One of the more astonishing voids in Christian theology is the abject conceptual poverty and shear lack of knowledge about where God supposedly abides: Paradise. There are just three mentions of Paradise in the Bible, and two of those are actually confused references to other places, while the third is a mere mention of Paradise by Jesus to the thief, while dying on the cross.
That sad historical poverty may explain why there are 2,025 occurrences of the word Paradise in The Urantia Book, many of them in declarative statements about Paradise, like:
PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine coordinates and associates.
The central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe.
Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode.
Paradise exists without time and has no location in space.
Roughly: space seemingly originates just below nether Paradise; time just above upper Paradise. Time, as you understand it, is not a feature of Paradise existence, though the citizens of the central Isle are fully conscious of nontime sequence of events. Motion is not inherent on Paradise; it is volitional. But the concept of distance, even absolute distance, has very much meaning as it may be applied to relative locations on Paradise. Paradise is nonspatial; hence its areas are absolute and therefore serviceable in many ways beyond the concept of mortal mind.
Yes indeed; way outside your normal thought neighborhood, I’m betting.
Paradise is the pattern of infinity; and, Paradise is the material fulcrum of infinity; and, The Isle of Paradise is the source and substance of physical gravity; and, The eternal Isle is composed of a homogeneous organization of space potency not to be found elsewhere in all the wide universe of universes.
And especially not found in the gray matter of Homo sapiens. But there is new information about Paradise. It’s a shame most of us have never heard anything remotely correct or even interesting about it. But look, there’s no way to extrapolate some “essence” of or about Paradise; so I’ll let you wrestle with some extensive excerpts, and join you after for some thoughts. Start here:
The material beauty of Paradise consists in the magnificence of its physical perfection; the grandeur of the Isle of God is exhibited in the superb intellectual accomplishments and mind development of its inhabitants; the glory of the central Isle is shown forth in the infinite endowment of divine spirit personality— the light of life. But the depths of the spiritual beauty and the wonders of this magnificent ensemble are utterly beyond the comprehension of the finite mind of material creatures. The glory and spiritual splendor of the divine abode are impossible of mortal comprehension. And Paradise is from eternity; there are neither records nor traditions respecting the origin of this nuclear Isle of Light and Life.
“Eye has not seen nor ear heard,
neither has it entered into the mind of mortal man,
the things which the Universal Father has prepared for those who
survive the life in the flesh on the worlds of time and space.”
•
UPPER PARADISE
On upper Paradise there are three grand spheres of activity, the Deity presence, the Most Holy Sphere, and the Holy Area. The vast region immediately surrounding the presence of the Deities is set aside as the Most Holy Sphere and is reserved for the functions of worship, trinitization, and high spiritual attainment. There are no material structures nor purely intellectual creations in this zone; they could not exist there. It is useless for me to undertake to portray to the human mind the divine nature and the beauteous grandeur of the Most Holy Sphere of Paradise. This realm is wholly spiritual, and you are almost wholly material. A purely spiritual reality is, to a purely material being, apparently nonexistent.While there are no physical materializations in the area of the Most Holy, there are abundant souvenirs of your material days in the Holy Land sectors¹ and still more in the reminiscent historic areas of peripheral Paradise. The Holy Area, the outlying or residential region, is divided into seven concentric zones. Paradise is sometimes called “the Father’s House” since it is his eternal residence, and these seven zones are often designated “the Father’s Paradise mansions.”
The inner or first zone is occupied by Paradise Citizens² and the natives of Havona who may chance to be dwelling on Paradise. The next or second zone is the residential area of the natives of the seven superuniverses of time and space. This second zone is in part subdivided into seven immense divisions, the Paradise home of the spirit beings and ascendant creatures who hail from the universes of evolutionary progression. Each of these sectors is exclusively dedicated to the welfare and advancement of the personalities of a single superuniverse, but these facilities are almost infinitely beyond the requirements of the present seven superuniverses.
