Book of Divinity
Chapter VII
1. IN the sixth Diva, Div decreed: The Divan law shall be the higher law; and ye shall give to mortals a law copied after it, and the mortal law shall be called the lower law.
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2. One of the members of Diva said: If a mortal judge, being in judgment between certain men, by which law shall he judge? On this matter the members spake at great length, and--
3. Div decreed: He cannot discern the higher law but dimly; the lower law he can read plainly in a book. He shall therefore judge by the lower, but by the highest interpretation. And then Div on his own account said:
4. For the priests of the Zarathustrians, who have carried the alms-bowl and lived in all things pure, being celibates, serving the Creator, Ormazd, only, going about doing good, they have the higher law, the Divan law, within their hearts; they shall judge by it. Nevertheless trouble cometh not into any of the worlds by those who strive to do aright, but by those who evade. The time shall come when the judge shall not interpret according to the higher law; he will strive to hide justice in a corner, using words to conceal his own perversity. It is by such men and such angels that heaven and earth will be blighted in coming time.
5. For, as through Zarathustra, God's Word hath been established on the earth; and since words themselves perish and are supplemented by new words, the time shall come when the higher law will fall, as a house on sand. For there are no words that are everlasting, and that are understood by all men alike; words themselves are but as husks that surround the corn. Men in darkness quibble on the husks, but discern not the fruit within.
6. Jehovih spake to Div, saying: Man buildeth a house, and it perisheth. Succeeding generations must also build, otherwise the art of building would perish. Better the building perish, than the art of building. I created all men to labor and to learn. What less requireth My Gods and angels? Because language melteth away, the language-makers, that is, My Lords and ashars, have constant employment of delight.
7. Div said: Foolish men run after a language that is dead and moldered away; but the wise seek language to express the spirit of things. The latter is under the Divan law; the former is bound as a druk. And herein shall ye be circumspect; because mortal judges, who judge by the lower law, are bound in words.
8. Copies of these Divan laws were given to mortals through the Lords and ashars, either by inspiration or by words spoken in sar'gissa. And in Jaffeth and Shem and Arabin'ya mortal kings decreed mortal laws and revelations, based on the Divan laws, and on the Zarathustrian laws.
9. Div propounded: A man and woman in mortal life were as druks, being filthy, and idle, begging from day to day, and yet they had born to them many children. And the children were alike lazy and worthless, being beggars also. Now in course of time, the man and woman die, and in time after, the children die also, and none of them are yet entered into the first resurrection in heaven, being beggars still and dwelling around their old haunts. What of them?
10. The Lords all spake on this subject, and after that Div decreed: Such spirits shall be reported by the ashars to the Lord, and the Lord shall send a captain with sufficient army to arrest them, and bring them away from the earth, and enter them in a colony for such purpose. This was called Divan act, the first.
11. Act, the second: For thirty days such drujas shall be clothed and fed. If by this time they manifest no inclination to labor, but are still lazy, they shall be removed into another region, where food can be obtained only by exertion.
12. Act, the third: This law shall apply also to mortals; through the ashars shall they be inspired to migrate to cold and unproductive regions. Div said: Herein hast Thou wisely planned, O Jehovih! For all Thy places in heaven and earth shall be subdued, and made to glorify Thee!
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Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
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Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
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Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold?"
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Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience—God-consciousness.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
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Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.