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Fri, April 13, 2012

What did Jesus do on Holy Saturday?

By DANIEL BURKE  

Every Christian knows the story: Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. But what did he do on Saturday?

That question has spurred centuries of debate, perplexed theologians as learned as St. Augustine and prodded some Protestants to advocate editing the Apostles' Creed, one of Christianity's oldest confessions of faith.

Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and most mainline Protestant churches teach that Jesus descended to the realm of the dead on Holy Saturday to save righteous souls, such as the Hebrew patriarchs who died before his crucifixion.

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

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Even the revelators of The Urantia Book have scant knowledge of what transpired between the Crucifixion on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday, but we do have this statement.

We know from Urantia Book teachings that there is no place called hell, so these conjectures by the revelators may be closer to the truth than anything else.

As for the thief on the cross:

^187:4.1 One of the brigands railed at Jesus, saying, “If you are the Son of God, why do you not save yourself and us?” But when he had reproached Jesus, the other thief, who had many times heard the Master teach, said: “Do you have no fear even of God? Do you not see that we are suffering justly for our deeds, but that this man suffers unjustly? Better that we should seek forgiveness for our sins and salvation for our souls.” When Jesus heard the thief say this, he turned his face toward him and smiled approvingly. When the malefactor saw the face of Jesus turned toward him, he mustered up his courage, fanned the flickering flame of his faith, and said, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And then Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say to you today, you shall sometime be with me in Paradise.”

Labels:  DANIEL BURKE   resurrection   Holy Saturday   Jesus   Christianity   religion   faith   belief  

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Fri, February 17, 2012

Spiritual Living: It's Not All So Serious

By Alice Grist  

When I started off pursuing a spiritual life I took it all rather too seriously. I believed that opening myself up to the divine meant holding myself to some super holy standards. I was setting myself up to fail. As a result I would torture myself over the smallest thing that did not fit some uber-important spiritual philosophy I had garnered from too many books, too many gurus. Time and time again I felt that I betrayed my self-inflicted soulful world with sins of a very human nature. It was a difficult place to be, an impossible standard was set and one that I came to realise almost negated the very point of me being a (soulful) human on this earth

In taking my spiritual self too seriously I nearly lost everything. I pushed people away and I denied my human self it's pleasures, it's fun, it's stress-relieving love of laughter. I became a spiritual shell, one surrounded by a core of self-inflicted dogma, but with very little going on inside. Rather than give up on a soulful life, I decided to reengage my spiritual sensors, alter my spiritual philosophy and live with my humanity at the heart of my quest.

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

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As is often the case, The Urantia Book has additional wisdom which corroborates this blogger's experience...

48:6.37 You will learn that you increase your burdens and decrease the likelihood of success by taking yourself too seriously. Nothing can take precedence over the work of your status sphere—this world or the next. Very important is the work of preparation for the next higher sphere, but nothing equals the importance of the work of the world in which you are actually living. But though the work is important, the self is not. When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the work. Self-importance, not work-importance, exhausts immature creatures; it is the self element that exhausts, not the effort to achieve. You can do important work if you do not become self-important; you can do several things as easily as one if you leave yourself out. Variety is restful; monotony is what wears and exhausts. Day after day is alike—just life or the alternative of death. 

Additionally, you might like to see what The Urantia Book has to say about the value of HUMOR...

Labels:  Alice Grist   humor   enlightenment   spirituality   religion   faith   belief   enjoyment   happiness   

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Fri, January 27, 2012

How Many Americans are Atheists? Fewer than You Might Think.

By Bradley Wright  

There is confusion in popular discussion about how many Americans are atheists. Here I review how many Americans are atheists, and why there are such varying estimates of this number.

Short answer: 3%-5% of Americans are atheists.

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

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We don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but since The Urantia Book is fully grounded in spirituality and religion, the idea of atheism runs counter to its teachings. But it gives good and sufficient reasons that atheism falls short as a philosophy of life.

