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The Holy Bible: King James Version, Quatercentenary Edition The Holy Bible: King James Version, Quatercentenary Edition

The Holy Bible: King James Version, Quatercentenary Edition The Holy Bible: King James Version, Quatercentenary Edition

This 400th anniversary edition of the King James Version of the Bible is a reprint of the 1611 text, in an easy-to-read roman font instead of the black-letter type of the original. The original capital letters, many of which are pictorial, have been restored to each chapter in order to replicate the visual appeal of the early editions.

The 1611 text is followed page-for-page and line-for-line, and all misprints are reproduced rather than corrected. The large body of preliminary matter, which includes genealogies, maps, and lists of readings, is also included. The text of the 1611 edition differs from modern editions of the King James Version in thousands of details, and this edition is the most authentic version of the original text that has ever been published.

The volume concludes with an essay by Gordon Campbell on the first edition of the King James Bible.

About the Author

Gordon Campbell is Professor of Renaissance Studies, Department of English at the University of Leicester

Leather Bound: 1552 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (October 26, 2010)

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume One The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume One
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume One The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament: Apocrypha

The most esteemed body of books left out of the Bible, the Old Testament Apocrypha is of interest to historians, religious scholars, and ordinary laypeople alike. For more than 70 years this version, edited by R.H. Charles, has been the definitive critical edition. Out of print for years, Apocryphile Press is proud to make it available once more to scholars and the curious.

Paperback: 700 pages
Publisher: Apocryphile Press (November 1, 2004)

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Volume Two

Of all the books left out of the Bible, only the Apocrypha rivals the Pseudepigrapha in popularity and importance. This edition of the Pseudepigrapha was edited by R. H. Charles and was the definitive critical edition for over 70 years.

Paperback: 800 pages
Publisher: Apocryphile Press (November 1, 2004)

The Urantia Book The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book The Urantia Book

Love

Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. (p. 2018) “Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world.” (p. 2047) “Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.” (p. 2047) The Father’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. (p. 1289) The secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master’s teachings of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust. (p. 2065)

Prayer

Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth in the very face of conflict. (p. 1002) The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard. … (p. 1639) God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. (p. 1002) …Never forget that the sincere prayer of faith is a mighty force for the promotion of personal happiness, individual self-control, social harmony, moral progress, and spiritual attainment. (p. 999)

Suffering

There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. (p. 364) Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation. (p. 556)

Angels

The angels of all orders are distinct personalities and are highly individualized. (p. 285) Angels....are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. (p. 419)

Our Divine Destiny

If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. (p. 381) …They who know that God is enthroned in the human heart are destined to become like him—immortal. (p. 1449) God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man’s eternal destination. (p. 67)

Family

Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. (p. 765) The family is man’s greatest purely human achievement. ... (p. 939)

Faith

…Faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance the power to love and be loved. (p. 1766) “Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith.” (p. 1733)

History/Science

The story of man’s ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. (p. 731) 2,500,000,000 years ago… Urantia was a well developed sphere about one tenth its present mass. … (p. 658) 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of the actual beginning of Urantia [Earth] history. (p. 660) 450,000,000 years ago the transition from vegetable to animal life occurred. (p. 669) From the year A.D. 1934 back to the birth of the first two human beings is just 993,419 years. (p. 707) About five hundred thousand years ago…there were almost one-half billion primitive human beings on earth. … (p. 741) Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. (p. 828)

From the Inside Flap

What’s Inside?

Parts I and II

God, the inhabited universes, life after death, angels and other beings, the war in heaven.

Part III

The history of the world, science and evolution, Adam and Eve, development of civilization, marriage and family, personal spiritual growth.

Part IV

The life and teachings of Jesus including the missing years. AND MUCH MORE…

Excerpts

God, …God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. (p. 1431) If you truly want to find God, that desire is in itself evidence that you have already found him. (p. 1440) When man goes in partnership with God, great things may, and do, happen. (p. 1467)

The Origin of Human Life, The universe is not an accident... (p. 53) The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. (p. 21) The evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin…Urantia [Earth] is your starting point. … (p. 1225) In God, man lives, moves, and has his being. (p. 22)

The Purpose of Life, There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. (p. 365) This new gospel of the kingdom… presents a new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. (p. 1778)

Jesus, The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. (p. 1091) What an awakening the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, firsthand, his life-giving teachings! (p. 2083)

Science, Science, guided by wisdom, may become man’s great social liberator. (p. 909) Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the planetary life plan on the spheres of space. (p. 560)

Life after Death, God’s love is universal… He is “not willing that any should perish.” (p. 39) Your short sojourn on Urantia [Earth]…is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. (p. 435) …Death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery. (p. 159)

About the Author

The text of The Urantia Book was provided by one or more anonymous contributors working with a small staff which provided editorial and administrative support during the book's creation. The book bears no particular credentials (from a human viewpoint), relying instead on the power and beauty of the writing itself to persuade the reader of its authenticity.

Leather Bound: 2097 pages
Publisher: Urantia Foundation; Box Lea edition (August 25, 2015)

The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English

The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English

One of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community that produced them provides an authoritative new English translation of the two hundred longest and most important nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, along with an introduction to the history of the discovery and publication of each manuscript and the background necessary for placing each manuscript in its actual historical context.

About the Author

Florentino Garcia Martinez

Paperback: 586 pages
Publisher: Eerdmans; 2nd edition (February 6, 1996)

The Nag Hammadi Library in English The Nag Hammadi Library in English

The Nag Hammadi Library in English The Nag Hammadi Library in English

This definitive edition of THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY is the only complete, one-volume, English-language edition of the renowned library of fourth-century manuscripts discovered in Egypt in 1945 It includes the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and other Gnostic gospels and sacred tests. First published in 1978 and revised, expanded, and updated in 1999, THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY launched modern Gnostic studies and exposed a movement within Christianity whose teachings are in many ways – as bestselling author Elaine Pagels has shown – as relevant today as they were centuries ago. This edition takes into account recent developments in Gnostic scholarship, including the significance of the Gospel of Thomas as a source of the authentic sayings of Jesus. The translators include such prominent scholars as Elaine Pagels, Marvin Meyer, Helmut Koester, and Bentley Layton. The Chicago Theological Seminary Register called it “A tremendous achievement”.