Each of the seven sectors of Paradise is subdivided into residential units suitable for the lodgment headquarters of one billion glorified individual working groups. One thousand of these units constitute a division. One hundred thousand divisions equal one congregation. Ten million congregations constitute an assembly. One billion assemblies make one grand unit. And this ascending series continues through the second grand unit, the third, and so on to the seventh grand unit. And seven of the grand units make up the master units, and seven of the master units constitute a superior unit; and thus by sevens the ascending series expands through the superior, supersuperior, celestial, supercelestial, to the supreme units. But even this does not utilize all the space available. This staggering number of residential designations on Paradise, a number beyond your concept, occupies considerably less than one per cent of the assigned area of the Holy Land. There is still plenty of room for those who are on their way inward, even for those who shall not start the Paradise climb until the times of the eternal future.
PERIPHERAL PARADISE
The central Isle ends abruptly at the periphery, but its size is so enormous that this terminal angle is relatively indiscernible within any circumscribed area. The peripheral surface of Paradise is occupied, in part, by the landing and dispatching fields for various groups of spirit personalities. Since the nonpervaded-space zones nearly impinge upon the periphery, all personality transports destined to Paradise land in these regions. Neither upper nor nether Paradise is approachable by transport supernaphim or other types of space traversers.
The Seven Master Spirits have their personal seats of power and authority on the seven spheres of the Spirit, which circle about Paradise in the space between the shining orbs of the Son and the inner circuit of the Havona worlds, but they maintain force-focal headquarters on the Paradise periphery. Here the slowly circulating presences of the Seven Supreme Power Directors indicate the location of the seven flash stations for certain Paradise energies going forth to the seven superuniverses.
Here on peripheral Paradise are the enormous historic and prophetic exhibit areas assigned to the Creator Sons, dedicated to the local universes of time and space. There are just seven trillion of these historic reservations now set up or in reserve, but these arrangements all together occupy only about four per cent of that portion of the peripheral area thus assigned. We infer that these vast reserves belong to creations sometime to be situated beyond the borders of the present known and inhabited seven superuniverses.That portion of Paradise which has been designated for the use of the existing universes is occupied only from one to four per cent, while the area assigned to these activities is at least one million times that actually required for such purposes. Paradise is large enough to accommodate the activities of an almost infinite creation. But a further attempt to visualize to you the glories of Paradise would be futile. You must wait, and ascend while you wait, for truly, “Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the mind of mortal man, the things which the Universal Father has prepared for those who survive the life in the flesh on the worlds of time and space.”
NETHER PARADISE
Concerning nether Paradise, we know only that which is revealed; personalities do not sojourn there. It has nothing whatever to do with the affairs of spirit intelligences, nor does the Deity Absolute there function. We are informed that all physical-energy and cosmic-force circuits have their origin on nether Paradise, and that it is constituted as follows:1. Directly underneath the location of the Trinity, in the central portion of nether Paradise, is the unknown and unrevealed Zone of Infinity.
2. This Zone is immediately surrounded by an unnamed area.
3. Occupying the outer margins of the under surface is a region having mainly to do with space potency and force-energy. The activities of this vast elliptical force center are not identifiable with the known functions of any triunity, but the primordial force-charge of space appears to be focalized in this area. This center consists of three concentric elliptical zones: The innermost is the focal point of the force-energy activities of Paradise itself; the outermost may possibly be identified with the functions of the Unqualified Absolute, but we are not certain concerning the space functions of the mid-zone.
The inner zone of this force center seems to act as a gigantic heart whose pulsations direct currents to the outermost borders of physical space. It directs and modifies force-energies but hardly drives them. The reality pressure-presence of this primal force is definitely greater at the north end of the Paradise center than in the southern regions; this is a uniformly registered difference. The mother force of space seems to flow in at the south and out at the north through the operation of some unknown circulatory system which is concerned with the diffusion of this basic form of force-energy. From time to time there are also noted differences in the east-west pressures. The forces emanating from this zone are not responsive to observable physical gravity but are always obedient to Paradise gravity.
The mid-zone of the force center immediately surrounds this area. This mid-zone appears to be static except that it expands and contracts through three cycles of activity. The least of these pulsations is in an east-west direction, the next in a north-south direction, while the greatest fluctuation is in every direction, a generalized expansion and contraction. The function of this mid-area has never been really identified, but it must have something to do with reciprocal adjustment between the inner and the outer zones of the force center. It is believed by many that the mid-zone is the control mechanism of the mid-space or quiet zones which separate the successive space levels of the master universe, but no evidence or revelation confirms this. This inference is derived from the knowledge that this mid-area is in some manner related to the functioning of the nonpervaded-space mechanism of the master universe.
