CHAPTER 2

THE URANTIA PAPERS

The Urantia Papers were provided to instruct you on the heavenly realms, and the goals and purposes of God within time.

Without The Urantia Papers you would not be able to understand the events now transpiring upon our planet, nor would you be able to recognize the significance of these cosmic episodes.

A few individuals through the ages understood much about these matters. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah and Paul are examples of persons who had some knowledge of the celestial realms, and the destiny programs for this world. But the generations mostly were unable to accept their teachings; they continued to languish in darkness.

As Paul said in I Cor 3:2 --

I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready.

We must now face solid food. God will no longer accept perversion of his holy truth.

As Paul stated explicitly in 1 Cor 8:5-6:

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth -- as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords" -- yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Paul did not mean to deny the existence of celestial beings who are immortal. He emphasized the fact that there is one God above all, the Father, and one supreme Lord, the one we knew as Jesus. But still there are many so-called "gods" and "lords" in the heavenly realms. Because they are immortal, ancient people regarded them as "gods" and "lords."

Time and again the Psalms assert that there are many gods and lords (so-called) in the heavens.

Ps 82:1 -- God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.

Ps 86:8 -- There is none like thee among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like thine.

Ps 95:3 -- For Yahweh is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

Ps 97:9 -- For thou, O Yahweh, art most high over all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods.

Ps 136:2-3 -- O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures for ever.

In speaking of our Creator, Yahweh of the heavenly realms, Isaiah said:

Isa 40:22 -- It is he who sits above the circle of the earth. Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. (He) stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.

The heavens are not a tent merely for us to dwell in, but a tent also for God to dwell in. He resides in a city on a celestial sphere in the north part of the heavens. There he holds forth judgment among the "gods."

Ps 48:1-2 -- Great is Yahweh and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.

Ps 46:4 -- There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

Would we expect that a river would flow beyond the confines of space and time? Does this not show that our Creator has his holy habitation within the universe? Although he is an eternal spirit being he took up residence upon a celestial sphere within this universe, in order that he might be close to his administrative realm.

Hillel ben Shachar, the brilliant Day Star, Son of Dawn, the one we know as Lucifer, said in his heart that he was equal to God, to his Creator. He then and there affirmed that he would usurp the powers of his Creator. He brought that great war in the heavens.

Isa 14:13-14 -- You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High."

When he brought that dreadful contest he brought it against his Creator, against Michael. The Mount of Assembly is that great sphere whereon momentous decisions are made concerning the created realms.

Rev 12:7 -- Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought.

The Urantia Papers Page 606 -- "There was war in heaven; Michael's commander and his angels fought against the dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes); and the dragon and his rebellious angels fought but prevailed not." This "war in heaven" was not a physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on Urantia. In the early days of the struggle Lucifer held forth continuously in the planetary amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision.

But this war in heaven was very terrible and very real. While displaying none of the barbarities so characteristic of physical warfare on the immature worlds, this conflict was far more deadly; material life is in jeopardy in material combat, but the war in heaven was fought in terms of life eternal.

The fact that Michael is our Creator is revealed in the Bible but we have been blind to those revelations.

As Gabriel said to Daniel, 10:21 --

There is none who holds with me in these things but Michael, your Prince.

The apostles knew Jesus as our Prince.

Acts 5:31 -- Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Rev 1:5 -- And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Michael is a Great Prince, one who is above all heavenly Princes, Dan 10:13 --

.. but Michael, one of the Chief Princes, came to help me ...

Thus we see that he is only one of many Chief Princes of the heavenly realms.

The name Michael is subject to various interpretations. It could mean literally "Who is like God?" It comes from three Hebrew word elements. The first is "mi" = who. The third element, "el," of course, is God. The second is "ki." However, the second element is a conjunction subject to wide interpretation and differences in understanding. It is translated in different contexts as "that," "for," and "when." It is also used in the senses of "like," "surely," and "because." Thus the name is an interrogative, asking "Who ? God." How we interpret the name depends on how we assign the meaning of the second element. "Who is that God," "Who surely is God," Who is like God" are all possible forms. The original use of the name probably was meant as an emphatic, "Who can be compared unto God?"

