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A further consideration is the stated hope of the authors that their offering will help to catalyze the metamorphosis of Christianity from a religion of authority, one that is largely dependent on the infallibility or near infallibility ascribed to the Gospels and apostolic letters of the New Testament, to a religion of the spirit that discovers its authority and meaning in the personal relationships of individual Christians with their indwelling spirit of Deity. Religion of the spirit, as described in the Urantia Papers (Paper 155, Sections 5 & 6), could never be either authoritarian or infallible.
"Ecclesiasticism is at once and forever incompatible with that living faith, growing spirit, and firsthand experience of the faith-comrades of Jesus in the brotherhood of man in the spiritual association of the kingdom of heaven. The praiseworthy desire to preserve traditions of past achievement often leads to the defense of outgrown systems of worship. The well-meant desire to foster ancient thought systems effectually prevents the sponsoring of new and adequate means and methods designed to satisfy the spiritual longings of the expanding and advancing minds of modern men. Likewise, the Christian churches of the twentieth century stand as great, but wholly unconscious obstacles to the immediate advance of the real gospel--the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. (P. 2084)
"'The kingdom of God is within you' was probably the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit." (P. 2084)
References
1. Dr W.S. Sadler (editor) History of the Urantia Movement.
2. Larry Mullins with Dr. M.J. Sprunger. (2000) A History of the Urantia Papers. (Penumbra Press, Boulder.)
3. Ernest P. Moyer. (2000) The Birth of a Divine Revelation. (Moyer Publishing, Hanover Pa)
4. Bryan Appleyard, Understanding the Present.
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