Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:15 pm +0000 Posts: 232
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It is most distressing when the Urantia Book goes to so much trouble to express pertinent information and it is wasted on the blind, deaf and dumb, to look deep enough into its words to find the corresponding factors which exhibits the “apparently contradictory nature” as a paradox between human nature and God and Nature, or the Nature of God.
(28)”Of all the dangers which beset man’s mortal nature and jeopardize his spiritual integrity, pride is the greatest.”
But “pride” in what?
(02)”Man is a part of nature — he exists in nature — and yet he is able to transcend nature.”
If we live in God, and we exist in God, do we have the right to “transcend” (to rise above or go beyond) the nature of God, through arrogant pride because, we are God’s children? (26)”It is only natural that mortal man should be harassed by feelings of insecurity as he views himself inextricably bound to nature while he possesses spiritual powers wholly transcendent to all things temporal and finite.”
Therefore we know that we are inherently “bound” to God, but are we “going beyond ordinary limits” to be “concerned with the present life” on “this world”, without thinking that we, “having bounds or limits”, to nature, that we can waist God’s nature, to the point of extinction?
(08)"On material levels man finds himself subservient to nature, while on spiritual levels he is triumphant over nature and over all things temporal and finite."
Yes, we are “acting in a subordinate capacity”, and think that on “material levels” we have a right to take the nature of God, for granted, by the way we triumph over God’s nature, by rebuilding after natural disasters, but do we really understand the nature of God’s message?
(07)"The mortal dilemma consists in the double fact that man is in bondage to nature while at the same time he possesses a unique liberty — freedom of spiritual choice and action."
So why do we continue to choose and act as if God’s nature resides within us instead of we who live within the nature of God’s spiritual abode?
(05)"The courage required to effect the conquest of nature and to transcend one’s self is a courage that might succumb to the temptations of self-pride."
The courage needed to say no to “pride in one's abilities, status, possessions, etc.; self-esteem” to think that we can continue to plunder the nature of God, as ours to do with as we will, will lead to nature’s power and strength to continue to overwhelm the pride in human nature, through the balancing action of the nature of God.
(23)"Man can find the love of God without facts, and man can discover the laws of God without love, but man can never begin to appreciate the infinite symmetry, the supernal harmony, the exquisite repleteness of the all-inclusive nature of the First Source and Center until he has found divine law and divine love and has experientially unified these in his own evolving cosmic philosophy."
God’s nature is like a program which reacts to problems and continues to create difficulties until human nature understands that “divine law” is like Mother Nature, in that she is programed to survive, and compensate for the material evolution of the human nature to take what they want without giving back, or replenishing the resources bestowed upon the planet from which we have taken to live, luxurious lives for but a few, who have far to much and give nothing back in return.
Quote: 2. God and Nature
(56.5) 4:2.1 Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. The conduct, or action, of God is qualified and provisionally modified by the experimental plans and the evolutionary patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a system, or a planet. God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging, immutable law throughout the wide-spreading master universe; but he modifies the patterns of his action so as to contribute to the co-ordinate and balanced conduct of each universe, constellation, system, planet, and personality in accordance with the local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of evolutionary unfolding.
(56.6) 4:2.2 Therefore, nature, as mortal man understands it, presents the underlying foundation and fundamental background of a changeless Deity and his immutable laws, modified by, fluctuating because of, and experiencing upheavals through, the working of the local plans, purposes, patterns, and conditions which have been inaugurated and are being carried out by the local universe, constellation, system, and planetary forces and personalities. For example: As God’s laws have been ordained in Nebadon, they are modified by the plans established by the Creator Son and Creative Spirit of this local universe; and in addition to all this the operation of these laws has been further influenced by the errors, defaults, and insurrections of certain beings resident upon your planet and belonging to your immediate planetary system of Satania.
(56.7) 4:2.3 Nature is a time-space resultant of two cosmic factors: first, the immutability, perfection, and rectitude of Paradise Deity, and second, the experimental plans, executive blunders, insurrectionary errors, incompleteness of development, and imperfection of wisdom of the extra-Paradise creatures, from the highest to the lowest. Nature therefore carries a uniform, unchanging, majestic, and marvelous thread of perfection from the circle of eternity; but in each universe, on each planet, and in each individual life, this nature is modified, qualified, and perchance marred by the acts, the mistakes, and the disloyalties of the creatures of the evolutionary systems and universes; and therefore must nature ever be of a changing mood, whimsical withal, though stable underneath, and varied in accordance with the operating procedures of a local universe.
(57.1) 4:2.4 Nature is the perfection of Paradise divided by the incompletion, evil, and sin of the unfinished universes. This quotient is thus expressive of both the perfect and the partial, of both the eternal and the temporal. Continuing evolution modifies nature by augmenting the content of Paradise perfection and by diminishing the content of the evil, error, and disharmony of relative reality.
(57.2) 4:2.5 God is not personally present in nature or in any of the forces of nature, for the phenomenon of nature is the superimposition of the imperfections of progressive evolution and, sometimes, the consequences of insurrectionary rebellion, upon the Paradise foundations of God’s universal law. As it appears on such a world as Urantia, nature can never be the adequate expression, the true representation, the faithful portrayal, of an all-wise and infinite God.
(57.3) 4:2.6 Nature, on your world, is a qualification of the laws of perfection by the evolutionary plans of the local universe. What a travesty to worship nature because it is in a limited, qualified sense pervaded by God; because it is a phase of the universal and, therefore, divine power! Nature also is a manifestation of the unfinished, the incomplete, the imperfect outworkings of the development, growth, and progress of a universe experiment in cosmic evolution.
(57.4) 4:2.7 The apparent defects of the natural world are not indicative of any such corresponding defects in the character of God. Rather are such observed imperfections merely the inevitable stop-moments in the exhibition of the ever-moving reel of infinity picturization. It is these very defect-interruptions of perfection-continuity which make it possible for the finite mind of material man to catch a fleeting glimpse of divine reality in time and space. The material manifestations of divinity appear defective to the evolutionary mind of man only because mortal man persists in viewing the phenomena of nature through natural eyes, human vision unaided by morontia mota or by revelation, its compensatory substitute on the worlds of time.
(57.5) 4:2.8 And nature is marred, her beautiful face is scarred, her features are seared, by the rebellion, the misconduct, the misthinking of the myriads of creatures who are a part of nature, but who have contributed to her disfigurement in time. No, nature is not God. Nature is not an object of worship.
Quote: (769.8) 68:6.3 Human society is controlled by a law which decrees that the population must vary directly in accordance with the land arts and inversely with a given standard of living. Throughout these early ages, even more than at present, the law of supply and demand as concerned men and land determined the estimated value of both. During the times of plentiful land — unoccupied territory — the need for men was great, and therefore the value of human life was much enhanced; hence the loss of life was more horrifying. During periods of land scarcity and associated overpopulation, human life became comparatively cheapened so that war, famine, and pestilence were regarded with less concern.
(770.1) 68:6.4 When the land yield is reduced or the population is increased, the inevitable struggle is renewed; the very worst traits of human nature are brought to the surface. The improvement of the land yield, the extension of the mechanical arts, and the reduction of population all tend to foster the development of the better side of human nature.
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