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"Let There Be Light."
"When once you grasp the idea of God as a true and loving Father, the only concept which Jesus ever taught, you must forthwith, in all consistency, utterly abandon all those primitive notions about God....The infinite love of God is not secondary to anything in the divine nature." (2017)
This statement may introduce one of the most important concepts in The Urantia Book for the current needs of our planet.
The resurrection of a religion is dependent on it embracing a true belief about the nature of God. A wrong belief will lead it far astray. The religions of man falter and founder on the rocks of false concepts about the nature of God.
A concept that has plagued Christianity from very early times is that a perfectly just and perfectly righteous God is obligated to reward virtue and punish sin. Otherwise his perfection as a judge would be jeopardized.
Jesus said, "What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, would give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish would give him a water snake. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him."
If reality is that God is a true and loving Father, then anything inconsistent with that actuality cannot be true.
In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus portrayed the father as one who went out to welcome his returning son before the boy even had the opportunity to beg for forgiveness. Likewise in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus indicates that God is one who actively goes out to find and rescue the lost sinner. In the story of the laborers in the vineyard, Jesus indicates that God's mercy and love transcends his obligations as a judge. God does not discipline his children by the reward or punishment system that we use to train animals. He gives us the free will choice to embrace his perfect goodness as our ideal, but on a purely voluntary basis.
Christianity is not all that far off track. The presentation to Christianity of these biblical facts about the true nature of God in an appropriate and positive manner has the potential to correct all of its important inconsistencies. Thus The Urantia Book draws our attention to how the 4th Epochal Revelation can be revitalized to achieve the original task of our Master.
In a nutshell, the lesson that Chistianity now needs to learn is that Jesus revealed God as a gracious and compassionate Father whose love and mercy as a Father transcended his justice and righteousness as a judge. This concept of God automatically corrects serious error not just in Christianity but in all religion. For the present age, it is a major need.
Not that there are no Christians who are intimately familiar with the God portrayed by Jesus in The Urantia Book. In a recent episode of the British Broadcasting Commission's production, "Songs of Praise," in an episode featuring the 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich, a delightful little old priest was interviewed who required absolutely no lessons at all about a God whose love far transcended his wrath. The message just needs to become general.
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