The outer zone is the largest and most active of the three concentric and elliptical belts of unidentified space potential. This area is the site of unimagined activities, the central circuit point of emanations which proceed spaceward in every direction to the outermost borders of the seven superuniverses and on beyond to overspread the enormous and incomprehensible domains of all outer space. This space presence is entirely impersonal notwithstanding that in some undisclosed manner it seems to be indirectly responsive to the will and mandates of the infinite Deities when acting as the Trinity. This is believed to be the central focalization, the Paradise center, of the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.
All forms of force and all phases of energy seem to be encircuited; they circulate throughout the universes and return by definite routes. But with the emanations of the activated zone of the Unqualified Absolute there appears to be either an outgoing or an incoming— never both simultaneously. This outer zone pulsates in agelong cycles of gigantic proportions. For a little more than one billion Urantia years the space-force of this center is outgoing; then for a similar length of time it will be incoming. And the space-force manifestations of this center are universal; they extend throughout all pervadable space.
All physical force, energy, and matter are one. All force-energy originally proceeded from nether Paradise and will eventually return thereto following the completion of its space circuit. But the energies and material organizations of the universe of universes did not all come from nether Paradise in their present phenomenal states; space is the womb of several forms of matter and prematter. Though the outer zone of the Paradise force center is the source of space-energies, space does not originate there. Space is not force, energy, or power. Nor do the pulsations of this zone account for the respiration of space, but the incoming and outgoing phases of this zone are synchronized with the two-billion-year expansion-contraction cycles of space.
THE UNIQUENESS OF PARADISE
Paradise is unique in that it is the realm of primal origin and the final goal of destiny for all spirit personalities. Although it is true that not all of the lower spirit beings of the local universes are immediately destined to Paradise, Paradise still remains the goal of desire for all supermaterial personalities.Paradise is the geographic center of infinity; it is not a part of universal creation, not even a real part of the eternal Havona universe. We commonly refer to the central Isle as belonging to the divine universe, but it really does not. Paradise is an eternal and exclusive existence.
In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite personality expression of his spirit self in the being of the Eternal Son, simultaneously he revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as Paradise. Nonpersonal and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the inevitable repercussion to the Father’s will and act which eternalized the Original Son. Thus did the Father project reality in two actual phases— the personal and the nonpersonal, the spiritual and the nonspiritual. The tension between them, in the face of will to action by the Father and the Son, gave existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and spiritual beings.
When reality is differentiated into the personal and the nonpersonal (Eternal Son and Paradise), it is hardly proper to call that which is nonpersonal “Deity” unless somehow qualified. The energy and material repercussions of the acts of Deity could hardly be called Deity. Deity may cause much that is not Deity, and Paradise is not Deity; neither is it conscious as mortal man could ever possibly understand such a term.
Paradise is not ancestral to any being or living entity; it is not a creator. Personality and mind-spirit relationships are transmissible, but pattern is not. Patterns are never reflections; they are duplications–reproductions. Paradise is the absolute of patterns; Havona is an exhibit of these potentials in actuality.
God’s residence is central and eternal, glorious and ideal. His home is the beauteous pattern for all universe headquarters worlds; and the central universe of his immediate indwelling is the pattern for all universes in their ideals, organization, and ultimate destiny.
Paradise is the universal headquarters of all personality activities and the source-center of all force-space and energy manifestations. Everything which has been, now is, or is yet to be, has come, now comes, or will come forth from this central abiding place of the eternal Gods. Paradise is the center of all creation, the source of all energies, and the place of primal origin of all personalities.
After all, to mortals the most important thing about eternal Paradise is the fact that this perfect abode of the Universal Father is the real and far-distant destiny of the immortal souls of the mortal and material sons of God, the ascending creatures of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. Every God-knowing mortal who has espoused the career of doing the Father’s will has already embarked upon the long, long Paradise trail of divinity pursuit and perfection attainment. And when such an animal-origin being does stand, as countless numbers now do, before the Gods on Paradise, having ascended from the lowly spheres of space, such an achievement represents the reality of a spiritual transformation bordering on the limits of supremacy.
Well. If you got this far without skipping over this description, you should probably click through to Amazon and order The Urantia Book and begin downloading the whole enchilada into your hard-head.
