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About the Universal Father
The Universal Father is First Cause and Controller of all that is. He created the finite universes to be inhabited by intelligent creatures who could know and love him, and be loved by him. The supreme goal of will-creatures is to attain God--to be like him. To "Be perfect as I am perfect" is mankind's first duty. Perfection in the infinite sense is unattainable by mortals. Their divine goal is in finite aspects of divinity of motivation and will. The true meaning of the divine command to be perfect ever urges man onwards in pursuit of spiritual values and universe meanings. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God's mercy as our Father transcends God's righteousness as our judge. God loves not like a father but as a father. He is the Paradise Father of every universe personality. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
The Reality of God
The Father is universal spirit, the source of truth, primal reality, and father personality. God is not an anthropomorphic concept, the "noblest work of man." In human experience, knowledge of the actuality of the existence of God is dependent on the indwelling God-Spirit that gives rise to God-consciousness and the urge to seek God and to be like him. The existence of God (who is spirit) cannot be demonstrated by materialistic means, but is reasonable to logic and philosophy, is essential to religion, and is the hope of personal survival. The proof of God's existence is in the experiencing of his presence. God maintains immediate contact with his universe children by means of his spirit presence.
God is a Universal Spirit.
God is spirit--a universal spirit presence. The spirit 'fragments' of the Father that indwell men and women foster the evolution of their immortal souls. The mind that is joined with matter cannot survive death. Mind yielded to God's spirit transmutes the potentially spirit phases of mind into the realities of the soul thus ensuring their survival. God who is absolute, eternal, and infinite is also good, true, gracious, and compassionate.
The Mystery of God
The infinity of the perfection of God eternally constitutes him as mystery. The mystery of mysteries is his divine presence in the minds of mortal men and women. If a mortal being chooses to survive mortal existence, the spirit of God accompanies that person on their eternal journey that takes them to the very presence of the Father. The God of universal love unfailingly manifests himself to the fullness of each mortal's capacity. God is no respecter of persons, spiritual or material.
Our concept of the nature of God is of critical importance during all stages of development of our direct personal relationship with the God-Spirit-Within. If we start with wrong ideas about God, we will have a difficult time ahead.
Jesus saw God as holy, just, great, true, beautiful and good. Above all, Jesus saw God as merciful, gracious, and compassionate. Jesus never insisted we believe in himself--only that we believe in that aspect of the infinite, unfathomable, transcendent God he addressed as Father, and who is Father to all men and women of all religions, including no religion.
No human religion can be authoritarian in the sense that it carries the authority of God. For all human beings, such authority is individual, personal, and resides with the God-Spirit-Within. Spiritual truth is always experiential--and the pathway to God is by faith and faith alone.
Which is why the truth of any religion is evidenced solely by the fruits of the spirit that become evident in the lives of its followers. Those fruits are:
"Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, righteousness, and truth." (Gal. 5:22)
References
1. Borg, Marcus J. "Jesus--A New Vision." (HarperSanFrancisco, 1987) 2. Dr Sadler, "The History of the Urantia Movement." 3. Block, M. "A Source Study of Paper 159." The Fellowship Herald 3 (1) 2 (2001) Huston Smith, "The Religions of Man." (Harper and Row, 1958) 4. U.S. Department of Education study reported in Scientific American 285 (4) 15 (2001)
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