Paperback: 549 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; 3rd edition (1988)

The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation

The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation

From the Back Cover This collection of apocryphal texts supersedes the best-selling edition by M. R. James, which was originally published in 1924, and regularly reprinted. Several new texts have come to light since 1924 and the textual base for some of the apocrypha previously translated by James is now more secure, as in several cases there are recently published critical editions available. Although a modest appendix to James's edition was added in 1953, no thorough revision has previously been undertaken. In this volume, J. K. Elliott presents new translations of the texts and has provided each of them with a short introduction and bibliography directed to those who wish to pursue further the issues raised in the texts, or to consult the critical editions, other versions, or general studies. The translations are in modern English, in contrast to James's deliberate imitation of the language of the Authorized Version. The collection is designed to give readers the most important and famous of the Christian apocrypha, together with a select sample of gnostic texts. Full translations of the earliest texts are printed.

About the Author

J. K. Elliott (Editor)

Paperback: 774 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; First Paperback Edition edition (December 22, 2005)


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The Birth of a Divine Revelation: The Origin of the Urantia Papers The Birth of a Divine Revelation: The Origin of the Urantia Papers

The Birth of a Divine Revelation: The Origin of the Urantia Papers The Birth of a Divine Revelation: The Origin of the Urantia Papers

Report on the origins of the Urantia Papers. Describes the evolution of events which led to the Papers. Includes biography of William Sadler, the human agent, an account of an associated group, (the Forum), and discussion of threats to the Revelation before it was published.. Offers a wealth of detail heretofore unpublished. Original scholarly research.

About the Author

Through a series of unusual events the author came to recognize that our planet is experiencing celestial visitations today, and that this world is under the supervision of agencies which report directly to our Creator. As a result of these discoveries he had a striking spiritual experience late in 1967. Since that time he has devoted his energies to the study and purpose of revelation.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter 1: A man wanted to know the difference between Edgar Cayce, the so-called Sleeping Prophet, and the Sleeping Subject described by William Sadler in the Appendix to his book, The Mind At Mischief. The latter was suspected of being involved in the creation of The Urantia Papers. I shall describe the sequence of events which led Sadler to investigate the behavior of the Sleeping Subject, how that relationship developed into The Urantia Papers, and why Edgar Cayce could not have been the Sleeping Subject.

Paperback: 600 pages
Publisher: Moyer Pub (February 16, 2000)

The Birth Of A Divine Revelation

The Mechanical Origin
of
The Urantia Papers

Ernest P. Moyer

PO Box 1206
Hanover, Pennsylvania 17331
Early, 1997


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    TABLE OF CONTENTS    

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CHAPTER 33


How The Devil Got Into 533 -- Part III

THE FULL TEXT OF THE 1945 COMMUNICATION


The several "communications" and "instructions" listed by Carolyn Kendall have never been published in full text, as far as I am aware. I made requests to several people who might have copies, but without result. The only exception is the 1945 "communication." This circulated within the Urantia community. My copy seems to be many photo generations from the original, but apparently typewritten by Christy on her famous upright Underwood typewriter.

Carolyn's document helped immensely for us to understand how the policies of the Urantia Foundation and the Brotherhood were conditioned by Caligastia. How truly unfortunate that the participants in those activities, from 1940 unto the present day, did not understand the origins of their guidance, and do not now perceive how their lives, thoughts, expectations, and dreams are even now directly influenced by that evil spirit personality.

The reasons for non-publication of the full text of those "communications" may be several fold. One of those is the corrupt nature of the material. The evidence shows that Christy was not a good channeler. When the Devil used her mind the transmission was not completely free of her subconscious adulterations. Therefore, the "communications" were edited, apparently by Bill Sadler, Jr., for public consumption. What follows is the published version of the 1945 "communication," with Bill Sadler's human expressions interwoven with the "revealed" text. Hence this document is identified as "Notes."

I show that full text here, interspersed with my brief comments where I feel it may be helpful to point out remarks important to the betrayal of God at 533.


NOTES ON A COMMUNICATION RECEIVED IN 1945


RESPONSIBILITY


Full responsibility for peace rests upon the English-speaking nations. They had the mastery after 1915, but didn't recognize and accept the call to duty. England and the United States turned their backs on the high privilege of planetary service. They wanted peace, prosperity and national security; they got depression, unemployment, insecurity, and in twenty years another war. The United States increased its trials and tribulations a million fold by trying to escape its responsibility.

Between the two wars nothing was done to prepare the children and the youth of the nation for their coming responsibility -- their part to play in the world progress -- and many of them refused to grow up. Why did democracy decline so rapidly between the two wars? The leaders in England, France and America were short-sighted. Many couldn't see beyond their own personal interests. These men sometimes performed against public sentiment; but even when replaced by others, the new ones behaved likewise. There was paucity of leadership and indifference to liberty. They saw Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo arming, but didn't take it seriously. Democracy was not willing to fight. At various times an army of 5,000 to 25,000 men could have prevented this war. The Democracies were unwilling and totally unorganized. They hated war and longed for peace -- but could you run a business or even manage a home so shortsightedly? The cowardly leaders of Democracy have set the clock of civilization back 2,000 years. But we have a chance to start afresh. Today there is little Democracy to defend, and we can build a new world order from the ground up; but we must reject the policy of nonresistance. You can't be as brotherly as you would like to be with an unbrotherly brother.

These remarks are such a mixture of truth, half-truth, and spiritual fraud that one hardly knows where to start an analytical examination.

Much of it has purely human expression. Such phrases as "increased its trial and tribulations a million fold" reflect human exaggeration, not celestial articulation.

