Q: How can I know The Urantia Book is not a temptation from the devil or some evil forces? I am a Catholic; I was told this is the only religion.
A: Thanks for your note to Truthbook, a site dedicated to the teachings of The Urantia Book.
When we hold the beliefs of some particular religion, we can become frightened into thinking that any deviation from that theology is dangerous; it is then natural that we look upon anything new as suspect—even evil—and to be avoided. This can be true even though our inner spirit may testify to us that we have found something quite wonderful. Fear can hold us back from embracing new truth.
How do we know that The Urantia Book is not of the devil or from other “evil forces?”
Knowledge is power—one of the best features of The Urantia Book is a complete and factual exploration of Lucifer, Satan, and various other evil personalities who have so negatively impacted our planet. The expose is anything but favorable for them. If The Urantia Book was meant to tempt someone into sympathy for these beings, it could be considered a failure in that regard…
However, the overwhelming teachings of The Urantia Book surround the fact that man is a child of God and is a valued member of the family of this loving Father-God. In addition, one of the cornerstone teachings of The Urantia Book is that you carry a part of God himself within your mind, which forever ennobles you as a being of eternal status whose destiny is to one day reunite with that Source of all goodness on Paradise. One of the functions of this Divine fragment is to guide you into a knowledge of God’s will, and to help you to develop an immortal soul. This concept can hardly be considered a temptation of the devil, for the devil does not lead men to God.
Your question might have been sent from any number of people who have been told that their religion is “the only religion.” Reason tells us that not all of these claims can be correct.
Is there only one true religion? The Urantia Book states:
(143:7.2) True religion is the act of an individual soul in its self-conscious relations with the Creator; organized religion is man’s attempt to socialize the worship of individual religionists.
If that was the extent of organized religion’s attempts to reach the truth-seeker, there would be no conflict, but often, the organization also teaches retribution of some sort if the faithful person should question or abandon this teaching. This retribution is usually in the form of eternal damnation. This could be the source of your uneasiness about any other teaching being of a possibly “evil” source.
Any serious study of The Urantia Book will deliver you from these kinds of fears. You harbor within yourself an unerring guide for discerning truth. It is the Spirit that Jesus sent when he left the earth—the promised helper and Comforter. To be safe, always approach any study of a religious text with a prayer for discernment, asking that Jesus be your guide. In this way, you can’t ever be “tempted” into a false belief, for Jesus will ever be faithful to your trust in him. Fear not…” Divine truth is best known by its spiritual flavor.”
While the teachings of The Urantia Book do not promote any particular church as superior to any other, an affiliation with a God-centered church is entirely compatible with a belief in Urantia Book concepts. Many Urantia Book readers are practicing Catholics; however, the truthseeker must know that the only “true” religion is in the realm of personal spiritual experience, and this is the only religion that Jesus ever taught.
I suggest that you read Jesus’ Discourses on True Religion HERE
In this section we learn that:
“Jesus made it clear that the great difference between the religion of the mind and the religion of the spirit is that, while the former is upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the latter is wholly based on human experience.”
The Catholic Church, along with many other organized and institutionalized religions, constitutes a religion of the mind—a religion of authority. From this information, and after reading the above Discourses of Jesus, you should be able to form a personally meaningful resolution to the issue regarding the exclusive truth claimed by the Catholic Church.
You may remember that Jesus himself was accused of being in league with the devil during his ministry by people who were desperate to discredit him. His ideas were so revolutionary because they threatened the authority of the religious institutions of his time—so much so, that they eventually murdered him for espousing these liberating ideas to the people. Why? Because the religion of the spirit—true religion—forever leaves the individual religionist free to embrace the truth wherever s/he may find it;
“…true religion is delivered from the custody of priests and all sacred classes and finds its real manifestation in the individual souls of men.”
Jesus’ teachings are revolutionary today, too. The religion of Jesus still threatens the religions of authority, and sometimes people dismiss it out of fear of some imagined retribution because of what they have been told. The only real proof that you will ever be able to find about any truth is to use your own discernment to separate fact from fantasy. If you can suspend your fears and open your mind, you will find your sincere search for truth rewarded.
Finally, I leave you with this encouraging passage regarding God, and religion:
(2:6.1) In the physical universe we may see the divine beauty, in the intellectual world we may discern eternal truth, but the goodness of God is found only in the spiritual world of personal religious experience. In its true essence, religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God. God could be great and absolute, somehow even intelligent and personal, in philosophy, but in religion God must also be moral; he must be good. Man might fear a great God, but he trusts and loves only a good God. This goodness of God is a part of the personality of God, and its full revelation appears only in the personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.
Thanks again for writing. I hope this answer has been of help to you.
