Paper 5 — God’s Relation to the Individual...5:0.2 God has distributed the infinity of his...

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (AUGUST 8, 2020) PARALLEL CHART FOR

Paper 5 — God’s Relation to the Individual

© 2020 Matthew Block

Sources for Paper 5, in the order in which they first appear

(1) Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., The New World-Religion (Garden City, New York: Doubleday,Page & Company, 1915)

(2) W. R. Matthews, K.C.V.O., D.D., D.Lit., God in Christian Thought and Experience(London: Nisbet & Co. Ltd., 1930)

(3) Rees Griffiths, M.A., B.D., Ph.D., God in Idea and Experience, or, The A PrioriElements of the Religious Consciousness (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1931)

(4) J. R. Illingworth, M.A., Personality Human and Divine (London and New York: TheMacmillan Company, 1894)

Key

(a) Green indicates where a source author first appears, or where he/she reappears.

(b) Yellow highlights most parallelisms.

(c) Tan highlights parallelisms not occurring on the same row.

(d) An underlined word or words indicates where the source and the UB writer pointedlydiffer from each other.

(e) Blue indicates original (or “revealed”) information, or UB-specific terminology andconcepts. (What to highlight in this regard is debatable; the highlights are tentative.)

SOURCE OR PARALLEL URANTIA PAPER 5

Work-in-progress Version 24 Mar. 2012© 2012, 2014, 2017, 2020 Matthew BlockFull paper version 29 Feb. and 8 Aug. 2020

PAPER 5 — GOD’SRELATION TO THEINDIVIDUAL

5:0.1 If the finite mind of man isunable to comprehend how so great andso majestic a God as the Universal Fathercan descend from his eternal abode ininfinite perfection to fraternize with theindividual human creature, then mustsuch a finite intellect rest assurance ofdivine fellowship upon the truth of thefact that an actual fragment of the livingGod resides within the intellect of everynormal-minded and morally consciousUrantia mortal. The indwelling ThoughtAdjusters are a part of the eternal Deityof the Paradise Father. Man does not haveto go farther than his own innerexperience of the soul’s contemplation ofthis spiritual-reality presence to find Godand attempt communion with him.

5:0.2 God has distributed the infinityof his eternal nature throughout theexistential realities of his six absoluteco-ordinates, but he may, at any time,make direct personal contact with anypart or phase or kind of creation throughthe agency of his prepersonal fragments.And the eternal God has also reserved tohimself the prerogative of bestowingpersonality upon the divine Creators andthe living creatures of the universe ofuniverses, while he has further reservedthe prerogative of maintaining direct andparental contact with all these personalbeings through the personality circuit.

2


1. THE APPROACH TO GOD

5:1.1 The inability of the finitecreature to approach the infinite Father isinherent, not in the Father’s aloofness,but in the finiteness and materiallimitations of created beings. Themagnitude of the spiritual differencebetween the highest personality ofuniverse existence and the lower groupsof created intelligences is inconceivable.Were it possible for the lower orders ofintelligence to be transported instantlyinto the presence of the Father himself,they would not know they were there.They would there be just as oblivious ofthe presence of the Universal Father aswhere they now are. There is a long, longroad ahead of mortal man before he canconsistently and within the realms ofpossibility ask for safe conduct into theParadise presence of the Universal Father.Spiritually, man must be translated manytimes before he can attain a plane thatwill yield the spiritual vision which willenable him to see even any one of theSeven Master Spirits.

I: GOD IN HIS WORLD (Strong 3)

I. GOD IN NATURE (Strong 8)

I believe that God created the world outof the fullness of his wonderful love; andthat he is ever seeking in every possibleway to reveal himself to the objects ofthat love. He is unknown to multitudes,not because he hides himself, 5:1.2 Our Father is not in hiding; he is

not in arbitrary seclusion.

but because multitudes are blind (S 19).

He has mobilized the resources of divinewisdom in a never-ending effort to revealhimself to the children of his universaldomains.

3


There is an infinite grandeur and aninexpressible generosity connected with

Because God loves us he seeks to bringus into the most intimate possibleknowledge of himself, the most perfectlikeness to himself, and the mostcomplete coöperation with himself,

the majesty of his love which causes himto yearn for the association of everycreated being who can comprehend, love,or approach him;

which would be the realization of ourhighest happiness (S 19-20).

and it is, therefore, the limitationsinherent in you, inseparable from yourfinite personality and material existence,that determine the time and place andcircumstances in which you may achievethe goal of the journey of mortalascension and stand in the presence of theFather at the center of all things.

5:1.3 Although the approach to theParadise presence of the Father mustawait your attainment of the highest finitelevels of spirit progression, you shouldrejoice in the recognition of theever-present possibility of immediatecommunion with the bestowal spirit ofthe Father so intimately associated withyour inner soul and your spiritualizingself.

5:1.4 The mortals of the realms of timeand space may differ greatly in innateabilities and intellectual endowment, theymay enjoy environments exceptionallyfavorable to social advancement andmoral progress, or they may suffer fromthe lack of almost every human aid toculture and supposed advancement in thearts of civilization;

4


but the possibilities for spiritual progressin the ascension career are equal to all;increasing levels of spiritual insight andcosmic meanings are attained quiteindependently of all such sociomoraldifferentials of the diversified materialenvironments on the evolutionary worlds.

