Thanks for writing to us here at TruthBook with your question. You asked:

Do we have to believe both the Bible and the Urantia Book?

There are many people in churches and religions who will tell you that you must believe in the Bible. And many people do believe wholeheartedly that everything in the Bible is true and infallible.

And many people believe wholeheartedly in The Urantia Book and its wonderful teachings…but is there some kind of requirement that we HAVE TO believe in one or the other – or any book of writings?

We should never make any book into a fetish – and The Urantia Book warns us against this. If you have read very much of The Urantia Book, you will already know that the Father in heaven does not ever expect you to believe anything that you don’t want to believe – anything that offends your sense of truth, goodness, justice, or beauty, for example. But the revelations of the Father, the revelations of the wonders of the cosmos, the revelation of the life and teachings of Jesus – these things are presented in such a beautiful way that most who read them are led to belief – led to faith. And readers are educated about the “supreme authority” of the religion of personal spiritual experience – that sublime experience of gaining real inner proof that God is real and that his spirit lives within us. That inner experience can tell us that what we have chosen to believe is correct

Nowhere in The Urantia Book are we warned or frightened into believing something – even believing in God is a matter of our personal choosing – he never forces us – but there is this passage that explains it this way:

101:1.7 Thus it may be seen that religious longings and spiritual urges are not of such a nature as would merely lead men to want to believe in God, but rather are they of such nature and power that men are profoundly impressed with the conviction that they ought to believe in God. The sense of evolutionary duty and the obligations consequent upon the illumination of revelation make such a profound impression upon man’s moral nature that he finally reaches that position of mind and that attitude of soul where he concludes that he has no right not to believe in God. The higher and superphilosophic wisdom of such enlightened and disciplined individuals ultimately instructs them that to doubt God or distrust his goodness would be to prove untrue to the realest and deepest thing within the human mind and soul—the divine Adjuster.

To me, that is one of the greatest revelations of The Urantia Book – and maybe it’s in the Bible, too. In the end, it seems to be that both of these books are way-showers to the Father, and Jesus – that is their main purpose. They point us in the right direction. It’s not the book as much as what the book inspires in the heart of the reader that is important.

In my opinion, the most important thing to believe in is God and his indwelling Spirit – and that belief can be gained without any outside influence like a book, through personal experience. When we have connected with that good guiding Spirit-within, we are then free to go where the truth of our own inner understanding takes us. And let’s not forget Jesus’ Spirit of Truth, always helping us recognize the truth…

So, to answer your question: In my opinion: no, we do not have to believe in either one unless we choose to do so. In my opinion, there should be no penalty for not believing words on a page. It is time in our development to put aside pronouncements that people MUST believe this or that; it’s time to cultivate the religion of personal spiritual experience – the religion of Jesus – and from that foundation, we can be sure to make the right choices in belief because we will then be guided by God himself and Jesus Spirit of Truth, aided by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as we hear his leadings from deep within our own hearts. And we will be rewarded by that most sublime inner certainty that we are indeed, believing the right thing, no matter where we find it – in the Bible, or in The Urantia Book – or somewhere else!

Thanks again for writing with your question; I hope that this reply has been helpful.