The Urantia Book?

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No offense to Father Myles, but I still would say with regard to this book (in particular) it would be important to read, and decide for onesself.
What if we were alive in Jesus time? And we heard of this new preacher who was not sanctioned by the Rabbi’s, who claimed to be equal to God. If we were to consult the priests of those times, we would be told this man is dangerous, that he is in cahoots with Satan, etc.
My point is, while I certainly respect the point of view, advice of the clergy…it is still advisable to educate onesself and decide for onesself, and not give up that right. Every person has the spirit of truth …truth universally resonates inside us, no reason not to trust this. Those who trusted this inner sense (against the advice of the priests) in Jesus time became his followers.
But I have yet to see a priest criticize the urantia book…if there is such online, I’m interested to read it.
 
stonetower said:
No offense to Father Myles, but I still would say with regard to this book (in particular) it would be important to read, and decide for onesself.
What if we were alive in Jesus time? And we heard of this new preacher who was not sanctioned by the Rabbi’s, who claimed to be equal to God. If we were to consult the priests of those times, we would be told this man is dangerous, that he is in cahoots with Satan, etc.
My point is, while I certainly respect the point of view, advice of the clergy…it is still advisable to educate onesself and decide for onesself, and not give up that right. Every person has the spirit of truth …truth universally resonates inside us, no reason not to trust this. Those who trusted this inner sense (against the advice of the priests) in Jesus time became his followers.
But I have yet to see a priest criticize the urantia book…if there is such online, I’m interested to read it.
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You misunderstood me. I never told Father Myles about the Urantia Book. I was still taking my oath of secrecy very seriously, at that time - even though I was already pretty certain that the whole thing was a hoax. I just did as the Urantia people had recommended - present the ideas as if they were my own, and see how people react.

Father Myles reacted by pointing me to the Church Fathers and encouraging me to come to Mass regularly.
 
I think the devil wrote it.

My Mom read it and she is one confused person.
 
Has more to do with theosophy and Madame Blavatsky- and their kind then it has to do with reality. If ‘stupid’ and ‘silly’ is demonic then this book is!
 
Jmcrae…what oath of secrecy?? That must have been something your local group imposed- it’s not imposed that I know of.
Lisa, as far as the devil writing it. I’ve read it and don’t buy that. Certain people always claim anything new religious matter comes from Satan- I think that’s just fear.
Pato Banton, a reggae singer promotes the book:
youtube.com/watch?v=3ikjvX3y9h8 on his myspace under “words of Christ” he quotes from it.
 
Interesting Theosophy info-never new what the believed. One could certainly say the urantia book appears to them to be far fetched sci-fi, but stupid ,silly, demonic don’t quite fit it…
Here is a partial desription of the last supper:
mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper181.html
Don’t see stupid silly demonic there…
 
stonetower said:
Jmcrae…what oath of secrecy?? That must have been something your local group imposed- it’s not imposed that I know of.
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It wasn’t “imposed” in the sense of there being any sort of consequences from the group itself. They just warned us that talking about it would probably get us fired from jobs, excommunicated from church communities, etc. - not just ourselves but other people in our group, too, so they just strongly warned us against discussing it outside the group at all, and asked us to promise solemnly not to violate their trust in us.

I still don’t think that I would ever mention anyone’s name who was in the group; it was ingrained in us pretty strongly not to discuss it.
 
stonetower said:
Jmcrae…what oath of secrecy?? That must have been something your local group imposed- it’s not imposed that I know of.
Lisa, as far as the devil writing it. I’ve read it and don’t buy that. Certain people always claim anything new religious matter comes from Satan- I think that’s just fear.
Pato Banton, a reggae singer promotes the book:
youtube.com/watch?v=3ikjvX3y9h8 on his myspace under “words of Christ” he quotes from it.
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I’m quite familiar with the book-left it long ago in my childhood.
 
stonetower said:
Jmcrae…what oath of secrecy?? That must have been something your local group imposed- it’s not imposed that I know of.
Lisa, as far as the devil writing it. I’ve read it and don’t buy that. Certain people always claim anything new religious matter comes from Satan- I think that’s just fear.
Pato Banton, a reggae singer promotes the book:
youtube.com/watch?v=3ikjvX3y9h8 on his myspace under “words of Christ” he quotes from it.
Click to expand...
Reggae singers also say to smoke a lot of weed. Where is that going to get you? Unless Pato Banton is one of the rare rastas who forgoes weed…?