5:1.5 However Urantia mortals maydiffer in their intellectual, social,economic, and even moral opportunitiesand endowments, forget not that theirspiritual endowment is uniform andunique. They all enjoy the same divinepresence of the gift from the Father, andthey are all equally privileged to seekintimate personal communion with thisindwelling spirit of divine origin, whilethey may all equally choose to accept theuniform spiritual leading of theseMystery Monitors.

5:1.6 If mortal man is wholeheartedlyspiritually motivated, unreservedlyconsecrated to the doing of the Father’swill, then, since he is so certainly and soeffectively spiritually endowed by theindwelling and divine Adjuster, therecannot fail to materialize in thatindividual’s experience the sublimeconsciousness of knowing God and thesupernal assurance of surviving for thepurpose of finding God by theprogressive experience of becoming moreand more like him.

5


5:1.7 Man is spiritually indwelt by asurviving Thought Adjuster. If such ahuman mind is sincerely and spirituallymotivated, if such a human soul desires toknow God and become like him, honestlywants to do the Father’s will, there existsno negative influence of mortaldeprivation nor positive power ofpossible interference which can preventsuch a divinely motivated soul fromsecurely ascending to the portals ofParadise.

5:1.8 The Father desires all hiscreatures to be in personal communionwith him. He has on Paradise a place toreceive all those whose survival statusand spiritual nature make possible suchattainment. Therefore settle in yourphilosophy now and forever: To each ofyou and to all of us, God is approachable,the Father is attainable, the way is open;the forces of divine love and the ways andmeans of divine administration are allinterlocked in an effort to facilitate theadvancement of every worthy intelligenceof every universe to the Paradise presenceof the Universal Father.

5:1.9 The fact that vast time isinvolved in the attainment of God makesthe presence and personality of theInfinite none the less real. Your ascensionis a part of the circuit of the sevensuperuniverses, and though you swingaround it countless times, you mayexpect, in spirit and in status, to be everswinging inward. You can depend uponbeing translated from sphere to sphere,from the outer circuits ever nearer theinner center, and some day, doubt not,you shall stand in the divine and centralpresence and see him, figurativelyspeaking, face to face.

6


It is a question of the attainment of actualand literal spiritual levels; and thesespiritual levels are attainable by any beingwho has been indwelt by a MysteryMonitor, and who has subsequentlyeternally fused with that ThoughtAdjuster.

5:1.10 The Father is not in spiritualhiding, but so many of his creatures havehidden themselves away in the mists oftheir own willful decisions and for thetime being have separated themselvesfrom the communion of his spirit and thespirit of his Son by the choosing of theirown perverse ways and by the indulgenceof the self-assertiveness of their intolerantminds and unspiritual natures.

5:1.11 Mortal man may draw near Godand may repeatedly forsake the divinewill so long as the power of choiceremains. Man’s final doom is not sealeduntil he has lost the power to choose theFather’s will. There is never a closure ofthe Father’s heart to the need and thepetition of his children. Only do hisoffspring close their hearts forever to theFather’s drawing power when they finallyand forever lose the desire to do hisdivine will—to know him and to be likehim. Likewise is man’s eternal destinyassured when Adjuster fusion proclaimsto the universe that such an ascender hasmade the final and irrevocable choice tolive the Father’s will.

7


5:1.12 The great God makes directcontact with mortal man and gives a partof his infinite and eternal andincomprehensible self to live and dwellwithin him. God has embarked upon theeternal adventure with man. If you yieldto the leadings of the spiritual forces inyou and around you, you cannot fail toattain the high destiny established by aloving God as the universe goal of hisascendant creatures from the evolutionaryworlds of space.

2. THE PRESENCE OF GOD

5:2.1 The physical presence of theInfinite is the reality of the materialuniverse. The mind presence of Deitymust be determined by the depth ofindividual intellectual experience and bythe evolutionary personality level. Thespiritual presence of Divinity must ofnecessity be differential in the universe. Itis determined by the spiritual capacity ofreceptivity and by the degree of theconsecration of the creature’s will to thedoing of the divine will.

[“The Father lives in the child...” (3:1.4.).] 5:2.2 God lives in every one of hisspirit-born sons.

The Paradise Sons always have access tothe presence of God,

[So then after the Lord had spoken unto them,he was received up into heaven, and sat on the righthand of God (Mark 16:19).] [Et al.]

“the right hand of the Father,”1

and all of his creature personalities haveaccess to

[No man hath seen God at any time; the onlybegotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,he hath declared him (John 1:18).]

the “bosom of the Father.”

8


This refers to the personality circuit,whenever, wherever, and howevercontacted, or otherwise entails personal,self-conscious contact and communionwith the Universal Father, whether at thecentral abode or at some other designatedplace, as on one of the seven sacredspheres of Paradise.

5:2.3 The divine presence cannot,however, be discovered anywhere innature or even in the lives of God-knowing mortals so fully and so certainlyas in your attempted communion with theindwelling Mystery Monitor, the ParadiseThought Adjuster. What a mistake todream of God far off in the skies whenthe spirit of the Universal Father liveswithin your own mind!

5:2.4 It is because of this God fragmentthat indwells you that you can hope, asyou progress in harmonizing with theAdjuster’s spiritual leadings, more fullyto discern the presence and transformingpower of those other spiritual influencesthat surround you and impinge upon youbut do not function as an integral part ofyou. The fact that you are notintellectually conscious of close andintimate contact with the indwellingAdjuster does not in the least disprovesuch an exalted experience. The proof offraternity with the divine Adjusterconsists wholly in the nature and extentof the fruits of the spirit which areyielded in the life experience of theindividual believer.

[Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them(Matt. 7:20).]

“By their fruits you shall know them.”

9


5:2.5 It is exceedingly difficult for themeagerly spiritualized, material mind ofmortal man to experience markedconsciousness of the spirit activities ofsuch divine entities as the ParadiseAdjusters. As the soul of joint mind andAdjuster creation becomes increasinglyexistent, there also evolves a new phaseof soul consciousness which is capable ofexperiencing the presence, and ofrecognizing the spirit leadings and othersupermaterial activities, of the MysteryMonitors.

5:2.6 The entire experience of Adjustercommunion is one involving moral status,mental motivation, and spiritualexperience. The self-realization of suchan achievement is mainly, though notexclusively, limited to the realms of soulconsciousness, but the proofs areforthcoming and abundant in themanifestation of the fruits of the spirit inthe lives of all such inner-spiritcontactors.

3. TRUE WORSHIP

5:3.1 Though the Paradise Deities,from the universe standpoint, are as one,in their spiritual relations with suchbeings as inhabit Urantia they are alsothree distinct and separate persons. Thereis a difference between the Godheads inthe matter of personal appeals,communion, and other intimate relations.In the highest sense, we worship theUniversal Father and him only. True, wecan and do worship the Father as he ismanifested in his Creator Sons, but it isthe Father, directly or indirectly, who isworshiped and adored.

10


5:3.2 Supplications of all kinds belongto the realm of the Eternal Son and theSon’s spiritual organization. Prayers, allformal communications, everythingexcept adoration and worship of theUniversal Father, are matters that concerna local universe; they do not ordinarilyproceed out of the realm of thejurisdiction of a Creator Son. But worshipis undoubtedly encircuited and dispatchedto the person of the Creator by thefunction of the Father’s personalitycircuit. We further believe that suchregistry of the homage of an Adjuster-indwelt creature is facilitated by theFather’s spirit presence. There exists atremendous amount of evidence tosubstantiate such a belief, and I know thatall orders of Father fragments areempowered to register the bona fideadoration of their subjects acceptably inthe presence of the Universal Father. TheAdjusters undoubtedly also utilize directprepersonal channels of communicationwith God, and they are likewise able toutilize the spirit-gravity circuits of theEternal Son.

[Source?] 5:3.3 Worship is for its own sake;prayer embodies a self- or creature-interest element; that is the greatdifference between worship and prayer.There is absolutely no self-request orother element of personal interest in trueworship; we simply worship God forwhat we comprehend him to be. Worshipasks nothing and expects nothing for theworshiper. We do not worship the Fatherbecause of anything we may derive fromsuch veneration; we render such devotionand engage in such worship as a naturaland spontaneous reaction to therecognition of the Father’s matchlesspersonality and because of his lovablenature and adorable attributes.

11


5:3.4 The moment the element ofself-interest intrudes upon worship, thatinstant devotion translates from worshipto prayer and more appropriately shouldbe directed to the person of the EternalSon or the Creator Son. But in practicalreligious experience there exists noreason why prayer should not beaddressed to God the Father as a part oftrue worship.

5:3.5 When you deal with the practicalaffairs of your daily life, you are in thehands of the spirit personalities havingorigin in the Third Source and Center;you are co-operating with the agencies ofthe Conjoint Actor. And so it is: Youworship God; pray to, and commune with,the Son; and work out the details of yourearthly sojourn in connection with theintelligences of the Infinite Spiritoperating on your world and throughoutyour universe.

5:3.6 The Creator or Sovereign Sonswho preside over the destinies of the localuniverses stand in the place of both theUniversal Father and the Eternal Son ofParadise. These Universe Sons receive, inthe name of the Father, the adoration ofworship and give ear to the pleas of theirpetitioning subjects throughout theirrespective creations. To the children of alocal universe a Michael Son is, to allpractical intents and purposes, God. He isthe local universe personification of theUniversal Father and the Eternal Son. TheInfinite Spirit maintains personal contactwith the children of these realms throughthe Universe Spirits, the administrativeand creative associates of the ParadiseCreator Sons.

12


5:3.7 Sincere worship connotes themobilization of all the powers of thehuman personality under the dominanceof the evolving soul and subject to thedivine directionization of the associatedThought Adjuster. The mind of materiallimitations can never become highlyconscious of the real significance of trueworship. Man’s realization of the realityof the worship experience is chieflydetermined by the developmental statusof his evolving immortal soul. Thespiritual growth of the soul takes placewholly independently of the intellectualself-consciousness.

5:3.8 The worship experience consistsin the sublime attempt of the betrothedAdjuster to communicate to the divineFather the inexpressible longings and theunutterable aspirations of the humansoul—the conjoint creation of theGod-seeking mortal mind and theGod-revealing immortal Adjuster.Worship is, therefore, the act of thematerial mind’s assenting to the attemptof its spiritualizing self, under theguidance of the associated spirit, tocommunicate with God as a faith son ofthe Universal Father. The mortal mindconsents to worship; the immortal soulcraves and initiates worship; the divineAdjuster presence conducts such worshipin behalf of the mortal mind and theevolving immortal soul. True worship, inthe last analysis, becomes an experiencerealized on four cosmic levels: theintellectual, the morontial, the spiritual,and the personal—the consciousness ofmind, soul, and spirit, and theirunification in personality.

