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 Post subject: New Member Saying Hi
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Hi

I just joined the forum and wanted to say hi. It did, in fact, take a lot of time and effort to join this forum due to various problems with the registering process, but thanks to MaryJo (who must have been getting just as frustrated as I was), I am now in. THANK YOU MARYJO!!!

I joined this forum as I have only just "discovered" the Urantia book after it was recommended to me by Amazon, following the purchase of a Bible. I read the description of the Urantia book and was intrigued by all it claims to discuss. I am sure I am going to have lots of questions about it. I made the mistake of trying to read the Foreword first, and I almost gave up on the book there and then. It just went way over my level of understanding. However, I persevered and now I am slowly reading Paper 1 - which is so much easier to read than the Foreword.

I have been a Christian since I was in my early twenties, and I am also an ex-Jehovah's Witness (having left that church/religion last year). Some of what I am reading in the Urantia Book is making the Christian in me a little uncomfortable, as it appears to go against what the Bible teaches. Interestingly enough I noticed one or two things that the Urantia book teaches that is in common with the Jehovah's Witness teachings, such as Jesus being Michael.

So, I am attempting to read the Urantia book from cover to cover, in Paper order, i.e., starting with Paper 1. I know that some suggest reading the Papers pertaining to Jesus first, whilst others suggest just dipping in here and there. However, the writers of the Urantia book seem to talk about God first, then branch out to other things, so I am doing the same. I have a little notebook in which I write points and questions as I read, for later study.

I am not sure if I am going to agree, or feel comfortable, with everything the Urantia book says, but I know this: I am going to have fun reading it. I will be asking questions on this fun. :)

So. Hello everybody!

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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Hello Myrm! And welcome!

I envy you. There was no more an astonishing time in my life than when I discovered the Urantia Book. But funny to note, it still astonishes me after three decades. It has been the wellspring of knowledge I've based my life and faith on. That plus my personal spiritual experiences which as the book reveals, occurs due to the fact that "God is within you." Within us all.

Happy reading!
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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nodAmanaV wrote:
Hello Myrm! And welcome!

I envy you. There was no more an astonishing time in my life than when I discovered the Urantia Book. But funny to note, it still astonishes me after three decades. It has been the wellspring of knowledge I've based my life and faith on. That plus my personal spiritual experiences which as the book reveals, occurs due to the fact that "God is within you." Within us all.

Happy reading!


Yes I totally agree with nodAmanaV, it hasn't been three decades for me, only a few years, but every time I read it I know I am barely scratching the surface. Happy reading from me as well!
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Myrm wrote:
Hi

I just joined the forum and wanted to say hi. It did, in fact, take a lot of time and effort to join this forum due to various problems with the registering process, but thanks to MaryJo (who must have been getting just as frustrated as I was), I am now in. THANK YOU MARYJO!!!

I joined this forum as I have only just "discovered" the Urantia book after it was recommended to me by Amazon, following the purchase of a Bible. I read the description of the Urantia book and was intrigued by all it claims to discuss. I am sure I am going to have lots of questions about it. I made the mistake of trying to read the Foreword first, and I almost gave up on the book there and then. It just went way over my level of understanding. However, I persevered and now I am slowly reading Paper 1 - which is so much easier to read than the Foreword.

I have been a Christian since I was in my early twenties, and I am also an ex-Jehovah's Witness (having left that church/religion last year). Some of what I am reading in the Urantia Book is making the Christian in me a little uncomfortable, as it appears to go against what the Bible teaches. Interestingly enough I noticed one or two things that the Urantia book teaches that is in common with the Jehovah's Witness teachings, such as Jesus being Michael.

So, I am attempting to read the Urantia book from cover to cover, in Paper order, i.e., starting with Paper 1. I know that some suggest reading the Papers pertaining to Jesus first, whilst others suggest just dipping in here and there. However, the writers of the Urantia book seem to talk about God first, then branch out to other things, so I am doing the same. I have a little notebook in which I write points and questions as I read, for later study.

I am not sure if I am going to agree, or feel comfortable, with everything the Urantia book says, but I know this: I am going to have fun reading it. I will be asking questions on this fun. :)

So. Hello everybody!


Congratulations on finding and recognizing this new revelation Myrm, that does indeed, reflect the best teachings of all Earthly systems of belief and faith. The Urantia Papers will eventually lift every religion in a rising tide of revealed truth and spiritual interest, like yours.

Welcome!

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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Hello Myrm, and welcome!
Thank you for joining the forum; it is always nice to have new voices in our midst. I completely understand about being overwhelmed with the Foreword - it is a difficult slog. I did the same as you and read the entire book from front to back without skipping anywhere. I am very glad I did. My approach was to think of it as body surfing on a huge ocean of truth and just allowing myself to float on top without worrying about trying to delve in and understand it the first time through. I resolved to just get through one page at a time, having faith that my understanding would grow slowly as I did so. And that's what happened. By the time I got to Part IV, I think my understanding of Jesus' life was that much richer for having been exposed to the previous papers, even without thoroughly comprehending it all. It's just so massive! We have to give ourselves space to float along; it's unlike any other book on earth!