I point out the following elements:

  1. The attention is strictly secular. Concerns over war, national superiority, economic depression, unemployment, and so on, direct attention to secular concerns. Notions of planetary destiny under the management of God are strikingly absent.

  2. The attention is transient, concerned with the passing moments of human and international scenes. The purpose seems to be to deflect recognition away from the secular mechanistic society in which everyone one is deeply imbedded to solving immediate temporal concerns within that godless environment.

  3. The attention is to the emotional concerns of the moment, reinforcing attention to purely human psychological elements rather than upon loftier notions of mortal contributions to God's destiny program.

These introductory paragraphs show how the Devil was concentrating the attention at 533 on current events, and immediate concerns. He was working on their emotions and fears, rather than lifting them out of the trough of dark sentiments, or taking them to cosmic heights.

"Full responsibility for peace rests upon the English-speaking nations" shows this concentration. Such teaching is counter to the Revelation.

P.1490 - §7 Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars--nothing else can.

Full responsibility for peace does not rest upon the English-speaking nations. It rests upon a global desire to submit national sovereignty to global government. But global government cannot be achieved by godless philosophies.

P.2081 - §5 Materialism denies God, secularism simply ignores him; at least that was the earlier attitude. More recently, secularism has assumed a more militant attitude, assuming to take the place of the religion whose totalitarian bondage it onetime resisted. Twentieth-century secularism tends to affirm that man does not need God. But beware! this godless philosophy of human society will lead only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness, war, and world-wide disaster.

This secularism is rampant throughout the world, including the English-speaking nations.

Only a world-wide disaster will cause the nations to reassess their priorities -- national and international.

"Why did democracy decline so rapidly between the two wars?"

In 1945 the world was reassessing the totalitarian states of German, Italy, Japan and Russia. The names Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo are used to focus on those individuals and not upon higher world forces of godlessness. Such references to current political figures do not appear in the Revelation. The Revelation has higher visions than attention to momentary human personalities.

For good reason. Over the intervening fifty years a major shift in attitudes took place among the nations. We witnessed the breakup of the Soviet Union, and reversion to capitalist philosophies around the world, including China, where political leaders saw the power of capitalism, to discard the fallacious economic policies of communism.

Far sighted celestial personalities, capable of understanding the forces underlying the social vehicles of this world, would not have made statements which would fail to anticipate those trends. Only a deceptive personality, attempting to capitalize on the momentary and immediate concerns would engage in presentations of this kind.

Each of the sentences and phrases in this passage comes under the same scrutiny.

You may note how the Devil inserts expressions to make this appear as an appeal from celestial beings. Such phrases as "high privilege of planetary service," or "a new world order" exhibit this appeal.

The phrase "set the clock of civilization back 2,000 years" is so exaggerated I personally have difficulty believing it would have been used by Sadler or Bill Sadler. It is a bald, flat statement that is untrue to mature sensibilities. Immature minds might use such extreme expression. It probably was designed to appeal to the majority of the Forum. Carolyn Kendall is a good example of such immature thinking. Christy was also.

FREEDOM


The real problem is: Man wants liberty, and liberty with equality; but equality never has existed. Freedom is an ideal. It doesn't exist.

Evolution can have freedom only with compulsion. We must restrain by compulsion. This is true of the individual, community, state, nation and in family life. There is no sense to the doctrine of freedom that gives citizens the right to combat and destroy the freedoms that Democracy gives. There is no peace on earth with the license to destroy the liberty and sovereignty of other peoples. No nations can exist on a level above law. Freedom is fostered by human liberalism and Christianity. What is liberalism in one generation is conservatism in the next. Liberalism has become dogmatic and Democracy has ceased to grow. Democracy ceased to keep pace with industrial progress. Self-government is slowly committing suicide.

Freedom must be ever militant and must unhesitatingly destroy whatever assails freedom, and be intolerant concerning things undemocratic. There should be no liberty of speech for those who would destroy liberty of speech. The tools of freedom must not function in a suicidal capacity. There must be no liberty to vote in the freedoms of Democracy to destroy the right to vote.

Stark phrases are now introduced.

"Evolution can have freedom only with compulsion," and "we must restrain by compulsion," do not come from true celestial sources. Contrast this with:

P.381 - §5 "The Spirit never drives, only leads. If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. Every step you take must be one of willingness, intelligent and cheerful co-operation. The domination of the Spirit is never tainted with coercion nor compromised by compulsion."

Or this:

P.2084 - §5 "In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion that betokens the Jesusonian reaching forth to grasp his brother in love and sweep him on under spiritual guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence. Christianity even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers--so few professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his disciples to live and love and serve."

Perhaps we are supposed to understand the direction of thought as political, and not spiritual. Truly, the purpose is to take our thinking away from higher destiny goals and replace them with immediate emotional concerns. The author is building a psychology for the introduction of even darker thoughts.

DEMOCRACY


Democracy today is being destroyed by those who wish to use Democracy. Democracy is not a club to join and forever enjoy its protection. As long as Democracy's basic freedoms exist, it is a Democracy.

The right view of Democracy is a geographic group of people having a common ideal. To allow Germans to live here and retain their German citizenship is like letting the wolves live with the sheep. Offices must be held by citizens trained in schools of statesmanship. These schools must be established.

Note how concepts are mixed. The statement, "To allow Germans to live here and retain their German citizenship is like letting the wolves live with the sheep," is an exhortation directed at high human emotions current at the time. The further statement "Offices must be held by citizens trained in schools of statesmanship" then reverts to phraseology which one finds in the Revelation. By joining these two concepts devotion is perverted to inconsistent, unstable, and arbitrary sentiments.

NATIONALISM


The nations are suffering from intense industrialism and augmented nationalism. In times past Nationalism was a good thing; it brought people together in a common interest, within law and representative government. But when a social ideal becomes a political dogma, it becomes an obstacle to world progress. Nationalism becomes a relic of patriotism which no forward-looking prophet would dare touch.

