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Urantia Book Paper 160 Rodan Of Alexandria
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ...
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Paper 160 Rodan Of Alexandria
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Introduction
ON SUNDAY morning, September 18, Andrew announced that no work would be planned
for the coming week. All of the apostles, except Nathaniel and Thomas, went
home to visit their families or to sojourn with friends. This week Jesus
enjoyed a period of almost complete rest, but Nathaniel and Thomas were very
busy with their discussions with a certain Greek philosopher from Alexandria
named Rodan. This Greek had recently become a disciple of Jesus through the
teaching of one of Abner's associates who had conducted a mission at
Alexandria. Rodan was now earnestly engaged in the task of harmonizing his
philosophy of life with Jesus' new religious teachings, and he had come to
Magadan hoping that the Master would talk these problems over with him. He also
desired to secure a firsthand and authoritative version of the gospel from
either Jesus or one of his apostles. Though the Master declined to enter into
such a conference with Rodan, he did receive him graciously and immediately
directed that Nathaniel and Thomas should listen to all he had to say and tell
him about the gospel in return.
1. RODAN'S GREEK PHILOSOPHY
Early Monday morning, Rodan began a series of ten addresses to Nathaniel,
Thomas, and a group of some two dozen believers who chanced to be at Magadan.
These talks, condensed, combined, and restated in modern phraseology, present
the following thoughts for consideration:
Human life consists in three great drives--urges, desires, and lures. Strong
character, commanding personality, is only acquired by converting the natural
urge of life into the social art of living, by transforming present desires
into those higher longings which are capable of lasting attainment, while the
commonplace lure of existence must be transferred from one's conventional and
established ideas to the higher realms of unexplored ideas and undiscovered
ideals.
The more complex civilization becomes, the more difficult will become the art
of living. The more rapid the changes in social usage, the more complicated
will become the task of character development. Every ten generations mankind
must learn anew the art of living if progress is to continue. And if man
becomes so ingenious that he more rapidly adds to the complexities of society,
the art of living will need to be remastered in less time, perhaps every single
generation. If the evolution of the art of living fails to keep pace with the
technique of existence, humanity will quickly revert to the simple urge of
living--the attainment of the satisfaction of present desires. Thus will
humanity remain immature; society will fail in growing up to full maturity.
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Social maturity is equivalent to the degree to which man is willing to
surrender the gratification of mere transient and present desires for the
entertainment of those superior longings the striving for whose attainment
affords the more abundant satisfactions of progressive advancement toward
permanent goals. But the true badge of social maturity is the willingness of a
people to surrender the right to live peaceably and contentedly under the
ease-promoting standards of the lure of established beliefs and conventional
ideas for the disquieting and energy-requiring lure of the pursuit of the
unexplored possibilities of the attainment of undiscovered goals of idealistic
spiritual realities.
Animals respond nobly to the urge of life, but only man can attain the art of
living, albeit the majority of mankind only experience the animal urge to live.
Animals know only this blind and instinctive urge; man is capable of
transcending this urge to natural function. Man may elect to live upon the high
plane of intelligent art, even that of celestial joy and spiritual ecstasy.
Animals make no inquiry into the purposes of life; therefore they never worry,
neither do they commit suicide. Suicide among men testifies that such beings
have emerged from the purely animal stage of existence, and to the further fact
that the exploratory efforts of such human beings have failed to attain the
artistic levels of mortal experience. Animals know not the meaning of life; man
not only possesses capacity for the recognition of values and the comprehension
of meanings, but he also is conscious of the meaning of meanings--he is
self-conscious of insight.
When men dare to forsake a life of natural craving for one of adventurous art
and uncertain logic, they must expect to suffer the consequent hazards of
emotional casualties--conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties--at least until
the time of their attainment of some degree of intellectual and emotional
maturity. Discouragement, worry, and indolence are positive evidence of moral
immaturity. Human society is confronted with two problems: attainment of the
maturity of the individual and attainment of the maturity of the race. The
mature human being soon begins to look upon all other mortals with feelings of
tenderness and with emotions of tolerance. Mature men view immature folks with
the love and consideration that parents bear their children.
Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of
dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step in the
solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem,
and frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that,
when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them.
Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails the reduction of
our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of
deep-seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old
illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of security. Only
a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a
sincere and logical mind discovers.
The wise and effective solution of any problem demands that the mind shall be
free from bias, passion, and all other purely personal prejudices which might
interfere with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to make
up the problem presenting itself for solution. The solution of life problems
requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and brave individuals are able to
follow valiantly through the perplexing and confusing maze of living to where
the logic of a fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and
soul can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent
enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure of a great
ideal to drive man on in
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the pursuit of a goal which is beset with difficult material problems and
manifold intellectual hazards.
Even though you are effectively armed to meet the difficult situations of life,
you can hardly expect success unless you are equipped with that wisdom of mind
and charm of personality which enable you to win the hearty support and
co-operation of your fellows. You cannot hope for a large measure of success in
either secular or religious work unless you can learn how to persuade your
fellows, to prevail with men. You simply must have tact and tolerance.
But the greatest of all methods of problem solving I have learned from Jesus,
your Master. I refer to that which he so consistently practices, and which he
has so faithfully taught you, the isolation of worshipful meditation. In this
habit of Jesus' going off so frequently by himself to commune with the Father
in heaven is to be found the technique, not only of gathering strength and
wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of living, but also of appropriating the
energy for the solution of the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature.
But even correct methods of solving problems will not compensate for inherent
defects of personality or atone for the absence of the hunger and thirst for
true righteousness.
I am deeply impressed with the custom of Jesus in going apart by himself to
engage in these seasons of solitary survey of the problems of living; to seek
for new stores of wisdom and energy for meeting the manifold demands of social
service; to quicken and deepen the supreme purpose of living by actually
subjecting the total personality to the consciousness of contacting with
divinity; to grasp for possession of new and better methods of adjusting
oneself to the ever-changing situations of living existence; to effect those
vital reconstructions and readjustments of one's personal attitudes which are
so essential to enhanced insight into everything worth while and real; and to
do all of this with an eye single to the glory of God--to breathe in sincerity
your Master's favorite prayer, "Not my will, but yours, be done."
This worshipful practice of your Master brings that relaxation which renews the
mind; that illumination which inspires the soul; that courage which enables one
bravely to face one's problems; that self-understanding which obliterates
debilitating fear; and that consciousness of union with divinity which equips
man with the assurance that enables him to dare to be Godlike. The relaxation
of worship, or spiritual communion as practiced by the Master, relieves
tension, removes conflicts, and mightily augments the total resources of the
personality. And all this philosophy, plus the gospel of the kingdom,
constitutes the new religion as I understand it.
Prejudice blinds the soul to the recognition of truth, and prejudice can be
removed only by the sincere devotion of the soul to the adoration of a cause
that is all-embracing and all-inclusive of one's fellow men. Prejudice is
inseparably linked to selfishness. Prejudice can be eliminated only by the
abandonment of self-seeking and by substituting therefor the quest of the
satisfaction of the service of a cause that is not only greater than self, but
one that is even greater than all humanity--the search for God, the attainment
of divinity. The evidence of maturity of personality consists in the
transformation of human desire so that it constantly seeks for the realization
of those values which are highest and most divinely real.
In a continually changing world, in the midst of an evolving social order, it
is impossible to maintain settled and established goals of destiny. Stability
of per-
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sonality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the
living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus to transfer
one's goal from time to eternity, from earth to Paradise, from the human to the
divine, requires that man shall become regenerated, converted, be born again;
that he shall become the re-created child of the divine spirit; that he shall
gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies
and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature. The philosophy
which I teach, linked with the gospel which you preach, represents the new
religion of maturity, the ideal of all future generations. And this is true
because our ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and
infinite.