Enjoy your reading. The first time is always very special; you will treasure the notes you are making now (I did that, too!).
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Hey Myrm...! So, so happy to see you posting here finally. And you are entirely welcome...it was a little thorny there, but all's well that ends well!

I still have my first UBook that I acquired in 1985. It's held together with duct tape and marked up with highlighter and margin notes galore. I love it so much...The Urantia Book changed my life.

Reading from front to back is a great experience and one that not everyone has right away - but doing that really gives one a view of the revelation that is pretty stunning. So, it's good to know you've decided to just wade in. I join with the other voices here and welcome you with an open heart! Looking forward to getting better acquainted.

MaryJo
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Welcome Myrm!!

May your personal spiritual adventure be blessed with the exhilaration of discovery and insights, and may you come to have that Divine assurance and joy as the fruits of the Spirit attend you as you experience and express truth, beauty, and goodness in your journey to Paradise!!

In many ways the first 5 Papers are a reiteration, with many added details, of the Jesusonian Gospel delivered to our world by the Master 2000 years ago. The good news of Jesus was about the nature of God....his paternal, loving, merciful, patient, gentle, caring, and nurturing personal relationship with all of creation and with each being within that creation. This nature of God and God's relationship to all of creation means that all beings are really one big family of brothers and sisters, all of whom and each of whom are beloved by God.

So while you are not beginning with the "Jesus Papers" or Part IV, you have indeed begun the Papers with the very good news Michael brought to our world as the Son of Man and the Son of God by reading Paper 1.

I wish you well as you encounter new concepts and a very expanded view and presentation of creation. What most readers find is that many things you believe now will find confirmations and elaborations that support your own experience and insights and faith. But you will also find concepts that are new or conflict with your preconceptions. I hope you will not be too disturbed or put off by such an inevitability. Experienced truth seekers become more comfortable, over time, with encountering new concepts for how can we learn and grow if we can only be comfortable with what we already know (or think we know) and believe?

The best thing for me about the Papers is their consistent teaching, front to back, that the true and effective religious experience is very personal and unique to each believer and that it is our faith in God and our personal relationship with God in prayer and worship that will see us into heaven and the eternal journey. Faith in God changes us. It makes us evaluate and adjust our motives and intentions and priorities and decisions and relationships in ways which also changes us even further as we become conduits of God's love and ministry to our fellows. This faith relationship trumps all other knowledge and beliefs.

Like most who discover the Papers, you are obviously already a faith child of God and a truth seeker and Paradise Pilgrim firmly upon the path to the eternal adventure. You will find others here who are also joyfully engaged in this glorious adventure! Please ask whatever questions you might have. But simply reading the Papers yourself will bring forth many answers to many questions and many new questions to consider as well!

There are several things about the Papers to know as you embark upon this reading and discovery: you will find a certain cadence or rhythm in the words over time that will make reading easier and more fluid; as the text delivers questions to mind, it also tends to answer or address them very soon in text to come (there is an inexplicable method at work which seems to anticipate questions); individual concepts from front to back are woven together to form a multi-dimensional tapestry or big picture of the aggregation and integration of all prior concepts or to use another analogy, it is like adding new instruments to a piece of music that grows into a full orchestra playing a symphony of harmony and melody - the parts seem to fit so well together into the total or whole; and finally, once you complete your first reading, any part of the Papers you revisit and reread will reveal new meanings that will come from the same words already read before. Marvelously, this never seems to diminish no matter how long or how many times you read the Papers.


The UB is not a religion. As I said, the Papers teach that true religion is personal. There is not a UB church. But many readers attend churches of many denominations for the benefits of community and congregation and group worship and the important socialization of personal religion - the Papers teach that association with other believers and religionists is a very good thing....whether in agreement with beliefs or creeds or not...fellowship is a good thing! So no student of the Papers should have any interest in convincing or converting anyone else.


But it is my hope you will find support and encouragement and patience and kindness here.


Bradly aka fanofVan 8) :biggrin:
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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:idea: 8)

Some favorite quotes on faith:

103:7.13 (1139.5) …..Faith is the act of recognizing the validity of spiritual consciousness—something which is incapable of other mortal proof....

103:8.4 (1140.4) If you truly believe in God—by faith know him and love him—do not permit the reality of such an experience to be in any way lessened or detracted from by the doubting insinuations of science, the caviling of logic, the postulates of philosophy, or the clever suggestions of well-meaning souls who would create a religion without God.

103:9.5 (1141.3) Although religious experience is a purely spiritual subjective phenomenon, such an experience embraces a positive and living faith attitude toward the highest realms of universe objective reality. The ideal of religious philosophy is such a faith-trust as would lead man unqualifiedly to depend upon the absolute love of the infinite Father of the universe of universes. Such a genuine religious experience far transcends the philosophic objectification of idealistic desire; it actually takes salvation for granted and concerns itself only with learning and doing the will of the Father in Paradise. The earmarks of such a religion are: faith in a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love, especially of one’s fellows.