Nationalism persists because it has not been attacked by modern and intelligent citizens who do not seek to disrupt, but to save it by intelligent control. Present day Nationalism is akin to polytheism. Nation and race became the pagan god of many modern people. The time has come to give way before a monotheistic policy of Internationalism. The churches must divorce themselves from Nationalism.

One can immediately discern the confusion which lies in the earlier exhortation of "Full responsibility rests upon the English-speaking nations," certainly based in a common western godless philosophy, to the "intense industrialism and augmented nationalism" which is truly the roots of the philosophy of the English-speaking nations.

The assumption here is that the many churches of Christianity will somehow continue to express the religious needs of the western world, and that they should reshape their thinking beyond loyalty to the United States, England, or any other country. However, the Revelators expressed lack of confidence in the current socialized religious structures of the world.

P.2082 - §7 "But paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the Master's life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment."

That is revelation! The remarks in this 1945 communication are perversion.

INTERNATIONALISM


Internationalism will not be created by pacts, treaties, appeasements, etc. It will be created by force of arms. It is the only way for the next 1000 years of civilization's evolution. International Legislatures must make the international laws; an International Court must interpret the laws; and International Police must enforce the laws. Lesser nations must be forced into the international union.

Not in centuries has the Christian world had the opportunity to establish regional internationalism. Now, following total war, is the time to establish international government. Socialism, Communism and other world movements have lost their influence. Now there must be coercive law with the sure penalties attached to its violation. The god of Nationalism struck at the liberty of Democracy and at the Christian religion.

Nationalism reached the beginning of the end when you could cross the ocean in six hours and it took six weeks to get a visa. Recalcitrant and selfish Nationalism must be made to accept Internationalism. It won't regret it 25 years from now.

There are only two realities in the world -- the individual and the human race. The cosmos does not recognize caste, tribe, race or nation. National war will end when you recognize that nations are not the final goal of human evolution.

Will internationalism be created by force of arms?

Compare this with:

P.598 - §1 4. Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal--destructive of all those enduring qualities which insure planetary group survival.

How, then, can one use force of arms to achieve internationalism if only emotional maturity will insure civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war?

If the statement "International Police will enforce the laws, and lesser nations be forced into the international union," is based on the godless philosophies of the larger nations, how will this achieve world peace? Are not the arbitrary philosophical policies of the western nations, especially the United States, over the past fifty years sufficient to show the abject failure of such policies? Then why are they being advocated in these diabolical remarks?

This "revelation" goes on and on with such perversions.

SOVEREIGNTY


No single idea has wrought so much misery as that delusive concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty passed from king to nation; a political dogma, for soon the people wielded sovereignty much as kings did. Today millions are dying and millions more will starve to the national idea of sovereignty. Sovereignty reached its height in the French Revolution, and its deathbed is this war. Military victors have a chance to resurrect it in a modified form. May it be a democratic modification.

Enormous vested interests are involved in the worship of the Golden Calf of sovereignty which results in economic dislocation. What will be the effect upon our returning soldiers? National matters should be handled by national sovereignty and international affairs be handled by international sovereignty.

If nationalism and national sovereignty reached its deathbed in World War II why does it still hold sway in the world? This is another example of how the transient expectations of the human personalities at 533 were entrapped by such perverted logic.

PEACE


Peace will become the watch care of international government. When lawless minorities learn that, then peace will prevail. Appeasement and moral-compromise are the habits of peace-loving and self-loving Nationalists. The present conflict resulted when nations wanted peace at any price. The theory of Democracy validates the concept of equality - but the idea of equality produces conflicts which only courts can settle, unless the victors establish international overcontrol for those lesser people who are hungry for freedom and self-government.

The dream of equality is fiction. It is not nationally or individually true. Such a dream can only be realized before God or before a court. Man acquires citizenship equality before the law; before a supercourt all nations are equal. You cannot have equality among trends or creations within law; and law without the coercive power of enforcement is a tragic farce. Equality without law means war. Without super-law you can only have peace when the weaker submit to the stronger.

Any hope for world peace without coercive international law is a furtive dream. Mandatory law is law enforced by unquestioned force. Peace is the reign of law. Law is the just use of force by unquestioned authority. There can't be lasting peace without force. To make peace we must wage legal war. There is a difference between the outlaw who kills a man and the sheriff who kills the outlaw for his crime. The sheriff is not a murderer -- he is a peace officer.

Non-intervention and appeasement are like the old monarchs' "gentlemen's agreements." Each agrees to let the other carry out his nefarious schemes.

War is the major factor in the non-spiritual history of the human race. At the present time the most advanced peoples look upon it as an unnecessary evil. It is the first time in history that world-wide peace had been talked of. Wars have become increasingly more terrible in the last 150 years, and for the last 100 years no government has been able to get the full support of its people in a war policy. Leaders start wars on the theory that they are going to be, or have been, attacked. If the majority want to abolish war, why don't they do it? If war is an expression of human emotions like crime, it won't be abolished. But civilized people have abolished individual crime. Another view: in the case of a criminal committing murder you quickly distinguish between the criminal and the sheriff who shoots him. Each from a biological viewpoint is guilty, but not from the social or moral viewpoints. There are two kinds of war: (1) social criminal aggression, (2) legal group military sanctions.

An International Government can (a) reduce war to a minimum just as courts function to minimize crime, (b) render war a legal action on the part of authorized groups for the peace, safety and security of all mankind. War can be and must be legalized, minimized and humanized. The use of poison gas, submarines and aerial bombing of civilian populations can be prevented. The International Police will be known as Peace Armies. You cannot maintain rules of warfare when armies are conscripted and nations are fighting for sovereignty. You can't have international law without international power to enforce the law.

Disarmament on the part of the great nations such as the peace-loving people of the United States is a direct contribution to war. If the English-speaking peoples remain intelligent and fully armed, they will constitute the Peace Army until the regional and international courts can be established. Equal quality of arms is a delusion. What mayor of a great city would allow criminals to carry guns? Arm well the police but prevent the criminal element from getting arms. Long have well-meaning but short-sighted pacifists proclaimed, "You can't have pace by waging war." That is exactly what you can do, and will have to do for the next millennium.