I’m sortof joking about the devil writing it, but also serious. If its not from God where is it from? Someone needs to own that book as a figment of their own imagination. Or I’ll call it the spawn of Satan.
 
stonetower said:
Pato Banton, a reggae singer promotes the book:
youtube.com/watch?v=3ikjvX3y9h8 on his myspace under “words of Christ” he quotes from it.
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All I can say is Thank God I don’t smoke weed anymore.
I will pray for him. He needs to look at his country (Jamaica has more churches per square inch than any other country). He needs to look at the authority behind the bible and look for answers there. Instead of following men who look for those “liberatering” moments where they run down the street with their clothes off.
He said he doesn’t “fear death” anymore. Anyone who says that is lying. There is no man on earth who has no fear of death. Either he is a liar or he is decieved.

He is decieved. I never heard of Bob Marley making those mistakes he is making. He may have been an adulterer but at least he entered the church before he died.

“spiritual liberation” is a myth. A new age myth. When man wants to become “liberated” or “enlightened” he is decieved by satan.

I appreciate reggae, but I don’t appreciate liberalism, drugs and this new age bull ****. Weed is used by the devil to weaken a mans MORAL character. If you start smokin weed, you start becoming lax about other tings…like, relations and so forth. Then your ego becomes strong, like Pato Banton, and you think you are “liberated” or looking for “liberation”.

Well, … there is nothing new under the sun. But I would say that when your ego feels really strong, that is when you are under the influence of satan. nuff said.
 
Lisa,
I agree about weed. Don’t think Pato smokes…he is a very cool guy, met him once. Very sincere. urantia book is against polluting your body, so if he does smoke (dont think so) he is not doing it from something he read.
I think everyone has the “divine spark” within them. Or “the kingdom of heaven within”.
As far as the urantia book not being from God, I think it is. (just my opinion) It is certainly “pro” God and anti Satan. And it is important to try to listen to this divine voice within…doing the will of God.
What I think is interesting about the book is that it bridges the gap between science and religion. And it’s whole portrayal of the universe is stupendous. We are children of God and in this life we have to exercise faith in the God of love. We experience this love of God only as we love others. Anyone who has read it knows that it is most certainly “pro” God. I’ve never heard one person who has actually read it talk about it as being evil or of Satan.
The Jesus it portrays is more courageous hero than the usual portrayal which can be somewhat wimpy. I hate when they have movies about Jesus life that make him look like he is unbalanced, excentric or wimpy. The money changers in the temple would have never fled from the Jesus portayed in books/movies most of the time.
*
 
Lisa,
~ you watched the video! I thought the naked guy story was funny myself…what a story =)
~as far as spiritual liberation I don’t agree. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”
I think truly knowing God really loves you is liberating
~as far as fear of death-i doubt he is lying. If you really believe your body is just a vehicle for your soul, when you die so what? just like leaving a car you were driving (I’m not saying i’m not afraid of death)
~ I think God can works through all religions. Some have more truth, but God responds to honest souls of any religion. There is truth in the Bible certainly, but also in the urantia book (imo)
Consider the Pharisees judging Jesus. The “bible” said no prophet comes from Nazareth. I think the lesson is that we have to be open minded to how God may work or you might make the mistake of judging something to be from Satan when it is not.
 