13


4. GOD IN RELIGION

I: MAN’S EXPERIENCE OF GOD(Matthews 1)

5:4.1 The morality of the religions ofevolution

We are concerned to know what drivesman forward in his quest for God,—

drives men forward in the God quest

by the motive power of fear.

The religions of revelation

or what allures him,— allure men

to seek for a God of love because theycrave to become like him.

what religion in its essential nature is; andthis inquiry is suggested to us apart fromany view which we may have about thetruth of any religion (M 5).

It is generally recognized that one ofthe most important contributions to thesolution of our problem of the nature ofthe religious consciousness was made bySchleiermacher, who was among the firstto concentrate attention on religiousexperience and to make it the foundationof theology.... In his epoch-making workon the Christian Faith he propounded thethesis that religion is “a feeling ofabsolute dependence” (M 6).

But religion is not merely a passivefeeling of “absolute dependence”

and “surety of survival”;

it is a living and dynamic experience ofdivinity attainment predicated onhumanity service.

14


Two salient and ineradicable needs ofthe spirit seek satisfaction throughreligion: 5:4.2 The great and immediate service

of true religion is

the need for unity and the need for thesubstantiation of value (M 18).

the establishment of an enduring unity inhuman experience,

a lasting peace and a profound assurance.

Doubtless for us a return to polytheismwould be a regression towards chaos. Butif we try to place ourselves at thestandpoint of the primitive believer, wecan see that for him his belief in spirits ordæmons is a relative unification (M 19).

With primitive man, even polytheism is arelative unification of the evolvingconcept of Deity;

There is truth in the saying of ProfessorHocking, “All polytheism is imperfectmonotheism” (M 19).

polytheism is monotheism in the making.

Sooner or later,

The second need which is met in thereligious experience is that for the sub-stantiation of values.... The monotheisticfaiths have held that God is the substanceof values, Himself the supreme Value (M20).

God is destined to be comprehended asthe reality of values, the substance ofmeanings, and the life of truth.

The religious attitude of mind has apeculiarity which is not easy to define butwhich has been indicated by most writersupon the religious consciousness inlanguage coloured by their own particulartheories. Schleiermacher touches upon itin his “feeling of absolute dependence”,Otto in his “sense of the numinous”, andProfessor J. B. Pratt when he designatesGod as “the determiner of destiny.” 5:4.3 God is not only the determiner of

destiny;

he is man’s eternal destination.

15


Religious states of mind contrast withthose which are scientific or simplypractical or moral in this respect, thatwhereas the scientific and moral areattempts at mastery over the not-self, tobring the objective material within thecategories of the understanding or to bendit to the purpose of the will,

All nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting serviceof self;

in religion the self seeks rather to bemastered, to bend itself to that “other”with which it is continuous (M 21).

the truly religious individual seeks toidentify the self with the universe

and then to dedicate the activities of thisunified self to the service of the universefamily of fellow beings, human andsuperhuman.

5:4.4 The domains of philosophy andart intervene between the nonreligiousand the religious activities of the humanself.

[Compare: In this respect the religious attitude ismore closely akin to that of æsthetic enjoyment,which wishes not to alter the object but to remainin its presence (M 21).]

Through art and philosophy thematerial-minded man is inveigled into thecontemplation of the spiritual realitiesand universe values of eternal meanings.

Closely connected with this aspect ofreligion is the redemptive element whichis present in every kind of religious lifeand system. No doubt the idea ofsalvation is more explicit in somereligions than others, the conceptions ofwhat man is redeemed from and whatredeemed to vary enormously even in thehighest examples of spiritual conscious-ness.

5:4.5 All religions teach the worship ofDeity and some doctrine of humansalvation.

There is, for example, a profound andsignificant difference between thesalvation of the Buddhist and theChristian. The former seeks release fromsuffering,

The Buddhist religion promises salvationfrom suffering, unending peace;

16


the Jewish religion promises salvationfrom difficulties, prosperity predicated onrighteousness; the Greek religionpromised salvation from disharmony,ugliness, by the realization of beauty;

the latter from sin (M 21-22). Christianity promises salvation from sin,sanctity;

[!] Mohammedanism provides deliverancefrom the rigorous moral standards ofJudaism and Christianity.

The religion of Jesus is salvation from

In so far as he is religious man feelshimself to be, in the end, impotent andmiserable so long as he remains in hisisolated selfhood (M 22). self, deliverance from the evils of

creature isolation in time and in eternity.

5:4.6 The Hebrews based their religionon goodness; the Greeks on beauty; bothreligions sought truth. Jesus revealed aGod of love, and love is all-embracing oftruth, beauty, and goodness.

5:4.7 The Zoroastrians had a religionof morals; the Hindus a religion ofmetaphysics; the Confucianists a religionof ethics. Jesus lived a religion of service.All these religions are of value in thatthey are valid approaches to the religionof Jesus.

17


In religion the life of the spirit of manreaches unity, and the richest religiouslife has not left the other activities ofspirit behind but has taken them up intoitself. The Reality which it seeks andthinks that it has known is One in whichthe thirsts of the soul for goodness,beauty, and truth are not annulled butsatisfied (M 24).

Religion is destined to become the realityof the spiritual unification of all that isgood, beautiful, and true in humanexperience.

