The religious challenge of the age

   In the second of the Urantia Papers, "The Nature of God," the revelators suggest:

   "The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul." (43)

   The phrase, "enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness," is obviously self-referential for nowhere is there to be found a more exquisite statement of such truths than are presented in the Urantia Papers. The author of this Paper continues:

   "Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are coordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding experience."

   Surely another major purpose of this revelation is education--with spreading its message in forms that are comprehensible to people of every race and religion and at every level of spiritual and intellectual capacity

   And the crux of the message? God loves and cares about each individual; the love and mercy of God as our heavenly Father transcends his righteousness as our judge; God's forgiveness is available simply for the asking; all human beings are indwelt by the God-Spirit who loves us, serves us, and guides us; the relationship of the indwelling God-Spirit and the individual is personal and authoritative; acceptance of the way of God ensures our eternal life; the way of God is the will of God; no man-ordained declarations or decrees can in any way impinge upon or moderate these inalienable dictums.

   For Christians this message can be enlarged to include the life of Jesus as the revelation of the nature of that aspect of God whom Jesus addressed as "Abba," the Aramaic for "Papa" or "loving Father." It can also include reference to Jesus' Spirit of Truth and its function but there is no need for either when carrying the message to non-Christians. Jesus did not insist that the Jews believe in him, only in "He who sent him." One step at a time is enough. The critical knowledge for all of us is that we can achieve God-consciousness through our indwelling God-Spirit.

The future

   We must learn from the past. Attacking the religious beliefs of others is almost always counter-productive. Change has to be gradual, seeking only to displace error rather than to decry it.

   By far the best way to encourage change is to demonstrate its advantages. Both Christianity and the Urantia revelation advocate making such demonstrations through the lives actually lived by their adherents. The communications revolution has brought innovative options. New concepts may more readily be publicized through TV, radio, the Internet. But what does not change is the irreplaceable and ongoing need for those real-life demonstrations in the lives of believers without which all else is devoid of any real meaning. A remark by a Roman citizen from almost 2000 years ago is illustrative: "See those Christians, how much they love one another."

Why did early Christianity succeed so spectacularly?

   Within twenty five years of Jesus' crucifixion, Christianity had spread from Palestine, through Syria, Southeast Asia, to Macedonia, and had even become firmly established in Rome. And within three hundred years it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.