Legal war is the act of the legal authority of the International Government - action is response to law. Legal war is designed to maintain peace, not to take loot or seek revenge. It is waged by order of the legal authority of International Government for safe-guarding the peace of nations. There are two kinds of fighting, and any nation that fights an illegal war will fight a hopeless one. The time has come for nations to be governed by law and not by political ambitions, personal whims and directives, rampant nationalism, fanatical dictators, or the delusion of sovereignty. Modern science has ended the day of the international frontiersman. The forces of civilization have arrive on the international frontier.

The dogma of non-intervention is the most uncivilized and inconsistent ever held by modern nations. What would you think of a policeman who would refuse to help a fellow officer who was engaged in a struggle with a thug? And it is just such strange and inhuman conduct on the part of America and other world powers which enable unscrupulous dictators to become rulers in other parts of the world. Non-intervention is the remnant of the "gentleman's agreement" of the older rulers which was just an agreement between monarchs not to interfere in each other's wars.

Today's advances in science, industry, commerce, communication, etc. render the dogma of neutrality inconsistent. This neutrality makes possible (1) inconsistency of policies, (2) corrupt press, (3) fomenting of strikes, disorganization, disunity, divide and conquer.

Six or eight years ago the American nation began to watch a European nation stop making automobiles and turn to making airplanes, conscript its citizens, make over its schools, ration its food, tax and limit incomes. They were 2000 miles away so American refused to be concerned; now we're doing those same things whether we like it or not. The world can't go on half free and half slave; it must be either all free or all slave. There are still thousands of Americans who don't see things as they really are. They long for the day when it will be over and they can return to their old ways. They are Isolationists at heart, ready to disarm and sink their navy again. They learned very little from the last world war wherein the naval disaster (disarming) was far more costly than the loss of Pearl Harbor.

If one great nation allow treaties to be counted as scraps of paper, then all great nations are invalidated. Today if one goes off the gold standard, they all go off, because each is so interdependent. The world is so economically interdependent that the price of commodities must be determined by the producer operating under the least favorable conditions. Which means, in competition, that the standard of living starts on a downward spiral. Tariffs tend to make barriers, but you pay a price for them. This downward spiral affects the standard of living, depth of culture, extent of education, labor conditions, personal liberty, taxation, tariff, exports and imports, defense policies and moral standards. The nation living under the least favorable condition and lowest cultural standard will become the determining influence over all other peoples.

The only hope of the survival of the American standards of living is to share them as far as possible with other people. If one powerful nation is deficient in morality, it costs us much more to keep ours up. The nation that would selfishly save its own high standards is destined to lose them. In any circumscribed area of the world it will be discovered, in the long run, that the existing government will be compelled to gravitate gradually down to the level of the lowest and most primitive that is allowed to exist. One criminal and inferior abroad in a community can corrupt a score of well-meaning youths. In self-defense the Democracies must export life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Whoever heard of neutrality between right and wrong? How can you be neutral in the struggle between good and evil? In any ideological struggle neutrality is suicidal. Neutrality means the enemy is free to pick you off one at a time. In local government a sheriff, when hard-pressed by lawlessness, can deputize any number of citizens, but such a plan won't work on a national scale. Such results can only be gotten by internationalism.

Honest men cannot have confidential dealing with rascals. Honest nations keep their word and live up to their treaties. The honest administration does not make treaties with a dishonest neighbor. If war is to be outlawed, the farce of neutrality must end. It is immoral and cowardly for a group of law-abiding citizens to stand idly by and see a fellow citizen being held up, beaten and robbed; and such moral indifference is suicidal to a nation. What can be said of Christian nations that stand by complacently while the world gangsters strafe and plunder the civilized world, murdering and starving little children? May it never happen again!

The French Revolution reached the highest point in the struggle for personal liberty, the American Revolution in the struggle for national independence. A grave mistake was made when the spirit of independence was concocted into a formula of self-determination; and it was an American president who perpetrated this blunder when only fifty years previously a Civil War was fought to prevent the right of self-determination. Little nations can have no more self-determination than each state of the Union can have complete sovereignty.

Each state is sovereign in all matters of state but in national affairs the Federal Government is sovereign, and you can only have peace predicated on law. The idea of every little nation having the right of self-determination only spells industrial paralysis and social hell. Internationalism is detrimental to national intrigue.

You can't postulate independence without encountering interdependence, and nine out of ten nations can't have economic independence without enormously lowering their standard of living. The Untied States and Russia - the two most powerful nations in the world - are economically independent. Humans are born wholly dependent. Each child seeks independence but he learns, as he grows older, that he is interdependent. The concept of complete independence is fallacious. In life there is dependence, independence and the intelligent interdependence.

The complete independence of self-determination which was accorded the small nations after the first world war did not afford them security. They were uneasy, suspicious and tormented by feelings of insecurity. Bot individuals and nations must learn the lessons of interdependence. The attempt to complete economic independence leads to over-production, disorderly distribution, unemployment, economic depression. Neither a nation nor a small group of nations can hope to enjoy complete and independent economic freedom.

In the spiritual world "no man liveth unto himself alone." Neither can a nation continue to live to itself. A state that strives for economic freedom will gravitate certainly and swiftly to a totalitarian state. Fascism and Naziism is the result of striving for economic freedom - freedom without restraint, liberty without compulsion. Honesty in business and altruism in government pay high dividends.

We must relinquish national sovereignty and enter into international sovereignty. Think how much states are free when they don't have to concern themselves with things Federal. So would nations be more free with an International Government to attend to global affairs. It will be too late to undertake it after the war is over. Says the Declaration of Independence: "Whenever any form of government becomes so destructive of these ends - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - it is the right of the people to alter, abolish or institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Today the nations of the earth are most unsafe and most unhappy. Nationalism is on its deathbed. Unlimited sovereignty is moribund. The time has come for the birth of Internationalism. Let the sick nations follow the wise counsel of the fathers of American independence. Will you humble your nationalism enough to adopt a sane internationalism?