Jesus showed respect to the Prince of this World when he spoke of him with that royal designation, John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11. He also was one of those heavenly Princes who rebelled against his Creator. Thus Michael is Chief Prince over all those lesser Princes.

Michael is the heavenly designation for the one we knew as Jesus. In the Old Testament he is known as Yahweh, our Savior, Isa 49:6. Thus he has three names: Jesus as the man, Yahweh as the Savior, and Michael as the heavenly administrator.

From the Daniel passage we now know there are many of these Creator Chief Princes. He is also only one of many Creator Sons of God.  Job 38:4 --

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Answer me if you can. Who determined its measurements? Surely, you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Who laid its cornerstone?

When the Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy.

Tremendous joy filled the hearts of all those brilliant Stars of the Morning. Hillel ben Shachar, Day Star, Son of the Morning, was there. We know him by his Latin name, Lucifer. He joined in that great heavenly choir of praise to the Father of all creation. The Divine Sons of God were there, all those Creator Sons who helped bring forth this vast creation.

All the lesser Sons bowed down to the Great Creator Son, Psalm 29:1 --

Ascribe to Yahweh, Oh Sons of God.

And again in Psalm 89:6 we are asked --

For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the Sons of God is like Yahweh?

 

Other places we have record of Jesus' remarks, showing that he abides within the starry realms of space, and that when we die we shall journey to those places.

John 14:2-3 -- In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Will this be in a body of flesh and blood? Paul was adamant that our resurrection will be in a celestial body, and not a terrestrial body.

1 Cor 15:35-44 -- But some will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel... There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another... So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

The Urantia Papers teach of worlds whereon mortal ascenders awake in celestial bodies, to a new glory.

Page 341 -- All surviving mortals who reawaken on the mansion worlds belong to this class. The physical body of mortal flesh is not a part of the reassembly of the sleeping survivor; the physical body has returned to dust. The seraphim of assignment sponsors the new body, the morontia form, as the new life vehicle for the immortal soul and for the indwelling of the returned Adjuster. The Adjuster is the custodian of the spirit transcript of the mind of the sleeping survivor. The assigned seraphim is the keeper of the surviving identity--the immortal soul--as far as it has evolved. And when these two, the Adjuster and the seraphim, reunite their personality trusts, the new individual constitutes the resurrection of the old personality, the survival of the evolving morontia identity of the soul. Such a reassociation of soul and Adjuster is quite properly called a resurrection, a reassembly of personality factors; but even this does not entirely explain the reappearance of the surviving personality. Though you will probably never understand the fact of such an inexplicable transaction, you will sometime experientially know the truth of it if you do not reject the plan of mortal survival.

Paul knew of the Thought Adjuster, which he called "God's spirit" or the "Spirit of the Father."

Page 542 -- Paul learned of the existence of the morontia worlds and of the reality of morontia materials, for he wrote, "They have in heaven a better and more enduring substance." And these morontia materials are real, literal, even as in "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And each of these marvelous spheres is "a better country, that is, a heavenly one."

See Heb 10:34, 12:22, and 11:16.

In similar manner The Urantia Papers clarify, elucidate, and illuminate our historic records and the many transactions of the heavenly realms.

The Papers are divided into four main divisions:

Part I -- The Central and Superuniverses

Part II -- The Local Universe

Part III -- The History of Urantia

Part IV -- The Life and Teachings of Jesus

There are 196 Papers, with each revealed by a different celestial personality.

The primary, and ultimate, source of all creation is the Universal Father. Thus the Papers begin with a portrayal of the Father. We can draw near to the Father because he draws near to us. As Paul said, the Spirit of God actually lives within us:

1 Cor 3:16 -- Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

The spirit presence of the Father gives us three unchallengeable testimonies to his reality.

• 1. The intellectual capacity for knowing God -- God-consciousness.

• 2. The spiritual urge to find God -- God-seeking.

• 3. The personality craving to be like God -- the wholehearted desire to do the Father's will.

The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and indispensable to any hope of personality survival.

"God is spirit." He is a universal spiritual presence. The Universal Father is an infinite spiritual reality; he is "the sovereign, eternal, immortal, invisible, and only true God." Even though you are "the offspring of God," you ought not to think that the Father is like yourselves in form and physique because you are said to be created "in his image..." Spirit beings are real, notwithstanding they are invisible to human eyes; even though they have not flesh and blood.

