1 "It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique -- no two mortals being alike -- it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion."Also... I think what you were hinting at earlier is that there should be consequences for evil doers. Here is one passage from a section entitled "Justice and Righteousness."2:3.2 "The greatest punishment (in reality an inevitable consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against the government of God is loss of existence as an individual subject of that government. The final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation. In the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity." These types of things really inspire me. Especially now that I've fulfilled a lot of responsibilities and have been really busy with my studies. And sop services assisted me with a challenging job. I can now relax and spend my time anyway I choose.

Thanks for your thoughts

amadeus · Jan 16, 2024

StephenBravo said:
Thanks for your thoughts

Consider carefully how old all of the posts prior to your own on this thread are...

ScottA · Jan 16, 2024

Arie said:
Hello Everyone I was interested if any of you have heard of the urantia book and what you think about it and would also like to have a friendly dialogue on the differences and similarities. Adios:shepard: Here is a little introduction if you haven't heard of it taken from truthbook.com"What is it?The Urantia Book contains nearly 2,000 pages divided into 196 Papers related to all aspects of human life.The book begins with a description of God and the central universe of divine perfection. Its description of the cosmos moves outward toward life on our planet, covering in the process the essential elements of our careers from life here on Urantia (the universe name for the earth), all the way until we come into the personal presence of God on Paradise, and beyond.The six hundred fifty page account of Jesus' life places the Urantia Book in a class with the finest literature in the English language."

It would appear to be philosophy-based, which in the greater reality of God, would mean that it comes forth as from the clay rather than from the Potter. Thus, not advisable. The point being, that there is but One way of going beyond our eventual death unto life everlasting...and side trips of philosophy are only temporal, organic, and worldly, ending in death.

The Learner · Feb 9, 2024

Arie said:
Hello Everyone I was interested if any of you have heard of the urantia book and what you think about it and would also like to have a friendly dialogue on the differences and similarities. Adios:shepard: Here is a little introduction if you haven't heard of it taken from truthbook.com"What is it?The Urantia Book contains nearly 2,000 pages divided into 196 Papers related to all aspects of human life.The book begins with a description of God and the central universe of divine perfection. Its description of the cosmos moves outward toward life on our planet, covering in the process the essential elements of our careers from life here on Urantia (the universe name for the earth), all the way until we come into the personal presence of God on Paradise, and beyond.The six hundred fifty page account of Jesus' life places the Urantia Book in a class with the finest literature in the English language."

15:7.5
Jerusem, the headquarters of your local system of Satania, has its seven worlds of transition culture, each of which is encircled by seven satellites, among which are the seven mansion worlds of morontia detention, man’s first postmortal residence....

3.
15:14.5
Your world is called Urantia, and it is number 606 in the planetary group, or system, of Satania. This system has at present 619 inhabited worlds, and more than two hundred additional planets are evolving favorably toward becoming inhabited worlds at some future time....

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The Learner · Feb 9, 2024

(67:1.4) There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the universe philosophic viewpoint sin is the attitude of a personality who is knowingly resisting cosmic reality. Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or maladjustment to, universe realities. But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine reality—a conscious choosing to oppose spiritual progress—while iniquity consists in an open and persistent defiance of recognized reality and signifies such a degree of personality disintegration as to border on cosmic insanity.
Error suggests lack of intellectual keenness; evil, deficiency of wisdom; sin, abject spiritual poverty; but iniquity is indicative of vanishing personality control.
(148:4.4) [Jesus said:] “Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed.”

So, we can see that sin is a conscious choice to “oppose spiritual progress” and a “deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will.” In other words, one must know that what one is doing is a clear violation of the principles of truth, beauty and goodness, and then decide to do it anyway. This constitutes sin.
The ability to recognize sinful behavior is tied up with the development of a strong character. Here are some passages that illuminate this topic:

(140:4.8)Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness.
(160:1.2) Human life consists in three great drives–urges, desires, and lures. Strong character, commanding personality, is only acquired by converting the natural urge of life into the social art of living, by transforming present desires into those higher longings which are capable of lasting attainment, while the commonplace lure of existence must be transferred from one’s conventional and established ideas to the higher realms of unexplored ideas and undiscovered ideals.
(184:2.12) It requires a great and noble character, having started out wrong, to turn about and go right. All too often one’s own mind tends to justify continuance in the path of error when once it is entered upon.

As for homosexual relations, this is an issue that The Urantia Book says nothing about. Although it does extol the value of friendship between same-sex persons, there are no guidelines in the book either for or against sexual relations in such a loving friendship, or the morality of such relations. Unlike the the Bible, The Urantia Book is not specific about many of the social issues we face today, and it does not make blanket claims about specific behaviors. These “mores” are determined age to age by the prevailing sentiments of society. Having said that, I would also say that the teachings of The Urantia Book do exalt the man-woman relationship, along with marriage, children and family life, as the highest ideal of relationship. In all inter-personal relations, unselfish love—the desire to do good to others—should be the primary concern.
And regarding the sex urge, consider this quote:

(82:1.10) No human emotion or impulse, when unbridled and overindulged, can produce so much harm and sorrow as this powerful sex urge.

I would invite you to interpret this reply and the above quotes with your highest, most spiritual thinking while deriving a personally meaningful answer to this question.

What is sin?

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