Paradise is a real place. And the sooner you discover that truth for yourself, the better. And no— no— no— you shouldn’t take anyone else’s word for it; not when you can prove it to yourself with a little hardcore investigation into the wonders of The Urantia Book. Remember: “Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers.” If you’ve got a sincere and logical mind— and you can scrape up a modicum of courage— it’s time you helped yourself to some seriously awesome revelation.
¹ “Holy Land sectors” is not explained anywhere in The Urantia Book
² “Paradise citizens” There are resident on Paradise numerous groups of superb beings, the Paradise Citizens. They are not directly concerned with the scheme of perfecting ascending will creatures and are not, therefore, fully revealed to Urantia mortals. There are more than three thousand orders of these supernal intelligences, the last group having been personalized simultaneously with the mandate of the Trinity which promulgated the creative plan of the seven superuniverses of time and space.
Well that was beautifully done. Thank you. I’m not going to directly respond to everything you brought up, but I’m just aiming to clear up a few things here…
Just in response to your presumption, I discovered the Urantia Book in senior highschool, and it became an on-off thing for me up until I was about 19, when I began to study it very seriously. I am 22 now. I read all of Part IV last winter, and I’m about 600 pages into reading it from beginning to end. I had read much of Part III already; I thoroughly enjoyed the papers on religious experience.
I’ll admit that reading the Urantia Book has been a deeply satisfying spiritual experience for me. Before I had even read too much of it I was feeling at home in the Universe of universes in a way that I hadn’t felt since I was a pre-teen. It is that feeling that has kept me interested in the book over the last couple years. I’ve been unable to find it in any other book. However, the feeling alone is not what I’m seeking; but I have “had the time… to make several deep sojourns through it.”
I’m certainly not very comfortable with your assuming that I’ve vowed to ignore my own spiritual experience. Perhaps I have over-intellectualized parts of it, but I’ve never completely lost sight of my aim: God himself.
I still fail to understand how you can claim something is a fact (i.e. the Shinto “conundrum”) based on a spiritual experience. In this way “religion” seems to crystallize something outside of its own realm – what were to happen if you personally discovered that Shinto really couldn’t have been among Ganid’s religious commentaries? I’m truly curious.
I suppose, last of all, “Do you understand that experience with God and in God exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere intellectual logic?”
Yes, yes, and yes. That is why I keep it aside from my personal attainment of ‘facts’, whether historical or scientific. The UB itself confesses that it does not contain the be all and end all of scientific fact, although I watch with much enjoyment as UBthenews.com is continually updated. I do find it interesting that, in spite of the UB’s not claiming scientific perfection, it does claim that the history will stand on the records for all time.
Bewildering.
On second and third glances I realized some errors, but I don’t think they take away from the meaning.
And I look forward to it!
Haha, always entertaining. That’s why I keep coming back to this website. You write with such force.
I guess I’ll have to explain a couple things.
As for plagiarism. I appreciate the honesty of the revelators here – but I would further recommend studying Block’s comparison’s of Sadler’s own instances of ‘indebtedness’ to other sources.
Concerning Shinto… I contacted Matthew Block with a personal interest in which way his studies had taken him on his walk with the Urantia Book. Not that his conclusions are necessarily correct, he confessed to being a former believer who was slowly but surely sobered by certain realizations. The realization that the Shinto text derived from in that part of the Urantia Book, didn’t even exist in Japan until after Jesus’ time. Only half the question has to do with whether or not the texts would be in the Library, but whether they were texts at the time at all. Please look into this for your own sake, I still am. Everyone has misunderstandings, but if there was anything more unimpressive than Judas’ betrayal, it was the fact that he wasn’t an honest thinker. Besides, are you going to tell me that you know of a certainty that the Shinto texts could’ve made it that far across the world at that time? And be translated? Historical study says it’s rather improbable; one of a thousand self-proclaimed revelations says it happened. Then again, over 15,000,000 human beings believe that Native Americans descended from Jews. How many yet believe in the history of the UB? (Let’s not confuse the real gospel with these various books *about* the gospel.)
Again, I would simply recommend reading Block’s work yourself, even talking to him as I had, if you haven’t already. All religion requires honest self-criticism, no?