Dictators proclaim "Might makes Right." Democracies believe Right is Might. The world is suffering from these errors or relative truths. Spiritual causes cannot employ physical force in their interests, but material causes depend on physical force for their survival. It is perfectly proper to found a church on the ideas of the League of Nations of World War I. When the League of Nations didn't apply force, it committed suicide. War is a legal reality. When not used in the support of law, it will be used in the contravention of law and against economic justice. How silly to let international gangsters and criminals dominate the world!

Diverse forces form the service of aggression and attach it to the law of justice. Our slogan should be "Right predicated on Might." Educate zealous crusaders to toil for the new order. Democracy has too many apostles and not enough crusaders. When two nations are in trouble with each other, neither one can judge their aggressions. That is the job of an International Court. Aggression is good when directed against injustice. Hitler made his first aggression when he proclaimed, "Right is whatever is in the interest of the German folk." That's the time we should have struck. Judgment is the function of a group.

Democracy cannot be static. Peace is dynamic. When the law-abiding citizen is static, then the outlaw is dynamic. As we exist today we can only exist by waging war - war that is waged in the interest of international law. War can only be prevented by the action of International Police ready to act instantly. Failure to provide for International Police provides for international banditry. When the first international military force moves against the first one who dares to go against international law, then we'll have peace.

Democracies were used to seeing local gangsters committing crime, but were shocked to see them at the heads of governments. We dreaded law with force. Now we have a world with force without law.

Compare this with the following:

P.1489 - §1 Urantia will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of men--mankind government. Internationalism--Leagues of Nations--can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide confederations of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three, four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of these world powers will withdraw from the League and declare war. You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military governments of earth.

By such comparisons one can see how Caligastia employed the conceptual suggestions of the Revelation to twist them into his perversions.

P.1489 - §2 As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases, so do both opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of supernational power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty of all mankind.

P.1489 - §3 Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world's land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail--but not until then.

We will not achieve peace by going to war. And we will not achieve piece by holding onto the deception of national sovereignty. All nations must surrender their power to make war into the hands of a representative world-wide government. But which of the great powers has done so? They all still reserve the right to national decisions.

We were clearly told: "Beware! This present godless philosophy of human society will bring only unrest, unhappiness, animosity, war, and world-wide disaster."

We can depend upon Revelation, or we can be guided by diabolical "Instructions." Consider all of the following remarks. Contrast them with these diabolical "Instructions."

P.1489 - §4 To use an important nineteenth- and twentieth-century illustration: The forty-eight states of the American Federal Union have long enjoyed peace. They have no more wars among themselves. They have surrendered their sovereignty to the federal government, and through the arbitrament of war, they have abandoned all claims to the delusions of self-determination. While each state regulates its internal affairs, it is not concerned with foreign relations, tariffs, immigration, military affairs, or interstate commerce. Neither do the individual states concern themselves with matters of citizenship. The forty-eight states suffer the ravages of war only when the federal government's sovereignty is in some way jeopardized.

P.1489 - §5 These forty-eight states, having abandoned the twin sophistries of sovereignty and self-determination, enjoy interstate peace and tranquillity. So will the nations of Urantia begin to enjoy peace when they freely surrender their respective sovereignties into the hands of a global government--the sovereignty of the brotherhood of men. In this world state the small nations will be as powerful as the great, even as the small state of Rhode Island has its two senators in the American Congress just the same as the populous state of New York or the large state of Texas.

P.1490 - §1 The limited (state) sovereignty of these forty-eight states was created by men and for men. The superstate (national) sovereignty of the American Federal Union was created by the original thirteen of these states for their own benefit and for the benefit of men. Sometime the supernational sovereignty of the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for their own benefit and for the benefit of all men.

P.1490 - §2 Citizens are not born for the benefit of governments; governments are organizations created and devised for the benefit of men. There can be no end to the evolution of political sovereignty short of the appearance of the government of the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status.

P.1490 - §3 With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought and how many leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the blessings of permanent peace and thrive on the tranquillity of good will--world-wide good will--among men?

P.1490 - §4 If one man craves freedom--liberty--he must remember that all other men long for the same freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving mortals cannot live together in peace without becoming subservient to such laws, rules, and regulations as will grant each person the same degree of freedom while at the same time safeguarding an equal degree of freedom for all of his fellow mortals. If one man is to be absolutely free, then another must become an absolute slave. And the relative nature of freedom is true socially, economically, and politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made possible by the enforcement of LAW.

P.1490 - §5 Religion makes it spiritually possible to realize the brotherhood of men, but it will require mankind government to regulate the social, economic, and political problems associated with such a goal of human happiness and efficiency.

P.1490 - §6 There shall be wars and rumors of wars--nation will rise against nation--just as long as the world's political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by a group of nation-states. England, Scotland, and Wales were always fighting each other until they gave up their respective sovereignties, reposing them in the United Kingdom.

P.1490 - §7 Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars--nothing else can.

P.1490 - §8 The forty-eight American free states live together in peace. There are among the citizens of these forty-eight states all of the various nationalities and races that live in the ever-warring nations of Europe. These Americans represent almost all the religions and religious sects and cults of the whole wide world, and yet here in North America they live together in peace. And all this is made possible because these forty-eight states have surrendered their sovereignty and have abandoned all notions of the supposed rights of self-determination.

P.1490 - §9 It is not a question of armaments or disarmament. Neither does the question of conscription or voluntary military service enter into these problems of maintaining world-wide peace. If you take every form of modern mechanical armaments and all types of explosives away from strong nations, they will fight with fists, stones, and clubs as long as they cling to their delusions of the divine right of national sovereignty.

P.1491 - §1 War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.

P.1491 - §2 Urantia nations have not possessed real sovereignty; they never have had a sovereignty which could protect them from the ravages and devastations of world wars. In the creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a real, bona fide, and lasting world sovereignty which will henceforth be fully able to protect them from all war. Local affairs will be handled by local governments; national affairs, by national governments; international affairs will be administered by global government.