Said the seer of old: "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not; he passes on also, but I perceive him not." We may constantly observe the works of God, we may be highly conscious of the material evidences of his majestic conduct, but rarely may we gaze upon the visible manifestation of his divinity, not even to behold the presence of his delegated spirit of human indwelling.

God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material creature can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality is beyond the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. He "measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, measures a universe with the span of his hand. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth, who stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a universe to dwell in." "Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created all these things, who brings out their worlds by number and calls them all by their names"; and so it is true that "the invisible things of God are partially understood by the things which are made." Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold and diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his Sons and their numerous subordinates.

And thus we can recognize the central devotion of this Great Revelation. It is to God, and to God alone, that we owe our existence, and our allegiance. Nothing, in all the world, is of higher obligation than to do the will of the Father in heaven.

As you begin to study this Great Revelation you will find yourself with many unaccustomed concepts and difficulties. All divine revelations require a restructuring of our thinking. If they did not induce such restructuring they would not be revelation.

Page 35 -- In these ways and in many others, in ways unknown to you and utterly beyond finite comprehension, does the Paradise Father lovingly and willingly downstep and otherwise modify, dilute, and attenuate his infinity in order that he may be able to draw nearer the finite minds of his creature children. And so, through a series of personality distributions which are diminishingly absolute, the infinite Father is enabled to enjoy close contact with the diverse intelligences of the many realms of his far-flung universe.

Page 35 -- Because the First Father is infinite in his plans and eternal in his purposes, it is inherently impossible for any finite being ever to grasp or comprehend these divine plans and purposes in their fullness. Mortal man can glimpse the Father's purposes only now and then, here and there, as they are revealed in relation to the outworking of the plan of creature ascension on its successive levels of universe progression. Though man cannot encompass the significance of infinity, the infinite Father does most certainly fully comprehend and lovingly embrace all the finity of all his children in all universes.

Page 183 -- Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.

Page 380 -- From the heights of eternal glory the divine Spirit descends, by a long series of steps, to meet you as you are and where you are and then, in the partnership of faith, lovingly to embrace the soul of mortal origin and to embark on the sure and certain retracement of those steps of condescension, never stopping until the evolutionary soul is safely exalted to the very heights of bliss from which the divine Spirit originally sallied forth on this mission of mercy and ministry.

Page 1259 -- Your isolated world is not forgotten in the counsels of the universe. Urantia is not a cosmic orphan stigmatized by sin and shut away from divine watchcare by rebellion. From Uversa to Salvington and on down to Jerusem, even in Havona and on Paradise, they all know we are here; and you mortals now dwelling on Urantia are just as lovingly cherished and just as faithfully watched over as if the sphere had never been betrayed by a faithless Planetary Prince, even more so. It is eternally true, "the Father himself loves you."

Pose yourself this question: If you were assigned the task of revealing the heavenly realms, and many of their transactions, to a world where blindness and abysmal ignorance reigns, how would you proceed? Would you call upon the revelations of the past, that information rejected by Judaism and Christianity? How would you awaken the world to the greater glory of the heavenly realms, and to creation?

Or would you wait for the time when the world would enter extreme spiritual crisis, and God's people would then longingly seek for answers? Thus it is with this Great Revelation. It was revealed with sufficient time for it to spread to the world, in anticipation of unfolding destiny. Then God's people would eagerly accept its enlightening revelations.

As our astronomers gaze out into the far reaches of the universe they observe uncountable numbers of stellar systems. In those systems are billions upon billions of inhabited worlds. If you were a universe administrator how would you identify them for universe administration and records? Is it difficult to accept that our world is 606 of Satania, accounted in the manner in which our Creator manages this universe?

Page 182 -- Your world is called Urantia, and it is number 606 in the planetary group, or system, of Satania. This system has at present 619 inhabited worlds, and more than two hundred additional planets are evolving favorably toward becoming inhabited worlds at some future time.

Satania has a headquarters world called Jerusem, and it is system number twenty-four in the constellation of Norlatiadek. Your constellation, Norlatiadek, consists of one hundred local systems and has a headquarters world called Edentia. Norlatiadek is number seventy in the universe of Nebadon. The local universe of Nebadon consists of one hundred constellations and has a capital known as Salvington. The universe of Nebadon is number eighty-four in the minor sector of Ensa.