My mother remarried someone whom she says is constantly checking into this Urantia book for his own new age writings and ‘spiritual readings’, and wanted to know if I knew anything about it. Clearly it is hogwash (does not take a theologian to discern this) and one need not read more than a few pages to see this. It is the Deceiver’s very very cunning way to distort the Truth, Jesus Christ. The enemy is so very sly in using human weakness to lead some sheep out of the fold, out of the teachings of Holy Church. Let’s just take one small part that I’ve taken off their website: (urantia.org/en/jesus/part-i-sayings-jesus#2_JESUS_COMMENTS_ON_THE_PASSOVER_RITES)
  1. JESUS’ OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE
“For four years their standard of living had steadily declined; year by year they felt the pinch of increasing poverty. By the close of this year they faced one of the most difficult experiences of all their uphill struggles. James had not yet begun to earn much, and the expenses of a funeral on top of everything else straggered them. But Jesus would only say to his anxious and grieving mother: ‘Mother-Mary, sorrow will not help us; we are all doing our best, and mother’s smile, perchance, might even inspire us to do better. Day by day we are strengthened for these tasks by our hope of better days ahead.’ His sturdy and practical optimism was truly contagious; all the children lived in an atmosphere of anticipation of better times and better things.” (1400.6) 127:3.14
  1. HIS POSITIVE METHOD OF TEACHING
“In his home and throughout his public-teaching career Jesus invariably employed the positive form of exhortation. Always and everywhere did he say, ‘You shall do this—you ought to do that.’ Never did he employ the negative mode of teaching derived from the ancient taboos. He refrained from placing emphasis on evil by forbidding it, while he exalted the good by commanding its performance. Prayer time in this household was the occasion for discussing anything and everything relating to the welfare of the family.” (1401.2) 127:4.2

Off the bat, it is evident that these headings distort who Jesus IS. He is neither optimistic nor positive. Those are new age ideas and ways to make Jesus into a teacher instead of the Savior of the world that He IS. In the first paragraph we can see how the enemy loves to denigrade Holy Mary, the Immaculate Conception. And can anyone imagine Jesus saying “Mother-Mary, sorrow will not help us; we are all doing our best, and mother’s smile, perchance, might even inspire us to do better.” wow. I don’t think so! and how might I ask is this even optimistic? Ha! what a joke.

In the second paragraph, with His ‘positive method’ of teaching: he supposedly, “refrained from placing emphasis on evil by forbidding it”. really? is that what He did when He told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more”. or to the infirm man, “sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.”

so, that’s enough for me to read and say, this is real garbage.

too bad that some catholics are caught by this nasty web of the devil’s subtle and perverse lies. Let us pray for and ask our Blessed Mother and Saint Michael the Archangel for their intercession in this case! and any good catholic out there reading this: please pray for my mother as she has been paying attention to my sharing of the faith and maybe even beginning to question her own new age beliefs. God Bless You.
 
I’ve read the Urantia Book in its entirety more than once, and at one time attended a study group. I got away from it, but browsing this site found this thread. I think stonetower has done a very good job of correcting the many misconceptions expressed here.

I’ll use the term “Urantian” to refer to people who “believe in” the UB. To believe in the UB is to believe it is what it says it is, which is an epochal revelation authored by celestial beings of various orders.

Urantians consider themselves Christians, because they believe in the divinity of Jesus. Peter’s answer to “Who do you say I am?” is “The son of the living God.” Urantians say that too, although they do not believe that Jesus was the only son. So, not surprisingly, whether you consider Urantians Christians will depend upon how much, and which particulars, of Christian doctrine you want to hold them to.

Personally, I don’t consider the UB to be a “New Age” book at all. To my mind, there is a common theme in various New Age writings that can be traced back to Mary Baker Eddy, at least, and found in works such as The Science of Mind, A Course in Miracles, the Seth Material, and many many others. That theme is, roughly, “You create your own reality.” That theme is not the message of the UB.