“Always will I try to worship God with the help of the Spirit of Truth, which is my helper when I have become really God-knowing.” The problem here is it seems that Ganid believes he is able to have the help of the Spirit of Truth based solely on his own merit, when he becomes “really God-knowing,” when in fact he must await for Jesus to depart from the earth, which, correct me if I’m wrong, occurs years from then. So, yes of course, Jesus could have told Ganid about it ahead of time, but it sounds like Ganid wasn’t fully informed.
A nearby crackling-sound? Could have been anything. I won’t assume. Perhaps it was only the ‘glowing embers’ mentioned before. We can think what we want to here, make any assumptions. In fact, we can apply them to the seeming contradiction that happens here. You’re right, it doesn’t explain the means by which Gabriel and F. Mel show up together with Jesus, but no matter who I’ve asked, no one will straight up say ‘I don’t know.’ They’ll imply it, whilst making me sound foolish for asking, but never will they simply admit that it IS a conundrum and it requires conjecture and ‘living faith(?)’ to explain, or just accept.
I loved the humming-bird analogy.
“It’s one thing to have a “growing love for the (sic) Urantia Book,” and quite another to know it as a genuine, divine revelation of truth.”
I wish I could’ve provided you a glimpse of my own religious struggle in life before you had a chance to respond with that. You might have seen the futility of such a statement in my eyes. How many Christians, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus have I spoken to have said similar things to me when I confessed an interest and love for their religion or text. “Oh yes, that is nice, but you must KNOW!” “You must not only understand the concept of Jesus dying for your sins, you must KNOW! THEN, and only then, are you saved.”
“…over a few perceptions that can easily be dispelled through a stronger grasp of living faith.”
Me: “But there’s no evidence that there were horses, elephants or advanced metallurgy (swords, armor, cities) on the North American Continent before the arrival of Columbus.”
Mormon Missionary: “If you just believed Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration, you would see.”
Oh right, of course I would! I forgot it was as easy as a moment of transformation, or are we forgetting that the spiritual growth of some is slow and steady, rather than summing up in a momentous flash of conversion?
Mr. Hart, with all due respect, I love the Urantia Book because I believe in its underlying spiritual messages. But I will never rely on a spiritual or ‘gut feeling’ to tell me a book contains scientific, historical, or consistent truth. This falls under the realm of FACTS, and it’s a matter of honest study that allows one to get one’s “facts straight.”
The UB has made me feel like no other religious text has, but certain things must await real personal experience to know. The Trinity is not a fact to me, it’s a theological concept; the UB is not a bona fide revelation because it claims to be, it’s a book; I would never dare to use belief in any person, book, or religious organization as a basis to judge whether someone possesses true and living faith. Living faith does not necessitate a belief in anything material, body, literature, or institution. Living faith is a personal attribute springing from a relationship with God.
So, I’m spent, haha. I’d love to hear from you again.
Many blessings, many adventures, many discoveries,
Darren
Hey Darren,
Thanks for getting back; I’ll be responding at length ASAIC.
Doan chewgo chain jin.
😎
Hey Darren,
I’ve reread you response a few times; I agree, it’s too bad we aren’t better acquainted; it would make these responses, so necessarily full of assumptions, easier to pare down to what’s really helpful. So I don’t mean to pry, but must make a few presumptions.
I wonder if you’ve really read the whole book— and for how long. Like it or not, time is an invariable element in the attainment of knowledge and spiritual growth. I get the feeling you haven’t had the time yet to make several deep sojourns through it. Of course that’s not a fault or a failing; believe me, even after thirty-eight years of study I am occasionally ashamed at how little I truly grasp of this Revelation. But all true values of our experience are concealed in depth of recognition; and that takes time.
But. Your focus, at least in what you’ve chosen to share here, is the sorting and alignment of certain “facts.” And what if all the factual questions you have were answered satisfactorily; what then? You’ll give an intellectual nod to the book? Turn your spiritual guns on it for real?
I don’t care what Doc Sadler did, or didn’t do. It matters nothing to my personal spiritual progress as a Son of God. Shinto? Here’s what I like about Shinto: “Every time man yields to anxiety, he takes one step away from the leading of the spirit of his heart.” And, “If you are not right on the inside, it is useless to pray for that which is on the outside.” Now, factually, I don’t care if Sadler wrote that, or a midwayer wrote that; I grok the truth of it. But it matters nothing to my personal spiritual progress as a Son of God what I believe regarding the lodgment of Shinto manuscripts into the Alexandria library sometime before Jesus and Ganid were there.
