1. Proposition. God’s will may not prevail in the part, but it always does with the whole.
“The will of God does not necessarily prevail in the part — the heart of any one personality — but his will does actually rule the whole, the universe of universes.”
(UB 12:7.1)
1. Proposition. God loves every creature but uniquely individualizes his love for every person.
“God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood.
“The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable in all eternity.”
(UB 12:7.8)
2. Proposition. Love, not pressure, stimulates growth.
“But man is not saved or ennobled by pressure. Spirit growth springs from within the evolving soul. Pressure may deform the personality, but it never stimulates growth. Even educational pressure is only negatively helpful in that it may aid in the prevention of disastrous experiences. Spiritual growth is greatest where all external pressures are at a minimum. ‘Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ Man develops best when the pressures of home, community, church, and state are least. But this must not be construed as meaning that there is no place in a progressive society for home, social institutions, church, and state.”
(UB 103:5.11)
BIBLE TEXTS:
“And Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.’”
Acts 10:34 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
2 Cor 3:17 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
2 Cor 3:17
1. Proposition. We are all a part of a vast and eternal universe purpose.
“There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an immense plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one time and during any one life. We are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are supervising and outworking. The whole marvelous and universal mechanism moves on majestically through space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center.”
(UB 32:5.1)
2. Proposition. The far-flung and boundless plan of God embraces all of his creatures.
“There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures of such a matchless career are yours for the striving!”
(UB 32:5.7)
3. Proposition. Mortal existence is but a link in God’s high spiritual plan.
“The eternal purpose of the eternal God is a high spiritual ideal. The events of time and the struggles of material existence are but the transient scaffolding which bridges over to the other side, to the promised land of spiritual reality and supernal existence. Of course, you mortals find it difficult to grasp the idea of an eternal purpose; you are virtually unable to comprehend the thought of eternity, something never beginning and never ending. Everything familiar to you has an end.”
(UB 32:5.2)
4. Proposition. Victory is assured for all who enter the race for eternal perfection.
“The goal of eternity is ahead! The adventure of divinity attainment lies before you: The race for perfection is on: whosoever will may enter, and certain victory will crown the efforts of every human being who will run the race of faith and trust, depending every step of the way on the leading of the indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of that good spirit of the Universe Son, which so freely has been poured out upon all flesh.”
(UB 32:5.8)
5. Proposition. In surviving the trials of time we strike spiritual step with eternity.
“To me it seems more fitting, for purposes of explanation to the mortal mind, to conceive of eternity as a cycle and the eternal purpose as an endless circle, a cycle of eternity in some way synchronized with the transient material cycles of time. As regards the sectors of time connected with, and forming a part of, the cycle of eternity, we are forced to recognize that such temporary epochs are born, live, and die just as the temporary beings of time are born, live, and die. Most human beings die because, having failed to achieve the spirit level of Adjuster fusion, the metamorphosis of death constitutes the only possible procedure whereby they may escape the fetters of time and the bonds of material creation, thereby being enabled to strike spiritual step with the progressive procession of eternity. Having survived the trial life of time and material existence, it becomes possible for you to continue on in touch with, even as a part of, eternity, swinging on forever with the worlds of space around the circle of the eternal ages.”
(UB 32:5.4)
BIBLE TEXTS:
“This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 3:11 “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”
Rom 8:28
1. Proposition. The Father’s plan of evolutionary mortal ascension was concurred in by the Eternal Son.
“The Plan of Progressive Attainment. This is the Universal Father’s plan of evolutionary ascension, a program unreservedly accepted by the Eternal Son when he concurred in the Father’s proposal. ‘Let us make mortal creatures in our own image.’ This provision for upstepping the creatures of time involves the Father’s bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and the endowing of material creatures with the prerogatives of personality.”
(UB 7:4.4)
2. Proposition. Intelligent creatures can love God and elect to attain Paradise and find God.
“The ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise creative forces through space seems to presage the ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal Father and the never-ending multiplication of varied types of intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be loved by him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to be like him, may elect to attain Paradise and find God.”
(UB 56:9.13)
3. Proposition. The plan of perfection attainment is at present one of the chief concerns of the super-universes.
“The amazing plan for perfecting evolutionary mortals and, after their attainment of Paradise and the Corps of the Finality, providing further training for some undisclosed future work, does seem to be, at present, one of the chief concerns of the seven superuniverses and their many subdivisions; but this ascension scheme for spiritualizing and training the mortals of time and space is by no means the exclusive occupation of the universe intelligences.”