My philosophy gave me the urge to search for the realities of true attainment,
the goal of maturity. But my urge was impotent; my search lacked driving power;
my quest suffered from the absence of certainty of directionization. And these
deficiencies have been abundantly supplied by this new gospel of Jesus, with
its enhancement of insights, elevation of ideals, and settledness of goals.
Without doubts and misgivings I can now wholeheartedly enter upon the eternal
venture.
2. THE ART OF LIVING
There are just two ways in which mortals may live together: the material or
animal way and the spiritual or human way. By the use of signals and sounds
animals are able to communicate with each other in a limited way. But such
forms of communication do not convey meanings, values, or ideas. The one
distinction between man and the animal is that man can communicate with his
fellows by means of symbols which most certainly designate and identify
meanings, values, ideas, and even ideals.
Since animals cannot communicate ideas to each other, they cannot develop
personality. Man develops personality because he can thus communicate with his
fellows concerning both ideas and ideals.
It is this ability to communicate and share meanings that constitutes human
culture and enables man, through social associations, to build civilizations.
Knowledge and wisdom become cumulative because of man's ability to communicate
these possessions to succeeding generations. And thereby arise the cultural
activities of the race: art, science, religion, and philosophy.
Symbolic communication between human beings predetermines the bringing into
existence of social groups. The most effective of all social groups is the
family, more particularly the two parents. Personal affection is the spiritual
bond which holds together these material associations. Such an effective
relationship is also possible between two persons of the same sex, as is so
abundantly illustrated in the devotions of genuine friendships.
These associations of friendship and mutual affection are socializing and
ennobling because they encourage and facilitate the following essential factors
of the higher levels of the art of living:
1. Mutual self-expression and self-understanding. Many noble human impulses die
because there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is not good for man
to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount of appreciation
are essential to the development of human character. Without the genuine love
of a home, no child can achieve the full development of normal
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character. Character is something more than mere mind and morals. Of all social
relations calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is the
affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual
embrace of intelligent wedlock. Marriage, with its manifold relations, is best
designed to draw forth those precious impulses and those higher motives which
are indispensable to the development of a strong character. I do not hesitate
thus to glorify family life, for your Master has wisely chosen the father-child
relationship as the very cornerstone of this new gospel of the kingdom. And
such a matchless community of relationship, man and woman in the fond embrace
of the highest ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying an experience that
it is worth any price, any sacrifice, requisite for its possession.
2. Union of souls--the mobilization of wisdom. Every human being sooner or
later acquires a certain concept of this world and a certain vision of the
next. Now it is possible, through personality association, to unite these views
of temporal existence and eternal prospects. Thus does the mind of one augment
its spiritual values by gaining much of the insight of the other. In this way
men enrich the soul by pooling their respective spiritual possessions.
Likewise, in this same way, man is enabled to avoid that ever-present tendency
to fall victim to distortion of vision, prejudice of viewpoint, and narrowness
of judgment. Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented only by intimate contact
with other minds. I call your attention to the fact that the Master never sends
you out alone to labor for the extension of the kingdom; he always sends you
out two and two. And since wisdom is superknowledge, it follows that, in the
union of wisdom, the social group, small or large, mutually shares all
knowledge.
3. The enthusiasm for living. Isolation tends to exhaust the energy charge of
the soul. Association with one's fellows is essential to the renewal of the
zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the courage to fight
those battles consequent upon the ascent to the higher levels of human living.
Friendship enhances the joys and glorifies the triumphs of life. Loving and
intimate human associations tend to rob suffering of its sorrow and hardship of
much of its bitterness. The presence of a friend enhances all beauty and exalts
every goodness. By intelligent symbols man is able to quicken and enlarge the
appreciative capacities of his friends. One of the crowning glories of human
friendship is this power and possibility of the mutual stimulation of the
imagination. Great spiritual power is inherent in the consciousness of
wholehearted devotion to a common cause, mutual loyalty to a cosmic Deity.