II: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THECONCEPT OF GOD (Matthews 25)

The two fundamental maxims of Greekand Hebrew aspiration respectively“Know thyself” and “Know God”,

5:4.8 The Greek religion had awatchword “Know yourself”; theHebrews centered their teaching on“Know your God”;

are not contradictory but complementary,for man knows God in so far as he trulyknows himself and he knows himselfthrough knowing God (M 34).

the Christians preach a gospel aimed at

[For if these things be in you, and abound,they make you that ye shall neither be barren norunfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord JesusChrist (2 Peter 1:8).]

a “knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”;

Jesus proclaimed the good news of“knowing God, and yourself as a son ofGod.”

These differing concepts of the purposeof religion determine the individual’sattitude in various life situations andforeshadow the depth of worship and thenature of his personal habits of prayer.

18


“Not lehrt beten”, and in the prayerswhich are offered we may discern mostclearly the kinds of need of which theworshipper is conscious and the kind ofdeity to whom he prays (M 35).

The spiritual status of any religion maybe determined by the nature of its prayers.

It is only those faiths which have clung tothe personal conception of Deity whichhave had a “jealous God” who willtolerate no other gods beside Him (M 38).

5:4.9 The concept of a semihuman andjealous God

is an inevitable transition betweenpolytheism and sublime monotheism.

[Anthropomorphism is the road along which thebelieving mind has travelled from superstition tonoble creeds (M 31).]

An exalted anthropomorphism is thehighest attainment level of purelyevolutionary religion.

IV: THE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE OFGOD (continued) (Matthews 67)

This anthropomorphism, if so it may becalled, is carried further in the Apostolicreligious life;

Christianity has elevated the concept ofanthropomorphism

from the ideal of the human to thetranscendent and divine concept of

for that experience is built on theaffirmation that God is the Father of theLord Jesus Christ, and the Creator isrevealed as love through the Person andwork of the Redeemer (M 87).

the person of the glorified Christ.

[The Highest Anthropomorphism (M 87, head-line).]

And this is the highest anthropomorphismthat man can ever conceive.

19


II: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THECONCEPT OF GOD (Matthews 25)

Two great streams flow together into thesea of Christian thought about God—theHebrew and the Greek (M 39).

5:4.10 The Christian concept of God isan attempt to combine three separateteachings:

The Hebrew consciousness of God is ameditation upon righteousness.

5:4.11 1. The Hebrew concept—

It pushes to the furthest point theconception of Deity as the Vindicator ofmoral values, and for that reason it has adeep interest in history, in events, findingin them the revelation of the righteouspurpose of God (M 40).

God as a vindicator of moral values, arighteous God.

[contd] The Greek development, on theother hand, is dominated by thespecifically philosophical impulse (M40).

5:4.12 2. The Greek concept—

Philosophers were the real teachers ofGreece—men who sought to understand,to find unity in experience (M 40). God as a unifier, a God of wisdom.

5:4.13 3. Jesus’ concept—God as aliving friend, a loving Father, the divinepresence.

5:4.14 It must therefore be evident that

The two elements within its experience ofGod have never been completelyharmonized; the personal, “psycho-logical”, living God of Hebrew traditionand piety has never been successfullyidentified with the God of metaphysicswhose ancestry derives from Greece.Christian thought has never achieved aconcept of God which fully satisfied thetwo needs of its heart (M 42).

composite Christian theology encountersgreat difficulty in attaining consistency.

20


This difficulty is further aggravated bythe fact that the doctrines of earlyChristianity were generally based on thepersonal religious experience of threedifferent persons: Philo of Alexandria,Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus.

III: THE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE OFGOD (Matthews 43)

The unbroken and triumphant natureof Jesus’ communion with God has oftenbeen represented in theology by theassertion of the Lord’s “sinlessness”....But it is perhaps unfortunate that so muchstress should have been laid on this word.It is negative, and therefore suffers fromtwo inherent defects: it is incapable ofproof, and it cannot adequately conveythe positive nature of Jesus’ communionwith God (M 51-52).

5:4.15 In the study of the religious lifeof Jesus, view him positively.

Think not so much of his sinlessness as ofhis righteousness, his loving service.

We owe to Dr. Montefiore a clearstatement of the real departure which theGospel made from the standpoint of thebest Pharisees.... Here is the fresh andtruly revolutionary interpretation of theDivine Fatherhood. God’s love is activenot passive, it goes out to seek and savethose who are lost (M 59).

Jesus upstepped the passive lovedisclosed in the Hebrew concept of theheavenly Father to the higher active andcreature-loving affection of a God who isthe Father of every individual, even of thewrongdoer.

21


5. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OFGOD

VIII: THE RELIGIOUS IMPERATIVE(Griffiths 160)

Kant was able to establish the imperativecharacter of the moral law because hewas able to show that ... its source was inself-consciousness and not in the externalconditions of the struggle for existence,nor yet in the realm of the instincts whichman has in common with the animals.Morality had its foundation in Reason,which is the distinctive property of self-consciousness (G 161-62).

5:5.1 Morality has its origin in thereason of self-consciousness;

[Static ethics and traditional morality are just

slightly superanimal (12:5.10).] [The moral

nature is superanimal but subspiritual

(196:3.25).]

it is superanimal but wholly evolutionary.

Human evolution embraces in itsunfolding all endowments antecedent tothe bestowal of the Adjusters and to thepouring out of the Spirit of Truth.