(UB 4:0.3)
4. Proposition. Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure.
“Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure — uncertainty in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and allloving Father.”
(UB 111:7.1)
BIBLE TEXTS:
“Then God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over...”
Gen 1:26 “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:43
1. Proposition. The incarnate bestowal of the Paradise Sons upon the mortal races is the project of the Eternal Son.
“The Bestowal Plan. The next universal plan is the great Father-revelation enterprise of the Eternal Son and his coordinate Sons. This is the proposal of the Eternal Son and consists of his bestowal of the Sons of God upon the evolutionary creations, there to personalize and factualize, to incarnate and make real, the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son to the creatures of all universes. Inherent in the bestowal plan, and as a provisional feature of this ministration of love, the Paradise Sons act as rehabilitators of that which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual jeopardy.”
(UB 7:4.5)
2. Proposition. Attainment of the Paradise goal of perfection was enhanced by Michael’s bestowal.
“As mortals you can now recognize your place in the family of divine sonship and begin to sense the obligation to avail yourselves of the advantages so freely provided in and by the Paradise plan for mortal survival, which plan has been so enhanced and illuminated by the life experience of a bestowal Son. Every facility and all power have been provided for insuring your ultimate attainment of the Paradise goal of divine perfection.”
(UB 40:10.14)
BIBLE TEXT:
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10
1. Proposition. When the attainment and the bestowal plans were proclaimed, the Infinite Spirit promulgated his plan of mercy ministry.
“The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal plan had been formulated and proclaimed, alone and of himself, the Infinite Spirit projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise of mercy ministry. This is the service so essential to the practical and effective operation of both the attainment and the bestowal undertakings, and the spiritual personalities of the Third Source and Center all partake of the spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third Person of Deity. Not only in creation but also in administration, the Infinite Spirit functions truly and literally as the conjoint executive of the Father and the Son.”
(UB 7:4.6)
2. Proposition. The Infinite Spirit ministers for the Father and the Son and also in his own behalf.
“The Spirit’s ministry is not, however, restricted solely to the representation of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father. The Infinite Spirit also possesses the power to minister to the creatures of the realm in his own name and right; the Third Person is of divine dignity and also bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own behalf.”
(UB 8:4.7)
BIBLE TEXT
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”
Rom 8:26
1. Proposition. In case of rebellion or delay in the attainment plan, the Paradise Sons act as retrievers.
“Whenever and wherever there occurs a delay in the functioning of the attainment plan, if rebellion, perchance, should mar or complicate this enterprise, then do the emergency provisions of the bestowal plan become active forthwith. The Paradise Sons stand pledged and ready to function as retrievers, to go into the very realms of rebellion and there restore the spiritual status of the spheres. And such a heroic service a co-ordinate Creator Son did perform on Urantia in connection with his experiential bestowal career of sovereignty acquirement.”
(UB 7:4.5)
2. Proposition. The Creators are the first to attempt to save man from the results of transgression.
“The Creators are the very first to attempt to save man from the disastrous results of his foolish transgression of the divine laws. God’s love is by nature a fatherly affection; therefore does he sometimes ‘chasten us for our own profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.’ Even during your fiery trials remember that ‘in all our afflictions he is afflicted with us.’”
(UB 2:5.3)
BIBLE TEXTS:
“For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”
Heb 12:10 “Who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1 Peter 1:5
1. Proposition. Sonship with God is inherent in the divine love; it is not dependent on the bestowals of the Paradise Sons.
“All that the Son of Man said or did on earth greatly embellished the doctrines of sonship with God and of the brotherhood of men, but these essential relationships of God and men are inherent in the universe facts of God’s love for his creatures and the innate mercy of the divine Sons. These touching and divinely beautiful relations between man and his Maker on this world and on all others throughout the universe of universes, have existed from eternity; and they are not in any sense dependent on these periodic bestowal enactments of the Creator Sons of God, who thus assume the nature and likeness of their created intelligences as a part of the price which they must pay for the final acquirement of unlimited sovereignty over their respective local universes.”
(UB 186:5.5)
2. Proposition. There are five fundamental reasons why Urantia mortals are entitled to regard themselves as being sons of God.