4. The enhanced defense against all evil. Personality association and mutual
affection is an efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow,
disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when borne alone.
Association does not transmute evil into righteousness, but it does aid in
greatly lessening the sting. Said your Master, "Happy are they who mourn"--if a
friend is at hand to comfort. There is positive strength in the knowledge that
you live for the welfare of others, and that these others likewise live for
your welfare and advancement. Man languishes in isolation. Human beings
unfailingly become discouraged when they view only the transitory transactions
of time. The present, when divorced from the past and the future, becomes
exasperatingly trivial. Only a glimpse of the circle of eternity can inspire
man to do his best and
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can challenge the best in him to do its utmost. And when man is thus at his
best, he lives most unselfishly for the good of others, his fellow sojourners
in time and eternity.
I repeat, such inspiring and ennobling association finds its ideal
possibilities in the human marriage relation. True, much is attained out of
marriage, and many, many marriages utterly fail to produce these moral and
spiritual fruits. Too many times marriage is entered by those who seek other
values which are lower than these superior accompaniments of human maturity.
Ideal marriage must be founded on something more stable than the fluctuations
of sentiment and the fickleness of mere sex attraction; it must be based on
genuine and mutual personal devotion. And thus, if you can build up such
trustworthy and effective small units of human association, when these are
assembled in the aggregate, the world will behold a great and glorified social
structure, the civilization of mortal maturity. Such a race might begin to
realize something of your Master's ideal of "peace on earth and good will among
men." While such a society would not be perfect or entirely free from evil, it
would at least approach the stabilization of maturity.
3. THE LURES OF MATURITY
The effort toward maturity necessitates work, and work requires energy. Whence
the power to accomplish all this? The physical things can be taken for granted,
but the Master has well said, "Man cannot live by bread alone." Granted the
possession of a normal body and reasonably good health, we must next look for
those lures which will act as a stimulus to call forth man's slumbering
spiritual forces. Jesus has taught us that God lives in man; then how can we
induce man to release these soul-bound powers of divinity and infinity? How
shall we induce men to let go of God that he may spring forth to the
refreshment of our own souls while in transit outward and then to serve the
purpose of enlightening, uplifting, and blessing countless other souls? How
best can I awaken these latent powers for good which lie dormant in your souls?
One thing I am sure of: Emotional excitement is not the ideal spiritual
stimulus. Excitement does not augment energy; it rather exhausts the powers of
both mind and body. Whence then comes the energy to do these great things? Look
to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are
here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in
spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of
combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with
spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. And this
interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the
mind of self, constitutes worship. At least, that is the way the philosopher
views it.
When these experiences are frequently repeated, they crystallize into habits,
strength-giving and worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate
themselves into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally
recognized by one's fellows as a mature personality. These practices are
difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they become habitual, they are
at once restful and time-saving. The more complex society becomes, and the more
the lures of civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity
for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual practices designed
to conserve and augment their spiritual energies.
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Another requirement for the attainment of maturity is the co-operative
adjustment of social groups to an ever-changing environment. The immature
individual arouses the antagonisms of his fellows; the mature man wins the
hearty co-operation of his associates, thereby many times multiplying the
fruits of his life efforts.
My philosophy tells me that there are times when I must fight, if need be, for
the defense of my concept of righteousness, but I doubt not that the Master,
with a more mature type of personality, would easily and gracefully gain an
equal victory by his superior and winsome technique of tact and tolerance. All
too often, when we battle for the right, it turns out that both the victor and
the vanquished have sustained defeat. I heard the Master say only yesterday
that the "wise man, when seeking entrance through the locked door, would not
destroy the door but rather would seek for the key wherewith to unlock it." Too
often we engage in a fight merely to convince ourselves that we are not afraid.
