The Urantia Book

[Absonite]

So has anyone who is unfamiliar with the Urantia Book actually made the genuine effort to read Paper 1 to (and including) Paper 5 - and learn first hand about how the UB perspective about God?

 

[Yoder777]

I was unsure about the Urantia Book as a revelation until I read its biography of Jesus. Even Michael Gardner, an avowed skeptic of the Urantia Book, had to admit that its Jesus section is a "well-written, impressive work," and that, "Either it is accurate in its history, coming directly from higher beings in position to know, or it is a work of fertile imagination by someone who knew the New Testament by heart and who was also steeped in knowledge of the times when Jesus lived."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urantia_Book#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGardner1995312-29

 

[RisingSpirit]

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What does the Urantia book say about abortion and what does to person go through and how are they forgiven or not forgiven?

 

[Absonite]

This is the quote specifically about abortion that I could find:

Paper 68, Section 6, paragraph 9 (68:6.9): Many races learned the technique of abortion, and this practice became very common after the establishment of the taboo on childbirth among the unmarried. It was long the custom for a maiden to kill her offspring, but among more civilized groups these illegitimate children became the wards of the girl's mother. Many primitive clans were virtually exterminated by the practice of both abortion and infanticide. But regardless of the dictates of the mores, very few children were ever destroyed after having once been suckled—maternal affection is too strong.

That comment is made in the context of that Paper's greater examination of the evolution of culture here on our planet.

I notice that the practice is inversely implied to have been done by groups that were uncivilized. The consequences for primitive clans that did practice abortion, in conjunction with infanticide, was virtual extermination. Strong maternal affection is indicated as that which caused those women who did birth children not to destroy them.

I also notice that the Urantia Book does not tyrannically throw down a list of laws dictating what choices a woman must make regarding abortion.

In the beginning, and in the end, the UB essentially focuses on encouraging people to exercise their volition (to use their power to choose) for becoming increasingly conscious about God - recognizing that he is our Universal Father, that we are his children, and thus that we are spiritual sisters and brothers - and developing an increasingly close relationship with God during this lifetime, and as we make the ascent to Paradise after our respective lifetimes.

 

[Yoder777]

Instead of seeing themselves as belonging to a new religion, Mormons are believers in what they call the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead of superseding the New Testament, they see the Book of Mormon as another witness that testifies to the essential truths of the New Testament. I see the Urantia Book, especially in its Jesus papers, as not intending to start a new religion but instead as an attempt to restore the original Gospel of Jesus Christ. I see Urantians, if they truly believe in Jesus as their divine savior, not as a new religion but as a new kind of Christian.

This might seem like I am stating the obvious but there are a few points that can be drawn from this. When people think we may belong to a new age cult, we can explain how the Urantia Book testifies to the identity and message of Jesus as an amazingly powerful modern witness to the essential truths of the New Testament. I believe that the Urantia Book is more at home in a Christian context than a new age context, albeit not a fundamentalist Christian context.