“1. You are sons of spiritual promise, faith sons; you have accepted the status of sonship. You believe in the reality of your sonship, and thus does your sonship with God become eternally real.
“2. A Creator Son of God became one of you; he is your elder brother in fact; and if in spirit you become truly related brothers of Christ, the victorious Michael, then in spirit must you also be sons of that Father which you have in common — even the Universal Father of all.
“3. You are sons because the spirit of a Son has been poured out upon you, has been freely and certainly bestowed upon all Urantia races. This spirit ever draws you toward the divine Son, who is its source, and toward the Paradise Father, who is the source of that divine Son.
“4. Of his divine free-willness, the Universal Father has given you your creature personalities. You have been endowed with a measure of that divine spontaneity of freewill action which God shares with all who may become his sons.
“5. There dwells within you a fragment of the Universal Father, and you are thus directly related to the divine Father of all the Sons of God.”
(UB 40:6.4)
BIBLE TEXTS:
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.”
Rom 8:14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
2 Cor 5:17 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the worlds and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”
1 John 5:4
1. Proposition. Foreordination of limits or foreknowledge of choice of will in no way abrogates finite volition.
“The function of Creator will and creature will, in the grand universe, operates within the limits, and in accordance with the possibilities, established by the Master Architects. This foreordination of these maximum limits does not, however, in the least abridge the sovereignty of creature will within these boundaries. Neither does ultimate foreknowledge — full allowance for all finite choice — constitute an abrogation of finite volition. A mature and farseeing human being might be able to forecast the decision of some younger associate most accurately, but this foreknowledge takes nothing away from the freedom and genuineness of the decision itself. The Gods have wisely limited the range of the action of immature will, but it is true will, nonetheless, within these defined limits.”
(UB 118:7.1)
2. Proposition. Providence is the function of the Trinity motivating the cosmic march through time toward the goals of eternity.
“Providence is the sure and certain march of the galaxies of space and the personalities of time toward the goals of eternity, first in the Supreme, then in the Ultimate, and perhaps in the Absolute. And in infinity we believe there is the same providence, and this is the will, the actions, the purpose of the Paradise Trinity thus motivating the cosmic panorama of universes upon universes.”
(UB 118:10.23)
3. Proposition. Some of the fortuitous circumstances of life may be due to the emerging presence of the Supreme Being.
“Some of the amazingly fortuitous conditions occasionally prevailing on the evolutionary worlds may be due to the gradually emerging presence of the Supreme, the foretasting of his future universe activities. Most of what a mortal would call providential is not; his judgment of such matters is very handicapped by lack of farsighted vision into the true meanings of the circumstances of life.”
(UB 118:10.9)
4. Proposition. An apparently cruel fate may be the tempering fire that transmutes the soft iron of an immature personality into the tempered steel of a strong character.
“Much of what a mortal would call good luck might really be bad luck; the smile of fortune that bestows unearned leisure and undeserved wealth may be the greatest of human afflictions; the apparent cruelty of a perverse fate that heaps tribulation upon some suffering mortal may in reality be the tempering fire that is transmuting the soft iron of immature personality into the tempered steel of real character.”
(UB 118:10.9)
5. Proposition. The providence of the overcontrol of Supremacy becomes increasingly apparent as the universe progresses in the attainment of finite destinies.
“The love of the Father operates directly in the heart of the individuals, independent of the actions or reactions of all other individuals; the relationship is personal — man and God. The impersonal presence of Deity (Almighty Supreme and Paradise Trinity) manifests regard for the whole, not for the part. The providence of the overcontrol of Supremacy becomes increasingly apparent as the successive parts of the universe progress in the attainment of finite destinies. As the systems, constellations universes, and superuniverses become settled in light and life, the Supreme increasingly emerges as the meaningful correlator of all that is transpiring, while the Ultimate gradually emerges as the transcendental unifier of all things.”
(UB 118:10.11)
6. Proposition. God loves the individual; providence functions with regard to the whole.
“God loves each creature as a child, and that love overshadows each creature throughout all time and eternity. Providence functions with regard to the total and deals with the function of any creature as such function is related to the total. Providential intervention with regard to any being is indicative of the importance of the function of that being as concerns the evolutionary growth of some total; such total may be the total race, the total nation, the total planet, or even a higher total. It is the importance of the function of the creature that occasions providential intervention, not the importance of the creature as a person,”
(UB 118:10.5)
7. Proposition. God may at any time interpose a fatherly hand in the stream of cosmic events.
“Nevertheless, the Father as a person may at any time interpose a fatherly hand in the stream of cosmic events all in accordance with the will of God and in consonance with the wisdom of God and as motivated by the love of God.”