This new gospel of the kingdom renders a great service to the art of living in
that it supplies a new and richer incentive for higher living. It presents a
new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. And these new concepts
of the eternal and divine goal of existence are in themselves transcendent
stimuli, calling forth the reaction of the very best that is resident in man's
higher nature. On every mountaintop of intellectual thought are to be found
relaxation for the mind, strength for the soul, and communion for the spirit.
From such vantage points of high living, man is able to transcend the material
irritations of the lower levels of thinking--worry, jealousy, envy, revenge,
and the pride of immature personality. These high-climbing souls deliver
themselves from a multitude of the crosscurrent conflicts of the trifles of
living, thus becoming free to attain consciousness of the higher currents of
spirit concept and celestial communication. But the life purpose must be
jealously guarded from the temptation to seek for easy and transient
attainment; likewise must it be so fostered as to become immune to the
disastrous threats of fanaticism.
4. THE BALANCE OF MATURITY
While you have an eye single to the attainment of eternal realities, you must
also make provision for the necessities of temporal living. While the spirit is
our goal, the flesh is a fact. Occasionally the necessities of living may fall
into our hands by accident, but in general, we must intelligently work for
them. The two major problems of life are: making a temporal living and the
achievement of eternal survival. And even the problem of making a living
requires religion for its ideal solution. These are both highly personal
problems. True religion, in fact, does not function apart from the individual.
The essentials of the temporal life, as I see them, are:
1. Good physical health.
2. Clear and clean thinking.
3. Ability and skill.
4. Wealth--the goods of life.
5. Ability to withstand defeat.
6. Culture--education and wisdom.
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Even the physical problems of bodily health and efficiency are best solved when
they are viewed from the religious standpoint of our Master's teaching: That
the body and mind of man are the dwelling place of the gift of the Gods, the
spirit of God becoming the spirit of man. The mind of man thus becomes the
mediator between material things and spiritual realities.
It requires intelligence to secure one's share of the desirable things of life.
It is wholly erroneous to suppose that faithfulness in doing one's daily work
will insure the rewards of wealth. Barring the occasional and accidental
acquirement of wealth, the material rewards of the temporal life are found to
flow in certain well-organized channels, and only those who have access to
these channels may expect to be well rewarded for their temporal efforts.
Poverty must ever be the lot of all men who seek for wealth in isolated and
individual channels. Wise planning, therefore, becomes the one thing essential
to worldly prosperity. Success requires not only devotion to one's work but
also that one should function as a part of some one of the channels of material
wealth. If you are unwise, you can bestow a devoted life upon your generation
without material reward; if you are an accidental beneficiary of the flow of
wealth, you may roll in luxury even though you have done nothing worth while
for your fellow men.
Ability is that which you inherit, while skill is what you acquire. Life is not
real to one who cannot do some one thing well, expertly. Skill is one of the
real sources of the satisfaction of living. Ability implies the gift of
foresight, farseeing vision. Be not deceived by the tempting rewards of
dishonest achievement; be willing to toil for the later returns inherent in
honest endeavor. The wise man is able to distinguish between means and ends;
otherwise, sometimes overplanning for the future defeats its own high purpose.
As a pleasure seeker you should aim always to be a producer as well as a
consumer.
Train your memory to hold in sacred trust the strength-giving and worthwhile
episodes of life, which you can recall at will for your pleasure and
edification. Thus build up for yourself and in yourself reserve galleries of
beauty, goodness, and artistic grandeur. But the noblest of all memories are
the treasured recollections of the great moments of a superb friendship. And
all of these memory treasures radiate their most precious and exalting
influences under the releasing touch of spiritual worship.
But life will become a burden of existence unless you learn how to fail
gracefully. There is an art in defeat which noble souls always acquire; you
must know how to lose cheerfully; you must be fearless of disappointment. Never
hesitate to admit failure. Make no attempt to hide failure under deceptive
smiles and beaming optimism. It sounds well always to claim success, but the
end results are appalling. Such a technique leads directly to the creation of a
world of unreality and to the inevitable crash of ultimate disillusionment.
Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from
the experiences of adjustment to the results of one's failures. Men who prefer
optimistic illusions to reality can never become wise. Only those who face
facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom. Wisdom embraces both the
fact and the ideal and therefore saves its devotees from both of those barren
extremes of philosophy--the man whose idealism excludes facts and the
materialist who is devoid of spiritual outlook. Those timid souls who can only
keep up the struggle of life by the aid of continuous false illusions of suc-
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cess are doomed to suffer failure and experience defeat as they ultimately
awaken from the dream world of their own imaginations.
And it is in this business of facing failure and adjusting to defeat that the
far-reaching vision of religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply
an educational episode--a cultural experiment in the acquirement of wisdom--in
the experience of the God-seeking man who has embarked on the eternal adventure
of the exploration of a universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the
achievement of higher levels of universe reality.
The career of a God-seeking man may prove to be a great success in the light of
eternity, even though the whole temporal-life enterprise may appear as an
overwhelming failure, provided each life failure yielded the culture of wisdom
and spirit achievement. Do not make the mistake of confusing knowledge,
culture, and wisdom. They are related in life, but they represent vastly
differing spirit values; wisdom ever dominates knowledge and always glorifies
culture.
5. THE RELIGION OF THE IDEAL
You have told me that your Master regards genuine human religion as the
individual's experience with spiritual realities. I have regarded religion as
man's experience of reacting to something which he regards as being worthy of
the homage and devotion of all mankind. In this sense, religion symbolizes our
supreme devotion to that which represents our highest concept of the ideals of
reality and the farthest reach of our minds toward eternal possibilities of
spiritual attainment.
When men react to religion in the tribal, national, or racial sense, it is
because they look upon those without their group as not being truly human. We
always look upon the object of our religious
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loyalty as being worthy of the reverence of all men. Religion can never be a
matter of mere intellectual belief or philosophic reasoning; religion is always
and forever a mode of reacting to the situations of life; it is a species of
conduct. Religion embraces thinking, feeling, and acting reverently toward some
reality which we deem worthy of universal adoration.
If something has become a religion in your experience, it is self-evident that
you already have become an active evangel of that religion since you deem the
supreme concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all mankind,
all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of
your religion, you are self-deceived in that what you call a religion is only a
traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy. If your
religion is a spiritual experience, your object of worship must be the
universal spirit reality and ideal of all your spiritualized concepts. All
religions based on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term the
intellectual religions, while those based on true spirit experience I would
term the true religions. The object of religious devotion may be material or
spiritual, true or false, real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can
therefore be either good or evil.
Morality and religion are not necessarily the same. A system of morals, by
grasping an object of worship, may become a religion. A religion, by losing its
universal appeal to loyalty and supreme devotion, may evolve into a system of
philosophy or a code of morals. This thing, being, state, or order of
existence, or possibility of attainment which constitutes the supreme ideal of
religious loyalty, and which is the recipient of the religious devotion of
those who worship, is God. Regardless of the name applied to this ideal of
spirit reality, it is God.
The social characteristics of a true religion consist in the fact that it
invariably seeks to convert the individual and to transform the world. Religion
implies the existence of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the known
standards of ethics and morality embodied in even the highest social usages of
the most mature institutions of civilization. Religion reaches out for
undiscovered ideals, unexplored realities, superhuman values, divine wisdom,
and true spirit attainment. True religion does all of this; all other beliefs
are not worthy of the name. You cannot have a genuine spiritual religion
without the supreme and supernal ideal of an eternal God. A religion without
this God is an invention of man, a human institution of lifeless intellectual
beliefs and meaningless emotional ceremonies. A religion might claim as the
object of its devotion a great ideal. But such ideals of unreality are not
attainable; such a concept is illusionary. The only ideals susceptible of human
attainment are the divine realities of the infinite values resident in the
spiritual fact of the eternal God.