P.1491 - §3 World peace cannot be maintained by treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and must be enforced by world government--the sovereignty of all mankind.

P.1491 - §4 The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the citizens of the great powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global government.

P.1491 - §5 Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a global language evolve, and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion--or religions with a global viewpoint.

P.1491 - §6 Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all mankind.

P.1491 - §7 The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on earth and good will among men can be realized.

Many other quotes could be offered. Consider, for example, the discussion on the social value of war, page 785, or the discussion on Cultural Society, page 905.




    TABLE OF CONTENTS    



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Disclaimer

Disclaimer:
Some material presented will contain links, quotes, ideologies, etc., the contents of which should be understood to first, in their whole, reflect the views or opinions of their editors, and second, are used in my personal research as "fair use" sources only, and not espousement one way or the other. Researching for 'truth' leads one all over the place...a piece here, a piece there. As a researcher, I hunt, gather and disassemble resources, trying to put all the pieces into a coherent and logical whole. I encourage you to do the same. And please remember, these pages are only my effort to collect all the pieces I can find and see if they properly fit into the 'reality aggregate'.

Personal Position

Personal Position:
I've come to realize that 'truth' boils down to what we 'believe' the facts we've gathered point to. We only 'know' what we've 'experienced' firsthand. Everything else - what we read, what we watch, what we hear - is what someone else's gathered facts point to and 'they' 'believe' is 'truth', so that 'truth' seems to change in direct proportion to newly gathered facts divided by applied plausibility. Though I believe there is 'truth', until someone representing the celestial realm visibly appears and presents the heavenly records of Facts And Lies In The Order They Happened, I can't know for sure exactly what "the whole truth' on any given subject is, and what applies to me applies to everyone. Until then I'll continue to ask, "what does The Urantia Book say on the subject?"
~Gail Bird Allen

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The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha
The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha The Oxford Study Bible: Revised English Bible with Apocrypha

This volume combines a cultural guide to the biblical world and an annotated Bible. Its notes feature the reflections of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish scholars.

  • Twenty-three insightful articles on aspects of the history, literary background, and culture of the biblical era.
  • A special index of people, places, and themes of the Bible.
  • 36 pages of full-color New Oxford Bible Maps, with index.

Paperback: 1860 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (March 12, 1992)

Nave's Topical Bible: A comprehensive Digest of over 20,000 Topics and Subtopics With More Than 10,000 Associated Scripture References Nave's Topical Bible: A comprehensive Digest of over 20,000 Topics and Subtopics With More Than 10,000 Associated Scripture References

Nave's Topical Bible: A comprehensive Digest of over 20,000 Topics and Subtopics With More Than 10,000 Associated Scripture References Nave's Topical Bible: A comprehensive Digest of over 20,000 Topics and Subtopics With More Than 10,000 Associated Scripture References

"Nave's Topical Bible, " the best known of all topical bibles, has been a valuable Bible-study reference and a best-seller for more than 75 years. It is a comprehensive digest of over 20,000 topics and subtopics with more than 100,000 associated Scripture references. The most significant references for each topic actually include the full text of the verse cited saving the need to separately look up each verse.

Because "Nave's "groups verses by "idea" (or "topic"), it offers a better overview of relevant Scriptures than a concordance, which only lists or indexes verses according to specific words. This edition also includes the helpful Scripture index (left out of some other editions), which makes it possible for the reader studying a particular biblical text to locate every topic and grouping of Scripture in "Nave's "whenever a particular verse is included. That way, it is possible for the reader to study either all the verses related to a particular topic "or" all the topics related to a particular verse it works both ways.

For the pastor or teacher interested in saving hours of time but not willing to give their second best, and for anyone wanting to be challenged by what God has to say about a given subject, "Nave's Topical Bible" is the passport that will allow immediate and successful entry to the many points of interest."

About the Author

Orville J. Nave, A.M., D.D., LL.D., compiled this magnificient reference work while serving as a Chaplain in the United States Army. He referred to his work as "the result of fourteen years of delightful and untiring study of the Word of God."

Hardcover: 1616 pages
Publisher: Hendrickson Pub (July 1, 2002)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series) Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series) Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Super Value Series)

Read the best of Matthew Henry's classic commentary on the Bible in one convenient book. Henry's profound spiritual insights have touched lives for over 300 years. Indexed maps and charts make this a book any pastor, student, Bible teacher, or devotional reader will treasure!

About the Author

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) was a Presbyterian minister in England who began his commentary on the Bible in 1704. He completed his work up to the end of Acts before his death. Afterward, his ministerial friends completed the work from Henry's notes and writings.

Series: Super Value Series
Hardcover: 1200 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (July 30, 2003)

The Urantia Book The Urantia Book
The Urantia Book The Urantia Book

Love

Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. (p. 2018) “Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world.” (p. 2047) “Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful.” (p. 2047) The Father’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. (p. 1289) The secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master’s teachings of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust. (p. 2065)

Prayer

Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth in the very face of conflict. (p. 1002) The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard. … (p. 1639) God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. (p. 1002) …Never forget that the sincere prayer of faith is a mighty force for the promotion of personal happiness, individual self-control, social harmony, moral progress, and spiritual attainment. (p. 999)

Suffering

There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. (p. 364) Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation. (p. 556)

Angels

The angels of all orders are distinct personalities and are highly individualized. (p. 285) Angels....are fully cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. (p. 419)

Our Divine Destiny

If you are a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. (p. 381) …They who know that God is enthroned in the human heart are destined to become like him—immortal. (p. 1449) God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man’s eternal destination. (p. 67)

Family

Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. (p. 765) The family is man’s greatest purely human achievement. ... (p. 939)

Faith

…Faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance the power to love and be loved. (p. 1766) “Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith.” (p. 1733)

History/Science

The story of man’s ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. (p. 731) 2,500,000,000 years ago… Urantia was a well developed sphere about one tenth its present mass. … (p. 658) 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of the actual beginning of Urantia [Earth] history. (p. 660) 450,000,000 years ago the transition from vegetable to animal life occurred. (p. 669) From the year A.D. 1934 back to the birth of the first two human beings is just 993,419 years. (p. 707) About five hundred thousand years ago…there were almost one-half billion primitive human beings on earth. … (p. 741) Adam and Eve arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. (p. 828)

From the Inside Flap

What’s Inside?

