MIS:Urantia

   Note: A version of this article was published in Alberta in August
of 1986. Anyone wishing to publish this text, please contact the author
via Delphi. Original document was in French.

   Religious Peace - When? by J.G.C. Dignard (alias INET97) It was in
about 1971 that I first began a comparative and more intensive study of
contemporary religions. That is why I now find it difficult to
understand some people's religious intelligence. There are some who
would defend the Judeo-Christian system, and others who would even
demand that national governments make a special effort to maintain it
and come to the defense of its traditional values; we are to believe
that these values are clear, and that Judeo-Christianity has offered
and still offers the greatest possible satisfactions. For my part, if I
examine the history of the Judeo- Christian movement, I see major
divisions and conflicts, and even as I write this, there are still some
very serious disputes. There is not even any agreement on the essential
point:

   GOD:- what does Judaism make of the Trinity? - could any Catholic
imagine his religion without Christ, Son of God, truly God and truly
Man? So what is it in the Judeo-Christian system that functions so well
and that you want to maintain? In many circles, people call themselves
Christians... what does that mean? Christianity is torn apart by
serious differences of opinion: there are Catholics, Orthodox,
Protestants, etc. And Protestantism in turn is by no means monolithic;
it has its own sects.

   The Bible... Of course there are some things common to all
Christians: the Bible and the New Testament. But there are different
versions. Then again, there have been and still are interpretations;
because of them, Catholics and Protestants do not always observe the
same authorizations and the same prohibitions. So when shall we achieve
peace through Christianity? Let us continue. If I direct my attention
to Islam, what I find simply makes reconciliation even more difficult.

   Let us look at Marcel A. Boisard's book "Humanism of Islam". On page
44, he discusses Muhammad: "His mission was not to wipe out previous
revelations, but to confirm them all, denouncing the violence that had
been done to the scriptures. His purpose was to purify of all
transgressions the teachings of the prophets who had preceded him, to
amplify and complete them, so that they would be fit for all of
humanity, at every time and in every place."

   Page 137: "The concept of group, or community (umma) is unique to
Islam, involving as it does a gathering of believers bearing a witness
centered exclusively on the divine, immutable and eternal Word, the
Qur'an."

   Page 48: "No person or party is competent to modify, amend or
improve the revealed divine law."

   Page 133: "Based on reason and emotion, the Qur'anic revelation has
foreseen everything and claims to control everything."

   Looking at the gist of these arguments, in Islam, we find that which
no one on Earth has the power to offer to negotiation, which in
practical terms makes certain rapprochements (with other religions)
quite impossible.

   Since the 7th century and the arrival of the Qur'an, it seems to me
that for Muslims, systematically, there is no need for the Bible and
the New Testament. And under these conditions, shall we achieve
religious peace by way of Islam?

   To continue: let us examine ideas of India. Our source is "The
Bhagavad- Gita As It Is" by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada (first edition, 1975).

   Page 98: "The Bhagavad-Gita is the most precious of all the revealed
scriptures."

   Page 100: "A spiritual master is regarded as authentic if he belongs
to a succession of disciples going back to the beginning of time, to
Krishna himself; if he deviates in no way from the instructions of the
Lord as they were given millions of years ago."

   Page 95: "No one may call himself a true spiritual master if he does
not belong to a succession of disciples authenticated by Krishna."

   So it seems reasonable to me to think that for the adherents of this
religion, the Jews, Christians and Muslims, for example, have never had
and still gave no reason to exist! And we are going to attain peace
through Vedism? Let us continue. Were you looking for something new?
Here it is, and this time it comes from America. A new arrival in the
series of major and revealed texts: "The Urantia Book" (Chicago, first
printing 1955).

   After reading this book, one might think it is time to leave the
Bible, the New Testament, the Qur'an, the Vedic writings and other
texts,because thanks to "The Urantia Book", humanity has just received
new corrections, new directives. And they are coming from superhuman
levels. A solid, authentic text? What are we to believe? Is this peace
at last? In the many laws promulgated by the systems we have just
discussed, we look for a theme and we find one. It is precisely by way
of REVELATION and the firm convictions which result from it that we
arrive at movements that are, in theory, CLOSED; they exclude their
rivals.

   So here we have several large groupings, all presenting a WRITTEN
REVELATION which underlies the beliefs of the members and means that
even today, believers cannot function correctly without these same
sacred documents. But ultimately, given the contradictions that they
leave us with, are these books really so good? What is very serious is
that there are many human beings who, because they followed and/or
believed in certain religions, suffered injury and/or sickness and/or
death!

   At the present stage of humanity's evolution, there are some
religious traditions which, in rational terms, cannot continue.
Religious peace?! Because of the literature which exists and the
mentalities which have been c u l t i v a t e d, finding such peace
will require what might become a huge theological upheaval.

   The computer has arrived; we have the Benedictine Pellegrino and his
invention, the machine for digging up the past. So, with the tools at
our disposal, we should identify and eliminate all the fundamental
falsehoods, and by so doing reconstruct the light. While I wait, I am
no atheist. I owe my belief in God to metaphysics: theodicy.

   * A Reply on the Nature of Urantia I also began a comparative
religion study in 1980 when I was "witnessed" to by a Mormon, who told
me that his church work gave life meaning. I was interested in the
church, but I later found to be very much in error.