From The Urantia Book:

^56:10.3 Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty—cosmology—you all too often limit to the study of man’s crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts. Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The supreme beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama of the unification of the vastness of the cosmic extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God and God finding man—the creature becoming perfect as is the Creator—that is the supernal achievement of the supremely beautiful, the attainment of the apex of cosmic art.

Hence materialism, atheism, is the maximation of ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of the beautiful. Highest beauty consists in the panorama of the unification of the variations which have been born of pre-existent harmonious reality.

Labels:  Bradley Wright   atheism   Urantia Book   survey   religion   faith   belief   Americans   God   agnosticism  

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Fri, January 06, 2012

BOOK REVIEW: Connecting God and science

By Kent Davy  

This is a good read - an interesting book about a very interesting man.

Maybe he understands some of the principles that The Urantia Book teaches about SCIENCE

Labels:  Kent Davy   John Polkinghorne   God   science   religion   physics   belief   quarks   priesthood   Quantum Leap   Urantia Book  

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Fri, January 06, 2012

BOOKS: Maine writer asks, "WHAT COMES NEXT?"

By Kennebec Journal  

Labels:  life after death   eternity   Book review   Maureen Milliken   The Afterlife Survey   belief   Urantia Book  

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Fri, January 06, 2012

Man Seeks God: A Guide To World Religions

By Eric Weiner  

We are a spiritually promiscuous nation. Nearly one out of three Americans will change their religious affiliation over the course of their lifetime. And why not? We are blessed with more religious and spiritual choices than ever before in human history. Everything from Sufism to Buddhism to Unitarian Universalism is available, often only a mouse click away. But how to choose? There is no Consumer Reports for world religions. That's a shame.

After a health scare, I embarked on a worldwide search for a faith that fits. I spent the past three years diving waist-deep into several of the world's major religions -- and a few minor ones as well. I explored a variety pack of faiths: monotheistic, polytheistic and even atheistic ones. I journeyed to the source of each religion, traveling to Kathmandu for Buddhism to Israel for Kabbalah, to China for Taoism. Along the way, I reached some conclusions about the appeal, and drawbacks, that each religion offers. Here is my informal guide to five of my favorite faiths. Not exactly a Consumer Reports, but close.

Buddhism

Sufism

Franciscan Catholics

Kabbalah

Taoism

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

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Of course, when you click below, you'll be able to  read the author's evaluation of all these religions in the body of the article

If you "search" the word Buddhism in The Urantia Book, you'll get a wealth of hits, but please see Buddhism, Judaism, and Taoism as well..

The wonderful thing about following the teachings of The Urantia Book - most specifically the religion of Jesus, is that one can feel quite comfortable in the confines of many schools of religious thought and certainly in the fellowship of truthseeking religionists. 

Labels:  Eric Weiner   religion   Buddhism   Taoism   Wicca   Catholicism   Kabbalah   Judaism   Urantia Book   faith   belief   spirituality  

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Sun, January 01, 2012

For many, 'Losing My Religion' isn't just a song: It's life

By Cathy Lynn Grossman  

When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under "religion" he called himself "spiritually apathetic."

Sunday mornings, when Bill Dohm turns his eyes toward heaven, he's just checking the weather so he can fly his 1946 Aeronca Champ two-seater plane.

Helton, 28, and Dohm, 54, aren't atheists, either. They simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose.

Their attitude could be summed up as "So what?"

Hemant Mehta, who blogs as The Friendly Atheist, calls them them "apatheists."

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

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This is an article that is well-worth reading, as it gives a snapshot of a different slice of religion in America.

And from The Urantia Book:

^133:0.3 Said Jesus: “Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not. Those who cannot know God are reckoned among the animals of any given realm. Mankind can appropriately be divided into many classes in accordance with differing qualifications, as they may be viewed physically, mentally, socially, vocationally, or morally, but as these different classes of mortals appear before the judgment bar of God, they stand on an equal footing; God is truly no respecter of persons. Although you cannot escape the recognition of differential human abilities and endowments in matters intellectual, social, and moral, you should make no such distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of men when assembled for worship in the presence of God.”