As stonetower pointed out, some cult-like phenomena have sprung up around the UB, but these have little to do with what the great majority of Urantians are up to. There is no church, nothing to “belong to”, except organizations such as the Urantia Fellowship, which exist to promote the UB and connect readers with each other. They arrange conferences every year or so, and that sort of thing. There’s no liturgy, and no clergy. On the whole, it’s a very unstructured community. The main form of fellowship is study groups, which are fairly similar to Bible study groups. Usually, a small group of people (anywhere from 4 to 20) meet once or twice a month in somebody’s home to read and discuss a section of the book, eat cookies, etc., for a few hours. A few study groups might meet on a weekly basis, but I think that’s pretty unusual. Some study groups start or end with a spoken or silent prayer. Many Urantians are active members of mainstream churches or synagogues. Very, very few do any active proselytizing. If any of this seems very cult-like to you, you have a much lower threshold of cultishness than I do!

Although many details of the origin of the UB are obscure, it’s reasonably clear that it wasn’t “channeled” in the way that that term is usually used. No human being was seen writing any of it, according to the testimony of the people involved. If it was a fraud, it’s very hard to see what it’s purpose might have been, since no one made money or became famous from it. 2,000 pages of carefully written doctoral-level prose is a very ambitious undertaking.

A few key Christian doctrines are rejected by the UB. One of them is atonement. Another is the Fall and original sin.

So…I’d say it’s definitely not consistent with Catholic doctrine, and contradicts virtually all mainstream Christianity on some key points while affirming Christian belief on some other key points. I find very little that is cult-like in the main Urantian community, such as it is. I know with certainty that some atheists and agnostics have had dramatic conversion experiences from reading it. I didn’t, but that’s neither here nor there.
 
Caesar said:
I was browsing the bookshelf in our front hall today, seeing whether I could find anything interesting amongst the dust, and I came across a large hardcover volume called The Urantia Book. It has been in my mother’s little book collection since before I was born, but I had never bothered with it before.

Today however I flipped through and found that this is obviously a theological work, and from the brief random bits I read it seems to be Christian. Some parts seem to discuss social and political ideas in terms of religion.

Anyway, what is this? Is it Catholic? Should I read it?
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Ok. Obviously no one is giving you a straight answer.

I came across the Urnatia book some 28 years ago. It had been in existence many more years prior to that - since the dawn of ufology. It is steeped in theosophical society mumbo jumbo- from the teachings of Blavatsky herself.

Plain and simple: it is evil doctrine; doctrine of demons. Your mother should take the book out to the backyard, sprinkle holy water on it; burn it and bury it. Afterwards, sprinkle more holy water on the site.

Giving in to its words, ideas and philosophies is equivalent of playing with a Ouija board.
 
perro_sarnoso said:
Ok. Obviously no one is giving you a straight answer.
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Actually, I just did give him a straight answer.
I came across the Urnatia book some 28 years ago. It had been in existence many more years prior to that - since the dawn of ufology. It is steeped in theosophical society mumbo jumbo- from the teachings of Blavatsky herself.
Click to expand...
What does the Urantia Book have to do with either ufology or Blavatsky?
 
perro_sarnoso said:
Ok. Obviously no one is giving you a straight answer.
Click to expand...
Actually, I just did give him a straight answer.
I came across the Urnatia book some 28 years ago. It had been in existence many more years prior to that - since the dawn of ufology. It is steeped in theosophical society mumbo jumbo- from the teachings of Blavatsky herself.
Click to expand...
What does the Urantia Book have to do with either ufology or Blavatsky?
 
Excellent Book flows very well with the Bible. It has nothing to do with UFOs, New Age or any other fairy tales. Its teaching on God are trinatarian and it gives a greater understanding of Jesus, our origins, our future after death, and our true purpose here which is encapsulated in Matt 25. Much of the science in the UB is being proven more and more everyday. Also purgatory and the preparation to get to Heaven and the presence of God are UB teachings. It is not a separate religion, but it does indicate that the most advanced and similar religion to what Jesus taught is Christianity. So get a copy read for yourself, quite guessing and learn something.
 
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