Thus we can see why it is necessary to number and name the many worlds, systems, administrative constellations, universes, sectors, and superuniverses.

We could get lost in this maze of numbers and names. While such information helps us to recognize the immensity of creation it is knowledge which is superfluous to our relationship with the Father, with our Creator, and with the many subordinate administrators of the heavenly realms. These are facts, but they are not truth.

A person may emphasize the facts, drawing out the absurdity of so many created worlds, concepts which are foreign to our habits of thought and which are blistering intrusions into our customary habits of mind, and our familiar blind attitudes. But how else can a revelation reveal? Is it not time to know of God's great Creation? How can we understand that which now transpires upon our world unless we have greater knowledge of the heavenly realms and the context of spiritual transactions?

We cannot grasp the portent or the meaning of the spiritual transactions of today unless we have such knowledge. And we cannot obtain such knowledge unless we are willing to open our hearts and our minds to God's greater glory. We shall now come to know what the ancient people meant when they spoke of God's glory, a glory heretofore unrecognized by us.

Facts and Truth

Consider some of the teachings of The Urantia Papers on the difference between facts and truth.

Page 1141 -- When theology masters religion, religion dies; it becomes a doctrine instead of a life. The mission of theology is merely to facilitate the self-consciousness of personal spiritual experience. Theology constitutes the religious effort to define, clarify, expound, and justify the experiential claims of religion, which, in the last analysis, can be validated only by living faith. In the higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man's highest human attainments. Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, spiritual experience.

Do you cling to the theologies of Christianity or Judaism? Do you seek recourse in the teachings of the churches and synagogues, preachers and Rabbis, to offer you explanation for the events transpiring on our world today?

If so, you place your eternal decisions on dead doctrines. The theologies of this age are not truth. They do not grasp the depth or height or breadth of a living religious experience.

Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things. This was the great power of the scientific methods of our world. We were able to coordinate, synthesize, and theorize about facts gained from observations. We entered into a very reasonable world. We could rationalize personal psychology, social conduct, and material power. But we forgot wisdom. Wisdom introduces us to truth, to relationships. In our pursuit of material power we forgot relationships, those elements of life which provide meaning and value. Materialism ultimately and finally depletes the social reserves of relationships to end in the bankruptcy of self-centeredness, selfishness and greed. But living faith can recapture truth and wisdom to initiate us into a world of divinity, of spiritual experience.

And that is the significance of the events which we all now endure. Only through trials of supreme moral and spiritual contest can we return to the solid foundations of a true relationship with God.

Do not despair.

Page 1140 -- Religion has to do with feeling, acting, and living, not merely with thinking. Thinking is more closely related to the material life and should be in the main, but not altogether, dominated by reason and the facts of science and, in its nonmaterial reaches toward the spirit realms, by truth. No matter how illusory and erroneous one's theology, one's religion may be wholly genuine and everlastingly true.

 

God does not judge us on our theologies, on our partial understandings and theories about him. If he did so we all would fail. We all are such limited beings. God judges us on what is in our hearts, on our loyalties and our dedications.

Page 1138 -- The truth--an understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts, and spiritual values--can best be had through the ministry of the Spirit of Truth and can best be criticized by revelation. But revelation originates neither a science nor a religion; its function is to co-ordinate both science and religion with the truth of reality. Always, in the absence of revelation or in the failure to accept or grasp it, has mortal man resorted to his futile gesture of metaphysics, that being the only human substitute for the revelation of truth or for the mota of morontia personality.

You now will have ample opportunity to experience the difference between the metaphysics of Christian and Jewish theologies and the worth of revelation. We resorted to futile gestures of metaphysical theologies because we did not have adequate revelation. Now that spiritual realities have driven us to final extremes, we will totally reassess our theologies to return to a world of spiritual realities.

Page 1125 -- The facts of evolution must not be arrayed against the truth of the reality of the certainty of the spiritual experience of the religious living of the God-knowing mortal. Intelligent men should cease to reason like children and should attempt to use the consistent logic of adulthood, logic which tolerates the concept of truth alongside the observation of fact. Scientific materialism has gone bankrupt when it persists, in the face of each recurring universe phenomenon, in refunding its current objections by referring what is admittedly higher back into that which is admittedly lower. Consistency demands the recognition of the activities of a purposive Creator.

