First Book of God
Chapter XVI
1. FOR eighteen years more God spake not to Brahma, but Brahma remained faithful, and Yu-tiv was full of hope. But when the time was fulfilled in Ormazd's own way, He came with renewed light, which was on the twenty-first birthday of Hog.
2. Whilst Brahma and his fmaily were seated on mats, eating breakfast at sunrise, lo, a light, as of a sun, came within the hut, and passed over Brahma's head, and then disappeared. And out of the void, in the space above their heads, came these words, to wit: From this time forth the twenty-first birthday shall be the time of maturity for man. Be ye watchful for the voice of Ormazd; He is Ever Present!
3. And all of them saw the light and heard the words, save Hog, and Hog, having been begotten in unbelief, neither saw the light nor heard the voice. And when they all had exclaimed: Behold the light! Hear that voice!--Hog thus spake before them:
4. For many a year ye have prophesied this should come to pass when I should reach my twenty-first birthday. For the love ye all bear me, I know ye would not put a joke upon me; but I am seriously grieved that ye say: Behold the light, and hear the voice! For I say unto you, these things are not in reason, and cannot be so. But in much hope and faith and belief, all of which ye have cultivated for years, ye suffer your imaginings to stand for realities.
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5. Now whilst Hog thus spake, the light came again and stood over Brahma's head whilst one might count twenty; and the Voice said: Blessed art thou, O Brahma; blessed thou, O Yu-tiv! These things had to be fulfilled. I preach not by reason alone, but provide living examples! (In his old age Brahma had atained iesu!)
6. Again all of them saw and heard the manifestation of Ormazd, save Hog, and he saw not, and heard not what came of the Spirit. Hog said: Have I not eyes good as the best? Show me a hair that I cannot see; let fall a mite that I cannot hear. Then Whe-ish, the first-born, answered him, saying:
7. First, my brother, I greet thee with my love, for thou art the fairest and best of all the great born sons of this God and Goddess, our father and mother. And I appeal to thee in thy great wisdom, how have we all imagined the same light at the same time and place? And greater yet, how have we imagined the same spoken words? Hog replied:
8. How can my answers cope with one who hath wisdom like unto thee, O my brother? Thou hast confounded me; but yet I understand not wherein thou, and ye, my most loving brothers, can see and hear things that I cannot. Have we not all the same parts, so like unto one another that our neighbors scarce distinguish us? And above all, we are all the same fruit from a father and mother, the holiest and wisest of created beings.
9. Now spake Yu-tiv saying: I am before Thy judgment, O Ormazd! That which I have done, I have done! Deal Thou with me for my great unbelief; I have sinned against heaven and earth. Even whilst Thou quickenedst into life within my womb this star of everlasting light, lo, I put out his eyes and stopped up his ears against Thee. The unbelief of my soul penetrated the walls of my womb and shaped the fruit of my holy husband into a man of darkness. O Ormazd, why was Thy daughter born!
10. Hog said: O thou Goddess, mother! Weep not, but rejoice for the glory of my birth. That thou and my holy father, a very God amongst men, brought me into life, my soul is boundless in rejoicing. I declare unto thee, O mother, I am not in darkness, nor am I blind and deaf. If there be
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another world, what mattereth it to me? The glories of this one are boundless. And if there be a Great Light and a Voice, what are they to me! Thou hast so filled my every vein of blood with thy warm love, and with the sweet love of these, my holy brothers, and with the wisdom of my father, God of men, that I know nothing but to rejoice and to invent praises and thanks to you all, with all my wisdom and strength.
11. And now the Light gathered within the soul of Brahma, and he was as one with the Father. Ormazd, the Creator, then spake through Brahma, saying:
12. I created the earth not to be despised, as do the Zarathustrians through the hearts of monarchs and priests, but that it should be the glory of man. This was the Zarathustrian law, but, for sake of profit, and bondage, and evil, they have perverted My doctrines and bound up My peoples. They profess Me, even Ormazd; but they have turned My commandments and My doctrines upside down.
13. I came through Zarathustra and delivered them that called on Me in faith; and they became My chosen for a season; but they suffered evil to usurp their hearts; they squandered My substance in building temples and providing a superabundance of priests and priestesses. They raised up the sword and spear for me; by blood and death they established kingdoms and called them by My name, Ormazd!
14. The spirit of My Voice they put aside; but the words they retained, and added earthly meaning thereto. Whereby they proclaim darkness for light, and light for darkness. And the poor and distressed that worship Me in truth and spirit have learned to hate the words established. For which reason they are persecuted, and bound, and taxed, and despitefully used.
15. Yea, they that would kill not because of their natural love to Me and My created sons and daughters, they impress into service of war, taking them from their kindred, saying to them: Come away from peace and kill! Be thou a slayer of men; be a soldier of death for the glory of the king.
16. I commanded them, in the olden time, to kill not at all. My words were plain. But the kings commanded the priests to interpret My words round about, whereby war might be justified.
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17. I commanded them against taking that which was another's. My words were plain. But the kings commanded the priests to interpret the meaning, so the kings could exact tribute for their own glory. And so they levy wheresoever and whensoever they will, saying: For the defense of the king and the country!
18. Thus have they perverted My commandments from beginning to end. But I declare unto you, that in My sight, to kill one man, I will hold him accountable who doeth it; and ten times accountable if he kill ten men, and a hundred times for a hundred. They shall not hide death and murder from My sight by the word war.
19. Neither shall they excuse stealing by levying tax for the king or the country's protection. For by their own evil, hath it come to pass that they talk about protection. Have I made a law that one king or one country shall protect itself against another? Seest not any man that these doctrines come of the flesh and not of the spirit?
20. They profess to be Faithists in Me. But straight away they go and build fortifications of earth, and stone, and wood. And they that know Me in spirit and truth, perceiving I am wrongly interpreted for evil's sake, being such as rebel in their souls against these iniquities, they seize and impress for their lifetime as slaves, or, if refusing, they kill them.
21. And they that work such wickedness say: Behold, we have the Zarathustrian law, the I'hua'Mazdian law, the Ormazdian law; ours is the holy, the revealed word. Let no man raise up his voice against these truths, or he shall surely be put to death!
22. But I looked down from My holy heavens and saw, and Mine ears heard; and I cried out in My soul for the evils of the earth. I said: Behold, I will go and deliver them that have faith in Me in spirit and truth. And I went over the lands of the earth, but I found no man in whom My light could shine. And I called My holy masters of generations, My angels high raised in heaven, and I said unto them: Come ye and dwell on the earth many generations, and by inspiration raise ye up one in whom My light shall shine, for I will surely deliver My people.
23. Now I declare unto you who are
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assembled, the time is at hand, and ye are all so many parts in My work. Even through My angels named ye these sons; according to their names, so will I establish My kingdom.
24. Suffer, therefore, Vede to write down the words I have spoken, for lo, he hath learning and memory provided to that end. Be ye watchful, when I come again!
25. Jehovih (Ormazd) ceased, and Brahma woke as from a trance, though he had heard all that was said. So Vede remembered the spoken words, every one, and he wrote them down on cloth prepared for that purpose. And this was the beginning of a new name of a people on the earth, though they were Faithists in fact, and nothing but Faithists; but they were called by their neighbors sometimes Vedans and sometimes Brahmins.
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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.