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Positivism--The Only Way
In Part 4 of The Urantia Book, there are not less than thirty repetitions of Jesus' advocacy of the "positive" way. The book tells us that it was Jesus' habit to refrain from placing emphasis on evil by forbidding or actively opposing it. In contrast, he exalted the good by commanding its performance. "Goodness," says the book, "is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth values of the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart--the shadows of potential evil. (1458)
The book tells us that we are are endowed with the congenital power to choose between truth and error, the latter being the negative of the positive way of light and life. But whereas truth is a positive spiritual value, its negative has no real existence--until such time as an intelligent creature wills that existence by mischoosing that which is contrary to the nature of God. (1429) Thus to fight against those things we conceive to be error is to join the army of a Don Quixote and pass our lives tilting at non-existent windmills.
On so many occasions, Jesus not only himself refused to fight against perceived error but he also asked his disciples to do likewise. One slightly different but highly significant occasion was when John approached him in a highly emotional state to announce, "Master, yesterday I went over to Ashtaroth to see a man who was teaching in your name and even claiming to be able to cast out devils. Now this fellow had never been with us, neither does he follow after us; therefore I forbade him to do such things." Then said Jesus: "Forbid him not."
Jesus went on to explain to John, "Do you not perceive that this gospel of the kingdom shall presently be proclaimed in all the world? How can you expect that all who will believe the gospel shall be subject to your direction? Rejoice that already our teaching has begun to manifest itself beyond the bounds of our personal influence."
The next part of this conversation is of enormous importance to all who would learn the positive way. Jesus tells John that all those who profess to do good works in his name shall be reckoned as being with them, even though this meant that whatever they did would be outside the jurisdiction and control of the apostolic group. The likelihood was also that much of their teaching would be erroneous.
The man whom John forbade to teach in Jesus name did not heed John's prohibition--nor did he need to. His name was Aden. He was a healer, a caster-out of unclean spirits, a doer of positive good. And although he lacked the training the apostles had received and was an unauthorized teacher, he went on to achieve great things for the kingdom. However, despite their years in the personal company of Jesus, plus their endowment with the Spirit of Truth, the apostles had problems with the idea that they were not the sole proprietors of the truths of the Fourth Epochal Revelation. Many times after Jesus had departed from their midst, they "took offense at those who made bold to teach in the Master's name. To them it always seemed inappropriate that those who had never sat at Jesus' feet should dare to teach in his name." (1765)
Relevant to the positive way, the book provides us with an account of another instructive incident. One Teherma, a Persian, had come from Damascus to see Jesus and was allocated to Simon Zelotes for preliminary instruction. Simon regarded Teherma as a fire-worshipper (presumably a follower of the sun-god, Ahura-Mazda). Reading between the lines, it appears that Simon proceeded authoritatively to set this ignorant Persian straight--but succeeded only in alienating him. Thus having failed dismally, Simon wondered why Jesus had no such problem with Teherma. Jesus responded, "Simon, Simon, how many times have I instructed you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error. When you have presented to mortal man the good news that God is his Father, you can the easier persuade him that he is in reality a son of God. And having done that, you have brought the light of salvation to the one who sits in darkness. Simon, when the Son of Man came first to you, did he come denouncing Moses and the prophets and proclaiming a new and better way of life? No. I came not to take away that which you had from your forefathers but to show you the perfected vision of that which your fathers saw only in part." (1592)
Why is it that Urantia mortals so readily reject the positive way of Jesus, the way of quietly and unobtrusively living that which is basic and right? Instead we like to grab onto the errors we perceive in our neighbors' thinking, and engage in battle against their error? The history of Christianity reeks of the stench of battle against heresy and error--and frequently did the rivers run red with the blood of the defeated. Perhaps one reason may be physio-logical, the effect of factors that accompanied the evolution of the fight or flight response, and the strange euphoria that follows the adrenalin fix induced by conflict. But whatever the cause of our attraction to engaging in conflict of one kind or another, to succumb to that attraction is contrary to the positive way--the way of Jesus.
It should, by now, be obvious that the teachings of The Urantia Book will not win out against the materialsm of our age until professed followers of the book learn that there is no
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