The word God, the idea of God as contrasted with the ideal of God, can become a
part of any religion, no matter how puerile or false that religion may chance
to be. And this idea of God can become anything which those who entertain it
may choose to make it. The lower religions shape their ideas of God to meet the
natural state of the human heart; the higher religions demand that the human
heart shall be changed to meet the demands of the ideals of true religion.
The religion of Jesus transcends all our former concepts of the idea of worship
in that he not only portrays his Father as the ideal of infinite reality but
positively declares that this divine source of values and the eternal center of
the universe is truly and personally attainable by every mortal creature who
chooses to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth, thereby acknowledging the
acceptance of sonship with God and brotherhood with man. That, I submit, is the
highest concept of religion the world has ever known, and I pronounce that
there can never be a higher since this gospel embraces the infinity of
realities, the divinity of values, and the eternity of universal attainments.
Such a concept constitutes the achievement of the experience of the idealism of
the supreme and the ultimate.
I am not only intrigued by the consummate ideals of this religion of your
Master, but I am mightily moved to profess my belief in his announcement that
these ideals of spirit realities are attainable; that you and I can enter upon
this long and eternal adventure with his assurance of the certainty of our
ultimate arrival at the portals of Paradise. My brethren, I am a believer, I
have embarked; I am on my way with you in this eternal venture. The Master says
he came from the Father, and that he will show us the way. I am fully persuaded
he speaks the truth. I am finally convinced that there are no attainable ideals
of reality or values of perfection apart from the eternal and Universal Father.
I come, then, to worship, not merely the God of existences, but the God of the
possibility of all future existences. Therefore must your devotion to a supreme
ideal, if that ideal is real, be devotion to this God of past, present, and
future universes of things and beings. And there is no other God, for there
cannot possibly be any other God. All other gods are figments of the
imagination, illusions of mortal mind, distortions of false logic, and the
self-deceptive idols of those who create them. Yes, you can have a religion
without this God, but it
top of page - 1782
does not mean anything. And if you seek to substitute the word God for the
reality of this ideal of the living God, you have only deluded yourself by
putting an idea in the place of an ideal, a divine reality. Such beliefs are
merely religions of wishful fancy.
I see in the teachings of Jesus, religion at its best. This gospel enables us
to seek for the true God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price
of this entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born again?
to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible and testing process
of self-destruction and soul reconstruction? Has not the Master said: "Whoso
would save his life must lose it. Think not that I have come to bring peace but
rather a soul struggle"? True, after we pay the price of dedication to the
Father's will, we do experience great peace provided we continue to walk in
these spiritual paths of consecrated living.
Now are we truly forsaking the lures of the known order of existence while we
unreservedly dedicate our quest to the lures of the unknown and unexplored
order of the existence of a future life of adventure in the spirit worlds of
the higher idealism of divine reality. And we seek for those symbols of meaning
wherewith to convey to our fellow men these concepts of the reality of the
idealism of the religion of Jesus, and we will not cease to pray for that day
when all mankind shall be thrilled by the communal vision of this supreme
truth. Just now, our focalized concept of the Father, as held in our hearts, is
that God is spirit; as conveyed to our fellows, that God is love.
The religion of Jesus demands living and spiritual experience. Other religions
may consist in traditional beliefs, emotional feelings, philosophic
consciousness, and all of that, but the teaching of the Master requires the
attainment of actual levels of real spirit progression.
The consciousness of the impulse to be like God is not true religion. The
feelings of the emotion to worship God are not true religion. The knowledge of
the conviction to forsake self and serve God is not true religion. The wisdom
of the reasoning that this religion is the best of all is not religion as a
personal and spiritual experience. True religion has reference to destiny and
reality of attainment as well as to the reality and idealism of that which is
wholeheartedly faith-accepted. And all of this must be made personal to us by
the revelation of the Spirit of Truth.
And thus ended the dissertations of the Greek philosopher, one of the greatest
of his race, who had become a believer in the gospel of Jesus.
top of page - 1783
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
Faith Of Jesus
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