When our science assayed to explain the realities of the spiritual world, and the transactions of the universe, by the circumscribed views of human theories, it persisted in referring those higher realities back to that which was the invention of men. It arrogantly assumed it had answers to the universe from the frail logic of human mind.

The absence of materialistic proof does not deny the existence of those higher realities. Belief is founded on evidence, but faith is founded on living relationships with those spiritual sources.

Page 1125 -- Belief may not be able to resist doubt and withstand fear, but faith is always triumphant over doubting, for faith is both positive and living. The positive always has the advantage over the negative, truth over error, experience over theory, spiritual realities over the isolated facts of time and space. The convincing evidence of this spiritual certainty consists in the social fruits of the spirit which such believers, faithers, yield as a result of this genuine spiritual experience. Said Jesus: "If you love your fellows as I have loved you, then shall all men know that you are my disciples."

Page 1125 -- Though reason can always question faith, faith can always supplement both reason and logic. Reason creates the probability which faith can transform into a moral certainty, even a spiritual experience. God is the first truth and the last fact; therefore does all truth take origin in him, while all facts exist relative to him. God is absolute truth. As truth one may know God, but to understand to explain God, one must explore the fact of the universe of universes. The vast gulf between the experience of the truth of God and ignorance as to the fact of God can be bridged only by living faith. Reason alone cannot achieve harmony between infinite truth and universal fact.

Page 42 -- All finite knowledge and creature understanding are relative. Information and intelligence, gleaned from even high sources, is only relatively complete, locally accurate, and personally true. Physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in the philosophy of the universe. Evolving personalities are only partially wise and relatively true in their communications. They can be certain only as far as their personal experience extends. That which apparently may be wholly true in one place may be only relatively true in another segment of creation.

Page 555 -- Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct. Evil is a transgression of law, not a violation of the rules of conduct pertaining to life, which is the law. Falsehood is not a matter of narration technique but something premeditated as a perversion of truth. The creation of new pictures out of old facts, the restatement of parental life in the lives of offspring -- these are the artistic triumphs of truth. The shadow of a hair's turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or perversion of that which is principle -- these constitute falseness. But the fetish of factualized truth, fossilized truth, the iron band of so-called unchanging truth, holds one blindly in a closed circle of cold fact. One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth.

The truth deserves repeating: One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth.

Meanings and Values

Another difference between an intellectual view of reality and a spiritual understanding of creation, is found in meanings and values. The Urantia Papers offer much to delineate this difference. Consider some of those teachings:

• Values are spiritual; meanings merely intellectual.

• Values originate in the soul; meanings derive from the mind.

• Values are intrinsic; meanings are acquired.

• Meanings are added to value by experience.

• Meaning is the appreciative consciousness of value.

• Values are never static; they always change with the growth of awareness of reality.

• Values are both actual and potential; what is, and what is to be.

• Growth is the experiential realization of values.

• Growth is the exaltation of values; the expansion of meanings.

• Change without growth has no value.

Progress was the rallying cry of a materialistic age. But materialistic progress is merely change, without spiritual growth. As such it had no value, although it was always meaningful. Only values can grow; meanings merely progress.

The supreme value of human life consists in the growth of values, progress in meanings, and realization of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences. This is the equivalent of God-consciousness; recognition of God working in the cosmos.

Any mortal making this conscious recognition, regardless of how inarticulate, is evolving an immortal soul.

Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Evolution can be biological, social, moral, religious, or universal.

Biological evolution increases material value by engendering human kind. Mankind may contribute to increased biological value by selectively producing more noble human stock, the association of actual and potential values of genetic seed.

Social evolution in increased recognition of sonship with God among a brotherhood of mankind. Such growth cannot be secured by legislation which may merely bring change. Change may appear as progress, but it is not growth.

Moral evolution does not derive from improved administration; it derives from recognition of human values. Moral growth derives from human souls, not from legislated changes.

Religious evolution is the growth of the soul; an increase in value of the human mortal as an immortal being; an experiential realization of personal spiritual worth.

Universal evolution is the growing unification of creature purpose in the cosmos; dedicated devotion to God's will.

Man's contribution to universe evolution is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality -- living faith.