Labels:  Cathy Lynn Grossman   religion   apatheists   belief   faith   spirituality   spiritual interest   God     

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Fri, December 23, 2011

Most Americans believe in angels

By Kate Shellnutt  

Those heavenly hosts we sing about at Christmastime remain a real presence for the majority of Americans, and nearly all Christians, who believe in angels.

An Associated Press poll conducted this month found that at least three in four adults think angels exist.

Belief levels were highest among evangelicals (95 percent) and those attending religious services weekly (94 percent).

And it’s not just angels, either. America’s one of the most religious developed nations and we have an inkling for the supernatural of all kinds, it seems.

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Please click HERE for the rest of the article...

We sure believe in angels, too - and with good reason...they really DO exist!!!

And, at this most celestial of seasons, we hope you'll visit our ANGEL PAGE to find out more about our heavenly helpers...

92:5.5 "... there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary man for help from above and beyond."

Also, you might like to see our topical study on the SUPERNATURAL

Labels:  Kate Shellnutt   angels   Urantia Book   spirituality   religion   supernatural   belief   faith  

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Fri, December 23, 2011

Book review: 'Beyond Religion' by the Dalai Lama

By Louis Sahagun  

After a lifetime of Buddhist reflection, he suggests that religion is tea to the water of compassion. Tea is nutritious, water essential.

For most of his 76 years, the 14th Dalai Lama has been the spiritual light for followers of Tibetan Buddhism, his every word parsed for guidance to living a better, more fulfilling life. Awarded the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, the Dalai Lama has been an outspoken advocate for compassion, meditation and religious tolerance.

Now, as he steps down as leader of Tibet, the perpetually smiling monk in saffron and burgundy robes makes in "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World" what some may regard as a heretical pronouncement: You don't need religion to lead a happy and ethical life.

Amid the clash of global, multicultural societies and religious values today, he argues in his new book that what is more important is "an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally accessible to those with faith and those without; a secular ethics."

A metaphor the Dalai Lama likes to use goes like this: The difference between ethics and religion is like the difference between water and tea. Ethics without religious content is water, a critical requirement for health and survival. Ethics grounded in religion is tea, a nutritious and aromatic blend of water, tea leaves, spices, sugar and, in Tibet, a pinch of salt.

"But however the tea is prepared, the primary ingredient is always water," he says. "While we can live without tea, we can't live without water. Likewise, we are born free of religion, but we are not born free of the need for compassion."

This is anything but a book denouncing faith. But some readers, particularly those with strong religious beliefs, are bound to find the Dalai Lama's argument troubling...

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Please see HERE to read the rest of the review.

And, here is an interesting section from The Urantia Book about Buddhism:

The God Concept of Buddhism

Here's what Jesus said about Buddhism, from The Urantia Book:

^132:7.3 It was on the visit to Switzerland, up in the mountains, that Jesus had an all-day talk with both father and son about Buddhism. Many times Ganid had asked Jesus direct questions about Buddha, but he had always received more or less evasive replies. Now, in the presence of the son, the father asked Jesus a direct question about Buddha, and he received a direct reply. Said Gonod: “I would really like to know what you think of Buddha.” And Jesus answered:

 “Your Buddha was much better than your Buddhism. Buddha was a great man, even a prophet to his people, but he was an orphan prophet; by that I mean that he early lost sight of his spiritual Father, the Father in heaven. His experience was tragic. He tried to live and teach as a messenger of God, but without God. Buddha guided his ship of salvation right up to the safe harbor, right up to the entrance to the haven of mortal salvation and there, because of faulty charts of navigation, the good ship ran aground. There it has rested these many generations, motionless and almost hopelessly stranded. And thereon have many of your people remained all these years. They live within hailing distance of the safe waters of rest, but they refuse to enter because the noble craft of the good Buddha met the misfortune of grounding just outside the harbor. And the Buddhist peoples never will enter this harbor unless they abandon the philosophic craft of their prophet and seize upon his noble spirit. Had your people remained true to the spirit of Buddha, you would have long since entered your haven of spirit tranquillity, soul rest, and assurance of salvation.