But the attainment of levels of moralitydoes not deliver man from the realstruggles of mortal living. Man’s physicalenvironment entails the battle forexistence; the social surroundingsnecessitate ethical adjustments; the moralsituations require the making of choicesin the highest realms of reason; thespiritual experience (having realized God)demands that man find him and sincerelystrive to be like him.

22


[I]f there are religious valuesdiscoverable in our experience—valuesthat cannot be equated with or derivedfrom other values, such as the scientific,moral, or æsthetic—then there must bewithin the mind itself some pristinecapacity for viewing the world in the waywe call religious. Religion cannot bederived from non-religious characteristicsof experience (G 165).

5:5.2 Religion is not grounded in thefacts of science, the obligations ofsociety, the assumptions of philosophy, orthe implied duties of morality.

Religion is an independent realm ofhuman response to life situations and isunfailingly exhibited at all stages ofhuman development which are postmoral.

Religion may permeate all four levels ofthe realization of values and theenjoyment of universe fellowship: thephysical or material level of self-preservation; the social or emotional levelof fellowship; the moral or duty level ofreason; the spiritual level of theconsciousness of universe fellowshipthrough divine worship.

5:5.3 The fact-seeking scientistconceives of God as the First Cause, aGod of force. The emotional artist seesGod as the ideal of beauty, a God ofaesthetics.

We cannot reduce religion to philosophy,to the attempt reason naturally makes toorganise experience and think out theworld as a unity, or reach some Absoluteor God as the principle of that unity (G167).

The reasoning philosopher is sometimesinclined to posit a God of universal unity,

even a pantheistic Deity.

The religionist of faith believes in a Godwho fosters survival, the Father inheaven, the God of love.

23


Religion, then, cannot be equatedeither with philosophical speculation,science, morality, or æsthetics.... Not withmorality, because, though morality is anintegral part of any religious life,

5:5.4 Moral conduct is always anantecedent of evolved religion and a partof even revealed religion,

it is never the whole of it (G 169). bu t neve r the whole of r e l i g i ousexperience.

Social service is the result of moralthinking and religious living.

From the side of religion you may pass tomorality, but from morality there is noobvious nor even a possible path toreligious experience.

Morality does not biologically lead to thehigher spiritual levels of religiousexperience.

Not with æsthetics, because the worshipof beauty in the abstract, and theemotions awakened by a beautiful objectconsidered in and for itself, in no wayresembles religion, which always links allobjects with the world as a whole, andsees God in all things and all things inGod (G 169).

The adoration of the abstract beautiful isnot the worship of God;

neither is exaltation of nature nor thereverence of unity the worship of God.

The religious consciousness is suigeneris, but it is more. It is the ancientmother of all the sciences—the science ofnature, of morality, of art, of philosophy(G 169-70).

5:5.5 Evolutionary religion is themother of the science, art, and philosophy

which elevated man to the level ofreceptivity to revealed religion, includingthe bestowal of Adjusters and the comingof the Spirit of Truth.

The evolutionary picture of humanexistence begins and ends with religion,albeit very different qualities of religion,one evolutional and biological, the otherrevelational and periodical.

24


Is the religious valuation of life normal tohuman nature and can we always dealwith men on that assumption? Is it a factthat the seemingly irreligious really viewlife through purely secular eyes ... or is itonly the case that they do not accept theparticular brand of religious thought andpractice we are offering to them? ... If thelatter, if religious indifference is due notto a deficiency of nature, so to speak, butrather to a failure to accept religion onour particular terms, then the imperativeremains and is, in fact, operative (G 172).

And so, while religion is normal andnatural to man, it is also optional.

Man does not have to be religious againsthis will.

II: DEVELOPMENT OF THECONCEPT OF GOD (Matthews 25)

[Source? Compare 103:6.1 & 196:3.28.]

5:5.6 Religious experience, beingessentially spiritual, can never be fullyunderstood by the material mind; hencethe function of theology, the psychologyof religion.

[T]here is a paradox in religion from theoutset (M 25).

The essential doctrine of the humanrealization of God creates a paradox infinite comprehension.

It is well-nigh impossible for

The paradox to which we havereferred comes to the surface in atheoretical form in the crucial problem ofreligious thought—the debate betweentranscendence and immanence. Aphilosophy which will justify thereligious attitude must maintain both thatGod is immanent

human logic and finite reason toharmonize the concept of divineimmanence,

God within and a part of every individual,

and that He is transcendent (M 26). with the idea of God’s transcendence,

25


the divine domination of the universe ofuniverses.

Either conception, in the long run, mustdeprive worship of its justification andprayer of its reality (M 26).

These two essential concepts of Deitymust be unified in the faith-grasp of theconcept of the transcendence of apersonal God and in the realization of theindwelling presence of a fragment of thatGod in order to justify intelligent worship

and validate the hope of personalitysurvival.

The contradictions which [religion] seemsto offer to our intellect are not of the kindwhich allow us to dismiss the object asunreal.... They indicate rather that we aredealing with an object which is beyondour full comprehension (M 28).

The difficulties and paradoxes of religionare inherent in the fact that the realities ofreligion are utterly beyond the mortalcapacity for intellectual comprehension.

5:5.7 Mortal man secures three greatsatisfactions from religious experience,even in the days of his temporal sojournon earth:

Two needs in particular [man]discovers—that for the unification ofexperience, the intellectual need, 5:5.8 1. Intellectually he acquires the

satisfactions of a more unified humanconsciousness.

and that for the substantiation ofuniversal values, the moral and theæsthetic need (M 37).