Page 620 -- As you ascend in the survival experience, you will broaden your universe concepts and extend your horizon of meanings and values; and thus will you be able the better to understand why such beings as Lucifer and Satan are permitted to continue in rebellion. You will also better comprehend how ultimate (if not immediate) good can be derived from time-limited evil. After you attain Paradise, you will really be enlightened and comforted when you listen to the superaphic philosophers discuss and explain these profound problems of universe adjustment. But even then, I doubt that you will be fully satisfied in your own minds. At least I was not even when I had thus attained the acme of universe philosophy. I did not achieve a full comprehension of these complexities until after I had been assigned to administrative duties in the superuniverse, where by actual experience I have acquired conceptual capacity adequate for the comprehension of such many-sided problems in cosmic equity and spiritual philosophy. As you ascend Paradiseward, you will increasingly learn that many problematic features of universe administration can only be comprehended subsequent to the acquirement of increased experiential capacity and to the achievement of enhanced spiritual insight. Cosmic wisdom is essential to the understanding of cosmic situations.

Page 613 -- The Gods neither create evil nor permit sin and rebellion. Potential evil is time-existent in a universe embracing differential levels of perfection meanings and values. Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality of error. The deliberate choice of evil constitutes sin; the willful rejection of truth is error; the persistent pursuit of sin and error is iniquity.

The events which are unfolding today, and those which will become a part of the life of the new world tomorrow, will forever alter our attitudes, our growth, the meanings of life, and the values of existence.

Page 1139 -- Reason is the act of recognizing the conclusions of consciousness with regard to the experience in and with the physical world of energy and matter. Faith is the act of recognizing the validity of spiritual consciousness, something which is incapable of other mortal proof. Logic is the synthetic truth-seeking progression of the unity of faith and reason and is founded on the constitutive mind endowments of mortal beings, the innate recognition of things, meanings, and values.

Page 1124 -- Convictions about God may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the individual becomes God-knowing only by faith, through personal experience. In much that pertains to life, probability must be reckoned with, but when contacting with cosmic reality, certainty may be experienced when such meanings and values are approached by living faith. The God-knowing soul dares to say, "I know," even when this knowledge of God is questioned by the unbeliever who denies such certitude because it is not wholly supported by intellectual logic. To every such doubter the believer only replies, "How do you know that I do not know?"

Page 1220 -- Meanings are derived from a combination of recognition and understanding. Meanings are nonexistent in a wholly sensory or material world. Meanings and values are only perceived in the inner or supermaterial spheres of human experience.

Page 194 -- The relative free will which characterizes the self-consciousness of human personality is involved in:

• 1. Moral decision, highest wisdom.

• 2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment.

• 3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.

• 4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty.

• 5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe meanings.

• 6. Personality dedication, wholehearted devotion to doing the Father's will.

• 7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine values and the wholehearted love of the divine Value-Giver.

Events now unfolding will bring sudden spiritual transformations to every living soul. Moral decisions, spiritual choices, unselfish love, purposeful co-operation, cosmic insights, personality dedication to God, and true worship, will forever alter human relationships and spiritual loyalties. A complete reassessment will be made by all mankind. Decisions favorable to the future of the world will now be made by those who truly are God's children.

Page 740 -- When physical conditions are ripe, sudden mental evolutions may take place; when mind status is propitious, sudden spiritual transformations may occur; when spiritual values receive proper recognition, then cosmic meanings become discernible, and increasingly the personality is released from the handicaps of time and delivered from the limitations of space.

Page 806 -- Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which are:

• 1. The knowledge of things.

• 2. The realization of meanings.

• 3. The appreciation of values.

• 4. The nobility of work -- duty.

• 5. The motivation of goals -- morality.

• 6. The love of service -- character.

• 7. Cosmic insight -- spiritual discernment.

And then, by means of these achievements, many will ascend to the mortal ultimate of mind attainment, God-consciousness.

Page 966 -- The old cults were too egocentric; the new must be the outgrowth of applied love. The new cult must, like the old, foster sentiment, satisfy emotion, and promote loyalty; but it must do more: It must facilitate spiritual progress, enhance cosmic meanings, augment moral values, encourage social development, and stimulate a high type of personal religious living. The new cult must provide supreme goals of living which are both temporal and eternal, social and spiritual.

