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angry and punishing God who would even punish the whole nation for the misdeeds of individuals.
The expectation of reward for virtue and punishment for sin is deeply rooted in our religion and in our psyche. Both of the major founders of Christian dogma, Paul and Augustine, had great difficulties with the sinfulness of man and the perfection of God, to the point that both decided that God chooses his "elect" even before they are born.
Paul taught that mankind was born in sin by inheriting the transgression of Adam. Augustine added that man cannot achieve righteousness through his own effort--for to assert that he could do so is to contradict the "fundamental truth that God is the giver of all good."
From his study of Paul's argument in his Epistle to the Romans, Augustine concluded that "no event in time can alter the eternal setting of God's will towards any human soul," hence his "elect" must be chosen before the foundations of the world. Thus mankind divides into two societies, the elect and the damned.
How could the "elect" be saved from inherited and personal sin? Augustine held that God knows, quite apart from the time process, how each individual will respond to God's granting of grace when it is offered. Therefore the elect alone receive that offer, as their acceptance is already preordained.
Augustine's arguments reappeared in virtually unmodified form in the writings of both St. Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, the most acute thinkers of Scholasticism and the Reform.
Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin--and many others--have had an enormous influence upon Christian theology and dogma. Together they constitute an excellent illustration of creature arrogance in that they appropriated to themselves the authority to state what the Creator can or cannot, will or will not, do.
Urantia Paper No. 2 makes an enormously important statement having the potential to eliminate much confusion in Christian dogma--doctrines such as original sin, atonement, and many other inventions of men that trace back to the erroneous logic of Paul, Augustine, and their successors:
"The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality--one of justice and one of mercy--neither does it require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge."
In summary: "The love and mercy of God as our Father transcends God's righteousness as our Judge."
Knowledge of God can only derive from revelation. But the knowledge of what is or is not revelation cannot be other than the faith decision of the individual. We are responsible for ourselves. Certainty, whether on matters material, religious, or spiritual, is unavailable to mankind.
However we are never alone: "That fragment of the pure Deity of the Universal Father which indwells mortal man is a part of the infinity of the First Great Source and Center, the Father of Fathers."
"In Him we live and move and have our being."
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