   Splits are found in the church, and that is unfortunate. I wish that
it were otherwise, but I am doing myself what I can to get the
different groups talking to each other about the things that we have in
common and get some co- operative work going. I am not naive to the
differences among Christian churches, having been to over 25 different
denominations since becoming a Christian in 1980.

   Indeed the position of Islam is that Mohammed, the founder came with
a revelation which surpassed Christianity, and he said that Jesus was a
man like himself. But we do not have that option if we look at what the
Bible says. C.S. Lewis summed up John 10 by the phrase "Lord, Liar, or
Lunatic". These are the options that Jesus Christ himself presented us
with.

   When we look at what ISKCON does with Jesus Christ, we see that they
tell us that Jesus Christ is a partial incarnation of Krishna, and that
he is part Krishna (God). Jesus is not different than anybody else
because His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the
founder of the ISKCON movement among others have the Godhead dwelling
fully in them whereas Christ did not. The name of the magazine
published by the ISKCON is "Back to the Godhead" and it refers to the
Godhead dwelling fully in His Divine Grace ... and the aim is to bring
us to him.

   In both of these religions, salvation is by works, and if you don't
measure up, you come back and do it over again. The Bible, the Bhagavad
Gita and the Qu'uran all teach that man is immortal, but where the
Bible teaches that man is going to live in one place or the other after
death, and the choice is by grace, and not by works, the Gita teaches
that man comes back here if the works are not right, or if the path was
wrong. The Book of Urantia is mentioned next, and it is the one which
is held out above the rest, so let us examine that book's history.

   The book delivered to the world in 1934 a series of new revelations
from a commission of 24 spiritual administrators. In 1950, the book was
published in the USA, and the Urantia foundation was founded to study
the book, and to concern themselves with the "Spiritual Regeneration
and evolutionary advancement of mankind." Sprunger, Merideth "Leavening
our Religious Heritage" 1974 Chicago: Urantia Foundation. The work that
this foundation does is mainly in churches to "enlighten" them to the
"truths" found by Urantia.

   I first was told of this organization a couple years ago, and was
involved in helping get an evangelical Christian out of it. In talking
to the person in question, it was clear that he was no longer a
Christian like he said, for he talked of things which are contradicted
in the Bible.

   Now I should give further background information on the origins of
the Urantia ideology. It is from the New Age Movement. This means that
the group is trying to bring about a New Age for mankind, and there is
a diverse group of people who are trying to do this.

   Basically the teachings of the several thousand New Age Groups can
be reduced to these main points with other things taught:

   1. You are God (or God is within you) and all you need to do is to
study to find where he is.

   2. Man is a part of God and will EVOLVE to become God. 3. God is in
all things.

   4.Man is essentially good, and that bad things in the universe are
due to circumstances beyond our control.

   5. There is no judgment of us by God. 6. Salvation is left to you to
chose the path and to work out your salvation in whatever way you can.

   7. True World Peace is within man's grasp, and all we need to do to
have it is to do what the group says.

   8. All people must unite behind the objectives of this movement to
have peace. Any person who is contrary to uniting behind the movement
is "subversive" and must be neutralized. This is a rather general way
of phrasing their dislike of evangelical Christianity and Judaism.
Indeed, Jose Arguelles, one of the leaders in the movement in the USA
is quoted as saying that Christianity is a particular problem since
there is an apocalyptic element.

   It is interesting that the Bible talks of peace too, and it warns us
against those who tell us that peace can be so easily obtained. It also
tells us that the next time peace comes it is from that Antichrist, and
this is not a desirable peace for Christians to see come to fruition.

   What has not been said yet is that these anonymous spiritual
administrators had this book relayed to them by AUTOMATIC WRITING! This
is where you sit in a trance state with a pen in your hand and start
writing. This is how most of the books used by the Occult have arisen!
Automatic writing is just one clue the book is of supernatural origin;
but it is not from God, rather from His nemesis - Satan.

   Now a word on their theology. God is not a trinity, but is a trinity
of trinities. The first trinity is the Paradise(Existential) trinity.
This trinity contains the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the
Universal Spirit. The Universal Father is the creator and originator of
evolution. The other two, the Ultimate and Absolute Trinities
respectively have an origin and evolve! These trinities will be one in
the future. Groups of planets and stars (Local Universes) are governed
by a Creator Son. Our Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon was incarnated
here as Jesus, and was the 611,121st Creator Son.

   Although the Bible is allegedly completed by the Book of Urantia, it
tells us on pp 60, 75 that the idea that Jesus died for our sins
"crude". Humanity had no fall as the Bible tells us, but is destined in
an upward evolutionary pattern. We have no knowledge to do the will of
God and we strive to be perfect over many lifetimes on many planets and
upon reaching Paradise (where God lives), you start working yourself up
to be another God.

   My sources for the above were talking to the people mentioned,
personal examination of a Book of Urantia, and the SCP Newsletter
7(3):1-5.

   I shall not explicitly refute any of these teachings from the Bible
because I gather that the reader is well enough familiar with the Bible
to see the pattern of revelation from God: the oldest revelation is
still upheld when new material comes, and there is a "thus saith the
LORD" in there too. It is obvious to see the areas where the Book of
Urantia is in conflict with the Bible, and thus with God.

   Further information is available from: Christian Research Institute
Box 500 San Juan Capistrano California