Page 1002 -- CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE PRAYER

If you would engage in effective praying, you should bear in mind the laws of prevailing petitions:

• 1. You must qualify as a potent prayer by sincerely and courageously facing the problems of universe reality. You must possess cosmic stamina.

• 2. You must have honestly exhausted the human capacity for human adjustment. You must have been industrious.

• 3. You must surrender every wish of mind and every craving of soul to the transforming embrace of spiritual growth. You must have experienced an enhancement of meanings and an elevation of values.

• 4. You must make a wholehearted choice of the divine will. You must obliterate the dead center of indecision.

• 5. You not only recognize the Father's will and choose to do it, but you have effected an unqualified consecration, and a dynamic dedication, to the actual doing of the Father's will.

• 6. Your prayer will be directed exclusively for divine wisdom to solve the specific human problems encountered in the Paradise ascension -- the attainment of divine perfection.

• 7. And you must have faith -- living faith.

Page 1093 -- Religion inspires man to live courageously and joyfully on the face of the earth; it joins patience with passion, insight to zeal, sympathy with power, and ideals with energy.

Man can never wisely decide temporal issues or transcend the selfishness of personal interests unless he meditates in the presence of the sovereignty of God and reckons with the realities of divine meanings and spiritual values.

Economic interdependence and social fraternity will ultimately conduce to brotherhood. Man is naturally a dreamer, but science is sobering him so that religion can presently activate him with far less danger of precipitating fanatical reactions. Economic necessities tie man up with reality, and personal religious experience brings this same man face to face with the eternal realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship.

Page 1095 -- Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the ever-expanding elevation of values. But nobility itself is always an unconscious growth.

Page 1095 -- Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs.

Page 1096 -- Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one's nearness to God and the measure of one's usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.

Page 1097 -- Meaning is something which experience adds to value; it is the appreciative consciousness of values. An isolated and purely selfish pleasure may connote a virtual devaluation of meanings, a meaningless enjoyment bordering on relative evil. Values are experiential when realities are meaningful and mentally associated, when such relationships are recognized and appreciated by mind.

Page 1097 -- Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living is creative living, original and spontaneous. New religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the place of older and inferior reaction patterns. New meanings only emerge amid conflict; and conflict persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the higher values connoted in superior meanings.

Page 1098 -- In physical life the senses tell of the existence of things; mind discovers the reality of meanings; but the spiritual experience reveals to the individual the true values of life. These high levels of human living are attained in the supreme love of God and in the unselfish love of man. If you love your fellow men, you must have discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because he placed such a high value upon them. You can best discover values in your associates by discovering their motivation. If some one irritates you, causes feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love.

Page 1110 -- RELIGION EXPANDED BY REVELATION

Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved in the necessary work of sorting and sifting the errors of evolution from the truths of spirit acquirement.

Science deals with facts; religion is concerned only with values. Through enlightened philosophy the mind endeavors to unite the meanings of both facts and values, thereby arriving at a concept of complete reality. Remember that science is the domain of knowledge, philosophy the realm of wisdom, and religion the sphere of the faith experience.

Page 1114 -- Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.

Page 1219 -- The mortal career, the soul's evolution, is not so much a probation as an education. Faith in the survival of supreme values is the core of religion; genuine religious experience consists in the union of supreme values and cosmic meanings as a realization of universal reality.

Page 1219 -- Mind knows quantity, reality, meanings. But quality -- values -- is felt. That which feels is the mutual creation of mind, which knows, and the associated spirit, which reality-izes.

Page 1222 -- The expansion of material knowledge permits a greater intellectual appreciation of the meanings of ideas and the values of ideals. A human being can find truth in his inner experience, but he needs a clear knowledge of facts to apply his personal discovery of truth to the ruthlessly practical demands of everyday life.

Page 1297 -- Things are time conditioned, but truth is timeless. The more truth you know, the more truth you are, the more of the past you can understand and of the future you can comprehend.

Truth is inconcussible -- forever exempt from all transient vicissitudes, albeit never dead and formal, always vibrant and adaptable -- radiantly alive. But when truth becomes linked with fact, then both time and space condition its meanings and correlate its values. Such realities of truth wedded to fact become concepts and are accordingly relegated to the domain of relative cosmic realities.

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