The “spiritual struggles” you mention with a number of other religionists who have consistently told you that you must “know,” are most telling, I think. Repeatedly you have come in contact with religionists who have had genuine religious experiences; religionists who know that they “know.” Of course, these religionists may have all believed things that were in fact, false, but you as their witness could see it did not invalidate their “knowing”— their personal religious experience— because it is not based on facts, but rather on the recognition of values— which are validated by the faith of their personal religious experience.
So it’s futile to tell you there’s a moment coming when you’ll know? Alright. But that’s an obstacle of your own making.
You said you love The Urantia Book because you “… believe in its underlying spiritual messages.” But, that you “…will never rely on a spiritual or ‘gut feeling’ to tell [you] a book contains scientific, historical, or consistent truth.”
Well; avowing you will never rely on a “spiritual feeling” to tell you something is true— as if it were the mere concomitant of burrito gas— pretty much means you’ve vowed to ignore your own personal religious experience. That alone— in and of itself— can be fatal to spiritual insight. Do you understand that the “voice” of Spirit is a still, small thing, a thing that is so very easily brushed aside?
You say this “falls under the realm of FACTS, and it’s a matter of honest study that allows one to get one’s ‘facts straight.’ ” Not facts alone. Never facts alone. But you appear to ignore the fact and the truth that “men should cease to reason like children and should attempt to use the consistent logic of adulthood, logic which tolerates the concept of truth alongside the observation of fact.”
Consequently, a person who uses the consistent logic of adulthood is also a God-knowing individual who is constantly trying to elevate his personal wisdom to the living-truth levels of divine attainment; not drag the living truth down to the dead levels of mere factual knowledge.
Whatever underlying spiritual messages of The Urantia Book you believe in, hopefully you can come to understand that divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality, which exists “only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God.” Through that communion, you can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience its growth in your soul, and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in your mind. But you can’t imprison it in formulas, codes, creeds, or facts— or any other intellectual patterns.
You asked: “…are you going to tell me that you know of a certainty that the Shinto texts could’ve made it that far across the world at that time? And be translated?
In material fact, no, of course I’m not absolutely certain. But in truth? You bet. Profoundly and completely certain. How? By the full summation of my life— the knowledge that I am educated by fact, ennobled by wisdom, and saved— justified— by my religious faith.
Recall the Book tells us that the spirit of courage is the “intellectual root of moral stamina and spiritual bravery.” And when spiritual bravery is enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this becomes “the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of intelligent and conscientious self-direction.”
You think I’m factually real because, among other things, I’m corresponding with you; but do you know it’s true you can’t become so absolutely certain of my reality, as you can of the reality of the presence of God within you?
“Truth often becomes confusing and even misleading when it is dismembered, segregated, isolated, and too much analyzed. Living truth teaches the truth seeker aright only when it is embraced in wholeness and as a living spiritual reality, not as a fact of material science or an inspiration of intervening art.”
Do you understand that experience with God and in God exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere intellectual logic?
Finally, when we survey this life, we have to come to know that true religion— our faithful comprehension of our personal religious experience— is a sublime and profound conviction within our soul, which compellingly admonishes us that it would be wrong not to believe in these morontial realities which constitute our highest ethical and moral concepts, our highest interpretation of this life’s greatest values, and a growing sense of the universe’s deepest realities. And this “religion” is simply the experience of yielding intellectual loyalty to the highest dictates of our spiritual consciousness.
I’m done. 😎
Hi Darren,
Welcome to USojo, and thanks for the privilege of answering your questions.
You asked, How do you feel about Matthew Block’s work on discovering the many sources of the Urantia Book?
Good for Matt. Frankly, I’m mystified why anyone would get their undies in a bunch over the bullshit charge of “plagiarism.” The revelators make it clear they’re required by their superiors to use the thought of human beings whenever possible. Wherever you assume Matt is correct, he has simply shown how amazingly good they are at doing just that. Surely you’re familiar with the acknowledgement at the end of Paper 120. It’s not at all ambiguous regarding where they got their information, and their acknowledgement of “indebtedness” to all sources, human and divine, is all critics are going to get.