(UB 118:10.6)
8. Proposition. Providence is not childish, arbitrary, and material. In accordance with cosmic law, providence labors for the honor of God and the welfare of his children.
“There is a providence of divine outworking on your world, but it is not the childish, arbitrary, and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to be. The providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic law, unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual advancement of his universe children.”
(UB 4:1.1)
9. Proposition. Providence is always consistent with the unchanging nature of the supreme Lawmaker.
“Providence is always consistent with the unchanging and perfect nature of the supreme Lawmaker.”
(UB 4:1.2)
10. Proposition. Providence is the partial overcontrol of the incomplete Supreme and must therefore always be partial and unpredictable.
“Providence is in part the overcontrol of the incomplete Supreme manifested in the incomplete universes, and it must therefore ever be:
“1. Partial — due to the incompleteness of the actualization of the Supreme Being, and
“2. Unpredictable — due to the fluctuations in creature attitude, which ever varies from level to level, thus causing apparently variable reciprocal response in the Supreme.”
(UB 118:10.20)
11. Proposition. The Gods have attributes but the Trinity has functions. Providence is a function of the other-than-personal overcontrol of the universe of universes.
“The Gods have attributes but the Trinity has functions, and like the Trinity, providence is a function, the composite of the other-than-personal overcontrol of the universe of universes, extending from the evolutionary levels of the Sevenfold synthesizing in the power of the Almighty on up through the transcendental realms of the Ultimacy of Deity.”
(UB 118:10.4)
1. Proposition. Believers should trust God as Jesus trusted God and believe in men as he believed in men.
“It should not be the aim of kingdom believers literally to imitate the outward life of Jesus in the flesh but rather to share his faith; to trust God as he trusted God and to believe in men as he believed in men. Jesus never argued about either the fatherhood of God or the brotherhood of men; he was a living illustration of the one and a profound demonstration of the other.”
(UB 196:1.5)
2. Proposition. Jesus wants you to believe with him — rather than in him; not only to believe what he believed, but also as he believed.
“Jesus does not require his disciples to believe in him but rather to believe with him, believe in the reality of the love of God and in full confidence accept the security of the assurance of sonship with the heavenly Father. The Master desires that all his followers should fully share his transcendent faith. Jesus most touchingly challenged his followers, not only to believe what he believed, but also to believe as he believed. This is the full significance of his one supreme requirement, “Follow me.”
(UB 196:0.13)
3. Proposition. The dispensational resurrection of Urantia sleeping mortals was associated, with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.
“The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: ‘By the mandate of Michael, let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!’ Then all the survivors of the human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds. Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at this time because of the necessity of Gabriel’s presence here in connection with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.”
(UB 189:3.2)
1. Proposition. Urantians continue to believe in gods of wrath and anger — the gods of primitive religions.
“The people of Urantia continue to suffer from the influence of primitive concepts of God. The gods who go on a rampage in the storm; who shake the earth in their wrath and strike down men in their anger; who inflict their judgments of displeasure in times of famine and flood — these are the gods of primitive religion; they are not the Gods who live “and rule the universes.”
(UB 4:5.3)
2. Proposition. The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God by the shedding of blood represents a puerile and primitive religion.
“The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath.”
(UB 4:5.4)
3. Proposition. The atonement concept is rooted in selfishness. Jesus taught service, not sacrifice.
“All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded in selfishness. Jesus taught that service to one’s fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believer’s chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one’s fellows even as Jesus loved and served mortal men.”
(UB 188:4.9)
4. Proposition. The idea of ransom and atonement is purely philosophic — human salvation is real.
“This entire idea of the ransom of. the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature’s faith and thereby become incorporated into individual human experience; the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man. It is true, after all, that you are to be ‘forgiven your debts, even as you forgive your debtors.’”
(UB 188:4.13)
5. Proposition. According to Paul, Christ is the all-sufficient sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied.
