Truthbook Religious News

Is someone a "bad person" or one who did "something bad" when a person does something that we think of as unthinkable?

This question has been on my mind since before the Boston Marathon bombing. One Sunday in March, when I was doing the Youth Sunday message, I commented that we have to love each other as God has commanded us to. One of the young people asked whether she had to love someone who did something really terrible. As hard as it was to accept, I had to say, "Yes, according to Jesus you must love that person."

I remembered that exchange several Friday evenings ago, and realized that I had to really think about what I had said in light of what happened during the Marathon and the ensuing days and nights of fear and uncertainty that followed. Do I really believe what I said -- that I need to love a person despite what they do? Did I practice what I preach when watching the events unfold that Friday night, as I joined more than 42 million people, watching and hoping for the capture of this young man who, along with his brother, had chosen to do something truly heinous? Did I love another as God loves all of us?

^195:9.6 Primitive man lived a life of superstitious bondage to religious fear. Modern, civilized men dread the thought of falling under the dominance of strong religious convictions. Thinking man has always feared to be held by a religion. When a strong and moving religion threatens to dominate him, he invariably tries to rationalize, traditionalize, and institutionalize it, thereby hoping to gain control of it. By such procedure, even a revealed religion becomes man-made and man-dominated. Modern men and women of intelligence evade the religion of Jesus because of their fears of what it will do to them—and with them. And all such fears are well founded. The religion of Jesus does, indeed, dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate their lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and requiring that the energies of living be consecrated to the unselfish service of the brotherhood of man.

VATICAN CITY — Lukewarm Christians try to build a Church that conforms to their own common sense and see too much risk in following Jesus, Pope Francis said.

“They are Christians of good sense only: They keep their distance. Christians, so to speak, who are ‘satellites,’ that have a Church small in size. To quote the words of Jesus in Revelation, (they are) ‘lukewarm Christians,’” the Pope said at the April 20 morning Mass in the chapel of St. Martha’s residence.

“They walk only in the presence of common sense. ... This is a temptation (to use) just worldly prudence,” he added.

^195:9.7 Selfish men and women simply will not pay such a price for even the greatest spiritual treasure ever offered mortal man. Only when man has become sufficiently disillusioned by the sorrowful disappointments attendant upon the foolish and deceptive pursuits of selfishness, and subsequent to the discovery of the barrenness of formalized religion, will he be disposed to turn wholeheartedly to the gospel of the kingdom, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.

"Chris and Sarah recently moved into a newly renovated two-bedroom apartment in Xining, a bustling Chinese city on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where they manage a small business and spread the teachings of Jesus Christ. The couple, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, are enthusiastic and devout. They say that they could stay for decades.

'I really love being in a place where, it's like, if you're an artist, and an artist comes in and sees a blank canvas, they go heck yes – they love creating something new, and that's how I feel,'said Sarah. 'That's not to say that there aren't times when I cry my eyes out and get discouraged, but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be, so we're going to find joy in the midst of difficulty.'

Chris and Sarah have a strong affinity for Tibetan culture, even if elements of Tibetan religion strike them as sinister or harsh: its icons, the shamanistic rituals, the draconian precepts of reincarnation. 'I love these people so much, and I feel like I … I want them to be free from fear,' said Sarah. God, she said, brought her overwhelming feelings of love and compassion – feelings she wanted her Tibetan friends to share. Yet so far, progress has been slow. 'You can't expect to go into this really rocky field and immediately plant corn,' she continued. 'It's going to take some time.' "

This is a modern-day story about missionary zeal and carrying the message of Jesus into all the world. See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

"Christians agree that the meaning of gospel is good news, but there is major disagreement about the content of that good news. Over the years on this subject, I have had a radical change of mind.

In Jesus, God accepted me into his holy family. With all my sins forgiven, I was assured that when I die, I would go to Heaven and live eternally as a citizen in the Kingdom of God. Escaping Hell and being promised eternal Heaven was the good news. It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is just the beginning of the story of one man's evolution of religious thought - and he's a Christian preacher. See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

In The Urantia Book, we learn a lot about the "good news." Read a condensation of its teachings HERE

Here's some of what Jesus had to say about the gospel, or good news:

John asked Jesus, "Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus answered: "The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God—to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation." ~ The Urantia Book, (140:10.9)

"Today, the unbelievers may taunt you with preaching a gospel of nonresistance and with living lives of nonviolence, but you are the first volunteers of a long line of sincere believers in the gospel of this kingdom who will astonish all mankind by their heroic devotion to these teachings. No armies of the world have ever displayed more courage and bravery than will be portrayed by you and your loyal successors who shall go forth to all the world proclaiming the good news—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. ~ Jesus, The Urantia Book, (143:1.7)

Saeed Abedini, 32, who is Iranian born, is expected to go on trial next week before a revolutionary tribunal in Tehran in a hearing presided over by a judge blacklisted by the European Union for handing down harsh verdicts.

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

Reading about this terrible turn of events reminds us that religious persecution is not something just relegated to ancient times. This situation is dire for this young pastor and his family, and it is a powerful testimony to the devotion of this follower of Jesus.

