The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

A forum to discuss the Urantia Book.
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Yoder777
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The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Yoder777 »

This article draws parallels between Urantia Book and Mormon doctrines, suggesting that the Urantia Book is the "greater record to come" as prophecized in the Book of Mormon:

http://www.urantiabook.org/outreach/Mor ... Mormon.pdf

This is a series of Youtube videos dedicated to showing where the Urantia Book and Mormonism are in harmony:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... harmony%22

I am not a Mormon and I never want to become a Mormon, but is it possible that Joseph Smith, no matter how imperfect he may have been as an individual, was in some way connected to a higher spiritual reality that helped to inspire his teachings that were later more fully elaborated in the Urantia Book? Is it possible that God or the celestials used Joseph Smith to help pave the way for the coming of the Urantia Book, even if certain doctrines and practices of the Mormon church are questionable?
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Sandy »

Thanks for that timely article Yoder. 8)
We have 2 young Mormon Missionaries visiting us next Wednesday. They are lovely young men and mostly come for my cookies as they know I am not really interested in becoming a Mormon. I told them up front that I love talking/listening to people about their love for God and finding bridges between us. We were talking about the Urantia book so this may be something they would find interesting.

I'll check out the video in a few days when our bandwidth is back up to strength.
love,
Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
Yoder777
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Yoder777 »

The videos are very simple yet informative. They were made by an old lady whose family has been LDS for several generations. She's been reading the Urantia Book since the late 1960s. I've never been to a Mormon church service and I've never read the Book of Mormon, but I've watched lots of Youtube videos about what Mormons believe.
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Sandy »

Thanks again Yoder, for posting the videos. Simple is good for me... ;) I should be able to watch them in a couple days with the new pay period of my Internet provider. Hopefully before they come again this Wednesday. It will give us much to talk about. :thumright:
I can nearly always find bridges of understanding between the many beliefs I have encountered. And I must be honest, these Mormon missionaries and the other ones who have come over the years have shared with me a real and living Love of God and a desire to help people. I may not be drawn to their beliefs, but I love these guys who sit at my table dearly and see them as allies in this fight to bring love and peace to this world.
Love,
Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
Yoder777
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Yoder777 »

After reading, watching videos, and giving it much thought, I've realized why I can never be a Mormon. If you must tithe ten percent of your income no matter what, including workers' comp, unemployment benefits, and Social Security, even when you don't have enough money for groceries or electricity, or else lose your temple privileges that get you into Mormon heaven where you will be the god of your own planet, how is that much different from the selling of indulgences against which Martin Luther started the Reformation in the first place? Never mind the fact that LDS members are never allowed to know exactly how their tithe dollars are being spent, and the fact that the local treasurer will require you and your entire family to meet with him once a year to question you on the adequacy of your tithing like a Spanish Inquisitor. Though I have a great deal of respect for Mormons for being family oriented and their clean lifestyle, compulsory tithing with no exceptions just isn't my bag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Oa7o2N-ds

I am still interested, though, in learning more about the similarities between the Urantia Book and Mormon doctrines.
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Geoff »

For what it is worth, I will link to a channeling that asked if Joseph Smith was inspired or not:

http://new-birth.net/contemporary/ar38.htm

You may note it also asked about the Ubook and the answer given there may puzzle you. I think it refers to the fact that the last section was received by an entirely different medium or mediums. You may know the story that was published about the Life of Jesus that it was found in an old desk many years after the rest of the book had been received.

If you are talking about "paving the way" that was Swedenborg, but sadly he too did not manage to remain true to what the celestials told him. But he was taken out of body to the Mansion Worlds where he did interact with Michael.

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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Yoder777 »

The Book of Mormon promises that if you sincerely pray about the Book of Mormon's truth, God will reveal to your heart that it's true. Does the Urantia Book have a similar promise, that its truth will be revealed to your heart?
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Re: The Urantia Book and the Book of Mormon

Post by Sandy »

Hi Yoder,

No, I do not think the Urantia book has such a promise. The celestials do not refer to it as a holy book... no they call it "the text." It is a book of information, plain and simple. It resonates with some very strongly and others not so much. But that is the way of things on this world.
Truth is revealed to us whenever we are in touch with our God Within, though. Truth is beyond any words or beliefs of man. Beliefs just help to elevate our thoughts Godward. And from there God does the rest. One of my favourite passages in the Urantia book speaks of Truth. http://www.urantia.org/urantia-book-sta ... nature-god
7. Divine Truth and Beauty

(42.2) 2:7.1 All finite knowledge and creature understanding are relative. Information and intelligence, gleaned from even high sources, is only relatively complete, locally accurate, and personally true.

(42.3) 2:7.2 Physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in the philosophy of the universe. Evolving personalities are only partially wise and relatively true in their communications. They can be certain only as far as their personal experience extends. That which apparently may be wholly true in one place may be only relatively true in another segment of creation.

(42.4) 2:7.3 Divine truth, final truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of things spiritual, as it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, may sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the completeness of knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the length and extent of that experience. While the laws and decrees, the thoughts and attitudes, of the First Great Source and Center are eternally, infinitely, and universally true; at the same time, their application to, and adjustment for, every universe, system, world, and created intelligence, are in accordance with the plans and technique of the Creator Sons as they function in their respective universes, as well as in harmony with the local plans and procedures of the Infinite Spirit and of all other associated celestial personalities.

(42.5) 2:7.4 The false science of materialism would sentence mortal man to become an outcast in the universe. Such partial knowledge is potentially evil; it is knowledge composed of both good and evil. Truth is beautiful because it is both replete and symmetrical. When man searches for truth, he pursues the divinely real.

(42.6) 2:7.5 Philosophers commit their gravest error when they are misled into the fallacy of abstraction, the practice of focusing the attention upon one aspect of reality and then of pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole truth. The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought invariably precedes creative action.

(42.7) 2:7.6 Intellectual self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual quality, not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more certainly and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be acted out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error because, not being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine truth is best known by its spiritual flavor.

(42.8) 2:7.7 The eternal quest is for unification, for divine coherence. The far-flung physical universe coheres in the Isle of Paradise; the intellectual universe coheres in the God of mind, the Conjoint Actor; the spiritual universe is coherent in the personality of the Eternal Son. But the isolated mortal of time and space coheres in God the Father through the direct relationship between the indwelling Thought Adjuster and the Universal Father. Man’s Adjuster is a fragment of God and everlastingly seeks for divine unification; it coheres with, and in, the Paradise Deity of the First Source and Center.

(43.1) 2:7.8 The discernment of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: The discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its unity.

(43.2) 2:7.9 The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.

(43.3) 2:7.10 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. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.

(43.4) 2:7.11 All truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good. All real beauty — material art or spiritual symmetry — is both true and good. All genuine goodness — whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry — is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.

(43.5) 2:7.12 Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated 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. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and eternal on the higher and divine levels.
It makes sense when you think about all the planets in the grand universe peopled with children of God. They would have had no Jesus, no Budda, none of our great guru's and human teachers guiding their students... their histories would have been different, and so, of course, also their belief structures. But somehow it all comes together for them... just like it is coming together for all of us even with all the hard knocks we have received in our long history.
God is beyond beliefs and channelled messages. What is important and our greatest guide is already within us and it is this Divine Love that lights our own unique path to Home and God, be we Mormons, Padget followers, Urantia book students etc... Where Love flourishes in a heart...there is God.
Love,
Sandy
“We measure and evaluate your Spiritual Progress on the Wall of Eternity." – Guardian of Destiny, Alverana.
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