“Paul started out to build a new Christian cult on ‘the blood of the everlasting covenant.’ And while he may have unnecessarily encumbered Christianity with teachings about blood and sacrifice, he did once and for all make an end of the doctrines of redemption through human or animal sacrifices. His theologic compromises indicate that even revelation must submit to the graduated control of evolution. According to Paul, Christ became the last and all-sufficient human sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied.”
(UB 89:9.3)
6. Proposition. The atonement doctrine is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the volition of God.
“The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.”
(UB 2:6.5)
7. Proposition. God is not a divided personality — one of justice and one of mercy. God as a father transcends God as a judge.
“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.”
(UB 2:6.6)
8. Proposition. A Creator Son did not bestow himself upon mankind to reconcile an angry God. He came to reveal the love of God and exalt sonship with God.
“A Creator Son did not incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and bestow himself upon the humanity of Urantia to reconcile an angry God but rather to win all mankind to the recognition of the Father’s love and to the realization of their sonship with God. After all, even the great advocate of the atonement doctrine realized something of this truth, for he declared that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.’”
(UB 98:7.1)
9. Proposition. Jesus did not die as a sacrifice for sin — to atone for the inborn guilt of the race. Guilt is a matter of personal sin.
“Jesus is not about to die as a sacrifice for sin. He is not going to atone for the inborn moral guilt of the human race. Mankind has no such racial guilt before God. Guilt is purely a matter of personal sin and knowing, deliberate rebellion against the will of the Father and the administration of his Sons.”
(UB 186:5.7)
10. Proposition. The salvation of Urantia mortals would have been just as certain if Jesus had not been put to death by the cruel hands of ignorant mortals. Sonship with God would have in no wise been affected.
“The salvation of God for the mortals of Urantia would have been just as effective and unerringly certain if Jesus had not been put to death by the cruel hands of ignorant mortals. If the Master had been favorably received by the mortals of earth and had departed from Urantia by the voluntary relinquishment of his life in the flesh, the fact of the love of God and the mercy of the Son — the fact of sonship with God — would have in no wise been affected. You mortals are the sons of God, and only one thing is required to make such a truth factual in your personal experience, and that is your spirit-born faith.”
(UB 186:5.9)
11. Proposition. Jesus swept away all the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. God becomes a loving Father to his mortal sons and daughters.
“Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt and sense of isolation in the universe by declaring that man is a child of God; the creature-Creator relationship was placed on a child-parent basis. God becomes a loving Father to his mortal sons and daughters. All ceremonials not a legitimate part of such an intimate family relationship are forever abrogated.”
(UB 103:4.4)
12. Proposition. Christ is not engaged in the ignoble task of persuading his gracious Father to love his lowly creatures. The Father’s love is just as real as the Son’s mercy.
“This divine Son is not engaged in the ignoble task of trying to persuade his gracious Father to love his lowly creatures and to show mercy to the wrongdoers of time. How wrong to envisage the Eternal Son as appealing to the Universal Father to show mercy to his lowly creatures on the material worlds of space! Such concepts of God are crude and grotesque. Rather should you realize that all the merciful ministrations of the Sons of God are a direct revelation of the Father’s heart of universal love and infinite compassion. The Father’s love is the real and eternal source of the Son’s mercy.”
(UB 6:3.4)
13. Proposition. The atonement doctrine was designed to make the gospel more acceptable to the Jews — it failed. But it made the gospel less acceptable to all other religions.
“The effort to connect the gospel teaching directly onto the Jewish theology, as illustrated by the Christian doctrines of the atonement — the teaching that Jesus was the sacrificed Son who would satisfy the Father’s stern justice and appease the divine wrath. These teachings originated in a praiseworthy effort to make the gospel of the kingdom more acceptable to disbelieving Jews. Though these efforts failed as far as winning the Jews was concerned, they did not fail to confuse and alienate many honest souls in all subsequent generations.”
(UB 149:2.3)
BIBLE TEXT:
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”
2 Cor 5:19
1. Proposition. Science seeks to identify. Religion grasps at the whole. Philosophy would unify. Revelation affirms that the Infinite is the God of human salvation.
“Science seeks to identify, analyze, and classify the segmented parts of the limitless cosmos. Religion grasps the idea-of-the-whole p the entire cosmos. Philosophy attempts the identification of the material segments of science with the spiritual-insight concept of the whole. Wherein philosophy fails in this attempt, revelation succeeds, affirming that the cosmic circle is universal, eternal, absolute, and infinite. This cosmos of the Infinite I AM is therefore endless, limitless, and all-inclusive — timeless, spaceless, and unqualified. And we bear testimony that the Infinite I AM is also the Father of Michael of Nebadon and the God of human salvation.”