5:5.9 2. Philosophically he enjoys thesubstantiation of his ideals of moralvalues.

5:5.10 3. Spiritually he thrives in theexperience of divine companionship, inthe spiritual satisfactions of true worship.

26


5:5.11 God-consciousness, as it isexperienced by an evolving mortal of therealms, must consist of three varyingfactors, three differential levels of realityrealization. There is first the mindconsciousness—the comprehension of theidea of God. Then follows the soulconsciousness—the realization of theideal of God. Last, dawns the spiritconsciousness—the realization of thespirit reality of God. By the unification ofthese factors of the divine realization, nomatter how incomplete, the mortalpersonality at all times overspreads allconscious levels with a realization of thepersonality of God. In those mortals whohave attained the Corps of the Finality allthis will in time lead to the realization ofthe supremacy of God and maysubsequently eventuate in the realizationof the ultimacy of God, some phase of theabsonite superconsciousness of theParadise Father.

5:5.12 The experience of God-consciousness remains the same fromgeneration to generation,

The Christian conception of God is notfixed and complete, not a doctrine fullythought out and settled, so that areopening of the question would be amere impertinence.... Every generationhas the duty and opportunity ofcontributing to the work of thinking outthe Christian idea of God in the light ofits own special point of view (M 42).

but with each advancing epoch in humanknowledge the philosophic concept andthe theologic definitions of God mustchange.

God-knowingness, religious conscious-ness, is a universe reality, but no matterhow valid (real) religious experience is, itmust be willing to subject itself tointelligent criticism and reasonablephilosophic interpretation; it must notseek to be a thing apart in the totality ofhuman experience.

27


5:5.13 Eternal survival of personality iswholly dependent on the choosing of themortal mind, whose decisions determinethe survival potential of the immortalsoul. When the mind believes God andthe soul knows God, and when, with thefostering Adjuster, they all desire God,then is survival assured. Limitations ofintellect, curtailment of education,deprivation of culture, impoverishment ofsocial status, even inferiority of thehuman standards of morality resultingfrom the unfortunate lack of educational,cultural, and social advantages, cannotinvalidate the presence of the divine spiritin such unfortunate and humanlyhandicapped but believing individuals.The indwelling of the Mystery Monitorconstitutes the inception and insures thepossibility of the potential of growth andsurvival of the immortal soul.

5:5.14 The ability of mortal parents toprocreate is not predicated on theireducational, cultural, social, or economicstatus. The union of the parental factorsunder natural conditions is quitesufficient to initiate offspring. A humanmind discerning right and wrong andpossessing the capacity to worship God,in union with a divine Adjuster, is all thatis required in that mortal to initiate andfoster the production of his immortal soulof survival qualities if such a spirit-endowed individual seeks God andsincerely desires to become like him,honestly elects to do the will of the Fatherin heaven.

28


6. THE GOD OF PERSON-ALITY

5:6.1 The Universal Father is the Godof personalities. The domain of universepersonality, from the lowest mortal andmaterial creature of personality status tothe highest persons of creator dignity anddivine status, has its center andcircumference in the Universal Father.

[The Universal Father is the secret of the

reality of personality, the bestowal of

personality,

God the Father is the bestower and theconservator of every personality.

and the destiny of personality (0:5.5).] And the Paradise Father is likewise thedestiny of all those finite personalitieswho wholeheartedly choose to do thedivine will, those who love God and longto be like him.2

II: ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPTIONOF HUMAN PERSONALITY (Illing-worth 28)

It should be noticed, in conclusion, thatthough personality, as above described, isthe one thing we know best in the world,it is also the most mysterious thing weknow (I 52).] [See also “Personality a Mystery”in Illingworth, p. 240.]

5:6.2 Personality is one of the unsolvedmysteries of the universes.

[See endnote.]

We are able to form adequate concepts ofthe factors entering into the make-up ofvarious orders and levels of personality,3

but we do not fully comprehend the realnature of the personality itself. We clearlyperceive the numerous factors which,when put together, constitute the vehiclefor human personality, but we do notfully comprehend the nature andsignificance of such a finite personality.

29


5:6.3 Personality is potential in allcreatures who possess a mind endowmentranging from the minimum of self-consciousness to the maximum of God-consciousness.

[The personality of mortal man is neither

body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul

(0:5.11).]

But mind endowment alone is notpersonality, neither is spirit nor physicalenergy.

[The personality is the unique bestowal which

the Universal Father makes upon the living

and associated energies of matter, mind, and

spirit ... (0:5.11).]

Personality is that quality and value incosmic reality which is exclusivelybestowed by God the Father upon theseliving systems of the associated andco-ordinated energies of matter, mind,and spirit.

Neither is personality a progressiveachievement. Personality may be materialor spiritual, but there either is personalityor there is no personality. The other-than-personal never attains the level ofthe personal except by the direct act ofthe Paradise Father.

5:6.4 The bestowal of personality isthe exclusive function of the UniversalFather, the personalization of the livingenergy systems which he endows with theattributes of relative creative conscious-ness and the freewill control thereof.There is no personality apart from Godthe Father, and no personality existsexcept for God the Father. The funda-mental attributes of human selfhood, aswell as the absolute Adjuster nucleus ofthe human personality, are the bestowalsof the Universal Father, acting in hisexclusively personal domain of cosmicministry.