From the Teachings of Jesus:

^178:1.9 So long as the rulers of earthly governments seek to exercise the authority of religious dictators, you who believe this gospel can expect only trouble, persecution, and even death. But the very light which you bear to the world, and even the very manner in which you will suffer and die for this gospel of the kingdom, will, in themselves, eventually enlighten the whole world and result in the gradual divorcement of politics and religion. The persistent preaching of this gospel of the kingdom will some day bring to all nations a new and unbelievable liberation, intellectual freedom, and religious liberty.

^178:1.10 Under the soon-coming persecutions by those who hate this gospel of joy and liberty, you will thrive and the kingdom will prosper. But you will stand in grave danger in subsequent times when most men will speak well of kingdom believers and many in high places nominally accept the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. Learn to be faithful to the kingdom even in times of peace and prosperity. Tempt not the angels of your supervision to lead you in troublous ways as a loving discipline designed to save your ease-drifting souls.

It is the Season of Epiphany, beginning with the story of the Magi on Jan. 6, and continuing through the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Feb. 10. The liturgical, or historic, expressions of the Christian faith focus on the stories that make God “manifest” in Jesus. A simpler way to say that is to say, “if you want to see God, look at Jesus.”

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

...this minister has made a beautiful case for the statement: "He who has seen me has seen the Father," which was said by Jesus on numerous occasions.

There's a really good reason that the revelators of The Urantia Book tell us:

If you’re not the church going kind of person, or if you were but left because Christians are fake and self-absorbed, or if your main exposure to Christianity has been TV evangelists or the Tea party, you ought to see this movie.

Les Mis will help you see what the Bible means, and what the church at its best has meant, by “good news.”

Les Mis is a story of those who, through personal torment and pain, die (literally and figuratively) to save others.

All I can say is AMEN! Really loved this movie...See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

Jesus was the personification of self-sacrifice. In The Urantia Book, his teachings are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago:

On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer’s daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106. In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ.

It turns out that Jesus of Nazareth—the Messiah, worker of miracles and spiritual figurehead for one of the world’s foremost religions—did not die on the cross at Calvary, as widely reported. According to amusing local folklore, that was his kid brother, Isukiri, whose severed ear was interred in an adjacent burial mound in Japan.

In Shingo, the Greatest Story Ever Told is retold like this: Jesus first came to Japan at the age of 21 to study theology. This was during his so-called “lost years,” a 12-year gap unaccounted for in the New Testament. He landed at the west coast port of Amanohashidate, a spit of land that juts across Miyazu Bay, and became a disciple of a great master near Mount Fuji, learning the Japanese language and Eastern culture. At 33, he returned to Judea—by way of Morocco!—to talk up what a museum brochure calls the “sacred land” he had just visited.

See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.

In spite of the difficulties, people who seek truth - no matter where they live - are receptive to it, and do their best to form comprehendable stories for their culture...Jesus is the revelation of God for ALL peoples...

From The Urantia Book:

^195:10.15 These various groupings of Christians may serve to accommodate numerous different types of would-be believers among the various peoples of Western civilization, but such division of Christendom presents a grave weakness when it attempts to carry the gospel of Jesus to Oriental peoples. These races do not yet understand that there is a religion of Jesus separate, and somewhat apart, from Christianity, which has more and more become a religion about Jesus.

^92:6.18 The Christian religion is the religion about the life and teachings of Christ based upon the theology of Judaism, modified further through the assimilation of certain Zoroastrian teachings and Greek philosophy, and formulated primarily by three individuals: Philo, Peter, and Paul. It has passed through many phases of evolution since the time of Paul and has become so thoroughly Occidentalized that many non-European peoples very naturally look upon Christianity as a strange revelation of a strange God and for strangers.

"More and more Americans, especially young Americans, have developed a deep aversion to institutionalized religion. One fifth of the U.S. public and one third of adults under 30 no longer claim a religious affiliation.

This is a huge change. America was founded by devoted Protestants. Most American presidents have been Protestant—only one has been Catholic. Today, there are no Protestants on the Supreme Court. And for the first time, there were no Protestant nominees on the Republican presidential ticket.

This author is coming from a Biblical, Christian viewpoint, and it is easy to understand his dismay. Those who are entrenched in Biblical inerrancy and the institutionalized church have a great opportunity, though, to step out of the box and create churches and fellowships that will better serve the truthseekers, who are jaded, to say the least...

There is a wealth of teaching in The Urantia Book that can help with this, if one's mind is open to the real religion OF Jesus. Right now, the religions ABOUT him are on the wane, and with good reason:

WEAKNESS OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION

DENVER — American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide their congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.

Many participants used the word "contagious" to describe the feeling of a megachurch service where members arrive hungry for emotional experiences and leave energized. One church member said, "(T)he Holy Spirit goes through the crowd like a football team doing the wave. …Never seen it in any other church."

Wellman said, "That's what you see when you go into megachurches -- you see smiling people; people who are dancing in the aisles, and, in one San Diego megachurch, an interracial mix I've never seen anywhere in my time doing research on American churches. We see this experience of unalloyed joy over and over again in megachurches. That's why we say it's like a drug."