103:9.6 (1141.4) When theology masters religion, religion dies; it becomes a doctrine instead of a life. The mission of theology is merely to facilitate the self-consciousness of personal spiritual experience. Theology constitutes the religious effort to define, clarify, expound, and justify the experiential claims of religion, which, in the last analysis, can be validated only by living faith. In the higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man’s highest human attainments. Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, spiritual experience.

103:9.7 (1141.5) Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH.

103:9.11 (1142.2) Faith leads to knowing God, not merely to a mystical feeling of the divine presence. Faith must not be overmuch influenced by its emotional consequences. True religion is an experience of believing and knowing as well as a satisfaction of feeling.

103:9.12 (1142.3) There is a reality in religious experience that is proportional to the spiritual content, and such a reality is transcendent to reason, science, philosophy, wisdom, and all other human achievements. The convictions of such an experience are unassailable; the logic of religious living is incontrovertible; the certainty of such knowledge is superhuman; the satisfactions are superbly divine, the courage indomitable, the devotions unquestioning, the loyalties supreme, and the destinies final—eternal, ultimate, and universal.

103:9.13 (1142.4) [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Hi Myrm,
When I first saw your note, I thought "oh my, I'd better write something wise and helpful."
But lots of folks have done that already, so I can relax and just say Hi to you, too!

One thing comes to mind. When I first read these papers, the was no internet, and no other students nearby.
So I was free simply to read the papers... without hearing opinions about the papers.
Myrm wrote:
"[...], but I know this: I am going to have fun reading it."

:biggrin:

PS: one thing we all enjoy here is fresh insights and new perspectives. So please, feel free to share!

Nigel


Last edited by nnunn on Fri Dec 07, 2018 7:03 am +0000, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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nnunn wrote:
... One thing comes to mind. When I first read these papers, the was no internet, and no other students nearby.
So I was free simply to read the papers... without hearing opinions about the papers...


Hi Nigel.

Yes, this is exactly how I want to read the Urantia Book. I also read the Bible every day and have done for many years. I like to study it but without reading any commentaries or study guides, as these, or so I perceive them to be, are the opinions of the author(s). They can be good for trying to get to the bottom of tricky/confusing Bible verses, but when consulting them I always keep in the back of my mind, This commentary/study guide is simply somebody’s opinion on the verse in question, so that I don’t get into the habit of receiving these guides as Thus saith the Lord!

I have seen that there is a study guide for the Urantia book by William Sadler (think I got that right) and what I like about that guide is that it is more bullet points taken from the Urantia book with little in the way of explanation; so I can read it after I have read each paper and use it as a sort of revision book. However, again, I am not taking it as, Thus saith the Urantia Book.

I do intend however, as I stated in my introduction above, to ask any questions I have on my reading and understanding of the Urantia Book in this forum, as there are people here who are far more experienced in reading the Urantia Book than I am. As I do with the Bible, I will compare what others say about the Urantia Book teachings with what the Urantia Book actually says. Somebody above mentioned that any questions I have about what the Urantia Book says will probably be answered later on in the same book, and this I find to be true about the Bible.

Thank you, Nigel, and indeed to everybody who has replied to my introduction; I have been made to feel most welcome.

PS> Do any of you underline or highlight passages in your Urantia Books? I confess to having a physical copy of the Urantia book, as well as a Kindle copy, the latter I can use to highlight passages.

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When I first started reading the book (on Kindle), I intended to highlight parts just as I do when I study any other book. But I quickly realized that every single word has significance; I would literally have to highlight almost every word. So I didn't highlight. Instead, I used the 'annotations' function on Kindle to note my reactions to what I read; questions; observations; and even sometimes 'argued' with the author. What turned out to be pretty funny was, whenever I would disagree with an author and write it down in my annotations, a couple of pages or maybe a paper or two later, I'd see that I had misunderstood and I would have to admit that I agreed with the author after all. :lol:
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 Post subject: Re: New Member Saying Hi
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Hello have you read the book of Joshua in the Old Testament of the Bible?
It has much information about how Joshua followed the traditions of Moses, and how the supposed twelve tribes settled on the land. It has information about the relationship between the Tribe of Josepha and the tribe of Judaha, which was a cultural reality even during the hellenic times of Rome. Judaha and Josepha became separate territories, one ruled by the Herodias dynasty, and the other governed by Pontius Pilate in the times of Jesus/Joshua of Nazareth.

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Greetings Myrm,

You sound like a person who is willing or even excited by the privilege of devoting time and effort to the inner life of walking as closely as possible with our creator.

I'll just mention that while you are reading through The Bible, there is a book called Paramony that gives a cross reference from The Bible to TUB and vice versa.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5018179-paramony

In my case I didn't read TUB from cover to cover until I had had it for 5 years. The first 5 years were easily taken up either by in depth studies of specific topics or by serendipity - just opening the book spontaneously and starting to read from which ever page happened to be open.
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Hi Riktare

Many thanks for the welcome and the recommednation of that book. I will be sure to check it out. :smile:

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