You said, “There’s no way Shinto could’ve made its way to the libraries (sic) (— I think there was just the one 😉 ) of Alexandria.” And your personal knowledge of just why there’s “no way” that could be true is what, exactly? So then, do you imagine one of the midwayers is crudely lying when they say, “Only recently had the manuscripts of this Far-Eastern religion been lodged in the Alexandrian library” ?
So I take it you presume that Jesus could not have told Ganid about a circumstance that had not yet come to pass: the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth. Really?
Ah. The presumed, Gabriel/Father Mel can’t be off Salvington at the same time, conundrum. (You refer to Paper 35, THE LOCAL UNIVERSE SONS OF GOD, Section 1, and Paper 158, THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION, Section 1.)
Apparently it’s a conundrum for you, because you can’t decide which reference to believe; thinking one must invalidate the other.
But consider a few things. At the beginning of the reference, it says the apostles “…were suddenly awakened by a near-by crackling sound.” WTF do you suppose that was?? It’s not explained. It’s also not explained how or even if Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek are actually present on Urantia in time; it simply says “The physical controllers had arranged for the apostles to witness this scene…”
In the first reference, it says, “Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek are never away from Salvington at the same time…” I can humbly report I don’t know squat about how time works for Gabriel, or Father Melchizedek. I can safely say I don’t have a clue what they mean when they say “…away from Salvington,” or what kind of technical qualifications may be operative for those two.
So, do you have some particular personal insight into the reflectivity mechanism of the local universe that would rule out the possibility that Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek were utilizing reflectivity? (Remembering, of course, that “Many features connected with this extraordinary phenomenon can hardly be reasonably explained or rationally understood,” and that the function of this service seems to be “…independent of time and space.” )
Depending on any particular being’s personal equipment, some pretty amazing things can occur in time. A Blue-throated hummingbird’s heart can beat 1260 times in 60 seconds. That’s roughly 21 times a second. But their wings can actually beat anywhere from 60, up to 200 times per-second. That’s a physical object that moves from point a to point b at humanly incomprehensible speed. No, the wing feathers are never actually in two places at once, but, for all practical purposes, they may as well be.
It’s one thing to have a “growing love for the (sic) Urantia Book,” and quite another to know it as a genuine, divine revelation of truth. You’re still investigating the validity of the FER. That’s a great, even eternally memorable place to be. But you have not yet had that instant of spiritual illumination in your soul where you know, and you know now.
To me, these questions are essentially straining out gnats, Darren. Perhaps you believe that the Paradise Trinity is three Divine beings in one Godhead? And yet, you question your faith in epochal revelation over a few perceptions that can easily be dispelled through a stronger grasp of living faith.
Remember the great challenge that has been given to each of us is this:
“Will you decide to personalize the experiencible value meanings of the cosmos into your own evolving selfhood? or by rejecting survival, will you allow these secrets of Supremacy to lie dormant, awaiting the action of another creature at some other time who will in his way attempt a creature contribution to the evolution of the finite God?”
Best of luck in all your efforts with the revelation.
The gospel yoke is easy and the burden of truth is light.
“Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers.”
I have had a growing love for the Urantia Book, and you seem like some smart fellow readers – so I have a few questions.
How do you feel about Matthew Block’s work on discovering the many sources of the Urantia Book? In particular the Rodan material, and Ganid’s summation of the world’s religions… There’s no way Shinto could’ve made its way to the libraries of Alexandria. Not to mention, under ‘our religion,’ I believe, Ganid makes a reference to the Spirit of Truth, although it won’t be ‘poured out upon all flesh’ for a good while after that! Block also compares certain apparent plagiarism techniques used by Sadler with the technique implemented in some parts of the UB…
The last question is about Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek. Closer to the beginning of the UB it states that they cannot both be absent from the HQ sphere at the same time. Yet during the transfiguration a few of the apostles witnessJesus, Gabriel, and the Father Melchizedek all conversing on the mountain!
Again, I love the UB, I somehow have not given up hope, but I have trouble with these things. You all seem to have a lot of conviction and brains to boot, so I was wondering if you had any answers to these riddles.
God bless,
Darren