(UB 102:3.10)
2. Proposition. Having embarked on the way of life everlasting, do not fear the doubts and limitations of human nature. At every crossroad, the Spirit of Truth will speak — ”This is the way.”
“Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear the dangers of human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, ‘This is the way.’”
(UB 34:7.8)
3. Proposition. We have begun an endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama of ever-widening opportunity for matchless adventure and boundless attainment.
“You humans have begun an endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama, a limitless expanding of never-ending, ever-widening spheres of opportunity for exhilarating service, matchless adventure, sublime uncertainty, and boundless attainment.”
(UB 108:6.8)
4. Proposition. When the clouds gather overhead, by faith you should look beyond the mists of mortal uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of eternal righteousness on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds of Satania.
“When the clouds gather overhead, your faith should accept the fact of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster, and thus you should be able to look beyond the mists of mortal uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of eternal righteousness on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds of Satania.”
(UB 108:6.8)
5. Proposition. The victorious mortal dares to challenge each recurring episode of human weakness with the unfailing declaration: “Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can and will do it.” This is “the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith.”
“The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature faith which dares to challenge each recurring episode of existence when confronted with the awful spectacle of human limitations, by the unfailing declarations Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can and will do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes. And that is ‘the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith.’”
(UB 4:4.9)
6. Proposition. The present destiny of surviving mortals is the Paradise Corps of the Finality. Even more supernal tasks await their future.
“The present known destiny of surviving mortals is the Paradise Corps of the Finality; this is also the goal of destiny for all Thought Adjusters who become joined in eternal union with their mortal companions. At present the Paradise finaliters are working throughout the grand universe in many undertakings, but we all conjecture that they will have other and even more supernal tasks to perform in the distant future after the seven superuniverses have become settled in light and life, and when the finite God has finally emerged from the mystery which now surrounds this Supreme Deity.”
(UB 112:7.15)
BIBLE TEXT:
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”
1 John 5:4
1. Proposition. Starting out on the seventh circuit of Havona, ascenders progress from circuit to circuit until they attain the first, from which they pass inward to Paradise residence and admission to the Corps of the Finality.
“When intelligent beings first attain the central universe, they are received and domiciled on the pilot world of the seventh Havona circuit. As the new arrivals progress spiritually, attain identity comprehension of their super-universe Master Spirit, they are transferred to the sixth circle. (It is from these arrangements in the central universe that the circles of progress in the human mind have been designated.) After ascenders have attained a realization of Supremacy and are thereby prepared for the Deity adventure, they are taken to the fifth circuit; and after attaining the Infinite Spirit, they are transferred to the fourth. Following the attainment of the Eternal Son, they are removed to idle third; and when they have recognized the Universal Father, they go to sojourn on the second circuit of worlds, where they become more familiar with the Paradise hosts. Arrival on the first circuit of Havona signifies the acceptance of the candidates of time into the service of Paradise. Indefinitely, according to the length and nature of the creature ascension, they will tarry on the inner circuit of progressive spiritual attainment. From this inner circuit the ascending pilgrims pass inward to Paradise residence and admission to the Corps of the Finality.”
(UB 14:5.4)
2. Proposition. On the seven circuits of Havona, your attainment is intellectual, spiritual, and experiential. There is a definite task for each world.
“On the seven circuits of Havona your attainment is intellectual, spiritual, and experiential. And there is a definite task to be achieved on each of the worlds of each of these circuits.”
(UB 14:5.1)
3. Proposition. There are experiential and contrastive differences between the Havona natives and ascendant mortals.
“The creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they are not courageous in the human sense. They are innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic in the human way. They are expectant of a pleasant future, but not hopeful in the exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the uncertain evolutionary spheres. They have faith in the stability of the universe, but they are utter strangers to that saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise. They love the truth, but they know nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are loyal, but they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to duty in the face of temptation to default. They are unselfish, but they never gained such levels of experience by the magnificent conquest of a belligerent self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend the sweetness of the pleasure escape from the pain potential.”
(UB 3:5.17)