Parts I and II

God, the inhabited universes, life after death, angels and other beings, the war in heaven.

Part III

The history of the world, science and evolution, Adam and Eve, development of civilization, marriage and family, personal spiritual growth.

Part IV

The life and teachings of Jesus including the missing years. AND MUCH MORE…

Excerpts

God, …God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. (p. 1431) If you truly want to find God, that desire is in itself evidence that you have already found him. (p. 1440) When man goes in partnership with God, great things may, and do, happen. (p. 1467)

The Origin of Human Life, The universe is not an accident... (p. 53) The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. (p. 21) The evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin…Urantia [Earth] is your starting point. … (p. 1225) In God, man lives, moves, and has his being. (p. 22)

The Purpose of Life, There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. (p. 365) This new gospel of the kingdom… presents a new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. (p. 1778)

Jesus, The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human race. (p. 1091) What an awakening the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, firsthand, his life-giving teachings! (p. 2083)

Science, Science, guided by wisdom, may become man’s great social liberator. (p. 909) Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the planetary life plan on the spheres of space. (p. 560)

Life after Death, God’s love is universal… He is “not willing that any should perish.” (p. 39) Your short sojourn on Urantia [Earth]…is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. (p. 435) …Death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery. (p. 159)

About the Author

The text of The Urantia Book was provided by one or more anonymous contributors working with a small staff which provided editorial and administrative support during the book's creation. The book bears no particular credentials (from a human viewpoint), relying instead on the power and beauty of the writing itself to persuade the reader of its authenticity.

Leather Bound: 2097 pages
Publisher: Urantia Foundation; Box Lea edition (August 25, 2015)

Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1-5 Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1-5
Zondervan Pictorial Encylopedia of the Bible, Vols. 1-5 The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (5 Volume Set)

From the Back Cover

The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, the result of more than ten years of research and preparation, provides Bible students with a comprehensive and reliable library of information. Varying viewpoints of scholarship permit a well-rounded perspective on significant issues relating to doctrines, themes, and biblical interpretation. Well-organized and generously illustrated, this encyclopedia will become a frequently used resource and reference work because of its many helpful features: - More than 5,000 pages of vital information of Bible lands and people - More than 7,500 articles alphabetically arranged for easy reference - Hundreds of full-color and black-and-white illustrations, charts, and graphs - Thirty-two pages of full-color maps and hundreds of black-and-white outline maps for quick perspective and ready reference - Scholarly articles ranging across the entire spectrum of theological and biblical topics, backed by recent archaeological discoveries - Two hundred and thirty-eight contributors from around the world. The editors have brought to this encyclopedia the fruit of many years of study and research.

About the Author

Merrill C. Tenney was professor of theological studies and dean of the Graduate school of Theology at Wheaton College.

Hardcover: 5 volume set More than 5,000 pages
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing House; Second Printing edition (March 15, 1975)

HarperColins Bible Dictionary HarperColins Bible Dictionary
HarperColins Bible Dictionary HarperCollins Bible DictionaryHarperCollins Bible Dictionary

The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary puts the latest and most comprehensive biblical scholarship at your fingertips. Here is everything you need to know to fully understand the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. An unparalleled resource, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary explains every aspect of the Bible, including biblical archaeology, culture, related writings such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bible‘s influence on Western civilization, biblical history, theological concepts, modern biblical interpretations, flora nad fauna, climate and environment, crafts and industry, the content of individual books of the bible, and more.

The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary features:

  • Contributions by 193 noted experts on the Bible and the ancient Near East
  • More than 3700 entries covering the Bible from A to Z
  • Outlines for each book of the Bible
  • 590 black–and–white photographs
  • 53 color photographs
  • An updated pronunciation guide
  • 72 black–and–white maps
  • 18 color maps
  • Dozens of drawings, diagrams, and tables

About the Author

Paul J. Achtemeier is Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. A widely respected authority on the Bible, he is the author or co-author of 14 books, former editor of the quarterly Interpretation, and New Testament editor of the Interpretation Biblical Commentary Series. Professor Achtemeier has also been chief executive officer and president of the Society of Biblical Literature, and president of the Catholic Biblical Association.

The Editorial Board of the revised edition of The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary includes associate editors; Roger S. Boraas, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Religion, Uppsala College; Michael Fishbane, Ph.D., Nathan Cummings Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Chicago Divinity School; Pheme Perkins, Ph.D., Professor of Theology (New Testament), Boston College; and William O. Walker, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Religion, Trinity University.

The Society of Biblical Literature is a seven-thousand-member international group of experts on the Bible and related fields. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com Review

For the maps alone, this book is worth it. Following 1,250 pages that describe and explain the people, places, terms, and events of the Bible from Aaron to Zurishaddai, the 16 spectacular maps detail the political entities and boundaries of biblical times, bringing the historic times to vivid life. A fascinating book, an impressive collection of scholarship, and a possession to cherish, the 188 contributors and five editors show what can be produced if you don't cut corners on excellence. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Hardcover: 1178 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; Rev Upd Su edition

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament

Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New TestamentVine's Complete Expository Dictionary Old and New Testament

A Nelson exclusive. Study the meaning of biblical words in the original languages-without spending years learning Greek or Hebrew. This classic reference tool has helped thousands dig deeper into the meaning of the biblical text. Explains over 6,000 key biblical words. Includes a brand new comprehensive topical index that enables you to study biblical topics more thoroughly than ever before.

Hardcover: 1184 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 2nd Edition edition (August 26, 1996)


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