30


5:6.5 The Adjusters of prepersonalstatus indwell numerous types of mortalcreatures, thus insuring that these samebeings may survive mortal death topersonalize as morontia creatures with thepotential of ultimate spirit attainment.For, when such a creature mind ofpersonality endowment is indwelt by afragment of the spirit of the eternal God,the prepersonal bestowal of the personalFather, then does this finite personalitypossess the potential of the divine and theeternal and aspire to a destiny akin to theUltimate, even reaching out for arealization of the Absolute.

5:6.6 Capacity for divine personality isinherent in the prepersonal Adjuster;capacity for human personality ispotential in the cosmic-mind endowmentof the human being.

But the experiential personality of mortalman is not observable as an active andfunctional reality until after the materiallife vehicle of the mortal creature hasbeen touched by the liberating divinity ofthe Universal Father, being thus launchedupon the seas of experience as

Looked at analytically, then, thefundamental characteristic of personalityis self-consciousness ... But as in the veryact of becoming thus self-conscious Idiscover in myself desires, and a will, thequality of self-consciousness immediatelyinvolves that of self-determination, thepower of making my desires an object ofmy will, and saying ‘I will do what Idesire’ (I 28-29).

a self-conscious and a (relatively)self-determinative and self-creativepersonality.

The material self is truly andunqualifiedly personal.

31


5:6.7 The material self has personalityand identity, temporal identity; theprepersonal spirit Adjuster also hasidentity, eternal identity. This materialpersonality and this spirit prepersonalityare capable of so uniting their creativeattributes as to bring into existence thesurviving identity of the immortal soul.

5:6.8 Having thus provided for thegrowth of the immortal soul and havingliberated man’s inner self from the fettersof absolute dependence on antecedentcausation, the Father stands aside. Now,man having thus been liberated from thefetters of causation response, at least aspertains to eternal destiny, and provisionhaving been made for the growth of theimmortal self, the soul, it remains for manhimself to will the creation or to inhibitthe creation of this surviving and eternalself which is his for the choosing. Noother being, force, creator, or agency inall the wide universe of universes caninterfere to any degree with the absolutesovereignty of the mortal free will, as itoperates within the realms of choice,regarding the eternal destiny of thepersonality of the choosing mortal. Aspertains to eternal survival, God hasdecreed the sovereignty of the materialand mortal will, and that decree isabsolute.

5:6.9 The bestowal of creaturepersonality confers relative liberationfrom

Necessity or determination from withoutis characteristic of the material world, oneevent producing another in endlesscontinuity of causation; whereas I amdirectly conscious of being self-determined from within—a source oforiginal activity, a free agent, a will (I 46-47).

slavish response to antecedent causation,

32


and the personalities of all such moralbeings, evolutionary or otherwise, arecentered in the personality of theUniversal Father. They are ever drawntowards his Paradise presence by thatkinship of being which constitutes thevast and universal family circle andfraternal circuit of the eternal God. Thereis a kinship of divine spontaneity in allpersonality.

5:6.10 The personality circuit of theuniverse of universes is centered in theperson of the Universal Father, and theParadise Father is personally consciousof, and in personal touch with, allpersonalities of all levels of self-conscious existence. And this personalityconsciousness of all creation existsindependently of the mission of theThought Adjusters.

5:6.11 As all gravity is circuited in theIsle of Paradise, as all mind is circuited inthe Conjoint Actor and all spirit in theEternal Son, so is all personality circuitedin the personal presence of the UniversalFather, and this circuit unerringlytransmits the worship of all personalitiesto the Original and Eternal Personality.

5:6.12 Concerning those personalitieswho are not Adjuster indwelt: Theattribute of choice-liberty is alsobestowed by the Universal Father, andsuch persons are likewise embraced in thegreat circuit of divine love, thepersonality circuit of the UniversalFather. God provides for the sovereignchoice of all true personalities. Nopersonal creature can be coerced into theeternal adventure; the portal of eternityopens only in response to the freewillchoice of the freewill sons of the God offree will.

33


1. In his Analytical Study of Part I of the Urantia Book: Vol. 1: Papers 1-10, written for the Urantia BrotherhoodSchool in 1964, William S. Sadler listed and described the Bible passages in which “the right hand of God” occurs.

2. The Universal Father is the acme of divine personality; he is the origin and destiny of

personality throughout all creation (1:5.1).

3. Compare: It is not an easy matter to segregate the factors which make up personality, but we view it as consistingof the following components:

1. Physical qualities—the physique. 2. Intellectual qualities—the intellect. 3. Emotional qualities—the temperament. 4. Social qualities—the ethical disposition.5. Moral qualities—the character. 6. Spiritual qualities—the religious experience (William S. Sadler, M.D., Theory and Practice of Psychiatry

[1936], p. 235).

Though we can hardly undertake to define personality, we may attempt to narrate our understanding of

the known factors which go to make up the ensemble of material, mental, and spiritual energies whose

interassociation constitutes the mechanism wherein and whereon and wherewith the Universal Father

causes his bestowed personality to function (16:8.2).

5:6.13 And this represents my efforts topresent the relation of the living God tothe children of time. And when all is saidand done, I can do nothing more helpfulthan to reiterate that God is your universeFather, and that you are all his planetarychildren.

5:6.14 [This is the fifth and last of theseries presenting the narrative of theUniversal Father by a Divine Counselorof Uversa.]

34

Date post:	21-Aug-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	2 times
Download:	0 times

Paper 5 — God’s Relation to the Individual...5:0.2 God has distributed the infinity of his...

Documents