“You see, Gonod, Buddha knew God in spirit but failed clearly to discover him in mind; the Jews discovered God in mind but largely failed to know him in spirit. Today, the Buddhists flounder about in a philosophy without God, while my people are piteously enslaved to the fear of a God without a saving philosophy of life and liberty. You have a philosophy without a God; the Jews have a God but are largely without a philosophy of living as related thereto. Buddha, failing to envision God as a spirit and as a Father, failed to provide in his teaching the moral energy and the spiritual driving power which a religion must possess if it is to change a race and exalt a nation.”

Labels:  Louis Sahagun   Buddhism   religion   belief   spirituality   Dalai Lama   compassion   ethics   Urantia Book   Jesus  

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Fri, December 23, 2011

How would discovery of life on another planet affect religion here?

By JOHN HILTON  

York, PA - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. - Genesis 1, New American Standard Bible Nearly everyone is familiar with the opening verse of Genesis on how Earth came to be. In John 1:3, the Bible leaves no doubt about God's role in creating life:

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

But what if life exists somewhere else in the universe? If that happens, can it still be said that mankind is unique -- made in the image of God?

The idea is no longer the recycled plot of a bad science fiction film. NASA recently discovered an Earth-like planet outside the solar system that could support life.

Eyed through the Kepler space telescope, Kepler-22b has a surface temperature of 72 degrees, scientists say, and is the best candidate yet for a life-bearing world beyond our solar system.

If researchers find intelligent life forms who have never heard of Jesus Christ, Mohammed or Buddha, what does that mean for religious belief systems?

After all, the Catholic Church persecuted Galileo for suggesting that the Earth orbited the sun, not the other way around, as the church was teaching in the 17th century. It wasn't until 1992 that the church publicly exonerated the Italian astronomer.

 
Did Jesus die for Klingons?

Several surveys and polls indicate that religious beliefs would remain largely unchanged by planetary discoveries. Yet, theologians who gathered in September for an Orlando conference sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency say potential issues of faith exist.

In particular, Christians might have difficulty because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe, concluded speakers such as philosophy professor Christian Weidemann of Germany's Ruhr-University.

In his talk, titled "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?" the professor discussed the conflict between Christianity and extraterrestrial life. Namely, why would Jesus Christ have come to Earth, of all possible inhabited planets in the universe, to save Earthlings over the rest of God's creatures?

In remarks reported by MSNBC, Weidemann, a self-described Protestant Christian, suggested some possible solutions. It's possible that extraterrestrials aren't sinners, like humans, and aren't in need of saving.

Or God incarnated multiple times, sending a version of himself down to save each inhabited planet separately, Weidemann said.

Lee Barrett, professor of theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary, said he disagrees with Weidemann's interpretations. The Bible is addressed to us specifically, he said, but what we know does not preclude what we don't know.

"The idea that if there are other life forms and they should have been revealed to us, I think that's mistaken," Barrett said.

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Please see THIS LINK to read this lengthy article, complete with commentary from several religious leaders...

Said Jesus, from The Urantia Book:

^140:6.8"...Also must you remember that I have sheep not of this flock, and that I am beholden to them also, to the end that I must provide for them the pattern of doing the will of God while living the life of the mortal nature."

^188:4.6 Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the races of this one world. While the mortals of the realms had salvation even before Jesus lived and died on Urantia, it is nevertheless a fact that his bestowal on this world greatly illuminated the way of salvation; his death did much to make forever plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh.

^188:5.13 We know that the death on the cross was not to effect man’s reconciliation to God but to stimulate man’s realization of the Father’s eternal love and his Son’s unending mercy, and to broadcast these universal truths to a whole universe.

^1:0.1 THE UNIVERSAL FATHER is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of all things and beings. First think of God as a creator, then as a controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the Universal Father had begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said: “You, God, are alone; there is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons of God were the universes made. The Creator covers himself with light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens as a curtain.” Only the concept of the Universal Father—one God in the place of many gods—enabled mortal man to comprehend the Father as divine creator and infinite

Labels:  JOHN HILTON   extraterrestrials   God   Urantia Book   religion   Jesus   astronomy   planets   belief     

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